ProBlogger Podcast: Blog Tips to Help You Make Money Blogging

How to Build Traffic and Profit into Your Blog On today’s episode I want to talk about a key to creating a blog with lots of traffic and profit.   The topic comes from a conversation I had this morning with a new blogger who was asking me about how to create content that would go viral and as I look back at the growth of my own blogs I think it’s an important lesson to my own business’s growth. Links and Resources on The Secret to Building a Blog with Big Traffic and Profit Facebook group ProBlogger Success Incubator ProBlogger Event 4 Techniques to Get More Eyeballs on Your Blog 31 Days to Build a Better Blog 10 Things You Can Do Today that Will Pay Off On Your Blog Forever Full Transcript Expand to view full transcript Compress to smaller transcript view Hey there, my name is Darren Rowse. I’m the blogger behind problogger.com, a blog, podcast, events, job board, and a series of ebooks, all designed to help you a

Lessons Learned in 200 Episodes of Podcasting Today’s episode is #200, and while it’s a podcast about blogging, today I want to talk about podcasting and share some of the big lessons I’ve learned about this medium since starting this podcast 2 years ago. I want to present with you my biggest lessons in podcasting, some tips on launching, recording, producing and promoting a podcast. I’ll share the tools that I use in putting this show together. I’ll tell you about our stats and share which episodes did best. And I’ll also share some of my frustrations and challenges and how I’ve been working to overcome them. So if you’re a podcaster or are curious about whether it might be a fit for you - this episode is for you. Links and Resources on What I've Learned About Podcasting in My First 200 Episodes Facebook group Podcast Motor Libsyn GarageBand Skype Call recorder Auphonic My Podcast Reviews PowerPress Plugin Rode Podcaster Pat Flynn’s Podcast Tutorials Top 10 ProBlogger Podcast E

A Tool to Create High Quality Live Video on Facebook This episode is presented by The Success Incubator - a brand new event I’m co-hosting this year for ProBlogger readers and online entrepreneurs. The event is happening in Dallas Texas on 24-25 October, and I’m so excited to announce that joining me in presenting at the event are a great lineup of speakers including Pat Flynn from Smart Passive Income, Kim Garst founder of Boom Social and Andrea Vahl who is a brilliant social media consultant. In today’s episode, I’m going to share with you another COOL TOOL for bloggers that will help you to create high quality live video on Facebook. Facebook Live continues to be a medium that is well worth investing time into. Use it and you’ll grow your reach and engagement on Facebook. The problem with it is that to create a high quality professional looking video can feel a little out of reach. While FB is updating tools there’s still a lot you can’t do without investing a lot into software. Today, I present to

6 Recommendations to Monetize Your Blog In today’s episode I want to talk about making money blogging. More specifically, I want to tackle a question from a reader who has been blogging for a while without monetizing but is wondering which income stream she should try  first. I’ll suggest 6 income streams that I see bloggers often starting with and at the end nominate my favorite one that I think can be a good place to start for many bloggers. So if you’ve been wanting to start monetize your blog - whether you’re a new blogger or an established one - or even if you’ve been monetizing but want to add another income stream - this episode is for you. Links and Resources on 6 Recommended First Income Streams for Bloggers Facebook group ProBlogger Event Dallas, TX  Coupon code SUCCESS17 you’ll get $50 off Is it Really Possible to Make Money From Your Blog? My Tips for Making Money As a Blogger Through Affiliate Marketing How to Make Money With the Amazon Affiliate Program How to Develop a Produc

A Free Tool to Create Videos For Your Facebook Page This episode is presented by The Success Incubator - a brand new event I’m co-hosting this year for ProBlogger readers and online entrepreneurs. Today I'm announcing 3 great speakers - Pat Flynn, Kim Garst and Andrea Vahl (more details here). Save $50 with the coupon code SUCCESS17. In today’s episode, I’m going to share with you a free tool that I’ve been using over the past few weeks to create videos for my Facebook pages, Twitter accounts and other social media profiles that is getting crazy amounts of reach. It’s a tool that enables you to take a blog post that you’ve already written on your blog and to repurpose it into a short video to promote that blog post! Yep - you heard me. This tool takes a blog post you’ve already written and with a little help from you (just 10-15 or so minutes of work) it will create you a short video that you can then use anywhere you like to drive people to your post. I’ve been doing these videos for a week or so now a

Blogger Nikki Parkinson Shares How She Built a Business Around Her Blog In today’s episode, I have recorded an interview with one of Australia’s better known bloggers - Nikki Parkinson from the style and fashion blog - Styling You. I first met Nikki at one of our first ever ProBlogger events. While a newish blogger at that time she stood out to me as a blogger to watch - partly because of her journalistic background (she was one of the first journalists I’d seen make the switch) but also because she was someone who was blogging ‘smart’. Most bloggers, back then, were blogging from the heart - blogging just because they had something to say - but Nikki even back then was not just interested and passionate about her topic - she was being smart and strategic with her blogging (at least, that was the impression I got). Nikki started Styling You in July 2008 and today - 9 years later - she’s not only grown her audience, but she’s built a pretty amazing business around her blog. Nikki has written a book, laun

Using CoSchedule as a Blogging Tool In today’s episode, we’re going to take a deep dive into a tool we’ve been using on ProBlogger for the last 18 months that has been incredibly useful for our team both as an editorial calendar tool but also to help us with our social media promotion of content. The tool is one that you may have heard of - CoSchedule. We installed CoSchedule a year and half ago now as our editorial team began to grow and as we began to get a bit more organised with the ways that we schedule and share content and since that time it’s become more and more central in what we do. In fact, it’s gradually taking over from some of the other tools we’ve been using to share content onto social media. To help me run through the tool I invited the General Manager of ProBlogger - Laney Galligan - onto the show to take me through it. Laney has taken over not only the management of the business side of our event and whole business but recently has taken the editor role at ProBlogger and uses CoSched

5 Blogger SEO Tools In today’s episode, I’ve got Jim Stewart from StewArtMedia back on the show to talk about SEO tools to help you to rank your blog higher. I had Jim on the show back in episode 94 to talk about the biggest mistakes bloggers make with SEO and since that time have had a lot of questions in the Facebook group about what tools to use in SEO. So in this episode we talk a little about the most commonly advised tool - the Yoast plugin, as well as two great browser extensions that are useful in SEO. We also talk about Google’s Search console and how it’s really an essential thing all bloggers should be using. We then talk about the paid tool that Jim recommends to help you find broken links, identify duplicate content, build sitemaps and much more. In passing we talk about an issue that faces many bloggers - what to do if you’ve got multiple posts on the one topic competing with each other in Google! Lastly we touch on Google’s most recent updates and how they are impacting bloggers. You’l

Prolific Content Creation With Kelly Exeter In today’s episode, I want to explore the topic of prolific content creation by interviewing  one of my favorite online buddies - Kelly Exeter about her experience of creating content online. Many of you will be familiar with Kelly because she’s been a regular contributor on the ProBlogger Blog where she writes about blog design and creating content, she’s presented an episode of this podcast back in episode 119 where she talked about how to choose a WP theme and she’s presented numerous times at our ProBlogger events. I first came across Kelly when she was wearing her hat as a blog designer (she designed Vanessa’s blog) but since that time, I have watched her put on many other hats. Kelly blogs regularly and is a great writer. She co-hosts two podcasts, and edits the FlyingSolo website while still being able to write 3 books in the last 3 years. So today, I sat down with Kelly to explore a few aspects of her journey. We start off tackling a question I get aske

The Things Successful Bloggers Do to Build Their Blogs Into Businesses In today’s lesson, I want to talk about some of the things that successful bloggers are doing to increase the conversions of their website. This episode is inspired by a post we had on the ProBlogger blog this week from John Stevens who shared 9 conversion habits of the world’s most successful bloggers. I want to pick up, highlight and expand upon 3 of the points John mentions but also want to share something I’ve noticed about many of the social media marketing bloggers that I follow that fascinates me. Resources for 3 Key Things Bloggers Do to Grow Their Blogs into Businesses Join the ProBlogger Group for goal planning, a new live streaming tool, SEO, affiliate marketing, video and more!   The 9 Conversion Habits of the World’s Most Successful Bloggers How to increase the signups to your email list How to create an optin to increase signups to your email list How to create a start here page for your blog Michael Hyatt

Making the Most of Tools, Apps and Services to Create Visual Content for Your Blog In today’s lesson, we’re going to talk tools for creating great visual content for your blog. Over the last few weeks, we’ve been exploring different types of content that you can use on your blog. In episode 187 we talked written content, in 189 video content and back in 180 we talked about live video. Each are important types of content to be able to create for your blog - but one that is increasingly important today is visual content. When I was looking back at some screenshots of my very first blog from 2002, recently, I was amazed by how boring it looked. Not a single post in the first few months of my blogging used even an image - it was purely text. Today, the web is a much more visual place and I can’t remember the last time I published content without at least one form of visual content in it. Visual content helps you to stand out from the crowd, it gives your content personality, it makes it more useful and it

How to Move Through Failure in 6 Steps In today’s lesson, I want to talk about failure in business and how to move through it. I’ve been asked questions on this topic a number of times in the last few weeks and while it’s a topic most of us probably don’t want to have to learn about - it’s something that we all will need to deal with at one point or another because it’s a part of any business story. We all fail - in fact failure is an essential part of any startup and if you’re not having it it could be a sign that what you’re doing is not pushing hard enough and that you’re spending a lot of time in your comfort zone. SO in this episode I’m going to give you 6 things that I try to do when facing failure of different sizes. I think they’re relevant for the small fails and mistakes that happen to us regularly but am particularly thinking about some of those big ones too! Further Resources on How to Overcome Failure in 6 Steps Facebook Group 3 Questions to Ask When Facing Fear

Removing the Barriers to Create Video Content on Your Blog In today’s lesson, I’ve got some very practical and actionable information for you on how to shoot great video for your blog using your smartphone. As I’ve mentioned a few times lately in episodes - video is becoming one of the hottest types of content online. While the written word isn’t going anywhere video content helps you to grow your reach, stand out from the crowd, make a connection with your audience and is highly shareable. We’ve all heard about the opportunity but if you’re anything like me - you have a few questions, challenges and barriers that stop you getting into video. I don’t have the right gear! I don’t feel comfortable in front of camera? I don’t know the first thing about the technicalities of shooting and editing good video? Recently at SMMW I bumped into a fellow Aussie by the name of Justin Brown who was doing a workshop on how to create great video using the camera that most of us already own - the one in our smart

The Pros and Cons of Having More Than One Blog In today’s lesson, I want to talk about having more than one blog on the go at once. Regular listeners of this podcast know I have two main blog - ProBlogger and Digital Photography School. I’m fortunate enough to have been able to build them up so that either one of them could be a full time venture which is great - but having two businesses to focus upon not only comes with some benefits - but some costs. In this episode I want to share: The story of how I built them to the point they’re at today The pros and cons of having more than one blog or business Some tips on juggling two things like this at once Lastly - today’s episode is proudly presented by this year’s ProBlogger events. This year we’re holding three events - one in Brisbane Australia, another in Melbourne Australia and a third in Dallas Texas. These events are designed with very similar goals to this podcast - to help bloggers to grow blogs with world changing content, with lots of rea

What the Future Looks Like for Written Content In today’s lesson, I want to talk to you about written content vs other mediums and respond to a few questions I’ve been getting lately about which medium is best to focus upon and to answer the question - is the future of written content dead! Listen to this episode in the player above or here on iTunes (look for episode 187). Events: Before I get into today’s show though I’ve been hinting for a few episodes now that I’ll have some news for you about this year’s ProBlogger events in Australia and the USA - and how you can get early bird tickets to both. Today I’m pleased to announce what we’re doing: In Australia - we’re running two events. We’ve got Pat Flynn coming out to speak in both Brisbane and Melbourne on two consecutive weeks. Brisbane is 29-30 July and Melbourne is 5-6 August. There’s two options with tickets in both cities. On the Saturdays we’ll be doing a larger single stream day with 7 sessions. Pat, myself and some other special guests wil

How I Write a Blog Post - My Step-By-Step Process Today, I want to walk you through my step by step process for writing a blog post! I get asked about this regularly over in the ProBlogger podcast listeners Facebook group. So today I put together some notes on the workflow I use and want to run you through. Before I do - and speaking of the Facebook group - I wanted to let you know that I’ve shared some exciting news with members of that group  in the last week - particularly about an event that ProBlogger is involved in running later this year in the US. We’ve not fully launched the event yet publically but if you’re curious about coming to an event that ProBlogger is collaborating on - head to the Facebook group and check it out. But enough of that! - let’s get into today episode. Further Resources on A Step-By-Step Guide to How I Write a Blog Post How to Craft a Blog Post - 10 Crucial Points to Pause Episode in which I talk about avatars How to create great blog headlines How to use mindmap

How to Apply for a Blogging Job In today’s lesson, I want to talk about finding a job as a blogger - particularly how to apply for a blogging job. Back in 2006 I noticed I started getting a lot of two types of emails: People wanting to hire bloggers would email me asking if I knew anyone suitable for a blogging job that they had. Bloggers would email asking if I knew anyone looking to hire a blogger. After months of getting these kinds of emails and manually playing matchmaker I decided it would be easier if I just created a place for people to meet one another. I started the ProBlogger job board where those looking to hire bloggers could advertise their blogging job opportunities and bloggers could apply for the jobs. While it started slow with just a new job every few days - since 2006 we’ve had well over 10,000 jobs listed! These days there’s usually 1-5 new jobs listed on the boards - with some days as many as 10 new ones going up. Late last year we redesigned the job board and added some ne

Strategies to Increase Your Blog Earnings In today’s lesson, I want to talk about two things I’ve been doing on my main blog to increase the profitability of the blog - both have been working really well! I’m going to talk about 3 income streams in particular - AdSense Ad network (although this will be relevant to other networks too), Affiliate promotions and selling our own products. So if you want to increase the profitability of your blog - this show is for you. Further Resources on 2 Blog Monetization Strategies that Have Increased My Blogs Earnings by over 40% AdSense New Ad Placement Guidelines Facebook Group UPDATE: it's been a couple of weeks since I made some of the changes mentioned in this episode and we've now completed some of the extra AdSense tweaks to ads shown to those on desktops. The results have been better than expected. While I talk in this episode about 40-50% increases in earnings my AdSense earnings are over 100% higher than last month. In fact here's a graph of my weekly A

The 9 Questions You Can Ask to Increase FaceBook Engagement In today’s lesson, I want to give you some really practical things that you can do to increase engagement - particularly to get people to comment - on your Facebook page and if you have them - groups. Most bloggers spend a lot of time on Facebook and it’s for good reason. The amount of potential readers for our blogs who are on Facebook on a daily basis is staggering. It’s where people are online and so it makes sense to have a presence there. However using Facebook to grow your audience is getting increasingly tough - particularly if you want to do it organically and don’t have a budget to advertise. I won’t go into the reasons for this in this podcast but will say that one way to increase the effectiveness of what you do on Facebook is to put concerted effort into increasing engagement with those who already follow you there. Facebook has an algorithm with many factors that determine how widely they’ll show your updates - and one of them is h

How to Create MindMaps for your Blogging In today’s lesson, I want to talk about one of my favorite techniques in business for organising my thoughts, helping me to review, plan and organise my business and to think creatively and generate loads of ideas. Today’s episode is about Mind Mapping. I want to talk about what mind maps are but more importantly I want to suggest a variety of different ways that you can use them in your blogging. I create mind maps almost every day in my business - they help me in my content creation, how I promote my blog and grow traffic, how I monetize my blog, in my design and much more. In fact - I designed outlined this whole podcast in a mindmap which I’ll show you in today’s show notes. I’ve got at least 19 ways you can use mindmaps and am going to share with you the mind mapping tool that I use (and suggest some others to check out too). Here’s the mindmap of today's show (click to enlarge):   Here’s a mindmap I used as an illustration in a blog post on making money