The Ultimate Blog Podcast - Blogging Trends You Need to Know with Jillian Leslie

Episode Date: October 8, 2024

Today, we’re thrilled to welcome back Jillian Leslie to talk about blogging trends you need to know. Jillian has been building businesses on the internet since 2009, from her first blog Catch My Party to MiloTree, which helps bloggers create freebies and pop-ups. In this episode, Jillian shares the problem with relying on SEO alone, how to think like an entrepreneur in order to monetize your blog, easy ways to get started on your freebie, and how blogging is moving to be more personal in 2025.🔗Show notes for Episode 147

Welcome to the Ultimate Blog Podcast. This podcast is the podcast we wish we had when we started blogging. I'm Amy Reinicki and I'm Jennifer Draper. Our episodes dive deep into how to monetize your blog, sharing unique insights and practical tips. We bring you in-depth interviews with successful bloggers and experts who offer valuable, actionable advice. Our mission is to educate, support, inspire,

and empower you in your blogging business. Welcome to the Ultimate Blog Podcast. Sometimes we have amazing guests that we love spending time with so much that we bring them back because you love them, we love them, and that's who we're bringing you today, and that is Jillian Leslie. So welcome back, Jillian. Oh, it's so good to be here. So good to see you guys.

Yes. I'm glad we get to hang out and we get to chat about blogging trends and all the things that we're seeing heading into a brand new year. For anybody who maybe hasn't heard of you, Jillian, or connected with you, or listened to our previous podcast episode with you, I want to give you just a couple minutes here to tell our community a little bit about who you are and what you do. Oh, great. Okay. So hi, everybody. I'm Jillian, and I've been building businesses on the internet since 2009 with my wonderful

partner, husband David. And we started in 2009 with our first blog called Catch My Party. And you can see it. And we've grown it into the largest party ideas site on the web. From there, we started building tools to help other bloggers because we needed them ourselves. So we built a pop-up app called our MiloTree pop-up app. You might have seen on people's blogs and it grows your social media followers just 24-7. Our goal at the time was, how can we create tools that are simple to use? It's funny.

I'll get to this, but I also have a podcast called the Blogger Genius Podcast, and we just recorded an episode where you guys came back on my show. You were talking about how easy it is as bloggers to feel dumb because technology, by the way, is hard for everybody. When you say, it's just hard for me, tech hates me, it doesn't. It's really hard for everybody. Our goal was how do we build simple tech tools for bloggers to help them? We built this other tool called My Lottery Cart where to help bloggers sell products, digital products and services to their audiences with ease.

So that's our MO. My MO is always, how do you find the easiest way to do something and then do it? And if you listen to my podcast, again, the Blogger Genius podcast, I'd love people to subscribe just because I'm always trying to get at what is working now, what are the trends.

That's why I had you guys on my show to say, what are you seeing? Because here's what I'm seeing. And so anyway, so that's kind of my intro. And my goal is really to help inspire bloggers and online entrepreneurs to grow businesses to live their best lives. I love that. I love your vision there and kind of thinking about the trends. I don't think you would have created a product like Milo Tree Cart if you hadn't seen the

trends shifting and what people are focusing on shifting. So I would love for you to just kind of dive into that a little bit. What are some of those trends that you see shifting in blogging? You've obviously been around since 2009 in this industry. And so you more than anyone probably knows that things have changed so much and they're going to continue to do that. So today as a blogger today, what are people focusing on or where do you think their focus should be on? Okay. So I have seen so much.

And if you've just started your journey, let's say even in the last five years and you're like, whoa, there's a lot of change, there has been change from the get-go. This is nothing new. And things that worked in the beginning, stopped working, things then they started again or they didn't stop, like it is a constant evolution. So hold on tight for the ride. And if you can hold on, you can have success because so much of it is about showing up consistently, but not just that.

It's showing up consistently and learning. It's learning from experts like Amy and Jennifer, but it's also learning from your people, the people that you serve. And now that we've gotten AI, AI has come into our lives and into our blogs, things are definitely shifting. Here's what I am seeing from where I sit. I am seeing that as bloggers, there is no one way. It used to be, and this is where blogging

got kinda fat and happy. I mean, especially during the pandemic, especially if I were a food blogger, and especially if I did, is we joked about sourdough starter, right? Like you hit pay dirt, because people were home and they wanted recipes. And then all of a sudden things started to shift

as people went back to work. And now recently Google has done some tricky things. And a lot of bloggers, their traffic got hit. So back in the day, all you had to do was really lean into SEO, keyword research. We got really smart at going after low competition keywords, linking all of our blog posts together, being really good to Google

so Google would be really good to us. Then we could put ads on our site, we could monetize via traffic, and we could be a little bit passive. I know how to shoot beautiful photos, say of my food or of God knows what, my crafts, and I know how to optimize this, and I can sit back and money will roll in and it was beautiful and I can make money through affiliates. Here's my affiliate link, click it and whoa. And then things got a little trickier because now that got harder.

So we saw this. My husband and I, David, saw this and we said, oh no, please don't put all your eggs in one basket because we all know that Google, social media, they're all like finicky boyfriends or girlfriends. Like they will turn on you and you don't know why or what you did to piss them off. Now truly you did not piss them off, but it just kind of is the way things work. Therefore, what have we always, my husband and I, seen is the people who sell directly to their audiences, whether it be physical products, digital products, services, memberships, those kinds of things, have much more control, especially if you have an email list, because your email list cannot be taken away by Instagram, by Google, by Facebook.

And this happened in my podcast. I noticed the most successful people not only were monetizing, say, via traffic, but they had all these other things lined up. And they had figured out how to solve real specific problems for their audiences and have a personality. I'm not saying even that you have to show your face, but your brand has to have a personality, a point of view. And if you had all of these ingredients, you could become very successful

and you could ride out some of these bumps more easily. So just to kind of say what I recommend today where I'm seeing people have success, it is from the get-go, we talked about this on my podcast, thinking about your blog as a business, you are an entrepreneur and you think about money from the get-go. It is not, well, I'm working on my Instagram right now. I'm building my blog traffic.

I'm doing all these things waiting for that moment. Funny, when I turned 40, I had this come to Jesus moment where I thought to myself, oh no, I'm 40 and I don't feel like an adult. Nobody anointed me an adult. Like you're now like middle-aged and it was kind of like I had to do it for myself. I had to say, oh no, I am now an adult and I'm going to act like an adult. Not that I was acting like a child, but you get my point.

Like same thing with your blog. There's no moment where you go, I've now made adult and I'm going to act like an adult. Not that I was acting like a child, but you get my point. Same thing with your blog. There's no moment where you go, I've now made it into Mediavine. I am now an official blogger who thinks about money. No, think about money from the beginning. What does that mean? That means you start thinking about what you can offer. For example, let's back up. You start thinking about what problem do I solve?

What specific problem do I solve? What specific problem do I solve? Rather than, I like to take pretty photos of something, of my own food. No, I help people live a healthier life. I help people put food on their table in 30 minutes. I help with parenting. I help with any sort of wellness. I'm a craft blogger. I'm a budget friendly interior designer. What is it that you do better than a lot of people so that you can say, hey, even if you do not have a degree, you do not need to have a PhD in interior design, you just have to be good at it and a point of view about it.

And then you think to yourself, okay, what is the big problem I can solve? And how can I break this up into smaller problems? So here are my, I feel like I'm on like a monologue, so please interrupt me. You're doing great. Okay, but here's what I want to say. When you're thinking about your niche and the problem you solve, see if you can get it to fit into one of these six buckets.

Do you help people make money? Do you help people save money? Do you help people save time? Do you help people move toward happiness? Do you help people move away from pain? And or do you raise somebody's social status? These are the triggers that turn your solution from a nice to have to a must have to,

I will take out my credit card and I will buy that solution. So if you can get it to fit into multiple buckets, great. If it fits into one, good. And dig into that, poke at the pain of that. And be real. I mean, I'm not saying this is just, you need to be able to solve that problem, but this is all of your marketing,

this is all of your messaging. You help people live better lives. And then you take that small problem and think about what is a freebie I could offer that solves a tiny sliver of this problem, but is pokey enough that somebody is going to download my one page. I love cheat sheets,

because we all love to be in on secrets. Like, what is it? But you want your freebie, for example, to solve a problem that somebody is gonna go, oh my God, I want that cheat sheet, let's say, and I not only want it, I'm gonna get it right now because it's gonna be sent into my email and I gotta open it right away.

It's not just gonna sit there in my inbox. And then you think, okay, if I can get somebody to opt in for that, now what's the next step in solving this larger problem? There's a woman that I interviewed on my podcast and she helps people lose weight. And she does it through like meal planning, but also like freezing different meals. And so the first opt in, which I think is so brilliant, is, okay, let's get your kitchen ready to go on this journey. And then great,

now my kitchen's ready, that's the freebie. And now it goes, okay, you're now ready, let's do the 10 day like quick start. And you pay for that. But you see what the journey is, you see what the goal is and how she's been able to kind of chop it into different pieces and different, I'm going to get you to this step, now I'm going to get you to this step, now I'm going to get you to this step, now I'm going to get you to this step, and it's all very clear. But at the end of the day, all of it is solving that same problem. And so it all comes from, I got a freebie and then I've got, let's say, an entry product

like an ebook or a guide or something small because people don't know you. You have to earn their trust. But then if you can deliver, so this is where the work has to be good. If you can deliver along the way, you become that trusted ally and people will spend more with you because you're helping them live a better life. Okay, so that was a lot. But it was so good. Yeah.

We couldn't have stopped you because it was so good that we just, you had to keep going. Yes. So what I guess my point then is if you're a beginning blogger, intermediate blogger, wherever you are in this journey, step back and ask yourself that. What problem do I solve? Can it fit into one of these buckets that makes people want to pay for this? And then how can I break... What is the big problem and how can I break it up into different pieces and take people

on a journey where I help them live a better life? It seems simple, but it's a really good exercise. Because a lot of times what happens is we throw a lot of spaghetti at the wall hoping something sticks or we hear, this worked for my friend Karen. I'm going to try it. And then it might not work for you and you feel despondent and get in bed for two days and think blogging is not for me or building a business is not for me where we haven't stepped back, done this hard and again, use

chat GBT to walk you through this. In fact, if I can just say like for your cheat sheet, I have a freebie to help you build out this cheat sheet and you can get it at milotree.com slash freebie prompts. Right? It's going to give you three AI prompts. Boom, you've got your freebie based on your niche, based on these purchasing buckets. It's like super simple. Then use those AI prompts to build out your, I mean, you can just see what I wrote. It's not rocket science. To help you think through, It's not rocket science to help you think through what is this journey. It's like do the work up front because then this is something that we talked about before you guys press record, which is it's all about experimentation.

I shared the story, which is people will call… I get on a lot of calls with bloggers who want to sell digital products and I always say, email me and tell me what your ideas are. And somebody will go, okay, what do you think of this idea? And I'm always very honest. And I will say like, oh, I think that's a, you know, I might work on this or whatever. But if I think a product idea is good, I will say, oh my God, I think that's a great idea. And then always the follow up question is, oh, so you think it'll sell.

And I go, oh, I don't know if it will sell. I just think it's a good idea. The only way you're going to know if it will sell is by putting it out in front of people and seeing if they purchase it. And so, so much of building an online business in a blog is about experimentation and feedback. It's that feedback loop of saying, I'm going to try this. Okay, that didn't quite work. What could I do?

How can I adjust it? And then it's, I test this, I test this until you find that beautiful connection where all of a sudden what you're offering is what people are interested in purchasing. So this is kind of the basics. Well, I like what you said. You really broke it down with the six questions to ask yourself. I think that's important. I mean, that's what you should do from day one because that's going to help you figure out if you're struggling, like, what is my niche? Well, ask yourself those six simple questions.

And then not only is that going to tell you what type of content you should create for your blog, but it's going to be the starting point for those freebies and those products that you want to create in the future. And I also like how you talked about it. We're going to think about this from day one. We're not waiting until some magical place down the road where, okay, now I qualify to do these things. No, let's get started.

Let's jump right in. You mentioned like the cheat sheet. I'd love for you to talk about some other ideas that you have seen work well for some of those initial freebies or even that first product that they might create just to see if we can get the wheels turning for some people here who might be listening today thinking, I'm starting blogging or I've been blogging for a while, but I've never done either of these things. Like where do I even start? Like how could I create a freebie?

Is it a PDF? What is it? Can you just give some ideas of things you've seen? Totally, so freebies can be easy and they can be hard. Like they can go as complicated and as robust as you want them to be. So I recommend usually just an easy one-page PDF, which is why I love the idea of a cheat sheet. Because I want to overwhelm my people. I don't want to give them a 30-page ebook as my freebie. Nobody's going to read that. Now, do I believe you can sell e-books? I do. We could talk about that, but for… this needs to be snackable.

So what do I see work? I love things like a guide, a checklist. For example, one thing that seems to work really well if you're a gluten-free food blogger, it's like, what are substitutions? This flour for this flour, this thing for this thing, something like that or something you could stick on your refrigerator, those things, but that solves a real problem that you know somebody is having. It does not take a lot of rocket science to come up with this.

Other things that I like, things like maybe a four day email series where every day you provide some value on solving something. Maybe you, now again you can do a course. I don't recommend it. I recommend let's say even if you do like a three or four day email series, maybe you have some YouTube videos and you put them in the emails just to warm it up and make you seem more relatable. But I'm going to say less is more and I'm going to say something where you do not, you want it to be fun. I use this example.

Your freebie should be like a Hershey's kiss. One Hershey's kiss because I don't know about you, but you go to the bank and the woman has… or the Hershey's kisses are in a bowl and always I will grab the Hershey's kiss. And what do you do when you have a Hershey's kiss? You pop it in your mouth immediately because otherwise it will melt in your pocket. And so you want to get something consumable, something that's kind of delicious, not good for you. My Hershey's kiss is not good for me. And I am the person who looks at the Hershey's, eats the first one, and wants to grab the

second one, but I won't because I don't want to seem like I'm gluttonous. But I know I want the second one because I had the first one. And I want that mindset of I'm not going to educate you. I'm not going to be a school marm. I'm not going to overwhelm you. I'm not going to be a school marm. I'm not going to overwhelm you. I'm going to delight you because you had a problem and I came up with a simple solution for that problem. So I'm going to say less is more. You're going to want to add more stuff and you're going to say nobody's going to want this. And I'm going to say, trust me, if you

can package it in something where it's easy to consume, gives a little pop of flavor, you're all there. So don't overthink it. Are you looking for a simplified way to earn revenue from selling your own digital products? We have found an incredible resource for you with Milo Tree Cart. Milo Tree Cart is founded by Jillian Leslie, host of the Blogger Genius podcast. So she knows exactly the kind of platform a blogger needs to sell their products. They're already made sales pages, one-click sales funnels, a user-friendly sales dashboard, all while also getting a dedicated support team to assist you.

You can bundle your digital downloads or sell them separately. You have unlimited product storage and all file types are accepted on the platform. My Loot Tree Cart simplifies the process of getting your digital products into the hands of those you created them for, all while generating more revenue for your blogging business. Click the link in our show notes today to sign up for My Loot Tree Cart and start earning more from your digital products in 2024. I absolutely love that analogy. And I also wish that I went to your bank. You don't get Hershey's Kisses at your bank. You don't get Hershey Kisses at our bank.

Okay. But are you, I mean, don't you agree that like you can't resist it? It's not an analogy that it is. It's something that you don't want to resist. It's something that, it's also instant gratification. It is, I, because how many of us have downloaded a freebie that we're like, that was not what I wanted. That did not answer the problem. So make sure you're actually answering the problem too. Like whatever, however you marketed it, make sure it's actually giving the solution. And I think that helps build that like no trust factor right out of the gate. When you give them a freebie that like you said delights them and

they're like, yes, I want more. That is something that is like a quick instant gratification. And that is just the world that we live in. That's what we want. And so providing those. And so I want to dive a little deeper into this and ask you, because we are talking a lot more about this on the podcast. When we're doing freebies, we're getting people on our email list. And there's a very specific purpose in that and why that is so foundational for bloggers. And I would love for you to just share your honest thoughts about why is that, in your opinion, one of the key pillars and so valuable for bloggers

to build their email list, especially now. It is why Banana Republic offers the people on their email list access to the beginning of their sales or you sign up and you get 10% off because You are so valuable to Banana Republic and it is the same thing for bloggers You ultimately I recommend you be selling Something to your audience and what is the best channel for selling? It's not Instagram It is email audience, and what is the best channel for selling? It's not Instagram.

It is email. Email is where you get invited into somebody's inbox. That's a privilege. You can't take it for granted. You need to be providing value. This is where you get to show up authentically, and this is where you get to sell to people. People get shocked at how email is such a powerful sales channel. And it is a way that you get to, you own your email list and you talk to people on your

email list differently than you do say on social media, even in your blog. One thing that I want to say as bloggers is please think of yourselves not as bloggers. I know we talked about the entrepreneur hat, but also in your blog, you're not a blogger, you're a content marketer. People get freaked out by that because it feels salesy or feels boring or blogging seems cooler. But what I mean by that is every blog post you write has to have a goal attached to it

beyond traffic. So what could you offer on that blog post to get people to… Like signing up for your list, if you can get people to sign up for your list off of a blog post, good, work toward that. Maybe for example, you have a blog post on mindset, and then maybe there's an opt-in on that page that you've created of affirmations. And so you say, hey, if you like this blog post, get my affirmations. But the goal of, maybe it is to get somebody to click on your affiliate link.

Like everything, let's say you've done a sponsored post. The goal is to get them to click over to that brand or join the giveaway or whatever it is, but every post where you are providing free content to people that is helpful, there needs to be an ask attached to it that is not like, oh, you owe me. It has to be like, I am providing even more value to you. So please, from the get-go, these are those fundamental things, by the way, that bloggers like me from back in the day, we didn't know. The one great thing about starting a blog today is you can know so much and you can

put these foundational pieces in place and then hit the ground running. Cause I promise you, you're gonna run into tremendous uncertainty, self-doubt, like all of that stuff. But that, so your email list, back in the day, then they'd go, grow your list, money's in your list. I'd be like, yeah, whatever.

I didn't really get it until I started selling things. Until I started recognizing that there were people in my audience that I didn't know that really responded to what I was doing, that really wanted to hear from me. And they'd be the ones who would look at the people who are commenting on your Instagram posts always. You notice those couple people who keep showing up. Get those people on your email list. Get those people to give you feedback. Your audience is not all the same. You want to identify those VIPs because they're the ones who are going to go on this journey with you. It's funny because people get upset when people

unsubscribe. Love the unsubscribers. You don't want to be paying for those people. You want to be paying for the people who are going like, yes, Jillian, I want to be like in your universe. And then I will buy your products and services because you provide real value. So please do not under… Plus people, if you get a really big email list, you can drive traffic to your blog. Although, I think that was where there was a disconnect for me. I'm like, oh, I'm paying for all this huge list and sending emails and then trying to get them to my blog. The math doesn't make sense if you're just looking to get people from your email list

to your blog, you need to be selling. So I don't know if that resonates with you guys, but I didn't get that for a while. But do you think it's because you didn't get it or do you think it's because that's one of the shifts? I think it's both. I think again, because I was running for Catch My Party, we do monetize via predominantly traffic, and then we've shifted into selling products and services and things like that, and affiliates.

But at the beginning, it was a traffic play, and it didn't then make sense for us to go, oh, this is just like, why are we paying for thousands and thousands of people if all we want from this is traffic? And this is, again, why you need a variety of ways to make money. And I just wanted to go back, there was one thing I wanted to share when we were talking about freebies. There is something called curse of knowledge. And I don't know if you guys know what it is, but it's really powerful and I actually

have a post it on my desk that says curse of knowledge because we all fall for it. And what this means is we know stuff and because we know it, we assume everybody knows it and we discount it. So a perfect example of this is every podcast episode I record, my mom listens to before it goes live. And she gives me feedback. And typically the main feedback I get is I'm talking with my guests, right?

And let's say my guest is, I don't know, email marketing or affiliate marketing or digital products or SEO, whatever it is, Instagram. And we're having this conversation and we don't realize that we're talking in terms and abbreviations and like things where we just assume everybody in the audience knows what this is. And then my mom will go, you never explained that. Like you never said, hey audience, let me get you up to speed because you and this person assume everybody knows this.

The reason I bring this up is because when I'm saying to you go make that freebie, it's really easy. Go back to where you were five years ago, three years ago. Go to that place where you didn't know anything. Do not assume everybody knows what you know. And I think it's a way that we discount ourselves. Oh, come on. Everybody knows that. I don't really know anything special. If you have a niche, if you've gone on a journey, let's say it's a weight loss journey or let's say it's, I don't know, getting off of sugar or something, at the beginning

you knew nothing. Go back to her or him and say, what are the basics that I think are dumb? I think I'm going to look like an idiot if I put this out there. Because of course everybody knows this and I promise you they don't. Start your journey there. Yeah. Absolutely. Well, and I think that really applies too to what you said. And I think this is so important what you said about the content that you're creating.

When you create a blog post, create it with a purpose and have that opportunity for somebody to put in their email address to get that next level of information that you might be able to offer with that. And so I think just taking that step back, going into content creation and thinking through why you're creating what you're creating, how it's going to help somebody and how you can take it a step further is just something that we haven't given a lot of attention or thought to. But I think

it could truly be a game changer for bloggers who are able to put that into practice. Even if you've already been blogging and you've got a lot of content, well, gosh, this is a perfect opportunity. Go back to some of the posts that are performing well for you. Go through those and look at those. I mean, that would be a really simple way to get some freebies out there really quickly. Obviously, those posts are popular for a reason. What could you add to that? Put your little box in there, have somebody sign up and get that freebie right away and just see. See how it goes and see

how it performs. Like you said, it's going to be some testing. Maybe people want it, maybe people don't, but that would be a simple way, I think, is just to take a top three, top five posts and add some freebies to it and see what happens. This is why, okay, we built Milo Tree to help bloggers and we just rolled out a feature where you can offer unlimited freebies because people would say, oh, I'm with ConvertKit, but the idea of setting up a freebie is really hard and I don't want to have to watch a bunch of YouTube videos or I did it once. I've got one freebie.

And I'm like, no, no, you need five freebies. You need to exactly what you were saying, Jennifer, go to your top 10 posts and put a different freebie like an action rather than just like, hey, join my saying, Jennifer, go to your top 10 posts and put a different freebie like an action rather than just like, hey, join my list or no, go take a freebie and go, how can I take this to the next level with again, like a Hershey's, how can I add a Hershey's kiss to this post? Go to Canva, create a cheat sheet, go use my three AI prompts, create a cheat sheet for this, and then add it to those blog posts.

And with our, with what we've created, boom, you could set this up with an AI landing page that says, go get my freebie in no time because you don't know which ones are going to connect, which ones aren't going to connect. And if you go, well, my current freebie isn't converting. And then I think that what we love to do is blame ourselves. Like somehow people don't like me. And it's like, no, no, go create something new. Go try something else and do it quickly.

So when we were talking about creating freebies, like please don't have your freebie be a course. Go do the bare minimum to see, make it exciting. But that's not because you've spent so much time creating it and making sure it's beautiful. Nobody cares. Put a punch of value in there and see. Yeah, I think we have to let go of the perfection and just do the thing. And the reason why that we have to let go of that

is because the goal isn't just to get on the list. I mean, we got to like, if we break it down even further than that, we don't want to get so obsessed with like email subscribers the way that we have been with like social media followers. Like these are these can be vanity metrics to a certain degree. We want people on our email list that can be converted somehow into people that we can serve further, people that we can sell.

And I'm going to say ultimately sell to. Yes, yes. Because ultimately you're not, I mean maybe there are people in your audience who just want to blog because they just want to blog. Right. And that's great. But for people who want to make money, you have to be incredibly intentional. And I'm like the first one to say money.

Like we want to make money. We want to trade our expertise for money. It's a win-win. And people who buy from us value it more. Well, because like we've talked about, cause when you take yourself seriously, other people will take you seriously too. And if you aren't taking yourself seriously out of the gate, then no one else is going will take you seriously too. And if you aren't taking yourself seriously out of the

gate, then no one else is going to take you seriously too. So say it confidently. I love this takes you back to an episode that we recorded with Gina Corley. And she is a travel blogger that's part of our community. And she shared in that episode, she's like, when I'm out, like she she is a solo traveler. And so when she goes, and she's only been blogging a couple years, but she's traveling and she's like, I say, like, I am a travel blogger. Like I am this.

She's also, I believe Gina is also a pharmacist or something. She has something like that. But she says, I am a travel blogger. And she's, I'm delusional about it. Like I am that. Like I say exactly what I am. And so have that I don't care if you have one blog post on your blog at this point. I don't care if you just have your domain and your theme set up.

You are a blogger. Like you are doing it you are starting. So believe in yourself stand firm in that like I am this and when you take yourself seriously, you treat yourself like a business, other people will do the same. And I think that they feel your energy. They're gonna feel, if you're not confident, if you're not coming out there confident, they will feel that whether they're an Instagram follower,

an email subscriber, whatever. But I think the goal is take yourself seriously, treat yourself like a business, and know that there is a purpose for every single piece of content that you're putting out there, because we are going into 2025 soon, and I do think that's a trend. I think gone are the days that we just like flop some things on the blog, like that are keyword research and we've keyword stepped or whatever. Like those days are long gone,

and we have to start taking ourselves more seriously than that and offer more. And one thing that I always share is that we are no longer one to many. We are now much more one to one. What I mean by that is there's a guy, Kevin Kelly, he started Wired Magazine and what he said is you only need a thousand true fans. If you have a thousand true fans who each pay you $100 a year, you've made $100,000. We used to think it was almost like we're on a mountaintop. I don't mean that from an ego perspective, but like I create the content and then all

these nameless, faceless, not even people, visitors or users are reading my content and then they're leaving. They don't know me. I don't know them. And this is a shift that I see today. Again, I think this is a response to AI. We talked about this previously. It's now personal and I want to get personal.

So here's a good example. I talked to bloggers who want to start selling and they say, I don't have an email list. And there was a woman who wanted to sell her expertise to something like Catholic moms with little kids because she wanted to show how her faith could be beneficial to these moms during that insanely difficult time when you have tiny little kids because this has been helpful for her. I think she has a ministry, something like that. So she said, but I don't have anybody on my email list.

And I said, okay, is there a preschool at your church? And she said, yes. And I said, great. What I recommend you do, you take a pad of paper like this, that I'm holding up a pad of paper. You write that I'm holding up a pad of paper, you write name, email address. You stand outside the door when the moms are coming to collect their children.

And you go, hey mom, I'm so and so. Here's, I'm a blogger. Here's what I do. I help moms who are Catholic dig into their faith to help them through the trials and tribulations of toddlerhood. Can I add you to my newsletter?" And she was like, I never thought of that. And this is how I say you go door to door.

You remember I'm saying you look for those VIPs in your email list or in social media and you cultivate them to the point where you know it's Carol or it's Kennedy or these people and that you can call on them and they are your friends. Now is this possible with everybody? No, but my hunch is you, Amy and Jennifer, you know those people in your membership or in your community who you've got direct relationships with. So this is where I think blogging is shifting. It's I'm going to help you on your journey, you're going to know me, I might really know

you, especially when you're starting out. What are these down and dirty strategies that don't feel like we're on the internet? When I say go take a pad of paper and a pen and get people to sign up, somebody else had done in-person workshops. I go, are you passing around a piece of paper and getting people to join your list? Do those things. Yes. I think that the way that it's shifted is

We started with the pioneer woman and she like raised to fame and this is the idea and it got to this point that like Bloggers were kind of like unattainable and I think we stayed there for a long time They were almost these fake quote-unquote famous whatever but at the end of the day bloggers are just real people That's all that we're doing. We're just helping people along the way and providing solutions. And so we kind of put them on this pedestal on the other side of this veil that we couldn't really connect with.

But I think what we're realizing is that's not where we want to be as bloggers or as people who are consuming other bloggers content. Take the veil away. I wanna talk to you. I actually wanna have a conversation with you. I want to know truly deep down what is working, what's not, and whatever your niche is, and by providing that.

And I love that real, honest, authentic tip that you just gave to talk to the people in your community. How many of us are connecting with people who are on a similar journey or who might actually benefit from what we're creating. And that goes back to giving permission to share, hey, this is what I'm doing and being proud of it.

It goes back to taking yourself seriously, being willing to say, hey, I don't claim to have it all together, but I do know a couple of things and I'd love to share them with you or just in casual conversation, whatever that looks like. A lot of times I share Jennifer's website because she has slow cooker recipes and so I feel like I'm like Jennifer's hype girl sometimes but like really should. Like sometimes I'm in Facebook groups or if people are asking like friends, whether it be in person or online or whatever, like I really need some slow cooker recipes, like

that's a really easy share. Like check out this website. It's an entire website full of slow cooker recipes, but like giving ourselves the permission to not just sell to our email list, but sell ourselves too. This is how I can help. Will you allow me, will you trust me? Do you want to be part of this community

and inviting them in? Cause when you can personally invite someone into your community, whether it be a freebie, whether it be a face-to-face invitation, they feel valued and they are valued. Our email subscribers are so valuable. They are treasures. They're people. They're not visitors or users. I think that's the shift. They're not visitors or users. I think that's the shift. And that you can collect these people. I are a place to start. And when I say this to people, it like blows their mind.

I think you're right because there is this supposed veil of like, oh no, I'm an influencer, content creator on the internet. And the reality is look for those thousand true fans who know your name. I love this when people will say, oh, I got that recipe on Pinterest. And I'm like, no, you didn't. That was on somebody's nameless faceless blog to you. How do you get that person to say,

I got this recipe from Natalie? Yeah. Yeah. Who I'm on her email list and I got to share her recipes because they're so good. Now, before, Natalie could have a nameless face list a lot, but today you need, like Natalie needs to say, I'm Natalie. You want to know me because ready, I can help you. Yes. So with that, I guess it's interesting talking to you guys and verbalizing these things because it's like we are together, I feel like starting to go, oh, here are these shifts because they

happen slowly over time and you almost miss them to go, whoa, this is the direction. So for people, I recommend you start thinking about products and services at the get-go. Now will you be able to buy a second house by selling a $15 EBA? No. However, that's an important step because that is the first place where that person is getting a sense of you. If again you can provide, guess what? They'll go to your workshop and then they will maybe buy your course, join your membership, do coaching with you, buy your bundle. This is how you start building what I like to call your digital product empire.

The ebook is important, the freebie is important, the ebook is important, like each step is important because it's like dating. Hey, do I like you? Okay, let's meet for coffee. All right, you know what? Maybe we'll go get lunch, maybe dinner, maybe we'll spend a weekend together, who knows, but this is, these are the steps. So don't miss any step and think, oh my God, people aren't buying my thousand dollar coaching

package. Of course they're not buying that, but what can I offer where they are buying from me? So that $14 ebook is important because if I know I'm taking out my credit card to pay for something that Amy and Jennifer are selling, I assume they are in the market to sell me things rather than, wait a minute, you guys should just give me everything for free. What do you mean now you want my money? No. You say from the beginning, I'm a business, I am helpful, I can make your life better. And one last thing, when you are starting on this journey, and this is true with blog posts, this is true with freebies, digital products, anything really, you're looking

for that connection, that connection between what I'm providing and what you need, click. I call this, you are a miner mining for gold. This takes the personal feelings out of it. You go, okay, what I'm going to do, I'm going to take my pickaxe and I'm going to go up into the hills and I'm going to create something or I'm going to create a blog post, create a product or something and I'm going to digging, and I'm looking for gold specs. When I start to find gold specs, meaning I'm offering something that's somehow resonating, this could be Instagram, Reels, I'm going to dig deeper because I know I've hit a vein. I know I've got something there.

Again, it could be one sale of your ebook. It could be, whoa, this is my most trafficked post. Something like I'm not talking about my reel went viral. It's just, oh, this is my best reel. What can I do then to build off of that to look for more gold specks, to look for little gold nuggets, to look for that? Now, if there are no gold specks, guess what? You go, okay, I thought it was going to be in this hill. Maybe I need to move a little bit 100 yards to the left or to the right, or maybe I need to go on a whole different hill because I've realized I need to pivot what my kind of what

my niche is or who my avatar is. But this way, when you think of yourself as a miner, the gold is in the hills. The question is, where is it and can you get to it? This way, it's not personal. People are rejecting me. This is where I think we can play these mind games with ourselves and get out of the game before we've done enough mining to see. I think you're right.

I think that you've said so many things that are going to resonate with people and inspire, truly. And I think that if we can take this mindset going in to a new year, I think that we can find success with it, truly, because it starts with the mindset shift first and then knowing, okay, now here's the work that needs to be done. That's going to be an alignment and this is where it's going. So thank you, Jillian, for joining us again. I just always love any time that we get to sit down and talk to you and just see what you're seeing because you do similar work to us and I just love talking

to you so much. So you've mentioned Milo Tree Cart. So I would love for you to let our listeners know where they can learn more about that if they want to start incorporating that with their freebies. Sure. Okay. So first again, my freebie, which will help you create your freebie cheat sheet, you can get it milotree.com slash freebie prompts, all one word. And then check out Milotree. So on Milotree now, we're selling Milotree cart mixed with Milotree freebies where you can offer unlimited freebies and our pop-up app to grow your social media followers.

So you can go check that out at milotree.com. Super simple. And check out my podcast if you like this because Amy and Jennifer will be on another episode and that's the Blogger Genius podcast. And because I hopefully, hopefully you see I'm a real person and I do, I want to hear from you. So email me at Jillian at milotree.com. DM me on Instagram at milotree. Like I am really at milotree.com, DM me on Instagram at milotree. I am really available because as I said at the beginning, what gets me up in the morning is seeing that light bulb go off in people where they see kind of what you guys are talking

a lot about, that they can do this, that they can change their lives, that maybe they can quit their job or they can take their family to Disneyland or whatever that thing is that gives them more freedom, a sense of fulfillment. So please don't be a stranger because I would love to help. Awesome. I can attest we've had multiple people in our community reach out to you and get on those phone calls with you and connect with you. And so I can attest that she is exactly who she says she is and provides just support

and encouragement. And we're just lucky to be to be part of your community and all that too, Jillian. So thanks for being here today. And thanks for pouring back into the blogging community. You are very appreciated. And we're just thankful for you. So thanks for being here today and thanks for pouring back into the blogging community. You are very appreciated and we're just thankful for you. So thanks for being here. Thank you so much for having me and we should do this and we'll do this again. Yes, yes, for sure. Thanks for listening to the Ultimate Blog Podcast. If you'd like to learn more about building your blog, visit theultimateblogpodcast.com backslash newsletter to get signed up for our email

newsletter. If you enjoyed this episode, we'd love for you to share it with a friend, subscribe and leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts. Thanks for tuning in today and we'll see you next time.