Launch Your Blog Biz

025. Making money from a new blog can take quite some time.

It took us months before we finally turned a profit on our health and wellness blog, and y’all already know about how our first blog failed miserably.

But just because it can take a while to start making money blogging, doesn’t mean it has to.

Our student, Amira Irfan–business lawyer, blogger, and coach at ASelfGuru.com, is the exception.

Amira made $1,000 from her blog in her very first MONTH.

She made her first $10,000 in 4 months, and has since earned more than $1,000,000 in a single year with her online business..

And she didn’t achieve that quick success by accident, or by luck.

Amira definitely put in the work, including doing a ton of networking and collaborating.

But what really set her apart was that she didn’t let fear or perfectionism hold her back from making important strategic moves.

So today, Amira and I are taking a deep dive into how she was able to make her blog profitable so quickly, and how she has achieved such a high level of success.

We’ll also be digging into Amira’s specialty–the legal side of blogging–and how you can protect yourself and your blog biz.

In this episode, Amira and I are discussing:

• Amira’s blogging success journey + tips for growth
• How Amira made $1,000 in her first month blogging
• The mindset that helped Amira be so successful so fast
• How Amira has grown her blog biz to over $1,000,000
• What dangers her legal templates protect bloggers from
• What’s next for Amira
• And more.

For additional resources and show notes, visit the episode podcast page on our website.

Resources and Mentions:

• Amira’s Blog: ASelfGuru.com
• Amira’s Facebook Group
• Amira’s Legal Templates
• Amira’s New ADA Compliance Bundle
• Create and Go Course mentioned: Pro Blogger Bundle
• Tutorial: How to Start a Successful Blog
• Start your first blog with our Free 5-Day Blogging Bootcamp

For more information and resources, check out the podcast page on our website.

019. We’ve probably said this a thousand times now, but we made some big mistakes with SEO when we first started Create and Go that still haunt us to this day.

In our last episode, we talked about our dark history with SEO, and how Noah and Alex managed to dig us out of the hole we accidentally made for ourselves.

Y’all, I can’t tell you how much it hurts me to think of all the time, effort, energy, and money we could have saved (and how much more successful we could be even today) if we hadn’t blown off focusing on SEO in the beginning.

It wasn’t that we didn’t know SEO was important (although we didn’t realize exactly how vital it was).

But we were doing so well with the traffic we drove from Pinterest and YouTube that we figured SEO was something we could focus on later.

We kicked the can down the road, and boy, did it come back to bite us!

Our strategies with social media were great in the short-term; but every blog needs a plan that includes SEO, or you won’t make it long-term. Period.

Today, Noah and I are going over:

• exactly where we went wrong,
• the three biggest mistakes we made,
• and how you can avoid them.

Ignorance might be bliss, but y’all...knowledge is power.

And SEO knowledge is the most powerful and valuable knowledge you can have in the blogging world.

We want you to empower you to get this right the first time, get an SEO strategy in place, and avoid making the major mistakes we made.

(But if you’re like us, and have already been kicking the can down the road, you can still fix it!)

In this episode, Part 2, Noah and I are discussing:

• Our mindset on traffic in the beginning
• Why we didn’t have an SEO plan at first
• The three biggest SEO mistakes we made when we started Create and Go
• How our lack of knowledge and planning came back to bite us
• What you can do to avoid making the same mistakes we made

For additional resources and show notes, visit the episode podcast page on our website.

Resources and Mentions:

• Podcast: SEO Pt 1: Do You Need an SEO Strategy for Your Blog? [With Noah Riggs]
• Course Mentioned: SEO Blueprint for Bloggers
• Related Post: Blog SEO: 10 Step Beginner’s Guide to Ranking Blog Posts
• Related Video: SEO for Beginners: 10 Steps to get More Organic Traffic to Your Blog
• Tutorial: How to Start a Successful Blog
• Start your first blog with our Free 5-Day Blogging Bootcamp

For more information and resources, check out the podcast page on our website.

011. This is the 3rd and final part in our series on how to build an audience. In part one, we talked about driving traffic (visitors) to your website through various platforms. In part two, we went a step further to talk about how to get the right visitors to subscribe to your email list -- the people who are actually the most interested in what you have to say.

In this episode, we talk about how to have engaged subscribers who are opening your emails and taking action on the content you’re offering.

This is what turns your subscribers into fans who follow you for years and years to come. People who grow with you and support you.

The gurus aren’t lying when they say that you can make money while you sleep.

Having email sales funnels in place has given us the flexibility to do other things to grow our business, like creating courses, growing our YouTube channel, and starting this podcast -- all on a schedule that is entirely on our terms..

And I can honestly tell you that the email funnels we have right now, they’ve been in place for a while and we’ve had to make very few changes over the years.

But it’s not just about sales, y’all. That’s the end goal, but the stories and relationships that get you there are what this is really about.

What we’re talking about in this episode:

• What kind of content to send your email subscribers
• An inside look at email funnels
• Emails for automating your business
• Tips for building relationships with your audience

For additional resources and show notes, visit the episode podcast page on our website.
Resources and Mentions:

• We use and recommend ConvertKit's email software
• Episode 9: Building an Audience Pt 1: Getting Visitors to Your Blog
• Episode 10: Building an Audience Pt 2: Building an Email List
• Tutorial: How to Start a Successful Blog
• Start your first blog with our Free 5-Day Blogging Bootcamp

For more information and resources, check out the podcast page on our website.

029. Hey, y’all! This episode is a little different from my usually-at-least-somewhat-planned-out content.

Sometimes I actually script out entire episodes because I have a lot to say on the topic and I want to make sure I say it right or say everything I want to say. But this time, it’s the opposite.

I had 3 words written down in my notes before I hit the record button: Ads, Redesigns, and Rebrands.

The truth is that I’ve been super bogged down by a lot of difficult things going on in my personal life. Both of my parents went into the hospital around Thanksgiving of last year. My mom passed away and my dad damn near did too.

Because of all of this, it’s been hard to find the time or desire to create a creative space in my business these past few months. I’ve been trying to keep my head above water and juggle a lot of personal stuff.

Long story short... this episode is just an honest chat about some of the things I’ve been prioritizing lately.

They're not flashy or particularly exciting topics, but advertising and optimizing your products is an important part of any business--especially if you’ve hit the stage of growth that we have.

Today, I’m sharing some of our experiences with paid ads for our blog, including using an ads company for almost a year now.

I’ve also been spending most of my limited work time on redesigning our sales pages, and I’ve found a helpful work-around for improving the sales pages within Teachable, which should lead to higher conversion rates.

Finally, I’m talking about why I’ve rebranded one of the courses, and what that means for our students.

So if you’re dealing with any of these business steps right now, or might be in the future, I hope the info and experiences I’m sharing today will help you in that process.

What I’m talking about in this episode:

• Ads (webinars and more)
• Redesigns (new sales pages!)
• Rebrands (new course name change – Six-Figure Course Creator)

For additional resources and show notes, visit the episode podcast page on our website.

Resources and Mentions:

• LeadPages
• Teachable
• Course Mentioned: Six-Figure Course Creator
• Tutorial: How to Start a Successful Blog
• Start your first blog with our Free 5-Day Blogging Bootcamp

For more information and resources, check out the podcast page on our website.

Today’s topic is actually one that was requested by Greg. In the last episode, I mentioned at the end that if anyone had any topic suggestions that they wanted to share, please do so. You can comment below on this episode page and share your thoughts or suggestions!
At first, I wasn’t sure about this topic of motivation over discipline. My brain immediately went to “avoiding procrastination” and I think that’s a very high-level and over-discussed topic.
We all know to procrastinate less and put in more work, right?
I’m also a pretty disciplined person. I always have been. So my first thoughts were also that maybe I'm not the person to help here when it comes easily to me. But then I realized... Wait, it's not always easy for me.
So, I thought about how I feel when I'm struggling with discipline. What DO I feel and WHY do I feel it? What’s hindering my discipline?
Maybe this is different for everyone, but I do think that what I'm sharing in this episode can help everyone in some way.
We're here today because motivation is the easy part. It's easy to get motivated for a new diet, to learn a new language, or to even start a business.
What's not so easy is turning that motivation into discipline to follow through on your desires and intentions. Sure, having a plan helps tremendously. But it's more than that.
That's what we're discussing in today's episode.
Episode Highlights

• Motivation for starting something new
• Why that motivation wanes
• How to turn motivation into discipline
• Why getting fired up for your business is so important

For more information and resources, check out the podcast page on our website.