On Monday morning I briefly mentioned Cassey Ho’s BlogFest session that touched on blog and social media growth and making money from your blog, YouTube channel or social media account. Cassey’s presentation stemmed from experience, as she’s cultivated quite a successful brand that includes a YouTube channel with upwards of 1.6 million subscribers, a popular blog, merchandise, meal plans and, just recently, her own fitness fashion line.
Cassey spoke with enthusiasm and shared lots of advice with BlogFest attendees that I wanted to share with you guys today since I know a bunch of you out there are bloggers or have ambitions to start a blog some day. I took lots of notes, so this blog post may be a little long-winded. You’ve been warned!
Growing Your Blog and Making Money
- Give Away Something… But Not Everything
If you give away everything for free, your readers will expect you to continue to do so and will never want to pay for anything, even if it costs you a lot of time and money to develop. Try giving away snippets of something for free… like the first week of a one-month meal plan. Don’t sell yourself short!
- Cater Your Content to Current Events
Is a big event or holiday coming up? Try catering your content to this event since people will likely be searching for content around this event, making your content more pertinent and popular. For example, with the fall coming up, try sharing a collection of your favorite autumn recipes or creating a “back to school” workout.
- Create a Newsletter
Creating a newsletter is invaluable, as it gives you direct access to your readers. With an increase in newsletter subscribers comes an increase in page views, social media followers and income, especially if you include links to your merchandise or affiliate links to favorite products. Companies may also pay more to be included in your newsletter in addition to your blog. Mail Chimp is a great resource for easily creating your own newsletter.
- Understand and Utilize Instagram
Utilize Instagram and understand that people who use Instagram generally don’t want to have to leave Instagram. Sharing a photo of a recipe and then typing out a link to your blog may not be the best philosophy because links cannot be hyperlinked within Instagram and people will likely just keep scrolling. Consider typing out FULL recipes from time to time so people don’t have to leave Instagram and can find value in your account.
Use hashtags to find new like-minded Instagram users. After posting your photo with a caption, you can quickly comment on your post with corresponding hashtags so they’re not as visible and don’t detract from your caption.
- Use YouTube to Connect
YouTube is a great way to give people a glimpse into your true personality and create a solid relationship with viewers. Many companies look for a strong, engaged YouTube presence.
- Block Out Time To Increase Productivity
If your blog or YouTube channel lends itself to this practice, consider blocking out a period of time to create a bunch of blog posts or YouTube videos at once. Focus the rest of your time on building relationships, promoting your content or merchandise, researching new avenues for growth, reaching out to brands, working on your newsletter and interacting with people who follow you.
- Consider Selling Something
Though it is possible to make money solely from blogging or posting YouTube videos, your chances for a larger income greatly increase if you sell something. Whether you sell training plans, merchandise, or consulting services, loyal readers will likely be interested in your product since they probably share your similar interests if they’re visiting your blog or YouTube channel regularly. Highwire.com is a great resource for setting up your own online store.
- Connect With Others
Create genuine relationships with other bloggers or YouTubers… the key word here being genuine. Every blogger can see right through an email from another blogger who clearly just wants a link to their site shared. Build real relationships with those within your community before suggesting collaboration. Once a genuine friendship is established, share business contacts, successes and content. Constantly share content from others with your readers and promote other bloggers and YouTubers regularly. Pass their contact information along to brands you’ve worked with and work together to increase success.
- Work With Brands… But Don’t Let Them Dictate
Contact brands you love and suggest a partnership. Reaching out to a brand on Twitter is a great way to get contact information. Once you have an email address, send a pitch and suggest ways you can work together. When a working relationship is established, stay true to yourself and do not let a brand dictate what you will say or do on your blog or YouTube channel. A partnership with a brand is a collaboration that involves two brands… yours and theirs.
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Thanks for all the tips! I have always loved cassie. She’s so peppy and happy. Looks like you had the best speakers there!
Cassey is truly one of the hardest working and most ambitious people I know. She’s a wealth of information!!
These are some great ideas that I’m going to try to apply to my blog. Thanks for sharing!
One thing I don’t understand working with brands is how to ask for money without coming out and saying it or should you? I feel weird about it but also feel like I spend a lot of time on reviews and giveaways and should get something.
All the advice I’ve ever heard is to ask whether or not a brand has a budget after they email yu. This is what I typically do and I think more and more companies are beginning to realize bloggers want compensation for their work with a brand. I also try to have a brand throw out a number first, so you can get an idea of how much money they’re willing to put into a partnership.
great tips!
Thanks again for another great recap from BlogFest. As someone who couldn’t afford to go to a big blogging conference this year, I really appreciate all of the stories and information being passed down from those of you who were lucky enough to attend. Thanks for taking time to type out what you learned and for the great tips–I’ll definitely be using them! And hopefully I’ll get to attend a blogging conference soon. 🙂
My pleasure! I enjoy sharing! 🙂 And I hope you can make it to a conference in the near future. 🙂
Awesome tips, thanks for sharing!
Thank you so much for sharing! Definitely great tips and advice….some I knew already and some that’s new to me! As I’m setting out on a new adventure this fall, I really need to take all of these tips into consideration to ultimately have the most success out of my 50 States charity project. 🙂
So helpful! Thank you so much! It seems as though I need to bite the bullet and create a Twitter account. If only to get an email address for the company I am hoping to reach!
Some really great ideas! Thanks so much for sharing.
I definitely need to block off time. Time management is my biggest weakness.
Interesting tips… though I think the most important one of all is “create good content.” You can pull people in with Instagram, newsletters, giveaways, etc, all you want, but nobody’s going to stay if the blog is bad. I think the blogs I like most are the ones whose authors write because they’re passionate about their subjects and want to share and grow their own knowledge.
Maybe it goes without saying that it comes down to content, but unfortunately it can become way too easy for bloggers to focus so much on promoting themselves that they forget about the blog itself.
Seriously good tips! I’m constantly trying to make my website better for my readers and to reach a bigger audience. It can be a real challenge! Thanks for sharing these. 🙂
Thanks for sharing what you’ve learned about growing your blog! Blogfest sounds like a fun event!
These are such great tips thank you!! Do you have any tips that have worked for you and your blogs success??
Hi Kelly!! I put together a series called “Blog Talk Tuesdays” a couple of years ago that really detail all of the advice I have related to blogging. They’re all linked at the end of the above post! I hope this helps. 🙂
Julie, thank you SO much for this post… these are always some of my favorites from you, since you are a wealth of knowledge! 🙂
Hi Julie! Thank you for sharing this valuable information. I just stumbled upon your blog and have been reading it regularly..this post has been especially helpful as me and my friend just started a blog ourselves. We are still in the very beginning stages..check it out sometime! We’d love to hear your feedback. Thanks again! xo
awesome post.
As a new-ish blogger, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate this post. Thank you for sharing your tips, rather than focusing on your own success and keeping this stuff to yourself. 😉 I feel that a monthly giveaway is an important way to engage with my readers and thank them for their support. In your early days of blogging, did you reach out to companies for giveaways or did you take care of the cost yourself? Thank you a million times!
I like these tips, Julie! They’re very practical and can work in many ways for any blogger.
Great tips!! I’m also always afraid to ask about money, I don’t want to ruin the relationship from the get-go, but my time is valuable, and if I’m going to devote time to write a very specific post, I feel like I should be able to ask for something in return. Right? Such a tough thing to navigate!
Really great tips! As a new blogger, I appreciate all of your insight.
Thank you for the tips! I also went back and read all your Blog Talk Tuesdays which were great. I especially loved the part about letting your personality shine through – the personal tidbits are always my favorite parts too!
P.S. Are you watching ‘Bachelor in Paradise’? The drama is not disappointing – especially how it is depicted in the scenes for the next week. 🙂
TOTALLY watching. I am hooked. And I know it’s not even a good show. 🙂
Thanks for sharing all of this information Julie! I recently started my own blog so this advice couldn’t have come at a better time. I’m going to check out a bunch of your links to previous posts too. I want to start out being as professional and genuine as possible, and your blog is definitely a great example of that! Have a wonderful day!
edited* I accidentally didn’t update my new blog email and website! oops! you can delete my first comment if you’d like.
Thanks for sharing all of this information Julie!I recently started my own blog so this advice couldn’t have come at a better time.I’m going to check out a bunch of your links to previous posts too.I want to start out being as professional and genuine as possible, and your blog is definitely a great example of that! Have a wonderful day!
Really great tips, Julie. Thank you! The IDEA conference sounds awesome.
Thanks for sharing!! As a new (ish) blogger I am VERY grateful for all the resources on blogging you share with us 🙂
xo
Loved reading this and all the links to your past blog related posts. I have been blogging for a little over a year (www.veggieinspiredjourney.wordpress.com), but have recently started a new blog featuring my son’s 1st grade lunchbox (www.thelivelylunchbox.wordpress.com) and it is already gaining speed much faster than my first. I am feeling the pressure to understand better how to make this all happen. Desperately need a lesson in food photography. LOL! Anyway, thanks for taking the time share this with us!
What an AWESOME idea for a blog!!! I LOVE it!
Thanks! I have to say, your blog was a great inspiration for me when I was first deciding to tackle the blogging world last year. I just love your layout and casual attitude. I have soooo much to learn still.
LOVE this! this is just what i needed! thanks so much for the tips! 🙂
I am just starting out seriously doing my blog now, before it was sporadic posts while traveling. So these are all great tips, that I will defiantly be using now and in the future! Love all the info we are getting from your time in CA!
All great tips! Thanks for sharing what you learned, Julie!
These are awesome tips! Cassie seems like such a sweet girl, and has some really awesome ideas/stuff!
I know I need to do more with youtube & videos. If I weren’t so technologically challenged! haha. Ahhhh one day!
You and me both, sister. 🙂
A great recap! I really loved Cassey’s talk, and your recap is perfect.
Thank you!!! And BIG congrats to you again on your engagement!!!! SO exciting! <3
Great post! Very helpful tips.
Great tips so thank you for sharing. The instagram recipe-thing is interesting and a simple way to improve social media. I always get confused with affiliate links – for example, on amazon and having affiliate links on my blog from amazon – it looks super janky and was pretty confusing to attempt to put together! Not sure if you have a good resource for all-things affiliate links? Maybe I am over-complicating…
Aw thank you for using the picture from that fun Mohegan Sun event!!! I actually am going there tomorrow night 😀 and was there two weeks ago, I ate at Tuscany again, soooo good!
Have fun!!! That trip was amazing. 🙂
Awesome summary! I’m going to be bookmarking this post as I’m sure I’ll be referencing it in the future! 😉
Love this, thanks for sharing, Julie! I’m a big believer in creating something for sale of your own. I never want to be dependent on companies/affiliate sales, so I make my own products to offer! Also it just gives me the knowledge that I created something that brings in income, and that’s just a really amazing feeling 🙂
Thanks for sharing! I’ve been looking for ideas on how to take my blog to the next level and these are some great tips. I especially like the giveaway tips…I’ve always wondered how to handle that 🙂
Great tips! Bookmarking for further perusal 🙂
Thanks for all the great info! I wanted to go to this, but living on the east coast made it a bit too pricey. I went to FitBloggin this year which was also a lot of great info!
Thanks so much for the session recaps for those of us who couldn’t make it 🙂
These were extremely helpful tips! I’m struggling with growing my blog while having my full-time job and putting aside the time necessary to create meaningful posts & take pictures that I want to use with my specific topics. I’m realizing how important it will be to have a schedule to tackle my long blog to-do while also working 7:30-4:30 every day so I can get to a point where hopefully my blog will create an income stream and I’m not so restricted to my day job! 🙂 Thanks for sharing these pointers from your session!
This post could have not come at a better time since I just started my blog three days ago! Thank you so much!
I like the instagram tip–thank you!
What a helpful post! Thank you so much for this Julie!
Julie – thank you so much for sharing all these tips! Great stuff. I never knew that about Instagram. It’s all goo d food for thought. Have a good day!
Perfect timing for this post to arrive! My bestie and I were just talking last night about how to grow her blog (http://www.whatseatingericajacobs.com/) and monetize it. I sent her the link to this post and hope she will find it useful for new ideas!
Thanks Julie! 🙂
Thanks for passing it along, Nicole! <3
Thanks for the tips! I will definitely be using a few in the coming weeks!
These are some fantastic & relevant tips. I’m trying to reach the next level of my blog, so these tricks on how to grow my blog are spot on. I definitely ought to consider selling something. :] // itsCarmen.com ♢ ☼ ☽
Thanks for taking the time to share! This is great info for Newbies like me!
Thank you for the great tips! I’m definitely trying to grow my blog, and making a few bucks wouldn’t hurt either. I never thought about adding hashtags in a comment under my instagram posting for a reason. I always thought people just forgot to add theirs!
Thank you for the tips! Your blog inspired me from the beginning to start blogging. 🙂
Thank you!! 🙂