Today is the first episode in a 12-part series we’re running on the ProBlogger podcast over the next few weeks. We’re handing the podcast over to you - the listeners and readers of ProBlogger - to tell your story of how you started your blog and what’s happened since. As I said a couple of weeks ago, in the second week of January we’ll be releasing a brand new (and completely free) course on how to start a blog. And in the lead up to that we wanted to feature stories of bloggers who've already s...
Dec 18, 2017•18 min•Transcript available on Metacast What You Should Include in Your Email Newsletters (and Answers to 4 FAQs About Email) Do you email your blog readers regularly? Maybe you put ‘set up email newsletter’ on your ‘someday’ list ages ago, but still haven’t done it. Or maybe you have a newsletter list, but you haven’t sent one in months. You might think it’s optional – something you can do once you've finished everything else on your to-do list. You might even think email is dead (or at least old-fashioned), and that you’re better of...
Dec 11, 2017•39 min•Transcript available on Metacast An Invitation for YOU to Be Featured on the ProBlogger Podcast Today's podcast is a little different. It's an invitation for YOU to be featured in an upcoming episode of the ProBlogger podcast. Early next year we’ll be releasing a brand new free course for bloggers to help them launch their blogs. And in the lead up we want to feature stories and tips from ProBlogger listeners and readers who've already started their own blogs. So if you’ve started a blog, whether it was recently or a long time ...
Dec 04, 2017•13 min•Transcript available on Metacast Using the SMART Approach to Set Your Blogging Goals for 2018 It’s that time of year where many of us are reviewing the year gone by and setting our blogging goals for 2018. Goal setting is really important in any venture. Without goals, your actions tend to be aimless and random. By setting something specific to aim at, you'll be motivated and more focused in your efforts. A lot has been written about goal setting over the years. But one way to set your goals is to use the SMART approach, where ...
Nov 27, 2017•26 min•Transcript available on Metacast 4 Things to Consider When Choosing a Domain Name for Your Blog This episode is perfect for anyone who's preparing and planning their first blog, as well as those thinking about starting a second blog. Note: if you are starting a blog sign up below to get notified of our brand new course on the topic which will go live early next year - and check out our article on how to start a blog in 5 steps. Today I'm talking about what to consider when naming your blog and choosing a domain name for it. I'l...
Nov 20, 2017•38 min•Transcript available on Metacast How and Why You Should Create Style Guides for Your Blog In today's episode, I talk about style guides for blogs – why they’re important, and what elements you should include in yours. Links and Resources for How to Create a Style Guide for Your Blog AP Stylebook The Chicago Manual of Style Virtual Tickets Facebook group Further Reading and Listening for How to Create a Style Guide for Your Blog 10 Writing Tips to Help You Sound More Human How and Why to Create a Blog Style Guide How to Create a...
Nov 13, 2017•33 min•Transcript available on Metacast Ways You Can Simplify Your Business and Increase Your Blogging Profitability Today, I want to share two big lessons I learned this year at our Australian ProBlogger events. They were lessons I think apply to many aspects of blogging and online business. It’s all about simplifying what you do while making more profit. I’m heading to Dallas for our Success Incubator event and to speak at FinCon in a few days time. So I'll be taking a couple of weeks off the podcast to travel and focus on the event...
Oct 16, 2017•36 min•Transcript available on Metacast 4 Difficult Realities All Bloggers Face During a conference last year I was invited to have dinner with three other bloggers who had all been blogging for 5-10 years and were now doing it full-time. It was a fun dinner, and we covered a lot of ground in terms of conversation. But during dessert the conversation got a little deeper as one of them began to share how they were struggling with their blog. On their surface, their blogging was going okay. They had a great readership, and the content t...
Oct 09, 2017•14 min•Transcript available on Metacast 10 Things I Wish I Knew About Blogging and Content Marketing When I Started Today, I want to share the audio of a keynote I gave at a conference early last year about 10 things I wish I’d known about blogging and creating content for content marketing when I started. In episodes 204 and 205 I shared some recordings of keynotes I’ve given, and the response from many of you was that you wanted to hear more of that style of podcast. So today I dug out a talk I gave at the Super Fast Business confer...
Oct 02, 2017•1 hr 8 min•Transcript available on Metacast Evergreen Content Ideas for Bloggers: Part 2 Today I want to talk about evergreen content, and want to suggest seven more types of evergreen content you might like to try on your blog. This episode is essentially part two of what I started in episode 209, where I suggested the first seven types of evergreen content. But whether you listen to this one first and then that one, or listen to that one first and then this one, you should get some ideas either way. 7 More Evergreen Content Ideas for Yo...
Sep 25, 2017•34 min•Transcript available on Metacast Advice from Pat Flynn on How to Create a Successful Podcast Today I have a treat for anyone who has ever considered starting a podcast (or already has one), because I’ve just finished a Skype call with Pat Flynn about the art of podcasting. As I’ve mentioned in the past, Pat’s teaching on podcasting is the number one thing that helped me as I was starting the ProBlogger podcast two years ago. If it wasn’t for him, I probably wouldn't have started at all. And so I was very excited when he launche...
Sep 18, 2017•1 hr 25 min•Transcript available on Metacast How Many Live Posts Do You Need When You Launch Your Blog Today, I want to answer a question almost every blogger asks when they start blogging: How many posts should I have live before I launch my blog? It's a common question I get, and while I’ve mentioned a few approaches in other episodes today I'm tackling the topic specifically. So if you’re starting a blog for the first time, or thinking of starting a second blog, this podcast is for you. Links and Resources Vanessa’s blog Digital Photogr...
Sep 11, 2017•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast 7 Types of Evergreen Content for Your Blog Today I want to talk about Evergreen content, and suggest seven types of evergreen content you might like to try on your blog. I’ve got loads of advice for you today, and in today's show notes I have a lot of examples you’ll want to check out. Some are from my blogs, but there are also a lot from listeners who put examples of their own evergreen content in our FB group. 7 Types of Evergreen Content To Create On Your Blog How to Content How to Start a Bl...
Sep 04, 2017•38 min•Transcript available on Metacast Get Better Facebook Page Results With These 5 Actionable Tips Today, I want to present you with five actionable things you can do to increase the effectiveness of what you do to build your business on Facebook - particularly from Facebook pages. I know there’s a lot of pain and frustration among bloggers when it comes to Facebook pages. Just a short year or two ago FB was a major source of traffic, engagement and even monetization for many of us. But increasingly over that time FB has been makin...
Aug 28, 2017•56 min•Transcript available on Metacast Blogger Apps for Smartphone and Tablet Today, I want to take you on a tour of my iPhone and iPad, and talk about the apps I use most in my blogging and online business activities. One of the biggest changes that has happened in my blogging since I began back in 2002 is the technology I use. In the early days it was all done purely through my old desktop PC (and by old I mean really old) and via dial-up internet. Things were so simple. I started on Blogger and everything that went on my blog was ...
Aug 21, 2017•33 min•Transcript available on Metacast Is There a Right Way to Brand Your Blog? I’m just back from our Aussie Problogger training events where we ran masterminds with around 40 bloggers per city. In those days speakers spent time with small groups of attendees in round table discussions where attendees could ask us any question they liked. One of the questions that I got asked repeatedly through both masterminds was around whether it is better to give a blog a personal brand or more of a business brand? In one case the questioner was...
Aug 14, 2017•43 min•Transcript available on Metacast How to Overcome 5 Blogger Obstacles As I record this, I’m just home from our first ProBlogger event of the year in Brisbane and am preparing for our next one in the coming days in Melbourne. The Brisbane event was really worthwhile. We heard from Pat Flynn, Jadah Sellner, James Schramko, Kelly Exeter, Shayne Tilley and Laney Galligan and had a couple of days of great teaching and inspiration - including a day with a small group masterminding their businesses. Each year at our events, I open the ...
Aug 07, 2017•1 hr 5 min•Transcript available on Metacast How Ordinary Things Can Lead to Extraordinary Results With Your Blog This week and I’m excited to be spending time face to face with quite a few ProBlogger podcast listeners and blog readers at our Aussie blogging events. We’ve been holding annual Australian events since 2010 and it is a highlight of my year each time. It’s fantastic to put faces to names, hear the stories of what bloggers are learning and to get inspired by meeting many of you. So because I’m away this week and busy with the ev...
Jul 31, 2017•41 min•Transcript available on Metacast How to Connect With Influencers in Your Niche Today I want to share some teaching on how to approach influencers and other well known people in your niche (or outside it too). One of the most powerful ways to grow your profile, audience and brand is to connect with others in your niche. The benefits of doing it can be many and varied - the opportunities that flow from these interactions can be pretty cool for the growth of your blog…. BUT doing it the wrong way can also hurt your blog and brand ...
Jul 24, 2017•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast Veteran Blogger Chris Garrett on How to Build a Successful Blog Today’s episode is #202 and in it I have my good friend and co-author of the ProBlogger book - Chris Garrett on the show to talk about the changes in blogging since we wrote the book. Chris and I wrote the first edition of the book in 2008 and it went through 3 versions - the last one being 5 years ago in 2012 - so I thought it might be interesting to get Chris on to talk - among other things - about how we’d update the book if we w...
Jul 17, 2017•1 hr 18 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 ProBlogg...
Jul 10, 2017•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 epis...
Jul 03, 2017•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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. ...
Jun 26, 2017•22 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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...
Jun 19, 2017•38 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 an...
Jun 12, 2017•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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...
Jun 05, 2017•1 hr 9 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 tha...
May 29, 2017•52 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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...
May 22, 2017•32 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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...
May 15, 2017•1 hr 18 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 abo...
May 08, 2017•33 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
