Tips Tuesday – Content Silo, Imposter Syndrome, AI Images

Hello Happy Site Owner!

Tips this week include:

• Christmas in July – where it originated and what it means now
• Why to make a Content Silo
• Watching for GA4 changes
• AI images course will be launching soon
• New tech stack I tried for new member site
• Why not to take generic recommendations
• Don’t let imposter syndrome hold you back
• The reality of putting yourself out there
• Why to embrace your knowings
• My business mantra

Welcome to H2 – the second half of the year.

Are you where you want to be with your online business?

Maybe a better question to ask is, are you where you thought you would be?

Now is a great time to take a breather from your routine and your go-go-go mindset and re-evaluate your goals and path for 2023.

Christmas in July

I’m betting a lot of younger folks don’t know where that phrase originated.

It used to be that TV shows started their new season in the fall and ran for about 6 months.

And then we would have 6 months of reruns, not new shows in those time slots.

That meant that their holiday reruns would hit in the summer.

Hence, Christmas in July.

But for bloggers, that phrase has come to mean getting super busy with plans for holiday posts, as you need to start publishing them in August.

This year, instead of creating so many new posts, I invite you to consider freshening up old posts, or collecting them into a bundle type post with lots of links to related content.

Make a Content Silo

Our DIY SEO course workshop this week is on how to create that content silo.

These things work like a charm to help Google understand the topics you right about and get your core content ranked higher.

It also helps visitors find more related content and keeps them on your site longer – and that helps with your ranking too.

Plus, it gives the visitor more opportunities to see your CTAs (Calls to Action) as well.

In addition, it’s super easy for you to promote.

It’s like one-stop-shopping on your site where visitors get led through exactly what you want them to see.

It’s always a good time to join us in the DIY SEO course.

Watching GA4 Changes

Rest in peace Universal Analytics.

It’s all GA4 from now on.

Google has been making changes to it right up to the deadline.

Last week I posted 2 new tutorials in the BlogAid GA4 course for downloading your UA data and on how to create a Web Stories GA4 property.

I suspect Google is long from done with changes to GA4.

I’ll be watching closely and I’ll keep the courses updated with those changes.

AI Images Course Update

This week I’m in the last phases of putting together the new AI images course over at AI Discover Hub.

The sales page is filled with images I created. And it is so stunning that anyone who might be on the fence about what you can create and why you need this course is totally bowled over.

The membership is set up and all the integrations are done.

This week I’m finishing up the Midjourney master class. 

And we’re finishing up the sales page and working on a small technical issue with how the videos appear on the course pages.

Trying New Things Report

Last week I told you that I would be trying out all kinds of new things for this membership test site. That way if something didn’t work out, I wouldn’t have a ton of bloat to remove from the real site.

I did try all of the new features in MemberPress, which is the membership platform/plugin I like the most. 

And that includes their new LMS for Courses add on. It’s not quite as pretty as Lifter LMS. But they keep refining it.

I did decide to use an LMS so that it looks like the same sort of progress bar type course most creatives are used to.

And I tried the BuddyPress add-on, as I thought about keeping the community part on the membership instead of using Facebook groups or such. I’m still on the fence about that. It’s a lot nicer than it used to be, but it adds so much more complexity to the site.

I also tried the digital downloads add on. I don’t have a use for that yet, but I like it and will see if I can incorporate it later for things like starter guides and such as a top of funnel thing for the course.

I also tried Bunny Streaming CDN for the videos. It was insanely slow compared to using AS3 for the storage and their Cloudfront CDN for delivery.

I also stuck with S3 Media Maestro for video protection and the player. But I used their new way of loading and managing AS3 directly from the site. It works perfectly and is a lot easier than the old way I was doing it.

Payment Setup Kinks in the Chain

I also had to do the PayPal setup a little differently for this course. I think I’ve been through at least 4 iterations of PayPal business account since I started using them. And they only give you one IPN, so I have to use an IPN Forwarder plugin for all but one of my courses if I want to use the same PayPal account for all of them.

If I want to start a new PayPal account to get a new IPN, I would have to open a new bank account to receive the funds, or use something other than the account type I have connected now, which is not that big of a deal as I can simply do an internal transfer between those accounts. 

But the real issue was that I would also have to get another cell phone to use for verification. You can get a Tracfone at Walmart for about $20. But then you have to pay at least $15/mo for service.

All of that is very likely what I’ll be doing when I set up my secret project site later this year, as I want it to be a totally separate thing from BlogAid or AI Discover Hub. That’s because I’m building it to sell at some point.

And yes, I looked into using Stripe. 

I used them years ago as a second payment option for my current courses. I just don’t like how they hold or auto deposit money. It doesn’t work with the way I do my bookkeeping and paying affiliates and such.

I may look into Thrive Cart for that secret project. I just didn’t have the bandwidth for that big of an investigation process to see if it could do all I needed, and then learn about all new integrations and setup. But I hear that it’s a good option.

Don’t Take Generic Recommendations

I’ve been running membership sites for a long time.

And I’ve done countless consults to help others get started with a membership.

In fact, I insist on doing a consult before helping folks to set up that membership.

Here’s why.

Most folks want to jump right into tech recommendations.

That’s a super bad idea.

For starters, most folks have had their mind totally focused on creating the content.

They haven’t given any thought to marketing and retention, much less upsells.

Nor have they given thought to the best delivery method, or how to set up affiliates.

You need to have a plan for all of that before you decide which tech stack will best suit your needs.

My consulting clients end up making 4x more money than they originally thought.

That’s because in just 1 hour we laid out a plan to do just that, and then we chose the right tech stack that could deliver that plan.

Never take generic recommendations for a membership platform.

Never take generic recommendations for a host either.

Or for anything on your site.

Even WordPress is not the best fit for all online business owners.

Make a plan for making money.

Then find someone like me to help you choose the right tech for the project and for you running it.

Don’t Let Imposter Syndrome Hold You Back

One of the biggest obstacles to bloggers making the transition from blogging for themselves to teaching others what they know in a membership or such is imposter syndrome.

Let me help you with that.

As a seasoned blogger, you can very easily spot one of the many gurus who hype how easy and cheap it is to start blogging and make $10k/mo.

Even when they themselves know it’s not that easy, they pitch that hype anyway.

Why?

Because at the beginning of the journey, if someone presented you with the reality of making $10k/mo as a blogger, you would have never started.

That’s specifically why I don’t have a service like that or create content that attracts newbies.

I want to work with woke bloggers who live in the real world and are looking for real help.

And I enjoy decade long relationships with those clients because they know I know what I’m talking about.

That’s what it looks like from the outside.

The Reality of Putting Yourself Out There 

Let me tell you my perspective.

I dig through a ton of junk info and noise, and then I do a ton of testing, if it’s possible, before I put my name on a recommendation.

Even with all that, sometimes those recommendations don’t work out over time.

Hosting is a great example. I’m on host number 5-6 at this point. And I’m so stupid happy with my current host that I hope that relationship lasts for as long as I have sites.

Themes are another good example. I’m on theme framework 5 at this point, including having hard coded my own at the beginning of this journey.

It’s a LOT of pressure to make recommendations for others, especially knowing that what I tell them will hit them squarely in the pocket.

I pace the floor over deciding what course to open and what course to close because I know my peeps are counting on me for that info.

And I run my courses in competition with folks who charge twice as much for half the info, or info that is not right, or they don’t tell you all you need to know. And I run my courses in competition with folks who truly are gurus and have been doing it for years and deliver the good stuff too.

And I ask myself all the time if I know enough or can deliver enough of the right stuff to help my peeps put food on the table.

Being in this kind of business – advising folks on their livelihood – comes with a bundle of emotions, both ups and downs.

But what I have never had an issue with is imposter syndrome.

I know what I know and I know it yields results for me and others.

I also know that everything changes – all the time.

And we all have to adapt, even if we do it kicking and screaming.

The change is not by my hand.

But that doesn’t mean that some folks don’t attribute their upset feelings about it to me. Far from it. I’ve gotten plenty of flame emails over the years because someone didn’t like that things needed to change.

I’ve been on stage since I was 5 years old.

I learned real fast that some folks are just not going to like you, even when you do your best, even when 100s of other folks do like you.

Embrace Your Knowings

I was at the grocery store the other day and a store clerk was restocking the pet isle.

I picked up a bag of treats from one of her boxes and said how much my doggie liked them.

She mentioned that her dog had a sensitive tummy and couldn’t have treats.

I replied that my dog had a sensitive tummy too and that these treats were okay for him.

And that I also give him Cherrios for treats most of the time.

She thought that was a super idea.

Okay, let’s look at this through an imposter syndrome lens.

I’m not a vet or a doggie dietician.

I shared what I had researched and tried with my own pet.

And now she has new info to consider and decide what will be best for her pet.

That’s it.

I didn’t pretend to be someone I’m not and I didn’t pretend to have credentials beyond my own research and experience.

And yet I was able to help someone.

Will she do what I suggested?

Who knows.

And it’s not my responsibility to think for her, although a lot of folks will try to put an advisor in that position.

The point I’m trying to make is that helping others from a place of experience is all you’re doing by offering what you know for a fee to others who want to learn.

The new AI images course is another good example.

NOBODY is an expert at it yet. We’re all learning it, including me.

Yet folks are asking me to make a course simply because they have been in my other courses and they know the level of help they are going to get. It’s going to be the good stuff.

But, they don’t expect me to be an expert.

So, I’m setting this one up as a community, and we’ll all learn together as we all try new things.

You’re Not the Only Source of Info

You’re reading Tips Tuesday. Thank you.

I bet this is not the only source of site or marketing info you consume.

You also have your own experiences to draw from.

That will also be true of anyone you advise.

My Mantra

This is what I tell myself about what I do for a living.

I’m in business to make money helping people – in that order.

First – I’m in business. I run it like a business. I have to factor ROI on the time or money I spend doing anything in that business. Bottom line, I have to be profitable.

Second – Make money. I have to focus my time and energy budget on researching what I can do that will make money, and how to do it so that it will make money, and how to do it in a way that makes enough money to live a balanced life that is not all work.

Third – Help people. The fact is, sharing what I know is going to help people whether I charge for it or not. And I have to share enough info for free to reach potential clients so they can determine if what I offer is a good fit for their needs.

Plus, if what you want to offer doesn’t help someone, even if it’s just to entertain them, you’re not likely to be able to run a profitable business with it anyway.

Just Do It

If imposter syndrome is what’s holding you back, get over it.

Share what you know and get paid for doing it.

What you know now is what someone just starting out wants to know.

And that doesn’t mean a newb in all cases.

For BlogAid, it means folks who are starting to take this blogging thing seriously. It’s second level folks that I cater to.

Pick your audience. Pick your product package. And just do it.

Once you get that feedback that you’ve helped someone, you’ll get over the imposter syndrome.

But you’ll never get that if you don’t put the unique help you can bring out there.

Get a Consult

And if you need help putting a plan together, book a consult.

I’ll share with you what I know has worked for me and for my clients that may work best for your new ideas too.