Tips Tuesday – Newsletter Tips, Image SEO Workshop, What to Outsource

Tips this week include:

• EZ Metrix course is closer to done
• Why you need to value your time in order to make real money
• Hiring an expert is cheaper than you think
• Which of your tasks not to outsource
• What are you doing with your newsletter?
• The best way to guarantee eyeballs on your content and offers
• Image SEO Workshop Part 3 is this week
• More Google volatility swings
• WP 6.5.3 maintenance release rolled out

BlogAid Happenings

It’s been another light news week. So let’s talk about making money – and what keeps you from making more.

EZ Metrix Closer to Done

I’m delighted to share that all of the tutorial drafts in Tier 1 and Tier 2 of the new EZ Metrix course are complete.

During the process of creating the YouTube report page tutorials I realized that adding another set of metrics would be even more helpful. So, I created that report for one of my beta testers and I’m awaiting that feedback before finalizing that new report. Then I’ll make more tutorials on it.

In the meantime I’ll be setting up the new membership and landing page and then uploading all of the new tutorials for my beta testers to try out.

I can hardly wait to share all of this with you in a live webinar!!!!!

I think you’ll flip when you see how easy it is to track metrics for hits to your site and all the queries folks are using where your pages show up in Search and such.

All of the beta testers say they now look forward to checking their reports each week and how easy it is to make plans for new content or what old ones to rework. Plus, the ideas that jump off the page are super exciting too.

Site Services Update

The wait list for site services is about 2-3 weeks now and picking up steam. Folks want to get things done before summer break.

If you’re due for a site audit checkup this month, now is the time to get in your request.

Consults are always on demand anytime. 

I’m so delighted to see so many folks pivoting into new money-making ventures and I’m happy to help them make that plan in ways that avoid expensive pitfalls and make them more money than they had in mind in the first place.

Monetization Tips

Value Your Time

I did a consult last week with a buddy who wants to start an online version of the business he’s already in. The main purpose is to increase his reach beyond who he can interact with in person.

One of the issues we kept bumping up against was his lack of vision doing things at scale.

The fact is, when he gets the kind of online visibility we planned for him, he will not be able to continue to do every part of his business by hand anymore.

He has to start thinking about how things are done at scale.

One of those things is hand printing T-shirts and carrying that inventory. 

Right now he is trading his sweat equity for the screening process for more profit.

But, when he scales to selling 50 a week instead of 50 a month, that process is no longer worth him doing by hand. 

In fact, it’s not worth him doing at all, especially since this is an add-on to his main money-maker.

He needs to set up a print-on-demand integration with his new site, not just an order form that he manual fulfills.

Here’s an example of where all of the profits go out the window with him doing this task himself.

He didn’t figure in his admin time of ordering the shirts and packaging, driving to the print shop, driving to the post office or setting up a way to do that from home, tracking orders, dealing with returns, and it goes on and on.

When you put a dollar figure to each one of those things, the price that a print-on-demand service charges is a bargain.

Outsourcing would free up ALL of his time to promote the shirts to a wider audience, which is THE thing that sells them.

The point is, if you set yourself up to scale at the start, then you get there faster. And you make more money.

View From the Mountain Top

I think most bloggers got into that particular online business by paying folks who told them that there was little to no investment in the business end and the process of making money involved just a little sweat equity.

I don’t know a single blogger who is making a full-time living at it that believes that bullshit.

It’s a job where you work. And you make business investments in capital in the form of your site’s theme, plugins, hosting, and support, plus all the office stuff like hardware, software, connectivity, subscriptions, etc.

Most of those things are up-front costs too.

But, most folks getting into a venture discount all the things they already have, like a computer and internet. They believe that a bit of sweat equity is all it will take, plus that bullshit course that got them fired up to do it.

That’s thinking from where you are.

And most folks just keep adding one more thing, and then another thing, until they are so consumed with grunt work that they are overwhelmed.

Instead of all that, get to higher ground.

See the business that you want to run and what about it makes you money and what is a waste of your time and is a task that anyone else could do instead, and actually do better.

Hiring An Expert is Cheaper

Okay, I hear you saying that you don’t make enough money to hire someone.

Think about that example of hand printing T-shirts compared to using a print on demand service.

There are things you are doing right now that are actually limiting you from making money at scale.

And there is a solution where you can outsource it in some way that doesn’t break the bank.

I think of designing my site’s themes that way. It’s not worth me spending time in that steep learning curve and then still not knowing everything I need to know to have a theme that functions fast, is ADA compliant, and meets all coding requirements.

Theme design is not my expertise and I have zero desire to make it so.

This is the same reason I hire a CPA to do my taxes. 

I run a business. My taxes are far more complex than just personal tax. And I’m not up on all the tax laws that change every year.

This is the same reason folks hire me to do an audit on their site, and then join the Hub. Once we get everything fast and secure and easy to support, they are thrilled to know how to keep it that way. Plus, they are thrilled to keep themselves out of panic by staying ahead of the curves with every new change that rolls out.

What Can You Outsource?

Take a look at what you do every day. 

What is outside of your expertise?

What is a manual, repeatable chore that someone else could do?

How can you free yourself up to do what only you can do that makes your business thrive?

How are you limiting yourself from making money at scale because of all the chores you won’t turn loose of?

What Not to Outsource

I love doing housework.

When I’m focused on a task at my desk I tend to sit super still. When I get up, I’m stiff.

Doing 10-15 minutes of housework makes me move my whole body. It gets my blood flowing. And it energizes me.

Plus, it completely empties my mind of work.

I end up cleaning my whole house during those little spurts. And I get to enjoy a clean house all the time by doing it.

There is no way I would outsource this task. 

I would be losing something that helps keep me physically and mentally healthy.

On the other hand, I like doing yard work in the spring and fall. But I don’t like it at all when it’s 90 degrees and 90% humidity.

That drains me so much that I’m wasted for the rest of the day. So I do it in the evening. I’m wiped out of doing my hobbies for the night, but that’s the sacrifice I make to keep from paying someone to do it. I’m literally paying in sweat equity.

But, at least a few times during the summer I treat myself to hiring it out.

So, when you’re thinking about what things to outsource, consider whether there is any benefit to keeping that task or not. Even if there is, it’s okay to treat yourself with not doing it now and then too.

Marketing Tips

What Are You Doing With Your Newsletter?

Every money-making site owner I know says that they wished they had started an engaging newsletter effort sooner.

That’s because they finally came to realize that their newsletter audience is their gold mine.

The fact is, I can promote something on every social media platform, including buying ads, and then do blog post after post to get it picked up in Search. 

But, the first folks to buy some new thing from me are ALWAYS my newsletter subscribers.

Let me ask you something.

Are you talking to your subscribers or at them?

There is a huge difference between those two!!!!

You can use social media to broadcast to viewers.

But, you can’t do that with a newsletter.

Take Tips Tuesday, which is my weekly newsletter. It’s filled with helpful, informative content. Most folks tell me they look forward to reading it with their coffee every Tuesday morning.

The open rate and click through rate are consistently above 75% the day it is sent.

With my Tips Tuesday Plus subscribers, the open rate is even higher.

If you’re not getting that kind of response from your subscribers, seriously rethink what’s in the emails you are sending them.

Newsletters = Money

“Email is one of the most enduring digital channels, but there’s immense untapped potential for publishers to grow and monetize newsletter audiences,” says Danielle Lay, who is a partner in beehiiv investor NEA, as quoted in this post from The Tilt.

Just look at the numbers for these subscription services about the potential of newsletters:

• Last year beehiiv had 7.5k active newsletters. This year they have 20k that send over 1 billion newsletters.
• Substack has 20 million subscribers and 17k paid writers, the top 10% of which made $25 million collectively.

Guaranteed Eyeballs

You spend a LOT of time crafting the perfect post.

And you HOPE that Google will be kind to you and place it at the top of Search.

Then you spend a LOT of time promoting it on social media and/or making videos that you HOPE folks see and you HOPE folks click over to your blog.

All of those things are to get NEW eyeballs.

Once folks do get to your site, you need to do all you can to capture them.

Once you have them on your email list, you are guaranteed to get warm audience eyeballs on your content.

Even if they don’t open every email, they are guaranteed to at least see it.

You can’t say that with ANY other platform where you promote.

So, think hard about the function and purpose of your email list.

It’s so much easier to make money with a warm audience than to try to get new eyeballs.

How can you do better with your newsletter?

SEO Tips

Image SEO Workshop Part 3

There are so many ways to get SEO on your images that we had to split it up into a 3-part workshop.

In the DIY SEO course this week we’ll be doing the last workshop on image SEO.

It’s always a good time to join us in the course. Replays are available anytime for each workshop.

Google Volatility Swings

Google’s shuffling the deck again.

See this SEO Roundtable post for more details on the May reshuffle – especially all of the comments at the end.

Seems that most folks are complaining that Google has lost all focus on query intent and is serving up garbage.

WordPress Tips

6.5.3 Maintenance Release

WP rolled out yet another security and bug fix release last week.

That’s a LOT of minor releases within weeks of a major release.

I’m beginning to think that not as many folks are helping with the beta testing as there used to be.

That, or the QC process in general has fallen off a bit.

And this has everything to do with why we wait when new major releases come out. That gives time for all plugin and theme devs to fix any issues with the new core code too.

I send my special update instructions to my site audit Hub clients and to my Webmaster Training members.

The best thing you can do for yourself as a DIY site owner is to get an audit, get your site in shape, and get the inside scoop on everything that is changing all the time.