Tips Tuesday – TikTok POD Sales, AVIF Images in Search, Contingency Plan

Tips this week include:

• Make or update your contingency plan
• Why purging your business is so good for it
• AVIF images now supported in Google Search
• TikTok offers print on demand
• You can make POD on Google Docs
• AI images are key
• New video course on the drawing board

BlogAid Happenings

Today I want to share with you how important it is for you to get your ducks in a row and a few resources to make it easy for you to do that.

Make or Update Your Contingency Plan

Last week my elder brother passed. He was 72 and had been suffering with a progressive illness since the first of the year. A couple of weeks ago it took a turn and he was rushed to the hospital. He endured one complication after another that severely weakened him and then he was gone.

One of my close friends recently had a family member go into the hospital where she caught Covid and was gone 5 days later. She was in her 40s.

I know you have sweet thoughts of condolences for me. But I ask that you please not send an email with them. Right now, receiving 100s of those is too much for me.

I’m sharing this news with you as a reminder that anything can happen at any time of life and to make a contingency plan for your online business if you haven’t already. And if you do have one, check it to ensure it is up to date because things change.

READ: Make a Contingency Plan for Your Website which includes short, medium, and long-term absences from your business.

Do it Now

While making these decisions, and getting them on paper can be emotionally tough to do, or setting up the legal stuff can be a bit expensive, it’s just not something you can put off.

I was so relieved to have a short-term absence contingency plan in place with folks already assigned to take over my business for a few days at a time when I needed to be away twice for deaths in the family this year.

A contingency plan is also about easing things for your loved ones.

Keep in mind that if anything happens to you, your loved ones may not be available to run things for you. My sister-in-law was at the hospital every minute my brother was there. And her family took care of what needed to be done outside of there.

Consider getting a blogging buddy to be part of your contingency plan.

My helpers have full access to everything they need to do whatever is required in my absence and/or to help my POA do what she needs to do.

Don’t think for a minute that your loved ones would know where to even start with things, or that any of the platforms you are on would give them access, regardless of what documentation you provide them.

The peace of mind for everyone involved is priceless when you have a full contingency plan.

Do it now.

Purging is Good

Also, to make things easier on myself and those who have to handle my estate, including my businesses, all throughout this year I’ve been purging my house and businesses of things that no longer serve.

For my businesses, that has meant going through all of my subscriptions to ensure I actually need them at all, or if the level of package I have is still a good fit. 

Vendors change their packages all the time. 

I found that I’m grandfathered into some things at a lower price that they don’t even offer now, which is good for finances, but also keeps me stuck to a plan that may or may not meet my needs.

I’ve also gone through all of my domains to ensure I still have a real need for all the ones I own. 

Back in the day, the idea was that you needed a domain for every idea you had, or you needed to tie up every variation of extension. With the prices of domains now, and the saturated online landscape where lots of good domains are already taken, plus the sheer volume of extensions available, that’s no longer true. 

For my websites, purging means going through the content to ensure I don’t have outdated posts, or posts that are getting no traffic. Both hurt my SEO because Google’s new ranking is site-wide, not just on individual posts.

The EZ Metrix report makes it super fast to find those super low-traffic posts.

In the DIY SEO course I have a 3-part workshop for you on how to do a proper content revamp that helps you make a plan and do things in a way that is manageable and doesn’t hurt your SEO even worse.

Purging takes time. And I’ve been doing it in 15-30 minute spurts. It’s really starting to add up now and everything is a lot lighter.

It’s like eating a watermelon. Do it in slices. Before too long each project is finished, and without overwhelm.

Speed Tips

AVIF Images Now Supported in Google Search

WOOT! 

I’m thrilled to share that Google has decided to support the AVIF image format in Search.

Earlier this year, WordPress adopted full support for AVIF images and I suggested that you start using it right away.

SEE: My tutorial on the Squoosh Image Optimizer with AVIF Images for how to get this new format.

Proper image optimization prior to upload is one of THE best speed boosts you can give your site.

Plus, the extremely smaller file size is going to take up less of your hosting disk space and make your backup files smaller too.

Now, all this said, Pinterest has yet to adopt support for the AVIF format. Y’all need to contact them any way you can and tell them to get on board!!!!!!!

Until they do, perhaps consider keeping your Featured Image and/or your main, top-of-post image as a MozJPEG or OxiPNG format, which are also available in Squoosh.

And the folks over at Search Engine Journal are saying that using AVIF images will have a positive SEO benefit and perhaps a ranking boost too.

Monetization Tips

TikTok Offers Print on Demand

The TikTok shop has been making a LOT of folks wealthy, both as direct sellers and affiliate sellers.

And now TikTok has opened POD, or Print on Demand selling and has partnered with vendors Printiful and Printify to make it a super easy process for you to sell your physical goods.

You can set up as a seller with zero followers using just your SSN and Driver’s License. 

You can also become your own affiliate and offer your products to other affiliates.

When you enter the seller address, it needs to be the warehouse for your POD vendor for both pickup and return. You can add up to 20 warehouses.

And choose Seller Shipping. This imports your order and tracking numbers, plus your seller info directly to TikTok Shop.

Here’s the gotcha.

To meet TikTok’s requirements, your product must ship within 2 business days.

Printify has a shortcut to do this with printify.com/app/tiktok. 

I’m not sure that Printiful does.

Make Digital Downloads and Printables with Google Docs

I’m almost finished with recording the last of the tutorials for the Google Docs Digital Downloads course, which will be available on the eCreators Hub site.

Beyond digital downloads, you can also make physical paper products and such with these tutorials too.

And you can sell those on TikTok, Etsy, and Shopify as POD products.

In fact, I believe I might have to change the name of the course because it’s more than just digital downloads.

I have been amazed at what I can create in Google Docs – for free – and not endure the overwhelm or priciness of Canva.

But, for non-paper physical goods, like T-shirts, phone covers, wall art and more, I still think Canva is going to be the way to go with product creation and modeling choices and such. And I’ll likely have a course on that too.

AI Images Are Key

The folks in my AI Images for Profit course are already making all kinds of money with their digital downloads.

In fact, one has become a Star Etsy Seller.

That course has all the tools you need to make anything you want with AI images as part of the design.

I used several AI images to decorate Google Docs in the new course too.

And I’m thrilled to know that these folks will now have TikTok as a platform for promotion.

New Video Course is on the Drawing Board

Platforms like Etsy and Shopify allow 15 second product videos.

And there are several easy ways to make them using apps like Canva and even CapCut, which is free.

Plus, when using AI generated images for your background or decoration, you don’t have to worry about rights to the assets.

I’m drawing up plans for a new course on how to make those product videos quickly and easily.

They will play well on social media too.

Plus, the Shopify Starter plan is only $5/mo and gives you a way to sell on social platforms as well.

It’s a very exciting time to be making your own products!!!