Welcome to episode 279 of The Solopreneur Hour! Today we’ve got one of my favorite types of shows: our weekly Q&A session. This is your chance to get some solopreneur coaching.

Check out today’s episode to hear the latest from other listeners, whether you’re brand new to solopreneur life or are knee-deep in your business there’s something here for you! Listen in and enjoy this episode of The Solopreneur Hour.

The Solopreneur Hour Q&A

If you haven’t heard these shows before or are brand new here welcome! And you can join in the fun by submitting your own questions for the next Q&A over at our Proudly Unemployable Facebook group, or join the mailing list and you’ll get an email from me asking for your preguntas (that’s Spanish for questions).

Now let’s get into the show!

Benjamin Thompson

Q: Hey Michael. Welcome back home, hope all is well#dexstrong. My question: I’m launching a real physical magazine in addition to my online magazine. It’s a free glossy magazine about the homes and property industry in Ireland. As a freebie it’s entirely sponsored by advertisers.

How do I best hustle for paid advertisers? We are offering ads much cheaper than competitors plus online articles and editorial as a free bonus to provide a complete package for advertisers. Thanks!

A: Incentive your advertisers so they are being deployed online and offline, do something extra for them via social media or mailing list. The sweet spot here is to bring on a good copywriter who can write some innovative ads for these paid advertisers. Walk in with a strategy for your advertisers and you’ll hopefully create a win-win.

Harold Rhee 

Q: I have a personal and business (my podcast) Twitter profile. Same for several other platforms. Should I get rid of one or keep both? Thanks and positive thoughts for Dex.

A: I faced this same scenario so I’d say for Twitter keep your business going. For Facebook, have a good personal FB profile because it’s critical to success as a solopreneur. All the engagement comes from here! Instagram is now all business for me. If you want more details check out my social media marketing course to see what works, what to post and when.

Dave Conrey 

Q: What are your thoughts on the Patreon business model for monetizing a podcast? Also, do you know anyone offhand that’s running a kick@$$ podcast/website with Squarespace?

A: Don’t know anyone running a podcast or web site with Squarespace. I don’t think Squarespace is great plug-ins, it works well for people who don’t need plug-ins. Podcasting generally needs plug-ins so WordPress is better.

For question one I don’t know a lot about Patreon, I think Abel James may use this model. If you’re going the donation route like Patreon be sure to mention it often, people need reminders. Advertising is just taking hold in podcasting and you really only need about 2,000 downloads a show at this point, so look into that as well.

Robert Bone 

Q: You often say you are bad at celebrating when you achieve a goal, did you celebrate after you uploaded your podcast recorded on a beach?

A: That’s a complicated question! A week before that show I was ready to come home. It was a lot of solo time and I missed my life! Plus the devastating news about Dexter, so I recorded that show because I needed to. But honestly that was the worst day of my trip because of Dexter’s cancer so I didn’t really celebrate. The news about him just put a damper on the trip.

Thom Singer 

Q: How do YOU cut through all the crap, BS and bullshitters out there with programs and podcasts and identify ...