Welcome to today's episode! We have Laurel Bern, of Laurel Bern Interiors on the show with us today.

Laurel Bern is an award-winning New York Interior Designer, blogger, brand ambassador and speaker. Her design work has been featured in national as well as Westchester County shelter magazines. She is known for a having a young-traditional aesthetic and is one to buck many of the current trends unless they happen to be classic favorites. However, after 21 years as the principle designer in her firm Laurel Bern Interiors, she has turned her focus to blogging as a full-time occupation. Her award-winning blog, Laurel Home has drawn a large following – and by large- I mean with page views in the multiple hundreds of thousands every month- due to her candid style of writing, useful information and warm community of readers. You can see for yourself right on her website, laurelberninteriors.com she earns over $33,000 per month from her blog.

Laurel's Rolodex is a comprehensive shopping guide for home furnishings with links to the vendor/manufacturers and features a list of some 180 designer-friendly vendors for interior designers. No professional confidences are divulged. Laurel's goal is to help you make your home more beautiful, personal and a really comfortable place in which to live.  You will want to savor every moment of today’s show, so join us today to discover more about Laurel ’s incredible, entrepreneurial journey.

Show highlights:

• How to blog effectively, in order to attract your ideal client.
• Steps you should take right from the start in order to create a successful blog.
• Your blog needs to live on a really well-built website.
• What your 'about' page is truly all about.
• The nuts and bolts of creating a successful website.
• Why you need to have a navigation menu on every page of your website.
• Selecting the most appropriate font for your website.
• How to avoid overwhelming your readers.
• How to use primary keywords

People want a lot of knowledge, but they also want to be entertained.

Figuring out your special secret sauce, and your own, unique voice.

Your content has to be rich with relevant information.

The importance of having your blog posts indexed.

Some things that will help you to create magic in your blog.

You can even take your own photos with your phone.

Some tips to enhance your photos.

Awesome ideas for free gifts for your readers of your blog.

Why Laurel loves using Wordpress.com.

Selecting information to place in your sidebar.

Ways to keep your readers on your website for as long as possible.

Learn about the $250 000 that Laurel left on the table for five years of her blogging career.

Why you should get yourself onto an advertising network.

The importance of blogging consistently.

Ways to encourage people to take your surveys.

Laurel has written a document called Six-figure Income Blogger, and it's really simple and full of the strategies that she's used, and lessons that she learned the hard way. Go to her website laurelberninteriors.com to get your copy for $199. It's in the first link in the main menu on the left-hand side.

Previous episodes mentioned on this show.

Claire Jefford #325

Linda Holt #97

Carla Aston #242

Stephan Spence #238

Recommendations:

For really awesome geek help, go to Eileen Lonergan

Laurel Bern Interiors Instagram: Laurel Bern Free Blogger Guide: Six Figure Income Blogger Guide