Mediavine On Air

There's hundreds of things you need to do as a content creator: strategizing your outreach, building your audience and scaling efficiently chief among them.

But how do you do that in today's world, where everything moves at the speed of light? We've got the answer.

Enter affiliate marketing, an often underutilized revenue stream.

On Summer of Live 2019, Mediavine On Air host and Senior Director of Marketing Jenny Guy picked the brains of two affiliate marketing experts. Amanda Williams, a Mediavine travel publisher and affiliate ace on her website A Dangerous Business, and Jeannine Crooks, Partner Acquisition and Development Manager at Awin, a global affiliate marketing network.

Listen in and get ready to earn as Amanda and Jeannine tell us all in today's episode of Mediavine On Air!

Helpful Resources

A Dangerous BusinessJeannine's LinkedInAwinMediavine Ads and Affiliate Marketing: Striking the Right BalanceImproving In-Post Affiliate Earnings with Katelyn Fagan: Mediavine On Air Episode 7

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5F3WJ4qhlqI&t=25s

Transcript

[MUSIC PLAYING] JENNY GUY: Hello. Welcome. It is Wednesday, August 7th. It is the final month of the 2019 Summer of Live. And even though it is hot and dry most places around the world right now, we are making it rain here at Mediavine and continuing our focus on monetization.

Welcome and thank you for joining us. I am Jenny Guy. I am the marketing manager for Mediavine. And I have two amazing guests that I'm going to talk more about here in a second. But what we're focusing on today has the potential to be a really highly lucrative revenue stream for content creators. But it also has the potential for being complicated and challenging to get going. We are talking about affiliate marketing.

What did you think of when you heard the term? Did you have excitement, dread, bewilderment? Well, luckily, my two incredible guests, when they hear affiliate marketing, they also hear cha-ching, because they know how to earn. They are experts from different sides of this equation.

So first, I have Mediavine publisher Amanda Williams. She has one of the top travel blogs on the internet, a Dangerous Business, which she started in 2010. In 2018, a Dangerous Business was awarded a silver award for Best Travel Blog in the 2017-2018 Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Competition, which is hosted annually by the Society of American Travel Writers, SATW for the acronym.

So not only is the content on her site phenomenal, a Dangerous Business helps drive more than $35,000 in sales to its affiliate partners every month. Amanda is also killing it with ad revenue and relationships with brands and tourism boards. Hello, Amanda. Welcome to the Summer of Love.

AMANDA WILLIAMS: Hi. Thanks, Jenny.

JENNY GUY: Yay. We're so glad you're here. So she's on the blogger side of the equation, clearly. And I also have Jeannine Crooks. She is the partner acquisition and development manager at Awin, a global affiliate network. She is especially experienced in affiliate marketing and internet marketing and creating successful partnerships and developing effective, profitable websites that generate immediate involvement and results.

She's a frequent conference speaker everywhere from Affiliate Summit to TBEX and the Military Influencers Conference. She's also a travel writer herself. And her work has appeared in most of the major newspapers across the US and Canada. Thank you for joining us, Jeannine.

JEANNINE CROOKS: Well, thank you for inviting me. Glad to be here.

JENNY GUY: I'm so excited to have you both here. So I know that there are a lot of questions out there about affiliate marketing. So please make sure to post in the comments. And I will make sure that we ask the questions to my wonderful guests. But let's start with the more general question, ladies.

So you're both extremely well-traveled, both literally and figuratively,

Content creators have the power to change the world from behind their laptops.

Cheesy? Maybe a little, but that doesn't make it any less true.

Unfortunately, creating a safe space for yourself and others isn't going to happen by chance. So, how do we go about this very important work with sensitivity and intention?

For Mediavine On Air Episode 42, Senior Director of Marketing Jenny Guy is joined by Yolanda Evans, Mediavine's VP of People Experience and Diversity.

Yolanda shares all the wisdom she's learned from more than 20 years of experience advocating for diversity and inclusion and you DON'T want to miss it!

Helpful Resources

Helpful Resources SlideHate Is A Virus#ChangeTheFaceThe Tonquise "TQ" Evans '03 Endowed Scholarship"How to Be An Antiracist" by Ibram X. Kendi

https://youtu.be/4lZ_1lM5CY4

Transcript

[MUSIC PLAYING] JENNY GUY: Hello, everyone. Welcome. Grab a seat. Grab your favorite beverage. It is the middle of the day, but we are not here to judge. It is 2022, and we're still in a pandemic. So we need to take our moments of joy whenever we can have them. Mine today was a iced dirty coconut chai and a cheddar and spinach scone, and I have zero regrets about it.

YOLANDA EVANS: Man, that sounds amazing.

[LAUGHTER]

JENNY GUY: It was so-- it was one of those things when I'm like am I going to take the time to do this. And then I thought, yeah. You know, I am going to take that extra 10 minutes, and I'm going to get this, and I'm going to have it.

YOLANDA EVANS: That beats my water and bagel any day.

JENNY GUY: You reward yourself post live.

YOLANDA EVANS: There you go.

JENNY GUY: Mm hmm. Reward yourself post live. That's good. How is everybody out there doing on this Teal Talk Tuesday? I want to take this moment to say thank you for being here. Truly it is my privilege to come here every couple of weeks to talk with industry experts and all of you. So thank you.

And I should say who I am. I am your host for Teal Talk. I'm Mediavine's Jenny Guy. It is February, which means it is Black History Month. One of the ways we're honoring the occasion is by sharing some of the incredible Black content creators and Mediavine team members that we are so lucky to work with. So make sure that you're following us on all of our social media platforms, including LinkedIn, if you do that, and YouTube, to catch them and more things that we'll be doing throughout this month.

While we are excited though at this opportunity to share a light on these talented individuals, our goal is to ensure that we're pushing for awareness, equity, and inclusion year round. As content creators, we're in a unique position of influence and can affect real change, but sometimes we might not be confident in how to provide support sensitively, which is why I am so excited for my conversation with our wonderful guest today.

Yolanda has joined the Mediavine team in the Summer of 2021 and has already proven herself a maker and educator at our organization. I'm going to read her impressive bio. Yolanda Evans serves as Mediavine's VP People Experience and Diversity overseeing the people operations department and department staff. In this role, Yolanda leads the overall strategic direction of all people-related programs within the company, including talent acquisition, talent management, and all diversity and inclusion initiatives. She brings more than 20 years of experience to Mediavine. In her most recent position at Syniti as the VP of talent acquisition, she played a key role in the company's growth as the business scaled from 400 to 1,400 employees during her tenure. In her leadership role at Syniti, she also helped to initiate the company's Diversity and Inclusion Council and launched the Black Employee Network, BEN, & Friends as the executive sponsor. Yolanda, thank you so much for making time for us.

YOLANDA EVANS: Absolutely. No, thank you for having me.

February is Black History Month, and for the next few weeks we want to not only share the wonderful work that Black and Brown creators are producing in the industry, but hear their thoughts at large on where we're heading.On today's episode of Mediavine On Air, we're not just hearing from one creator - but three.In late 2019, Senior Director of Marketing Jenny Guy sat down with Beth Santos, CEO and Founder of Wanderful and the Women in Travel Summit, TaKenya Hampton of the website Kenya Rae, and Martinique Lewis of Audacity Fest and the Creative Lead of Nomadness Travel Tribe.The three ladies told us all their thoughts on diversity in the content creator world, how we can better be advocates for inclusion and how we can share and spread the spotlight to marginalized communities, giving them the space to lead and prosper.Make sure to listen to this episode and check out the transcript below!

Helpful Resources

Nomadness Travel TribeWanderfulWITSKenya RaeMediavine's Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYN4_h2diuU&list=PLVy2vgUysJwuQ7KuAkPgD6DsCVjvNCkVJ&index=4&t=280s

Transcript

[MUSIC PLAYING] JENNY GUY: Hello, and welcome, everybody. It is Thursday, October 17. And I am so happy to be back with you guys for our first official fall episode of "Teal Talk." I can't believe it's fall, y'all.

I am Jenny Guy. I'm Mediavine's Marketing Manager and your host today. How is everyone doing? It's been a while since we talked.

And it is now Q4, which is the quarter I feel like we all talk about until it is here. And then everything is so insane during that time, with all the personal stuff, that business is hard to come by. So basically, it's already 2020, if anyone was wondering. It's the end of the year. It's a new decade.

But to get to the matter at hand today, I have got a super impressive lineup of guests with me today. As you can see, we're doing three guests.

And they're all incredible. They took a break from being industry leaders to talk about a topic that is near, dear, and very important to all of our hearts. We are talking about diversity, inclusion, and access within the blogging industry today.

I'm going to introduce our guests. But just to remind you, first, thank you for being here with us. Second, if you've got questions for us and the panel, please feel free to just post them in the comments. And we will make sure to get those asked.

So lots to cover today. I want to introduce everyone. First, I'm going to start with Beth Santos. She is the founder and CEO of Wanderful, a global community and lifestyle brand that specializes in helping all women travel the world.

Wanderful reaches a diverse audience of over 100 million each year through chapter events in 50 cities, an international home-sharing network, which is super cool, global summits, and small group trips-- a thriving membership community and dynamic online content and forums. She is the creator and host of the Women In Travel Summit-- which I've been to twice, it's amazing-- a leading event for women, travel creators, and industry, happening on two continents each year, and co-founder of hashtag At The Table, a national dinner series and community for female founders.

She lives in Boston. Hi, Beth. Thank you so much for joining us today.

BETH SANTOS: Hi, Jenny. Thanks for having me.

JENNY GUY: Absolutely. All right. Our next wonderful woman, TaKenya Hampton is the blogger behind Kenya Rae, an online food and DIY outlet where good food doesn't take all day. And it sounds like some food is ready now, maybe, in someone's microwave.

I don't know. Could be something delicious. Dessert could be its own meal. And dessert is also in a war with breakfast for the meal of the day.

She has been in the blogging space since 2011 and watched it go through many changes. She also serves as a resource to fellow bloggers on the Mediavine Publisher Support team. Hi, Kenya. Welcome.

When starting the new year, there's a lot of things you have to get in order for your business to thrive. More often than not, you're doing the job of 5+ people as a content creator.Enter automation. Automating work frees up time and helps you focus your attention where it's needed.

Erin Chase from 5 Dollar Dinners joins Jenny Guy, our Senior Director of Marketing, in a conversation about what automation is and how you should treat these products and services as an "invisible employee".

From determining what tasks you should automate to what services could be the right fit for you, you don't want to miss it!

(This past episode of Summer of Live was brought to you by BigScoots, a service that offers completely hands-on managed WordPress hosting. Visit their website at https://www.bigscoots.com/)

Helpful Resources

5 Dollar DinnersErin's Meal Planning WorkshopFreezer Friendly Dump Dinners CookbookFreezer Cooking ToolsWhis-Kid Cooking Lessons

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8DkDp-0WcM&t=125s

Transcript

JENNY GUY: It's Thursday, August 20, which means that summer is winding down. Sad face for some of us. Some people are all fall and have been waiting for Halloween to begin. Since I have an awesome food blogger on today, I decided that we should kick off this episode with food talk even though she's not really here to talk food. So for your hello, welcome, post in the comments, what end-of-summer produce are you making the most of while it still lasts? Or are you canning? Tell us in the comments what late summer goodies your loving.

Gifts, emojis, recipe links, whatever butters your bread with late summer produce, drop it in there, and that's what we're talking about today. And while you are spamming us with comments I wanted to let you know that this episode is brought to you by BigScoots. BigScoots offers completely hands on managed WordPress hosting purpose built with WordPress in mind to deliver industry leading performance and reliability. They proactively dig deep into your specific WordPress website to find optimizations and page speed performance improvements that other hosts just don't have time for.

As your WordPress partner, they will be laser-focused on your individual site catching issues before they impact you or your site's visitors. And are always working hard behind the scenes to ensure things are secure and running smoothly without having to be asked. For more information on BigScoots, check out their website. We're going to share that in the comments for you. We are so glad to have BigScoots. They're so fun.

Oh, yay. And we're already getting wonderful comments from people what they're doing with their late summer produce. We've got white nectarines. Yeah, Carol Bryant. Good call. Tomato cucumber salad. Yep. Canning salsa, diced tomatoes, pasta sauce, and pickled okra, Rachel. You're putting us all to shame. OK. I will go. I will go back to the food in a minute. But for the topic at hand, as I already mentioned, my guest is a pretty big deal in the blogging world.

And for her specific food focus she really emphasizes saving home cooks-- their sanity, their money, making their lives easier. And she is here today to do the same for all of our audience websites. Free up your time and your energy so you can focus on the high level and high priority tasks in your business with automations. And I have been wanting to sing the-- [LAUGHS] do you know the Pointer Sisters song? (SINGING) Automatic.

I've been wanting to-- every time I say, automations, I want to go, (SINGING) automations. Every time. So just so you know. Erin Chase is here. She is the founder of $5 Dinners and 5dollarmealplan.com, grocerybudgermakeover.com, myfreezeasy.com, and author of The $5 Dinner Mom Cookbook series. She is on a mission to help busy, overwhelmed home chefs learn to spend less money on groceries and get organized in the kitchen.

Her courses and membership programs have helped tens o...

2022 is here! NOT 2020, too.Curious about what's on tap for the largest exclusive full-service ad management firm in the United States? Us too! Today on Mediavine On Air, we hear from Mediavine CEO Eric Hochberger. From the actual death of third-party cookies and the future of programmatic advertising to the features you've been asking for, Mediavine's Senior Director of Marketing Jenny Guy asks it all -- and it's an episode you won't want to miss.

Helpful Resources

Helpful Resources Slide2022 Roadmap: It Takes All of UsGrow: Introducing Subscribe and the Spotlight Widget Universal Player: One Video Solution to Rule Them AllMediavine's Content ChallengeCreative Ways to Use Create

https://youtu.be/0JJh9gKdxmo

Transcript

[MUSIC PLAYING] JENNY GUY: Hello. Hey, hi. Welcome, one and all, to our first episode of Mediavine's "Teal Talk" of a new year. I can't even believe it. But you've got an old host.

I am Jenny Guy, and I am still here. You are stuck with me. Hello, welcome. Guys, it's 2022, which sounds way too close to 2020 2, as in another leveled-up version of 2020. And I don't think there's a single one of us who want that. None of us. None of us want that.

So I guess my question is, are we still within our trial period for this year? Because I am not sold on keeping it. Anybody? Yeah?

How about you guys? How about everyone's coming in now, kind of rolling in? Hello, welcome. Say hi. Tell us how your new year is going. Are you off to a grand start? Did you make resolutions? Are they on track?

Tell us. Tell us how you're doing. Say hi and let us know. I sincerely hope that you had a beautiful holiday season and that you are starting the new year invigorated.

But as always, on this show on "Teal Talk," we are here to talk about content creation. So it is our time to quiet the noise from all the various current world dumpster fires and focus on our businesses for a little while.

So friends, as far as good news and exciting announcements, my guest today has brought both. Please join me in welcoming Mediavine CEO Eric Hochberger back to the program. Hello, Eric.

ERIC HOCHBERGER: Thank you. So does that make me an old guest? I've been wondering that since your intro.

JENNY GUY: I mean, I'm an old host. You're an old guest. We're old-- we're experienced. We're vintage.

ERIC HOCHBERGER: Experienced guest, great. OK, love it.

JENNY GUY: Yeah, we're very experienced. Everybody's saying hi. Yes, we have people saying they want to cancel their subscription as well. We understand.

OK. So what we're going to talk about today is all of the developments we've got going on. Eric put out a great blog post earlier this year, as is tradition. I think this was our fifth, our fourth or fifth, yearly roadmap, which tells us where we're heading in the coming year.

Our other co-founder Amber puts out a recap at the end of the previous year, and then Eric puts out our roadmap for the coming year. And most of our questions come from that, along with some things that people have asked in the different groups. But if you have questions, as always, for Eric or I, drop them in the comments, and we will do our best to get to all of them.

OK. So I'm just going to dive in. We OK with that, Eric? Actually, we had a request for a baby story. Do you have a baby story for us?

ERIC HOCHBERGER: Who did that come from?

JENNY GUY: Sarah. Sarah Auerswald said she's off to a great start, hoping you are, too. Give a quick story about the new baby Eric.

ERIC HOCHBERGER: Oh. The new baby Eric? Is that what we're calling it--

JENNY GUY: No-- [LAUGHS] I think there is--

ERIC HOCHBERGER: I mean, that's fine.

JENNY GUY: I think there was a comma.

ERIC HOCHBERGER: Oh, a comma, comma.

JENNY GUY: We were missing a comma-- new baby, Eric.

ERIC HOCHBERGER: Because I didn't know. Maybe she knew, because this one actually does look the most like me of any of my girls.

It's a new year. Which means our favorite thing is coming up...That's right: taxes!Jokes aside, whatever the due date, we ALL must eventually pay taxes. And it's no joke that taxes for freelancers and creative business owners are often more complicated.

Last year Amy Northard, CPA, joined Mediavine's Senior Director of Marketing Jenny Guy on Teal Talk to walk us through taxes as a content creator, and how to start off the new year on the right foot. You don't want to miss it!

Helpful Resources

The Accountants for CreativesAmy's Youtube"How Do I Reach a Real Person at the IRS?" ArticleAmy's Instagram

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-j7YtM9XvA

Transcript

[MUSIC PLAYING] JENNY GUY: So that's a great answer. But I have gotten word from my team that we just showed up on live. I don't know why it took five minutes for us to get going, but we are just now going. So we were having a fun private conversation just about a minute ago.

Guys if you are just-- you're not just joining us. We've been here. But we just got live. So that was a fun thing that just happened that has never happened before.

I am here with Amy Northard. She is a partner at Amy Northard CPA, the Accountants For Creatives. And she was just explaining how she works with bloggers. We're here to talk about all things taxes. The question I ask you guys to post on if you're here with us in the comments is, have you already done your 2019 taxes yet? Or are you more or are they wait till the last minute kind of person?

And Amy was explaining what it means to be an accountant for creatives. And can you just go a little bit more over about how you do work with bloggers? And some of the specific things that, questions that they bring to you?

AMY NORTHARD: Yeah. So we work with bloggers virtually, bloggers all over the US. And we do it through video calls, phone calls, emails, those sorts of things. But we work with them to work on things like cash flow, savings for taxes, saving on taxes-- not only being prepared for taxes, but also how can we reduce that, how much you're paying on your income. So we try to help in all aspects of things related to taxes, bookkeeping, those sorts of things. Because you never want to get to the end of the year without knowing or having an idea. Otherwise, it can be really stressful. So helping them throughout the year, instead of just being that one-- the account that you just talk to once right around April. Prepare people a little bit.

JENNY GUY: OK. So we just got a comment from Melissa Greeley Olivieri, I just want to make sure I'm saying it right. She says, no, she has not done her taxes yet. She's in Canada. And this is her first year doing them as a blogger. She's terrified. And she doesn't even know where to start.

So we'll get to you in just a minute. But let me start out with this question that might kind of address everyone broadly. Since we're all creatives, pretty much everyone that's watching is a creative in one sense or another, most website owners of their own. Could you tell us any common struggles or mistakes that you see content creators making regularly with their taxes or just general accounting.

AMY NORTHARD: I think, two big ones. One is not worrying about your bookkeeping throughout the year, and just saving that for once the year wraps up. And the reason I think that's a big mistake is, like I just mentioned, you want to throughout the year what you can expect for taxes.

So forcing yourself. Getting in a good habit of maybe once a month, or at a minimum once a quarter, sitting down giving yourself a chunk of time to get that taken care of. And just kind of like make that the day. You act like you are your business's SEO or CFO. And spend time really treating it like a business. Even if you consider your blog a hobby, treat it like a business. Because the more you treat it like a business, the more you could potentially bring in through that venue.

A new year means new beginnings. Today's On Air episode is all about that.Alison Gary worked for a long time in corporate America - a decade to be exact - before she went full-time with her blog, Wardrobe Oxygen.

Often we talk about what it takes to maintain your business as a content creator, but what about the most important decision? The decision to go full-time?In today's episode you'll learn how Alison made this decision and all the work that led up to it. You'll hear how she taught herself from the ground up, the conversations she had with her husband that helped her make the jump, and what she learned along the way.You don't want to miss it!

Helpful Resources

Wardrobe OxygenAbout AlisonAlison's InstagramAlison's Interview with us!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69QTElDz7Us

Transcript

[MUSIC PLAYING] JENNY GUY: Hello, everybody. Welcome, welcome, welcome. It is Thursday, February 7. This is Teal Talk. I am Media Minds Marketing Manager Jenny Guy, and we are so excited to be back with you for another Thursday installment of our series.

I am thrilled to be introducing you to Alison Gary. She is my guest this week. She is the owner and founder of the blog Wardrobe Oxygen. She is an essential resource for any woman who is wanting to up their wardrobe game and get themselves to the next level without spending an arm and a leg. Alison, thank you so much for being here.

ALISON GARY: Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here.

JENNY GUY: We're so thrilled to have you. And, of course, you look fabulous. Naturally, I knew that I was going to have to up my game a little bit. I'm wearing a flannel shirt, but I thought that I would need to up my game a bit, do some makeup. I knew you'd look wonderful, so you look fabulous.

So Alison, tell us a little bit about your journey. Tell us a little bit about your site. Talk to us about your audience and how you've evolved. You told me a little bit before the broadcast about how you went from where you began to here.

ALISON GARY: Well, I had a desk job, and this was in 2005. And I was hired for a specific contract, and the contract hadn't been signed yet. So my new boss was like, just look busy until we get the contract. And I had seen something on Dateline or 60 Minutes or something about blogging, because it was the hot new thing. And I was like, oh, that'll make me look busy at work.

And I had several years under my belt working in apparel as a personal shopper, as a visual merchandiser, and so I decided to write about what I knew really well. and it started getting traction, and I started getting followers, and it kind of grew from there.

And now, it has been, yeah, since 2005. So we're going on my 14th year with Wardrobe Oxygen. And now, it's really kind of evolved as I've evolved over the years, and it's real-life fashion advice for grown women. So it's ways to live a stylish life regardless of your budget for every body size, every shape, every age, every lifestyle , and every personal style.

JENNY GUY: That's an awesome empowering mission statement for a blog. I love to hear that. I'm so glad that you're here with us. And so the reason why, other than the fact that you're wonderful, that we have you on this broadcast today is to talk about going full-time with your blog, which is something you just very recently did.

You're telling me-- so I know that there are a lot of people out there who want to hear how this happened, why this happened, when they're ready to do it. And I know it's got to be a personal decision for each person. So tell us, I know that you said that you originally had multiple blogs, correct, and you combined them.

ALISON GARY: That's right. I started way in the beginning with what is Wardrobe Oxygen now and a personal blog, and got rid of the personal blog when the other blog started gaining traction. Then I went with another outfit of the day blog. And then when I had my daughter,

What's better than an ugly holiday sweater party?

A whole lot of education for content creators — while wearing ugly holiday sweaters.

Back on Teal Talk in 2021, we closed the year with a bang, prizes and an extremely good sport: Google's Head of Creator Relations, Paul Bakaus.

He joined Senior Director of Marketing Jenny Guy to discuss everything from Web Stories, resources for content creators, how creators can sustain their career and much, much more.

You don't want to miss it!

Helpful Resources

Facebook Live HandoutGoogle for CreatorsEnglish Google Office Hours with PaulGoogle Web Stories: What You Need to KnowGoogle for Creators Twitter

https://youtu.be/U4D4whh43cQ

Transcript

[MUSIC PLAYING] JENNY GUY: Hello, everyone. Welcome to Teal Talk, and happy holidays to one and all. Welcome, welcome, welcome. Believe it or not, we've reached our final episode of 2021, and I have been fortunate enough to be with you for every single one of them. I'm your host for this magical hour, Mediavine's Jenny Guy. And today we've got ugly sweaters, although in the case of my guest, I wouldn't call it ugly so much is just fascinating and amazing. But more on that later. We have great prizes, and we have another incredible guest that is generously sharing their wealth of essential knowledge for content creators.

And speaking of a wealth of essential knowledge for content creators, have you heard of Google? Maybe. Possibly, once or twice in your life. They have a plethora of resources for us that, frankly, it can be tough to know where to begin, where to jump in, where to tackle all of it. Not to worry, though. That is where my next guest comes in. Please welcome Paul Bakaus to Teal Talk. Paul, thank you for coming.

PAUL BAKAUS: Thank you for having me.

JENNY GUY: All right. I'm going to not be mesmerized by your sweater and I'm going to read your very impressive bio. One moment, please. Paul Bakaus is an entrepreneur, creator, advocate, developer, and product manager. As the head of Creator Relations at Google, he and his team are helping content creators, designers, developers, and decision makers to create better, faster, more immersive and more convincing digital content. I think we all want that.

Prior to joining Google he created jQuery UI, the world's most popular tool to build user interfaces on the web, and the Aves engine, the first interactive HTML5 game engine later acquired by Zynga. That is quite impressive. Again, Paul, welcome. Thank you for coming to Tealk Talk. We're so glad to have you.

PAUL BAKAUS: Yeah, thank you for having me. It's great to be here.

JENNY GUY: We're so excited to talk about all the different things. I'm going to get through a couple of announcements. Also one of our audience members just asked if it was a teepee on my head. It is not. It's like a stocking hat, but it's like a rigid stocking hat. So I don't know. There's a lot of movement happening there. OK, so reminder, audience. You guys submitted so many questions in advance for Paul that we are not going to be taking questions live. We have a lot to talk about. But if you do have questions for Paul, keep posting them and we can maybe entice him back for another episode.

PAUL BAKAUS: Yeah.

JENNY GUY: So we're just saying that--

PAUL BAKAUS: I'll try my best.

JENNY GUY: Thank you, Paul. We appreciate it. OK, and everyone else keep your eyes on the screen for chances to win prizes during the episode today. But without any further ado, let us get into it. Google. As you-- I saw you nodding when I was talking about this in the intro, Paul. You have an incredible vast array of resources for content creators. And as we said-- as I said in the intro, it can be overwhelming. Where would you recommend we get started?

PAUL BAKAUS: Yeah, I guess we-- in some ways, we made it more overwhelming, because we added another one. But to be honest, I would say the content-- the reasons that we hav...

This year is coming to a close and so is Mediavine On Air Season 1.

2022 is upon us, so how do we make the upcoming year for ourselves, regardless of what's going on?

On Mediavine On Air Episode 35, we're listening in to Siobhan Sudberry from the BeFree Project. Last year on Teal Talk she joined Senior Director of Marketing Jenny Guy in a conversation on creating a road map for finding fulfillment in life.

This episode is full of great lessons, including learning how to take a personal inventory, create a balanced life through friends who hold you accountable, positive affirmations, setting SMART goals and more. Don't miss it!

Helpful Resources

BeFree ProjectBeFree Project Podcast107.3 The Wave's Interview with SiobhanJoin the BeFree Inner Circle!Don Miguel Ruiz - The Four AgreementsGirl Be Free Affirmation Card Deck Free Your Mind Journal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2pPEyG_4fo

Transcript

[MUSIC PLAYING] JENNY GUY: Hello, friends, Happy 2021, question mark. It is the first episode of Teal Talk in a brand new year, which feels eerily like last year and wearing a dumb disguise to me. Is anyone else having that feeling?

I'm Jenny Guy, Director of Marketing for Mediavine, and the host of Teal Talk, the show about the business of content creation. I have the amazing opportunity to bring in experts from across the field and make them talk to me about ways to make content even better and more easily, plus earn more money while doing that, to boot. So what's not to love?

And it has, as we said, been a month-- about a month since our last episode. And in that time, we've had the holidays, and a new year, and more world insanity, and more cheese consumption than any of us wanted or needed. So I'm not sure where we all are, how you guys feel, but my new year fresh start needs a fresh start.

So like it's like the vacation you need after you go to Disney. Anyone else experience that? So I'm calling for a do-over. And I would love for those who are with me to say, aye, in the comments, or say whatever you want in the comments. Just say hi to us.

And luckily, my guest today is the perfect person to help us hit the reset button on this year and get us headed in a healthy direction. Siobhan Sudberry, welcome to Teal Talk for the first time. I'm going to read some really impressive things about you before we get down to business, if that's OK.

SIOBHAN SUDBERRY: Thank you so much for that. I mean, this is amazing. So thank you.

JENNY GUY: We're so excited to have you here. Siobhan Sudberry is a Community Cultivator Founder of the BeFree Project and host of the BeFree podcast. She teaches women how to get unstuck, gain clarity, and cultivate the life they desire on their terms.

She's passionate about empowering women and encouraging them to show up for themselves and take action in their life. She hosts in-person and virtual events called the BeFree Meetup, and has an exclusive online community called the BeFree Inner Circle where women find their forever friends and get accountability doing their personal growth work. Welcome to Teal Talk.

SIOBHAN SUDBERRY: Thank you. Thank you. Hello, everyone. I'm so, so, so excited to be here and to have this conversation at the top of the year. So thank you for having me.

JENNY GUY: We are so excited, and I am calling this a do-over. I wanted to ask our audience before I ask you our first question. Do you guys do New Year's resolutions, anyone out there?

And if so, how long have they lasted for you this year? And do you-- could you use a little bit of a do-over for you? That's the first question for you. And I'm going to talk to Siobhan.

So tell us more about your journey and the BeFree Project. I think it's one of the coolest things I've ever heard is that your job is to inspire people for a living, which is amazing. So please tell us how that all came about.

SIOBHAN SUDBERRY: Yeah.

You've heard of SEO Like a CEO.

Today we're bringing you SEO Like a Google Pro. As in THE Pro.

On the next episode of Teal Talk, Senior Director of Marketing Jenny Guy is joined by Google Search Advocate John Mueller. Yes. That John Mueller. SEO expert translator extraordinaire.

Listen in as Jenny asks John questions about updating existing content, images and videos for your site, the best way to structure your site and general algorithm questions. You don't want to miss this episode!

Helpful Resources

Helpful Resources SlideGoogle Search ConsoleImproving Rankings with Google Search Console AnalyticsSEO Friendly URL StructuresJohn's Twitter

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FA_vlmROqc&lc=UgyMwGZSSoKh34lAFyl4AaABAg

Transcript

[MUSIC PLAYING] JENNY GUY: Hello. Hello, everybody. And welcome to a very special edition of Teal Talk, the show about the business of content creation. I'm with you, as always, as your host, Mediavine's Jenny Guy. And today you might notice it is Wednesday, November 17, as opposed to our plan of Tuesday, November 16. But that is all right. It is OK that we are so grateful that our guest was able to reschedule. Sometimes the internet is an unpredictable place. And that is part of why we are so thrilled to have our guest here today.

But as you know, next week is Thanksgiving in the US. And ordinarily, I would ask a question or two about your plans for the holiday, maybe get into a healthy debate about stuffing versus dressing, really important questions. But today, we don't even have time for the briefest of bantering. That is because of my guest, who is joining us live from his home in Switzerland.

I have to say that we have been extremely fortunate over the course of four seasons on this show to talk with some of the most influential and knowledgeable people in the industry. But I've got to say, even with all of our incredible past guests, today is special. I already told him that I would try not to geek out, so I am working on myself.

As a result, the format of today's show is slightly different. Just a little housekeeping. We asked you to submit questions in advance, and you guys have showed up. In fact, if I asked everything that was sent, we would be here for five hours.

Instead, myself and my team have put together a list of questions that we hope covers a wide range of important current CEO topics. So in order to get to as many of those topics as we can within our time restrictions, I won't be taking questions live. Please keep commenting with your questions and feedback, though, as they may show up in a future episode if we are able to convince John to return.

So without any further ado, let us get SEO advice from the source. Today, I am joined by the one and only John Mueller. I'm going to read his bio real quick just to wow us all.

John Mueller joined Google in 2007 and works in Zurich, Switzerland, where he coordinates Google Search Relations efforts as a Search Advocate. He and his team connect the Google internal world of search engineering to those who create and optimize public websites. Together, they help to bring an understanding of the external web ecosystem to internal teams and help publishers, like us, make awesome websites that work well for users and search engines.

OK, here we go. Our first question. John, welcome to Teal Talk for the first time.

JOHN MUELLER: Hi. Nice to be here. So cool.

JENNY GUY: Wonderful to have you. Thank you. OK. Christine from Taste of Maroc. Do we run-- we're starting with a section on updating existing content, which is something we preach a lot of here. All right. Do we run the risk of losing rank on a top post if we make a minor update, such as adding an internal or external link, correcting a typo, adding a custom excerpt, breaking a long paragraph into two paragraphs, et cetera? How about adding additional photos to a post?

JOHN MUELLER: No problems.