Mediavine On Air

You’ve heard of SEO, but have you heard of Discovery Optimization (DO)?

With Discovery Optimization, you can grow your social media accounts by focusing on how your target audience uses social media to discover content.

Ciaran Blumenfeld of Hashtracking and Juiced Social is here to speak about Discovery Optimization and strategies for growing a niche social account for your business. Some of her tips might surprise you and make you be more intentional with your business account.

Make sure to listen in on this episode of Mediavine On Air!

Helpful Resources

Ciaran's PresentationHashtrackingHashtaglistsKeyword Scarcity and Hashtag Abundance Article

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qAamCZjWFA&t=2s

Transcript

JENNY GUY: Hello, everybody. Welcome back to the Mediavine Summer of Live. I’m Jenny Guy. I’m here every week talking with industry experts and getting their best tips for your business success.

It is Thursday, July 30. Today is the International Day of Friendship, plus National Cheesecake Day. Is that a coincidence? I think not. If you can’t be with your friends in person today, enjoy a cheesecake with them on Zoom. Make the best of the situation.

July 30, which is crazy, also means it’s almost August, bringing us back to school. My guest and I were just talking about that which, in the time of Coronavirus, means rapid social media debates. How often in the last week have you wanted to delete your social accounts and go off the grid, but you can’t because it’s your job? I cannot be alone. There have to be people. There have to be other people out there who are feeling this.

Even in the best non-Covid of circumstances, most people would say that they have a love-hate relationship with social media. And that is especially true for website owners and content creators. Historically, social media has been a great source for driving traffic until those pesky algorithm shifts whack us and our traffic nosedives overnight.

Mediavine always encourages bloggers to make social– or solid SEO a priority as organic traffic is typically the most reliable source. Although we do know that there are Google algorithm shifts. But that is not what this episode is about. We will not derail and talk Google algorithm shifts. But who out there has felt personally victimized by a social media algorithm shift? Who in the audience? Comment and tell us what platform, and how you were impacted slash how big of a drop you saw.

But record scratch. What if there was a different way for bloggers to use social? According to today’s guest, there absolutely is. And she’s here to tell us all about growing niche social accounts that deliver real site traffic. Let’s meet her.

Ciaran Blumenfeld is CEO and founder of Hashtracking, a social media analytic service and Juiced Social, an AI-enhanced service that publishes optimized hashtag lists for 2,000 plus topics. She is an OG blogger at Momfluential. She was named one of the 15 most powerful moms in social media by Working Mother Magazine and has been featured in Forbes, the New York Times and Fast Company. Follow her on Instagram. We’ll share that link and share her website.

Welcome to the Summer of Live, and thank you for applying to speak in Baltimore and for doing a ‘rona pivot and being game for a Facebook live.

CIARAN BLUMENFELD: Well thank you for having me. I’m a little bummed that I didn’t get to go to Baltimore because I went to Johns Hopkins, and any chance to go back to Baltimore is always exciting for me. But–

JENNY GUY: Oh my gosh, it’s such a great city.

CIARAN BLUMENFELD: Yeah, love Baltimore. I hope we get back there sometime. But this is great too.

JENNY GUY: I mean, we’re making the best of it. We had an awesome site visit there about a year ago, and we were like, Baltimore, hidden gem. This is amazing. And the crab, and the– everything. It was a great city. We were pretty excited about it.

Oh, SEO. 

Oft maligned, mangled and misunderstood, it's nevertheless pretty mandatory for achieving sustainable success as a content creator. But with all of the contradictory 'expert' advice out there, how do you separate the real important from the real big nothing? 

That's what we're here for. On Episode 22 of Mediavine On Air, and our last episode of Summer of Live 2021, Mike Pearson of Stupid, Simple SEO and Mediavine CEO Eric Hochberger joined me, Jenny Guy, to weigh in on today's most popular theories and advice.

Don't miss it!

Helpful Resources

Above the Fold SEO Blog PostStupid, Simple SEOSummer of Live 2021 Video PlaylistHelpful Resources Handout

https://youtu.be/8i8OMAjEqqA

Transcript

[ROCK MUSIC PLAYING] JENNY GUY: Hey. Hello. Welcome one and all. It is Wednesday, August 18, which means it's time for another live here on the book of faces. I'm Jenny Guy, your host, and Mediavine Senior Director of Marketing. How's everybody doing today? Summer is coming to an end so across America we've got kids going back to school, either virtual or in-person. And today's mind boggling fact is that another season of Mediavine's Summer of Live has flown by, and we are here today for our season finale of our fourth season, which is also equally mind boggling.

It has been a wild and wonderful ride that I've been privileged to take with you all so thank you. Now, we're going to close this season out with a bang. No show for content creators would be complete without spending a good amount of time covering today's topic, SEO, or search engine optimization, that acronym that makes the interweb go round. It's an essential skill for anyone who wants to make a living on the world wide web, and as such, there are countless experts, courses, books, webinars, social posts all promising to make you a lot of money and an expert in the topic.

And I would say, at least probably half the time, they're offering conflicting advice. So that's a lot of fun for all of us in our pocketbooks. So what is fact, what's fiction? How do you know where to go for reliable information and sound educational advice? Say Hello to my little friends. That was my Al Pacino from Scarface. Sounds good, right? One of my guests today is a familiar face around here, a Mediavine co-founder and CEO Eric Hochberger. Eric, welcome.

ERIC HOCHBERGER: Hello, Jenny. Fun to be back in a couple of weeks later.

JENNY GUY: I know, I know, we were so much older and wiser now than we were two weeks ago. And while this is his first time on a Mediavine live, my other guest is no stranger to most content creators. Mike Pearson is the founder of Stupid Simple SEO where he helps bloggers scale their traffic and income with SEO. Mike, welcome.

MIKE PEARSON: Thank you, Jenny, for having me on. That was quite the introduction video. I am pumped to be here.

JENNY GUY: We are pumped to have you, we are excited. Everybody, knowing this is going to be a wild and crazy live, we are ready for your comments and questions. We will get to as many of them as we can, but what we are going to start with is both of my esteemed guests today contributed some popular SEO myths that they hear a lot when they're talking with their clients, when they're in the Facebook groups, everywhere. So we're going to raise them, raise the issues, and have a discussion about them.

But like I said, if you have a question, drop it in the comments. And I'm going to start out, actually, by asking you a question, which is, what is your biggest challenge when it comes to SEO? Drop that in the comments, say hi, and let's get going. First of all, this one is from Mike, and you know what, here's what we'll do. I'll share Mike's myth, have Eric start, and then have Mike weigh in. We'll do that.

Mike's first myth is speed, site speed, is a crucial ranking factor. All right, Eric, this is tailor made for you.

MIKE PEARSON: Emphasis on crucial, crucial.

As a food blogger, there's one key ingredient to your success: taking delicious photos of your recipes.

But how do you do that with the seemingly endless competition and incredibly complex Google algorithm?

In this episode of Mediavine On-Air, Stephanie Keeping and Melodee Fiske of Pretty Focused break down their system of taking amazing photos that drives pageviews and expands their audience. Using real life examples and statistics on how a few principles for their photos greatly increased their popularity, this episode is great for food bloggers that are just starting out or trying to recalculate their business.

Make sure to listen to the full episode and let us know what you think!

Helpful Resources

Stephanie and Melodee's PresentationPretty FocusedPretty Focused Courses

https://youtu.be/uspLQAVGi6E

Transcript

[MUSIC PLAYING] JENNY GUY: Hey, everybody. Welcome. Hello. Say hi. Welcome to another episode. Sorry, we were in here just totally getting down--

MELODEE FISKE: I love it.

[LAUGHTER]

JENNY GUY: --during the intro. And we were adding each other through the-- yeah, I mean, if you can't start with a little dance party, I think you're doing something wrong.

MELODEE FISKE: Just go home. Just go home if you're not going to dance.

JENNY GUY: True that. That's very true. Well, welcome to another Mediavine Summer of Live. I'm your host, Jenny Guy. And as we saw from that beautiful intro, it is summer. But regardless of how we feel about it, summer is just flying by.

So my first question for you guys, and for my guests, is, how are you making the most of it? How are you enjoying summer? I have personally been on a bruschetta kick. And there's nothing like summer produce. And in my humble opinion, cooking is the most fun around the holidays and summertime.

So I made some with tomato, basil, and red onion. And it was dinner. I broiled my bread with Trader Joe's garlic olive oil. And then I drizzled with my homemade balsamic syrup. And I was like-- I was feeling very--

MELODEE FISKE: Summer.

JENNY GUY: I felt very-- yes. I felt summer. The pictures were very colorful. Of course I had to take pictures.

STEPHANIE KEEPING: Yeah.

MELODEE FISKE: Right.

JENNY GUY: I mean, because if--

MELODEE FISKE: What else would you do?

JENNY GUY: Why would I make food if I wasn't going to take pictures of it? Eating is--

MELODEE FISKE: Photos, or it didn't happen.

[LAUGHTER]

JENNY GUY: Exactly, exactly. So I mean, what's the point of life if you're not capturing-- it's dumb.

MELODEE FISKE: Exactly.

JENNY GUY: Why would I go to a restaurant if I wasn't-- yeah, it's silly. But for publishers, social media is a terrific way to showcase their content and grow their followings. But the question is, how do you create a compelling image that actually brings people in, makes them click? And you guys, my guests are here to help. Let us meet them.

So, Stephanie Keeping and Melodee Fiske were moms who wanted to stay at home with their kids. A kitchen, a camera, and a computer helped them do it. Melodee, a former teacher, had two little kids, loved her job, and still wanted to be able to contribute financially to her family. As a hobby photographer for several years, starting her own thriving home-based photography business seemed like the answer.

Stephanie was in a similar boat. She'd quit her corporate job and was building a blog, Spaceships and Laser Beams, so she could stay home with her young son. But she was burning the candle at both ends as she balanced photography, growing page views, and building brand sponsorships and social following, giving an amen to all of my content creators out there.

STEPHANIE KEEPING: Yeah.

JENNY GUY: Feel it. Mhm.

MELODEE FISKE: Yeah.

JENNY GUY: Melodee felt burned out working as a wedding and portrait photographer and wanted to work more with bloggers and influencers to establish her business on her terms,

Editor's Note: Since the airing of this episode, "Grow.me" has been rebranded to "Grow." Also, this episode and transcript mentions autoplay settings in the Mediavine Dashboard. Autoplay options have been retired as of February 2023. See this article for more information.)

Anyone else need a CliffsNotes version of all the things happening at Mediavine? 

We're glad it's not just us!

From ad tech and video innovations to Google bombshells, it's been a busy few months. So on this episode of Summer of Live, Mediavine CEO Eric Hochberger is here with all the latest details. From Grow.me to Trellis to a lot of information covered about universal player, make sure to bring a pen to this episode because you don't want to miss it!

Helpful Resources

Eric's PresentationTrellisGrowUniversal Player

https://youtu.be/7aMWG03Ri5Q

Transcript

**The RPM Challenge has been rebranded as the Content Upgrade Challenge**

[MUSIC PLAYING] JENNY GUY: Hello, everyone. We are here. Welcome to another episode of Mediavine's Summer of Live, our ninth episode this season. I'm your host, Jenny Guy, asking the most important question.

And it's really the only question that matters on Wednesday, August 4. Have you eaten a chocolate chip cookie today? That's right. It's National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day in the United States, which is a holiday I think we can all get behind. Regardless of our many differences, chocolate chip cookies unite us all. Eric, yes?

ERIC HOCHBERGER: Yeah, I ate some raw chocolate chip cookie dough last night, if that counts.

JENNY GUY: Did you? Yes. That is amazing.

ERIC HOCHBERGER: Oh, so I'll have it today. OK. I messed up the holiday.

JENNY GUY: That's OK. I mean, you might not have known it was a holiday. Were you aware of this magical day before just now?

ERIC HOCHBERGER: I was not, but that is wonderful news. I was celebrating early.

JENNY GUY: [LAUGHS]

ERIC HOCHBERGER: Celebrate often.

JENNY GUY: Yes. Often and early. I have not eaten a cookie yet today, and I feel like I've blown it. It's like wearing pink on St. Patrick's Day. It's wrong. So I'm very fortunate that I happen to know a whole lot of amazing recipe creators plus internet sleuths, so please say hello by sharing your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe in the comments. And maybe, Eric, do you do the-- you need some safe-to-consume raw--

ERIC HOCHBERGER: Oh, no, it's not safe to consume. It's--

JENNY GUY: He's doing-- OK, good. Good. Good.

ERIC HOCHBERGER: I live, like, on the edge. It's raw eggs, everything in there.

JENNY GUY: We have no-- he's not afraid. So just post it all, no holds barred. Say hey. Post your chocolate chip cookie recipe, yours from your grandma, a dear friend. All are welcome. We've been doing polls on all of our social media accounts. We have some people that are very firm that it's chocolate chip cookies only. Like, or chocolate chips only. Then we have on-- I believe it's on Facebook that people are saying no walnuts. Like, no. Where do you stand, Eric?

ERIC HOCHBERGER: Definitely just chocolate chips.

JENNY GUY: Just chocolate chips. Fair. Fair.

ERIC HOCHBERGER: No question.

JENNY GUY: Well, he likes to keep it simple, but also keep it potentially salmonella-y. So it could be either, on the edge. And speaking of cookies that unite us all while you guys are sharing your recipes, how about that departure of third party cookies in Chrome, that cookie-pocalypse? That is still happening. Content creators have been freaking out about this for a while.

So naturally, we've been talking about the situation and Mediavine's multi-pronged solution for what feels like ever. But when we want to make sense of this crazy world that we live in, chocolate chip cookies or cookies disappearing, and get to the heart of all the happenings in the industry and at Mediavine, we head to the source, Mediavine Co-Founder, CEO, and resident pagespeed and Shih Tzu fanatic,

"TikTok isn't for content creators." Have you or anyone you know said this before?

Amy Flanigan of the website Belly Full, with her 600k+ TikTok followers, is here to change your mind.

A graphic designer turned food writer and photographer, what Amy initially started as just a "hobby" has turned Belly Full into a full time business with millions of visitors every month. When she took up TikTok, she quickly found the same success and is here to tell us how she did it.

Join us in this episode of our Summer of Live series to get Amy's top tips for expanding your brand by getting real with your audience!

Helpful Resources

Belly FullBelly Full TikTokThe Kelly Clarkson Show AppearanceAmy's PresentationAmy's Instagram

https://youtu.be/AHAl-bO1rQc

Transcript

[ROCK MUSIC] JENNY GUY: Hello, everyone. And welcome, one and all, to another episode of the Mediavine Summer of Live. As hard as it is for me to believe, we are already to the end of July. And so, those back-to-school ads that we've been seeing for weeks are actually applicable now, as kids across the country will be returning to school in some form or fashion in the coming weeks.

Question, was I the only nerd who thought this was one of the best times of the year, shopping for school supplies, selecting first-day outfits? I was all about every part of it, both as a student, and later, as a professor. This was like magic time. Amy, what about you? Did you enjoy? Did you enjoy that stuff?

AMY FLANIGAN: Yes. Absolutely.

JENNY GUY: OK, good. Thank you for not making me feel like a sad little Hermione here all on my own.

AMY FLANIGAN: Oh, no way. I mean, my kids will even admit that they love going back-to-school shopping and picking out their folders and pencils and everything. It's the little things, right?

JENNY GUY: And how important was that, like, making the decision for the lunch box? Like, this is going to impact my entire year.

AMY FLANIGAN: Yes. Yes.

JENNY GUY: If I choose wisely, or you are going to be in trouble for the entirety of third grade, clearly.

AMY FLANIGAN: And even the color of those folders and your binders was all about how to prevent being teased. But yet, you want to be unique. Yeah.

JENNY GUY: Totally crucial. Like, yeah, very, very important. But before we get into all of that, there are still a few weeks of glorious summer freedom before the fall semester kicks off. And I would love to know how everyone is making the most of it. And I would suggest learning more about the social platform with the slogan, make your day, which certainly ended up being true for me when I was doing a little research for this episode and promptly fell down a rabbit hole of puppy videos for way too long. Like, I was just next, next.

That is right. Today, we're talking about TikTok, the short video app that swept the world during the height of the COVID shutdown. And while all of us definitely needed its popular dance challenges to get through that rough period, the question remains for many of us, is this platform for content creators or not? So it's important.

For everyone that's out there watching, do you have a TikTok account? Have you ever created a video for TikTok? Tell us in the comments. And while you guys are giving us your answers, I'm going to introduce our amazing guest who is crushing the TikTok game. Amy Flanigan is the recipe developer and video-maker behind the popular website Belly Full, mixing food and fun into everyday life.

After only a couple of months using the platform, Amy's TikTok reached over 500,000 followers and continues to grow. Join her as she shares her experience and helpful tips. Amy, I'm so glad that you are with me today.

AMY FLANIGAN: Ah, thank you for having me. I love it.

JENNY GUY: You're a delight. OK, here's what we're going to do. I'm going to drop your slides in. She's going to talk about TikTok. And then, for any questions that you guys have about TikT...

There's one platform that all bloggers know can be difficult.

That's right: Facebook.

But Facebook isn't as hard as it seems, and on today's podcast episode we have an expert with a proven track record to show us.

Melanie Ferguson from Southern Crush At Home joins Jenny Guy, Director of Marketing at Mediavine, to share proven strategies to transform Facebook from a headache to an additional revenue stream + traffic source. No matter if you're a Facebook master or novice, Melanie has tips that will grow your blog and finally shut down those fears!

Join us as she lets us in on her process, and stick around to hear her answer listener questions on how you can grow your audience.

Helpful Resources

Southern Crush at Home — Melanie's blogMelanie's PresentationMelanie's Instagram

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFlHCS8P6OQ&t=277s

Transcript

[MUSIC PLAYING] JENNY GUY: Hey there, everyone. It is Wednesday, June 30. And that means it is time for another episode of the Summer of Live. So come one, come all. Climb aboard that teal van that we just saw. We go live on Facebook every week during the summer featuring experts from across the blogging industry on any and all topics relevant to content creators. I guess in this van scenario, and in the trailer that we just saw, that makes me the driver, which is perfect for all my childhood dreams of becoming like Otto from The Simpsons. Please don't call me Otto though. I am Jenny Guy, your host for Mediavine's lives.

And thank you for joining us on today, this most sacred of days. If anyone hasn't told you yet, it is social media day. Yes, it's a real thing. And it is an especially appropriate day for content creators because so much traffic can be generated for us on these different platforms. And it is also especially appropriate for our topic for today's show. But before we get into all of that, tell us audience, what is your most successful social platform for earnings and or driving traffic to your website? So say hi in the comments. Tell us those things and we will see, have a little platform battle like West Side Story.

The only most list, however, that today's topic might make is I would say maybe the most complained about social media platform for content creators. That is right. We are talking about Facebook, also known as Zuckerberg Squali. It's not known as that. I just made that up. But it could be called that. I think that everyone would acknowledge that Facebook has the potential to be an extremely powerful tool when it's used well. I think the issue with that is figuring out how to use it well since it has felt like a moving target for so many of us for a long time now.

However, my guest today is here to help. So let's meet her. Melanie Ferguson, welcome. She is the creator behind the blog Southern Crush At Home. She loves home decor, crafts, and collaborating. She started the blog after her home decor storefront flooded and slowly transitioned her entire business into the online space. She quickly found a way to drive blog traffic and sales through the power of social media. And she is here to unlock all of these secrets. Melanie, welcome to the Summer of Live.

MELANIE FERGUSON: Oh, Jenny. Thank you. I'm so excited to be here. Can you tell? I'm over here dancing and making hand signals. I'm so excited to share. So--

JENNY GUY: I'm so excited that you are here. This topic is fascinating. I can't wait to hear more about it. I'm going to go ahead and get your presentation going and we will go for it. Also living for her background, which of course, I mean she has to represent as an interior person. But it's beautiful. Here we go.

MELANIE FERGUSON: Thank you. Thank you for the compliment. Yeah. So let's get excited, guys. I know there's so many things to be unexcited about when it comes to Facebook. But today, we're going to give it a break. We're going to get excited about Facebook and all the opportunities that Facebook...

Did you know that Pinterest and Google interact quite a bit?

Both are search engines and some of your Pinterest traffic may actually be Google traffic.

In Episode 17 of Mediavine On Air, I was joined by Amy Locurto from Living Locurto and Amy's Circle for a chat about how using Pinterest like a real user can boost your Pinterest results. She shares her five secrets on how to drive users to your site and the successful ways she's used it for her own blog.

Make sure to listen to the episode in full and let us know what you think!

Helpful Resources

Living LocurtoAmy's CircleAmy Locurto's 5 Pinterest Secrets and How To Gain Traction with Them Presentation Our Youtube Channel -- where you can find other Summer of Live and Teal Talk episodes!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fknNd0OLwZQ

Transcript

[MUSIC PLAYING] JENNY GUY: Hey! Hello, everyone. How are you doing today? Holy cannoli, it is Wednesday, June 2nd, which means it's summertime. So we are doing the only thing that we could possibly do, which is kick off our fourth annual Summer of Live. Yes, sound effects, applause, applause, applause. Yes, we are so excited.

I'm Jenny Guy, and as hard as it is to believe, this is my fourth year hosting our summer extravaganza, where the weather is hot, but the content is hotter. One Facebook Live featuring an industry expert a week for the next three months. Due to COVID-19, last year was all about the pivot, a word that we swore none of us would ever say unless it was in regard to that Friends' episode.

But we asked all of our speakers from our canceled conference in Baltimore to move to the Facebook Live format. But this year, we're masked, but we are on the road again with a new day, same time. We'll be on Wednesdays this summer. We'll have you out in an hour or less with all the knowledge you can cram into a lunch break.

And we also took applications for the first time ever this Summer of Live, and we are so, so glad you did. You guys were eager to share your expertise with our audience. And so we have some amazing pitches to go through.

Our theme for the month of June is growth, and we are walking directly into the lion's den with our first topic and speaker. It is Pinterest, the platform all content creators love to hate. My guest today wants to ask you, Are you frustrated with Pinterest and can't seem to gain momentum? Tell us the comments.

That's because Pinterest has changed, and doing the same thing you've always done is most likely not going to work anymore. Amy Locurto, former speaker for Pinterest, current DIY blogger, and Pinterest strategist, has the secret you need to know about today to up your game for more traffic and sales from Pinterest. Hello, Amy.

AMY LOCURTO: Hi Jenny! Thanks for having me. Hi, guys.

JENNY GUY: Thank you so much for coming. Oh, here come the frustrated comments. I knew they would come.

AMY LOCURTO: Be nice to me! Be nice.

JENNY GUY: Oh, they will be so nice. We will be so nice to you. We're just so excited to have your expertise here to shed some light on this. Everybody, if you have questions for Amy, please post them in the comments. I'm going to start out by reading a little bit about her, and then she is going to present to you. Not to worry. This slideshow will be available to you after the program. We'll put it into the comments. We will also have a special offer that we will make available to you in the comments.

But first, a little bit about my amazing guest today, her first time on a Mediavine live. She has been a graphic designer for 25 years a, DIY lifestyle blogger for 13 years at livinglocurto.com. She focuses most of her time now as a business coach and Pinterest strategist at Amy's Circle, a mastermind community with resources to help bloggers and online business owners increase their income. Amy was the very first Pinterest ambassador traveling to various social media conferences as Pinterest's official speaker.

It's rare that we here at Mediavine go a day without saying "diversify." We talk about content creation in all forms, whether it's blogging, photography or video — but what about a book?

Today's episode of Mediavine On Air takes us from screen to page.

Our guest for this episode is Jeffrey Eisner, creator of Pressure Luck Cooking, an easy-to-follow Instant Pot recipe video blog. He's published two cookbooks and been featured on Good Morning America, Rachael Ray and the Food Network.

During this chat, Jeffrey shares the details about going from dreaming about a book to publishing one, giving us some helpful tips along the way.

Let's turn it over to Jeffrey!

Helpful Resources

Pressure Luck CookingJeffrey Eisner's Blog to Page Presentation

https://youtu.be/l0XATCfLItg

Transcript

[MUSIC] JENNY GUY: Hey! Hello, everybody. Welcome. Welcome to the fourth episode in Mediavine's fourth Summer of Live.

But what's the Summer of Live? I'm so glad you asked.

In a nutshell, it's where we go live once a week for the whole summer, featuring expert guests on anything and everything that will help content creators build sustainable businesses.

I'm with you as always, as your host, Jenny Guy. Thank you so much for joining us. And a special welcome to first-time Media viewers. Hello. And welcome.

As a nod to today's wonderful guest, and topic, please say hi in the comments. And tell us about a cookbook that you cannot live without. Drop that in the comments. Tell us a cookbook that you cannot live without. And we will see what you guys have.

I'll tell you, though, we are sticking with our June theme of growth. However, today's topic is somewhat nontraditional. It is a rare month that goes by without us saying "diversify your revenue streams" at least once. And today our topic goes even deeper than we typically do with diversification, with earnings. We are talking about publishing a book.

And we already know that content creators are passionate experts in their field, making you guys ideal candidates to write within your niches. But how do you go from dreaming about a book to done and published? My guest today is here to help.

Jeffrey Eisner is the creator of Pressure Luck Cooking, a leading acclaimed and easy-to-follow Instant Pot recipe video blog. Featured on the Food Network, Good Morning America, and Rachael Ray, he creates his famously flavorful recipes at home in Queens, New York.

His first cookbook, The Step-by-Step Instant Pot Cookbook, which was released at the height of the COVID pandemic, became an instantly lauded international bestseller within a week of its release, hitting numerous charts, including USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, and the Toronto Star. He was the bestselling debut cookbook author of 2020.

In April of 2021, he released his second cookbook, the much anticipated The Lighter Step-by-Step Instant Pot Cookbook, which became the number one paperback book on USA Today and Publisher Weekly's bestseller lists. It features a slew of more health-conscious recipes, tailored to those on keto, paleo, gluten-free, and diabetic-friendly lifestyles.

This is amazing! I'm so glad that you're here. I'm living through your wallpaper. Jeffrey, welcome.

JEFFREY EISNER: Thank you so much, Jenny. I feel like I'm talking to a celebrity, because I watch you all the time. And you are fabulous. So it's an honor to be here with you.

JENNY GUY: You are beyond fabulous. As I said, the wallpaper is famous. I'm so excited to hear everything. I want to ask you what Rachael Ray is like, but we'll save that for later.

I'm going to pull up your presentation so that you can share. And let's just get going.

JEFFREY EISNER: OK, let's do it. OK.

Now, as I just said, I watch a lot of these series. And a lot of the time, we get invaluable advice on how to keep ourselves relevant, how to continue to earn, how to do best practices being a blogger,

Underpromise and overdeliver is one of my favorite maxims. Unfortunately, the marketing teams for the vast majority of blogging tools out there don’t seem to agree. So, how do you find which tools actually deliver on their promises without breaking the bank? 

Pinterest strategist and founder of the website Arts and Budgets, Latasha Peterson, joined me on the Summer of Live 2021 and shared 15 of her favorite free or cheap tools that she’s used to grow her traffic and create nine flourishing income streams.

I knew we had to turn this Facebook Live into a podcast episode ASAP, so here we are!

I’m Jenny Guy, your host of Mediavine On Air, wishing all our listeners a big welcome. If you want to follow along with Latasha’s awesome presentation while you listen, we’ve got it linked below.

Now let’s get going with the wonderful Latasha! 

Helpful Resources

How To Grow A Blog On A Budget PresentationPublisher Interview: Latasha Peterson of Arts and Budgets — Learn more about Latasha!

Transcript

[MUSIC PLAYING] JENNY GUY: Hidey ho, audience. It's Wednesday, June 16, and I'm so happy to welcome you to the third week in Mediavine's fourth annual Summer of Live. I'm Jenny Guy, your host throughout each and every season. What the heck is a Summer of Live, you ask? I thought I heard you ask that. It's this crazy thing that we do at Mediavine every summer, where we go live on Facebook every week for three weeks-- three months. Three months. Bringing you experts from every corner of the content creation industry.

So, reminder that if you cannot capture the episode live, if you're watching on a replay, the replays are always available for free on Mediavine's Facebook page. And then once we edit them, we put them up on our YouTube channel. And finally, they could end up as a podcast episode for our new podcast Mediavine On Air. We'll also be sharing our guest presentations in the comments at the end of every episode, because our goal is to make it as easy and painless as possible for you to consume the content and learn. That is our goal.

Hello, everybody. Thank you for tuning in. I always love to watch our animation that Senior Graphic Designer, Susanna, made. It just makes me so happy. So, so far this summer we have talked about Pinterest with Amy Locurto and affiliate marketing with Jessica Turner. And this week, we're talking tools. Tool time, for any of my other geriatric millennials. Remember Home Improvement ? Specifically, tools that help your business without costing a fortune. We're all about growth in June.

So, let us start out with a question for the audience. Say, hello. Some of you already have. And tell us, what app do you believe has helped you out the most in growing your business? Post it in the comments. And while those answers are rolling in, please allow me to introduce my guest, who is joining me for the first time on Mediavine live, but is no stranger to us and our audience. She's here to give us the lowdown on the apps that you need to grow your business on a budget. Latasha, welcome to the Summer of Live.

LATASHA PETERSON: Hi, Jenny. I'm so happy to be here.

JENNY GUY: We're so happy to have you. All the way from the Windy City. Let me tell you a little bit about Latasha before we get started with her presentation. So Latasha Peterson is a wife, mom of three, side hustle coach, Pinterest strategist, speaker, and the founder of the blog Arts and Budgets . Because of her love for helping creatives find ways to build multiple streams of income while following their dreams, she created Arts and Budgets to help individuals find the best and most profitable side hustles for them.

She currently helps ambitious side hustlers monetize their blogs and websites by using online strategies, and with the power of Pinterest. Arts and Budgets currently gets over 100,000 monthly viewers each month and has over 40,000 followers on social media. From her side hustle,

In my opinion, there are those who admit to having imposter syndrome — at least sometimes — and then there are fibbers. Welcome, audience, to an episode of Mediavine On Air where we talk a bit about the f-word. That’s right, feelings.

I’m your host Jenny Guy, and in late 2020 I had the privilege to sit down with two powerhouse Google employees, Julia Li and Bianca Jochimsen. They both know a thing or two about starting out as non-techies and rocking it in a tech world. Which is something quite a few content creators can identify with.

We discussed the root causes of imposter syndrome as well as specific strategies and action items to kick it to the curb.

Now let’s show imposter syndrome who’s boss

Helpful Resources

The Disciplined Pursuit of Less — An article to guide you upward in your career.#IAmRemarkable — Google's initiative empowering women and other underrepresented groups to celebrate their achievements in the workplace and beyond.

Watch the video here or check out the transcript below.

Be a Boss and Kick Out Imposter Syndrome

[MUSIC PLAYING] JENNY GUY: It is Thursday, October 22, which means we are back with another episode of Teal Talk. I'm Jenny Guy, the Director of Marketing for Mediavine, and your host for the show, where it is my privilege, along with my team, to find experts from all corners of the content creation industry and make them talk to me for an hour.

It is a chance to interact with the outside world which in 2020 is a rare gift. Or something we were actually talking about with my guests before we started, being with you guys every other week throughout the year and every week during the Summer has certainly made a huge difference in my personal sanity. So I just wanted to say, thank you for the opportunity to be here and to be with you guys. It is a treat, and it is certainly a treat to be here with my guests for today.

It's a big day on Teal Talk. We've got exciting guests covering a really huge topic for everybody. So without any further ado, like it or not, as bloggers we live in a tech world. With your ad manager, your hosting company, your site designers, you might feel you're at a disadvantage due to a lack of technical expertise and always having to pick things up as you go.

Today we're talking with Julia Li and Bianca Jochimsen, they're from Google, guys. They're both longtime, somewhat unexpected, Google employees who routinely interact with some of the best minds in the industry. And they are here to talk with us about overcoming imposter syndrome and balancing being a badass in the work space, while simultaneously building really meaningful relationships.

So let me introduce them if I can say their names. We'll try. Julia Li is a channel partner manager. She manages a portfolio of web channel partners, who help publishers with site monetization, and leads the strategy for growing North America's apps channel partners business. She's been at Google for almost six years, working on both the buy side and sell side advertising teams.

In addition to being a partner manager, she is a facilitator for search inside yourself-- a two day mindfulness course founded at Google. And a core member of the Greenglers sustainability team in New York. Welcome, Julia, thank you for being here.

JULIA LI: Thank you so much, Jenny. I'm so glad to be here.

JENNY GUY: Glad to have you. All right. Bianca leads the global Google Certified Publishing Partner program which certifies the most trusted partners on Google's publisher part products. We are also one of those few GCPP.

She is originally from Germany, joined Google in 2012 in Dublin, Ireland. And in her previous roles, managed teams and programs that supported Google Ads customers. Bianca is also a career guru and an innovation coach at Google and leads innovation workshops for Google's and NGOs and executives.

Welcome, Bianca. Thank you for being here.