“Creator” is a word that has really come into focus in an industry in the last few years. But content creation is nearly as old as the internet itself. And building businesses from your content…that’s not new either. Just ask Chris Coyier, the founder who recently sold his hugely popular blog, CSS Tricks, to Digital Ocean. We talk about his journey, how he made money, and answer the question: are we seeing an uptick in content acquisitions as more companies realize it’s a great way to establish trust.

Top Takeaways:

• Kickstarting the CSS Tricks redesign generated a lot of revenue, but ended up resulting in a loss. Still, it did its job: it gave Chris capital to build the business.
• CSS Tricks has always been about ads as a way to make money. It started off as handshake deals at conferences, but the process became more formalized.
• The best thing you can do for advertisers and offer packages. Get them in front of all of the eyeballs you have access to. You can charge more and deliver better results.

Show Notes:

• Chris Coyier
• Chris on Twitter
• WP Jukebox
• Kickstarter CSS Tricks
• Join the Creator Crew

Sponsored by: Nexcess | TextExpander | LearnDash

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Streamlined Solopreneur helps overwhelmed solo business owners go from overwhelmed to having their time back.

Each week, Joe Casabona shares one practical idea — a system, tool, or strategy to help you get your time back without selling your soul to AI...and run your business without sacrificing the rest of your life, or your health.

Looking for a place to start? Take the Solo Systems Starter Quiz. 60 seconds, 8 questions, and I will tell you what system you should build first, and exactly how to build it. https://streamlined.fm/quiz 

Connect with Joe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcasabona/

When you write content, who are you writing for? It’s an important question to consider— you need to have someone in mind when you write. But there’s another audience you should have the robots. Specifically, search engines. If you’re not writing for both, you could be missing out on traffic, signups, and sales. Luckily, Maddy Osman and her new book, Writing for Humans and Robots, is here to help.

Top Takeaways:

• When writing for humans, you need to appeal to the people you’re writing for. This is where stories, empathy, and consistency come on.
• When you write for robots, you need to consider what your content is optimized for: keywords, good headlines, and spoiler alert: What humans what to know.
• The right headline can satisfy both humans and robots. Write something that gets people to click and search engines will recommend your content to more people.

Show Notes:

• Order Writing for Humans and Robots
• Maddy on Linkedin
• Maddy on Twitter
• Maddy on YouTube
• NaNoWriMo
• Anyword
• Keywords Everywhere
• Keyword Surfer
• ahrefs
• CoSchedule
• Join the Creator Crew

Sponsored by: Nexcess | TextExpander | LearnDash

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Streamlined Solopreneur helps overwhelmed solo business owners go from overwhelmed to having their time back.

Each week, Joe Casabona shares one practical idea — a system, tool, or strategy to help you get your time back without selling your soul to AI...and run your business without sacrificing the rest of your life, or your health.

Looking for a place to start? Take the Solo Systems Starter Quiz. 60 seconds, 8 questions, and I will tell you what system you should build first, and exactly how to build it. https://streamlined.fm/quiz 

Connect with Joe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcasabona/

Jeff Sheldon does what he does extremely well. But he's also expanded his business from clothes to coffee and paper products. How does he do it without burning out? Listen to today's bit to find out.

Listen to the entire episode at https://howibuilt.it/013 

Be sure to subscribe at https://howibuilt.it/subscribe 

This clip is brought to you by WP Wallet

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Streamlined Solopreneur helps overwhelmed solo business owners go from overwhelmed to having their time back.

Each week, Joe Casabona shares one practical idea — a system, tool, or strategy to help you get your time back without selling your soul to AI...and run your business without sacrificing the rest of your life, or your health.

Looking for a place to start? Take the Solo Systems Starter Quiz. 60 seconds, 8 questions, and I will tell you what system you should build first, and exactly how to build it. https://streamlined.fm/quiz 

Connect with Joe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcasabona/

Over the last few weeks, I have been interviewing experts on communities, newsletters, referral programs, and more. As a result, I've taken some of my favorite advice and I've started implementing it. So today is going to be a solo episode where I'm going to tell you everything I've been doing to grow my audience. We'll take a look at some tools I've been using, some techniques I've been implementing, and perhaps the most important thing that I can do to grow my audience. In Build Something More, I tell you my next short-form podcast and what I liked from WWDC.

Top Takeaways:

• Niching down to podcasting only has allowed me to focus my messaging and all of my energy and resources.
• I’ve been promoting my newsletter, which I’ve also focused on podcasting. All of my opt-ins now point to Podcast Tips, an evergreen newsletter that helps people grow and monetize.
• I’ve been using Tweet Hunter to plan and schedule useful tweets for folks. Using Dickie Bush’s advice, I put out helpful podcasting tweets designed to gain followers and send people to my newsletter.

Show Notes:

• ConvertKit
• Connecting Revue to ConvertKit
• Newsletter Glue Tips
• SparkLoop
• Tweet Hunter
• Justin Moore’s Creative Wizard Newsletter
• Calm History
• Recut
• Pod Cards
• Join Creator Crew

Sponsored by: WP Wallet | Nexcess | LearnDash

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Streamlined Solopreneur helps overwhelmed solo business owners go from overwhelmed to having their time back.

Each week, Joe Casabona shares one practical idea — a system, tool, or strategy to help you get your time back without selling your soul to AI...and run your business without sacrificing the rest of your life, or your health.

Looking for a place to start? Take the Solo Systems Starter Quiz. 60 seconds, 8 questions, and I will tell you what system you should build first, and exactly how to build it. https://streamlined.fm/quiz 

Connect with Joe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcasabona/

Chris Lema knows a lot about a lot. But did you know he was doing no-code well before it became the movement it is today? In this bit, he tells us a little about how to successfully build a web app without code.

Listen to the entire episode at https://howibuilt.it/012

Be sure to subscribe at https://howibuilt.it/subscribe  

This clip is brought to you by WP Wallet

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Streamlined Solopreneur helps overwhelmed solo business owners go from overwhelmed to having their time back.

Each week, Joe Casabona shares one practical idea — a system, tool, or strategy to help you get your time back without selling your soul to AI...and run your business without sacrificing the rest of your life, or your health.

Looking for a place to start? Take the Solo Systems Starter Quiz. 60 seconds, 8 questions, and I will tell you what system you should build first, and exactly how to build it. https://streamlined.fm/quiz 

Connect with Joe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcasabona/

Can you build a business off of a Twitter challenge? Perhaps it’s not as simple as that, the core concept is there: create something for people to rally around, and you have a community. Participate with them and you have engagement. Jay Clouse knows a thing or two about building communities and successfully launched his own membership called Creative Companion…by basically starting with a Twitter challenge called #Tweet100. After comparing notes on how we manage our podcasts, we get into the crux of the matter: using Twitter in a helpful way, then building your business. We talk about mission, pricing, engagement, and tools in this absolutely packed episode. In Build Something More, we talk about workshops vs. course creation.

Top Takeaways:

• Twitter is the ultimate experiment ground. You can get an idea out fast, it garners quick feedback from people, and it can be statically significant, given your audience.
• When it comes to positioning your membership, you need to have alignment with what you’re offering and who you’re offering it to. This will allow you to offer a high-price membership with meaningful engagement.
• When you build a community around something, you need to eat, sleep, and breathe it. Consider that as you go off and launch your own membership/community.

Show Notes:

• Jay Clouse
• Jay on Twitter
• Jay on Instagram
• Podpage
• Tweet Hunter
• Convertkit
• Join the Creator Crew

Sponsored by: Nexcess | TextExpander | LearnDash

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Streamlined Solopreneur helps overwhelmed solo business owners go from overwhelmed to having their time back.

Each week, Joe Casabona shares one practical idea — a system, tool, or strategy to help you get your time back without selling your soul to AI...and run your business without sacrificing the rest of your life, or your health.

Looking for a place to start? Take the Solo Systems Starter Quiz. 60 seconds, 8 questions, and I will tell you what system you should build first, and exactly how to build it. https://streamlined.fm/quiz 

Connect with Joe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcasabona/

Chris Coyier is a man of many hats and has successfully started and sold websites, wrote books, and has a great tech startup. In today's bit, he offers some advice that is the key to his success.

Listen to the entire episode at https://howibuilt.it/006

Be sure to subscribe at https://howibuilt.it/subscribe  

This clip is brought to you by WP Wallet

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Streamlined Solopreneur helps overwhelmed solo business owners go from overwhelmed to having their time back.

Each week, Joe Casabona shares one practical idea — a system, tool, or strategy to help you get your time back without selling your soul to AI...and run your business without sacrificing the rest of your life, or your health.

Looking for a place to start? Take the Solo Systems Starter Quiz. 60 seconds, 8 questions, and I will tell you what system you should build first, and exactly how to build it. https://streamlined.fm/quiz 

Connect with Joe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcasabona/

What is stopping you from creating content? That’s the question that Alban Brooke and I set out to answer. But it didn’t start that way. I thought we’d talk about podcast stats and what creators can do to make money. But there is no making money if there is no content. So we get back to basics. And if you’re stuck, this is a conversation you need to hear.

Top Takeaways:

• it’s really easy to see the end result you want: a book, a hugely popular YouTube channel, or a podcast with millions of downloads. But it’s not easy to get there.
• Instead, you need to find your niche. Fly a flag you’re deeply interested in and people will come. 80% of your addressable audience is better than 1% of the unengaged general population.
• The best path to making money is niching down, showing your expertise, and selling your product or service. Your podcast is a marketing tool.

Show Notes:

• Alban Brooke
• Alban on Twitter
• Buzzsprout Global Stats
• Apple Podcast Creators Will Soon Be Able to Access Follower Metrics
• Why Gear is Least Important
• Join the Creator Crew

Sponsored by: WP Wallet | Nexcess | LearnDash

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Streamlined Solopreneur helps overwhelmed solo business owners go from overwhelmed to having their time back.

Each week, Joe Casabona shares one practical idea — a system, tool, or strategy to help you get your time back without selling your soul to AI...and run your business without sacrificing the rest of your life, or your health.

Looking for a place to start? Take the Solo Systems Starter Quiz. 60 seconds, 8 questions, and I will tell you what system you should build first, and exactly how to build it. https://streamlined.fm/quiz 

Connect with Joe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcasabona/

 Carrie Dils was building communities before it was cool. And was actually doing the building! In today's bit, Carrie tells us about how she built her podcast community and the pros and cons of doing your own dev work.

Listen to the entire episode at https://howibuilt.it/005

Be sure to subscribe at https://howibuilt.it/subscribe  

This clip is brought to you by WP Wallet

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Streamlined Solopreneur helps overwhelmed solo business owners go from overwhelmed to having their time back.

Each week, Joe Casabona shares one practical idea — a system, tool, or strategy to help you get your time back without selling your soul to AI...and run your business without sacrificing the rest of your life, or your health.

Looking for a place to start? Take the Solo Systems Starter Quiz. 60 seconds, 8 questions, and I will tell you what system you should build first, and exactly how to build it. https://streamlined.fm/quiz 

Connect with Joe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcasabona/

LinkedIn Learning is a force in the online course space, with hundreds of courses, millions of learners, and a well-oiled machine for putting out great content. I, along with today’s guest, Carrie Dils, are fortunate to be long-time instructors for the platform. I invited Carrie on to catch up, and I thought it would be fun for us to exchange notes on how we come up with ideas for, and then record, our LinkedIn Learning courses. In Build Something More, it gets even more fun as we talk about the courses we thought would do SUPER well but turned out to…well…not.

Top Takeaways:

• Carrie and I both followed in the footsteps of people we learned from; if you have an appreciation for learning, teaching is a great next step!
• Carrie likes to pitch ideas for courses on topics she wants to know more about. In order to teach something well, you need to know it well!
• We both shared our love of recording in LinkedIn Learning’s campus booths. Having a stellar process, and the right environment for instructors is a big win. If you’re creating courses, the advice we share in this episode can help you figure out what works best for you.

Show Notes:

• Carrie Dils
• Carrie on Linkedin
• Carrie on Twitter
• Morten Rand_Hendrikson on Twitter
• Join the Creator Crew

Sponsored by: TextExpander | LearnDash

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Streamlined Solopreneur helps overwhelmed solo business owners go from overwhelmed to having their time back.

Each week, Joe Casabona shares one practical idea — a system, tool, or strategy to help you get your time back without selling your soul to AI...and run your business without sacrificing the rest of your life, or your health.

Looking for a place to start? Take the Solo Systems Starter Quiz. 60 seconds, 8 questions, and I will tell you what system you should build first, and exactly how to build it. https://streamlined.fm/quiz 

Connect with Joe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcasabona/