Success Unscrambled Podcast

Are you thinking of setting up free email marketing services for your blog or website but unsure of your options?

As bloggers and entrepreneurs, we are aware of the advice from our role models, mentors and business coach that we should set up email marketing from day one.

However, when it is time to choose a provider the process can be a bit daunting. Choosing a free plan seems sensible but which one is the best?

You see many of us struggle because some of these providers use jargon that just does not make sense.

Another big hesitation could be that we have no idea what to offer anyone who signs up or what a welcome series should look like.

Let me spend some time with you outlining my experience as well as the available options.

Do You Really Need Email Marketing Services?

Well, the blunt and truthful answer is yes. The number one reason is that your email list can be a great source of traffic.

Right now many of us depend on Google (SEO), Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest to bring traffic to our website.

What if you get up one morning only to realise that Google made a huge change in their algorithm.

This change affected you so much that your traffic went from 3,000 visitors a day to 100. What will you do?

We all know that Pinterest traffic dwindles as well so it is not 100% guaranteed.

However, having an email list of 1,000, 10,000 or even 100,000 subscribers means that you can easily send one email and make a 5-figure income (of course it depends on your list).

Building a list of 100,000 responsive subscribers does not happen overnight so you need to start early.

photo by Sarah Pflug

What to Look For in a Good Email Marketing Service?

I am so glad that you asked that question because this is the key to finding an autoresponder that suits your needs.

As this is vitally important let's spend some time looking at the fine print.

Here is a list of key features to look for in any email marketing service: 

1. Total Number of Subscribers

As we are looking at free email marketing services it is important to know what limits you have on the total number of subscribers. I believe that having a minimum of 1,000 subscribers is worth the effort.

2. Sending Broadcasts

Once you have subscribers on your list it is important to have the ability to send out a monthly or weekly newsletter or a broadcast to everyone.

3. Limit on number of emails per month

The other time that you may want to send out emails is after someone joins your list by sending them a welcome email sequence. 

If your provider has a huge restriction on monthly email limits then you may want...

Are you looking to start a business with no money? Maybe your back is against the wall and you desperately need to start a side hustle.

It is possible that you have the option of going back to college but you prefer to get into business without a degree which is doable.

You may have heard this before but apparently, there are 1,000 ways to make $1,000 even if you start a low-cost business.

Have you given much thought to the type of business that you would like to start? You can start a business using business ideas with low investment only to realise that you hate what you do.

Actually starting a business does require a lot of time, hard work and commitment in order for it to become successful.

The truth is that it is possible to start a business with no money but it does take a little bit of creativity to pull this off.

However, it will take money or startup capital to keep the business going to cover the day to day cost like utilities and transport depending on the type of business.

Let's look at this list of ways to go into business for yourself using creativity as well as your existing resources.

Preparation

Before starting a business you will need to spend some time ensuring that you are mentally ready to spend many hours for the first 2-3 years to make your business successful.

You will also need to get a better understanding of who you are as well as what you are passionate about in order to choose the right option for you.

Once you choose the option that is suitable for you, make a business plan to get that business from startup to scale up.

Spend time mapping out the phases and what needs to happen to get from one stage to the next.

It should not surprise you that enlisting the help of a business mentor, a business resource centre or a business course will really help you become successful.

List of 25 Business Ideas

Without further hesitation and delay here are the 25 ways you can start a business with little or no money.

In most cases, all you need is an email address. These business ideas with low investment and high profit can be started from home.

1. Coaching

If you have a special talent for example in the area of fitness, dieting, painting or sewing you can become a coach literally overnight by setting it up as an online business.

According to salary surveys, many life coaches are self-employed and can charge over $300.00 an hour. Some coaches of executives can easily charge $500.00 an hour.

I know of at least one business where a guy coaches people on how to do handstands and it is a million dollar business. So think of the skills that you already have.

Grab The Blog Business Plan Printable

Stay Sane

Reduce Errors

Achieve Revenue Goals

Have you ever wished that you can get your hands on the blogging secrets of successful bloggers?

In a recent podcast interview with Chhavi, I asked her if she can switch places with someone for a day who will she choose and she said, Michelle.

Just in case you never heard of Michelle before she is the blogger behind Making Sense of Cents where her blogging income has crossed $1,500,000 in 2018 alone.

Many bloggers get into blogging with the hope of just quitting their job and earning a full-time income working from home.

The ultimate dream of making 1.5 million dollars a year would just place the icing on the cake for them even it they aren't food bloggers.

You see many bloggers struggle because there is so much they don't know about what it takes to become a professional blogger.

I will spend some time in this post and reveal to you 15 things you probably did not know that successful bloggers will not tell you.

Disclaimer: please note that this post may contain affiliate links which means that if you buy one of my recommended products I get paid a commission for sharing the link at no additional cost to you.  I only recommend products that I have tried myself and have experienced success.

Is Wanting To Make Money Blogging Wrong?

Before I dive into the 15 blogging secrets I need to spend time clearing up a very common misconception when it comes to blogging.

Yes, many people start a blog with a view that they want to make money using that blog which is okay.

The issue develops when the only focus of the blogger is making money. You see to become a blogger is to essentially start a business.

This means that professional bloggers are entrepreneurs. Every successful entrepreneur made money because they solved a problem for people. It does not really matter what they blog about.

So, what does this mean? Well, as a blogger your goal is to solve a problem or solve problems for your audience.

If you are not solving a problem then you will not make any money. In other words, you really need to add value to the lives of others.

This brings me nicely to the first blogging secret which is great content.

photo by Karolina Grabowska

1. Great Content

Spend some time looking at all the income reports from bloggers and then look at the kind of content that they provide to their audience.

You will notice that most if not all of them provide really high-quality content for free, no strings attached. Creating content is hard work and it does require commitment.

Okay that may not be completely accurate as many of them do provide freebies in exchange for your email address.

However, you don't have to pay for this high quality content that gives the audience tips and tricks on how they can improve their life.

These bloggers do provide courses and ebooks as well for anyone in their audience who wants a more comprehensive experience at a cost.

The bottom line is that you need to look at your content and ask yourself if you can improve the quality?

Create Stunning Blog Posts Workbook

Are you wondering how to become a digital nomad with no experience? Maybe you are in a specialist field like astronomy wondering how you can work from anywhere.

The world we live in is changing rapidly leaving many people in an unpredictable environment where they need to change quickly.

In the last 10 years alone terms like digital nomad, location independence and work from anywhere continues to become more popular.

Just in my city alone the amount of co-working spaces is on the rise as well as platforms are being launched for local employers to hire remote employees.

Many people continue to struggle with the concept of working remotely or working for several employers from home.

Some even go as far as to dismiss it as something that only a few crazy people are doing and that it would never become mainstream.

In this post, I did a video interview with Rob who is considered to be the world's first digital nomad.

Join me as I ask Rob all the pertinent questions so that he can tell you more about his experience after many years of working and traveling.

Who is Rob?

He is a writer, blogger and online marketer who helps people to create an online income so that they can go anywhere, do anything and be anyone.

Why do you make this claim?

He's been a writer for over 30 years. He was a journalist and he switched over to become a copywriter when he discovered that they get paid more than journalists.

He became a freelance writer in July of 1988 and quit his full-time job at an Ad agency.

He's been running his own freelance copywriting business for a number of years where he had his ups and downs.

Some good years and not so good years. It is a fun way to live. As the modern world gives us the technology we need to work from anywhere on the planet.

He believes that it is a fantastic life and opportunity and he wants to offer the same for his coaching clients.

Why he is the world's first digital nomad?

He currently lives in Thailand which is a real hub for digital nomads. He has met hundreds if not thousands of nomads over the years.

Many of them say that they have doing this for a long time like for 5 or even 10 years. However, he has been doing this for 20 years now.

He's yet to meet anyone who has been a digital nomad fo as long as he has been doing it.

He started his digital nomad lifestyle in Ireland. Where he took his family in an old, rusty Volkswagen Camper Van.

At the time, he just started an online business. He decided to go on vacation to Ireland with his family. He just needed to check that everything was going well.

Traveling around Ireland in those days there wasn't WiFi, co-working spaces or Internet cafes.

The only way he could get online is if he drove into a town somewhere in Ireland and go knock on someone's door and offer them IRL£10 to let him use their Internet connection for 30-60 minutes so he can check his email.

Some people will tell him to get lost and others would invite them in and they will make new friends. He will also get his work done.

Her worked his way around Ireland doing this and had a fantastic trip. This is the point when he realised that this could be a new way of working.

The phrase digital nomad did not yet exist at the time.

Are you in need of some blog writing tips? Ever wished that you write the perfect blog post that gets for your audience?

None of us is born with the ability to make something perfectly the first time. However, it is by failing that we get better and improve things.

The same rule applies when it comes to blogging. I am yet to meet a blogger who get it all right when they first start a blog.

Many bloggers continue to struggle with failure because there is a belief that failure is a bad thing.

The truth is that as humans we learn more from our mistakes compared to our successes.

It was Thomas Edison who said, "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."

I am not sure if you, as a blogger, need to find 10,000 ways that blogging will not work, at least I hope not.

In this post, I spent some time interviewing Megan. I believe that Megan may have found some peculiar blog writing tips and many ways that her business works to reach out to potential clients.

Join me as I spend time chatting with Megan.

Who is Megan?

Hi, I am Megan Whitaker, I blog over at goingcrunchynotcrazy.com. I've had it since 2015 when my first daughter was born.

I was a registered nurse and I love health and wellness but I was not super happy with the medical model and I really wanted to stay at home.

So, I decided to quit my job and I pivoted into natural health and wellness. I have been blogging, speaking and writing ever since.

What exactly do you do?

The area that I talk about is very specific. My focus is really on environmental detoxification of the chemicals around your home and body.

Before I was a nurse I had an autoimmune disease. Nursing is something I did in the hope that I was able to figure myself out.

As expected, I fell down what I call the crunchy rabbit hole where I started with herbs and roots and that helped a little bit and somebody suggested that I take out plastics and things.

That helped a lot. Professionally, I was a makeup artist before I went to nursing school.

My job involved using a lot of products, a lot of chemicals, I had the worst diet and over the course of 5 years, I completely detoxified my whole house, environment and all of my products.

After going totally chemical free, I've had no pain, no medication, nothing like that for six (6) years.

So, I really focus on educating specifically moms and younger families. How to go about switching over all of your products and your environment.

Getting rid of the chemical burden that we have in our homes.

I think that there is a big fear that people have that it is too much to do, it is too expensive to do or they can't possibly learn all these things.

That's why I'm here. It took me 10 years and two degrees and I don't know how many other educational opportunities to get all this knowledge and I like to share it.

My blog specifically works on science. The nursing part of me still really likes research and science.

So, I like to break down good research, science and wellness and kind of bring it together.

I talk a lot to pregnant moms, new moms, moms with small children that have little bodies to take care of.

I like to give good facts and make the science easy for them.

Have you ever wanted to do a blogger collaboration project? Do you even know what it is and how it can benefit your blog?

It is amazing to see the sheer number of blogs in existence every day. A good way to tell is the size of a typical blogger Facebook group.

I am a member of many of these groups and they tend to range in size from 5,000 to 100,000 in membership.

You would certainly think that the ability to collaborate on there is pretty easy right or so it seems.

The truth is many groups are started with a purpose like to answer questions or concerns for beginners who are struggling.

While other groups are great for experienced bloggers who are in the growth phase and those are the groups best focused on collaboration.

In this post, I spent some time interviewing Maria about her blogging success to date.

You will learn about who she is and her unique niche as well as how she did her exciting collaboration.

Who is Maria?

My name is Maria Halcumb and I run a blog called literallysimple.com. I mostly focus on minimalism which is the idea of creating a life that is prioritized to meet your intentions.

The tag line that I frequently use for the website is;

be more, want less, gain quality.

It is an idea that has taken me through life itself.

In the last year, I decided to consume less and create more and out of that I created a business and a blog.

I prioritised my life in a more efficient way and I am now on a debt free journey.

So, I write about all things minimalism and how finance, health and career can be related to prioritising and minimising your life.

Whether that is stuff inside your home or ideas. I write about all of those things on the blog so you can check it out.

Why do you do what you do?

I think initially it had to do with the fact that I became a Mother and I realised that I could not do everything at the same time. I'm not superwoman.

My career changed a little bit, I am a middle school teacher but to stay at home with my daughter I changed career.

So I write curriculum and I work from home now but that had its own set of challenges.

Working at home is challenging in itself. I'm not physically in the office.

I am a creative person so I was feeling that my creativity was not being utilised to its fullest after I left the classroom.

The blog has been a creative outlet and my tutoring business has also been a way for me to remain creative.

What do you enjoy most about what you do?

The thing I enjoy about blogging or working from home is freedom. I have a lot of creative freedom and a lot of time freedom.

Which comes with a lot of responsibility. If you don't ever schedule time to do anything then nothing gets done.

It really comes down to freedom. I have so much more freedom if I need to change plans or go in a different direction.

Nobody is telling me, no you have to do it this way. I could just drop it and try something else. I could really be experimental I guess.

Who was your role model growing up?

Ah man, I've had so many people that, some people I don't know, I just read their books.

Initially, my parents have always inspired me to do things...

A day does not go by without reading an article or seeing a video about a blogger who used Pinterest marketing to achieve blogging success.

There are still many bloggers who feel stuck because they have been using Pinterest for a while without seeing significant results.

While others know that they need to be using Pinterest as part of the marketing plan for their blog but they just don't know how to get started.

I distinctly remember some time ago I was doing a review on a number of Pinterest courses that I invested in and someone was not even aware that there was such a thing as a structured Pinterest marketing course.

You see many continue to struggle with blog traffic simply because they are not really sure of the benefits of Pinterest for their blog.

Another reason is that they feel lost in a sea of so much information that they suffer from analysis paralysis.

In this post, I am going to spend some time giving you the experience from another blogger's perspective.

I had a hilarious podcast interview with Chhavi who would tell you what worked for her and how you too can get blog traffic from Pinterest.

Disclaimer: please note that this post may contain affiliate links which means that if you buy one of my recommended products I get paid a commission for sharing the link at no additional cost to you.  I only recommend products that I have tried myself and have experienced success.

Who is Chhavi?

My name is Chhavi Agarwal, I was working as a licensed attorney but I was drawn to working from home for various reasons.

I think if I had to name those reasons the top two would be lack of time to spend with my family and travel.

A stress free life is what I wanted so I started working as a freelance writer. There were other work from home options like proofreading and editing but I wasn't interested in those.

So, I stuck to freelance writing and I was able to quit my 9 to 5 job because of it.

After a while, my husband, Amit, inspired me to start a blog and help out other women and people who wanted to escape their 9 to 5 jobs and start working from home.

We launched Mrs Daaku Studio as a result. It is a blog where we talk about our experiences and give information about how you can start a work from home career and replace your 9 to 5 income.

Why do you do what you do?

When I was working as an attorney I had crazy hours. I use to go to work at 9 am and return home at midnight. Sometimes I would come back home at 1 am or 2 am.

This was not a one-off occurrence this happened 3 days a week regularly and sometimes 4 or 5 days a week.

So, I had no time for friends or family. I was dating my husband then so I had no time for him either.

At one point, my brother was getting married and I got home only one day before the actual wedding.

It was very stressful and I had no time to exercise or do any kind of physical things. I use to sleep on the weekends. I love my job but it was a horrible life.

When I decided to look for work from home options I landed on freelance writing.

Law School

While at law school I loved writing and I wrote so many articles in my 5 years at law college.

I knew that this was something I can make work for me. Writing is something I want to learn. I like writing and I love researching.

Are you facing a tremendous challenge in life but you still need to grow blog traffic?

Maybe you have a slight disability or you are medically challenged that no one but you knows and it causes an abnormal level of anxiety in your life.

It could be that you decided to start a blog in an effort to generate an income to claim financial freedom so you can manage this challenge.

I hate to break it to you but neither one of us is 'normal'. We all struggle with mental or physical problems that prevent us from achieving our goals.

Many bloggers continue to fight daily, weekly or monthly to overcome some huge challenges in life.

The good news is that it is possible to achieve these goals no matter what those challenges may be.

I took some time to interview Charlie who will tell us all about her experiences including her challenges and her wins.

You can find out how she did it and how you can do it too for your blog.

Disclaimer: please note that this post may contain affiliate links which means that if you buy one of my recommended products I get paid a commission for sharing the link at no additional cost to you.  I only recommend products that I have tried myself and have experienced success.

Who is Charlie?

My name is Charlie Alexander and I blog over at livingtickled.com. It is a mom blog that focuses on finding joy and happiness in Motherhood.

Especially as it relates to mental health and those kinds of struggles. So, the strategies of living happily as a mom.

Why do you do what you do?

I always knew that I wanted to help people so I went into the health care profession. Then, once I had kids, I wanted to stay home.

Right now, I have to work because my husband is in school. So it is a combination of wanting to stay home with my kids and wanting to help people.

This is responsible for the drive I have in wanting to help others especially moms because I have struggled a lot as a mom with anxiety and depression.

The medications have not worked, neither have the therapies so I created this system and routine in my life that has worked.

It works really well and I want to teach other moms about it because being a mom is so hard.

I think that the more we help each other and support each other is great.

What do you enjoy most about what you do?

I love hearing that a post I wrote spoke to somebody so I love writing something. I love hearing someone say this is exactly how I feel.

So that ability to relate brings me so much joy like, yes I have been able to reach somebody that is such a great feeling.

Who was your role model while growing up?

Great question, when I was little what I first wanted to be when I grew up was a Grocery Store Manager.

Then I grew up and realised that there were other things out there. So, I am an Athletic Trainer for a sports medicine clinic.

My Athletic Trainer while I played basket ball in high school had a big impact on me.

Just helping with my coach and she coached me through my life at the time.

She had a big impact at the time as I realised that I loved sports. I wanted to help people and I loved healthcare. My decision was to go into Athletic coaching and help people.

My expertise could impact the lives of the youth...

Are you a blogger struggling with organic traffic? Maybe you've hate SEO and wish you never have to use it.

As a seasoned blogger, you probably understand the importance of not depending on one source of traffic for your blog.

If you have been using Pinterest for a while you have probably experienced the ups and downs of using this platform.

Aside from SEO and Pinterest, there does not seem to be another source where you can get traffic en masse.

You see many bloggers struggle with generating traffic to their blogs as the practice of organic traffic can be quite complex.

In this post, I interviewed Vivian who had her share of ups and downs in terms of traffic generation.

She will reveal what she did and how she stayed motivated up until this point of her blogging career.

Disclaimer: please note that this post may contain affiliate links which means that if you buy one of my recommended products I get paid a commission for sharing the link at no additional cost to you.  I only recommend products that I have tried myself and have experienced success.

Who is Vivian?

Vivian Tejeda blogs over at Teal Notes which is a lifestyle blog. She writes about recipes, DIY ideas, saving money and even bullet journaling.

So, she basically writes about a little of everything. There are many who believes that lifestyle blogs are difficult to gain traction.

However, it appears that Vivian is an exception to that belief.

1. Why Do You Do What You Do?

It's been a long time coming, I have been doing it for two years now. Looking back I stumbled upon it by serendipity, kind of like a mistake.

While on Pinterest one day, I saw this pin about someone blogging from home and making a full-time income.

I was like what, what is that about? It was at a time that I was just getting out of college around the same time.

That was the point when you wonder "what am I going to do for the rest of my life?" I studiedBusiness Administration.

This field left you with a little bit of leeway in terms of what you can pursue afterwards but I still had no clue.

Once I started digging up a little more about blogging and everything around blogging. Also, how it all came together.

For example, the writing, graphic design, putting together the website, branding, it just completely caught my attention.

Because it was a really good overlap of a lot of things I was naturally good at from very early on.

I think one day I decided, let's try this and see how it goes. It's been a while little by little building up it's something I'm really proud of now.

I've learned so much from it and I do it because its something I love to do.

I love creating something that I can share with thousands, if not millions of people around the world, I can share it at a click of a button.

It overlaps all the things I consider being good at as a person.

2. What Do You Enjoy Most About What You Do?

In terms of the technical aspect of blogging, I enjoy writing and graphic design. I do have a printable section of the blog.

So, I love creating wall art, printable planners and things like that for my audience.

In terms of the impact that I am having on people, I love that I can share ideas or something that I created th...

Are you struggling to achieve blogging success? Can you benefit from a few blogging secrets?

If you are into philosophy you will probably be asking what does blogging success look like to everyone?

Yes, success means different things to different people depending on their blog and objectives.

The truth is many bloggers continue to struggle with success at any level due to a few key reasons.

Failure is that path that leads to success and many don't embrace failure but despise it.

In this post, I conducted an interview with Keyona who gives us a peek into what success means at different levels.

Disclaimer: please note that this post may contain affiliate links which means that if you buy one of my recommended products I get paid a commission for sharing the link at no additional cost to you.  I only recommend products that I have tried myself and have experienced success.

1. Who is Keyona?

Keyona Grant blogs over at professionalmomma.com and she helps working moms simplify Motherhood.

You are probably thinking that it is not at all possible to simplify Motherhood but let's see what she has to say.

One thing she does is help new moms learn how to breastfeed at work and at home.

She teaches them how to organise their home as well as clever ways to implement self-care and how to navigate the basics of being a working mom.

In fact, she became a blogger because she felt that she had something to offer that will help other moms who were in a similar situation.

Keyona also works as a healthcare provider so she wanted to take things one step further.

Because there was not a lot of resources available to her with the things she encountered.

Instead of allowing other moms to go out and reinvent the wheel she wanted to give them something that will work.

She fell in love with being at home with her daughter while on maternity leave and blogging is giving her that option to be with her daughter.

2. What Makes Her Blog Different From Other Mom Blogs?

Keyona said that her blog offers moms a unique advantage. As an example, many women before they became mothers they had lots of time on their hands to do simple things like eating alone.

However, when they become mothers they find it difficult to implement self-care.

Self-care is a term that is emerging but it basically means finding time to do the things you enjoy.

As a woman, a piece of you has gotten lost by becoming a mom. We forget who we are and what it is we enjoy doing. For sure, changing diapers is not a part of what defines us.

Her speciality is helping busy, working moms implement self-care into their already packed schedule.

Many moms would read this and think that they would not be able to find time to do something else.

However, Keyona assures all working moms that her self-care tips are easily implemented and it will not even feel like work.

She also helps moms by showing them how to navigate that immediate newborn period and how to adjust to getting back to work following maternity leave.

Other skills include how to come up with a new schedule and how to get organised.

Although you may have been organised in the past when you become a working mom, things are very different.