The Fizzle Show

Listen, as bloggers we want to get as many people interacting with our content as possible. And more than that, we want them to become FANS, to live their lives in relationship with us. Recently we made a guide to promoting your blog (fizzleshow.co/170) which talks about *syndicating* your blog posts, that is, publishing your existing articles to different websites like Huffington Post or Medium. > **Syndicate:** (verb) to publish or broadcast simultaneously on multiple channels, websites or platforms. (Comes from the Latin *syndicus*, meaning delegate of an entity.) [Medium] has become extremely popular in some circles, and can be a great place to syndicate your blog posts. ***Why? Because hundreds of thousands of people could come to know about your work!*** BUT, are we shooting ourselves in the foot if we use it because it simply doesn’t bring people into a strong enough direct relationship with you? That’s what we get into on the show today. Great conversation. Enjoy! Show Notes: fizzleshow.co/171

Today on the podcast How to promote your blog. This is the ultimate guide to getting more traction for your blog, whether you want more people to a particular post or to your site in general. It’s a huge episode and comes with a HUGE article where we lay out even more strategies. but here is where you’re gonna get some of the stuff we might edit out of the article. Because here’s the thing: you might be trying things already but it’s not working because you don’t understand the real core of those strategies, what’s important about them, or you might be afraid that promoting your blog takes a lot of work. We want to lay both those fears to bed. You can do this, you can create a strategy that you use to promote each and every post that feels right to you AND gets you the results. So in this episode and the article that goes along with it, that’s what our goal is: to help you put together a checklist for yourself to promote your individual posts and your entire site. Show Notes: fizzleshow.co/170

Listen, there’s so much shit out there you need to learn. So many tips and tricks and “best practices” to start using in your blog, podcast or business of any kind. Show Notes: fizzleshow.co/169 So today we wanted to try to cut through the smog and prioritize the biggest, baddest, most important things you should know. This list isn’t *everything*, but each item is *essential* if your business is going to succeed. Barrett Brooks has been working closely with indie entrepreneurs for the past 2 years. Long enough to see the patterns, not so long that he’s withered up inside. Today on the show (and in the text below) he shares the 5 lessons he feels are most important to entrepreneurs of all shapes and sizes. Whether you’re a blogger, podcaster, freelancer or maker, these are 5 areas that can bring substance to your business, helping it get off the ground safely AND last through the years. It’s a bittersweet episode for us at Fizzle as Barrett is moving on to the next stage in his career. He shares all the details in the episode (if you’re looking for a business coach you’ll definitely want to listen in). We’ve loved having Barrett on the team. His voice has been a huge help to listeners over the last hundred episodes or so, and his ideas have helped shape what Fizzle is today. OK, more on all of that in the episode for today, and below I break out each of the lessons with the transcript from the show so you can read instead of listen.

We make courses for a living. We have 40 something courses in the Fizzle library and we made each one of them. Right now there’s a lot of interest in making online courses… … packaging up knowledge you’ve learned on a topic and selling it. And there are some people earning their living doing just that. The online learning industry was projected to reach $107 billion in 2015. BUT success stories and stats about a big market mean nothing much to your success… because it’s easy to fail here. So in this episode we thought we’d bring you the top 10 fears of online course makers. These are *real* fears… straight from the mouths of real people making courses (or getting ready to). This is a really helpful episode — enjoy and thanks for listening! Show Note: FizzleShow.co/168

Are you wondering if if you’ve picked the right business topic? Thinking about changing to a new topic, but maybe you’ve already built something? This is common. You come up with an idea, get to work on it and at some point down the line you get a sense that a different topic (or *part* of your topic) would be better to focus on. In this episode we talk you through what you need to know to do a *great* job on a transition like this. - What do you need to know about the new topic before switching? - What questions should you ask yourself? - How do you know when to trust your intuition or not? - How can you switch without pissing off your existing audience? - Have you planned enough about the new topic so it’s more likely to be successful? - **Plus some smooth jazz flute stuff… seriously, I’m way into it. ** All of that in a totally unedited podcast episode (well, we do bleep the swear words) so you get *everything*; you won’t miss out on a thing. This topic is just a great recalibration of business ideas in general. I think you’re gonna like it. Enjoy! Show Notes: Fizzleshow.co/167

It’s no secret that the way we structure our days can foster our creativity and discipline. This is how you and I get our work done, the times and places we do the work, the activities we do so we’re in the right headspace to plan and strategize the work. So in this episode I wanted to learn more about how Corbett Barr (founder of Think Traffic and Fizzle) structures his days. This is a zero BS look at the real life of an online entrepreneur and in it you’ll find some hard-earned insights about motivation, productivity and time management. Enjoy! Shownotes: fizzleshow.co/166

This episode is a whirlwind, we really hit a nerve. What we talk about are the things that we feel are actually easy and actually difficult about building a successful business. After listening to this episode you might realize that something you’re spending a lot of time and energy on right now should actually be a lot easier… … and it’s not because you’re missing a critical piece. I hope that this episode can help you find that critical piece. Show notes: fizzleshow.co/165

I heard some advice from an entrepreneur about how hopeful entrepreneurs should pursue their first business idea. (That advice is explained in the podcast below.) It made me think about how long it can take before your business starts earning revenue. How long is too long? Should you be fighting for revenue right out of the gate? Should you keep a job so you have some financial stability while you get your own business off the ground? In this episode we share our advice about these question. We’ve been, done and seen a lot in the world of small business, and this episode brings some excellent perspective. Enjoy! Shownotes: fizzleshow.co/164

There’s ALL this work we want to do… but it’s not getting done. This is the work that’s going to lead to our success — the ideas and projects and tasks that our careers are built on. … and I’m getting distracted… … and I’m resisting the work… … and you probably are too. It’s ok, you can be honest; this is a safe place. So here’s three reasons why we’re NOT getting our projects and tasks done. Show Notes: FizzleShow.co/163

Real talk: are you working hard on your business, finding it very difficult and not remembering clearly why you set off to build your own thing in the first place? Bonus points if you’re either a). angry that someone would ask you that, or b). crying right now. On this episode of the show (this is a podcast episode, all the goodies are inside it) the two founders of Fizzle share some hard-won perspective about why this guy — who just quit his business — is NOT a failure… he’s a hero. It’s a great episode for all of us to remember WHY THE HELL WE DO THIS STUFF. Enjoy. Show Notes: fizzleshow.co/162