An assortment of love notes I’ve gotten from grads of the Blog Smarter program — bloggers just like you who were tired of the rat race, and who have stepped up to being CEOs.
I had already spent $1000 on a blogging course in 2016, and it was an awful experience. There was absolutely no intentionality behind it, and the gist of it was basically “do Pinterest, use my funnel eMail templates and see the money rolling in.” It did nothing for my business, so naturally I figured all blogging courses are just a scam, ha! But then Danielle from Live Well, Bake Often spoke so well about Blog Smarter. And I trust her, because like me she’s not the kind of person to do the rat race. I guess what I’m trying to say is – there’s so much buzz out there with internet marketing/blogging/eCourse/eMail marketing courses, and a lot of it is just crappy. I was absolutely terrified I would waste another $1000. But I was in desperate search of the non-mainstream advice, because most food bloggers I know do the spaghetti against the wall approach really well. They openly admit in FB groups that they neglect their kids, and I started wondering if I had a problem because I didn’t want to – and they make 10x as much as I do every month. I just wanted to purge my life of the blogging chaos and get back to my children! So in the end $1K seemed a small investment in exchange for a life I’ll actually enjoy.
You are the one and only person to have ever convinced me that NOT posting three times per week is acceptable. I had read it before. My husband had told me. I had told myself. But nobody actually convinced me to stop.
It’s not like I consistently DID post, but whenever I didn’t manage to keep up with my super-ambitious editorial calendar (which was often), I’d physically feel anxious. I was always stressed. I was always on the computer, trying to entertain a toddler while writing something.
Now? I’m working a little bit every day. But only when the kids are either entertained by dad or when they’re asleep. I’m free of anxiety. My house is CLEAN. And tidy. I went to the zoo with both kiddos last week, and I actually ENJOYED the time instead of fretting over how much work time I was missing out on. All of that has never happened before. My 2 year old daughter Mila is so much more balanced and happier now. It’s just… unbelievable what you have done for our family.
Business-wise I have learned more during Blog Smarter than I have learned during my entire blogging career. I can’t even put it into words – it’s like an awakening. I never really knew what I wanted to DO with my blog, but now I have found my calling. I know exactly what business I need to build to change lives.
– Nora Rušev, Savoury Nothings
Hey Jeni-
I just wanted to drop you a quick line about my progress after graduating from your blog smarter program, because I am so very grateful to you–and feel like I have you to thank for reaching a crazy, silly goal I set for myself a year ago.You see, during the month of November I earned more than my husband, who is a very well compensated executive at a big company. Yup, I made more than him–without paying for 1 hour of daycare (I have 4 kids, all under 5) with an email list of under 3500 and less than 50,000 page views.
I made this much launching 2 super niche products that I developed based on exactly what my readers needed. I also feel strongly that changing the way I write emails so that I say “you” instead of just blabbing about myself had a radical impact as well.
So, yeah, thanks for letting me brag. I’m taking advent off, but bursting with ideas for the coming year.
All the very best,
Nancy, Do Small Things With Love
Hi Jeni,
It’s Janelle Gould here from Distant Francophile.I’ve just finished the latest round of Blog Smarter and wanted to take a moment to thank you for creating the program. It has been a life changing experience for me.
I was one of the participants that wasn’t particularly active in the comments, I wasn’t on Slack at all, and the time differences meant I didn’t dial into any of the live calls – I simply listened to the replays.
However, just because I wasn’t visible, didn’t mean I wasn’t working to implement your advice.
My first big gold nugget came when you had us analyse our most popular posts. I realised that although a couple of my French related posts were popular, it was the style posts that were getting the most attention. This revelation forced me to not only evaluate my blog but also my life.
I re-enrolled to finish my style studies (something I was playing with outside my corporate job) and if I keep working hard, I will qualify as a style coach early in the new year.
In line with this, I’ve started making changes on DF to reflect this new direction. So far, I’ve deleted over 100 posts and I’ve completely changed my side bar (inc removing RSS and social buttons) and my about page. I’ve reworked my welcome email, and have started tweaking posts to make them more evergreen and authoritative. I’ve implemented the golden question last week (3 responses from new subscribers so far) and I tried out a listening post yesterday.
While I still have a to do list a mile long, I have already seen an increase in subscribers. For November and December (41 days) so far I’ve seen an increase of almost 50 subscribers. As I write this email I have 295 subscribers after blogging for over 2 1/2 years – this will tell you that my subscriber rate has really jumped in the last few weeks.
I’ve done blogging courses before but none of them have been as engaging or effective as yours.
I’m looking forward to signing up to your new monthly subscription as soon as it becomes available – it’s safe to say you have a ‘super fan’ for life.
Thank you again for all that you do – I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it.
Warmest,
Janelle