280 – How to Blog For A Product Business with Jenny Melrose

Gift biz unwrapped episode 280.

What I need to be sharing needs to help solve the

problem for someone else so that it becomes valuable to them.

Attention. Gifters bakers,

crafters, and makers pursuing your dream can be fun.

Whether you have an established business or looking to start one.

Now you are in the right place.

This is gift to biz unwrapped,

helping you turn your skill into a flourishing business.

Join us for an episode,

packed full of invaluable guidance,

resources, and the support you need to grow.

Your gift biz.

Here is your host gift biz gal,

Sue moon Heights.

Hi there.

It's Sue Anne.

I'm so happy that you're here today because I don't want

you to miss out on the five day challenge.

That's happening this week.

I'm doing this specially for you.

If you're thinking of starting your business,

but haven't taken that leap yet,

I'm going to show you how to start making money.

So you can prove to yourself that there are people out

there who want to buy your product.

You don't need to have your business formally set up yet.

So no website,

no shopping cart necessary to get your first sale.

And this couldn't come at a better time with the holiday

season, right around the corner.

Just imagine getting your first order within a couple of days

and more and more coming in before year's end.

Plus, I think we can feel pretty confident that the holidays

are going to be different this year with less travel and

family gatherings,

we all need your handmade and hand baked products.

Now more than ever to register for this free five day

challenge, go to gift biz,

unwrapped.com forward slash set up and sell.

Don't hesitate.

One minute longer.

You can join any time this week,

no matter what day you're listening.

Again, the link to sign up is gift biz,

unwrapped.com forward slash set up and sell.

Let's move on to the topic at hand today.

You're going to learn how to represent yourself as a leader

in your product industry.

Even if you're just starting out,

it's important to treat your business like,

well, a business you'll learn how to find out what your

potential customers need.

So you can position yourself as the one they want to

buy from the goal is to be the go to resource.

When people think about the product that you make,

and we're going to talk about how to do that right

now today,

it is my pleasure to introduce you to Jenny Melrose.

Jenny is a former reading specialist who retired from her teaching

career when her blogging income started to exceed her salary through

hard work and her lifestyle blog,

the Melrose family became regularly sought out by nationally recognized brands,

such as Neutrogena,

Smuckers, glad Costco,

Stanley steamer,

Sara Lee,

and many more.

She's a content strategist that helps entrepreneurs better understand their messaging

and unique position in the online space.

Now she's combining her passion for teaching with her extensive experience

of creating strategic content for online businesses via Jenny melrose.com

and her podcast influencer entrepreneurs with Jenny Melrose as well as

her first book,

which leads me to think you're also considering already a second

one, but the first book is influencer entrepreneurs.

The four step framework to building your audience,

growing your business and making more money online.

Jenny, I am so thrilled.

You're here.

Welcome to the gift biz on repped podcast.

Thank you so much for having me Sue.

I'm excited to get to the opportunity to chat with you.

Me too,

you know,

as I was reading your intro,

I'm like,

okay, there are so many huge names.

Maybe I should just read two or three,

but they're also great.

I've got to read them all,

just had to do it.

Okay. I like to start off in a traditional way.

And that is by you describing yourself in a little bit

of a different,

more creative way for our listeners and that's through a motivational

candle. So if you were to describe a candle by color

and by quote,

that speaks to you,

what would your candle look like?

The candle would definitely be like an Aqua green kind of

color. I love that color field that it's very calming.

And in the online space,

you often need to have that kind of calming effect.

If we actually have video on,

or if you're able to see me,

my office actually has the green kind of throughout it so

that it does bring back that calming feeling when I'm going

throughout my day.

And then the quote on it would say that I always

look behind me and smile.

That was actually a quote that I used in my high

school yearbook.

And it's one that I talk about in my book.

I just feel that everything that we've done in the past

has gotten us to where we are now.

And I think that those failures in those successes have made

us into who we are.

I love that.

And you know,

I think so many people look at their past and are

like, Oh,

I wish I was back there.

Those were the days.

And you can't recreate them,

but you can find pride and joy and advancement in them,

just like you're saying.

So I love this idea in this perspective.

I have not ever considered it that way before.

I love that as we get started here,

take us to this whole idea of blogging and how you

started while you were still teaching.

What was the motivation behind starting a blog in the first

place I started at two,

I had my blog,

it was 10,

almost 11 years ago.

I had started it.

So it was back pre Pinterest.

Instagram didn't exist.

Facebook was there,

but it was back in a time when blogging was kind

of this,

you told about your day and you're told about what you

did and whatever else.

And at that time in my life,

I had a six month old and I had really lost

myself as a new mother.

And my husband came and had said to me,

one day,

you need to get a hobby.

You just feel Boston.

He was big into golf and would go and be gone

for six hours.

And I was kind of like,

yep, I do.

I need something for me.

And I was a creative writing major in college and saw

about blogging,

had heard a couple people say,

Oh, I have a blog.

And just kind of dove into it and figured out my

way around it.

When the beginning,

it was very much a hobby.

And then I attended my first conference in New York city

blog. Her,

it was back then was what it was called.

And I saw all these women that were running their blogs

as businesses.

And it opened my eyes to so much more that I

would be able to do because when I started,

it was written as kind of just,

almost like a journal.

And when I went to this conference,

I realized what I need to be sharing needs to help

solve the problem for someone else so that it becomes valuable

to them.

So once I really started to understand this honed in,

on my audience and who I was trying to reach,

which was busy moms that were looking to get back those

moments with their kids.

I was able to grow it and start to have an

audience that was coming to me,

looking to solve certain problems.

I was very much on my own journey where I was

learning how to cook.

Cause I had never cooked really in the past because it

was my husband.

That was the one that would make the meals.

And because of that,

it was almost like I was creating simple recipe.

And it was at that level where other people wanting to

know, okay,

I'm at the same place you were six months ago,

walked me through this.

Like how can I really get comfortable in the kitchen and

be able to meet things that look and taste good?

You know,

it's so interesting for you to share this story because I

remember myself right at that exact same time.

And at that point we were out exhibiting quite a bit

for my other business,

the ribbon print company.

And I remember people coming to the booth and we always

ask them what they do,

because that's how we know how to talk about our product

with them.

And we would have a bunch of people coming and saying,

Oh, I'm a blogger.

And I have to admit,

I didn't even really get it like,

okay, you're a blogger,

you're writing articles and putting them up online.

And is this a career?

It didn't make the connection with me for a while.

Like they were wonderful,

interesting people,

but I wasn't understanding it at all.

So it's interesting that you're kind of dropping that right back

in my mind in terms of the whole blogging evolution,

if you will,

Me, it was very much to that.

Not only was what happened if you walked up as an

exhibit like that,

but it also happened in my family.

It happened with my,

it was very much full.

This is just a hobby.

You're just kind of doing it.

And then I was like,

once I could explain to him that no,

this can be a business.

This can replace my teaching salary.

I won't have to work full time.

We can have somewhat of a normal schedule and actually get

to see her.

Now two children over the years,

it was very much kind of eye opening.

And I dealt with even up until the point where I

retired from teaching,

cause I had replaced a salary of 75,000

with my blogging income.

I had family,

parents and siblings that would make fun of it,

that it was kind of like,

Oh, you're just a blogger and didn't understand.

And when I left teaching,

it was kind of like they were shocked and also scared

because it was very much that you're taking that step into

the entrepreneurial journey,

which I'm sure a lot of your audience,

of course,

with building their own businesses,

you take that step and it's scary and it's a risk.

But for me in my family,

it very much paid off.

Well, yes.

And you know,

it's almost like I feel like,

because what we'll hear on our side is,

Oh, that's such a cute hobby.

Oh, you're going to try and monetize that adorable.

You know,

it's that kind of it's condescending type thing.

So I know all of our listeners can totally relate and

I take the approach of,

okay, you know,

you can have your own thoughts and your own ideas,

but you'll see now it's kind of like willpower.

I'll prove it to you.

Type thing.

That was almost a motivating factor for me because I can

remember having a birthday party at my house right before I

retired for my then two year old and a family member

made a comment about the blogger needs more light for her

photos. And I'm like,

it's my daughter's birthday party,

but you wait,

we entail,

you see what I'm able to do with this business.

And it just was that kind of that fire that I

needed to have lit for me.

That's awesome.

So did you feel that way,

the whole time,

or were there a couple of points where you were really

questioning? No,

I've always kind of really believed that it could be turned

into a business.

And I think honestly that you have to have that mentality.

This is a business,

regardless of what it is,

whether you're a blogger,

whether you're an influencer,

whether you're making your own products,

you have to treat it like a business and talk about

it, like eat business because other people don't start to treat

it that way until you speak that language.

I often will hear people say,

Oh, I'm just a blogger.

And I blog in my yoga pants and bubble box.

Meanwhile, they're making six figures,

but other people don't understand that and don't treat it that

way. And they have a chip on their shoulder because of

the way that people are talking to them.

But it's because of the way that we are taking our

businesses. So it's really important that no matter what you're doing,

whether you're just starting off right from the get go,

you have to talk about it.

Like it's a business and treat it that way.

Thank you.

You thank you for going through that because you are so

right. I mean,

how we present ourselves out to the world is what they're

going to believe we are.

And I'm not saying be something other than yourself.

I'm not saying that at all,

but it's that confidence.

And I guess the way you get the confidence is by

what you're just saying,

treating it as a business,

don't be saying,

you know,

if you've decided to make that switch,

right. Cause we do have some listeners who are hobbyists right

now. And they're thinking like,

they'd like doing it on the side.

They're considering whether they really want to make the commitment to

be in a business.

But once you do then start talking like that already.

And what are examples of how you would talk about it

differently than if it were just a blog you were doing

on the side as a hobby,

as something that gave you satisfaction?

What are the different ways you would talk when it's a

business? How is it different?

I think the boundaries that you put in place,

which a lot of people wonder what I mean by that,

but like you've working hours,

you're working and you need to be able to establish that.

And I think it right now,

it's even harder.

We're obviously in the midst of some crazy times where kids

are home,

virtual learning,

you don't have as much time,

but you need to have that conversation with your significant other

saying, these are my work hours.

This is when I'm going to be doing this.

Even when our girls were little and they would nap at

night, I was working because I was a full time teacher.

I would have a conversation where I said to my husband

who I'm working right now.

And in the beginning he would do the blogging with the

air quotes and I'd want to punch him in his face.

But I would always go back to,

no, this is building my business.

I'm interacting with people,

engaging with people.

I'm creating content that is going to build up that business.

So I think really setting the boundaries of being able to

have that conversation first has to happen with your significant other.

So you can get on the same page.

You need their support.

Really good example of this is I still,

to this day,

we were actually just recently in Pennsylvania visiting my family.

And my brother was watching with all the children that were

there. My nieces and nephews,

my kids,

I have a 10 year old and a seven year old.

Now both girls and they were watching a show.

Holy moly.

And someone came up and their job description was entrepreneur.

And my brother who is very traditional,

my whole family as when it comes to working says,

Oh, well,

entrepreneur just means I don't have a job.

And my 10 year old was sitting next to him and

corrected him and said,

that's not true.

My mom's an entrepreneur.

And she makes a lot of money.

So it was the understanding that we're talking about this with

my girls.

They understand that I have worked hours that when mommy's on

a call,

it's not,

she's chatting with girlfriend.

It's someone,

that's a business partner or someone that is important to my

business. And it can't be interrupted.

They understand that my typing on a computer is not me

going on to Facebook and putting up whatever it's me working.

And they understand that.

And I think you really need your family on board to

have that support,

to be able to start to treat it like a business.

Because when we were talking before about confidence,

I think the important thing to understand about confidence is it's

like a muscle.

You have to work at it.

You have to practice it.

And a lot of people assume that those that they see

out there just automatically,

we're born with that competence.

And that's so far from the truth,

they have worked at it.

They put out their elevator pitch and they practiced saying what

it is that they do so that when they go to

someone in the pickup line at school,

though, if there ever is that again?

Sorry. But when they talk to someone they're able to articulate

what it is that they do and who they do it

for. It's just so important.

You were talking about this on a live that I do

within my group.

If biz listeners,

gift biz breeze in case you're not there yet.

And we were talking about how,

you know,

we're around our handmade products all the time,

all day long.

We think about them,

all of that.

But when you're at a party and someone asks you what

you do so many people are like,

uh, they don't have the words,

right? So that's exactly what you're talking about.

You need to be able to represent what you do with

confidence, clarity,

and that's the starting line.

Yes. I actually really fast exercise that they can do to

figure this out.

Cause I'm a former teacher.

So everything in my mind is there's an exercise.

There's a strategy.

So I would say to them,

if they're trying to figure out what to say,

imagine yourself,

meeting someone for the first time.

If you're on a plane again,

I can't even imagine being on a play now.

But if you were sitting next to someone on a plane

and they asked you what you do,

I want you to ask them a question that makes them

want to know the problem that you solve.

So when I created them,

our Stanley,

where I would have said to someone,

well, you know how you feel like you never have enough

time with your kids because everything is just so crazy and

they'd be shaking their head.

Yes, of course I do totally get it well over at

the Melrose family,

I create quick and easy recipes and projects.

They give you the time back with your family that you

want. So you ask them a question that hits them,

the problem that you solve.

And then you answer it with the way that you solve

that problem and who you're solving it for.

Love it.

And that leads me right into something I've been wanting to

ask you ever,

since you said it,

you were talking about how,

when you started your blog and when you finally decided,

okay, I need to be writing for people about something,

a problem that they have,

that my articles can solve.

Is that the point where you started seeing your audience go

up? Yes,

absolutely. Was that was that connection.

They knew that,

that they were the right people.

Because a lot of times,

especially when you're creating content,

you assume that you're supposed to do to attract everyone.

You're supposed to put all these different things out.

When in reality you're meant to attract the right people and

repel others.

And some people are just not going to be part of

your audience and that's okay.

So you have to be true to yourself.

And at the same time,

really be able to tell them what it is that you're

solving for them.

Got it.

Okay. So,

and I'm still back 10 years ago then,

or at the point where you adjusted what you were writing

so that it was attracting people.

How did you get people to find?

So that was a lot of creating the right content that

not only was going up in the blogs so that it

was being found by Google when they would search for how

to make cupcakes or how to create a Valentine's day idea

that wasn't involving candy.

Google obviously helped with that because the content was out there.

But then also social media using back then Facebook and now

Instagram, I am a true believer in Instagram stories.

I absolutely feel that it is the best way to attract

your audience and have a conversation with them,

figure out what they need.

I've had so many clients that have created products based on

their Instagram stories,

because of the conversations that they're having.

They're with their audience,

they're asking them directly,

what do you need?

Do you need a journal?

Or do you need a book?

That's going to walk you through solving this problem and getting

the answers directly from them.

They feel as if you're listening,

obviously, but they also feel they're part of the production of

it so that when it comes out,

they're more likely to purchase it.

So What I do think I'm hearing you saying is the

way of getting people attracted and getting an audience to what

you have online is the same,

but maybe in a different way.

So it's still search engine optimization from then and today.

And it's also social media.

Obviously you've changed your focus from Facebook to more Instagram.

But before we get to all of that,

again, thinking of where my audience is,

most of them by now,

specially over these last few months,

if they didn't have an online presence of some sort,

they certainly do now.

And we talk a lot about your own website and with

pretty much any website right now,

you can also integrate an area where you can have a

blog. Why would be a reason that a product based business

let's go,

I'm going to pick a product handmade soaps.

Yup. Why would they want to have a blog?

Because they're selling their soaps.

Yes, but what a blog ends up doing is it shows

ways in which the soap can be used.

It can show ways in which you can present it as

a gift.

It gives people a different way.

So your people probably are very much used to the idea

of maybe reaching out to influencers and having influencers use their

product. Well,

when you have a blog of your own,

you are that influencer.

You're creating the content that you would have paid possibly someone

else to use.

Instead of having to give away a free sample of your

soap, hoping that that influencer is going to share it on

their Instagram.

You share it,

you create the content that answers the questions that people are

having. So again,

you need to think about that soap.

What problem are they going to put in to try to

find it?

Is it organic?

Is it vegan?

Does it use essential oils,

but ever it might be then creating content that answers that

question and then presenting your soap link to your shop.

It just gets more content out there so that it's an

organic, natural way that you create the content for it.

So if you do an article that talks about how to

get the best use out of your soap,

let's say you're going to write the article,

which gives additional opportunity for SEO,

for people to find your whole site,

which includes your product and the article.

If that was the initial entrance point into the website.

And it also,

then I'm thinking,

and then I'm gonna ask you if I'm right,

Jenny. So then also if you're reading the article and then

you're looking around online,

because now you've liked what this article talks about.

So you want to know more from this author and Oh

my gosh,

they also make soaps.

You're spending more time on the website that also helps with

the Google juice.

Well, yes,

there's so many things that you can do with that.

So now they've come over.

Well, if you have a Facebook page,

maybe have your Facebook pixel already set up.

So now it's captured the information about that audience and you

can target them with ads.

If you get to the point where you're using Facebook ads,

you could also with them coming to that content about the

soap and how long it lasts longer.

You could have a popup that pops up that gives them

10% off your soaps.

If they subscribe with their email address.

So now you're building your email address.

It's so important.

Did you can have all these different ways in which you

can now target them.

If you're not already growing an email list,

that would definitely be one of the best ways to do

it. Because now you have those people,

those people have raised their hand and said,

yes, I am interested in soap and you will never lose

those. It's not like Facebook where they're maybe going to start

hiding it.

And they're going to strangle the reach for that because of

the algorithm where now you have them on your email.

If you want it to do a bundle where maybe you're

going to put together a package of soaps for the holidays.

Now you can just send an email directly to their inbox.

And they've already raised their hand and said,

I'm interested in soaps.

It goes from a cold lead of someone looking for how

to make their soap last longer to a warm lead.

If someone already saying I'm interested in soaps.

Yep, Totally with you a hundred percent on email.

And I think we've talked about this a lot here,

but I think more than ever now,

people are understanding that too.

But what I really liked that you demonstrated here.

So give biz listeners,

did you hear like your product website,

which is what you have now enhanced by if you added

a blog to the website,

so articles to the website that then can also help trigger

knowledge over in Facebook,

if you ever wanted to do ads.

And it helps with popups convince people because they're getting something

out of it,

to what Jenny said earlier,

in terms of making sure you're solving a problem or giving

something they need in exchange for their email.

And then you're able to continually talk to them.

So everything works in conjunction with each other.

And you have of some of these pieces already set up

the blog part though.

I'm guessing is one that a lot of people are missing

because in the past,

Jenny, we've just not thought about it that way for product

based businesses before,

right? Yes.

Okay. So if someone were to say,

okay, that's making sense.

And I actually like to write,

let's just go with you like to write,

because if you don't,

you could still do it or you could have somebody help

you with some articles,

right? So the actual writing of the articles part,

we don't really need to talk about here,

except for how would you get started?

Let's say now we've convinced people that they should include a

blog on their website.

Okay. And they have the option with whatever platform they're using

to be able to add a tab that could then be

the blog.

And pretty much every site allows that,

which also tells you the value of doing it.

I mean,

if every platform has it,

it's maybe something you should be doing.

How do you then decide what you're going to do?

Should we start with one article or should we have three?

Like give us some direction if we were thinking of getting

started, how to go about this.

So has your interest been peaked about logs?

We are going to talk about your next step right after

a quick break.

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So I would say,

start with blind.

Don't feel like a lot of people will say,

Oh, I need to launch.

And it means to have five articles so that people can

continue to read.

It doesn't mean to have that just get started because I

think we have so many things going on in our lives

that we have analysis promises.

And instead of actually putting something out,

we think it needs to be perfect.

Get something out there.

Most important thing honestly,

is figuring out what people are going to be searching for

that is then glue to connect them with your product.

So again,

if we go back to that soap,

make sure that it's an easy way to be able to

incorporate your soap.

Maybe it's talking about different ways that you can improve your

skin and your soap is brought up them so that you're

then able to just connect it.

And it's easy then to link to your actual page,

your checkout page for your sales,

for The product,

because you don't want to create a blog and then never

talk about your products.

The whole purpose of having that blog content is to,

to be able to make it simple and easy for them

to click on,

Oh, there,

she's talking about a lavender soap.

Let me see what this is and click to it and

go right to your shop portion.

So now they can buy the lamp under soap.

Yes. And at the same time,

on the opposite side,

you don't want to do blogs talking totally only about your

product either.

No, you want it to be about solving a problem for

people. What I would do is I'm a very much that

teacher is I would take my soap and I would think

of creating some sort of graph where you can then have

lines kind of going off of it saying,

okay, this is what people would want.

My soap solves these problems.

And off of it,

you could then have all the different articles that you could

then write that solves that problem,

which then links them back towards the soap.

You still want it to always be talking about solving the

problem. You don't want to randomly start talking nothing about soap.

You don't want to start talking about essential oils that maybe

has nothing to do with what you are putting into your

soap, right?

The bad I'm thinking about maybe the different types of ingredients

that different soaps have and the different values or benefits that

certain ingredients give you versus others.

Maybe something like that.

The other thing I think is really important because I can

also see some of my listeners saying,

I don't know anything about that.

Like, I don't know,

I'm a soap maker.

I know all the ingredients of my product,

but I don't know the differences.

There's nothing wrong with doing a little bit of research to

then write your article.

So you don't have to have all the knowledge and the

learning right there,

but you're going to be the one who's sharing that information

and bringing it forward and educating others.

And in turn,

when you've done that research,

then you've educated yourself as well.

And you continue to grow in your knowledge of your product

too. So don't feel like,

Oh my gosh,

you know,

articles writing,

I don't know that much about this.

You can research it and it's okay.

Because what you're putting into your article is in your own

words. Yes,

absolutely. Okay.

So you're saying you can do one start with one,

which is fabulous.

Cause that's easy.

How long should it be For SEO purposes?

Which is what Google is that search engine is looking for.

Normally you want an article to at least be 500 words

to a thousand words.

Ideally is what you're looking for.

I would ask them to recommend making sure you have beautiful

pictures and I would have a beautiful picture of your soap

in it so that now you can use that as part

of the promotion that you're going to do on social media,

because you're going to want to share that blog post,

not only in Google,

but also maybe on Pinterest or Facebook or Instagram.

So having pictures in it is going to be helpful as

well. Okay.

So we've got it.

Article we're at the right size.

We've included pictures.

What about keywords?

So keywords and I don't want to lose people,

but I would recommend the way that you want to write

your article is thinking about again,

that problem that you're going to be solving.

So keyword research wise,

I actually use Uber suggest it's a Chrome extension that you

can use where you just type in,

into Google,

what it is that you think your article is going to

be about.

So all the different uses for soap,

BB let's just say,

then what Uber suggest will do is it'll give you the

normal results for that in Google.

But then on the side,

it's going to tell you how many searches there are for

that. You don't want something that has a million searches or

even starting out.

You don't want anything that has more than 5,000

searches in 30 days.

So when you're thinking about the key words you want to

think about looking at,

if it says the uses of soap,

well, maybe it's the healthy uses of soap will actually knock

down the keyword volume.

So the uses of soap maybe has 5,000

That's going to be something that you want to search.

You want to use Uber suggest to kind of check that

and you can also use keywords everywhere,

but that is a paid program.

Uber suggest right now is still free and use is very

similar to keywords everywhere.

But it's about looking at those string of words.

The words in which you use for your title is important

in the way that you do it.

I can actually give an example of what I mean by

this, because I think when it comes to keywords,

it kind of scares people and special like SEO and research.

But when I was a blocker and I started out with

the Melrose family,

I knew nothing about keywords.

I would put up beautiful pictures.

I would do a DIY,

one of my most viral pins that ever came to my

site or these adorable,

they were a little Valentine's day things where it was Lovebug

fruit cups.

And that's what I called it.

The problem is,

is no one was searching for Lovebug fruit cups.

Cause it was something I made up.

But when I changed it to non candy Valentine's day ideas,

the searches started coming through.

And that's the difference.

The difference is the words that people are actually looking for.

And it's the reason that doing the keyword research is really

important. Such a good example,

Jenny, we have been talking recently about naming of our products,

you know,

as creators,

we want to be have all these fancy names because we

want our product to be distinct and unique and stand out.

But when you name it,

these crazy and I say crazy in a good way,

but these really creative names,

no one ever finds it.

So that was a great example.

You're just reinforcing.

I always feel like when we continue hearing similar messages over

time, you really need to pay attention.

Cause that means it's really true.

You know,

if everyone,

like in your instance where you're teaching this stuff,

you know,

if you're also saying it,

we need to be paying attention,

whether we want to have our fancy names or not.

So keywords for the title,

then what about within the body of the blog?

Repeat it or what you tell us about that Don't want

it to be awkward where it's like,

you're repeating it every five seconds within the content,

but you want it to be like natural in there.

So that Lovebug fruit crop example that I gave you,

instead of calling it lab book fruit cups,

when I was then saying,

will you take the fruit cup and dah dah,

dah, I would refer to it as a non candy Valentine's

day idea throughout the content.

So it was there.

The important thing to when you're doing SEO is to look

at the questions that are being asked because Google is looking

for an article that answers all of the questions,

answers, everything that someone could be asking about,

that topic,

that title,

that you're presenting to them.

So thinking about what else would people want to know about

that and answering those questions is going to help.

And you're naturally going to put in that language of the

soap or the healthy uses of soap.

Got it.

Okay. So how often should we be creating a new blog

or because we are a product based business,

could we have five or 10 kind of pillar topic,

blog articles and leave it at that?

It's definitely going to help if you can be consistent.

But with that being said again,

we're juggling so much.

So I would say start off and see what you can

handle. I would aim for trying to do maybe once every

two weeks.

And again,

you talked about maybe getting a writer or maybe getting someone

to photograph things.

This doesn't need to be done by you,

especially if you already have income coming in,

and this is going to be part of your marketing plan,

looking to possibly hire this out would probably be beneficial.

Your time might be better spent somewhere else within your business.

So I think the more consistent you can get the better

off you're going to be because Google is looking and watching

to see when is new content coming out.

Bloggers typically are doing content two to three times a week.

But again,

they're not also creating products.

A lot of them they're looking to just be that blogger,

creating the content.

They don't have a product that they're also having to manufacture

and put together.

So I was the once every two weeks,

if you can do that once a month just to get

started in for once a month,

if that seems manageable to you and then see if you

can't stop it,

Honestly, I think once a month,

sounds way more doable.

Anyone in the community who feels differently,

go for it.

I'm also thinking,

because once you've written the article done everything,

you've said the keywords,

the pictures really made sure that it's buttoned up.

It's ready to go.

Most of your time.

You want to be telling people that it's there,

which leads us over to SEO.

You've done because that's what you've done is you've written the

article all the behind the scenes,

things we've talked before,

Jenny about the all tags and all of that in the

pictures. So that would take care of then the SEO portion,

right? Getting it ready for SEO to be found in search.

So now let's jump over social media and I'm thinking,

let's go with someone who's just starting out,

right. One article.

Okay. So totally doable.

How do we then promote?

And a lot of my group is on Facebook still Johnny.

So can we talk about both platforms?

Absolutely. So I would say like,

depending on how you're using your Facebook now and how often

you're posting,

but it's an article that you can reuse and reshare.

So it's not necessarily something like you post it once to

Facebook and then you're done.

You never get to share it again.

You can share it again.

Maybe you're going to ask a different question when you go

to do your description in order to get people to click

on the link,

to be able to learn the different uses of soap,

whatever it might be.

I'm hoping too that your audience is using Pinterest just because

it's such a creative medium.

So pinning it multiple times is definitely going to be helpful

as well.

Especially if you have a couple different images that you can

use for that.

Exactly. I was just going to say that because I just

learned this recently that you can take the same blog post

and then change the images.

Can you also change the title over on Pinterest or does

that not make sense?

Just the images and keep your title in the blog.

You can change the title on Pinterest too.

The more images that you have to pin it with the

better off you're going to be with Pinterest Pinterest.

When I first started wasn't that way it is that way.

Now they want new images to go and link to the

same article.

It will actually do better that way,

rather than always trying to use the same image and you

can repin things to different boards.

So if you have a Pinterest profile and you've set up

your different boards based on healthy living or beauty or DIY

or whatever it might be,

if it fits under all three,

you can use that same image to go to those different

boards. Does that make sense?

The same image.

You can do the same image and then you can do

another image as well.

That goes to those same boards.

So what we're talking about you guys is it's the link

then is heading back to the article that's on your site.

Let's say I have a Pinterest account.

I have three boards,

let's say three different topics.

And my blog post fits the subject.

Matter of all three.

So I can put the same one with the same image

and the same title in all three,

I could put duplicate blog articles with the same title,

but different images in all three.

I mean,

some of this gets to be overload.

I get,

but I'm just saying these are all the options or I

could change the images and title,

but it leads back to the same article in all three.

Yes. Yeah,

absolutely. Because when you're able to do that.

So the thing about that is if you don't want to

do it all at the same time.

So in other words,

I don't want to go into my blog posts,

pennant to all those three boards within the same,

like two minutes,

maybe one day,

I'm going to do one of the images to one of

my boards.

The next day,

I'm going to do it to a different board,

same image,

same title.

And the following day,

I'm going to do same image,

same title to a different board.

And then I can come back in on the fourth day

maybe. And I'm going to use a different image than I

have been,

but I'm going to put it back to that first board.

Okay. I thought you were going to say like a week

apart, so day apart.

Isn't true.

Honestly. I mean,

you can space it out.

It really depends upon the amount of content that you have.

Kate all is a great person for Pinterest looking to listen

to podcasts.

She has simple pen podcasts and she gives tons of great

content about Pinterest.

But yeah,

I mean,

there's just so much that you're able to do with the

marketing as far as bringing traffic to it.

Wonderful. Let's go into your favorite now,

Instagram stories.

And let's talk a little bit more about that as we

close out.

Okay. That sounds great to me,

Instagram stories,

the way that you can use it,

there is.

So you would post the pretty picture to your feed.

And maybe you're going to talk about,

ask a question,

have a little bit of a story behind what it is

that you're talking about and then your call to action in

that description in your feed should be something like in the

comments, share your favorite emoji.

If you want to learn more about how the healthy uses

of soap and then anyone that believes their favorite emoji,

you would then give them a quick reply and say,

sending it to you in your DMS.

And then he would actually send them the link directly to

that article in their direct messages.

Now that's on the feed.

Instagram stories it's even easier.

So if I was going to put together an article on

the healthy uses of soap,

first, I'm going to do a poll baby.

And I'm going to say something along the lines.

Are you worried about your kids going back to school and

want to know which soaps are the best soaps?

And then I'm going to use the poll feature inside Instagram

stories, which does hack gas.

And I already know all the things let's just say,

for example,

and then any one inside Instagram stories that clicks have gas.

You now with direct message.

Hey, here's a great article on all the healthy uses of

soap. And then you're going to drop the link directly to

the article.

So what you're doing in Instagram stories is,

again, you're getting them to raise their hand.

You're asking them questions where you can then see it in

stories in your insights.

You pop it up since you can actually see who said

had guests and who said,

I already know all the information and you're going to direct

message them and have a conversation with them.

And that conversation actually may not even stop with just sharing

the link to the article.

Let's say,

you're going to see,

well, what's your favorite kind of soap now in direct message.

Do you love lavender?

Do you love lemon scent?

You are trying to get into their direct messages because it's

engagement. It's that personal connection that people are so dying for

right now.

And it helps the algorithm with Instagram.

What ends up happening now is because of the algorithm you

get into the direct message.

Your pictures are groomed to be in their feed more often.

And when you consistently do stories like that and you get

into their direct messages,

your story bubble pops to the front of the,

because Instagram sees it as their direct messaging back and forth.

They obviously have a connection.

We're going to make sure that they can see their feed.

Oh my gosh.

Okay. Time out.

Let me see if I just heard you correctly.

I know it was a little hot.

No, no,

no. It's really,

really good.

But did you just say that,

I know that when you add to your story throughout the

day, it pops to the front because you've added another story,

right? But if you are interacting with people in direct messages,

which we all know is behind the scenes,

that's not public facing,

that's just between you and whoever your DME with.

But if you are direct messaging that also bumps your story

to the front again.

Yeah. So what actually happens is if you were to look

and open up your Instagram stories,

which you're going to notice is that the same people are

always at the front of stories and it's people that you

have had a personal connection or direct message with.

They actually will pop ahead of someone,

even if they haven't updated their story,

the same amount of time as someone else behind them.

Oh my gosh.

Yeah. I know it doesn't matter because what ends up happening

is like,

when I opened my Instagram,

the same people are always to the front,

the ones that I have interacted with ones that I've DMD

with day pop to the front,

whether they have updated 13 hours ago,

or if they've updated two hours ago,

they are the same.

People are always in the front of my bubbles.

And it doesn't matter when they have updated,

they're going to be in the front because of the direct

phone. No,

I did not know that.

That's amazing.

Okay. So another thumbs up for DMS,

for sure.

The other thing that I liked doing in DMS is a

little bit of market research.

If you will looking at creating a new soap scent,

let's say,

and you're trying to decide between two different ones.

That's just like you were saying,

Jenny, with adding asking another question,

ask another question that also gives you more information about your

audience or helps you have a decision.

Like what are you challenged with?

Or what's the first thing that you look at when you're

buying soaps or whatever the topic might be.

But what else can you learn about your audience in a

genuine way?

Like not doing it just to have them respond back again

in really a genuine way.

So that example that you said about,

let's say you talk about sense of soaps.

You put lavender and then you put lemon there and then

people are going to hit the lavender and then they're going

to hit the lemon.

Well, now what you want to think about doing is you

want to then take it a step further and say,

have you tried out the one lavender Rose that we have

get into the direct message continue.

Don't let them just answer the poll,

continuing over into dance.

Okay. So at what point are you getting too salesy when

you do all this,

Honestly, as long as you continue to answer questions and the

problems that they're solving,

I have not that it's too salesy,

I've sold $1,500

coaching programs,

right? From direct messaging and through stories because it's not like

I'm hitting them with the sale away.

Now what I've done is I built up towards it.

I've gotten podcasts reviews,

which we also know can be difficult to get,

because I'll talk about a podcast I'll ask,

like, how are you listening to my podcasts?

Are you listening on iTunes?

You're listening on Stitcher.

And then anyone that hits on iTunes,

I'll direct message them and just,

Hey, I ever kind of a huge favor to ask you.

I would love it.

If you'd leave a review or I will even ask just

the question of,

are you a podcast listener and heck yes and no.

Don't listen to podcasts.

Anyone that says,

heck yes.

Now I go into DMS and I ask them,

what player are you listening on?

Your favorite podcast on?

Is it,

what does it Stitcher?

And a lot of them will come back and say,

Oh, it's the purple podcasting thing.

And I'm like,

perfect. I have a huge favor.

Would you mind leaving?

And I'll even send them a quick video that shows them

how to do it because it's a conversation.

Again, getting them to raise their hands by doing that poll

and answering it.

It's the honestly the easiest way to build a relationship with

someone. And it doesn't have to go into a Drexel up.

There's been plenty of times where I've sent someone,

someone, and they're like,

yeah, I'm just not ready right now.

And I'll see them.

That's perfectly fine.

If you ever have any questions and we'll continue a conversation

at six months later,

they come back because I've continued the conversation and not made

it an awkward cold sales email where I'm like,

Hey, you want to be my best friend and let's buy

this program.

No, I've built up that relationship.

Right. And I'm thinking for a lot of our listeners too

reviews, product reviews.

So if you're not a podcast or you can take the

same example that Jenny was just saying and relate it to

your product to,

Oh my gosh,

such valuable information,

Jenny, what would be your overall umbrella statement to my handmade

product? People here who have not started a blog,

what would you say to that?

I would say deep breath and jump in,

start it.

Just try to figure out the easiest way that can work

for your schedule and what you're trying to do to get

that content out there.

If you're really looking to do that marketing,

it's one of the easiest ways that you can do it

and you may find that actually enjoy it.

I think so once you get into the groove of it

and so share a little bit more about what your vision

is. I know you don't look back,

right? What's your quote.

I always look back and smile.

Okay. So You can look back right now on what you're

doing right now with a smile,

but where are you going in the future?

So part of my vision and my mission for my business

is to be able to help all my clients have the

young girls in their lives,

their daughters,

their granddaughters,

their nieces,

that women can run businesses that don't hit a glass ceiling.

They can own their own business and make their own future

for themselves.

And honestly,

my goal is to create more and more female entrepreneurs that

are running strong,

successful businesses that are providing for their families.

And where can people go online to find out more about

you? I am on Instagram all the time.

Instagram is at Jenny underscore Melrose.

How did I know that you were going to say that

honestly is the fastest way to ask me a question Tuesday,

if you're listening,

you have a question,

just direct message me and I will get back to you.

It's always me in there.

And then of course my podcast influencer entrepreneurs is on all

of the favorite listening apps.

And then I also have my website,

Jenny Mueller's dot com,

which has all of the podcast episodes and tons of free

resources. Perfect.

And give biz listeners,

you know,

there's a show notes page.

So if you didn't catch all of that,

you can jump on over there and it'll already be linked

up for you,

Jenny. Great information.

So wonderful.

I learned a lot about Pinterest here today.

I wasn't expecting that.

So that was a great gift for me.

Thank you for that.

And for also all the information that you've shared with the

audience. I really appreciate it.

Thank you so much for having me on CYA.

I appreciate it.

I know you tune out sometimes when the conversation turns to

blogs, thinking that it doesn't apply to your business,

I hope you can see now the added value that it

can provide to distinguish you as the leader and give you

more to talk about with your audience.

We're always searching for that,

right? So here you go.

Jenny also mentioned Kate all in our interview today,

and guess what?

She's our very next guest talking all about Pinterest.

This platform has become a search engine,

just like Google and can be a powerful place to attract

new customers.

So make sure to tune in next Monday and make sure

to subscribe to the show.

So the next episode automatically downloads and is ready and waiting

for you right when it airs.

Finally, I also want you to remember that there's still time

to join in to our five day challenge this week,

set up and sell,

just head over to gift biz,

unwrapped.com set up and sell to register by Friday,

you'll have a place to capture orders and know how to

attract customers,

to purchase your product a great first step.

Even if you haven't started your business yet it's free and

all you need is your handmade product and the desire to

start making money,

sharing that product with the world.

That link again is gift biz,

unwrapped.com forward slash set up and sell.

I hope to see you there be safe,

be well.

And I'll catch you next week.

I want to make sure you're familiar with my free Facebook

group called gift is breeze.

It's a place where we all gather and our community to

support each other.

Got a really fun post in there.

That's my favorite of the week.

I have to say where I invite all of you to

share what you're doing to show pictures of your product,

to show what you're working on for the week to get

reaction from other people and just for fun,

because we all get to see the wonderful products that everybody

in the community is making my favorite post every single week,

without doubt.

Wait, what,

aren't you part of the group already,

if not make sure to jump over to Facebook and search

for the group gift biz breeze don't delay.