How I Became a Full-Time Blogger – Episode 7: PaleOMG Uncensored Podcast

I’ve been blogging since 2011 at this point. Every single day, every single week, and every single month I learn something new. I figure out a new way to cook, a new tool online, I learn how to shoot and edit video, or how to take better photos, I learn a new way to make money and help my family thrive. I’m constantly learning and that’s exactly why I love my job so much. I make my own rules, I make my own destiny, and I decide what is best for me, my blog, and what I put out into the world. I wake up every day excited to take on the day because I know that the harder I work, the more benefits I will reap (most of the time).

I became a full-time blogger, I believe, around 2013. I don’t remember the exact day or even month, but I do remember thinking – “Ok Juli, you’re finally making more money at blogging than you are at coaching full time, so maybe it’s time to do this every day and see what is possible and how much you can grow.” I forgot to mention in this podcast that it was when I was making more money blogging than coaching that I decided to make the full jump to just blogging. I think people have a hard time figuring out when they should make the jump, so that’s what worked best for me – knowing for sure I would be making more money blogging than my other job.

Here’s a super quick run down of today’s podcast! Every podcast I’ve been totally rushing trying to keep it under a certain time cap, but I recently just did something on the back end of my site so I don’t have to rush anymore. So from now on, after this week, no more rushing! I’m hoping I didn’t miss anything in this podcast, but here in a little run down of the main points!

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Starting My Blog:

• Started with a free template I found online and uploaded it to blogspot.com for free
• As it grew, I changed over to wordpress.com (that was a pain in the ass – I recommend starting on wordpress.com so you don’t have to transfer anything over)

Ways I get paid:

• Advertising – I use to work with google ads and other companies, but I continued to run into issues with how the ads were placed or where they led the customer. I now work with Adthrive who was recommended by Lexi and I love it.
• Affiliate programs – Affiliate just means that I promote certain products and if those products are purchased, I make a cut of that.
  • Book bundles
  • Ebook sales
  • Amazon (This just became available for Colorado people!!)
  • Real plans
  • Random Other Affiliate Programs – Liketoknow.it, food related, etc.
• Sponsored posts and content
  • A company will reach out to me about working together, I will tell them my fees and we will sometimes negotiate
• Books – I’ve come out with 3 cookbooks which I receive royalties on, but you just never know what you are going to make so it’s a bit of a crap shoot and it restricts you from your daily job of blogging which reduces traffic long term. But many publishers give advances to make up for that and help with that type of issue.
  • OMG! That’s Paleo?
  • The Paleo Kitchen
  • Juli Bauer’s Paleo Cookbook

Reader Questions:

• Affordable host to get your blog started on: Bluehost
• Get food photography inspiration from How Sweet It Is and Half Baked Harvest
• This book taught me the basics about setting up a food photography, it’s a really good book!

If you have any questions about becoming a full time blogger, please leave them in the comments below! I respond to comments on my blog much faster than emails, so please keep that in mind! And if you have podcast topics you would like to hear about, let me know! I also just got my podcast on Stitcher so feel free to listen to it here! And don’t forget to rate, review and subscribe so I know what you guys are thinking!! Thanks so much for listening!!

Episode 7 Transcription:

This is Juli Bauer from PaleOMG and you are listening to PaleOMG Uncensored.

Juli Bauer: Hey guys! It’s Juli here, from PaleOMG. I just walked my dog, and I; oh damn he found a bone. This is going to have to get pushed out of the room. I’ve been trying to entertain him so he’ll sleep through my podcast, and he slept for 4 minutes, and in those 4 minutes I was figuring out how the hell I use a microphone. Jackson, come on. Grow up!

Ok. Figuring out this microphone thing. I don’t know what I’m doing. I know I had to turn the heat off on the house so it won’t make as much noise in the background; but you guys, I just don’t know what the hell I’m doing, and I’m trying to act like I do by buying a microphone. Don’t worry; it was a cheap microphone. But good, right? My friend said it was a good started microphone.

Anyways, I don’t know what the f*ck I’ve already been talking about for a minute. But, today I’m talking about how to become a full time blogger. Ok, and I should rephrase that. I’ll tell you how I became a full time blogger; because I don’t know exactly how the hell to become a full time blogger; I’ve just figured out some things over the years, and it’s f*cking cool that people can do what they do now a days! Like, how sweet is our world that we can create jobs for ourselves. It’s so damn crazy. So I’m just going to go down memory lane, talk a little about that, talk about different things I’ve figured out over the year, kind of how I get paid, what my day to day looks like, some expenses, social media; I don’t know. I’m going to talk about it all, and then answer some questions. Because I asked on the blog on Tuesday what questions people had, and they asked away. So I wrote these down so I wouldn’t miss them.

I saw a negative comment; you know how we just always only see the negative comments; that’s what we obsess over? This review just totally ate me up inside, I felt really bad. This woman was upset that I said paleo on a budget is boring, like a boring topic. I didn’t mean for it to come off like that. I just felt bad; obviously, I think it’s an important topic because I’m talking about it, or else I wouldn’t be talk about it on here. But, I don’t know, paleo isn’t the most interesting thing to me in the world, and I swear by it. I think everybody should eat paleo, but I’m not like, all into the science sh*t. it doesn’t mean I think it’s not important; I’m just not into it. So I just wanted to apologize to that woman who was upset and left a negative review. Yeah, I felt bad. I just felt bad about that. And then; whatever. I’m going to move forward. But I apologize to this woman. Or male; I don’t’ even know if it was a man or woman, but I apologize. I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings. Or push away from this podcast!

Ok, anyways I keep getting off track. I’m trying to keep these under 45 minutes so I don’t have to downsize the size of them. Long story short; it just takes too much time and I don’t want to do it. So let’s keep this topic underway. Let’s get this topic underway. Ok, so a little history. I grew up in Colorado; I went to school, and decided to major in health and exercise science. I’ve just always been interested in food; that’s the biggest thing I was interested in, and I always felt like such a weirdo because nobody else was obsessed with food, and nobody else talked about food. The only thing the ever talked about was not eating food and starving yourself when I was in high school; so I thought I was such a weirdo for loving food so much.

I never learned how to cook like that; I was just interested in eating anything sugar related, so cookie pies, or anything out of the bag, or anything out of the microwave. Anything I could really just make in seconds. And then once I went to college, I kind of started dabbling in recipes, like finding recipes online and cooking them myself, but I sucked at them and I always thought they tasted bad so I kind of fell out of that; kept with my microwave meals. And I never understood the importance of clean food. So I was going to school for health and exercise science and my classes were about exercise, and they were about taking care of yourself and eating clean; or eating good food, but that food was always whole grains and I don’t know; sh*t food. So I just thought that was what you were supposed to eat.

It wasn’t until I found Crossfit; and I found Crossfit around my senior year of college, and stopped drinking as much and that was mostly so I could afford a Crossfit gym. I mean, I was broke-ass poor at that point in my life, and I saved up all my pennies so I could go to a Crossfit gym, and I started kind of learning more about the paleo diet and started implementing that in my own life. I talked about that in the past, so feel free to go back in my other podcast.

But I had a semester internship, I interned at Coors Wellness Center; so you know, like beer. I interned at the Wellness Center there, and after I interned for a semester I got a half time; {laughs} part time job and I started working in a Crossfit gym the other part time. So this guy, this Crossfit coach, at a gym I was working out at he offered to pay for my cert, and then I would just work it back. Jackson; calm your tits! Why can’t you eat your bone in another room? That’s just not going to work Jackson. No, that’s not going to work. Ok, I had to kick him out; he had to go. This poor little dog, he’s going to be back in here in 45 seconds.

So, this Crossfit coach offered to pay for my cert and then I would just work it back by coaching at the gym. So I got my Crossfit cert, started coaching Crossfit, and while I was working part time at that Wellness Center. And then once that part time work ended, I was like; “Well, what am I going to do? I’ve got to start coaching at more gyms.” So I started coaching at multiple Crossfit gyms at that point. I was coaching at probably 4 to 5 Crossfit gyms, just making ends meet, but I was incredibly happy because I was doing exactly what I loved to do; coach people who had the exact same mindset, who really wanted to further their life and further their fitness and further their health. So I was around those like-minded people all the time.

While I was coaching at these gyms, I started bringing treats to whoever I was with, and they would ask me; “Can you share the recipe?” When I was working at one of these Crossfit gyms, he was like, “Well, how about you start the nutrition blog on the Crossfit website.” So I started doing the nutrition blog portion, and I would just share recipes, share just information like what to eat after a workout, what to eat before a workout, why gluten sucks big; oh my gosh, I almost said sucks the big D, but I’m going to get in trouble for that. Mom and dad, don’t listen. So, sucks bad. And I would just tell all that information, and I loved it. I had so much fun answering questions, and helping people out.

So once I left that Crossfit gym, I wanted to keep doing that, I wanted to share recipes and just things I learned along the way about paleo, so I started my own blog. I was trying to figure out what to name the blog, so I just wrote on Facebook when Facebook wasn’t what it is now; so when I was like, “Hey, friends, what should I name my blog?” I actually got responses instead of having to look at f*cking, I don’t know, the bullsh*t that’s on Facebook now. I hate Facebook.

So I got a response back from my friend Jill who I met at the first Crossfit gym I ever worked out at, and she was like; why don’t you name it PaleOMG? Boom. That’s where the name came from. I wish it was like, “Oh I’m just really creative.” No, that’s not the case. It was Jill. It was all Jill.

So I started working at these gyms, and I started keeping up with my blog as well, and the blog just kind of started growing organically. Facebook was very different back then, so you could share a recipe and people would actually see it, instead of having to pay a lot of f*cking money for two people to see it. So it just started to grow organically. I started getting more hits on my website, and more people sharing the recipes; it was awesome.

At that point, I had started this blog on blogspot.com, because it was a super easy way to get a blog started. And then a guy reached out to me, and he was like, “I want to redo your website, mostly because I just want it to be easier to navigate for myself.” And I was like, ok that’s awesome but I have no money. I can’t pay you anything, and I wish I could because I think I need a new website too, but I don’t know how to do any of that. And he was like, “you know what, I will do it for free. I love your site, you’ve given me so many recipes, so I want to give back to you.” So he made a new version of my site and hosted it through his company, so he was hosting it through there. He just rebuilt the site that was way easier to navigate and to look through. And when he did that, he was like; “Hey I’m going to also put a Google ad on your website, so that will give you a little bit of money coming in to help pay for groceries.” And I had no idea you could make money off of a blog like I had no idea. I had kind of heard that people did it, but I didn’t know that was actually possible for a little person like me.

So he put this Google ad, and I just started getting a small amount of money coming in, and I used that for groceries. He also sent me this little camera; he was like, “I have this extra camera just sitting around. Stop using your phone; use a real camera.” So he sent me this little tiny camera, and I started kind of using that. So he really helped me out a ton. It was so, so generous. And I have to remind myself of those people; and there are many of those people who are just kind out of the genuine heart of theirs. I was having; just talking to rude people on Facebook this morning who are just complaining about getting free sh*t. I have to remind myself that there are good people out there. There are nice people; stop dwelling in the negative.

But anyway; I started getting just this little bit of money coming in, used that for groceries; and the site continued to grow and Facebook was still pretty organic at that point so I was getting so many new followers per day just because people were sharing my recipes. While the site kept growing, it kind of started; I don’t know how long you’ve ever followed my blog, but the blog began to start crashing all the time, and at one point it wasn’t up for one or two weeks, because the host just couldn’t hold that amount of people coming in. so I finally decided to move to a new host, and then I updated my site just this past year, and that’s the site you see now. And my blog has really grown over time. It started as just a paleo recipe blog, and it’s just grown with me. Just like how we grow up and change, and our interests change, that’s the same thing with my blog.

I just kind of watched what people reacted to; people asked about my workouts a lot, so I started sharing workouts every Monday. And then when I went on book tour, I noticed that a lot of people were; when I posted an outfit of one of my book tour outfits, it got like triple the likes that a food photo does. So obviously people were reacting to that, so I was like; well, how about I start adding in more fashion. And a while ago, I wanted to change it into more of a lifestyle blog; because then I find it more interesting, it helps me stay creative with my recipes, because I’m not getting burned out creating too many at one time. And then it just opens me up to more possibilities in the future. So probably three-plus years ago I wanted to change it into lifestyle, and I started stepping towards that more and more. So it’s really evolved over time, if you’ve followed me for any amount of time, you’ve seen that. And it’s grown, and it’s changed, and it’s just way more fun that way.

So, I want to talk about ways that I get paid. I think this just so interesting, because there are so many ways that people get paid through the internet at this point, and I wish I knew more bloggers to talk to, but I have my close friends of paleo bloggers, and we always kind of talk about that kind of stuff. But money is a weird thing; I was always raised never to talk about money; you don’t talk about that. But at the same time, I’ve created a job out of nothing, and there are new things to learn all the time. So I wish; there are some people who are open to talking about and some people aren’t. So you kind of just have to feel your way through that and see who you can talk to. I talk to my friends.

Jackson; oh no, you brought a new bone in here. You can’t do that. You can’t bring every bone in here. No. poor guy; I just had to kick him out. And he’s such a sad little panda now. Sorry little guy. I love you!

Ok, so let’s talk about ways I get paid. This dog is very distracting today, and I’m in a weird f*cking mood. I’m in a PMS-y mood, and then Facebook people just got me all riled up. All pissed off! And then I couldn’t figure out the microphone. So I’m just in a mood, ok? Ok, so let’s talk about ways I get paid. Back to square one.

So, advertising. I talked about Google ads before, and companies would reach out to me, and that’s how I kind of got started after Google ads. A company would reach out, and I’d do a little research to see if it was a reputable company, and then one of my friends worked for the advertising company and he helped me set up one of those ads, and then it just kind of grew from there. I was working with a bunch of different ad companies, and then I started to run into some issues. Like, people would be redirected from my site, or something wouldn’t load. So I was talking to one of my friends about it; my friend Lexi from Lexi’s Clean Kitchen, and she mentioned a company called AdThrive. And I’ll be linking all of these in my blog post, in case you miss anything. But AdThrive I started to work with, and they have been amazing, and they set up all your ads for you and figure out if something is not working, how you could get paid a little bit better, and you’d work with them. Like, I don’t want an ad at the top of my site, and some people don’t mind that. So I tell them I don’t want that, and they work around you and what you want. So that’s one of the main things that I get paid on for a regular basis; goes straight into my account is just advertising. So the more traffic you have on your site, the more you’re going to get paid. So obviously you want traffic to come to your site.

Affiliate programs; a bunch of people ask me about affiliate programs. So affiliate just means that I promote certain products, and if those products are purchased, I get a cut of that. So I’ve done all kinds of different affiliate programs, like book bundles, eBook sales that I’ve been part of. Amazon is another affiliate that’s awesome for people. Like to Know it; so any of my fashion posts is through Like to Know it. I work with that amazing company called Real Plans, and if people sign up to get these meal plans online, I get a cut of that if they sign up through my affiliate code. So it’s all these affiliates; I only promote the stuff that I truly believe in and truly love, and think is awesome. I don’t work with companies just random affiliates out there. I don’t go searching for affiliate codes, which you can totally do through sites. But I just promote what want.

And then there are sponsored posts and content. So a company will reach out to me and want to do a sponsored post, like say a meat company or an outfit company; whatever, it’s all kinds of different things, and I just kind of decide what I get paid, and that’s what’s cool; cool and not cool, I guess, is you can set how much you get paid. Some companies won’t pay it, some will. You decided your own worth, instead of, say, a company is like, “Ok, this starting pay is 65,000 per year.” You get to decide more of what you want and I guess create your own destiny. It’s any kind of small business; you decide. So I’ve kind of decided over the years and figured out as I go and what works and what doesn’t work, and everything is negotiable, and kind of work with companies like that.

And then books are another thing. I’ve come out with three cookbooks, and I’ll link those today. {yawning} Oh, I’ve got to yawn! That was annoying. Ok, I swear I’m not bored. I don’t want to offend that woman again. Ok, so I’ve come out with three cookbooks in the past three or so years, so I get royalties on that. With books you get paid twice a year; and I don’t know if that’s with all books, but I’m pretty sure that’s how most book companies work; publishing houses. So I get paid twice a year. So that’s kind of why you want other things coming in, because you have no idea, unless you’re Giada, or someone really big time; you never know what you’re going to make on those books, and it’s a total crapshoot. So you could be working your ass off on this book, and not working on your blog, and hoping those royalty checks will be good and then they weren’t, and then you lost this big chunk of time that you could have gotten paid.

So books are kind of scary, and it just restricts what you could be doing with your daily jobs, and it can reduce traffic on your daily site, as well, because you’re not able to blog. And so those are some of the kind of things I have to decide when doing cookbooks and I just feel like I’m not always true to myself, because I love blogging, it’s like my true passion is writing every single day, and so when I’m restricted to only blog once a week, that’s kind of frustrating.

So those are the ways I get paid. I don’t think I’m missing anything, but there’s always kind of random stuff that comes up through the year, and kind of opportunities. So, again, I’ll link all those. So what my day to day kind of looks like, and every single day is just different, and that’s what so fun about my job and why I never feel a lack of motivation, because every day is so different. I usually wake up around 6:30 every day, that’s just kind of my internal clock wakes up then. I make a cup of coffee, and then I lie on the couch with Jackson. He likes to lie right between my legs on top of the blanket, and then I finish up my blog post that I’m posting that day.

So today while I’m recording this podcast, I finished up my cupcake post; my apple pie cupcake post. Posted that, and then I moderated any comments that needed to be responded to. So I try to check out my comments a couple of times a day to respond to them. I like responding to blog posts the most in comments versus social media; because it’s just people who really want to be there. They’re not there; I mean, not usually, there to be rude. It’s like people with their honest feedback, and I get to hear back from people I’m asking about. “Hey, what do you do for migraines, because my husband has really bad migraines,” and I get response from that. So that’s really fun.

And then, what else. So after I finish that blog post; and every day is a little bit different, so I’ll usually cook up a recipe or two. So I’ll make the recipe, take the photos, edit the photos, and then clean the house back up; doing the dishes, cleaning up the photo area, whatever I need to do. Some days I’ll take outfit photos; so my sister in law helps me take my photos, and she doesn’t work on Tuesdays, so we’ll get a bunch of photos done on Tuesday. So I’ll pack up like three to four outfits, and we’ll go different places to take some outfit photos. I’ll respond to emails; I have a hard time with this because I just hate responding to emails. I don’t know why; I just have a hard time getting that task done. I guess that’s the one thing I’m not as motivated in. so I’ll respond to emails, plan upcoming posts.

I have, like you know your notes in your phone; I have my notes and I plan out all my upcoming posts in my notes section of my phone. So then if I have any sponsored posts or sponsored content, make sure that’s all scheduled in, and I’m getting that done on time. And then I’ll plan any recipes, start thinking up new recipes; is it a holiday coming up? Is it, you know, the Super Bowl where you need snack food? Just plan that kind of stuff. And then a lot of times, recently, I’ve started filming stuff. So maybe I’ll be doing a hair tutorial, so I need to get ready and film the tutorial, and then do some of the editing through iMovie; start kind of figuring out all that stuff, because I’m learning as I go. And then I keep up with Instagram all day. Instagram is the place I post the most; and I try to post at least 8 to 9 times a day, and respond to those comments in Instagram, as well.

Then I’ll go to the gym; I coach two days a week at my gym, so I’m there, sometimes I’m there for a few hours instead of just one, but I work out 5 days a week so I get to the gym on a regular basis. And then I’ll come home, cook dinner, clean back up the house. I will go back on my social media, respond to any comments or questions, and then I’ll start tomorrows post. Sometimes I’ll work on my weekly newsletter that I send out; sometimes I’m obviously recording a podcast, like right now, and then sometimes I’m out grocery shopping, which is actually part of my job. Because if I don’t have my tools there, I can’t do it. So that’s kind of how my day pans out, and every day is a little bit different. That’s what’s so fun and exciting about it!

So, let’s talk about social media. Social media changes all the time, which is what’s so frustrating about it {laughs} so you’re always learning. You’re always; I don’t know, feeling like a f*cking idiot because you’re trying so hard and nothing is happening. So before Facebook completely dropped the organic traffic thing and said you had to pay for everything, people just saw me on Facebook. They saw my recipes, and shared recipes, and were able to see it. Now, if you don’t ever see my posts, it’s because I don’t pay. I don’t want to pay. I’ve tried that out, just a little bit, paying for people to see, and still I think I had like 360,000 likes on Facebook, and maybe 70 people see a post, on a good day. And say I pay for something, maybe 250 people out of 360,000 see it. So it’s just bullsh*t; they f*ck you over. I’m sure I’m going to get in trouble for this, but seriously. It’s so f*cked up.

Then I turned to Instagram, started promoting more through Instagram, but now Instagram is changing because it’s owned by Facebook, so they’re changing that over, so less and less people are seeing my posts. So if you’ve noticed that in your own feed; you’re like, “Oh, I haven’t seen this person in forever!” That’s why. Because they’re limiting the number of posts you see, so that’s a huge bummer. I kind of do Twitter; I try to keep up with my Pinterest page, but not a ton. And now I’m going a lot to Snapchat, so I can tell you exactly what’s going on and keep you up to date with things without the Facebook and Instagram restriction.

And then I’ve been doing some YouTube as well, just trying that out and figuring it out as I go. And then I started this podcast, as well. Just trying to get my; I don’t know, myself out there in different ways, and learn as I go, and figure it out as I go because I feel like an idiot all the time with social media.

Let’s talk about expenses. I think that’s an interesting one. Obviously, all businesses are different, but I think mine is low on the expenses. I’m obviously always paying for groceries, because I’m cooking on a daily basis for the blog. Camera and any lenses I’ve bought over time; I’ve had my camera for years now, and then I kind of buy new lenses as I go. Cooking appliances, obviously, I use a lot of cooking appliances, so I’m buying that stuff on a regular basis. I have to pay for the host of my website; I have to pay for MailChimp, which is what I send my newsletter out in. site maintenance and upkeep; so the guy who redid my website, if I have any other questions. Or somebody recently asked me if I could add in “previous post” and “next post”, so I email him, and he does that for me, and that’s kind of upkeep and maintenance on the site. For any apps I have; so maybe Light Room, Photoshop, I don’t know. Whatever, I have to kind of download. I pay for a bookkeeper because you’re getting paid from a lot of different places, and it’s very confusing and not easy, so I got a bookkeeper who has just been awesome to just keep everything and file and ready for my tax accountant. So paying for the tax accountant; it makes it easier I’m guessing when you get audited; I haven’t gotten audited, knock on wood, but yeah I have that.

And then any new clothing or products or whatever I need to promote. I think a lot of people think that I just get free clothes all the time, and that’s not the case. Definitely some companies have sent me stuff, and it’s been awesome, but I pay for most of my clothing; I would say 80-85% of it. So I’m buying all of those clothes on a regular basis, to promote. So it’s lots of shopping that I never did before because I want to keep up with the fashion stuff, and that’s what I decided. So those are some of the expenses that go along with it.

Let’s talk about things that just help me stay on track. I think when some people really love working for themselves and it keeps them really motivated; and some people are like, I would hate that, having to figure out what I do every day. Some people don’t like that. So I love it, and it keeps me motivated, and it keeps me excited. So do what you love. If you’re not doing what you love, how are you going to stay motivated? That f*cking sucks. And I’m doing exactly what I love so I get excited to wake up every day and figure out new ways to make a life for myself, and I think that’s really motivating in its own. I keep daily to-do lists; so right now, on my to-do list; record a podcast. I’ll erase that once I’m done. So I keep those in my notes section, so I know everything I need to get done in a day, I don’t miss anything.

Then go with your gut. I’ve done two things in business that I didn’t feel totally comfortable with, and my gut was telling me not to do it. And even though it’s gotten me where I am now, I definitely do regret those two things. So I think go with your gut more than anything; your gut is going to tell you what’s the right thing. But don’t let those small mistakes hold you back. Keep pushing forward; we all have mistakes, we all have bumps in the road, and that’s not what makes or breaks us. Always push forward and try new things and be brave, and do it. Those are the things that keep me motivated.

I think I covered everything I wanted to cover. But I want to answer some questions, because that kind of goes more in depth with stuff. And I’m sorry if I mispronounce this name; Sinead. I’m not going to even try. You have a beautiful name. So his or her; dammit, I think it’s a her. Ok. “One thing I’m interested in is whether you accept payment for some items/products you highlight on your blog. If you’re paid to promote certain things, it would be interesting to know what level? Are followers needed to be interesting to companies?”

So I definitely accept payment for; so let’s say I’m doing a post this Friday that’s from Nordstrom. So they’re paying me to promote certain things. They’re just paying me for the post; I bought the outfit, put the outfit together, but I’m getting paid to highlight whatever topic I want, which is going to be sweaters. And you know; I don’t know what the number is that you need to be interesting to companies. But I’ve seen many different bloggers out there from just a couple thousand followers to hundreds of thousands of millions of followers, they all have had different paid content or ads on their site, or on their Instagram. So I don’t know if there’s a certain number. Sometimes, the bigger number you have the more you get reached out to, but you could also reach out to companies, as well, and say I want to promote something and make a deal with them, talk to them, and sometimes they’ll respond to you. So I hope that helps.

Misty, “What is one thing, or things, that in hindsight you thought; I would have done more research about this, or I should have thought that out a little bit better?” And I definitely think about my first cookbook. I went with a publisher; and I didn’t know anything about writing or creating a cookbook, and I went with the first publisher that reached out to me. It seemed like a small publisher, and I was like, “OK this will be good, we can grow together and create this awesome thing.” I wish I would have done a little bit more research and understood things a little bit better. I was just young and naïve and wasn’t happy with the product and some of the behind the scenes things. But you know, I still love that it got my start and created a cookbook years ago, just getting my feet on the ground. So I don’t fully regret it, but I wish I would have done more research about that, for sure. So do your research. Meet with a contract lawyer.

Ok, Angelica, “What were main things you focused on while building your blog?” I think the main things I focused on was putting out content on a regular basis. I loved seeing responses from people when I would put out new content, so I was just trying to put out content on a regular basis, and every single week, every couple of days, and just get interesting stuff out there. That was what I concentrated more than anything, was content.

Which is perfect for; I think it’s Aislin. Her next question, “How do you create new, quality content every day? It’s a struggle to come up with material, let alone take a decent picture of it. If there are blogs out there that are already doing what you’re doing, what makes people want to come to your blog?” So, to create new quality content, that can definitely be tough. But I firmly; I’m always like, this isn’t my favorite dish of all time, but then I’ll post it, and many people will love it, and I was just like, “Meh, whatever.” If you are trying for perfection every single time, that’s going to suck. But, somebody is going think it’s perfect, even if you don’t think it’s perfect. So I just stay motivated. I’m always looking at Pinterest, and looking at how people are setting up their shots and photos and how I can get better at those photos. But with new quality content, I plan things out way ahead of time, and make sure everything’s ready to go, photo station is ready to go, I can get the recipe done and the pictures done real quick. But it’s just planning; I think planning, more than anything. Planning is the way to go. I hope that answers that.

Maria; oh, she asks “How do affiliate links work? I just started my blog, and I don’t really have a readership yet, but I’m curious how to get that set up.” So, like I talked about the affiliate links before, and the more followers you have, the better the affiliate links work. So I definitely increase your readership and get more people on your blog before you start the affiliate posts. Because those don’t do much unless you have that bigger readership. But like I said, I don’t use a certain program. I have worked with people who have come to me about it, and that’s how I found affiliates.

“Did you receive any business coaching? I noticed you made a distinct shift from a food blog to a health and wellness blog?” So I kind of said this in the beginning, but I did not have any business coaching; I haven’t had any business coaching with any of this, it’s just been figuring it out along the way. But years ago I was like, “I need to do this more of a lifestyle blog if I want to make sure that I’m creating a life for myself, and able to make more money.” So I just decided to go for it; and to keep myself interested. So that’s why I started doing workouts; that’s why I started adding fashion. And then I would get questions, say, about beauty; I was like, oh, ok I’ll add in some beauty stuff. I just took more responses from people and talked about that, and kind of went from there. So it’s just natural progression, I guess.

“What is a good website host if you don’t have a lot of money?” I’ll link one; it’s called Blue Host, it’s an awesome one. I’ve heard many people on that, so I’ll link that. How did you choose yours?” Actually an old friend told me about it and that’s how I got started in that. But yeah, depending on your website size and capacity, I’ll link a good host.

Kayla. This is like; ok I put these two comments kind of together because they were similar. “I think it’s helpful to talk to people about really, truly growing traffic and how to improve your photography skills.” Ok, how to improve traffic; I have no f*cking clue. I’m not into SEO stuff, I don’t know any of that jazz. I simply grew my traffic organically and through word of mouth, that’s how I got it out there. I got in at a great time when blogs were just starting to kind of blow up and there weren’t as many out there. So I think getting in at the right time was really good for me, but it’s been word of mouth. And I know there’s SEO stuff that you can do. I don’t know any of that stuff, and I can’t be helpful with that. There are companies that do that, and create good SEO for you, but I don’t know how to do that.

And ways to improve your photography skills; luckily, when I did my last cookbook I stayed with my friends Bill and Hayley of PrimalPalate.com, and they did the photography for my cookbook, and I watched how they set up the photos, and I just reenacted that when I got home. Then I’ll just look at how people plate their food, or set up their shots. Like, Jessica from How Sweet it is and; oh, I’m forgetting her name. Tieghan from Half Baked Harvest; I’d look at how they set up their shots, because those are my favorite, and then I kind of play off of theirs. So I was looking at how other people do stuff since I’m not very good at that, and I just try to get better and better at it, and see what works, and what colors look best, and kind of go from there. But there’s an awesome book; I’ll link this book because I can’t think of it off the top of my head. There’s a great book out there that kind of tells you about lighting and camera settings and that’s helpful, as well. So I’ll link that as well. Sorry, I don’t remember it off the top of my head.

Let’s see; just a couple more questions. Beth, “What is your opinion on quantity over quality? Say I make a goal to post once a week, but I try out the recipe or whatever I’m posting and it’s just pretty blah. Post it anyway? Stick to your schedule?” I always stick to my schedule. I always plan ahead, so if I make a recipe that’s blah, I’ll make it again and get it on there, or I’ll make a new recipe and get that done. I think you should stick to your schedule, because not posting one week can turn into not posting for two, to three, and then it kind of just snowballs from there. So sticking with your schedule, I think, is important because then people know that when they come back to your site every Wednesday you have a new recipe up, so that’s going to keep them coming back. But as they see, when you don’t post on a Wednesday, they’re not going to come back as much. So I think quantity is really important. But get your quality; don’t post sh*tty recipes, you know? But I think getting quantity out there is really important.

Lauren. “How do you manage your time and stay motivated, even on days that you don’t want to?” And, “Did you have a vision in the beginning of what you wanted this to be, or did you just roll with the punches? What’s the one thing that makes or breaks a fulltime blogger in your opinion?”

So, I manage my time like creating those to-do lists, and I write down literally everything. I write down what time I’m going to have breakfast, what time I have lunch, if I need to go get gas. Literally everything is on there so I can fit every single pinch of time into my day, because literally, when you’re running, you’re on business, every single minute of the day is filled with something. So writing down to-do lists has been the most helpful thing for me, and I just rolled with the punches. I never saw myself as a full time blogger; again, I didn’t know you could get paid as a full time blogger, I just thought I’d be a personal trainer the rest of my life. So I’ve just rolled with the punches.

And I don’t know if there’s one thing that makes or breaks a full time blogger. I think that you have to be creative, you have to be driven, and you have to be excited about what you do because that’s the only thing that’s going to keep you going every day instead of going to your office job, maybe, that you were at in the first place where you’ll get paid no matter what. There’s no; “Yes, you’ll get paid every single month this certain amount.” It could go up, it could go down, and that’s really scary for some people. So I think you have to be not scared to put yourself out there and see what happens. I think maybe that’s what makes or break people.

Ok, last question. I feel like I’m going over my time; what time am I at? 41 minutes, oh my gosh, I’m doing so good. Ok, so, Kelsie, “How do you deal with people from the real world reading or critiquing your content? I don’t want people from my real life reading my blog or being all judge-y and giving their non-asked for two cents. How do you deal with this?” I don’t give a f*ck what people in my real life think, honestly. If people in my real life were getting judge-y about that, well I don’t want to hang out with them, so I don’t know. It kind of just shows people’s true colors. I don’t know; I just don’t give a f*ck. My parents read my stuff every day, they’ll say something if they don’t like it. I mean, they don’t ever really do that, but if they did, I’d be like, “Cool mom. I didn’t ask you. How’s your day been?” move on from there. I don’t know. Just don’t give a f*ck. That’s what everything should be about; being a blogger is about not giving a f*ck.

Ok, that’s not true, because you do have a to give a f*ck. I give a f*ck about people if I’m putting content out there for them on a regular basis. But I hope that answered a lot of questions. I think it’s just so cool; I wish more people would talk about it, so I could learn from more people as well and see what people are doing and how they’re doing it and how they’re kicking ass at life. But I’m always watching what other people are doing; I’m watching social media; I’m watching when people are posting and what they’re posting and what’s getting the most traction, and I keep those things in mind for my own blog, because you can really learn a ton from people and keep growing and keep pushing forward, like I said before.

So I don’t know if that answered all the questions; I pretty much took most of them and kind of condensed some of them just because I answered the questions. But I’m happy to answer any questions. If you have anything just go to www.PaleOMG.com and you can listen there, but you can also leave your comments in this podcast blog post. And I just want to hear from you; what questions do you have. Because I think this is a cool topic, and it’s very empowering that we’re able to create jobs for ourselves. I always grew up thinking that I was going to hate my job, and that’s what you were supposed to do, was hate what you were doing. I have not lived one day of that yet, and that’s f*cking so cool. I hope I can do this forever, and I hope I can get others to do it and take the plunge and work their ass off, because you definitely work your f*cking ass off.

But if you have any comments, please leave them on my blog, I’d love t answer any. And if you have any podcast topics that you want to hear, feel free to leave that. Should I have a person on? I don’t really want to have a person on because I hate people. I mean, I like the people I like but I hate most people, so should I have a person on? My friend Vanessa, who I went on book tour with, would be a f*cking hoot. Maybe I’ll pull her on sometime. But I like being by myself, because I’m an only child and a weirdo.

So if you have any questions, if you have any comments, please leave them on the blog. If you want to review and subscribe to this blog; or whatever this is, this podcast, that would be a dream. Only positive comments, because positive people lift the world up; you know what I mean? I was in a bad mood to start, and I feel better. Thanks for being my therapeutic session, guys. I need that. And a brownie, but we’ll get there. I’m going to go get a gluten free donut tomorrow, and I f*cking; no, Sunday. F*ck, tomorrow is Friday. On Sunday; Sunday cannot come soon enough.

Ok, I’m going to leave. But remember, if you have any podcast topics you want to hear, let me know because I’m always taking them. Next week, I was going to talk about; I don’t know how this one will go over, but I was going to talk about my love story with my hubby, because a couple of people have just asked about that, so I was going to share that. The ups and downs; the trials and tribulations of the past 5 years with him.

Ok. That’s it. I’m going to leave you there. We’re almost at 46 minutes, I f*cking over did it. Remember; rate, review, subscribe, send me kisses, love, because I’m sending it your way! Do fun stuff this weekend. Wait, no; every single day. Do fun stuff every single day of your life. Ok? Boo-ya. See you later.