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!

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.

Reader Questions:

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.

Oh, Hi! I’m Juli.

I’m a food hoarder. And a really bad dancer. If you don’t know me well, you will probably not understand my humor. Therefore, I apologize ahead of time. Thanks for listening to my ramblings of my ever-changing life and trusting my kitchen mishaps. Your trust in me is appreciated.

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84 thoughts on “How I Became a Full-Time Blogger – Episode 7: PaleOMG Uncensored Podcast”

  1. Juli – How did you move your posts from blogspot to wordpress? Were you able to save them on your desktop or something?

    1. i’m sure there is a program but back then i was moving all of my recipes into my recipe box widget so it was all copying and pasting. took many many hours but it did the job haha

  2. Thank you for being so generous to share all this information–it is so helpful. Continued success to you and may Jackson get many more of the bones he loves! 🙂

  3. Loved loved loved this podcast! And I am a bit surprised I did! Not because I didn’t enjoy all of your other podcasts (I did), but I didn’t think this one would be relevant to me given I have no desire (or aptitude) to become a blogger. But this was so much more than just about blogging. It was about finding your passsion in what you do every day, building a life you love and sharing and motivating others to do the same, whatever their talent may be. Thank you for getting my weekend off to an inspiring start. Also, two questions from the podcast 1) do you shopmostly in person or online? If online, how do you find stuff you love with so much product out ther? 2) what was your interview for the other day ( if you can say)?

    PS thank you also for making me realize I am not crazy for detailing my daily to do list down to the time I am going to do it!

    1. glad you felt that way because i feel like i didn’t emphasize that enough. i wish i would have mentioned that people should follow their dreams and not settle. as for your question, i definitely shop mostly online. and i think it’s just trial and error and sticking with those brands that i love the most. and i try to stick with companies that have free return shipping and good customer service so i don’t run into many issues! and i cannot say what the interview was for (yet) haha! but maybe i can in the future!

  4. Very cool! Thanks for all the content you post because it is all awesome and inspiring! In college I tried posting recipes here and there on something totally random I can’t even remember now. But I have always ALWAYS enjoyed food and just in the past year cooking healthier so I started up a blog about 10 months ago mainly for friends and family to see recipes and I’ve gotten the bug to get out there more and this podcast was/is awesome! You are an inspiration and your snap chats and everything crack me up! Keep it up! Thanks!

  5. Amazing podcast! Thank you so much for motivating and supporting your listeners with super useful tips! I love watching you on snapchat too and I really appreciate your hard work…you deserve the success you have! ????????

  6. I’ve been a reader for a couple years and lately have been pretty much living by your tips and tricks in your blog/podcast/social media/everything. You’ve helped me a ton and inspire me daily as I have decided to leave my miserable 8-5 life and pursue fitness, freelance, and happiness. I never stop working but I’ve never been happier:) So thank you for everything you do! And keep being you – your brand is unique and awesome and idgaf what other people have to say about it!

  7. I have been thinking about starting a blog for a while now primarily because of you! your blog is so inspiring and you are so freaking funny. i love listening to you and reading all your posts bc i feel like i can truly relate and it makes me happy that there are people like you out there in this world. we need more! anyways, my husband and i just closed on a house in my home state and we are moving in a couple weeks to set down some permanent roots. i am leaving my desk job in marketing and i am using this as an opportunity to finally follow my true passion and do what i love: fitness and food…and wine :-). see ya later corporate america. So this podcast was beyond helpful and as always inspiring. keep being awesome!

  8. Loved this episode, Juli! You’re so funny, I’m glad you are podcasting. Thanks for making me smile. Anywho, I guess I’d like more detail about how you set up your food photos and what settings you use on your camera. Loooooooove all the blogging tips. Thanks!!!

    1. I set up my food photos next to a window with natural light then use a piece of white board off to the side to bounce off light. and i honestly don’t use any settings on my camera, just automatic lol. i really need to learn more about camera stuff but haven’t had time

  9. Juli loving the podcast! Just finished listening to the episode. I feel like I’m next to you when I listen or even when I read your posts. You keep everything so real. You are tooooo funny. Hi to Jackson

  10. this was super entertaining while I was running on Saturday! I listened to your podcast while I finished up 12 miles, thanks for helping me forget I was running!

  11. Ah I am so excited to listen to this! I have been dabbling in blogging for about 6 months now and I really wish I had more time to dedicate to it. I can easily lose myself on the computer for hours when I get working on something, so I keep trying to make little changes here and there to improve my site. It definitely takes more time than I ever would have imagined, but it’s so fun when people give you positive feedback.

    Questions about fees: how do you know an appropriate fee to charge to work with different companies? I am brand new and don’t have much traffic, so I am just happy if anyone takes notice of me at this point. I have had a few brands reach out to me but honestly didn’t realize some blogs ask for fees to write articles (makes sense though, you guys have to make money somehow!) But I would like to work smarter as I go and be prepared for how to approach this subject!

    1. i did some research online and chatted to some other bloggers about prices and just kind of pulled from there with my own statistics (using google analytics). i did MANY MANY posts for free when i first started because i didn’t know better but i also was just growing my blog so i needed that experience. but there are some articles out there about how many bloggers get paid and i based that information with my own info to build my own media kit!

      1. Awesome thanks for the info! I’ve been reading all over and just trying to absorb as much information as possible. I work full time as a nurse so I can’t dedicate as much time as I would like, but I’m hopeful I’ll get there 🙂

  12. When you say “As it grew,” what was the process and things you did to grow it? How did you get subscribers and followers? Thank you so much!

    1. just organically. i didn’t do any anything specific like paid advertising or doing guest posts on other peoples sites, i just posted regularly and people would share the content with their friends. so word of mouth and organic traffic!

  13. This was awesome! Thank you so much for the transparency and honesty and great info! The blog world always felt like some secret society and you let us look behind the curtain… amazing! Yay you!

  14. This was my first podcast of yours to listen to… not only entertaining but so insightful! Esp for those of us considering the blogging life! I do have a couple of questions that I really hope you don’t find too personal!! First, now that you are pretty well known and (we assume) pretty successful, does your gym still pay you for coaching 2 days a week? I have been coaching at my gym for almost a year now with the only benefit being free membership. Granted, that is just awesome and I love getting to hang with my friends everyday while helping people. Just wanted your view on that. Second, what does your husband do for work? You mention he is gone a lot of the day and it’s just something I wonder about with the idea of starting a blog for hopefully a part-time income one day. Thanks Juli!!

    1. not too personal at all! i coach 5 classes a week so it doesn’t make much sense to only get a free membership since that adds up to much more than a membership. if i ever decide to only coach 1 class per week, then it would make more sense to only have a free membership. and my husband is the GM of a company that’s open 7 days per week so he works 6 of those days and works out after he gets off work so he’s gone a lot. but i definitely keep busy and it keeps me motivated in my own business!

  15. I love your blog, videos and podcasts. I have never looked forward to my Monday morning commutes so much until your podcasts came along. Also, your newest cookbook is the bomb.com.

    Random cheesy question- how often do you have cheese? I love it, but am a lactose intolerant in denial.

    1. that’s so awesome!! yay yay yay!! whenever I record these podcasts, i wonder if anyone is actually listening or actually enjoying them haha, so thank you!! and i have goat cheese and sheep’s milk yogurt regularly, i just try not to have it every day or overdo it!

  16. I couldn’t be more obsessed with you if I tried. you are a god damn legend!
    listening to your podcasts on repeat while in the bath or cooking is probably the highlight of my day (mid week, im not assss lame on the weekend 😉 ) keep up the amazing work lady !
    Muchos love from Sydney Australia xxx

  17. Juli,

    Seriously I’m so glad that I subscribed to your podcast! I messaged you before about how I admire your self-confidence and boy does it come out even more on your podcast! Thanks for being you! #positivecomments!????????

  18. Thanks for this, it was inspirational and had me feeling super motivated by the end of it. Especially the part where you mention not to be a perfectionist and how some people may love a recipe that you may not think is your best. That is something I noticed has kept me from posting some content and I will rethink that in the future. You mentioned not knowing much about SEO, do you pay for that on your site, or skip it? Thanks for all the tips! I found listening was really a mood booster for me, I’ll definitely be listening again!

    1. no i just skip it. i may do it someday but i haven’t wanted to dedicate the money and time to get it done. and what i’ve found over the years of blogging is to not trust just anyone so it would take some time and digging to find the right company to do it.

  19. Hey Juli,
    Love following you on social media! You are a true inspiration. Question from an aspiring blogger. How big did other social media outlets play a role in getting followers? Do I need to post on IG daily? Twitter? Etc? I’m not really blogging to make a career switch but I love to write and feel I have interesting things to say about life that other people might enjoy. But I wouldn’t mind having followers and people who enjoy reading what I have to say!

    1. social media is HUGE. giant. so big. i post on average 8 times a day on instagram. that’s the outlet i concentrate on the most, but those posts also load to FB and Twitter and I also chat on snapchat a lot. social media is truly everything nowadays.

  20. Love your podcast and am so happy you decided to do one! We are definitely listening so don’t doubt if anyone is and I look forward to them so keep it up! Thanks Juli 🙂

  21. I loved this episode so much. You’ve inspired me so much and now WAY more with these podcasts. Thank you so much for being just super real and straightforward. I learned a lot about my own blog and goals listening to this and you seriously are just so cool for laying this out in a way that’s informative and funny.
    I just want to say as a parent of two very needy pups that I don’t want you to kick out Jackson permanently from your recordings ( not that you were but just in case you considered) because his little bone noises were the cutest and I love that he is there trying to interrupt you. Just keep doing you on these podcasts. They are not like any other podcast I’ve listened to and I thank you for that. It’s so exciting watching you do new stuff and rock at it! Gives me such inspo!

  22. Yay for Stitcher!

    Podcast topic: I would love to know how you go about developing and testing recipes, how many times do you have to make something before it’s “perfect”, what you do with the batches that are not so perfect, how many groceries to you buy every week, etc. It boggles my mind how you (and other food bloggers) come up with new recipes every week, I would love to know the secrets 🙂

    Thanks

    1. i can answer those questions right here! i write down any ideas that come to mind, i have so so many written down, then i keep in mind if holidays are coming up and then i’ll do some research. so if i don’t know what braising is, i’ll figure it out. if i don’t know what specific items go into a pot roast, i’ll research it. it’s lots of research. then i just start adding things together and write it down so i don’t forget. sometimes i only cook a recipe once, other times it’s up to 3 times, but i don’t cook something more than that. i just don’t care enough. i grocery shop on average 4 times per week. sometimes it’s a full shopping trip, other times i’m just grabbing a few items. but i go many times per week and spend A LOT on grocery. if a recipe is not perfect, i still eat it or share it with friends and family. if it’s not edible (which happens) it hits the trash. hope those answers help!

  23. Hi Juli! So glad you started a podcast, you crack me up constantly on snapchat. I know you have mentioned you are obsessed with podcasts on true crime and murder lately and I have been too! They are just so interesting but freakin scary at the same time. I started listening to Sword and Scale after you showed it the other day and it is great! I have been listening to My Favorite Murder and love love that one too because the two girls are so hilarious and they tell good stories at the same time. What other ones have you been liking?

  24. Juli! You are one of my favorite bloggers and you are so effing funny! I feel like if we knew each other we would be friends 🙂 Anyway, I just wanted you to know that you have been a huge inspiration for me. I started my own business this year doing on demand, farm-to-table grocery delivery based out of Seattle, and it has given me SO much more respect for people like you who run your own business and kick ass at being a girl boss! It is harder than I ever could have imagined! This post was very helpful because I am coming at this from the advertising side, and it is very insightful to know which ways bloggers/influencers prefer to be approached by companies that are a fit with their content. Thank you for the consistently good content and positive vibes- you are such an inspiration!

    1. people who don’t run their own business have no idea how much works it takes. but that’s what is so rewarding about it! glad i could help inspire in more ways! keep kicking ass!

  25. I can’t figure out how to review your podcast like you’ve been asking listeners to do, but I wanted to let you know I finally started listening today while on a walk before writing a paper for school and I instantly LOVED listening! I was literally loling in public and didn’t give a single fuck!! I love your rambles, baby talk to Jackson, and excessive cursing. I would have never guessed you struggled with insecurities for so long….Don’t ever change bc you’re freaking awesome! I look forward to following the blog more closely and listening to your podcasts and others you’ve recommended. Guess I’ll throw a question out there in hopes I might hear it answered…..I’ve been stalking crossfitters on social media for a while, but i still don’t feel “in shape” enough to show up to a gym. How did you get the balls to walk into a crossfit gym?? Thanks Juli!

    1. it depends if you’re on iTunes or stitcher but there is a star system for both and you can also write a review where it says ‘write a review’, hope that helps! but thank you for leaving a comment here! and here’s the thing about CF on social media – most of the people who are sharing videos or photos of their workouts are people who do CF all.the.time. and that’s a very small percentage. you’re not seeing “normal every day people” sharing videos because they don’t have time or they probably just don’t care. so you’re not seeing 95% of the people who do CF. every shape and size is in the CF gym. and no matter what shape you are in, you will never feel in amazing shape in CF because it destroys you every workout. so GET IN THERE!! everyone feels intimidated the first time, but if you have a gym and coaches that are awesome, that feeling will leave you quickly!

  26. Hi Juli,
    Thanks so much for this podcast. I’m just starting my own blog and staying on task has been difficult with me since we just moved into a new house and I have a baby AND work full time. I will make sure to set a posting schedule and stick to it. You also mentioned you use lists to make sure you are staying on track for your day. Do you use an app, your computer, or just simple pen and paper?

  27. I think I’ll love your podcast whether you have someone on or not, but…I agree, Vanessa would be fun. Or you could have your sister-in-law on. It might be cool to hear all about the Questival trip she took.

  28. First off, writing from Boulder, love Colorado!! Thank you for the motivation! I have been off technology lately but am finally getting caught up. I am very interested in starting a blog and this has pushed me in the right direction. I’m a stay at home mom and I’m really interested in doing things that aren’t poop related 100% of the time. Unless my blog is about poop…. Which I’m familiar with so it might work out.

    I know you touched on how you make yours stand out, but how do you develop recipes? Where do you draw inspiration and how do you keep it from being a carbon copy of the trillions of recipes on Pinterest? I have a few staples i make in my house but if I wanted to post one how do I know that no one else already has?

    For the record I’ve never thought your recipes weren’t unique or delicious, just asking for myself.

    1. recipe ideas come from all over: something i saw online, something i tried at a restaurant, or just an idea that came from memories of what i’ve eaten in the past. many things i pull from inspiration from something that was made with gluten, say a chocolate cake, and try to make it paleo. cake is not unique, but the ingredients you use, how you top it, the frosting you create, the way you decorate it, all make it your own! if you create a recipe based on your ideas, you’ve made your own recipe. if you copy someone else’s ingredients and change just one thing, that’s considered copying. so i just stay away from people’s actual posts, i just pull concepts from what they have made. i hope that helps and makes sense!

  29. Loved the pod cast – it was very insightful and so are the answers to questions here! I wanted to start a blog, but realized I just don’t have the time. What I really wanted was to share some occasional recipes, recipe reviews from cookbooks or online recipes, healthy eating tips/tricks, and products reviews (since I research and try out multiple brands of everything from electronics and athletic gear to food). So you think there is way to get involved with another blogger or a health website to be able to do occasional posts? Do companies or media sites ever reach out to you? I have a masters in nutrition, but love to experiment and make recipes more healthy. Right now I have a Facebook site to make it easy to share with at least my family and friends when I create or try out another recipe. Like I mentioned there is no way I could devout the amount of time you do to a blog because I have a full time job.

    On a separate note if you have NETFLIX you should check out the series The FALL – about a serial killer (fictional) – it is super interesting.
    Love the true murder podcasts – any recommendations like the ones you posted are great!

    Also have you ever tried Athleta (owned by GAP) for clothes – they have some great reasonably priced clothes that are a mix of gym and play!

    1. i wish i could be more help but i have no clue when it comes to sites that have multiple bloggers but IM SURE there are!! maybe ask around on Facebook?! and someone else told me to check out the fall the other night, definitely need to watch it! and i’ve tried athleta but they don’t fit me quite right :/

  30. Juliiiiiiiii! First of all I will say I love your blog and podcast. Duh. You are my kind of person. I love that you are so real and put it all out there. I have used your blog and cookbook to death and love EVERYTHING! Your podcast on how you became a full time blogger was super helpful since I am just getting my blog started. I’m not tryna go all crazy at first but I was curious what kind of camera you use. My phone is great and all buttttt yeah I need something a little better. So anyway thanks for everything you do lady!

  31. You’re such a dang relatable person. I’ve told my boyfriend all about you & how awesome you are. Don’t worry, he hears your snapchat playing on my phone every night, so he knows I’m not lying. Anyway, could you do a podcast or blog post on tips/tricks/hacks on improving a persons relationship with food? I feel like so many of us really struggle with that & you seem to have your sh*t together in that area. If you were struggling, what steps would you take to slowly improve? It’s a difficult battle to say the least. Kinda like knowing you should do/feel one way, but not being able to. Kthanksyourethebest.

  32. Hi Juli!

    I know you mentioned you got your bachelor’s in an exercise related field…do you think it’s worth it? I have my personal training and crossfit level one certifications, and most jobs only require the certification(s) with no degree. I am currently trying to decide between nursing and exercise science or if it’s even worth it to go back to school. I guess I just want to know if you would do it again if you had to?

    Thank you! Love your blog!!

    1. i think any degree and experience is worth it. i didn’t necessarily get much from my degree that was exactly related to the things i do now, but i got a ton of experience working with people, understanding their behaviors, and what it takes to create a life for myself. i would definitely do it again but that’s mostly because i had the full college experience of living in a college town, working a job where i met many of my best friends, failing some classes, getting my GPA back up, figuring myself out. so college to me was way more than just the degree itself, it was how it shaped me as a human being

  33. Awesome podcast! Quick question – do you use some sort of app to stay organized with your to-do list for each day? Or how do you stay organized? You mentioned “Notes” and writing things down in your Podcast, but do you have other tips as well?

  34. If you create a recipe the doesn’t ‘turn out’, what do you do with the food?

    Also, like a lot of the other wonderful people commenting on here, I would also love to have my own blog. But I have never created my own recipes. I’m just (pretty) good at making yours and other recipes I find. Is this a silly question, but would I have to create my own recipes? I guess what else would I post? I wouldn’t take someone else’s recipe and call it my own, I’d give credit to the creator, but that doesn’t make for the best blog ‘business’ model, I’d just be sending readers to other people’s sites! lol I am a personal trainer, have my L1, Degree in Ex Science also, Paleo enthusiast for years, I could post all kinds of other information I guess… Thanks, love ya!

    1. every blogger has their own opinions with that. if you were to create your own blog where you wanted to share some of my recipes on, i would ask you to share only the ingredients but link back to my blog in the directions instead of sharing the directions. that way people are brought back to the original recipe. i’m not sure what else you would post, but i’m sure inspiration would change over time and you would find even more things you are interested in and want to share!

  35. So first let me say that I feel like you’re one of my own close friends…and I totally mean that in a non-creepy way ; ) mainly becuase I read your blog, and follow you on every social media outlet…OK, so maybe border-line creepy…
    I love how real you are and that you just do you. SCREW THE HATERS!

    Second, I just launched my mom-blog this week YAY! and was wondering if had any good inexpensive image editing resources you use?
    I feel like images are really what get readers interested and then your content it what holds them there and would like to experiment with ways to up my image game.

    Thanks!!

  36. Juli, I am loving listening to your podcasts! So great and entertaining! Love your attitude! Dont let dumb people get you down! <3 Keep it up! I am constantly telling people how great you are!

    Sara!

  37. Hey Julie! I just wanted to let you know that you’ve actually been a huge inspiration to me over the last couple years and I ended up started a health blog about 2 weeks ago on the side.

    I have actually been really interested in this topic of making money from blogging and you may be interested to follow Pat Flynn on his blog, http://www.smartpassiveincome.com as his blog taught me a lot about money making opportunities from blogging. He is SUPER honest and open about talking about making money from blogging.

    I think you have most of it figured out but I thought I’d share 🙂 I also started listening to the EntrepreneurOnFire podcast which is very similarly open about finances and running your own business (most of the time it’s online).

    Now if I can only implement my learnings from YOU, Pat and JLD 🙂 We’ll see where this journey takes me!

    Stay awesome!

  38. Hi Juli!

    Do you recommend/ highly NOT recommend any of the equipment that you’ve purchased for podcasts/videos? There are so many options out there and I’m just looking for something user friendly and worth the money.

    Thanks for your time!

    Katie

  39. Oh my freaking God. I just wrote a bitchin’ message to you and there was an error to post it….now its gone. fml. I’m about half paleo because I live in Europe and here bread is life and Italian fresh pasta is way to close to ignore. Absolutely love your stuff and always refer to your blog for recipes. I’m starting my own lifestyle blog I have some questions. I’m going to use wordpress but should I do the cheaper one first then graduate to the premium version as my traffic increases? Do you have any tips on the writing style (cussing, length, topics that people want/don’t want to read)? Should I write shorter posts at first to keep people or just go at it organically and see what happens. I love how you write because it feels like I’m sitting in the room taking to you. Did you get better blogging over time or did you research and have inspiration? My writing inspiration is you and Jen Hatmaker. Any thoughts would be amazing! Wish we could have coffee.

    1. yeah it’s not bad to start with a cheaper version and then change as you need to. that’s what i did! and i can’t tell you how much to write. i know people who write extremely long posts and others who write shorter posts and both do just great, so it’s up to you and what you want to put out into the world. and i definitely think i have gotten better with blogging over time. i think the more you work on anything, the better you get!!

  40. I just listened to this podcast and I am soooo f-ing excited and motivated. I started my own paleo blog about a month ago. I wanted to really make a go of it as a career but have been a little frustrated with getting going and started doubting myself. After listening to this those doubts are gone. You are so real and I love it. That is what I want to bring to my blog, the really uncensored version of me. Listening to your podcast shows me that it is ok to just be you. Thank you for that. I plan to use you as my mentor. I too think my blog will be more of a lifestyle blog as ideas keep coming to mind to write about that aren’t paleo. Your amazing and thank you for doing what you do.

    1. i think it totally depends on how much money you want to spend! my first professional camera was a canon rebel t4i and i really liked my 50mm lens that i bought with it. i think i was able to get some great photos with that camera

  41. Hey Juli!!! Thank you so much for posting this podcast! My friend and I just started a blog and this gave us a starting point to get it going. Quick question, do you use wordpress.com or wordpress.org? Up above it says that you use wordpress.com but I just found out that you can’t use ads to monetize your blog unless it’s on wordpress.org. Talk about trial and error!! lol. Sorry if that was confusing, but hopefully you can shed some light on this for us 🙂 Thank you so much for posting such awesome content…I’m obsessed with pretty much all of your recipes and cookbooks!

  42. Hello Juli,

    Thank you for the podcast! My mom and I have been following you for a few years and absolutely adore you!

    Any who! I just recently graduated from undergraduate college and am creating a blog but I’m stuck on what my first blog post should be about….. I have so many ideas for posts but i do not know where to begin…. do you have any tips or tricks to help beginner bloggers really start off strong?

    Thank you for your wonderful presence on and off social media! Hope Jackson is doing well!

    Lindsay

    1. i think the best advice i can give is to not overthink it. if you go back to my very first post, it’s super short and not much meat to it. but the point was that i shared something. share something, share anything. all you can do is continue to grown from it and get better and better at it!

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