IAM2584 – Blogger Shares Tips for Bloggers and Marketers Through Her Website

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Janice Wald Teaser 00:00

You would also ask what tips people would find on my site? Really anything to help people be successful online.

Again, as I mentioned, blogging tips, marketing tips, business tips, social media tips, search engine optimization tips, productivity tips, bloggers are so busy, that helps, and technology that will help online entrepreneurs in their journey.

Intro 00:27

Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview?

If so, you've come to the right place. Gresh values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 00:54

Hello, hello, hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO Podcast. And I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Janice Wald of MostlyBlogging.com. Janice, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Janice Wald 01:03

Thank you so much. I'm delighted to be here.

Gresham Harkless 01:06

No problem. Super excited to have you on. And what I want to do is just read a little bit more about Janice so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing.

And Janice Wald is an author, speaker, and freelance writer, blogger, and blogging coach.

She blogs at MostlyBlogging.com, where she shares tips for bloggers, marketers, and entrepreneurs.

Janice, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

Janice Wald 01:26

Yes, I am.

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Gresham Harkless 01:27

Awesome. Let's do it. So, they kick everything off. I wanted to hear a little bit more about what I call your CEO story and what led you to start your business.

Janice Wald 01:35

Well, thank you for asking. They say everything in life is timing, and everything fell into place for me.

I knew that eventually I would be retiring from my day job as a teacher, but I didn't know what I would be doing in my retirement.

And then I considered briefly teaching college. So, I went back to school. I got my master's degree in education, where writing was a very common activity and analysis.

We did all the time. And my confidence in my writing abilities grew and grew. My professors kept praising me.

And when I left the program and I received my master's degree in education, I realized I did not want to teach college right now, maybe one day when I retire from teaching, but I did want to continue to write.

I did want to continue to analyze. And so, I thought, well, what can I do with those writing skills right now?

And with my daughter's grown, my last left for college around the time that I started the blog, I thought blogging was just perfect for me. It enabled me to write.

It enabled me to do the analysis from other people's writing and interact and analyze with my readers on my blog.

And at the same time, not only do things that I thoroughly enjoyed, but help people who were interested in my tips.

And so, I read and read a lot about how to be a successful blogger. I had not found my niche yet.

And after several months of reading about how to blog successfully, I thought, well, why not blog about this and help people like myself, new bloggers that want tips to succeed online?

And that went very well for a year or two. And then those bloggers were no longer new. And so, I thought, well, I still want to help people.

So, I expanded my niche from just blogging tips to marketing tips so that those people that had formerly been new bloggers could now monetize their blog.

And I've extended it to entrepreneur tips as well, really all tips for anybody who wants to succeed online, productivity tips, technology tips, SEO tips, social media tips, and so forth.

Gresham Harkless 04:03

Nice, I definitely appreciate that. And I appreciate, obviously, I'm very pro-blogging, but I definitely appreciate the organic nature, it sounds like, of how everything has grown as you started to develop something.

And when you started to develop something, you did it for yourself, and then it sounds like you started to see that that in itself was a niche, and then it started to just kind of expand from there as the niche started to grow.

Janice Wald 04:28

Yes, definitely. It wasn't; it switched from not just giving me fulfillment, but enabling me to help others as well.

Gresham Harkless 04:36

Absolutely. So, for somebody that may be completely in your very first niche that may not be familiar with exactly what blogging is, can you tell us a little bit more about what exactly that is and exactly like what some of the things that they can find on your site to help out with that?

Janice Wald 04:53

Oh, certainly. As far as what blogging is, I mean, I can't rave enough. I devote every spare minute, every free moment that I'm not in the classroom to the blog.

For somebody who's not familiar with blogging, you could think of it as an online diary. But when you keep a diary in your home, in a book or in a journal, it's really for you.

You to reflect and for your thoughts, maybe as a way for you to vent and reflect. But other people generally don't go into it.

People even keep their diaries locked. And even if you shared maybe a diary entry, people usually don't write inside your diary.

But a blog, you can share anything you think will be interesting to other people. In my case, as you said, it's blogging tips.

But the difference between a blog and a diary is that online, people can comment on what you've written.

And it's great. A community develops this way in which you engage, and you network, and you interact with each other.

And again, you analyze what the blogger's written, and thoughts are shared. And people come in the community, and they read what the commenter's written, and follow their blogs, and engage with them.

And blogging really is a thriving community. There's any sort of rumor out there that blogging is on its way out?

Not at all. I mean, more and more and more companies even have blogs to promote their products and services.

Blog stands for web blog, like it's a blog on the web, and it's just come to be known as a blog, so I have a great deal of fun with it, and people write that my tips have been helpful to them, and I'm very happy to hear that. Of course.

Gresham Harkless 06:45

Yeah, absolutely. And I definitely would echo much of the same. I think that I love the way that you defined it, because I think a lot of times people get into the maybe, the way in which you create content online.

But like you said, it's a platforms a way that which I you can share your thoughts, but at the same time, people can communicate with you online.

And I think that I don't think online is going anywhere. So, we'll continue to communicate.

So, it definitely sounds like blogging is going to be here for some time because it is that communication opportunity for people, and for people that even want to comment. So, I appreciate you sharing that with us.

Janice Wald 07:23

You would also ask what tips people would find on my site? Really anything to help people be successful online.

Again, as I mentioned, blogging tips, marketing tips, business tips, social media tips, search engine optimization tips, productivity tips, bloggers are so busy, that helps, and technology that will help online entrepreneurs in their journey.

Gresham Harkless 07:49

Absolutely, and it's all great things. And you might have already touched on this, but I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce.

And this is what you feel kind of distinguishes you or your site. What do you feel kind of makes you unique?

Janice Wald 08:01

Well, first of all, as I've mentioned, I'm a teacher. And so, because I know how to break information down for my students into understandable nuggets.

I'm able to do that on my blog, and people have written me and told me that that's what makes me unique for them.

It really even never occurred to me that that's why people found my writing appealing.

And then I realized, well, it must be because I'm a teacher. I know how to break down complex information into understandable parts.

And I think the best example is certainly search engine optimization. Many people find that extremely confusing.

And so, they come to my site in order to read not just SEO tips, but SEO tips that they find understandable.

By the way, I forgot another large part of my blog is monetization tips. So not just blogging tips, but writing tips.

So, all writers can find tips on my site. And then there are other articles about how to monetize the writing as well.

Gresham Harkless 09:03

Absolutely. And that's definitely a great thing because I know every time someone says, do you, what's your blog or you have a blog?

Usually, that's the next question. How do you monetize? How do you make money? So, it's great that you have that advice there as well.

And I would definitely agree, a lot of times with communication, people forget that the idea for communication is so that you can understand the other side of the person can actually understand.

So just like with blogging and creating content, it's great that you can break that down so that people can understand that, because that's, at the end of the day, I think that the true purpose of a lot of this communication.

I wanted to switch gears a little bit and ask you for what I call a CEO hack. And this might be an Apple book or a habit that you have, but it's something that makes you more effective and efficient.

Janice Wald 09:47

Well, as far as a resource, I would recommend Neil Patel's blog. I have learned so much from him as far as search engine optimization.

John Morrow also has a blog, and I considered him actually my first mentor. He taught me really everything I know about blogging.

So, John Morrow and Neil Patel, I think, would be good resources for people that are looking to get into the blogging business.

Gresham Harkless 10:17

Absolutely. And they create loads of content. So, to be able to kind of tap into those minds, and that's another great benefit that you are able to have that mentorship because you can read, they basically people like yourself and the Neil Patel's of the world and John Mueller's of the world.

They put out so much content that you can learn so much from them. And you might've already touched on this, but I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget.

And this is a word of wisdom or piece of advice, or if you can hop into a time machine, what would you tell your younger business so?

Janice Wald 10:47

This answer is so important. I hope all your listeners embrace this. You have got to be patient.

The reason I take this advice so much to heart is because I have never been a patient person.

I've never considered myself a patient person. And I just expected overnight success.

And when it didn't happen, I was very disillusioned. And that's why I started reading all these articles about how to be successful.

And I had a conversation with somebody who had a veteran blogger. And she told me this cliche expression, but it's so true and so helpful.

The expression, you may have heard it, is blogging is a marathon, not a sprint.

And when she told me that, I completely changed my mindset into, oh, this is going to be an overnight success, or it's a failure, into all good things are worth waiting for.

And then I started reading about SEO. And Google doesn't really give you much visibility anyway until your blog has been around for a while, because it wants to make sure that it's showing articles to quality blogs, blogs that have stood the test of time.

So, for both reasons, I have totally embraced the fact that success, at least, probably in all endeavors, but certainly in the blogging endeavor, takes time.

And so, people shouldn't be impatient for success or get disillusioned like I did and think, oh, if it doesn't work out immediately, we're failures and have to give up our blogs.

Too many blogs go abandoned, and it's just sad. I think if people can just wait it out, they'll find that it was good they did, that there is success waiting at the end of the tunnel.

Gresham Harkless 12:36

Absolutely. And especially if you're passionate about what it is you're blogging about, just doing it from that perspective helps out a lot for the long game.

And what they say is the secret to success, for the secret of overnight success is that it takes 10 years.

So, just having that mindset that it does take a long period of time in order to build and grow it.

But that number can be relative, but just understanding that, just like you said, it's a marathon.

So, now, I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a quote-unquote CEO.

And we're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on the show. So, Janice, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Janice Wald 13:13

What a CEO means to me is that it's the power to make a positive difference in people's lives.

Gresham Harkless 13:19

Nice. I love that definition. I definitely love that perspective because it goes to the heart of why people usually create and start things.

And this is from my perspective, and I truly appreciate you for having a positive impact on us today, Janice.

And what I want to do is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you can let our readers and listeners know.

And then, of course, how best people can find out about all the awesome things you're doing.

Janice Wald 13:40

Thanks. Well, I did want to share my products and services, of course, if you'll indulge me for a moment.

I do have coaching services, about seven. Anything at all that people feel they need more one-on-one help with, you can find a service for it on my blog, whether it's making money online or social media help, or help with search engine optimization. You'll find it on my site.

My two most popular services actually are how to make money online and search engine optimization techniques. As far as my products, I do have several resources for sale on Amazon.com.

So, if your listeners go to Amazon.com and type in my name, Janice Wald, my resources will come up.

I have published a blogging tips e-book, which is for sale there. I've published an Instagram tips and tricks e-book, 89 tips and tricks actually, recent information, so it's all Instagram's latest algorithms.

And it's been such a success, the Instagram e-book, that I'm currently turning it into a paperback because people are asking me for paperback copies of it.

I'm also selling my monetization resources, which again are for sale on Amazon.com. And because some people don't want to pay for a one-on-one coaching session, they're willing just to buy the information.

And so that's all for sale there. And I've had such good Traction, selling my materials that I'm now in the process of making a search engine optimization ebook.

I find there's a need for search engine optimization that people understand. People still find it way too complex.

And it doesn't have to be complex. So that's in process for me right now. And how can people get in touch with me?

If you go to my blog, mostlyblogging.com, at the top of the homepage, I think at the top of all the pages, you'll find the link that says Contact. And if you click it, you'll see my email is there as well.

Gresham Harkless 16:01

Awesome, awesome, awesome. And we'll make sure to have those links in the show notes so that everybody can hear about all the awesome things that you're doing.

But thank you so much, Janice. I appreciate you, and I hope you have a great rest of the day.

Janice Wald 16:10

And you too. Thank you again for having me. I enjoyed it.

Outro 16:13

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast, powered by CB Nation and Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co. I AM CEO is not just a phrase; it's a community.

Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and everywhere you listen to podcasts. Subscribe and leave us a five-star rating. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless Jr. Thank you for listening.

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