Last episode you learned more about founder, Kristen Daukas and this week, our other founder, Rob Ainbinder gets his turn in the hotseat!
Find how Rob got his start in content creation and all the different pies he has his fingers in (spoiler: it's a lot!!), how major events in both of our lives forced us to kind of push the pause button on consistently writing on our blogs, what mediums he gets inspired by the most, and of course... we talk about the upcoming conference and future guests of the show!
You can find all the details for the upcoming "Foundations" virtual summit happening on January 16, 2021, on our site www.contentcreatorsconference.com!
Follow Rob:
Why People Click
T: @robainbinder
F: Rob Ainbinder
I: @robainbinder
LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robainbinder/
Last episode you learned more about founder, Kristen Daukas and this week, our other founder, Rob Ainbinder gets his turn in the hotseat!
Find how Rob got his start in content creation and all the different pies he has his fingers in (spoiler: it's a lot!!), how major events in both of our lives forced us to kind of push the pause button on consistently writing on our blogs, what mediums he gets inspired by the most, and of course... we talk about the upcoming conference and future guests of the show!
You can find all the details for the upcoming "Foundations" virtual summit happening on January 16, 2021, on our site www.contentcreatorsconference.com!
Follow Rob:
Why People Click
T: @robainbinder
F: Rob Ainbinder
I: @robainbinder
LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robainbinder/
Rob Ainbinder 0:06
Welcome to content creators chat the show where we invite you to join us in a chat about content creation, and influencer marketing. I'm Rob Ainbinder.
Kristen Daukas 0:16
And I'm Kristen Daukas.
Rob Ainbinder 0:19
Welcome to Episode Two.
Kristen Daukas 0:23
This is the episode where I get to grill Rob. The last podcast if you recall, Rob put me on the hot seat not still not sure why I was the first one to go on the hot seat. However, it is now Rob's turn. So we are going to let's back up a little bit and remind everybody that you and I are the co founders and directors of the content creators conference, which will be happening the inaugural on January 16. And you can find all that information at the content creators conference.com. But we will be talking about it throughout this particular podcast. And we are also pretty excited that we're lining up some great guests that are not just me and Rob. Not that yes, a d value are wonderfulness. Right. But there are actually going to be other professionals out there. Some are going to be presenters and some are not at this point of the juncture. But they will at some point, so. So Rob, yeah, why don't you tell everybody a little bit about yourself?
Rob Ainbinder 1:33
Wow. Well, I'm, I run an internet marketing company called why people click where we help small to medium sized businesses with paid media and website development. And I run a bunch of other companies as well as an investor. And I've run a blog for the last 18 years. At Robin binder.com. We are we are Oh gee, we are indeed CR o g in the blog o sphere.
Kristen Daukas 2:12
So considering the content for the conference, the first one being the foundation's, which is for folks that are either just getting started, or maybe they just need a reboot, get up to date and get some more inspiration. What kind of what have you seen has been the biggest changes since you and I began our content creation back in the early aughts, the early 2000s.
Rob Ainbinder 2:45
Right? Yeah. So there's been this kind of proliferation of social media channels, new channels, kind of because all we had was the site. And if we were lucky, we had email. Right? You know, now we have Snapchat, Tik, Tok, Instagram, Facebook. And nowhere.
Unknown Speaker 3:16
Oh, there's everything. Yeah,
Rob Ainbinder 3:18
there's just every every YouTube, there's everything now, and, and you can make your home anywhere you want to. But it still comes back to kind of the idea that the rug can be ripped out from underneath you anytime. Except on stuff you won't.
Kristen Daukas 3:39
Right. Right. And that was a, we were recording some videos for set TikTok. And we'll also be able to use those on Instagram as part of our initiative as a as the conference to get the good some branding and advertising out about it. Spread the word, if you will. And one of the ones that Courtney and if you guys aren't familiar with Courtney, Courtney Tripp is our ... we don't want to call her an intern. But she's kind of an intern.
Unknown Speaker 4:08
Yes, she is.
Kristen Daukas 4:10
She's going to be helping us reach that Gen Z. Our audience? And yeah, in addition, you know, it's a great learning experience for her. So, you know, at some point we will have Courtney on whenever she wants to. And I think
Rob Ainbinder 4:26
that's the big change, right is all these other audience segments have come along since we start?
Kristen Daukas 4:37
Yep. You know, Jen, more squirreling a little bit here, but I think it's very valid. Our generation or the boomers, for sure, you know, if they're anywhere it's only on Facebook. Some of the I don't, I mean, I'm sure there's plenty, but not a majority on Twitter, etc. And, you know, Instagram as well. Then you've got our generation too. On x, which is still probably largely Facebook, but definitely populated into Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, which, you know, nobody talks about Pinterest anymore. That's an interesting thing to me. It's still very relevant, still very relevant. But it's funny how, when these sites first came out, everybody was jumping on that bandwagon. But there's just so many at this. Yeah, you really do have to, you know, focus, and then you've got Gen Z, who are definitely more into the Quick Hits. So Snapchat, WhatsApp, talk, etc. So they will the amount of time they consume and you just really, where you and your site mine of my site, we definitely started out as actual long form content writers on our blogs. And there were people out
Rob Ainbinder 5:55
there doing podcasts at the time, too. But that's all they did.
Kristen Daukas 6:02
Right? Yeah. And we turned around and yeah, we definitely just also do to our professional careers, you know, we are pretty much everywhere as well. Yeah. But we're seeing now that people need to, are being drawn and focusing on one area. So that was a very long-winded way of one of the things that one of the videos that Courtney did this weekend that I wanted her to do was addressing the five reasons I think she just did five she goes here are the five reasons you need to have your own website. Yeah, right. And because that generation really doesn't think that they need to have
Rob Ainbinder 6:44
right there. Yeah, I mean, cuz I mean, you saw it with on tik tok with the raspberry cranberry guy, right? His first channel got shut down. And he's lucky because he was able to claw back some of that audience, and then a whole bunch more. Right? Again, because he doesn't control to.
He lost this first Chan.
Kristen Daukas 7:19
Right. Right. Mark Schaefer actually did an article on him today talking about how it's the consumers that own marketing now and it's very true because yeah, just the numbers of for that whole dreams sequence that he did on tik tok, it's just insane. Like, there's the ocean sprays, sales have gone up like 40%
Rob Ainbinder 7:50
or something like a truck, and more Ocean Spray. So they obvious recognize the value to their brand.
Kristen Daukas 8:01
Absolutely, absolutely. So that's a you know, but that's such a unique, it is rare, I was gonna hesitate to use the word rare, but it is rare. And one of our goals you and mine, one of our goals was to make sure that these content creators have set themselves up for success. And that should something like that happen to what happened to whatever his name is Ocean Spray guy that you can actually by having your own site, you can actually reap more benefit from that.
Rob Ainbinder 8:35
Yeah. Yeah, you can't. You can't really, really lock into like, large success and not have a home that you own.
Kristen Daukas 8:48
Exactly.
What's been your favorite
platform over the years? Hmm,
what's been your favorite way to create content? Yeah.
Rob Ainbinder 9:03
I like doing the long form stuff. But I also like, sharing photos on Instagram. Like, a creatively. I like I like Instagram. I have, I don't know I don't have enough experience with video. So like YouTube and tik tok are kind of last for me. Yeah,
Kristen Daukas 9:35
it takes a lot of time. It takes a lot of time. Just for instance, I mean, these 60 seconds snippets videos that we recorded this weekend for tik tok. I recognize it's probably gonna take me about an hour to edit it until it's ready unless you just go you know, straight, you know, record straight and then drop it in there. Right? It definitely there's there's time involved. So it's an art form in and of itself. I do like it though. I really do. I'm finding myself going down that rabbit hole of watching.
Unknown Speaker 10:09
Partially so I can learn.
Rob Ainbinder 10:11
Yeah, I learned a ton of Tick tock, like, just get sucked in and look up buttons like ours
Kristen Daukas 10:20
just gone. Right. Right. So which platform or which area? Do you think that you've been able to monetize the best?
Rob Ainbinder 10:31
Facebook's been good for monetization. Buying intention. And, you know, Instagram to a lesser extent.
And, and Twitter.
Kristen Daukas 10:49
So you've that's where you've made the most money creating content.
Rob Ainbinder 10:54
Where I've made the most money was on long form. Well know where I made the most money was on YouTube.
Unknown Speaker 11:06
Really?
Rob Ainbinder 11:07
Yeah. Yeah, I got hired to do that. Grill.
Unknown Speaker 11:13
You too. Right. Right. Right. Right.
Rob Ainbinder 11:16
That's been my biggest deal. Period.
Kristen Daukas 11:21
That's awesome. Yeah. So but that's branded content. So yeah, totally branded.
Unknown Speaker 11:26
Yeah, that was important. That was an influencer gig.
Rob Ainbinder 11:30
Yeah. I'd say long term traffic, I get still get good referral traffic from
Unknown Speaker 11:44
from Pinterest.
Kristen Daukas 11:46
It's been so long since I've looked at my own analytics. Kind of ashamed. So what have been some of your challenges with your content creation as far as shifting from because you've had you have you have several you were kind of downplayed? Your the magnitude of things that you do so. But really, I mean, because you've got you've got your Robin binder site, but you've also got
Rob Ainbinder 12:21
your bit better Baker's box that I have,
Kristen Daukas 12:24
right.
Rob Ainbinder 12:26
And the social distancing decals.
Kristen Daukas 12:30
But then you've also got your your BBQ book.
Rob Ainbinder 12:34
Yeah, I've got that. Yeah, pitmasters log book. And then. And then a book on Google keep notes. Both of those are on Amazon.
Kristen Daukas 12:52
So elaborate a little bit on that. I mean, you you've written a couple of, you know, books.
Rob Ainbinder 12:58
Yeah, I've put together a few things. I haven't written a real book, you know, but I've gotten two things out there that are one is a how to mastering Google key. And sort of I kind of became a little fan of this app. And I was like, there's got to be a spot for it. Nobody has a book on it. I was like, What the hell, I'll just throw something together and put a bonus on my blog to drive some traffic and maybe get some more subscribers. And that's been out there. And then pitmasters logbook, I actually hired a graphic designer. And then he laid out this blank, Barbara q log book. And so the idea is that if you rather not use an app, and you want something you can give to your kid or future generations, this barbaric, this pitmasters logbook can do that and it it allows you to document all the variables of a barbecue cook, wind direction, temperature, wind speed, sunrise and sunset, all of these things, and then an hour a spot for hour by hour, or as many as you want a lot, you know blog, logging of what's happening with the barbecue cook.
Kristen Daukas 14:45
What's one thing that you wish you had known when you started on this journey of creating content
Rob Ainbinder 14:57
to pick what you write about carefully Cuz you'd be writing for a long, long time.
Kristen Daukas 15:06
Do you wish that you would have niched? You know, whether, you know, if you had, for instance, picked up the barbecuing piece of it from the beginning and just stuck with that, or are you okay, because you and I pray are the same in our main diverse sites is, you know, it's pretty much anything.
Rob Ainbinder 15:30
Yeah, it is pretty much anything. And. And that's me, I think, I think what I did with the platform that you did with the platform is it became more emblematic of who you are, where you were kind of harkening back to those Oji web journals. You know, because I had journaled for years before I started a blog. And I, and I didn't just journal about one thing.
Unknown Speaker 16:09
You know, there were relationships there were
Rob Ainbinder 16:13
I was in a band, there was all kinds of crap. I mean,
Kristen Daukas 16:19
yeah. And the interesting thing is, and I think you can relate to this, maybe for slightly different reason. The way we started ours, you know, it was more family base, it was, here's what's going on in our lives. Now, I, those May, listening may know this, or they may not so I'm gonna say, I divorced four years ago. Right. We lost your wife last year. So and a big piece of what we wrote about me, was everything going on to the family, for instance. Right. And, you know, those last couple of years for you you were chronicling? You know, Angela's brain cancer? Yeah, her cancer. So when both of those phases of our lives came to an end, I definitely have I don't want to say I've struggled with segwaying. I just don't know if I feel like it just, I guess it would be a natural progression for me to, you know, pivot and then start talking about dating and divorce and things of that nature. But I just, I don't know, I haven't done it. And you and I've had this common Yeah, we like create, that's created a very interesting dynamic for both of us. Because, you know, 16 years worth of our content was about this one chapter of our lives. And then all of a sudden, we're not just in a new chapter, we're in a new freakin book,
Rob Ainbinder 17:49
no doubt.
No doubt, and I've struggled with what to read, you know what to write lately?
Unknown Speaker 18:01
Yeah, a lot. Like, so. Yeah.
Kristen Daukas 18:06
And I think part of it for me, part of it for me is leading up to the eventual separation and divorce, I really had started pulling back on how much information about my private life that I was sharing. And I kinda like that, even though you can Google my name, and there's 20,000 ages of me on Google, right, which is a bit disconcerting. It's like, if I go out with somebody, and I know they're gonna do it, because I do it to them. Right? I kind of want to throw out the caveat, like, Okay, listen, when you Google my name. There's gonna be a lot of stuff out there. But I also feel like I have to offer a little bit of confidence or reassurance, I think is a better way to put it on that. All of a sudden, everybody's calling me that I'm not I do not dive. I don't I don't kiss and tell. But there's just no other way to put it. I don't right.
Rob Ainbinder 19:05
Yeah, no, I, I don't either. I mean, I've been very kind of surface level with the things happening in in my personal life. I haven't done a deep dive into the personal stuff, except where it has intersected with other people in my life that have thought it was too soon or whatever other Michigan has stuff they thought about my life that I really wasn't welcoming them in to kind of chime in on you know, well, and
Kristen Daukas 19:52
another point is going back to the whole privacy thing that we're talking about here is when we started, we had no idea. Yeah, what was around the corner? As far as creating that digital footprint for our family? They really had no say so and you know, looking back now I'm it didn't take it, I would say it's probably when my girls got into school that I stopped, I kind of went, Oh, god, these, this information is out there. And it's not. It just their privacy became more important. And that's when I definitely stopped worrying about them.
Rob Ainbinder 20:34
I did do some posts around my daughter dating with some vignettes from the actual experience. But it wasn't just all about her. It was more like, how I saw what was going on. Right and reporting on her and what she was doing. Right. When she eventually broke up with that first date guy. I didn't go run to my blog and blog about it,
Unknown Speaker 21:14
you know, right.
Unknown Speaker 21:16
However, what you can do is take
Kristen Daukas 21:19
the situation, yeah, for instance, you know, and a lot of mine, that's how a lot of my posts were mine were more, it wasn't about the girls as much as it was perhaps about the situation and how to navigate so Mean Girls, I remember one of my most popular posts was mean girls come from me moms. And it wasn't I didn't name names. I didn't name situations. I just gave an observation as to Yeah. Here's what here's what, here's what you do. And don't do same thing with cyber bullying. You know, it just so it's so it's interesting to see. Yeah, giving them back that that piece of it.
Rob Ainbinder 21:54
Yeah. And, you know, I've I've seen different topics, kind of take off through my time blogging, and, and I'd focus on them for a while. Frankly, my traffic's really fallen off lately.
Kristen Daukas 22:18
I think that's not uncommon. Yeah. Because I'm not writing. Right, exactly. I mean, there's nothing, there's no new content coming out. So we're not surprised by that. All right. Well, I think we've got a few more minutes. What, how do we want to tie this up? Let's we've talked about the conference. We've talked about your experience. We've talked about our lives.
Rob Ainbinder 22:42
If you want to connect with me,
Kristen Daukas 22:45
and I will put this in the in the bio or
Rob Ainbinder 22:48
Rob bean binder. And
Unknown Speaker 22:53
I'm in a lot of places online.
Kristen Daukas 22:56
Yes. And that is our ob AI.
Unknown Speaker 23:01
ZR.
Kristen Daukas 23:04
Rob and binder.com Yep, everything under under his name, exam, then, of course, we've got you know, some things coming up with the conference. And again, that's content creators conference calm where Yeah, tickets are really cheap. Look
Rob Ainbinder 23:22
at that upgrade, because it is one sweet deal.
Kristen Daukas 23:30
It is. Yeah, it's a sweet deal. A lot of a lot of content.
Rob Ainbinder 23:34
Yeah, for that. I mean, we're gonna have all of the speakers in their in a 21 day, hand in hand challenge with you to up your content creation and influencer game. I mean, for 49 bucks. Can't beat that.
Kristen Daukas 23:59
Nope. As I said, in my one of my videos this weekend, that's less than a night out on the town for most of us. Absolutely. And you're gonna get 5000 million percent return on your investment. Not really, but it sounds good.
Unknown Speaker 24:17
You'll 10 exit for sure.
Kristen Daukas 24:20
All right, folks. That's it. That's a wrap for this week. Again, I am your host, Kristen Daukas. And that over there, that guy over there
Unknown Speaker 24:32
binder,
Kristen Daukas 24:34
and we will have a brand new guest for you on our next podcast and not sure who it is yet. That's all right. Just stay tuned. Until then. keep creating your dreams. We need a good tagline, Billy.
Rob Ainbinder 24:51
Yeah, we do.
Kristen Daukas 24:53
Other than our poor creators by creators, which is pretty good.
Unknown Speaker 24:57
That's okay.
Kristen Daukas 24:58
All right. Thanks, Rob. And everybody
Transcribed by https://otter.ai