Welcome to Digital Podcaster. My name is Dylan Schmidt, your host. And today I've got a special guest all about blogging. Her name is Jess Hoffman, she's a blogging expert, and just helps bloggers get started, grow their blog and become profitable. She is the founder of the blogger Academy, where she teaches how to blog. And her website is grow with Jess calm. She is a full time blogger and her blog is about recipes and, and sharing things like that. It's called choosing chia, which is where she shares recipes that she's developed. She's a self taught cook with a love for healthy food. So I want to explain real quick why I am excited to have Jess on and share my conversation. Because it's funny blogging in 2022, feels possibly outdated, I don't know, I don't hear a lot of people talking about blogging, not that it is outdated. I'm just saying the perception around blogging feels a little bit, I don't know, older for some reason. And what I've found, what I've been recently getting back into is the idea of blogging, because the more I dive deeper into podcasting, and the more I dive deeper into marketing strategies and things like that, a lot of like, what's older is becoming new again, I found, and I think the same is gonna be happening for blogging. And there are a lot of people out there, you know, blogging is it's not like it's dead or something, it's alive and well, you look up blogging, you'll see all sorts of people talking about it. But I don't really see it being broadcast on social media too much, because it takes a little bit of work to get started. And the results, though, are huge, though. Because when people are googling they normally Google questions. It's usually blogs that answer those questions and come up in the search results. And a lot of people talk about SEO or Search Engine Optimization, where you are optimizing your own pages, web pages on your own website, show up higher on Google search results. A blog helps a lot with that. And as you'll learn in our conversation, Jess and I is conversation that you can make money to with blogging. And so I think that the the idea of blogging and podcasts go hand in hand. And it's pretty exciting to me. Because, you know, blogging is being exciting and 2022 doesn't. I don't know, the perception doesn't seem so strong with me. And I'm not trying to sell you on this episode or sell you into blogging. But I wouldn't be shocked if after you listen to this, he might think twice about blogging and how it could work for you and your business. Even if you're just like a solo influencer, let's let's label you as an influencer, you might hate that term. That's okay. I don't know this, the best term I can think of at the moment. But even if you're just yourself, and you have your own interests, say you like recipes, like I mean, that's essentially adjusted. She liked healthy foods, creating recipes, and now she has a place to share them. That makes money for her. She's a full time blogger. And that's still possible in 2022. That's like, mind blowing. And the idea to me, that's really cool, especially if people that don't have a business is listen to this episode. And you're like, I'm not sure what I'd blog about. I'm just trying to frame your conversation before we dive in. If you're like, I'm not sure what I would blog about, you could start a blog, with just your interests just by you living, you have an interest, right? You have hobbies, things like that. And you could just share about those hobbies. And you know, make money through those hobbies, just by simply talking about that and sharing with it on a blog. And you would show up higher in Google search results. And you would make money from that. Like, how cool is that just by sharing what you're interested in. It's not like you're become some salesman for the things that you love. It's just a natural way to make side money with blogging, which is super cool. And I think it's really a fun idea. So here's my conversation with Jess, please enjoy. Thank you, Jessica, for joining me on Digital Podcaster today.
Jess Hoffman:Thanks for having me.
Dylan Schmidt:So glad to have you here. So I've you know, blogging is one of those things that's been around for a long time it feels but it's still kind of unknown unless you're either an expert or doing it regularly. First, I would just like to ask, so you help people with blogging? You mean expertise? And you have a blog? on food?
Jess Hoffman:Yeah, so I run a recipe blog called choosing chia and I make and share healthy recipes over there.
Dylan Schmidt:And how long have you been making and sharing recipes?
Jess Hoffman:I've been doing this for about five years now.
Dylan Schmidt:Wow, what got you into blogging in the first place.
Jess Hoffman:So actually started off with social media. So I started off on Instagram and I started just sharing some healthy recipes and things that were there on that platform. And eventually it kind of got to the point where people were like, Hey, we really want to see your actual recipes and I thought you know what, it would be great to have my actual space Online that I own work actually share these recipes in this content. And that's how I kind of transition from just being on social media to being a blogger.
Dylan Schmidt:Nice. Was it kind of annoying as someone like you that puts such detail and work into your recipes? And you're creating these amazing things? And then it just gets pushed down the timeline or gets pushed down the feed, and it's not quite as searchable. Was that?
Jess Hoffman:Yeah, it's definitely frustrating. And I think it's one of the great reasons to have a blog is your content. It's just so much more evergreen and discoverable. Like I have blog posts from five years ago. That's so drive tons of traffic that people are finding versus an Instagram post from five years ago. I don't think anybody seeing that anymore.
Dylan Schmidt:Yeah. Yeah, where you were before you started blogging, were you much of a tech person?
Jess Hoffman:I wouldn't say it was super techie. I have a marketing background. But I'm a big fan of Google University, as I like to call it and kind of learning and figuring things out as I go.
Dylan Schmidt:Yeah. And did it take you a while to get set up with your blog.
Jess Hoffman:So the setup, I think there's a really common misconception that setting up a blog can take like days, or even weeks or months. And that's something that I thought before I started a blog, and for months, I was sitting there, you know what, I should start a blog, I should start a blog, but I don't know how to start one and Oh, too techie or it's gonna be complicated, it's gonna be so long. And I finally sat down and did it. And the whole process of actually getting started, you know, a lot of people get stuck on choosing their, their website, their domain name. But once you get that sorted out, setting up your actual blog, you can do within an hour, and I was honestly shocked at how quickly it was because I just thought in my head, it's going to take so long to do.
Dylan Schmidt:Yeah, it seems like it. And how did like choosing chia? That's such a great name. And it's also one of those did it take you a while to settle on it? Did you have to battle somebody for it was there at the organic line where you just let's duke it out, or
Jess Hoffman:I have a name, I had the no one else had that name before. So I always had it from the get go. I essentially sat down one day at home, you know, when I wanted to start my my brand with a literally with a pen and a paper and I said, Alright, let me start brainstorming names. And I knew I wanted to focus on kind of health and wellness and you know, that healthy aspect of food and I was really into yoga. You know, all those health foods that were super trendy, like chia seeds and avocados. And I just started playing around with words. And that was one of them. I wrote down I said, Oh, it sounds pretty catchy. And I just went and I rolled with it. And a lot of people will get stuck in that phase of choosing a name too. And they might take a month to choose one. But ultimately, you just have to take something and and run with it.
Dylan Schmidt:Yeah. Oh my God, not totally related. But 10 years now, eight, nine years ago, I had a online dating profile. And I use chia seeds in the like description. I was like chia seeds during the week and pizza on the weekends. And it worked. I got some dates from that. I gotta say, the chia seeds are like a keyword. You know? That's awesome. And it seems to me that blogging, because I'm not regularly blogging, I have plugged in the past. But it's particularly been a while I don't even feel like it's been the same lifetime. It seems intimidating. Almost like YouTube seems intimidating. But for different reasons. Because with blogging, since you're an expert on this, is it do you have to share all about yourself? If you're doing recipes? Do you just focus on recipes? Like how do you navigate what to share what not to share on a blog?
Jess Hoffman:Yeah, so it's super interesting, because blogging has really shifted in direction from what it was five years ago, 10 years ago, where people did share a lot more about their personal lives and personal stories. But since we got, you know, Instagram and Tik Tok and stories where people can share those aspects of their lives, the blogosphere has really kind of shifted into being more informational, being more helpful tips and tricks and being a resource where people can go and learn something new. So that's really what you want to be focusing on your blog, whatever your niche is really focusing on, you know, what are people searching for? And how can I help them with what they're searching for, versus sharing those personal stories about yourself, because that's really what we have social media for now. And that's been a really big shift in blogging and I think some people still have a misconception of bloggers are still sitting there with, you know, a recipe and they're writing their whole life story within the blog post, but it's not like that anymore. Now people are sharing you know, helpful tips and tricks, you know, if your inexperience things that you can do to if it's your first time making that and that type of information. So it's really a lot more informational based, and it is kind of story based now blogging.
Dylan Schmidt:That makes sense. I was Googling her. I was looking for a Google Chrome extension the other day I forget what it was for, but I saw there was an extension it was like hide this story in recipes. So it just shows the recipe and hides everything else. And it didn't make me.
Jess Hoffman:There's an ongoing joke about that you see, like the memes. But it's not like that anymore. It's funny because like you said that they have that. And there's all those memes and jokes about it. But people don't really do that anymore. It's not the style of blogging that people do.
Dylan Schmidt:Naturally, I have to ask, like, why? I never really saw it as an issue. I was like, Okay, this is a blog, I'm starting to relate to the person, all that stuff. So I don't know, I never bugged me. Were people doing that. Was it helping, like SEO? Or was it helping just relatability maybe like, why I'm actually enjoying the blog, because I'm like, I feel connected with the person.
Jess Hoffman:I think a little bit of both. There are people who want to have enough words within their blog posts. And while word counts technically isn't a ranking factor for Google, there is some truth to having longer posts that will help you in some ways. Of course, if you're not putting information in there that's related to your blog post, it's not going to help for SEO, but I think some people used to believe that it would help anyways. And again, before there were things like Instagram stories, people would want to connect with their audience more on their blogs, but want to have that personal connection through their posts and writing that information. And, and some people enjoy that, like you said, but I think a lot of people are impatient, and they just want to kind of get to the bulk of what they're searching for now.
Dylan Schmidt:Yeah, I got an airfryer. Not that long ago. And I'm like, basically, finally understanding that, like, I don't need to Google everything for the airfryer. But every time I Google, what, what's the heat? How many minutes? You know, there's only two settings here. But it's funny. I see. I still see that sometimes. How do you know how rent like estimate of how many blogs you've written?
Jess Hoffman:Oh, gosh, I think I have at least 500 blogs? Wow. Wow, right now. So yeah, they definitely kind of accumulate over time. And you look back and you're like, Oh, my God, I can't believe I've
Dylan Schmidt:written a blog post. Yeah. But at the beginning, it seems almost like it's never gonna happen to ever have that many. Right. And then you look back, and like I did all that. One thing I've noticed with your blog, and just your brand in general, is your pictures are high quality, you know, your content is high quality. But how do you do? Are you taking all those pictures yourself?
Jess Hoffman:Yeah, so I do all of my pictures myself, I am self taught with photography. So I like to say vloggers are self taught in everything, because you're going to have to learn how to do a lot of different things and where a lot of different hats and I started taking photos just on my phone, and then eventually I picked up the DSLR camera started playing around with that I did take a couple online courses on photography to learn more about camera settings. And and then from there, again, it's just a lot a lot of practice a lot of hours put in to really develop a skill in something like that.
Dylan Schmidt:And how long does one blog on average take you to do?
Jess Hoffman:It depends, it really depends. And I feel like I say that as an answer to things a lot, because it really depends specifically on the blog post. So when you're writing a post, you really want to be focused on how much information and content you need to include in there to have a post make sense to your reader, right. And depending on what you're writing about something can take you an hour, something could take you three hours, for example, a recipe blogging, a smoothie recipe versus a risotto recipe, a smoothie is probably a lot less complicated. And that's gonna take me a lot shorter to make to photograph to write the post on something that's a little more intricate and complicated. So it can take anywhere from the writing itself an hour to three hours, plus does the photography, photo editing, keyword research, etc.
Dylan Schmidt:But it starts to build on itself too, right. And like you said, one of the nice things is, you could write a blog post today that's still relevant in five to 10 or more years, rather than people spend that on an Instagram post, maybe. And it goes away. And maybe they can repost it in a year or something. But it's nothing like a blog. Right?
Jess Hoffman:Exactly. And that's what I love most about blogs is that they have such a longer lifespan than social media and people on social media. Now our attention spans are so short, we're being pulled in so many different directions, where it's all about the scrolling and that instant gratification, then you're on to the next thing and on to the next trend. And it's really hard to keep up with and I know a lot of people feel this anxiety around social media because they just feel like it's changing and evolving so quickly, and they have to keep pushing out new content. And as a creative, it's hard to be creative when you just feel like you have to constantly be doing more and more and more. I'm keeping up with all these trends. Whereas with blogging, you have a little bit more security knowing that the content you're creating is going to be more evergreen, it's going to last a lot longer and You can create content that's gonna be helpful helpful for people in the long run versus that instant gratification content.
Dylan Schmidt:Yeah, that quick. And how many likes did it get and just dead? It just No, it's the algorithm suppressed it or something, you know, a bad
Jess Hoffman:day, the content thing you put so many hours of work into, it's just gone.
Dylan Schmidt:Yeah, that sounds really desirable with blogging. And that's part of one of the reasons why I started Digital Podcaster. And started helping people with more with podcasts is kind of a similar idea to the blogging. And I found that podcasting and blogging seem to go pretty well together, don't they?
Jess Hoffman:Yes, I totally agree. I love podcasts. I listen to them all. I'm like cooking and making my recipes from work. And while I'm walking, and it's such a great way to consume content,
Dylan Schmidt:and I have this theory, I don't even know if it's 30, because I've done it, but helping people like that, do podcasts and then take that content, kind of mold it in at least use it as a starter or an outline to a blog. And then go deeper from there, you know, at least like a starter to it. I know it doesn't do everything right away. A podcast episode wouldn't. But it would act as a starter, would you
Jess Hoffman:agree? Yeah, for sure. Because you can kind of post that content on your blog. And and that's what's great, too, you can kind of repurpose content, like for a podcast or blog blog content, you can repurpose to social media. So you're kind of getting a really good bang for your buck with that.
Dylan Schmidt:Yeah. And when you're creating your blog, blog entry blog post, what would you like? It's, is it still possible to monetize a blog in 2022?
Jess Hoffman:It absolutely is, it does take time. And I'm not going to I never like to lie and be like, yeah, in 30 days, you're going to be like laughing to the bank with your blog. It takes time. And just you know, I'm sure with podcasts, even with social media, like all these things take a lot of time and effort and persistence to grow. But the great thing about blogging is that you can monetize. Still, there are multiple different revenue streams that you can do, you don't have to do them all. So you can kind of pick and choose what works for you and what you like. And there's a lot more passive income streams when it comes to blogging, then when it comes to just using Instagram, or social media, which is very largely focused just on brand partnerships and deals that you have to kind of keep hustling to get and be there creating that content. And with blogs, it's a lot more passive where you just kind of have the money coming in in the background. Well, you're kind of just hanging out.
Dylan Schmidt:Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're just on the beach. My ties or something, whatever they dream, the dream, right. In the dream? Yeah, one random question that just popped into my head that's more on the advanced, probably blogging sphere, is, I've seen in blog posts where you know, every so often, as I'm scrolling down, there'll be an advertisement for something, whether it's like a freebie, like a lead magnet or something like click here to get something like that. And then it's like throughout the blog, is there something that you've seen before that will automatically change that out like a plugin of sorts, or some type of lead magnet thing, so you don't have to go back and update blog number 84. If you have something new for sale, but say someone goes to that old one?
Jess Hoffman:Yeah, there are different plugins and different programs you can use to insert your lead magnets into your blog posts, I use Flow desk for my email list for my forum. So that's what I used to insert. There's another one and I'm blanking on the name right now. But you can insert different ones onto your pages. And then as you automatically swap them out within the program you're using, it'll automatically update them on your blog, or sometimes you might need to just copy paste a code snippet on to your homepage and your back end. That's where it gets a little bit techie. But yeah, complicated. And it'll switch everything out. And that's a great way to help you grow your email list.
Dylan Schmidt:Nice. And do you this flow desk, like WordPress? Or is that something completely different?
Jess Hoffman:No Flow desk is an email service provider. So similar to something like ConvertKit or MailChimp, if you're familiar with those, I've tried a few different ones. I settled on Flo desk to send out my newsletters to my audience for choosing chia. It's fantastic and really user friendly and easy to use.
Dylan Schmidt:Nice. Yeah. What do you what do you think about recipe books in the age of 2022? Do you think they're still needed? Obviously there's still a market for them because they're releasing them but are they as popular as they were? With a talking about physical recipes, physical recipe books,
Jess Hoffman:I think there's a huge market for physical recipe books still. And you know, just like with any book, there's some people who just like to hold the book. I think there's something really special about a recipe book and I know there's some events, some recipe books, specific stores dedicated to books or if you go into a bookstore, they're always on display. I know people but just kind of really love having that book. So I definitely think there's still a market for it. People always want to have you know, even though there's blogs and websites and digital books for is that that that that physical book in their home?
Dylan Schmidt:Yeah. Are you a physical recipe book person? Are you more digital?
Jess Hoffman:I am I love selling, you know, if I if I get a recipe book for a gift, like I love sitting and drinking a cup of tea and scrolling through it and looking at the recipes and flipping the actual pages, there's something really special about it versus just scrolling online.
Dylan Schmidt:Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And, and then there's, I mean, if you had your own, like all 500 recipes of your own, that would be a huge book. Multiple. A huge book totally skipping around here, but from also monetizing. Are there, what are some of the most popular ways you see blogs monetize these days?
Jess Hoffman:Yeah, so the number one way to monetize on a blog, I would say is with ads. So display ads, like you see on any website that you probably go to, the only thing with display ads is that you do need to hit kind of these certain page view tiers to join certain ad networks on your blog. So a lot of bloggers will kind of work to hitting 20,000 page views 30,000 pages to join these more prestigious ad networks, because they pay pretty well. That's per month. Yeah. So once you hit that level, and you can join, then you can put the display ads on your, your website, and then you kind of get that passive income coming in. So that's a really popular way. Because once you reach that level, there's not really much for you to do the ads are just there, and you're just getting money in the background.
Dylan Schmidt:Another cost biller to join this,
Jess Hoffman:it does not cost money to join that network. No, you just join. And there are certain ad networks. I think there's like Google AdSense, you can kind of join right away, though I don't recommend brand new bloggers to join right away, because you're really not going to make any money in the beginning. If it's just a few cents, Simon really worth it to have the ads on your blog if you're just starting out. So I only recommend it once you kind of hit 10,000 pages at least a month, and then you can start considering putting the ads on your blog
Dylan Schmidt:is that that sounds like a huge number is that that's realistic for someone starting out.
Jess Hoffman:It's scary number, but I promise it's realistic. There are lots of ways to grow and monetize and get traffic. And when you think about it, as you start to grow right over time, the more blog pages that you have on your blog, right, you might only need to get 50 views to one page a day and then 20 to another page and then 100 to another page. And all of those really add up to be 10,000. Right? That's yeah, that's a really the way you have to look at it is creating that content that's going to drive continuous traffic. And it'll be easy to build up from there. Wow,
Dylan Schmidt:that sounds inspiring. And like a lot of work, but then also how, basically everything you're saying also is inspiring to on a lot of levels. Sounds doable? What are some? We almost worked in reverse here. But what are some ways of growing a blog if you're just starting out? And getting going?
Jess Hoffman:Yeah, so best things you can do when you're starting out is two. Okay, we'll start with Pinchas. So number one, you want to be using Pinterest because it's a good way to get kind of some quicker traffic to your blog. Pinterest doesn't work like Google does, where you know your posts isn't going to be ranking on page one, you know, for we're not going to get too much into SEO right now. But you just publish a brand new blog post, you're probably not gonna be on page one of Google so people won't discover it there. But if you publish it to Pinterest, it'll be in their discovery feed when someone searches for those keywords. So that's a really good way to get that quick traffic when you're first starting out. And then of course, with Google, you want to off the bat start working on SEO, which is search engine optimization, and start looking for keywords. And as a new blogger, you want to be looking for longtail keywords that you can actually rank for. And this means that you ultimately want to get your posts on page one of Google because that's where
Dylan Schmidt:most longtail keywords is that. What does that mean? So a
Jess Hoffman:longtail keyword is basically a keyword that is a longer, more specific term. So if we use the example of chocolate chip cookies, if you go on, there's programs that you can use for SEO that will show you this. But if you look up the term chocolate chip cookies, right, it's a very competitive search term because there are so many people searching for chocolate chip cookies, versus if you search for something like vegan and gluten free chocolate chip cookies, that's a little more specific and niche and there's probably not as many people searching for it and it's probably not as much of a competitive term. And therefore as a newer blogger, you're going to have an easier time to possibly rank higher in Google for those less competitive terms and you would for these like really big, broad terms.
Dylan Schmidt:Yeah, there's not as much competition for exactly it was more common word that makes a lot of sense. So you go after those lesser competition, keywords longtail keywords, yeah,
Jess Hoffman:that's where you start when you're starting out. And as you grow, and as you, you know, build your blog, as you gain some authority and expertise in your industry, then you can start moving up and going for those those bigger broader search terms that will bring in even more traffic.
Dylan Schmidt:Wow. And I've seen you recommend this on your Instagram. But is that one of the reasons why it's so important to really nail down your niche and really go after one kind of segment of people? Because if you have vegan, gluten free chocolate chip cookies on one blog post, and then maybe like, living in an RV on another post, maybe that might, will that affect something?
Jess Hoffman:Yeah, it'll it'll confuse your readers, right, because we have someone coming to you for those vegan chocolate chip cookies, right? They might be looking for, maybe they want like a vegan brownie or something, too, but then they go to see what else you have on your, your blog, and they don't really care about living in an RV. So they're gonna be like, Hmm, maybe this isn't for me, and they might go elsewhere. The other thing is that you want to establish yourself as an expert in one, one thing and one thing online, you want to establish yourself as an expert. So if you want to be an expert in vegan baking, it's really important that you're sharing only content on vegan baking. So people can see you as an expert, but also Google can see you as an expert in that niche. And then they will rank your blog higher in their algorithm. If they see that you're posting all sorts of different random topics, they're not really going to have a sense of what you do and what you're about. And it's going to be hard for them to say whether or not you're an expert in that subject, because you're posting about so many different subjects.
Dylan Schmidt:That makes a lot of sense. So the old goal was to make my parents proud. But the new goal is to make Google proud. Exactly. That you listen to this. Oh, thank you so much for explaining that. Because we've worked our way backwards here. I feel like right at almost at the beginning. What are some ways people hear this thing? Oh, this sounds amazing. What are some ways that you work with people these days when it comes to blogging?
Jess Hoffman:Yeah, so I have an online course called the blog Academy. And right now, that's what people who already have a blog started that they're just getting started. And they don't really know where to go from there. And that course is geared towards helping people grow and then monetize their blog. So it brings you through that process of how you can grow. So you can actually start monetizing your blog. And I also do one on one coaching, and help people kind of figure out where they are in their blogging journey, what they want to do and what they need to know what the next steps are, they need to do to start growing and making money as a blogger. So it's really for people who are serious about turning their hobby blog, or their side hustle or whatever you want to call it into a business, whether that is a full time business or a part time business, maybe you just want to make a little extra cash on the side. So that's how I help people with their blogs,
Dylan Schmidt:ice, and it seems less I'll link to that in the show notes. Of course, it seems less intimidating than doing something like YouTube because YouTube requires you know, from what I hear women in particularly it's like the video and the get the makeup and this and that and all the prep, and then the lighting and then the editing and then then so bugging scenes, more simple. I know it's not like pain free all the time, but it seems more simple. That's my understanding is that would you say that's true? I mean, totally. I know. It's not to say it's like less or anything, but it seems less on some level not having to get so camera ready. I wouldn't
Jess Hoffman:necessarily say more simple in terms of the amount of work you have to do. I'm introverted. And you know, there's I still I still do video, everyone has to do video these days for you to show up on camera for your audience. But there's definitely days where I'm like, No, I just want to be behind the scenes and I can kind of share stories of you know, just what I'm cooking in the kitchen or what I'm doing and that's really nice. And it's really nice to just kind of sit down and write a blog post and share that online and you don't have to show up on camera and be camera ready and and do all those things. So there is that aspect of it that you're a little more behind the scenes with it than having to kind of have your own online show. Everyone's watching you every second
Dylan Schmidt:Yeah. The random download in my head tell me if this is a good idea. To me, this is a good idea. So someone starts a blog, they get the blog going they get the the engine going for their blog, they can see on The backend once their blog set up and running, what is what their audience is responding to best, oh my gosh, I'm getting all these pageviews, I'm up to 10,000 page views, I'm getting 5000 of those page views to this one post about vegan chocolate chip cookies or something like that you get, then you have that data. And then hopefully that, you know, money or even if it's a little bit, but you have some data, that that's a good idea. From there, it would be really a lot easier to then go, okay, I can invest my time, a little bit wiser with a podcast or YouTube or creating more content around that. Because you have that informed decision of what blog post is performing best. Does that seem like a good strategy? Oh, yeah,
Jess Hoffman:I think that's an absolutely a great strategy. I think blogs can be really insightful into what your audience wants to see. And just like with anything, there's going to be some testing, right, you're going to have to play around a little bit. And even within your own niche, you might have to play around and you might get some data and see, well, this is the type of content people are really liking and then you can create more of that type of content, you can branch out and create, you know, videos of it for YouTube or posted on social. So it gives you a really good indication of what people are interested in what they're looking for, and what you can kind of replicate in different ways to create more content with that.
Dylan Schmidt:That's exciting. That's exciting and a heck of a lot better feeling than social media with just the quick fast food nature. It's you know, chia seeds will nourish the body differently than French fries. Well, this all leads back to choosing chia. Choosing blogs. What's the name of your blog? Blog? Blog cast? What's the name of your blog? Course again, program again,
Jess Hoffman:a new thing a blog cast?
Dylan Schmidt:I know blog cast, right.
Jess Hoffman:Healthy blog Academy. My website is grow with Jess, which is me. Where to grow your blog. And yeah, that's that's where people can find me. And my course isn't open for enrollment right now we open up different periods of yours, we can cater to our students. Yeah.
Dylan Schmidt:Awesome. Well, thank you so much for joining me today, Jess, and I look forward to learning more from you. And it's been a pleasure.
Jess Hoffman:Thanks for having me Dylan.
Dylan Schmidt:How great was that convo with Jess. You can find Jess on Instagram at grow with Jess underscore for her blogging teach you all about blogging account or on Instagram at choosing chia. And she also has grown with just calm and choosing Chia comm where you can see everything that she's up to. And of course, I'll link everything in the show notes. Everything Jess has got going on. So yeah, blogging, as you've seen is an important strategy to incorporate if you're looking to build a real presence online outside of social media, because like just said, you know, the content in a blog, it lasts, it is a lot stronger than what you build on social media, social media, the algorithms are always changing. Things are always like, you know, moving, the feed is changing, the stories are changing, you post something, it only lasts for 24 hours. Other things you post, it will last on your timeline, but then it just goes down. Like it's just constantly like on social media to battle with the algorithm. And that's why I think blogging is so cool is because sometimes you might Google something like a question or you're looking for something, and a blog might come up from, you know, 10 years or plus like it might be longer. And Google believes that that answer is still relevant to what you're looking for. So that's why they give you that blog or that that answer that website. So I just think it's so cool how you can create something that's a little bit more, I don't know, lasting than creating something that's like, just the quick dopamine rush of social media, because likes views, all those things are like really cool. You know, they feel good in the brain. But there is something to be said about creating that. I don't know content that lasts a lot longer and can make you real money. Like, yeah, sure. If you build up a social media following. I mean, I don't know you're battling with social media, you're battling with all the other people like influencer marketing, where they pay you to be, you know, affiliate or something like that. Like your value is just you're competing with other people in your space on that. And with blogging, sure, yeah, you're competing with other search results and things like that. But I don't know it just it from everything I see. Like people aren't making as many blogs or as many podcasts as they are making new accounts. And because it's just so easy to create a new account, you get a Canva account and you just start posting, right. I don't know I just feel like blogging, podcasting, even creating YouTube videos. They kind of they all work together because you can post the YouTube video on a blog, you can post the podcast episode on a blog and you could post a podcast episode, you know, as a YouTube video, I mean, they just it's like, they all circulate. And those then form what you do on social media. So I just feel like blogging, YouTube videos, podcasting, they all work together. And if you plan in you strategize correctly at the beginning, it's not going to like take a bunch of your time consuming or not not not consuming, but it's not going to take a bunch of your time creating the content, because it does get easier as you go. And it's is the fact that like, as you do it more, you just cut out, I don't know the unnecessary parts of the whole process. So that's why and I hope you enjoyed the conversation with just that's why I wanted to have a blogging expert on here, because I'm going to get more into blogging. And it's really easy to do already take these podcast episodes and add the full transcription. So if you're more of a reader, you can check that in the show notes. There's the full or not in the show notes, sorry, on digital podcaster.com is where all the episodes are. And then you can see on the episodes on this episode, for example, every episode, there's the full transcription, and I edit it lightly for readability. It's not like the proper blog, you know, just probably would be like, I'll make all these tweaks, but it's what it's my version one right now. And then I'll improve it as I go. And what else, and then I also take these videos and add them on YouTube. So you know, in a perfect world, I would take the YouTube video and then put it on the transcript above the transcript or something like that. So you know, it helps the SEO, the search engine optimization. But if you'd like to start or grow your own podcast, please visit www dot Digital podcaster.com. Also, it means the world to me, if you could take the 45 seconds it takes to leave a rating and review on Apple podcast and or Spotify. Both are one would be super huge to me. It helps the podcast that helps me all that good stuff. I really do appreciate it. And I appreciate you listening. And that's first and foremost most important. And if there's anything you'd love to see me cover on future episodes, or if there was a part of the podcast that you particularly loved, please email hello at Digital podcaster.com Because I would love to hear from you. This feels like a one way conversation for me just blabbering on the podcast but it really is a two way conversation. Also, I've been really active on Instagram lately at Digital Podcaster that's all I got for now. I'll see you in the next episode.