The Ultimate Blog Podcast - 142. The Power of Digital Products in Your Blogging Business with Tammy Overhoff

Episode Date: September 3, 2024

Today, we’re excited to welcome our guest, Tammy Overhoff! Tammy is the owner and author of the successful blog Organize Yourself Skinny. She shares the journey of building her blog from a hobby in 2011 to a career that allowed her to leave her full time job and spend more time with her kids. She’s sharing how she built her blog over the past 13 years and what she’s learned along the way, from listening to your audience to understand what digital products they need from you, to pivoting when what you’re doing isn’t working. If you want to turn your blog and digital products into your main source of income, tune in to be inspired and learn practical tips from Tammy!Thanks for listening! Let us know your thoughts on Instagram: @sparkmediaconceptsSign up for our newsletter here at  www.theultimateblogpodcast.com/newsletterCheck out the show notes (link below) for more information including links and resources mentioned in today's episode!SHOW NOTES: www.sparkmediaconcepts.com/episode142**We want to thank you for being a listener of The Ultimate Blog Podcast for the last 2.5 years! Join our new podcast newsletter and receive a FREE Blogging Essentials Guide HERE!**

For the last two and a half years, we have shared weekly podcast episodes with you every single Tuesday, and we just wanted to share even more with you. So launching now is the Ultimate Blog Podcast email newsletter, and we want to just personally invite you to join us on the inside. You already know that you get episodes each and every Tuesday whether you listen on Apple or Spotify or any other podcast player but we want to take it a step further. We really do want to connect with more of you who are listening each and every week or more of you who are learning how to blog or learning more

about blogging as you go. So as our gift to you, we would love to invite you into the podcast newsletter. It is specifically for podcast listeners. So if you have been an avid listener of the podcast, you are definitely going to want to join us. As a way of saying thanks for joining us in the newsletter, we want to give you this free resource called the Blogging Essentials. And it's going to talk about your niche and categories and how you can define those. All you need to do is go to theultimateblogpodcast.com backslash niche.

And that is where you can sign up for that freebie and get to know more about your own niche, learn more about the categories that you need to have on your blog. And this is a great resource whether you have started your blog or you are on the front end and thinking about it. It's just a good way to understand if you have the right scope and the right foundation for your blog. Once again, go to theultimateblogpodcast.com backslash niche to get that freebie today. We cannot wait to share more with you in the newsletter each and every week. We are going to be building these connections and helping you really become as successful as you possibly can. So thank you for being a listener of the Ultimate Blog Podcast.

We can't wait to learn and grow with you more. If you want to get started on creating your own digital products, you can get our guide on how to create a digital product in three easy steps by visiting theultimateblogpodcast.com backslash digital products. Creating digital products can sound overwhelming, so we've broken down the basic steps you need to understand first so you can take action today. Go to theultimateblogpodcast.com backslash digital products to get started on generating another stream of revenue in your blogging business today. Welcome to the Ultimate Blog Podcast. This podcast is the podcast we wish we had when

we started blogging. I'm Amy Reinke. And I'm Jennifer Draper. Our episodes dive deep into how to monetize your blog, sharing unique insights and practical tips We bring you in-depth interviews with successful bloggers and experts who offer valuable actionable advice Our mission is to educate support inspire and empower you in your blogging business Welcome to the ultimate blog podcast Welcome back to the ultimate blog podcast. We are really excited to kind of head into a new season. Over the summer, Jennifer and I had a lot of conversations about what

we truly want the podcast to give you. And one of those things is to really be teaching all of our listeners how you can make more money blogging. So how you can make sure that you are turning this from a hobby into an actual career, if that's what you choose. And one of the ways that we're going to do that is by bringing on even more experts and people who have been in the trenches, who have built their blog from the ground up, who have pivoted, who have tried new things, who have maybe a different perspective on blogging and what that looks like.

And to kind of kick off this new season, we brought on Tammy Overhoff to talk to us today about how she has built her blog since 2011. So welcome to the podcast, Tammy. Thank you so much, Amy and Jennifer. I am very excited. I just started listening to your podcast this year and I've been just binging episodes. So I'm very honored to be here with your new season talking about how bloggers can make

more money. So thank you so much for having me. Yeah. Yeah. We are thankful that you're listening. So I'm really glad that you've been listening to and that gives us some encouragement because you've been blogging for 13 years. And that means if you're clicking play on the ultimate blog podcast that you're actually still learning

too. And I think that that's an important thing to note is that we are always still learning as we're blogging. This is not something that, you know, one day you're like, yeah, I don't need to know anymore. Like I have it all figured out. We can always learn more. We can always try new things. But I would love Tammy for you to just kind of share what made you start a blog.

Like in 2011, when you decided to kind of go down this journey, what was it that brought you to blogging? Woo, okay, 13 years ago. Well, when I started my blog in 2011, believe it or not, that was not even my first blog. So prior to that, well, a couple of years before that, I was actually selling my girls' Jimbery clothes on eBay. And so we're going back like 2008, 2009. This is how old I am. So I ended up selling an ebook

when I was selling Jimbari on eBay because everybody was asking me about it. So after I did that for a couple of years, I put my knowledge, I typed it into a Word document and I would burn it onto a CD and mail it out to the people. There are people listening that do not know what that even means. I know. I know. Google it. We do. We know what burning a CD means.

Yeah. Google it. I think Google might have just been tired at that time. I don't even know. So yeah, so I did that for a couple of years, but I was also working full time. And I always have this So yeah, so I did that for a couple of years, but I was also working full time. And I always have this passion for, or desire maybe is a better word, for wanting to be at home because I had my two young girls. I was working full time and I just really didn't know exactly like what I can do other than what I went and got my masters for. I worked at a college at the time as an administrator. So anyway, I started selling on eBay,

but I wasn't really making money doing that. I sold the ebook. That sold like a couple thousand dollars, believe it or not, but I didn't really know how to sustain that, and I had little kids. And at that time, I started learning about blogging in general, more probably like mommy blogs, I would say, at that time.

And I just remember thinking, okay, well, maybe I can do a blog about selling on eBay. But then at that point, I really wasn't interested in eBay anymore. I was just moving on from that. I just didn't want to do that anymore. And so then I just started a regular mommy blog that I had no niche, that lasted like three months, you know, so that kind of like went. Then I was like, you know what, I just need to focus on my kids, working, I can't do all this extra stuff, I'm busy.

Then I just started focusing on me and I lost about 40 pounds. I got into meal prep, freezer prep, doing all different types of organizational type methods like time blocking, calendar, whatever, accountability. And so once you start losing weight, obviously people start asking you about it. So how did you do it? How did you do it? And I still always had that burning desire to start a blog as well. So I thought to myself, well, you know what? I can start a blog talking about this. So I started my blog, Organize Yourself Skinny. However, it started off as Skinny Mom's Kitchen,

which I ended up having to change it two years later because I got sued, I guess you can say, or being told I needed to change the name because it was too familiar to someone else's name. So that was like my first, like, I have so many challenges. Just if any of your audience is thinking, oh man, blogging is tough, just wait, you will feel much better.

I'm probably a blogging expert and you're listening to mine. So that was like two years. So I changed it to Organize Yourself Skinny, which was fine because it really kind of described more of what I was doing. So I started that blog in March of 2011 and I just started sharing and building community because in 2011 there really wasn't ad thrive. Well there wasn't ad thrive, there wasn't Mediavine, there wasn't advertising like what

you see today. The advertising dollars were really mostly saved at that time for the bigger bloggers, maybe like Pioneer Woman, Deuce, Scary Mommy, stuff like that. Like those were the big advertising dollars were. And then there were like affiliates, but again, it just wasn't, I still to this day don't make a lot of money like affiliates, but again, it just wasn't, I still to this day don't

make a lot of money off affiliates. It was something that I really just didn't get into. Anyway, so I started building my community, building my email list and just doing all of that. And I just started realizing that there was this whole group of people that were really interested in meal prep, freezer prep, losing weight, doing just healthy habits to try to change their life, but changing their life while they are in the midst of being a busy working mom. So that was what I focused on.

And again, I still had that desire to want to work for myself and to make money and to be at home with my kids when I was still working full time. So I started learning more about digital products and I don't know, I'm sure you guys have heard of Pat Flynn and that. So he's really big. So at the time he was really big at that time as well, talking about digital products and eBooks and all of that. So I started, I was like, all right, well, I'm going to just create a digital product. So I started working on this monthly meal plan. So I just did recipes from my blog. I was working with one of my friends to do exercise challenges because she was a physical

trainer. And then I did habit challenges. And at that point, I only had a few thousand people maybe on my email list, if that. And I had my Facebook page, which at that time Facebook was a completely different ballgame. I mean, anything you shared on Facebook, everyone saw. And so I created this meal plan. I literally did it in Word. It was not designed. I saved it as a PDF. I sold it through my email list. And I also posted it in my Facebook page, and then I

just would link to it from a weekly meal plan I did on my blog. That sold $1,500, like $1,500, and I was selling it for $9. That's when I really started to think to myself, okay, well, these digital products, like this is legit. Pat Flynn's not lying. So this is, you know, my audience really, they liked them. I got great feedback. So I was like, okay, well, I'm gonna do this every month.

So I did it for three more months, a total of four months. But my problem was I didn't have a system in place. I didn't really know how to like create this like workflow that was always putting together new meal plans. Now I know that you really just need to create a package and then just sell it over and over again. But those meal plans I created in 2012 actually resurrected in 2020 when I created my Reset and Flourish 30-day ebook bundle.

So I can talk about that in a second. So when I started selling those meal plans, that's when I first, I got that first taste of digital products, selling, you know, building an audience, building an, you know, an email list because the people who are buying this digital product, and I think it's important for bloggers even today to understand, you are not going to sell a digital product from people just finding you through Google and clicking on your website. You're going to sell a digital product by getting those people on your email list, nurturing them, building that community, and then selling to them.

Because so often, I'm not sure when it really became the gold standard for bloggers that traffic and ad revenue were the only path for income. But to me, it's not the only path, and there's were the only path for income. But to me, it's not the only path and there's actually a better path. And when it comes to digital products, you just have so much more control and it really has nothing to do with people coming from Google and coming onto your blog. But anyway, at that point, it was like 2012, 2013, I'm still trying to grow my blog. I'm still working full-time. My kids are little.

I ended up going full-time with my blog in 2014. So from 2012 to 2014, I really wasn't selling any digital products. But in 2014, the summer is when I quit my job. So I wasn't with Raptiv at that time, but I was with, I think, an AOL advertising, but I was making money at that point through some sponsored posts. So I was making enough money where it was supplementing what I was making in my full time job. And I felt confident being able to quit my job and do that full time. So when I quit in the summer of 2014,

that's when I realized, okay, I'm gonna dive in to create another digital product. And that's when I started working on my Organize Yourself Skinny ebook. So what's interesting about that ebook is, so back in the early days, so maybe it was 2012, one of the things that people did on their blogs was we created just kind of a weekly series. So we would take something, so mine was a seven week series on what I did to lose weight.

And so I talked one time about accountability, I went through each of the strategies. Well, I ended up taking that and turning that also into an email series that I was able to use as an opt-in to get people on my email list. But then I took that and completely expanded it and created my Organize Yourself Skinny ebook. And so I started working on that in probably the fall of 2014. And then I launched it in January of 2015. And that brought in, in that first launch, $5,000. And that's when I was, and again, I sold it through my email list. I wish I knew my exact numbers of my email list at that time. I mean, I'm sure 2015, it couldn't have been more than like five or six thousand, maybe

six or seven thousand tops, tops email subscribers. And so, and that's when I realized, okay, this digital products, like this is good, like this is working. So now again, though, I didn't have like an evergreen type of system. So I would just do like flash sales or like I would like launch it again, something like Black Friday sales or whatever. So it was bringing in money, but it wasn't necessarily, it wasn't as automated as I have it right now. But then in 2015 is when I got into AdThrive, which is now Raptive.

And my paid views ever since I got into Raptive have always been high enough that I've always made six figures off of advertising revenue. So that kind of, that took my attention almost away from digital products because I'm like, oh, wow, now I have this, this other ad, you know, this other revenue stream that I need to focus on and make sure it stays at that level. So I still was selling my products or my ebook.

And then in 2017, after a couple of years of being in AdThrive, I started learning more about courses. And so I took my ebook, I expanded it into my first online course, and that first launch, okay, I was selling it for $63, I had 15,000 people on my email list. That first launch brought in $18,000. And then it brought in over a course of two years, maybe at the most three years, $200,000. But the other problem is, again, all of those people on that list at that time were hot leads.

They were on my list. Some of them already bought my ebook. They were like ready to purchase my course. And so my struggle at that point, so that's 2017. So around 2018, 19, I wasn't bringing in the leads fast enough to keep up with having sales like that. And then in November 2019, I got hit with that Google algorithm update and that changed, that like rocked my business because while I was still making money with my digital products,

I wasn't bringing in the leads that I needed to. Now I see that now at the time I didn't realize that. So now looking back, I see that. So my focus, I completely shifted my focus at that time to SEO. I almost like stopped talking to my audience. I was just head down, you know, constantly trying to like get this going. I spent so much money on consultants, theme changes, hiring this, that, and the other, A, B, C, and D, everything. And the needle was just not moving forward the way

that I needed it to move forward. So fast forward probably to, well, in 2020, I remember 2020 thinking, okay, I need to do something else. I have this ebook, Organize Yourself Skinny, but I sell it. At that point, I was only selling it maybe for like $10. I had it as a tripwire. I'm like, I need it. I need something else.

I need to be bigger. I need to be able to charge more money for this. So I was looking through my Google Drive, you know, do, do, do, do, do, look into everything. And then I found my, my meal plans that I created in 2012. So I pulled them out, spruced them up, I hired a designer and she took all those and made them into a beautiful 30-day workbook that really complimented now my Organize Yourself Skinny ebook. I turned that into the Res and flourish ebook bundle. So, and then I sold that for $30.

It sells for $19 and a tripwire. And that sells every day now. I still sell that every single day. So yeah, so then that, so that was 2020. 2022, I got hit with another Google algorithm update, I think around like May, maybe it was. And that's when I was like, all right. I mean, I just didn't even know what to do at that point because I felt like I was doing

everything. And so at that point, I was like, all right, if I don't pivot, if I do not change gears here and do something different, my business is over. And at that point in 2022, I've already been full-time, what is that, seven years, seven, eight years already. So I just didn't even know what to do. So basically what I did was I'm like, I am done. I'm taking a break from SEO. I just can't do that. This is not working. So I just basically listened to my audience. At that time, people would always email me and say, oh, I need help losing weight or I need help getting healthy or whatever

it is. And I would always direct them either to my book, my ebook bundle, or my course. People were saying, well, I'm not really ready for a whole program. I kind of just didn't want that one thing. That made me think about doing a smoothie challenge. I've seen other people do challenges, and I'm like, well, I have all these smoothie recipes on my site. I can do a smoothie challenge. So I put a smoothie challenge together. I created it into a PDF.

At this point, I did have someone design it for me, my designer. I had an opt-in page put together. Well, I create that in Lead Pages. So I created an opt-in page and then I put that into my Facebook group. So my Facebook group at that time, not my page, my group, had 14,000 people in it that had completely gone dormant

because at that point I like ignored everyone because I was so focused on SEO. I hopped in and I'm like, hey guys, I'm back. How about we do a smoothie challenge? Let's get this going. I could not believe like thousands of people signed up for it. And so they had to give me their email, they got the materials. We did a smoothie challenge and that completely reinvigorated me.

It completely reinvigorated my audience. It was absolutely amazing. And so how I made money with that then was after the smoothie challenge, I did a mini launch of my reset and flourish bundle. And that made close to $5,000 in that launch. And I was like, I'm back in business. I don't have to shut down. I don't have to go and get another job. Like, okay, this is great. And then I did a mason jar salad challenge. The same thing. Did the launch. Made money from that launch. And then I realized, I'm like, okay, this is the perfect product for people who just want that first step. So

I took the smoothie challenge, mason jar salad challenge. I went on my blog, I looked for other recipes that I had that would make great challenges. I thought about my own experience. I did overnight oats challenge, and then I created a 10 day healthy dinner challenge, and I put together a starter guide. I put that into my 10-day healthy eating challenges kit,

which I launched in October of 2022. And I just checked the stats before I came on to date that has made close to $125,000. And that sells for $19 on sale, $30 full price. And that's after Facebook ad costs, because I do, in the midst of all of that craziness, I took a Facebook ads course in June of 2022. So all my worlds all came together at once. And to be very honest, learning Facebook ads was probably one of the best skills I've ever learned as a blogger, like as a business, I shouldn't even say as a blogger, as a business

owner who is selling digital products. And then from there, I just started really listening to my audience. I started doing some surveys. I actually interviewed some of them to really running polls, trying to figure out what does everyone want. So from there, I created my freezer to flourish bundle, and then I created a couple more freezer guides because I realized that so many of my audience loved the freezer prep stuff. I revamped my course and I also created a membership that now runs off the back end. So people who purchase my course,

and I also like I have it all set up in a funnel, but if you purchase my big, I have a big bundle with everything together, and then I also have my course, those people, those customers go through then another funnel, just kind of walking them through everything and supporting them. And at the end of that funnel,

they are given the opportunity to go into my membership. And that was a process in itself, just figuring out what works for that. But I really feel good about where I am now and how I've landed on everything. So I don't know, I think I got everything, but feel free to ask me any questions to clarify stuff. Sorry if it was confusing at all.

No, I think you shared so much good information and I was taking notes as you've been talking and there's kind of like three things I want to call out from what you said. And these are things that we've been talking about in our community, things that we've been thinking are pretty important. And the first one was how much you talk about listening to your community, talking to your community, understanding what they need from you.

And I think that is so easy to forget, or it's such a hard thing to get started on when you're blogging because you're alone, you're sitting behind a computer, it's hard to figure out how to make those connections. You also have made it clear, everything doesn't have to be perfect. Just take what you have, listen to your community and find a new way to offer it to them in a way that's simple for them to be able to consume it and find a new way to offer it to them in a way that's simple for them to be able to consume it and get value out of it. And then also don't be afraid to like if that doesn't work, change it up a little bit and try something new.

Like I think we overthink things, we try to over-perfect things. And I bet there's pretty much anybody who's listening today who has their blog started, I would guess you could tell them like, okay, here's your next step if you want to create a digital product. So I guess that's what I would like you to talk about a little bit is for those people, you know, do you have to be at a certain level? Like how many email subscribers do you need to have? Do you need to have traffic to your site?

Like what's the first step if somebody is like, yeah, I don't want to wait for an ad network or I want to diversify from my ad network. I want to do this too. What do I need to have in place to get started? Sure. I just want to say real quickly, comment on something that you said. People cannot be afraid to pivot and to change things up. I have so many times repackaged, rearranged things, thought this was going to be a great

front end offer and then realized it's not. And then I had to switch it up. You know, my membership, I was trying to get people in the front end, you know, when they would first sign up. That does not work for me. It had to go off another product, the back end. But don't sit on something that's not working for too long. Don't be afraid to switch it up and say, you know what, I mean, you don't want to switch it up after a week. You want to be able to like get some data and like look at things, but don't be afraid to do that because I think that is really key to being successful as a business owner in general. I think that's great advice. I'm glad you said that because I think it's really great advice.

I think a lot of times we can feel very stuck and we're really afraid to change. And because that whole process is overwhelming in and of itself. When we thought that something was going to go one way and it's either not working or it's not doing what we want it to. And so then to like go back to the drawing board and ask ourselves, okay, like how can we do this differently or how can I continue to do what I want to do? It takes some bravery and I think it takes some courage in order to do that instead of just staying stuck and complaining about being stuck. So I just, I think that there was somebody listening who probably needed to hear that

today. For sure. And also if you don't mind, I just want to mention too, as far as talking to your audience, I had one of my membership, one of my members, she was just having, she was just struggling with some of the tech of getting in and all that. And I said, okay, well, let's just go on Zoom with me. Let me look at your computer and I'll see

if I could fix it or figure it out. And I said, well, now that I have you here on Zoom with me, let me look at your computer and I'll see if I can fix it or figure it out." And I said, well, now that I have you here on Zoom, can I just kind of interview you and talk to you? Now, this is someone who's been with me for years. I have some people who've been with me since the beginning and it's crazy. And yet I'm so honored by it. We've all been together so long.

And we were on Zoom for 20 minutes, just having a conversation. She was so grateful that I would even get on Zoom to help her figure out how to use the membership. But I was grateful because I learned so much about, I wanted to know, like, how do you use this? What do you think? How can it be helpful? You've been with me a long time. So as much as we want to hide behind our computers, when you do get to talk to the real people who are actually coming to your blog, buying your products, becoming a part of your community, that in itself gives you purpose and shows you that you're not just working alone, that what you're doing matters and what you're doing is actually helping that person solve a problem, achieve a goal, whatever that is.

So all right, so how to get started. I think that if you are going into blogging, definitely starting with a digital product mindset and strategy right from the start. What can I create? And not saying you gotta walk in and create a digital product immediately, but as you are starting to create content, as you're starting to bring in emails,

you wanna think about who am I attracting to my site, to my email that will want to purchase the product that I'm creating. And so you want to think to yourself, again, and I know this kind of almost sounds generic, but what problem are you solving for the people coming to you? What goal are you helping them achieve? It doesn't need to be light changing. I mean, you don't need to help someone lose 100 pounds.

You can help someone just figure out dinners during the week, you don't need to help someone lose 100 pounds. You can help someone just figure out dinners during the week. You know, busy working moms that need help getting dinner on the table. But you need to be more like when you're creating a product, you almost need to be more niche down than that. So, you know, looking at, I think very like from a food blogger perspective, because that's what I do, but I always say to people, how can you curate the recipes and content on your site in a way, in a package that helps them move on that journey to solving that problem, achieving that goal? So I would definitely start,

like as if a new blogger came to me, I mean, obviously you've got to get content on your blog. You want to just kind of find your place because what you're starting with isn't necessarily going to be... You're going to find out more about yourself as you continue to blog and what you're interested in. But you also want to think about, because there's a million blogs out there, okay, there's a million people talking about meal prep. People may find me because of meal prep, but they come back because of me. They come back because of the way I'm teaching it, the way I'm talking about it, the community that I'm building. And so the more you can build out your community and, you know,

build that around your blog, around your digital product, the more successful you're going to be. Another thing, as soon as you start your business, building your email list should be your number one goal. Everything you do should lead right into building your email list, because that email list is going to be your biggest asset for everything in your business, especially selling digital products. So you can never start it too soon. Start it right away. And also, and here's the thing,

because even if you start it, like the people who join your email list a year from now, they're new to you. So, you know what I mean? So it's like, it doesn't really matter. You don't need to wait a certain time because everyone who comes on your email list is always going to be new to you no matter how long you've been blogging for, if that makes sense. So I would definitely work on not just building your email list, but focusing on creating

email funnels. Because the great thing about email, and I know that sounds very technical, but the great thing about email is you really can automate it. And once you get those sequences put together or those funnels put together, now your job becomes just getting people in the door in your email. So I call, like I guess the method I use for my emails is I like to call it my nurture to sales method.

So when people are coming into my email, so they're coming into my world, I right away, you know, obviously, you know, I introduce myself, but more so it's I want people to feel relief when they find me. Whether it's on recent flourish or tasty digital eats, I want them to be like, I'm so happy that I found Tammy. This is so helpful. So I want them to see, okay, this is me. I've been where you're at.

I get it. And now this is how I can help you. So here's what I have to where you're at, I get it, and now this is how I can help you. So here's what I have to help you. I usually, now I have a lot of products now, but I usually will give them a fast action offer for one of my bundles, and then I just take them through this journey and everything that you learn about in the blogging world

as far as showing your expertise, showing your authority, your trustworthiness. Those are still the same things that you want to show in your email funnels, like in your email sequences. In my first email sequence and even in my second, I have like my primary and my secondary, and those are all focused on nurturing my audience, leading them to my paid solutions. I'm never like selsy about it. I'm really just like inner, you know, like weaving it in, but I

don't just link them back to my blog. I'm not just like, oh, here's a recipe for you. No, I really do try to focus on the pain points. I try to focus on like, what is their goal? Like, why did they just join my email list? And that's when I walk them through. So I hope that makes sense. So I would say work on their email list right away, get those email funnels put together because not only are email funnels great for automating and all of that, but now you start getting statistics. Now you start to see, you're getting all these people going through the same funnel, and now you can see what they're opening,

what they're clicking on. And then if they do purchase from you, you can see, well, what email did they open that brought them to purchase from me? So you get so much more data. And so I think that's like what I would recommend. And I would just start, so let's just say you're starting like a vegan blog. Well, start really thinking about like what information would someone need from me who

is just starting out going vegan and start putting together an outline, getting that digital product, just even like the skeleton of it put together as you're creating recipes. I mean, a lot of times now when I create recipes, I already have it in my mind that I'm using this for a digital product. So it will go in the product and it also will go on my blog.

So yeah, I hope that makes sense. I talk a lot. It does. So you're totally fine. You're great because you're like, everything's very valid. Like everything that you're sharing, like it's just, it is literally walking people through a journey.

But I think that you made a good point there. And I liked that you just said that was that when you're creating content for your blog, you're creating it with the intention of creating also a digital product. So it's twofold from the start. And I think that as bloggers, when we learn to kind of have that lens that, okay, this content that I'm sitting down to create today, it doesn't just have one life. It has many lives. Like it can be turned into a lot of different things. That way we're repurposing it. That way it has new life. That way, like you've said, you created something in 2012 and 2015 that you're still using today. I mean, some of that stuff

is still generating profit for you as you know, as you're sitting here on this interview. And I think that we have to remind ourselves of that, especially in the beginning, when you are creating some of these things for the first time, we can always make them better, we can always add to them. And we're always going to be learning with every digital product, every service, every course. It's a work in progress. It's never like one and done. And so what are we learning from it? How can you repurpose it? And I think that's

really great encouragement to ask yourself like, okay, if I create this, how can I use it? Like how many different ways can it actually be used? Because back to the very beginning, what you talked about is you started this blog by having a full-time job and also two kids at home. And so navigating that is really challenging. And so knowing that what you're creating actually serves multiple purposes can make the work feel, I think, a little less daunting and that there's more purpose in it. It's not just like, oh, I'm just going all in on SEO and this is it. And if it doesn't work, then, you know, and they're relevant. Yeah, no. And I think at this point in the game, focusing,

putting all your eggs in the SEO basket is actually probably a pretty dangerous model to go down at this point, not to be real blunt about it. But I know for me, again, I think it just needs to be a bonus. This is what I tell people. If you're going to put content on your blog, of course use SEO best practices. I mean, that's a no brainer, but it's not the only path. I mean, so if you're going to put content, use SEO best practices, get together a system. If that's something you continuously want to get content on your blog once a week, twice a week, whatever that looks like, but don't let that be your only path because Google can flip that switch whenever they want. And if all your eggs are in that SEO basket and that advertising

basket and now you quit your job, you're living the good life and everything's great and all of a sudden Google flips that switch, I mean, that's a tough place to be in. Because when that happened to me, you find yourself working from a place of desperation, and that's not the place you wanna work from. That's not where your best work comes from. You wanna be able to create that control in your business, create those products that you are able to sell and scale, and then let the ad advertising, let that be a bonus.

Let that just, like I said earlier, let that be gravy. You will get into an ad network. Like that will happen. But don't think you have to work for free for two years, a year and a half before you can have any money coming in. I mean, you think Target worked for free for two years? You know, you think they spent around waiting to see what Google's gonna do next?

No, they're selling. You walk in the door, you go there for a reason. They're not, you know, they're not like sitting there holding your hand. They're like, hey, you need lotion? Here you go. I have it right here in this aisle. You know, and then you're, oh, thanks. Okay, I'll go get it. I mean, that's just how business works. And so I think that as bloggers, we need to start shifting our mindset and we need to start looking at it from the perspective of products and what we can create for our audience that we can serve them better. Because I'll tell you, when I started creating more digital products, I felt that I was just

serving my audience better. I wasn't just sending them back to my site so they can now be bombarded with ads again or another email pop-up. I was saying, here you go, here's something I created for you. And the testimonials I get from people, it just proves to me that that was the right path for me to take. So yeah, I think it's important for people to really think beyond the ad revenue because there's so much more.

I mean, you can make so much more money with digital products for sure. And I'm not saying it's easy. I'm not saying there's not a learning curve, but there's a learning curve with everything. I mean, you just, you got to go where the ROI is. And as far as talking about working with kids and everything, that has taught me how to work in the margins of my day. And that has also taught me how to only focus on the things that are going to actually matter in my business.

And if it doesn't matter to do all these like little nuances for SEO and this, that, and the other, then I just don't do it. Like I said, I follow best practices, but I do not go down rabbit holes at all anymore. And my focus 100% is building my email list, always making, you know, I'm always looking at my funnels, seeing if there's anything else I could tweak, add, whatever. I'm looking at those statistics and I'm always thinking about what is the next digital product that I can create for my audience. Because now I have everything in a reset and flourish shop, which is my Shopify store.

And so as I create things, I put them in the Shopify store and now I'm even like working on looking at my course and I'm plucking out the modules and I'm starting to create those into mini-workshops that people can buy. I mean, why not? If you already have the content, why not repurpose it in different ways? Not everyone will want to buy an entire course. Not everyone's going to want to become a part of a membership.

Maybe they just want a one-off workshop or whatever that looks like. So yeah, that would definitely be my advice for new bloggers for sure. Tammy, you have given so much good advice and I love your perspective on a lot of it. It's very direct and simple. I mean, I bet it does not feel simple to you, but as you are sharing it, it really has. It's felt like, okay, if it's, if something's not working, try something else. Don't think that there's only one right way to do things because there's not, um, and learn from what you're doing. I just, I feel really inspired listening to you today and knowing, I think, I think there's, you know, there is a lot that we can learn from someone who has been in this game for a really long time. You started in 2011, Jennifer started in 2013.

I started in 2017. And I think that all of our journeys look very different, but we've learned some of the same things too, you know? And so I think that we all have a roundabout way of learning what it takes to be in this space and what it takes to stay in it too. And there are no perfect days and there are no easy days necessarily when it comes to blogging. But one thing I'd love to ask, I guess, would be if you could go back to yourself in 2011, knowing what you know now, knowing what the last 13 years have looked like,

would you still choose this path? Would you still choose to be a blogger or would you do something else you think? Well, knowing what I know now, I would definitely have gone all in right from the beginning on digital products. I would have learned Facebook ads, I would have learned all those different ways to continuously build my email list. But I would have stayed focused. I tend to, I got very, lots of shiny objects in the last 13 years. And even to this day, I have to control myself. I have to say, no, this is what you're focusing on. This is how you're getting people on your email list.

You're doing Instagram reels and Facebook ads. Nothing else. Like this is what I'm working on because I still, my time's still very limited. So if I could go back in time, I definitely would have stayed very focused. I would have really built out my business with digital products, the membership. I mean, there's some people out there now

who have stayed very focused and they have like million dollar meal prep memberships who started probably after me and they're amazing. I'm always looking at people in awe because I know how much work it takes. But yes, if I could go back in time, I would have stayed focused. I would have focused on one thing, built that out, and then just kept layering on that one thing. I would have tried to do all these different things. I think it's good advice. I think we all have shiny shiny object syndrome. Yeah, it's hard to do, especially in the blogging world, because in it, and especially as like food bloggers, it's like, OK, well, now you got to make videos.

Well, now you have to do this. Well, now you need to do this. And we'll need to look at this way. It's like it is your business is nobody knows your content in your business better than you. And there's a lot to be said for following your intuition and following your guts. But then there's also a lot to be said for looking at your statistics and not just what Google says. Like I said, looking at your emails, listening to your audience, focusing on that stuff and

not what everyone else is saying that you should be doing. Fantastic advice. It is. It is. Well, I know that people are going to want to connect with you and check out your blog. So can you please tell them where they can do that? Yeah.

So the best way to contact me, if you want to see me and reset and flourish and what I do over there, go to Instagram reset and flourish. That's where you'll see me, all my reels and you could DM me and whatever. So we'll stay with one place. And then if you, but if you're interested, if you're a food blogger and you're interested in creating digital products, and I say food blogger just because that's what my expertise is in and I try to stay focused. So it's Tasty Digital Eats. So again, you can go to my website, tastydigitaleats.com for that.

And then I'm also posting on Instagram. So my handle there is Tasty Digital Eats. So whatever, wherever you wanna find me, that's where I'm at. Awesome. Thank you so much, Tammy. I really appreciate you just sharing the last 13 years with us and what you've learned and allowing it to inspire us to stay focused and think outside the box and keep chasing

our own purpose. So thanks for sharing your story. For sure. Thanks again for having me. I love sharing my story. So thank you. Thank you. Thanks for listening to the Ultimate Blog Podcast. If you'd like to learn more about

building your blog, visit theultimateblogpodcast.com backslash newsletter to get signed up for our email newsletter. If you enjoyed this episode, we'd love for you to share it with a friend, subscribe and leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts. Thanks for tuning in today and we'll see you next time.