The Ultimate Blog Podcast - 84. DIY, Home & Garden Blogging with Jennifer Howard

Episode Date: July 25, 2023

Are you wanting to niche down into a DIY, home and garden blogger? Today, we are joined by Jennifer Howard to shed some light on the home and garden niche in blogging. Jennifer is the creator of the home & garden blog Cottage On Bunker Hill.  She teaches her readers how to create a beautiful home on a budget by finding knock-off looks, DIYing, & upcycling thrift store finds. If you are curious what it would be like to niche down into a home and garden blog, this episode is for you! Thanks for listening! Connect with us on Instagram: @sparkmediaconceptsCheck out Cooking with Keywords & Blogging with Keywords HERE!  SHOW NOTES: www.sparkmediaconcepts.com/episode84

Welcome to the Ultimate Blog Podcast with Amy Reinecke and Jennifer Draper. We're on a mission to empower women who want to start or grow their own blog. This podcast is for women who want to learn blogging basics and who crave inspiration and encouragement. Whether you're just getting started or have been a blogger for years, we're excited to welcome you into this space where we are passionate about creating community over competition. We are bloggers who want to encourage you to believe in your potential, step outside the norm and step into a life where you create your own schedule, your own success and your own story. Join us for weekly episodes as we navigate blogging

and work from home life all while raising a family and having some serious fun along the way. all while raising a family and having some serious fun along the way. We have a really fun episode planned for you today. And to do so, we brought on Jennifer Howard. She is the creator of the Home and Garden blog, Cottage on Bunker Hill. She teaches her readers how to create a beautiful home on a budget by finding knockoff looks, DIYing, and upcycling thrift store finds. Welcome to the Ultimate Blog Podcast, Jennifer. Hi, thank you. Thank you for having me. We are really excited to talk to you because we have not had a home and garden or decor blogger on the podcast yet. And so that is the whole reason that we wanted to bring you on today is just to kind of shed some light on this particular niche

for people to learn from, because we do talk a lot about food or health and wellness and things like that, but, or travel, but we just have not had somebody in this space. So I would love for you to start out by kind of sharing a little bit about your story and how you got started in this niche. I started my blog in 2019, but I always, I love to decorate, like looking at my first apartments. I love, you know, going to thrift stores and finding cool finds. And then as my kids got a little older and I really needed a creative outlet and I started flipping furniture and finding, you know, furniture to paint and decorate the house with. And I would

share it on Facebook with my friends and it kind of grew from that. And then I always read blogs and follow blogs and, you know, was on Pinterest all the time. And I'm like, I kind of got it on my heart that, oh, I think maybe I can do this. So I actually started a blog and never published it. I kept it private just for myself to try to, you know, feel my way around. And I tried to learn what I could and I launched in 2019. But that first year was really looking back. I wish I had had a group right away or mentor group or coach right away to lead me in the right direction. Because that first year was kind of on my own without a tribe. And I didn't know, but the important things like SEO or building your

email list or anything like that, I kind of just wrote what I wanted to and went. And then in 2020, I got in a really good coaching group with big home decor blogger, Karian Wood of Thistlewood Farms. And there was about 50 of us in a mastermind for six months. And she just poured into us. She did not gatekeep. She taught us so much about home decor blogging. And from there, I met a really great tribe of other home decor bloggers and just stayed together. And we've kind of all grown together over the past couple of years until I'm doing it full time now. So that was kind of how it just started as a love of decorating and the need to express my creativity and then kind of just sharing it with all my readers now. So that's how it started.

And that's how it's going for now. So I've learned a lot along the way. And I really try to teach people how to dupe those expensive looks that they love on a budget. And it's just been really fun. And it's so sad. It's almost obsessively satisfying that I wake up in the morning thinking about blogging. I go to sleep saying, Oh, I should just finish that. And I think that's a sign of something you've really loved and were meant to do. And it's great if you can find that and make a living from it.

Yeah. I think that's the awesome thing about blogging is that most of us who start a blog, it's generally around something that we're passionate about. If you're blogging about something that you hate, I don't know. I just maybe suggest you find a new topic. But if it's something that you're excited about and you're excited to learn about and share about, then I think it doesn't feel like a job, quite honestly. And I love that it kind of naturally unfolded for you. Yeah. Community is really important to us here. Yes. At Spark Media. And that's something that we have said from the beginning that we believe in community over competition. And so I'm so glad that you were able to kind of

get plugged in in that way because I love that you said that she wasn't a gatekeeper. Right. That's really important. I think that's the point of everything that Jennifer and I do is that the internet is a really big space and there is room for all of us. I think that there's a lot of misconception that blogging is oversaturated or maybe it's dead. And I know that you can shed some light on this. You started, I mean, I would say officially then you started in 2020. Yes, yes.

How has your blog grown since then? What has kind of been the story there? So I started, as we all do, small, just kind of learning. And I think the other thing about blogging is that, which I love is that it is a continual learning process. Like if you are not learning, you are falling behind. Like you have to be willing to keep up on, you know, what's new, what's working. So it's, you know, true trial and error. And then I think it's important to find a group of people that you can all work together.

So, and you grow quicker. So, because if, you know, you have a group of gals, five gals, and one person makes a mistake and say, Hey, I did this. Then everybody learns. And then, you know, you save all that time of everyone making the same mistake. And so anyone that's starting out, like, you know, join a mentor group, find similar people in your niche and try to like form your own little tribe.

It really helps you grow quicker. I think that was super important. You know, finding people that you can work together. And then also, you know, just learning more about the business, like, you know, getting your page views up, learning about SEO. I mean, I can't... Search engine optimization is the basis of your blog. I mean, I wish I had known that when I started, just how important it is. And so as you learn more, you get more page views and you grow. And then more page views, you can get monetized.

I started with SheMedia in 2020. And then so I was monetized there. And then also with building your affiliate income and your affiliate links, that's been my other main source of income over the past couple of years as well. And then just learning more. And I think also staying consistent. If you publish, you only have 15 blog posts, Google's never going to find you. You need to be consistent. You need to grow your blog posts and you need to figure out your keyword strategy,

what people are looking for, and write around that. And, you know, in home decor, you know, stay up on the current trends, what people are looking for to decorate. I love seasonal decorating and what I think the trends are going to be, say in the fall for decorating and kind of get ahead of that and start, you know, producing content or DIY a lot of things,

start making things like I saw last summer. I think it was like in July, Pottery Barn, you know, dropped their fall catalog. And I saw the terracotta pumpkins. And I was like, in July, I said, Oh, that was so amazing. And they were like viral last year. So, you know, I duped those. And, you those and that was a huge post for me. So I think that's important, home decor to kind of figure out trends and what works for your own home. I live in New England. So I always kind of have a coastal New England look to my home. Readers that like that style will gravitate towards you and what you do too. So is that how you come up with your ideas? So you're saying you're going to basically work

ahead. So we're recording this in May. So you probably are already thinking about fall content. So how are you finding those ideas? This is coming from a person who... This... I would not know a decor trend if it literally slapped me on the face. I have to have help in that area. And so if somebody does want to... Maybe that is their fun thing and they want to have a home decor blog. What is one way that they can be looking at those trends that are up and coming? are up and coming? Like, what are some tools that you use in order to find out what people are either going to want to, you know, DIY or have in their home or make themselves or buy or purchase? I look online at all of like the big home decor catalogs online. And I'll look through them all. catalogs online and I'll look through them all. And if you look at, you can kind of see what kind of trends that are coming. And sometimes it's just like, oh, I think I just have a feeling. I'm like, oh, that, I think that's going to, you know, people are going to really like that and resonate with that. And then I'll be like, how can I DIY that so I can make it affordable and not,

you know, a $400 thing that they can make it for $30. And this is how you can do it. And it's not hard. You know, a lot of people think, oh, I can't DIY. You can't. You can do this. That's what I try to. I'm not using table saws.

I mean, although I can. I'm not using power. This is you can do this. Like you can buy these things and you can make this. And if you're having trouble, here's my email, just email me. And I, people like, oh, can, you know, I will help you. I will. And you know, and then I just get a gut feeling. And then I have my, I have a notebook. I always have a notebook and I just brain dump ideas. Like in the season, I'll just like write a list of ideas. If I get to them, I get to them.

And I just, you know, just comes to me and I just write it all down. Or ideas, I think, oh, this would be a great idea. I think people will like this. And then I kind of just check down through the ideas as, you know, the season goes by. I usually organize my content seasonally. I know some people do it month to month. For me, seasonally, it know some people do it month to month. For me, seasonally, it's just how my brain works. And then I'll make that. And then I'll just start going through the content. Like now it's May here. I'm doing a lot of gardening

because the eternal winter is over in New Hampshire. So I do do gardening content too. And this is how you can start a garden. This is how, here's my cutting garden. This is the patch of land. This is the raised beds that I built. Here, you can do this. This is what I put in them. These are the seeds I planted. And this is how it looks. Taking someone from the beginning to the finished product. And you can do it too. You know, if you're in my zone, cooler zones, tropical plants, you have to find another girl. I'm not going to help you with that. Well, you very clearly identified your people, you know, your, your niche. And so you're, you're serving a very specific group of people and you're

clear about that. And you're clear with yourself about that too. You're not trying to be somebody that, that you're not. And so I think that's an important point is you kind of have to figure out that you're not going to be able to please every single person, but you can do a really great job of helping certain people. Right. And I, you can't please everyone. Like for my audience, like I wouldn't, you know, wouldn't resonate. I wouldn't work with a brand of, you know, a $500, say light or something, because that's not my reader. My reader likes a pottery bond look

on like a Walmart budget. So here, and a lot of things I'll be like, one of my most popular posts, all time popular, is how to get the Pottery Barn look for less. And I created a Pottery Barn look. And then I found all almost duplicate things that they could purchase for much less. So if you take the time, you can get that look. You can shop and find a similar look

and you can decorate your home in almost the identical way. So that's another thing that you can shop affordably. And this is the almost same rug for $2,000 less. So, you know. That's awesome that you can do that because I would say the general population can't afford a rug that's $2,000 to $4,000. You know, most of us are not buying rugs for our home

that cost that amount of money. But we have animals or kids, right? Yeah, 100%. Yeah. If I brought a $2,000 rug in here, it would be like toast within a couple weeks, probably. So I think that that's awesome, though, that there are people out there like you who are giving people another option to have a home that feels cozy and that you walk into and it feels beautiful and you're proud of it and all that without spending a complete fortune

or helping them do it on their own. Because I think there are a lot of people who really enjoy that DIY aspect. And I see a table saw and I want to run the other way. It's funny that you said that you don't need a table saw because that terrifies me. It would probably terrify my husband if he came out into the garage and saw me with it as well. For being honest. But there are so many people in this space right now sharing ways that we can beautify our homes. And so I just love that you're doing this. It's kind of one of those niches to me that it would never be a good fit to me, but I'm always so interested in what you got. I could watch the videos and watch you put these things together. You know what I mean? Because it's so interesting. You're so creative. And I think that's bloggers

in general. We have this creativity within us that... I don't know about you guys, but I didn't realize I was creative until I became a blogger. Did you always know you were a creative? When I was young, my father, my grandmother were very artistic. They were artists as, you know, as a hobby. And I was when I was younger, but then you get into life and you have kids and, you know, I think you kind of forget about like being creative when you're in that thick of all of that. And then as my boys got older, I just really just started, you know, like doing little DIYs.

I'm like, oh, I forgot how much I loved this. And it was something for myself. Like you spend so much energy on your families and, you know, you pouring out all the time. And it was like something I'm like, I'm going to go make over this table that I found at that God sale down the street and just started doing that.

And then it really was just, it like kind of snowballed from that. Then, you know, Fixer Upper came on in like 2015. And I was like, oh, that is exactly what I do. Like, and then everybody loved it. I'm like, oh, you know, and then it kind of just rolled. It took me a while to actually be like, you know, I'm going to start a blog, you know, as I did, you know, had a one that I never published.

I would just, you know, did it for myself, kind of try to learn. And then, and then still so many people, your friends, they don't, people that aren't in blogging don't understand anything about it. Do you know, like they don't. that aren't in blogging don't understand anything about it yeah do you know like they don't and thank goodness that's another reason to find your blogging friends because you need people to understand what you're even talking about you know i mean my husband now he hears me so much talking on zoom that my friends he'll be like do you need help with that SEO today? Oh, I can help you with that.

And, you know, so, but it's really, it's just like, you know, I just love it so much. And I love doing it, you know, and I have to, you know, tell myself at the end of the day, okay, okay, it's going to stop now. Yeah. Yeah. myself at the end of the day. Okay. Okay. It's going to stop now. Yeah. If you're a blogger who's looking to increase your organic search traffic using keyword research, we have an excellent resource that we are really excited to share

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Aleka's keyword courses, click the link in our show notes and become a keyword research guru. What was the thing that kind of made you push the button and say okay I'm going to publish a blog live I and did you set any goals for your blog I honestly Jennifer I didn't even know what I was doing like I knew like I tried to learn as much as I could watching YouTube or just you know looking online and then I just kind of put it together. I figured it out. And then I just hit it. And then I was like, oh, and I didn't really even like tell a lot of people like, you know, I don't think many of us do when we start, right? Right. We're like, I'm just going to do this thing and I'm not going to tell anybody about it. And now, I mean, honestly,

when I look back and there's some of them are still on my blog. I joke, my other blogging girlfriends have been doing for a few years. I'm like, I can't even look at 2019. When I'm updating content, I'm like, it's like, I'm not even. I look, I go, it has like 300 words. I can't, it's just like, I'm like, oh. I think that is so important. I'm so glad that you're talking about this because somebody who's listening is at that point that they have no idea what they're doing. They don't have a community. They are just doing the thing. They're learning along the way. And what you're giving them right now is hope that three, four years down the road, you can actually figure this out. You can actually start a business doing this and create an income

and create a living doing this. It's a valid job. I mean, really, it is. It's not a sprint. It's a marathon. You are not going to become an overnight success starting a blog. You are not going to start a blog today and in 2 months, you are going to make a full-time income. Maybe somebody does, but it really, you really do need to, you know, put your time and effort and you keep growing. You know, I love at the end of the year, like I make, see where, you know, my end of the year, where my page views are, where my subscribers are from 2019 to, you know, and see that doubled and tripled, you know, and then you're, tripled, you know, and then you're like, wow, you know, when you're in it, sometimes you need to look back and go, look where I came

from and look where I am now. Right. No. And, and how it's all, you know, you just, it's just continually growing and learning. And, you know, the more content you have, the easier, you know, then Google find, you know, things just become easier. The more time and effort you put into it as, you know, as time goes by. Once you have like, you know, I think I have almost 500 blog posts now. Like once you kind of start growing, you know, things are easier because Google finds you. Then you have all these things on Google. Like, I didn't understand that. I think when I started that, you know, my friends had been doing for a few years, like, oh, you know, they're doing so much better. It's because,

you know, they have more things for Google to find that, you know, now I can look back, I explained to one of my friends, like, now I can look back. I explained to one of my friends, now I can look back. I have three Christmases worth of content people are looking for. I didn't really Right. That's how you kind of build your business and you keep growing and growing and growing and stick with it. You see the bloggers I've been doing it 10 years that have four employees or at that point becomes like a corporation basically. Right.

Absolutely. You have to put your time, but really it's really important to try to find a tribe of people it's very hard to do it on your own you know even like i would take for someone starting out like find a group reach out to someone who you admire that's a blogger dm them on youtube everybody's nice you know people are willing i think that's so true are like just reach out to someone like if you told me in 2019 that i'd be in blog hops with people that i pinned on pinterest for years i would be like you know i'm like oh i used to like i diy one of her videos before i was

even a blogger and now i'm in a blog hop with her today. You know, it's just, but you just, you know, find your people, reach out, you know, don't be shy. And it really helps to find, you know, other people, especially I would also say in your niche, it's easier, you know, to, you know, if you're in the home and garden, find other home and garden people that are doing similar things to you. And then you can start working together

or do you know little blog hops with each other or just you know share each other and really is i think it's a game changer and then the more you know really try to give back to you know like i mean i you know i i try to learn everything I can, the technical, like I, it's just my personality. It's the new Englander in me. I'm going to do it myself and I'm going to figure it out. And, you know, and I love to share it with people that, oh, this is how you do web stories. Like, yeah, I've had a few zoom calls with some of my blogging friends.

Like, okay, this is how you do a web story. And I'm going to teach you because you need to do that. And I kept nagging when my friends, I'm like, you have to do this. You need to do this. She's like, I finally did a web story. I think that's the important thing about having a community though,

is because when we go to learn something new, and like you said earlier, we're always learning new things with blogging all the time. And Google Web Stories haven't been around for years. They've only been around a year or two. I can't remember exactly when they came out. But that's the way that a lot of us bloggers are growing currently. Yes. And so being willing to say, okay, there's this new thing that I need to learn. And it can be kind of scary to learn a new thing. But when you have somebody kind of in your corner saying, let's do this, let's give this a try.

I'm going to be here and support you and show you how. Then I think it can really help. And it can give us that encouragement that we need. Because not everybody... I don't want to say isn't a self-starter, but kind of. Some of us just need a little bit more encouragement. You and Jennifer... Maybe it's a Jennifer thing. You're both like, I love to research it and figure it out. And I'm more of the type that's like, I love it when Jennifer researches it and figures it out. And then Jennifer teaches me and then I can get excited

and tell everybody about it. So that's... Maybe that's the Amy in me. I don't know if you're an Amy listening. Tell me if you're like me or not. But I think that that's, there's all different kind of personality types in blogging. You need an encourager. You need somebody who's willing to do the research. And that's why community is so important. And I'll share a little bit about how we connected. So we connected on Instagram and then we actually invited Jennifer into our Ultimate Blog Membership. So now she's in our membership as well, because we are opening that up to bloggers currently, because I love it. We did not tell her to say this, but she keeps talking about how important community is. And that's so important to Jennifer Draper and I, that community is so important.

So that's why we have just recently opened up the Ultimate Blog Membership for other bloggers to join. And you're kind of like a commercial for it today. So thanks for that, Jennifer. But it is so important just to have those people that you meet with, whether it's on a weekly basis or a monthly basis that you're connecting to? Because blogging is not always super easy. No. There are days that you click in and you're like, where the heck did everybody go? Where did my traffic go? Or you're so excited about a post that doesn't end up doing as well as you thought it would. Or you just feel like you're running at a sprint pace for a marathon. And you're like,

I don't know how much gas I have left in the tank. When am I going to see the return on my investment, essentially? And sometimes that really does help to have that community in your corner saying, Hey, I believe in you. And I believe in your content and what you're sharing. Keep going. And it's social proof. If you're surrounding yourself with other people who are doing what you're doing, then I think it can be really motivating to keep at it. I think bloggers are becoming more and more common. When I started, Jennifer was my next door neighbor. And we went to blogging conferences and they were like, your next door neighbors? I would kill to have my next door neighbor be a blogger.

And now it's funny. I go to the preschool my daughter door neighbor be a blogger. And now it's funny, I go to the preschool my daughter goes to. Well, it's over now. But there was 12 kids in the class and three of us were bloggers. And so it's just funny. It is getting more and more like... I'm not like... When somebody's like, Oh, what do you do? I'm not like, I'm a blogger. You're kind of like, I'm a blogger. And they're like, what? You're a what? And I'm like, I know this is really confusing to explain and weird. But now it's like you can... People know about it. People know that this is actually a job that people are creating in income. And I think that that is because as we are blogging longer, we're learning more and we're creating a community. And the blogging community is very... For the most part, what I see,

for sure, the community that we're creating is coming alongside and being like, Hey, we've learned this or we've been through this. Let me show you how to do it now. Because when one of us succeeds, we all succeed. It helps the entire industry, I think. It does. It does. And actually, I have friends that are next-door are next door neighbors that are bloggers in the home decor bloggers. Yeah. I love it. Did you know them before you started? No, no. I met them in the mastermind group. We're in that Anne and Anne Marie have simply two moms. There's they live across the street from each other. So that's awesome. I know. So we're not the only two weirdos, Jennifer. I swear some of our neighbors are probably like, what are they doing?

This is 2016, 2017. And I was helping Jennifer a lot with her slow cooker blog. So we would be taking slow cookers back and forth. And I'm sure that they were like, what? They are so strange. In our pajamas, nonetheless. Yeah. It was pajamas, nonetheless. Yeah. It was.

But it is. And there's also for newer people that don't have a community, look in your area, because I know, well, not here in New England, because there's only five people that live in New Hampshire. But there's a lot of local blogging groups. I know there's a lot of local like blogging groups like in you know i know there's some carolinas that have retreats and different you know your geographical area maybe do a search or

facebook search and no it's probably if you live in a more populated area there's probably you know an actual group of people you can meet like in real life you know which is even greater than you know meeting you know zoomings and zooming thank goodness but zoom yes i mean really to stay connected with other people because all my good blogging friends live you know all over the country yeah you know but yeah and and that's just it's just great and look for a free resource like there's so many like webinars and YouTube videos. Like if you're stuck on something, you can probably, you know, put on a YouTube video

of like, this is how you do whatever technical thing it is or to, you know, grow a little more in your free time. And podcasts, like I listen to podcasts every morning. Like I listen to a blogging podcast, SEO podcast, like a big nerd, or just they're all different. It really grows your toolbox of information and knowledge. Just listening in 30 minutes in the morning while you're getting ready, you can learn something new. Yep. Yeah. You're active in your business. You're not just throwing the noodle out and hoping that it sticks. You're truly active in your business and working towards that growth.

So that's a question I do have for you. You've talked a lot about SEO, but you've talked about some other areas that have helped you grow like blog hops and collaborating with other bloggers. So besides those couple of things, what do you think is something that you would recommend to other like home decor bloggers in regards to growth? Like if they are trying to grow their home decor blog and get more views, what are some other areas that you focus on within your blog and promotion? Taking that time to do your keyword research first, figure that out.

You can have a fantastic idea, but if nobody in the world is looking for it, no one is going to find your post. That is a hard lesson for people to learn. I think sometimes that, figure out if someone's looking for it. But honestly, sometimes I still, if something I really want to make,

I just do it anyway. And, you know, just cause sometimes those are great, but, you know, doing that research, you know, writing quality, you know, posts, you know, take your time and you, you know, structurally like learn how to write a blog post, like use your headings, use, you know, that technical kind of boring stuff. That's really going to help you in the long run, you know, try to be consistent. Like, I'm not saying you have to post every single day, but, you know, post, I think at least two times, three times, you know, a week, different thing. I mean, you don't always have to have a huge project or, you know, you can

do something a little simpler. It doesn't always have to be in another thing. It doesn't always have to be like an enormous over the top project you can do like, okay, here is how I made this flower arrangement in which I just, in that can be a blog post well-written, then link to your other, another thing, make sure you're linking to your already existing content, link back and forth, you know, build that. And then, you know, it always doesn't have to be like the most amazing, hugest room makeover. You can do smaller things

and people are looking for smaller things. Like, oh, I want to make this wreath. And, you know, to make this wreath. And here's a wreath and here's a well-written tutorial. And then they can make it from there. And then try to incorporate new things like web stories, full web stories, we can touch on them. They really are a huge helping bloggers get page views and getting new readers and subscribers

to your blog. Start growing your email list. That's another thing that's really helped page views. Like start from the beginning. Find whatever email. There's a lot of free ones, some that are inexpensive. And start making email lists, grabbing that right when they're on your blog, you know, have right, you know, drop right in my middle of my posts, like,

you know, become an insider or if you like, you know, kind of thing. And that's really important. Like, I think a lot of people like, oh, I'm not going to start an email list until I have like, blah, blah, blah, page views. No, start your email list. Yes. 35 pages. Like just start collecting. Start when you have one. Yeah. Yeah. That's you.

Really? Like that is one of a big source of my traffic and just grow on that. And, you know, in web stories right now, you have to like last year, you know, everybody was doing Pinterest idea pins because that's where it was at. That's where the money was at last year, but then that ended. So now you have to kind of roll. You only have so many hours in the day.

You need to figure out where your return on investment is, where it is. Social media, I mean, I don't have a huge Instagram following. But I also don't put a ton of time there because it's not worth my time. Like, you know.

I'm so glad that you brought that up. I was just going to see if you naturally brought it up or not. I was hoping. I was hoping. So the reason I was is because we've had more and more people come to us lately and say, well, I don't want to grow

a social media following. Or maybe they have a blog and they're like, I don't want to be on social media. That's not where I want to be. So is it just a complete waste of my time now to even do this? And you do have a social media presence, but I like what you just said there is that it doesn't offer you as much ROI. And part of that is because you don't want to put all of your eggs in that basket or you don't want to put all your time and energy there. And you're still growing. Yes. I'm on Facebook and Instagram.

Actually, Facebook, I have better... The past year, better engagement with my readers. I feel like there's such a better connection there now with my readers. I've heard that lately. I get much more traffic coming from Facebook than Instagram. Instagram posts there, but I just feel icky sometimes when I leave there. It's just not my favorite place. I'll go to see my friends and see what they're doing,

but I don't put a ton of time in there because even my friends, I actually think that the people that have huge followings there that also blog is almost treated like it's two businesses. Like they get business from their Instagram, their sponsored work from that that's on Instagram. And then they have their blog. Like, I think there's almost like two sides to that. So, I mean, I'll put things on there, but that's not my traffic comes from Google, my email list and Pinterest. So those are what I'm, I only have so many hours in the day and I'm just one person. That's where I'm putting my time in writing my content. Like that's what's my most useful use of my time is to work on my content, get out new

content, and then I'll post there, but I'm not going to spend a ton of time there. You have to do like the past year, I've really been, since I'm not going to spend a ton of time there. You have to do... The past year, I've really been... Since I've been doing it full-time since last summer, head down, just trying to grow my page views. That has been my goal. Right now, I'm onboarding with Mediavine. So by the time this comes out, I'll have that on my blog.

So that's been my goal, putting other things to the side just to grow my page views and my blog. But so that has been, you know, that's been my goal, and kind of putting other things to the side just to grow my page views, and my content, and to write good content. So that's been what my focus is. I can't have like 20 things to focus on, because I'll run around and get nothing done. You know, that's me. Some people can't, I cannot do everything at the same time. Well, this is what I'm going to do. This is my goal. And that's how I'm going to get there. Then I'll start looking at, you know, I've wanted to get back to doing YouTube again,

but I just didn't have the bandwidth for it. I just needed to do this goal. Now I can move to something else. You know, and that's the other thing you don't like, you know, in the group the other day, somebody was like, how do I grow? And I'm spending this time, but not on, you know, as taking away from my blogs, focus, figure out what you want, like focus on your blog. If that's what you want to grow, that is where your time is well spent.

I've come across home decor bloggers that I didn't even know on Pinterest. And then when you research them, they're huge and they have zero social media presence. The only reason I know is that I found something on Google or Pinterest that they did. And they have huge followings. Yeah. I don't think our social media numbers are... I think either way, like a big number or a small number have any indication on what our blog traffic looks like. No. Or how successful or unsuccessful you are. I think that they are very much vanity metrics in a lot of ways. I've been saying that now for a long time because I think that you can look at somebody like, oh my gosh, they have so many

followers, but they might not be making any money at all or they might not have any blog traffic at all or vice versa. They might have a very small following on social media, but they might have a ton of blog traffic. So don't let those numbers get in your head. I know for a long time, we've played this social media game that we feel like we have to have this huge presence. I'm so glad that you're talking about this because you can be growing your blog in other ways. You don't have to be killing it on social in order to be a successful blogger. I just don't think you do. And I think less and less people...

I think more and more people, I should say, are wanting to get off of social media because it is such a time suck. I think we are finally realizing it's kind of stealing a lot of our time and productivity because we're on social media. And I really think it's a huge, I mean, I think it's a huge misconception too, for bloggers when they're starting out that, Oh, I have to have 50,000 followers and, or else I'm not going to grow. I have friends that have huge followings, but that doesn't mean they have their traffic's coming from to their blog, their traffic coming to the blog because they're doing the work on their blog

to make their blogs good. Really just use your time wisely or else you're going to burn out. I mean, how many, so many bloggers just give up or burn out or you're doing too much and you don't feel like you're getting anywhere. Just like break it down.

What is your goal? Use your time and focus on that and trying to do it well. And, you know, and then I think other things just naturally fall in place. Like your pays views and, you know, and then you can get monetized. There's, you know, she media, you know, Zoic. There's other things when you're not huge, you can still make money on your blog and, you know, affiliate income. You know, you don't need a million people. You can join Amazon or LTK, like to know it, and start using affiliate

links and stop bringing the affiliate income first. You don't have to have a million people to do brand work. You can reach out to brands and you know start working with them you know there's so many avenues to you know make money in blogging you know just have to be a little creative or do youtube my friend you know they're monetized on youtube and you know you just have to really figure out what you're like your end game what you know what you see your blog and what you want to do with it in the future you know i mean if you want to be huge on instagram focus your time on that like that's great there's so many girls killing it there like but you don't as one person you can't you don't have the time to do everything well and And I think that's common that we're comparing

ourselves to, we're in these groups and we're kind of comparing ourselves to the whole group. And we're saying, this person has got a great Instagram following, and this person's got blog traffic, and this person has a great email marketing strategy. And you're like, I have to do all of that too. And you forget, those people are also focusing on the areas of their strength and what their goals are with their own blog. I think it's overwhelming at times, but we really have to tune out that noise and find a way to figure out what we want and what our goals are and what we enjoy about blogging and try to focus on that and not take every single new idea that's coming at us and feel

like we have to implement it. Yeah, I know. You do feel like you're like, Oh, I have to do this. Oh, I have to do this now. Just be smart. See where Google Web Stories, you know, unique, you should do them. Like if you're blogging right now, but who knows, in six months, like they could be they could be gone. So you know, they likely will be gone at some point. And I think it's knowing that like, gone. So, you know, they likely will be gone at some point. And I think it's knowing that like, okay, like ride the wave when it's here. Yes. Ride the wave when it's here and then be willing to pivot and adjust when the next thing comes. And it doesn't mean that you always do like the next hot thing that comes, like you decide whether or not you can or will not, you know, whatever.

You definitely have that discretion as a blogger, but I think it is being willing to have an open mind and being willing to pivot when something isn't working any longer. And not jumping ship too soon, I think is something else that I would suggest there. And I really think that when we stay with the basics, and you've said this in this episode, be consistent, do your keyword research, build your email list, and have a community. do your keyword research, build your email list, and have a community. I think if you do those four things, if you just focus on those four things, you could do amazing things. And there are 30,000 things you could do to grow your blog.

Not to say that you can't do more, but you have to look at your capacity and understand where you can invest your time. Where can you invest your money? Where can you invest your energy and all of that? And then what's going to help you grow overall? So completely like that, or you will drive yourself mad trying to do. You will, you know, just do that.

I mean, if you're going to focus on one thing, focus on Pinterest. Pinterest is going to bring you traffic to your blog much more than Instagram is going to bring traffic to your blog. Start on Pinterest. It's long game. You know, my most popular pins are things I did two years ago, but that's how Pinterest is. So stay active on Pinterest. Take your time. Do a couple pins every, you know, stay active there. Like that is worth your time. Like I think any home decor blogger will tell you that, you know stay active there like that is worth your time like i think any home decor blogger will tell you that you know you need to stay on stay active on pinterest oh as a as a

person who the two main things i would go to pinterest for would be home decor and recipes as a user i don't jennifer draper what would you go to Pinterest for? Same thing. Yeah. That's yeah. I go for ideas, especially on things I'm struggling with like home decor or yeah. And projects like that and rest. Yep. You know, Pinterest is important. Even so Google now, I think a lot of people just Google spring home decor or see what comes up like that is, you know, I think that maybe that's how the whole web stories maybe start. Like people, you know, are using it more as a, almost like a social media platform. If you go to the Google discover on your phone, if you scroll through it, it's almost like it's on the kind of social media. So you,

you know, things you're interested in blog posts and different things in it too. So, you know, keep that in mind and, you know, use both Pinterest and Google when you're, you know, keyword researching too, you know, put it in the search bar, see what comes up on Pinterest and see, you know, goes out the long tail keyword that come down under there when you're searching something on Pinterest, you know, say, oh, okay. You know, and go, you know, learn from there. I mean, it really is a learning process, but I think community, find your community, find your people.

Yeah. If you can go to conferences, go to conferences and meet them in real life. That's, you know, I know there's, you know,

home to court, food, blogger conferences, which look really fun. I think just being in a room with like-minded people is always really encouraging. We recommend that too.

If there's a retreat or a conference of any sort, do what you can to get there and get face-to-face with people and make those connections. It's huge. It's on our bucket list to have Spark Media. You should. Have some in-person events where we can bring bloggers together. Really, you leave and you feel like you're so full, you know, with people that understand you,

you're meeting people, you know, if you can even try to, like I say, find, look in your community, maybe you can find other people in your community and, you know, meeting face to face. It's just really, you know, with people that understand what you're actually talking about because your family could care less they could care less about your page views he could care less mastermind he's like you have that mastermind he calls it the megaminds you mean with the megaminds you mean with the megaminds you mean with your megamind that's hilarious no one cares in your house nobody cares yeah and that's okay yeah yeah that's fine but it's good to just take you know or have online friends or just really coverage someone who's starting out

you know find someone you admire and like just shoot them d DM like hey you know like I like what you're doing or you know and they may have you know resources or groups or you know find Facebook groups or you know there's Facebook sharing groups for home to call bloggers where you can meet other people or you know different groups like do that research because it's nice to just be in there and you can hear what other things are going on in the blog world you know that you don't know as you know just one person you know so just do that work and reach out to people you know it just you know makes things more fun too it does that connection is so important you know and it's fun it's just fun you know i just it's fun. It's just fun. It's a fun job to have. I love doing it. So I get up bright and early. I'm like, what am I going to do today? It's a good feeling.

It is. It is. It is. all of this today. I think you've just really inspired people in a lot of different ways. And so I know that there are going to be people who want to connect with you. So can you please let them know how they can do that? Yes, you can find my blog is cottageonbunkerhill.com. You can find me there. I'm also at cottageonbunkerhill on Facebook. And then on Instagram, I'm a little more difficult there. I'm at cottage underscore on underscore bunker underscore Hill. I did that in 2019 and they just can't, I shouldn't have did. But at this point I'm not changing it. So yeah.

And any of those places, if anybody has any questions, they can always drop me an email cottage on bunker Hill at gmail.com. I'm like happy to help or answer questions or, you know, help with anything I can, you know, when it's nice when you can help people along, you know, people, people that are ahead of me, help me. And I like to help people that, you know, share my knowledge if I can, just like you ladies do. It's really important, you know, to help other people. Yes. Nice to do.

Yes. Well, we love that you do it. And we're so glad that you came on the podcast today and are also part of our community. Thank you. This was really fun. Thanks. This is my first podcast. So thanks.

You did great. Thanks. Thanks. Thanks so much for tuning in today. If you'd like to continue the conversation about blogging with us, please find us on Instagram at Spark Media Concepts. You can also sign up for our weekly newsletter where we share blogging tips and inspiration. You can sign up by finding the link in the show notes.

For those of you who are ready for the next step and want to start your own blog, join the waitlist for the Ultimate Blog Bootcamp. The link to join the waitlist is also in the show notes. Go out and make today a great day.