A Q&A about blogging and influencing for my 20th blogging anniversary
Considering I still feel about 17, it is unbelievable to me that Everyday Reading is 20 years old this month!
I published my very first blog post on Halloween 2006 and I could never in a million years have guessed how huge a part Everyday Reading would play in my life!
In celebration of two decades of sharing on the Internet, I asked what questions people had about blogging, influencing and content creation.
If you have other questions, leave them in the comments or send me a message on Instagram and I’ll do my best to answer them all!
Content Creation & Blogging
How much content is “enough”? Does more content = more $? Do you have to post daily?
I think this is something every creator has to decide for themselves. More content generally does mean more money and more followers. If you only post once or twice a week, you’ll likely make significantly less money than someone who posts daily. You also just have so much less data to work with if you post infrequently. If you want to look at ten pieces of content to see what’s done the best and you only post 2x a week, it’ll take you more than a month to get that data to make good decisions going forward. If you post 2x a day, you’ll have those 10 pieces of content in less than a week.
On the other hand, you can make yourself crazy trying to also do more, more, more. For me, I’ve had to decide what is a reasonable amount of content that I can produce without losing my mind. Currently, that’s 6-7 blog posts a week, 2-3 in-feed posts per day on Instagram (either carousels or reels), and around 10-15 story frames a day, plus 2-4 emails a week, and 1-2 posts in my broadcast channel daily.
I’m incredibly private person, can’t imagine sharing so much, has it ever been difficult for you
I think this is actually a trick of the internet where you think you’re seeing everything, but you’re actually only seeing the things I’m willing to share. I have lots of things I have never talked about on the Internet. You get to choose what you’re willing to share!
How to for reaching out to companies/brands?
Don’t wait for them – make content featuring their products first and tag them or send it to them. I feel like you can waste so much time trying to get brands to pay attention to you instead of spending your time trying to make great content for your community.
I’d absolutely just focus on being a great affiliate first and let the brands come to you.
How many hours per day/week do you spend on content? Do you ever take a full day off?
I work probably 30ish hours a week and more in Q4. I work very very little on the weekends (which is important to me!) – I post my stories and that’s it (and I often have them mostly pre-prepped so I just need to pop on and get them live).
What’s a feature/aspect of content creation that you miss? (4me, the peak blog era ~15yrs ago)
I mainly miss how easy it was 20 years ago. I just did a blog post a few days a week with zero photos and probably no links and then went about my day. Now there are a million moving parts!
That said, if blogging still looked like it did 20 years ago, I probably wouldn’t still be doing it. One of the reasons I love this job is that it’s never boring and things are always changing (for better or worse). That keeps it interesting for me!
What has been the most surprising aspect of being an influencer?
Nothing is more shocking to me than the fact that I make a legit income doing this. When I started, the idea that this would ever be a real job was not even on my radar.
What would you do or change if you were starting right now?
I’d start an email list right from the get go. It pains me how many years I just let that pass me by! You don’t own your Instagram audience or other social platforms and they’re run by algorithms. That’s what makes email so valuable!
Blogging question: how does the revenue work? How do you get money from it?
I make money three main ways (these are in order from smallest to greatest of how I earn money):
First, on my blog I have sidebar ads. I work with Raptive (and have for more than a decade – it used to be called AdThrive) and they do all the ad things on my blog. I just write posts and they handle all the ads – it kind of feels like free money!
Second, sponsored content. A brand hires me for a specific scope of work (a blog post, a set of Instagram stories, a reel, etc) and they pay me a flat rate to create and post it. It doesn’t matter how it does – I get paid the same no matter what (although if it does well, I’ll negotiate a higher rater for next time and if it does poorly, they probably won’t want to work with me again).
Third, affiliate revenue. This is when I share links to products or services I like and recommend and if you purchase them, I get a portion of that purchase price (standard is usually around 3-10%). This doesn’t change the price you pay. I love affiliates because there are no requirements for how I share it, what messaging I use or any cap on how much I can earn.
B-roll. How when where what why?? 😅
Some people are champs at b-roll (this is basically video of little moments in your life or travels or whatever and you can add text and voiceovers to it) but I am not. I use virtually no b-roll (maybe once a month, if that!), so I’m not the person to ask about this. It’s a huge part of some people’s content strategy, but it’s not currently a big part of mine.
How do you separate living in the moment from always seeing potential for content?
Probably not very well! After twenty years of doing this, I’m always thinking about content and I’m okay with that. I still feel like I can enjoy my life and be present while also having a little part of my brain thinking “ooh, this would be a good blog post!” What I do try to do is not have my phone out when I want to be present – the DIY bricking app has been a game changer for me!
How do you generate ideas for content?
If there is one thing I’ve learned from making thousands and thousands of pieces of content, it’s that creating content leads to more ideas. The more I post, the more questions and comments I get that lead to more content ideas. Don’t save your good ideas – keep putting them out as fast as you can and you’ll keep thinking of new ideas!
How do you get over feeling I’m not good enough to do this/why would anyone watch my content?
Look around at the internet and see how many truly average, normal people are creating content that millions of people are watching! You don’t have to be rich or funny or good-looking or smart or nice to be successful on the Internet!
What made you decide to start your blog with this theme?
I had been writing on LiveJournal for several years before I started Everyday Reading and I knew I wanted a topic that would mean I never ran out of things to talk about. I’ve always loved to read and I was getting back into reading for fun after college so it seemed like a good fit!
Have you ever given up and restarted again? I started many times… hard to be consistent
I’ve never given up on Everyday Reading – I’ve posted most days for the last 20 years! I’ve often told Bart that I think the #1 thing that has made me successful is that I can just grind basically forever! I’m not the prettiest or funniest or smartest or cleverest or most creative, but I’m incredibly consistent.
Did you ever think that you’d still be doing this 20 years after you started?
The thing to know about me is that I’m very much a “in the weeds” kind of personality. I am not a big picture thinker and so it would never have occurred to me to even wonder about this when I started my blog. I am really good at getting the things that need to be done NOW done (which is why a blog/content creation works for me! I’ll basically always get that blog post or reel or email for tomorrow done!), but I’m not good at all at looking down the road and saying “where do I want to be in 5 years?” (Bart is the opposite of me, which makes a good combo! He’s got vision where I lack it).
How much PR do you get? Did you have to open a P.O. Box?
I get quite a lot (that’s one reason I do my weekly book giveaways – I simply don’t have space to keep everything!) but I don’t have a P.O Box.
How many brands do you work with regularly?
In a given month, probably 15-20. And 90% of those are repeat brands that I love and share about over and over again. The other 10% are new brands I’m testing out working with and seeing if we’re a good fit together.
How do you become an affiliate with Walmart and Target?
I do both Walmart and Target through LTK (you can apply to LTK here). You can also do them through ShopMy. Both LTK and ShopMy are big affiliate platforms where – once you’re approved – you can create affiliate links to thousands of big brands. You don’t have to apply individually for each brand, which is REALLY nice.
Do you still get credit when someone adds to cart, saves for later, then purchases later?
It depends on the retailer and how long their cookie length is. Amazon’s is 24 hours, so if you purchase more than 24 hours after you clicked my link, I won’t get credit for it. Others are up to 30 days. So it’s all over the place!
Does your income fluctuate during the year or do you make about the same every month?
It definitely fluctuates. Q4 (October through November) are bigger earning months than pretty much any other month of the year. And then, because payment usually comes 60-90 days after you’ve earned it, the beginning of the year is when I get my biggest payments.
Is there someone you’re using for business taxes and financial strategy like paying your kids?
We have a tax/accounting firm we work with that helps us with those kinds of things!
Do you still have someone take your photos professionally for blog or just your iPhone now?
Both! I get together with Heather every few months and we shoot a bunch of things but I also use tons of iPhone photos now.
Have you ever considered owning/buying/opening a brick and mortar bookstore?
Noooooo – my desire to do a retail business is zero. As an introvert, I love being alone in my office working and the idea of being customer-facing all day seems really draining to me. I also don’t want to work nights and weekends! Plus, the stress of a business with high overhead costs is not for me. Basically, I love bookstores as a customer and I have absolutely no desire to own or run one.
How has AI affected you? Does it bother you that other “creators” are using AI?
So far not very much. And I don’t have brain space to waste being bothered about how other people choose to act. That’s fully a waste of time and energy for me.
Would love to know if you use a tripod for your videos or what other tools you use?
I do have a big tripod that I use for most of my videos (it has a ring light on it, but I haven’t turned that ringlight on in literally years. I don’t even know where the cord is. I just use it to hold my phone). I also have two small phone stands that I use when I’m filming something at my desk or at my kitchen or bathroom counter. I’m not very high tech – I never use a microphone or a camera other than my phone camera.
Did you use your girls real names in the beginning?
Nope, I decided before they were born that I wouldn’t use their real names online. You can see where their blog names came from here!
How did you connect with the amazing group of creators you were Florida with?
Jessica Turner and I connected during COVID and became really close friends. Last year, she suggested we do a mastermind retreat and we both invited creators we knew that we thought would be a good fit. It was a really fun group because I knew some of them well, some of them a little bit and some of them not at all (Jessica and I both invited different people). It was so great last year that we did it again this year in Florida! We have a group text that goes pretty much all day every day, which is so fun! This is kind of an isolating job, so it’s really fun to have people to talk to that GET it.
How do I start something similar?
Here’s the advice I always give people – don’t worry about any of the frills of this job. Don’t worry about a pretty logo, a perfect name, a beautifully designed website. The only question that matters is “do you actually like creating content?” If you don’t, it won’t matter how great your blog name is or how gorgeous your logo is. Nothing else matters if – at the end of the day – you don’t actually like writing blog posts or making videos. Write 10 blog posts or make 10 reels and see how you actually feel about it before you start focusing on building it out.
