LinkedIn for Bloggers with Katherine Banks

We're doing our best at This Week in Blogging to cover a wide breadth of topics with our interviews, and, with this interview, our aim is to offer some insight on LinkedIn for bloggers.

For a long time, LinkedIn was the stuck up platform that you immediately thought of as useless the moment you stepped out of company culture and into content creation and blogging. But that's a tired trope that doesn't necessarily hold weight anymore. LinkedIn has been on a massive growth spurt as of late, and in the process, the door has opened wider as to just who LinkedIn is for, and who it can serve.

It used to be a headquarters for the powerful narcissists of business, but nowadays, it's a more creative, vulnerable and supportive space than it's every been. More than anything, LinkedIn has finally made it kosher to sprinkle in a bit of personal with the professional, while staying focused on being a “business platform.”

Our thoughts aside, we wanted to chat with someone for whom LinkedIn has been a game-changer. Enter, Katherine Banks, a social media marketer who specializes in travel destinations at Traveling Greek, but is known in particular for her unique usage of technology (blockchain + AI) in her content creation strategy. Thanks to Katherine for joining us!

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SEO Best Practices with Gemma & Laura of Make Traffic Happen

Gemma Laura Make Traffic Happen SEO For Bloggers

Unfortunately, Make Traffic Happen has shut its doors in 2023 after a long, successful run. While the site and products no longer exist, we are keeping this interview live for its valuable tips all the same.

When I first started blogging in 2010, I can assure you that SEO best practices were not at the forefront of my mind. In fact, my blog was little more than a public travel journal, and yet most of my articles still caught like wildfire. Fast forward to the present day, and that's far from the reality. In fact, at This Week in Blogging, we feel like it's not an overstatement to suggest that understanding search engine optimization (SEO) is vital for any content creator looking to find success in today's competitive landscape.

And Gemma and Laura have teamed up to try to ensure that they can help bloggers find that very success with SEO. In our previous interviews for bloggers, we've featured Bex talking about brand partnerships for bloggers, Ben talking about virtual assistants, and Bruno talking about sponsored content. Today, we're very fortunate to feature the expertise of a duo whose hard work has made a difference in the lives of many a blogger. So, before we get ahead of ourselves, who are Gemma and Laura?

Gemma and Laura are full-time bloggers, SEO consultants and content creators, with 10 websites between them, all of which are successful because of their SEO strategy, which they teach in their online course, SEO the Easy Way.

They manage an SEO and traffic generation website, Make Traffic Happen, and a free Facebook group for bloggers of all niches.

They started blogging separately in 2014 as travel bloggers. Their SEO success led them both to quit their jobs and become full-time bloggers.

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Virtual Assistants for Bloggers with Ben Butler of BizzyBim

We're talking today with Ben Butler about all things virtual assistants for bloggers. As the owner of a company that offers virtual assistants services, Ben is in a unique position to talk to This Week in Blogging about how bloggers can best utilize and work with virtual assistants.

Before we go any further, we'll give you a full rundown of who exactly Ben is, and why he's very much worth listening to.

Ben Butler is the owner of BizzyBim and a Virtual Assistant specializing in ghostwriting, promotion, and on-page SEO in addition to offering the flexibility to tackle any project a client may have for him. For seven years, he has been helping bloggers, content creators, and social media influencers do more by taking the day-to-day monotony off their plates so they can focus on the business of their businesses. 

That's what it's all about in the end – hiring a virtual assistant that can allow you to take some tedious work off your plate, so you can focus on the big picture.

We hope you enjoy this interview, and don't forget that we've got plenty of interviews for bloggers looking to learn more, and take their site to the next level. We've got everything from YouTube tips for bloggers to brand partnership best practices!

And, of course, we've got plenty of non-interviews on our blog as well, so feel free to check out some of our blogging content at large.

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YouTube Tips for Bloggers with Arienne Parzei

Arienne Parzei talks about YouTube for Bloggers

One of the larger topics that we've yet to really sink our teeth into as of yet on This Week in Blogging is YouTube for bloggers. Obviously, YouTube is a big part of the puzzle for many creators these days, but often creators have questions about how to get started and, even more so, whether it's too late.

Today, we're incredibly fortunate to be joined by someone whose work in videography has garnered her several awards, and growing and devoted subscriber base on YouTube.

I (Chris here) have personally seen how much effort, thought, and care that Arienne pours into her work, and, as such, it's a real honour to have her here today. She's immensely talented, but also has shown incredible dedication in way she has consistently produced quality work over the years. For those who don't know Arienne as well as we do over her, let us tell you a bit more about her.

Arienne Parzei is a writer, photographer, and award-winning travel videographer. She runs the travel blog and YouTube Channel www.seeyousoon.ca, with a focus on adventure activities and cultural experiences. Her insatiable curiosity for learning about different cultures first-hand has led her to some amazing destinations and experiences, including climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, living in South Korea for two years, and backpacking for eight months through China, Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand.

Through her website & YouTube channel, she has worked with a number of brands and tourism boards including Air Canada Vacations, Germany Tourism, Parks Canada, and Honda Canada. She is also an ambassador for Tourism Toronto, working regularly on social media takeovers and video projects.

Without further adieu, let's get to the meat of the conversation on YouTube for bloggers!

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Patreon Tips for Bloggers with Kate McCulley

Talking Patreon for Bloggers with Kate McCulley, also known as Adventurous Kate

At This Week in Blogging, we feel it's our duty to continue to showcase ways that bloggers can do things a little differently. The truth is, what worked five years ago in blogging probably doesn't work now, and what works now probably won't work in five years.

That's the reality of an ever-evolving and changing industry such as blogging.

It's also the case that if we don't keep our eye on what's changing in the industry, we may get left behind, but that's why we're here, and why we feel fortunate to have so many remarkable experts so willing to share what's working for them.

One topic that we haven't tackled yet is Patreon for bloggers or, in other words, how bloggers and content creators can use Patreon to establish a new revenue and reliable revenue stream.

We've got Kate McCulley here to talk from personal experience about how she's harnessed the power of Patreon.

Kate McCulley has been blogging at AdventurousKate.com for the past 10 years, teaching women how to travel solo safely from Colombia to Lebanon to Antarctica. Kate has traveled to 83 countries and Forbes named her one of the Top 10 Travel Influencers in 2017. Her non-travel obsessions include progressive politics, literature, and cured meats. Originally from the Boston area, Kate now lives in Prague and has recently launched a course into all things Patreon called Earn Like an Artist.

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What You Need to Know About Sponsored Content with Bruno Bornsztein

Bruno Bornszstein, Co-founder of Influence Kit.

Understanding how sponsored content can fit into your content strategy is something all bloggers will eventually address, and especially those bloggers who are growing quickly.

After all, our blogs are a medium, and eventually you're going to find people or companies who want to utilize that medium to share their message. However, even thinking of sponsored content as such can be narrow. More broadly, it's a partnership between two parties who often share a similar vision and audience.

Sponsored content, if done correctly, isn't a sales pitch to readers as much as its an answer to a pain point that both the brand and blogger feel can be solved for an audience.

And, it's also definitely not saying yes to those random emails you get where someone basically suggests you should input a link to a casino or something else and effectively tarnish your reputation. With all that said, we do interviews over at This Week in Blogging to give experts a chance to shine, so we'll step back here and let this week's expert do the talking.

Today's expert is Bruno Bornsztein, and he's the Co-founder of InfluenceKit, a tool that helps content creators plan, measure, and grow. Before InfluenceKit, he was the publisher of two blogs, and worked as a blogger full-time for more than 10 years. He's excited to connect with the This Week in Blogging audience and (hopefully) share some helpful tips from my experience.

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Finding Blog Content Ideas with Jeremy Jones

Your Blog Should Age Like a Fine Wine

If there's one thing we don't want to become here at This Week in Blogging, it's predictable. And that's why this week, our expert interview will be conducted by me (Chris), and will actually feature none other than the other half of TWIB, Jeremy Jones.

The two of us were chatting about who we'd like to come on the site and newsletter as it related to talking about finding new blog content ideas, and we realized that Jeremy is uniquely suited to talk about this as he runs five blogs in several niches.

So we went with it, and I'd like to think that this will end up being a very useful article for our readers and subscribers.

Slowly but surely, we're building out our base of content with interviews on everything from brand partnerships for bloggers to self-publishing a book. But today, as I alluded to, we're going to dive into ways to brainstorm new content ideas that can take your blogging game to the next level – and we'll also touch a bit upon content strategy to boot.

As always, we hope this will be helpful for you!

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Brand Partnership Best Practices for Bloggers with Bex Shapiro

Bex Shapiro from Intrepid Travel on working with Bloggers

Our interviews have featured a lot of folks from the blogging side of things lately, and so we wanted to turn the tables a little and chat with someone from the brand side. That being said, it'd be a mistake to paint our guest today, Bex Shapiro, with too narrow a brush.

She's currently working for a company/brand, it's true, but she has a wealth of knowledge when it comes to content creation, including an impressive freelance writing repertoire. The other reason it'd be a mistake to simply note that Bex is “from a brand” and plainly leave it at that is because we know few people who are involved with so many different things, while simultaneously pulling it all off so seamlessly.

Bex is a force to be reckoned with in the best possible way, and if we had to place a bet on her likelihood of continued success moving forward, we'd be all in. She's basically a modern day renaissance woman.

With that said, we'll formally welcome Bex, and step back from the flattery for a moment to objectively let you know why she's someone to listen to when it comes to the topic of how content creators and bloggers can think about working with brands.

Bex Shapiro is the Senior Editorial Manager at Intrepid Travel, the world’s largest adventure travel company and industry leader in responsible tourism. In this role she partners with content creators aligned with Intrepid’s passion for travel as a force for good. When she’s not managing blog and social content at work, the Vancouver-based Brit dabbles in communications consultancy, public speaking, and freelance writing. She has been published in The Guardian, VICE, ELLE, and The Huffington Post and is currently undertaking climate activism training through The Climate Reality Project.

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Self-Publishing a Book as a Blogger with Jen Ruiz

Jen Ruiz sits down to talk about self-publishing a book.

It's a real pleasure to be joined today by the prolific Jen Ruiz, a blogger and author who has 4 books under her belt, but is aiming to have 20 or so books when all is said and done.

She's a shining example in the blogging industry of someone who understood exactly what her readership and the public at large was looking for, and then began to fill those needs. That may sound easy enough, but, as many bloggers will know, it can be all too easy to just do what we've always done, and stay in one comfortable lane.

And that's why it's good to have someone like Jen as an example. She decided to simply go for it in terms of self-publishing, and implicitly understood that she'd learn what she needed to on the fly. She's done exactly that, and that's why we're fortunate that she's taking the time to sit down with us and share some of that knowledge.

So what's Jen's story, anyhow?

Jen Ruiz is a lawyer turned travel blogger and author. In 2017, she set out to take 12 trips in 12 months while employed full-time before her 30th birthday. She ended up taking 20 trips, writing a book and stumbling on a new career path. Jen is a #1 Amazon bestseller and Readers' Favorite Award winner. She is also a TEDx speaker and has been featured by The Washington Post, Huffington Post and ABC News. Jen documents her adventures on her website, Jen on a Jet Plane, where she helps young professionals travel for less and experience more. You can find her across all social media at @jenonajetplane.

Alright, let's get to it.

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Podcasting Tips for Bloggers with Danielle Desir

Podcasting tips for bloggers with Danielle Desir

This week, we're thrilled to to welcome the words of Danielle Desir, a blogger who has created and effectively leveraged her podcast in a way that has downright inspired us. We usually write the intro, but this time she's going to take it from here. We're chatting, fittingly, about podcasting tips for bloggers. So, if you've been playing with the idea of starting a podcast, then this one is for you. 

Hey there, I’m Danielle Desir. I’m an author, affordable travel and personal finance blogger and podcaster. Over on The Thought Card, I empower financially savvy travelers to make more informed financial decisions – travel more, pay off debt, and build wealth. 

I am also the founder of WOC (Women of Color) Podcasters – a blog, community and membership dedicated to amplifying the voices of women of color podcasters and audio creators around the world. With over 3,500 members on Facebook, we offer an inclusive space for women of color to connect, learn, and share podcasting resources. 

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