Add More Revenue… Courtesy of Google

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When I was coming up with this post title and I decided to go with ‘Google Money’ I had sort of a scary thought.

That ‘Google Money’ probably isn’t as far fetched as that sounds, right? I mean… we have bitcoin (although I can’t say that I totally understand bitcoin). Then of course if you’re a fan of Mr. Robot there’s e-coin (I think that’s what they call it).

But since we don’t live in the fictional world of Mr. Robot nor is Google creating its own currency… let’s get back on topic.

If you’ve been listening to this show (and hopefully Freedom Papers), you know that one of the things I’ve been talking about a lot lately is the ‘Acres of Diamonds’ idea.

Meaning, what do you already have that could bringing you income but you’re sitting on it or not even aware that it’s there? I think as business owners we’re so close to our own stuff that we forget to take a step back and look at what we’ve created or accomplished from a different perspective. I know I did that… and still do at times.

But not as often as I used to.

So what is Google Money?

In this case, it’s Adsense revenue.

I finally took a harder look at my YouTube channel and have begun doing some tutorial videos again (I got away from them over the last year and a half because I didn’t like Camtasia for the Mac and couldn’t really get into Screenflow, until the recent update. Which I love). I had always put my videos up on YouTube but never dove into what I need to do to ensure they were optimized and working for me. The videos were working for me in terms of building an audience and people connecting with me but there was so much more I could do.

Which is when I reached out to my friend Steve.

Who I knew had a much better grasp on YouTube and what I should be doing. I knew I wasn’t interested in becoming a ‘YouTuber’, nor did I want to go buy some huge YouTube course. I simply wanted to do a better job with what I had already uploaded and would be uploading. Remember, I’m not trying to create more work in my life… no more hustle for this chick.

So after having Steve take a look at my channel and what I was doing wrong (which was really more about what I wasn’t doing) I followed a few simple suggestions of his and went about my happy way.

Then got a #notifcationofpayment from Google.

I had just received a $120 payment from Adsense for the month (i.e., Google Money).

Thank you more please!

I have a decent amount of subscribers and views. Of course now I have to go back and tweak all my previous videos, but that’s O.K., that’s the kind of thing I can do at night when I’m watching TV (I’ve gotten pretty good at knowing which tasks I can do when).

This is a perfect example of ‘Acres of Diamonds’ in action.

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My Favorite New Tools

You guys know by now that I’m a complete geek about finding tools and plugins to use. As I write this I’m wondering if this is something I should bring up with my therapist?… kidding of course.

There are a couple new tools and plugins I’ve been using a LOT lately and decided it was high time I share them with you.

You’ll be hearing more about each of these in individual posts or follow up podcasts (I have a couple interviews done with a couple founders), but I didn’t want you to have to wait until those posts went live.

The first tool I’m having a ton of fun with is actually a WordPress plugin, by one of my favorite companies, Thrive Themes.

Thrive Headline Optimizer

This isn’t a new plugin by any means (although it was released this year, so it’s kind of ‘newish’), but I’ve finally started using it more.

It’s about as easy as it gets too.

You enter your headline, then you can enter additional headlines (you can split test two or as many as you’d like). Thrive Headline Optimizer will then alternate showing the headlines to different visitors. You get to decide how long you want to run the test for, then you can choose the winner (or you can opt to have the winner automatically chosen which will stop the test). The winning headline is then what is set as your post title.

Here’s a screenshot of a test I recently ran on a post. What’s interesting about this is that I also used the CoSchedule headline analyzer (which I love) and the headline with the highest score was not the headline that won out (although the 4 headlines I split tested were all within a point or two of each other with the headline analyzer).

[button url=”http://thewpchick.com/headlineoptimizer” target=”blank” style=”flat” background=”#2f90a1″ size=”10″ radius=”5″]Get Thrive Headline Optimizer[/button]

 

Snappa

All I can say is “where has this been all my life?”

I have an interview coming up with Chris Gimmer of Snappa.io, so you’ll get the full inside scoop on this tool and a video of it when I do that, but I am in LOVE with Snappa.

I’m a huge fan of Canva (still am) and use Canva for creating PDFs. I love how they come out… so purty!

However, I’m not super fond of the way Canva works when it comes to resizing images for use on different social platforms. Snappa makes this SO easy. Once you create your graphic, you simply select resize. The window opens up and you can select what you want to resize the image for (which platform or a custom size – see image below).

With Snappa you get their built-in photo library & graphics. The features keep getting better too! Recently they’ve added the ability to move a couple elements at a time, folders for storing your images, text shadow, ebook covers, infographics…. whew! I’m sure I’m missing something but this tool is SOOO worth it! It’s pretty much my go-to for all my social images now (I used it to create this blog post image).

[button url=”http://snappa.io” target=”blank” style=”flat” background=”#2f90a1″ size=”10″ radius=”5″]Get Snappa.io[/button]

 

 

Social Warfare

I’ll admit… this was one of those WordPress plugins that I bought right away, had an issue with and forgot to come back to it (the issue was almost a year ago and I never followed up to see why I had a problem… which I’m sure was probably just another plugin conflict. #callmelazy).

However, when I had the good fortune of interviewing one of the founders, Dustin Stout, for the podcast I was eager to try it again.

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Since I’ve been stepping up my social media efforts (again, thank you Snappa for making it easy to create images and of course CoSchedule for keeping it all going), I wanted to make sure that I was putting my best foot forward. Social Warfare does a few things that I didn’t know it did (maybe next time I’ll do a better job reading the features. haha).

First, I love the way it looks. The social sharing buttons look great (there are a few different styles) and I love the position of them. You can also dictate different images for sharing (as an example, post images rarely work good as pins for Pinterest). You can customize the tweet as well (instead of just using the post headline).

Then of course there’s the ‘tweet this’ option. I LOVE the styles that come with this plugin! The style below is the ‘Living on a Prayer’.

[button url=”http://thewpchick.com/socialwarfare” target=”blank” style=”flat” background=”#2f90a1″ size=”10″ radius=”5″]Get Social Warfare[/button]

 

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Going ALL In

With three things.

A revamp of this site... which will be done mid-September ( I’m skeeered! SO many images to change out. #stopwhining) that will reflect the new direction of this site (all good stuff, I promise).

Email marketing: If you’re not on my list… first of all, why aren’t you on my list? haha.. I shouldn’t write when I’m this punchy. If you’re not on my list, of course I’d love for you to subscribe so you can see how I’m changing things up. I’ve been following the model of daily emailing (thanks to Ben Settle and his amazing Email Players newsletter… that I get in the mail MONTHLY) and am absolutely LOVING it! I’m getting better open rates, click through rates and engagement (more people email me in reply to my email now than ever before).

Starting a Movement.

The “F the Hustle” movement.

This is the private, members only side of Freedom Papers. We’re officially launching in September and I could not be more excited. Also a wee bit nervous as I have a lot of work to do before then, but we’ll make it happen. I have no doubt. If you want to get on the list to be notified when we open the doors to “F the Hustle”, head over to Freedom Papers Podcast now. I’ll be sharing more on this as we get a little closer, but let me just say that there is some really cool stuff happening and I feel like a little kid at Christmas!

Check out Freedom Papers Podcast & get early notification!

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Links from this episode

Thrive Headline Optimizer

Snappa

Social Warfare

Freedom Papers

YouTube Monetization Class

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