What I learned this week

Breaking News! You won't care but I'll tell you anyway. As of 25 minutes ago, I learned that I successfully acquired the trademark for "Fat Stacks". I'm now legit. It's now Fat Stacks® . This process took something like 18 to 24 months (I've lost track). I'm also told that I'm only a few months away from getting a trademark for my primary niche site. Onto more interesting things This week alone was worth my move to Mediavine in February of this year. I've been in Miami Beach since Saturday on Mediavine's dime attending the first Mediavine Premiere Publishers conference. At least I think it's the first. It's my first. It was eye-opening. Every publisher attending owns a very successful blog or blogs. I learned something from every single person I spoke with. That doesn't happen every day. Most are passion bloggers with one site. Many write everything themselves. Take their own photos. Have solid branding. They get millions of views. Some earn more from non-ad sources such as subscriptions and digital. Affiliate revenue wasn’t sizeable for most in the crowd. Given what they earn from Mediavine, those that earn more from non-ad sources are seriously killing it. Many have multiple traffic sources but most are fairly dependent on Google traffic. I was in the minority as someone who hires writers. Sharing website URLs was the norm. First question when meeting someone was “what’s your site?” Talking shop was constant. Everyone was fully transparent about how they go about their business. It was fun, refreshing and enlightening. I learned more chatting with folks than I would have attending lectures eight hours a day. Every blogger I spoke with had the usual traffic ups and downs we all experience over the years. Recent Google updates were discussed. No one I spoke with suffered huge losses, but some did lose some traffic. Some have been in longish plateaus. Some are in upward trajectory. Most had diversification on their mind if they weren't diversified already. For the most part, launching more sites was not a diversification strategy on their mind. Instead, they seek to develop additional revenue and traffic streams for their one site. Some also have big YouTube channels. Some were just getting started with YT. Some were thinking about doing it. Generally, YouTube was on most bloggers' roadmap if not already part of their brand. Interestingly, several publishers were interested in hiring writers. Their reluctance, of course, is maintaining quality while having writers produce content. But hiring has long been on their mind so they could get off the content treadmill. I explained how I go about it. They had a lot of questions for me. 13 General Takeaways: 1. Such a nice group of folks. Everyone I met were incredibly nice, humble and generous with sharing how they go about their business. I didn't know what to expect but without a doubt, it was a great group of people. Not intimidating at all. They were humble and amazed how well their sites have done over the years. 2. Many attending were food bloggers. Not all, but many. That was fascinating. Makes sense given MV started out monetizing mostly food blogs. Fortunately, MV has expanded monetizing other niches since. Hence I and other non-food bloggers were there. 3. Many weren't "experts", as in had relevant degrees or certifications, when they started. Instead, they had (and have) a passion for their niche. They learned and got better at the blogging thing as they went along. They are now widely considered expert in their niche. 4. Most of these bloggers have been at it for years. 4 years was the youngest I heard about. Many have been at it 8+ years (some much longer). Their sites did not grow overnight. Many started their sites as a hobby; they did it for fun. Seriously, it took most a long time to grow their sites to what they are today. Many ups and downs along the way. 5. Learned SEO and tech along the way. Most were clueless about SEO, keyword research, monetization and tech stuff in the beginning (like me). They figured it out as they went along. Some didn't monetize their sites for years. 6. Quality. Every blogger I spoke with, and I made an effort to meet many, are fanatical about content quality. 7. No one I spoke with does link building. Most focus on branding, on-site SEO and keyword research. I should say it wasn't ever discussed or brought up so I'm assuming link building wasn't part of their strategy. I imagine at SEO conferences, link building comes up right off the bat. 8. Most are in clearly defined niches. Some are in what I would have thought to be small niches yet the traffic and ad revenue are considerable. They chose the niches out of interest instead of traffic/revenue potential. 9. Time-on-page has a considerable impact on ad revenue per 1,000 visitors. Some of the ad RPMs are incredible in niches I didn't expect to be so high. The only reason I can come up with to explain it is the high time-on-page metrics thanks to engaging content. Again, this is an advantage of food blogs - folks following recipes spend a lot of time on the page making the dish. 10. Email is not a focus (for the most part): Except for the few with sizeable non-ad revenue streams (subscriptions and/or digital products), email didn’t do much for revenue so it wasn’t a focus except for driving readers back to sites. That said, many would love for email to become a viable revenue source (I'm in that boat). 11. Every blogger I spoke with loves the "work". Some don't need the money; they do it because they love it. 12. Nobody used the term "niche site" (at least that I heard): Everyone referred to themselves as bloggers owning a blog or publishers. 13. Mediavine takes care of its publishers. MV knows how to put on a conference. No expense spared. Everything was paid for at a first rate accommodation. It’s another example of Mediavine rewarding publishers (the first being higher revenue shares than the industry norm). Oh yeah, Mediavine also understands that giving folks loads of time to hang out and talk shop is waaaaay more valuable for everyone than sitting in a conference room listening to speakers all day. My final observation(s) This crowd included some of the most accomplished bloggers / publishers on the Web. Many are one-person operations, which I found very interesting. Some hire VAs for social media and other admin tasks but where content is concerned, they're one person operations. Which means they work hard. They love it. They don't aspire to cash out and quit, at least for now. But they do work reasonably hard week-in, week-out. Passive is not their primary goal. Publishing a killer website and growing their brand is paramount. Hence they are where they are. It's largely different than how I go about things making me wonder if I should go back to my blogging roots. For the first many years, I wrote everything for my primary site too. And then I came to and remembered my sites are sizeable and do very well. My sites are a growing brand in their own right. Sites, as in plural. That's a good thing for me IMO. Still, there's much to appreciate about the lone blogger hitting such numbers. Thanks to having great writers on board, content flowed without me doing anything all week. That was nice. The downside, and this is kinda huge, is that I spend more each month on content. Bloggers who produce content on their own pocket almost every nickel earned. I reinvest which puts me out of pocket each month. It's also true that food blogging, while similar in many ways to other niches, is different. The recipes are the creation of the blogger. Their readers expect it. It's not like info posts where readers just want the info they seek. The biggest content sites in the world aren't one-person operations. They are sites with many writers, editors, photographers, etc. and so I'm reminded that building up a "publishing business" is just as viable as a passion site. I liken myself as a passionate publisher. It's different in operational strategy but the end goal is the same being strong brand, lots of traffic and of course plenty of revenue. And while there may be a different mindset between the "passive" niche site publisher and blogger, the desired outcome is the same. The fundamentals are the same; good content, good on-site SEO and brand building. And yes, a hybrid approach is also perfectly viable. That's me in many ways. I still write for my sites while hiring writers. At the end of the day... Do what works for you. Would I be further ahead had I been the sole writer all these years sticking with one site? Maybe. It's mind-blowing what one person can do over several years. I should also make clear not everyone were one-person operations. Some have large organizations with writers, editors, VAs etc. I'm just saying that within the group, a good number were one-person operations where content was concerned. I learned more in few days talking to many accomplished bloggers / publishers than I have in years. Let's just say I have lots of things to try and think about. It's one thing to read about different strategies; another entirely when you hear from someone personally just how successful something is and how they do it. Validation like that is huge. Thanks for reading. Jon Fatstacksblog.com [Unsubscribe]( | [Update your profile]( | 2016 Hill Drive, North Vancouver, British Columbia V7H 2N5