Streamlined Solopreneur: Automate Your Business, Take Time Off Worry-Free

“Creator” is a word that has really come into focus in an industry in the last few years. But content creation is nearly as old as the internet itself. And building businesses from your content…that’s not new either. Just ask Chris Coyier, the founder who recently sold his hugely popular blog, CSS Tricks, to Digital Ocean. We talk about his journey, how he made money, and answer the question: are we seeing an uptick in content acquisitions as more companies realize it’s a great way to establish trust.Top Takeaways:Kickstarting the CSS Tricks redesign generated a lot of revenue, but ended up resulting in a loss. Still, it did its job: it gave Chris capital to build the business.CSS Tricks has always been about ads as a way to make money. It started off as handshake deals at conferences, but the process became more formalized.The best thing you can do for advertisers and offer packages. Get them in front of all of the eyeballs you have access to. You can charge more and deliver better results.Show Notes:Chris CoyierChris on TwitterWP JukeboxKickstarter CSS TricksJoin the Creator CrewSponsored by: Nexcess | TextExpander | LearnDash ————Streamlined Solopreneur is the podcast for solopreneurs who want to automate their business and take time off worry-free. Each week, Joe Casabona shares practical systems, tools, and strategies to help you reclaim your time and run your business without sacrificing your the rest of your life, or your health. Start with the free Solopreneur Sweep — a step-by-step method for finding where your business is losing time: https://streamlined.fm/sweepIf this episode helped you, leaving a review on Apple Podcasts helps other solopreneurs find the show — it only takes a minute and means a lot.Connect with Joe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcasabona/

When you write content, who are you writing for? It’s an important question to consider— you need to have someone in mind when you write. But there’s another audience you should have the robots. Specifically, search engines. If you’re not writing for both, you could be missing out on traffic, signups, and sales. Luckily, Maddy Osman and her new book, Writing for Humans and Robots, is here to help.Top Takeaways:When writing for humans, you need to appeal to the people you’re writing for. This is where stories, empathy, and consistency come on.When you write for robots, you need to consider what your content is optimized for: keywords, good headlines, and spoiler alert: What humans what to know.The right headline can satisfy both humans and robots. Write something that gets people to click and search engines will recommend your content to more people.Show Notes:Order Writing for Humans and RobotsMaddy on LinkedinMaddy on TwitterMaddy on YouTubeNaNoWriMoAnywordKeywords EverywhereKeyword SurferahrefsCoScheduleJoin the Creator CrewSponsored by: Nexcess | TextExpander | LearnDash ————Streamlined Solopreneur is the podcast for solopreneurs who want to automate their business and take time off worry-free. Each week, Joe Casabona shares practical systems, tools, and strategies to help you reclaim your time and run your business without sacrificing your the rest of your life, or your health. Start with the free Solopreneur Sweep — a step-by-step method for finding where your business is losing time: https://streamlined.fm/sweepIf this episode helped you, leaving a review on Apple Podcasts helps other solopreneurs find the show — it only takes a minute and means a lot.Connect with Joe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcasabona/

Jeff Sheldon does what he does extremely well. But he's also expanded his business from clothes to coffee and paper products. How does he do it without burning out? Listen to today's bit to find out.Listen to the entire episode at https://howibuilt.it/013 Be sure to subscribe at https://howibuilt.it/subscribe This clip is brought to you by WP Wallet ————Streamlined Solopreneur is the podcast for solopreneurs who want to automate their business and take time off worry-free. Each week, Joe Casabona shares practical systems, tools, and strategies to help you reclaim your time and run your business without sacrificing your the rest of your life, or your health. Start with the free Solopreneur Sweep — a step-by-step method for finding where your business is losing time: https://streamlined.fm/sweepIf this episode helped you, leaving a review on Apple Podcasts helps other solopreneurs find the show — it only takes a minute and means a lot.Connect with Joe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcasabona/

Over the last few weeks, I have been interviewing experts on communities, newsletters, referral programs, and more. As a result, I've taken some of my favorite advice and I've started implementing it. So today is going to be a solo episode where I'm going to tell you everything I've been doing to grow my audience. We'll take a look at some tools I've been using, some techniques I've been implementing, and perhaps the most important thing that I can do to grow my audience. In Build Something More, I tell you my next short-form podcast and what I liked from WWDC.Top Takeaways:Niching down to podcasting only has allowed me to focus my messaging and all of my energy and resources.I’ve been promoting my newsletter, which I’ve also focused on podcasting. All of my opt-ins now point to Podcast Tips, an evergreen newsletter that helps people grow and monetize.I’ve been using Tweet Hunter to plan and schedule useful tweets for folks. Using Dickie Bush’s advice, I put out helpful podcasting tweets designed to gain followers and send people to my newsletter.Show Notes:ConvertKitConnecting Revue to ConvertKitNewsletter Glue TipsSparkLoopTweet HunterJustin Moore’s Creative Wizard NewsletterCalm HistoryRecutPod CardsJoin Creator CrewSponsored by: WP Wallet | Nexcess | LearnDash ————Streamlined Solopreneur is the podcast for solopreneurs who want to automate their business and take time off worry-free. Each week, Joe Casabona shares practical systems, tools, and strategies to help you reclaim your time and run your business without sacrificing your the rest of your life, or your health. Start with the free Solopreneur Sweep — a step-by-step method for finding where your business is losing time: https://streamlined.fm/sweepIf this episode helped you, leaving a review on Apple Podcasts helps other solopreneurs find the show — it only takes a minute and means a lot.Connect with Joe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcasabona/

Chris Lema knows a lot about a lot. But did you know he was doing no-code well before it became the movement it is today? In this bit, he tells us a little about how to successfully build a web app without code.Listen to the entire episode at https://howibuilt.it/012Be sure to subscribe at https://howibuilt.it/subscribe  This clip is brought to you by WP Wallet ————Streamlined Solopreneur is the podcast for solopreneurs who want to automate their business and take time off worry-free. Each week, Joe Casabona shares practical systems, tools, and strategies to help you reclaim your time and run your business without sacrificing your the rest of your life, or your health. Start with the free Solopreneur Sweep — a step-by-step method for finding where your business is losing time: https://streamlined.fm/sweepIf this episode helped you, leaving a review on Apple Podcasts helps other solopreneurs find the show — it only takes a minute and means a lot.Connect with Joe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcasabona/

Jay Clouse, expert in building communities, talks about his successful launch of the Creative Companion membership through a Twitter challenge. They discuss using Twitter for engagement, mission, pricing, and tools. Other topics include workshops vs course creation, building authority on Twitter, and intentional pricing. They also talk about managing community, using Ghost for newsletter and membership management, syncing member accounts and emailing members, creating landing pages, and payment processing fees.

Chris Coyier is a man of many hats and has successfully started and sold websites, wrote books, and has a great tech startup. In today's bit, he offers some advice that is the key to his success.Listen to the entire episode at https://howibuilt.it/006Be sure to subscribe at https://howibuilt.it/subscribe  This clip is brought to you by WP Wallet ————Streamlined Solopreneur is the podcast for solopreneurs who want to automate their business and take time off worry-free. Each week, Joe Casabona shares practical systems, tools, and strategies to help you reclaim your time and run your business without sacrificing your the rest of your life, or your health. Start with the free Solopreneur Sweep — a step-by-step method for finding where your business is losing time: https://streamlined.fm/sweepIf this episode helped you, leaving a review on Apple Podcasts helps other solopreneurs find the show — it only takes a minute and means a lot.Connect with Joe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcasabona/

What is stopping you from creating content? That’s the question that Alban Brooke and I set out to answer. But it didn’t start that way. I thought we’d talk about podcast stats and what creators can do to make money. But there is no making money if there is no content. So we get back to basics. And if you’re stuck, this is a conversation you need to hear.Top Takeaways:it’s really easy to see the end result you want: a book, a hugely popular YouTube channel, or a podcast with millions of downloads. But it’s not easy to get there.Instead, you need to find your niche. Fly a flag you’re deeply interested in and people will come. 80% of your addressable audience is better than 1% of the unengaged general population.The best path to making money is niching down, showing your expertise, and selling your product or service. Your podcast is a marketing tool.Show Notes:Alban BrookeAlban on TwitterBuzzsprout Global StatsApple Podcast Creators Will Soon Be Able to Access Follower MetricsWhy Gear is Least ImportantJoin the Creator CrewSponsored by: WP Wallet | Nexcess | LearnDash ————Streamlined Solopreneur is the podcast for solopreneurs who want to automate their business and take time off worry-free. Each week, Joe Casabona shares practical systems, tools, and strategies to help you reclaim your time and run your business without sacrificing your the rest of your life, or your health. Start with the free Solopreneur Sweep — a step-by-step method for finding where your business is losing time: https://streamlined.fm/sweepIf this episode helped you, leaving a review on Apple Podcasts helps other solopreneurs find the show — it only takes a minute and means a lot.Connect with Joe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcasabona/

 Carrie Dils was building communities before it was cool. And was actually doing the building! In today's bit, Carrie tells us about how she built her podcast community and the pros and cons of doing your own dev work.Listen to the entire episode at https://howibuilt.it/005Be sure to subscribe at https://howibuilt.it/subscribe  This clip is brought to you by WP Wallet ————Streamlined Solopreneur is the podcast for solopreneurs who want to automate their business and take time off worry-free. Each week, Joe Casabona shares practical systems, tools, and strategies to help you reclaim your time and run your business without sacrificing your the rest of your life, or your health. Start with the free Solopreneur Sweep — a step-by-step method for finding where your business is losing time: https://streamlined.fm/sweepIf this episode helped you, leaving a review on Apple Podcasts helps other solopreneurs find the show — it only takes a minute and means a lot.Connect with Joe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcasabona/

LinkedIn Learning is a force in the online course space, with hundreds of courses, millions of learners, and a well-oiled machine for putting out great content. I, along with today’s guest, Carrie Dils, are fortunate to be long-time instructors for the platform. I invited Carrie on to catch up, and I thought it would be fun for us to exchange notes on how we come up with ideas for, and then record, our LinkedIn Learning courses. In Build Something More, it gets even more fun as we talk about the courses we thought would do SUPER well but turned out to…well…not.Top Takeaways:Carrie and I both followed in the footsteps of people we learned from; if you have an appreciation for learning, teaching is a great next step!Carrie likes to pitch ideas for courses on topics she wants to know more about. In order to teach something well, you need to know it well!We both shared our love of recording in LinkedIn Learning’s campus booths. Having a stellar process, and the right environment for instructors is a big win. If you’re creating courses, the advice we share in this episode can help you figure out what works best for you.Show Notes:Carrie DilsCarrie on LinkedinCarrie on TwitterMorten Rand_Hendrikson on TwitterJoin the Creator CrewSponsored by: TextExpander | LearnDash ————Streamlined Solopreneur is the podcast for solopreneurs who want to automate their business and take time off worry-free. Each week, Joe Casabona shares practical systems, tools, and strategies to help you reclaim your time and run your business without sacrificing your the rest of your life, or your health. Start with the free Solopreneur Sweep — a step-by-step method for finding where your business is losing time: https://streamlined.fm/sweepIf this episode helped you, leaving a review on Apple Podcasts helps other solopreneurs find the show — it only takes a minute and means a lot.Connect with Joe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcasabona/