029. Hey, y’all! This episode is a little different from my usually-at-least-somewhat-planned-out content. Sometimes I actually script out entire episodes because I have a lot to say on the topic and I want to make sure I say it right or say everything I want to say. But this time, it’s the opposite. I had 3 words written down in my notes before I hit the record button: Ads, Redesigns, and Rebrands. The truth is that I’ve been super bogged down by a lot of difficult things going on in my...

028. I have some exciting news to share today: I sold a website! Well, okay–Alex and I sold our first website together. (Technically it’s our second website, but we don’t count our first failed website for obvious reasons.) If you’ve been following us at Create and Go for very long, or if you’ve taken any of our courses, then you’ve definitely heard us mention the blog we’re talking about today–Avocadu, our health and wellness blog. It’s crazy to think about how a health + wellness website I...

027. If you’ve ever found yourself hesitating at the starting line…  Or suddenly feeling unqualified to present your content… Or deciding you just need to do x, y, and z, and then you’ll get started… You’re probably struggling with imposter syndrome. Almost all of us experience imposter syndrome at some point or another, whether you want to give it that label or not.  It’s that little voice in your head that says, “Can I really do this thing? Am I really qualified? Will anyone actually like...

026. Ok, y’all–it’s time to talk about the big, red elephant in the room: Pinterest. The platform we all love to hate. All the changes to the algorithm, video pins, idea pins, pins without links…it’s all so frustrating and enough to make you think about dropping Pinterest altogether.  Most content creators (including us), have been negatively impacted by Pinterest’s many changes–especially over the last year.  And it has left us all wondering…  Whyyyyyyy!!!?? Is Pinterest even worth it...

025. Making money from a new blog can take quite some time.  It took us months before we finally turned a profit on our health and wellness blog, and y’all already know about how our first blog failed miserably.  But just because it can take a while to start making money blogging, doesn’t mean it has to.  Our student, Amira Irfan–business lawyer, blogger, and coach at ASelfGuru.com, is the exception. Amira made $1,000 from her blog in her very first MONTH. She made her first $10,000 in 4...

024. Happy New Year, y’all, and welcome to 2022! It’s that time of year again… Lots of people are making resolutions, setting goals, and planning for the brand new year ahead.  So today, I’m taking a deep dive into the place where growth happens: Outside of your comfort zone.  Getting out of my comfort zone is something I’ve always struggled with, both personally and professionally.  The pandemic definitely hasn’t helped matters for me, and I’ve been finding it more difficult than usual to...

023. Well, y’all, we finally made it to the end of 2021! And what a year it was…  Everyone said 2020 was really rough, and it was in some ways. But financially speaking, it was a great year for us. So, naturally, we went into 2021 expecting more great things.  And we definitely created some awesome things: our podcast and new SEO course. But we’ve also hit a few speed bumps this year. Overall, it was a  year filled with a lot of change and a whole lot of learning and adjusting. There were a...

022. Do you ever wonder about the sustainability of a business like this? The evolution and growth that you need to make this work in the long-term? I certainly wonder about it pretty often… If you do too, you’ll want to stick around for a minute today. Many of you that have followed us for a while are familiar with Natalie Bacon’s story: $206,000 in student loan debt to very successful blog (500k+/year). She’s another classic case of someone that started a blog with a few ideas and then...

021. The beauty of running an online business is that you can do so in the comfort of your own home. In your pajamas, yoga pants, whatever your jam is... You can create your own schedule and really just do you every day. If that sounds like an introvert paradise to you, you’re not alone! For introvert Mia Brox of She Dreams All Day blog, blogging seemed like the perfect way to express her creative side and make some extra income, while staying out of the limelight.  She even launched her blog...

020. Earning six figures is a pretty big motivator, but you know what’s even more compelling? Needing to pay off six figures worth of debt... That’s exactly what Debbie Gartner of The Flooring Girl blog was facing back in 2016, when she lost her flooring company, and suddenly found herself staring down the barrel of impending financial doom.  Debbie actually started her first blog to help her get local clients to her physical business. She was a flooring consultant that helped people, mostly...

019. We’ve probably said this a thousand times now, but we made some big mistakes with SEO when we first started Create and Go that still haunt us to this day. In our last episode, we talked about our dark history with SEO, and how Noah and Alex managed to dig us out of the hole we accidentally made for ourselves.  Y’all, I can’t tell you how much it hurts me to think of all the time, effort, energy, and money we could have saved (and how much more successful we could be even today) if we...

018. You know what they say… Ignorance is bliss. We made a lot of SEO mistakes when we started Create and Go.  But for a while, we were blissfully unaware of those mistakes.  For a long time, we didn’t even care about SEO. Pinterest and YouTube traffic were enough for us. But when we did start caring… yikes, that was a tough road to go down. It became apparent pretty quickly that some things were just wrong.  And it took us a full year to really figure them out and get on the right path...

017. When you’re thinking about starting a new blog--or a new business, diet, lifestyle change, or a new anything, really--it’s pretty easy to get started.  Most people love starting new things--I know I do.  You get the instant dopamine hit of learning all the new information: taking a new course, discovering a new podcast, finding a new YouTube channel…  It makes us feel motivated and excited for a change or a new start. We envision the results and where our lives might be in this new and...

016. It’s finally time for us to tell the other side of our story.  Many of you know from following us -- or from creeping on old photos of us on Instagram (you know who you are) -- that Alex and I used to date. It was amazing, because blogging can feel pretty isolating at times. Your family and friends probably don’t understand what you’re doing, or what you’re going through, and they might be skeptical or downright unsupportive of your new business venture.  Having a business partner,...