Lessons from a Successful 20+ Year Blogger w/ Rachel Paxton

Mike: And I have there have been long periods of time when I haven't done anything, but my blog still made money You know because you can do that when you put the work in people don't realize that either that like yes, it's hard Yes, you're making no money while you're doing all of this at the beginning But in time five years down the road ten years down the road You cannot work for three months and you're still gonna make money You're not gonna make as much money as if you were doing it still but I love that I'm gonna I'm gonna crop that bit out and I'm gonna play that to my wife three times Hey guys is Mike for me time online and today we're joined by Rachel Paxton from creative home making So Rachel started her website back in 1996 yet like before Google even existed that there was actually a time before Google existed believe it or not and She basically had a newsletter and she turned it into a website She'll explain more about that in a minute, but I just think it's such a really really cool Amazing chat because this is again, you know, just someone totally normal totally down-to-earth just really honest and upfront about everything that she's done and I don't think I've spoken to anyone that has been doing this whole online marketing blogging whatever you want to call it for so long and I just think it's it's amazing that she's what she has been able to achieve over the years and The lifestyle she's been able to create for herself and I just think it's um it just shows that it really is possible for people and all it really takes is Being consistent and putting in putting in the time and just being you know doing it over and over again and if you can do that and The thing is I don't want to like make it sound like it's super super hard work because she even says at some stage in The podcast how you know, she can she took a whole month or I think she took five months off to look after her kids right when they were first born and When her mom got ill she was like looking after her mom and stuff from home and homeschools her kids it's crazy what the lifestyle that she's been able to live and What she's been able to do with her blog, so I hope you enjoy it guys is full of useful tips and value So Rachel it was back in it was 1996, I believe when you changed was it a newsletter into your website

Rachel Paxton: I had a print newsletter. I was looking for a way to make money from home The Internet was not even a thing really in 1996 like people didn't know I didn't know how to use a modem to connect to the Internet in 1996 and I started a print newsletter because those were kind of Penpal newsletters were popular then people were starting penpal newsletters to connect people So that they could write letters to each other and send them in the actual mail like texting wasn't even a thing in 1996 and so that's how I got started was through a newsletter was to help help people save money that's why I started the newsletter was to it was money-saving tips and Recipes and I can't remember how many subscribers I had I think I ended up with like 50, but my kids well my daughter at the time. I had a 12 year old daughter There's a long time. She's 32 now But she helped me fold these newsletters and put stamps on them and put them in the mail It was it was interesting

Mike: So different is there I guess like Yeah, it's crazy to even think about so I started my website That yeah, that was all it all happened in 1996 because I was doing that and then the Internet came around and Somebody had to show me I had to connect to the Internet with the modem which tied up your phone line I ended up doing this so much We had to put in a separate phone line in our house For the Internet because my husband would try to call me on the phone and the line was always busy

Rachel Paxton: Yeah, I Remember that My dad's a doctor and so he He used that we used to have a separate line exactly for that reason So someone's on the Internet is no one could call so he had like a whole separate line Which was for him that if that phone rang that was his doctor putting you know, so That was a big deal having to pay for that extra phone line We did not want to spend the money to pay for that extra phone line They weren't cheap were they $30 a month or something like that We didn't want to spend the money on it because I started the newsletter to make money because we didn't have any money And so, of course, you know bloggers don't want to spend money or they can't afford to spend money when they start

Mike: What what kind of happened then from like there to I don't know the early 2000s I guess I guess a lot changed around that sort of time, didn't it?

Rachel Paxton: It did um, so my first website was on Angel Fire I don't know if anybody even remembers that it was a there was a lot of free websites where you could set up a free website and so, um Gosh, there were other ones too I can't remember what some of the other ones were but people set up free websites hardly anybody had You know comms, you know, it all had a bunch of other stuff at the end of it and so I just wanted to get online so I set up a free website and I started taking my information from my newsletter putting it on my website. So Google didn't exist then I looked it up Google started 1990 oh my gosh. I have to look it up again. Google started about the same time that my website did I'd never heard of Google Amazon and eBay started in 1995 I did look that up. I can't remember when Google started.

Mike: Yeah, so none of those things were even a thing Wasn't Amazon just like a bookstore wasn't it just a physical bookstore when it started or is that Wires cross there. I don't remember

Rachel Paxton: I did but but no but people didn't buy stuff on Amazon though And people were buying cookbooks on eBay. I remember that because in my realm in my homemaking realm People were using eBay to buy books that were out of print. That was a really big deal with eBay was getting these books out of print because I did a lot with recipes and cooking and people wanted all these Cookbooks these old cookbooks that were out of print and so people were buying them on eBay. I was like eBay What is that? So yeah, that was kind of interesting, but Google wasn't a thing So I just started doing my thing. I made money with affiliate programs That was the only way to make money when I started it was with affiliate programs little affiliate programs We made a dollar here and a dollar there getting people to sign up for stuff and it wasn't until I Want to say it was to was it? Let's see like 2003 I think I started when Google came out with adsense I signed up the first year that they started that I think that was 2003. It was around there That is when my that's when I actually started making money on my website a lot of money

Mike: Who is when the adsense came around and I did that for like 10 years?

Rachel Paxton: well 2003 that was do you say yeah, I have to look that up But it was around whenever adsense started was when I put those ads on my site and start and that was the first time So I had traffic to my site before adsense came out But I wasn't making any money from it because there was no way to there was no ad networks back then at least not like Google was anyway, and so I was making probably three four or five hundred dollars a month up until that point just the affiliate programs And I didn't even know I didn't know like I don't think Google Analytics even existed Then I didn't even know how much traffic I was getting to my website I didn't know what I ranked in Google because Google didn't even exist And so then I started getting all this traffic from Google and Google Started like where's all this traffic coming from? I didn't even know what it was from and so then I put my adsense ads on my site and instantly started making a thousand dollars a month from my adsense ad

Mike: Oh, and so that is when I was like whoa. This is actually a real thing. I can actually make money

Rachel Paxton: So it was like it was putting the ads up on the website it was kind of like yeah

Mike: Yeah, was it was like Google Adsense better at like paying per There's no it is not the same now that it was like if you need to interview some people that went through that Because there were people that made tons of money from adsense before they changed everything and I don't remember when that was it was It was when the recession hit in 2008

Rachel Paxton: Yeah, I think was around 2008 when the recession hit adsense changed everything and so I My income just got slashed and I went through years of like well at one point I made $90,000 that was the most amount of money I made in one year and that was from adsense and From also from ads that I had on my site because Google didn't used to penalize you for having text links on your website Because everybody says don't do that. That's bad. Google's gonna penalize you Well, everyone used to do it like literally everybody and then they started penalizing people so everyone quit doing it But I made $90,000 one year and then I went down to like 12,000 after all this happened. It was really bad.

Mike: I guess that's kind of Similar to what's happened now, isn't it,with Amazon? You know, they've basically done a very similar thing by the sounds of it. I didn't realize Google did that during, so that would have been about 2008, I'm guessing.

Rachel Paxton: Yeah. It was about that time. I don't remember exactly what year it was, but a lot of people were affected. And then there was no other ad alternative, so I signed up with Mediavine two years ago, and then I got my income back that I was making from AdSense.

Mike: Yeah, funny enough, I've actually just applied for Mediavine.

Rachel Paxton: Ah, they're awesome. I love it.

Mike: Yeah, and I've heard so many good things. Mediavine and AdThrive are the two that I keep hearing.

Rachel Paxton: They're good, too.

Mike: Yeah, Mediavine is 25,000 sessions, isn't it?

Rachel Paxton: Yes. Is that right?

Mike: Yeah.

Rachel Paxton: Yeah. So, yeah, I sent it off, and then got an email back, and they said, like, yeah, they said, wait two to three weeks or something, and then you'll see what happens.

Mike: Yeah, no, it's exciting, actually.

Rachel Paxton: It is very exciting. I hear so many people say how good they are.

Mike: Is it about, I've heard different things, between $10 and $15 per, is it per thousand impressions?

Rachel Paxton: Per thousand, and it totally depends on what your niche is, because I've made up to $25. It just depends on what time of year it is. It depends on what you're talking about, but I would say at least $15. Possibly a lot more than that, depending on what the ads are.

Mike: Wow.

Rachel Paxton: Yeah, no, that's impressive. And it's typically, like, Christmas time, isn't it? Where, by the end of the year, I think they have a quota that they've got to get through.

Rachel Paxton: Yeah, they do. They do. Christmas time is usually good, because my good time is in the summertime, because of the stuff I have on my website.

Mike: Right.

Rachel Paxton: So even though the RPMs are less, my traffic is high, and so if your traffic's high, you're still going to make a lot of money.

Mike: Yeah.

Rachel Paxton: But then, for me, my traffic starts dropping in the fall, but then the RPMs go up, so I end up making the same amount of money, so it all evens out.

Mike: Yeah. And so, do you, like, now, is that, or kind of the whole time, it sounds like, that's the way that you've monetized mainly, is by using ads on your website?

Rachel Paxton: I did for a long time, but I had to change from doing that a couple years ago, because I was relying on it too much. And the other thing I didn't mention was all of the Google algorithm changes, like, because when I made that $90,000, like, I was getting all this traffic from Google, and that's another thing that happened, was all their algorithm changes, because people say, oh, you know, do your SEO, you know, you need to get your traffic from Google, it's stable. No, it's not. It's more stable than it used to be, but there was, so I quit my job to work full-time at home in 2005.

Rachel Paxton: Wow. I've been home working full-time since 2005, and in 2005, my website disappeared from Google in one of their algorithm changes. Like, I didn't do anything wrong, it just disappeared, and then it didn't come back until their next update, and it was, like, three months later.

Mike: What?

Rachel Paxton: Oh, that happened. What do you mean by disappears? It wasn't in their index. It disappeared from their index, and it was an accident. It wasn't on purpose.

Mike: think that happens anymore. I don't want to scare anybody. I don't think that happens anymore, because they've totally changed, because now they update all the time.

Rachel Paxton: Yeah, it's every day, isn't it?

Mike: Every day, but they used to change, like, every three to four months, and nothing would change in between, and if your website disappeared, it was gone.

Rachel Paxton: Wow. Until that happened. Does that mean, then, like, for three to four months, say you were position one in Google, that would stay there for three to four months?

Mike: Yes. Literally wouldn't change?

Rachel Paxton: Yes. That's amazing, because that's what I've heard of now. That's why people make so much money.

Mike: Well, yeah. It obviously happens, but there's still changes every day to all the other positions and stuff, aren't there?

Rachel Paxton: Yeah. Yeah. But I switched to Amazon, though. In the past, I want to say a year and a half, I've really started focusing on my Amazon links, because I do have a lot of traffic to my site, and so I wasn't using Amazon the way I could to make money. So I was making $50 a month, $100 a month on Amazon. I was like, oh, this is great, but I didn't realize the power of it and how to get your links in there, just weave them in, basically, to everything you do. So I took a couple courses about that and was really learning about that. During my good season last year, when I have a lot of traffic, I think the most I made was almost $2,000 in one month just from Amazon. So that made me realize, whoa, I really need to do this more.

Mike: And that's just from little links? Were you reviewing products or anything?

Rachel Paxton: I did a little bit of both, but it's mostly putting links into things that I was already talking about. I have like 800 articles on my website, so it's easy to forget what you wrote 10 years ago. So you have to go back and see what was I talking about, what's popular right now, and oh, this link expired, I need to put a new link on there. I mean, it's a lot of keeping up with things, too.

Mike: So how have you done this for so long? I don't think I've actually spoken to anyone that has done this sort of thing for so long and kept at it, and I just think it's amazing. How have you managed to sort of stay up to date with everything? Because I imagine so much, well, obviously so much has changed.

Rachel Paxton: So much has changed. No, it's been hard. And how do you deal with your website? You've obviously got 800 blog posts and stuff. Do you have a system in place? What do you do to just manage that? Because it just makes my head hurt thinking about it.

Mike: Well, you know, somebody just asked me the other day, well, I want to make a blog. How do you make a blog? I was like, I could not possibly sit down one day and tell you how to make a blog. But my motivation has been to be at home. Like I said, I was making good money. I was a technical editor. I worked for the government. And so it was a big deal when I quit my job. It was scary. I left my benefits. I left everything to stay home with my kids because my twins were born in 2005. And so I wanted to stay home with them. And so at that point, and then my website disappeared from Google. And so my mother-in-law came over to my house and was babysitting my two babies during the day while I was hiding in my bedroom trying to figure out how to get my website back in Google. I'm not joking. I did that for three months. And then when they updated again, the changes I had made, because I spent so much time reading, I can't remember the name of it. There was a website everybody went to to find out what was going on with Google. So I read every post that was going on to find out what was going on with Google. Spent hours and hours and hours updating my website. And when my website came back, I ended up making twice as much money as I made before because of all the changes I made. So my motivation is to stay at home. I homeschool my kids, and my whole life is revolved around being at home. So I'll do anything to keep doing that. And so that is why, but I have self-taught myself everything that I know about my website. I've taken some courses, but I think you have to be willing to change. You have to be willing to do whatever it is to be successful, whatever that is. Because some people, if you give up too easily, you're not going to make it for sure.

Mike: Yeah. And I imagine as well, today, even more so, when you started, were you doing HTML coding and all that sort of stuff?

Rachel Paxton: Yes. I coded my own website.

Mike: That just knocks so many people out, doesn't it?

Rachel Paxton: It would. It totally would. Whereas today, it's literally drag and drop. You can click a few buttons, and then people are like, oh, I'm a blogger. They just think, oh, I've set up a website, and it looks kind of pretty. Blogging didn't exist. Blogging wasn't a word. Blogging wasn't a word until like eight years after I started. Like blogging, what is that? What are blogs?

Mike: Yeah. But that was all my competition, though. So my website was in the top 10 for all kinds of stuff in my niche for like 10 years. And then when all the bloggers started, they completely just decimated my rankings for everything.

Rachel Paxton: Really? So that's when I had to step my game up, though. I was like, I'm not going to let them take me out like that, you know? So then I had to really start writing.

Mike: So what did you actually do? So obviously, you had all these pages that are ranking on page one of Google, and then all this competition starts flooding in because everyone's saying blogging this, blogging that.

Rachel Paxton: Yeah. And did you just focus on making your posts better, or did you just think, I'm going to outwrite them and write more and more content?

Mike: Well, that was part of it. I did do that. I zeroed in on a couple of subjects because I had a multi-subject blog, and so I had to narrow in on a couple of subjects because I couldn't do everything. And the other game changer for me was Pinterest because I also started Pinterest when it started, and I ignored it. So I ignored Pinterest for like three years after I created my account, and other people were pinning my posts. stuff on Pinterest so I had an account but I wasn't using it at all and people were starting to follow me on Pinterest and I didn't even know it because I wasn't paying attention to it so I started getting this thing going on Pinterest without even knowing it but then when I didn't know people were getting traffic from Pinterest like I I'm doing all these other things and not even noticing what's going on and so finally I realized people were getting traffic from Pinterest because I get more way more traffic from Pinterest now than I do Google and so I started getting into that and and so I've started focusing on Pinterest and I have more than 80,000 followers on Pinterest now just from putting the links I put the links in my newsletters I put the links on my blog and so now I spend most of my time creating images for Pinterest and with all the nonsense that they're doing right now oh my gosh like I made five images a day for like two weeks and got all this traffic I'm like oh well I'm gonna take a break I'm getting really tired of doing this so I didn't do it for a week my traffic fell in half.

Mike: It's not fair I don't want to spend that much time on Pinterest but you have to right now.

Rachel Paxton: Yeah they're just loving that fresh fresh content is the word isn't it fresh pins yeah every day every single day is mad but yeah I spoke to don't know if you know Carly Campbell

Mike: yeah I know who Carly is

Rachel Paxton: yeah I spoke to her last last week and she was just saying you know very very similar thing you know it's just the people I think that that is the thing with Pinterest from what I've seen anyway I'm no Pinterest expert the thing I've seen is like the people that can sort of stick with it the longest and the people that keep on putting fresh content out there just end up doing well in the end and I think because because you're doing it every day you're doing you're like you're learning which pins are working which pins are not working whereas it's the people particularly like new bloggers they'll quite often hear oh you can get hundreds of thousands of visitors from Pinterest and they put like you know they set up their account they get a few group boards or boards not even group boards just they make a few boards and then pin like 10 pins to each one and say I'm not getting in traffic I've been doing this for 10 days and I haven't got any traffic

Mike: exactly I think that's the thing I think there's so many of these like big headlines out there you know like I made a million dollars blogging this year or you know I was my first year blogging I made $3,000 in my second month and things like that you know people see that and they think that's normal and they think that's what's happened whereas you go into the thing and they're like I've been trying to blog for like two years and this is my second month with this blog you know it's like a new blog and so it's actually like completely different to what they they've actually you know the headline sort of makes people think oh this is easy but it seems like it's the ones that stick with it and like keep going and you know learning like you say that seems to do well in the long run

Rachel Paxton: yep it's a lot of effort a lot of a lot of sleepless nights but not every night because I love the rest of my life I mean when when you get a taste of that of what your life could be like if if you're not sick I sat in a cubicle all day every day before I quit my job and and I loved my job but I wouldn't go back to that for anything you know it's just a completely different mindset isn't it as well

Mike: mm-hmm so what is what would you say is some of like what are some of the best tools or trainings or you know like it things that you've done over the years particularly like in the more recent years you found has like really helped grow and scale your blog

Rachel Paxton: well I've been in Carly's Facebook group the blogging like we mean it Facebook group I've been in there for at least two years it might be longer than that now I took Carly's pincers interesting strategies course and that just I've done way more than that but that really helped me think about things differently and didn't see what other people were doing and and I listened to Carly a lot too and her videos and her Facebook group and stuff and that's really helped me a lot the other person is well there's a couple other people I'm Debbie Gardner who's also in that group I'm yeah I've been talking to her about SEO and I have all of her ebooks and I love all of them they're amazing because she she is very successful at what she does and when I think about how much money she makes it's like I have twice as much content on my site as she does but she is so good at monetizing what she does it's ridiculous and I think and I've talked to her in person too and I thought what why can't I do what she's doing it's like and there is no reason it's like but she's so methodical about everything she does and she lays everything out for people in her ebooks there is no reason that people can't be successful if they don't do what she does but but it is a lot of effort it takes a lot of work to do what she does but she puts in the work and she has earned every penny that she has made

Mike: She's got such a drive as well hasn't she?

Rachel Paxton: She does. I don't think she even realizes you know like her emails and stuff that you get there's so much value in it and it's just so honest and there's no there's no salesy stuff and I love it I love the way that she's just like so I've actually just the other day I messaged her and said I just love I've learned so much from you on the whole like just being honest and open and upfront it's like yes I'm doing this to make money like I'm not but I'm not like gonna sell you stuff this is what's working for me this is it's just all this is what I'm doing here it is.

Rachel Paxton: And she wants to help people. When I've talked to her she wants me to succeed you know and a lot of people it's like like I'm kind of her competition in a way like not exactly but our what we write about is similar enough that some people would see like well your competition I'm not gonna tell you what I'm doing but

Mike: she doesn't care about that at all because she's so confident in what she's doing you know and and I couldn't possibly ever do exactly what she's doing so.

Mike: Yeah no it's incredible isn't it but yeah no I think there are two things that I've heard time and time again you know Carly's Pinteresting strategies and Debbie's SEO book. Has there been any other like tools that you personally use?

Rachel Paxton: Well Debbie talks about this one a lot it's not hers but Jennifer Ledbetter her niche post strategies I think that's what it's called Debbie recommends that in a lot of her emails but that that was that that was her favorite Amazon course it's and it's very inexpensive it's like I don't remember how much she just less than $100 but it's a e-book about how to write posts to sell things on Amazon and it and I have that e-book too and it is one of the best ebooks I've ever read she's Jennifer's the potpie girl that's how people know her.

Rachel Paxton: She used to be in the group a lot she hasn't been in there so much lately but she has some Pinterest stuff also but that ebook that she has about Amazon like that was a game-changer for me and if and just when she too is very transparent about what she does on at least one of her she has a whole bunch of websites and she kind of uses one of them to showcase what she does and the way that she like she just thinks differently than other people do it's like as most people are like okay I have this idea and I'm just gonna write about this and hope you click on a link or two but the but breaking because I think Debbie learned from her too like I don't know everybody's learning from each other I think but the way the way they talk about like and when you write a post that you don't put all your links at the bottom of the post like they would say things like people's attention spans are three seconds and so if you don't talk to them in the first paragraph about what it is that you want them to know they are never gonna get to the bottom of your article like I didn't I never would even thought about that until somebody pointed that out to me you know and her books are full of tips like that and like wow I need to completely think that and I did that's when I started making more money on Amazon is when I changed my layouts of where you put the links and whether they're bold or not what color they are some of them are in a box some of them aren't I mean they these people have totally figured this stuff out

Mike: yeah no 100% I think I think they're both I don't know if you've ever heard of wealthy affiliate but I think they're both in that she's affiliated with that

Rachel Paxton: yeah I've seen her name like fly around before and stuff but he knows what she's doing too she makes a lot of money too

Mike: yeah in fact actually what you said about the whole box thing I just watched yeah just before this is Mike Pearson you know he's like a stupid simple SEO guy

Rachel Paxton: yeah I haven't taken his course but I keep hearing that everyone says about it it's like amazing and stuff but it was just a video and it was exactly that I think he was showing another really cool I can't remember what website it was that he was like using as an example but that exact thing like right at the top put a nice clean box you know with your main whatever the product if it's a review or if it's the best of whatever it is just something that's like it stands out they scroll down it stops them straight away it's right at the top and it's just a very clear thing for them to click and it's all about getting the click

Mike: yeah I think a lot of people forget that with affiliate marketing is like that's a huge part of it is just getting the click. If you get the click then it's up to like the platform that ever they go to to like actually like do the do the next stage like you almost relying on it as long as it's a good product as long as it's a good whatever whatever service it is that you're sending them off to then they're gonna be selling things for you so all you need to do is get the click.

Rachel Paxton: I think Jennifer has an e-book called getting the click. I think it's the Popeye girl's website has tons of training.

Mike: I've heard the name like flying around and yeah no I think that's what it is but yeah right so I always ask someone this in the podcast and I think it's like a really good question and it'll be really good for you as well because well I want to go back to before you actually started blogging and I would try and pick a day for you to go back to so let's call it a Monday morning because I find that's the best time to go and let's say it was raining so you're Washington aren't you?

Rachel Paxton: Yes, I'm Washington.

Mike: So you're like did you walk to work or did you drive to work? How did you get to work?

Rachel Paxton: Drove.

Mike: So you drive to work but you step out the car when there's a puddle when you step in there you step in there you go into your cubicle and you're sitting in your cubicle and you're just like oh man and you know that you don't want to necessarily be there forever but you don't know what to do basically and with all the knowledge that you know now if you could go back to that day what would be let's go to three pieces of advice that you could give yourself you don't have to come up with three it could be less this one always puts people on the spot so you can take some time and think about it but if you could go back to there what would you tell yourself?

Rachel Paxton: Well I remember a couple of I remember two moments that I had that were that made me focus on what I was do it made me make a decision of what I was going to do I remember it was really late at night I was going for a walk and I and I we had to get out of the situation we were in we were broke I mean we were completely broke you filed for bankruptcy at some point I don't remember what year that was but um I was okay I had to have the inspiration to start my business and so I was dreaming up the name for my business which was creative homemaking and that came to me on that walk and so that was one moment I was like that's it and I've never changed that by the way that was the name of my newsletter the name of my website I have never changed it so so that gave me inspiration to get to keep going once I had the name I was like that's it that's what I'm gonna do so that was one moment and the other moment was I'm just figuring out what I was gonna do because I the website wasn't even in my brain at the time so I didn't even know about that but um I remember being at the library I went to the public library and I was looking through I remember I was looking at I was trying to I wanted to write something because I wanted to use what I was good at so that's one of my pieces of advice it's what what are you good at you know what what are you passionate about I was passionate about writing and helping people and so I didn't know how to do that I didn't know what to do with that and so I was I found the idea for the pen pal newsletters at the library they must have had some at the library I remember I was looking at I was like whoa this is what I want to do so I started doing it and so but it had to be something that I was passionate about because I worked full time I was a mom and I didn't have time to start a business you know what I mean because you are giving up your nighttime hours your weekend hours your family time to start a business and so it had to be something that I really was passionate about and I was passionate about helping other people and helping them save money in that instance and and writing and as I've gotten into it I've learned to take pictures oh that was another thing I skimmed over that I had to learn how to take pictures like five years ago but then I realized I love taking pictures and so I think it's really important to just focus on like how like so it gets really frustrating you're like when your money gets cut in half you get super frustrated like I want to quit but I'm not gonna quit because I'm not going back to my job and so how can I make this fun like I'm actually enjoying making pins for Pinterest right now but I hate doing it every single day but you have to find a way to do it like I when I realized I could buy pictures really cheap I was like oh my god I don't have to take all my pictures anymore I was taking all of my pictures and that was frustrating me like no I don't have to do that but I don't know if that answered your question or not but you have to love what you're doing that is really important because if it's just your if it's just a job if you just have another job at home you're gonna get totally burned out and quit.

Mike: Yeah no I think that's such a yeah that's crucial isn't it like whatever it is that you're doing just make sure that you're enjoying it and I think as well like like you say that said in there as well if you're if you're helping people and you're genuinely providing real value to other people I think that always I find that helps as well like you know those days where you just thought I don't want to do this in fact I had one today like today is the worst day I've had in a long time I just couldn't be bothered to do anything you know you just get those days I just don't want to don't want to had a mini hitty fit and everything and so it's just but like this is this is another reason why I love doing a podcast because I have a chat like this and I guarantee tomorrow I'm gonna be like refreshed and like yeah I'm gonna go do stuff you know because you're looking at your Amazon links again huh?

Rachel Paxton: Yeah well exactly. It's like Rachel's been doing this for 20 odd years I can do this.

Rachel Paxton: And what I did last year so with all the Pinterest I've been doing I've been going back and using Debbie's advice to go back through all my posts and get you know do the links and I haven't been doing the backlinks that's what I've been totally slacking on is the backlinks from other websites but my income doubled last year from the year before last because because I went for years with slacking because you do get to a point you're like I'm making money now so I can slack a little bit and just post and you can do that and it's totally fine but I did it for too long too many people were doing so much more than me you know and so I was like I gotta start working again and so last year I wrote a hundred new articles I think and made all of these images for Pinterest and my income doubled last year so to me that gave me the incentives like I have to keep doing this like well why would you not if your income doubled you know?

Mike: And have you ever like outsourced anything? Have you ever hired other people?

Rachel Paxton: I haven't. I actually talked to Debbie about that because she's doing that a lot now and you have to if you're gonna keep going you have to.

Rachel Paxton: No. None. Wow. I've done it all myself and I have there have been long periods of time when I haven't done anything but my blog still made money you know because you can do that when you put the work in people don't realize that either that like yes it's hard yes you're making no money while you're doing all of this at the beginning but in time five years down the road ten years down the road you cannot work for three months and you're still gonna make money you're not gonna make as much money as if you were doing it still but I love that I'm gonna I'm gonna crop that bit out and I'm gonna play that to my wife three times and things happen you know my mom got sick and died during all of this and I took care of her for five months I would not have been able to do that if I wasn't at home and working and I probably didn't work at all that entire time except to send a newsletter out on autopilot every week because that was well and then when my twins were born I didn't sleep for six months when I had two babies like I had a newsletter on autopilot it

Mike: went out or I rescheduled them ahead of time so that it would go out and I would do like ten of them at a time and like okay this one's going out this week this one next week and I would schedule them ahead of time didn't even look at my computer for weeks and no one knew only me I think I've tried to explain that to people as well you know that some friends and stuff I still don't get what you're doing I don't understand why you're doing it why don't you just get a real job and like all that stuff and I'm like well I know it seems like I'm probably putting a lot of time in it right now and stuff but it's like I'm already starting to notice it you know it's just it's work and stuff that I've already done months ago is like paying me now you know and I could just actually do nothing for the next month but I would still make money sort of thing and it's like that is it's obviously like people get fixated on like passive income and they think oh it's just it's just gonna keep happening forever it's like it doesn't really work exactly like that but it's it is passive in the sense that you don't have to work all the time or like you can take patches off so yeah no I think that's a really really good advice if if people are listening to this and they just want to get like in contact with you Rachel what's the best way for them to reach out?

Rachel Paxton: Probably through my website my well somebody if anybody wants to email me my email is Rachel at creative home cool I made a note of that yeah and it's honestly been awesome to talk to you and I could actually just keep talking to you all day because I know I'm just gonna keep learning little things you know it's like I'm just gonna keep learning more and more but I know you're obviously like a busy lady.

Mike: I can talk about it for days. And it's early in the morning there isn't it so you've got a whole day ahead of you.

Rachel Paxton: It is early yeah. But no I really appreciate it Rachel thanks so much for having a chat.

Rachel Paxton: Yep it was nice talking to you.

Mike: So just so much to take away from that chat and I could have honestly kept talking to her for ages because it just felt like I just kept getting more and more useful little tips as I went along but I'm just gonna summarize there's just three main things that I really want to point out and things that I took away from the podcast which was really useful for me today actually as I said on there I just I don't know don't know what it was just a bad day I guess but three main things number one is consistency if you can keep on turning up you know keep on producing content keep on being there longer than what other people are willing to do there's there's almost like no way you can actually lose with online marketing there is there's no way you're not gonna make something work it's not like all the information is out there it is all out there you can probably get it all for free it will take way longer if you do that obviously but as long as you keep on going you can't lose with it number two is that she found it was really important like to choose an interest or something that she was passionate about and she sort of mentioned on there how she's enjoying making pins and things like that at the moment but obviously doing it every day can become a bit repetitive and things like that but it's still always on a topic that she's interested about you know like it's things she will often have recipes and things like that that she's got on there which are things that she's genuinely interested in and she's genuinely helping other people and you know you get messages and things from other people that you that you have helped and it's those things like holding on to those and making use of those really bad things here's a really good tip actually something I've done recently is just create a folder on my desktop what did I call it hang on I can look for it where's it gone where's it gone where's it gone it's not called anything special so I don't know why I'm making you wait thank yous didn't need to wait for that I've got a folder that says thank yous and it's just a folder of people saying thank you or something nice to me which doesn't happen a lot I've got to say but it's it's just always on those days where you just feel like I don't want to do this or whatever it's that's I find it's really really helpful go to that folder read some of those things and you realize why you're doing it and then number three is to keep on learning and that kind of covers everything she spoke about in there really it all comes down to keeping on learning she talks about certain courses and things like Debbie Gardner's SEO books and things in fact I'll put a link in the show notes where you can listen to the podcast I had with Debbie because we talked about her a bit and yeah it's a really good chat that I had with Debbie all about SEO and things like that spoke about Carly's Pinterest and strategies Carly was on a chat very recently as well and yeah loads of just little obviously these courses there's going to be new courses in the future there's going to be there's always new training there's always new information coming out there so it doesn't really the actual course that you take I sometimes think is not irrelevant because there are some that are terrible and some that are really good but that it's more the fact that you're actually learning you're keeping on learning and I think if you go in with that mindset that you're gonna keep on learning and you're gonna figure things out it doesn't matter if you fail doesn't matter if you don't work things out straight away because you've got that mindset I am gonna keep learning I'm gonna keep improving and I think that's really how Rachel has kept doing this for 20 odd years which is just incredible in itself so yeah the podcast you can get the show notes maketimeonline.com forward slash 57 that's maketimeonline.com forward slash five seven and you can get the show notes and the links and stuff to get in contact with Rachel and other things that we sort of spoke about in the chat so I hope that was helpful guys take care thanks for listening in to this episode of make time online be sure to subscribe to our podcast you don't miss any future episodes and please take a moment to write a review for our podcast in the app store keep changing for the better guys take care