In this engaging conversation, Jaimee Raquel shares her journey from a teacher to a social media influencer, discussing her struggles with health, the birth of her brand JFIT, and the challenges of navigating visibility and criticism in the online space. She emphasizes the importance of living in one’s truth and supporting the community through shared experiences and knowledge.

In this conversation, Jaimee Raquel discusses her evolving mindset towards content creation since going full-time, emphasizing the importance of providing value and building a supportive community. She shares her personal journey, including running a marathon despite health challenges, and highlights the significance of cultural heritage in her work.

The discussion also touches on overcoming imposter syndrome, the necessity of integrity in monetization, and the importance of community engagement in building trust with her audience. In this conversation, Catalina Del Carmen and Jaimee Raquel discuss the importance of content creation, community building, and the personal journeys of weight loss and coaching.

They emphasize the need for authenticity in content, the role of accountability in coaching, and the significance of engaging with the community. They also share insights into their future projects and the evolution of their content to better serve their audiences.

Learn more about Jannese & Yoquireodinero
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Summary Transcript:

What is up y’all welcome back i am so excited to have the one and only Jannese from Yoqueirodinero podcast which i assume everybody who has who’s listening to this already subscribes to her podcast but if you haven’t make sure to do that and by the end of our call or not call by the end of our episode today you should also be following her blog.

because that’s what we’re talking about today, okay? So, Jannese, welcome back to Show Up Real Podcast. How you doing?

you

I’m so good. Thank you for having me back. You know, I love talking to you about all things. And I think blogging is one of those topics where we haven’t dove in enough. And it’s like a mysterious part of like the online entrepreneurship world that I really love to demystify for people.

I know.

We haven’t.

It really is.

I mean, you’re the blogging queen. You have an amazing program where you teach people how to set up their blog and how to monetize it. I have a lot of questions. I have been wanting to have this episode. Like, I’ve been wanting to ask you all the questions for so long. And let’s just get started. Because you have been.

Let’s do it.

I mean, one, you have this program and you sell it so, so well. And I have a lot of clients who’ve gone through your blogging program and a lot of clients who have blogs. I don’t have a blog, all your marketing, I’m like, should I be having a blog? I feel like I need a blog. And I know you’ll be like, you absolutely do. But yeah, I want to really, really get started when…

The answer is yes.

Absolutely.

for the audience. We’re not going to get nitty-gritty into like, if you want to know more about Jannese, go look at my past episodes with Jannesse. We actually just had an episode on your podcast or it might be out by this time. I don’t know. It’ll come out soon where we get very real about motherhood and entrepreneurship and all the things. So honestly, if you Google both of our names, well, I know Jannese SEO is on point. So you’ll definitely find her.

You was in the New York Times, okay?

You definitely have your SEO poppin’ too.

But if you put both of our names, put Cat Del Carmen, you’ll find our episodes, okay? But on today’s episode, I really wanna focus on blogging. So let’s get started from the perspective of a brand new, never been a blogger person, right? So, and I’m gonna just ask for me because I wanna know, you’ll get to know some of it, okay? Yeah.

These podcasts are master classes.

This is the luxury of having a podcast, okay? All right, so let’s talk about starting a blog as a person who already creates some content, right? So not like super, super new in the digital marketing world, but a person who’s like, really want to add blogging as an income stream. You make it very, very clear in your content that this could become an extra.

Yes.

Mm-hmm.

an income stream, but you also make it clear that it’s like you have to put in the time, you have to put the effort, like that’s very obvious too. So let’s get started. First question I have for you is what are the basic fundamentals that somebody has to get down if they want to start a blog? So like what are the first like the fundamentals, first steps to start a blog? What do you, what do I need to be thinking about? I’ll just say I, what do I need to be thinking about to create my blog?

Yeah, think that, sure. Yeah.

And wait, can I add one thing? Sorry.

And should it be related to your niche if you already have one?

Okay, so let, yeah. All right, so let’s break down the first part of that question. So what should you be fundamentally focusing on in the beginning, which I think a lot of people get wrong is you need to know who you’re helping because the whole purpose of a blog is the same as a content creator on social media or a podcaster or YouTube or anything. Like the whole point is for you to provide some sort of information that is helpful

Because that’s the little, you know.

Mm-hmm.

Mmm.

Yeah.

to some person in some way, right? Like that is what I would say is the key to success as a blogger in 2025 going forward. Back in the day when I started in 2013, it was way more common to have like diary style, journal style blogs where like people are just sharing, you know, their personal anecdotes and stories and blah, blah. And while I do think that there is room for that, it’s much more difficult to stand out when you’re not hyper-focused on a specific audience.

Hmmmm

That makes sense.

And so,

you know, it’s like if you’re going to the Paltrow or like Kourtney Kardashian, sure, people are gonna read your fucking blog because you have like a million, a million followers on like every platform. But if you’re just like regular schmugler girl who’s out here trying to just create a personal brand, the fastest way to do that is to become known for something. And that is thought leadership. That is creating a personal brand where you are, you are about something. You have a level of expertise in some area that you can help people.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

achieve a certain result. So that’s what I would say is the first thing. Like you need to know who you’re helping and what is your level of expertise and the thing that you want to help them with. And then I would say it’s choosing the right platform because there’s so many platforms out here now to like quote unquote create a blog. You know, things like sub stack people are like, let me just have like a newsletter or I’m going to use Wix or I’m going to use Squarespace or I’m to use any number, you know, medium.

There’s a lot of different places for you to kind of, you know, write on the internet. But a lot of these places are what I call like rented space, the same way that social media is. And so you’re limited in your ability to monetize because it’s not actually yours. It’s like renting an apartment versus like building a house that you can fully customize. Exactly.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, like a podcast. Like, you need to

have, like, remember Anchor before? Like, before it was like Renty. I think now it’s fine, but I remember at a certain time, there was like rules or something like that. That makes sense.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah,

absolutely. I am a firm believer that you need to have a fully self-hosted website, which usually refers to you have a domain, right? That whatever.com and you host it on a platform like, you know, GoDaddy, HostGator, SiteGround, a bunch of other options. Bluehost, yeah, Bluehost is one.

Bluehost is that one? I used to use

that back in the day when I had a fashion blog.

Yeah, Bluehost is very popular with bloggers and I am a big fan of the WordPress, which is a content management system. And essentially it is the only open source software that you can take your blog that’s designed with WordPress and move it anywhere versus like when you have one on Squarespace, it’s only gonna be functional on Squarespace. If you try to move it somewhere else, it’s going to break the code, right? That you can’t transfer it anywhere else. So those are the two things I would say.

yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, that makes sense.

you should be thinking about from day one. And then for people who already have some existing content, why you should consider adding a blog to like your repertoire. I think it’s very apparent, you know, when we think about the recent TikTok ban that never happened or how often we’re getting alerts that Instagram or any other meta platform is like down or hacked or whatever, you can get locked out. Your account can be banned because you said some shit, you know.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

or the

owner of Instagram and Facebook becomes homies with the fascist president and then only curates content through the algorithm to make sure that it benefits the president and all the messaging that they want. Yeah, sure. Totally get it.

You know, yeah, so

if you want to actually have a place on the internet that no one else can take from you, it is a must that you have your digital foundation, your homepage, you know, that place that people can go to on the internet when social media is down and nothing else is available, they can still interact with you and get your content because there’s nothing that pisses me off more than seeing creators who are so focused on building their social media platforms. They have hundreds of thousands of followers.

Yeah.

100%.

And they are literally one stupid move away from losing all of that attention. Right, you can’t get in touch with people if their only place that they can reach you is like Instagram.

their whole business. Yeah.

100%. And look, I teach content y’all, but this is not like, this is the truth also. Like social media is amazing, but it’s one marketing tool. And that’s, mean, that’s the big reason why I started my podcast too. Like that’s how I started my business. was on a podcast I use, I use and will use these platforms to promote, right? Like my podcast and promote, you know, grow my email list and all that, but it’s so, so true. Okay.

So number one, you have to know who you’re helping and really be focused on that. Like I am helping this person. Number two is choosing the right platform. One that you own and not one that is based, you know, I don’t know how to describe it, but one where you actually, it’s hosted self, what did you say? Self hosted website.

Self-hosted.

Yeah, absolutely. So basically no Wix, no Squarespace, no Medium, no none of those. Like it’s cool if you want to add those as supplements, right? Or if you want to have like a very basic website and you’re not planning on blogging, fine. But if you actually especially want to monetize with display ads, which we can talk about one of the ways that you can monetize, display ads are one of those areas where you definitely want to have a self-hosted blog because there’s code.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

sure.

Yeah.

that comes from these ad providers that is potentially not even able to be inserted into a website that is on Wix or Squarespace because they they block that kind of functionality.

you

Okay, good to know. Now I’m like, shoot, I don’t know if mine is even. Okay, so you choose the right platform, what else?

You

I think one of the things that people get lost in the sauce right away, especially those people who are like, but I am so passionate about so many things and I want to help people with everything. And it’s like, that’s great. But when you’re thinking about how to actually show up on search, search engine optimization requires you to have very targeted keywords. So you can’t be out here trying to talk to everybody and then thinking that you’re going to show up on Google search.

Mm-hmm.

Absolutely not. There is a very specific reason why my podcast, Yo Quiero Dinero, is the first thing that shows up on Google when you type in personal finance podcast for Latinas. Because when I was branding my podcast and when I was building the blog, I was like, that’s gonna be my keyword search term. Like I literally want to come up for personal finance podcast for Latinas. And so I curated and built my content around that. I use that.

Hmm.

Mm.

phrase everywhere on my album cover, my tagline on my website, everywhere. And so that is what makes you searchable, but it’s because I’m focused. I’m not out here trying to do a million fucking things. And it’s cool to have a bunch of hobbies, but when it comes to a blog, they need to be hyper-specific.

Yeah, you do.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, and when it comes to making money, like that’s just a basic part of making money. Okay, so question for you. When, okay, sorry. So the question I always come up with is there’s, or I should say I get, or I don’t get this question. mostly, because the blogger, I don’t have a ton of clients who are bloggers.

But when I’m coaching anyone on blog, because I’m not a blogger and I don’t have that experience, but I do understand like big picture business, right? So I have one client who she inside show up real and she’s a blogger and she was doing a thousand things. then she, seven months after being in my program, she just quietly told me that she makes like 3000 bucks from her blog. And I was like,

Hello.

Excuse me like this whole time and then she was trying to make all these other things work where she was making no money And I was like no no no scratch everything I’ve ever told you you need to focus on your blog and make it the thing that you make money off of like No, just give it three months just for three months. Don’t think about nothing except promoting that blog in every single Different Avenue you can I’m not a blogger you are you’d optimize double down on what works and

Yeah, absolutely.

She literally grew it. So I was like, okay. And I was thinking about you the whole time. And I was like, okay, when it comes to optimizing, okay, how do you act? How does it actually work to optimize? So let’s say you do have the blog, right? You have the blog, you buy your course, you set it up, right? Like you do all the things. What happens from there? Right? Like how do you actually start monetizing?

So you need data, okay? And this is where my engineering scientist brain turns on because the only way that you’re gonna know what you should continue to do is if you see what’s working. And so it’s so important to look at the backend analytics of your blog and seeing what are those top ranking posts? What is the content that people keep coming back to? What is the stuff that is showing up as number one, two, or three on Google search?

Okay.

Mm-hmm.

Mmm.

That is literally how you decide what do I double down on when it comes to content, right? And so for me, when I was starting my food blog, I was all over the place. I was sharing diet recipes, vegan recipes, fucking Latino recipes, recipes inspired by my travel. Like it was just all over the fucking place. So there was no direction. And it wasn’t until I saw that my Puerto Rican recipes were the things that were going viral that was like.

Yeah.

shutting down my website because it was traffic, so much traffic coming to it, that I’m like, holy shit, I don’t need to be doing all of this. I need to just be focusing on the stuff that’s working. And so I started doubling down on creating more Puerto Rican recipes, sharing that content, and that is what blew up the blog. So when we talk about optimizing, it is literally see what works and do more of that instead of trying to like throw spaghetti at the wall. The data will tell you why are people coming to this website and just follow the data.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

That’s so good. That’s so interesting because this one client I’m telling you about, she was looking at the data and she decided to re-promote an old recipe that did really well like years ago and she said it blew up again, like in a different way. So, okay, got it. So how do you actually make money from it though? So like being a popular blog is one thing, but like how do you actually get the check in the mail, right? Or the check in direct deposit? Like how does that work? Because I know there’s like,

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yes.

Kind of like podcasting, there’s like a lot of ways, right? Like there’s different, you could be in a network, you can have ads on your thing, right? There’s different ways. like, what are, I’m sure there are zillions, what are the ones that you recommend that people maybe start on? Like top one to three ways that you think are best.

Absolutely.

Yeah, I think it’s good to think about that on day one, even if you’re not 100 % sure what that process is going to look like, because not every way to make money with a blog is going to be necessarily the way that you want to do it. For me, I knew when I was starting that I wanted to have the most passive way to make money. I didn’t want to have to like sell products per se. I wanted to just sell ad space. so display ads are one of those ways that you can create passive income with a blog. Essentially, what you do is you partner with an ad provider.

Yeah.

Yeah.

There are a couple different like standouts in the industry right now, like Raptive, Mediavine, SheMedia, Ezoic are a couple of different companies that partner with bloggers. And depending on the size of your audience, you’re eligible to work with, you know, one or more of these companies. And they take a look at your website, they make sure that the structure of the website is not going to compete with or like conflict with the code that they’re gonna install on your site.

Got it.

And basically they just insert code that puts like ads across your content. So that could be like banner ads, that could be video pop-up. You’ve seen it on the websites, right? So that’s one major way that bloggers can create income, but it is the way that takes the longest because a huge part of that is your level of traffic. And the only way that you get traffic is like having enough content, you know, to have people coming from all over the place. Yeah. No.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah. just to be, sorry, no you continue, because

I have a question after this, but I want you to finish.

Okay, so another way that a lot of people think about monetizing is affiliate partnerships or affiliate marketing. So you may see this on social media where you see like a blogger or a content creator say like ad and blah, blah, blah, and they’re promoting a product or a service. We can do the same thing as bloggers. Essentially you partner with a company, they will give you a special link. You can insert that into your blog post or if you have like a resource page, depending on what it is, it can make sense to create like a dedicated blog post to that partnership.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

or it can be something that you have in like an affiliate store situation. So on delisholights.com, I actually have a shop page and it has my online Amazon shop. And so any of those products that are linked there, I will get a commission if people not only buy that product, but whatever they shop for on that Amazon shopping list, when they click on the link, I get a commission of the entire purchase. like, you know, let’s say you…

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Got

it.

came

into my site and you wanted to buy the pot that I recommended for the recipe, but then you ended up buying like baby diapers and an outfit for a party that you’re going to and you know, some Listerine for your bathroom. I get a cut of all of those things. So that’s another way that people can make money. And then the third way is creating your own product or services, right? If you are a thought leader, if you are a potential like aspiring coach or something like that,

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Okay.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

your

blog can be the platform where you start to exercise that thought leadership, right? And then at some point, maybe somebody reaches out to you and they’re like, Hey, I love what you’re doing. I would love to work with you. And then that’s when you can think about potentially offering like coaching or consulting as a way to monetize the expertise that you’ve begun to share on your blog.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Got it. So question for you specifically that I’ve always had, like when I look at your website or your blog is how do you get, like does, I’m curious how you think about your Yokeiro de Nero content versus your Delish Delights. Like when, how do you promote each? Cause I think, correct me if I’m wrong, if you have a podcast, I’m sorry, if you have a blog.

You have to promote it, right? Like to get people there like a podcast, right? Like it’s without any promotion, it’s just gonna live by itself and not do much, right? Like you gotta tell people about it, I think. How does that work? Yeah, yeah, tell me that. Cause that’s the part I’m a little confused on. I’m like, well, you still gotta like promote it, right? But maybe, I don’t know. I don’t know.

Not necessarily.

Well,

this is the thing. This is what separates kind of the algorithms on social media from search engine algorithms. The cool thing is when you’re talking about even a podcast is the same thing. So podcasts and blogging are considered like long form or evergreen content where like people can find it any time, right? It’s not like it’s trending like more social media content tends to be. It’s very short lived.

Mm-hmm.

So there is a concept called search engine optimization and you can do that for podcasting as well as for blogs and Essentially what you’re doing you are structuring your content in a way that makes it easy to be discovered easy to be found So we’re talking about how you title your blog post What are those key terms that you’re inserting in there so that when somebody is putting into Google? How do I XYZ? Your content comes up

Yeah.

And there’s ways that you can structure your content so that it tells Google, I can answer this question with this page. And so that’s one of the fundamental things that I teach inside of my program. It’s like, how do you actually optimize your content to be found? And search engine optimization is honestly the fundamental way to do that. And it’s great because it doesn’t require social media expertise. You don’t even have to do social media if you don’t want to, because the search engine algorithms are so powerful that you can literally have

Yeah. Yeah.

80 to 90 % of your traffic coming from there, and then it just negates the need for you to even be making content on social media if you don’t want to.

Yeah.

Yeah. I imagine, again, correct me if I’m wrong, it’s like almost the more niche the better. Because if it’s too broad, I’m sure Google’s going to prioritize all the ads for that, right? And then if the more niche, right? Like if you were looking at Puerto Rican recipes, like that’s niche, right? So like there isn’t, you know, I’m sure there are tons, but like the people who optimize, right? And by the way, search engine optimization is just like what’s the most likely that

Yeah.

It’s true. Yeah, it’s very true.

Yeah.

Google’s going to pick your website first at the top, like the first searches when you Google whatever, X, Y, Z. So what I’m hearing is technically you don’t even need to have content to match your, and I say content from a social media platform or something like that. Technically you don’t need to promote with social media or have like another marketing stream for your blog if you have a very niche blog.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

and put effort into looking at the data to see what actually gets the most hits on your blog and put a lot, kind of become an expert SEO. I’m sure your brain just fucking works in SEO.

It does it really does and you know, I I

really do credit the way that my podcast blew up With that because I started applying those principles of seo from the first day that I started building yo quiero dinero And so it was like very intentional the way like I mentioned that I set up it so that it would literally be like the go-to podcast for personal finance for latinas ⁓ the way that I titled my podcast episodes. It’s always a question. It’s always a query

Mm-hmm.

You know, I never told you this.

I thought about buying your blog course, not even for a blog. Although I do have interest in a blog, but that feels like a big commitment, you know? But I was like, you know, I should just buy it for the SEO, knowledge. You know what I mean? No, I know you do, right? I didn’t know that. But I was like, you know what? I just want to know this. And the only reason I know a little bit about this is because

Yeah it is, for sure.

Well, I teach that in my Master the Mic podcasting program too. So there you go. Yeah. Yeah.

before the job I worked at before I was in training and we I worked for an ads platform like we we were a company that like we had a whole team that did ads for giant companies so like I had to learn about ads and advertising a little bit although I wasn’t in the front of it but I learned you know like some some basic fundamentals of it okay that is so good quick question I wrote this down while you were talking you mentioned in the beginning you’re like you have to have someone

Mmm.

You want to have, you want to know who you’re helping in your blog and you want it to be less of like your diary and more of like very specific, this is what I’m teaching. Do you think blogs should, most blogs who monetize, do you think it should be mostly educational content?

I think it should be how to content. So yeah, that’s kind of how I frame it. It’s like the content that is really standing out nowadays and that has the real potential to monetize is like helping people get two way results, solving a problem. And so that is what I would say. Like you should always be thinking, how does this help someone? Is it just like your musings on life? It’s cool to talk about like the brunch table, but like.

how-to content.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Is

that actually fucking helpful or like, you actually creating some content that is going to help someone who is at point A get to point B? I think that’s the differentiation.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah, no, that makes total, total sense. So OK, let’s talk about, I had a question and I’m trying to see if I wrote it down in my notes. See what works. OK, no, that’s OK. I have a question about SEO since you are already so good at this. How do you look at your data? Like what are some?

Mm-hmm.

It could be even mindsets or kind of things that you go into when you’re looking at your data. I find it a struggle. Well, I also have like super ADHD. So like for me, I’m like, this is all so overwhelming. So what are some data points that like everybody should be looking at if they have a blog? Probably even if you don’t have a blog. Cause what I’m hearing from the SEO side is like, this is not only going to help your blog.

You

This is going to help. And if you have a business, if you’re selling anything, having basic SEO knowledge is going to help you. So what are some like basic SEO? It could be data points, could be mindsets, whatever. But like, what should we be looking at? Whether we are a blogger, whether we are a business who wants to be found.

online.

Yeah, I love this. Okay, so this is gonna be what I need you to do before you create another piece of content, whether we’re talking about a blog post or a podcast or something like that. You’re gonna go on Google and you’re literally gonna type in the idea that you have, or at least like the key terms that you are curious about potentially creating content around. And I want you to see what is the existing content there. And on Google, there is a little section on the search engine that says,

Mm-hmm.

People also asked. So when they’re looking at the keyword that you inserted in the search term, they’re also giving you a list of questions that people have asked to find something similar. And so I always use one of those queries to title my blog post because it’s literally creating content that people are searching for. And so that is like the easiest thing that you can do when it comes to creating SEO based content is

Mm-hmm.

my God, genius.

And there are websites

Use that. Absolutely. My favorite.

for this too, right? I remember before I had a podcast, but you know, know that phase in business where you’re just like, I need to make money, but I don’t know where I used to Google everything. And I used to, I used to do so much more SEO when I didn’t have a business. I know.

Yeah.

you

There you go, which is hilarious because it’s one of those

things that like it, once you start thinking in that way, everything becomes kind of like intuitive, you know?

Okay,

so you Google basically like your terms, right? Like the terms you use in your business, the terms you’re using a lot, your tagline, your podcast titles, your whatever. And then you see what comes up, like what are the things that top come up? And then you press on the button or the little, yeah, I think it’s a little link. you scroll down. Okay. And then what does it say again? People.

Mm-hmm.

Do scroll down to the section that says like people also asked.

It says people also

asked and then there’s queries that are related to your search term. And so I like to use those as a potential like title or as a headline or a heading somewhere in your content. And I also like to see kind of what the existing content is around that specific key term because you want to figure out a way that you’re going to differentiate the existing stuff out there, right? The last thing you want to do is like create another blog post that’s exactly like what is already existing.

Mm-hmm.

I’m fine.

And so looking at what is already out there and then seeing what are those related queries that people are asking about, that is how I approach content creation now at this point. And if like one of my favorite tools to do this work too is called Google Trends. So it’s google.com slash trends or trends.google.com. think that’s the URL. And so you can literally type in any search term that you want to find out. Like, are people searching for this? Is it seasonal?

Mm-hmm.

Got it.

Mm.

Mm-hmm.

Is it geographical? Is it something nobody gives a shit about? That’s a great website to find out is this even worth talking about because if there’s not a lot of search volume for this specific term, there might not just be a need for it. And so then you gotta think about what else can I talk about?

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, what direction do I want to go? ⁓ that’s so, so, so good. So good. So how are your-

Mm-hmm.

I don’t even know if this question makes sense, I’m curious, like how are, is your Yoquerodinero podcast website or yeah, is that related in any way to your delicious or delish delights? No? okay. So do you think, like, do you use your Yoquedinero podcast like a blog too? I imagine you would, right?

Mm-hmm.

Now, they’re two different websites.

Yeah, we

have a whole blog section where we have weekly content that goes out there and it’s actually ghost written. So I don’t write any of my blog posts for Yo Quiero Dinero. I’ve outsourced that to a third party company and it helps me continue to like, you know, build the content library of the platform, but without me actually having to do it. So I think that’s one of those things that people don’t even realize you can outsource. You can actually outsource the writing of your blog.

Yeah.

If it’s like one of these things you wanna grow, but you don’t have the capacity to do it yourself.

And I imagine.

Yeah,

and I imagine you hire someone who focuses on SEO that, yeah.

Yes, absolutely.

And somebody that gets the personal finance space, right? So you definitely want to get a writer that like understands whatever niche you’re in.

Yeah,

yeah, that’s crazy. Okay, let’s, I can’t believe I didn’t even ask you. I should have started with this, but how much money do you make? I assume everybody knows already, but how much money? I know, I mean, you’ve had your blog for a long time. So I’m curious, how much did you make the first five years, let’s say? Like how long did it take you?

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, all of you have to know.

to make your first amount of money where you were like, my God, this is like, I got something here.

Yeah, so like 2013 to 2016 was a lot of like self-education trial and error and 2017 was my first year that I made $10,000 from the blog and this was a combination of sponsored content so I started working with brands to create sponsored blog posts I had already started monetizing with display ads and I was also Working with affiliate partners. So three different ways to make money

Yeah.

Okay.

Okay.

That was the first year. So I was really in the like content optimization building phase for like four years, but it’s also because I started a blog without knowing shit about it, right? I didn’t even know you could turn this into a business. It was just very much like a creative outlet. And it wasn’t until I took a food blogging one-on-one course at a local culinary school in New York City while I was laid off that I understood then after taking that class, like, holy shit, there’s people quitting their jobs and like turning this into an entire business.

And I started applying those principles of the SEO and like how to pitch yourself to brands and all these things. And that’s when it really took off. But now, I mean, in my program, I’ve had students that within the first year, they’re monetizing because they’re not having to do the whole DIY and like trying to go to Google University and figure out like what you should be doing. Yes. Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, I help people avoid all the bullshit that I was doing. It’s just throwing all the spaghetti at the wall at this point.

You

Yeah. Well, I’m sure some of them have niches and they don’t lately like they skip a lot of those steps.

Yeah, like the four

or five years you were just like playing yeah

Yeah, yeah.

So ten thousand dollars, that was in year four. And by year seven, I had hit the six figure mark. So in 2020, I had my biggest year ever as a blogger and I hit one hundred and forty four thousand dollars in income. And ever since then, I’ve hit six figures in annual income with the blog.

Did, I’m curious, and I kind of already asked this question, but I’m gonna ask it again in a different way. Did your, your get with the nettle business that was growing at the same time affect that business in any way? And if so, how?

So it definitely took

away like my capacity to continue to create content. But what I realized is that in those seven years where that was the only thing that I was working on, I had built up a consistent and big enough content library that now it pretty much runs on its own. And so I have 314 blog posts on delishdelights.com and 80 % of the income comes from like 10 of the posts.

Yeah, for sure.

Mmm.

Yeah, yeah, that’s I’ve heard.

So it’s not even that you need to be

having like, you know, a million fucking blog posts to make money. You just need to have ones that end up being ranked as number one for their topics. And those things just become perpetual cash cows because it’s evergreen content that just lives there on the internet forever.

Mm-hmm.

So interesting. I think that’s such a good takeaway, y’all. You know what it reminds me of, Janiece? Because when I am, obviously my business model is so much on like one offer and like, you know, selling my coaching and like, you know, selling my program, et cetera, et cetera. But what I’m hearing is like, business is business. And like, if you take steps back, business is business. And what you just said is so good. You said, I have 300 plus.

blogs on my website. And this isn’t Yokel Odeh Nero podcast, y’all. This is her food blog, OK? She has 300-plus blogs. about 10 of them make all the money. And what I’m hearing in that, too, from a business standpoint in selling one offer is that you have to understand the messaging that

is going to hit in your offer. So for example, I could create 20 webinars with different titles and maybe 19 of those webinars do okay. But then you find one. Yeah, then you try something else, right? And instead of saying like three steps to a perfect content strategy, you try something else and you’re like, how to…

Yeah, I think we’re talking about the exact same shit or something very similar.

stop, blah, you know, and da, da, da. And that’s the one that is like ding, ding, ding, and your audience hears, listens to. And when you find that one traditionally in, not just in coaching, but like any, any type of business model, when you find the messaging that works, you double and triple and quadruple down on it. Like, but you have to find the one that works. And I think that’s what takes time, right? That’s why consistency is so important. It’s like,

Yeah.

Actually doing it every single week or every you know having an actual library like you said and I think that makes more sense for blogging but I think having the consistency There is so important because some of it is going to hit a lot of it likely won’t hit as well It’s not like the other ones didn’t make you any money, but the majority is gonna come from the 10 yeah, or however many and I just

Yeah. Right. They’re just not the big ones. Yeah.

Yeah, I think the way you said that, was like, that’s exactly how I think about marketing my program. It’s like, I am always on this game of like, how can I strategically kind of change the messaging of my program to make it hit a little stronger? And it sounds like the same thing. It’s like, you gotta keep trying until you find the one that really hits.

Mm-hmm.

It’s focusing really on like leaving no room for doubt that like this piece of content can answer this question, right? So it’s like take a look at if you were to look at two blog posts one that’s titled like how to visit Puerto Rico versus places on the East Coast of Puerto Rico that have beachfront access, right? Like that is so fucking specific. The second one that it’s like

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah, or something. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

I know that I wanna stay on the East Coast of Puerto Rico and I wanna be in front of the beach, that fucking blog post is gonna answer that question versus like how to visit Puerto Rico. That’s like so generic, like what do you wanna visit? You wanna go to the rainforest? You wanna go to the beach? Where are we going, right? And so you have to think about like, ⁓ it’s almost more is more in this case. You wanna be so specific that it’s impossible for your stuff not to get picked up because they’re just answering such a specific question.

Yeah.

So good.

Mm-hmm.

So, so good y’all. I think so many people could take away from this, whether they’re bloggers or not. Although now I’m like, I’m gonna put blog in my list. Well, I see these posts that Janice be posting and be like, ⁓ 20K this month. Like, did nothing for it. I’m like, yeah, that’s starting to look real, real nice right about now.

Yeah. You could definitely practice, right? It is an art.

Yeah, it took a long time to get there though.

Well, and this is the thing I really want people to understand, like it does take work to create passive income in any form, right? Like obviously people talk about it oftentimes when it comes to the stock market and it’s like, yeah, you can create passive income there too, but you usually need a bunch of money. So the different ways to create passive income, it’s either going to be because you have a bunch of resources.

Yeah, yeah,

or because you put a bunch of time into building something that has value, right? And so that’s what we’re doing. When we create a blog and creating passive income, you’re making that sweat equity. You’re putting in the time, the energy.

100.

So

one more question. So how much are you really touching your blog and analyzing that data, especially now? Like now as a person who’s, so who’s doing, like you just keep it the same? who act, like how does it, what? Wait, hold on.

Girl, I don’t do nothing. Literally. Yeah.

I haven’t posted new content on the blog. OK, so you know I was pregnant last year, so I definitely was not blogging at all. OK, and in the last like three or four years, I probably created like a dozen blog posts. So it’s not even that I’m continuing to create content is literally the same shit that is just churning.

Wait, now I’m a little mind blown.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So the income comes from the display ads, affiliate marketing, and I forget the other one you said.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, I don’t

even do branded partnerships anymore because that’s too much work for me.

Cause it’s,

yeah, I know. you know, a part of me. So I’m in a phase and you know this about me where, you know, I was like the one like focused on one thing forever. And now I’m in a place where I’m like, okay, Kat, like you really have to, you gotta, you gotta expand. My brain has a really hard time with this. I get overwhelmed quickly, Janiece. I know you have, you have. You even gave me my SEO thing. Like you need to be this. You need to do this. I know.

Mm-hmm.

Thank you.

I understand, but you know I’ve been saying this shit to you for years.

I did. I did.

but I’m very like, just, my brain can only handle so much, but I need to stop saying that. But I’m in a place in my business where I’m like, okay, I need other revenue streams. Like this is great. And I could do, I could just focus on this, but I think I’m also itching for something new. Like, like I want a creative outlet. So this is also why I was like, I need her on the blog. I mean, I need her on the podcast and I need to ask her all the questions. Can I ask you one more question?

Or, of course.

What is, what are your thoughts on ad agencies? Because one of my clients works with an ad agency and, and maybe this is the same thing of what you were saying earlier with the display ads, but she does most, I know this is a little different, but she does a lot of her stuff on Pinterest. And I know that is like a whole other, you know, same kind of thing, but it’s a whole other kind of type of monetizing, I guess. I don’t know. I don’t fully understand it.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, it’s basically

a funnel for traffic to your blog. And I would say if you have a blog that’s like visual content-based, like food, fashion, travel, those types of things, Pinterest is definitely probably the best use of your time when it comes to picking a social media platform to focus on. Yeah, because it’s a way better driver for traffic for blogs than something like Instagram or TikTok.

Okay.

Mm-hmm.

visual.

okay.

That makes sense because she’s a YouTuber. Dude, this girl, this woman, she’s such a badass. She and her niche is Dominican food. Yeah, which makes total sense and totally in line with what you were saying. But she was in my program for like literally four months, didn’t tell me she had a hundred K following on YouTube for her blah. I mean, for her.

Right.

There you go.

Mm-hmm.

Wow.

for her niche and her blog.

Yeah.

She didn’t tell me nothing. She’s just like, I want to be a coach. And then after I found all this out, I was like, no, hard no, you’re not being a coach. I was like, you can be a coach next year. Right now, let’s get you some money in what’s working. And I think she’ll really appreciate this, this, this blog and this blog. my God, now I can’t stop thinking about this podcast.

He’s a delicious. Yeah.

You

This is so, so good, Jannese. So everybody needs a Okay, tell us about your offer. I actually do, like, tell us, don’t just tell us, like, I have this thing. Like, tell us a little bit about what is the program and tell us what people can actually get done in that program. I wanna know.

Yeah, so

the Jumpstart Your Blog Bootcamp is my signature blogging course. It’s been gonna be three years now that I’m teaching this program. And it’s so funny because I was literally never even going to create a course about this, because I swear nobody wanted to fucking learn about this. I was like, who the hell wants to learn blogging?

Amazing.

Well, blogging’s, blogs

were kind of boring for the longest because you made it cool because it was so old school. Like people think blog was like the first kind of content. So like it’s kind of old school.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, and I think people have come to realize how fickle social media can be and just the importance of having your evergreen long form content. And so for people who don’t want to show up on video or who don’t want to do audio stuff on podcasts, it’s like blocking is literally the only way to do that. So my program is based on my now decade plus journey into this world. And it is set up in a way that it is like I would say.

and I’m biased, of course, but I think it’s one of the most comprehensive programs that are out there because it doesn’t just cover the basics, right? We’re talking about obviously things like how to pick your niche, how to design your website, how to structure your blog post, how to create content consistently, how to monetize. But I’m also incorporating like things that nobody teaches about, which is blogging is a business. Like, how do you take tax deductions? What are those things that you should be tracking for your finances? Right? Because you’re starting a fucking business. And like, I didn’t realize that when I was

Wow, yeah, yeah.

doing it until I got a tax bill for like this extra $10,000 that I just made. I’m like, shit, we got a whole business here. All right, so we talk about that. I have a course or a module on legal protections for your blog because you are creating digital content that needs to be trademarked and protected and you need to know your rights in that arena. I’ve added a new AI module because obviously this is a new area where for a lot of people,

Yeah.

Yeah.

crazy.

You know, I think content creators were freaking the fuck out about AI in the beginning because they didn’t know the power and like what it could do for you. And I am such a huge fan of AI for blogging because it gets you past a lot of these stupid roadblocks that we get into like writer’s block or you’re stuck with brainstorming. You don’t know like what to write about or how to outline something or proofreading, right? For the people that are like, I’m a terrible writer. There’s tools to help you with grammar and structure and all these things, right? So I teach folks about AI.

Yeah.

I’m

long-winded, I get that a lot. I’m really long-winded and I’m like, okay, we’ll just put it fucking through, yeah.

Yeah. Right, right.

So yeah, so the course has continued to evolve as the world of blogging evolves. And it also comes with now some features that I’ve added is a done for you blog design because it was a lot of people that get stressed out with the tech. And so I have a designer who comes in and installs your infrastructure. So you’re ready to start creating content. I do group coaching. Okay. Yeah, yeah.

You need to sell that girl. I did not know that. You need

10 to 20 emails, no, that’s a lot. 10 to 12 emails during one launch, just talking about that feature. I’m just saying that’s a good feature.

Yeah,

it is. It is. And it was built off of the fact that I saw where those pain points were for a lot of people that were joining the program in the beginning. It’s like the coding, right? They think like, my God, I don’t know how to design a website. And I’m like, y’all, it’s not as complicated as you think. But even if you think that you can’t click a couple of buttons, we’re going to get that shit out of the way. Because what I want you to do is get to a place where you actually start building your content library. That’s how we make money. It’s not about obsessing about the fucking fonts and the colors.

Mm-hmm.

of your blog. So yeah, the program is, I’m so proud of it. And it’s one of these things that like I’ve followed many of my students in their journeys as bloggers. And I see them now, like out here in the world, I’ve had people quit their jobs. I’ve had people get awards, media features, like incredible partnerships. It’s

Yeah.

No, I know tons of people who have

built their blogs, who’ve made money from their blogs through your course. mean, like tons. I’ve, tons, tons, tons, tons. I feel like it’s, should I do one? Should I have a blog?

Yeah, I love that.

I

mean, girl, you know I’m not going to say no. And then I’ll also have you as a guest in there because of course.

Yeah, yeah, okay. Is it open

all the time or only during launches?

So I actually do have an evergreen version, but that does not come with the group coaching and the done for you blog bonus. So this is why I tell people like what I’m actually doing live launches. Not only is it cheaper, but you actually get more features because I find that even though, you know, some people don’t take advantage of it, which always boggles my mind. I feel like having a group coaching dynamic and like the community aspect where there’s a cohort of people that you’re going through this with. I think it really helps the accountability standpoint.

It is the time to join.

I know, same.

Yeah.

and it helps you feel like not so weird and alone in this world of like digital content creation, which a lot of people in your immediate circle might not even understand like why you’re doing this.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, 100 % This was so good. This is basically a whole advertisement for your program. I mean, you’re the only person I would trust to ask this information with. Not only, I mean, you’re not the only person selling blogging. You’re not the only person who knows about this, but you are the only Latina that I fully trust who also has like, I mean, anybody who doesn’t know Janice, like she

Hahaha

Thank you.

show up real, she’s one of these people, okay? Like she always shows up real, she’s always gonna tell you 100, she’s not gonna gatekeep, and I just fully, fully, fully trust her always with her advice, so I’m so, so grateful to have you on the podcast. This was so good. I have so many takeaways that I’m gonna use already in my business, and I don’t know. So do you know when your next launch is?

I don’t but if you want to join the waitlist just go to joke or the narrow podcast comm slash links and you’ll see the buttons

Yeah, and I’m sure

I’m I’m so sure that if you go to your get all the little podcasts and you actually look at her blogs slash her podcast episodes I Would go and start listening to them start reading them just to get kind of infused with understanding the blog world so that when She does lunch with all these special like bonuses and offers and stuff

You’re already mentally there and it’s not like 100 % fresh and you don’t have to do all your homework then. Like do the homework now and then keep your eyes and ears peeled. Yay!

Absolutely. Yeah,

check out the episodes and we also have like a ton of success stories on the podcast too, right? So I bring on the breakout stars of the program to literally talk to us about what they’ve done and I will say anybody that I know who’s come through my program who has been successful, it comes down to one thing. They take themselves fucking seriously from day one. They might not have a full idea or picture of like what this is going to turn into, but you see the commitment and you see just like.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

the belief, that self belief, and I think that is the key to anything that we wanna do, right? You wanna build something, you gotta believe in that shit before anybody else does.

So good. So true. So true. You got to have the

commitment. If there’s anything I learned, it’s like, nothing’s going to happen without the commitment. You just have to commit to it. And it doesn’t even need to be this like, like dramatic commitment, like go all in. You do have to go all in, but you honestly going all in is making a plan and implementing it. And that plan doesn’t have to take 40 hours of your week. Like just, just go with the plan, commit, make some, you know, commitments.

Absolutely.

And then you just follow and like one brick in front of the other and if you continue most things will work. So you’re amazing. I love you. I send you a big hug. Thank you for being on. Where can people find you again? I mean not that we didn’t say it a hundred times.

Absolutely. I love you. Thank you. Absolutely. So you can find

anything and everything about me at joquirodineropodcast.com. Please make sure to join our newsletter to Coins and Consejos. It’s our weekly newsletter where I’m sharing all my favorite money tips, resources, announcements of new launches and whatnot. So stay in the loop.

Yes, stay in the loop. OK, we’ll see you later.

Thank you.