Introduction
Welcome to our very first interview! I'd like you to meet Alexis Schroeder. Alexis is the founder of Fintancials and a blogger from whom we can learn a lot! She transformed her blog into a business back in 2017 and she became a fulltime blogger in 1 year! I specifically asked Alexis to be the first guest on Experts' Hub because I've been an admirer of her blog for a long time!
Conversation with Alexis
Great question! Before turning my blog into a business, my life was completely different. I was living paycheck to paycheck, had no savings, and I was working numerous jobs and side hustles. I wanted to turn my blog into a full-time business because I knew there was a lot of potential, I just had to truly dedicate myself to my business.
The beginning of growing Fitnancials was difficult and I thought about quitting several times, but I (obviously) didn’t. I wanted to quit because my business wasn’t accelerating at a speed that I wanted, and I often compared myself to others that started at the same time as me.
Once I stopped comparing myself and my business, my business grew organically, and I really fell in love with everything – meeting readers, networking, monetizing in new and different ways, and creating digital products.
I made my first dollar on my blog from advertising. Honestly, when I first created my blog, I never had the intention to make any money from it. So, when someone reached out to me to do some advertising on my blog, it didn’t mean a whole lot.
When I went full-time on my blog at the end of 2017, it was incredible to see what full-time dedication can do to a business. My income went from basically nothing to $35,000 and $80,000 the following year, and now I’ve hit six-figures this year.
I’m only 26 years old, debt-free, and contributing the max amount to my 401k, Roth IRA and savings. 3 years ago, I knew nothing about growing a business, retirement accounts, and never thought I’d be debt-free this early.
2019 has been an amazing year. I no longer do income reports, but I do feel comfortable sharing that I hit six-figures this year. My goal for 2019 was to hit six-figures and grow and learn new ways to help my readers.
2020’s goal is to hyper-focus on helping women the best way I can. This will be through new digital products, free resources, and video. I’m really excited for 2020 because 2019 was an incredible year for learning and growth.
My blog redesign was such a fun experience. I worked with Swoon and Co and she was incredible. I’ve worked with several blog designers in the past and I’ve discovered that paying more for a sleek blog design is worth it.
I imagine I’ll keep this design for a long time and I find that it makes me even more excited to publish new content and resources.
If I could go back in time to when I first started Fitnancials, I would treat it like a real business from the very beginning.
Sometimes I wonder where my business would be right now if I had given it my all from the very beginning, but I’m also happy with how everything worked out. I’ve learned so much over the years.
For someone just starting out, I’d tell them to give priority to email marketing. This is something I wish I had done differently in the beginning. With email, you have full control of your email list, unlike Pinterest or social media sites that can take your traffic at any time.
The great thing about email is it’s not expensive at all and can be started for free in the beginning. All it takes is a free email marketing platform (like Mailchimp) and a free resource to incentivize people to sign up for your email list.
I only started focusing on Google SEO this year, but I wish I’d started much sooner. I dedicated an entire month or so to working on a Google SEO course and implementing what I learned on my blog. After Q4 is over, I’ll begin working on Google SEO again. It’s a tedious and time-consuming process, but it’s a must for any blogger.
I don’t recommend relying on one traffic source as most people do (like Pinterest) because traffic can be totally wiped out at any time, like Facebook did a couple years ago.
That is so kind! I keep things pretty simple with productivity and time management. I write a to-do list each day and keep things at 5 tasks or less. I may seem like I have it all together, but there are times when I’m disorganized and behind on tasks.
It’s been a wild 2 years. Fitnancials has grown so much and so have I. I’ve learned so much from running my business and speaking with my readers.
I’d love to see the future of my business focus more on giving women concrete steps to achieve financial freedom and start a side hustle or online business like I have. This will be with either free resources, paid products, 1-1 coaching, and/or video.
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