RYB 838: Promoting Content - Pinterest - Video Creation - Ad Networks and MORE (Friday Jam Session)

Welcome to another week of our Friday Jam session. This is always one of the highlights of my week. I love spending some time with some awesome people and answering some great questions. If you want to be a part of our Take Action Crew, we go live every single Friday where you can ask me any questions you have about starting your business. To join us, head over to takeactioncrew.com to sign up for free. Let’s dive right into today’s session.  Valuable Advertising and Affiliate Info  This week I had a bunch of questions related to ads and affiliate links and when is the best time to use them.  I'm excited to answer a few of those today, and hopefully, you'll find my answers helpful.  When to Apply for Affiliate or Ad Programs  Don't apply too early. You need to focus on getting traffic before you can even consider monetizing your site. Once you get there, you'll have plenty of options. We didn't turn on ads until we had 18,000 visitors to our site for one of the brands we're working on.  We do have a few affiliates but no ad networks. You'll need at least 10,000 visitors to your site to qualify for an ad network.  Don’t talk about monetization until you have traffic.  Start out by writing a few pieces of content, including reviews or comparisons, where you can go back in later and add affiliate links when you're ready. Just get the content written now, and you can do the rest in the future.  Should I Consider Advertising on My Website Yes, advertising is great. Over on brandcreators.com, I'm currency only offering private offerings. Our playbook, checklist, and signups for Brand Creators when registration is open again in July. I'm not selling anything else on my site.  We do have a resources page with all the products that we use that link to affiliate programs.  If you're driving traffic to your site to sell your own stuff, I recommend limiting your advertising to other companies. You'll just need to pick and choose what to include. On a side note, I do run ads on a couple of our other sites.  Just be sure that any ads you include on your site are of interest to your visitors.  In regards to affiliate links, you can have a few on your site, and once the traffic is there, people will see the. Keep in mind that the benefits of affiliate links just aren't there when you only have a few thousand-page views. Instead, focus on creating content and wait to get steady traffic to worry about affiliates. How to Get The Most Out of Your Blog   When you’re getting ready to start a new website or blog, it can be overwhelming. This week I answered a few questions that I hope will help make it easier to get started.  What Elements to Include on Your Homepage  Let people know immediately that they’ve come to the right place. Answer the questions they’re looking to have answered. Always have