AskPat 2.0: A Weekly Coaching Call on Online Business, Blogging, Marketing, and Lifestyle Design

Today's question comes from Travis, who is planning a series of short-run podcasts (or nanocasts). Which is the best podcast host for this situation? Travis's site is http://www.providfilms.com/. The hosts I discuss in this episode are SoundCloud (https://soundcloud.com/stream), Libsyn (http://www.libsyn.com/ with the coupon code: SPI), and Podbean (http://www.podbean.com/). Do you have a question...

Today's question comes from Lain, who asks about transcriptions. Where is a good place to find a transcriptionist? In this episode I mention James Schramko's podcast (http://www.superfastbusiness.com/). I've used transcriptionists from Upwork (merger of oDesk and Elance; http://upwork.com). Lately I have been using Rev for some transcriptions (https://www.rev.com/freelancers/transcription) and Fiv...

Today's question comes from Glenn, who asks about formatting ebooks. Should ebooks be graphic-heavy or should they be printable? Do you have a question about ebooks? Record it at http://www.askpat.com/. Check out my new book on validating your idea for a business, Will It Fly?, at http://willitflybook.com. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art...

Today's question comes from Jeff, who asks about finding partners to collaborate on projects. How do you know if they have enough passion to be a good collaborator? Jeff's podcast is http://www.generallytrivial.com/. Do you have a question about finding good collaboration partners? Record it at http://www.askpat.com/. Check out my new book on validating your idea for a business, Will It Fly?, at h...

Today's episode is special! My new book, Will It Fly?, launches today! Learn how to validate your idea for a business, Will It Fly?, at http://willitflybook.com. If you picked up the book, let me know on Twitter @PatFlynn. Do you have a question about getting your business started? Record it at http://www.askpat.com/. Thank you so much for listening! I appreciate you! See Privacy Policy at https:/...

AP 0529: Is My Potential Audience Large Enough? Today's question comes from Hunter, who has a website topic that he's ready to start, but he's worried the search volume is too low. How can he tell? In this episode, I talk about my niche site, Security Guard Training HQ (http://www.securityguardtraininghq.com/). Do you have a question about testing your website idea? Record it at http://www.askpat....

Today's question comes from Marco, who has a few niche site ideas. How does he determine which niche will be most worth his time and effort? Check out my new book on validating your idea for a business, Will It Fly?, at http://willitflybook.com. Do you have a question about niche site validation? Record it at http://www.askpat.com/. Check out my friend John Lee Dumas's Kickstarter for The Freedom...

Today's question comes from Jae, who is beginning to feel discouraged and wants to know how I've dealt with these feelings in the past. In this episode, I talk about Hal Elrod's Miracle Morning book and strategy (http://www.smartpassiveincome.com/early-morning-routine/). Share your encouragement on Twitter with #AskPat527. Do you have a question about the emotional side of entrepreneurship? Record...

Today's question comes from Rickey, who is planning to start a blog. What program do I use to write my blog posts? Also, do I use a PC or Mac? One text editor I've used is Byword (http://bywordapp.com/). Our team now does the initial writing in Google Docs (https://docs.google.com/). Other tools include Scrivener (https://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.php) and Evernote (https://evernote.com...

Today's question comes from Clifton, who is interested in hiring a WordPress developer to help develop a software product for his customers. How should he compensate them—should he hire them or partner with them? In this episode, I talk about the structure for Smart Podcast Player (http://smartpodcastplayer.com/). Do you have a question about developing software? Record it at http://www.askpat.com...

Today's question comes from Marilyn, who asks a question about virtual assistants. How can they keep track of the tasks that she is assigning? Marilyn's site is http://www.infantdentalcenter.com/. You can find virtual assistants using Upwork (a combined company of Elance and oDesk; http://upwork.com/). I highly recommend using Slack for communication (http://smartpassiveincome.com/slack). Do you h...

Today's question comes from Sam, who is interested in starting an advice podcast similar to AskPat. If he doesn't have a big audience, how does he get people to ask him questions? I love Speakpipe for collecting audio questions (https://www.speakpipe.com/). Do you have a question about podcasting? Record it at http://www.askpat.com/. Check out my new book on validating your idea for a business, Wi...

Today's question comes from Daniel, who asks about monetizing his blog through a course. How should he go about monetizing that course? Daniel's site is http://www.createmytherapistwebsite.com/ Learn more about productizing your service-based business in Smart Passive Income Podcast Episode #158 (http://www.smartpassiveincome.com/how-to-productize-your-service-based-business/). Check out my new bo...

Today's question comes from Venisha, whose business creates custom first dance songs. Should she hold webinars to get email subscribers? How can she keep people on her email list after their wedding is over? My wife and I had fun with our first dance (http://www.smartpassiveincome.com/random-fun-post-of-the-weekend-our-first-dance/). Do you have a question about building your email list? Record it...

Today's question comes from Rebecca, who asks about podcast sponsorships. How do I determine which sponsors play at the beginning versus the end of the show? Is there a difference in rate? Rebecca's site is http://clrvirtualconnection.com/. I discuss the ins and outs podcast sponsorship rates with John Lee Dumas on Smart Passive Income #97 (http://www.smartpassiveincome.com/facebook-webinar-conver...

Today's question comes from Ryan, who is helping another entrepreneur get started online. What should he know about partnering with someone else? Ryan's site is http://www.alternativeslibrary.org/. Do you have a question about business partnerships? Record it at http://www.askpat.com/. Check out my new book on validating your idea for a business, Will It Fly?, at http://willitflybook.com. See Priv...

Today's question comes from Ron, who asks about Facebook Pages. Will it limit the personal connection he is able to have with his followers? Ron's site is http://ronmckeefery.com/. To join my Facebook Group, go to http://smartpassiveincome.com/community. The social media tool I mention is Edgar (http://meetedgar.com/pat/). Do you have a question about social media? Record it at http://www.askpat.c...

Today's question comes from Eric, who asks about repurposing Q&A podcasts for video and blog posts. Is this a good idea? In this episode, both the caller and I discuss Michael Hyatt's content repurposing. Do you have a question about your content? Record it at http://www.askpat.com/. Check out my new book on validating your idea for a business, Will It Fly?, at http://willitflybook.com. See Pr...

Today's question comes from Eliska, who asks about the best kinds of emails to send to her subscribers, broadcast emails with updates about her current posts, or autoresponder emails? In this episode, I share my thoughts, as well as a hybrid solution I've recently tried, called the digest email. Check out my new book on validating your idea for a business, Will It Fly?, at http://willitflybook.com...

Today's question comes from Diego, who asks about using Periscope when bilingual. Should he have one account for each language, or continue to host both languages on one account? I share my thoughts. Check out my new book on validating your idea for a business, Will It Fly?, at http://willitflybook.com. Do you have a question about Periscope? Record it at http://www.askpat.com/. See Privacy Policy...

Today's question comes from Jourdan, who needs help creating blog images. How much should he expect to pay? Jourdan's site is https://medium.com/new-game-magazine. In this episode, I talk about a few different tools: Canva (canva.com), PicMonkey (http://www.picmonkey.com/), and Word Swag (http://wordswag.co/). For finding stock images, I recommend iStockphoto (http://www.smartpassiveincome.com/ist...

Today's question comes from Brian, who uses his YouTube channel to help promote some affiliate sales. The videos help conversions on his site, but don't drive traffic from YouTube to his site. Should he change his YouTube strategy? Do you have a question about YouTube? Record it at http://www.askpat.com/. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art1...

Today's question comes from Nick, who is starting an interview podcast. Does he have to pay the guests he invites? How do you get people to agree to be on your show? Nick's site is http://truetightwad.com/. Check out my podcasting tutorial (http://www.podcastingtutorial.com). Do you have a question about podcasting? Record it at http://www.askpat.com/. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/priva...

Today's question comes from Sebastian, whose podcasting users have asked for podcast transcripts. Is it worth the money to get his show transcribed? Sebastian's site is http://projektphoenix.com/. Sebastian mentions my podcasting tutorial (http://www.podcastingtutorial.com). In this episode I talk about Fiverr (http://fiverr.com/) and Upwork, as well as the app Rev. Do you have a question about po...

Today's question comes from Andy, who is trying to generate podcast ratings and reviews. In this episode, I mention my podcast with Chris Ducker, 1-Day Business Breakthrough (https://1daybb.com/). Do you have a question about podcasting? Record it at http://www.askpat.com/. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-inf...