Askpat 2.0: A Weekly Coaching Call On Online Business, Blogging, Marketing, And Lifestyle Design

Today's question comes from Dave, who has a question about how to balance time for fitness and time for kids. How can he fit in time to exercise when he has kids? Do you have tips for young parents who want to find time for healthy activities with kids? Dave's website is at http://www.catholicprotools.com/. In this episode, I mention my Instagram account, where I feature a lot of my health and fitness activities. Find me on Instagram at http://www.instagram.com/patflynn/. Do you have a question about making healthy choices as a parent? Record it at http://www.askpat.com/. Today's sponsor is Freshbooks. Go to http://www.freshbooks.com/askpat and enter "Ask Pat" for more information.

Today's question comes from Simone, who has a question about separating auto-responses from real responses in her inbox. How can she make sure that she can easily find and respond to actual responses from her emails? What are some tips she can use to better filter out the auto-responses from the real responses? Simone's website is at http://www.echemusic.com/. Do you have a question about managing your email inbox? Record it at http://www.askpat.com/. Thanks to our sponsor, Design Crowd. To learn more about working with their designers, go to http://designcrowd.com/askpat.

Today's question comes from Jorge, who has a question about achieving results from affiliate marketing. How does he start building affiliate income? And how can he connect with the Filipino community specifically with my affiliate marketing? Where can he get results from his affiliate marketing? Are there any specific ways to engage his audience to inspire them in his affiliate income building process? Do you have a question about kickstarting your affiliate income? Record it at http://www.askpat.com/. Today's sponsor is Freshbooks. Go to http://www.freshbooks.com/askpat and enter "Ask Pat" for more information.

Today's question comes from Randy, who has a question about promoting his book on his blog. What if he feels like he doesn't have much more to say outside of the book? Should he keep his blog going? What should he write about to promote his book? Randy's website is at http://www.disneylanddevotional.com/. Do you have a question about promoting your book? Record it at http://www.askpat.com/. Thanks to our sponsor, Design Crowd. To learn more about working with their designers, go to http://designcrowd.com/askpat.

Today's question comes from Craig, who has a question about reaching out personally to his audience to start growing his email list. What should he include in the email to make an impact? How can he better personalize emails? What should be the ask be in his first email to his audience? Craig's website is at http://www.empowerthetribe.com/. In this episode, I mention my 3-Day Email List Challenge at http://www.100emails.com/, which you can join for free to grow your email list from 0 to 100 emails in 3 days! Do you have a question about building your email list? Record it at http://www.askpat.com/. Thanks to Zip Recruiter for sponsoring today's episode. Go to http://www.ziprecruiter.com/pat to get started posting jobs today.

Today's question comes from Mike, who has a small Facebook community as a part of his website. There is a similar, much larger Facebook community that is not his where he could also be active and may potentially attract new users to his site. How should he split his time between these groups? Mike's site is http://fermentingfood.uk/. Mike talks about the market map exercise from my book, Will It Fly? (http://willitflybook.com). Do you have a question about choosing where to spend your time? Record it at http://www.askpat.com/. Thanks to our sponsor today, BambooHR. This online management software will help you manage the human resources tasks for your small business. Go to http://bamboohr.com. Click the microphone in the upper-right and enter "PAT" for your free trial.

Today's question comes from Michael, who has a directory of service providers on his website. Should he be charging businesses to get listed in this directory, or should he continue to list people and businesses for free? Michael's site is http://www.emailoverloadsolutions.com/. I talk about the directory on my Green Exam Academy website (http://greenexamacademy.com). Do you have a question about what to include on your website? Record it at http://www.askpat.com/. Today's sponsor is Freshbooks. Go to http://www.freshbooks.com/askpat and enter "Ask Pat" for more information.

Today's question comes from Andres, who is looking for some advice on improving his skills in front of the microphone. I share my advice for leveling up your microphone skills. Do you have a question about podcasting and recording? Record it at http://www.askpat.com/. Thanks to our sponsor today, BambooHR. This online management software will help you manage the human resources tasks for your small business. Go to http://bamboohr.com. Click the microphone in the upper-right and enter "PAT" for your free trial.

Today's question comes from Otis, who asks about Facebook ads. How does he know how much he should spend each month? Otis's site is http://lakecitytactical.com/. Do you have a question about Facebook advertising? Record it at http://www.askpat.com/. Today's sponsor is Freshbooks. Go to http://www.freshbooks.com/askpat and enter "Ask Pat" for more information.

Today's question comes from Paul, who is planning for an upcoming product launch. Should he consider making the product available for a limited time only? Paul's website is http://photographytv.com/. Paul talks about Smart Passive Income Podcast #162 (https://www.smartpassiveincome.com/session162). Do you have a question about launching a product? Record it at http://www.askpat.com/. Thanks to today's sponsor, Vistaprint. Vistaprint will help you create affordable, custom marketing materials for your business. To learn more, go to http://vistaprint.com/ and use the coupon code "PAT" for a special offer.

Today's question comes from Tim, who asks about rebranding his site, which has grown beyond its original focus. Should he keep the original URL, or migrate his site to a different URL? Tim's site is http://androidpcreview.com/. Tim talks about how I migrated Green Exam Academy from intheleed.com to greenexamacademy.com using 301 permanent redirects. Do you have a question about rebranding a site and migrating URLs? Record it at http://www.askpat.com/. Today's sponsor is Freshbooks. Go to http://www.freshbooks.com/askpat and enter "Ask Pat" for more information.

Today's question comes from Simone, who asks about building a business directory on her website. How can she encourage new businesses to sign up? I've used business directories on my niche site Security Guard Training HQ (http://www.securityguardtraininghq.com/) and share my best advice for getting businesses to sign up. Do you have a question about adding special features to your website? Record it at http://www.askpat.com/. Today's sponsor is Freshbooks. Go to http://www.freshbooks.com/askpat and enter "Ask Pat" for more information.

Today's question comes from Marie, who is building an online course for kids. What is the best tool to use for delivering video and keeping them protected? In this episode, I discuss how I use video on my free podcasting tutorial (http://www.podcastingtutorial.com) versus a paid course like Smart From Scratch. Teachable is a good option if you're looking for a full course platform (http://askpat.com/teachable). If you're using your own hosting system (like WordPress with a membership plugin), Wistia is an excellent video platform (https://wistia.com/), as is Vimeo (https://vimeo.com/). Do you have a question about hosting a paid course? Record it at http://www.askpat.com/. My new course, Smart From Scratch, launches this month to help you choose and validate a business idea. If you're ready to get your business started, check it out at http://smartfromscratch.com.

Today's question comes from Oz, who has a question about using email autoresponders and landing pages together. How can he make sure that people who are subscribed to one segment get the resources offered by other his other campaigns? Oz is using GetResponse for emails (https://www.getresponse.com/); I recommend and am an advisor for the email service provider ConvertKit (http://askpat.com/convertkit). Do you have a question about email marketing? Record it at http://www.askpat.com/. Get my free templates for writing better emails—check out Email the Smart Way (http://emailthesmartway.com).

Today's question comes from Andre, who asks about my blog images on the SPI blog. Why do I put both my name and my date on them? Andre's website is http://www.asmallinvestment.com/. Andre is referencing the images you see at the Smart Passive Income blog (http://smartpassiveincome.com/blog). I also discuss how Gary Vaynerchuk manages images (https://www.garyvaynerchuk.com/). Do you have a question about blogging? Record it at http://www.askpat.com/.

Today's question comes from Kit, who hasn’t chosen her company name yet. Can she still start a blog without choosing a name? Kit mentions using the lessons from my book Will It Fly? (http://willitflybook.com) to start her business. If you are starting a new website and need website hosting, I recommend Bluehost (http://askpat.com/bluehost). Do you have a question about starting a business? Record it at http://www.askpat.com/.

Today's question comes from Sean, who asks about building traffic to his blog. Which method is best for a new blog: SEO or content marketing? Sean’s site is http://flighttrainingpro.com. I recommend using Yoast SEO WordPress plugin to help you include the correct SEO fields (https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-seo/); All in One SEO Pack is also a good alternative plugin (https://wordpress.org/plugins/all-in-one-seo-pack/). This is the FoodTruckr article I mentioned (http://foodtruckr.com/2013/10/what-i-wish-id-known-before-starting-my-food-truck/). The giveaway plugin I recommend is KingSumo (http://kingsumo.com/). Do you have a question about traffic growth? Record it at http://www.askpat.com/.

Today's question comes from Jacob, who asks about business structure. Should multiple businesses operate under the same LLC, or should each business have a separate legal entity? The first business I started is Green Exam Academy (formerly called In the LEED; http://www.greenexamacademy.com/). My original LLC is Flynndustries LLC. The other LLC I discuss in depth is related to the Smart Podcast Player (http://smartpodcastplayer.com). My account is Dave from Profitwise Accounting (http://www.profitwiseaccounting.com). Do you have a question about your business structure? Record it at http://www.askpat.com/.

Today's question comes from Eric, who lives in Ghana and is looking to build a site teaching others how to start online businesses in Africa. What specifically should he document? Eric's site is http://www.internetbusinessafrica.com/. I share my thoughts on how to get started. Do you have a question about starting an online business? Record it at http://www.askpat.com/.

Today's question comes from Jason, who has some questions about setting up a shopping cart for his website. Which is the best one for his needs, with include considerations for shipping physical goods? I recommend checking out ShipStation (http://www.shipstation.com/). A good website platform to check out is Shopify, which is an alternative to WordPress that is designed specifically for online stores (https://www.shopify.com/). If you want to stick with WordPress, WooCommerce is a good platform (https://woocommerce.com/). Another good shopping cart option is Samcart, for which I am an advisor (https://askpat.com/samcart). Do you have a question about selling products? Record it at http://www.askpat.com/.