Got a question? I have an answer!

and it just might be on this page.

My goal in life is to help people build businesses and lives that they absolutely love. So, as part of that, I want to answer any question you have as quickly as possible. In order to help your question get answered quickly, I’ve put together this FAQ so you don’t have to sit around waiting for an answer from my team or me.

+ How can I start a blog?

Ready to start a blog? That's so exciting! Blogging has comepltly changed my life. Blogging took me from being on food stamps to making six-figures. I'm so excited to help you get started blogging. I've put together a few resources to help you start a blog.


How to start a blog four-part guide:

+ I need technical help with my blog. Can you help?

Unfortunately, technical help can be far too hardware specific and require access to backend details that I cannot acess to fully help. Here are some resources that can help.

  • Help with Bluehost/Wordpress? Check out BluePrint Begginer's Guide: https://www.bluehost.com/blueprint
  • Using a different hosting service? Almost every issue you encounter can be solved by a google search. You will almost never be the first person to encounter an issue. The solutions are out there! You just have to search for them!
  • Issues with specific services/programs? Reach out to those companies support teams. They will be able to assit you much better than me or my team will be able to help!

+ I don't know what to blog about?

Picking a topic is hard! I always recommend thinking about a few things when trying to decide on a topic.

  1. What are your interests? Then break down the following for each of your interests. You can always talk about a few different things on the same blog as long as you pick a name that can fit all of them.
  2. How do you plan to monetize it if you plan to? Are there easy to use affiliate programs for that topic like Amazon, Target or products on Share-a-sale?
  3. Do you care about that topic? Then it is easy to write about it.
  4. Do you have any unique knowledge on that topic? That makes it easy to offer services, or create e-books or products you can later advertise in your products.
  5. Do you have knowledge in that topic that would be interesting or entertaining for other people to learn? That makes people more likely to read it.

+ I don't know how/what to name my blog?

I think the name that works best for almost everyone (if it’s available) is “yourname.com” because it allows you to talk about multiple things or change what you talk about in the future. You could also try to incorporate relevant words or phrases into it that match what you plan to blog about. Some of these could include things like "life with" or DIY" or "travel."

+ How many blog posts should I have? How often should I post?

  • There is no special number of posts, or set time on how often you have to post. It really just matters how good the content is and how much you are sharing content on social media for other people to see.

+ How do bloggers make money?

Here is a recent blog post I wrote about the Five Main Ways Bloggers Make Money: https://www.taylorstanford.com/blog/5-ways-to-make-money

+ How much money can bloggers make? How long does it take to make money blogging?

  • How long it takes to make money, and how much money you can make blogging really depends on many factors. How much time you put into it, how much you already know about writing good content, how you are going to monetize it, the audience you are trying to reach, and what you want to talk about.
  • I started my blog part-time and did it part-time until I quit my job to do it full time about 7/8 months into it. About one year in, I was making around $3-4 thousand per month, and now (5 years later) I make between $20K and $60K per month. So you can totally do it part-time and eventually full-time.

+ What are the best affiliate programs?

  • It depends on your niche/topic! Affiliate programs can greatly vary from topic to topic. My advice is to google search "best affilaite programs for (your topic) bloggers."
  • I think the best affiliate programs for everyone are Amazon Associates, Target Affiliates, and the many programs on Share-a-Sale. They have so many different products from trusted brands which makes it much easier to advertise when people already trust it.
  • Amazon Associates: https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/
  • Target Affiliates: https://affiliate.target.com/
  • Share-A-Sale: https://www.shareasale.com/info/

+ How do I get approved for affiliate programs?

When you are getting started in affiliate marketing things have changed a little. Now when you are getting started in affiliate marketing I recommend having an about page, a contact page, and a few blog posts. The posts can be about anything related to what you want to talk about on your blog. That way when you apply for programs they have an idea of what you're going to blog about.

+ What do I do if I get denied for an affiliate program?

Now that more people are diving into affiliate marketing companies are being more strict with who they let through because they don't want their products to be misrepresented. My advice would be to get your blog launched, have an about and a contact page, and maybe one or two blog posts then try and apply again. If that doesn’t work maybe try growing one or two social media accounts such as Instagram, and Pinterest to show them you are someone they should want to work with.

+ How do I verify my website on Pinterest?

+ What are your best Pinterest Tips?

Here is my best advice on how to grow organically on Pinterest.

  • Make 10-15 boards on different topics you plan to blog about.
  • Pin 30-50 times per day.
  • Pin each blog post you write to at least 3-5 different boards you have.
  • On each pin you make from your website you want the photo to be longer than it is wide, Canva has a free template.
  • For each pin description from your website you are going to want to make it: a sentence that someone would search for, then a few keywords. For Example: “How to Plan a Vacation on a Budget. Here is how my family and I plan vacations on a budget. We love to travel even though we have to travel for cheap.”

Tailwind is a service to schedule and make pins.

How I used Pinterest to Grow my Business from $30K to $400K per year: https://www.taylorstanford.com/blog/how-i-used-pinterest-to-grow-my-business

+ How do I grow on Instagram?

The way I recommend growing a following on Instagram is to pick like 5 popular accounts that talk about what you want to talk about or do what you want to do. Then look at these things for each of them. Then make averages for each of them and try and follow them.

Here is what to look at / average:

  • How often do they post?
  • How many hashtags do they use?
  • How long are their captions?
  • Do they use the same filters on each photo? / have photos that go together or in specific orders?

Here is what to look at / do:

  • What hashtags do they use?
  • Do all of their photos have the same filter?
  • What do they put in their photos?
  • Comment on their photos each time they post, and like the comments of other people who comment on them.
  • Like & comment on photos under the hashtags they use (make them thoughtful good comments.

+ What courses do you offer?

+ What is your refund policy on your courses?

  • 30 Days to Blog Success: Due to the digital nature of this program, there are no returns. However, we want to help you succeed, so if you have any problems send us an email (hi@taylorstanford.com) and we can answer any questions you have and help you!
  • Pin it Perfect/Pin it to Win it: Due to the nature of the product being a digital download, we do not offer refunds on these products.
  • Blog Coaching: To request a refund it must be within 30 days of your signup for blog coaching, and you must have completed month 1's workbook and video lessons. Send an email to hi@taylorstanford.com to request a refund and include either photos or a digital copy of the month one workbook completed.