Sheila Viers, proprietor of LiveWell360.com, stops by Entreproducer today to talk blogging, content creation, and how to finally figure out what to sell once you’ve built a minimum viable audience.
Sheila and her husband Ryan started a blog almost two years ago, and the business that it powers recently hit $100,000 in revenue in June of 2012. If you’re less than impressed by that number, keep in mind that it’s a bit more than Copyblogger made in its first full two years.
What will four more years bring Sheila and Ryan?
With 1,200 unique visitors currently coming to their site every day, Sheila and Ryan continue to lay the foundation (and make money along the way) for a business that revolves around their passion for health and living well.
In this 29-minute audio case study, you’ll learn:
- How Sheila and Ryan developed their initial content strategy
- The crucial importance of passion in content publishing
- How they solved the “but I’m not a professional” content problem
- How they finally figured out what to sell
- How they balance content creation and physical product distribution
- What Sheila would do if she could do it all over again
Click here to subscribe in iTunes.
Download the mp3 here or listen on the player below.
Brian,
Thanks for continuing to produce great content for entreproducer. I always look forward to the podcasts.
Have you considered interviewing a few more experienced entrepreneurs for the series? While it’s great to hear the successes of the first time entrepreneurs, I’d love to hear from someone who is on their second or third company and how their perspective on using the entreproducer-style business building techniques versus what they have done in the past.
A possible candidate might be Hiten Shah or Neil Patel from http://www.kissmetrics.com?
listening to this story let me feel as if i need to re brand my business because she started with the blog then expanded into products which is cool and she fulfilled a need and found products to suit her audience. My biggest problem is wondering if the name i chose for my brand was the right one because my company is a christian based music production company but I also write blog post around the faith and want to publish ebooks and so forth. my question is the re branding necessary to give the company a better look and feel or i should just run with what i have?
Hey Robert / Brian,
It’s great to know that many of the people you interview just start out by putting out good content that offers value and once you build an audience then figure out how to monetize.
Cant wait for the next interview.
Kyle
“Part of why cash is king is b/c you have to be able to fund your mistakes. And everybody needs to make those mistakes.”
This is true in my experience, as well.
Not a great interview, but worth the time for a few nuggets. And, as always, for the “you can do it too” factor.
Hi Brian, thanks a lot! Really enjoyed reading great newsletters from you…
It takes your mindset/vision to a new level when you are
“Thinking (and acting) like a media company.” A lot of 100 creative people from Forbes are entreproducers using sponsorship and advertising revenue, content marketing to promote goods and services,…..creating new digital content platforms and marketplaces.. it’s a model in trend in every single niche industries…..quite an inspiration for the day!:)
“Part of why cash is king is you have to be able to fund your mistakes.” ~ best line of the interview and so true.
I appreciate the honesty and real-world example of the progress and evolution of Sheila’s company. Excellent stuff.
This is the first time I’ve listened to an Entreproducer interview. Going to listen to more. Thanks.
Hi Brian, Thanks for this great audio clips for entrepreneurs. It is truly a real world experience for the progress and evolution of any small business. Thanks for shearing your views.
hey Brian, these are amazing case studies…
I wonder, do you publish your content solely via your newsletter, or is there a private blog (URL) we can also access somewhere?