Eden (@edenfrieden, http://edenfried.com) is a new-ish blogger who has steamrolled herself to blogging success.
Steamrolled.
She was almost a full-time law school student before she quit everything to blog…full-time.
In this episode, we dig into:
- What it took to DO that,
- How she struggled for 6 straight months,
- How she overcame it and grew a HUGE following on Facebook and Pinterest
- How she monetizes consistently, even before she had thousands of followers.
BONUS: Just below today’s show notes, and at the end of the podcast episode, I’m going to break down the top 3 takeaways from my interview with Eden.
It’s short, sweet, and to the point! #actionable
(Also, if you want to listen to the takeaways, skip to the last 5 minutes of the podcast episode).
Show Notes
- Eden’s Website: http://edenfried.com/
- Hermoine Hair
- BoardBooster – Pinterest Automation (I’ve heard mixed reviews)
- TailWind – Pinterest Automation (a MUST for Pinterest growth)
- Eden’s Private Facebook group (10k+ now!)
- Buffer – Social Media Automation
- How to Start a Blog (for $10 in 10 mins) – my own guide to getting a fully functioning blog up and running SUPER quick.
3 key takeaways from Eden Fried’s year one blogging success
1 – Any one of you can do this, and we all want to quit sometimes (oftentimes)
Eden said this over and over.
She makes great money now, has a loyal following now…but she’s not the blogging Aladdin who found the success genie the rest of us could never find.
Eden is a human. I’m human. Neil Patel is human.
Do not accept the assumption that bloggers who are “where you want to be one day,” are any different than you.
They’re not “better” than you in every way.
Not everyone can reach wild “success,” but everyone can make the progress they seek (tweet this)
It may sound corny, and it is…but believe in yourself. It’s the only way to progress, really.
Furthermore, we all want to quit sometimes. It’s a healthy, normal feeling.
What separates successful people is not the absence of fear or the desire to quit…it’s the ability to persist through such times, no matter what.
Again…everyone has heard this before, but have you really internalized it?
Most people don’t…
2 – Big breakthroughs are often after short periods of hustle.
When Eden began Pinterest marketing, she joined a ton of group boards.
Not 1-3 group boards. A ton.
She sat down in front of her computer and cold-emailed the owners of dozens of group boards.
If you’ve ever attempted this type of “hustle” before, you know something…
It sucks.
It’s not the fun, exciting part of growing business, but it IS the rewarding part.
- If you read that emailing 1,000 people is the way to success…you should not email 7 people and give up.
- If you need to pitch 50 people before 1 person accepts the pitch, you should not pitch 33 people and give up.
“Hustling” for blog growth involves a lot of tedious work in front of a computer screen, but that’s what it takes for a breakthrough in revenue or traffic.
3 – On your community pyramid, be on the “source” level.
- Who profits the most from the app store? Not the app developers, but iTunes.
- Who profits the most from gold rushes? Not the miners, but the ones who sell shovels.
- Who profits the most from huge 25K blogging Facebook communities? Not the members, but the host.
- Who profits the most from your online course? Not you, but the platform that hosts your courses (and a million other peoples’)
Eden exemplified this by starting her own private Facebook community, even though there was already loads of competition.
Speaking of which, feel free to request an invite to our own community on Facebook 😉
This particular takeaway is a mindset, rather than a specific action.
How can you think a bit bigger? How can you start a new place on the internet that will benefit your community?
Thoughts? Leave a comment.
If you’ve made it this far, leave a comment below with your biggest takeaway from today’s interview with Eden!
15 Responses
This was so fun. Thanks for having me on the show, Pete. It turned out great – and that’s really saying something, since I don’t usually enjoy hearing recordings of myself! Cheers! Eden
Youuuuuuuuu rock. Seriously.
I loved this podcast! So interesting and I’ve taken some really great tips away including to just keep going, the sucess will come eventually if I keep working at it! Thank so much for the awesome content!!!
Thank you so much Sammy! I appreciate you 🙂
I have to agree with Sammy! A lot of great tips especially for Pinterest and social media tools. Really great motivation to keep going! Thanks!
Thanks Sir!
(P.S. At some point I’m going to want to know your name, if you’re not 100% adhering to anonymity.)
A few days late to the post but this is some great content. Blogging is a ton of fun. I love watching my #s tick higher every day. Getting those numbers sucks sometimes though. Some days it feels like I’m hustling for every. Single. Click.
Eden’s growth is super inspiring and reminds me that the hard work today will pay off tomorrow.
“some days it feels like I’m hustling for every. single. click.”
DUDE. That is me, all day today.
The path of a beginning blogger for sure. If it helps, I actually opened up some OLD Google analytic stats for my old personal finance blog (which doesn’t even exist anymore), and made me a feel a lot better. I literally saw zero results in the first 6 months (pretty much the same as Eden actually), so it helped calm me down 🙂
It will absolutely pay off. Keep it up! (then let me know when you experience a surge of results so I can interview you and find out how you did it 🙂
I’m really impressed at the calibre of your guests. It’s like you’ve been doing this for years. Great content!
I loved Eden’s story! It’s quite inspirational that she gave up on a sure thing and went all-in on her dream. I also think having a back-up plan is super smart. I’ve now started reading her website and following her on social media.
I think she is going to do great things so thank you for introducing me to her.
Just stumbled across this podcast interview and loved it! Eden had really great information and tips about Pinterest. Seems like she made the right decision to switch from law school to blogging!
Thanks Kendall! And I’d agree. She’s crushing it 🙂
Relistening now for a pep talk.
Interesting, is this one of your faves?
This was great. She was really engaged with you- could feel a big difference between this one and Neil Patel. Really good. But what I loved is you listened to her and really took in what she said. I also liked that you showed her PROCESS. This is what I was here for. I want to see others process, so I can understand my options to go about this. As a new blogger without any business background, its really overwhelming. Eden really broke it down for me, and you let her do that for me. Thanks!