We were lucky to catch up with Marnie Kunz recently and have shared our conversation below.
Marnie, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s start with what makes profitability in your industry a challenge – what would you say is the biggest challenge?
In the blogging world, ai is the biggest challenge as people are increasingly likely to ask ai for information and ai pulls content from blogs and articles across the web, rarely crediting the original source. This makes blogs get less traffic from search engines and have lower ad revenue.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I have a background in journalism and began my running blog, Runstreet.com, over 10 years ago. I am also a certified running coach and trainer and I share many tips and workouts on my site and social channels to help people get active and live healthier lives. My company, Runstreet Media, includes websites and social media accounts to inspire people to live better lives. I have since added a dog blog to my brand, called Book of Dog (www.bookofdog.co). This site explores different dog breeds and has articles and resources to help people find the right pet and advocates for dog rescues.
Has your business ever had a near-death moment? Would you mind sharing the story?
My running blog used to be more of a hobby and my main business was leading running events in NYC and other cities. The pandemic completely shut down my events business and I lost all event sponsors and revenue. I took that time to learn SEO and blogging best practices and was able to build my site into a profitable blog with display ads, newsletters, and sponsors.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
When I worked in journalism, I felt stuck in low paying positions with little room for advancement. I felt under appreciated and like maybe I wasn’t a good journalist. I had to stop questioning myself and put my faith in my own writing when I began blogging for my own sites. Working for myself has been so freeing and allows me to have unlimited potential. I am not sitting around waiting for a promotion or recognition at work but am instead actively building my sites and writing on topics I love.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.runstreet.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/runstreet
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marniekunz
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@runstreet
- Other: My second blog is www.bookofdog.co.
Image Credits
All photos with people are by Marques Jackson Photography.