So how much money can you make blogging?
While some experienced bloggers are able to constantly pull in $30k/month, $100k/month, and even $145k/month, it’s still pretty easy to make an extra $500 – $3,000 per month blogging within the first few months. And from there, you can quickly scale your content and traffic and then earn $10k + per month in blogging revenue. Glassdoor reports that the average blogger salary is over $40k per year.
While not knowing very much at first, I was still able to pull in $1k within just a few weeks of blogging.
You can get started with Bluehost for $3.95/month (57% off) with my link.
Even though blogs exist since the dawn of time (or practically)… It’s still the Blogging Wild West.
Blogging is a great way to make passive income online if you’re just starting your online journey. It’s also a great way to build a strong following without having to fear from being cancelled on social.
And if you’re smart you could also leverage your blog to get more effortless passive inbounds leads for your coaching offer, agency services, or SAAS.
So how do you make money with a blog?
Table of Contents
Top 4 Ways To Make Money Blogging And How To Get Started
Affiliate Marketing
Promoting products and earning a commission when someones makes a purchase through your unique affiliate link. Affiliate marketing is my favorite way to make money from blogging.
Digital Products
Many bloggers create products such as ebooks, online courses, templates, printables, etc. and sell them on their blog.
Advertising
Displaying ads on your blog through an ad network such as Google AdSense, Monumetric, or Mediavine.
Services
Offering services such as coaching, freelance writing, social media management, etc. through your blog.
Now that you know that you can make a nice income blogging, how do you get started?
GREAT question! 😉
Blogging Fundamentals
Choose The Right Niche
You probably already know what a niche is and why you need one. Whether it’s fitness, carnivore, marketing, cooking, CrossFit exercises, vegan, etc, there is an endless amount of things to blog about.
Most bloggers will tell you to start with something that you’re passionate about because it will help you “maintain a consistent writing schedule and push through the hard times when things get difficult.”
They’ll also tell you to choose a niche at the intersection of passion, skills, and experience:
However, this model is flawed because it’s missing one major component: MONEY.
You’re reading this guide to make money, right? So what good is there to invest all those hours writing content if you’ve got no chance of getting paid one day?
So the trick is to find a niche that:
- Makes money
- You know something about
- Don’t mind writing about for a long time
What niches do make money?
Just like you don’t want to reinvent the wheel when looking for a profitable product… You don’t need to waste time “discovering” a “Might Be Profitable Niche But I Don’t Know Yet”.
Focus on the Big 3: Wealth, Health, and Relationship.
These are the big categories that are proven to pay very well.
After all… “You can never be too fit, too rich, and too sexy”.
And within these broad categories there are several sub-categories you can build your website around. For example…
Wealth
Personal finance, Internet marketing, Bitcoin trading, Forex trading, Credit repair, Online jobs, job interviews, Taxes, Millionaire mind, Real estate, and so on.
Health
Weight loss, Keto, Vegan, Carnivore, Yoga, Meditation, Strength training, Muscle growth, Fasting, Detox, Diabetes, Posture, Detox, and so on.
Relationship
Men’s dating advice, Marriage, Getting pregnant, Raising kids, Sex, Online dating, Get your ex back, Sex performance, and so on.
In the end, if you want to make money with your website, you need to solve a pain point that an audience is willing to spend money on.
As a blogger, you need to understand your audience’s challenges deeply so that you can offer them exactly what they want.
Understanding your audience is the first step.
The second (and equally important) step is to understand how much your audience is willing to spend to solve their pain points.
This is your audience revenue potential.
In other words, you need to understand your audience AND how much they’re willing to spend to solve their pain points.
Source: successunscrambled.com
For example, let’s say you’re planning to start a blog in the home design niche.
Your blog topics may pull in different readers, including professional interior designers, college design students, and even stay-at-home moms who want the latest home decor inspiration.
To monetize a blog in this niche, you can then create a sales funnel like this one:
- You write new content to attract an audience online
- Next, you build a home design lead magnet to get email opt-ins
- Third, you place affiliate links to promote home decor brands
- Finally, you offer a $300 online course titled 10 Expert Interior Designers Share Tips for the Perfect Home
If you want to make even more money you can do so by changing only one thing in the list above. By changing just one word in your potential niche, you increase your blog’s income potential by 100x.
All you do is change home design to commercial design.
Let me explain.
By adding a B2B component to your blog, you shift part of your audience from individuals to businesses.
Businesses have larger bank accounts and are more likely to pay you without hesitation. Whereas a founder might be more frugal with the business’s account, a middle manager with a budget to spend will not.
The beautiful thing about this approach is that your blog launch and marketing funnel are almost exactly the same for both the “home design” and “commercial design” niches.
However, with the B2B niche, you don’t just stop at a $300 course. You get to add the final component of 5-figure online consulting.
Set Up Your Blog
The Best Foundation to Start Your Website – Fast
In order to get your website up and running, there are 3 things you need to get started.
You need:
- A domain name
- Hosting (here’s a link to save 51%)
- A way to add articles to your new website
Once you have these three things, you’re launched!
Step #1- Choose A Domain Name
First, it’s time to pick a name for your new website.
We’ll also select the blogging platform and web hosting you’ll be using and in order to get your website online.
The combination of blogging platform & web hosting I personally use (and that most other bloggers use) is a WordPress blog, hosted by Bluehost.
WordPress is a publishing platform that’s been around since 2003 and now powers more than 60% of all blogs on the Internet.
And Bluehost is one of the longest established companies in the blog hosting industry. This combination is what we’ll be using to start blogging with in this guide.
So, let’s get started with choosing your blog’s name.
Your domain name is the name of your website.
Choose a domain name and try not to overthink it. You don’t want to get stuck in this phase because without a domain you really can’t start.
It took me about 15 seconds to decide on my website’s name (FreedomSeeker.co). Haters will say it shows (and they’re probably right) but the thing is you should not waste a lot of time thinking about this step.
Here are some things to keep in mind when buying a domain name:
- Make it something that’s easy for people to pronounce
- Don’t make it too long [ImSoAwesomeYouShouldBuyMyStuff.com]
- Make sure there aren’t any weird phrases or words hidden in your domain name ex. speed of art – speedofart.com or experts exchange – expertsexchange.com
Step #2 – Hosting
After either choosing your domain name OR opting to select it later, you’ll be taken to the final step in the sign up process—creating your account.
Create your Bluehost account
—> Click here to head over to Bluehost and hit the green “Get Started Now” button
Start by filling in your account details like your name, email address (it’s super important to use an up-to-date email address because this is where your login details and account information will be sent) and address.
If you don’t want to enter your information manually, you can connect your Bluehost account with your Google account. Either works!
Select the right hosting package.
This is where you’ll choose an account plan based on the price you want to lock in and how far in advance you’ll pay.
Choosing the right package extras (skip all but one)
I highly recommend keeping the Domain Privacy Protection extra, but you can get away with skipping the rest.
If you chose a Basic or Plus Plan, then you’ll want to check the box to add Domain Privacy Protection to your order for around $1/mo.
Plus, there’s a 30-day money back guarantee in case things don’t go as planned with your blog.
Next enter your billing information.
Now you’ll input your billing information, check the box that you agree to Bluehost’s Terms of Service and then hit the green “Submit” button!
Great! You did it!
You’ve officially completed the first major step of how to create your website.
With the initial signup process complete, it’s time to move into the next stage of getting your blog fully setup and optimized.
On the next page, you’ll be guided step-by-step through the process of getting WordPress installed on your blog through Bluehost.
Step #3 – Choose A Blogging Platform
If you want to open a restaurant, you need a kitchen to prepare food. If you want to start a blog, you need a blogging platform to prepare words.
There are many blogging platforms to choose from. WordPress, Blogger, Squarespace, Wix and Weebly are a few.
All have pros and cons, but WordPress is by far the most popular (source) , and for good reason. It’s flexible, functional, has a large community of users and works great if you want to make money.
I use and recommend WordPress. Most bloggers do.
Get Started With WordPress
At this point, you should have two sets of login information (sent via email):
- WordPress, where you write your posts and manage your blog.
- Bluehost, where you manage your hosting account and pay your hosting bill.
From this point, we’ll spend most of our time in WordPress.
Welcome to the WordPress Dashboard. You’ll spend a lot of time in the Dashboard, publishing posts and managing all aspects of your WordPress blog. It’s the nerve center of your blog.
The black column on the left is a good indicator that you are in the WordPress Dashboard. The rest of the screen might look different. Not to worry. The key is the black column! Black column = WordPress Dashboard.
Alright, let’s get important settings in order first.
Check your permalink structure.
In the black column, go to Settings > Permalinks. Make sure “Post name” is selected. If it’s not, read What Are Permalinks and How Do You Choose Them?
Check your username to make sure it’s not admin.
In the black column, go to Users > All Users. Make sure your Username is not “admin” like it is here:
If it is “admin” like the image above, read these instructions to change it.
If it’s something other than “admin” you’re good to go. Read on!
Install important plugins.
There is one plugin I always install right away: Yoast SEO. It is widely recognized as the SEO plugin. (What is SEO?)
To install a plugin:
- Go to Plugins > Add New.
- In the search bar up top, enter the name of the plugin you’re looking for. Find it in the list and click Install Now.
- Once it’s installed, you have to Activate a plugin before it will start working. Otherwise, it lies dormant on your site in its deactivated state, which is not ideal. Either activate or delete a plugin. To activate, go to Plugins > Installed Plugins and click Activate under the plugin name.
- Once installed and activated, you will be able to access its features as you write your posts (like Yoast SEO), unless it’s a plugin that runs in the background (like Antispam Bee).
- Also once activated, configure a plugin’s settings if needed. You can often tell if there are settings for a particular plugin by going to Plugins > Installed Plugins and looking for a Settings link under the plugin name. You might also see a plugin listed in the black left column of your Dashboard. Yoast SEO is accessible this way. Most plugins come with a default configuration which is fine to start with. If you want to dive into configuration, Yoast has a Configuration Wizard you can find under SEO > General. Antispam Bee has a settings link under Plugins > Installed Plugins.
- If you ever search for a plugin but it doesn’t appear as an option, no worries
Delete unnecessary plugins. Go to Plugins > Installed Plugins. I delete all of them except the Bluehost and WPForms Lite plugins.
A plugin must be deactivated before it can be deleted, so if you hover over a plugin you may have to choose Deactivate, then hover again to see the Delete link. Plugins can always be added back later if you want.
Edit some general settings. Go to Settings > General.
- Site title and tagline. Your site title doesn’t have to match your domain but it likely will. Your tagline is a short phrase that describes your site or mission well. Again, these can be changed any time.
- Email address. If your main email address is not entered here, go ahead and put yours in. Notifications will be sent to this address.
- Timezone. A wrong timezone won’t break anything, but scheduled posts get published according to this setting, so if it’s not set correctly, you’ll wonder why your posts aren’t going live at the times you expect.
- Don’t touch your site URLs! You may be wondering about those URLs. If you change them now, it will mess things up. Your blog starts on on a temporary domain. This is normal. Let’s talk about how it gets switched to your permanent domain…
Step # 4 – Complete Your Domain Setup
Did you enter a new domain?
Activate it.
Check your email inbox to find the domain activation email. Click the button inside to complete the activation process. Simple. Now just wait. Bluehost will automatically switch it for you.
Did you enter an existing domain?
Point it. Edit the name servers where your domain is registered. Here are instructions by registrar. If you get stuck, call Bluehost and they’ll walk you through.
Did you click the link to choose your domain later?
First, decide on a domain. Then, in the black column of your WordPress Dashboard, go to Bluehost > Back to Bluehost.
Click on Domains in the left column.
Then click the Register link (an option in the left column).
Hopefully your desired domain will be available. It should be at the top of the list.
Add the domain to your cart by clicking the cart button.
If you choose a plan that came with a free domain, at checkout, the balance should be zero because the credit for a free domain was automatically applied to your account. Also at checkout, you can add domain privacy if you didn’t choose it before (which I definitely recommend).
Once you have the domain, go to Domains > Assign. Use a domain associated with your account. Choose it from the dropdown menu.
Wait a few hours for your domain to propagate. That’s a fancy way of saying it takes a while for your WordPress blog and your domain to find each other on the world wide web and solidify their connection. Once they do, anyone should be able to type your domain into a web browser and your blog will appear!
If you’re wondering if they’ve found each other, type your domain into your browser’s address bar (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, etc.) and see if your permanent domain sticks without forwarding to your temporary domain. If so, you’re set!
Sidenote: Your blog will look horrible at this point. Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered there too. More on that below.
Add SSL (from HTTP to HTTPS). Once your permanent domain is working, make it secure. What this does is adds an S to the end of HTTP like so:
This gives visitors peace of mind. It also keeps your site on Google’s good side.
To complete this step, you’ll need to activate an SSL certificate or turn on your free Bluehost SSL certificate. Don’t be intimidated by the fancy term. It’s easy.
Again, how you proceed depends on what you chose back on the domain screen way back in Step 4.
Did you enter a new domain or choose one later? Follow these instructions.
Did you enter an existing domain? Contact the company where your domain is registered. Tell them you want to secure your site with an SSL certificate.
After adding SSL, give your domain a bit of time to catch up. Eventually, when you type your domain into a browser like Chrome, you’ll see a secure icon:
An insecure site will have an “i” with a circle around it like this in Chrome:
If your site doesn’t show the HTTPS after 24 hours, call Bluehost (for new or chosen later domains) or your domain registrar (existing domains) so they can find the problem.
Step #5 – Get It Ready To Launch It
This is where you take over and start making your blog your own. I recommend doing things in the following order.
Publish some pages and posts.
Pages
When you use your website to sell affiliate products, you need to have some legal pages on. Here are the different types of legal pages you’ll need to have:
Privacy Policy. Terms of Service. Affiliate Disclosure. Disclaimers.
You can find them on other blogs and get inspired by them. I’ve linked the pages above to my own website so you have an idea of what these look like.
Posts
We’ll go over how to write compelling articles that makes sales later in this guide.
Get your blog off the ground as soon as possible!
Customize your design.
If you’re like most, you’ll want to customize your design. A lot of new bloggers get really excited about all the design options available.
However, less is more.
The more fancy your theme, the more moving parts. The more moving parts, the more there is to break.
What is the best free WordPress theme?
If you’re not ready to pay for a theme yet, Astra and GeneratePress are my favorite free themes.
What Is The Best Theme For Beginners And Pros?
If you want to start out right from the get go consider investing in ThriveThemes (That’s what I use on this blog and on that blog).
Psst ThriveThemes also allows you to build your email list (with opt-ins).
It’s like a blogging multi-tools.
So once you’ve got your theme on and adjusted it to your needs, it’s time to remove the Coming Soon page.
Bluehost automatically starts your blog with a Coming Soon page:
When your pages and posts are published, and your design is customized to your liking (it’s always changeable!), click the button at the top of your Dashboard and follow the prompts to remove the Coming Soon page:
Congratulations, your blog is live!
How To Create Create Highly-Valuable Content
I have a confession to make: my journey of earning an income online almost didn’t happen. I almost gave up on my dream of being an entrepreneur, of working on my own terms, and of building a successful, profitable blog. But I’m jumping ahead. Let’s take it from the top – As you know by now, in 2019 I left my job as an investment advisor to start my own blog. I had no idea what I was doing. I had a passion for self-sufficiency and wanted to help others to become more self-reliant. Once I narrowed down my business idea (it took a few failed attempts, but that’s a story for another time) I went headstrong into writing content for my new blog (in the survival niche). The plan: write killer content, drive traffic to the site, make money via ads and affiliate sales. I started cranking out killer content like crazy – 2k, 3k, 5k-word articles with the best self-sufficiency tips I could find. My heart skipped a beat every time I hit “Publish” on a new article thinking about the thousands of people whose lives it would soon forever change. There was just one problem. No one was reading them. But how could that be? I had worked so hard researching content ideas, coming up with clever blog post titles, and laying out our methods step by step for anyone to follow. This stuff was good. So why wasn’t anyone reading it?? The answer: I was answering the questions that no one was asking. Sure, many people on the Internet could probably use and benefit from self-sufficiency advice, but the ones who are looking for it already have some knowledge. To me, my content was genius. To the people who were finding out the website via social media, it was dry and boring. Know your audience. I sure didn’t — not when I started out. But eventually, I got wise and asked, “What do people want to know more about that I can teach?” That’s when we began to look at other successful blogs in my niche and what they were doing. SurvivaLife, SkilledSurvival, SHTFPreparedness, AskeAPrepper – all super popular personal survivalist/self-sufficiency blogs. And what do they have in common? Their content solves problems. Here’s a harsh truth I had to learn early on: people only want to read your content if it benefits them. So before you publish anything on your blog, ask yourself, “What’s in it for them?” What will they gain from having read your blog post? Does it solve a problem? Let’s practice. Say you have a fitness blog. Jane is an example of your target audience: Mark is a busy guy. He’s in his mid-20s and is climbing his way up the corporate ladder, which in his industry often comes with 50+ hour workweeks and weekends at the office; he can’t remember the last time he had fun with the boys. Mark wants to lead as healthy a lifestyle as possible, but there’s barely enough time to breathe, let alone go to the gym or cook food at home. Dinner usually consists of takeout with a side of BBQ-flavored potato chips. He’d like to lose at least twenty pounds of fats and get his abs back but doesn’t even know where to begin. What problems of Mark’s did you identify? He wants to lose weight but doesn’t know how. His work-life balance is a bit off and he’d like more time with the boys. He wants to eat healthier and work out but feels like there isn’t enough time. Examples of blog posts that might be helpful for Mark: – 10 Exercise To Get A Six-Pack In 30 days – How to Plan a Week’s Worth of Meals in Under 20 Minutes – 10 Quick Fat-Burning Workouts You Can Do at Home Each of those articles helps solve one or more of Mark’s problems, and the more details, the better. If you know your audience and the issues they face, you’ll never run out of material. Don’t underestimate the power of headlines. Writing stellar content for your blog is only half the battle. The other half is actually getting people to your site. And the first step to attracting readers is writing click-worthy headlines. I’m not talking about clickbait; there’s a difference between tricking your readers into clicking through to an article that doesn’t live up to its promise versus conveying the value of an article via an enticing headline. Do the latter. |
How To Write Your First Affiliate Sales article With These 4 Templates
Now the real work begins. This is the work that will actually put the moolah into your bank account. If you screw this you’ll find it hard to make sales.
So now how do you write a persuasive article that motivates them to buy from you?
In this section, we’ll cover 4 different types of articles that are proven to work. But first I just want to temper your expectations a bit. Your article won’t be able to convert 100% or even 50% of the people who read it into customers. That just won’t happen.
Ok so, what can you aim for as a conversion rate? If you can convert 1-2% of readers into clients, you’ll be well on your way to make good money.
For example: If you sell a proven profitable product to a hungry crowd, and you get a commission of $25, and you can bring 100 people to read your persuasive article everyday.
Then your profit potential is between $25-$50 EVERYDAY. Not a bad start, right?
To help you get started writing your first profitable article, here’s an overview of four different types you can choose from.
1.Review
A review is probably the most common one. Here you simply state:
- What is the product
- Who is it for, and who it isn’t
- What can it do, and can’t
- The pros
- The cons
- Your conclusion
Let’s make an example with your “Make Money Podcasting”. And let’s say you want to write a review about the Blue Yeti Mic. Here’s a real review I’ve found on Google:
When you click on the link and you arrive at this article, the first thing you’ll see are the pros and cons. Here’s what it looks like. 
So as you can see, writing a review is very easy to do. You can also use Google Related Search Terms to help you figure out great subjects to write about in your review.
For example, when you search in Google “Blue Yeti Microphone Review”, Google suggests other related queries from people (your potential customers).
As you can see, you don’t need to be the next Hemingway in order to write a review of an affiliate product. In fact, you can probably write your first review in under 1-2h top.
2. List
Usually when people want to buy a new product, they do due diligence. So they look at the comparatives on the market. And this is exactly what you’re going to offer them.
You’ll take several similar products, put them into a list, and write a review of each. After each of the product reviews, you suggest to the reader that if this is the right one for him, then he can just click the link below and buy it from you.
Here’s an example from one of my websites:
This website offers knives, backpacks, and the like to a survival and preparedness niche.
These are all “List” types of articles. I took 15 best selling knives on Amazon. I’ve written about the pros and cons of each of them. And below each one of them I put a link to buy it directly from Amazon. From which I receive a commission anytime someone buys one.
It’s pretty straightforward to write a List article as you can see.
3. How To
A “How To” article is a very persuasive and “sneaky” way to sell affiliate products.
Your clients just won’t even notice you’re selling them. You’ll be selling the tools of the trade.
Just like in the Gold Rush era it wasn’t the one digging who made a fortune, but the one selling the shovels. Got it?
Here’s what I mean.
Let’s take our podcasting niche example. So you want to sell Buzzsprout or Podbeans software to your audience. You could (and should) write a review about them.
But another way would be to show your audience…
How they can start their podcasting business from scratch and share with them the tools they are going to need.
“So you want to start your podcasting empire? Great! In this article I’m going to show you every step on the way and every tool you’ll need. The first thing you’ll need is a podcasting software so you can reach your audience, right? So simply click here to get started and I’ll show you how to set it up from beginning to end.”
That in a nutshell is a “How To” article.
If you want other examples of this, simply type in Google: “How To (Niche related thing)”.
Look what I found here for our podcasting niche.
More than a billion (with a B) results. So you got ample examples here to get inspired and learn from.
4. Story
The “Story” type is similar to the “How To”. But instead of telling your audience how to reach their goals of alleviating their pains, you simply tell your story of how you did it.
So instead of showing them how to start a podcasting empire, you tell your story of:
- How you got started
- What problems you encountered
- What you wish you knew from the get go
- How you succeeded
And along your story you insert any related affiliate link you can. For example:
“At first I used XYZ and it sucked, here’s why…. Then I found ABC, and boy did it change my life, here’s why…”
Or you can simply state the products you use.
“So here are the tools that I currently use and would advise anyone getting started…”
If you want other great examples, I’ll share with you a little known secret in the blogging world.
Do you know which type of article is the most popular for bloggers, and which bring home the most bacon?
Income Reports
If you want to learn how to write compelling story articles so you can sell your affiliate products, I strongly suggest you learn from blogger’s income reports.
Why is it so powerful?
People looking to start a blog are interested in how they can make money doing so, right? These income reports then simply state which tools they used to get there.
And when you click on one of them and buy the product (because you want the same results) the blogger makes money from it.
So if you’ve succeeded in something other people want to succeed in, use it to your advantage.
For example:
You succeeded in losing weight → Share the tools or programs that helped you.
You succeeded in repairing your credit → Share the tools or programs that helped you.
You succeeded in making money from YT → Share the tools or programs that helped you.
Story sells. Use yours, and your audience will love you for this.
Why You Should Build An Email List
Like I said, if you write a compelling copy (a persuasive article) you can hope to convert about 1-2%. Meaning 98-99% of people who end up on your page won’t be buying NOW.
Some people need more information or more time to convince themselves to buy something. That’s why you need a way to continue and deepen your relationship with your audience.
That’s where email marketing comes in.
Once people opt in to receive your lead magnet (discounts, checklist, course, cheat sheet, etc) you can then continue to provide them more and more value.To build up trust and reciprocity.
And when the time is right and you suggest some tools or course they should buy to reach their goals, it will appear as the most natural thing to do.
Ok fine but emails should you send them?
To fully grasp the power of email marketing and how to use it like a pro would need an entire course on its own.
So in this guide I’m going to cover two email series you can use so you can make bank on autopilot, even while you’re sleeping.
Again I’ll show you some examples so you really understand how to use it for yourself.
When you head to your GetResponse account, and want to create an email, you basically have two choices:
You can either create a “Newsletter” or an “Autoresponder”.
Newsletter
You use a newsletter when you want to send a timely email (ex: flash sale, promo, etc).
Autoresponder
And you use an autoresponder when you want to automate an email series (email 1, email 2, email 3).
Both have their place in your marketing arsenal.
So the very first email you should send is something called a “Welcome Serie”.
Welcome Serie
A Welcome Series is a type of autoresponder. It has only one goal and that is to deepen the relationship with your audience.
Why?
Because people will always prefer to buy from the ones they know, love, and trust.
And what better way to do so then to send your audience more value each day for several days (5-7days)?
The absolute best Welcome series you can use is the SOS method. I found this method in DotCom Secrets from Russel Brunson (recommended read)
SOS or Soap Opera Email Sequences are an incredibly effective series of 5 email messages used to “build trust” with your audience. The SOS message focuses on building a relationship with a new lead, creating trust and interest in you personally, along with your product.
What’s so special about a Soap Opera Sequence?
SOS email operates exactly the same way as thriller series and movies with all their cliffhangers. You get to hook up your audience to open all your emails like crack heads on cocaine.
You’re the main character and by the end of the email sequence, your audience is going to be ready and waiting for what you have to offer them.
Here’s a closer look into each of the 5 emails in the sequence:
EMAIL 1: Set the stage
If the first scene of the show is boring, you change the channel, right? Well the same thought applies to the first email you send your list. It can’t be boring and it needs to form an immediate connection with your user.
One great way to get them hooked is to present a secret.
Let’s take an example from a fitness guru:
“I’ve been coaching people on how to lose weight for over a decade. But it’s only been in the last 5 years that I really mastered my craft and found little known (from the public at least) secrets of nutrition that I was really able to help my clients like no one else. By doing one type of exercise 5 minutes a day and by eating one kind of ingredient, I’ve seen clients drop 30 pounds of fat within 30 days with very little effort.
And do you want to know how I do it? I’ve got a secret and it works. Every. Single. Time. Watch for my next email and I’ll share it with you.”
EMAIL 2: High drama
Now you’ve got them hooked.
What is the mysterious ingredient and valuable exercise to quickly lose fat?
You’ve now got a very high chance that people will be waiting anxiously to open your next email. Good news, because this is exactly where the selling begins.
So start with a backstory. In the case of the fitness guru above, the discussion could cover an obese client who was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and feared to not see his children grow.
Then he met you, followed your program and lost 100lbs and was able to safely manage his diabetes.
But wait! Your audience is still waiting to hear that secret.
Here’s how to start the sales process: Add a P.S. and mention your product or service.
“And before I conclude, I realize it’s time to share my secret. Take a look at my website and check out how I’ve managed to help hundreds of clients to lose hundreds of pounds and finally find back their self-worth and self-pride.”
EMAIL 3: The epiphany
You’re now halfway through the soap opera. Your audience is hooked and want to know more.
They’ve been introduced to your product but more importantly, they like you.
They want you to win and they want to learn how your clients or you overcame your problem and accomplished so much. It is time for the Epiphany email. This email ties right into your business.
The fitness guru can explain how they came to find little known exercise or supplements and help his clients lose weight like never before:
“My epiphany was that I needed a simple way for my clients to lose weight and not have to work out 20+ hours a week or having to only eat ground beef and vegetables…”
Now your audience not only gets the value of your product but they also have an emotional connection to it. Good job!
EMAIL 4: The hidden benefits
The reader now realizes your product works. They’ve seen the hundreds of testimonials on your website.
But have they realized how it can work for them yet?
That’s where you must list all of the ways your product can directly help your niche market. This is the email where your reader starts thinking, “This is what I’ve needed all along!” Go ahead and provide links for them to purchase.
EMAIL 5: The call to action (CTA)
How do we conclude the SOS?
This is the last email in the series, but it isn’t the last email they will receive from you (we’ll cover that right after). By now, your audience will know, like and trust you. And they also know that what you have to offer can really help them reach their goal.
That’s the perfect time to include great offer and a sense of urgency. For example:
“For the next 24 hours only, you get to save 67% on XYZ”
We’ve just covered one of the most compelling communication tools available in email marketing. Try it out!
SOS email is a very useful tool for turning your product into the next “Must Have” on your audience’s list.
So what emails can you send after the SOS?
Daily Emails
More of the same! Your audience is now hooked to your story and your persona. Use anything that happens in your life or in your clients’ life to create stories you can send them.
The idea is to weave in your products into the stories.
You can use the same format as the SOS to put them into each email.
So start your daily email with:
>High Drama: “I couldn’t move my leg…”
> Backstory: “This happened to me on October 25th 2017, since then…”
> Epiphany: “That’s when I realized, I really needed a…”
> Hidden Benefits: “Not only will it… but you’ll also…”
> CTA: “Normally sells for $197, but for the 6 hours, claim yours for only $37”
Get Blog Visitors and Build A Base Of Raving Fans
Ok so now you’ve got:
- A profitable niche
- A great converting articles
- An email autoresponder to continue selling to your audience.
Good job! You’ve made leaps today.
Now that you’ve got your selling machine (website + email series) in place, you’ve got to find ways to feed it.
You need to find a reliable source of high quality traffic. And if you don’t want to wait 6+months to get organic traffic from Google, then you need to look somewhere else.
Like everything you’ve learned so far, no need to reinvent the wheel. Find what works for others. Find out how other affiliate marketers are driving traffic to their website.
Facebook Ads
If you’ve got money to spare ($1,000+) and test ads, then FB ads of IG ads can be your ideal way to bring massive traffic to your sales articles. Once you’ve figured it out, making money can be as simple as switching off and on the lights of your FB ads account.
There are several great Twitter accounts you can buy FB ads course from. Choose the one from someone you admire or trust.
On the other end, if you’re a bit short on money for the time being, then I would suggest Twitter. Yes I don’t have a HUGE account, far from it actually, but I can recognize its power.
It’s not unusual to witness beginners who start from 0 followers ending up at 1000+ followers after 1-2 months. It took me about 30 days to get to 1000 followers.
Twitter is probably the hardest social media to master, but once you get the gist of it I believe it to be one the most profitable. This is the place where you can develop an engaging audience who clicks and buys whatever you post. Why? Because they like and trust you.
There are many great Twitter courses out there. I can easily vouch for the courses made by @JoseRosado and @CJ_Johnson17th. I’ve bought and tried them both and they’re great.
If you prefer video to learn from, then I would suggest @CJ_Johnson17th’s one, and if you prefer learning by reading, then Jose’s best for you.
You’ve just started your blog and now you look for ways to drive traffic to it?
Have you thought about using Pinterest?
There’s power behind using Pinterest to drive traffic to your blog.
Just take a look at these facts:
- A pin is 100 times more spreadable than your average tweet
- Each pin can drive up to 2 page visits and 6 pageviews
- Ecommerce sites benefit from pinning as each pin can generate 78 cents
- The life of a pin is one week! Compare that to 24 minutes for Twitter and 90 minutes for Facebook.
Is it really possible to get a good amount of traffic in a very short time using Pinterest?
Just have a look at my other blog.
After only 6 months of using it, I now average about 1500+ visitors everyday. That’s 1500 people reading my articles. That’s 1500 people that are asked either to buy or opt in to my email list.
When I first started my blog…
I had NO CLUE how SEO works and I wanted results… fast.
I wanted hundreds of daily visitors and just knew that SEO wasn’t the way to go.
So I looked for alternatives.
Turned out the (absolute) best alternative was Pinterest!
So, how can you create more traction from Pinterest for YOUR blog?
Here are four tactics you can use to elevate your pinning strategy and bring on the traffic.
How To Use Pinterest To Get Maximum Traffic To Your Blog
Step 1. Sign up for a business account
First things first.
Go ahead and sign up for a free Pinterest for business account or convert your existing account.
When you sign up, you’ll have access to Pinterest analytics – important information about your pins’ behavior (you’ll know which pins work or don’t)
Then you should apply for Rich Pins, which are pins with more information than your standard pin. There are different types of Rich Pins, each with their own pin upgrades such as real-time pricing and a direct link to your site.
Blog post pins (a type of Rich Pins) are the most valuable for bloggers since you can promote your latest blog post with your logo, bigger headline and a link back to your site.
Once you’ve switched to a business account and applied for Rich Pins…
Step 2. Focus on your description
Each pin has a description below it telling the reader what your pin is about.
Typically, if you pin your article, your blog title and a little description of your post should be enough.
But, that’s for your AVERAGE blogger.
To really MAXIMIZE your pin’s potential, you have to do more than that.
According to Pinterest’s data of over 10,000 pins, they discovered what makes a great pin.
Ready?
So for high engagement (repins, click, message) your pin needs to be:
- Helpful – make it easy for pinners to find your pin with a spot-on description. According to Pinterest, helpful pins receive 30% more engagement.
- Detailed – in a sentence or two explain what your pin is about. Give enough information to entice a pinner to click through to your blog.
- Interesting – draw on the emotions of the pinner by using sensory-related words and positive sentiments.
- Actionable – include a call-to-action in your description. Using phrases like, “check out…” or “click to find out more” can generate an 80% increase in engagement.
What it ends up looking like, is this:
For some niches you can add text to your image to get more engagement.
In my survival & preparedness blog I found out that simple enticing images without text work best (like 10-100x better).
Got to test (Pin) a lot. More on that later.
Finally, remember to incorporate SEO-friendly keywords in your description and be as concise as possible.
How can you do that?
Pinterest has a VERY USEFUL search bar.
Let’s say you have an article about Digital Marketing Tips that you want to promote.
You’ll then type in your keyword (Digital Marketing Tips) and Pinterest will suggest the next MOST POPULAR inquiries for that keyword.
You then use these “related” keywords and use them in your description.
It’s been shown that pins with descriptions of 200 characters are the most repinnable.
It also doesn’t hurt to add relevant hashtags to your pin’s descriptions.
Step 3. Pin at the right time
Just like other Social Medias you really want to know what ARE the best time to promote (pin) your content.
This is all a numbers game.
Thousands of pins are shown on Pinterest every hour of every day.
How can you get your pins to outshine the others? What you want in your Pinterest marketing strategy is to have the most repins.
You want as many people as possible to repin your material so that it’s shown more frequently to new users.
The most successful strategy is to find the best time and day to pin.
From analyzing the data, it looks like the best time to start pinning is on Saturday morning. Then in the evening.
I get most of my traffic after 5pm EST.
And the worst time to pin is during normal working hours – which makes sense.
But, the BIG secret is this.
You got to pin a bunch.
You got to put in the numbers.
Each day I pin between 30-50 pins of my own content.
Almost 52% of people visit the site less than once a week. So, to reach most of your audience, you need to be pinning consistently.
It’s ALMOST impossible to overdo it.
Want another Pinterest Beginner’s Tip?
When you first start with Pinterest you have to build your following.
I got about 4k but still managed to have 4.5 MILLION monthly views and 1,500+ daily visitors, so…
You don’t need a HUGE one, but 500 followers is a good start.
And you build your audience like this.
Repin (the hell out of) OTHER PEOPLE’S content first (90% of your pins)
And pin 10% of your own content.
Until you get your first 100 followers.
Why? Two reasons.
Numero Uno: To get more EYEBALLS when you promote your own pins.
Numero Secondo: To really GRASP what your audience likes and repins.
Once you have your first 100 followers you can reverse the numbers (90% yours, 10% others).
Step 4. Create pin-worthy images
It’s not enough to have amazing images. The best images are optimized for maximum engagement.
So, what makes a pin-worth photo?
1. It has to be the right size
You know Pinterest favors vertical images. Since up to 80% of pinners view the Pinterest feeds on mobile devices, it just makes sense to use images that are more tall than wide.
So, what is the perfect size for a pin? Generally you want an aspect ratio of 2:3 or 4:5.
Next steps
Pinterest growth is still going strong. It’s safe to say it isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
For bloggers, it really is the absolute best (and easiest) traffic source.
- Want more visitors? Pin some more.
- Want to increase your email list? Pin some more.
To get started with Pinterest simply follow the steps:
- Sign up for a business account
- Pay attention to your description copy
- Learn the right time and day to pin
- Create sensational pin images
CONLUSION: How to Make Money Blogging
Is it possible?
Absolutely.
Can you start a blog even if you’re not a techie like me? Of Course!
BUT…
There’s always a “but”, right? only if you treat it like a blogging business.
Like anything worthwhile, it’s hard work getting there.
Blogging is a great way to make passive income online if you’re just starting your online journey. It’s also a great way to build a strong following without having to fear from being cancelled on social.
And if you’re smart you could also leverage your blog to get more effortless passive inbounds leads for your coaching offer, agency services, or SAAS.
It’s still pretty easy to make an extra $500 – $3,000 per month blogging within the first few months. And from there, you can quickly scale your content and traffic and then earn $10k + per month in blogging revenue. While not knowing as much as you now know…I was still able to pull in $1k within just a few weeks of blogging.
I hope this article helped you learn how to make money blogging.
Recommended Resources on Freedomseeker.co: If you’re interested in learning more about blogging, check out this blog post and this one.
Got a question about blogging? Write it in the comment section box below. Looking forward to connect with you.
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