Do You Even ™ Have a Plan in Place to Monetize Your Blog? Erik From Mastermind Within

Updated

July 25, 2018

Listen to my episode with Erik from The Mastermind Within:

or listen on Apple Podcasts \ Google Podcasts \ Spotify

Takeaway 1 – What are the benefits (to bloggers) of starting a podcast?

Yes. There is an initial “hump” of difficulty when learning any new skill, and podcasting is no different.

However, there are a few key benefits to experimenting with this content format!

Once you get over the initial hump of setting it up, it’s a quick way to push out content
You can reach people you couldn’t reach with text
It can push you to become a better communicator in general (really)
Enhanced network and relationship building.

That last one is key.

Conducting interview podcasts is a FANTASTIC way to connect with influencers and other bloggers in your niche. Why? Because it costs your guests very little to come on the show.

Think about it.

The only downside for being a guest on a podcast is an hour (or less) of their time. No editing or promotion required on their part. No nothing.

When I first started interviewing bloggers, I was blown away by how willing “influencers” were to come on the podcast.

neil patel email pitch — landing podcast guests is surprisingly easy

The CONS to starting a podcast:

1 – Learning a new skill always takes time. Podcasting is no different.

2 – It probably won’t be a high-ROI activity for quite some time (6 months? 12 months?)

3 – You still have to learn how to create good content–now in a new format.

4 – You will have to drop a bit of money for basic equipment and hosting (more below)

If you’re looking for more info how to start a podcast, I’ve put together a free email course, found here.

If you’re trying to get off the ground on a budget, do this:

Grab the cheapest Podbean hosting package here (you can start for free, and the smallest package after that is $3/month)
Grab a cheap headset mic off Amazon (Here’s a $20 Logitech)(Here’s the $65 AT2100 mic I use to this day)
Use Audacity for editing (it’s free)
Learn how to use a compressor, a limiter, and some sort of noise reduction from these guys.
Start podcasting.

So You Want to Monetize a Blog. Ok. What’s Your Plan?

Tell me if this sounds familiar:

“One day I’d like to monetize my blog.”

If this is you, then let’s chat.

(If this is not you, I’d like you to comment below with your plan (NOT just the goal))

Too many bloggers start with no clear path in mind. This goes doubly for those hoping to make money sooner or later.

What are you going to physically (digitally?) DO to make it happen, and what’s the time frame?

Here’s how to reverse-engineer a plan to monetize your blog:

1 – If you’re still fairly new, check out my massive guide to blog monetization here—

Explore which methods might be suitable for your blog/niche/topic/reader–then choose one (you can also do this based on your goal below).

2 – Set a goal. It should be a number.

What’s a good monetization goal?

It’s a dollar amount
Attached to a specific date

Example: I want to make $1,000 in total revenue over the next 6 months.

3 – Break the goal down into smaller chunks (I’d suggest monthly).

Piggybacking on the above example:

If you want to make $1k over the next 6 months, your breakdown could look like:

$25
$75
$150
$200
$250
$300

Or, if you’re using a different strategy (see below), it could be

$0
$0
$0
$0
$0
$1,000

4 – Attach actions to your strategy on a monthly, weekly, and/or daily basis.

I.e. “the hard part.”

Setting goals & choosing a monetization strategy is easy.

Translating your monetary goals into #actionable strategies is extremely difficult, but might be the greatest factor in whether or not you actually make money from your blog.

I truly believe that.

2 Examples of Effective Monetization Strategies

$500 in affiliate marketing revenues over the next 5 months

Breakdown: In months 1-3, I want at least $50/month–and in months 4-5, I want at least $175/month.

What I’m doing to do:

Choose 2-3 affiliate that REALLY works best for my audience
Write review posts for each (where I hope to rank in Google for “[affilaite] reviews.”
Promote each post heavily on Pinterest, and ALSO create affiliate linked pins to promote as well.
Reach out to each affiliate and show them the post, AND offer to create them a guest post for their own blog based on a fun case-study.
Send 5 outreach emails a week promoting the posts.

I’ll do this for over 2 months. After that, I’ll analyze which strategies are working (and which affiliates are working best)–and focus on those strategies for the remaining 3 months, adding in more affiliates with the same strategies.

During this time, I’ll also aim for 2 posts a week as usual, and 1 guest post per month to help drive traffic to affiliate-linked posts.

$3,000 from a digital product launch in year one

Breakdown: beta launch in month 8, full launch in month 12.

What I’m going to do:

Audience building for 6 months straight, with a focus on getting to 500 email subscribers ASAP.
Survey my more engaged followers in month 6, individually. Try to discover the problems they’re facing, and pitch them 3 different product ideas (not asking for money. Just surveying the idea).
Plan a 3-email sequence for the product pre-sale (for validation purposes): Goal: $500.

For a $100 product, this could be a validation price of $25 with 20 beta testers.

For a $250 product, this could be a validation price of $60 with 8 beta testers.

Then:

Audience build like crazy for 5 months with a focus on getting 5 guests posts. Email list to 1,000.
Build the product specifically for the beta testers, asking them for feedback every 2 months.
Plan the launch in month 10
Line up 5-10 affiliates in related niches. Give them complete access to the product and all swipe copy needed (as well as timeline)
Execute launch in month 12

If you want to monetize your blog, you need a plan in place.

Start with a goal, break it down into manageable chunks, identify the strategies you need to execute for your chosen monetization method…

Then do the work.

If you have a monetization plan, comment below and share it!

I’d love to hear it 🙂