This post is the first in a series on how to make money blogging for beginners.
In this series, I’ll be using the lessons learned in Ready, Set, Blog for Traffic by Elna Cain to take this site from zero traffic to making money.
Follow along as I see if this blogging course is all it’s cracked up to be.
If you like this post, you may also like:
- Write Your Way to 1K Elna Cain Course Review – Get Paid to Write?
- 6 Ways to Find Freelance Writing Clients by Attracting Clients to You
How to Make Money Blogging for Beginners – Where I’m Starting
Today is November 30, 2020.
I’ve started going through the modules of Ready, Set, Blog for Traffic, and although I have a bit of experience blogging (and I have a bit of income from it), I realize there’s a LOT I don’t know.
Here is the current state of the blog, I’ll update this about once a month:
- This blog currently has a few visits per month, less than 10 on average, and only because I posted recently on my Facebook page.
- It’s only ranking for one keyword, around 50th position or so.
- It has not made any up to this point and I have only 9 posts, mostly recently published.
Goals and Priorities to Monetize Her Endless Ambition
I’m only a few modules into Ready, Set, Blog for Traffic by Elna Cain, but one thing is clear…
… content is king!
My first priority is to write valuable content that will help my readers.
My top goal is to get somewhere in the range of 30-40 posts in the next 90 days (by end of February 2021).
I’m not pumping out content just to create content. This site is my baby and I want it to be a valuable resource for those in the same position I was a few years ago.
Each post will have a purpose and help the reader solve a problem.
I’ll be using targeted keywords to chose my topics.
Since I won’t have much traffic (other than those following along in this journey) for some time, I will be slowly upgrading the site pages (like the about page I just quickly updated today – click here to see it)
As of today, the homepage is still a hot mess, but I’ll be slowly chipping at it as I go.
How I Will Make Money From Blogging
This is the question I get asked most often about blogging.
I have a few other blogs that make money, but nothing like what Elna makes. I haven’t put in the time and effort she has. Given the time I’ve put in, I’m very happy with the results of my other blogs.
Here are the most common ways you can monetize a blog:
- Ad revenue – you make money based on page views to the site (I have one site like this)
- Affiliate marketing – you recommend products and get a commission for each sale at no cost to the buyer (your commission comes out of the seller’s revenue
- Sponsored posts – people pay you to write posts on your site to promote a product or service
- Selling your own stuff – Whether it’s physical or digital products doesn’t matter, you can promote with your blog
>>> So, now you’re wondering how I will monetize this site.
I will be using affiliate marketing to start. Ad revenue is great, but it is pretty ugly, so I may never end up using ad revenue.
The BEST way to do affiliate marketing is to recommend products you use and love. You could do this with makeup, or kitchen products (think recipe blogs), or a hobby you love.
For this site, I’ll be reviewing courses (like Ready, Set, Blog for Traffic <—that’s an affiliate link).
If someone buys through my link, I will get a commission for a certain number of days. If they buy another course by the same course creator within that time period, I’ll get another commission.
It’s a win-win for me and for the buyer.
They get a course that’s been thoroughly reviewed. They can confidently buy knowing that someone has taken and approved the course.
In this case, I’ll be proving Ready, Set, Blog for Traffic works with a case study.
I win because I get a commission for my time reviewing the course, and it helps me make enough money to buy and review more courses.
If you monetize with affiliate income, you have to put a disclosure on your site like this one:
*This site uses affiliate marketing. This means if you click a link and buy something, I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. I only recommend courses and products I believe in that are created by those who have seen success in what they teach.
(By the way, that was your disclosure for this post. Many of the links in this post are affiliate links.)
(Also, you need to make your links ‘no follow.’ This means Google doesn’t crawl the link.)
The RIGHT Kind of Traffic
In order to get the most out of Elna’s Ready, Set, Blog for Traffic course (<–affiliate link), I’ll need content.
Lots and lots of content!
The big goal will be to get to 100 posts eventually.
My first milestone will be 35 posts (30-40 as mentioned above) in the next 90 days. This seems to be the tipping point for most blogs to start making money (in my experience).
I won’t be outsourcing any writing AT ALL!
That works out to about 2 posts per week. I have a full client load right now (I’m an email copywriter), so it may not work out exactly, but that’s the goal.
How to Write Blog Posts Faster to Increase Traffic
In one of the first few modules of the course, Elna gives some tips on how to create fast, valuable content.
I’ll be using these tips to create more content, faster.
She gives a few ideas on how to quickly boost older posts, or repurpose content from other sources in a way that will help the readers get tons of value.
This will be incredibly valuable to me as I expand my content.
What I Learned From Ready, Set, Blog for Traffic This Week
In the modules I covered this week, Elna talks about:
- How to create a content schedule
- The minimum number of posts needed to make quick progress
- The number of words per post
- Case studies (with the analytics screenshots to prove it) to show how these tactics work
- Tips on how to grow quickly (good, better, and best writing habits)
- Powerful ways to have more time to blog
Since she’s a mom of twins, she has limited time.
I have to prioritize my client work, so I also have limited time.
These tips will help me find time to hit my goals.
Do You Want to Grow Your Blog Traffic?
If you want to grow your blog traffic, I highly recommend Ready, Set, Blog for Traffic. I’m only a few modules in, and I’ve already learned some tricks I hadn’t thought of or learned elsewhere.
Elna tests her theories and gives you the best of her knowledge. She’s grown her blogs to over 20K income (as of this date) and growing.
If you do end up taking it, leave a comment. I’d love to see how you progress through the course as well.
Make Money Blogging for Beginners – A Case Study
I’ve taken Elna’s courses before (I took her Write Your Way to Your First 1K – click here to see my review of that course) and it helped me launch my writing career.
I’m 100% confident that if I follow along with her Ready, Set, Blog for Traffic course, I will be able to monetize this site within the first 6 months.
If I wasn’t 100% confident in her teaching, I wouldn’t make this a public project.
After the first few modules, I can already see that her course is:
- Based on her experience (tested and proven strategies)
- No filler – she gets right to the point
- Quick, easy to digest modules
- Easy to implement
When I look for a course online, the #1 question I have is “Does this course have actionable steps I can implement immediately?”
Elna’s course is very actionable. I’ve already implemented 3 things I learned and I’ve got a few more to do before I move onto the next module.
One last thing…
I can promise you ONE thing.
This journey will be imperfect.
I will make mistakes.
You might see typos.
You’ll see the evolution of how I started writing posts (ugly) and how I improve for conversions over time.
Right now, the homepage is a hot mess and there are some old, not-so-relevant posts.
This is what blogging is.
It’s messy.
Blogging is about putting in the work, not doing it perfectly!
That’s the #1 thing that stops people from making money. They try to be perfect and end up getting nowhere.
So stay tuned for this messy, imperfect journey.
If you want to follow along with Elna’s Ready, Set, Blog for Traffic course, click below to enroll and let’s do this together.