Friday, 13 January 2017
Case Study: How to Increase Your Traffic by 226% in Just 60 Days
Let’s face it.
Your blog is stagnating.
You keep checking your traffic for signs of growth but … zip. Nada.
The chart is as flat as a pancake.
You desperately need to do something different, but what?
Be honest – you’re baffled by all the options.
And the endless stream of advice from the traffic experts only makes things worse.
Don’t worry though. You’re not alone.
At Canva, we were facing this challenge with our design blog, Design School.
So we completely reengineered our blog strategy – and the results blew us away.
Find out exactly what we did. And how you can do it too.
Step 1: Reverse Engineer Your Competitors’ Content
If your traffic has stagnated, a common response is to generate more content. Because more content equals more traffic from Google, right?
But quantity of content often comes at the expense of quality, so we took some time to consider our content strategy.
First, we revisited our original vision for Design Blog – to teach and inspire people to learn design.
And while we still loved that idea, a vision isn’t the same as a goal. We needed something more concrete and actionable that we could implement.
So we decided to focus on improving the quality of our content. And our goal became to create the best possible content to teach and inspire people around design.
But to do that, we needed to find out what the best content on our topic actually looked like.
So we reverse engineered the most popular content of our competitors to find out what content performs best.
This process is useful for two reasons:
- It reveals the topics that are most popular among your target audience.
- It reveals what type of content works well. For instance, are list posts the most effective? Do successful posts use lots of images?
Here’s how we reverse engineered our competitors – and how you can do the same.
If you’re not sure who your competitors are, perform a simple Google search using keywords or phrases common to your topic. Bloggers that rank in Google for those terms are likely to compete for the same audience as you.
USE BUZZSUMO TO FIND SOCIALLY POPULAR POSTS
The first tool – Buzzsumo – is indispensable, which is probably why it’s so popular among content strategists.
In a nutshell, Buzzsumo shows you which pieces of content performed well on social media for any given topic or website.
Here, for example, is a screenshot of Boost Blog Traffic’s top-three posts in the last year (according to the number of shares each post received):
Competitor analysis is invaluable because there’s no one-size-fits-all formula for quality content. Different types of content perform best for different audiences.
So, from BBT’s top-three results, what can we conclude?
First, big lists do well. And if you study Buzzsumo’s results for the rest of BBT, you’ll see this pattern plays out nicely.
Also, if you look at Copyblogger and other popular blogs in this space, you’ll find a similar trend.
Second, people like comprehensive resources. And they would rather be given the answers (e.g., the exact words to cut from their writing) than be given broad principles that require more work to interpret.
This is also true in our space where there’s more demand for free templates, icons and color-combinations than for information on how to create them.
Here’s the takeaway. Buzzsumo can quickly give you direction for your content. Not just the popular topics, but the most effective type of content too.
USE QUORA TO GET FRESH ANGLES ON POPULAR TOPICS
The second awesome place to do research is Quora. If you’ve noticed from your Buzzsumo research that particular topics perform well, Quora will give you a unique sell for those topics by finding new angles to take.
After all, you don’t want to just copy your competitors. Their top-performing content can point you in the right direction, but tools like Quora can help you add value by covering topics that haven’t yet been fully explored.
For example, in our Buzzsumo research, we found that articles about fonts consistently performed well for other design publications.
To double-check our finding, we plugged this keyword into Google Keyword Planner and found that keywords related to “font” received nearly 800K monthly searches as a whole:
Going back to Quora, here’s an example of the results when I searched for “fonts”:
After examining these results, we decided to write an article about choosing fonts. But we didn’t stop there.
You’ll notice that the first result has a grey star next to it, which is Quora’s way of determining which questions have high-quality answers. We noticed that lots of the answers in the thread were from design authorities. And such answers had an impressive amount of upvotes.
So we added this touch, too, by framing the fact that a designer had written the post in the title. (The majority of our writers are designers, too.) This article was the result, and it received over 5k shares.
STUDY BLOG ARCHIVES TO DISCOVER EVERGREEN TOPICS
In addition to using Buzzsumo and Quora to benchmark the popular content in our space, we studied every post several of our major competitors ever published.
It was a lot of work, so why did we do it?
Because most content research tools have a flaw – they are biased toward the new.
Due to the sheer amount of content published on the web, many of these tools will only surface the most recent ones. Buzzsumo, for example, only goes back to the past year.
That’s a problem because some topics will always be popular. We call this evergreen content. Grammar tips, for example, are useful today and will still be useful 50 years from now.
If you don’t look at historical content, you could miss these important topics.
A positive side effect of this exercise is that you also get a clear vision of what your community looks like. The more familiar you become with your community, the better your content will be as a result.
Step 2: Find Out What Your Readers Really Want
Other than your competitors, you have another useful source of content intelligence: your readers.
Because while content research can reveal topics that are already popular, it won’t reveal the topics that readers are only just beginning to get excited about.
Here are a couple ways to find out what your readers want to read about right now.
COME RIGHT OUT AND ASK THEM
It seems obvious, right? Yet not nearly enough blogs do it.
If you go to Design School and subscribe to our newsletter, you’ll get a personal thank-you note.
In that note, we also ask people about their biggest challenge – even if it has nothing to do with design. And many people tell us!
This achieves two useful goals.
First, it shows us the conversations already in their minds. And even though our subscribers often think a particular issue has nothing to do with design – like increasing traffic, for example – in truth, design can help them solve a lot of these issues.
Second, it shows them that we care. It’s easy to get caught up in your own strategy and let blog traffic feed your ego. But in the blogging world, your fans’ success is your success.
Content that is genuinely helpful is genuinely engaging – and this principle should drive your editorial process.
OBSERVE THEIR READING AND SHARING HABITS
Never assume your readers are only interested in your content. Don’t consider them consuming content elsewhere an insult; instead, learn from what else they like to read.
You can do this manually by clicking through the Twitter, Pinterest and Facebook pages of people who’ve shared your posts on these platforms.
Or, use Buzzsumo and select the option to “view sharers” on any of your articles.
From there, you can investigate further by looking at other links they’ve shared.
You’d be surprised how many of your readers also frequent this other blog you’ve never heard of.
In fact, this was how we discovered a lot of our competitors to begin with!
Step 3: Follow The Data – Not Your Gut
Now that you know what your competitors write about, and what your readers want, you should have a long list of topics you know there’s a demand for.
You should also have an idea of the quality you should be striving to meet. That’s the benchmark set by your competitors.
But while the research process may already have given you some ideas for what types of content are popular, don’t make any guesses or assumptions without analyzing the data in full.
Below is the checklist we used to determine our new quality standard, along with our findings. The questions evolved naturally from seeing where our existing content differed from our competitors’.
These research-backed findings replaced our gut-driven approach we had used to determine what our articles should look like.
The lesson: make decisions based on hard data – not guesswork.
You’d be surprised how many people go through steps 1 and 2 but are reluctant to implement their findings.
They would say things like:
- “But really, who is going to read 3,000 words online!”
- “But I don’t want to write about <popular topic>. It’s been written to death!”
- “These topics are so shallow. I want to write about something deeper.”
But we found that following the data led to significantly improved results.
Step 4: Pick the Best Headline You Can (But Prepare to be Wrong)
The previous three steps will give you the data you need to create the content that realizes your vision for your blog.
You won’t be surprised to hear that headlines are crucial. But you may be surprised to learn that you’ll never find the perfect one. Not on the first attempt anyway.
Take this post of ours as an example: Why Everyone From Beethoven, Goethe, Dickens, Darwin To Steve Jobs Took Long Walks and Why You Should Too.
The original headline, as reflected in the banner, was simply, “Why Steve Jobs Took Long Walks and Why You Should Too”. But for some reason, that didn’t perform very well. Perhaps it’s because some people don’t like Steve Jobs. We can only guess. And actually, it doesn’t really matter.
We simply decided to change it and repost it – and it’s since received more than 70,000 shares across various social media networks.
The point is that by adjusting the title and re-posting it on social media, we made what would be just-another-post into a viral one.
It’s a similar situation to the last point. Go with your gut to start with, but as soon as data is available – like how many people are sharing your post – let yourself be led by that instead.
You can do this kind of headline evolution manually or invest in a plugin like Kingsumo that will do it automatically for you.
Step 5: Create Content That’s Concrete and Credible
Having the right headline only gets you so far.
We knew we’d never realize our vision unless the content truly helped people learn about design.
So another change we made – led by our research – was to use lots of examples and case studies in our articles.
And even though this was revealed by a study of our topic – design – a lot of evidence suggests it works great for many other topics too.
For us this meant a shift away from the tutorial based articles we created in house. Although they were already quite popular (many receiving up to 1k shares), that seemed to be the extent of their potential as articles. (They were secondary to our hugely popular interactive design tutorials.)
So we decided to keep our instructional how-to tone, but instead applied it to posts that show specifically how a professional designer would implement a particular design principle.
Connecting your content to the real world is far more important than most people realize.
For instance, one of the most important things you need to succeed as a blogger is credibility.
And a great way to demonstrate credibility is to publish a case study. Like this one you’re reading right now. I am not a “certified content strategist” – but I’ve created and applied a successful content strategy for Canva, so that gives me credibility, right?
The other trick for grounding your content in the real world?
Make your posts concrete.
That means include step-by-step instructions – tell people exactly what to do. Instead of saying, “Promote your blog,” do what Brian Dean did with this post. He made liberal use of screenshots and examples – complete with templates you can use right away.
Compare that to a generic post about blog promotion and you’ll realize this: concrete advice proves you know what you’re doing.
Step 6: Add Images (No, More Than That)
I’m sure you’ve heard it before.
Visual content gets shared more. (Jeff Bullas wrote about how articles with images get 94% more views than those without.)
Like most bloggers, we thought we understood this, so we always included a featured image with our blog posts to make it more social-friendly.
But looking back, we didn’t really understand the power of images. We thought we did, but we didn’t.
Not until we conducted our research.
While we were studying our competitors, we noticed how they not only have multiple images in each post, but they also often have many of them. So we decided to systematically increase the number of images in our posts to see the effect.
And sure enough, the more images we used, the more traffic increased. Here, for example, is our traffic from Pinterest in the same period:
Look what happens when you search for Design School on Pinterest. It’s flooded – not with featured images, but with graphics from our picture list posts.
However, this doesn’t mean you should randomly pepper your posts with stock photography. The images need to make sense in context – and add value to your post. Like the screenshots and charts in this post.
Or take this post on Design School as an example. It’s one of our most popular posts on Pinterest, getting over 700 pins. And it wasn’t a particularly lengthy post – but it does contain a lot of relevant images.
If you don’t know what type of images to create for your blog posts, Pamela Wilson has a great article about that here.
The Results of our 60-Day Content Experiment
We ran our content experiment on our Design School blog for sixty days – from the end of January to the end of March 2015.
Compared to the preceding three-months period, we saw a 226% increase in traffic:
Oh and guess what? Our traffic from social during that period increased too – by nearly 500%!
Even though we’d all but ignored our social media growth strategy during that time.
Don’t believe me? Here’s the proof:
How did we manage it?
It was a result of the strategic changes we made to our blog. Not our Facebook page or any other social platform.
Our content was higher quality and resonated more strongly with our audience, so they naturally shared it more on social media.
Pretty awesome, right?
Stop Stagnating and Start Strategizing
Blog stagnation is a terrifying prospect.
Because stagnation is usually followed by decline – and then demise.
Yet it doesn’t have to be that way. A bold new strategy can jolt your blog out of its rut.
But how will you find that strategy? On what will it be based?
The latest recommendations from the expert du jour?
An unidentifiable gut feeling about the right direction to take?
Or something else altogether?
In truth, building a popular blog is not about holding out for the perfect strategy.
It’s about relentless testing and knowing that you don’t need to do everything right to succeed.
It’s about research, experimentation, and gaining a deep understanding of your readers and your competitors.
At Canva, we shifted our strategy and it made a huge difference to our traffic – in just 60 days.
We couldn’t have done it if we skipped any the steps above.
We’ve had our breakthrough; now it’s time for you to have yours.
Because visions are far more exciting when you can see them made real.
A Practical, No-Nonsense Guide to Earning Passive Income Online
It sounds so enticing, right?
Tinker around on the side, creating a few websites, and before you know it, you’re earning hundreds or even thousands of dollars per month, giving you the freedom to quit your job, travel the world, and live like a millionaire without anything tying you down.
It’s the dream lifestyle, and everywhere you turn online, someone is offering to sell you a course, showing you how to do it.
You have to wonder, though… is all this Internet stuff real, or is it just a scam?
And if it is real, why isn’t everyone doing it?
Today, I thought I would take a moment to answer those questions for you. Normally, we only talk about earning money online from a blogging perspective, but I thought it might be helpful to step back and address the topic of “passive income” in general.
The sad fact is, there’s a lot nobody tells you. I wouldn’t exactly call it a cover-up because I don’t think most “gurus” are deliberately hiding the truth about how it works, but I do think they have a vested interest in not giving you the whole story.
So, that’s what I’d like to give you. First, a few important details:
This Blog Makes about $60,000 per Month in “Passive Income”
The reason I put “passive income” in quotes is I think the term is a little misleading.
Almost nothing is totally passive. While you may not personally be doing any work to receive the money, someone is, and there’s usually at least a little bit of management overhead.
For instance, I’ve gone on record saying this blog averages over $100,000 per month from selling online courses. From that total, about $60,000 of it is technically “passive income” because I don’t have to do anything to generate it. I could die, and the money would keep coming in month after month for years into the future.
But that doesn’t mean no one is working. It also doesn’t mean I’m personally receiving the entire $60,000.
The truth is, most of that money goes to paying my team. We have course instructors, customer support representatives, marketing specialists, and so on. All of them are working full-time to keep the “passive income” machine running, and they do it quite well.
But somebody still has to be the boss.
While I don’t technically do any of the work necessary to generate that income, I do spend about 10 hours every week on phone calls and meetings. I also spend at least another 10-20 hours a week thinking about how to improve the business and make things run more efficiently.
So, in reality, I’m working 20-30 hours per week for the “passive income.” In exchange, I receive a nice salary, plus the majority of the profits the business generates. If I wanted to, I could probably hire an outside CEO and cut it down to 5-10 hours per week, but that would also reduce the amount of profit I make.
And that’s how passive income really works.
Most of the people bragging about making millions of dollars per year online are being somewhat misleading. Yes, they might be grossing millions, but how much are they netting? In many cases, maybe 100-300K per year after paying for advertising, affiliate commissions, and salaries.
Granted, that’s still a pretty good living. It’s also work you can do from anywhere.
But is it “total freedom?”
Not really. For all practical purposes, you still have a job, you still have to do work, and you still spend at least a little time doing stuff you don’t really enjoy.
I’m not saying it’s a bad life. If you can make it through the learning phase (which I’ll talk about at length later), it’s still a hell of a lot better than having a regular day job, but I don’t know anyone getting paid tons of money to do absolutely nothing. While it’s theoretically possible, I don’t think it’s a realistic objective for most people.
You can earn a living online, but you will have to work for it. In time, you can also reduce the amount of work you have to do personally, but it’s almost impossible to eliminate it entirely, even if it’s only managing the people you delegate the work to. As any manager can attest, that in itself is a job, and it never really goes away.
That being said, how exactly does one generate this not-really-but-sort-of-passive income?
Well, let’s talk about that next.
5 Ways to Generate Passive Income Online
Technically, there are hundreds of ways, but I’ll give you the five most common ones I’ve seen work in the real world.
1. Selling advertising on your site
The idea here is to publish content that ranks for competitive search terms on Google, attracting a continuous stream of traffic, and then sell banner ads to businesses who would like to reach those people.
Of all the different strategies, this one is the most passive, but it also requires TONS of traffic to generating meaningful income. For example, a site getting 10,000 visitors per month might only earn $50-100 per month.
So, if you were planning to make enough money from advertising to quit your job, you can probably forget it. It takes too much traffic. In fact, one of the other methods below will almost always make you more money on a per visitor basis. Nevertheless, this is a legitimate model, so it deserves to be on the list.
2. Earning affiliate commissions
Similar to selling advertising, the goal is usually to rank for competitive search terms, but instead of selling advertising, you endorse different products your audience might be interested in, and whenever someone you refer buys, you get a commission. It’s kind of like the next generation of Amway, except instead of referring your friends and family to buy the products, you refer strangers who visit your website.
If you do it well, you can earn a lot of money. For instance, Pat Flynn is on record for earning over $100,000 per month in affiliate commissions. While that’s certainly unusual, I know quite a few people who make a few thousand dollars a month from it, and in my opinion, it’s the best model for a beginner.
Another variation of this model is to pay for advertising and then earn affiliate commissions from people who click on the ads. Years ago, when advertising on Google and Facebook was cheap, lots of people made a lot of money this way. Nowadays, it’s still possible, but it’s much more difficult, and you have to be much more sophisticated. Nevertheless, I thought I would mention it, because it’s still a viable approach, especially in certain niches.
3. Drop shipping
Here, you set up an online store, but instead of selling your own products, you sell products from other companies, you submit the order to them, and then they deliver the product to the customer. It’s called “drop shipping,” and it’s more common than most people realize. You’ve probably purchased items delivered via drop shipping and didn’t even know it.
While I don’t have any direct experience with it, I know it can be quite profitable, especially in niches where you have high profit margins and low shipping costs. Vitamins and cosmetics, for example, are two popular drop shipping industries. Anyone can theoretically start a “store” and have dozens or even hundreds of products to offer within a matter of days.
Needless to say, you have to find a way to differentiate yourself from everyone else, but if you can, the income can be relatively passive. Chances are, you’ll still have to deal with some questions and complaints from customers about other people’s products, which I’m guessing can be quite a headache, but you don’t have to deal with manufacturing, warehousing, shipping, or any of the other headaches of creating the product yourself.
4. Selling information products
Chances are, you’ve seen all the buzz about creating your own online courses, membership sites, e-books, online events, and whatnot. Collectively, these are known as “information products,” and selling them is one of the hottest online businesses to start right now.
Technically, the margin is close to 100%, because you have no product creation or distribution costs. You do everything online. You can also create the product once and then sell it to hundreds or even thousands of people, creating a stream of revenue that can last years or even decades.
The downside: it’s really difficult to get started. While information products are typically pitched as a “side project,” it’s really more like starting any business. You have to learn how to create products people want, promote them, support your customers, do your finances – everything businesses deal with.
It takes a special kind of person to wear that many hats, and in my opinion, the current positioning in the information marketing industry of “anyone can do this” is just nonsense. Everyone I know who has been successful creating information products is a driven, uber smart entrepreneur. If you’re one of those people, you might consider it. If not, I would look elsewhere.
5. Selling simple software (or apps)
In the past, most people wouldn’t have considered selling software to be a source of passive income, but I believe that’s changing. Thanks to tools like Bubble, creating simple web or mobile apps is easier than ever before. You can do a lot without knowing how to code or hiring a developer, and in the future, I think that’s only going to become more and more true.
Now, does that mean you’re going to develop the next Google in your spare time? Probably not, but you might create a simple app that makes you a few thousand dollars a month. I know quite a few people who have done it, and I even have a few friends who have become millionaires in the software business.
Once again, though, it’s like starting any company. While you might not necessarily need to know how to code, you do need an entrepreneurial mindset, work ethic, and personality type, and you’ll probably struggle for years, going through a string of failures before you finally get it right. If you’re successful, though, the passive income potential is enormous.
Now, you might be wondering how all of this relates to blogging
While you don’t technically need a blog to make these models work, it’s quite common to use one as both a traffic generation tool and a way of staying in touch with customers. In other words, the blog gets people “in the door,” and then you monetize that traffic through the above methods.
But here’s the thing…
None of this is easy. Some models are simpler than others, but all of them require extraordinary skill.
Here’s what I mean…
The Prerequisites for Passive Income
Let’s say I gave you a step-by-step guide to earning passive income by selling information products, breaking down everything you have to do with specific instructions, real-world examples, and everything you need to understand exactly how the model works.
You’d think you could become successful within a few months, right? Most people assume it’s just a matter of doing the work.
But it’s not.
It’s a matter of skill.
For example, here’s a list of skills that all the models require (assuming you are using search engines as a traffic source):
Creating better content than all of your competitors
Search engine optimization, including keyword analysis and link building
Copywriting to improve the click through rate on your headlines
Conversion rate optimization for your opt-in forms
Basic WordPress and hosting administration
And let me be clear…
Those are just the prerequisites for getting traffic. We haven’t even started on monetizing that traffic.
In other words, you need to be proficient in all of those areas before you earn your first dollar. All in all, I’d say it’s about the equivalent of a two-year degree in college.
And the monetization side of things? That’s another two years, assuming you’re only mastering one business model.
So, to learn everything you need to know to generate passive income online, you need to invest about four years, assuming you are studying full-time. If you’re only studying part-time, it’ll take you about eight years.
That’s just an estimate, of course. Some people will be faster; some will be slower.
The bottom line:
None of this is as easy as everyone makes it sound.
Don’t get me wrong, though. Despite the time required to learn everything, I still think it’s a fantastic trade.
The Trade of a Lifetime
If you’re willing to invest four years, 40 hours a week, into learning everything you need to know, you’ll have some extraordinarily valuable skill sets that will serve you for decades. The best case scenario? You never have to worry about money again until the day you die.
To me, that sounds like a better deal than most universities are offering. 🙂
Reading about how long it takes and how difficult it is, you might think I’m trying to discourage you, but I’m not. I’m actually trying to save you time.
Because what’s the alternative?
You tinker around on the Internet, reading articles, buying courses, trying this technique and that, running around in circles for years without getting anywhere. Four years later, you conclude it’s a lot harder than you thought it would be, and you’re forced to decide if you want to go further.
Wouldn’t you rather skip all of those years running around in circles and decide now?
If you read everything I said here and your response is, “Okay, that’s fair. I can give it four years,” then you’re already way ahead of most people. On the other hand, you might also say, “Jon, this is interesting, but I really don’t have that kind of time, so I’m going to bow out now.” In that case, congratulations, you just saved yourself a lot of wasted time.
Because listen…
Building a passive income machine that fuels the life of your dreams is only one path, and it’s not right for everybody. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with working for someone else. You can also become a freelancer, offering your services to businesses who need your skill set. Or you can start a more traditional company.
There are lots of options out there. This is only one of them.
Is it the right one for you?
Only you can decide. Now, at least, you know what’s required, and you can make an informed choice.
Good luck. 🙂
Tinker around on the side, creating a few websites, and before you know it, you’re earning hundreds or even thousands of dollars per month, giving you the freedom to quit your job, travel the world, and live like a millionaire without anything tying you down.
It’s the dream lifestyle, and everywhere you turn online, someone is offering to sell you a course, showing you how to do it.
You have to wonder, though… is all this Internet stuff real, or is it just a scam?
And if it is real, why isn’t everyone doing it?
Today, I thought I would take a moment to answer those questions for you. Normally, we only talk about earning money online from a blogging perspective, but I thought it might be helpful to step back and address the topic of “passive income” in general.
The sad fact is, there’s a lot nobody tells you. I wouldn’t exactly call it a cover-up because I don’t think most “gurus” are deliberately hiding the truth about how it works, but I do think they have a vested interest in not giving you the whole story.
So, that’s what I’d like to give you. First, a few important details:
This Blog Makes about $60,000 per Month in “Passive Income”
The reason I put “passive income” in quotes is I think the term is a little misleading.
Almost nothing is totally passive. While you may not personally be doing any work to receive the money, someone is, and there’s usually at least a little bit of management overhead.
For instance, I’ve gone on record saying this blog averages over $100,000 per month from selling online courses. From that total, about $60,000 of it is technically “passive income” because I don’t have to do anything to generate it. I could die, and the money would keep coming in month after month for years into the future.
But that doesn’t mean no one is working. It also doesn’t mean I’m personally receiving the entire $60,000.
The truth is, most of that money goes to paying my team. We have course instructors, customer support representatives, marketing specialists, and so on. All of them are working full-time to keep the “passive income” machine running, and they do it quite well.
But somebody still has to be the boss.
While I don’t technically do any of the work necessary to generate that income, I do spend about 10 hours every week on phone calls and meetings. I also spend at least another 10-20 hours a week thinking about how to improve the business and make things run more efficiently.
So, in reality, I’m working 20-30 hours per week for the “passive income.” In exchange, I receive a nice salary, plus the majority of the profits the business generates. If I wanted to, I could probably hire an outside CEO and cut it down to 5-10 hours per week, but that would also reduce the amount of profit I make.
And that’s how passive income really works.
Most of the people bragging about making millions of dollars per year online are being somewhat misleading. Yes, they might be grossing millions, but how much are they netting? In many cases, maybe 100-300K per year after paying for advertising, affiliate commissions, and salaries.
Granted, that’s still a pretty good living. It’s also work you can do from anywhere.
But is it “total freedom?”
Not really. For all practical purposes, you still have a job, you still have to do work, and you still spend at least a little time doing stuff you don’t really enjoy.
I’m not saying it’s a bad life. If you can make it through the learning phase (which I’ll talk about at length later), it’s still a hell of a lot better than having a regular day job, but I don’t know anyone getting paid tons of money to do absolutely nothing. While it’s theoretically possible, I don’t think it’s a realistic objective for most people.
You can earn a living online, but you will have to work for it. In time, you can also reduce the amount of work you have to do personally, but it’s almost impossible to eliminate it entirely, even if it’s only managing the people you delegate the work to. As any manager can attest, that in itself is a job, and it never really goes away.
That being said, how exactly does one generate this not-really-but-sort-of-passive income?
Well, let’s talk about that next.
5 Ways to Generate Passive Income Online
Technically, there are hundreds of ways, but I’ll give you the five most common ones I’ve seen work in the real world.
1. Selling advertising on your site
The idea here is to publish content that ranks for competitive search terms on Google, attracting a continuous stream of traffic, and then sell banner ads to businesses who would like to reach those people.
Of all the different strategies, this one is the most passive, but it also requires TONS of traffic to generating meaningful income. For example, a site getting 10,000 visitors per month might only earn $50-100 per month.
So, if you were planning to make enough money from advertising to quit your job, you can probably forget it. It takes too much traffic. In fact, one of the other methods below will almost always make you more money on a per visitor basis. Nevertheless, this is a legitimate model, so it deserves to be on the list.
2. Earning affiliate commissions
Similar to selling advertising, the goal is usually to rank for competitive search terms, but instead of selling advertising, you endorse different products your audience might be interested in, and whenever someone you refer buys, you get a commission. It’s kind of like the next generation of Amway, except instead of referring your friends and family to buy the products, you refer strangers who visit your website.
If you do it well, you can earn a lot of money. For instance, Pat Flynn is on record for earning over $100,000 per month in affiliate commissions. While that’s certainly unusual, I know quite a few people who make a few thousand dollars a month from it, and in my opinion, it’s the best model for a beginner.
Another variation of this model is to pay for advertising and then earn affiliate commissions from people who click on the ads. Years ago, when advertising on Google and Facebook was cheap, lots of people made a lot of money this way. Nowadays, it’s still possible, but it’s much more difficult, and you have to be much more sophisticated. Nevertheless, I thought I would mention it, because it’s still a viable approach, especially in certain niches.
3. Drop shipping
Here, you set up an online store, but instead of selling your own products, you sell products from other companies, you submit the order to them, and then they deliver the product to the customer. It’s called “drop shipping,” and it’s more common than most people realize. You’ve probably purchased items delivered via drop shipping and didn’t even know it.
While I don’t have any direct experience with it, I know it can be quite profitable, especially in niches where you have high profit margins and low shipping costs. Vitamins and cosmetics, for example, are two popular drop shipping industries. Anyone can theoretically start a “store” and have dozens or even hundreds of products to offer within a matter of days.
Needless to say, you have to find a way to differentiate yourself from everyone else, but if you can, the income can be relatively passive. Chances are, you’ll still have to deal with some questions and complaints from customers about other people’s products, which I’m guessing can be quite a headache, but you don’t have to deal with manufacturing, warehousing, shipping, or any of the other headaches of creating the product yourself.
4. Selling information products
Chances are, you’ve seen all the buzz about creating your own online courses, membership sites, e-books, online events, and whatnot. Collectively, these are known as “information products,” and selling them is one of the hottest online businesses to start right now.
Technically, the margin is close to 100%, because you have no product creation or distribution costs. You do everything online. You can also create the product once and then sell it to hundreds or even thousands of people, creating a stream of revenue that can last years or even decades.
The downside: it’s really difficult to get started. While information products are typically pitched as a “side project,” it’s really more like starting any business. You have to learn how to create products people want, promote them, support your customers, do your finances – everything businesses deal with.
It takes a special kind of person to wear that many hats, and in my opinion, the current positioning in the information marketing industry of “anyone can do this” is just nonsense. Everyone I know who has been successful creating information products is a driven, uber smart entrepreneur. If you’re one of those people, you might consider it. If not, I would look elsewhere.
5. Selling simple software (or apps)
In the past, most people wouldn’t have considered selling software to be a source of passive income, but I believe that’s changing. Thanks to tools like Bubble, creating simple web or mobile apps is easier than ever before. You can do a lot without knowing how to code or hiring a developer, and in the future, I think that’s only going to become more and more true.
Now, does that mean you’re going to develop the next Google in your spare time? Probably not, but you might create a simple app that makes you a few thousand dollars a month. I know quite a few people who have done it, and I even have a few friends who have become millionaires in the software business.
Once again, though, it’s like starting any company. While you might not necessarily need to know how to code, you do need an entrepreneurial mindset, work ethic, and personality type, and you’ll probably struggle for years, going through a string of failures before you finally get it right. If you’re successful, though, the passive income potential is enormous.
Now, you might be wondering how all of this relates to blogging
While you don’t technically need a blog to make these models work, it’s quite common to use one as both a traffic generation tool and a way of staying in touch with customers. In other words, the blog gets people “in the door,” and then you monetize that traffic through the above methods.
But here’s the thing…
None of this is easy. Some models are simpler than others, but all of them require extraordinary skill.
Here’s what I mean…
The Prerequisites for Passive Income
Let’s say I gave you a step-by-step guide to earning passive income by selling information products, breaking down everything you have to do with specific instructions, real-world examples, and everything you need to understand exactly how the model works.
You’d think you could become successful within a few months, right? Most people assume it’s just a matter of doing the work.
But it’s not.
It’s a matter of skill.
For example, here’s a list of skills that all the models require (assuming you are using search engines as a traffic source):
Creating better content than all of your competitors
Search engine optimization, including keyword analysis and link building
Copywriting to improve the click through rate on your headlines
Conversion rate optimization for your opt-in forms
Basic WordPress and hosting administration
And let me be clear…
Those are just the prerequisites for getting traffic. We haven’t even started on monetizing that traffic.
In other words, you need to be proficient in all of those areas before you earn your first dollar. All in all, I’d say it’s about the equivalent of a two-year degree in college.
And the monetization side of things? That’s another two years, assuming you’re only mastering one business model.
So, to learn everything you need to know to generate passive income online, you need to invest about four years, assuming you are studying full-time. If you’re only studying part-time, it’ll take you about eight years.
That’s just an estimate, of course. Some people will be faster; some will be slower.
The bottom line:
None of this is as easy as everyone makes it sound.
Don’t get me wrong, though. Despite the time required to learn everything, I still think it’s a fantastic trade.
The Trade of a Lifetime
If you’re willing to invest four years, 40 hours a week, into learning everything you need to know, you’ll have some extraordinarily valuable skill sets that will serve you for decades. The best case scenario? You never have to worry about money again until the day you die.
To me, that sounds like a better deal than most universities are offering. 🙂
Reading about how long it takes and how difficult it is, you might think I’m trying to discourage you, but I’m not. I’m actually trying to save you time.
Because what’s the alternative?
You tinker around on the Internet, reading articles, buying courses, trying this technique and that, running around in circles for years without getting anywhere. Four years later, you conclude it’s a lot harder than you thought it would be, and you’re forced to decide if you want to go further.
Wouldn’t you rather skip all of those years running around in circles and decide now?
If you read everything I said here and your response is, “Okay, that’s fair. I can give it four years,” then you’re already way ahead of most people. On the other hand, you might also say, “Jon, this is interesting, but I really don’t have that kind of time, so I’m going to bow out now.” In that case, congratulations, you just saved yourself a lot of wasted time.
Because listen…
Building a passive income machine that fuels the life of your dreams is only one path, and it’s not right for everybody. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with working for someone else. You can also become a freelancer, offering your services to businesses who need your skill set. Or you can start a more traditional company.
There are lots of options out there. This is only one of them.
Is it the right one for you?
Only you can decide. Now, at least, you know what’s required, and you can make an informed choice.
Good luck. 🙂
6 STEPS TO TAKE TO BECOME A FREELANCE WEB CONTENT WRITER
If you want to write for a living as a digital content writer then authoring web content as a digital marketer is an excellent way to start making money. Content writers generally do not have to spend a lot of time training or honing their craft.
There is a lot of demand for original, high quality web content, and if you have determination, solid writing skills, and the ability to market your services then you may be able to make a full-time career out of writing. However as the business grows, so do the complexities, new entrants to this field will learn that competition as a content writer is very fierce. Content writing can include article writing, designing infographics, daily blogging and copyrighting. Some clients may even want premium services such as publishing directly to WordPress or the CMS, performing editorial, SEO, CopyScape and media customizations. If you know how to complete all of these group activities as a complete package then it can be very lucrative.
Lucrative as there will be companies that desire a high level of automation. Once they trust you they will be content to let you not only write articles but also set media, publish and perform essential tasks such as setting SEO variables and basic editorial. Complete set and forget services go beyond simply writing content. They attract a premium price point and rightly so.
There is a lot of demand for original, high quality web content, and if you have determination, solid writing skills, and the ability to market your services then you may be able to make a full-time career out of writing. However as the business grows, so do the complexities, new entrants to this field will learn that competition as a content writer is very fierce. Content writing can include article writing, designing infographics, daily blogging and copyrighting. Some clients may even want premium services such as publishing directly to WordPress or the CMS, performing editorial, SEO, CopyScape and media customizations. If you know how to complete all of these group activities as a complete package then it can be very lucrative.
Lucrative as there will be companies that desire a high level of automation. Once they trust you they will be content to let you not only write articles but also set media, publish and perform essential tasks such as setting SEO variables and basic editorial. Complete set and forget services go beyond simply writing content. They attract a premium price point and rightly so.
Where to Start as a Content Writer?
Broadly there are two main ways to generate a living from authoring great content. You can write and produce awesome content for others. Meaning you write for blogs, niche sites and news portals. Or you write for yourself and generate income from ads, text links and the traffic the absorbs your content. A third slant on this is to do both activities if time and resources permit.
So how should you get started in this popular writing income generating niche? Here are six steps that you can take to set yourself up as a freelance web content writer and start finding clients within weeks. These are not the only things that you will have to learn. There are plenty more facets, techniques, tips and tricks that can only come from experience. However these are the basic six steps that you must take as a freelance writer.
Launch Your Website
No freelance writer should be without a website these days. Luckily, it is very easy to set up a professional looking website using the tools that are now available. All you will need are a hosting account and a domain name, and then you can download WordPress and create a website within minutes.
Choose a Domain Name
Choose a domain name that is either your own personal name or the name of your freelance business. You can purchase this name for a year or longer at any number of domain registration services online. It is worth mentioning that although you can set up a free blog on sites like Blogger, it looks far more professional to have your own personal domain name, so this is a small investment to make to create a more positive impression on clients.
Select a web host from one of the many available, and you will then be able to download WordPress and have a website up and running in no time at all. The great thing about WordPress is that you can download a ready-made template so you don’t have to know anything about web design yourself. Some themes and templates are free, whereas some you have to pay for. Choose the best WordPress theme that you can find, upload it, and you are almost ready to go.
Make sure that your website has a home page, an about page, service pages describing your specialist areas, and a contact page so that people can get in touch. Take your time over your content and make sure it really sells you and your services because this is going to be the first thing that clients see before they decide to hire you.
A more advanced addition to your website would be the addition of an online store. Your store can be used to sell content at prices that you determine in advance. Those requiring content may browse the available niches or place orders for custom content. It is important to indicate whether a piece of content is unique and what usage rights carry over on purchase.
Launch a Niche Blog
As soon as your website is up and running, launch a blog to go alongside it. This is important for a number of reasons. Firstly, it shows your personality to clients. People like to feel like they know and trust someone before they hire them, and your blog can help to achieve this, especially if you use your blog posts to provide tips and advice.
Secondly, your blog posts can act as samples of your writing, providing an easy way for potential clients to decide whether your style fits their content needs. Finally, a blog is a great way to add new keyword-rich content to your website on a regular basis, which can help you to improve your position in the search engine results pages. Sometimes a well written blog post can simply take off, especially if cross promoted on social media.
Possible structures for this aspect of your online content business may include your functioning blog. Great niches to choose as a content writer include digital marketing, work at home, freelance authors and so on.
Your website could then function as the Ecommerce side of operations, with your blog providing supporting articles and community. There are lots of opportunities and a multitude of directions to choose as the business grows.
Produce Content Samples
Even if you produce some blog posts, it is always a good idea to have some ready-made writing samples to show clients to enable them to see the standard of your writing. It is worth spending some time on these, so think of some really interesting topics on the areas that you want to specialize in, and then write up some high-quality samples that you can use to show off your services for months and years to come.
Supercharge Your Content Ideas
Often when starting out it is common to not know what to write about, or even appreciate what is popular. A good way to discover viral popular content that people are searching for is to use a service like Buzzsumo. In essence if you write about popular niche content particularly in your portfolio then it is more likely to draw a crowd.
Marketing tools like Buzzsumo can really supercharge your content marketing. Consider publishing content samples on social media pages and experimenting with new forms of exposure such as Facebook Instant Articles. Bear in mind that if your content writing portfolio can drive traffic then it can quite likely drive business leads also. Authoring articles that can drive traffic as opposed to producing bland blog fodder is a really good skill to hone over the longer term.
Your premium content portfolio is an opportunity to showcase your very best written work which should be priced accordingly. Clients will gain a firm idea of the quality and standard of writing to expect when placing an order with you.
Sign Up to PayPal
To keep your payment options open and ensure you win as many projects as possible, make sure that you open a PayPal account. PayPal is the most popular online payment method available. It allows you to send a money request or invoices directly to your clients, who do not even need their own accounts in order to pay you as they can simply enter their credit card details to make a payment.
The beauty of PayPal is that it also allows you to work with people in other countries with much greater ease. Content writing is a job where you could potentially find yourself writing for clients all over the world, but this is only possible when you have a suitable payment solution in place.
Write a Free Report
Before you start to contact clients, create your own free report to be handed out as a free download or as an email attachment. This should be on something related to web content, such as a guide to the importance of original content for websites or a quick guide on how companies can improve their SEO.
The simple fact is that SEO and online marketing are still very new concepts for a lot of companies, so if you can explain some of the important issues to them in a helpful report at the same time as selling your services, they may be more likely to hire you to write their content for them.
Additionally a free report can be used as a free incentive giveaway when building your newsletter list. A newsletter is a great way to build an engaged list of clients and interested parties. You can broadcast to this list and generate further income and sales from the leads. A free report is a great way to get them on your list in the first place.
Further Resources
When building a newsletter to serve your customers and interested parties the following companies provide awesome services at different price points.
- Mailchimp
- Aweber
- ActiveCampaign
- GetResponse
A newsletter is a great way to drive repeat business, offer deals and discount codes and ensure your new content always has an audience. As your freelancing business evolves be prepared to research email automations, broadcasts and list segmenting to maximize conversions and, uptake and email engagement.
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