What makes a blog post profitable? Is it good SEO that brings traffic to your site? Or is it a call to buy something that earns you money or get you into an email list? I recently watched a workshop run by Chelsea Clarke who is definitely an advocate of the latter opinion. So I thought I would share my learnings from her and try and apply this to SA. You can make money with blog posts – you just have to set them up right.
Last weekend, while the rain was pouring down and my son was participating in a chess tournament (he did very well, by the way!) I took my laptop with and continued in my mission to work through the Genius Blogger’s Toolkit.
Chelsea Clarke is the woman behind the blog Her Paper Route and Niche Investor (formally BlogsForSale.com). From this, as you can probably gather, is that she is a blog flipper. She sells blogs and makes a profit. So she should know something about making money with a blog, right?
Chelsea starts off the workshop by comparing typical blog posts to those that make money:
Typical blog posts versus Money blog posts:
Typical blog posts:
- unclear focus
- no problem/solution
- no reason to convert to email list
- no reason to click to buy
Money posts:
- brings attention to a problem
- content is written about keywords about that problem
- sells the solution via affiliate products or own product
- has a lead magnet (to get you onto their email list)
Affiliate programs
Chelsea suggests picking a product and joining their affiliate program. Understand what problem that product solves. Obviously it helps if you buy the product and take real pictures of yourself using it (if it’s physical).
Find keywords about the product. You can do this by typing things into Google and see what it autosuggests, but another way I’ve been using recently is a site called Ask The Public and you can see what people are searching for.
Write an article about the problem, with the product as a solution to the problem and then go and put the article in front of your ideal customers.
A nifty title example she suggested was for instance for Good American jeans: “Finally, jeans that always fit.”
Example affiliate programs in South Africa
Chelsea suggests Share A Sale because they pay more than 20% in your niche. Impact is another one. These kinds of American sites are good for digital products that local people can buy without worrying about distance.
What about local affiliate programs, however? I’ve rounded up two examples. If you have more, please share in the comments.
Admarula – they use a platform called Target Circle
Example of affiliate posts
I’ve done some posts in the past using affiliate links, which you can take a look at here. I think that there’s a lot more work that I can do in this area.
High Tech Backpacks and Nappy Bags
Stock up on winter clothes for the kids (and yourself) without leaving the house
Reusable shopping bags to reduce plastic waste
Spoil Mom this year online on Mother’s Day with R100 at Netflorist
Tips for Choosing and Installing a New Theme for your Blog or Website
One technique that was successful for me was when I was going through my infertility stage: I had a series of emails about this that sold the Circle Bloom product – and I made quite a few sales from that. It is also an advert on my site.
Building your email list
This is something that I know I also need to work on. You should have blog posts that present a problem which your lead magnet solves, which will get them to subscribe. It’s a good idea to always have your opt in form in as many posts as possible as well.
SEO
Making sure that your blog posts are optimised and bringing traffic to your blog will always be a winner for me. This can also be monetised with advertising on your blog e.g. Google Adsense. SEO is a topic for another day but it’s an essential part of the success of your blog. Make sure that you are using keywords that people are searching for in your headings, title, Meta description and alt tags of your pictures. Make sure to have relevant internal and external links.
If you have any input on this topic, please comment below. What makes a successful blog post for you? And which blog posts have been successful on your blog?
I think the biggest difference between a “typical” post and a “money” post comes down to intent. A lot of us start off just writing what interests us, but when you focus on solving a problem and guide the reader toward a solution (whether that’s an affiliate product or even a lead magnet), the content suddenly has purpose. I also like your point on email lists — it feels like one of the most underutilized tools in blogging, yet it’s the one thing you actually own. SEO brings people in, but your list keeps them coming back.
Great insights! The difference between typical and money blog posts makes so much sense—definitely something I’ll apply.
That’s where you have to be creative and try and find other ways to make money. You can do sponsored posts or sell digital products. You can also use social media like Facebook, Pinterest and Reddit or Quora to drive traffic. You can’t depend on Google only.
With the recent updates Google has made to their algorith, it’s very hard now for bloggers to earn money, and it’s actually quite sad
Wow, that’s a huge question. I think the most important thing is to start creating very good content. If you create excellent content, and you use key words that match what you want to attract your audience for, then you are halfway there. You have to be interested in what you are writing about, it has to be your passion, otherwise you won’t keep writing. So by creating that content, the SEO will build. Once your blog is starting to have those posts and traffic, then you can only later think about ads and affiliate marketing. I would suggest putting that opt in form to build your email list right from the beginning though, as your list is very important. As far as niche goes, it really has to be something you enjoy writing about. You can research popular niches by doing some googling to see your competition, but at the end of the day it has to be something that you’re interested in and passionate about.
In your experience or based on the information shared in the blog post, how do you prioritize between SEO optimization, affiliate marketing, and building an email list when creating blog content with the goal of making money? Additionally, do you find that certain niches or topics are more conducive to the strategies mentioned for generating income through blog posts? regard Telkom University