Tips Tuesday – Mantra for Making Money, Content SEO Series, How to Make $500/Mo

Hello Happy Site Owners and Webmasters!

Tips this week include:

• 3 examples of help I needed this week and how I helped 3 of my clients in similar fashion
• How my consult clients are seeing positive results in just days
• A new mantra for you to try to switch your mindset into a money-maker
• Our Content SEO series starts in the DIY SEO workshops this week
• Deep dive into how many followers you need on different platforms to make $500/mo

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BlogAid Happenings

This past week has been a mixed bag of 2 steps forward with a bunch of muddy slippage along the way. You know, those minor inconveniences that disrupt what you’re trying to get done. They don’t really set you back, they just distract and delay you while you’re trying to meet a goal. Or, you thought it was something you could do on your own but it became clear that you needed a little help with it.

A Little Help, Please

I needed help with at least 3 of those kinds of things this week. 

And I helped 3 clients the same sort of way.

So, I’d like to share those stories with you today so you can move forward with the changes you need to make in your online adventure.

First example.

My internet service was acting up. I called my provider. They were able to do an update from their remote location that fixed it.

That issue was costing me money because it borked my client Zoom calls and disconnected me from sites I was working in.

But, there was nothing I could do to resolve it. I needed help from someone who had specialized knowledge and tools to do it for me.

BlogAid’s site services are like that, and this week I helped 2 clients with something that was costing them money, but they didn’t have the knowledge or tools to fix themselves. So, they contacted me to do it for them, and I did, and now they are back to meeting their goals.

They were already paying a subscription for access to me to help them with such things. So, just like with my ISP, there was no extra charge either. 

The point is that they invested in having a relationship with a site tech who could take care of the stuff that made them money, and help with things they could not do for themselves.

And while I don’t run an emergency fix-it service, some things crop up that I need to see to be able to know what’s going on with changes at hosts or plugins or WP or such. And we fix it on the spot and/or let the village know what’s going on.

Second example.

My weed whacker had an issue. I knew how to fix it.

But I could not for the life of me get the spring-loaded head back on after I did the fix.

I just didn’t have big enough, or strong enough bear paws to push and twist the way it needed to be done.

So, I asked my neighbor to help me with it.

His bear paws are stronger than mine, but not any bigger. And it took both of us to get the dadgum thing back together.

So, I had the knowledge. But, I needed help implementing the solution. And it still took work on my part, but with that extra help, I was able to get it done.

That’s what happened in a consult I did with a client this week too. She got the extra hand to help her get it done. It was quick and inexpensive and she’s able to put that thing to use to meet her goal now.

Third example.

I wanted to change frame styles when I got new glasses this time. But, I have some special needs with how and where they sit on my nose. Plus, the calculations some eye doctors make for the transitional parts of the glasses don’t always pan out and they need to actually test me for all distances.

This is why I don’t even think about trying one of those discount deals of $99 for an exam and glasses or ordering frames online.

Function is way more important than fashion and I need a pro to help me narrow down the dizzying array of choices to fit my needs. 

It’s way worth it to me to pay for an ophthalmologist instead of an optometrist and to buy frames from them that they help me select and adjust to meet my criteria. 

Plus, being self employed, every minute I waste trying to figure all of that out on my own costs me more money than those frames.

It’s professional help worth paying for. 

Consults Worth Paying For

I did 3 consults for my clients this week that were along the same lines.

They had an idea of something they needed or wanted to do.

I helped them sort through the dizzying array of ways to do it by eliminating all of the stuff that would not work well and narrowing it down to what would.

Plus, we made an action plan that included short tasks they could knock out immediately and then how to save a ton of time on the longer tasks.

Instant Positive Results and Money

Within days every one of them reported positive results on the short tasks they completed.

That included instant feedback from their followers on the changes and/or more followers.

And it also included making their first sale or landing their first client.

Days to results, not months, not years, days.

A Goal and a Plan to Get There

Another consult this week lead to a client getting off the blogging hamster wheel of cranking out the enormous number of posts she thought she needed to have before focusing on promotion, and then relying solely on SEO for traffic.

With that plan, she would miss an entire year of building tribe and an audience to extract an income from for her monetization goals.

Instead of cranking out more passive content, she is now focused on promotion of content that builds engaged tribe who will actually purchase through her affiliate links. Plus, growing that tribe will also attract brand sponsorship so that she is guaranteed to get paid for creating content.

Try This Mantra

When I lived in Nashville, one of my neighbors was an amazing businessman. And he gave me a mantra that has stayed with me until this day.

“I’m in business to make money helping people.” 

And I needed to add another part to it to help me run a successful business.

This is my version of it.

“I’m in business to make money helping people, in that order.”

Start Thinking Like a Business Owner, Not a Blogger

The fact is, I’m going to help people no matter what. It’s my nature. I’m service-oriented all the way to my bones and a good teacher who can bring clarity and fun to what you’re trying to learn.

But, I’m in business.

And the goal of that business is to make money. I’m not working for free. I’m paid for what I know and what I can do.

My business has to generate enough income to pay for the expense of learning all I need to know and develop to deliver that knowledge and service too, like this website and gear to make the podcast and videos associated with it, plus my course sites. 

Those are business expenses. And like all businesses, I pay for those things up front, before I start making money.

Like my ophthalmologist. They require a building, equipment, staff, and inventory to be available just so I can walk in the door to purchase their services and wares.

When you started out in this online endeavor, you were thinking like a blogger. And you got hooked into the mindset of gurus who said you could make money for just writing about things you know and most everything you needed to do it was free.

By now you’ve realized that’s no longer true. In fact, it never was true.

Think about all you have had to learn and pay for in both time and money to get yourself to the point where you have at least a little bit of traction so that you can earn some of that money back.

You are not just a blogger now.

You are a business owner.

Start looking for ways to turn your passive readers into a loyal and engaged tribe who pays you directly for the knowledge and/or services and/or products you deliver to them, and who keep coming back for more.

Get Help Applying this to YOU

Every site audit client gets a free mini consult when we do their site audit report chat.

They hear me saying in Tips Tuesday that they need to move from being a blogger for ads into the direct-pay creator economy.

But, until we have that 1-on-1 time, it doesn’t always click for how this applies to them.

During that chat they take 4 pages of notes and then it starts to click.

After they’ve stewed on it for a few weeks, many are now starting to come back for an in-depth, paid consult to make a real game plan for moving to direct-pay.

And after that chat they don’t just have a bunch of notes and ideas.

They have a game plan. 

They get busy immediately with putting it into action.

And it’s working.

It doesn’t take them long to see results.

Those That Change Are Making Money

More and more of my clients are now doing videos and offering products for sale.

They are growing tribe and making more money directly from the audience they have worked so hard to get.

And they see how to make even more money with direct-pay from their tribe and brands.

They made the leap. They tried something new. And it wasn’t as hard as they thought.

So, what’s holding you back?

Whatever it is, let’s move that boulder and get you in the money.

BlogAid Course Happenings

Starting Content SEO Series of Workshops

Last week in the DIY SEO course we wrapped up our 2 bonus sessions for Group Content Feedback.

Boy, were those ever helpful!!! Even folks who did not ask for feedback attended because everybody learns so much from seeing how others can improve their content structure for SEO and user experience and how to make more money with it too.

This week we’ll begin our last series of workshops that focus on the content itself, including:

• Special Formatting
• Page SEO
• Post SEO

It’s never too late to get into the course!!

Replays are available on all workshops and there are several standing tutorial sections for your Google Connections, setting up Yoast SEO properly, and making sense of Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools too.

That’s all the happenings around here. Let’s jump into this week’s tips and news.

Monetization Tips

There’s only one tip this month because we need to dig a little deeper into it.

How Many Followers Needed to Make $500 a Month

The folks at Creators Calculator have a grid that shows you how many followers you need on various platforms to make $500 a month.

And then you can adjust the dollar amount and the numbers change in the grid for each platform.

Here are a few examples at the $500 range:

• YouTube – 1,000,000,000 views based on average ad pay per 1,000 views
• Instagram – 500,000 followers based on average sponsored post pay
• Buy Me a Coffee – 105 subscribers at $5/mo
• Membership site, like Mighty Networks – 13 subscribers at $40/mo
• Shopify store – 25 items sold at $20/item

And I’ll add another one. With blogging for ads, it takes 30k-100k sessions/mo on your site, depending on a variety of factors, including what ad agency you’re using, length of post, and maybe even what niche you’re in. But, this is not direct pay, like the examples in this grid. I just wanted to include it for comparison.

Let’s break this down and dig into it a bit more.

First, it takes far fewer folks to make money when you have an engaged tribe that is paying you directly for the same content you are now giving away for free.

However, you still have to create enough free content or pay for ads to attract that tribe.

This chart is a little misleading in that regard.

YouTube Example

I get a minimum of 4,000 minutes of watchtime on my Heartwood Art YouTube channel, which qualifies it for the YouTube Partner Program so that I get direct pay from YouTube ads. While 1,000,000,000 views will make me $500/mo, my 4,000 minutes of watchtime, with less than 1,600 subscribers, and 7,600 views makes me a little over $40/mo, which will be about $500/yr.

Keep in mind that this in on a channel where I haven’t even uploaded anything in about 9 months and I only made about 20 or so videos over a 2 year span.

I learned enough about video SEO from doing that to know that the “secret” project I’m working on now will bring millions of views to the evergreen content I’ll be posting on YouTube and I will be making $500/mo someday with it, and without having to work myself silly to constantly post new content every week.  

FYI, I teach you how to do this too in my Video SEO Booster course.

Instagram Example

This chart shows direct pay from brand sponsored posts based on 500,000 followers. 

Let me tell you the truth. 

I have clients who are nearly exhausted trying to make all of the money being laid on their table from brands wanting to put their stuff in front of my client’s loyal and engaged tribe and I don’t believe many of them have 500,000 followers yet.

My clients are making way more than $500/mo.

Shopify Example

On top of that, if you use Instagram as a way to point your followers to your own products, you’re going to make way more than $500/mo too, even if you only have 10k-20k followers.

This is what I mean about needing to create free content to drive traffic to your paid content. You still need to get eyeballs on these free content platforms.

And engaging with your tribe, and constantly putting yourself in front of them keeps you top of mind. When they are ready to purchase, they are going to buy from who they trust, and that’s you, because you’ve built that relationship with them.

You gave them a piece of helpful info.

AND, you point directly to your product that gives them more of that helpful info – this is the part most folks forget. 

Once you establish your expertise, invite folks to purchase more.

Think of it like the little bite of something on a toothpick that you get at the grocery store. They are willing to give a whole ham away one bite at a time to get 20 folks to buy a whole ham.

And they have that toothpick platter set up right by the case where the hams are too.

They don’t walk all over the store giving away bites of ham and make folks have to walk back over to the case where the hams are kept.

That’s the same principle to use on these eyeball catching platforms. 

Give folks a taste and point to your money maker right there, with your link in bio or such.

Membership Site Example

The easiest money you can make is from a membership site.

Selling a product in a Shopify type store is a one-off transaction.

But, a membership is recurring revenue.

You work just as hard to get eyeballs on your content either way, no matter whether that’s ad revenue, brand sponsorship, or selling a digital download.

But most all of those things are single pay.

With a membership, you have the opportunity to get them once and keep them forever.

I have enjoyed long-term subscribers to all of my courses.

That’s because the info is good and the info changes. There’s always some new info they need, so they stay in the course to stay up to date.

It’s different with evergreen content.

You will need to either generate new content or live sessions or something that will keep your subscribers engaged. Otherwise, you will have churn and it becomes a constant game of sales and that means having to generate more free content or use ads to get new eyeballs.

That is akin to what those who blog for ads have to do too. And that’s working too hard for your money.

Another way to go about this with a membership site that has evergreen material is to have some sort of regularly scheduled engagement emails or lives or such to remind folks to consume the content.

People buy courses and memberships all the time that they never finish or attend or such. And then they cancel the renewal because they never got the good out of it.

So, running a member site is not something you can put on ignore unless you’re okay with high churn.

More Ways to Make Money

The point I’m trying to make with all of these examples is that there are a lot of ways for you to make money besides being on the blogging hamster wheel and needing to generate a ton of passive visitors to your site who just read your post and then leave and who totally ignore your passive optin invitation.

Building tribe is key.

Engaging with the followers you collect and hold is key.

Actively pointing folks to your money makers is key.

Reread This Post With Eyes Open

I hope today’s post has helped shift your mindset from just being a blogger for ad revenue into being an online business owner with expertise for sale to the highest bidder.

Spend your time where you can make the most money for that time.

Spend your time where you can get the most eyeballs that you can capture and retain and direct to your money makers.

All of this is what I do with Tips Tuesday.

You never miss reading or hearing it. Why? Because I deliver info in an entertaining way that you need that helps you make and save money and stay calm as a DIY site owner.

I engage directly with you through my podcasts and videos and in our Facebook groups.

And, I want you to reread this post and any other Tips Tuesday to see how many times I invited you to my direct pay content and services.

Did you feel helped or just sold?

I’m not passive about it.

I’m in business to make money helping people, in that order.

Did I succeed with you today?

I did if you keep coming back for more.

And eventually, in some manner, you will be delighted to pay for getting more individual help from me.

That’s the fair exchange I offer.

It’s fair to us both.

I hope you will start being more fair with yourself in how you spend your time to make your living from your online endeavors.

Build tribe for direct pay.

It’s a business mindset.

You’re in business first.

You’re going to help folks no matter what.

Share Your Thoughts

What you are contemplating these days with your site and how you do things?

Let us know in the comments here on the blog or anywhere you see this post online.

Wrap Up

That’s a wrap for this week’s Tips Tuesday.

Thanks for sharing this podcast and post with your blogging buddies, and for leaving comments and reviews too.

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Be sure to visit BlogAid.net for more tips and resources and I’ll see you online.