Hey,
I want to start the first lesson of the course by telling you a brief story.
I was a coffee shop hopper in the span of 2017 to 2020. I had to work from a coffee shop as it was not possible for me to work from home due to some reasons.
As time went by, working while having coffee had become a habit for me. Even today, when I already have a permanent office to run my company, totheweb, I still love working from a coffee shop.
To me, drinking coffee has been a ritual. Coffee has been an integral part of my life. Coffee is my soulmate.
And you know what?
I write this lesson while having coffee at my favorite coffee shop!
If you love drinking coffee too. Go get your coffee first before you continue to learn.
Ready?
Go!
As I told you, I have been a professional blogger since 2013. More than a decade ago. There have been tons of blogs I created throughout my blogging career.
Some succeed. Some failed. It’s normal in business that a project either end up being a success or a failure.
I used to use the same pattern every time I created a new blog.
Before I created the blog, I conducted the research to gather the keywords related to the niche of the blog I planned to create.
Once I had enough keywords, I then created the blog and started to write the blog posts based on the keywords. Every blog post was optimized for Google with the help of an SEO plugin.
Within 4 to 6 months, I usually got the results (affiliate sales) as my blog posts began to show up on Google.
I adopted exactly the same pattern ever since 2013, the year I started my blogging career, until 2023 when Google hit my blogs with its algorithm update.
After the event (Google update), I made countless changes to my blogs trying to align with the new Google algorithm.
I updated my posts, built more backlinks, and even replaced my hosting service to make my blogs faster.
Unfortunately, nothing changed.
One thing you need to note.
Google didn’t deindex my blogs. My blog posts still show up on the Google search results page, until today. But they are buried far deep into another world. You need to make a deep, deep scroll to find them.
Take a look at the following table to learn how the Google 2023 update impacted one of my blogs.
The first column (leftmost) is the keywords list my blog posts rank on. The second column is the number of clicks that my blog got on the keywords between May 1, 2023 to July 31, 2023 (before the Google update).
The third column is the number of clicks that my blog got between March 1, 2024 to May 31, 2024 (after the Google update).
The fourth column is the difference of the number of clicks that my blog got before and after the update.
The fifth, sixth, and seventh columns are the stats of the impressions of my blog during the same periods.
I am not the only blogger who suffered from the Google update. Some bloggers even lost the entire revenue and had to start from scratch again.
After learning deeper about the new Google algorithm where Google seemed to favor big brands, I’ve come up with a conclusion that I needed to change my blogging approach.
Instead of relying on SEO, I started to switch to email marketing, which I neglected this far (which was a big mistake).
I started to build the email list and already have more than 4,000+ subscribers so far.
So, if you really want to be successful with your blog business and want to implement the framework I will provide by the end of the course, I need you to understand the following things, which will become your fundamentals.
1. Email List is Your Main Asset, Not SEO Traffic
What has happened to me is a big lesson to not rely on SEO if you want to start a new blog.
Basically, everything based on the algorithm is not good for an online business. Not just SEO. This also applies to social media.
Google and social media platforms can change their algorithm, which can ruin your business overnight!
If you rely on the algorithm, you have no control over your business. Instead, you are controlled.
If you truly want to build a sustainable online business, there is no other option than building the email list. It’s the biggest asset of your online business. You can use it as the primary foundation of your traffic.
But it doesn’t mean that you have to completely ignore SEO and social media. No!
SEO and social media still matter to get traffic. Who doesn’t want free traffic, after all. But you should put them as the secondary traffic channel instead of the primary traffic channel.
Your main focus should be building the email list, your asset.
As I previously mentioned, email marketing is powerful if you implement it correctly. You could make many sales from a single email campaign.
Email is a peer-to-peer traffic channel. You can directly access your audience without being interrupted by the algorithm.
There are several email campaigns you can run according to your goal. You can send a broadcast (newsletter) for a general email. You can run an email sequence to build communication with your new subscribers.
You can send follow-up emails to boost sales. And a lot more.
2. Treat Your Blog as a Real Business
90% of new bloggers fail, even before they pass the first year of blogging. Not because they are bad at blogging.
They fail because they have the wrong mindset about blogging.
Let me ask you a question.
You are accessing this course because you are interested in making money from blogging. Don’t you?
If so, then you need to understand that starting a blog requires a capital. Money!
Keep this in mind.
When you are starting a new blog, you are starting a new business. So, you need to treat your blog as a real business.
Remember what I said in the previous email?
This course is aimed at helping you build a strong foundation of your online business via a blog.
To grow a business, you need to promote it. And to promote your business, you need a fund.
The question is, what should you promote?
Should you promote a blog post? Or should you promote your blog homepage?
If you promote either a blog post or your blog homepage, I can guarantee that you are doing nothing more than burning all your money out. There will be no return you will get.
Trust me!
I know it because I once ran campaigns on Facebook Ads to promote my blog posts.
There are two things you need to look before you run a paid campaign:
- The value you want to offer
- The conversion you want to get
To understand the above points, take a look at the landing page that brought you here and notice the headline.
I could use the headline “How to Create a Profitable Blog” instead of “How to Make Your First $10,000 from a Blog in 3 Months”.
But if I did it, then I have no value.
There have been so many blogging courses out there that offer the same thing (to create a blog) so I need to add a unique value to encourage those seeing the landing page to access my course.
To make $10,000 from a blog in 3 months without SEO is the real, unique value I want to offer to those wanting to access my course.
Now that you are here, I can assume that you are interested in the value I offer. Don’t you?
You might be wondering. Is it really possible for a new blog to make $10,000 in only 3 months?
Yes. 100%. Because in the course I will teach you how to control the traffic (will be covered later in the next lesson).
That’s what you can’t do with SEO: control the traffic.
What about the conversion?
As you can see, I have an email opt-in form on the landing page.
Can you guess why?
Exactly.
Because I want to build an email list via the landing page.
Another question you might want to ask is, how do I get money from the landing page as I don’t sell anything?
When you enter your email address and hit the button, the email marketing tool I use will run the email sequence to send the course lessons to your inbox.
One lesson per day according to what I have set.
I will make about $200 for every student taking action (starting a blog) after completing my course.
I will cover the details later in the next lesson.
The point I want to say here is that before you run a paid campaign (or even free campaign), you need to set a clear goal and offer a unique value.
Never run a paid campaign to promote a general blog post (boost post).
3. Have a Creator Mindset
As I said in the previous email that this course will teach you how to build a blog to sell affiliate products.
In the next lesson, I will also show you how to smartly promote your affiliate products.
But, friend. You should not rely on affiliate products your entire life. Instead, affiliate marketing should be just the first step of your online business ladder.
You need to build your own product to thrive. Your product can be an added unique value.
Most prominent bloggers also build their own product. Here are example of bloggers and the product they built:
- Ryan Robinson (ryrob.com): Course
- Jon Morrow (smartblogger.com): Course
- Harsh Agrawal (shoutmelod.com): E-book and course
- Darren Rowse (problogger.com): E-book
- Syed Balkhi (wpbeginner.com): Plugins
What about me?
You are currently accessing my product, my friend 🙂
I also built a course, but I don’t charge you to access it. I give you permission to access my course for free as I would have earned money from the affiliate products you buy via my affiliate links.
I don’t want to add another burden to you by charging you to access my course as I know you will need to spend money to buy hosting and other tools to start your blog.
I just want you to start. ASAP.
That’s my main goal of building this course.
Course and e-book are just two examples of digital products you can create, by the way.
If you plan to blog about productivity, you can create Notion templates. If you plan to blog about photography, you can sell Lightroom presets.
If you plan to blog about WordPress (to compete with me 😛), you can build a plugin (you can hire a developer for this). Etc.
You don’t need to build the product in a rush.
Build your audience first (email list). Build your brand. Enjoy the process!
4. More Blog Posts Don’t Mean More Traffic
Friend. Want to know a secret?
Most blogging courses – if not all – that teach SEO-based blogging approach will teach you how to write listicles.
Something like “10 Best Things You Need to Try”, “10 Best Tools in 2024”, and the likes.
They will teach you how to make your posts to be on the top list of the Google search results page.
They will teach you how to conduct the research to gather the potential keywords and write the content based on the keywords. They will say that more posts mean more traffic.
They will also say that more traffic means more sales (aka money).
Remember again what I said earlier above. I used to adopt exactly the same approach and I can say that it no longer works.
One of my blogs, WPPagebuilders, already has 800 blog posts.
Can you guess how many visitors it gets each day? Less than 500!
Another issue with the SEO-based blogging approach is that you can’t build your audience.
Those visiting your blog coming from Google are not your audience. They are just visitors in an expo who stumbled upon your booth coincidently.
They won’t come back to check out your new posts!
Keep in mind: Conversion is more important than merely traffic.
Those are the basic things you need to understand before you start a blog business. You can use them as the fundamentals of your blogging journey.
I will end this first lesson with a tip.
I can show you the tactics to make your first $10,000 in just 3 months from your new blog. But I want to insist that if you are completely new to blogging, it may take a bit longer.
It all depends on how long you can spend your time learning and mastering the tools. WordPress in particular.
If you already understand WordPress, or even already have a WordPress-powered blog, it could be faster for you to achieve the goal. Less than 3 months.
If you are still in a 9-5 job, I strongly recommend you to keep it until you achieve a safe number.
“What is a safe number, Aliko?”
It is the minimum income you need to get per month to cover all your bills.
List out all the bills you need to pay each month as well as other costs you need per month.
Once you get the number, set it as your short-term goal. By doing this, you will have a clear purpose of what you want to achieve with your blog.
That’s all for today’s lesson.
Tomorrow, you will learn how to find a niche for your blog and why it’s important.
Enjoy your coffee ☕️