I have to say, even though I am making less I am still just as excited to see how much I’ve made when the first rolls around.  Time for another blogging income report!  Plus, in this one we’re going to talk about what I have learned to sell online courses.  A lot of it is from my errors, so hopefully you learn some good stuff if making a course is on your to do list!

Of course, all of this is made possible by my spreadsheet.  It truly is the bees knees for tracking.  You can even get your own here.

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Ok, onto the  numbers!

Pageviews – 130,000

This is down 13%.  Mid-month I had a freak-out and decided that I really needed to change how I pin.  I talked with some actually serious bloggers (not the people that pretend to be serious bloggers and sell you a course) and have switched over to tailwind {sigh}.  It was a hard decision, but I just wasn’t going to change up my pinning all that much with Board Booster. I was continuing to pin tons, and tons, and tons of pins and just not seeing a good benefit from that.  So, I’m still using Board Booster for looping, and I am scheduling using Tailwind.

I am working on the keywords from each pin.  That means, instead of “Learn more about how to help your baby when they’re sick and have a fever” — I’m going to say “babies | vomiting | fever | infants | help | what to do | eat | dehydration”

I am REALLY working on the keywords from each pin.  That means, instead of “Learn more about how to help your baby when they’re sick and have a fever” — I’m going to say “babies | vomiting | fever | infants | help | what to do | eat | dehydration”

You can’t see descriptions anyway any more, so it really shows Pinterest what the post is about so it can show up in search.  I am excited to say that I have seen traction with this method.  My other descriptions has been VERY conversational, and this is a BIG change up.  So I hope it’s a helpful one!

I am pinning less.  I still loop quite a few, but I only pin about 20 of my own each day via Tailwind.  Traffic has been up and I am grateful.  I have {sturdy yourself} also deleted quite a few old no-repin pins {gasp}.  In talking to actual people who get tons and tons of pageviews — they delete.  So, I’m back to deleting pins.  The other thing it really gives me, is a grasp on what is just NOT doing well.  Between boards and pins.  I know repins don’t tell the whole story, but it is some of the best idea you can get of it. 

It was November 11th that I made the change to Tailwind.  In early November I stopped Board Booster and took a few days to figure out what the heck I was going to do.  You can see an initial bump from just starting to pin (which tapered off).  Then, you see a slow increase.  I am hopeful this is going to  make a long term change for me.

Keep in mind that I doubt I will ever have the awesome traffic days of a year ago.  Those were good times.  But I need to make do with less traffic.  That’s really all there is to it.    Anyway, that’s what I’m changing.

Go me.  

I just knew that I couldn’t keep doing what I WAS doing.  I was headed into 2k visitors/day and I was really worried for the income we need.  In order to see a change in visitors, I was going to have to change up something.

Ad Income – $1274

This is up three percent, thanks to the 4th quarter bump.  Ads aren’t my main focus.  I have taken off quite a few in order to be able to focus more on affiliate links and my own personal product sales.  I use MediaVine and I love them.

Affiliate sales – $2728

Thanks to some good days on black Friday my Amzon sales are up.  I have also had a good run with a few of the products I work with.  The key is always finding a good fit.

I would also say that I was a bit worried about making budget this month (keep in mind the numbers here are what I MADE during the month, not what I was paid — November just seemed to be a low payment month, and I was a little concerned).  In came a delightful affiliate check that made up all the difference (we’re talking hundreds here, people — not thousands).  So grateful for the good affiliate companies that I work with.

I am consistently made well aware that God is mindful of our situation and provides for us each month.  I can only do so much, and He always makes up the difference. 🙂

Self Content – $539.30

This is after paying my affiliates.  It was almost all my prenatal class.  I have raised the price (into a range that I think is fair), and I think I’m going to stick in this zone.  Price doesn’t seem to be the reason that people don’t buy.  You’ll learn more about this below, and I’ll talk about my NEW COURSE coming out in January.

Sponsored Posts – $200

Annd… I have three sponsored posts coming out in early December.  It rains, it pours and it’s feast or famine.  Who knows.  Either way I am grateful for it.  I only take posts that are a good fit, and I don’t take too many.  I have recently raised my rates, especially for baby/pregnancy posts.  I feel like I am an expert in that field and they are lucky to get me to write for them.  Also, those posts generally do pretty well (as long as they let me write, and don’t turn it into an ad).

Grand Total: $4741

I’m thrilled with it.  I’m really grateful for each and every dollar.  Each and every reader.  Blogging is truly a business that is made one eyeball at a time, and I really appreciate it!

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Ok, onto this month’s masterclass.  We’re going to talk all about how to:

Sell Online Courses

I am in the process of finishing up my second online course.  My first one does well, but I wish it did better.  A few reasons I’ve found for why it doesn’t do as well:

1.  It’s SUPER niche.  It’s an online prenatal class (btw, I make all my sales pages using Thrive),  and I am trying to catch people in their third trimester.  That’s a busy time and people might have already taken another class in person.
2. People tend to want to take that class in person, that is really the gold standard for that type of class (which I would agree with) – of course, most people end up NOT taking it as it’s just hard to fit in.
3. People really need to trust my information before they buy that.  I wouldn’t want to buy a prenatal class from some hack either.  So, I have to build that trust in their third trimester and get them to buy.  It’s a short time frame.

In reality, the class sells around $500/month which is great.  I’m grateful for the income, and I do believe that as it is around longer word of mouth will help that class grow.

I created that class because it is truly something I KNEW.  I didn’t need help or research to write it.  I’ve taught in person classes and I work as a labor and delivery nurse.

BUT, I am now creating my second course and I have done things a bit differently.  Here’s a few things I’ve learned this time:

1. Survey your audience.  This past fall I did a survey of my audience to see what they really wanted.  I am likely to sell most of the courses from my email list and it was 100% clear what direction they wanted me to go in.  In fact, I was not planning on creating a course until I get the results of my survey back and it was CLEAR that the people wanted one particular thing.
2. Write what you know.  I know that the internet seems to pretend that you can write on anything and you are instantly an authority.  I don’t believe this.  I see prenatal classes written by people who don’t know all that much about labor other than their own and a few friends.  I disagree with this philosophy.  I saw what my audience wanted, and I twisted it to something I know a lot about.  Something I’m good at.
3. Look at great posts.  Of course, my pregnancy posts do amazing, so that doesn’t always work.  But scroll back through what posts have been popular throughout the year and see what ones of those tickle your fancy.
4. Survey them on price.  I asked my audience how much they would expect to pay for an online course.  Of course, the answers varied wildly, but it seemed like most people were in a specific area, and that will be my target area for my launch.  So often we (as bloggers) see outrageous course cost from people teaching us how to blog (most of which aren’t worth more than a few bucks).  Those prices aren’t realistic for my audience.  This course wasn’t as difficult to write as my prenatal class, and the cost will show that.
5. Write what you love.  You’re going to be spending a long time with this subject.  Be passionate about it.  If you’re not enjoying the writing process, your audience will sense that.

As far as the process of online course creation I use a few tools:

I use Woocommerce to sell both my books and courses, and I integrate it with Lifter LMS.  I am mulling over moving to Teachable.  I really like their platform.  For now, and until I build a larger course, we’re here on my site with Lifter LMS.  The benefits to lifter is that it is cheap (although they upgraded and I instantly had to pay $99 to integrate with WooCommerce, so the price isn’t going to be great forever).  But, it is hosted on my site, so that can take away my bandwidth as the courses grow.

Mistakes I have made in the past:

Not surveying my people.  I wrote a book “School Mom” that has sold very few copies.  Frankly, because people aren’t really looking for it.  People who have used it liked it, but it didn’t end up being anywhere NEAR my time to create up to this point.

Pricing.  Frankly I just have no idea what to charge.  I’ve moved the price point for my prenatal class all over the place.  With that one, price doesn’t seem to make a difference.  It’s really weird.  I am also really impatient, so I shift the price more than I should, likely.  At this point, I’ve decided to price it in the higher range and offer coupons frequently to my VIP subscribers.

Affilliates:  Everyone says get affiliates, and lots of them.  But, people just aren’t motivated to sell other people’s things, which I get.  I just wouldn’t hang my hat on affiliates.

Listening:  I have yet to see a good course on writing e-courses on someone who isn’t writing them for bloggers.  It’s a totally different demographic.  TOTALLY.  They sell millions.  I’m never going to do that.  I would love to — but thus far, it has proved unlikely.  I just have to say that I have been entirely disgusted by what people are charging for blogging classes.  I bought the recent Bloggers Toolkit and there are so many things in there that are total junk and those people are raking in thousands and thousands each month off of it.  So, so sad.  And it’s hard to figure out how to price an actual course.  That actually is aimed to help people.  {soapbox moment done}

Anyway, the course launches on January 2nd, and I’m really excited for how it will do. Stay tuned for that post to see how well it sells!

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