088: [Soulpreneur 411] Can you still make money from blogging in 2022?

Kate Kordsmeier 0:04

Welcome, welcome, welcome. We are back with the Success with Soul podcast. I'm your host, Kate Kordsmeier. And we are officially in season two of the show now. And I'm excited because we're doing something a little different. We've just released a brand new series called Soulpreneur 411, where entrepreneurs just like you can send in questions if you want some personalized laser coaching. And I will answer each week. So if you want to leave me a message and be featured on the show and get some free coaching for yourself, which is usually only available inside the Incubator, head on over to Kate kordsmeier.com/Ask, and you can be featured and get coached as well. So with that, let's dive in to today's question.

Giselle 0:52

Hi, a lot of these stories, including yours of bloggers who are making 1000s started their blog before 2017. Do you have any success stories of bloggers making 1000s of dollars who started their blog after for example? 2019. That would be super helpful to hear.

Kate Kordsmeier 1:16

Well, hey there, Giselle. Thanks for another great question. I'm loving the Soulpreneur 411 series. Thank you all so much for participating. And I'm excited to dive into this. I'm really glad that you asked for several reasons. One is I think that it is maybe unclear that I actually yes, I started Root + Revel, my former blog in 20, the end of 2015. So before your 2017 kind of benchmark, but I started a second business, Kate kordsmeier.com in 2019. And so that was a brand new website started from scratch. And it actually grew faster than Root + Revel grew. And I think it was for a couple key reasons. The first was that I just knew more of what I was doing this time. Whereas with Root + Revel, it was the first time I was doing anything like that. And I had no idea what I was doing. So I had already kind of created a proven strategy of how to organically grow my traffic and audience my email list, how to do things like monetize with affiliate marketing, etc. I already knew how to do all of that. So that was one part of it. The second part of it, though, was that I sold something of my own. And so this is what I believe the difference between blogs that were pre 2017, as you said, or maybe I'm not going to actually use a specific year, I'll just say traditional blogs. And by that I mean logs that primarily made money by having a large volume of traffic to the site and monetizing the site itself with ads, affiliates and or sponsors. So the platform itself is what is making the money. And it does so by having a large volume of people viewing the site. So I think that there has been a big shift in the digital marketing landscape. You guys have heard me talk about this paradigm shift of all websites or blogs, and all businesses need one no matter what you sell, or no matter what your goal is. Blogging is the fastest way to show up in Google search results and get organic traffic to your site of your ideal client who is actually searching for what you want. And I won't go into all of the details of that because we have gone on ad nauseam and other episodes about this. But I think what the important thing to talk about here is that there is a difference between traditional blogs, and what I call conversion sites. In today's model, Kate kordsmeier.com is a conversion site. And we were able to hit multiple six figures in our very first year of business, because we were a conversion site. And what I mean by that is a conversion site is a site where you sell your own products, courses, programs, online offers, etc. Just like the business model that I teach in the Incubator now. So you may only need 500 to 5000 page views a month to make serious bank. Whereas in the traditional blogging world, you probably need more like 100,000 page views a month, you are a high traffic blog playing the volume game, whereas a conversion site needs much less traffic and can actually monetize at a much greater rate. And you don't have to produce as much content. So a few kind of key points here just to really drive home the distinction here. It does depend on your goal. So if your goal is to be a blogger or an influencer, you will need a lot more new content than if your goal is to enroll clients into your course or program or one on one coaching or consulting or whatever it might be. So the key distinction, though, is that you are selling something of your own versus just selling other people's products, like affiliates or sponsors or having ads on your site. And the reason that this makes it possible to grow your income at such a faster rate is because you have so much more control. And whereas you're making a percentage of a commission on somebody else's products, you're making 100% of the sales of your product, and it likely is going to be more expensive services are generally more expensive than products themselves. So, you know, to use an example, if you are an affiliate, for a blender, even something that's like maybe $400, you're still only going to make like maybe $40 on that commission. And that would be if you were getting 10% Commission, which is pretty good. So in order to make $4,000, you would have to sell 100 blenders. Whereas if you have a product that you sell yourself for $400, you only have to sell 10 of those to make $4,000. So some of it really just comes down to kind of this simple math. But this is also the difference that I want to talk about here. I don't think I've actually ever talked about this on the podcast before the difference between the Six Figure Blog Academy and the Incubator. And one of the key differences is this slight tweak in the business model of selling your own things. And then you can complement your revenue streams, you can diversify by having other types of revenue, like affiliate marketing, which we teach inside the Incubator, but it's not your sole thing. And so we get a lot of people who apply to the Incubator, and they just want to monetize their blogs themselves. They just want to be bloggers. And so we don't accept those applications, because we're really only looking for people who we know we can get the desired result for. And in order to get that desired result, you need to sell something of your own. So we do have a mini course that is all about this topic. If you're not sure what exactly I'm even talking about here, or what kind of offer you would potentially sell. There's so many choices. First of all right like, should you do an online course or a membership? Maybe one on one? Or should it be group coaching? Should you start an agency, maybe you should do VIP days, like you've likely seen it all at this point, and are wondering which one will work best for you. And so I'll start here by saying good news. There is no one right answer, you get to decide and we can help. So if you are a busy, overworked, ambitious woman ready to build a soul aligned offer so that you can reclaim your life in business. Then this mini course that we've just launched, it's called the launch it with soul mini course create your dream offer, it was literally tailor made for you. So inside this mini course, you'll learn how to create a hybrid online business just for you built around your unique needs and goals and lifestyle, whether it be motherhood or chronic illness, mental health struggles, a corporate job, family demands, etc. This mini course will give you all the tools and strategies you need to create or refine your one of a kind offer so that you can ensure it's truly aligned with your soul's desires. Taking inspiration from those who have gone before you we have some amazing guest experts who teach inside this mini course including Tarzan Kay and Jordan Gill and Ashley Gartland and Matisse Hudson. So it's amazing. And we're going to also make sure that we're creating something that is scalable so that you don't burn out. This is how you can build a holistic business that truly serves you. So if you're interested in learning more about the mini course, you can go to Kate kordsmeier.com/Mini. And I'll tell you right now, the mini course is only $33. So you'll get several video trainings. Inside the course on the page, you'll learn everything about what's included, and all for just $33. So I highly recommend it if you are thinking about having an online offer. Or maybe you weren't thinking about it until you just heard what I said about really needing an online offer of your own to create a profitable business quickly without having to play the volume game, then I think you'll really enjoy this. Again, that's Kate kordsmeier.com/Mini. And just to be clear, this doesn't mean that you have to have a blog that teaches other people how to blog, or have a business that teaches other people how to you know, have a business that happens to be the path that I've taken, but we have clients inside the Incubator that do everything from a linguistics coach to personal stylist to chiropractors to Instagram managers, real estate experts. So the options are limitless, and we'll help you figure out what is the best offer for you to create, both in terms of making sure it matches your lifestyle and your your goals like we just mentioned, and also that it is something that you can start making money from right away.

So I hope that helps. Giselle. Thanks for your great question. And if you have any others, be sure to leave them over at Kate kordsmeier.com/ask for the next one. We'll see you next week.

All right, thanks for tuning in y'all. If you liked this episode, and want to get coached by me and my amazing team, then come join us inside the Success with Soul Incubator where we have live q&a coaching calls every single week. Plus, you can even submit your work for feedback every week to That's right, you literally can submit everything you're working on and get personalized laser coaching feedback on your actual work every single week. I don't know many programs offering this and it is one of my favorite features. And I think our students would have great. In addition to our self paced curriculum, we have frequent live trainings with leading industry experts on topics like leadership and Enneagram, and metrics and finance and SEO and funnels. And because your business won't thrive if you aren't thriving, we also do monthly soul sessions with spiritual healers and wellness pros to ensure you get that self care in. So if you're ready to transform your business in life and holistic, sustainable and soulful way, head on over to Kate kordsmeier.com/apply To see if we're a good fit to work together. We're accepting businesses of all sizes, including those that are just dreams in your head and those who are making all the money but feeling totally empty and depleted by the process. Here's what one of our clients Molly Cahill from holistic marketing hub had to say about it.

Molly Cahill 11:50

I had my first $10,000 month and now I'm having consistent $18,000 months. Thanks to Kate in the strategies I learned inside the Success with Soul Incubator. It is by far the best money I've ever invested into my business it has paid off for sure not to mention the time that it saved me being able to just copy paste, import Kate's funnel. And I love that you get a lot of one on one time with Kate on the weekly group calls and that you get direct feedback and direct critiques on your specific questions that are unique to your business. And I also love that she doesn't give you this one size fits all business in a box approach. She recognizes and appreciates that every business is unique. And she helps you walk through those unique challenges for your specific business. And on top of that, I love that she's just a real human who walks the talk. So highly recommend Success with Soul Incubator. Thank you so much Kate. So if you want

Kate Kordsmeier 12:49

results in transformation like Molly, come join us inside this intimate mastermind style program at Kate kordsmeier.com/apply. And remember if you want to be featured on the podcast to get coached in the Soulpreneur 411 series. You can leave your voicemail over at Kate kordsmeier.com/ask and be featured on the show. We'll see you next week.

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