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How to Write Profitable Blog Content
*This post may contain affiliate links. You can read my affiliate disclosure here.
One of the best lessons I ever learned about blogging as an online business is that you should focus on creating profitable blog content. This type of content is sales centered, and it's a big part of what makes your blog an actual business.
This week I received an email from a reader reminding me about this topic. Instead of write her a super long email, I thought I would answer her question in a full post so everyone could benefit from it!
Here's her question:
Thanks for the great question Abby!
To start, let's talk about what sales centered content is not.
Sales centered content is not and should not be:
- Pushy
- Scammy
- Convoluted
When some people think of sales center content, they think of blog posts riddled with affiliate links, recipe sites crashing under the burden of too many pop-up ads, and an overall icky slimy feeling.
This isn't the way to present your content or make sales, in case you were wondering.
Effective and positive sales centered content should instead be:
- Helpful
- Easy to navigate
- Reader focused
Let's take a look at each of these.
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1. Profitable Blog Content is Helpful
Blog content that makes a sale is always helpful. This should be pretty obvious, given that people do not tend to buy from sites that they find unhelpful or scammy.
If you are providing honest, useful information in your blog posts or YouTube videos, encouraging sales of complimentary products will come naturally.
2. Profitable Blog Content is Easy to Navigate
Nobody likes a site that is convoluted, hard to navigate, and filled with flashing banners and pop-up ads.
When I come across sites like these, I hit the back button so fast my head spins a little. I bet you do too!
Blog posts that encourage sales naturally will be easy to read, have lots of white space, and load quickly.
3. Profitable Blog Content is Reader Focused
This goes back to my point about your sales centered content being helpful. It's important that your content focuses on the reader and their needs, rather than your own.
When you can speak to them in their language, and help them work through the problem they are trying to solve, the rest is easy!
Why Creating Profitable Blog Posts Matters
Creating super high-quality and helpful blog posts takes a lot of time. If you've started your blog, you know this oh so well!
Between writing, editing, creating images, and uploading your posts, blogging is easily a part-time job. Because of that, it's important that you make every blog post count.
This means that in one way or another, every blog post you write should contribute to your bottom line.
As your blog grows over time, so too will your revenue. Instead of having only a handful of blog posts working for you, eventually you may have hundreds of them driving traffic and sales!
And when each of these blog posts is designed to help your reader, encourage sales, and increase email sign ups, your business just keeps growing with every post.
What makes a blog post profitable?
Let's talk about what profitable blog content actually looks like.
Many people think that sales centered content is simply posts that have a ton of affiliate links or ads on them.
While these methods can be part of your monetization strategy, you never want to overdo it. Let's look at how successful bloggers create profitable content.
1. Affiliate Products
Affiliate marketing is one of the most common ways bloggers monetize their posts. Including affiliate links naturally within your text can be very effective at driving sales, if your content is helpful and high quality.
That being said, it is so important to make sure that you aren't placing too many links on your posts. This type of thing will turn off your readers and make them want to visit other blogs instead.
About a year ago, I took Michelle Shroeder-Gardner’s Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing course, and it taught me so much!
One tip I learned from her is that you only want to link your affiliate product around three times in your blog post. Usually this plays out to be somewhere around the beginning, middle, and ending of your post.
She also advises making your affiliate links very visible, by placing them in a bright colored font and bolding them as well. I have to agree with her, as I saw my sales increase with just that one change.
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2. Your Own Products
Another best practice for creating sales centered content is to create content that naturally weaves in any digital products you have for sale. This could be a course, ebook, stock photo package, or even physical products.
Let’s say, for example, that you have an ebook on Pinterest marketing. It would be a very good idea to spend a few months for creating blog posts about Pinterest.
One reason for doing this is because your Pinterest blog posts will bring in readers who are interested in that topic. And of course, this means they may also be interested in your e-book.
If you have an ebook on Pinterest marketing, but all of your blog posts are about other topics, it's going to be hard to find buyers.
This is the big key to sales centered content. You want to tailor your content to the types of products you have for sale, whether that be your own or through an affiliate partnership.
3. Converting Email Subscribers
If your blog post doesn't relate to a product you have for sale, then what good is it?
Well, one thing it can do for you is help you build your email list.
I've said it a million times, and I'll say it again (If only to remind myself!). The majority of your blogging income will come from your email list!
This is why your email list is so important. While most new bloggers think blogging income from comes from blog posts, the truth is that only a small portion of it does.
"The money is in the list" and all that.
So if you have blog posts that do not have a product to accompany them, focus on using them to build your email list. Maybe you can create a new freebie to encourage readers to sign up. Or maybe you can add another opt-in on that particular post to increase sign ups.
Ideally, a really great blog post will both point to a related product and encourage readers to sign up for your email list.
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Conclusion
Creating sales centered content is so important to making sure that your blog is actually a business, and not just a hobby. When done right, you’ll have a blog that is useful, attractive, interesting, and profitable.
Here’s how to start creating profitable content on your blog right now:
- Weave affiliate products that you really believe in into your posts and emails.
- Mention your own digital and physical products when relevant.
- Tweak your opt-ins to encourage email sign ups on every blog post
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