Loading...
Answers
MenuI want to start a website/blog that defines ways to save money in everyday life. How would I attract traffic & monetize this ? Where do I start ?
I have a real passion for helping people in this area and currently do it for my friends , family and co workers. I always receive great feedback.
Answers
Step 1. Write 10 epic posts that mention the work of other well known influential people in your niche
Step 2. Reach out to these people and ask them if they'd give you their opinion on your posts. Get them to leave their opinion in the comments. Keep asking until you have at least 10 people who've left comments for you. They will also probably share you content on their social networks if it's good enough.
Step 3. Follow these people on Twitter. Find out who they follow, and follow them too. Start retweeting their tweets every day. Over time, they will start to know who you are.
Step 4. Syndicate your content onto other sites like Quora, Medium, and other high traffic sites that target the same niche as you.
Step 5. Use ManageFlitter to build your Twitter following. Reach out to more influencers on Twitter and ask if you can interview them. Most will agree. Publish these interviews and then promote the heck out of them. The people you interview will most likely also promote your posts.
Step 6. Repeat this process over and over and keep expanding your peer network via Twitter and LinkedIn.
This is how I grew my blog to 10,000+ visitors a month and it's still growing.
Pick a memorable, intuitive name that fans find easy to recommend to their friends on the phone (voice and text). Consider the name not just in the abstract but in terms of a domain purchase.
I keep waiting for somebody to use Pennies.net for a site like the one you describe. Full disclosure: I own it. But I'm pointing to it mainly by way of example and not as a sales pitch.
Take some time to plan for a cohesive brand identity. Your goals, site design, and written style should match one another and offer something clear to visitors.
These things don't lead directly to success (your content, publicity, and monetization strategy do that); but the lack of them hampers many a site or small business.
Good luck!
Hi,
Other than these great suggestions I'd add some tips following the Lean Startup Methodology:
1- Write great posts about the subject of your passion (quite obvious)
2- Transform them into an ebook
3- Keep writing to make this ebook evolve and improve your reputation
4- Sell your second version of your ebook at your site
5- Then start offering video pills with more tips about your subject
6- Later, offer your readers freemium webinars.
Just some ideas.
I hope it will help you :)
Great question. Instead of giving you my response I read the other experts' response to you and I back what Trent said.
The exception though, that i wouldn't write the articles first. Develop your content first. So that when you invite others for feedback and their support on their own case Studied they have good selection from you to read, and have something they like. There is no point in kissing media butt if once you have their attention you give them no reason to talk about you.
To your question:
There are two types of monetization (both are lifestyle businesses) :
1. Revenue through paid sponsorship. You know this, Google Adwords to begin with. Then if your traffic increased significantly you can pursue your own ad revenue. Similar to what Instagram influencers do each time you see them take a pic with a bottle of some pills or juice blender or something.except that this will be static image with referral/affiliate linkage to third parties ecommerce.
2. You focus on your niche right, but you take it a step further and find a niche whithin that niche. Like saving money on everyday life for who? Or for what goal? This allows you easier spreading of your idea because it eliminates your need for explanation as to what specifically or for whom? And thus makes your message clearer. But better yet it allows you to become an expert in the field! Is a niche, but once your an expert in that niche your universe expands! In this case your expertise and single minded niche dedicated traffic, will be leveraged to sell a specific product you 'endorse' by making every other article an article about a particular product that helps people save money. A lot of use use this by leveraging Amazon and posting a picture of the item with a link to Amazon affiliates and the posting this one pinterest, fb and even having Google ads! (Budget this depending on your item of sale)
The lifestyle business is not as glamourous as people who make money touting this make it seem. The idea is that if you are starting off with below average financial responsibilities , there is no need for you to fall into the cycle of getting into debt to 'grow' a lifestyle blog can give you what you need to live a good life because you have little to no debt. Once you grow it substantially you can make a lot of money and then it can be glamorous however for the majority of bloggers this is more of a weekend spending money type of deal. But trust me, the more your targeted niche is the better.
Give me a call if you would like to chat a bit more!
Todo #1: Since you specifically mention you have great passion for this, you might consider running a Podcast.
Pat Flynn has a good approach for one of shows.
If your shows run 10 minutes + you release weekly, then set aside one hour/month for recording + for a months worth of recordings.
Syndicate through iTunes.
A highly effective traffic generator.
Todo #2: Your topic lends itself well to question + answer format. Look into how to organize your content (which might be your Podcast transcripts + show notes) into...
Google Featured Snippet friendly HTML.
I have one client who stumbled onto getting a featured snippet showing up in Google + now the majority of her traffic comes through the related page.
Google "speed up wordpress" for a Featured Snippet example.
Once you have a little traffic, just start by adding AdSense ads to your content. Once AdSense is working, research other monetization schemes.
Related Questions
-
What percentage of VC funded startups make it to 100m+ revenues in 5 years or less?
100M+ in revenues in 5 years or less does not happen very often. As an example of one sector, here is an interesting data visualization (circa 2008) of the 100 largest publically traded software companies at that time that shows their actual revenue ramp-ups from SEC filings (only 4 out of these 100 successful companies managed this feat, which themselves are an extremely small percentage of all of the VC-funded software companies): How Long Does it Take to Build a Technology Empire? http://ipo-dashboards.com/wordpress/2009/08/how-long-does-it-take-to-build-a-technology-empire/ Key findings excerpted from the link above: "Only 28% of the nation’s most successful public software empires were rocketships. I’ve defined a rocket ship as a company that reached $50 million in annual sales in 6 years or less (this is the type of growth that typically appears in VC-funded business plans). A hot shot reaches $50m in 7 to 12 years. A slow burner takes 13 years or more. Interestingly, 50% of these companies took 9 or more years to reach $50m in revenue."MB
-
What tools to use for mobile Prototyping ?
My 2 favourite are: - www.uxpin.com - www.flinto.com Flinto is by far my favorite for mobile. I also us www.balsamiq.com for anything wireframe. Sometimes I jump into Sketch http://www.bohemiancoding.com/sketch/ for more high fidelity mockups using their Mirror feature http://www.bohemiancoding.com/sketch/mirror/ Hope that helps. P.S. There's a tonne of Mobile UX experts on Clarity, many $1/min - call them, you'll learn so much. my2cents.DM
-
How much equity should I ask as a CMO in a startup?
Greater risk = greater equity. How likely is this to fail or just break even? If you aren't receiving salary yet are among 4-6 non-founders with equivalent sweat investment, all of whom are lower on the totem pole than the two founders, figure out: 1) Taking into account all likely outcomes, what is the most likely outcome in terms of exit? (ex: $10MM.) Keep in mind that 90%+ of all tech startups fail (Allmand Law study), and of those that succeed 88% of M&A deals are under $100MM. Startups that exit at $1B+ are so rare they are called "unicorns"... so don't count on that, no matter how exciting it feels right now. 2) Figure out what 1% equity would give you in terms of payout for the most likely exit. For example, a $10MM exit would give you $100k for every 1% you own. 3) Decide what the chance is that the startup will fail / go bankrupt / get stuck at a $1MM business with no exit in sight. (According to Allman Law's study, 10% stay in business - and far fewer than that actually exit). 4) Multiply the % chance of success by the likely outcome if successful. Now each 1% of equity is worth $10k. You could get lucky and have it be worth millions, or it could be worth nothing. (With the hypothetical numbers I'm giving here, including the odds, you are working for $10k per 1% equity received if the most likely exit is $10MM and the % chance of failure is 90%.) 5) Come up with a vesting path. Commit to one year, get X equity at the end. If you were salaried, the path would be more like 4 years, but since it's free you deserve instant equity as long as you follow through for a reasonable period of time. 6) Assuming you get agreement in writing from the founders, what amount of $ would you take in exchange for 12 months of free work? Now multiply that by 2 to factor in the fact that the payout would be far down the road, and that there is risk. 7) What percentage share of equity would you need in order to equal that payout on exit? 8) Multiply that number by 2-3x to account for likely dilution over time. 9) If the founders aren't willing to give you that much equity in writing, then it's time to move on! If they are, then decide whether you're willing to take the risk in exchange for potentially big rewards (and of course, potentially empty pockets). It's a fascinating topic with a lot of speculation involved, so if you want to discuss in depth, set up a call with me on Clarity. Hope that helps!RD
-
What is a normal churn rate for b2b saas company with an average monthly revenue of $850 per customer? Is 10% of the total monthly sales high or low?
10% of the total monthly sales churning on an absolute basis is near fatal. That means that within 5 months, you have 50% absolute churn per year, which reveals fundamental flaws with the service itself. Anything above small single digit churn is telling you and your team that customers are not seeing enough value in your product. I'd start by doing as many exit interviews as you can with those that have churned out, including, offers to reengage at a lower price-point while you fix the issues that matter to them. Happy to talk through this in more detail in a call.TW
-
What is the average series A funding round at pre revenue valuation for a enterprise start up w/cutting edge tech on verge of our first client.
With all respect to Dan, I'm not seeing anything like that. You said "pre-revenue." If it's pre-revenue and enterprise, you don't have anything proven yet. You would have to have an insanely interesting story with a group of founders and execs on board with ridiculous competitive advantage built in. I have seen a few of those companies. It's more like $3m-$5m pre. Now, post-revenue is different. I've seen enterprise plays with $500k-$1m revenue/yr, still very early (because in the enterprise space that's not a lot of customers yet), getting $8m-$15m post in an A-round. I do agree there's no "average." Finally, you will hit the Series A Crunch issue, which is that for every company like yours with "cutting edge tech" as-yet-unproven, there's 10 which also have cutting edge tech except they have customers, revenue, etc.. So in this case, it's not a matter of valuation, but a matter of getting funded at all!JC
the startups.com platform
Copyright © 2025 Startups.com. All rights reserved.