How I made a blog post that generates $2500 a month

Hi, I'm Manabu.
Today, I'm going to explain Digital Marketing.

My background:

  • More than ten years of experience
  • Total $3 million revenue from my blog
  • Total 800k followers in Japanese market

Two months ago, I made a blog post that generates $2500 a month. Here is the proof of my sales (screenshot of my Stripe account).

$2500 a month from an article

stripe_sales

What’s more, even though I have made only nine blog posts from Jan 2021, I'm getting many sales from my blog:

Around $400 a day from my blog

stripe_sales_all

My sales are not so big compared to the super guy on Twitter who makes tremendous $$ every day. But I'm satisfied with my situation.

Honesty, Digital Marketing Saved My Life.

I'm an introvert and feel stressed when I work in a company.

But right now, I can work everywhere. Currently, I'm in Thailand, which has nice weather, friendly people, and is affordable to stay in.

One thing I need to make this kind of life is the knowledge of Digital Marketing.

I'm not selling a $$ course in this article, but I'm going to explain how I made a relatively big amount of money from my blog.

Table of contents

  • 1. How I made a blog post that generates $2500 a month
  • 2. Three things you should know before creating a blog post

1. How I made a blog post that generates $2500 a month

How I made a blog post that generates $2500 a month

There are three steps:

  • STEP1. Take new actions
  • STEP2. Find the problem
  • STEP3. Solve it with a blog

That's it. I don't talk about SEO so much. I know SEO is necessary for the field of Digital Marketing.

But, SEO is just a technique. I use it. But remember, it's not essential. The most important parts are 1) Taking new actions and 2) Finding the problem.

So let me explain one by one.

STEP1. Take new actions

Taking actions creates fundamental value. I'm not saying that take action but take many actions.

✓My rule in my life:
Take a new action every month.

It's crucial for all of you because, basically, people are lazy. But if you decide on a rule and follow it every month, it will become a habit. Making a good habit will change your life.

One of my new challenges was to create my company in UAE. I was done it in 2020 and found the problem to solve. I will explain it in the next chapter.

STEP2. Find the problem

I found the problem while creating my company in UAE:

  • There are no detailed contents in Japanese

The problem above is very simple. So I solved it:

  • I made a blog post with 15,000 words
  • Most detailed content in Japanese
  • All people can solve all problems with it

My rule to create a blog post is pretty simple:

  • My rule: Save the old me

In this case, you don't need to think about persona, which is a kind of marketing technique to clarify the target customer.

The target customer for me is the old me. I know everything about myself more than anyone. So just write a blog post something like talking with the old me.

Needless to say, creating a blog is hard work. Especially in my case, I made a blog post with 15,000 words.

But for me, it feels like super productive because my blog post will earn revenue for a long time, possibly more than two or three years.

*For your reference: Some people may think, "I know blogging is very productive if you get many page views and $$. But if not, it’s not productive.” And,, yes, it's true. But I know some techniques to solve the issue. I will explain it in the latter half.

STEP3. Solve it with a blog

As I said earlier, I have solved the problem with a blog post.

  • 98%: Free information
  • 2%: Paid information

Again, I had written my blog post with 15,000 words, which is almost everything for free. But only 2% of information is only for paid users.

How to create paid contents

It's easy to achieve it. Just simply find the market demand: you can monetize it if there is. If not, you can not monetize it.

In my case, I'm selling paid contents, which is like consulting material for people who want to start their business in UAE.

So in this situation, it's obvious that there is market demand. So there are many companies to provide a paid service like that.

How to win your competitors

I like the word of Peter Thiel, the founder of PayPal:

  • Competition is for losers

You don't need to compete with other guys. Instead of doing that, it's much better to focus on your problem to solve. In my case, like below:

  • My rule: Save the old me

I decided to write my blog post to save the old me who had difficulties with incorporation in UAE because of a lack of detailed information. So just simply solve it, and you don't need to think about your competitors.

The results of my SEO

SEO results

My blog post ranked 4th with the keyword "incorporation in UAE." So it's obvious that the person who wants to start a business in UAE will search this keyword and then have an interest in my blog post.

After creating a blog post, all things I have to do are just waiting. I have published the blog post-Jan 2022, and then I was doing other things for a while. After some period, the ranking of search engines goes up.

*Needless to say, sometimes the ranking of my blog post doesn't go up. In this case, I will rewrite my blog post. You can learn how to rewrite here.

Summary: How I make money with your blog

Let's quickly review what we've learned:

  • STEP1. Take new actions
  • STEP2. Find the problem
  • STEP3. Solve it with a blog

That's it. You’ve probably noticed, but the process above is the same as starting a new business. To make a blog that generates a passive income is the same as starting a very small business.

It's an essence of blogging, in my opinion, that many marketing guys don't mention like that. Because if so, they can't sell their marketing products.

2. Three things you should know before creating a blog post

Three things you should know before creating a blog post

The conclusion is as follows:

  • (1) Forecast your revenue
  • (2) Automate your business
  • (3) Impact of branded search

It's an essential part that I've learned from ten years of experience in this field. Let's dig in.

(1) Forecast your revenue

It's great to forecast your revenue before creating a blog post. So I will teach you how to do that.

Use a Google Keyword Planner

keyword planner

Please take a look at the above, which shows the data like so:

  • Keywords: UAE incorporation
  • Top of page bid (low range): $2.01
  • Top of page bid (high range): $14.00

You can forecast your revenue using these data:

  • Mimimam: $2.01 * Avg. monthly searches
  • Maximam: $14.00 * Avg. monthly searches

So the answer is like so:

  • Mimimam: $2.01 * 55 = $110.55
  • Maximam: $14.00 * 55 = $770

The data above means that companies using Google Ads are willing to pay ad fees between $110.55 and $770. Advertising costs are often 20% of overall sales:

  • Mimimam sales: $2.01 * 55 / 20% = $552.75
  • Maximam sales: $14.00 * 55 / 20% = $3,850

Yes, now you have answers to forecasted revenue. That's good. It's better to forecast your revenue before writing your blog post or paid contents.

If there is a bid for ads, basically, there is market demand. If not, there is no market demand, which means you can't make money from your blog post.

(2) Automate your business

Please take a look at forecasted sales below:

  • Mimimam sales: $2.01 * 55 / 20% = $552.75
  • Maximam sales: $14.00 * 55 / 20% = $3,850

Obviously, the sales volume is not so big, right?

In this case, it's very important to automate your business. Because if you handle your customer manually, you will waste your time, and the return of revenue is not high enough to spend your time.

How to automate your business

It's straightforward. There are two steps:

  • STEP1: Create a Stripe payment link
  • STEP2: Set up an auto-reply in Google Forms

It takes one minute to create a Stripe payment link.

And also, setting up the auto-reply function in Google Forms is easy. Simply following this link, you can create it.

(3) Impact of branded search

This part explains how to keep your blog revenue for a long time. Please take a look at the below sentence again:

What’s more, even though I have made only nine blog posts from Jan 2021, I'm getting many sales from my blog: around $400 a day from my blog.

I think the people who know how to monetize a blog wonder why I'm still getting revenue even though I haven't updated my blog.

The secret is branded search

brandes search

You can see the red box of the screenshot above, although it's Japanese.

But what I want to explain here is that I'm getting plenty of branded searches of my website's name, which will drive my revenue to continue and up.

So the question is how to get a branded search like that, right?
The answer is to get trusted by your target customers.

In my case, I've created more than 1,500 posts gradually.

98% of my blog posts are ads free. There is no monetization. It's just volunteer work for my target customer: this is the essence.

I know many people think like, "oh, you are doing so many tasks, I can't do that." It's kind of true, but without getting the trust of your target customers, your business is not sustainable.

Let's imagine the guy you trust. The one has the trust of the customer, right? So there are no shortcuts in life.

Conclusion: Blogging = Small business

I explained three things in the latter half:

  • (1) Forecast your revenue
  • (2) Automate your business
  • (3) Impact of branded search

There are the essentials of blogging.

Don't focus on the marketing techniques. The techniques are kinds of tools. You can use it, but you cannot win the competitors; only just use marketing techniques.

Instead of doing that, just focus on 1) Taking new actions and 2) Finding the problem, which are so much more important than techniques.

Okay, that's all for my blog. Thanks for reading. If you have any questions or request you want to know more about, just let me know by replying to me from the tweet below. Thanks!