How to Make Money on Your Blog by Creating Products
How to Make Money on Your Blog by Creating Products
There are so many different ways to use your blog to bring in an income. One of those ways is to create and sell your own products. You can use your blog to showcase your products.
Maybe you already have products you make that you want to share with the world or maybe you have a blog and want to create online products to put on it. Either way, the possibilities are endless!
You can sell a physical product or a digital online product. Physical products would include things such as a t-shirt, an ornament, wall décor, furniture, clothing, etc! Digital online products would be things like an ebook, a course, a PDF, a file, a worksheet, a chart, a guide, a booklet, and so on! Literally, the possibilities are endless!
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Here are some ideas of products you can create and use your blog to promote.
List of possible products
Tangible products
- T-Shirts
- Wall décor
- Furniture
- Dog clothes
- Baby clothes
- Baby bows
- Blankets
- Jewelry
- Endless options!
Digital Online Products
- Printables
- Calendars
- Guides
- Charts
- Courses
- Ebooks
- Coaching
- Training
- Teaching
Endless options!
The list just keeps going. If you can imagine it, you can create and sell it on your blog!
So, why would you want to create your own products? Here are some pros and cons of creating and promoting your own products instead of someone else’s.
Pros
- Express yourself
- Set your own price/choose your own worth
- Creative outlet
- Create your own brand of products
- Digital or physical
- Run your own specials, discounts, and giveaways
- Be self-sufficient
Cons
- You have to put in more work
- You have to handle all transactions and refunds
- You have to handle unsatisfied customers and bad reviews
- “one man show”
- You are in charge of promoting your own products
Pros outweigh the cons
In my opinion, the pros outweigh the cons by far! So, you have to put in a little more work? So, what? The fact that you are the one that is creating your own products that you are promoting on your own blog is an amazing feeling.
That said, if you are new to blogging you may not be ready to sell your own products just yet. So, promoting other products that you believe in is still a great way to bring in an income.
Sell your own online products
However, selling your own online products is where the bigger bucks come into play.
You can make pennies with ads and you can make dollars with affiliate marketing but selling your own online products puts you in charge of how much you make.
With affiliate marketing, you don’t have to create any products but the highest you will probably make per sale is 40%. Maybe 50% if you are lucky!
However, selling your own online products you are able to make 100% of the profit! All you have to do is pay for the hosting of your online products but that’s it! And there are probably ways to host it yourself for free with a plugin or something.
I have my own digital online products and they are hosted on Teachable and I have to pay Teachable monthly and per sale, but it is a small amount. I get almost all of the profit per sale.
But this way I know that my online products are handled with a trusted company that is going to be secure for my readers and myself.
It is a bit different if your products are tangible. There are more factors involved in that such as materials, tax, and shipping. But you are more likely to sell your product to more people if you are able to reach a new online audience.
As for online products, there is less cost and physical work involved since you don’t have to physically make anything. Here is why I like to use Teachable for my digital online products.
Why I Chose Teachable
Set your own price
You are able to set the amount you want to sell it for!
Maybe you feel your knowledge is worth $100 per sale, then you can put that as your price! Maybe you think that it’s worth $10 and you hope more people buy it at a lower price. That’s your choice as well!
Run sales and promotions
If you choose to sell a digital online product and you go through Teachable, they have an option to offer a discount on your products.
This makes it easy for you to run sales for your online products. You can offer a discount as a promotion, a prize, or a holiday special! You are not always able to do that when promoting someone else’s product.
It would be something that you would need to ask permission on first from the creator of that product.
There are different options you are able to choose as well on how you want to offer that discount on your online product.
- You can choose if you want a percentage or flat rate discount.
- Choose whether there is a specific end date or have it end after a certain number of units are sold.
- There is an option to set different codes to offer different discount amounts. So you could set one code to give readers one amount or percentage off and another code to do a different amount or percentage off.
Then depending on what your criteria are, certain readers would receive the higher discount code and some the lower discount code. This just gives you more options on promotions you want to run.
Affiliates for Your Products
Plus, you are able to offer your own affiliate program and have other bloggers sign up to promote your online products!
This way not only can you make more money selling your own online product you can make sales from your affiliates too!
When you sign up for Teachable you can set up a “school” where all of your courses are.
From there you can decide whether you want to make a reader who is requesting to be an affiliate, an affiliate to your entire school and all of your courses or just an affiliate to one certain course.
Secure
One of the main reasons that I love Teachable is that I know it is safe. Some of the biggest names in the blogging world use Teachable.
Pat Flynn from Smart Passive Income, Melyssa Griffin from melyssagriffin.com, and of course Suzi from Start a Mom Blog all use Teachable.
Those folks wouldn’t just put their names on any product. They use and promote Teachable so I know that is the best option for me as well!
More Than Just Courses
You may be thinking that Teachable is just for courses. It actually can be used for more. You just have to think outside the box just a little.
Courses
First, yes it does work for courses. You can set up a curriculum and have your readers go through your course.
eBooks
Second, you can have it just be for your eBook. Maybe you want all of your teachings to be all on the same place and make it easy for them to find all you have to offer.
You can set up a “course” that is titled as an eBook and then once they purchase and log into that “course” it will consist of one lesson and that contains a PDF file of the eBook.
Now you can keep your eBooks and your courses altogether in one spot.
You can even go a bit further and have a welcome video thanking them personally for purchasing your eBook and instructing them on how to download the PDF file containing the eBook.
Opt-Ins
The third option is you could use it for free opt-ins for your readers. I offer a Free Pinterest Image Course in my Teachable School where I show students how to create Pinterest Images for their blogs.
This course is free so it is a freebie that I offer on my blog.
When a reader enrolls in the free course they are now synced and added to my email list with Convertkit. Then the reader is able to log in to my Teachable School and take the free course!
Then lastly, another option that I use Teachable for is my Feature Plans. I have an option on my blog to get featured on Mom Blog From Home. There are different package options to choose from such as if you just want to have your blog bio and image featured alongside other mom bloggers then it is free!
If you want to have access to other perks like our Private Facebook Group, your feature going out to my email list, adding a product link, or even adding an affiliate product link then you can purchase one of those packages that contain those perks.
The reader will be taken to my Teachable School and they will make the purchase from there. Then they will open the “course” and it contains a PDF will all of the information on how to submit their information for their feature.
It walks them through how to join the Private Facebook Group and even gives them a special “Featured On” image so they can add that to their blog!
This is a way I can use the platform that I have my other courses on too and keep all of my online products together in one place for my readers. It is also thinking outside the box and using it for more than just courses!
Integrates with most email marketing providers
Teachable integrates with most email marketing providers so you can keep everything tracking altogether. If a reader signs up for one of your courses and you are worried that you don’t have them added to your list because they didn’t sign up through an opt-in, then don’t worry!
Since Teachable integrates with email services then it will sync and add that reader that purchased your product from Teachable to your email list!
I use Convertkit as my email provider and it syncs perfectly with Teachable.
Then I have it set up within Convertkit to tag the subscriber with what online product they purchase so I don’t bother that reader with information on any specials running for that online product because they already purchased it.
This just helps keep my list organized and easy to track which readers have purchased which online products.
How to sell your own products
There is an array of different platforms you can use to sell your own products whether they are tangible or digital. Here are some of those platforms where you can sell your own products.
- Shopify
- Esty
- Teachable
- Your Blog/Website
- Squarespace
- Your Social Media Accounts
- Amazon
It depends on the product that you want to sell and your own preference as to which platform to use. For instance, if you like to handmake crafty things then I would suggest Etsy. Etsy is geared more towards the crafty/artsy/ DIY crowd.
If you want to sell digital products such as an online course, then, of course, I would suggest Teachable.
It really is up to you and which one suits you best. Here are some things to think about before choosing one.
- Do they charge you monthly, per sale, or both?
- Do they accept all major credit cards?
- Can they help handle returns and exchanges?
- Are they a secure site that your customers will feel comfortable using?
- Is it user-friendly on both your end with setting up the store and your customers end on buying the product?
- Do they help you with SEO and getting customers to your site?
Imagine how you want your store to look and make sure that is what that particular site will be able to offer you.
Everyone has their own style and what comes easily to one may not to another. Do your research and find what works best for you!
Where to Start
Here is a guide to help you get started on which products to create and where you should host them!
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Like I said before, creating products may not be for you at this time if you are a new blogger. You can focus on promoting other people’s products and just be an affiliate.
But, I do suggest later on to start creating your own products and making more money per sale.
Don’t forget to make sure whether you are an affiliate or you are creating your own products to add them to Pinterest and help get traffic to those products!
Learn how to drive Pinterest traffic to your blog or products right here!
Happy blogging!
Vanessa
