The Ultimate Blog Podcast - 88. Monetizing Your Blog with Digital Content and Courses with Molly Keyser

Episode Date: August 22, 2023

Are you ready to monetize your blog using digital content and courses? Well, today’s episode is a great one for you! On today’s episode, we are joined by Molly Keyser, a successful business owner, to share her wisdom on using digital products and courses to scale your blogging business. Molly helps business owners add passive digital products to their businesses so they can stop trading their time for money and help even more people by sharing their knowledge with the world! Tune in to hear Molly’s guidance and tips that she shares in today’s episode!Thanks for listening! Connect with us on Instagram: @sparkmediaconceptsJoin The Ultimate Blog Bootcamp, our online course and coaching that helps you build the blog that you have always dreamed of.Apply to the Ultimate Blog Membership! We would love to have you!ConvertKit is the email marketing hub for creators like you. Check out our affiliate link for more information.Check out the show notes (link below) for more information including links and resources mentioned in today's episode!SHOW NOTES: www.sparkmediaconcepts.com/episode88

Welcome to the Ultimate Blog Podcast with Amy Reinecke and Jennifer Draper. We're on a mission to empower women who want to start or grow their own blog. This podcast is for women who want to learn blogging basics and who crave inspiration and encouragement. Whether you're just getting started or have been a blogger for years, we're excited to welcome you into this space where we are passionate about creating community over competition. We are bloggers who want to encourage you to believe in your potential, step outside the norm and step into a life where you create your own schedule, your own success and your own story. Join us for weekly episodes as we navigate blogging

and work from home life all while raising a family and having some serious fun along the way. all while raising a family and having some serious fun along the way. We really love talking about how to make money here on the Ultimate Blog Podcast. And today we're going to talk about it again, because we think it's really important that you guys know how to make money blogging. It's one thing to start a blog, but the next thing really is for most people, how do I turn this into a business? And to do that, we brought on Molly Kaiser. Molly's first business was a photography studio. It was a massive success and other photographers started asking her how she did it. So she decided to package her knowledge into digital products. Those digital products turned into a $2 million per year business. This is why we have her on here, guys.

And next, people started asking her how she did that. Today, Molly helps business owners add passive digital products to their businesses so they can stop trading their time for money and help even more people by sharing their knowledge with the world. Molly currently lives in New Mexico with her husband, Aaron, and dog, Franklin. And you can often find them camping in the mountains, road tripping the Southwest, or traveling Europe. That sounds amazing. Welcome to the show, Molly. Thanks. I was just thinking that aged well because we just got back from a camping trip. Yeah. Thank you guys. I'm so excited to be here and chat all the fun things. Yes. So we were kind of chatting before we hit record that you actually started with blogging. And so I'd love to hear kind of like the Cliff Notes version of your content creation journey

and how that's kind of gone over the years. Yes. Okay. So when I... I mean, what's crazy... And I have never shared this, I don't think, anywhere. But I actually had a thought the other day when I was younger, I want to say like middle school. I remember we had this computer and, you know, obviously dial up internet like it was it was brutal. And my parents were like crazy.

And they had a login sheet like you can only be on the computer 30 minutes a day because they thought the computer was like going to kill you. And I remember my sister and I, we would use the audio, like the built-in audio app on the computer. And we had like a fake podcast. Like it didn't even go anywhere. And I don't know why, like, it's not like we listened to podcasts. Like we didn't even know podcasts were a thing. I don't think we were just like, well, Oh, I know. Cause it was like the radio show. We were like, welcome to the, the whatever show. And so I think I've always really liked creating content even before I knew it was a thing. And as a photographer, you know, I had to get on social media in some capacity to like bring in clients that way and get people to

know my business. And with photography, most photographers, they would blog certain photos from the photo shoot. So whether it's like a wedding or a portrait or whatever, and then the clients would be like, oh my God, like, look how great these are. And they would share them with everyone. So it was a really good marketing strategy. So I think that's where I was like found out about blogging. And so when other photographers started asking me, you know, what are you doing? How are you getting so many clients?

How is your studio making XYZ, whatever? I just decided I'll just start blogging about it. And the beginning, I didn't even really have an intention. I certainly did not have an intention to build a $2 million a year company. I did not think that was possible, for sure. But yeah, I just started blogging a couple times a week. And I really like writing. And so I just sort of leaned into that, telling stories about what was happening at my studio, what was working, what wasn't working. I told a lot of the drama to like leaving names out and things.

But people really just like stories. They want to feel like they're coming along on the journey with you. And it's really hard for me to remember the exact details because this was 2014. And I wasn't good at tracking data back then. In fact, online business was kind of like a pretty new thing. But I do remember I had in my head, I want 5,000 people on my email list before I ever even launch anything, which by the way, don't do that. Just start selling something right away.

by the way, don't do that. Just start selling something right away. But I remember within those six months, I did get the 5,000 on my email list. And so if you're consistent with it, and you're telling a story, and you're really building a community with your blog, it's crazy how fast you can really not only grow the following of your blog, but turn them into email subscribers as well. Yeah. Email subscribers, I think, the following of your blog, but turn them into email subscribers as well. Yeah. Email subscribers are, I think, are like the lifeline of our business. Yeah. I remember when I hit a million page views or whatever, I was just like, oh... It wasn't even like a data that I was tracking. I was just like,

email subscribers, email subscribers. So that was really your focus in the beginning was email subscribers? Yeah. I don't know. It's hard. Like I said, it's hard to... Oh, I think it's because with my photo business, I already was building an email list. So I already knew the power of an email list because with my photo business, I mean, I have tens of thousands of people on my email list. And that was a big thing that I taught photographers in the beginning because a lot of them are, how are you getting clients? I'm like, an email list. Like most people weren't, heck, most people still aren't doing this. Like, I don't know why. I'm in a few groups with some really big name like YouTubers. I even listened to a podcast yesterday that had a TikToker on there that had 5 million

followers. And she said she only makes $250,000 a year. And I'm like, dude, like if these people would just do a freaking email list. Yeah. There's no reason why, you know, if you have 5 million TikTok followers, you should be making millions of dollars per year because you can... I mean, when I hit 1 million, I only had 50,000 email subscribers. So in a year. So yeah, anyways. That's really incredible though. I mean, I think that just speaks to the power of really connecting to your community.

And you've done such a great job of that. What are some of the things that you did to encourage people to sign up for your email list? Oh, yeah. So I feel like I always put a lot of my creativity into this. And that's what I would recommend that you guys do. Instead of putting your creativity into creating like a billion different products, which I've made that mistake also, put your creativity into creating really good lead gen like freebie offers. So I made a lot of different ones. And then it was pretty clear over time, like, oh, these one or two were like by far the

most popular. So then I was able to just like cut the noise and just focus on those. The most popular ones was anything that's like done for you or like a tool of some kind. Gone are the days of like 10 things not to do for your food blog. Like people don't really care about that anymore. I definitely have made that freebie, like 10 mistakes with your photo business. But like, yeah, no one really wants to download that anymore. The number one most popular thing was a posing guide that I gave away for free. So it was like my top 50 selling poses or something like that. So you could do, you know, if you're a gardener, it could be like the list of tools that you need to get started with your garden or something like that. People also like to have a list to go buy things, you know, because

then they're like, Oh, I'm a gardener now, or I'm a photographer now, or I'm a blogger now. So yeah, the posing guide. And I did also have a, it was called Break into Boudoir Toolkit. So it was for boudoir photographers. And it had a list of just like things to get started. Because a lot of my clients were photographers who wanted to add on this certain type of shoot that I was teaching them. So I think that's great advice to just get your community engaged by giving them something that they need.

So providing a solution that is valuable to them in their business. So for you, it's your business, but for people listening, it might be, it's gonna be dependent upon your niche. So if you're a food blogger, that might be some of the examples that you mentioned. But just brainstorm some of those different ideas that you can utilize in order to provide a solution to somebody. Because I think you're right. There is a lot of noise,

especially if you're on social media. There's a lot of noise coming at us. So you do have to get creative and think outside of the box of something that's really going to make it worth it to them to join your email list. Because our emails are also bombarded with a lot of different things. So keep it engaged. Keep it exciting. Keep it to be an email that they want to open. And that's just going to, in turn, improve your business. I'd love to dive into that. So when you shifted from being a blogger to creating more digital content courses and things like that, what did that look like for you? Was it difficult for you to come up with content ideas? How did that look? Because I think that that's a lot of people... What's holding them back is, I don't know what I would create a course on or what would people actually want to learn from me? Or they have imposter syndrome and they're like, why me? I think that the confidence is something that can be lacking there that people aren't sure how they could serve people. So what would your advice be for

somebody who might be in that space? Yeah. I remember telling my friend like, oh, all these photographers are coming and asking me questions, but I don't feel like I really know anything. And she's like, you built a multi-six figure studio. Like, obviously, you know, something I'm like, yeah, but I'm not making like the most out of every photographer in the world. Like I genuinely believe that I believe that because I wasn't like the number one in the entire world that I had nothing to share with people, which is crazy. Like you just need to be a bit ahead of where, you know, your followers are. And so if you look at it, whatever your niche is,

your followers, most of them are probably going to be at like zero or just getting started. So even if you've achieved like whatever level one is in your head, even if it's not level 10, you know, you can still teach them level one, level two, you know, whatever that is. And so I remember what actually got me kind of over that was I started really researching the different competitors in the space. And I started buying their products because I wanted to see what they were doing, but also I was my ideal client. So like, I also wanted their stuff. So I was like, Oh, like cool opposing guide, you know, I'll buy this for my studio, you know, and within doing that, and maybe this sounds sort of like cocky, but I would download this posing guide, for example.

And I was like, it was $200. This was back like when digital products were like just starting. And so no one could get away with charging $200 for five photos in a PDF. There wasn't even any description on how to do the pose or how to make money with the pose or how to sell the pose. It was just photos. And I remember feeling so ripped off. Like I paid $200. I could have just went to your website and looked at these photos for free. I can't believe I just paid for that. And that is what fueled me to be like, okay, if this lady is so successful and she's selling what I think is not a good product for $200, can you imagine how good it would be if I just sold a really good product that actually helped people? And so I would recommend that for everyone listening as well is go out there and look at your

competitors or people doing similar things to you. Look at what they're doing and then ask yourself, how can I do this better? How can I do this my way? Whether it's a freebie or a paid product or whatever that is. And also, since you guys are bloggers, I'm assuming you at least have a blog following, or maybe you've started an email list, which awesome job to you. Survey your audience. So send out some kind of a survey. You can just use Google Forms. It's free. And ask them questions. What is your biggest pain point? What are you stuck at right now with XYZ, whatever your niche is? If you achieved the result that they want, how would your life be different in six months from now? Ask them all these different survey questions and the product that you should create will present

itself. And that's the best way to do it. Because if you create a product based on what you think people want or what you want to make, it's not going to be successful because it's not about you. It's about helping your followers. And that's really the way that it's going to be successful. That's so important. I think that we forget that because we just get so excited about things that we're offering. We forget to ask that question. And so I think that's just such excellent advice. And the cool thing is when you ask people, they want to give you their opinion. And so if you ask, you're probably going to get some feedback. Even if you just have 100 or 200 people on your email list, ask them because they're going to want to engage with you. They're there because they want to follow you. So they're going to want to have some input on what you're creating for them. what you're creating for them. Yeah. And also 100 people on your email list could be five.

It depends what you're selling. But if you're selling a course or something, that could be... If you sell a 997 course, that could be five sales. That could be $5,000. So you really don't need to have a massive following. And also, I think you should start selling something right away. Because let's say you wait until you have, I don't know, 20, 30,000, whatever. And then you're like, oh, by the way, I have this thing for sale. Some people might be like, wait a minute, this has been free this whole time. Now I feel like this isn't what I signed up for. And they might be mad. And so you want people to know right away, on my YouTube channel, in every description, I'm sharing freebies, but also my paid products. And people never complain about like, oh, you're charging.

It's like, no, of course I am. It's a business. And I want people to know that from day one. So just building all that clarity into what they're getting when they sign up for your email list or when they follow you, you just are very clear about what you offer and the value you offer, but that you also offer things for them to purchase. Absolutely. I think being unapologetic about that is really important. And I think when we started, so all of us started several years ago, that felt a little more scary to come out and be like, pay me. But now it is like, this is a business. This is a legitimate business.

You can make a legitimate business being a creator. And there are hundreds of thousands of people doing it every single year. And so knowing that you are worth putting a price tag on the products that you are creating, because it is taking time and energy to do that. And you are essentially providing a good or a service to someone that is adding value to their lives. Being unapologetic about that, I think, is one of the first hurdles that a lot of people need to get over. At least I did when I first started. I started on social in 2015. And so I spent 2016, beginning of 2017, a little nervous about putting up an affiliate link even or something like that. It was something that I felt guilty about. But I think that you're right. What you just said is because I had gone so long offering just free

content that then sharing something with an affiliate link or something felt almost like, oh my gosh, what are they going to say? I was almost embarrassed to do it. But I wish I would have had that advice right away. And what happened? Did people show up at your house with pitchforks? had that advice right away. And what happened? Did people show up at your house with pitchforks? No. Yeah. Because people, when they like you, they want to buy your stuff. And when people pay, they pay attention. So they'll actually get better results. We know all these things. But yeah, that's what's so cool. You're so fearful. But it's like no one showed up at your house with pitchfork. They probably bought your thing. Yeah. And if they didn't, then they can always unsubscribe or they can

leave your community. And that's okay. They can keep getting the free stuff. Whatever. Yes. That's totally fine. There's space for all kinds of people in your community. And I think knowing that, but not being afraid to level up a little bit and serve those people who want more from you, I think is really, really great encouragement that you're providing today. I love that. Allow the people that want more from you to be able to have more from you. That's it right there. Yeah. So when you're thinking about a new product, let's say somebody's in the very beginning stages and it's like, okay, Molly has encouraged me. I'm going to create my first

digital product. I'm going to create an ebook. I know that you've had success with an ebook. So that's why I'm picking that. So I'm going to create an ebook. What is your process for starting that? Is it that survey first? Or is it looking at content that you've created that's really done well? Or how do you decide what to create first and foremost? Yeah, definitely the survey. There's a lot of other ways you can do it though. So I was a photographer, had my studio. While I was blogging, but before I really was selling things,

people were doing a little bit of coaching sessions with me. And I was doing like one-on-ones and also some like workshops in my studio. And I realized not everyone can do that. However, if you're like a food blogger, I know there's this lady, Maria Emmerich, and she lived in Wisconsin where I used to live. She would invite people into her home to like sample her recipes. And she would also give what really we know as, as the webinar, but she would kind of give it in person and she would

sell her books and things. And so I really don't think it matters what your niche is. I think it's possible for you to think of a way. And I'm not saying you have to do this forever. You certainly don't, but I think you're going to grow a lot faster if you are able to do some sort of higher touch in the beginning, just to learn what people are thinking, what their problems are. A survey is good, but if you can go deeper, it's going to be even better. So for me, it's like, I knew what my ideal client struggles were because number one, I was my ideal client, which made things a lot easier. Yeah. Number two, you know, since I had all those photographers in my studio, they would completely open up to me,

you know, we weren't recording it or anything. So they would really tell me it wasn't surface level. Like I need more money. Okay. That's nice. Everyone thinks they need more money. It's like, what's really, why are you a photographer? Why do you actually want to help people? Like, what are the actual underlying things? Like, is it because you want to send your kids to college? Is it because, you know, your husband's sick? Like there's always those like underlying personal reasons that people, you know, want to solve whatever the problem is. And so it's really your job to figure out what really is that problem? Not a surface level problem. Not like, oh, I want more recipes. Like, I mean, that could be good, but that's not like really a problem. Like maybe their problem is someone actually just shared with me that their niche is like,

I have GI problems. And so I share recipes that help people overcome those GI problems. And I'm like, that, that is a good... So how I came up with my products really was just that, listening, really truly listening to my ideal clients. And then the ebook that I created that really went wild, it was $59 to $97, depending on when we had it on sale. And it did over $500,000, which is like... I literally cannot even believe that, to be honest. It's just crazy. That is amazing. Yeah, it's crazy. And all I thought was... I wasn't even thinking like, oh, I'm going to make this much money with this product or I'm going to... That was never what had me start my most successful product. So if you're catching a theme here,

that's really what it is. All I thought to myself was, okay, the majority of these photographers I'm talking to, what they want is more clients, more bookings. And so you can look at your niche and think, what's the problem? And so I just created a PDF and I didn't share like, this is how I market my studio. And this is how I do everything. No, no, no. It was just, this is one strategy that's working to get us more clients right now. And it was just a 13-page PDF. And it took them like, these are the exact posts,

word for word, where you should post them, the exact images you should use. Like everything was like step by step. It wasn't, I think a lot of people think of an ebook and they're like, I'm going to write an ebook for Kindle. I'm like, no, that's like literally not at all what we're talking about. It's not a book. It's just a PDF that's going to solve a problem for someone. And so when photographers would buy this for like $59 And they would book, you know, I had people saying they were making multiple six figures a year from this freaking $59 ebook. Oh my gosh.

I probably should have charged more for it. But obviously, what do you think they went and did? They told literally everyone they could. Like every photo Facebook forum back in the day, like you could search for my ebook and there was threads and threads and threads and threads of people talking about it. And so I didn't even ever have to really do any marketing, like other than sharing it to my email list originally. If you actually get someone a result that's worth talking about, and your product is actually good, like not just you think it's good, like you'll know it's good

if you're making 500k and you're not marketing. It's crazy what an actual product can do when you're really getting someone a result. Yeah. I think that you nailed it in the beginning of all that by saying, you have to know who you're talking to. You cannot be ambiguous about who you're talking to. So when we talk about really understanding your target audience, your ideal reader, about really understanding your target audience, your ideal reader, this is why. This is why that's so crucial and so important. Because if you have that mentality of, I'm just going to serve everybody and I want everybody to like me and I want everybody to be here. I think you kind of actually shoot yourself in the foot a little bit and you

can stunt your growth because it's hard to talk to the masses. But when you can really niche that down and know exactly the pain points of the people that you're serving, you can create products like what you're talking about, Molly, that they're going to tell other people who are like-minded just like them, who are having the same problem. And then that's the snowball effect that you experienced. I love that because yeah, it wasn't like I made a PDF, like how to market your business. It was how to book more boudoir clients, like very specific. And I really want to piggyback off what you said in my blog from day one, like I was 100% myself. So like some people might say, like I'm aggressive or I'm like too much or whatever. Like I just was that person in my blog.

I swore in my blog because that's who I am. Like a lot of my friends were also boudoir photographers. So like once you nail down your ideal client and it's really specific, they are all gonna be kind of into the same thing. So like my niche, you know, people were like, oh, she swears, like cool. Like I totally swear too, you know?

Like, and so yeah, definitely don't be afraid to be yourself. With my current business where I help content creators monetize their content. It didn't start out that way. I started out just helping people with courses and like, I didn't really even know who I was helping. And it was really hard to get momentum with it until I actually understood who my ideal client was with my boudoir business or for boudoir education. who my ideal client was with my boudoir business or for boudoir education. I think that's why I was able to grow it so quickly is because I never, I'm not saying this won't happen for you. It's

okay if you fumble with your ideal client, but I think I grew so fast because I just knew from day one and that was maybe luck, but also just, I was living that niche, if that makes sense. And so if you don't know your ideal client from day one, it's okay. You'll discover it over time, but you won't explode your business until you discover it. And my husband and I were actually discussing niches last night. I know we're nerds and we were talking about... We do it too. You're cool. I know. Because I was like, how do I help someone find their niche if they're not in the boat of like, oh, I'm already a photographer and I help photographers, you know, whatever. And so we really thought of like three different

things. And I'm about to record an episode on my podcast about this. So I have the three things right in front of me. Ask yourself, what communities are you a part of already? Like existing communities. And by the way, if you're not, you got to get out there. You got to start joining communities. You have to start pursuing your hobbies, find the things you like to do, right? Then ask yourself, what are the problems you're seeing in that community? Then the third thing is what problem

did you overcome for yourself or somebody else that you can help those people in the community do the same thing? That I think is the key to finding your niche because like I said, when I started this business, I was like, oh, I help people with courses. And I I said, when I started this business, I was like, oh, I help people with courses. And I remember thinking, well, there really aren't any communities of just like... There are communities of course creators, but that wasn't

who I was trying to help. I was trying to help people who didn't already have a course. And there weren't communities for that. And I was just like, oh, well, I'll create one. And so I did. And guess what? It never really had any engagement. And so I want you guys to please learn from this mistake because I don't want you to waste time like I did. If there is not already communities where your ideal clients are congregating, then it is not a niche. I repeat, it is not a niche. You need to find where there are already communities existing. I think that's really good advice that I've never heard before. I think that's really good advice that I've never heard before.

I think that's such a great way to look at it because I think sometimes we worry, like we have to come out with this amazing new idea that nobody's ever thought of before I can have any success. And that's just not true. You want to solve a problem that somebody already has and that they're already talking about

so they can share the solution with their friends too. And then you don't have to work as hard with the marketing piece of it. Absolutely. Yeah. Are you a blogger and looking for a community of bloggers to network and learn from? We are so excited to share with you that we have created a space for people just like you to learn, connect, and grow in our blogging business. It's called The Ultimate Blog Membership, and we would love to have you join us. The Ultimate Blog Membership is a monthly membership that includes two coaching calls

each month and a forum to ask questions and get answers from both of us and others in the community. Each month, we have a coaching call that will help you learn how to grow and improve your blog by bringing in guest experts and coaching ourselves on topics that will help your business thrive. The other live call each month is a Q&A call where you can hop on and connect with other members and discuss live questions that you have or troubleshoot any areas that need assistance. This community has been incredibly encouraging and motivating since we created it in January of 2022. And we are excited for you to apply to join us. If you are interested in joining us, click the link in our show notes for

more information and the application to become part of the group. We want to make sure that we can support you the best. So we have just a few questions that we need you to answer to make sure we'd be a good fit. We are so excited to connect with you even more in the Ultimate Vlog Membership. Check the show notes to apply today. When you are creating these courses, digital products, things like that, and not so much with digital content here, but I'm talking more about courses, I guess. Do you do any beta testing for a course? Do you pre-sell a course prior to actually creating the course and learn what people need? Or do you create the course and then sell it? Yeah, I absolutely recommend that you should pre-sell everything. Honestly, I don't know why people fight this so much because it's

just easier. It's literally easier. You will make more money and you will know that your thing works without wasting the time to create it. I think as creatives, we're the type of people that want to create things. And so we get excited about the actual creating of the thing. And so we're like, oh, well, I don't need to test this. I just want to create it. I want to get into Canva. I want to start making the graphics. That's cool. Like if it's a hobby,

but if you actually want to get paid and you want to actually make money, which you deserve to make and you should want to do, then you need to pre-sell it. And it's so much easier. So for example, it doesn't matter if it's an ebook or a membership or a course, it really truly doesn't matter. But again, figure out what the problem is that you're going to solve and think about what's the best type of digital product to solve that. And I kind of want to give you guys some examples because this is something that I get asked a lot,

probably like my number one question. Like this is the thing I want to do, but what type of product, right? And so I just give you guys one of the examples here. So I created my course on courses and I noticed a lot of people wanted help with growing their following. And so I thought, okay, well, what's a good way to teach something that changes literally every single freaking day. Like if you're teaching Facebook ads or social media or lead gen of any kind, like I commiserate with you because that stuff changes. It'll change tomorrow. So I thought, what's the best way to do that? A membership because a membership is a way that people will pay you ongoing. And it's an easier way for you to just be like, Hey, this is the

new thing that's working. Pop the training into the membership. Boom. Versus a course really needs... Well, all your products need to lead them from where they are to the result you're getting them. But really, a course really needs to be that way. It needs to be step by step by step by step. And so if you're teaching Instagram or something... Are there people out there with Instagram courses that are successful? Yes.

However, if I was doing it, I would not do a course because it's just changes too often. Like I see these poor creators creating these Instagram courses and every three to six months, they're like, I locked myself in a cabin in the woods to redo my entire course. I'm like, well, like just create a membership. And I love courses, but yeah, you have to think about what's the problem you're solving and then what's the best way to deliver that thing. But yeah, you have to think about what's the problem you're solving and then what's the best way to deliver that thing. So with my model call ebook, the 500K one, it was an ebook because it was just one thing

that I was teaching. It wasn't like how to market your whole photography business. It was just like, this is one piece that can get you more clients. Oh, and by the way, if you want all the other pieces, you can join my course. And that's another way that you can... And upsell. And I mean, we looked at the data. It was 80% of the people that bought that monocle ebook had bought our courses.

So clearly, if you get people a result with a low price product, they will trust you and they will want to buy all of your other things too. So encouraging. And I think once again, it's that permission for an upsell. So encouraging. And I think once again, it's that permission for an upsell. Don't be afraid to show up in a bigger space or more touch points with a larger product, or that can deliver better results for them. I think it's also okay to have multiple price points in regards to digital content, because not everybody can come in on your highest paid. So for instance, we have the Ultimate Blog Bootcamp that teaches people how to start a blog, how to create content and do the basics of SEO and keyword research.

But not everybody can afford that course, which is why we created the Blog Depot, which is teaching those foundations. And then they get a list of our basic resources that we recommend to everybody to start a blog. And so some people don't want the handholding, they just want the basics. And so they can get that with the Blog Depot. But that was something that was kind of hard for us, I think, to decipher when we were changing that last year was, who is this serving? And it came down to the foundations are really, really important to us. And teaching those foundations are really, really important to us.

And not everybody wants the support of a larger course that we offer with Bootcamp. So I think that your advice there is spot on. Just having that variability in your business as well. Yeah, for sure. And with my current business, I just have 2 products. Because like I said, I've learned. I was the girl who had 100 products at one point. Oh my gosh. Do not do that. That is so much to manage.

Because guess what? How often do you think those products are going to be revamped and made better? Not often. That's a hundred products. So right now I just have a membership and I have a course and I started with the course, but I listened to my students and I learned like, oh, they need, they also need help with follower growth. They also need help with this. So I'm going to make a stepping stone that comes before the course

to get people ready for the course. And not only to upsell them, but also like if I get them ready and prep them and get their businesses to where they're ready for a course, then they're going to have more results. I'll get more testimonials. Business will make more money. We'll help more people. So yeah, I definitely think you don't need to have a value ladder in terms of like 100 different fricking products. But I think start with one and then listen. Everything's all about listening. And then create... Maybe it needs to be a tier before or a tier after. But you definitely don't need... I mean, I personally don't think you need more than like two products, but obviously... I should say you don't need more than two if you're under like $10 million per year. Obviously, if you want to really scale up,

then you might want to consider more. But yeah, I mean, not only is not everyone ready to buy something expensive, but also let's say you're just like, oh, I think I'm going to start a blog. something expensive. But also let's say you're just like, oh, I think I'm going to start a blog. And you're brand new to it. You might not be ready to commit to a course. It's not even about the money. And if you can offer them an ebook or... What was your small digital product? What type was it? So we have a beginner course called The Blog Depot. It's like a mini course. It's like a mini course. Yeah. So if you can even just get them one little result on that thing. I remember when I first started blogging, I bought this book off Amazon because I'm telling you, there was not a

lot of digital products back then. There just wasn't. And it was called Pro Blogger by Darren Rouse. And I don't know that it's very accurate for today because it's a lot about old school ad techniques and stuff. But I remember I just, I just got one like result from that book. And then I was like, I'm a blogger. And then I bought a ton of stuff about blogging. So yeah, give them a little taste, get them like one or two or three little wins, and then they'll be ready to buy the other thing. Email marketing is an essential piece of blogging. Growing your email list is just as important as SEO and keyword research, in our opinion.

And in order to grow your list, you need a reliable platform that will allow you to connect with your community and turn them into email subscribers. That's where ConvertKit comes in. ConvertKit is the go-to marketing hub for creators like you that helps you grow and monetize your audience with ease. ConvertKit allows you to grow your audience and reach, put your funnels on autopilot and earn an income with your email list, all with an easy to use platform that is approachable, even for beginners. Click the link in our show notes to learn more about the different plans that ConvertKit has and how it can help you propel your business to the next level. I think that brings up a question for me in terms of once you've created this product,

you've got people joining or purchasing and using it. So you're probably starting to get some feedback and questions or finding out maybe things aren't working as smoothly as you thought. How often do you go back in and update? And how do you know what's worth updating or not? I think that's one of our challenges that we face is we don't want to just react to every single question that we get from somebody and think, oh, we got to fix this. That's what we would do all day. But how do you decipher what is worth spending the time updating, revamping? We don't want to be locking ourselves in cabins for months at a time to be able to constantly update this. That's a true story. I saw somebody post about that on Instagram. I was like, what?

Okay. First of all, I love this question. I've never been asked this question before, which blows my mind. It's so important to make your products good. You know what I mean? We've all bought the product where it's like, oh, I could have just had that for free. That's a piece of crap. And we don't want to be that person. So okay. With my business, my business now is called Freedom Creator. I have revamped my programs once per year since I started. So my course, Profitable Courses, is on version three or four. And it's really important to me, like I said, instead of putting my time into creating more products, I'm just putting my time into making the products better. And that's the only way that you're going to win.

Because this isn't 2013. You have competitors. You can't just put out a product and they're like, I'll buy this because the only freaking thing that exists. No, there's a lot of things that exist now. So like you have to actually be the best. And that doesn't mean that like, let's say you're in Tony Robbins space. It doesn't mean you have to be better than Tony Robbins. You just have to be like your own best version of what you're doing or like yourself or whatever that is. So I don't want you to be like overwhelmed by that. But you know, for me, it's like, I need to have the best course on courses, at least on the strategy that

I'm teaching. You know what I mean? And so, okay, what I do is I use Asana, but it doesn't matter if you use like Trello, Notion, whatever, it doesn't matter. I have a board that is like updates. And so when I see somebody that either gives feedback or they're like really stuck on something, or if I see the same question, like over and over and over, by the way, if you're getting a lot of questions, it doesn't mean people like really want to talk to you. Like it means like they don't understand something in your program, which I'm sure they want to talk to you. I'm kind of joking, but basically in Asana, I keep like a list of all that stuff over the year. And so I'll be like, okay. And I'll rank it. Like this question has been asked 10 times, or this question has been asked five times or whatever. And by the way, I do this myself. And I probably always will, like, because if you're the one creating the course,

I don't feel like you should farm that out to your team. I think that it's important for you to really understand like what's actually happening on the ground with your students. And then I also send out surveys. Also, every single module in my course has a survey at the end of it where they can share like what was their top takeaway? What was the most confusing? What do they think would be better?

Are there any download materials that you wish existed in this module? And people really, they're happy to share their feedback, you know? And the cool thing is the way that I sell my course, membership is different because you're like paying ongoing. So of course, you're going to get all the updates as you're in. With my course, they get all of the updates that I make for the lifetime of the program. So of course, they're going to want to give feedback because then I'll go and create that thing and then they'll have it. And I actually do. And so they'll see that I actually listen and I go and I create that thing for them. Then they're like, wow. And then they want to give you even

more feedback. But yeah, so once a year, I look at all the data that I've compiled. Yeah. So once a year, I look at all the data that I've compiled. And then one thing that I do is when I create, not when I pre-sell my course, because that's a whole different ball script. And so once I've compiled all the data, I can just go into the scripts and make the updates. And here's a little nugget for you guys. There's an app called Descript, D-E-S-C-I-P-T, whatever, Descript. Wait, I forgot an R in there. Descript, okay.

I'm more of a typer than a visual speller. But basically what I did when I did my last updates for my course is I, since I had already updated a couple of times, I didn't have to do anything like crazy. So let's say people had a question that they were confused about. I went into the video using descript and I was able to overdub my voice. I know like if you don't have the mind is blown emoji right now, like you probably don't understand what I just said. So I bring the course video that I've already recorded into Descript. Let's say I said, you're going to need a following of a hundred subscribers. Now let's say I've learned maybe they need a following of 500, which PS I'm literally

just making this up right now. This is not like truth. I can just go in and highlight over the word 100 and type in 500. And I've uploaded a version of my voice and it will just overdub my voice. Oh, goodness sakes. Yeah. So I don't have to rerecord any of my videos. I can literally just overdub whatever I want into the video. What? Work smarter, not harder. Yeah, I sat at a coffee shop. My husband was at his strongman competition, sat at a coffee shop,

redid my entire course in like two hours. That was pretty cool. Oh my gosh. I want to hug you through the computer. I'm not, because we just updated the ultimate blog of the camp in December and we had to rerecord a lot. It sucks. Yeah.

And you know, in the beginning, you might have to do that because let's say you start helping people and you're like, oh crap. Like maybe your whole entire framework needs work or something. But once you get it to where it's pretty good and you just have questions, yeah, you could just edit your videos. It's pretty cool. Nice. We do something very similar with what you said. So it was encouraging to hear you say that. We use ClickUp and we have a section in ClickUp with course updates that we go into if we get a common question or questions that are asked a lot or something that people just quite aren't understanding. Because blogging is technical and not everyone is technical, but there's a lot of people who want to have a blog. And so sometimes that technical side is kind of challenging for people to understand. So we can go back to the aha moment

because I really like working with techie people. Vloggers are techie. I like that. That's cool. There you go. Join my email list. I shall help you. Awesome. Well, I think you've just given people kind of permission and encouragement to go forth and do the thing, sit down and brainstorm. And I know that they can learn a ton from you, Molly. So can you please tell our audience how they can connect with you and learn more about creating their own digital content? Yeah, for sure. So my website is freedomcreator.co. I'm not cool enough for the com. That's what I always say. And I have lots of great freebies on there. So I have one that will actually help you

move your blog followers or social media followers to email subscribers. I give you a free funnel, free email script, free Canva template, everything to make your freebie and move those people over. And then I also have a free training on how to monetize your following with a course. There's a bunch of other trainings on there. So freedomcreator.co. Get your free learning on. I don't know. Awesome. We will put that in the show notes. And thank you for being so transparent. We love these really honest conversations when people can come on and just share like, Hey, this is what worked. This is what didn't. Don't do this. So thanks for just being real and, hey, this is what worked. This is what didn't. Don't do this. So thanks for just being like real and vulnerable. These are our favorite kind of conversations.

Yeah, of course. I mean, I can't be any other way. I'm an open book to a fault. And I just want to say thank you guys for really thinking of such amazing questions. You guys are really great hosts. I look forward to being a subscriber and listening to more of these more episodes.

Awesome. Thanks, Mel. Thank you. Thanks so much for tuning in today. If you'd like to continue the conversation about blogging with us, please find us on Instagram at Spark Media Concepts. You can also sign up for our weekly newsletter where we share blogging tips and inspiration. You can sign up by finding the link in the show notes. For those of you who are ready for the next step and want to start your own blog, join the waitlist for the ultimate blog bootcamp. The link to join the waitlist

is also in the show notes. Go out and make today a great day.