Monetizing a Blog With Premium Posts: Does It Work?
Hey just wanted to give you some feedback on this. I just bought and read volume 1. I was doing…
If you’re a reader of my affiliate marketing blog, Finch Sells, you will probably be aware that I’ve introduced paid content over the last 6 weeks.
I thought it’d be interesting to see how many of my regular readers converted in to paying customers, especially given how fellow marketers can be notoriously hard to sell to.
The results from the first 6 weeks have been promising. I’ve taken just under $15,000 in sales, which I’m hoping will double in the next couple of weeks (Volume 2 was released yesterday).
While $15,000 is certainly a nice side-income to go with my usual marketing projects, I think the most exciting development is simply discovering that the premium content angle can work.
I’ve spoken about the concept on Twitter and a few people have quite rightfully pointed out that paid content can only be successful as long as the standard of the posts is kept high. I couldn’t agree more with the need to deliver quality content, but this is one of the reasons I’ve chosen standalone products instead of the currently popular subscription model.
Subscription based Internet Marketing forums are all the rage right now, and I’ve had the pleasure of checking out most of them. Sites like Aff Playbook, Stack That Money and IMGrind all do a fantastic job of delivering valuable content – and I’m sure they make a lot more money out of it than the $15000/month my Premium Posts have delivered so far.
The issue for me is commitment. I could potentially roll out a subscription based service, but it would create an enormous burden of pressure to keep delivering excellent content month after month. There really is little margin for error with a crowd that is so tough to please.
It’s the type of model that is much more sustainable on a forum where you have dozens of different personalities offering their own useful advice.
I’ve gone with the Premium Posts on a themed basis, so users with particular interests can buy information that should hopefully be directly relevant to them. With no subscription deadline, I can take full creative control and spend however long it takes to deliver content that I’m proud of, and that I think my readers are going to enjoy.
I hope that by adding products slowly, and keeping the quality high, I can build up a sizeable ‘passive income’. I’m also hoping that readers who have been converted in to paying customers will become more loyal to the brand.
Ironically enough, after releasing Premium Posts Volume 1, my blog received 6 of it’s 10 highest traffic days in the history of the site. Far from driving readers away, it seemed to generate extra visitors.
Releasing the products has also allowed me to seize a lot of traffic from forums and blogs linking to the announcement, which will presumably help my SEO. Not that I give two shits about SEO, but it’s a nice bonus.
Perhaps the opportunity that excites me most is the idea of exporting the Premium Posts concept and implementing it on other blogs.
It’s constantly preached that creating products is the best way to produce a long-term stable income, no matter what kind of site you’re running. While it will definitely be a challenge to provide the same incentive for purchasing paid content as affiliate marketing brings (who wouldn’t want to make more money?), I believe the concept has legs on it.
It should be interesting to see the results over the next couple of months. I’m definitely looking forward to making blogging a more profitable cornerstone of my business.
Recommended This Week:
- Don’t forget to subscribe to the FinchSells RSS feed. And if you don’t already follow me, add FinchSells to your Twitter. Merci beaucoup!
$15000 is a amazing amount of extra income… Especially if it is per/ month, I guess it depends how much work that goes in to making the content, but I would be more than happy with that as a starting point, congrats!
Creating the content is fairly easy, if a little draining. I always enjoy the writing side.
It’s gathering the data and testing the theories that really takes it out of me.
For start 1000$ is enough for me
I don’t believe it will be an extra 15k income every month for just one ebook, its about to be more like a longtail. 15k in the first month (release), then its about to decrease but over the time the first ebook will be sold again and again. The revenue will strongly depend on the number of ebooks released over the time. Without buying in Im pretty sure, that it is worth the money! Finch, Im reading your blogs for a while now. You’re doing a great job! Keep it that way!
No, you’re right, it would be impossible to sustain 15k/month with a single release. I would have to release a new product every month to keep up with those numbers.
My current intention is to release a new set every 6 weeks to 2 months. I’m not sure how the income will vary a year from now if I have ten products available, but we’ll see!
Sure, its not only the number of ebooks published but the quality of the products, too. it depends on your marketing efforts and on the satisfaction of your customers as well. But im sure you already knew this, just to let Jonas know that its not that simple.. Congrats Finch!
It would be a very nice feeling to bring in extra money from the premiuum posts. Is $15,000 your comission from promoting the products online?
15,000 is beyond an extra chunk of change at the end of the month! I have been working hard myself to make money online, it takes a lot of patience and hardwork, but once you get there it pays off- congratulations!
Getting $15000 per month is just wow…. even if one zero is removed and its $1500 then too its wow for me…. 🙂
[…] Also Finch is banking pretty good with those Premium Posts. Maybe it’s time other bloggers to start providing real quality content over the drivel they post daily ( * just kidding John Chow doesn’t know anything worth paying money for.) […]
[…] Also Finch is banking pretty good with those Premium Posts. Maybe it’s time other bloggers to start providing real quality content over the drivel they post daily ( * just kidding John Chow doesn’t know anything worth paying money for.) […]
Making $15000 a month… and with the intention of releasing a new set every 6 weeks to 2 months I’m sure the result is going to be tremendous. Hope things go well as you’ve planned, Finch. You’re a very good writer and your skill can get you anywhere you want. Good luck!
[…] READ: “Monetizing a Blog with Premium Posts : Does it Work?” […]
I thought something like this would not work at all. Especially $15.000 worth, as that’s a lot of subscriptions.
I will surely buy one when the topic interests me 😉 Facebook one is pretty close, but not my priority atm.
You’ve got a great product. I got vol. 3 followed by 2 and 1 after using stuff from 3, and I don’t mind paying more then a book since most books are 80-90% BS, especially on this topic.
Hey just wanted to give you some feedback on this. I just bought and read volume 1. I was doing well with FB ads and got banned for reasons I still havent figured out(swear i wasnt doing anything blackhat).
Well I was only bummed temporarily because everytime a door in this biz closes I find a better one to walk through. I decided to start with POF and that’s what lead me to your site.
Now, I dont mind dropping a few bills on a nice tool, but I very rarely pay for info products. What compelled me to shell out $27 to read a blog post was simple. Your free posts WREAKED of honesty and useful information.
I didnt have any doubt that I was going to get my money’s worth, and I did.
Nice Job Bro. New fan/customer.