Simple Blogging Tips and Strategies for Beginners

A recap of the top 10 things I learned from launching my first digital course.

PHEW! We did it. If you were along with me for the ride (AKA, in my Facebook group or on my email list) you’re well-aware that I just finished up the first launch of the Mama Blogger Bootcamp.

I learned SO much from this course launch and because Organized Blogging is all about transparency, I want to share with you my biggest takeaways. Let’s dive in!

My Course Launch Strategy

To preface, I want to share the general strategy I used to promote my course.

Promotion consisted almost entirely of promoting my webinar. I only promoted my actual course the last 3 days of the promotion period, which lasted 10 days. When it ended, I closed registration to the course.

I promoted my webinar in my Facebook group, Facebook & Instagram ads, and emails to my list.

I hosted my sales pages, webinar registration, and course on Thinkific, which I LOVE. I chose their middle ($99) plan so I could offer payment plans. I’m glad I did because half of my students used the payment plan option.

Building Your Community is Crucial

I’ve said this before, but if you have a blog with no active readership or community, it feels like you’re talking to an empty room. In January, I decided to start a Facebook group for Organized Blogging where I share blogging tips. It was the best decision I could have made to start growing my readership and community.

I’ve made some amazing connections with lots of ladies in the group, and ultimately, each one of my new students is from my Facebook group. If I hadn’t started cultivating those relationships in advance, I might not have had any sales!

Just Freaking Launch It

I started working on the Mama Blogger Bootcamp in January 2019. I spent a couple weeks planning, 6ish weeks creating slides and materials for the course, and a couple weeks recording course audio. It was a loooong process.

At the beginning of April, I realized that I hadn’t looked at my launch schedule for awhile and I was a 2 weeks behind. Oops! So, I decided to run a super small pre-sale (and got 2 sales!), and get my webinars on the calendar.

I didn’t (and still don’t) have all of my video lessons edited together, but since the content of my course is dripped out over 6 weeks, I still have plenty of time to finish it.

I wanted to have EVERYTHING done ahead of time, but in reality, it wasn’t necessary – it was an excuse to put off my launch. Don’t be like me. 🤣

Scheduling Promotion Material is Crucial

While creating my course, I was also going through Amy Porterfield’s Digital Course Academy. Fortunately, she gives schedules and ideas for all of your launch materials, from ads to emails.

So, I spent about a week and a half crafting ALL my launch emails. All in all, it was almost 30 emails targeting different groups of people.

But, because I was able to schedule it all ahead of time, I didn’t have to think about it during the 10-day launch. That was a HUGE stress reliever and I highly recommend getting as much scheduled as possible ahead of time.

You’ll Be Wiped Out Afterwards

I feel like I still have a course launch hangover. 🤣

Not only have I been working my tail off to create this course and all the launch material, but I’ve had to exude an insane amount of energy during the webinars, in my emails, social media posts, live videos, etc.

I am surprisingly introverted and while I have no problem exuding energy, I usually need to crawl into a hole for awhile after!

Email Deliverability is Crucial

Email deliverability is how many of the emails you send out are landing in your recipients’ inbox vs spam folder. I found out on Day 6 or 7 of my launch that some of my webinar registrants weren’t getting any confirmation emails or info to join the webinar.

UGH.

So, I got in contact with ConvertKit and made a few tweaks that should help my deliverability. Which is great, but they couldn’t finish the tweaks right away, so it didn’t go into effect until after my promotion ended.

I have no idea how much that affected my launch, but it makes me wonder how many people didn’t receive all the emails and what difference it could have made for my sales!

Only Spend Money on Ads If You Know What You’re Doing

One of the things that Amy recommended in Digital Course Academy was to spend at least $25/day on ads to make it worth it. So, by the end of the promotion, I spent almost $300.

Which was hard because I’m not rich. 🤣

There was a lot of guidance within the course on how to target your niche, but I still had a hard time getting creative and figuring out exactly how to do it. I ended up editing my audience settings 3 times in an effort to better reach my target audience.

My ads didn’t perform as well as the average, so I was disappointed with that! However, I was able to grow my email list from 195 to 267 subscribers during the launch, so that was a nice boost!

If I were to re-launch my course again for the first time, I probably wouldn’t have spent that much money on ads without learning more and playing around in Facebook’s Ad Manager first.

Plus, none of my course sales came as a result from Facebook ads. However, they could be candidates for future sales!

Being in Contact with Your Community is Crucial

You can have an email list, Instagram, Facebook community, etc., but if you’re not engaging with them regularly, you might as well not have them at all.

I don’t mean simply posting on Instagram. I mean, chatting in DMs, chatting in the comments, making actual connections.

I’ve learned from this experience that it’s a million times easier to sell to a warm audience than a cold audience. All my sales were from students who were already warmed up to me, my teaching style, and my products.

Focus on the Positives

If you remember from the income report I emailed out in April, I HATE sales. Sales are not my forte. I remember back to elementary school when I would have rather cleaned toilets for hours on end than sell magazines door-to-door.

So, the fact that I was able to convince 6 amazing ladies how this course can change their life is a pretty huge accomplishment for me.

I only launched this blog in December of 2018. In 6 months, I’ve built and email list of almost 300, a Facebook group of almost 150, and an Instagram of almost 500.

And I sold my course to 6 people when sales are the bane of my existence.

I also felt super confident selling my course on a live webinar. Like, I wasn’t even nervous. What the WHAT?!?

Do I wish I would have sold more? YES! Who wouldn’t?! But, I am choosing to CELEBRATE in this small victory, knowing that I can re-launch this course as many times as I want and refine my strategy each time.

What I’ll Do Differently Next Time

I’m planning to launch the Mama Blogger Bootcamp again in a few months. I’m not sure exactly when because I’m super exhausted from this launch and I want to focus on Hello Hayley for awhile. I also want to give the 6 ladies in the MBB my ALL during these weeks so they can see some serious growth and big jumps in their blogging lives.

However, I’ve already started thinking about what I want to do differently next time.

Warm Up My Community More

I want to create a solid 2-3 month plan where I warm up my existing readership. I’ll write some blog posts and have conversations/live videos in my Facebook group that will better prime them for course sales.

I’d also like to focus more of my promotion efforts on my existing community since they’re already warmed up and more likely to buy.

Change My Webinar Topic?

This launch, my webinar focused on productivity and time management tips for bloggers. While it’s important, I’d like to think of a different topic that makes people think, “I NEED to hear this.” I think my marketing was a tad bit too vague.

Figure Out Facebook Ads

I’d like to spend some time digging into Facebook ads and create a better strategy ahead of time. I might find a course or eBook to read that will help me learn more about ads and targeting so that I can reach my target audience better.

Also, I hate spending money. And I want the money I spend to be put to good use. So every penny I spend on ads better be worth it! 🤣

Things I’ll Keep The Same

A few of the things I LOVED include…

Using Zoom for my webinars. It was easy to use, integrated with ConvertKit, and no one had issues joining the webinar.

Having a cart open and close. I LOVED having a 10-day period where my course was for sale (instead of it always being for sale). It created a sense of urgency for potential students and it also gave me a clear timeline to promote my course.

The Numbers

What you probably came here for, right?!

Total Enrollments: 6
Total Revenue: $1,164
Total Expenses: $99 (Thinkific) + $55 (Zoom) + $286 (Ads) = $440
Profit: $724

Guys. I’m really freaking proud of this considering I only launched this blog 6 MONTHS ago!!!

Thanks for bearing with me!

Again, if you came along for the ride of this course launch, THANK YOU! Now, I’m going to go take a nap. 🤣