How To Start A Blog Video Series
June 25th, 2008 by CourtThe course will teach you:
- How you can create an extremely low-maintenance internet income using free traffic from Google.
- How to avoid earning pennies per day from a website you invested hundreds of hours building.
- How to choose the right niche keywords - those with high potential payouts and not too much competition.
My blog was started in February, 2007 and has grown to have around 3,500 subscribers and is on track to produce more than six figures this year. During the last 16 months, I have learned a lot of things about starting a blog that makes money.
While we have written extensively about a lot of different techniques that can be used by people that are trying to learn how to start a blog, I still don’t feel like we have an efficient road map that can be followed by anyone. I also see a lot of people struggle with their blogs. I believe that most people don’t make much at all through blogging, even though it can be very lucrative. Something is definitely missing…
For that reason and after a lot of thinking on my part, I have decided to release a 50+ part series of videos that will walk you through the process of learning how to start a blog for profit. I couldn’t be more excited because I know that this series will be the most useful project I’ve published until this point!
I’ll be covering everything including choosing a profitable topic, setting up a blog, designing the blog properly, using plugins to increase the power of the blog, writing content that will grab people’s attention, making money with a blog, and more. I’ll be using screen-casts so that you can watch me work and get a better idea of what you need to do.
By the way, one of the biggest issues I’ve seen as an internet marketing coach is how badly people are missing the boat when it comes to taking full advantage of keywords and search traffic. Mark and I have created an email mini-course to clarify the confusion and get people on track to create a very passive income online. You can have immediate access to the course by just typing in your email address below - and don’t worry - we’ll never sell, rent, or share your email address with anyone. Enjoy the course…
This post will be added to my Court’s Best Work section at the top of the sidebar, and any video posts included in the project will be linked to here. To make sure you don’t miss the videos, you can subscribe to my RSS feed. The first video post will be published tomorrow so stay tuned!!
~ Court
Videos
Why Almost Everyone Should Be Starting A Blog
Choosing A Profitable Blog Topic
Domain Selection - How To Choose A Domain Name
How To Register A Domain Name
How To Register A Domain - Followup
How To Buy Hosting on Host Gator
Pointing Your Domain At Your Hosting Account
Finalizing Hosting And Installing WordPress
How To Install A New WordPress Theme
How To Install The All-In-One SEO Pack Plugin For WordPress
Update: If you found this post helpful, I think you'll love our new email series: Five Days To Success With Keywords, it's 100% free. Enter your email here to receive the series:
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June 25th, 2008 at 10:01 am
This is awesome. Can’t wait to learn from such a good teacher. You earning 6 figures from this site? That is incredible. You deserve it. You give back a TON while making that money and you simply can not ask for anything more from a successful person. Thanks for the content!
July 3rd, 2008 at 9:34 pm
thanks for your comment
June 25th, 2008 at 10:33 am
Court mate I have a lot of respect for you. And I have been following your blog since your early days. I have learned a few new tricks. But this, I absolutely refuse to believe that you earn 6 figure from this blog. I have been around long enough in the seo scene to know that.
I can believe that you earn that amount from all your blogs and online marketing market combined. But no mate not from this blog alone. I hope it’s a typo.
June 25th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
Pavs thanks for your thoughts. There are probably a lot of people that wouldn’t believe that this blog is already more than half way to a six figure income this year.
The nature of my business pavs allows me to produce residual earnings in a lot of different ways. Additionally, we sell SEO services and IM consulting and that’s where a lot of our income comes from.
What we do here does require work behind the scenes, and in this case we run a service model and do not produce a six figure income through advertising alone. Please let me know if you have any questions about what we do here.
Take care pavs!
June 25th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
Ok your reasoning makes sense. You are including your consulting income, and it is very possible to make six figures with consulting. I was thinking about only advertisement income. To make advertisement income of six figures will take more than 50k or so unique traffic you are getting in your blog.
Anyways. Congratulations on your success so far; this gives us hope who are not as successful. And good luck on your future projects.
June 25th, 2008 at 11:16 am
Court, I am excited to see the video series above progress. I know it will be a huge help to many.
Regarding your blog making 6 figures this year…I’ve been doing Internet marketing and Business development for nearly 9 years now and I was intrigued by pavs comment so I decided to use some of my tools, time and expertise to analyze your blog to see if it really could be doing 6 figures.
After digging into things I would actually be surprised if you don’t hit 6 figures this year. You seem to be doing things right in a variety of areas and your monetization of the blog and the possible opportunities I’m sure it brings you for other outside deals definitely has 6 figure reality.
Keep it up and thanks again for all the information and help you give.
June 25th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
Hey Curtis!
Thanks for the backup.
The site will definitely do a lot more than six figures this year. I would never estimate that if we weren’t well over half way.
We’ve posted a lot here about how big the opportunities are for people that use blogs to market their personal services but for the most part, people aren’t really catching on to how much potential it gives.
June 25th, 2008 at 11:18 am
Yes, I’d love to see a breakdown of where 6 figures are coming from with this blog. If it is true, it must be from people hiring you to help them or do side projects for them. In that case, I would not really consider that money coming directly from your blog as you would be putting in a lot of additional time behind the scenes.
June 25th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
Jason we use this blog to market our expertise and a lot of different services. It makes good money from advertising, but the biggest benefits for us have come from getting our name out there - this has given us a lot of opportunities we wouldn’t have had otherwise.
This blog is where we generate 100% of our business.
June 25th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
Most of us blog just to blog and don’t blog to “generate” a side business. As I and most people aren’t interested in doing more work (we have jobs), I would think that the dollar amount you make purely from blogging is of more interest.
June 25th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
I agree. Like I said harshly below, I think its misleading. If Court were to include affiliate money and such from his domains and such, I think that’s fair, but to lump in the consulting is lame.
June 25th, 2008 at 4:55 pm
Dave so you think I should subtract the sales that this blog makes from its earnings? Lol that’s utterly ridiculous.
June 26th, 2008 at 9:18 am
I agree with Court here. Notice he didn’t say the site itself earned 6 figures. HE said the site “produced” 6 figures. A small distinction, to be sure, and even though some might think he’s being disingenuous I think if I were him, that I would include all my income I received as a result of running the blog.
Think about it - if he didn’t have this blog, could he make the same money selling Coaching, IM and SEO services? No.
So including the consulting into it is perfectly appropriate.
June 25th, 2008 at 11:29 am
Telling people how much you make is a surefire way to get their attention! The 6 figure number surprised me, too, and I wonder if consulting income is included. That being said, ranking on the first page of google for “internet marketing” has got to be worth a lot, and there are a number of high dollar affiliate links in the posts of this site. Anyway, looking forward to the video series.
June 25th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
DR that number includes all of the different monetization methods we have used for the site, which include adsense, advertising, affiliate links, consulting, and other services.
I can tell you DR that there are a lot of people that could make crazy money with their blogs if they were willing to do a little extra work behind the scenes…
June 25th, 2008 at 11:33 am
I am very excited for this series. I only found your site last week, and I can honestly say that I’ve learned more from you in a very short period of time than from all other sources combined. The burning question in my mind still is: What WP plugin is it that you use to display your advertising? I love the sponsors set up and the text ads, and have seen the same plugin on other sites, but cannot seem to find it for use on Homemaker Barbi . Thank you very much for all the info - your site is invaluable.
Homemaker Barbi (Danelle Ice)
June 25th, 2008 at 11:56 am
I believe you are referring to the Got Banners plugin. Court talked about it in the following article about selling advertising: http://courtneytuttle.com/2008/05/29/how-to-sell-advertising-on-your-website-5-easy-steps/
Hope that helps!
Sal
June 25th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
Sal is 100% correct, I use the Got Banners plugin! Thanks Sal!
June 25th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
Thank you so much! That is exactly what I was looking for. There is so much great info on this site about SEO that I’ve been poring over that I hadn’t found the advertising article you referenced yet. Thank you again.
Homemaker Barbi (Danelle Ice)
June 25th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
Your statement about making six figures from the blog is intentionally misleading. Why don’t you clarify that you are lumping all your internet business into that? Because it doesn’t make as good copy.
June 25th, 2008 at 3:34 pm
No Dave I’m not including any of my other internet stuff into that figure. Every penny of that is generated with this blog - from people that I find through this site. If I lumped all of my internet business into that, it would be higher than what I stated.
June 25th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
I hate sounding petty, but if you include internet consulting in your earnings…you are presenting earnings from a business model that most people aren’t going to want to get into….unless your videos are about how to generate leads for and start an SEO consulting business, I don’t think the income from that is relevant.
June 25th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
Dave what you’re missing is that people can generate leads and sell any of 10,000 different services and/or products with their blogs. Sorry to be abrupt but this blog produces those earnings and whether you want to use the model or not, this blog still produces those earnings.
June 25th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
No wonder you have been so busy lately! This is quite an undertaking - I’m looking forward to it!
June 25th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
Wow! 50+ Videos huh? This will be very beneficial for me as a new blogger.
Thanks a lot for your hard work Court.
I will be helping you promote this by adding this post to my technorati and digg favorites.
June 25th, 2008 at 2:27 pm
Looking forward to the video series!
When IM videos sound 100 times
better than a first run movie, it
makes me think there must be
some David Letterman-style lines
hiding in here somewhere. Like..
“You know you’re a blogger when…”
or
“You know you’re an internet marketer
when…”
June 25th, 2008 at 3:27 pm
Court,
You’ve done an awesome job and I’m not suprised with the blog income at all. When I started online, I thought it would be next to impossible to make a buck or two but once you get the hang of it, use action, and have patience, the earnings are endless.
I’m looking forward to this video series and keep up the fantastic job!
June 25th, 2008 at 4:59 pm
Sounds like an amazing project Court. Thanks for taking the time to teach us.
June 25th, 2008 at 5:51 pm
Court,
I have been waiting a long time for this post. I had even asked Vic in one of his chats if he couldn’t convince you and Griz to do some videos
Congrats on growing this blog so quickly and making it so profitable. I agree with you that all the income derived from this website should count. And I hope it shows others that you can do more with a blog to make it profitable than just posting and promoting affiliate products.
In fact I asked Vic earlier today if he would help me convert one of my older sites into a WP blog format but most of my income will be made from things other than ads on the site. Your post proves to me that it is possible.
Rhonda
June 25th, 2008 at 6:46 pm
Court,
I have enjoyed your blog for some time. I wish you the best on your next endeavour. As far as what the blog is worth.. Money is money whether consulting about SEO, advertising or what not.. This blog has given you exposure and allowed you to tap into other markets. I am also in the consulting sector and I must say you really must be a mover and shaker and I admire your discipline but most of all your willingness to share your knowledge.
June 25th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
This sounds like a massive undertaking, and really shows your commitment to the business. 6-figures? Let the naysayers nitpick your statements. They read and comment on your blog like everyone else!
June 26th, 2008 at 12:22 am
I’m so excited about this. Can’t wait to see tomorrow’s video. I feel like my blog is growing steadily, but there’s so much I don’t know about growing my traffic and monetizing my site. Thanks!
June 26th, 2008 at 7:37 am
Hi Court,
Welcome back.
I think you are doing a very good thing posting your video series. Personally I don’t care whether you earn 6 figures with or without consulting. What’s important here is what you are going to do.
I know how much time this will take for you to do and how much money additionally you could earn by not doing it. Instead you put others need before your own. Good on you my friend. This is what really matters in life. I look very much forward to see you in action.
*she goes off in search of popcorn and sets the alarm to not miss the launch.
June 26th, 2008 at 9:10 am
Now wait just a minute here. You know how much money additionally he could earn by NOT doing it? Are you kidding me? This video series will make him A LOT OF MONEY in that he will get lots of new traffic and readers and that will translate into more money in every way. Haven’t we just been over all this with these comments and the “revelation” that this blog generates lots of side business and income?
Court may be a nice guy but please lets all not pretend that he won’t benifit from this.
June 26th, 2008 at 9:24 am
Jason - I don’t think anyone is saying Court doesn’t get any benefit from this. I think Monika is referring to the fact that Court is not like Darren Prowse in (as Vic says) “showing you the game but not showing you how to play it”.
Court could simply put up crap and not go into the detail he does and still make this traffic you speak. But he’s showing you the “inside” stuff you need to do and actually shows you how to play the game.
Yes he’s a nice guy. Yes he benefits. Why are we even talking about this??
June 26th, 2008 at 2:42 pm
You said exactly what I wanted to say.
Court might be benefitting too. But it is a win-win situation.
Why people instead of thanking Court are nit- picking the 6-figures statement.
Thanks court for giving high quality stuff for free.
May be you should stop giving for free, so guys will realize its true value.
June 26th, 2008 at 7:38 am
Awesome stuff Courtney, also good to see that you are making so much money from the website.
Keep up the great work
June 26th, 2008 at 8:20 am
Hey Court sent you an email. Great to see you will have some video tutorials. Email me back when you get a chance.
June 26th, 2008 at 9:25 am
Looking forward to the videos Court!
June 26th, 2008 at 9:29 am
[…] Tuttle just announced he is launching a FREE 50+ video series on making money online. The videos will show people opportunities they are missing with their blogs/sites and how to take […]
June 26th, 2008 at 10:32 am
Sweet!
Thank you very much, Court. I know it will be high quality stuff and I’ll be watching, along with members of my membership site.
I do worry that you’ll be making too much competition for yourself, however. I’m sure the majority of folks watching will be in your general niche market, and that will over-saturate it a bit with really good bloggers.
I know you’re monetizing it well so I won’t cry for your loss, but even still, I believe in your future it will be harder and harder to make money with this blog because of it.
So thanks in advance for your sacrifice. It really helps those of us who will use it, especially in other niches, and it is very appreciated.
-Luke
June 26th, 2008 at 11:15 am
Court:
I HATE videos. I guess I am in the minority who can still read and write. Videos SUCK as a learning method UNLESS they are accompanied by transcripts and supplemental WRITTEN material.
I prefer text. With text, I can look up something in a minute or two rather than having to plow through thirty minutes of lame video trying to find something.
But go ahead with the videos Court, lame as they are - that is the big thing that all the MMO wannabes think are so “kewl”. I guess today’s marketing paradigm is that the typical doofus would rather have a video than a manual. So go for it.
Regards,
David Bean
June 26th, 2008 at 11:32 am
Oh, thank goodness you chimed in and said that, David… The world is such a better place now that your ill-informed, minority Opinion has been posted blazing across this blog as if it were a fact…
Sheesh… You’ve never heard that some people learn better though video? Scientists have proven without a doubt that the more sense you use to learn something, the better you learn it.
I bet that even applies to you, but your sense of impatience won’t allow you to sit through the film and pay attention to it…
June 26th, 2008 at 12:11 pm
Andy:
Excuuuuuse me for having a minority opinion. BTW, look around and you will see that the majority is usually wrong. As far as learning, if you are replacing video with text, where is that extra sensory input you mentioned?
It is much more efficient to read. Maybe you haven’t noticed, but there are only 24 hours a day. Granted, people like you who are slow learners maybe need videos.
And answer this (in your head — don’t need another post from you) — if you are looking for a factoid, would you rather wade through hours of video, or just type in a search term?
“Democracy is the political system where the minority actually agrees to be enslaved by the majority” — David Bean
June 26th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
should read “As far as learning, if you are replacing text with video….”
June 26th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
In the Audio that comes in the video, Brainiac.
Or can you afford speakers on your computer?
Video is becoming searchable now too. I know three services that let you search through certain parts of a video already, it is surely the wave of the future.
By the way, your little quote there is cute, but you obviously don’t know how the world is run. I mean, jeez, read a page of the US Tax code and you’ll feel pretty stupid to print that in public!
June 26th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
Calm down fellas! David, I too like text as it definitely cuts down my time when searching for a factoid.
I also like being shown how to do something (rather than just reading about it). Some things lend themselves to one or the other and some things lend themselves to both. With videos, Court can reach an audience that may start reading the text on how to do it and get lost in the jumble of it all, get confused and do something incredibly wrong!
I find if I read about something new that I need to learn, that if I also have someone knowledgeable show me how to do it, that it reinforces what I have learned and makes what I have previously read that much more important.
I’ll second Andy on your quote - it got it exactly backwards. Democracy (at least the form practiced in the USA), has “minority rights” in that even if the majority want something, if its illegal and trods on the minority’s rights, they cannot do it. A civics text would help you here with that tidbit of political science trivia.
June 27th, 2008 at 1:18 am
First, I am not dissing Court. He seems to be an admirable guy and provides a lot of valuable, useful information. This blog of his - Court’s Internet Marketing School - is one of the few things on the internet I take a look at regularly.
My distaste for videos stems simply from how most are put together. As an example, one “guru”, initials J.B., formerly in Utah, now in Costa Rica, bragged about his videos and how we should emulate him. His point is (correctly) that it takes a LOT of work to put together a good e-book (or written book/booklet) — hours and hours. But that you can (at least he can) put together a video in just a couple of hours. (He uses Camtasia for screen capture with voice-over.) And, he brags that because of the “higher perceived value” of videos as compared to e-books, you can charge more and they take you much LESS time to produce.
(Now, why the higher perceived value? Because most people are idiots and think videos are “kewl”, and they have the added advantage that they don’t actually have to READ words. Oh, a new video? Yay! A (e-)book? Boo!)
Face it, if you put together a video in a couple of hours or less, without hours of prep work, it is going to be schlock. Let’s just say that JB’s were not the greatest. But he is right, if it’s “kewl”, it makes no difference if it’s schlock or not, it will sell.
He’s not the only one preaching that MMO/internet business model, BTW.
Now, IF the video is organized instead of produced just by “winging it” and if it is accompanied by thoughtfully composed text, transcripts and/or supplemental material, GREAT. But MOST are not.
Hopefully, Court’s videos are going to be some of the few good ones. But if he is to do a good job instead of just winging it, it would take a year’s work to put out that many QUALITY videos. And will there be text supplemental material? Yes, I am confident that there will be a lot of valuable information in what he puts out. But to find something again in the future without slogging through them all again just to find a particular factoid…?
BTW1: Andy, you are a jerkoff. You want to start a flame war?
BTW2: If you want to get into political definitions, chew on this: The U.S.A., G.B., Euroland, et all, are all fascist dictatorships mixed with socialism, directed by an oligarchy, run by puppets, and called democracies or democratic republics, with voter “choices” for major offices confined to candidates vetted by the ruling elite (oligarchy).
BTW3: Most “civics” (aka social studies) texts are published by large corporations which have to toe a politically correct line to get accepted by the socialist-fascist (collectivist) public school systems, which were founded in the early 1800s to turn out a standardized product (workers) to fit into the new industrial and governmental institutional paradigm.
David Bean
June 27th, 2008 at 9:00 am
“BTW2: If you want to get into political definitions, chew on this: The U.S.A., G.B., Euroland, et all, are all fascist dictatorships mixed with socialism, directed by an oligarchy, run by puppets, and called democracies or democratic republics, with voter “choices” for major offices confined to candidates vetted by the ruling elite (oligarchy).
BTW3: Most “civics” (aka social studies) texts are published by large corporations which have to toe a politically correct line to get accepted by the socialist-fascist (collectivist) public school systems, which were founded in the early 1800s to turn out a standardized product (workers) to fit into the new industrial and governmental institutional paradigm.”
Wow! Its amazing you even have the strength to get out of bed everyday with all those conspiracies weighing on you. I salute you sir!
Psst - is Bigfoot the one running the Oligarcy or is it “Nessie”? Just curious.
June 29th, 2008 at 4:25 am
I agree with you , David. Text is far better than video as far as learning is concerned. But video is trendy, and we can do little about not accepting it. Recently I had seen some free videos by StomperMate. I learnt little out of them. On the other hand, I learnt quite a few things from Grizz’s text.
June 26th, 2008 at 10:18 pm
Wow Court!
6 figures now? Is that all from direct ad sales? I don’t see too many Google Adsense ads on your site anymore. How are you currently monetizing?
June 27th, 2008 at 8:00 am
I can’t wait for the series and I want to thank you for putting together. Granted I’m sure you will make money of it but that’s kudos to you.
This is what I believe. The more you give the more you get.
Thanks for giving.
June 27th, 2008 at 10:14 am
Court, thanks for the video series. I’m really looking forward to it. Who wouldn’t want to learn from someone whose blog has achieved so much in such a short time against a ton of competition. If you make six figures from this blog and related business, then that’s just awesome. I don’t feel misled by your statement and I could really care less how you do it. You provide a lot of valuable info on this site for free, saving others countless hours of time, so kudos to you!