StartBloggingOnline.com is a website that teaches people how to start blogging online. They are (or were) owned by WiredInvestors.com, a fund that buys, grows, and sells online businesses.
Website/Content Breakdown
StartBloggingOnline.com only has 310 pages indexed in Google.
Home Page
Their main page is the home page which provides a step by step guide on how to create a new blog (domain name registration, hosting account, adding a theme, etc..). The guide is about 4,600 words.
ResourcesThis is the area of their site where they link to all their articles, blog posts and other resources. Within some of these posts, they link to hosting and other product/service reviews.
They’ve made it easy to find what you’re looking for by grouping the resources into 4 main sections:
- Getting Started The Basics
- Blogging Related Resources
- WordPress Blogging Related
- Promotion, Traffic and Monetization
Located at the bottom of some of their blog posts. They receive a commission from most of these companies if someone signs up through their affiliate link.
Free Blogging Course
In order to sign up for their free blogging course, you have to enter your email address. This will opt you in to receive their newsletters where they will provide information on how to start a blog. Creating an email list is one of, if not the most important ways to drive long term traffic and revenue for a business.
Company Pages
Most sites have a number of company pages that include an about us page, contact page, privacy policy, terms & conditions and affiliate or earnings disclosures. A few of these are required for legal reasons, and a few are there to assure visitors that the website they’re on is a legitimate business. As a side note, a creative “About Us” page can really make a website stand out, especially if it provides an authentic story for readers that help them relate to the reasons they are on the website in the first place.
StartBloggingOnline Popular Content:
These are some of their most popular pieces of content:
By Traffic (based on the number of visitors each page receives)
- How to Write an About Me Page: Templates & Examples
- 101 Blog Content Ideas To Make Your Blog Post “HOT”
- The Best Free WordPress Hosting Providers of 2018 – Top Reviews & Expert Opinion!
- What are the 8 Most Popular Best Blogging Sites? (2018 Guide)
- Your Complete Guide on Where to Buy Cheap Domain Names
- Best Blog Hosting Sites – Find Out Which One is Best for You!
- What is a Blog: Blogging Basics (9 Pro Blogger Definitions)
- DIY Website Builders Are Easier Than DIY Home Projects
By Link (based on the number of links they acquired to each one)
- How To Promote Your Blog: 101 (Free) Ways To Increase Traffic
- Top 8 Best Free & Paid Blog Platforms Reviewed (For 2018)
- 101 Blog Post Ideas That Will Make Your Blog Topic “HOT”
- WordPress Cheat Sheet For Developers (Quick Reference)
- 7 Mindblowing Ways How To Monetize a Blog (Tips From An Expert)
- 5 Tips On How To Write The Perfect About Me Page (With Examples)
- Should I Start A Blog? Consider These 11 Things First
Traffic Breakdown for Start Blogging Online
Normally I use a number of SEO and website tools that provide traffic estimates to websites. Thankfully, thanks to the case study by Wired Investors, we don’t need to do that as they’ve provided this information for us.
When they first acquired this business, it was receiving ~50,000-70,000 uniques a month. They were able to significantly increase that and as of June 2017, they were receiving ~130,000 uniques a month.
How is StartBloggingOnline driving Traffic?
Search Engine Optimization! Over 70% of the traffic they receive is completely organic. They don’t do any paid advertising on social made or Google.
This means that all the traffic they receive is completely, free assuming they’re not buying backlinks (and excluding time they spend on content and outreach).
SEO is a popular traffic method for bloggers. Depending on the type of website you run and monetization in place, paid traffic may not always be a sustainable and profitable option.
A very smart move on their part, and one I rarely see among affiliate websites (we’ll discuss this more in the monetization breakdown), is that they provide a version of their home page (a guide on how to start blogging) in Spanish. This page is now ranking for over 30 keywords in Spanish.
Monetization Breakdown
Affiliate Commissions! The majority of revenue generated by StartBloggingOnline is made with Host Gator.
SBO teaches people how to start a blog. A requirement of a professional blog is that you have a hosting account. So when someone signs up for a hosting account using their affiliate link, they get a commission. For most hosting companies, the average commission is usually $50-75 per referral. If you’re sending a lot of referrals, you can usually negotiate higher commissions. According to WiredInvestors, SBO receives $200 per referral.
They also have reviews for other service providers where they will receive a commission for every customer they refer.