In this post I’m going to go over exactly how I’d start a blog from scratch in 2026 (knowing what I know now).

Starting a blog is one of those things that feels SO much easier once you’ve already done it.

When you first start blogging you spend so much time trying to work out what you’re supposed to be doing… Things like which tools are needed, what you should be focusing on first and whether you are somehow missing something everyone else already knows lol.

We are all the same at the start.

Fast forward a few years and there are definitely things I’d approach completely differently if I had to go back and start again this year.

I know which things I’d set up straight away, what I’d start working on much earlier and which things really didn’t deserve anywhere near the amount of time or attention I gave them.

And I definitely wouldn’t try to do everything at once.

There is SO much blogging advice out there and a neverending number of tools, plugins, courses and strategies you can try that it’s ridiculously easy to make the whole thing much more complicated than it really needs to be.

If I was starting a blog from scratch in 2026, I’d go right back to basics, get the important things in place early on and spend my time on the things I now know can actually help a blog grow and make money.

So, knowing everything I know now, this is exactly how I’d start blogging from scratch in 2026.

1. I’d Start With WordPress and Proper Hosting

Before worrying about Pinterest, email lists, affiliate marketing or any of the other things that come a bit later, you obviously need an actual blog to work with.

If I was starting again, I’d still choose self-hosted WordPress. EVERY TIME.

There are very few benefits to a free blog aside from it being free. If you want to make money from your blog, self hosted is the way to go.

It gives you so much more control over your site and (more importantly) you’re not going to outgrow it six months down the line when you suddenly want to add something you hadn’t even thought about when you first started.

Also – these go hand-in-hand – I’d also pay for proper hosting from day one.

You definitely don’t need to pick the most expensive hosting package available when your blog is brand new. But hosting is one of the things I wouldn’t try to avoid paying for just to save a little bit of money at the beginning lol. It’s what your entire website runs on…. It’s important lol.

If I was starting again, HostGator is still the hosting I’d use. I started on it and wouldn’t change it. It gives you everything you need to get a self-hosted WordPress blog up and running, without having to spend a fortune when you’re only just getting started. 

If you want to have a proper look before signing up, I’ve also written a full HostGator review where you can see what you actually get and whether it’s right for you and your blog.

Once the Technical Side Was Sorted, I’d Keep Everything Else Pretty Simple

Choose a theme you like [I currently use AshePro as of writing this in Sept 2026), set up your main pages (including the legal pages I’ll explain below) and then get on with actually creating content.

This take is a little controversial…. You will read everywhere things like “Don’t spend three weeks changing fonts, rearranging the homepage and trying to get every tiny detail looking perfect before anybody was even visiting”. I have probably said this myself! But honestly, your blog is new, you will have spent time setting it up and choosing a theme etc so enjoy it! Change all the settings and details you like. Have fun with it! Yes you will keep modifying and editing and changing things but that’s going to happen anyway lol.

(Just don’t install 300 plugins as they will slow your brand new site down too much.)

The more you get into blogging, the more you’ll discover things you want to add, remove or completely redo. So there’s no need to have the finished version figured out on day one, but that doesn’t mean you have to rush the set up process – unless you want to! 

After it’s set up, the important thing is then getting your first posts published as that then gives you something to start building on.

And if you’re right at the beginning and need help with the setup itself, my How To Start a Blog in 2026 post takes you through the whole process.

2. I’d Follow One Proper Blogging Plan Instead of Trying to Learn Everything at Once

There is SO much free information about blogging online, which sounds brilliant when you’re first getting started. And for BEFORE you start, it actually is.

Whatever you’re trying to figure out, there’s most likely a blog post, YouTube video or tutorial somewhere that can help you with how to do it.

The problem is that you can very quickly end up jumping between ten (or 60) different people who all have completely different ideas about what you should be doing first.

One person tells you to concentrate on SEO, somebody else says Pinterest should be your priority and before you know it, you’ve got 26 tabs open and absolutely no idea what you were originally trying to do.

Again – we have all been there lol.

If I was starting again, I’d still use free information whenever I needed help with something specific, but I’d choose ONE main plan to follow so I knew what to work on and in what order.

Choose A Decent Course From the Start

That’s why I’d still use and choose this exact blogging course. Instead of trying to piece everything together yourself from completely different sources, you get to have all the main parts of starting and growing a SUCCESSFUL blog laid out for you in one place. No faff, just a LOT of amazing info and tips.

This way you can learn how to set up your blog, create your blog content, work on SEO, start using affiliate marketing and everything else – all in one place, and without randomly discovering six months later that there was something important you completely missed.

I can’t recommend it enough but if you want to see exactly what you get before deciding whether it’s right for you, I’ve written a full review of the blogging course I recommend where I go through what’s included and why I recommend it – and to who.

3. I’d Get the Legal Side Sorted Early

Legal pages are probably not going to be the part of starting a blog that you’re most excited to get stuck into lol.

You may not even realise what they are or if you need them.

(Spoiler alert, you do.)

They are very important and they are something worth sorting out early. Especially if the plan is to eventually make money from your blog.

Even a brand-new blog can start collecting information from visitors through things like cookies, analytics, contact forms and email sign-ups. And if you’re using affiliate links, your readers need to know that you could earn a commission if they buy something you recommend.

You need to declare the use of affiliate links in each post – above any affiliate links.

But There Are a Few Legal Pages You’ll Need to Have on Your Blog

This includes things like a privacy policy, cookie policy, terms and conditions and affiliate disclosure.

Basically, these tell people what information your blog collects and what happens to it, set out the terms for using your site and make it clear when you could make money from a link or recommendation.

The problem is, sitting down and trying to work out what on earth you’re supposed to put in all of those pages isn’t exactly simple. You can of course pay a Lawyer to draft these up for you but that option is a lot more time consuming and a lot more expensive.

That’s why I’d use this exact Legal Pages Bundle. It gives you the legal templates you need so you’re not trying to write everything yourself or wondering whether you’ve forgotten something important.

The entire set of pages was written by a Lawyer, FOR blogs.

The templates are mostly all written for you, you just edit in or out the bits relevant to you and you can have them all live in less than 30 mins.

Get them set up early, add your edited/personalised ones to your blog and that’s one of the less exciting jobs ticked off already! This then leaves you free to get back to writing blog content.

For more information on the legal bundle and why it’s so important, I have a full post here you can go through.

4. I’d Do Keyword Research Before I Started Writing Loads of Posts

This is one of the things I’d start doing MUCH earlier.

When you first start blogging, it’s really easy to think of something you want to write about and then spend hours creating the post and then move straight onto the next idea without ever checking whether people are actually searching for it.

You don’t need to let keyword research completely dictate what you write obviously but it makes sense to do a little research before spending half a day creating a post that noone then ever finds.

Have a look at things like:

• What people are actually searching for
• Whether there are more specific versions of your topic
• What questions people are asking
• How competitive the keywords are
• Whether there are related keywords you could include

For a brand-new blogger, Keysearch is a great place to start. It’s so much more affordable than some of the bigger SEO tools and gives you the main keyword research features you actually need without feeling like you’ve suddenly acquired another full-time job just trying to understand the dashboard lol.

If you want something more advanced, Semrush gives you a LOT more to work with, including much more detailed keyword and competitor research.

I’ve also got a full post explaining what Semrush is and how bloggers can use it for keyword research if you want to see what you can actually do with it before deciding whether you need something that powerful as not everyone will.

5. I’d Start Building My Email List MUCH Earlier

If there’s one other thing I definitely wouldn’t wait around to start this time, it’s an email list.

It’s really easy to think you need to be getting loads of traffic first because what’s the point in having an email list when hardly anyone is visiting your blog yet?

You would honestly be surprised!

Those first visitors are EXACTLY why you want to start one early.

If someone finds one of your posts and enjoys it, having an email list gives them an easy way to stick around and hear from you again.

You have a direct way to share information/new content and they don’t have to remember your blog’s name to find it again so it’s a win from both sides.

And one of the easiest ways to encourage people to sign up is by creating a freebie that fits in nicely with what they came to your blog for in the first place.

It could be a (niche specific):

• Checklist
• Printable
• Short ebook
• Template
• Workbook
• Resource list

You Don’t Need to Spend Weeks Creating Something Huge Either

A smaller freebie that’s genuinely useful can be more than enough to get started. Even just a page.

As an example, if you write about budgeting, you could create a savings tracker. Or if you write about meal planning, you could put together a simple weekly meal planner etc.

The idea is just to give your readers something useful to take away with them while also giving them the option to hear from you again.

I use MailerLite for my own email list and it’s what I’d choose again. You can start off on whichever plan suits you best (there is a totally free plan) and then upgrade as you go which is exactly what I did.

You can create your sign-up forms, landing pages and automated emails all in one place (different plans have different features), which makes getting everything set up much easier when you’re new to email marketing.

I’d Also Set Up a Simple Welcome Sequence From the Beginning

That way, when somebody joins your email list, they can automatically receive their freebie followed by a few emails introducing them to you and some of the other useful content on your blog or whichever other helpful info you have included.

Even if you’re only getting a few new subscribers at first, they all add up over time. Starting early means your email list can grow alongside your blog rather than reaching the point where you’re finally getting regular traffic and wishing you’d given all those earlier visitors a way to subscribe too.

It also helps get your own confidence up in sending emails when you have a small list initially and you can of course ask for feedback too.

And if you’ve never set up an email list before, my Email Marketing for Beginners post takes you through how to get started and what you can actually send once people begin subscribing.

6. I’d Start Using Pinterest From the Beginning

I wouldn’t rely completely on Google to start sending traffic to a brand-new blog.

Google can obviously be an amazing source of traffic, but Pinterest gives you another way to start getting your posts in front of people fairly instantly. And you can do this – for free – while you’re working on growing your Google/search traffic too.

Getting good traffic can take a lot longer for a few reasons, but especially for a brand new website you will get stuck in Google’s Sandbox for a period of time initially! (Nothing scary, but explains why there can be a delay before getting an audience from Google itself.)

Set up a Pinterest business account, link it to your website, create boards around the main topics you’re going to write about (you can modify and add more later so don’t overthink this bit) and then you start creating pins for your blog posts as you publish them.

You’ve already spent hours researching and writing the post, so you might as well give people more than one way to actually find it!

I’d Also Recommend to Use an Online Tool to Create All of Your Pinterest Pins

Canva makes it really easy to create different designs/templates for the same post without having to start completely from scratch every time.

And you’ll probably find yourself using Canva for plenty of other things on your blog too lol. Including things like:

• Blog graphics
• Email freebies
• Ebooks
• Checklists
• Workbooks
• Digital products

The free version is honestly more than enough to get started with as well. Some people never need to upgrade from the free plan either. So this is another one where you don’t need to immediately add a new monthly expense which is always a win.

And if you’re completely new to Pinterest or want some more in-depth info, my Pinterest Marketing for Beginners in 2026 post goes through how to get started and how you can use it to bring more traffic to your blog.

7. I’d Set Up My Free Analytics Tools and Let Them Collect Data

Google Search Console and Google Analytics are two things I’d get connected to a new blog pretty much straight away.

They sound scary but are really simple to set up and are SO important to be able to see real time analytics.

They’re both completely free and as your blog starts getting traffic, they can give you SO much useful information about what’s actually happening with it.

Google Search Console can show you which searches your posts are appearing for in Google, how many impressions, their positions and clicks they’re getting and which pages Google has indexed etc.

Google Analytics lets you see more about the traffic actually coming to your blog, including where your visitors are coming from, which pages they’re looking at and how people are finding you.

The only thing I wouldn’t do is set them up and then spend the next three weeks checking them every five minutes. (Again, we have all been there lol, especially with the realtime tracker for people who have been on your site in the last 5/30 mins lol.) 

But to be real, there probably isn’t going to be anything particularly exciting happening in Google Analytics on Day 4 of a brand-new blog, and that’s completely normal!

Get everything connected, check that it’s working properly and then leave it collecting data in the background while you get on with creating more content for your shiny new blog.

Once your blog starts getting more traffic, you’ll then have access to all of that information, sitting there ready to have a look into and you can start using it to see what’s working, which posts are getting found and where your traffic is actually coming from.

What I Wouldn’t Do If I Started Blogging Again

As well as all the things I’d start earlier, there are definitely a few things I’d spend a LOT less time worrying about if I was starting again too.

I wouldn’t wait until the blog looked perfect before publishing anything. No one will see your initial posts anyway unless you share them to specific people so it’s a good way to practice.

I wouldn’t sign up for every tool I saw another blogger recommending or pay for three different things that basically did the same job. 

Do your research, read up on what will work for YOU and go for that.

I know I mentioned this earlier but I would NOT install loads of random plugins. Just the essential ones as you will grow your plugin library as you go. And on that note, please do not ever hit “update all” for your plugin updates. You don’t want to know how badly it can crash your whole website (talking from experience) lol.

I also wouldn’t write post after post without doing any keyword research first, and I definitely wouldn’t wait until I was getting loads of traffic before starting an email list.

But probably the biggest one would be trying to do absolutely everything at the same time.

There Is ALWAYS Something Else You Could Be Working on With a Blog

SEO, Pinterest, email marketing, affiliate marketing, digital products, social media, updating old posts, writing new ones… the list never really ends lol.

And if you try to work on all of them at once, it’s surprisingly easy to spend an entire day being really busy while somehow getting absolutely nothing finished that will actually help your blog to grow.

You don’t need to have every part of blogging figured out from the beginning. A lot of things will come up as you go and you can adjust as that happens.

Initially, concentrate on what makes the most sense for your blog right now, get that working and then add more as you go.

And when you’re ready to start making money from the content you’re creating, my Affiliate Marketing for Beginners: First £1,000 post will take you through how to get started with affiliate marketing and work towards those first commissions.

The Blogging Tools I’d Actually Use

So although there are hundreds of blogging tools available, my actual setup would still be pretty small.

I’d use:

• WordPress to build the blog
• HostGator for hosting
• Blogging course to give me a simple but highly effective step by step roadmap
• AshePro Theme to make your blog look professional from the start 
• Legal Pages Bundle to get the legal side sorted
• Semrush for keyword research and SEO
• MailerLite for my email list
• Canva for graphics, pins and freebies
• Pinterest for another source of traffic
• Google Search Console and Google Analytics for data
• Plugins – But research exactly which ones YOU need

(If anyone has questions on which plugins I use, feel free to reach out or leave a comment and I can go into my list in more detail.)

Some of the things on the do cost some money (such as Hosting) which is to be expected with any business. But some have free options and some are completely free.

If I Really Had to Start From Zero Tomorrow…

If I had to wipe everything clean and start a brand-new blog tomorrow, the biggest thing I’d do differently wouldn’t actually be choosing different blogging tools (aside from the Blogging Course which I would get asap to save SO much time).

It would be how I spent my time.

I’d get the blog live without spending weeks trying to make every tiny detail perfect. You can still spend the time changing all the little details, but if you do it AFTER the blog is live, it gives Google a headstart in knowing that there’s a new website it should be aware of! Google can’t find a website if it’s not live lol.

I’d have one main plan to follow, do keyword research before spending hours writing posts and start my email list MUCH earlier.

I’d also use Pinterest from the beginning so Google wasn’t the only way I woul be relying on people to find my content.

And when it came to blogging tools, I’d only add something when I actually had a reason to need/use it. There’s not much point having 15 different tools (yes this includes those plugins lol) sitting there if half of them are solving problems you don’t even have yet.

If I was starting a blog from scratch in 2026, I’d keep things as simple as possible, concentrate on creating useful content and give myself more time to actually work on growing the blog and enjoy the process.

Everything else can be added as you need it.

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment or reach out!

Speak soon!

Katherine

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The post How I’d Start a Blog From Scratch in 2026 (Knowing What I Know Now) appeared first on Katherine McLee.

In this post we are going to go over the 20 best digital products to sell for passive income in 2026 – that are beginner friendly.

Selling digital products can be one of the simplest ways to start making money online without dealing with the hassle of having physical stock, packaging or trips to the post office to worry about.

You create your product once, upload to it somewhere people can buy it (we will expand on this soon) and then that same digital product can be sold again and again, even without you having to do anything further.

That’s where the passive income part comes in.

Of course, you still need to create something people actually want lol. You also need to show it to the right audience and keep your listings and marketing up to date etc.

But unlike selling a physical product or offering an online service, you don’t have to start from scratch every time someone buys from you.

You also definitely don’t need to create a huge online course or write a 200-page ebook to get started!

Some of the best digital products are surprisingly simple and can be tailored to whichever niche you are in.

If you’re looking for beginner-friendly digital products you can create and sell online, have a read here for some of the best ideas to consider and how to get started, along with tips for choosing what to sell and actually getting people to buy it.

What Is a Digital Product?

First things first… A digital product is basically anything you can create and sell online that your customer receives digitally rather than having something turn up at their door.

That could mean a PDF, getting access to an editable template, opening an online course or printing something out themselves at home. Or a mix of all.

There are loads of different things you can sell this way, including:

• Printables
• Templates
• Ebooks
• Planners
• Checklists
• Spreadsheets
• Workbooks
• Digital art
• Online courses

The best part is that, unlike a physical product, you don’t need to make a new one every time somebody places an order.

You could spend an afternoon creating a printable, list it for sale that day and then sell that exact same file over and over again. 

Whether 5 people buy it (or 500), you’re not sitting there making and packaging another one for every single customer. You can just enjoy the sales rolling in.

That’s a really big part of what makes digital products such a great option if you’re looking for ways to make money online without constantly swapping more of your time for every sale.

You can also have digital products alongside physical products if that suits your store and products better.

Can Digital Products Really Create Passive Income?

Yes! And this is one of the biggest reasons digital products can be such a good (and popular) way to make money online.

There is obviously some work involved at the beginning. You’ll need to decide what you want to sell, actually create it, get it listed and find ways to get it in front of people who might want to buy it.

But once all of that is set up, the same product can keep selling without you having to personally deal with every single order which is what then makes it (mostly*) passive.

Someone could discover your product at 2am, buy it and have the file sitting in their inbox a few minutes later while you’re fast asleep and completely unaware you’ve even made a sale lol. This is the beauty of digital products.

You will most likely still want to promote your products, add new ones or update something occasionally, but you’re not starting from zero every time somebody buys for as long as the products are live and available.

You do the work once and you’ve created something that has the potential to keep making you money again and again. This is exactly what makes digital products such an ideal option for building passive income online.

(*I have noted that this is a “mostly” passive income stream as products will need updating, people may have questions or you may choose to add new products to your shop etc so there is a little involved even when passive, but passive enough you get the idea!)

And if you get a little further into this post and decide selling digital products really isn’t for you, that’s completely fine too!

There are LOADS of other ways you can make money without creating a digital product.

I’ve got 25 Ways To Make $600 Quickly if you’re looking for ideas that could help you bring in some extra money, or How To Make $100 In a Day: 47 Fun and Practical Ideas has another huge list of options you can look through.

But if digital products DO sound like something you’d like to try, keep reading because there are loads of different ideas below. Including some that are ridiculously simple to get started with!

Best Digital Products to Sell Online

One of the best things about selling digital products for passive income is just how many different options there are to do so. Basically anything you want to sell, you can lol. 

You don’t have to be an amazing graphic designer, write a huge ebook or spend months creating an online course before you have something worth selling.

There are plenty of much simpler digital products you can start with, including ones you can literally create in a day or over a weekend.

And if you want to make the process even quicker, you can also use PLR content as a starting point rather than creating everything completely from scratch.

I actually have a PLR bundle on Etsy that you can edit, customise and re-brand to turn into your own completely finished digital products which you then sell on. This can save you a LOT of time if you want to get something created and listed a lot sooner. This also takes a lot of the overwhelm out if you are new to digital products.

When you’re deciding what to create initially, start with the things you already know how to do or topics you know a lot about. Then think about what people would actually find useful enough to pay for within that space.

It doesn’t need to be anything groundbreaking either lol. Sometimes the simplest products are the most useful because they give someone a shortcut, save them the hassle of creating something themselves or just make something they’re already doing a bit easier.

If you’re still stuck wondering what you could actually make, here are some of the best digital products to sell for passive income, and plenty of ideas to get you started:

1. Printable Planners

Printable planners are a great digital product to start with because you can make them as simple or as detailed as you want.

There is always high demand for planners as everyone’s needs and wants are different.

And there are SO many different niches you can create them for.

Rather than making a generic planner that could technically be used by anyone, think about what someone might actually be looking for help planning or organising in a specific area of life.

You could create:

• Budget planners
• Meal planners
• Wedding planners
• Manifestation planners
• Fitness planners
• Content planners
• Travel planners
• Study planners
• Cleaning planners
• Goal-setting planners
• Business planners

You don’t need to create a huge 100-page planner either.

To get started, you can start with a few really useful pages, sell individual pages/printables or put several different related pages together as a bundle.

As an example, you could sell a “budget planner” that could include a monthly budget, bills tracker, savings tracker and spending sheet.

A “content planner” could include something like a monthly calendar, content ideas page and social media tracker.

Making your planner more specific can also make it much easier to market to the right audience. Instead of trying to sell a planner to absolutely everyone, you can create exactly what a particular type of customer is already looking for.

And once you’ve created the first one, you can always add more pages, create matching products or turn it into a bigger bundle later on

2. Checklists

Checklists are a really easy digital product you can create, and they can work for pretty much any topic you can think of too.

We’ve all searched for a checklist at some point because we don’t want to have to remember everything ourselves lol.

Or we have realised halfway through a holiday that the one thing we actually needed is still sitting at home!

There are loads of different options you could create, including:

• Starting a blog
• Moving house
• Planning a wedding
• Packing for a holiday
• Cleaning and organising
• Starting a business
• Preparing for Christmas
• Creating social media content
• Launching a product
• Organising finances
• Something very specific you created or found helpful in your own life

You can keep these really simple and sell them on their own, or create a few that go together and turn them into a bigger bundle. You can of course also add them in with the planner pages if they fit there too.

They’re also really easy to add to other digital products you’re already creating. If you were making (for example) a wedding planner, you could add checklists for booking the venue and suppliers, what needs to be done before the big day, what to take with you and all those little things that are VERY easy to forget when you have a million other things to think about.

So even if you don’t want to create a checklist as your main digital product, they’re a super easy way to add something extra to a planner, ebook, workbook or bundle you’re already selling.

3. Templates

Templates are another really simple digital product to create. 

The whole point is to give someone something that’s already mostly done for them so they don’t have to start from scratch themselves.

They can open it, change the colours, wording, images or whatever else they need to and use it without having to start with a completely blank page.

There are loads of different types you could create, including:

• Social media templates
• Pinterest pin templates
• Media kit templates
• Resume templates
• Ebook templates
• Workbook templates
• Presentation templates
• Business document templates
• Email templates
• Content planning templates

You could also make these really specific to a certain type of person or business if that fits. Instead of just selling a pack of (for example) generic social media templates, you could create them specifically for beauty businesses, bloggers, coaches, Etsy sellers or whatever niche you want to focus on.

That way the people who want them can find them.

And you don’t need to create a massive bundle straight away. You could start with a smaller set of templates and then add more designs or matching products later if you want to.

4. Ebooks

Ebooks are another great digital product idea you can make to sell as you can create one (or more) on pretty much any topic you know enough about to teach someone else.

And you don’t need to worry that this means you need to sit down and write a 200-page book either lol. An ebook can be a short but really useful digital (or printable) resource that helps someone learn how to do something or gives them all the information they need on one specific topic. It can be as simple or as in-depth as you prefer. Just be clear who the information is aimed at in the listing.

For example rather than trying to write one enormous ebook covering absolutely everything about blogging, you could make it much more specific and create one about:

• Writing your first 10 blog posts
• Starting a blog on a budget
• Getting started with affiliate marketing
• Creating a Pinterest strategy
• Growing an email list
• Planning your first month of content

The same principle applies to pretty much any niche.

If you know how to do something that other people are actively trying to learn, there’s an ebook idea in there!

If you are worried about the value in a small ebook, you could also start with a smaller ebook and add in extra resources like a checklist, planner or worksheet to make it more useful. That will stop the feeling that you need to keep adding another 50 pages just to make it worth selling/make it good value for money.

It’s the information inside that matters, not how ridiculously long you can make it lol.

Ebooks can be daunting but if you want some pre-done ebooks to rebrand and sell with high quality content, my PLR bundle has lots all ready to edit and sell as your own.

5. Workbooks

Workbooks are a bit more hands-on than ebooks because instead of someone just reading the information, you’re giving them pages they can actually work through as they go.

Depending on the topic, you could include things like:

• Questions
• Exercises
• Worksheets
• Planning pages
• Prompts
• Trackers
• Action steps

This may not work for EVERY niche, so it will depend on your niche and your audience.

As an example, if you wanted to create something around content planning, you could make a workbook that helps someone choose their main content topics, come up with ideas, plan what they’re going to create and then put everything into an actual schedule that works for them.

You can do the same with loads of different topics too. A budgeting workbook could help someone go through their income and expenses, set savings goals and create a monthly budget, while a goal-setting workbook could take them from choosing their goals right through to working out the individual steps they need to take.

They’re also really easy to combine with other digital products. You could add a workbook to an ebook or course, sell it separately, or include it as part of a bigger bundle.

So if you have something you could teach but want to make it a bit more interactive than a standard ebook, a workbook could be a really good option!

6. Spreadsheets

If you’re someone who actually knows their way around a spreadsheet, you can turn that into a digital product too.

People LOVE to buy a spreadsheet as they are so helpful but are tricky to set up properly if you aren’t into making them from scratch.

A lot of people need spreadsheets to keep track of things but either don’t know how to set one up properly or simply don’t want to spend the time doing it themselves.

If they can buy one that already has everything laid out, labelled and calculated for them, all they need to do is add their own information and start using it.

There are loads of different spreadsheets you could create, including:

• Budget spreadsheets
• Debt payoff trackers
• Business income trackers
• Expense trackers
• Content calendars
• Affiliate income trackers
• Savings trackers
• Inventory spreadsheets
• Project trackers
• Freelance income trackers

You can keep them fairly simple or make more detailed versions with formulas, automatic calculations, different tabs and anything else that would be useful for that particular topic.

You could even create a basic version for someone who just wants something really easy to use and doesn’t want to get overwhelmed, and a more detailed version for people who want to track absolutely everything.

And if you already have spreadsheets you’ve made for yourself, have a look at those too. There could be something you use all the time that other people would happily pay for rather than having to figure out how to build their own.

7. Digital Trackers

Digital trackers are another really simple product idea you can sell. Especiallly if you want to create something fairly quickly without having to make a huge ebook, course or bundle.

People track all sorts of things, so there are loads of different directions you could take this depending on the audience you want to create it for.

Some example tracker ideas include:

• Habits
• Savings
• Reading
• Fitness
• Water intake
• Goals
• Business income
• Social media growth
• Content creation
• Challenges

You could keep it really simple with one tracker that does one specific job, or create several that work together and sell them as a pack.

As an example idea, if you were creating products around saving money, you could have separate trackers for savings goals, spending, no-spend days and different savings challenges etc. You could then sell them individually or put the whole lot together as a bigger money-saving bundle for even more value.

Trackers are also really easy to add to other products you’ve already created. A reading tracker could go inside a reading journal, an income tracker could be added to a business planner and a habit tracker could be included in a goal-setting workbook etc. They slot in nicely with any other pages you made in the same niche/life area.

8. Canva Templates

If you enjoy and are good at designing in Canva (or want to learn how to), then you can create editable templates customers can customize themselves.

These could include:

• Instagram posts
• Pinterest pins
• Lead magnets
• Workbooks
• Ebooks
• Price lists
• Media kits
• Business cards
• Presentations
• Social media graphics

I bought Canva Pinterest Pin templates years ago and still use them now, just branded and edited to fit my Pinterest Aesthetic.

Templates can be particularly useful for small business owners and content creators who want professional-looking graphics without designing every single thing from scratch.

Even if they can make them themselves, templates can speed up the process AND keep things more cohesive from the start.

Quick note on this one: before selling templates, make sure you understand the current licensing rules for any design platform, fonts, graphics or other assets you use as they can vary.

9. Notion Templates

Similar to the Canva templates, if you’re already a Notion user, you can also create and sell templates that other people can copy into their own account and start using.

Notion can be used to organise pretty much anything, which means there are loads of different templates you could create depending on what you’re good at or who you want to create them for.

Some ideas include:

• Content planning
• Goal tracking
• Business management
• Project planning
• Habit tracking
• Student organisation
• Freelance work
• Client management

You could keep things fairly simple with one template that helps someone organise one specific thing, or create a bigger system with several different pages that all work together.

For example, instead of creating a general productivity template, you could make a complete content planner for bloggers with spaces for blog post ideas, keywords, publishing dates, Pinterest pins and anything else they want to keep track of.

Or you could create something specifically for freelancers that helps them organise clients, deadlines, projects and payments all in one place.

The more specific you make it, the easier it is for someone to look at your template and immediately know whether it’s something they could actually use as often people are looking to solve ONE specific problem.

You can of course (just like the other digital products listed) create a bundle, but if you are creating very specific Notion templates, a bundle may be tricker as someone may not need ALL of the templates in the bundle.

10. Digital Journals/Planners

Digital journals and planners are another type of product you can create around pretty much any topic, hobby or goal.

You can keep them really simple with space for someone to write each day, or add prompts, trackers, exercises and different sections to give them a bit more to work with.

There is the option to create a full, coloured, aesthetic type digital product here, or keep it very bare bones and let the customer customise it from scratch, minus the main body you have already created.

There are loads of different types you could create, including:

• Gratitude journals/planners
• Goal-setting journals/planners
• Manifestation journals/planners
• Reading journals/planners
• Travel journals/planners
• Business journals/planners
• Self-reflection journals/planners
• Creativity journals/planners

This is also a good one to get quite specific with.

Instead of just creating a general journal with lots of blank pages, think about why someone would be using that specific type of product, and what you could include to make it more useful for them.

A reading journal, for example, could have space to keep track of books they want to read, ratings, favourite quotes and reading goals.

A travel planner could include planning pages, packing lists, places they want to visit and space to record memories from each trip etc.

You can also add prompts so someone isn’t opening the journal and immediately wondering what they’re supposed to write lol.

And remember when I mentioned earlier that you can use PLR to make creating your products quicker? My own Manifestation Planner on Etsy started as a PLR product that I then rebranded myself before listing it for sale. It’s a good example of how you don’t necessarily have to create every single page of a digital product completely from scratch.

And once you’ve created your main journal or planner, there are loads of ways you can expand on it later with extra pages, matching trackers or other products around the same topic.

11. Prompt Packs

Prompt packs are another really easy digital product to put together, and you can create them for loads of different topics.

They take the need for inspiration out for people and can help speed up their social media/online content.

Think about anything where people regularly get stuck wondering what to write, post or think about next, and there’s probably an idea for a prompt pack in there lol.

You could create lists of:

• Journal prompts
• Blog post prompts
• Social media prompts
• Writing prompts
• Business brainstorming prompts
• Content creation prompts
• Email prompts

You can make them as small or as detailed as you want to. For example you could create 30 prompts for a particular topic, put together a much bigger collection or split them into different categories to make them easier to use.

For example, you could create a pack of generic social media prompts or you could make 30 Instagram content prompts specifically for small businesses, a month of email prompts for bloggers or a set of journal prompts based around a particular goal someone may have.

The more useful and specific the prompts are, the better. Someone buying a prompt pack probably doesn’t want 100 different ways of being told to “share something about yourself.” They want ideas they can actually take, use and turn into something.

You could also combine prompt packs with other products really easily. Add them to a journal, content planner, workbook or template bundle and you’ve instantly got something extra to include, no matter what your niche is.

12. Content Calendars

All businesses and creators constantly need new content. This then creates a perfect opportunity for products that make planning it easier and quicker.

You could create:

• 30-day content calendars
• 90-day content plans
• Seasonal content calendars
• Pinterest planning calendars
• Instagram content calendars
• Blog content calendars
• Email marketing calendars

You could keep them fairly simple and give someone somewhere to organize their own ideas. Or do more of the planning for them by including content ideas, prompts, themes or suggestions for what they could create each day.

Content Calendars would match up really well with the Prompt Packs!

You can get really specific with these too.

Instead of creating one general social media calendar for everyone, you could make separate versions for beauty businesses, fitness accounts, bloggers, coaches, Etsy sellers, travel businesses or pretty much any other niche you can think of.

People will search for what they need more often than the general idea of something so making them more specific can be a really good idea.

You could also create seasonal versions for Christmas, Black Friday, Summer or other times of year when people are looking for extra content ideas.

And once you’ve made one, you don’t necessarily have to start from scratch every time. You can use the same basic format to create different versions for different platforms, niches or time periods, giving you several different products you can sell from the one original idea.

13. Swipe Files and Script Packs

If you’ve never come across swipe files or script packs before, they’re basically there to give you something to work from when you have no idea what to write lol.

A swipe file is usually a collection of examples and ideas you can look through and use for inspiration, like email subject lines, calls to action or social media captions etc.

Script packs tend to give you more of the actual wording, so you might have a ready-made response to a customer enquiry or an email you can tweak and send to a brand. You still make everything your own, but you’re not having to sit there and come up with every single word from nothing.

Swipe files and script packs basically give people a starting point so they’re not sitting there staring at a blank page for the next hour.

We have ALL been there lol.

There are loads of different ones you could create, including:

• Email subject lines
• Sales email templates
• Customer service responses
• Social media captions
• Product description frameworks
• Outreach emails
• Welcome email sequences
• Call-to-action ideas

You could create a big collection around one topic or make them really specific to a certain type of customer.

As an example idea you could put together a pack of customer service type responses for Etsy sellers, email scripts for bloggers working with brands or a collection of calls to action for small business owners who never know what to put at the end of their posts.

They don’t necessarily need to be something people copy and paste word for word either. You can give them wording they can quickly change to suit their own business, audience or personality without having to come up with everything themselves. Similar to a template but text based lol.

You could also add swipe files and scripts to a bigger product really easily. If you were selling for example an email marketing workbook, you could include subject line ideas or a few email templates for even more value.

14. Stock Photos

If you’ve got an eye for photography and already enjoy taking photos, you could also turn them into digital products by selling stock photo packs.

These are basically photos that other people can buy and then use in their own content (depending on the licence you give them), rather than having to take all of their photos themselves.

So many bloggers, business owners and content creators need images for all sorts of things. From blog posts and websites to emails, Pinterest pins and social media posts etc. There are loads of different types of photos you could create as everyone will be looking for something different.

Some broad photo topic ideas include:

• Food photography
• Desk and office images
• Beauty products
• Travel images
• Seasonal collections
• Lifestyle photography
• Flat lays

You could also create your photos around a particular theme/niche or type of business rather than trying to photograph absolutely everything lol. It will depend what you are good at. 

You could sell smaller packs based around one theme or put together much bigger bundles with a mixture of matching images. You can base packs off of a similar theme or a similar vibe or aesthetic.

And if you’re reading this from the other side and thinking you actually NEED stock photos rather than wanting to sell them (like me lol), Social Stocks is definitely worth having a look at. They have loads of ready-to-use stock images for blogs, websites and social media, so you don’t have to take every single photo yourself if it’s not your thing!

If you’re already taking high-quality photos anyway, have a look through what you’ve already got. You might already have the beginnings of a stock photo collection sitting on your camera roll without even realising it.

15. Digital Art and Wall Prints

If you’re creative or enjoy designing things, digital art and printable wall art are another type of digital product you can create and sell online that people love.

Printable wall art is already a really popular type of digital download, particularly on places like Etsy.

Instead of printing the artwork yourself and having to worry about framing, packaging and shipping etc, you can sell it as a downloadable file.

Your customer buys the design, downloads it and then either uses it digitally, prints it at home or sends it somewhere to be professionally printed.

And there are SO many different styles and themes you could create.

Some popular ideas include:

• Quotes and typography prints
• Nursery prints
• Minimalist artwork
• Kitchen prints
• Seasonal artwork
• Children’s room decor
• Office prints
• Travel prints
• Botanical/Floral artwork
• Personalised prints

You could sell individual designs, create matching sets of two or three prints or put together larger collections around a particular theme.

You could also offer different sizes or ratios of the same design so customers have a few options depending on where they want to display it. This is important if you want to sell things as digital backgrounds/art as well as printable.

And you’re not limited to wall art either. If you enjoy creating digital artwork, you could also sell things like illustrations, clip art, digital paper, patterns or other design elements that people can download and use in their own projects.

16. Presets and Filters

If photography or photo editing is already something you’re good at, you could turn your editing style into presets or filters that other people can buy and use on their own photos.

They basically let someone apply a particular look to their photos without having to work out all the individual editing settings themselves.

This has become more and more popular with people wanting to find the perfect pre-sets for themselves and their content.

You could create presets for:

• Bloggers
• Travel creators
• Food photographers
• Small businesses
• Influencers
• Amateur photographers

You can also base them around a particular style, such as bright and airy, warm and cosy, vintage, colourful or moody. Specific aesthetics do really well as they can help photos stand out that bit more, and they can look more cohesive in a social media feed etc.

Rather than selling just one, you could put together a small pack with a few different options that work well together. For example, a travel preset pack could include slightly different edits for beaches, cities, sunsets and indoor photos.

Just make it really clear what app or software your presets are designed for and include simple instructions showing customers how to install and use them.

17. Online Courses

If there’s something you know how to do that other people want to learn, you could turn that knowledge into an online course.

Courses take a lot more work to put together than something like a printable or checklist, but you can also charge considerably more for them.

The easiest way to come up with an idea is to think about a specific result you could help someone achieve. Answer a specific question or set of related questions that people are looking for the answer to.

 Instead of creating a huge course about absolutely everything you know about Pinterest, for example, you could create one that takes a new blogger through setting up their account and creating their first month of pins.

Your course could include:

• Video lessons
• Written lessons
• Workbooks
• Templates
• Checklists
• Quizzes
• Additional resources

And if you want to see a real life example, I’ve written a full review of the blogging course I recommend, including what’s inside and how the course is set up. It’s a perfect example of how you can take something you already know how to do and turn that knowledge into a product that can be sold again and again.

You don’t need to start by creating a massive course either. If you have one smaller topic you could teach really well, you could turn that into a mini-course or workshop first and build on it from there…

18. Mini-Courses and Workshops

Leading on from point #17…

If you like the idea of creating a course but don’t want to start with something huge, you could teach one smaller topic through a mini-course or workshop instead.

The idea is to pick one specific thing someone wants to learn and show them how to do it from start to finish.

For example, you could teach someone how to:

• Create their first lead magnet
• Set up a Pinterest business account
• Plan 30 days of content
• Create their first digital product
• Start an email list
• Build a simple budget

A mini-course could be a handful of short video or written lessons, while a workshop could even be one longer session focused entirely on that one topic.

Because you’re covering something much more specific, these can be quicker to create than a full online course and sold at a lower price too.

They can also be a good way to test an idea before creating something bigger. If people are buying your mini-course on creating their first digital product, for example, you could eventually expand on it with more lessons, templates or resources and turn it into a larger course later.

19. Resource Bundles

We have touched on this a little but as a point itself… 

If you’ve created a few digital products around the same topic, you can put them together and sell them as one bigger resource bundle.

For example, if you create products for bloggers, you could make a bundle that includes:

• Blog post planner
• Keyword research sheet
• Content calendar
• Blog launch checklist
• Affiliate tracker
• Pinterest planner

You don’t necessarily need to create everything at once either. You can start by selling a blog planner, then create a content calendar, add a Pinterest planner later and eventually combine everything you’ve made into one larger blogging bundle, giving much better value.

This also gives your customers a choice. Someone who only wants the content calendar can buy that on its own, while someone who wants everything can get the full bundle for a better price than buying each product separately.

And you can do this with pretty much any topic/niche. A budgeting bundle could include a monthly budget, savings tracker, debt tracker and spending log, while a social media bundle could include templates, content prompts, a planner and a content calendar etc!

20. PLR Products

PLR stands for Private Label Rights and it basically means buying digital content with permission to edit or use it in certain ways depending on the licence that comes with it.

And there are SO many different types of PLR products available, including:

• Ebooks
• Planners
• Templates
• Workbooks
• Worksheets
• Checklists
• Social media content
• Lead magnets

So instead of opening a completely blank document and spending days creating a 30-page planner, for example, you can start with one that’s already been created and then change the colours, fonts, branding, wording and other elements to make it your own.

I’ve done this myself with my manifestation planner on Etsy. I started with a PLR planner, completely rebranded it and turned it into the finished product I now sell in various places including my Etsy shop.

It saved me SO much time (and stress!) compared with designing every individual page myself lol.

And if you want to see just how much ready-made content you can get with PLR, have a look at my Ultimate Marketing PLR Bundle on Etsy. It includes 16 done-for-you ebooks, 600 stock photos AND 400 reels, all in one bundle, giving you a huge amount of content to start working with without having to create everything yourself. Win win lol.

You can also create and sell PLR yourself, giving other people that same shortcut while creating another digital product you can sell again and again.

Just make sure you always check the licence on any PLR you buy so you know exactly what you’re allowed to edit and sell, and make your own terms clear if you decide to create PLR products yourself.

For a full breakdown on what PLR is and how to use it properly, have a look at this post called Making Money Online With PLR Content.

What Digital Products Actually Sell?

The question then is… out of all those ideas, what digital products actually sell?

When looking for the best digital products to sell for passive income, the answer may surprise you…

Honestly, all of them can, if done well and marketed well.

There isn’t one particular type that everyone should rush out and create as not everything will work for everyone.

A planner can sell, an ebook can sell, wall art can sell, a template can sell and a spreadsheet can sell. What matters more is whether people actually have a reason to buy yours.

Usually, the strongest digital product ideas do at least one of a few things:

• Save someone time
• Look appealing/aesthetic
• Make something easier
• Help them stay organised
• Teach them how to do something
• Give them something they would otherwise have to create themselves
• Help them get a particular result

People don’t usually buy a spreadsheet because they desperately want a spreadsheet. They buy it because they want an easier way to manage their budget for example.

Someone buying a content calendar probably wants to stop sitting down every morning wondering what on earth they’re supposed to post.

And someone buying a moving checklist wants to make sure they don’t forget something important while their entire house is sitting in boxes.

You get the idea lol.

Getting specific can help too.

A generic “business planner” could be useful to thousands of different people, but it’s also competing with thousands of other business planners. 

Something like a content planner specifically for bloggers or an income and expense tracker for freelancers immediately tells a particular person, “this was made for you.”

It may still not be for everyone in that space, but there’s a much higher chance that buyers will find what they need if they searched those specific terms initially.

That doesn’t mean every digital product needs to solve some enormous life-changing problem either! People will happily pay for something that simply saves them half an hour, gives them ideas when they’re stuck or means they don’t have to make something themselves.

I’ve done this before multiple times so can absolutely vouch for this lol.

So instead of starting with:

“What digital product should I make?”

Start thinking about what people in your niche are already trying to do, what they regularly need help with and what they would happily pay to make things easier for them.

How to Choose Your First Digital Product

If you’ve never sold a digital product before, don’t make your first one unnecessarily big or complicated. 

It can be really tempting to look at people selling huge courses, 100-page planners and massive bundles and think you need to create something equally impressive before anyone will pay you for it.

You really don’t.

A useful $7 template that’s finished, listed and available for people to buy has infinitely more earning potential than the $97 mini-course you’ve been planning for six months but still haven’t finished lol.

Start by looking at what you already know as this makes things a lot easier initially.

What topics do you know well? What do people regularly struggle with? Is there something you’ve already created for yourself that other people could find useful?

Then ask yourself:

• Can I make something easier for someone?
• Can I save them time?
• Can I answer a specific question/set of questions?
• Can I organise information they currently have to find themselves?
• Can I give them a useful starting point?
• Can I help them get a specific result?

You should also think about what you’d actually enjoy creating.

If the thought of recording hours of video makes you want to avoid the entire project, a course probably isn’t the best place to start lol.

If you love designing things in Canva, a printable, planner or template could make much more sense etc.

And have a look at the skills you already use without really thinking about them. Maybe you’re brilliant at organising your finances, planning trips, creating content, editing photos or putting together spreadsheets. 

Something that feels completely normal and easy to you could save someone else HOURS of figuring it out themselves.

Your first digital product doesn’t need to become your entire business either. 

Pick something useful (that you can actually get finished) and put it up for sale.

You can always create more products, bigger bundles or higher-priced offers once you’ve got that first one out there and can see what people are interested in buying.

If you are still feeling overwhelmed, remember PLR products are always an option too if you want to start with a lot of the initial work done for you.

How to Find Digital Product Ideas People Might Actually Buy

Of course the idea is to create and sell products people need or want. 

The nice thing is you don’t have to completely guess what people might want to buy. Before you spend hours creating something, it’s a good idea to have a look at what people are already searching for, asking questions about and spending money on.

This can help you work out whether there’s actually any interest in your idea, or you might even find a better one while you’re looking and researching.

Look at What People Are Searching For

Start by typing some of your ideas into Google, Pinterest, Etsy or anywhere else people might be searching for products in your chosen niche.

Have a look at the suggestions that come up as you type, related searches and the different versions of your idea that people are looking for.

They are the keywords to take note of as those are the terms people are actually searching for.

As an example if you’re thinking about creating a wedding planner, you might find that people are searching specifically for wedding budget spreadsheets, guest list templates or wedding-day timelines.

You could still create the full wedding planner, but you’ve now got a much better idea of the individual things people are looking for too. Any of those could become a product on its own or give you ideas for what to include in a bigger bundle.

Try this with a few different ideas rather than just checking one and deciding that’s what you’re making. Sometimes what’s in our own heads doesn’t match what’s in other people’s lol.

Pay Attention to What People Are Asking

You can also get loads of ideas by paying attention to the questions people are already asking and wanting helpful answers to.

Have a look through things like:

• Comments on blog posts
• Forums
• Social media comments
• Facebook groups
• Reddit discussions
• Emails from your audience
• Reviews of existing products

The idea is that you’re looking for questions that seem to come up again and again.

Maybe people keep asking how to organise something, saying that a particular task takes forever or looking for an easier way to do something specific.

Think about whether any of those problems could be turned into a product.

For example if you see there are people constantly asking how to plan a month of social media content, you could create a content planner, a pack of prompts, a calendar or even bundle a few of those together to increase the value.

Where Can You Sell Digital Products?

Once you’ve made your digital products, you obviously need somewhere to actually sell them all. Or even just the one if you want to start small.

And there are a lot of options, so you don’t need to have your own website or spend ages setting up a full online shop before you can get started.

You could use a marketplace like Etsy, create your own store with Shopify or sell through a blog or website you already have.

Of course you can use more than one option if this works for you too. 

Etsy

Etsy can be a really good place to start selling digital products because you can create your shop, upload your products and have them available for people to buy without needing to build a separate website first. Plus with Etsy being a full marketplace, the audience is already built-in.

Etsy is really popular for digital products like:

• Printables
• Planners
• Templates
• Wall art
• Invitations
• Business resources

One other big advantage is that people are already searching Etsy for things to buy.

You will of course still need to put some effort into your product listings. There are a LOT of products on Etsy lol. So good images, useful keywords, clear descriptions and titles that actually explain what you’re selling can help your products actually get found.

And if you already have a Blog, Pinterest account or social media following, you can send people directly to your Etsy products too rather than relying entirely on Etsy traffic.

Shopify

If you want your own online store instead then Shopify is a really good option.

You can create your own store around your own products. You can also customize how it looks and you have much more control over how everything is set up than you would on a marketplace like Etsy.

Honestly you can sell pretty much anything too. This could be ebooks, templates, printables and any other digital products you want. You also have the option to add physical products later if you ever want to.

One main difference in using Shopify is that instead of marketplaces like Etsy already having people searching/shopping on the platform, you’ll need to get people to your Shopify store yourself.

But if you’re already creating blog content, using Pinterest, growing an email list or building an audience somewhere else such as social media, you’ve already got a few ways you can start sending people over instantly.

And if Shopify is something you’re considering, I’ve got a full post on how to make money with Shopify with plenty more ideas for what you can sell and how you can use it. (There’s a free trial too so you can get an idea for if it’s for you.)

Your Own Blog or Website

If you already have a blog or website, you can (of course) also use that to help sell your digital products.

This can work really well because you’re already (assumably) creating content around the same topics your products are based on.

For example, if you write about budgeting and sell a budget planner, you can naturally mention that planner in relevant blog posts.

If you write about blogging and sell content templates or planners, you can do exactly the same thing.

You can also promote your products to your email list, create Pinterest pins for them (and promote on whatever other channels you use anyway) and link to them from different places/pages across your website.

And you definitely don’t have to pick one option and stick with it forever lol.

You could start off by listing a few products on Etsy, then add your own Shopify store later. Plus you can use your blog to send people to whichever platform you decide to sell through.

Start with whichever option makes the most sense for you now. You can always change things or add another way to sell as you create more products.

How to Promote Digital Products

Once your digital product is finished and live/available for people to buy, you then need to find some ways to actually get people clicking on it.

The good news is there are LOADS of ways you can promote digital products online, whether you already have an audience or you’re starting completely from scratch. You can use your blog, Pinterest, email list, social media or even the platform you’re selling on to help more people find what you’ve created.

You don’t need to be promoting it on five different social media platforms every day either. Start with a couple of different options that make sense for you and the type of product you’re selling and then you can always add more as you go.

Below are a few ideas you can implement as part of your marketing strategy for your new (or older) products:

Create Blog Content Around the Product

If you already have a blog then you’ve already got an easy way to start promoting your digital products without having to create a completely separate audience for them.

You can write new posts around the same topics as your products and then link to them naturally within the content.

(If you already have posts that work then you can go back and promote them within those posts too.)

As an example if you sell a budget spreadsheet, you could write posts about:

• How to create a monthly budget
• How to organise household expenses
• How to track your spending
• How to start saving money

You can then mention your spreadsheet within each of those posts where it makes sense and is then genuinely helpful to the people finding and reading your content initially.

Someone who has found your post because they’re trying to create a monthly budget is already interested in that specific topic. Your spreadsheet then gives them something they can use to make the whole process even easier.

You can do exactly the same with other products. If you sell Pinterest Pin templates for example, you could mention them in posts about Pinterest marketing or creating pins etc. If you have a content planner, you could link to it from posts about content planning or coming up with new ideas etc.

Use Pinterest

Pinterest is another great way to promote digital products, especially if you’re already using it to get traffic to your blog.

You can create fresh pins that link directly to your products, or you can have the pins link to your posts or content that then link out to those digital products.

Think about the different things someone might be searching for that relate to what you’re selling and create pins around those too.

Doing some Pinterest keyword research will help you discover what terms people are searching for while ON Pinterest which can make a big difference.

For example if you sell a meal-planning bundle, you could create pins around meal planning, saving money on groceries, organising your meals for the week or making meal planning quicker and easier. Whatever is relevant to your product so people know what they are clicking through to.

That gives you loads of different ways to promote the same product without creating the same pin over and over again or looking spammy.

And because Pinterest is a search engine and not just a normal social media platform, using the right keywords in your pin titles and descriptions can help your pins and products continue being found long after you originally posted them.

If Pinterest is something you want to use to promote your products, I’ve got a full Pinterest Marketing for Beginners post that goes through how to get started and how I use it to get more eyes on my content completely for free.

Build an Email List

An email list can be SO useful when you’re selling digital products because you’re not relying on someone finding your product once and deciding to buy it there and then.

Maybe they find one of your blog posts first, download one of your freebies or come across you through Pinterest. The good thing about having an email list is that when someone joins your email list, you now have the perfect opportunity to keep showing up in their inbox and let them get to know you and what content you create.

You can send useful tips, send them direct links to your content, recommend products they may genuinely find helpful and (of course) tell them when you’ve created something new you want to share.

If for example you sell a content planner you could send an email with some of your favourite ways to come up with new content ideas and then mention the planner for anyone who wants somewhere to actually organise them all.

This will depend on which email provider you are with and their options but assuming you are with a platform such as MailerLite you can also set up automated emails that new subscribers receive (automatically, lol) after joining your email list, so some of this can continue happening without you having to send everything manually yourself.

I love and still use MailerLite for my own email list, and if you’re completely new to email marketing, I’ve also got an Email Marketing for Beginners post that will help you get everything set up and work out what to actually send.

Create a Freebie That Leads to Your Paid Product

You can also use a freebie to give people a little taste of what you offer before they decide whether they want to buy something from you.

And if you make your freebie related to one of your paid products, it can work even better.

I actually do this myself with my free Content Creation Download. Someone can download the ebook completely free and get loads of useful help with creating content, and once they’ve signed up they’re also then shown my Complete Social Media Content Toolkit at a hugely discounted price as a bonus.

The toolkit has so much more information in it, with even more resources to help them plan and create their content.

So it makes sense as something to offer next rather than suddenly trying to sell them a completely unrelated product lol.

And you can do the same thing with whatever you sell!

If you have a budgeting bundle, you could offer a free savings tracker. If you sell a larger template bundle, you could give away a couple of templates. Or if you have a paid ebook, you could create a useful checklist around the same topic.

Your freebie still needs to be something genuinely useful on its own of course, but it can also give people a really good introduction to the other products you have available.

Can You Sell Digital Products Without a Big Audience?

Yes! You definitely don’t need thousands of followers or a huge email list before you can start selling digital products.

Having an audience already there can obviously make things easier, but it’s far from the only way people can find what you’re selling lol.

If you sell on Etsy, people can find your products while they’re already searching for something they need. Pinterest can get your products in front of people searching for ideas and solutions, and blog posts can bring in people through Google who have never come across you before.

You can also promote in your email list and on social media, even if you have a smaller audience.

And remember, you don’t necessarily need thousands of people seeing your product anyway.

If 100 people find it and they’re all genuinely interested in the exact thing you’re selling, that can be much more useful than putting it in front of 10,000 random people who have absolutely no need for it.

At the end of the day it’s SALES you want, not VIEWS.

So you don’t have to wait until you’ve reached a large number of followers, subscribers or monthly visitors before you create something high quality and put it up for sale.

If you have a useful product and a way for the right people to find it, you can start selling it while you’re still building your audience at the same time.

Common Digital Product Mistakes to Avoid

Creating Something Before Checking Whether Anyone Wants It

It’s so easy to get excited about an idea for a digital product and immediately want to start creating it, but I would recommend to do a little bit of research before you spend your time, energy and effort creating it from scratch.

You don’t need to do months of research or have absolute proof that your product is going to sell before you create it as you may be creating something different from everyone else. Just have a look at what people are already searching for, what similar products are available and whether people are actually buying them.

If you do create something completely unique then that can be a huge selling point. But it can also make it a little trickier to market if people don’t know to search for the thing you are selling initially lol.

You can also look at the questions people are asking around the topic your digital product is about and you can read reviews on similar products and see if there are particular things people seem to want from a purchase, or things they struggle with.

It’s much easier to do a little research before you’ve spent hours creating the finished product than having to change it later as no one knows it exists. 

Making the Product Too Broad

Trying to create something that could work for absolutely everyone can actually make your product much harder to sell.

For example if you are creating a “business planner”, it’s best to make it tailored depending on who it’s for. Is it for a blogger, freelancer, Etsy seller or someone running a local small business? As they will all need completely different things from a business planner.

Something like a “90-Day Content Planner for New Bloggers” is much more specific and something a blogger would see and be like “Oh that’s for ME”.

You (and they) immediately know who it’s for, what they’re going to use it for and what kind of pages would actually be useful to include (or exclude, depending on the business you are targeting).

It also makes promoting your digital planner easier because you know exactly who you’re trying to get it in front of, and the types of things they might already be searching for (assuming you have done keyword research as mentioned earlier).

You don’t need to make every product ridiculously niche/specific, but having a clear idea of who you’re creating it for can make everything from deciding what to include to actually selling it a lot easier.

Spending Forever Making It Perfect

It’s too easy to keep finding one more thing you want to change before you finally get your product finished and up for sale.

You may change the colors, rewrite a page, add something else, decide you don’t like the cover anymore and suddenly something you thought would take a weekend has somehow taken you three weeks lol.

We have ALL been there. 

But your first digital product really doesn’t need to be perfect. It just needs to be good, with helpful, high-quality information/layouts.

Make sure it’s useful, everything works properly and you’re happy enough with it to sell it, then actually get it listed.

You can always go back and update it later if you want to add something, change the design or make it even better.

You can keep the price lower initially if it’s a more basic product too and can create more products down the line at a higher price point, or upgrade your own product and raise the price if necessary then too.

And you’ll have a much better idea of what’s actually worth changing once real people have started looking at it, buying it and giving you reviews/feedback on it.

At some point, changing the font for the 18th time is just delaying the bit where you actually give someone the chance to buy it lol.

Creating Too Many Products at Once

You definitely don’t need an entire shop full of products before you can start selling.

Start with one, get it finished and once you’re happy with it, and then spend some time promoting it before immediately deciding you need another ten products lol. 

When you are ready to create something else, it can help to think about what could work alongside what you already have. This isn’t compulsory though.

If you are ONLY promoting your digital products on Etsy for example, sticking to the same niche/same family of products can help your reach. Where as if you are promoting products separately within blog posts or via separate shops or landing pages, there isn’t the same need to keep them all closely related.

If (for example) you’ve made a content planner and got it live for sale, you could then create a pack of content prompts or templates next and eventually combine them into a bigger bundle.

Forgetting About the Product Sales Page

Do not forget the importance of a good sales/product page.

You could have an amazing product, but people still need to understand exactly what they’re getting before they’re going to buy it lol.

Whether you’re listing it on Etsy, Shopify or somewhere else, make sure your product page clearly explains:

• What the product actually is
• Who it’s best for
• Exactly what’s included
• What it can help them with
• What file type they’ll receive
• Whether it’s printable, editable or ready to use
• How they’ll receive or access it
• What they need in order to use it
• Any important usage or licence information (e.g PLR)

Add as many useful images or previews as you can too, especially for things like planners, templates and printables where people will want to see what they’re buying.

Not every blogger planner will be for every blogger. Being able to see what’s inside (not all pages, but enough to get a good idea) can help a lot.

You don’t want someone to have to scroll through your listing three times trying to work out what’s included, how they’re going to receive it or whether the product is actually right for them as they won’t bother and will leave the page.

Make it as easy as possible for them to look at your product and know exactly what they’re getting from the start.

Ready to Start Selling Digital Products for Passive Income?

The best digital products to sell for passive income aren’t necessarily the biggest, most complicated or the ones that take you months to create.

Sometimes a simple $5 checklist that saves someone an hour of research can be just as useful as a huge bundle with 50 different resources inside it.

I myself have purchased Pinterest Pin Templates, Income Tracking Spreadsheets, PLR Products, Planners and various other things to save time.

What matters is that you’re creating something people actually have a reason to buy. Something that saves them time, makes something easier, helps them get organised or gives them a shortcut they’d happily pay for can be invaluable to those who need it.

And you definitely don’t need an entire shop full of products before you can start making sales either.

Choose an idea that fits with what you already know and just do a little research to make sure people are interested in it and create something genuinely useful.

Then get it finished and get it out there!

Once your first digital product is available for people to actually buy, you can start promoting it, see what people respond to and use everything you learn to decide what you want to create next.

And before you know it, that one product could be the beginning of a whole collection of digital products bringing in passive income for you.

Speak soon!

Katherine

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The post 20 Best Digital Products to Sell for Passive Income in 2026 appeared first on Katherine McLee.

In this post we are going to go over why your affiliate links may be getting a good amount of clicks, but aren’t converting into sales.

Getting clicks on your affiliate links is exciting… right up until you realise those clicks aren’t actually turning into any sales lol.

The good news here is that if people are clicking your links then they’re obviously interested in what you’re recommending. It means they have read your content, clicked your link and gone to have a proper look at that product… but then haven’t bought anything at the other side.

This is where affiliate marketing can feel a little frustrating initially. Because getting the initial click through is only one part of the process of making money through affiliate marketing.

There are a few things that can get in the way between someone clicking your link and actually deciding to buy whatever it is you are promoting on the other side of that link.

The important thing is that those clicks are telling you people are interested, and interested enough to look at the product more closely, which gives you something to work with.

So let’s get into the most common reasons your affiliate links are getting clicks but no sales, and what you can actually do to turn more of those clicks into real commissions.

Is It Normal To Get Clicks Without Sales?

Yep.

No fluff here lol.

Getting lots of clicks before getting any actual sales is completely normal. Especially when you’re first starting out and you’re still figuring out what works for your audience.

Think about how you shop online yourself. How often do you click on something and immediately buy it without giving it another thought? Probably not that often! May happen occasionally, but not all the time.

Your readers are doing exactly the same thing. They might click your affiliate link because they’re genuinely interested in your recommendation but then:

• Check if they can find it cheaper somewhere else
• Look at a few reviews first
• Save it to come back to later
• Wait until they get paid
• Get distracted and forget all about it
• Decide they don’t want/need it after all

So while seeing those clicks come in is a good sign (of course)… a click doesn’t automatically equal a sale.

There’s usually a little more going on between someone thinking “Ooh, that looks good” and actually purchasing it.

(In part this will of course vary depending on your niche, audience and the price of the recommendations within your links.)

Why People Click Affiliate Links But Don’t Buy

They Were Just Curious

Sometimes people click simply because something has caught their attention and they want to have a nosey at what you’re recommending lol.

They might like the sound of the product, want to check the price or just want a bit more information before deciding whether it’s for them.

We all do this!

They may have absolutely no intention of buying it there and then… and that’s absolutely okay.

Not everyone who clicks an affiliate link is going to be ready to spend money straight away.

They could even come back and buy later once they’ve had time to think about it. So a click without an immediate sale doesn’t necessarily mean your recommendation didn’t work.

Remember that a lot of affiliate links/products have a long cookie period (average 1-90 days) so if someone goes back to that product 2 weeks later and decides to buy it then, you may still get the commission for recommending it initially.

The Product Wasn’t What They Expected

This is one of the easiest mistakes/issues to avoid.

Being 100% transparent about prices, pros, cons, who it’s for etc etc can make a huge difference when it comes to people buying what you are recommending.

Do not try and hide information such as pricing as they will see the price anyway and it just makes you look as if you are hiding it. 

Even if a product is (in your opinion) “expensive”, everyone has a different budget and if it’s worth the cost then THAT is the part that matters.

You want to make sure what you’re saying in your content/about the product actually matches what someone finds when they click your affiliate link and goes through to the product website.

If you’ve made a product sound super affordable and they click through to find it costs $500, they’re probably going to click off and disappear pretty quickly!

Being upfront that something costs $500 and is worth it means only those who are happy with that price are going to click through initially. 

This way you aren’t wasting their (or your own) time.

Plus it stops you looking shady lol.

The same applies to the product features, results, who the product is for or anything else that might have encouraged them to click your link in the first place.

No one product is right for everyone. So don’t act as if it is. Be honest in who it is actually for, as those are the people you are going to get the commission from (potentially).

You don’t need to convince people that a product is something it isn’t, just to get the click. It’s honestly pointless.

Clicks themselves do not pay you. 

Give them a good idea of what to expect beforehand and the people who do click are much more likely to be genuinely interested in buying it. 

THESE are the readers you want clicking through.

They Still Have Questions

Sometimes someone can be interested enough in a product to click your link, but still have questions they want the answers to before they’re actually ready to buy it.

This is where more detailed information/content can really help them.

Try and pre-emptively answer the questions you’d want answered about a product or service before you’d actually commit to spending your own money… and make sure you’re answering/going over as many of them as possible!

The more useful and helpful information you can give someone before they click, the more informed they can feel about deciding whether the product is right for them initially, without having to dig around for the answers they wanted initially.

They Need More Time

Not every affiliate sale is going to happen five minutes after someone clicks your link.

In fact this isn’t the common way it works at all.

Some purchases need a bit more thought, especially if they cost more money, or involve signing up for a subscription.

Someone could click your link today, think about it for a few days and then come back and buy it next week. This is normal and happens a lot.

It could be that they were looking at it late at night and fell asleep and don’t re-find the tab for a few days… anything can happen!

This is also why it’s worth checking the cookie duration for the affiliate programmes you use. As I mentioned above, depending on the programme, you might get commission for a product on a purchase made within:

• 24 hours
• 30 days
• 60 days
• 90 days +

So don’t automatically write off a click just because it didn’t turn into a commission that same day or at that exact moment. That sale could still appear later on for you.

(Or someone could come back and click a second time the following month and then buy… no sales doesn’t mean never, it can also just mean “not now”.)

The Price Put Them Off

Sometimes there isn’t anything else going on other than that they clicked on the link, saw the price and was instantly put off.

If you are transparent about pricing in your content,, this one shouldn’t be as much of an issue. In saying that there are of course still reasons why price would put someone off….

The product was maybe more expensive than they expected/remembered, the price had increased since they last looked, or they literally just can’t justify spending that amount right now.

All are completely valid reasons.

That doesn’t necessarily mean there’s anything wrong with your content or even the product itself. They were interested enough to click; the price just wasn’t right for them. And that’s okay.

They know the price for if they decide to make it work, and if not then it wasn’t for them anyway.

Being as clear as possible about costs/pricing can help reduce this as a reason fairly dramatically though.

They Need a Little More Confidence in the Recommendation

Sometimes people are interested in what you’re recommending but they just want a little more information before they’re ready to spend their money on it.

This is where creating genuinely helpful content can make such a difference. 

A mistake people often make is that they will just tell someone a product is great and add their affiliate link with no explanation.

What actually gets conversions and sales is to explain why you recommend it, who you think it’s best for and what you actually like about it.

Go over pros AND cons.

You will be surprised how often the CONS list is the one that sells people on something….

A con about a course could be “it feels too slow/too simple”, yet for some people they maybe prefer a simpler approach/things slowed down a little as that’s how they learn best.

The opposite could also be true for a course that feels fast-paced and over-filled… for a lot of people that would mean it’s not for them. Yet there will be people who LOVE learning that way in which case it is actually perfect for them.

If you’ve used the product yourself, share your own experience. Good and bad. If you haven’t, make sure you’ve done enough research (and trust in the company/product enough) to give your readers real, useful information rather than simply repeating what they could find on the sales page themselves.

The more useful and honest your content is, the more familiar people become with your recommendations too. The more people trust you and your recommendations, that can make clicking that BUY button feel like a much easier decision too.

How To Increase Your Affiliate Sales

Recommend Products You’d Actually Recommend Anyway

One of the easiest ways to make your affiliate content feel more genuine (to you and your readers) is to promote products you’d happily tell someone about even if there wasn’t a monetary commission attached.

That doesn’t mean you have to personally own every single product you ever mention.

Depending on your niche, that wouldn’t always be possible (or affordable!). If (for example) your content is based around lawn mower reviews, there would be no expectation to buy 300 lawn mowers to talk about lol.

But you should know enough about what you’re recommending to understand why those products specifically could be useful to your target audience.

If you’ve used it yourself then even better as people know and can tell.

You can then share what you liked, what you didn’t, how you used it and anything you think someone should or would want to know before buying.

Those little details are often far more useful than simply listing features from the product page lol.

Answer the Questions Someone Might Have Before Buying

If you think about the last time you were considering buying something online. Chances are, you had a few questions you wanted answered before actually buying it lol.

Your readers are obviously no different.

Instead of simply telling them a product is great, give them the information they actually need to decide whether it’s right for them.

Depending on what you’re recommending, they might want to know things like:

• Is it actually worth the money?
• What did you like about it?
• Was there anything you didn’t like?
• Who would you recommend it to?
• Is it easy to use?
• Did it actually do what you expected?
• Would you buy it again?

The idea is simply to answer the questions someone is likely to have before they need to go looking for those answers somewhere else.

As an example… If your content is beauty based, telling someone a lipstick looks nice is great, but what you want to be saying is notes on the colour, texture, longevity, the smell, the packaging, if it bleeds or transfers, how the colour fades down…. Etc etc.

Answer questions BEFORE people have them.

Create Content for People Who Are Already Looking for a Solution 

The type of searches bringing people to your content can make a big difference to your affiliate sales.

For example, someone searching for “What is Semrush?” might only be trying to find out what the tool does.

Someone searching for “Semrush review” or “Semrush vs Keysearch”, on the other hand, probably already knows they need an SEO tool and is now trying to decide which one to use and which one is right for them.

That’s the kind of traffic you want to attract to your affiliate content – the people who are looking to buy, more than those just curious what it is.

The curious people may well come back and buy down the line too – so the more helpful the info the better, but with higher priced products, intent to buy will help speed up your conversions.

When you’re planning new content, think about what someone might be searching for when they’re closer to making the decision to buy.

Another example would be a post called “What Are Running Sneakers?” could be incredibly helpful, but in terms of affiliate clicks, a post called “Best Running Sneakers for Women Over 40” is what people would aim for if they were looking to BUY. Not just for info.

On the topic of keywords… If you’re still getting to grips with keyword research (and how to structure posts like I mentioned above), I’ve also put together a full breakdown of what Semrush is and how bloggers can use it for keyword research, including how it can help you find the best keywords for you and plan content around what people are actually searching for which is half the battle lol. 

Give People a Reason to Come Back

We have talked about this a bit, but someone may find your blog content today without being ready to buy anything, but that doesn’t mean they won’t come back when they are ready.

This is why it’s worth creating genuinely helpful content around the topics and products you talk about.

If someone gets a useful answer from one of your posts, clicks through to another and then comes across your blog again later, your site starts becoming somewhere they recognise rather than a page they visited once and immediately forgot about lol.

Having an email list is the ideal option for this because it gives you a way to stay in touch with people who already enjoy your content (or people who want to be able to come back). You can share new posts, send useful tips and bring people back to your blog without relying on them remembering to check for something new.

If you haven’t started your own list yet, I have a full beginner’s guide to email marketing post that takes you through how to get started, build your list and what you can actually send once people subscribe to you.

My own email list is with MailerLite and I genuinely love using it. Especially as you can start out completely for free lol.

I make my emails look how I want them to, setting up forms and automations is nice and straightforward, and I’m not constantly fighting with the platform just to do something simple which would drive me mad lol.

If you’re still deciding which email marketing platform to use, it’s definitely one I’d recommend having a look at.

Don’t Expect Every Click to Turn Into a Sale

Even when you’re doing everything right, you’re never going to see one sale for every affiliate click… and you don’t need to lol.

From Google: “The average click-to-buy affiliate conversion rate typically ranges from 1% to 3%. This means that for every 100 people who click an affiliate link, 1 to 3 complete a purchase.”

This sounds low, but that’s completely normal. Some will do better, some will be slower. 

The more relevant/interested people you get seeing your content, the more will click, the more have the chance to buy.

Do not get discouraged every time you see clicks without commissions. It can be really helpful information.

Which posts are getting the most affiliate clicks? Which products are people most interested in? Are certain links getting clicked far more than others?

Then you can use that information to decide what to work on/update next.

If one product is getting a good amount of clicks, you could create more content around it or add in more information so people are even more informed before clicking to the product page.

If an affiliate post is getting traffic but hardly anyone clicks the links, that shows that your content/links/affiliate info needs updating or rewording.

And – of course – if something is already generating sales, that’s a pretty good sign you should be doing more of whatever worked there lol.

You don’t need every click to convert. This will never happen. Do not expect it to lol. You need to keep growing the amount of readers on your blog, updating helpful info, and then that can improve what happens between someone finding your content/the product and deciding to buy for themselves.

What’s Actually Working for Me

One thing I’ve found really useful with affiliate marketing is paying attention to which products and posts are already getting the most interest/clicks.

When I look through my own dashboards, there are naturally some links that get a lot more clicks than others. Often the higher click through rate the higher the conversion rate – but not always!

Rather than constantly looking for something new to promote, I use that information to work out what my readers are interested in and where it might be worth creating more, or updating, content.

Here are a few examples of how I’m currently using affiliate links across my own blog: 

• BSL Courses – which I recommend in my Perfecting Blogging Course Review
• HostGator – which you can find in my HostGator Review
• SemRush – which I talk about in my What is Semrush? post
• Shopify – where you can find ALL the ins and outs in my Shopify Post

If you’re already getting affiliate clicks or sales, have a look through your own analytics/numbers and see if you can spot any patterns.

You might find that one particular product gets far more attention than you thought, or that a certain type of post sends more people to your affiliate links.

You don’t always need to keep finding new products to promote. Sometimes there’s a lot more you can do with the ones that are already getting results!

Should You Remove Affiliate Links That Aren’t Converting?

This is a slightly trickier one to answer as it will depend on a few factors.

If an affiliate link is getting clicks but hasn’t made you any money yet, I wouldn’t remove it. The fact it’s getting clicks is important info. It’s more likely that there is a disconnect between your content, the reader’s expectations and the product itself.

Have a look at what you could improve around the link before deciding to remove it!

It’s also worth remembering that different products can have completely different buying journeys for people (on average).

A $10 product is a very different decision from signing up for a $400 course or paying for software every month.

Some products are also more popular at certain times of the year. So comparing every affiliate link purely by how quickly it makes a sale won’t always tell you much unless you look at overall numbers over a long period of time.

If something is getting regular clicks, I’d take that as a reason to investigate and improve it before removing it!

If a link is new and hasn’t had a good chance to gain traction, that’s also a reason to leave it alone. 

On the other hand if you have links where you have lost trust/faith in the product, you prefer a different product, links have sat there for months with ZERO clicks etc then yes, absolutely remove them.

You can update your content and swap your links out for better/more relevant product links and then assess how those do.

Turning Those Affiliate Clicks Into More Sales

Getting the click initially is actually a pretty important part of the process.

Your reader has noticed and liked your recommendation and they’re interested in it and they’ve chosen to find out more/look to potentially buying it.

So if the sales aren’t following your clicks yet, don’t automatically assume the affiliate link isn’t working. 

Make sure you’re recommending products that make sense for your content and audience, answer the questions someone is likely to have before buying and give them enough useful information to decide whether the product is actually right for them.

You can also look at which of your posts, products and links are getting the most attention/people are finding the most helpful, and use that to help you decide what to focus on next in terms of products and content.

Remember, you don’t need every single person who clicks an affiliate link to buy something. It won’t happen lol.

You want the people who genuinely want or need what you’re recommending to feel happy clicking through and spending their money after trusting your word.

Those clicks (without sales) aren’t something to write off. They’re proof that you’ve already got people interested… and now you can work on turning more of that interest into commissions!

Speak soon!

Katherine

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The post Affiliate Links Getting Clicks But No Sales? Try These Simple Fixes appeared first on Katherine McLee.

In this post we are going to go over Email Marketing for Beginners: How to Start and What to Send (Step-by-Step) to simplify it.

If you’re new to blogging or making money online, there’s a high chance you’ve seen people talking about email marketing.

You’’ have heard people say that it’s one of the best ways to grow your business.

Apparently “the money is in the email list.”

Apparently you should start building one as soon as possible.

Great…

But then what? 

Because most people tell you that you need an email list, but they don’t really explain what happens after that lol.

How do people actually get subscribers onto their list?

What are you supposed to send once someone signs up?

And do you really need all these fancy automations, systems and funnels everyone keeps talking about?

When I first looked into email marketing, it felt like one of those things that everyone else seemed to understand apart from me lol.

The good news is that it really isn’t as complicated as it sounds.

Once you strip away all the confusing email marketing jargon, it’s actually pretty straightforward. And you definitely don’t need a huge audience or loads of complicated systems or automations to get started.

In this post, I’ll show you how email marketing works, how to start your first email list, what to send your subscribers, and why it’s one of the best things you can do if you’re looking to grow a blog or online business.

Let’s get into Email Marketing for Beginners.

What Is Email Marketing?

Email marketing is as simple as it sounds. You market your content to your audience via emails.

The easiest way to think about email marketing is this…

Someone enjoys your blog, freebie, or content enough to give you their email address because they’d like to hear from you again.

From there, you simply send them emails every so often depending on your business/strategy.

That’s it.

It doesn’t have to be daily.

It doesn’t have to be complicated.

And it definitely doesn’t need loads of fancy automations when you’re just getting started. 

I had my email list for months before even thinking about setting up automations.

The reason so many bloggers and online business owners recommend building an email list is because it gives you a way to stay in touch with people who’ve already shown an interest in what you do.

It means you have a “direct” line of communication with people who are already interested in your content/products/ideas.

Think about how many times you’ve visited a website, read one blog post, then completely forgotten it existed a few days later.

We’ve all done it

But if you’d joined that website’s email list, there’s a good chance you’d have gone back the next time they sent an email.

That’s why having your own email list can be so valuable.

Instead of hoping someone remembers to come back, you’ve got a way of reaching people directly whenever you’ve got something you want to share.

Maybe that’s some information, a new product, a blog post, a YouTube video, a special offer/discount, a course, a new service, or simply something you think your audience will find useful.

It’s one of the few things online that you actually own, which is why so many bloggers see it as such an important part of growing their business.

Social media accounts can get deactivated or banned, whereas you own your email list so always have that line of communication with your audience.

Why Is Email Marketing Important?

At first, it can be easy to wonder whether you even need an email list.

After all, if you’ve got a website, social media account, YouTube channel, or online shop, you’d assume that surely people can just find you there?

The problem is that people are busy.

They might enjoy your content today, then completely forget to come back next week.

Or they close your website/socials and forget your name/business name and can’t then find you even if they do remember.

Not because they didn’t like it…

…but because life gets in the way.

An email list gives you a simple way to stay in touch with the people who have already shown an interest in what you do.

This means that instead of hoping someone stumbles across your website or social media again, you can let them know when you’ve got something new to share and they don’t have to go looking for you.

That could be a new blog post, or maybe you’ve added a new product to your shop or maybe you’re launching a course, running a sale, uploading a new YouTube video, or sharing something you think your audience will genuinely find useful etc etc.

Whatever your business looks like, an email list helps you keep that connection going. And in such a simple way.

And over time, those connections can become one of the most valuable parts of growing an online business.

It’s really not a step to be skipped!

Step 1: Choose An Email Marketing Platform

Before you can start building an email list, you’ll need an email marketing platform.

This is simply the online website/tool that stores your subscribers’ email addresses and lets you send emails to them. It’s also where you’ll create signup forms, pop ups, set up automations (if you want to), keep everything organised and where you can check your analytics so you can see what’s working best.

There are quite a few email marketing platforms out there, including:

• MailerLite
• Kit (formerly ConvertKit)
• Mailchimp

The good news is that you don’t need to spend hours comparing every single one lol. They all do a very similar job, so the best one is usually the one you find easiest to use and is the one that fits your needs/budget the best.

Personally, I (still) use MailerLite because I found it really straightforward to set up, it’s really beginner-friendly, and it has everything I need without feeling complicated.

It’s also completely free to start on a starter plan and so easy to upgrade when your list grows/you feel like you want more features which is what I did in time.

Get Started On MailerLite Here

Step 2: Create A Freebie (Lead Magnet)

The next step is giving people a reason to join your email list.

This is why a lead magnet is so important…

If someone lands on your website for the first time, they probably don’t know you yet.

Asking them to hand over their email address without getting anything in return can be a bit of a big ask lol.

That’s where a freebie comes in.

A freebie (often called a lead magnet) is simply something helpful that people receive when they sign up to your email list.

It doesn’t need to be complicated or take weeks to create either.

You can get PLR products that are already pre-done which is an easy option.

Some popular freebie lead magnet ideas include things like:

• Checklists
• E-books
• Templates
• Content prompts
• Printables
• Planners
• Resource lists

The best freebies solve one small problem or help someone achieve something quickly.

For example, if you teach blogging, you could create a blog launch checklist. (This is exactly what my first one was and it did really well.)

If you help people with social media/marketing, you could give away a month’s worth of content ideas.

If you sell digital products, you could offer a free planner or template etc etc.

The goal isn’t to create the biggest freebie possible or anything hugely complicated lol.

It’s simply to give someone something genuinely useful that makes them think, “wow that was really helpful.”

Step 3: Create An Opt-In Form

Now that you’ve made/got your freebie, you need a way for people to actually sign up for it.

This is where an opt-in form comes in.

This can have a variety of different looks, but basically an opt-in form is simply a form where someone enters their name and email address to join your email list and receive your freebie.

This could be on a landing page, an embedded box, a pop up, a banner etc etc.

Often email marketing platforms (such as Mailerlite) make these really easy to create so you don’t need any coding or technical experience.

You can add your signup form to places like:

• Blog posts
• Your homepage
• Landing pages
• Pop-ups
• Resource pages

Etc etc!

They are really customisable too no matter which option/options you choose to go with. Plus you can start/stop them at any time.

The main thing is making it easy for people to find as people will rarely go looking for it.

If someone has to go searching for your signup form, there’s a good chance (as in, pretty much 100% chance lol) that they will leave your site before they ever find it.

Placing it somewhere really obvious/visible gives people the opportunity to join your email list whenever they’re ready to do so.

This could be for updates from you, or that they want your freebie/lead magnet. And sometimes people can see a pop up 10+ times before deciding to sign up, so having it in an obvious place helps with conversion rates.

The main thing to keep in mind is to make it easy to find.

A clear, easy-to-find signup form removes any extra friction/confusion and makes it much more likely they’ll subscribe which is a win for both you and the reader. 

Step 4: Set Up A Welcome Sequence

Once someone’s joined your email list, it’s a good idea to have a few emails ready to send to them.

This is usually called a welcome sequence/automation, but don’t let the name put you off lol.

It’s basically just a series of emails that are automatically sent to new subscribers over the next few days or weeks.

That way, everyone gets the same warm welcome without you having to send each email yourself to each new subscriber.

A simple welcome sequence might look something like this:

Email 1

• Deliver your freebie to their email
• Welcome your new subscriber
• Introduce yourself and what they can expect from your emails

Email 2

• Share some of your most helpful content or resources

Email 3

• Answer a common question or share a useful tip

Email 4

• Recommend a product, service, tool, or resource that you genuinely think they’ll find helpful

The idea isn’t to sell something in every email. Email marketing is connection first.

It’s really just to help new subscribers get to know you, understand what you do, and give them a reason to keep opening your emails in the future.

What Should You Actually Send?

This is probably the question I see people ask the most. Understandably lol.

“Okay… I’ve got people on my email list now. What do I actually send them?” 

The main thing to remember is that your emails don’t need to be long, complicated, or perfectly written.

Often some of the best emails are the simplest ones.

If you’re ever stuck for ideas, here are a few ideas of content topics you can send to your list:

Let People Know About New Content

Published a new blog post? Uploaded a YouTube video? Released a podcast episode?

Send your subscribers an email to let them know!

Remember that people have signed up because they (yes, wanted the freebie) but also because they wanted to hear from you or they would have unsubscribed lol, so don’t be afraid to share what you’ve been working on.

Share Helpful Tips

Not every email needs to promote something.

Not every email should promote something.

For some emails you can just share something like a quick/useful tip, or answer a commonly asked question, or teach your audience something useful they maybe don’t already know/need reminding of.

Those kinds of emails help build trust and give people a reason to keep opening your emails rather than thinking you are selling to them in every email.

Share Personal Stories

People love hearing about real experiences.

You could talk about a lesson you’ve learned, a mistake you made, something that’s worked well for you, or even something you’re currently trying to improve. Anything along those lines always goes down well.

These types of emails often feel more personal and help your audience get to know you a little better which is a nice connection to have.

Recommend Products Or Resources

If you’ve found a tool, product, or resource that you genuinely use and love, tell people about it.

Whether it’s an affiliate recommendation or simply something that’s made your life easier, your audience will usually appreciate recommendations that are honest and genuinely helpful.

Doesn’t have to be salesy or pushy or a high-ticket item, just something genuinely useful that you really do use and love and feel your readers may love too.

Share Free Resources

If you have made/bought a new checklist, template, guide, printable, or free download etc etc, you can share this with your readers too as your email list is a great place to let people know about it first.

Not only does it give your subscribers something else that’s valuable, but it also gives them another reason to stay subscribed.

(It also saves them putting their email in again to get a new freebie when they are already on the list.)

How Often Should You Email Your List?

One of the most popular questions people usually ask (after why they need a list and how to grow their list) is then how often they should email their subscribers.

And honestly, there isn’t really a right or wrong answer I can give you.

Some businesses send emails every day.

Others send one a week.

Some only need or want to email their readers a couple of times a month.

It literally depends on you, your business and what you are looking to get from it.

The important thing isn’t trying to copy someone else’s schedule. It’s choosing one that works for you or it won’t work lol.

If you know you’ll struggle to write and send three emails every week, don’t set yourself that target initially.

It’s much better to send one helpful email every week than to send loads of emails for a couple of weeks, get overwhelmed, and stop altogether.

Start with a schedule/target that feels manageable for you.

As you get more comfortable with email marketing and get quicker at it (or have more you want to share), you can always increase how often you email your list later on.

The main thing is showing up consistently so your subscribers know they can expect to hear from you, no matter what your emailing schedule looks like.

Common Email Marketing Mistakes

When you’re first getting started with email marketing, it’s so easy to overthink everything.

Here are a few mistakes I see people make all the time (and a couple I’ve definitely been guilty of myself lol).

Waiting Too Long To Start

A lot of people put off starting an email list because they think they need more traffic, more experience, or more content first.

The reality is, you can start any time, and you may well be surprised how fast you get your first sign ups.

Even if only a handful of people join your list at first, it’s much easier to grow it over time than to wish you’d started months ago.

It also means you can get your own confidence up in your email marketing platform and get used to sending emails when your list is a lot smaller so isn’t as scary lol.

With platforms like Mailerlite (the one I still use), their beginner plan is free anyway so costs nothing to start early.

Only Emailing When You’re Selling Something

This is one that’s easy to fall into when you are promoting genuinely good products that you WANT to recommend. But you need to be careful with it. 

Imagine only hearing from a friend when they wanted something…

It would feel a bit off-putting. And your email list works in a similar way.

To avoid this you can mix in helpful tips, updates, stories, or free but useful tools alongside any products or services you recommend.

It helps your reputation, helps your audience more and mixes it up a bit to get a higher chance of more people opening your emails. 

Trying To Make Every Email Perfect

Trying to make every email perfect is something we all do but will make your emails take a lot longer to write and send. 

It’s really easy to spend ages rewriting the same email over and over trying to make it perfect.

The thing to remember is though that your subscribers aren’t expecting perfection.

They know it’s a real person behind the emails (which is the point), so expect that human touch.

They’re often much more interested in receiving something genuinely helpful than reading the world’s most perfectly written email lol.

Expecting Results Overnight

Just like blogging, Pinterest, YouTube, or pretty much anything else online, email marketing takes time.

Your email list will most likely take a bit of time to grow. And that’s completely normal.

Flukes can happen and of course if you have more experience then it may grow quicker but on the whole, it takes time.

If you focus on showing up consistently and really helping your audience then your list will grow naturally over time.

Final Thoughts on Email Marketing for Beginners

If you’ve been putting off starting an email list because it all sounded a bit confusing, I hope this has made it feel a little simpler to get started!

You really don’t need a huge audience in the early days.

You certainly don’t need loads of fancy automations on day 1.

And you definitely don’t need to have everything figured out before you start.

Just choose an email marketing platform that’s easy to use, create a simple freebie, and start building your list, one subscriber at a time.

You’ll probably be surprised how quickly those first few subscribers start adding up!

Then you can always upgrade and add fancier downloads and automations as your list grows.

Hopefully you’re feeling a little more confident about getting started. If you’re ready to take that first step in building your own list, you can sign up here:

MailerLite Plans

Speak soon!

Katherine

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In this post we are going to go over Pinterest Marketing for Beginners in 2026.

Pinterest is an absolute powerhouse when it comes to driving free traffic to your site, but only if you use it properly.

If you’ve ever tried using Pinterest for traffic and felt like absolutely nothing is happening… you’re definitely not the only one.

A lot of people start posting pins (sometimes even really consistently), and then get so confused when the clicks just don’t come.

It’s not because Pinterest doesn’t work. 

It’s usually because it’s being used like social media, when it’s actually a search engine.

This means it works differently and looks for different content, to show to a different audience to social media platforms.

People go on there looking for ideas, inspo and answers.

This means that if your pins/content are set up properly from the start, it can keep bringing in traffic long after you’ve posted it as people can still search for those things years down the line

And that’s what makes it so powerful!

In this post I’m going to walk you through Pinterest marketing for beginners in 2026, step-by-step, in a way that actually helps you start getting traffic, instead of just posting and hoping something eventually sticks.

WHAT PINTEREST MARKETING ACTUALLY IS

Pinterest marketing is basically just using Pinterest to get your content in front of people who are already searching for it. 

A lot of people still think Pinterest is another social media, but at its core it’s actually a search engine. People usually go onto Pinterest looking for ideas, answers, inspiration, and solutions. This could be recipes, outfits, home decor, blogging tips, side hustle ideas, or ways to make money online.

Instead of relying on followers or posting content into a feed that can get buried over time, Pinterest mainly works through keywords and what people are searching for.

So if your content matches what someone is searching for, your pin has the chance to show up in search results and keep getting discovered over time. Even if it’s years later!

And honestly? That’s one of the best things about Pinterest and why it’s such an amazing tool for content creators.

Unlike platforms where your content disappears after a day, Pinterest pins can keep bringing traffic months or even years later. Unlike platforms where posts vanish from people’s feeds after a few hours, Pinterest content has a much longer lifespan.

That’s a huge part of why so many bloggers and online business owners use Pinterest to grow their traffic over time. 

This is a huge part of why Pinterest appeals to so many bloggers and beginners.

Instead of feeling pressured to constantly post social media content, stay online all day, or keep up with fast-moving social trends, you can focus on creating helpful content that has the potential to keep working for you over time. Literally the whole point of creating the helpful content in the first place.

That’s one of the biggest differences with Pinterest. Your content doesn’t just disappear after a few hours. It goes onto the platform and is then there forever. This then means the work you put in now can continue bringing traffic to your blog, website, or products long after you’ve published it.

WHY PINTEREST STILL WORKS IN 2026

Every year people start asking whether Pinterest is “dead” or if it still works for traffic, and honestly, people were asking the same thing years ago too lol. 

But the truth is, Pinterest absolutely can still work in 2026… if you understand how the platform actually works.

Of course over time things have changed but a quick Google can tell you as of 2026 Pinterest has an average of 631 million monthly active users.

Six hundred and thirty one million. A month.

Pinterest is not dead.

People (a lot of people) are still using Pinterest every single day to search for ideas, answers, products, and inspiration. No matter what they are searching for, Pinterest is still being used as a search engine by millions of people. 

That’s why keywords, helpful content, and fresh pins still matter so much.

You can get the right content in front of the right audience for free.

Pinterest wants to show users content that’s relevant, useful, and up to date. So when you combine strong keywords with aesthetic, bold pins and valuable content, your posts have the chance to keep showing up in search results over a long time.

And honestly, that’s what makes Pinterest so powerful.

It’s not just about getting clicks right now. It’s about creating content that can continue bringing in traffic long into the future. That’s especially valuable for bloggers, affiliate marketers, digital products, and anyone building an online business of any sort.

Then once that traffic starts coming in, the next step is learning how to turn those visitors into income.

The Best Affiliate Programs for Beginners

STEP-BY-STEP PINTEREST STRATEGY

STEP 1: SET UP YOUR ACCOUNT PROPERLY

The first step is making sure your account is set up in a way that Pinterest understands what your content is about.

It needs to know what your account is about, to know who to show the content to.

Switch to a business account if you haven’t already, as this gives you access to analytics and more features which are super helpful.

Make sure your profile includes keywords related to your niche. Doing this means that Pinterest can start categorising your content correctly.

You’ll also want to claim your website so your pins are linked back to your content properly.

If you don’t already have a website to send traffic to, this is the easiest way to get started:

Start your Shopify store here

STEP 2: CREATE KEYWORD-RICH BOARDS

When you’re creating your Pinterest boards, try to think about what people would actually type into the search bar.

A lot of people make the mistake of using overly vague, random, or purely aesthetic board names, but clearer keyword-focused titles tend to work much better for Pinterest SEO.

For example, board names like:

Make Money Online Tips
Pinterest Marketing for Bloggers
Affiliate Marketing for Beginners

give Pinterest much more information about what kind of content belongs on that board.

Calling a board “Money Tips” sounds good, but is too vague and could mean so many things so Pinterest won’t know who to show your content to.

Doing this makes it easier for Pinterest to understand your content and helps connect your pins with people who are already searching for those topics.

STEP 3: CREATE PINTEREST-OPTIMISED CONTENT

Pinterest works best when your pins lead to content that people genuinely want to read, explore, or learn more about.

They need a good reason to click through the pin and leave Pinterest.

When someone clicks on a pin, they’re expecting to land on something connected to what caught their attention in the first place. That could be a helpful blog post, a product recommendation, a freebie, an affiliate page, or even a shop page for a specific product.

The important thing is making sure the content feels relevant and/or useful once they get there.

For example, if your pin is talking about blogging tips or ways to make money online, the page/post they end up on from that pin should continue providing information on that topic instead of sending them somewhere completely different as they will then be confused and not trust your pins in the future.

The better the connection between your pin and your content, the easier it is to build trust with readers and keep people engaging with your content over time.

STEP 4: CREATE CLICKABLE PINS

Your pin design (what they look like) is what helps stop people from scrolling and encourages them to actually click through to your content.

Bold pins in bright colours and clear, readable text often perform the best. This is especially true if they have relevant, clear photos added too.

The good news is that your pins don’t need to be overly complicated or professionally designed to work well. In most cases, simple and clear performs much better than cluttered or confusing.

You can design your own, get templates or do a mixture.

Etsy is a good place for Pinterest Pin Templates.

The main thing is making sure people can instantly understand what the pin is about and why they should care. Them liking the design is a bonus.

Titles like:

How to Start a Blog in 2026
How to Make Money with Pinterest
Side Hustle Ideas That Actually Work

work well because they’re direct, specific, and focused on something people are actively searching for.

If someone saw a pin titled “How to start a blog in 2026” there would be NO doubt in their mind what that pin was leading to, and that’s the important part.

This is exactly the same no matter the niche.

When someone is scrolling through Pinterest, you only have a few seconds to grab their attention.

The clearer your pin text is and the easier it is to understand the value of the content, the more likely people are to click through and read more/follow to the next page/step.

STEP 5: HELP PINTEREST UNDERSTAND YOUR CONTENT

Pinterest doesn’t automatically know what your pins are about just from the image alone. This is why the wording you use across your account matters so much.

The titles, descriptions, board names, and alt text attached to your pins all help to give Pinterest extra context about your content and who it should be shown to.

For example, if you regularly use phrases related to blogging, affiliate marketing, Pinterest tips, or making money online, Pinterest starts building a clearer understanding of the type of content you create and the audience you’re trying to reach.

This is why descriptive wording is so important on Pinterest.

Again, this is the same whether your niche is nail inspo, recipes, fashion, money or pets etc!

Instead of using vague titles or random board names, try to be as clear as possible about what your content is actually about. The easier it is for Pinterest to understand your content, the easier it becomes for the platform to show your pins to people searching for those topics and the more eyes on your pins, the more traffic you can get!

You also don’t need to force keywords into every sentence or make your descriptions sound robotic lol. A good rule is to simply write the way a real person would search.

Think about the words or phrases someone might type into Pinterest if they were looking for your content, then naturally work those into your titles, descriptions, board names, and alt text where they make sense.

Different people will search the same thing in different ways so covering as many of those options as you can will help broaden your reach.

For example you may be talking about “Spring Nail Inspo” and one may search exactly that, whereas someone else could search “Pastel Nail Design” or “Cute Floral Nails”. All could bring up nail content, but by only focusing on “spring nail inspo” you may find that the other people searching the other terms never see your pins.

STEP 6: STAY CONSISTENT WITH PINNING

If there’s one thing that matters on Pinterest, it’s consistency.

A lot of people assume they need to pin dozens of times a day to see results, but that’s not necessarily the case. What matters most is creating a schedule you can stick to long-term.

Or at the least, one you can stick to for now, which you can grow/expand on later.

For some people that might be 1 pin a day. For others it might be 4 or 5.

Pinterest prefers fresh pins. This means it prefers if EVERY pin published is a brand new pin image. It can be a variation of others, but not exactly the same.

You can pin a mix of new and existing content, this includes products, web pages, blog posts etc. This gives you a lot to work with.

Don’t post the same URL too close together to avoid getting caught in the spam filter. Aim for at least a few days between the same URL going out, even to different boards.

You can create multiple pin designs linking to the same blog post or page, again just remember to space them out.

As mentioned in step 5, it can take some time for Pinterest to understand what your content is about, who it’s relevant to, and where it should appear.

That’s why consistency is so important.

Every new pin you publish gives Pinterest another opportunity to test your content. At the same time, your older pins can continue circulating and bringing in traffic months or even years after they’ve been published that first time.

The goal isn’t to pin as much as possible. It’s to just keep creating fresh content and pins and then publishing them consistently, giving your pins the best chance of getting seen and in turn getting you traffic.

HOW TO BUILD PINTEREST TRAFFIC FASTER

While Pinterest isn’t an overnight traffic source, there are a few things that can help you see clicks and traffic a bit faster.

One of the biggest is creating content around topics people are already searching for.

Think about the questions your audience is typing into Pinterest and create content that answers those questions clearly.

This often includes things like:

• beginner tutorials
• step-by-step guides
• money-making ideas
• blogging tips
• content creation advice
• solutions to common problems

This would also work well with seasonal content such as crafts, recipes and nail designs.

It’s also always worth creating multiple pins for the same piece of content.

Different headlines, colours, layouts, and images can attract different audiences, so don’t be afraid to test new designs and see what resonates.

Sometimes the less “aesthetic” the pin design and colours, the more they stand out and the better they perform overall for you.

Over time, you’ll start noticing patterns in the topics and pin styles that perform best, giving you a much clearer idea of what your audience wants to see. Then you can use that info to create more pins of that style and for that content.

COMMON PINTEREST MISTAKES TO AVOID

If Pinterest feels harder than it should, there’s a good chance one of these common mistakes is holding you back.

Many beginners treat Pinterest like a social media platform when it’s actually much closer to a search engine. Instead of focusing on followers and likes, focus on creating helpful content around topics people are actively searching for.

Other common mistakes include:

• using vague titles instead of keywords
• pinning inconsistently
• creating only one pin per piece of content
• sending people to pages that don’t match the pin
• ignoring Pinterest SEO

Avoiding these mistakes won’t guarantee overnight results, but it can make a huge difference to how quickly Pinterest understands and distributes your content.

HOW TO MAKE MONEY FROM PINTEREST

Pinterest isn’t really a money-making platform on its own.

It’s better to think of it as a traffic platform due to the fact it’s a search engine.

The goal is to use Pinterest to get people to click through your pins to your blog, shop, products, or offers.

Then from there you can make money through things like:

• affiliate marketing
• digital products
• ad revenue
• services
• online shops

That’s why so many bloggers and online business owners focus a lot of their marketing efforts on Pinterest.

A single pin can continue sending visitors to your content long after it’s been published!

If you’re planning to use Pinterest as part of your income strategy (highly recommended), I’d also recommend building an email list from the start.

That way when someone discovers you through Pinterest, you have a way to stay in touch with them and bring them back to your content again and again.

I personally use MailerLite for my email marketing, and it’s one of the first tools I’d recommend for beginners as their free plan is great until you feel you need to upgrade.

Get started for free with MailerLite here

IS PINTEREST MARKETING WORTH IT?

For many bloggers, creators, and online business owners, the answer is yes.

Pinterest gives you the chance to get your content in front of people who are actively searching for it. And unlike many other platforms, your content doesn’t disappear after a day or two.

Instead, it can continue showing up in search results and bringing people back to your website/content over a much longer time.

That’s what makes Pinterest so valuable and so worth it.

Every pin you create is another chance to be discovered by your target audience. 

The key is to focus on creating eye-catching pins, using relevant keywords, and staying consistent with it all.

You don’t need a huge audience, and you don’t need to spend hours on Pinterest every day. You can batch make pins and then pre-schedule them up to a month in advance to cut the time down significantly. What matters most is giving Pinterest quality content to work with and allowing enough time for your pins to gain traction and get traffic.

If you’re serious about growing your traffic, getting your content in front of more people and building an online business, Pinterest can be one of the best tools to use as part of your marketing/promotion strategy.

Then, once that traffic starts rolling in, it’s all about learning how to turn those clicks into income.

Affiliate Marketing for Beginners: How to Make Your First $1,000

Between Pinterest, blogging, and affiliate marketing, you don’t need to master everything overnight. Just focus on taking the next step and building momentum from there.

Speak soon

Katherine

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In this post we are going to go into what Semrush is and how bloggers use it for keyword research.

If you’ve spent any time looking into blogging or SEO/keyword research, you will have no doubt come across Semrush at some point.

It’s one of those tools that gets mentioned everywhere. In blog posts, YouTube videos, and by the people who seem to know exactly what they’re doing when it comes to growing traffic lol.

But if you’ve never used it yourself, it can feel a bit confusing like any new tool. As in, what does it actually do? And more importantly, how are bloggers actually using it when it comes to keyword research?

In this post, I’m going to break it down in a really simple way even if you’re a beginner, so you can understand what Semrush is, what it’s used for, and how it fits into blogging… without all the technical jargon.

What Is Semrush?

Semrush is a well-known and trusted SEO and keyword research tool that shows you what people are actually searching for on Google. This includes metrics such as how popular those searches are, and how competitive they are to rank for.

But, more importantly, it’s the difference between creating content that might work… and content that actually has a chance to get seen.

Before using a tool like this, it’s very easy to just write whatever feels like a good idea and hope people find it. Sometimes that works… most of the time though, it doesn’t.

Semrush changes that.

Instead of guessing, you can literally see exactly what people are searching for. This includes how many people are searching for that term, and how difficult it would be for your content to rank. So you’re not just putting content out and hoping for the best, you’re putting out content by making decisions based on what’s already working.

I’ve got a full post on keyword research if you want to understand that side of things properly first. You can read that here.

The reason for needing Semrush at its core, is really simple:

It helps you stop guessing and start creating content that actually gets seen.

If you want to see how this works in real time, you can try Semrush here:

Semrush

What Does Semrush Actually Do?

Semrush has a lot of features, but for blogging and keyword research, you don’t need to overcomplicate it. Most bloggers are using it for a few key things.

First, it helps you find keywords; the actual phrases people type into Google. This could be anything from “how to start a blog” to “best email marketing tools for beginners”.

It also shows you how many people are searching for that keyword and how competitive it is, which helps you decide whether it’s worth targeting or not.

Another big feature is competitor insights. You can see what other blogs are ranking for, which can give you ideas for your own content or highlight opportunities you might not have thought of.

And finally, it can help with content ideas in general. Instead of staring at a blank page wondering what to write next, you can use it to find topics people are already interested in.

Why Do Bloggers Use Semrush?

One of the biggest challenges with blogging is knowing what to write about.

It’s very easy to come up with ideas that sound good, but if no one is actually searching for them, they’re unlikely to bring in traffic.

The same can be said if people are searching for your chosen search terms, but there are so many others writing the same sort of thing that ranking becomes really difficult.

This is where tools like Semrush come in.

It’s literally what it was designed to solve.

Instead of guessing, you can base your content around real search data. That means you’re creating posts that people are already looking for, which gives your content a much better chance of being found.

It can also help you avoid overly competitive topics and focus on keywords that are more realistic to rank for, especially when your blog is still growing.

For bloggers, it takes away a lot of the guesswork and makes their content planning feel much more intentional and pointful.

How Bloggers Use Semrush for Keyword Research

Most bloggers don’t use Semrush in a complicated way. They use it to take an idea and turn it into something people are actually searching for.

Usually it starts with a broad topic idea that then gets narrowed down.

You might know you want to write about a topic such as Pinterest, affiliate marketing, or starting a blog, but you’re not sure what angle to actually take, or what people are actually typing into Google.

Instead of guessing, Semrush shows you real search data (all the bits you need to know before creating the content).

You can find related keywords on whichever topic you choose.

You can then see exactly how people are searching for that topic. This is the biggest thing that will change if/how your content gets found. You can also find more specific phrases that are often easier to rank for. This could be things that you may never have even thought of.

What this then means is that you can stick to the topic you want to write about, just in a way that people are actually searching for and are therefore a lot more likely to find. 

Once you have done that you can then also look at key metrics for those terms. This is things like search volume (how many people are searching for that term) and keyword difficulty (how competitive it is) to decide whether it’s worth focusing on and writing content for.

Once you’ve chosen a keyword, you then build your content/post around it and naturally include related terms throughout your content.

It’s not about making things overly complicated or getting everything perfect. It’s about replacing your own guesswork with a solid/reliable direction, so you can create content people are already looking for. The whole point is for your content to get found afterall!

What This Might Look Like in Practice

Let’s say (as an example) that you want to write a post about making money online.

Without keyword research, you might just go with a broad title like “how to make money online”.

In theory this sounds good but ideally it could be better (from a searchable point of view).

With a tool like Semrush, you will find more specific searches. Things like:

• “how to make money online for beginners”
  
• “ways to make money online from home”
  
• “how to make money online with no experience”
  

While they feel and seem very similar, these are the types of phrases people are actually typing into Google. This in turn then makes them much more useful for building your content around.

People will only find the content they are actively searching for.

Semrush vs Simpler Keyword Tools

There are a lot of keyword research tools out there, and some of the simpler ones can be a good starting point if you’re just getting used to SEO.

Tools like Keysearch are often seen as more beginner-friendly and more affordable, but they also tend to offer more limited data.

It really is one of those things that you get what you pay for, so it depends how far into your blogging journey you are as to which tool is best for you.

Semrush, on the other hand, gives you a much (much) deeper level of insight. You’re not just seeing basic keyword ideas etc, you’re getting really detailed data that helps you make more informed decisions about what to write, what to prioritise, and where your best opportunities are.

That’s why many bloggers either move to Semrush as they grow, or choose to start with it from the beginning so they have access to everything in one place.

Who Is Semrush Best For?

Semrush is ideal for bloggers who want to grow their traffic faster and stop guessing what to post next. 

It’s not really aimed at brand new bloggers so if you are really new into your blogging journey you can absolutely go for a more basic keyword research tool such as KeySearch. 

If you’re past the stage of being a new blogger and you are already posting consistently and want to start seeing real results from your blog, this is where a tool like Semrush can make a huge difference for you.

While you can blog without it, using Semrush gives you a clear advantage. It helps you to make smarter content decisions, save time, and build traffic much more efficiently as your blog grows.

We all know the phrase “Work smarter not harder” and this is basically what Semrush helps with.

Is Semrush Worth It for Bloggers?

Honestly? Yes. 

That is if you’re at the point where you want to grow your blog properly and not just guess your way through it.

Like any tool, it’s most useful when you’re actively creating content and applying what you learn from it to enhance and refine that content.

Semrush is one of those tools that’s recommended everywhere for a reason.

It gives you real insight into what people are searching for, what’s already working, and where your content actually has a chance to rank and be seen/found.

If you’re actually serious about increasing your traffic, finding better keywords, and creating content that performs, it can make a huge difference.

That said, whether it feels “worth it” for you will come down to how you use it. It’s the kind of tool that pays off when you’re actively creating content and actually applying what you’re learning, not just letting it sit there unused of course.

If you’re ready to take your keyword research a bit more seriously, this is where you can try Semrush:

Click here to try Semrush

How It Fits Into Your Overall Blogging Strategy

Keyword research is just one part of blogging, but it’s one of the things that makes everything else so much easier and more worthwhile.

As I mentioned earlier in this post, the way it usually works is pretty simple. You start with what people are already searching for, create content around that, and over time that content brings in traffic. Then that traffic can turn into email signups, affiliate clicks, and then in turn, income.

Without that step, you’re basically just guessing and hoping your posts get found. Some might, others won’t. And writing content that never gets seen is not how we go about running a successful blog.

That’s where Semrush comes in. It doesn’t change what you’re doing, it just makes the whole process a lot clearer for you from the get go. You can actually see what people are searching for, what’s worth focusing on, and where your content has a real chance of ranking, which makes it so much easier to create posts that actually get found.

FAQs About Semrush for Bloggers

What is Semrush used for in blogging?

Semrush is mainly used for SEO and keyword research. It helps bloggers find what people are searching for, understand competition, and plan content that has a better chance of getting traffic.

Is Semrush beginner-friendly?

Semrush can feel a bit overwhelming at first because it has a lot of features. However, many bloggers start by using just the keyword research tools, which are fairly straightforward once you get used to them.

Do you need Semrush to start a blog?

No, you don’t need Semrush to start a blog. Many bloggers begin without it and add tools later. It’s simply something that can help guide your content strategy as your blog grows.

Is Semrush worth it for bloggers?

Semrush is worth it for bloggers who want more insight into keywords, competition, and content opportunities. It can help you make more informed decisions and grow your traffic faster.

What’s the difference between Semrush and other tools?

Semrush generally offers more in-depth data and features compared to many other tools. Some alternatives may be simpler or cheaper, but Semrush is designed for more detailed research and long-term growth.

Final Thoughts on What Semrush Is and How Bloggers Use It for Keyword Research

Semrush is one of those tools that can look and feel a little overwhelming at first, but when you break it down, it’s really just there to show you what people are actually searching for and how to create content around that in a way that gives you the best chance of being found which is the key to a successful blog.

The difference with Semrush is, it does that in a much more detailed and strategic way than more basic tools. This is where it really starts to make a difference to your blogging game and is where bloggers really uplevel their strategy.

For most bloggers, it’s not about using every single feature that Semrush has to offer, or worrying about getting everything perfect. It’s about using it as a guideline to make smarter decisions such as choosing better keywords, spotting opportunities, and creating content that’s far more likely to bring in traffic to their blog.

And honestly, that’s where the real value is. Instead of guessing what might work, you’re working with actual data, which makes the whole process feel a lot more intentional, and usually a lot more effective too.

Speak soon,

Katherine

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The post What Semrush Is and How Bloggers Use It for Keyword Research appeared first on Katherine McLee.

Let me be honest with you.

When I first heard about “passive income,” I thought it was just another online buzzword. You know… the kind that promises you’ll make money while sitting on a beach doing absolutely nothing.

That’s not reality.

What I’ve learned (sometimes the hard way) is this: passive income is real but it requires upfront work, consistency, and smart choices.

Before we dive in, let’s clear something up.

Passive income is money you earn without trading time for every pound or dollar.

But – and this is important -it usually requires:

• Time upfront
• Skill-building
• Or money investment

I like to think of it like planting seeds.

You don’t get fruit immediately. But once it grows, it keeps producing.

1. Start a Blog (Step-by-Step Beginner Blueprint)

When I started my first blog, I had no idea what I was doing.

I thought you needed to be a great writer or some kind of expert. You don’t.

What actually matters is solving problems people are already searching for.

According to recent guides, successful blogs are built on consistent content, SEO, and monetization layers like ads and affiliate links.

It’s very easy to start your own blog. First, choose a niche that people already spend money in. Good beginner niches include:

• Personal finance
• Fitness
• Travel
• Career advice

Once you’ve picked your niche, set up your website. The easiest way is using WordPress. You’ll need:

• A domain name (yourwebsite.com)
• Hosting (like Bluehost or SiteGround)

After that, your main focus is content.

Start by writing helpful articles that answer specific questions. For example:

• “How to save money fast”
• “Best budgeting apps for beginners”

These are the types of searches that bring traffic. You can use a software like SEMrush to find profitable keywords that are low in competition and have high search intent.

Once you start getting visitors, you can monetize your blog through:

• Affiliate marketing
• Ads (like Google AdSense)
• Selling your own products

Most blogs take 3–6 months to gain traction, but once they do, they become highly scalable. It may take a few months for you to rank on search engines but you can make thousands of dollars per month once you start ranking for the right keywords.

2. Sell Digital Products (One of the Fastest Ways to Start)

This is honestly one of the most underrated passive income ideas for beginners.

You don’t need inventory, shipping, or a warehouse.

You create something once and sell it over and over again.

Digital products are powerful because they have zero marginal cost, meaning you can sell unlimited copies without extra expense.

Start with research.

Go on platforms like Etsy or Gumroad and search for your niche. Look for products that have lots of reviews and solve a clear problem and are simple. Look for reviews that are negative on other digital products and see if you can improve on that.

Once you find a proven idea, create your version.

You don’t need advanced skills. Tools like Canva are enough to create:

• Budget planners
• Checklists
• Templates
• Ebooks

Next, upload your product to a platform like Gumroad or Etsy.

Then comes the most important part: traffic.

Promote your product using:

• TikTok
• Pinterest
• Blog content

When promoting your product you don’t want to do blatant promoting rather make useful content around your product and then promote your product or include it in the content.

For example if you have a fitness digital product to help people lose weight. You might create a video for TikTok that has 3 exercises to help you lose weight. At the end of the video you can promote your product as a quicker way to lose weight.

3. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is one of the most scalable passive income models out there.

You promote products… and earn a commission when someone buys.

The best part?

You don’t need to create your own product.

Start by choosing a niche you actually understand.

This is critical. If you pick something just for money, you’ll burn out quickly.

Next, join affiliate programs. Popular options include:

• Amazon Associates
• Software tools (like SaaS products)
• Online course platforms

Once approved, you’ll get a unique tracking link.

From there, your job is simple:

Create content that helps people, and naturally include your links. Now you can do affiliate marketing on your own blog or website or even social media platforms like TikTok or Instagram.

For example you can create:

• Product reviews
• Tutorials
• “Best tools” articles

According to expert guides, success comes from building trust first, then recommending products that genuinely help your audience.

The potential for affiliate marketing can be high. At the start it may take some time to build up but after a few months you can expect to start making good money from your efforts if done properly.

4. Use an Automated Google Sheets Financial Tracker

This is where things get really interesting, especially for your blog.

Instead of relying only on affiliate income, you can create your own product ecosystem.

That’s exactly what I did when I started using a Google Sheets financial tracker.

At first, I just wanted something simple to track my money.

But then I realized something:

Most people don’t want complicated apps. They want something easy, visual, and customizable.

That’s why spreadsheet-based trackers are becoming so popular.

Start by identifying the problem.

Most beginners struggle with:

• Tracking spending
• Understanding where money goes
• Staying consistent

Your tracker should solve these clearly.

Next, build your spreadsheet.

Use Google Sheets to create:

• Income and expense tracker
• Monthly dashboard
• Category breakdown charts
• Savings tracker

Once built, automate it with formulas so users don’t have to do manual calculations.

Then package it as a product.

You can sell it via:

• Your blog
• Gumroad
• Shopify

Finally, promote it through your content.

For example:

• Blog posts about budgeting
• YouTube tutorials
• Social media tips

Unlike apps, this is:

• A one-time purchase
• Fully customizable
• Beginner-friendly

And most importantly, you own the product.

5. Dividend Stocks (Step-by-Step Beginner Investing)

This is one of the most “true” passive income methods.

Once you invest, you get paid regularly.

But it requires patience.

First, open an investment account (ISA in the UK is ideal for tax benefits). You can use different platforms like Trading 212, eToro or Robinhood (US only).

Then research dividend-paying companies or ETFs.

Focus on:

• Stable companies
• Consistent dividend history

Once you invest, reinvest your dividends to compound your returns.

This is where the real growth happens.

Passive income from investments depends on capital, time, and reinvestment strategy. It does take some research and educating yourself on investing. So you will want to get books and read articles about investing. A good point to start is Investopedia.

6. Real Estate Crowdfunding

Property used to feel out of reach as you needed a lot of money to start investing in real estate. But now, platforms allow you to invest small amounts into property portfolios.

First, sign up for a crowdfunding platform like Fundrise or Arrived.

Next, browse available properties or funds.

Each investment will show:

• Expected returns
• Risk level
• Investment period

Start small, then scale as you learn.

This method allows you to earn rental income without managing tenants or property with average returns of 6-12% annually.

7. Print-on-Demand

This is one of the easiest ways to start an online business without any upfront costs. I remember thinking you needed to hold stock or deal with shipping.

You don’t.

With print-on-demand, you simply create designs and the platform handles everything else.

Start by choosing a niche. The more specific, the better. For example:

• Gym motivation
• Pet lovers
• Funny quotes

Then create simple designs using tools like Canva. You don’t need to be a professional designer – simple text-based designs often perform best.

Next, upload your designs to platforms like:

• Redbubble
• Teespring
• Printify (connected to Shopify)

Once uploaded, your products (t-shirts, mugs, hoodies) are automatically listed for sale.

Every time someone buys, the platform prints and ships the product, and you earn a profit. The hardest part is probably the marketing and spreading awareness of your products. You can use social media and create content around your products or even use paid ads platforms like Facebook Ads.

Once you have a solid base of customers you can expect to make up to £5,000 per month, although it does take hard work to get there.

8. YouTube Automation Channels

This is one of the most misunderstood passive income ideas.

You don’t need to show your face. You don’t need expensive equipment.

I tested this myself—and the key is consistency, not perfection.

To get started you will want to pick a niche that gets views consistently:

• Finance
• Motivation
• Facts or education

Then create simple videos using:

• Stock footage
• AI voiceovers using ElevenLabs or your own voice
• Basic editing tools like CapCut

Upload consistently – at least 2–3 videos per week.

Once your channel hits:

• 1,000 subscribers
• 4,000 watch hours

You can monetize with ads.

9. Sell Stock Photos or Videos

If you already take photos on your phone, you’re sitting on an opportunity.

I didn’t realize this at first, but businesses constantly need images for marketing.

That’s where stock platforms come in.

Start by identifying what sells with popular categories like lifestyle shots and travel images.

Then upload your photos to platforms like:

• Shutterstock
• Adobe Stock
• iStock

There are many different websites you can use to sell your photos online with some paying up to $650. Each time someone downloads your image, you earn a royalty.

The key is volume. The more high-quality images you upload, the more you earn over time.

10. High-Yield Savings Accounts

This is where I tell most beginners to start. It’s not flashy. But it builds the habit of earning money from your money.

Compare savings accounts with competitive interest rates then you can open an account online—it usually takes less than 10 minutes.

Deposit your money and set up automatic transfers so you consistently grow your balance with some banks paying between 4-5% interest.

That’s it.

No learning curve. No risk (within insured limits).

11. Rent Out Assets You Already Own

This is one of those ideas that made me think, “Why didn’t I do this sooner?” Most people already own assets they’re not fully using.Start by identifying underused assets:

• Spare room
• Car
• Equipment

Then list them on platforms like:

• Airbnb (for rooms)
• Turo (for cars)

Make sure your listing is clear, includes photos, and highlights value.

Once set up, bookings can become semi-passive.

12. Create an Online Course

This is one of the highest leverage income streams.

You teach something once and then get paid repeatedly. You don’t need to be an expert. Just one step ahead of beginners.

Plan your course by breaking it into small lessons. Record videos using your phone or laptop. Keep it simple and clear.

Upload your course to platforms like:

• Teachable
• Udemy

Then promote it through content (blog, social media, YouTube).

13. Build a Niche Website

This is like blogging, but more strategic.

Instead of writing about everything, you focus on one niche.

I’ve seen niche sites outperform general blogs because they attract highly targeted traffic.

Step-by-step: How to start

Choose a niche with clear buying intent. For example:

• Fitness equipment
• Budgeting tools
• Tech products

Create SEO-focused articles targeting specific keywords.

For example:

• “Best budget running shoes”
• “Best financial trackers for beginners”

Monetize with:

• Affiliate links
• Ads

Over time, your content builds authority and traffic grows.

14. License Your Work

This is a hidden gem for creatives.

You create something once—and get paid every time it’s used.

Identify what you can create:

• Music
• Designs
• Code

Then upload your work to licensing platforms.

For example:

• AudioJungle (music)
• Creative Market (designs)

Each time someone purchases a license, you earn money.

The more assets you create, the more you earn over time.

15. Freelance Writer

I didn’t expect freelance writing to become a form of passive income, but over time, it can.

At first, it’s very active. You’re trading time for money.

But here’s where it gets interesting.

Once you build relationships, retain clients, and even repurpose your work into digital products or blog content, it starts to become semi-passive and highly scalable.

And for beginners? It’s one of the easiest ways to start earning online with zero upfront investment.

The first step is choosing a niche.

You don’t have to overthink this, but it helps to focus on areas like:

• Personal finance
• Health and fitness
• SaaS or tech
• Career advice

These niches pay well because businesses in these industries make money – and they’re willing to pay writers.

Once you’ve picked a niche, create a simple portfolio.

You don’t need a fancy website. Just write 2–3 sample articles using Google Docs or publish them on a free platform like Medium.

This gives you something to show potential clients.

Next, start finding work.

The easiest way to begin is through platforms like:

• Upwork
• Fiverr
• PeoplePerHour

Apply to jobs daily. At first, it’s a numbers game.

You might get rejected. That’s normal.

But once you land your first client, everything gets easier.

From there, focus on delivering great work and building long-term relationships.

This is where freelance writing starts to shift from active to semi-passive—because repeat clients mean consistent income without constantly searching for new work.

The Truth About Passive Income (From Experience)

I’ve tried multiple passive income streams.

Some failed. Some worked.

The biggest lesson?

Passive income is not about doing nothing. It’s about building something once… that keeps paying you later. And once you get that first stream working, everything changes.

Final Thoughts

If you’re just starting out, don’t overcomplicate this.

Focus on consistency.

Because over time, these small systems turn into real income streams that work for you, even when you’re not working.

FAQ: Passive Income Ideas for Beginners

What is the best passive income idea for beginners?

Digital products, blogging, and affiliate marketing are some of the best beginner-friendly options because they require little upfront investment.

Can you really make passive income with no money?

Yes, but it requires time and effort upfront. Options like blogging, YouTube, and digital products are great starting points.

How long does it take to make passive income?

Typically 3–12 months for most online income streams, depending on consistency and strategy.

Is passive income really passive?

Not entirely. Most streams require setup work, but once established, they require much less effort to maintain.

Author Bio

Bilquis Ramzan is the co-founder of Get Money Saving, a personal finance blog all about making money, side hustles, investing, saving money and budgeting.

The post Passive Income Ideas for Beginners: The Complete Guide to Earning Money While You Sleep appeared first on Katherine McLee.

In this post we are going to talk about how you can get paid to post links online.

If you’ve ever seen people talk about getting paid to post links online and wondered how the heck that actually works (and if it’s even possible), then the good news is that it’s definitely doable, and is actually much simpler than it sounds.

You don’t need a huge audience to begin, or a complicated business setup, or years of experience, to get started. Many people begin earning money online simply by recommending tools, products, or services they already use and sharing your special link to those things.

People are always looking to buy things. If you are promoting the things they want, and you provide your own link, if they buy via you (at no extra cost to them), you earn a commission.

When someone clicks your link and decides to buy, you can earn a small (or not so small) commission. Over time it can become a really effective way to make money online.

Getting paid via those links is known as affiliate marketing. And it’s one of the most beginner-friendly and simplest ways to get started in making money online because you don’t need to create your own products, manage customer support, or deal with any inventory. You are just the link between a product and someone looking to buy. You’re simply connecting people with things that might help them or that they are already looking for lol.

In this post we will go over how getting paid to post links actually works, how you make real money, how beginners usually get started, and some of the different ways you can begin doing the same.

Let’s get into how to get paid to post links online, even as a beginner.

What Does “Getting Paid to Post Links” Actually Mean?

When people talk about getting paid to post links online, they’re usually talking about affiliate marketing. Which is exactly what we are talking about here.

Affiliate marketing is one of those things that sounds more complicated than it actually is lol. Sounds too good to be true if you will, but it’s not at all.

While it’s not “easy” in that it’s not a get rich quick scheme, it’s definitely really simple to get into and to do. 

As I mentioned, affiliate marketing is when a company gives you a unique link to their product or service, and if someone clicks it and ends up buying, you earn a commission.

Each company will have their own commission and payout structure so it’s always worth checking those out beforehand. But the overall premise is the same. (One company may offer 2% commission and have a $30 payout threshold, the next may offer 60% and have no threshold etc.)

You pick a product/service, get your own link for it, share it, someone clicks it and buys said product or service and you get paid.

(The reason I had said it wasn’t “easy” was that affiliate marketing is a numbers game. The idea and setup is really simple, but you need eyes on your content/links to be able to get people to click through and buy. That is the trickier part.)

If you are wanting more information on getting started with affiliate marketing, you can have a read of these posts here:

How To Make Money With Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate Marketing for Beginners: How to Make Your First $1,000

The Best Affiliate Programs for Beginners (That Actually Convert!)

It’s not about randomly throwing links around the internet and hoping for the best lol. It’s about recommending related things in a way that actually makes sense to your audience.

That might look like mentioning a tool in a blog post that you use all the time, linking to something useful on Pinterest, sharing outfit details on your Social stories or dropping a recommendation into your email newsletter etc etc.

Then if someone wants that product, clicks your link and decides to buy it? You get paid. Ta dahh!

It’s one of those online income strategies that sounds almost too simple at first lol. But once you understand how it works, it makes a lot of sense. And it can grow into a really nice income stream over time.

When well executed and with a relevant and engaged audience, the idea is just to build the amount of eyeballs on your content/links. It’s a numbers game at the end of the day. The more eyes you have on your content, the higher the chance of people purchasing what it is you’re sharing.

How Affiliate Links Work

This is a huge part which is so simple yet seems to get over-complicated a lot.

You will see descriptions such as “affiliate links are special tracking links provided by companies through their affiliate programs”.

But to anyone new to online marketing, that sounds vague and confusing lol.

To simplify… when you are an affiliate for a company you will get access to your affiliate links. 

While some require links to be requested/built (don’t worry about those yet), most of them have one big button that says “Get Link” or something there abouts. And that’s the link you share. That’s it.

As an example of a couple of mine and how simple it is, this is HostGator through the Impact dashboard:

and Mailerlite directly:

Each link contains a unique identifier that tells the company the referral/sale came from you.

You will nearly always have to apply to be a part of a companies affiliate program but some have less requirements than others in terms of traffic or audience location etc.

Here’s how the process usually works:

1. You apply to join an affiliate program

2. You get accepted
   
3. You receive a unique affiliate link
   
4. You share that link in your content (check the rules for that program as to where you are and aren’t allowed to promote links)
   
5. Someone clicks the link
   
6. If they make a purchase within the cookie period for that program, you earn a commission
   

It means you can earn money simply by recommending products or tools that you genuinely find helpful and are already using.

As you get more into it you can think more about building links, and specialised tracking links etc, but initially, those base links are all you need.

Where You Can Post Links to Make Money

One quick note first here as this is important. You must ALWAYS disclose when something is an affiliate link. Whether that’s in a blog post, Instagram story, Pinterest pin etc. The disclosure has to be visible too, not hidden or out of sight. I won’t mention it through every point below but trust that it still stands for all of them lol.

The nice thing about affiliate marketing and only having to worry about sharing links or ads (if you choose) is that you have a variety of places to post about and share them.

As mentioned earlier, just be aware some programs don’t allow posting of links in certain places. Be cautious and check the rules for that program to make sure you are following the rules.

Examples of this would be Amazon not allowing any affiliate links in private Facebook groups or linked from Pinterest pins directly etc. A pin linking to a blog post which has those same links in is totally fine though!

Just something to be aware of, but there are multiple places you can share your links once you know which ones are allowed where.

Some of the most common include:

Blog Posts

This is a huge one, as you can put your affiliate links into your blog posts in a natural and helpful way, and then you share the blog post link, not the direct affiliate link. This way you can share your blog post wherever you link – just be mindful of always having that disclaimer visible at the top.

So many bloggers include affiliate links inside their content. This could be in helpful posts, reviews, tutorials or tools pages.

For example:

• tool recommendations
• product reviews
• step-by-step guides
• comparison posts

This is one of the most popular ways to earn affiliate income via a blog because blog posts can bring traffic for years.

People can be searching for reviews or tutorials years down the line so could come across your posts at any point.

Pinterest

Pinterest is a huge way to drive traffic to blog posts that contain affiliate links.

Just note that Pinterest doesn’t prefer you to link out to affiliate links directly, to the point is sometimes blocks them.

Amazon as mentioned does not allow you to link out to your affiliate links directly in standard pins (you can via Ad pins from memory but I find it safer not to lol).

What you absolutely can do though is add those links to a blog post or other form of content and then link that back to the pinterest pin.

Pinterest has a huge amount of daily users and the beauty of Pinterest is that it’s a search engine as opposed to a social media. This means people go onto the website or app looking for inspiration for specific things. 

Those things could well be what you’re offering!

Email Newsletters

If you have your own email list (highly recommended), then you can share your links in those emails too – again program and rules permitting.

Make sure any links are well disclosed too.

The other way to share your products or links through emails you are sending to your list is to not link directly to your affiliate offer in the email, but to send a helpful email, linking to a blog post/piece of content, that has the links embedded. 

Your email list especially is people who have signed up to your email list because they are interested in what you are talking about. This means they are the most likely to want your recommendations.

This doesn’t mean be pushy or salesy or you will lose trust. 

But because email subscribers already trust your content, they’re often more likely to click and explore your (honest!) recommendations.

Social Media

This is quite obvious but mentioning it to keep the list more accurate lol.

Affiliate links can also be shared on your social media platforms, carefully lol.

This might include:

• Instagram
• TikTok
• YouTube
• Facebook groups

It can get a little tricker with social media as each affiliate program and each social platform can have different rules and requirements.

Things to remember are that you can’t link directly on Instgram or Tiktok (Instagram stories are good as long as it’s well disclosed), but you can use a LinkTree instead to house all your links.

As I touched on earlier, you aren’t allowed to post any Amazon affiliate links in a private facebook group etc. 

Either keeping it to insta stories, putting them in your LinkTree or linking back to a post with the links in keeps you above board.

Just check each affiliate program and the social media platform you want to use and it will keep you right.

Do You Need a Blog to Get Paid to Post Links?

Nope. You can technically start affiliate marketing without a blog.

You can begin by sharing your new affiliate links through your social media platforms, pinterest pins or even email newsletters if you have a list of email subscribers.

However as I mentioned earlier, having a blog can make affiliate marketing a lot easier in the long run for a few reasons.

A YouTube channel is also an amazing way where you can share content that can be found for years to come. 

Here are just a few of the reasons:

• Blog posts have the potential to rank in Google. This then means that people can discover your content when they’re actively searching for something related to what you’re recommending so your posts can pop up for people years after you wrote them.

• Pinterest can be fussy about pins linking directly to affiliate links. Linking your pins to your blog post links gets around this and can actually work out a lot more effective. As doing it this way sends readers directly to your blog posts, it helps more people find your content without you needing to constantly share links everywhere.

• Having a blog or a place where you can share all of your content (such as YouTube) gives you a hub where all of your recommendations live in one place. Instead of your links disappearing in social media posts or stories after a short period of time, your blog/channel acts like a list for your content where your audience can easily find things you’ve shared or search for specific topics.

How Beginners Start Getting Paid to Post Links

If you’re completely new to all this, the process of getting started is actually really straight forward.

1. Choose a niche

Start by focusing on a topic you enjoy talking about or have experience with.

You don’t have to be super specific, but it’s not likely someone is going to buy a lawnmower from someone who usually shares content around fitness tips lol. This just helps your audience to know what you’re about and know what they can trust your recommendations in.

This could be:

• Blogging
• Fitness
• Travel
• Beauty
• Productivity
• Online business

Etc etc.

Choosing a clear niche just helps you build that trust and attract the right audience which is important in helping be the bridge between products they may want, and them buying them so you get commission.

2. Join affiliate programs

Once you know your niche, you can join affiliate programs that match your content.

You can look for brands themselves or specific products.

Many companies offer affiliate programs for:

• Courses
• Physical Products
• Digital Services
• Digital Products

You can choose as many as you like of course, but the thinner you spread yourself the less attention each link will get which makes it a bit trickier.

Start with a couple and then you can always add more in later.

3. Focus on creating genuinely helpful content

The best kind of affiliate content isn’t about throwing links everywhere and hoping for the best lol. It’s honestly just about being helpful and sharing the things you use or believe in.

Have a think about the kind of things you would/do actually search for yourself. This could be needing to know how to do something, which option of a product is best for your reader between different options or brands, or whether something is actually worth the cost.

For you that could look something like:

• a reel showing how you use something
• a blog post comparing a couple of options
• a video sharing something that worked well for you
• or just recommending something you genuinely like

When your content genuinely helps someone, they’re naturally more likely to trust what you’re saying as it’s genuine. That’s what leads to clicks and sales without it feeling forced on either side!

How Much Money Can You Make Posting Links Online?

Ahhh the piece of string question lol.

There honestly is no exact answer, but there’s things that can improve your chances of earning a lot.

Affiliate income can vary widely. It really does depend on a number of factors, such as:

• How much traffic/how big your audience is
• What your niche is
• Affiliate program commission rates
• The type of products you promote

The option is there for people to earn a small side income, while for  others they can build full-time businesses purely through affiliate marketing.

Often people start by making their first few sales here and there before gradually increasing their income as their content grows.

Because your online content can continue bringing traffic over a long time, affiliate marketing often becomes more powerful the longer you do it. This is especially true for anyone with a blog or YouTube channel as people will be searching for reviews/tutorials/information on specific things for years to come.

FAQs About Getting Paid to Post Links Online

Can you really get paid just for posting links?

Yes, but as this post explains, this works through affiliate marketing. Companies provide special tracking links that allow them to see when a sale comes from your specific recommendation. If someone clicks your link and makes a purchase, you earn a commission.

It’s not about posting random links everywhere and expecting to earn a fortune. It works best when you share links to things your audience are/would be interested in. 

Do you need a large audience to make money posting links?

Nope. While a larger audience can increase your earnings (as mentioned, it’s all a numbers game), many beginners start making affiliate sales with even small amounts of traffic.

What matters most is that you are sharing your links with people who are already interested in the topic you’re talking about.

If one person liked what they saw and wanted to buy it so did so, then that sale is yours. Whether you had just that 1 person see your content, or 100 people.

The amount of people seeing your content isn’t the deciding factor, but it can help the odds of those sales.

For example, a product recommendation of something relevant to you/your content can often perform a lot better than simply posting links without context lol.

How do beginners find affiliate programs?

So many companies and brands have affiliate programs now, so finding one (or a few) you like, shouldn’t be too hard.

The simplest way is to search on Google for “[company name] affiliate program”. For example “Amazon affiliate program”. You will be amazed just how many companies have them.

There are also lots of affiliate networks that have multiple programs in one place (often called a marketplace), making it easier to discover opportunities that match your niche.

Impact is one of my favourite ones.

With Impact for example, brands have their affiliate links via Impact, so they all have their own commission amounts, but they are all on the same dashboard making it a lot simpler to keep track. Especially when you have a good few products you are sharing.

How long does it take to make money posting links?

This can vary depending on how much content you create, how warm your audience is, how people discover your links and the cost of what it is you’re promoting.

Some people make their first affiliate sale fairly quickly, while others take longer as they build up content and traffic.

For example if you already have a larger following and do a lot of fashion content and then you share an affiliate link in your Instagram story to something you wore that was really affordable, chances are you will get a lot of sales fairly quickly.

On the flip side if you are brand new with no audience and are promoting services for $2,000 each, it may take a while longer lol.

As mentioned earlier though, you just need the right people at the right time. One of your first people may be someone who is looking for the exact thing you are sharing, and may buy it straight away.

You may average at 1 person in every 100 buys your shared product (very rough example). They could be reader number 15, 41, 84, or even number 1 or 100. The commission is the same, just the timeline is very different.

A note for bloggers specifically, one of the nice things about blog content is that it can keep bringing visitors in long after you hit publish. As your number of posts grows, many people find their affiliate income starts to grow with it. People can be searching Google for something specific, find your article (that had been written 2 years ago) and end up buying through you. This is when it starts to become more passive.

Final Thoughts on How to Get Paid to Post Links Online

Getting paid to post links online might sound complicated at first, but in reality it’s simply about recommending helpful products and earning a commission when people purchase through your links.

With the right content and a little consistency, affiliate marketing can become a flexible way to earn income online.

Many people start with just a few blog posts or recommendations and gradually build from there.

If you’re interested in earning money online, learning how affiliate links work is a great place to begin.

Speak soon!

Katherine

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This post is all about answering the question; Is HostGator Good for Blogging? A Beginner-Friendly Hosting Review.

Starting a blog is exciting… but also a little overwhelming when you realise how many decisions you need to make before you even publish your first post lol.

There are the options of both a hosted (free) and self hosted (paid) blog. Self hosted is the one you need if you are serious about your blog or want to really ever make money from it.

Assuming then that you have chosen a self hosted blog, one of the very first decisions you will need to make is who to go with to host your blog.

Finding a hosting provider is easy, finding a good one that suits your needs is trickier. 

Spending some time to do some research to find one that suits your needs is so important, as it really can make the biggest difference to your website. 

I saw a lot of names being promoted, but when I dove deeper I found they never were quite what I was looking for.

In the end, I chose HostGator, and it’s the hosting I still use for all my blogs today.

In this post, I’ll explain exactly why I chose HostGator, what you will like about it, and why it’s a great option if you’re starting a blog for the first time.

Quick Answer: Is HostGator Good for Blogging?

Yes. Especially for beginners who want an easy, affordable way to start a blog without technical overwhelm.

What Is Web Hosting (and Why You Need It)

Quickly before getting into why I chose HostGator specifically for my blog (and why I recommend it to all new bloggers), it helps to understand what hosting actually is and why it’s needed.

When you have a blog or website, all of the files that make up that site need somewhere to live online for people to be able to get to it and see it. That’s where your web hosting comes in.

Your hosting provider stores your website files online and makes them accessible so people can visit your site at any time!

Without hosting, your blog simply wouldn’t exist online.

Well the website would exist, but no one would be able to see it lol.

This is why choosing a decent and reliable hosting provider is one of the first and most important steps when starting your own blog.

Why I Chose HostGator for My Blog

I knew from the very start (over a decade ago now lol) that I didn’t want any of my blogs to be hosted (so a free blog). I knew I wanted them to be self-hosted as it meant that I owned my website which is so important. It also made it look more professional, gave more earning options (a lot more, you can read about the reasons why someone may want a free blog, here), and just overall meant I knew I was taking it seriously, for very little cost.

When you are first researching hosting companies for your blog, there are so many options available and it is so easy to feel overwhelmed. Some are super cheap, some costt a huge amount more, some have more options and features, some include domain names etc etc. 

For more information on domain names, hosting and the differences, you can find that post here!

I decided (and what I would recommend anyone reading this to do) to make a list of what I knew I wanted/needed, and find one that fit the bill.

This included things like price, how simple it was to use, having full 24/7 chat support, the speed and capabilities for my site(s), how easy it was to upgrade when needed (spoiler alert, this was super simple lol), and how well reviewed/trusted the company and brand was as a whole.

HostGator stood out because it ticked every box I needed, especially as a beginner.

This included how beginner-friendly it seemed compared to some of the other options.

Is it THE cheapest on the market? Nope.

Is it still super affordable while not losing anything by going for a more “budget” plan? Absolutely.

I didn’t want something overly technical or complicated to set up. Fun fact, I still wouldn’t now! I wanted something that would allow me to get my blog online really fast, without needing a lot of technical knowledge or learning too much jargon to get up and live.

HostGator offered exactly what I needed, so I went with them and haven’t looked back!

The setup process was really straightforward too. WordPress installation was really simple, and it felt like a good balance between affordability and reliability for someone just starting out. It worked out well!

Let’s break down some of the points just mentioned…

1. It’s Very Beginner Friendly

One of the biggest reasons I chose HostGator was how easy it is to get started as a beginner.

I wanted it to be clean and simple. I did not want to faff about feeling overwhelmed and then giving up as a result, lol.

When you’re new to blogging, the technical side can feel really intimidating.

With HostGator, the whole process of setting up your hosting and installing WordPress is designed to be simple. That’s why it’s so perfect for anyone new to hosting their own blog/website.

You don’t need to understand coding or complicated server settings. You can of course learn this as you go to help with little tips and tricks, but it’s not necessary. Nearly all of the setup can be done with just a few clicks. This makes it much less stressful when you’re starting your first blog and worrying about getting set up with hosting.

2. Affordable for New Bloggers

Another big factor for me was cost. As I’m sure it is for you!

I knew I wanted decent, fast, reliable hosting, but I didn’t want to pay a lot for it. Especially in the beginning when I was getting used to having even one blog.

When you’re starting a blog, you don’t necessarily want to spend a lot of money upfront while you’re still figuring everything out. A beginner plan to give you everything you need/want is all you need initially.

HostGator offers a range of plans to suit your needs and what you want for your website. They offer advanced/multi plans but also offer plans that are very affordable for beginners.

If you’re just starting out, this makes it one of the easiest ways to launch a blog without overcomplicating things.

You can get started for less than $5/month, which makes it one of the lowest-risk ways to start a blog.

3. Reliable Hosting

Your hosting provider plays a huge role in how reliable and stable your website is on the internet. They are basically what keeps you live and available for people to read.

Ideally you want a host that keeps your website online and running smoothly for as much time as possible. At all times. This means your readers should be able to access your content whenever they choose to visit, no matter what time of day or night. This is especially important across different time zones as your readers willl most likely be from all around the world and could be trying to get onto your site at completely different times of day.

One of the huge reasons I’ve stayed with HostGator is that I’ve found them really reliable. Of course issues happen from time to time, but on the whole my blogs just work lol. This means I’m not sitting there worrying about whether the site is going to be down or glitching every time I load it up, or worse, whether it’s behaving/loading when someone else tries to read my content.

As you can imagine, a working blog is a big deal when you’re blogging lol. You want to be able to spend your time creating new content, not trying to figure out why your website suddenly isn’t loading or behaving properly.

4. Easy WordPress Integration

A lot of bloggers (I’d say the majority) use WordPress (wordpress.org not the free version wordpress.com as that goes back to hosted rather than the self hosted we are talking about), it’s important to choose a hosting provider that works well with it.

One thing I love about HostGator that I mentioned earlier is how simple it is to install WordPress. It takes just a few clicks, which is why it’s always a simple recommendation for bloggers. Especially anyone who doesn’t like a technical or complicated set up like me lol.

You can get everything set up really quickly and then jump straight into the fun parts like designing your blog, writing your first posts, and actually building your site and making it look exactly the way you have envisioned it, instead of getting completely stuck in an overly complicated setup.

5. 24/7 Live Chat Support

If you are a new blogger, or even just less confident in the world of self hosted websites, having 24/7 live chat support is hugely important.

We have all had issues where the site has crashed, only getting blank scenes, site is failing to load etc. Being able to contact your hosting company at any time of day, for them to be friendly, helpful, and get you back up and running really quickly is not to be taken for granted. 

Having used HostGator for multiple sites for over 10 years, I can confirm their live support is not something I would want to be without, even now lol.

How to Get Started with HostGator

.If you want a beginner-friendly way to start your blog, HostGator is one of the easiest options to get set up with.

To start with, you just need to choose your hosting plan from their options available. These do change at times but there are always multiple options available so you can choose the ones that fit your needs the best. You can then register your chosen domain name, and install WordPress.

They do offer domains too if you wanted to keep it all together, and there may well be an offer on to get a bundle with your domain name and hosting for a bundle price!

Once that’s all done, you can log into your own WordPress dashboard and start building your site! Then the fun can begin lol.

From there, it’s just a case of designing your blog, creating your first posts, and gradually turning it into the website you want it to be.

You can check out HostGator and see their current plans here.

FAQs About HostGator Hosting

Is HostGator good for beginner bloggers?

It is. And that’s actually one of the main reasons so many new bloggers start with it. HostGator is designed to be really beginner-friendly. This means the whole setup process is nice and simple. WordPress can be installed really quickly, and you don’t need any tech experience to get your new blog online.

When you’re starting a blog – especially for the first time – the last thing you want is complicated hosting or confusing dashboards lol. HostGator keeps it all straightforward so you can focus on building your blog and creating content instead of trying to figure out any technical settings.

Also remember that any issues you do have, they have their 24/7 live chat support to help.

Do you need technical knowledge to use HostGator?

As mentioned and for similar reasons above, the answer is no, not at all. You don’t need coding skills, any web development experience, or anything like that to get started. Of course you will see things you don’t understand, but the process is designed so that you can click what you need as those bits are all clearly marked. You don’t have to understand all the technical bits, unless you want to learn about them down the line.

Most of the setup is all step-by-step, and things like installing WordPress only takes a few clicks. 

For beginners (or anyone who doesn’t want hassle), that simplicity makes a huge difference.

What happens if your blog grows later? Can you upgrade?

Yep! And this is something a lot of beginners worry about but there’s no need.

If (and when) your blog starts really growing and you need more resources, you can upgrade your hosting plan. It means you’re not locked into one option forever. You can start with a beginner-friendly budget plan and move to a bigger plan later when your site gets more traffic or you want to run multiple websites. There’s different options depending on your needs.

I can confirm from upgrading plans myself a while back that it’s as simple as choosing your new plan and clicking to upgrade lol.

It’s one of the reasons many bloggers feel comfortable starting with HostGator. You can start with the plan that you need initially, and then once your blog grows, you can then upgrade to a more advanced plan. This saves you having to guess how big of a plan you will need from the get go. It also saves paying for a bigger plan when you are first starting out.

Can you have more than one website on HostGator?

Yes you can but it depends on the plan you choose for your blog. Some plans do allow you to host multiple websites under the same account. This can be really useful if you ever decide to start a second blog or launch another website later on but most people start with just one website and focus on building that first before branching out. But the option is there for if you ever wanted it.

Not all plans allow this, but as mentioned earlier, you can easily upgrade to a multi-site plan if and when you need this. No point in paying for a multi-site plan initially with only one site. Start at the level you need and then you can always upgrade.

Is hosting expensive when starting a blog?

While there is of course a cost to having a plan to host your blog, it’s really not expensive at all.

Prices do vary depending on what you need and how many sites you are wanting hosted etc. But HostGator are one of the most affordable I found that had all the bits I needed and wanted.

Currently their plans start at less than $5 a month for the most basic hosting to give an idea of just how affordable I mean lol.

You will need to factor in a domain name as that will of course need to be purchased, but it’s always worth checking if HostGator have any current offers to get your chosen domain name for a reduced price with one of their hosting plans.

For another place to get domain names, you can also look at GoDaddy.

It’s one of those costs that if you are a blogger, you need to pay for. But it’s also what allows your blog to exist on the internet in the first place lol.

Final Thoughts on Is HostGator Good for Blogging?

The short answer is yes, especially if you’re just getting started.

Choosing a hosting provider is one of the first (and most important) steps when starting a blog, and it can feel like a big decision.

From my own experience, HostGator has been a reliable, beginner-friendly option that offers a great balance of ease, affordability, and performance. It’s also grown with me as my blogs have grown, without any issues or complicated upgrades.

If you’re ready to start your blog, HostGator is one of the simplest ways to get set up quickly.

You can check out their plans here → HostGator Plans.

Speak soon!

Katherine

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In this post we are going to go over the best affiliate programs for beginners that actually convert.

If you’ve been on my blog before you will know how much I love and talk about affiliate marketing.

But just in case you are new, I’m going to go over the best way to get started with affiliate marketing to make money online.

If you’re new to making money online in general, affiliate marketing is one of the easiest, fastest, and most beginner-friendly ways to start earning.

The trick is finding the affiliate programs that are right for you.

This doesn’t just mean the ones that either have high commission rates, have fun products or the ones you have seen other people talking about.

There is a list of things I would always recommend you look for when looking to join an affiliate program. 

I would always recommend you choose programs with products you like/know, with a brand you trust, has a good commission rate, a good conversion rate, a long cookie period and has good customer service. 

You can also always make sure the brand offers good marketing material but if it’s something you are keen to promote, you can work around this.

There are exceptions to the list for some of the things mentioned, but we will go over that in this post. 

Choosing the wrong programs is often why many people give up before they ever see their first sale.

I’m writing this post to help change that so you can make money online with affiliate marketing!

I’ve put together a list of some of the best, highest-converting affiliate programs for beginners.

These are all programs that are easy to join, simple to promote, and proven to convert well even if you have low traffic or are just getting started!

By the end of this post, you’ll know exactly which programs to join that are right for you. Along with how to promote them, and how to make your first affiliate income.

Let’s get into the best affiliate marketing programs for beginners that actually convert.

What Makes an Affiliate Program “Beginner-Friendly”?

Before we get into the list of affiliate marketing programs, it’s important to understand what it is that makes a program suitable for beginners. As not all of them are – for a range of reasons. 

Not all affiliate programs are created equal. So here’s what to look for when looking for a beginner friendly program:

1. Easy or No Application Process (this matters most!)

When you’re just starting out, you don’t need long approval forms or “minimum audience” requirements. (Or if they do, they are very small.)

Programs that accept beginners immediately (or within minutes) let you get started in promoting your link right away instead of waiting weeks to hear back if you have been accepted or not.

Once you are making money from a couple of the “easy” ones and as your audience grows, you can then start applying to the others that can take some time to get approved. 

2. Low Payout Threshold

This is something we rarely think of until afterwards lol. But a low payout threshold is honestly so much better when you are first getting started.

If a program only pays out after $100+ or $500+ etc it can take forever to see your first payment. Especially if you get $8 per sale as an example.

A lower threshold (like around $20) helps you stay motivated and actually see results early on and get the cash a lot sooner.

3. High-demand, Popular Products

Your clicks will convert best when the products already have demand.

You shouldn’t need to “convince” people or sound too salesy. They should already want what you’re recommending! (Or at least heard of the concept of it if you are introducing something new).

Digital tools, Shopify/Online Stores, hosting, email providers, legal template bundles, and everyday items tend to convert incredibly well as people are already looking for/needing these.

4. High-Trust Brands

People buy from brands they recognise, trust and feel comfortable with.
Established companies = higher click-through rates and therefore higher conversions. 

When you recommend familiar names, your audience doesn’t need convincing as they already trust the company. (Think Amazon, Sephora, Mailerlite etc).

You can focus on the benefits of the exact product or service you are promoting, as you don’t need to convince anyone of the reliability of that brand.

5. Recurring Commissions

Recurring commissions is the dream scenario lol. It works the same as when people buy a single product or service. The difference is that instead of a one off payment, you get paid every month that user stays subscribed.

This is how beginners start building their income without constantly chasing/needing new sales.

If you’re new to affiliate marketing, it really helps to understand how it all works before choosing programs. I’ve broken this down step-by-step in Affiliate Marketing for Beginners: How to Make Your First $1,000, and if you want a broader overview of how affiliate marketing actually makes money long-term, How To Make Money With Affiliate Marketing walks you through the full picture.

The Best Affiliate Programs for Beginners (That Actually Convert!)

Now to the actual list… 

These affiliate programs are beginner friendly, easy to promote, and known for converting well. These programs are aimed more at products/services in blogging, online business, digital products, and content creation niches etc.

1. Amazon Associates

Why it converts:

Amazon is one of the easiest affiliate programs for beginners because everyone already knows, trusts, and uses it. At the very least they have heard of it!

It’s super easy to get accepted into. You just need your own website/where you will be promoting your links and they will check it.

Amazon’s huge product range means you can link to almost anything. This could be blogging tools, home office items, books, planners, décor, literally whatever your niche covers lol. 

Plus with the Amazon affiliate program, when someone clicks your link, if they then bought 5 unrelated things, as long as it’s within 24hrs, you will get commission on those too! So as much as the commission percentage isn’t huge, it can add up lol.

This is often the first program people join with the variety of products on there. The only thing to note is that amazon requires you to make 3 affiliate sales within 180 days and if this doesn’t happen you have to re-apply. So it may be worth waiting until you have a few readers before applying, but you can always reapply if needed!

Beginner benefits:

Easy to get started

Amazon is one of the most accessible affiliate programs for beginners. It has a simple sign-up process and anyone with a website can join! Just remember that 3 sale minimum before applying.

A really easy way to start with physical products

Amazon lets you promote everyday items that people already buy. This makes it feel more natural than software or services when you’re just starting out.

People trust Amazon

Amazon is already familiar to most people, which can make affiliate links feel natural within your niche/content rather than disruptive or forced as it’s a site people recognise.

Good for getting comfortable with affiliate links

It’s often one of the first programs people use, simply because it’s simple to join, no audience threshold and it helps you understand how affiliate links work in real content before branching out elsewhere!

The payout threshold (as of now) is only $20 too which is amazing.

This means you only need to make $20 in comissions before seeing the money in your account!

2. Perfecting Blogging Course Affiliate Program

Why it converts:

Beginner bloggers want step-by-step guidance, and a high-quality(!!!) blogging course removes the overwhelm instantly as it walks them through the info they actually want and need.

Courses convert really well because people want results fast. This means they’re willing to invest when something feels good value, clear, simple, and beginner-friendly.

This is especially true when you’ve personally taken the course and can speak from experience as I do all the time with the blogging course I swear by lol.

To check that course out, you can find all the information here!

If you have taken a different course that you love, check if they have an affiliate program as a lot of online tools do! 

Beginner benefits:

You can earn real commissions without needing thousands of views

Blogging courses often have higher payouts per sale, which means you don’t need huge traffic numbers to see good results. Even a small, engaged audience can be enough to generate commissions even early on.

Courses solve a clear problem

This means that they naturally convert as people are already looking for the information. When someone is searching for a blogging course, they’re usually stuck or looking for a recommendation. The nice thing is that if someone is looking for a course, you’re just pointing them toward a recommendation they are already looking for! Win-win.

You don’t need to be an expert

You’re just sharing tools that genuinely helped you
You’re not teaching the course yourself lol. You’re simply recommending something that helped you and your own progress. This means it’s authentic and achievable, rather than putting pressure on you to create your own course.

One review post can earn commissions for months or years

Course review posts (for high-quality courses!) tend to be good evergreen content. This means that once they’re published and getting traffic (from Google or Pinterest etc), they can continue bringing in traffic and so affiliate income, long after the initial work post was published.

People who look for courses are serious about their blog

People buy courses when they are already motivated to invest in themselves and their blog or business.
Unlike more random type purchases, course buyers are usually serious about learning and actually using the information. That mindset makes them more likely to commit and follow through if they like the sound of the one you are promoting.

Fewer clicks are needed to reach your first payout

This is because the commission per sale is higher!

This will vary course to course depending which platform they are on, but from experience for example, basically every commission I make from this course here (it sells well because I took it and love it lol) means I get the payment in real money, really quickly.

This was a big one for me when I started out. Higher commissions mean you don’t need dozens or hundreds of sales to hit a payout threshold. This can make courses especially appealing if you are newer and are still building traffic but want to see your sales turn into real money sooner lol.

As mentioned above, I have a detailed full review of this blogging course if you want to see everything it includes and why it helped me so much. If you want to see if it’s right for you, you can find that post here.

3. Shopify

Why it converts:

Shopify is so so beginner-friendly and removes all the techy/coding stress from selling products. Whether someone wants to sell digital products, physical items, or start a full shop, Shopify is the easiest way to get going.

As there’s a huge demand for ecommerce right now, Shopify tends to convert fast for creators in the money-making niche.

It’s simple to use, affordable and is a brand everyone knows and trusts. This is important as it makes for a perfect affiliate program.

The payout time is a bit longer with Shopify. This is because they offer a free trial and 3 months at just $1 a month so you get paid after this timeframe if your customer then goes straight into the paid plan.

Beginner benefits:

Anyone can set up a store in a few clicks

Shopify removes a lot of the technical faff that stops people from getting started in the first place. Because it’s genuinely easy to set up, more people follow through rather than giving up halfway, which helps conversions.

The free trial and the trial period are SO GOOD

As of now, Shopify is offering a free trial for a few days and 3 months for $1 a month. This offer means people are more keen to try it as they have so long to do so to see if it’s right for them. Having such a good initial offer makes a big difference. People feel more comfortable trying Shopify when they know they have time to try it properly before committing. 

Clean, stress-free dashboard

This matters (probably more than you realise) because online tools that feel simpler tend to be easier for people to stick with. When someone clicks through and isn’t immediately overwhelmed, they’re more likely to have a go and really see if it’s right for them, instead of just closing the tab lol.

Works for both digital and physical products

Shopify isn’t limited to one type of business which is a huge plus. It works just as well for digital products such as planners or printables as it does for physical products like stationery, mugs or handmade items! This means that anyone can use Shopify, no matter what it is they want to sell.

Pinterest loves Shopify

Shopify stores are designed to help people clearly go from browsing what they want, to buying said product. This makes them a good fit for promoting to your Pinterest traffic. Instead of sending your audience to pages that aren’t built for selling things from pinterest, linking to a proper storefront creates a better experience for people coming from your pins directly.

If you want a full breakdown of how Shopify works and why I recommend it for beginners (and for everyone!!) I wrote a complete post about it here.

4. MailerLite

Why it converts:

Beginners know they need an email list, but most email platforms feel overwhelming and expensive. Often this is the case lol.

The beauty of MailerLite is that it’s simple, beginner-friendly, and has a really good free plan. This makes it the perfect starter point into email marketing for anyone who wants to utilise it.

I started with a different platform, found it confusing, went for the free plan on mailerlite, loved it from the start, still use it now, and only upgraded in my own time when I needed to!

Anything with a trustworthy brand that solves a problem and offers a free trial or free plan is always a good idea!

MailerLite is such a huge and well-respected name in the email marketing space. And people looking at email marketing platforms (even the free plans) are serious about their online business.

Beginner benefits:

Start for free 

This is huge as your audience can build their email list without ANY upfront cost. No free trial, a straight up free plan for up to 500 subscribers!The free plan makes it much easier for anyone to join because there’s no worry about being locked in to any subscription cost. It allows anyone to start building their email list straight away. 

Drag-and-drop everything

This was a huge factor for me when I was initially choosing an email provider. No design skills, no coding, no stress!
Everything in MailerLite is super clear and visual and drag-and-drop lol. This makes it easy to play around with and use. Emails, forms, and even full landing pages can all be set up without needing to code anything! This is reassuring for people who feel intimidated by email marketing to begin with.

Automations that don’t feel scary

Automations (the emails you set up that go out automatically) are presented in a reallly simple-to-follow set up. Things like welcome emails, freebie emails, follow-ups, and other sequences can be set up without needing to understand complicated sequences or funnels. This makes email marketing feel far more approachable!

If you want a low-key example of this, this freebie triggers a simple automated email so you can see how it works. Plus you’ll get the freebie to keep lol.

Ideal for growing an audience from day one

MailerLite works really well whether someone has zero subscribers or is starting to grow more. There is the free plan and then various other levels. It’s simple enough to start with, but then also flexible enough for people to continue using as their numbers grow, which makes it a great long-term option.

5. HostGator

Why it converts:

Every new blogger who wants their own blog needs hosting. There’s no way around it.

Choosing hosting is tricky as from the outset, a lot of them look the same. That does not mean they are all created equal.

A hosting company that is affordable, has good and reliable customer service (like 24/7 live chat), and does what you need it to is important and will save you a lot of stress down the line.

I’ve used HostGator for YEARS for multiple sites, and still use them to this day. 

HostGator converts well because it’s affordable, beginner-friendly, and has amazing customer service.

When you explain it in a simple, non-intimidating way, beginners are much more likely to sign up using your link because they trust your recommendation. This is especially important if you have real experience of the product.

Beginner benefits:

Hosting is something every blogger needs

Any blogger who isn’t just a hobby blogger needs hosting. Every website needs it, regardless of niche, which is why it fits in so naturally when you’re already chatting about your site, the tools you use, or how everything’s set up. People want recommendations. If you use a quality hosting provider you enjoy such as Hostgator or any other with a good affiliate program, promote it!

Affordable pricing makes it an easy choice

One of the reasons HostGator works well is that the entry-level plans are affordable. It doesn’t feel like a huge financial purchase, which helps people feel more comfortable getting started rather than putting it off.

It fits naturally as a resource link

Hosting doesn’t need a big explanation or a dedicated blog post. If you already use it yourself (which we are assuming you do lol), it’s easy to include as a simple resource link. This could be in things like a tools and resources page or even a casual “what I use” link. Of course it could be just answering a comment question too! This way it’s truthful and helpful but without it feeling forced.

It’s a well-known, trusted option

HostGator is a familiar name when it comes to high-quality but affordable hosting. This is not only amazing for you, but it then helps remove initial hesitation from others about who to use for their own site. When your readers recognise the name something AND have your own experience/recommendation, they’re more likely to feel comfortable choosing them as their own hosting provider.

It can work even with smaller audiences

Hosting is often one of the first things people sort when they’re setting up a site, for obvious reasons. So it really doesn’t rely on needing huge traffic or overly- complicated funnels to earn commission from it. If you’re already using it and loving it and then sharing your experience, that’s all people need to know.

Of course you can promote your own hosting company if you chose one other than HostGator. Make sure you do trust and love your hosting provider, that they are a good recommendation and that they have a good affiliate program. If all is good then go for it!

I only promote HostGator personally as I have been with them for well over 10 years across multiple sites and they are still really affordable, so helpful if you ever have issues and they have done me well this far!

6. Legal Pages Bundle

Why it converts:

Legal templates are one of those things bloggers often panic about because they know they need them but have no idea where to start lol.

As a blogger you will know that you have to have all of your legal pages and up and live on your blog. We also all know that free templates are free for a reason and don’t cut it in terms of being actually covered lol.

Promoting something you already use is key.  

For me I use this exact blogging bundle as it’s written by a Lawyer, specifically for bloggers. It was a one time purchase for all the page templates. The templates took 10 minutes to edit to my specific circumstances and website, and then they were live – done!

Bloggers (especially newer ones) will want a direct link to the exact legal templates/pages you use as it’s not something anyone wants to get wrong.

A done-for-you legal bundle removes all the stress instantly of knowing exactly which pages they need and exactly where to get them. 

If you have the same bundle I have (I know a lot will do as it’s such good value and means you are covered in like 10 mins flat), you can of course promote that as they have a really good affiliate program too that you can join once you have the bundle yourself.

The starter bundle is perfect for newer/smaller businesses!

If you got your legal pages from a different Lawyer/source, they may have an affiliate program too. This is always worth a look as like mentioned above, things like legal pages are something people want the EXACT link to, so they don’t get it wrong!

Beginner benefits:

Every website needs them

Legal pages are something every website needs, but most beginners either don’t know where to start or where to get them. This then makes this a very natural and helpful affiliate recommendation for a bundle or pages you are already using.

Easy to include naturally

Perfect fit for blog content no matter your niche. It’s easy to include in posts like how to start a blog or if your niche isn’t blog related, it’s perfect in your “tools and resources” page, making it beginner-friendly, easy and natural to promote.

Saves time and stress

Explaining that this as a done-for-you solution (rather than figuring it out themselves) makes it feel like a relief purchase, because it is! Legal pages are not something to guess at, so having that direct link makes it easier for everyone.

Doesn’t matter your niche

New bloggers (sensibly!!) often want to “do things properly” from the start. And they need legal pages. This then makes legal page bundles especially relevant for you to promote even early on with smaller traffic levels.

7. Blog Theme

Why it converts:

A blog theme is one of those upgrades where people can instantly see the difference. A cleaner layout, better spacing, nicer fonts and suddenly the site just feels more professional. And readers pick up on that straight away!

A lot of new bloggers don’t rush into buying a theme. They’ll often start on a free one (I think we all did!) then reach a point where something just feels… not quite what they are after aesthetics wise.

It could be that their blog doesn’t look how they imagined or maybe feels cluttered, or they’re just ready for it to look and perform better. That’s usually when a theme recommendation lands at the perfect time, and is why it feels helpful, not pushy as it’s them who is looking for a new theme that they like the look of.

The fact they can see your theme live means they can literally see it in action. Seeing a theme on a real blog helps people picture their own site looking that way too. If it’s what they are looking for, it’s another win-win!

One of the other reasons that themes convert well is that they’re (usually) a one-off purchase but makes a huge difference to the whole feel of the website!

The theme I use on my blog is this one here, and I’ve loved it and used it for years now. Plus their affiliate program is great. 

That said, themes are very much a personal preference so what works for one blog won’t necessarily be right for another. If you love yours and it offers a good affiliate program like my preferred theme does then you can promote that instead!

(As a quick example of what I mean by a “great” affiliate program, this theme’s affiliate program offers 70% commission lol. There is a $100 payout threshold but with 70% that can add up fast, plus it’s paid monthly!)

Beginner benefits:

Everyone needs a theme

Themes work well to promote/recommend because they’re one of those things that just makes sense to mention. Anyone who has a website has one, no matter what niche they’re in lol so it doesn’t feel weirdly specific or like you’re forcing it into content. You’re just recommending something you already use and love.

There’s also not much explaining needed.

Most people will already know what a theme is. Plus if they’re on your site reading your post, they can literally see the result and aesthetic for themselves, which makes it feel more like “oh, that’s how they got their site to look like that” rather than you trying to talk them into anything.

Affordable, one off purchase

A big reason is that themes are (usually) a one-off purchase. Some aren’t but most of the time themes are a one off payment and then free updates for life just as this one is. That means there’s no monthly payment, no ongoing commitment, it’s just a straightforward one-off decision.

It can be recommended naturally

And the best part is you can mention a theme in a really natural. It fits into any niche when you’re talking about things like your website setup, the tools/resources you use, how you run things behind the scenes, or even just when someone asks what theme you’re using because they like the look of your site.

If you’re curious about the theme I use on this blog (and have done for years now as I still love it lol) it’s this one here. Super customisable, fast and affordable with free updates!

Quick Tips for Getting Your First Affiliate Sale Fast

Promote things you actually use

Promoting products you already use, trust and love will make things so much easier. If you promote products you are unfamiliar with, people can tell. If you stick to what you know – especially initially – you will find getting your first sales so much easier.

Add links high up in your blog posts

While spamming links is never the answer, having your links obvious and visible is important. Keeping your links higher up within your blog posts will help your readers to know where to go to purchase whichever products you’re promoting.

Mention your links in multiple places

You have to be a little careful as some affiliate programs don’t allow affiliate links to be promoted in certain places. For example some don’t allow affiliate links in private Facebook groups or directly from Pinterest Pins. 

Keep the rules of your chosen programs in mind, but you can share them across public platforms – with your disclaimers clearly noted. 

Within blog posts is one of the most popular ways but you can also share on socials, through email marketing and even in video descriptions etc.

Keep your Tools page updated

Every blog should have a tools and resources page. While it’s not compulsory, it definitely helps your readers to find the tools and products you use and recommend. They could be interested in your blog theme, who you use for hosting, email marketing etc. Having all your top tools in one place with your affiliate links in is a win-win for everyone.

Add new content consistently

Adding new content consistently is really important as it keeps your blog/socials up to date. It also helps your current and any new readers aware that your blog and/or social accounts are still active. Most readers/viewers prefer someone active and present. This means if they have any questions, or have issues with any of the links, they know they can reach out and hopefully receive an answer.

New content also keeps your socials and/or blog in search and keeps you in the algorithm which is such an important way to be found.

Conclusion – The Best Affiliate Programs for Beginners (That Actually Convert!) 

Affiliate marketing is one of the fastest and most accessible ways for beginners to start earning money online. And choosing the right programs makes all the difference.

All of the programs chosen for this list convert well because they’re well trusted names, beginner-friendly, and easy to promote (naturally) through your blog content, Pinterest, email marketing, and digital product posts etc.

Start with just a few programs, weave them into your content, and focus on being genuinely helpful. Also don’t forget to add your disclaimers! Your first commissions may well come sooner than you think. And once they do, the momentum builds quickly and you can start branching out to even more programs.

If you are looking for more information on Affiliate marketing, you can check out these posts here:

→ How To Make Money With Affiliate Marketing

→ Affiliate Marketing for Beginners: How to Make Your First $1,000

Speak soon!

Katherine

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