In the past 12 months I made more than $400 000 from my sites, while posting mainly roundups. Want to know how I did it? Keep on reading!
Roundups are all the rage right now, and multiple platforms seem to love them. While this might be news to some, it's not news to me - I've been posting mainly roundups since early 2023, and had a lot of success doing it.
What started as a way to supplement the income from my recipes has turned into my main strategy for content creation and revenue generation. In the past 12 months I made more than $400 000 with this strategy, without relying on any single source of traffic or revenue.
So how did I do it? Let me break it down for you.
1. I Had the Courage to Try
I started creating roundups for MSN in early 2023 when most people had no idea you could post on MSN. I remember how scared I was to make that first investment of a few hundred dollars per month that would allow me to post to MSN, but I also knew I just I had to try this out. I thought as long as I can make that money back each month, it's worth a try.
In my first full month on MSN, I ended up making over $1000, and that cost was suddenly nothing to worry about whatsoever. I went on to make as much as $14 000 in a month in pure MSN revenue that first year.
Imagine if I hadn't made that initial investment of a few hundred dollars per month. I'd probably still be cranking out recipes, wondering why Google hates me.
2. I Thought for Myself
Since the start, I've had both experts and "experts" tell me that posting a lot of roundups is going to tank my site.
Guess what? Lots of sites tanked in the past few years, and my site is still going strong.
While others have gone out of business, I've made more money than ever before. Is my main site doing worse in Google than it did in 2023? Yes, definitely. Is this because I'm doing roundups? Not likely. Does it matter? No, because I have other sources of revenue and traffic, and don't have to rely on Google in the same way I did before roundups.
Was this a risky bet? Sure, but it was one I was happy to make. I looked at the numbers and realized that roundups were making me at least as much money as Google. So why would I stop doing those, just to make Google happy?
Maybe my recipes would rank better in Google without all these roundups - but there's not really any way to know. What I do know is that in the past few years Google has sent tons of traffic to my roundup posts, both through Google Discover and Google Search.
I could have listened to the experts and gone the safe route. But seeing how Google has been treating content sites these past few years - roundups or not! - I'm not sure I would then have been in business anymore.
3. I Leaned into What Was Working
In the beginning I threw everything at the wall to see what would stick. And then I threw all the same things at it again. And again. After a year or so of doing this I took a step back and realized I was spending time creating content that I kinda knew wouldn't do anything.
So I cut out lots of topics, and leaned more heavily into what WAS working. The result? More revenue with less time spent. Now I know which 3 topics always do well for my sites, and I analyze biweekly to see what is doing well - and not so well - right now.
4. I Did Not Outsource Everything
As soon as I got on MSN I started getting pressured to outsource content creation. I was hesitant - and I'm happy I listened to my gut.
I'm not against outsourcing, it's great and often a key to scaling your business. But I also believe that before you outsource, you have to know what you are doing 100%. If you want to outsource something from the start you need to outsource to true experts - and that's expensive.
If you want to keep more of the money for yourself, you need to first know the process inside and out, know what works, and what parts of the process you should keep doing yourself. I've made the mistake of outsourcing too much, too soon, and it's not a fun experience.
Doing things yourself is also great to maintain flexibility. You can quickly pivot and change topics or how many roundups you're doing, and quickly add a new roundup on a topic you see is trending.
It also requires a smaller monetary investment. If money is tight but you have some spare time (or can create some), it's less risky to just do things yourself until you see that it's working.
After a while, the best course is usually to outsource parts of the process, to free up your time for other higher value tasks. But this does not have to - and should not! - happen straight away - and you need to be very clear on which parts to outsource, and why.
5. I Kept Going
It has not been a straight line. But it has been an upward trajectory, and every year has been better than the last - despite a lot of creators seeing declining revenue.
After a great first year on MSN, a lot of accounts were dropped overnight, and revenue went to zero. I got back on after a few months, but the traffic was not the same anymore.
Then Google Discover "discovered" one of my sites and started sending massive traffic to it. A few months later, my other site was also picked up. Success! Set for life! Or for a few months, until the algorithm changed and that traffic went down.
But then Pinterest picked up for the first time in 7 years, and so far it is only growing. For how long? Who knows? What's next? Who knows? All I know is if I keep going the opportunities will unfold and all will be good.
Do you want to learn more or do you have any questions? Just reach out to me at emmeline [at] alwaysusebutter.com and follow along at @worklessgrowmore on Instagram. I love to talk strategy and tactics with fellow bloggers!
Good luck with your roundups!
Emmeline
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