These helped me double my income in the past year.
Pic by: Unsplash
Using AI Tools to Boost My Blogging Business: How I Made More Money in 2023
For the past year, I've been using AI tools to help grow my blogging business all by myself. And let me tell you, it has made a huge difference!
With the help of AI, I managed to double my income last year without having to work extra hours. I didn't change my business plan or hire anyone new. The only thing that changed was how I used AI to work smarter and get more done.
So, I wanted to share some of the ways I'm using AI right now to make money with my blog in 2023.
1. YouTube
Creating Successful YouTube Channels Made Easy with AI: My Journey and Time-Saving Techniques
For the past few years, I've been building faceless YouTube channels as a way to make money. It may not sound exciting, but trust me, it's been quite lucrative. Right now, I have several channels covering different "boring" topics. But when you add up their earnings from YouTube Adsense and affiliate products, it's a significant monthly income.
The secret to my success lies in creating evergreen videos. These are videos that stay relevant for a long time, ensuring a steady stream of views and income. Additionally, I focus on making videos about products that I can promote using affiliate links. This way, I start earning right away, even if my channel isn't monetized with Adsense.
However, as a solopreneur with multiple projects, coming up with video ideas, titles, and scripts takes up a lot of my time. That's when I discovered the Jasper AI writing assistant, which has been a game-changer in speeding up the process.
Jasper is incredible! It suggests video topics, provides SEO-optimized titles, creates script outlines, and even offers hooks and introductions. With these tools in place, I have more time and energy to focus on other aspects of my channels.
Let me give you a basic example of how it works.
Screenshot via author of Jasper AI
After that, I make a recording of my voice for the video by following the script. I combine it with a video that doesn't show a person's face but follows a tutorial format.
Jasper is also skilled at writing YouTube descriptions that are optimized for search engines (SEO).
2. Digital Products
I have been creating simple digital things like ebooks, workbooks, and audiobooks for more than ten years now.
Wow, I'm getting old!
Each one is a small thing that brings money to my business.
And let me tell you, it really adds up!
Creating and selling digital things has always been quite easy, but now with the help of AI tools like Jasper, it's even easier and faster to create content.
Here's an example:
Imagine I have an idea for a digital "workbook" to help people who work for themselves manage their money better.
First, I know a little something about this topic because I have been self-employed for a long time. I'm not relying on Jasper or any AI to give me accurate information on this.
Here's a tip: Don't use AI to create digital things on topics you know nothing about.
However, to speed up the process of coming up with ideas and outlining, I would use Jasper's "chat" feature to create an outline for my workbook.
I asked Jasper to write an outline for a workbook called "Money Management for Freelancers."
Here's what I got:
Screenshot from author using Jasper AI
I usually don't use the things Jasper gives me exactly as they are, but they're a great starting point.
The best part is that it only took 30 seconds, whereas it would have taken me 10-30 minutes to come up with a similar outline on my own.
After that, I can ask Jasper to suggest content for each section, which I can change and edit to my liking.
I also include my own thoughts, examples, section titles, paragraphs, and so on.
Remember, this tool is meant to HELP you, not REPLACE you.
Then I take the content and make it into a PDF workbook using Canva.
After that, I upload it to ConvertKit, which is one of my favorite platforms for selling digital things. Then I run inexpensive Pinterest ads (around $0.10 to $0.15 per click) to make sales.
Here's an example of what a ConvertKit landing page looks like:
Screenshot from ConvertKit
You don't have to use ConvertKit, of course.
I have also sold digital things using platforms like Teachable, Etsy, Gumroad, and my own websites.
If you have a YouTube channel (hint, hint), you can also promote your digital things there to make even more impact with your work.
3. Online Courses
I really like this funny stock photo :)
First, I want to tell you that I have a long and complicated history with online courses.
But honestly, I still believe that in 2023, online courses are one of the best ways to make a good income online.
From 2013 to 2019, I ran my business as a personal brand. As part of that, I sold online courses where I was the teacher and the face of my business.
The great thing about selling courses as a personal brand (rather than a big company brand) was that my courses sold well because people could connect with me personally.
The not-so-great part was that I got really exhausted doing it.
So I decided to stop offering my old online courses and switched to a different model.
Nowadays, I still create online courses, but I do it as a company and not as a personal brand. In other words, I'm not the face of my business anymore.
You won't see me teaching a course anywhere on the internet.
Instead, I create brands focused on specific topics and then make online courses to sell under those brands.
The process of using Jasper to help create an online course is very similar to creating any other digital product.
It starts by asking Jasper to come up with ideas for titles and a sample outline for the course.
Here's an example:
Screenshot via author of Jasper AIAfter this, I would follow a similar process like creating a digital thing or a script for a YouTube video. I would fill in the different sections either by myself or with Jasper's help.
Once I'm satisfied with the script, I might hire someone on Fiverr to record the lessons or do a voice-over for a tutorial or presentation-style video.
I like to sell my online courses using either Teachable or Thinkific. They're platforms where I have control over my courses.
However, if you don't want to invest in a course platform that you control, you can always upload your content to platforms like Udemy or Skillshare.
But just keep in mind that their rules can change over time, and you'll have to follow whatever they say.
If you've ever searched for "how to make money online," I bet one of the first things you came across was "affiliate marketing."
Affiliate marketing is great because you earn money by promoting someone else's product.
There's no need for customer service, keeping inventory, or dealing with overhead costs.
It's all about making a profit.
But here's the problem: It's really tough to make money with affiliate marketing if you don't know how to create content that convinces people to buy the product you're promoting.
This is where many people get stuck.
It's like that episode of South Park where the underpants gnomes have a plan to make money by stealing underpants:
Phase 1: Steal underpants
Phase 2: ...???...
Phase 3: Profit!!!
But what happens in Phase 2?
In the world of affiliate marketing, Phase 2 is all about the content and messages that convince someone to buy the product so you can earn a commission.
And it turns out, this part is really difficult for most people.
But that's where AI can help.
Jasper has some templates that I find incredibly useful for creating content to promote affiliate products.
These templates include:
- AIDA Framework
- PAS Framework
- Persuasive Bullet Points
- Before-After-Bridge Framework
- Mini VSL (video sales letter)
- Landing page template
You can enter information about the product you want to sell into these templates, and they'll help you write persuasive content for your website, email newsletter, social media, YouTube, TikTok videos, and more.
Alternatively, you can use Jasper's chat feature and ask it to write articles, sales pages, social media posts, and so on, to sell whatever you're trying to promote.
Here's a simple example of using Jasper to write affiliate content:
For this example, let's go to Amazon and click on a random dog feeder and water dispenser.
If you're part of the Amazon Associates program, you could earn around $3 every time someone clicks your link and buys that product.
All you need to do is copy the title and description of the product from the Amazon page and paste it into Jasper.
In this example, I'm using the AIDA marketing framework in Jasper to create my content.
Screenshot via author from Jasper
After that, I could use this script for a TikTok video, social media post, advertisement, or even as the beginning of a longer review article where I compare multiple products.
This example is quite simple, but I hope you understand the idea behind it.
If not, please leave a comment and let me know.
5. Publishing
Screenshot of Amazon KDP
I saved this topic for the end because I know it can be a little controversial.
I'm aware that some people are creating low-quality content in large quantities using ChatGPT and trying to sell it as a "book" on Amazon.
I strongly advise against doing that because I don't believe those people will succeed in the long run.
First of all, Amazon is not foolish.
I keep an eye on Facebook and Discord groups focused on self-publishing, and I've seen many people who try to cheat the system having their accounts shut down.
I recently read a story about someone who was earning six figures per month on Amazon KDP but had their account closed due to violating the terms of service by using AI-generated content that was plagiarized. It's simply not worth the risk.
If you want to build a sustainable self-publishing business that lasts, you need to be extremely cautious when it comes to AI-generated content, especially on Amazon.
At the very least, you should add a lot of your own content, rephrase anything AI-generated, edit, proofread, and check it for plagiarism.
Ideally, if you can afford it, hiring an editor is even better.
However, I want to emphasize that there are still ethical ways to use AI in publishing.
Here are a few ways I'm using it in my publishing business in 2023:
- Generating ideas
- Organizing outlines
- Coming up with titles and subtitles
- Writing book descriptions
- Creating content for sales pages.
I could talk more about this, but for now, I'll stop here.
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