How Becca Klein Helps Others Break Into Blogging

Who: Becca Klein

Website: breakintoblogging.com
Course Topic: Blogging

Interesting Stats: 5-day challenge added 618 people to my list

Who are you and what course have you created?

My name is Becca Klein, I’m a blogger, a blog coach, and a course creator. I blog and teach about blogging, online business, and social media. My signature course is Break Into Blogging, which is a comprehensive course on how to start, run, and grow a new blog into a profitable blog.

What market does your online course serve?

I serve 3 primary markets: (1) people who haven’t even started a blog yet, but know they want to; (2) people who have started a blog fairly recently, but are lost and overwhelmed; and (3) entrepreneurs who want to use their blog to grow their business.

What’s the biggest benefit of taking your course?

You’ll get a clear, step-by-step roadmap for how to take your blog and grow it to the point that it’s making you a real income.

How did you get into the market?

I started my current “blogging about blogging” blog in 2016 after I was running a successful travel blog, and realized that I preferred teaching people about blogging to talking about travel.

It was my ambition right away to create a course like Break Into Blogging, but I didn’t want to do it until I had a really solid step-by-step strategy that my students could follow to make their blogs profitable. Once I finally nailed down that strategy, I created the course.

Why did you decide to create an online course in the first place?

I knew that there were tons and tons of new bloggers out there with so many questions, and an online course seemed like the best way to help.

Did you have any moments of doubt before you created/launched it?

Sure, I think we all suffer from imposter syndrome from time to time. There were definitely moments where I thought “why should they listen to me?” or “why would they buy my course when so and so’s course is also out there.”

If so what made you turn it around and do it anyway?

I still have those moments sometimes, but as I enroll more and more students into Break Into Blogging and I can see more and more positive results, it really helps with those moments.

What’s your online course like?

Most lessons in BIB are video lessons (either Keynote slides or screen-sharing for tech tutorials). A few are text-only. Some lessons include downloadable PDF workbooks or checklists or other guides. All video lessons have a full transcript available for download.

How long did it take you to create your course?

It’s hard to say how long it actually took because I didn’t create it all at once. I’d say start to finish it was about a year, but with significant gaps within that one year. It was several months of actual work.

My process was fairly straightforward. I started off by making an outline of each module and lesson, with detailed bullet points on what I wanted to cover in each lesson. I don’t create scripts, but the bullet points are very detailed. I then create the slides from the outline. And then I record the video using Screenflow, upload it to Vimeo, and embed it into the course, which is hosted on Thrivecart.

Some lessons include a PDF workbook or checklist or something of the sort, so I usually made those after recording the video using Apple Pages or Adobe InDesign.

Tell us a little about the process of launching your course and getting your first sale(s).

I actually started selling the course on an evergreen webinar funnel before I launched it for the first time. So my first sales were from that funnel. - Becca Klein Click To Tweet

They were exciting! Every sale is like a mini-validation of my ideas and my work.

Do you have a lead magnet?

Yes, I have several and they’re always changing (so they may be different by the time you read this). But at the moment, I have:

My free masterclass, “The Profitable Blogging Framework”
A free ebook, “10 Beauty Tips For Your Blog”

A free ebook, “The Blog to Biz Roadmap”
A free quiz, “Do you know the earning potential for your blog?”
A free resource library (available only to subscribers)

And a few other free PDFs that are specific to certain blog posts

All of these lead magnets work well (after testing and getting rid of some that didn’t work). The free masterclass directly pitches my course, and both the masterclass and all other lead magnets lead to funnels that will eventually pitch the course. Of course not everyone buys, but quite a few do.

What’s the traffic strategy that works best for you?

Aside from sometimes running Facebook ads to certain blog posts, my best traffic strategy is definitely SEO. I didn’t focus on it enough early on and I wish I had.

I have an SEO consultant now and for every blog post I’m planning on writing she does the keyword research and gives me an outline of all the headings, along with some tips like how long it should be. It’s incredibly helpful and saves me a ton of time.

What online course platform are you using?

I use Thrivecart Learn. I used Teachable for years, but switched to Learn soon after Thrivecart announced it (I was already using Thrivecart as a checkout cart) and I love it.

Do you like it?

Yes, definitely. I highly recommend Thrivecart (both as a course platform and a checkout cart).

Are there any features you wish it had?

I wish that it could host videos and downloads. It’s a minor inconvenience though. And I wouldn’t be surprised if this gets added in the future.

What made you decide to use your chosen platform over others?

I was already using Thrivecart as my checkout platform when they announced that they were launching a course platform, Learn. Thrivecart only charges one lifetime fee, so since I had already paid, Learn is completely free for me. I still wouldn’t have switched if I didn’t like the platform. But I did explore it and almost immediately liked it a lot. I made the switch from Teachable and haven’t looked back.

What other tools do you use to run your online course business?

Quite a few:

Thrivecart (for course platform and checkout pages)
Elementor (for sales pages and some thank you pages and landing pages)

Leadpages (for other thank you pages and landing pages)
Keynote (to create slides)
Screenflow (to record my screen for all course videos and webinars)

Vimeo (to host course videos)
Easy Webinar (to host my evergreen webinar funnel)
Deadline Funnel (for evergreen countdown timers for my funnel)

ConvertKit (for all emails)
Canva (to create course downloads, promo graphics, etc.)
Apple Pages (to create course downloads)

E Camm Live (for Facebook Lives in my course Facebook group)
Asana (for organization and planning)
Google Drive (to store pretty much all my files related to the course)

What books or training programs have you found useful on your journey to a successful business owner that others might find valuable too?

A lot of what I learned about course creation and launching came from a course that is unfortunately no longer on the market. A lot was also just from trial and error.

Market Like a Pro from Hirsch Marketing has been very helpful for Facebook ads and funnels. Love Your List from Kate Doster has been great for email marketing. Amy Porterfield’s old course, Webinars that Convert, was very helpful for webinars (she no longer offers it, but I think that she covers the same content in one of her other courses).

I’ve taken tons of online courses on lots of blog-related subject matters, but those are the ones that spring to mind.

Do you have any big mistakes you’ve made along the way that you’d be willing to share?

I wasted a lot of money on totally ineffectual Facebook ads when I really didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t want to invest a lot in an ads course, but I should have done so sooner. Facebook ads aren’t something that you can just figure out on your own (for me anyway).

I also regret not investing in a copywriter sooner. Conversion copywriting is just not in my zone of genius, but I was hesitant to pay thousands of dollars for it. I eventually did, and it has paid off greatly. I should have done it from the beginning.

Please tell us a little about what the money you’ve earned from your course has done for you.

The money I’ve earned has helped me pay off debt, travel, and build more business more and more.

In addition to revenue are there any numbers you would like to share?

As of the day, I’m writing this, my evergreen webinar funnel where I promote the course has added almost 1,000 people to my email list (984 to be exact).

In my last launch, I did a 5-day challenge, and that added 618 people to my list. So the process of selling the course has actually grown my email list greatly. - Becca Klein Click To Tweet

What has creating your course done for you personally?

It’s really grown my confidence. I can see that something I created based on my own expertise is working and is helping people. That’s a big ego booster.

Do you have a story of a transformation from any of your clients?

I have one student who told me that 6 months to the day from when she enrolled in the course, she officially hit the $5,000/month mark with her blog and was going to leave her 9-5. That was incredibly gratifying.

What advice do you have for people just starting out?

Just start. Your first course does not need to be a huge comprehensive $997 course with all the bells and whistles. Create a small course for $47 or $97 to get your feet wet.

If you have the budget, I think it’s worth it to invest in some good courses about things like sales pages, funnels, Facebook ads, and other course-related stuff like that. But I understand that you may be on a budget, so you can also learn a lot from free resources.