How Leanne Scott Earned $5,600 in 10 Days with a Tiny Email List in the Affiliate Marketing Space

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Who are you and what course have you created?

I’m an affiliate marketing strategist and blogging coach. I launched Passive Income Superstars in 2019 and 8 months later launched my first online course, Affiliate Marketing Superstars.

I noticed many affiliate marketing courses for bloggers either only skimmed the basics or were charging 4 figures. The Covid crisis was in full force when I created my course and many of my audience was in the travel niche and were suffering financially. So I wanted to create something affordable which went well beyond the basics.

Leanne Scott's siteWhat market does your online course serve?

I teach bloggers who want to monetize their websites. My audience wants to find work-life balance by incorporating more passive income streams into their business.

What’s the biggest benefit of taking your course?

It goes into a lot more depth than most affiliate marketing courses around the same price point. So we cover topics like email marketing, flash sales, open-close cart promoting, and Pinterest affiliate marketing.

Also, all the strategies inside my course are ethical feel-good strategies. I encourage my students to only partake in monetization methods that they feel 100% comfortable with. I think trust in marketing is so important!

How did you get into the market?

I didn’t set out to get into digital marketing. In fact, I trained as a doctor and was working as a general practitioner. But I was feeling disillusioned with my role and took a sabbatical where I visited South America and started a travel blog. It was then I realized how much I’d been missing having a creative outlet.

I started promoting adventure travel companies on my blog and discovered I had a knack for affiliate marketing and thinking outside the box. As my blog quickly started making a full-time income, other travel bloggers pushed me into creating a course because they wanted to take it!

It was supposed to be a slow burn business but when the pandemic arrived, I realized there were many bloggers who were struggling financially that I could help. As a result, Passive Income Superstars went from side hustle to my primary business almost overnight.

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

I have always enjoyed teaching and so creating an online course seemed like the logical step for me when I realized there was a demand.

I was intrigued by the challenge and also needed something to occupy me during the long UK lockdowns. Creating my online course was a welcome distraction!

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

I’ve definitely experienced self-doubt, I’m pretty sure most course owners have. But my community has helped to keep me focused and beat the imposter syndrome away.

I keep a folder of messages, reviews, and testimonials that I read whenever I’m having a bad day and it reminds me why I am doing it. - Leanne Scott Click To Tweet

In terms of creating content, it took me a while to get into it but once I did, it flowed naturally.

I recommend using colored sticky notes to help you plan your course out, moving modules around as the idea comes together!

Leanne Scott's site

What’s your online course like?

At the moment my course is predominantly text and template-based. I teach the theory and then provide templates to help my students achieve the results faster.

There is also a workbook that they fill as they go so they have a written action plan by the time they finish the course.

Then every few months, we have a strategy day where I use the Voxer walk-talkie app to discuss my student’s individual goals and strategies.

I plan to update the course this year and will be adding more video and/or audio content.

How long did it take you to create your course?

It took me about 3-4 months to create the course and all the promotional materials and email funnels. I expect it will be much quicker when I create my next course. The first is always a massive learning curve!

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

I made sure I talked about my upcoming course frequently inside my Facebook group so by the time I launched, there was a fair bit of buzz around it. I’ve always made sure I give a lot of free information and support to my community which has fostered a lot of loyalty. It was touching (and a little surprising)  how excited my community was when I launched. I remember the feeling of shock when I got my first sale a few minutes after the first email went out. I think I was expecting it would be a much harder hustle than it was!

All my effort during the pre-launch period definitely paid off! I ended up exceeding my launch target by 350%!

Do you have a lead magnet?

Yes, I have a free mini-course that runs via email over 5 days. Not only does it help to prime my audience for the content inside the course so they are more likely to have success but they also get a chance to try out my teaching style.

I make sure I include a few quick win tips I know they won’t have heard elsewhere to help establish myself as an authority in my niche.

Leanne Scott's site

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

I use a mixture of paid and organic traffic. Using promoted pins that lead to my free mini-course converts quite well. I also write lots of related blog content which is seo-optimized so I get some organic traffic from search engines as well as from Pinterest.

What online course platform are you using?

I use Podia.

Do you like it?

Yes, it’s really simple to use, the support team is great and it has a lot of features that will help me in the future if I decide to run a membership or video workshops. It’s also very affordable as course platforms go.

Are there any features you wish it had?

The affiliate program is pretty restrictive with just a 14 day cookie period. Therefore, I chose to host my affiliate program elsewhere using Thrivecart. But even with a 2nd tool factored in, Podia still worked out as the most cost-efficient platform.

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

Podia allows you to host courses, digital downloads, video workshops, and memberships all on one platform so it felt like a platform that would allow me to grow.

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

So many! I’m a bit of a tool collector!

For email marketing, I’m a big fan of Convertkit. The segmentation capabilities make email marketing a breeze. I switched from Mailerlite to Convertkit and am very glad I did!

For lead generation, I use Convertbox. What I love about Convertbox is that it links to Convertkit so that I can display certain offers based on what tags they have inside Convertkit.

So not only is it a great tool for list growth but it’s also a brilliant tool for promoting special offers in a timely manner, personalized for each visitor.

I also love using a tool called Thrive Ultimatum to help me to create evergreen funnels. Again, I can personalize someone’s journey and offer them special deals when they are most receptive to them.

Leanne Scott's site

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

I found Zoe Linda’s Affiliate Program Toolkit really useful to help me to build my own affiliate program which has increased my profit by 7%. I haven’t had much time to focus on my own affiliate program yet so I am really hoping to see a significant increase in sales from affiliates when I do.

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

I regret not being more organized for flash sales and giving my affiliates a more advanced warning. I tend to be quite a spontaneous person so having to plan ahead for my team’s benefit is a bit of a learning curve!

Please share some idea of revenue.

My initial launch earned $5600 in 10 days which was with just a tiny email list a little over 900.

I was really pleased with this especially as it is not a high ticket course – it costs $197.

It has now generated $11,240 over 10 months so on average $1124/month – with very little ongoing effort as my funnels are evergreen and automated.

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

The regular passive income that I earn from course sales has helped give me more time to focus on growing my business and creating more products. Before this, I was balancing my business alongside working as a GP. Now I only need to do the bare minimum to keep my medical skills up to date.

I’m not 100% sure I’m ready to walk away from my medical career just yet so I like to keep my options open. I trained for that career for the past 16 years so it’s not easy to give up completely! But I know when I am ready to make a decision, my course will provide me financial stability.

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

I recruited over 1200 new subscribers by contributing a smaller product to a bundle of courses, the Genius Bloggers Toolkit. Not only did it grow my email list rapidly but also many of those new subscribers went on to purchase my course and other products. I also generated a lot of affiliate income by promoting this bundle to my own audience.

In total, I made at least $5000 from this collaboration which was for just a few days' work to create the promotional material and set up an email funnel. - Leanne Scott Click To Tweet

I would definitely recommend collaborating with other course owners like this. I am actually contributing to another similar bundle next month and am hoping for similar rapid growth.

Leanne Scott's site

What has creating your course done for you personally?

The feedback I’ve had has definitely given me confidence. It’s given me a creative outlet and a way to regain my work-life balance.

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

One of my students managed to earn back her investment in the course 8 times over in the 1st month of applying the strategies. What made me particularly proud of this student is that she did this in a niche negatively impacted by Covid as she is a travel blogger! Her goal was to pay the mortgage with her blog but the last time I spoke to her, she was well on her way towards being a 6 figure blogger!

What advice do you have for people just starting out?

Go for it – it doesn’t have to be perfect straight out of the box.

We are our own worst critics and if we waited until we were satisfied it was perfect, we would never launch.

There are always opportunities to improve your course over time, especially if you actively seek opinions from your current students.

Learn more about Leanne Scott of passiveincomesuperstars.com:

Lisa Parmley
Lisa Parmley

Lisa Parmley is the founder of coursemethod.com. After gaining a Master's degree, she worked in research for about seven years. She started a training company in 2001, offering a course helping people pass a professional exam. That course has earned multiple 7 figures. She created SEO and authority site building training around 2007 which went on to earn well into the 6-figure mark.

She has 22+ years of experience in the trenches creating and selling online courses. Get help starting and growing your online course business here.

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