Larry Ludwig's approach to blog success is simple – make sure you add value to your readers. 

In many ways, Larry takes a traditional approach to advertising, treating his online blog like a magazine. During our chat, Larry explains how his content process mirrors that of an editorial office where topics are discussed at length and planned ahead of time, month by month. 

This in-depth content approach has served Larry well. 

As the former owner of Investor Junkie, Larry built his personal finance blog from scratch, using affiliate marketing to achieve 300,000 visits per month. The site went on to rank #1 for the search term "how to invest stocks." It was later sold for an impressive $6M (in cash). 

What's more inspiring is that Larry built this blog in 2009 during the height of a recession. Despite the economic slump, Larry used this downtime to take a leap of faith when many of his competitors stood still. 

By listening to this episode of the podcast, you'll learn how to grow, monetise and ultimately sell a blog all from a first-hand perspective. 

Above all, Larry hammers home an important message when it comes to SEO. 

As we know, sophisticated search engines like Google now require content to follow E-A-T principles, meaning blogs should be expert, authoritative and trustworthy. Larry proves that playing this long game and focusing on the big picture of user experience equals a big reward. 

Want to find out even more about Larry? Visit larryludwig.com

 

  0:21 – Meet today's guest, Larry Ludwig

  2:12 – What is Investor Junkie? 

  4:12 – What happened in 2018? 

  5:55 – How did you grow Investor Junkie? 

  7:18 – What's it like to buy during a recession? 

  9:03 – How did you get to 300,000 site visits per month? 

11:38 – How would you describe your content planning process? 

15:02 – How did you decide which pieces of content to update? 

17:25 – How do you create depth within blog content? 

20:11 – Did you focus on getting backlinks in the early days? 

21:42 – Was social media important for the growth of your site?  

23:15 – How did you justify paying for site visitors? 

25:19 – Why did you choose affiliate marketing? 

28:20 – What's the difference between your blog and low-revenue blogs?

32:24 – Why do you link monetisation with user satisfaction? 

34:00 – What do you think of Amazon slashing its affiliate payouts? 

36:29 – Do you think Amazon should still offer an affiliate programme? 

39:37 – What sort of stats should a blog achieve for a similar evaluation? 

43:52 – Where can people find you? 

For show notes and to get a free review of your website and digital marketing, complete with a tailored plan to increase your leads and sales online, head to https://exposureninja.com/podcast/episode156/