The Number One Thing You need to do for success as a Printable Creator

I tried it all. I focused on SEO (which is quite successful). I focused on backlinks. I focused on Facebook and Instagram. I posted my products in forums and in different galleries - actually that was something I did back in 2010 when Digidesignresort was just new. That was just the way you did advertising those days. And then I somehow "lost" it. I didn't jump on the social media train and then I had a hard time to get on it. And I still did. Until I figured a way which suits me and the time I can devote to my business.
Maybe that's you as well? You are creating beautiful products, you add them to your store(s) and then... you forget about them. Then they might sell a few times (or not) but you move on. You create the next product, add it and then it results in the same drama - you sell it a few times and you go on. That's not really motivating.
Maybe you figured: You need to do something differently. 

I did a lot of research online but more often than not I only found the common suggestions: do SEO, post on social media. And yes, I guess that is what works but there are more questions that come up: What social media platform should post on? And how can you use your time most effectively to make, after all, the most sales?

The answer is, unfortunately, easy. You need an advertising plan and stick to it. And that's also exactly what differentiates someone successful from someone who is not, the advertising part.

I believe it's a combination of three things you actually should do:

SEO, Pinterest and Email Marketing

I believe in efficiency. I cannot spend my entire day posting on Instagram (or any other social media platform). It might be effective to build a community and such when I finally get to that 10,000 followers but that has to come second or even third because I also need time to create new products and maintain my website aka write blogposts. So that's why I decided to focus this year on three things: SEO, Pinterest and Email Marketing.
These three make a good team. Because: You create blogposts for your website anyway so you can optimise them to let Google know what your posts are about. This brings in free clicks, new visitors and hopefully people which want to settle into your universe and sign up for your email list.
That's definitely one thing to do: You write a blogpost and then wait for Google to pick it up and send you traffic. That works, yes, but that's just a piece of the puzzle.

What if you'd make sure that another platform will also send you consistent traffic?
That might be a game changer! And that's where Pinterest comes into play. Actually Pinterest is, as you have might probably read in any blogpost about Pinterest, not a social media platform but a search engine. Therefore by adding pins there consistently we are leveraging that platform as a traffic source in the same way we do with Google. And, as a result, it will also send us consistent traffic - without posting 24/7 and burning out.

Pinterest is a platform where you post a pin and link it back to your website and then you post another pin to the same blogpost (or another) and another to the same. See how that goes? Sure, of course you don't post the same image again and again. But you can link to the same URL without being banned. And that is what you do to get consistent traffic from Pinterest: You link to your blogposts again and again. And then you write a new, optimised post and you do the same.

In best case when people come to your website you also offer them a lovely freebie they cannot resist and then you are in touch with them because they give you their email address and you can send them new content and offers whenever you want.

You see, that's the easy equation: Blogposts, SEO optimised, then an additional source (Pinterest) - which also brings in consistent traffic - and then email marketing which helps you to stay in touch with your people.

Easy peasy and no need to read 100 blogposts (just like I did) to get the same answer again and again.

Actually this results in some more questions and new problems... How do you optimise a blogpost effectively? How do you create Pins for Pinterest? And once done what do you need to keep in mind when posting them? And, what kind of freebie do you give your peeps to make them sign up for your emails? And, once they have signed up, what emails do you send them?

You see: Questions over questions! But we will get them all sorted in the upcoming weeks.

So, what's the Number One Thing you need to do for your Success as a Teacherpreneur?

You need that "plan" in your head. What we talked about today is really valuable. It's your path to success. You need blogposts. You need to optimise them for Google so it can send you traffic. And then you need to leverage another source of traffic so you do not solely rely on Google. In our case that is Pinterest because that also allows you to get consistent traffic.
And, in the end, to stay in touch with your peeps you need email marketing. And that's it. That's, in short, your business blueprint.

Sure, later in the game, when all that is running more or less automatically, you can add a social media platform to build a community there. And yes, then Instagram makes sense for sure! Or you might start a Facebook Group - all good ideas but they shouldn't be anything to start with.

You first need to build a foundation and once done you can add more parts to your equation.

BTW: I also have a lovely freebie for you when you join my email list: The Seasonal Printable Planner! It's an eBook which gives you all (or nearly all) events and holidays throughout a year as well as tons of ideas for digital products and a blog planner. If you use this Seasonal Printable Planner you can easily add the blogposts you need throughout the year, the products you need to create and, in the end, the sales and events you need to set up!