Last Updated on January 10, 2022 by James McAllister

By: James McAllister

10 Comments

Let’s not waste each other’s time.

If you’re not interested in making a real, full time income with blogging, close this article now.

If you’re content with just making enough to cover your costs and pocket a bit of extra money each month, close this article now.

If you’re looking to make more money than you know what to do with, and you’re willing to make sacrifices to allow that to happen, this article is for you.

One of the biggest mistakes I see people making is pulling every cent out of their business, collecting their business’ profit as a salary.

However, this is a fatal mistake to make.

Success compounds more success, and this is largely because the resources you acquire can be put to work to in turn generate more. Traffic leads to more traffic. Exposure leads to more exposure. Money leads to more money.

If you want to grow rapidly and consistently, it’s vital you take a percentage of the profit your blog is making you, and reinvest it back into it.

There are a lot of options available for you, which we will go over now. 

1. Pay-Per-Click Advertising

Let’s talk about this one first because it’s perhaps the most obvious, and one of the most important.

Pay-per-click advertising is a great way to reinvest your earnings because you can directly measure how impactful your budget is being spent.

Let’s say a subscriber was worth $2 to you, and you were using PPC advertising to send traffic squeeze that converts at 25%, for a cost of 25 cents per click.

100 / 25 = 4. You can expect a new subscriber every 4 clicks on average. 4 clicks x 25 cents per click = $1.

Suddenly, you’re making money on autopilot, because the $1 it cost you to acquire that subscriber is worth $2. Reinvest again, and you can see how this can snowball rather quickly.

Of course it’s not always that simple, but the premise tends to be the same with PPC – you develop a profitable system, and you throw money into it to make more.

Easy.

For most bloggers, this means setting up a squeeze page and using it to collect email addresses. It’s rarely profitable to pay to send visitors to a regular blog post, but if you can capture them as an email subscriber you’re able to market to them over and over again.

2. Broader Marketing Options

When budget allows or you’re having a harder time scaling pay-per-click, it often makes sense to explore broader advertising options such as banner advertising, sponsored posts, video ads, so on and so forth.Don’t worry about spending a little, worry about making a lot james mcallister

The problem with these is that the results aren’t always directly measurable, meaning it can be harder to track what’s yielding you a positive ROI and what’s a waste of your money.

It’s also important to know however that many of the benefits of these options aren’t exactly tangible. Where with PPC you’ll know right away if a visitor leads to a conversion, you can’t easily put a value on the exposure of having people see your brand everywhere. However, there is a value there.

Take some of the larger companies for example, like Geico, a popular choice for car insurance here in the United States. They do not expect you to pick up the phone and call them the moment you see their ad. However, because they appear so often, most people know what they sell, and when it actually comes time to purchase car insurance, they may be the company they decide to go with because they’re so familiar.

3. Plugins, Tools, and Software

When it comes to plugins, tools, and software, there are seemingly infinite possibilities. I’m still being introduced to completely new software every day and regardless of what type of business you’re in, or what you’re trying to accomplish, there is something for you.

The goal here in most cases is to free up more time, provide a better experience for your visitors, and to make more money. After all, reinvestment for the sake of reinvestment doesn’t help us all that much – it needs to have a lasting impact.

Here are some tools I find indispensable to my own business:

  1. ActiveCampaign – the lifeblood of my business. This is my email marketing service of choice, and if you aren’t already using a premium email marketing service, this is probably the most important investment you can make. You can sign up for a free trial by clicking here.
  2. OptinMonster – my pop-up plugin. Love or hate pop-ups, they work. This plugin pays for itself over and over and over again simply due to how many increased leads it brings me.
  3. HootSuite Pro – it’s what I use to manage to all of my social media accounts. I’ve written a full review for HootSuite Pro here. Long story short, it saves countless of hours over the course of a year.
  4. Insightly CRM – this is what I use to manage information regarding prospects and those in my power base. Having this information organized and at my disposal has led to far more sales, despite the fact that it is a bit of extra work.
  5. MemberPress / Affiliate Royale – For my membership site, affiliate program, and handling access to my courses. This is one of those plugins that not every blogger would need, but it just goes to show what’s out there in terms of options. If you want to do something, there’s usually something there for you. And when you find these plugins, they become invaluable.

4. Design

If you’ve yet to invest in a premium design, this is always a good option.

I’m a huge fan of Studiopress themes that run on the Genesis framework. They’re incredibly easy to customize, they’re mobile-responsive, and they’re lightweight which means your pages will load quickly. Good for SEO.

Of course, design goes beyond that. Find a freelancer to create a high quality logo for you. Or product covers. Or marketing materials.

Heck, you could even have a professional web designer modify your theme so it looks exactly like you want it, really differentiating yourself from the other blogs out there.

My friend Fabrizio Van Marciano does fantastic design work, so be sure to check him out if this is something you’re ever considering!

5. Employees / Contractors / VAs

Your time is valuable.

Regardless of how efficiently you work, you’ll only ever have 24 hours in a day to get things done yourself.

How can you get more time?

You buy someone else’s.

You know things are getting serious when you can justify hiring an employee. Suddenly, someone else is handling select areas of your business, freeing up your time to put somewhere else where it can be better utilized.

This doesn’t have to start out incredibly expensive. You can hire an English speaking virtual assistant (VA) from the Philippines for as little as $3 an hour, and you can start out with as little as 5 hours a week.

VAs can handle tasks like checking and responding to emails, setting appointments, moderating comments, performing updates, collecting data / information, and other little tasks you can’t be bothered to do yourself.

How much more would you get done if you had an extra 5 hours a week to work on your business?

I’ve put together a course on hiring from the Philippines, which you can view by clicking here.

6. Equipment

Many people don’t think about it, but having the right equipment can help you take your business to the next level.

First we have the obvious – a better computer, a better microphone, and a better camera if you’re doing video.

I personally recommend the Blue Yeti microphone and the Logitech C920 webcam for a cheap yet high quality video setup. Of course, there are much better options available if your budget allows.

However, there’s a lot of other equipment that can make your experience better as well.

What about a better desk to work at, or a more comfortable chair? A nice, quiet air conditioner or heater for your home office? Wouldn’t you agree that being comfortable while you work will lead to increased productivity?

You may find it hard to justify spending over $600 on this office chair, but over the course of 5, 10, 20+ years, wouldn’t it likely end up paying for itself?

Or what about just sprucing up the room? It can be hard to truly realize the effect your surroundings can have on your mindset when working.

I try to keep my home office as clutter free as possible. I have my desk with my recording and audio equipment. Behind me I have a green screen when I’m recording video. On my walls, I have pictures Jordan has drew for me, and pictures of successful, inspirational people like  Steve Jobs, John Lennon, Martin Luther King Jr, Elon Musk, so on and so forth. All of these have an incredible effect on my motivation and push me to work harder.

It’s easy to spend money on our website, but giving ourselves an environment to thrive in is just as important.

Here are some of my recommended entrepreneur gift ideas.

7. Education

Last but not least we have education.

It’s easy to ignore this and try to figure out everything on our own, but this is an incredibly inefficient way to progress. Yes, it’s good to learn from your own mistakes, but it’s even better to learn from others beforehand so you never end up making those mistakes in the first place.

Education is a special kind of investment because it’s always there. It will never go down in value, and nobody can ever take it away from you. Regardless of what happens to you in life, you will always be able to tap into that to grow and expand over and over again.

I have developed a series of training courses that are available to serious entrepreneurs looking to take their business to the next level. These courses are the most comprehensive on the market, and cover topics such as blogging, email marketing, or building a successful mindset from beginning to end.

Let’s think logically for a moment – if there is just one thing in each course that you can take with you and gain value from, surely the value of that will pay for the course over, and over, and over again over the course of your lifetime.

And considering how information packed each of them are, you’re bound to learn a lot. So hey, do yourself a favor and invest in your education right now by clicking here.

I promise, you’ll thank me later.

Conclusion

Promise me that you’ll prioritize reinvestment heading into the future.

I want what’s best for you and what’s best for your business, and that means it’s imperative that you set aside a portion of your profits solely to reinvest back into growing your business.

Failing to reinvest is a mistake I made for such a long time, and who knows how much farther ahead I’d be if I had taken this seriously from the beginning. You are running a business, and your business needs as many resources as you can throw at it.

I know that you will do what is right.

– James McAllister

Note: This article contains many affiliate links. This means that if you go on to buy through one of these links, I may earn a small commission from the companies in exchange for referring you to their website. This costs you nothing extra, and I only ever recommend products I have used and gained value from myself. 

About the author 

James McAllister

James is the owner of JamesMcAllisterOnline.com. He started his first blog at the age of 11, and has since gone on to start several successful businesses. In total, these businesses have sold hundreds of thousands of units and have touched millions of lives. Here on JamesMcAllisterOnline.com, he shares his knowledge that brought him to where he is today. If you want to connect with James, follow him on your favorite social networks!

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  1. Hi James,

    Awesome, important but sadly, neglected issue by many bloggers and online businessmen/women.

    When I started blogging, I knew I had to keep on making investments (largely from my profits). I thus made it a point to list all I needed (to perform better at my job) and bought at least 1 at the end of every month.

    This has seen me making ‘crazy investments’ that have sometimes run into several hundreds of dollars…but each is well worth it – and the money is recovered shortly.

    When I ran a course on Kindle for Nigerians a few months back, I also emphasized this…unfortunately, my students wondered why they should bother with outsourcing, investments and getting better when they were already seeing (good) ROI.

    My answer was simple: if don’t invest, everything stops at ‘good’. However, once you invest, it gets ‘better’ and then, ‘fantastic’. They all agreed 🙂

    James, you have a way of writing awesome articles that are geared towards helping the everyday online businessperson become exceptional…please, do keep this up.

    Enjoy the day!

    Always,
    Akaahan Terungwa

      (Quote)
    Akaahan Terungwa recently posted…May Your Road Be Rough – Tai SolarinMy Profile

    1. Hi Akaahan! Good to see you again.

      It sounds like you’ve got the right idea, which is largely the reason I’m sure that you done so well. So many people are so scared to risk putting any money into anything and it hurts them far more than it helps them.

      The really successful people know how to effectively use their resources to scale. Time isn’t something that can be scaled, but money can. So even if we’re seeing a good ROI from free things, that doesn’t mean we can’t make an even better return doing something else. In the end it’s not as much ROI that matters as it is total profit – and if I can turn money into more money, it just makes sense to do so.

      Appreciate you adding that Akaahan because you’re so right.

        (Quote)
      James McAllister recently posted…The 7 Rules Of Selling All Bloggers Must FollowMy Profile

  2. Hi James,

    Excellent topic.

    What you’re asking people to do is to become more entrepreneurial.

    I am really ‘into’ this kind of thing. Bloggers are deluding themselves if they think they can just create content, publish it, then sit back and wait for the dollars to flow.

    It ain’t gonna happen.

    We HAVE to be entrepreneurial because that is the only way I know to generate a consistent and growing income stream.

    Bloggers can use free methods to promote, but they should also consider using paid ads, as recommended by you. Reinvesting income into ads etc. is a smart thing to do – thanks for pointing that out.

    Another point is that some newbie bloggers are unclear about monetization. They don’t have a money making pathway, or funnel. So they need to get some of these foundational issues sorted before they start promoting.

    You also mentioned outsourcing (VA’s etc) and the use of tools. Makes a lot of sense. If we can leverage our time more efficiently, all to the good.

    Thanks James

    Kim

      (Quote)
    Kim Willis recently posted…Scaredy Cat ‘Make Money’ Bloggers and the Lateral Thinking ImperativeMy Profile

    1. Hey Kim!

      You are right, and sadly it is so common for people to pull every cent of profit they get and go spend it, as if they were simply getting a raise from their normal job or something. Certainly not going to help you become any more free!

      I’ve noticed this is especially common for first time business owners, or business owners who have worked solely online. It’s easy to start making money from nothing and the financial risks aren’t huge so it’s easy to think that reinvestment isn’t necessary. However, if you ever want to make some serious money than it’s absolutely vital most of the time. Regardless, it will certainly get you to where you want to be quicker.

      Your point about monetization is a good one. All the traffic, tools, and so on will not help you if you don’t have a plan in place to make money from those who visit your site. A whole lot of nothing is still nothing, after all. I’m still amazed with how long I went on relying solely on Google Adsense to make money, hahaha.

        (Quote)
      James McAllister recently posted…Define What You Truly Want From BloggingMy Profile

  3. Hi James,

    I like the way you started this article. No nonsense and that’s what I like. Indeed, we need all of this, but what stands out to me the most is education.

    Besides investing money to make more, I firmly believe we need to in order to run a business. But continuing education is the most profitable investment I perceive.

    A we grow with our business, we have to learn new avenues of marketing, all those how-to’s. I have to say that I spend one portion of my day on education. I, as a business person have to be teaching others and in order to do that I need to be up to date on doing things myself. Also see what plugins and tools are out there that can work for me and/or my clients.

    There is never enough to learn and paying for a good education on a course is worth more than ever.

    -Donna

      (Quote)
    Donna Merrill recently posted…Run Your Blog Like You Would Run A StoreMy Profile

    1. Hi Donna!

      I think you are right, and so many people ignore it because the ROI isn’t always tangible. However, when you look at it over the long term, investing in yourself is the best investment you can make.

      I will always remember the day the switched got flipped for me when it came to getting rich. Someone came into one of my high school classes freshman year and talked about things like compound interest, acquiring assets, investing, so on and so forth. The speaker recommended we read the book ‘Rich Dad Poor Dad.’ I did, and it was the first book on wealth I had ever read. So many switches flipped in my mind and everything shot up from there. That speaking gig was worth millions of dollars to me, I just didn’t know it at the time. I was always entrepreneurial, but that day changed everything.

        (Quote)
      James McAllister recently posted…Turn Every Email Subscriber Into A Buyer With One ChangeMy Profile

  4. Hi James,

    Missed this one first time round as I was on holiday – but better late than never!

    My parents ran a very successful retail business for 30-odd years. When they sold their stock, they didn’t take all the profits and spend them – they bought more stock, they increased their profits, and eventually they had enough to buy another shop, etc etc.

    Imagine what would have happened if they had sold all their stock and not reinvested in more.

    I know I often hark back to my traditional business background in my parents’ shop – but somehow people seem to think that Internet Marketing follows some different, miraculous model.

    To practice what we both preach I am reinvesting my profits into automation tools to make my life easier. I am also buying in the skills of a lady who makes lovely presentations for me that I can easily turn into videos. Making the PowerPoints would take me forever, and my design skills are pretty well nil, so it makes sense to pay to have them done for me.

    Joy – Blogging After Dark

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  5. Hi James
    What an interesting list you shared with all of us! This is the first time that I see that there are more ways to earn than AdSense. I am really amazed about all the tools you know about and how you are sharing this free knowledge.
    I never heard about OptionMonster before but will definitely take it in account.

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