Ep. 256: How to Sell Your Blog for Six Figures with Carrie Smith Nicholson

Shannon Mattern is a pricing expert and creator of The Package Matrix™ Method that helps freelancers, fractional execs, consultants, agencies and service providers stop undercharging, overdelivering and overworking by using pricing, proposal and sales strategies backed by behavioral economics and sales psychology.

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My guest today is Carrie Smith Nicolson. Carrie’s been blogging since 2011, and in October of 2018, she sold her first blog, carefulcents.com for nearly six figures!

And she’s on the show today to share with you exactly how she did it.

Today we’re talking about:

  • Why Carrie decided to start a personal finance blog when there were already a lot of personal finance blogs out there.
  • The steps she took to quit her day job two years in and start blogging full time.
  • Unconventional strategies Carrie used to grow her audience.
  • Exactly how Carrie monetized her blog.
  • How she came up with the idea to sell her blog, how she found a buyer, decided on the price and what she put in her sales contract.
  • Blog growth strategies that Carrie’s most successful 6 and 7 figure clients are using.
  • The most important thing to make sure you include in your blog.
  • What pillar content is and how to use it to your advantage.
  • Carrie’s advice if you’re struggling to get traction with your blog.
  • The beliefs Carrie had to change about herself to get where she is today.

Before we dive in, what’s crazy to me is that when I was preparing the show notes for this interview I searched my inbox for Carrie’s bio, I found this email thread from 2016 where Carrie writes:

“Shannon, I just finished going through your entire Free 5-Day Website Challenge and have completely overhauled my website and membership site: http://www.carefulcents.com/ THANK YOU! This is something that’s been on my list for a long time and I’m thrilled that I was finally able to get moving on it.”

And then she goes on two years later to sell her blog for almost six figures. Wow.

So if you’ve been wavering on whether you should start a blog, or you need a website for your side hustle, or your website frustrates the heck out of you and holds you back, seriously, you need to sign up for my free training – I’ll tell you how at the end of this episode.

My favorite quotes from Carrie:

  • “You have to invest in yourself.”
  • “Once you put it out there, even just by thinking it, the universe just brings you the right people.”
  • “If so many people are asking, maybe your experience can help.”
  • “Figure out what you really love – and what you are good at.”
  • “Niche down, you can always expand later.”
  • “I would do stuff that I love, that I’m good at, and that doesn’t tie me to a desk.”
  • “Quitting doesn’t mean failing.”

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Bio:

After being a workaholic in her twenties, Carrie Smith Nicholson became debt free and then quit her job in 2013.

During this time, she founded the blog carefulcents.com and grew it into a well-known financial resource. Earlier this year she sold her business for six figures to dedicate more time to growing Hashtag Colorado Life!

Over the past 7 years Carrie has worked with companies like Chase, Capital One, FreshBooks, QuickBooks, and many other well-known brands.

When she’s not selling blogs and living the #ColoradoLife, Carrie helps her clients with building virtual teams and project management for their online businesses over at https://carrieconsiders.com/.

Connect with Carrie:

Website: https://carrieconsiders.com/

Instagram: @carrieconsiders

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Pricing, Proposal & Sales Strategy For Freelancers, Fractional Execs & Consultants

ANCHOR HIGH™ PODCAST

Pricing Strategy for Service Providers & Consultants

If you sell your expertise and hands-on implementation, deliver solid work and have happy clients – but you’re maxed out and feel like you’ve hit an income ceiling, this show is for you.

Each short episode breaks down how pricing psychology and proposal strategy influence prospects’ decision-making and helps you rethink everything you thought you knew about how much you can really charge for your services and expertise.

THE PACKAGE MATRIX™ METHOD

The Package Matrix™ Method is a pricing framework built on behavioral economics, sales psychology and a decade of results. It strategically designs a value-based decision for your clients, so you stop pricing based on what you think they can afford and start pricing based on the value they can create by working with you.

How It Works ⟶

ANCHOR HIGH™ CERTIFICATION

If you’re a business coach or consultant who’s an expert at helping your clients grow their businesses and reach their goals – but you don’t have a strategic pricing and sales framework to help your clients confidently close more proposals at higher prices (without working harder), our Anchor High™ Certification program might just be the missing piece of your coaching methodology.

Learn More Here ⟶

ABOUT SHANNON MATTERN

Shannon Mattern is a pricing expert who helps Freelancers, Fractional Execs, Consultants and Creative & Professional Service Providers stop undercharging, overdelivering and overworking by using pricing, proposal and sales strategies backed by behavioral economics and sales psychology.

She helps other business coaches and consultants integrate her pricing and sales methodologies into their coaching, group programs and consultancies so they can help their clients make more without burning out. 

She’s also the founder of Web Designer Academy, where she has spent a decade helping women web designers move from undercharging to premium pricing, and where she developed the offer framework now used by service providers across industries.

Topics

90 DAY REVENUE ROADMAP

Increase your income without rebranding, niching down or adding more services or skills.

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