So this episode is kind of really how you can
make money online in so many different ways. This
is a little bit of an insight into the revenue
streams for FEA, and the ways I've made money over
the years, and the things that I focused on doing,
because they've been really amazing,
incredible ways to make money.
It can be overwhelming and confusing as to like,
where do you begin? What do I start with? What
revenue streams are the best? So I'm going to
dissect all that with you. So I really hope
that you enjoy this episode.
So before we dive into today's episode, let me
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When I started FEA, my goal was to build the
largest online support platform to inspire and
empower women from around the world to build
successful businesses. That was my mission. And
if I'm being honest, I didn't know how I was
going to make money. I just had this passion,
this idea, this dream, this desire to want to
help other people to inspire other people. And
that was about as far as I got.
I knew that if I could build a large audience of
people who loved what my message was about, and
loved what it was all about, I knew I could
find a way to make money. So let me just share with
you my top five. And these are the five that
we focus on right now.
So obviously, in the first place is my
membership site. My membership site has been
bloomin' amazing, I have loved building my
membership site. We have got over 5000 members,
$47 a month, and that generates recurring
revenue. So that has helped me to scale my
business and my operations. So at the end
of 2013, I launched my membership. And I had
literally one piece of content created. Got it
out there. And really looking at building that
up, and working on like, how can I get my first
100 members? How can I get my first 200?
members? How can I get my first 400 members? And
just looking at like, what is it going to take
to grow this? And really paying attention to
everything and immersing myself in digital
marketing strategies that would help me to grow.
And at this point, it was largely me, myself and I
with the membership, figuring all the moving
pieces out. I was doing the customer support, I
was creating the content. There were a few things
that I didn't do. But I mostly did everything:
the marketing, all of it, the Facebook ads, I was
doing the whole lot. That really started to take
off within the first few months, I had a few 100
members, then within the first year, I had my
first 1000 members. And so basically within that
first year, by the end of that first year, at that
time, the membership was $25 a month, so then the
business was generating $25,000 a month in
recurring revenue.
It changed the game for me, because then it meant
I could hire support and not freak out that next
month I wasn't gonna make any money, because I
largely knew how much money was coming in. And
I knew that all that was happening was that was
increasing and increasing and increasing.
For example, like when I had my son Kasey in 2018.
If I'd have been relying on doing a big course
launch a year, I'd have been bloody screwed.
Because when I had him, I had no inspiration or
motivation to work. For those first eight months,
I was like, "Oh, gosh, I just can't bring myself
to do anything." I didn't want to post out. I just
didn't want to do anything. But I was able
to continue to grow the business because it was a
membership, and the membership could grow,
and it was growing, it was generating recurring
revenue. So even when we weren't launching, we
were still meant making that money.
I've got so many videos on memberships, I'll link
them all in the show notes. Because if you're
interested in starting a membership, or you have
one you want to grow it, then I got so much
information for you on how you can do that. And
I've got a free workshop as well, coming up, so
I'll put some info in the show notes for you if you
want to check that side of things out.
But yes, the membership for the recurring
revenue, the stability that it's created has
just been phenomenal. The best way, hands down, to
make money online, in my personal opinion.
The next thing that's been amazing, and that we
focus on now, is affiliate promotions.
I've got my audience that I'm building up a female
entrepreneurs. So they might want other things
that I could recommend, like tools, like where to
buy domain names from, or web hosting, or like
other platforms.
So for example, one of the recurring affiliate
commissions I get is from Teachable, which is a
course platform. So in the past, I've promoted
Teachable through an affiliate link, and then
I get a recurring commission for the people
that have bought Teachable through my
affiliate link.
The past couple of years, I've done an affiliate
promotion with Stu McLaren and promoted his
course called Tribe. That's been an amazing
way to generate some extra revenue. Last year
we promoted that. I sent a few emails out, I
created a free pop-up Facebook group. We ran a
few ads but not very much. And that was well
over a six figure affiliate launch for me,
which was amazing.
We do the promotion but then we don't have to
fulfil on the product, the affiliate partner
that we're working with, they then fulfil on the
promise of the course or the programme, because
we're selling that programme.
When you've got a really good match and you know
that course is amazing, if you've taken that
course and you think it's changed your life, or
you've worked with the person who's created the
course, and you just know that it's going to help
your audience so much, I think affiliate
promotions can be really powerful, when done
right.
So the next revenue stream that we have at
the moment is our planners and our
products. So Carrie & Co the shop. So every year,
we have an annual planner that we sell, and we have
notebooks, dream books, pens, all that stuff.
And that started as more of a passion project, the
planners have really taken off, and they sell
out. And they're amazing. And that has become a
substantial revenue stream, over six figures
a year. And that continues to grow and
grow. And I love doing that, I love the
experience that people have with a physical
product.
Now, I created the physical product once I
already had an established audience, and
I knew I could make it work. I also had the
physical products when I had the cash in the bank
to be able to do it through the business. I
wanted to create physical products even before I
started FEA. But doing that would have cost me
so much money in manufacturing. And if I
was doing that without an audience, it would have
been such a big risk, because then it'd be
like, "Well, can I even bloomin' sell this stuff?
Like who am I going to sell it to?"
So it just felt like it wasn't an easy way for me
to make money and to have the biggest impact. But
once I had an established audience, once I had
established income coming in, then it put me in a
much safer place to be able to launch physical
products. Because I had the audience, I had the
money to be able to create it.
So for example, the first ever run we did of the
planners, we ordered 600 planners. "What if no one
buys these? What if we don't sell out?" But I
could afford to take that risk, I could afford to
buy those planners. And if no one bloomin' bought
a planner, I could I could afford to make up
that loss.
I knew the likelihood was we would be able to sell
them. And we did sell them, we sold all of
them. So it worked out. But I was in a much
better position to be able to make that
decision, and commit to that business.
My brother James, he basically runs Carrie &.
Co, the physical store for me. There's so much
that goes into a physical, product based
business. And if that was on me to figure out on
top of everything else, I would not be doing it. So
I have help and support to build that product
based business up. And that has enabled me to
actually turn my ideas and dreams into a
reality, because I've got that support there.
It is a lot of effort and energy for the return.
Like again, if I was weighing up membership or
physical product, I'd take membership. When you
have something especially when it's digital, you
don't have the overhead costs that you have with
a physical product: manufacturing, packaging,
shipping, like those things are so expensive.
And it's just so much to figure out. Nevertheless,
I love doing it. I think it builds great brand
credibility, awareness, people absolutely love
the product. So it's good from that perspective.
And I love it.
Fourth thing is courses and digital templates. So
we've got a digital template pack where it's
got workbook templates, graphics templates,
social media templates, webinar slide templates,
like all that kind of thing, that you can go
and edit on Canva. Courses, they're a really
good revenue stream for us. And it doesn't
require tonnes and tonnes of work. Once I create
the course or we create the programme, then it's
just a case of like, how are we going to promote
this and sell it? And that might be sending two
emails, a couple of emails a month to promote
a course. So recently, we just promoted a little
mini course that we had, we sent a few emails, and
that was great, it was a great way to make money.
I've got a course I created on how I built my
membership site. And when I launched it, I launched
$197. And we had enrollment open for that
for about five days, I think. And I just popped
it out with a few emails. And I think we spent
about $3000 or $2,000 in ads. And we sold over 500
of those, which was amazing. And that goes to
show, One, the power of an email list and Two,
the power of creating digital products. That
was over $100,000 in five days, from like sending
out a few emails and spending $2000-$3,000 on
Facebook ads.
It's incredible what you can do with the power of
the internet. Like if you can build yourself an
email list of people who love what you're about,
and who are on your email list for the right
reasons, it's incredible what you can make happen,
and the income that you can bring in. So I
created it once and then it continues to make
money over and over and over again. So I've
really enjoyed that. And I enjoy the fact that I
have my membership, and my membership is my bread
and butter, but I have the courses, and I can
launch the courses when I want to launch the
courses, for a boost in revenue.
I love the fact I have a membership and I know
roughly what my income is going to be every month
of the year, because it's coming in already, it's
recurring revenue. So I'm not relying on having a
big course launch to know that that's where my
money is coming from, because that would freak
me out a bit. It would make me feel a bit
anxious.
We have them there and they are a great
injection of cash for the business.
And then the final way I've generated revenue is
through one on one support. And this is
something that I tested out at the end of last
year, which was I offered 10 people chance to get
like one on one Voxer support. So the app Voxer
is where you can send voice notes. So they
basically have access to send me voice notes, as
many voice notes as they want, Monday to Thursday,
and I'll reply within 24 hours. And I had jut 10
people initially. And it was just a bit of an
experiment, and it was amazing to do it, I've
loved it, I've loved the people that I've had.
As much as I have loved it, I don't have any
plans to open it back up anytime soon, because
it's kind of a lot of effort in terms of what
I'm putting in. For the return that I'm getting.
With a course or with the membership, I can scale
that, like let's take a course. I create a
course, I create it once, I can scale that to 1000s
and 1000s, and 1000s. But with me, when it's on me,
when it's relying on me, there's only so many
hours I have in the day.
So while I've really enjoyed that whole
experience, it's made me feel so much more
connected, and I've really enjoyed the
relationships I've built through the Voxer one on
one, but it requires so much more of me. And I
can't scale it. Like I cannot scale that.
So that is why I prefer my memberships, my
courses, over one on one work, because I just feel
like I can have more impact, I can serve more
people, I can help more people that way.
So those are the five main ways that I generate
revenue right now. If you have an existing
audience, an affiliate promotion might be a
really easy way for you to start making money
because you don't have to then physically create a
course or build a membership, or anything
like that. The person that you're working with
has created that.
If you have an existing audience, even like a few
100 people, or like 500 to 1000 people, then a
membership might be a good route to go down, or
creating a digital course, could be a good
route to go down too. I like memberships because
of the recurring revenue. But courses are also
great because you create them once, they're done
once, then you can keep selling them over and
over and over again. Whereas with a
membership, you're constantly creating for
it. So it's a bigger commitment. But it
doesn't have to be overwhelming, I might
add, and then the physical products, I love
them, but they are a lot more work, there are a
lot more effort. And they will take a lot more
time, there's a lot more overhead cost associated
with creating a physical product.
There are so many amazing ways to make money
online. And what I realised is that when you
have an audience of people that love what
your message is, what it's about what you're
here for, there's literally no end to how
much money you can make. I have made millions and
millions and millions from my ideas, which
honestly blows me away. And once you make some
shifts and some tweaks in your mindset, and you
make tweaks in looking strategically about like,
how am I going to build an audience, and then
what am I going to offer this audience that
they're going to find impactful, and that's
going to add lots of value to them?
And I think once you do that, and you focus on
that, there are no limits to what you can make
happen. Focus on growing, focus on figuring out how
to create growth. Like for me, I knew that
building an audience and getting in front of
people who were going to love what I was about and
showing up and figuring out what that offer was
and how we're going to get the offer in front of
those people, like if I could figure that out, I
knew I could make it work. And I knew I could
make a lot of money. So if you focus on that, and
you keep expanding your skill set and working on
learning new skills and developing and practising
and practising and practising, you'll be
able to create really powerful revenue streams.
And I think the other thing that I would say is
that since 2013, when I launched the membership
til today - so like seven years of building this
membership site - my entire focus has been how
do I grow the membership?
The last couple of years, we've introduced these
other little bits, but it's mostly been like
just focusing on the membership. I had to stay
laser focused on how I was going to increase the
revenue, create growth, focused on one pathway,
so that I could have a breakthrough with one
revenue stream.
And that's why I focused on the membership, and
then had the breakthroughs with the
membership, and got it to that point where I was
generating, you know, six figures a month, multiple
six figures a month. And then I'm like, I have the
capacity now to be able to look at other things.
You want to find a way to break through into six
figures, and then into seven figures, and then
into multiple seven figures and then upwards.
And so it's like, you can't do that if you're
hopping all over the place, offering a bloody
million different products and services.
Like it's just so confusing and
overwhelming and your focus is so dispersed,
it's really hard to build momentum and to create
that breakthrough.
So that is what I would say: choose your revenue
streams wisely. But also know that if you are at
the beginning of your journey, there is going
to be an element of of experimenting and testing
and playing around before you maybe figure out,
"Okay, this is why I actually want to focus
on." But go with what feels good, what feels
easy, what feels like you're building momentum.
If something feels like it's bloody hard work, or
you're trying to get blood out of a stone,
just don't bother. There are easier ways to make
money. So you have to really pay attention to
yourself and how you feel and how it feels really
how it feels for you. And let that guide your
decision making too.
It's all experimenting, playing and taking
action, and then looking at like what's an easy
way for you to build really great revenue
streams.
You have the opportunities and the
ability to make millions online. I have absolutely
no doubt about it. It's just literally sitting
down and doing the things that I've shared and, you
know, building your audience and
experimenting and just doing it. Taking action
and doing it. If you've got any questions for me
and you want me to answer more stuff than email us
in, or leave a comment, and I'll look at keep a
lookout for them.
And message me on Instagram.
@iamcarriegreen or @femaleentrepreneurassociation,
and message us if you've got a question, if you
want me to answer a question in one of these
episodes, or you've got more follow up questions
on my revenue streams, I am happy to open up and
share this stuff with you, because I know how
helpful it can be when you see behind the scenes
of what other people are doing.
I really hope you've enjoyed this episode. I
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