MEET CARLA ASTON

Many of you who will see this post already know - or know of - interior designer and blogger extraordinaire, Carla Aston, a long time real life friend of mine.

But if you don’t know her, Carla is a long time and well respected interior designer who also pens a widely read blog that reaches thousands of design aficionados every week.

Over the many years Carla has been providing full service interior design to her clients, she has also slowly built her consumer focused blog. Consumers read Carla’s blog religiously due to the solutions she shares to their common design issues as well as for the other valuable free tips she gives her readers.

This substantial readership [ or traffic in digital marketing terminology ] has now enabled her to monetize her blog through various methods, giving her the ability to now provide for herself and her family, while only taking on the full service interior design clients that are the right fit for her lifestyle, now.

I recently asked Carla if she would join me as my first guest for a new Q& A series I’m running for members of my Facebook Group for interior designers, https://facebook.com/groups/designwealth called Meet The Members.

Joining in for the live Zoom to ask my guests their questions is an exclusive opportunity for members of my Facebook Group and it happens every Saturday [ except holidays ] beginning at 9:30 am CT.

If you’re an interior designer reading this post, and not a member of my Facebook Group already, I invite you to send me a Request To Join.

In today’s post, I’m sharing top takeaways from Carla’s answers to those members of my Group who joined us live for the first Meet The Members.

Top Takeaway #1: The 6 Ways You Can Monetize Your Blog

Carla has been blogging for many years and only started getting serious about monetizing her blog in the last 5 years or so. She monetizes her blog through the following methods:

1 / One Time Quick Email Consultations. She offers quick and fast Designed In A Click consultations to one time design clients who interact with her via email. The content she shares on her blog helps her to attract those one time clients. She gets so many requests for them that she turns that booking option on and off, depending on how busy she is at any one time.

2/ Downloadable e-books. Carla has written a series of downloadable e-books which cover a wide range of topics of interest to design aficionados who are looking for DIY advice as well as e-books which are of value to her fellow designers.

She pays close attention to her analytics on her blog and her INSIGHTS on Instagram, which helps her determine which topics are of most interest to her readers & followers, and then she creates an ebook around that topic and includes links to it in her blog.

3/Private ads from brands. She currently only has one, but Carla’s blog is widely seen by consumers who love design, and she accepts private paid ads from individual companies whose aesthetic is aligned with her own.

4/ Affiliate product marketing. Carla sells products as part of the Reward Style affiliate marketing network. Affiliate marketing is where you offer your readers a design related product from the vendors that Reward Style represents and if your blog’s reader buys it, you receive a commission, generally between 5-10%, on the sale of that item.

[ MY NOTE: Affiliate product marketing requires a substantial amount of consumer traffic to be successful and does require monthly maintenance. ]

5 /Programmatic ads. By far and away, Carla said that programmatic ads have been her top money maker. They only require someone to look at her content, vs. having to buy anything. They allow her to make money 24/7. She wakes up every morning with money from them in her bank account.

Carla said was very reluctant for years to join an ad network and turn them on but has found her readers accept them and that it hasn’t impacted her ability to attract new full service design clients.

Programmatic ads are the ads on the sidebar of her blog and that are interwoven into her blog’s content. She belongs to the Ad Thrive ad network, and also mentioned MediaVine as another top ad network.

[ MY NOTE: As of June 2022, joining AdThrive requires 100,000 monthly pageviews per Google Analytics. Joining MediaVine requires 50,000 sessions in the previous 30 days per Google Analytics. ]

The difference between sessions and pageviews:

Sessions represent a single visit to your website. Whether a User lands on one of your web pages and leaves a few seconds later, or spends an hour reading every blog post on your site, it still counts as a single Session. If that User leaves and then comes back later, it wouldn’t count as a new User (see above), but it would count as a new Session.

Pageviews represent each individual time a page on your website is loaded by a User. A single Session can include many Pageviews, if a User navigates to any other web pages on your website without leaving.

6/ Sponsored content. Although this didn’t come up in our conversation, Carla has also accepted sponsored content on her blog before, where a brand whose aesthetic and values matched those of her readers and her own, paid her to be featured on her blog.

Top Takeaway #2: How To Get More Traffic To Your Website or Blog

1/ Improved SEO. Carla has been blogging a long time. She shared that improving her search engine optimization was the #1 way, currently, that she has been able to increase the free consumer traffic that Google is sending to her blog.

Google is the #1 referrer of traffic to her blog. She does not use paid Google ads.

2/ Instagram Reels. Carla is currently getting substantial traffic, engagement and email sign ups from going *all in” with Instagram Reels. She has found a way to engage her audience with content that they enjoy, respond to..and importantly…share into their own Stories with their friends.

For Carla, Instagram Reels has replaced Pinterest as the place she is investing most of her time as she believes that Google will eventually stop sending her blog as much traffic as they are now and she wants to be well positioned on Instagram to take advantage of the Creator monetization tools that Instagram is building.

She also mentioned she loves TikTok and is playing around a bit there, but it is not yet a major driver of traffic to her blog. However, she believes it could be in the future, as it is now for another designer, Sarah Robertson of @studiodearborn.

3/ Pinterest. Pinterest is still generating some traffic for Carla, especially from some of her older pins, but not nearly as much as it used to in the past due to the fact that Pinterest is now selling product and isn’t interested in sending people off of its site as much as it was before.

Carla also stressed that Pinterest traffic is bouncy, meaning that people come to your site for a quick bite of information and then bounce off, of it quickly. For someone running programmatic ads like Carla is doing, bouncy traffic is not ideal as the longer people stay on her site, the more money her site generates from the eyeballs on her programmatic ads.

[ My Note: For those still looking to build site traffic in order to be accepted into a programmatic ad network, Pinterest [after optimizing for SEO] is still my own #1 recommendation, but with the use of paid Pinterest ads.

These ads will supercharge your site traffic, both sessions and pageviews. It is true that that site traffic might not stick around, but it will get you the numbers you need to be accepted onto a programmatic ad network, if done consistently over time.

4/ Email list building. Building your own email list is still very important, but Carla is not seeing as much traffic to her blog from her substantial email list as she was, previously, due to all the filters Google is now offering to people.

We discussed that having quizzes + mini free download magazines with valuable content were two ways to increase email sign ups. We discussed how important it was to include calls to action in your social media efforts, especially within Instagram Stories and Instagram Reels to encourage email sign ups.

[MY NOTE] Try Interact is the site I use for the quiz builder I used for my color quiz on Design Happy Living, my lifestyle blog.]

[ MY NOTE: If all of the social sites were to go out of business, including Google, or to get hacked, or completely stop sending their traffic off of their sites, then your own email list would be all you would have to reach people. Don’t stop building your email list, even if it isn’t what’s generating the most traffic for you at the moment. ]

Top Takeaway #3: Watch Your Analytics To Find Out What Your Audience Likes To See And Deliver More Of That To Them.

Carla stressed the importance of watching your analytics to find out what your audience is responding to so you can serve them more of the content they most enjoy.

Watch your Google Analytics carefully. Find out your top referring sites. Look to see what blog post content is driving the most traffic to your blog. An excellent post that shows you how to find your referral traffic in Google Analytics is listed at the end of this post. Don’t miss it.

Also, watch your Instagram Insights to maximize delivering the content your audience is responding to the most on that platform. If you don’t have Instagram INSIGHTS yet , switch your Instagram profile to Business or Creator. If you’re not sure of the differences between a Business Profile and a Creator profile, see the post at the end of this blog to learn.

Let this real time data inform your content strategy if you want to get more readers that become devoted to reading your blog and interacting with you on Instagram.

Top Takeaway #4: Be Looking At Every Opportunity You Have [ That Takes Your Time] Through The Lens of “Will My Blog’s Readers Like This Content?”

There isn’t a quick way to monetize a blog, it takes time, consistency and effort. Carla emphasized the importance of looking at every opportunity you might have to travel, to be a part of an activation event, etc. through the lens of:

”Will this opportunity/event give me content my blog’s readers will enjoy?” and “How can I plan ahead so that this opportunity gives me as much content as possible to layer into not only my blog, but into my other social channels and outbound communications ?”

[ MY NOTE: Remember, Carla’s blog is now a major source of income for her, and her filter for opportunities she accepts will be different than yours if you’re still doing mostly full service design work and only blogging sporadically.

Top Takeaway #5: Be Flexible With Respect To Changing Market Dynamics aka Don’t Put All Your Eggs In One Basket

Carla stressed that she is not putting ALL of her eggs in her blogging basket. She sees the writing on the wall - as do I.

Outside sites are not interested in driving traffic to your site for free anymore. They want you to advertise with them. This includes Google. If you can afford to advertise, you will always get traffic to your site, but it might not be the kind of traffic that will stick and become a devoted subscriber/reader, which is what you want, if you want to continue to monetize.

For instance: as mentioned above, Pinterest was the #2 driver of traffic to Carla’s blog for many years. But now, with Pinterest selling products themselves, the amount of organic [ non paid ] traffic that is being sent to her blog is nothing compared to what it used to be.

So, Carla has switched her tactics to focus now on Instagram Reels, which is currently giving much more non paid algorithmic reach to original content creators, in order to compete with Tik Tok.

Carla is now building up her base on Instagram, in order to monetize her Instagram feed since Instagram is making that option available to some of their creators right now, and will eventually be rolling it out to everyone.

Carla foresees the day when it might be her Instagram feed that makes her the most money, vs. her blog, and is preparing for that.

Carla shared many other invaluable tips, as well, but these were my own 5 top takeaways. I hope you will now subscribe to her excellent blog over on https://carlaaston.com/designed and follow her on Instagram at https://instagram.com/carlaaston

If you’re a member of my Facebook Group who joined us for this live, and you’re reading this post, please add in your own top takeaways in the comments on this post.

And Carla, thank you for an invaluable conversation for everyone in my Facebook Group that heard it. I appreciated your time so much and look forward to spending a few days with you up at Lightovation/Dallas Market the week of June 23rd.

And if you find this post months or years after this conversation with Carla took place, through a Google search [since blog posts live online forever], I invite you, too, over to read Carla’s wonderful blog and to subscribe to it, by clicking this link:

https://carlaaston.com/designed

I would be remiss if I didn’t invite you to subscribe to this blog, too, where next week you’ll be able to read my top takeaways from yesterday’s Meet The Members guest, Veronika Eagleson, CEO of Design Hounds and Modenus Media.

When you subscribe, you will automatically be prompted to download my , *10 Top Tips For Driving Traffic To Your Website* which will augment what you’re reading in this post.

Here’s the link to subscribe:

https://bit.ly/SPblogsubscribe

And again, if you’re a full time professional working interior designer reading this post, i invite you to Request To Join my Facebook Group, Design Wealth here: https://facebook.com/groups/designwealth.

Be a part of the interesting and educational conversations that take place every day with your peers and join us, live on Zoom, for Meet The Members ,every Saturday, beginning at 9:30 am CT.

Now scroll down to see the other blog posts I promised you, and to see a few of my favorites from Carla’s blog, too.

BLOG POSTS YOU WILL FIND HELPFUL

How To Find Who Links To Your Site In Google Analytics:
https://www.monsterinsights.com/how-to-find-who-links-to-your-site-in-google-analytics/

The Differences Between Business Accounts and Creator Accounts On Instagram - Which One Is Right For You
https://vamp-brands.com/blog/2021/01/22/instagram-creator-vs-business-account-which-is-right-for-you/

This Free Rug Shopping Tool Will Blow Your Mind
https://carlaaston.com/designed/free-rug-shopping-tool-will-blow-your-mind

3 Wall Decorating Challenges Answered
https://carlaaston.com/designed/3-wall-decorating-challenges-questions-from-instagram-q-and-a

[ MY LAST, BONUS, NOTE: Of all of these posts, which one would you be most likely to click on if you were a consumer, which is Carla’s audience? Think about AUDIENCE carefully re: the content of your blog posts.

My audience on this blog is primarily interior designers and people within the home decor and furniture industries, although it will be able to found on Google forever, meaning consumers can find it, too. My audience on my lifestyle blog, Design Happy Living, is primarily consumers who love color.

But Carla’s audience FOR HER BLOG is primarily consumers - design aficionados and DIY’ers and those interested in hiring her for her Designed In A Click design services, although she’s also found full service design clients via her blog.

Writing for your intended audience, while realizing that any audience can find your posts years later, is a key consideration when creating your content ].

Thank you if you’ve read all the way to the end of this post…I appreciate your attention!

I invite you to follow me on Instagram over on https://instagram.com/lesliemcarothers and if you’re interested in working with me professionally, please connect with me via the contact form on my website. I’d love to hear from you.

In Gratitude ~

Leslie Carothers
CEO, Savour Partnership

Named by Home Furnishings Business Magazine As One Of The Top 40 Most Inspiring Women In Home

Celebrating 20 years in business in 2022