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  • Teachable Review: Still the Course Platform to Beat?
    Business, Business, blogging & Money

    Teachable Review: Still the Course Platform to Beat?

    This post may contain affiliate links, meaning if you decide to make a purchase via my links, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. See my disclosure for more info.

    TL;DR: Teachable is still one of the strongest platforms for people whose business is courses. The course player, graded quizzes, and certificates outclass most simpler rivals, and higher plans drop transaction fees to zero. But the entry plan double-dips ($39/month plus a 7.5% fee), there is no free tier anymore, and email marketing is barely there. If structured courses at scale are your plan, Teachable’s free trial is worth your week; casual creators should look at friendlier options first.

    What is Teachable?

    Teachable is one of the original hosted course platforms, and after all these years it still carries that identity: it is a school builder more than a storefront. You create courses with sections and lectures, students get a clean learning environment with progress tracking, and you get the machinery around it — checkout, quizzes, completion certificates, student management.

    It has broadened over time. Coaching products and digital downloads are options now, and I have written before about creative ways to use Teachable beyond hosting courses. But make no mistake about the center of gravity: this platform is optimized for people teaching structured material to enrolled students.

    This teachable review is written for the person deciding whether that focus is a feature or a limitation. It is genuinely both, depending on your business.

    Teachable pricing in 2026

    These prices come straight from Teachable’s pricing page at the time of writing. Annual billing runs about 22% cheaper; monthly prices shown first.

    Plan Monthly Annual (per month) Transaction fee Limits
    Starter $39 $29 7.5% 5 products, 1 admin, 100 active students
    Builder $89 $69 0% via teachable:pay 10 products, 1 admin, 1,000 active students
    Growth $189 $139 0% via teachable:pay 50 products, 5 admins, 5,000 active students
    Advanced $399 $309 0% via teachable:pay 100 products, 5 admins, 10,000 active students

    There is a 7-day free trial and a 30-day guarantee. Standard card processing (2.9% + 30 cents for US cards, more for international) applies on top, and the 0% platform fee assumes you process payments through teachable:pay.

    Read that Starter row twice. Thirty-nine dollars a month and 7.5% of every sale is a real cost for a beginner — sell $1,000 of courses and you have paid over $110 that month before card fees. Builder is where the economics start making sense.

    If you do commit, annual billing is the sensible default. The discount brings Builder down to $69/month, and a year is a realistic horizon for a course business anyway — nobody builds a profitable school in six weeks, and switching platforms mid-launch is misery you can avoid by deciding properly once.

    What Teachable does well

    The learning experience. The course player is polished and familiar to students, progress tracking works, and graded quizzes plus completion certificates are built in. If your course needs to feel like a course — not a folder of videos — this is what you are paying for.

    Room to grow. The plan ladder up to 10,000 active students, multiple admin seats on higher tiers, and pricing tools like payment plans mean you will not outgrow the platform quickly. Larger course businesses stay on Teachable for a reason.

    Zero platform fees where it counts. From Builder up, Teachable takes nothing per sale when you use its payment system. For a business doing steady volume, that beats percentage-based pricing by a wide margin.

    Selling machinery. Order bumps, coupons, and the option to run your own affiliate program for your courses give you real levers once you are past your first launch. Combined with the assessment features, Teachable covers the full serious-course-business checklist better than most.

    Where Teachable falls short (and who shouldn’t buy it)

    • No free plan. The old free tier is gone; the 7-day trial is short for evaluating something this central to your business. Plan your trial week before starting it.
    • The Starter squeeze. $39/month plus 7.5% per sale plus a 100-student cap makes the entry plan hard to recommend for anyone who expects actual sales.
    • Email marketing is minimal. You can send basic emails to students, but list-building, sequences, and automation need a dedicated tool — my ultimate guide to email marketing covers what to pair with it. Budget for that second subscription.
    • One admin seat until Growth. If you work with a VA or co-creator, you hit this wall at $189/month (or $139 annually).
    • It is course-shaped. Downloads, communities, and mixed product catalogs feel bolted on. Creators selling a bit of everything usually find all-in-one platforms more comfortable.

    Skip Teachable if you are testing your very first $29 product, if community is your core offer, or if you want website, email, and products under one roof. It rewards commitment, not experiments.

    My verdict: still the one to beat — for one kind of creator

    Is Teachable still the course platform to beat? For structured, scaling course businesses: yes. Nothing in the simpler all-in-one category matches its learning experience, assessments, and student capacity. For everyone else, the answer has genuinely changed over the years — beginners and mixed-product creators now have friendlier, cheaper homes.

    If you recognize yourself in the first group, do it properly: start the Teachable trial, build one complete module with a quiz and certificate, and test-run checkout in the same week. Seven days is enough if you arrive prepared.

    FAQ

    Is Teachable worth it in 2026?

    For course-first businesses that will use the quizzes, certificates, and student capacity, yes — especially from the Builder plan up, where transaction fees drop to zero. For casual or mixed-product sellers, the entry costs outweigh the benefits.

    Does Teachable have a free plan?

    Not anymore at the time of writing. Plans start at $39/month (or $29/month billed annually), with a 7-day free trial and a 30-day guarantee instead of a permanent free tier.

    What are Teachable’s transaction fees?

    The Starter plan charges 7.5% per sale. Builder, Growth, and Advanced charge 0% when payments run through teachable:pay. Card processing fees — roughly 2.9% + 30 cents for US cards — apply on every plan.

    Can you sell more than courses on Teachable?

    Yes: coaching products and digital downloads are supported, and each counts toward your plan’s product limit. The tools are functional, but platforms built around mixed catalogs handle non-course products more gracefully.

    Is Teachable good for beginners?

    It is easy enough to learn, but the pricing punishes small scale — the 7.5% Starter fee and 100-student cap bite exactly when you are starting. Beginners with a serious course plan should consider jumping straight to Builder on annual billing.

    If your ambition is a real course business — enrolled students, graded progress, certificates, growing cohorts — Teachable remains the benchmark the others get measured against. Head over to Teachable and start your free trial with one module ready to upload, and you will know by Friday whether it is your platform.

  • Podia vs Teachable: Which Course Platform in 2026?
    Business, Business, blogging & Money

    Podia vs Teachable: Which Course Platform in 2026?

    This post may contain affiliate links, meaning if you decide to make a purchase via my links, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. See my disclosure for more info.

    TL;DR: In the podia vs teachable question, the honest answer depends on what you sell. Choose Podia if you are a solo creator selling a mix of courses, downloads, coaching, or webinars and want your storefront, checkout, community spaces, and email in one simple dashboard — Podia’s 30-day free trial gives you a full month to test that. Choose Teachable if courses are the core of your business and you want the stronger course player with graded quizzes and certificates. Neither is bad; they are built for different creators.

    The two platforms in one minute

    Podia is an all-in-one selling platform. Courses, digital downloads, coaching, webinars, community spaces, a website builder, and built-in email marketing live under one roof. Its whole personality is “keep it simple” — fewer settings, calmer interface, faster from idea to checkout page.

    Teachable is a course platform first. It has been one of the biggest names in online courses for years, and it shows in the learning experience: a polished course player, quizzes, certificates, and tools designed for structured curriculum. You can sell coaching and downloads there too, but courses are clearly the main act — you can start with Teachable’s free trial to see that focus for yourself.

    Podia vs Teachable: comparison table

    Prices below are what I verified on both pricing pages at the time of writing (July 2026). Both companies adjust pricing now and then, so double-check before buying.

    Podia Teachable
    Entry price Mover, $42/month Starter, $39/month (or $29/month billed annually)
    Mid-tier price Shaker, $84/month Builder, $89/month (or $69/month billed annually)
    Transaction fees 5% on Mover, 0% from Shaker up 7.5% on Starter, 0% on higher plans via teachable:pay
    Free trial 30 days, no card 7 days, plus a 30-day guarantee
    Product types Courses, downloads, coaching, webinars, bundles Courses, coaching, digital downloads
    Email marketing Built in (subscriber allowance per plan) Minimal — you will need a separate email tool
    Quizzes and certificates Basic quizzes Graded quizzes, certificates, stronger course player
    Best for Solo creators selling a product mix Course-first businesses that plan to scale

    Pricing and fees: which one actually costs less?

    On paper Teachable’s Starter plan is the cheapest way in, especially billed annually. But entry plans are where both platforms hide their compromises: Teachable Starter takes a 7.5% cut of every sale and caps you at 5 products and 100 active students, while Podia’s Mover takes 5% and limits your included email list to 100 subscribers.

    The real comparison happens at mid-tier, where the transaction fees drop to zero: Podia Shaker at $84/month versus Teachable Builder at $89/month (or $69 annually). At that level Podia includes its email tool and more product flexibility, while Teachable includes room for 1,000 active students and its stronger course machinery.

    My rule of thumb: if you will use the built-in email, Podia’s mid-tier is the better deal because it replaces a second subscription. If you already pay for a proper email platform anyway, the gap narrows to almost nothing.

    Course experience: Teachable is still ahead

    If your students expect a school, Teachable feels more like one. The course player is polished, quizzes can be graded, and certificates of completion are built in. For structured programs — cohorts, curriculums, anything where progress and proof matter — this is Teachable’s home turf.

    Podia’s courses look clean and are easy to build, but assessments are basic. There is no serious grading machinery, and if certificates or compliance-style features are on your requirements list, Podia will feel thin. Plenty of creators never need any of that; be honest about whether you do.

    Beyond courses: Podia wins almost everything else

    This is where the two philosophies split. Podia treats downloads, coaching, webinars, bundles, and community spaces as first-class products, and its built-in email means a beginner can run their entire business — content, list, sales — from one login. If email strategy is new to you, my ultimate guide to email marketing explains what you will actually need from whichever tool you pick.

    Teachable can sell coaching and downloads, but they feel like extras around the course core, and its email features are too limited to replace a real email platform. Most Teachable creators end up paying for a separate email service on day one — which is fine, just budget for it.

    Worth knowing: if what you really want is courses plus funnels plus email in one modern system, there is a third road. I wrote about a ConvertKit, ClickFunnels and Teachable alternative that bundles those jobs for less.

    Ease of use: how much software do you want to manage?

    Podia is the calmer tool. Fewer menus, fewer decisions, and a storefront you can genuinely set up in an afternoon. The trade-off is fewer knobs to turn later.

    Teachable gives you more control — over pricing structures, course behavior, student management — and correspondingly more settings to understand. It is not hard, but it is more. If tech friction is what has kept you from launching, that difference is not trivial.

    Verdict: who should pick what

    • First-time creator with a small audience: Podia. The 30-day trial, one-dashboard setup, and included email make it the gentlest serious option.
    • Course-first business that will scale: Teachable. The course player, graded quizzes, certificates, and student capacity are built for exactly this — take Teachable for a spin if that is your road.
    • Selling a mix — downloads, coaching, a course, a community: Podia, without much hesitation.
    • Already paying for a good email tool and wanting maximum course features per dollar: Teachable on annual billing.

    If I had to hand one platform to a blogger launching a first digital product this year, it would be Podia — not because it does the most, but because it removes the most reasons to procrastinate.

    FAQ

    Is Podia cheaper than Teachable?

    At entry level Teachable is slightly cheaper ($39/month, or $29 billed annually, versus Podia’s $42), but it charges a 7.5% transaction fee there against Podia’s 5%. At mid-tier they nearly match ($84 versus $89 monthly), where Podia’s built-in email can make it the better total deal.

    Which platform is better for beginners?

    Podia. The interface is simpler, the 30-day trial is four times longer than Teachable’s, and having website, checkout, and email in one place means fewer tools to learn before your first sale.

    Does Teachable have transaction fees?

    Yes, on the Starter plan: 7.5% per sale at the time of writing. Higher plans drop to 0% when you process payments through teachable:pay. Standard card processing fees apply on every plan, on both platforms.

    Can I switch from Teachable to Podia later?

    Yes, creators move in both directions. You re-upload content, rebuild sales pages, and redirect your links; the tedious part is moving students and existing customers, so it is worth choosing carefully now rather than migrating mid-growth.

    Do Podia and Teachable offer free trials?

    Both do. Podia gives 30 days with every feature and no credit card. Teachable offers a 7-day trial plus a 30-day guarantee. Trying both in the same week is a perfectly reasonable way to decide.

    Bottom line: Teachable builds better classrooms, Podia builds a simpler business. If an all-in-one setup is what gets your first product live, start your free 30-day Podia trial and put a real product in it this month — the platform question answers itself once something is actually for sale.

  • How to Choose a Blog Niche That Actually Makes Money
    Blogging, Business, blogging & Money

    How to Choose a Blog Niche That Actually Makes Money

    This post may contain affiliate links, meaning if you decide to make a purchase via my links, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. See my disclosure for more info.

    Most blogs that never earn a cent share the same root problem, and it is not bad writing. It is a niche that was never going to pay, no matter how much effort went in. Pick the right blog niche and average writing can still build an income. Pick the wrong one and even brilliant posts sit in a room where nobody spends money.

    In this guide I will walk you through the exact questions I use to judge a niche, how to check whether real money flows through it, and which niches keep earning in 2026. It is the thinking to do before you buy anything — although once you are ready to commit, hosting is the one purchase you cannot skip, and SiteGround’s starter plan at $2.99/month keeps that first step cheap.

    Fair warning: this is a decision worth slowing down for. An afternoon of honest validation now saves you a year of publishing into the void.

    Why your niche matters more than your writing

    A blog earns when three things line up: people search for the topic, some of those people spend money on it, and you can reach them before the giant sites do. Your niche determines all three ceilings on day one.

    Writing quality decides whether you reach your ceiling. The niche decides how high the ceiling is. That is why “just write about what you love” is incomplete advice — passion keeps you publishing, but it does not make readers pull out a credit card.

    The three questions that define a profitable blog niche

    Run every idea through these three filters. An idea needs a genuine yes on all three.

    1. Can you produce 100 posts on this without hating it?

    Blogs compound slowly. Realistically you will write for one to two years before the income feels meaningful, so mild interest is not enough fuel. You do not need to be the world’s expert — you need to be a few steps ahead of your reader and still curious.

    2. Do people actively search for it?

    Type your topic ideas into Google and watch the autocomplete suggestions. Check whether magazines, YouTube channels, and forums exist around it. No search demand means no traffic, and a blog without traffic is a diary.

    3. Does money already change hands?

    This is the filter most beginners skip. Look for products to recommend, affiliate programs, courses, and ads running on competing sites. Existing money is a good sign, not a bad one — it proves buyers exist. A niche with zero products is a hobby community, and hobby communities read for free.

    How to validate demand before you commit

    An hour of research tells you most of what you need. Here is the short version of my process.

    • Search your ten best topic ideas and study page one. Small blogs ranking there is a green flag; only giant publications means the front door is crowded.
    • Check for affiliate programs: search “[topic] affiliate program”. A healthy niche has several paying 5-50% commissions.
    • Look at what competitors sell. Ebooks, courses, printables, and sponsored posts on their sites all confirm readers who spend.
    • Scan communities on Reddit or Facebook. Repeated questions are future blog posts; complaints about products are future reviews.

    If a niche passes all four checks, you are not gambling anymore. You are entering a market that is already paying other writers.

    The four ways blogs make money — and what each needs from your niche

    Affiliate income works when your niche involves tools, products, or services you can honestly recommend. This is where most bloggers earn their first real money, and it is the model I would learn properly instead of guessing at. Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing — the $197 course by Michelle Schroeder-Gardner, who built her affiliate income past $50k a month — is the course I took myself, and it shaped how I think about honest recommendations.

    Display ads need volume. Tens of thousands of monthly visitors before the income matters, so ad-dependent niches (recipes, general lifestyle) are a long game.

    Digital products suit niches where readers want outcomes: templates, planners, mini-courses. Margins are wonderful, but you need an audience that trusts you first — usually via an email list, which I cover step by step in my ultimate guide to email marketing.

    Services monetize fastest. A blog about bookkeeping for freelancers can land clients with 20 visitors a day. If you want income soon rather than someday, weight your choice toward niches where you could also sell your skills.

    Blog niches that keep making money in 2026

    Some evergreen examples, each with a reason they pay:

    • Personal finance for a specific group — money for nurses, for expats, for freelancers. High-paying affiliate programs and endless search demand.
    • Software and creator tools — reviews and tutorials for the apps people already pay for. Recurring affiliate commissions are common here.
    • Specific hobbies with gear — photography, home coffee, camping. Buyers research obsessively before purchasing.
    • Career and side-income niches — remote work, freelancing, blogging itself. Courses and tools to recommend at every step.
    • Travel with a sharp angle — not “travel”, but van life with pets or budget trips for families. Booking platforms and gear pay commissions.

    Be careful with broad lifestyle blogs, general recipe sites, and “inspiration” niches. They can work, but they usually monetize late and lean on ad volume you will not have for years. Health topics can pay well but are held to brutal trust standards by search engines — only go there with real credentials.

    Niche down until it feels slightly too specific

    “Fitness” is an ocean. “Strength training for women over 40” is a niche. The specific version feels limiting, but it is easier to rank for, easier to write for, and far easier to monetize because the reader is one recognizable person with one set of problems.

    You can always widen later. Plenty of big blogs started as one narrow topic, won that corner, then expanded. Starting wide and narrowing later is much harder, because nothing on the site connects.

    Decided? Here is how to commit

    Pick the niche that passed the three questions, register a domain that will not embarrass you at a dinner party, and set up hosting. I recommend SiteGround, where plans start at $2.99/month (heads up: that is the promo price — renewals run higher, currently from $17.99/month, which is normal for the industry but worth knowing upfront). There is a 30-day money-back guarantee if you change your mind.

    Then write your first ten posts before you judge anything. Ten posts teach you whether the niche fits, what readers respond to, and whether question one — can you keep going? — was answered honestly. For everything that comes after, from setup to content strategy, my ultimate guide to blogging picks up where this post ends. And if affiliate income is your goal, grab my free Affiliate Marketing Tips For Bloggers ebook while you build.

    FAQ

    What is a blog niche?

    A blog niche is the specific topic and audience your blog serves — not just “food” but, say, meal prep for busy parents. It defines what you write, who reads it, and which products you can recommend or sell.

    Which blog niches make the most money?

    Personal finance, software and business tools, career and side-income topics, and gear-heavy hobbies consistently pay best, because they combine search demand with strong affiliate programs and products people already budget for.

    How do I know if my blog niche is profitable?

    Check three signals: real search demand (autocomplete, existing sites), affiliate programs paying commissions in the niche, and competitors visibly selling products or running ads. All three present means money already flows through the niche.

    Can I change my blog niche later?

    Yes, and many bloggers do — but it costs momentum, and sometimes rankings. It is far cheaper to spend an afternoon validating now than to rebrand a year in. If you do pivot, narrow beats broad almost every time.

    How specific should a blog niche be?

    Specific enough that you can describe your ideal reader in one sentence. If your topic feels slightly too narrow, it is probably right. You can broaden once you have won your first corner of the market.

    A profitable blog starts with a niche where interest, search demand, and spending overlap — validate that first, and the writing has somewhere to go. When you are ready to make it real, set up your blog on SiteGround from $2.99/month and publish those first ten posts. That is the whole first milestone.

  • Podia Review: The Friendliest Way to Sell Courses & Downloads
    Business, Business, blogging & Money

    Podia Review: The Friendliest Way to Sell Courses & Downloads

    This post may contain affiliate links, meaning if you decide to make a purchase via my links, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. See my disclosure for more info.

    TL;DR: Podia is the friendliest all-in-one platform I know for selling online courses, digital downloads, coaching, and webinars. You get your website, checkout, product hosting, and basic email marketing in one dashboard, and the learning curve is gentle enough to launch your first product in a weekend. It is not the right pick if you need advanced quizzes, deep analytics, or a big email list on a small budget — but if you want simple, Podia’s 30-day free trial makes it an easy platform to test properly.

    What is Podia?

    Podia is an all-in-one selling platform for digital creators. Instead of duct-taping together a course tool, a shopping cart, a website builder, and an email service, you run everything from one place: online courses, digital downloads, coaching, webinars, and email.

    That is the entire pitch, really. You pick a plan, build a simple storefront, upload your product, and Podia handles checkout, delivery, receipts, and customer accounts. There is no plugin stack to maintain and nothing to update on a Sunday night when you would rather be doing anything else.

    I mostly recommend Podia to bloggers and creators launching their first paid product. If you already have an audience — even a small one — the distance between “I have an idea” and “there is a working checkout page” is shorter here than on most platforms I have tried.

    One thing to understand before we get into this podia review properly: Podia trades power for calm. Almost every limitation I list below is the flip side of a deliberate choice to keep the tool simple. Whether that trade is worth it depends entirely on what kind of business you are running.

    Podia pricing in 2026

    Podia offers three plans and a 30-day free trial with no credit card required. These are the monthly prices I verified on Podia’s pricing page at the time of writing — check their site for current numbers before you decide.

    Plan Price Transaction fee What you get
    Mover $42/month 5% 50 products, 500 videos, email for up to 100 subscribers
    Shaker $84/month 0% 150 products, 1,000 videos, email for up to 500 subscribers, affiliate program, upsells, PayPal, Zapier
    Earthquaker $150/month 0% Unlimited products and videos, email for up to 1,000 subscribers, unlimited team assistants

    Two details deserve your attention before you pick. First, the 5% transaction fee on Mover: if you expect steady sales, Shaker often pays for itself simply because that fee disappears. Second, the email allowances are small. Every plan includes Podia’s email tool up to a set number of subscribers, and bigger lists cost extra — budget for that if you plan to grow your list inside Podia.

    Standard payment processing (around 2.9% + 30 cents through Stripe or PayPal) applies on top of everything, as it does on every platform in this category.

    My take on plan choice: start on Mover during a quiet season or the trial, but move to Shaker as soon as sales become regular. The 0% transaction fee plus the affiliate and upsell features are where Podia starts earning its monthly price back.

    What Podia does well

    Everything lives in one place. Your storefront, products, checkout, customer accounts, and email broadcasts share one dashboard. For a solo creator, that is the difference between running a business and running a small IT department.

    It is genuinely easy. Podia’s editor feels closer to filling in a form than building software. Uploading a course, setting a price, and connecting a payment processor is a same-afternoon job, not a weekend project. Support is friendly and human, which matters more than people admit when a checkout question shows up mid-launch.

    You can sell more than courses. Downloads, coaching sessions, webinars, and bundles are all first-class products. That flexibility is exactly why Podia suits bloggers: you might start with a $19 template today and add a full course next year without switching tools. If you are still building the audience half of that equation, my ultimate guide to blogging covers it in depth.

    The trial is real. Thirty days, every feature, no card. Most competitors give you seven or fourteen days, which is barely enough to upload one course. A full month is enough to build and even soft-launch a first product before paying anything.

    Where Podia falls short (and who shouldn’t buy it)

    No honest review is complete without the trade-offs, and Podia has real ones.

    • Assessments are basic. Quizzes exist, but if you need graded assignments, certification workflows, or compliance training features, a dedicated course platform will serve you better.
    • Analytics are light. You can see sales and email performance, but data-hungry marketers will miss the deeper funnel reporting that more complex tools offer.
    • The email tool is simple. Broadcasts and basic campaigns work fine, but it is not a full replacement for a dedicated email platform once your automations get serious. I explain what a grown-up setup looks like in my ultimate guide to email marketing.
    • Costs climb with your list. Between plan tiers and email subscriber allowances, Podia stops feeling cheap once you pass a few hundred subscribers and want zero transaction fees.
    • Design freedom has a ceiling. The site builder is tidy and fast, but pixel-perfectionists will bump into its limits.

    Who should skip it: established course businesses with complex curricula, teams that live in dashboards and cohort data, and anyone whose main goal is running a large email operation from one tool. Podia is built for selling simply, not for squeezing every last percentage point out of a funnel.

    Who Podia is for — my verdict

    Podia earns its reputation as the friendliest platform in this space. It is the tool I point people to when they say: I have knowledge, a small audience, and zero patience for tech.

    Choose Podia if you are a solo creator or blogger selling a mix of courses, downloads, or coaching, and you value calm software over endless settings. Skip it if you need advanced assessments, granular analytics, or plan to run a five-figure email list from inside your course platform.

    The 30-day trial removes most of the risk of a wrong decision. Set up your storefront on Podia, publish one small product, and you will know within a week whether the workflow fits you.

    FAQ

    Is Podia worth it in 2026?

    For solo creators selling courses, downloads, or coaching, yes. One subscription replaces a course tool, checkout, website builder, and basic email service. Creators who need advanced quizzes, certificates, or deep analytics will get better value from a dedicated learning platform.

    Does Podia take a cut of your sales?

    On the Mover plan, Podia charges a 5% transaction fee. Shaker and Earthquaker carry no Podia fee at all. Standard Stripe or PayPal processing fees apply on every plan, as they do on any platform.

    Does Podia have a free plan?

    Not at the time of writing. Podia offers a 30-day free trial of every feature, with no credit card required, instead of a forever-free tier. That is long enough to build and test-launch a first product before paying.

    Can I run my email list from Podia?

    Up to a point. Each plan includes email marketing for a set number of subscribers — 100 on Mover when I checked — after which email costs extra. Small lists are fine; serious email marketers usually pair Podia with a dedicated email tool.

    What is the difference between Podia and Teachable?

    Podia is an all-in-one storefront for courses, downloads, coaching, webinars, and email, optimized for simplicity. Teachable focuses more narrowly on courses, with a stronger course player and assessment options but less built in around the edges.

    If you want one calm dashboard where your courses, downloads, coaching, and checkout simply work together, this is the platform I would start with. Head over to Podia and start your free 30-day trial — build one real product during the trial and let the platform prove itself before you spend a cent.

  • How Much Does It Really Cost to Start a Blog?
    Blogging, Business, blogging & Money

    How Much Does It Really Cost to Start a Blog?

    This post may contain affiliate links, meaning if you decide to make a purchase via my links, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. See my disclosure for more info.

    Short answer: you can start a real, self-hosted blog for about $36 in year one, and most “you need $2,000 to start a blog” articles are selling you the $2,000. Longer answer: there are a few costs beyond hosting worth planning for, and one renewal-price surprise that catches almost everyone.

    I have run this blog for years — over a thousand posts — so this breakdown is based on what I actually pay for and what I have happily cancelled. The bare minimum today is hosting with a free domain, which is about $3 per month at SiteGround on the current promo. Everything else on this page is either optional, free, or a year-two problem.

    Let’s build the honest budget, line by line.

    The bare minimum: hosting and a domain

    A self-hosted WordPress blog needs exactly two things: a domain name and hosting. At SiteGround — the host this blog runs on — the StartUp plan is $2.99 per month on the current promotion, paid 12 months upfront. That is roughly $36 for your first year, and the plan includes the domain for free, plus SSL, email accounts at your domain, daily backups, and a CDN.

    The WordPress software itself is free, and so are solid themes like Kadence and Astra and every essential plugin a beginner needs. So the popular idea that a “real” blog costs hundreds up front is simply wrong — the current SiteGround promo covers the whole technical foundation for less than a takeaway dinner per year.

    Now the honest part most posts skip: promos end. After year one, StartUp renews at $17.99 per month — about $216 per year — and your domain starts costing a regular renewal fee too. Cheaper hosts exist (Hostinger, for example), premium ones cost multiples more (Kinsta). I have stayed at SiteGround at renewal prices because the speed and support have earned it, but plan year two with open eyes.

    The legal bits almost everyone forgets to budget

    If your blog uses affiliate links, ads, or analytics — and any monetized blog does — you need a privacy policy, a cookie solution for EU visitors, and clear disclosures. This is not optional under GDPR and similar rules, and it is the line item nobody puts in the cute “start a blog for $36” graphics.

    You have two realistic options: assemble the pages yourself from templates and keep them updated (free, fiddly, easy to get wrong), or use a service like iubenda, which generates and auto-updates your privacy policy, cookie banner, and terms as regulations change. Check current pricing on their site — it is a small subscription, and materially cheaper than either a lawyer or a fine. I count this as the second real cost of a monetized blog.

    Genuinely free (do not pay for these in year one)

    • Email marketing: Kit’s free plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited sends — you will not outgrow that for a long time.
    • Design: free tools like Canva cover blog graphics and Pinterest pins.
    • SEO: Google Search Console and a free SEO plugin do everything a new blog needs. Paid keyword tools are for later, if ever.
    • Analytics: free, whichever privacy-friendly option you pick.
    • Stock photos: free libraries are good enough until the blog earns money.

    Optional costs that can be worth it

    A premium theme or page builder. Typically a modest one-time or yearly fee. Nice, never necessary on day one — free themes are genuinely good now.

    Education. Most blogging courses are overpriced motivation. The exception I recommend, once you are publishing and want the monetization side handled properly, is Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing ($197 one-time, with a 30-day refund policy) — the course I took myself, by a blogger who built her affiliate income past $50,000 per month. Buy it when you have content and some traffic, not in week one. Not ready to spend anything? My free affiliate marketing tips ebook is the zero-dollar starting point.

    A logo or branding. Skip it. A clean text header has carried many successful blogs, including plenty you read. Rebrand later with revenue.

    Three example budgets

    Bare bones — about $36 for year one. SiteGround StartUp promo with the free domain, free theme, free email plan, DIY legal pages. Completely workable; this is the “prove to yourself you will stick with it” setup.

    My recommended starter — roughly $100 for year one. The same hosting, plus a proper legal setup with iubenda and a little margin for a paid plugin or theme if a specific need appears. This is the setup I would build today: nothing vanity, everything that protects and grows the blog.

    Money-serious — roughly $300 in year one. Everything above plus the $197 affiliate marketing course once your first posts are live. Only sensible if earning from the blog is an actual goal rather than a nice idea.

    What it costs per month, realistically

    Averaged out, a lean first year runs $3 to $8 per month depending on how much of the optional list you adopt. From year two, with renewal pricing, a realistic range is $20 to $30 per month for a serious hobby-to-side-business blog. That is the number to sanity-check against your commitment — if $25 a month would sting for something you might abandon, spend three months writing consistently first, then buy.

    If you are still weighing whether blogging fits you at all, my blogging for beginners guide is the better place to start than any spreadsheet.

    FAQ

    Can you start a blog for completely free?

    Yes — on free platforms like WordPress.com or Medium. For a hobby journal, fine. For anything you hope to monetize, no: you cannot fully control ads, affiliate links, or SEO, and you are building on a platform you do not own. The $36 self-hosted route exists precisely to avoid that dead end.

    What is the cheapest way to start a blog properly?

    A promotional hosting plan with a free domain included — currently about $36 for the first year at SiteGround — plus free WordPress, a free theme, and a free email plan. Prepaying 12 months locks the promo price, which is the cheapest honest path.

    How much does a blog cost per month?

    Year one: roughly $3 to $8 per month on a lean setup. After promotional pricing ends: plan on $20 to $30 per month including hosting renewal, domain renewal, and the legal tooling a monetized blog needs. Blogs get more expensive as they earn more — and by then the costs stop mattering.

    Are blogging courses worth the money?

    Most are not. The one I recommend, for bloggers specifically focused on affiliate income, is Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing at $197 — after you have content to apply it to. Free content (including the archives of blogs like this one) covers the basics; I collect the common starter questions in my blogging questions FAQ.

    What hidden costs should I expect?

    Three: renewal prices after the promo year (the big one), domain renewal fees, and compliance tooling once you monetize — a cookie banner and maintained privacy policy via something like iubenda. None are scary, all are cheaper when you plan them instead of discovering them.

    The bottom line

    The real cost to start a blog in 2026 is about $36 for a bare-bones first year, around $100 for a setup I would actually recommend, and $20 to $30 per month once renewal prices kick in — not free, and nowhere near the four-figure numbers used to sell you courses. Head over to SiteGround to lock in the promo price with your free domain, keep the rest of your wallet closed for now, and spend the savings on the only thing that grows a blog: time to write.

  • How to Create and Sell Your First Online Course (Complete Guide)
    Business, Business, blogging & Money

    How to Create and Sell Your First Online Course (Complete Guide)

    This post may contain affiliate links, meaning if you decide to make a purchase via my links, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. See my disclosure for more info.

    An online course is the classic next step for bloggers and creators: you already teach for free, so packaging that knowledge into something sellable feels obvious. It mostly is — but the way most people go about it (six months of secret building, then a launch to crickets) is backwards.

    This guide walks through creating and selling your first course in the order that actually works: validate first, build small, launch to real people. I use Teachable as the platform in the examples because it is the one I know best and the easiest place to start, but the process applies anywhere.

    Fair warning before step one: a course is a product, and products take work. If you are hoping for passive income by Friday, this is not that. If you are willing to teach something real to people who need it, keep reading.

    What you need before you start

    • Something you can genuinely teach — a result you have achieved or helped others achieve
    • An audience, even a small one — an email list, blog readers, or engaged followers
    • A phone or laptop — you do not need a camera setup or studio
    • A platform budget — Teachable starts at $29 per month billed annually ($39 monthly) with a 7-day free trial

    How to create and sell your first online course

    Step 1: Pick a topic people already pay to solve

    The best course topics sit where your knowledge overlaps with a problem people actively want fixed: get the first freelance client, set up a food blog, pass the exam, organize the small-business bookkeeping. “Introduction to…” courses feel safe and sell badly; specific outcomes sell.

    Check demand the unglamorous way: are there books, YouTube channels, and other courses on this? Competition is evidence of a market. A topic with zero competitors usually has zero buyers too.

    Step 2: Validate before you build anything

    This step saves people months. Describe the course in one paragraph — who it is for, what result it delivers — and put it in front of your audience: a blog post, an email, a story with a waitlist link. If you cannot get even a handful of people to join a free waitlist, the paid version is not ready either.

    Better still: pre-sell. Offer the course at a founding-member price before it is fully built, with an honest “starts on [date]”. Real money is the only validation that never lies. If pre-selling feels too bold for a first round, a waitlist plus a few honest conversations with potential students gets you most of the way.

    Step 3: Outline the shortest path to the result

    Your course competes with YouTube, so its value is not information — it is structure. Outline the five to eight steps between where your student starts and the result you promised, and cut everything that does not move them along that path. A tight three-hour course beats a bloated twelve-hour one, both in completion rates and in reviews.

    Step 4: Record simply

    Screen recordings with your voice, slides where they help, your phone camera for talking-head moments if you want them. Spend your upgrade budget on audio (a basic USB microphone) before video, because people forgive average visuals and abandon bad sound. Record lesson by lesson in short takes; done is the standard, not cinematic.

    Step 5: Set up your course on a platform

    You need somewhere to host lessons, take payments, and manage students. Teachable is my default recommendation for a first course: the builder is genuinely beginner-proof, it handles checkout, EU VAT, and payouts for you, and the Starter plan at $29 per month (billed annually) is enough to sell your first five products. The honest trade-off: Starter takes a 7.5% transaction fee, which disappears on the $69-per-month Builder plan — start on Starter and upgrade only when sales justify it. There is no free plan anymore, but there is a 7-day trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee.

    Worth knowing: the platform can earn its keep beyond hosting lessons — I wrote about four other ways to use Teachable, like hosting freebies and digital downloads. If you want something simpler that bundles courses, digital products, and email in one flat-priced tool, Podia is the alternative I suggest to people who feel overwhelmed by settings. Thinkific and Gumroad are fine too; do not spend two weeks choosing.

    Step 6: Price it like a product, not a tip jar

    First-time creators almost always underprice. A course that delivers a real outcome is rarely a $19 product — somewhere between $50 and $300 is a sane range for a first, focused course, depending on the value of the result. Underpricing does not just cost revenue; it quietly attracts students who never start the material.

    Offer a payment plan for anything over about $100, and decide your refund policy up front — a clear 14- or 30-day policy builds more trust than it costs you.

    Step 7: Launch to your list, twice

    Sales come overwhelmingly from email, not from announcing once on social media. A simple first launch: one email announcing doors open (with the founding-member price and deadline), one email answering the real questions and objections, one email on the final day. Then close or raise the price — deadlines are what turn “interested” into “enrolled”.

    No list yet? Build one first, even a small one. A hundred engaged subscribers can carry a first launch; ten thousand cold followers usually cannot.

    Step 8: Improve it with real students, then relaunch

    Your first cohort is your product development team. Watch where they get stuck, answer their questions, and fold the answers back into the lessons. Then relaunch to the next group at the regular price. Courses are not launched once; they are refined and relaunched. Platforms run their own trainings on exactly this rhythm — my notes from the Teachable summit cover what that looks like in practice.

    Pro tips and common mistakes

    • Do not build in secret. Every month of silent building is a month of validation you skipped.
    • Small and finished beats big and abandoned. You can always add a module later.
    • Watch the fee math. Transaction fees and payment processing (around 3% plus a fixed fee per card payment) come out of every sale — factor them into pricing.
    • Keep teaching free content. Your blog and emails are the top of the funnel; the course is the deep end, not a replacement.
    • Expect modest first numbers. A first launch that pays for a year of tools and proves the concept is a success, not a failure.

    FAQ

    How much does it cost to create an online course?

    You can realistically start under $100: Teachable’s Starter plan is $29 per month billed annually ($39 month-to-month) with a 7-day free trial, and a decent USB microphone costs around $50. Production quality can grow later out of revenue instead of savings.

    How long should my first online course be?

    As short as the result allows — for most first courses that is one to three hours of focused video across five to eight modules. Students buy outcomes, not hours, and shorter courses get finished, which drives reviews and referrals.

    Can I sell a course without an audience?

    Honestly: it is hard. Paid ads on a first course usually burn money, so build at least a small email list first through your blog or social channels. The list does double duty — it validates your topic before you build and buys from you when you launch.

    Which platform is best for a first online course?

    Teachable if you want the standard, beginner-friendly option with strong checkout tools; Podia if you want courses, downloads, and email in one simple bundle. Both let you start small and migrate later if you outgrow them — the platform is rarely what decides whether your course sells.

    How much should I charge for my first course?

    For a focused course that delivers a concrete result, $50 to $300 is a reasonable range — pick a point where you would feel proud, not apologetic. Launch to founding members at a discount, gather results and testimonials, then raise the price for round two.

    Your first course, honestly

    Create an online course the smart way: validate a specific outcome, build the shortest version that delivers it, and launch it to people who already trust you. The tools are the easy part — start your free Teachable trial here and put your energy where it pays: the topic, the students, and the launch.

  • Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing Review: Is Michelle's Course Worth It?
    Blogging, Blogging + Influencers, Business, blogging & Money, Marketing

    Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing Review: Is Michelle’s Course Worth It?

    This post may contain affiliate links, meaning if you decide to make a purchase via my links, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. See my disclosure for more info.

    TL;DR: Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing is the course I took when I was starting out with affiliate marketing, and it is still the one I recommend to beginner and early-stage bloggers: structured, honest, and focused on strategy instead of hacks. At $197 with a 30-day refund window, it is fairly priced — but skip it if you already earn steady affiliate income or if what you really need is traffic. Check out Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing here.

    There are a lot of affiliate marketing courses, and most of them are sold harder than they teach. So when I review one, I hold it to a simple standard: did it change what I actually do? This one did — it is where I learned to treat affiliate marketing as recommending things honestly to people who trust you, rather than scattering links and hoping.

    Here is my full review: what is inside, what it costs, where it shines, and who genuinely should not buy it.

    What is Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing?

    It is a self-paced online course by Michelle Schroeder-Gardner, the blogger behind Making Sense of Cents. Michelle grew her affiliate income to over $50,000 per month, and the course teaches the exact strategy behind that — with the obvious caveat that her results are hers, not a template for yours.

    The course itself is 6 modules with 30+ lessons, covering the fundamentals: how affiliate marketing works, finding and getting accepted into programs, staying on the right side of disclosure rules, building trust with your audience, and turning existing content into content that converts. You get lifetime access, including future updates.

    If you are brand new to the concept, my primer on affiliate marketing for beginners explains the model itself — this review assumes you know roughly what affiliate marketing is and are deciding whether to invest in learning it properly.

    Pricing

    Option Price
    One-time payment $197
    Payment plan 2 payments of $105

    Both options include lifetime access, all future updates, and the bonuses. There is a 30-day full refund policy if the course is not what you hoped — which takes most of the risk out of trying it. Note that the payment plan costs $13 more in total, so pay once if you can. Current pricing and bonuses are listed on the course page.

    What the course does well

    It teaches strategy that does not expire. Algorithms and platforms have changed a lot since this course launched; the core of it — pick products your audience genuinely needs, build trust first, promote deliberately — has not. That is why I still recommend it in 2026 while plenty of trendier courses have come and gone.

    It takes the legal side seriously. Disclosure rules and FTC compliance get proper attention, including a bonus from an attorney on protecting your blog legally. Most courses skip this entirely; it matters more every year.

    The community is quietly the best bonus. Buying the course gets you into the private Facebook mastermind, plus bi-weekly “Ask Michelle Saturday” group coaching. Getting your specific questions answered is worth a lot when you are stuck at the messy beginning.

    Practical bonuses over filler. The Pinterest traffic training by Lauren McManus, the affiliate-approval guidance from an affiliate manager, and the worksheets are the kind of extras you actually open twice.

    One-time price. $197 once, with updates included, compares well against the subscription-model course platforms that quietly cost more every year you stay subscribed.

    Where it falls short (and who should not buy it)

    It will not solve your traffic problem. This is the big one. Affiliate income is a percentage of the attention you already have. The Pinterest bonus helps, but this is a conversion and strategy course, not a traffic course — if your blog has close to zero visitors, buy this later and spend the next six months publishing instead.

    Experienced affiliates will know a chunk of it. If you already earn consistent affiliate income, understand disclosure rules, and have a promotion system, you are past the target audience. This course is for beginners and early-intermediate bloggers.

    It leans blog-and-email. The strategies translate to other platforms, but the worked examples live mostly in blogging and Pinterest land. If you are a video-first creator with no blog, expect to do some translating yourself.

    The community lives on Facebook. If you have deleted Facebook on principle, you lose a real slice of the value.

    And the obvious one: Michelle’s $50,000-per-month results made this course famous, and they are also the least repeatable thing about it. Buy it for the system, not as a lottery ticket.

    Who it is for — my verdict

    Buy Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing if you have a blog (or are seriously building one), some early traffic, and affiliate links that earn little to nothing. That is exactly the gap this course closes: it turns “I put some links in my posts” into an actual strategy. It is the course I credit with making affiliate marketing for bloggers click for me, and the approach it teaches works well beyond your own blog too — the same thinking applies on newer platforms, like I describe in my post on sharing recommendations with Benable.

    Skip it if you have no content and no traffic yet, or if you are already past the beginner stage. Courses are only worth it when they meet you where you are. If you want to test the waters first, my free affiliate marketing tips ebook for bloggers costs you an email address and nothing else.

    FAQ

    How much does Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing cost?

    $197 as a one-time payment, or two payments of $105. Both include lifetime access, future updates, the bonuses, and the private mastermind community. There are no upsells hiding behind the checkout, which I appreciate.

    Is Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing worth it for beginners?

    Yes — beginners are exactly who it is built for. It assumes no prior affiliate knowledge and walks through the full system step by step. The honest condition: you need content and at least some traffic for the strategies to have raw material to work with.

    Can I get a refund if I do not like it?

    Yes, there is a 30-day full refund policy. That makes the practical risk of trying it low: go through the first modules seriously, and if it is not for you, ask for your money back within the window.

    Do I need a blog to take the course?

    The strategies are taught primarily through a blogging-and-email lens, so you will get the most out of it with a blog. It can work for other platforms, but if you have nothing yet, start the blog first and take the course once you are publishing.

    How fast will I make money with it?

    Slower than the sales page testimonials suggest, for most people. Realistically you are looking at months of applying the system while your traffic grows. The course shortens the learning curve; it does not remove the work.

    The bottom line

    Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing remains my standard recommendation for bloggers who want to earn from recommendations without turning into a walking advertisement. It is honest, thorough, fairly priced at $197, and protected by a 30-day refund policy. Head over to the course page to see everything that is included — and if you are not ready yet, bookmark it and go build the traffic it will eventually multiply.

  • How to Optimize Your Blog for AI Search (ChatGPT, Claude & Perplexity)
    Blogging, Business, blogging & Money

    How to Optimize Your Blog for AI Search (ChatGPT, Claude & Perplexity)

    This post may contain affiliate links, meaning if you decide to make a purchase via my links, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. See my disclosure for more info.

    More and more of my readers do not “google” anymore. They ask ChatGPT, Claude, or Perplexity — and the assistant answers with a synthesis of a few sources it trusts, sometimes with a citation, sometimes without. For bloggers, that is both the threat and the opportunity of 2026: fewer easy clicks, but a real chance to be the source that gets quoted.

    This guide covers what I am actually changing across my own blog to show up in AI answers. Fair warning up front: nobody — including the people selling “GEO services” — has a guaranteed formula here. What follows is the practical, low-regret work that helps with AI search and classic SEO at the same time.

    One thing before we start: none of this matters on a slow, wobbly site. AI crawlers and Google alike need your pages to load fast and reliably, so if your foundation is shaky, fix your hosting first — it is the least glamorous and most permanent optimization on this list.

    What AI search optimization actually means

    When someone asks an assistant “what’s the best email platform for a small newsletter?”, the AI does two things: it retrieves pages from a web index, and it composes an answer from the passages it can parse and trust. Optimizing for AI search means winning at both steps — being retrievable, and being quotable.

    The good news: this overlaps heavily with normal SEO. AI tools lean on existing search indexes to find sources, so a post that ranks has a head start on being cited. The difference is in emphasis: AI search rewards direct answers, clear structure, and specificity even more than Google does.

    Answer the question, then explain

    AI assistants extract passages, and the easiest passage to extract is a direct answer sitting right under a clear heading. So flip the classic blogger habit of building suspense.

    A practical before-and-after. Before: a heading like “My thoughts on pricing” followed by three paragraphs of context. After: a heading like “How much does it cost to start a blog?” followed immediately by “Around $36 for the first year, if you start on a hosting promo” — and then the nuance. Same information, but the second version can be lifted straight into an AI answer with your name attached.

    Do this consistently: question-style H2s and H3s, a one-or-two-sentence direct answer under each, detail afterwards. Readers skim happily; machines quote accurately.

    Add a real FAQ to every important post

    A short FAQ section with the questions people actually ask (steal them from the “people also ask” boxes, Reddit threads, and your own inbox) gives AI systems clean question-answer pairs to work with. Keep answers self-contained — two to four sentences that make sense out of context — because out of context is exactly how they will be reused.

    Structure your posts so machines can parse them

    Assistants parse HTML, not vibes. The posts of mine that get cited share the same traits: proper heading hierarchy, short paragraphs, lists for steps, and tables for comparisons. A comparison table with prices and plan names is far easier for an AI to reuse than the same facts scattered through prose.

    Schema markup (FAQ, HowTo, and Article structured data) helps search engines understand the page, and most WordPress SEO plugins add it with a checkbox. Do not overthink this part — clean headings and honest metadata get you most of the way.

    Be specific, current, and dated

    Vague content is invisible to AI search, because there is nothing concrete to quote. Name the tool, the plan, the price, the step. And date your facts: “at the time of writing (July 2026)” is not just honest, it signals freshness — assistants prefer sources that look current, and readers forgive an outdated price far more easily when you told them when it was true.

    This also means updating old posts. A 2019 tutorial with 2019 screenshots and prices quietly drops out of both Google and AI answers. I treat updating my best posts as seriously as writing new ones.

    Decide what AI crawlers may do on your site

    AI companies crawl the web with their own bots (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, and friends), and you control them via your robots.txt file. Blocking them protects your content from being used, but it also removes you from the answers your future readers are reading. For a blog that lives off being discovered, I allow them — that is a deliberate trade, not a default.

    While you are in technical territory: check that your site loads fast on mobile, that your pages are actually indexed, and that nothing important hides inside images or JavaScript. Solid hosting covers a surprising amount of this — fast responses, no downtime during crawls — which is why a dependable host like SiteGround sits in my “foundation” category rather than my “nice to have” category.

    Show up in more formats than text

    AI search interfaces increasingly pull in video, and YouTube is itself a search engine your posts can rank in. I turn my best-performing posts into short videos with Pictory, which converts a script or blog post into a video without me filming anything. Honest framing: this is a layer on top, not a replacement — do it for your proven posts once the writing engine runs, not before. For more of the AI tools I actually rate, see my roundup of the best AI tools for creators in 2026.

    Build signals that you are a real, trustworthy source

    Assistants weight sources that look like real experts: a clear author, an about page with an actual human on it, consistent coverage of your niche, and mentions of your name or site elsewhere on the web. There is no shortcut here — it is the same reputation work that has always mattered, now with a second audience of machines reading it. If you are early in that journey, my ultimate guide to blogging covers building that foundation from zero.

    What not to expect

    Honesty section. AI search sends fewer clicks than classic Google did at its peak — many questions get answered without a click at all. Optimizing for it is about capturing the traffic that still flows and the authority of being cited, not about replacing 2019-level pageviews. Two hedges I recommend: watch your analytics for referrals from AI tools so you know what is actually working, and keep converting one-time visitors into subscribers you can reach directly — my newsletter exists precisely because I do not control any algorithm.

    FAQ

    What is AI search optimization?

    It is the practice of making your content easy for AI assistants like ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity to retrieve, quote, and cite when they answer questions. In practice it means direct answers under clear headings, parseable structure, specific and dated facts, and allowing AI crawlers to access your site.

    How do I get my blog cited by ChatGPT or Perplexity?

    Cover specific questions in depth, put the answer at the top of the section, and build normal search visibility — AI tools lean on web indexes to pick sources. Specificity wins: a focused post on one question beats a broad post on ten.

    Should I block AI crawlers in robots.txt?

    That depends on your goals. Blocking bots like GPTBot protects your content from AI reuse but removes you from AI answers entirely. For most bloggers who depend on discovery, being citable is worth more than being invisible — but it is a legitimate choice either way.

    Does traditional SEO still matter in 2026?

    Yes. AI assistants retrieve sources through the same web infrastructure classic SEO optimizes, so rankings, internal links, and site health still feed the machine. Think of AI search optimization as an extra layer on SEO, not a replacement for it.

    How can I measure traffic from AI search?

    Check your analytics for referral sources like chatgpt.com and perplexity.ai, and watch for branded searches rising after your content circulates in answers. Measurement is still fuzzy — some AI visits look like direct traffic — so treat trends as directional, not precise.

    Make your blog quotable

    AI search rewards exactly what good blogging always rewarded: specific, structured, trustworthy answers to real questions — served from a site that loads fast every single time. Start with the foundation and work up: head over to SiteGround to get hosting that keeps your site fast and crawlable, then go rewrite your ten most important posts with the answer first.

  • SiteGround Review: Honest Pros & Cons After Hosting 1,000+ Posts
    Blogging, Business, blogging & Money

    SiteGround Review: Honest Pros & Cons After Hosting 1,000+ Posts

    This post may contain affiliate links, meaning if you decide to make a purchase via my links, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. See my disclosure for more info.

    TL;DR: This blog — over 1,000 published posts — runs on SiteGround, and I still recommend it to bloggers who want fast, low-maintenance WordPress hosting with support that actually responds. The honest catch: the promo pricing (from $2.99 per month) jumps steeply at renewal, so it is not the cheapest choice long-term. Check SiteGround’s current plans and pricing here.

    Hosting reviews are usually written by people who signed up yesterday, ran one speed test, and collected their commission. This one is different in one boring but useful way: I actually host here, at scale, and have for years. A thousand-plus posts, real traffic, real support tickets.

    So here is my honest take on where SiteGround earns its money and where it does not.

    What is SiteGround?

    SiteGround is an independent hosting company that has become one of the go-to names for WordPress hosting. It runs its platform on Google Cloud infrastructure, uses its own control panel called Site Tools instead of the dated cPanel most budget hosts ship, and leans hard on two selling points: speed and support.

    It sits in the middle of the market. Cheaper than managed WordPress hosts like Kinsta, more expensive (especially at renewal) than budget players like Hostinger. That middle position is exactly who it is for — more on that below.

    SiteGround pricing (July 2026)

    Plan Promo price Renewal price Websites Storage Suited for
    StartUp $2.99/mo $17.99/mo 1 10 GB ~10,000 visits/mo
    GrowBig $4.99/mo $29.99/mo Unlimited 50 GB ~100,000 visits/mo
    GoGeek $7.99/mo $44.99/mo Unlimited 100 GB ~400,000 visits/mo

    All plans include a free domain, free SSL, business email accounts, daily backups, a built-in CDN, and 24/7 support. Two things the pricing page says quietly: the promo price requires paying 12 months upfront, and the visit numbers are guidance rather than hard caps.

    Do the honest math before you buy. Year one on StartUp is about $36; year two is about $216 at the current renewal rate. If that difference would hurt, compare the plans with that renewal column in mind, not the promo column.

    What SiteGround does well

    Speed without tinkering. Between the server-level caching, the CDN, and their WordPress optimization plugin, my site is fast without me maintaining a stack of performance plugins. For a non-technical blogger, that is the whole point of paying for decent hosting.

    Support that solves things. This is the real reason I stay. When something breaks at 11pm, chat support responds in minutes and actually fixes the problem instead of pasting help-center links. Over years of hosting here, downtime has never become a story I need to tell — which is exactly what you want from a host.

    Beginner-friendly setup. WordPress gets installed for you during signup, SSL is automatic, and Site Tools is clean enough that you will rarely open it. If you are starting a brand-new blog, the SiteGround signup flow takes care of nearly everything technical in one go.

    Email included. Unlimited email accounts at your own domain come with every plan. Plenty of competitors charge extra for this, and a you@yourdomain.com address is something every blogger eventually needs.

    Daily backups by default. The first time you break your site with a bad plugin update, an included one-click restore pays for the plan.

    Where SiteGround falls short (and who should not buy it)

    The renewal prices sting. $2.99 to $17.99 per month is a big jump, and it is the number one complaint about SiteGround everywhere — fairly. You can soften it by prepaying longer upfront, but budget hosts stay meaningfully cheaper over a three-year horizon.

    Storage is modest. 10 GB on StartUp is fine for a text-and-images blog (this one lives comfortably within its plan), but photographers and podcasters uploading heavy files will feel the ceiling.

    One site only on the entry plan. If you already know you want two or three projects, you need GrowBig, which changes the price comparison.

    Not for high-traffic or complex sites. Shared hosting has limits. If you are running a large store or an application, or pulling hundreds of thousands of visits a month, you will eventually want managed or cloud hosting — that is not a SiteGround flaw, just a category boundary.

    In short: do not buy SiteGround if the lowest possible long-term price is your main criterion, or if you are at a scale where shared hosting no longer makes sense.

    Who SiteGround is for — my verdict

    SiteGround is the right choice for bloggers and small site owners who want their hosting to be a solved problem: fast enough, safe enough, with a human available when something breaks. That describes most people reading a blogging guide, which is why it is my standard recommendation for new and growing blogs.

    I have had years to switch away — every host courts bloggers with cheaper offers — and I keep renewing at the full price. That is about the strongest thing I can say about a hosting company. If speed-plus-support at a fair (not rock-bottom) price is the trade you want, SiteGround is worth it.

    FAQ

    Is SiteGround good for beginners?

    Yes — it is one of the most beginner-friendly hosts I have used. WordPress installation, SSL, email, and backups are all handled for you, and support fills the gaps fast. The learning curve is the blog itself, not the hosting.

    How much does SiteGround actually cost?

    StartUp is $2.99 per month for year one (paid annually, about $36) and $17.99 per month at renewal — roughly $216 per year after the promo ends. GrowBig and GoGeek follow the same pattern from $4.99 and $7.99 per month. Always decide based on the renewal price you will eventually pay.

    Which SiteGround plan should a blogger pick?

    StartUp, for almost everyone starting out — one site and 10 GB go further than you would think. Move to GrowBig when you need a second site or outgrow the resources; check the current plan comparison for the extras on higher tiers before paying for them.

    Does SiteGround include email hosting?

    Yes, unlimited email accounts at your own domain on every plan. Note that this is your inbox, not a newsletter tool — for sending emails to subscribers you still need a proper platform, which I cover in my ultimate guide to email marketing.

    Is SiteGround worth it in 2026?

    If you value speed and support over squeezing out the last dollar: yes. If you want the absolute cheapest hosting for a hobby project, a budget host will serve you fine and save money. I keep my own 1,000-post blog here, which is my honest answer in one sentence.

    The bottom line

    SiteGround costs more than budget hosting and delivers more than budget hosting — fast pages, included email and backups, and support that shows up. That trade has been worth it for this blog for years. Head over to SiteGround to see current plans and grab the promo pricing with a free domain, and start on StartUp unless you know you need more.

  • How to Start a Blog in 2026 (Step-by-Step, the Smart Way)
    Blogging, Business, blogging & Money

    How to Start a Blog in 2026 (Step-by-Step, the Smart Way)

    This post may contain affiliate links, meaning if you decide to make a purchase via my links, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. See my disclosure for more info.

    I have started more blogs than I care to admit, and this one — with well over a thousand posts on it — is the one that taught me what actually matters. Spoiler: it is not the perfect theme, the perfect logo, or the perfect name.

    The technical part of starting a blog in 2026 takes about 30 minutes. The hard part is everything most “start a blog” tutorials skip: picking a topic you will not abandon, writing posts people actually search for, and staying patient while traffic slowly builds. This guide covers both halves.

    If you just want the short version: get hosting with a free domain at SiteGround, install WordPress with one click, and publish your first post this week. For everyone else, here is the full walkthrough.

    What you need before you start

    • A niche you could write 50 posts about without running dry
    • A domain name — your own name works fine; mine does
    • Roughly $40 for year one — hosting is the only must-have cost
    • Two to three hours a week, consistently, for at least six months

    That last point is the real filter. A blog is a slow, compounding asset, not a quick win. If you need income this month, freelancing or client work will get you there faster. If you can play the longer game, keep reading — and if you are brand new to all of this, my blogging for beginners guide is a good companion to this tutorial.

    How to start a blog in 2026, step by step

    Step 1: Pick a niche with search demand and buyer intent

    Choose a topic where people type real questions into Google, ChatGPT, or Perplexity — and where products exist that solve those problems. “My life and thoughts” is a diary, not a blog with traffic potential. “Slow travel in Europe on a budget” or “email marketing for Etsy sellers” — those are niches.

    A quick test I use: write down 25 post ideas in ten minutes. If you cannot, the niche is too narrow or you do not care about it enough. Both are dealbreakers three months in. Also check that the niche has products you could eventually recommend — building monetization in from the start beats bolting it on later.

    Step 2: Choose self-hosted WordPress

    This blog runs on self-hosted WordPress (WordPress.org), and if you want to earn money from your blog, I would not choose anything else. You own the site, you can place any affiliate link or ad you like, and you are not renting your audience from a platform that can change the rules.

    To be fair: Squarespace and Wix are easier on day one, and Substack is great if you only want to write a newsletter. But they all limit how you monetize, how you optimize for search, or both. WordPress has a slightly steeper learning curve in week one and far more room to grow in year three.

    Step 3: Get hosting — your only real startup cost

    Your host is the computer your blog lives on. I host my sites at SiteGround and recommend it to beginners because the setup is genuinely simple, support responds fast, and the smallest plan covers everything a new blog needs.

    The numbers, at the time of writing: the StartUp plan is $2.99 per month on the current promo (paid 12 months upfront, so about $36 for your first year) and includes a free domain, free SSL, email accounts, daily backups, and a CDN. Two honest caveats: that promo renews at $17.99 per month after the first year, and the StartUp plan fits one website only. Cheaper hosts like Hostinger exist; I stay because the speed and the support have been worth the renewal price for me — but budget for it either way.

    Check the current SiteGround plans and claim your free domain here — the whole signup takes about ten minutes.

    Step 4: Install WordPress and pick one lightweight theme

    SiteGround installs WordPress for you during signup, or afterwards with one click from the dashboard. Then choose one free, fast theme and move on. Kadence, Astra, and GeneratePress are all fine choices. Do not spend a week comparing themes; nobody reads a blog because of its theme. I wrote a short guide on starting a WordPress blog with zero technical knowledge if you want extra hand-holding for this part.

    Step 5: Create the five pages every blog needs

    Before you write posts, set up an About page, a Contact page, a Privacy Policy, a disclosure page, and a simple Start Here page. The legal pages matter more than most beginners think: if you use affiliate links or ads, disclosure is required, and if European readers visit your site, GDPR applies to you too. Boring, yes. Skippable, no.

    Step 6: Write your first five posts around real searches

    Every post should answer one specific question someone actually types out. Not “10 thoughts on productivity” but “how to plan a blog content calendar in Notion”. Specific posts get found; vague posts do not.

    Two habits that pay off from post one: give the direct answer high up in the post (both readers and AI search tools reward this), and match your title to the words people actually search. Useful and complete beats long. Then keep publishing — consistency over months is what separates blogs that grow from the millions that quietly stall.

    Step 7: Start your email list on day one

    Search traffic and social reach fluctuate; an email list is the only audience you own. Set up a free account with an email platform like Kit or MailerLite, put a simple signup form under every post, and offer a small freebie as a thank-you. Mine is a free ebook with affiliate marketing tips for bloggers — yours can be a checklist or template that takes you one afternoon to make.

    Step 8: Learn how blogs actually make money

    Display ads only pay meaningfully once you have serious traffic, so most new blogs earn their first money with affiliate marketing: recommending products you genuinely use and earning a commission when readers buy. Simple in theory, and surprisingly easy to do badly.

    The resource that shortened my learning curve is Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing, the $197 course by Michelle Schroeder-Gardner — the same strategy she used to earn over $50,000 per month from affiliate marketing. I took it myself as a newer blogger; it is beginner-friendly and focused on recommending things honestly. It is not magic, though: you still need traffic before any strategy pays, so treat it as a way to build correctly from the start, not as a shortcut around the work.

    Mistakes I see new bloggers make (so you can skip them)

    • Buying tools before traffic. You need hosting and an email tool. Everything else can wait until the blog earns it.
    • Writing for nobody. If no one searches for it and you have nowhere to promote it, the post will not be read.
    • Redesigning instead of publishing. Tweaking fonts feels like work; it is not.
    • Quitting at month three. That is usually right before search engines start trusting your site.
    • Ignoring renewal prices. Hosting promos — SiteGround included — renew higher, so budget for year two now.

    FAQ

    How much does it cost to start a blog?

    Around $36 for the first year if you start on SiteGround’s StartUp promo, since the domain, SSL, and email are included. Expect higher renewal pricing from year two, and add optional costs like a premium theme or a paid email plan only as you grow into them.

    Can I start a blog for free?

    Yes, on platforms like WordPress.com or Medium — but I would not if you plan to make money. Free platforms limit monetization, look less professional, and the platform owns your setup, not you. Roughly $36 is a small price for full control.

    How long until a blog makes money?

    For most people: months, not weeks. Six to twelve months of consistent publishing is a realistic runway before affiliate income becomes meaningful, and anyone promising faster is usually selling something. A solid strategy from day one — Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing is where I got mine — mostly saves you the messy trial-and-error phase.

    Do I need technical skills to start a blog?

    No. Modern hosts install WordPress for you, and themes handle the design. If you can use email and Instagram, you can run a WordPress blog. I answer more beginner questions like this in my blogging questions FAQ.

    Is starting a blog still worth it in 2026?

    Yes, with adjusted expectations. AI search sends fewer easy clicks than Google did five years ago, but it cites and recommends specific, trustworthy posts — exactly what a focused niche blog produces. Blogs that answer real questions in depth still grow; generic content does not.

    Ready to start your blog?

    Thirty minutes of setup, five focused posts, and a signup form: that is genuinely all a smart start requires in 2026. Head over to SiteGround to grab your hosting and free domain, and you can be writing your first post before your coffee gets cold.

  • Best AI Tools for Creators in 2026 (Tested, With Pricing)
    Blogging, Business, blogging & Money, Marketing

    Best AI Tools for Creators in 2026 (Tested, With Pricing)

    TL;DR: You don’t need twenty AI subscriptions — you need one writer, one video-repurposing tool, and one system to turn it all into email. In 2026 my go-to stack is Jasper or Notion AI for drafting, Opus Clip for turning long video into short clips, and Kit (formerly ConvertKit) to turn that content into a newsletter that actually sells. Below is what each costs and who it’s for.

    This post contains affiliate links. If you sign up through them I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only recommend tools I’d genuinely use myself.

    The AI tools worth paying for in 2026

    There are hundreds of AI tools now, and most creators waste money subscribing to five that do the same thing. The trick is to think in jobs, not tools: drafting, repurposing to video, and turning it into email and sales. Here’s the short list I actually recommend, with real 2026 pricing.

    ToolWhat it’s forFree plan?Paid from
    JasperLong-form & brand-voice writingTrial only$39/seat/mo (Creator)
    Opus ClipTurning long video into short clipsYes (60 min/mo, watermark)$15/mo (Starter)
    PictoryBlog / script / URL to videoTrial$25/mo (Starter)
    KapwingBrowser video editing & subtitlesYes (limited)$16/user/mo (Pro)
    KitTurning content into emails & salesYes (to 10k subs)Paid tiers add automation
    Pricing verified July 2026. Free tiers and prices change often — check each tool before buying.

    Best AI writing tools

    Jasper is the most mature option for long-form and on-brand writing — its Creator plan starts at $39/seat/month and it’s genuinely good at keeping a consistent brand voice across blog posts, emails, and ad copy. If you already live in Notion, Notion AI is the cheaper entry point: it brainstorms, summarizes, and drafts right inside your workspace with a usable free allowance. Start with Notion AI if you’re testing the water; upgrade to Jasper once writing is a daily job.

    Best AI video repurposing tools

    Short video is still where the reach is, and repurposing beats filming from scratch. Opus Clip is the one most creators use — it turns a long video or livestream into ready-to-post clips and scores each for “virality.” The free plan gives you 60 minutes a month (watermarked); Starter is $15/month for watermark-free 720p, and Pro at $29/month adds every aspect ratio, a scheduler, and AI B-roll. If you’d rather go from a blog post or script straight to video, Pictory does that from $25/month, and Kapwing is a solid browser editor for subtitles and quick edits from $16/user/month.

    The tool that ties it together

    AI content only pays off if it feeds an audience you own. That’s where Kit (formerly ConvertKit) comes in: it turns your posts and clips into a newsletter, automates your welcome and sales sequences, and tags subscribers so you can actually sell courses or products to them. Kit’s free plan runs up to 10,000 subscribers, so you can build the system before you pay for it. If you’re not sure a newsletter is worth it yet, read how to monetize a newsletter first, then come back and automate it.

    My honest recommendation

    Don’t buy the whole list. Pick one writer (Notion AI to start, Jasper when you scale), one video tool (Opus Clip for most people), and one home for your audience (Kit). That’s three subscriptions doing the work of ten, and it’s the exact stack I’d rebuild if I started over today. Want the email side specifically? I compare the platforms in Substack vs Kit.

    What are the best AI tools for content creators in 2026?

    For most creators the core stack is a writing tool (Jasper or Notion AI), a video-repurposing tool (Opus Clip), and an email platform to turn content into sales (Kit). That covers drafting, short-form video, and monetization without over-subscribing.

    What is the best free AI tool for creators?

    Notion AI has a usable free allowance for drafting and summarizing, Opus Clip offers 60 free video minutes a month, and Kit is free up to 10,000 subscribers. You can build a full workflow on free tiers before paying.

    How much do AI creator tools cost?

    Expect roughly $15 to $40 per tool per month. Opus Clip Starter is $15/month, Kapwing Pro is $16/user/month, Pictory is $25/month, and Jasper’s Creator plan is $39/seat/month. Picking one tool per job keeps the total reasonable.

    Do I need to pay for Jasper if I have ChatGPT?

    Not necessarily. General chat tools are great for ideas, but Jasper adds brand-voice controls and templates built for marketing output. Pay for Jasper when consistent on-brand writing becomes a daily task; otherwise a general tool plus good prompts is fine.

    Which AI tool is best for turning long videos into short clips?

    Opus Clip is the most widely used in 2026. It automatically finds the best moments, adds captions, and scores each clip for viral potential, with a free tier to test before upgrading.

  • Beehiiv Review Pricing, Features & Is It Worth It
    Blogging, Business, blogging & Money, Email Marketing, Marketing

    Beehiiv Review 2026: Pricing, Features & Is It Worth It?

    TL;DR: beehiiv is one of the best newsletter platforms in 2026 if growth and monetization are your priority — built-in referral programs, an ad network, and a genuinely useful free plan for up to 2,500 subscribers. It’s less of an all-in-one “email + funnels” tool than Kit (formerly ConvertKit), so your pick comes down to whether you’re building a media brand (beehiiv) or a creator business with products to sell (Kit).

    This post contains affiliate links. If you sign up through them I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only recommend tools I’d genuinely use myself.

    What is beehiiv?

    beehiiv was built by former Morning Brew operators, and it shows: everything is designed around growing and monetizing a newsletter rather than running a whole business off it. You get a clean editor, a website for your posts (great for SEO and AI search visibility), a built-in referral program, audience polls, and access to beehiiv’s own ad network so brands can sponsor your sends. If your goal is “grow the list and get paid for the audience,” this is the tool the big newsletters actually use.

    beehiiv pricing in 2026

    Here’s what each plan actually costs right now. The important thing to understand: beehiiv’s paid plans scale with your subscriber count, so the headline price is the starting price for a small list, not what you’ll pay at 50,000 subscribers.

    PlanPrice (monthly)SubscribersBest for
    Launch (free)$0Up to 2,500Testing the platform, small lists
    ScaleFrom $49 (from $43 annual)Scales with list size (to ~$329 at 100k)Monetization, referrals, AI, up to 3 publications
    MaxFrom $109Scales with list size (to ~$419)No beehiiv branding, priority support, up to 10 publications
    beehiiv pricing verified July 2026. Paid tiers scale with your subscriber count.

    Two details worth knowing. First, beehiiv takes 0% of your paid subscription revenue — you keep everything minus Stripe’s standard 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction. Second, the free Launch plan is genuinely usable (unlimited sends up to 2,500 subscribers), which is rare. Most “free” newsletter plans cap your sends hard; beehiiv doesn’t.

    What beehiiv does really well

    The referral program is the headline feature — it’s the same mechanic that grew Morning Brew, and on beehiiv it’s a few clicks to set up instead of a custom build. The ad network is the other big one: once you hit a certain size, beehiiv matches you with sponsors and handles the logistics, which turns your newsletter into income without you cold-emailing brands. Add the SEO-friendly web version of every post and the built-in analytics, and it’s a strong package for anyone treating their newsletter as a media property.

    Where beehiiv falls short (and when to pick Kit instead)

    beehiiv is a newsletter platform, not a full creator-business platform. If you sell digital products, run automated welcome-and-sales sequences, tag subscribers by behavior, and want your email tool to double as a lightweight CRM, Kit (formerly ConvertKit) is the better fit — it’s built around selling to your list, not just publishing to it. My honest rule of thumb: pick beehiiv if the newsletter is the product and you want ad + referral growth; pick Kit if the newsletter is how you sell courses, coaching, or products. I break the whole comparison down in Substack vs Kit and in how to monetize a newsletter.

    Is beehiiv worth it in 2026?

    Yes — if your priority is growing an audience and earning from it directly. The free plan makes it a no-risk test, and the referral + ad tools genuinely move the needle at scale. If you’re earlier in the journey and still figuring out the newsletter itself, start with my guide on how to start a newsletter first, then choose your platform once you know what you’re building.

    👉 Reader offer: sign up through my beehiiv link and you get a 14-day free trial + 20% off for 3 months. Same platform either way — this just gets you a better deal while you test it.

    Is beehiiv really free?

    Yes. The Launch plan is free for up to 2,500 subscribers with unlimited email sends. You only pay once you outgrow it or want monetization and AI features.

    How much does beehiiv cost after the free plan?

    The Scale plan starts at $49/month (or about $43/month billed annually) for a small list and rises with your subscriber count up to roughly $329/month at 100,000 subscribers. The Max plan starts at $109/month and removes beehiiv branding.

    Does beehiiv take a cut of my subscription revenue?

    No. beehiiv takes 0% of your paid newsletter subscriptions. You only pay Stripe’s standard processing fee of 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction.

    beehiiv vs Kit — which should I choose?

    Choose beehiiv if the newsletter itself is your product and you want built-in referral and ad-network growth. Choose Kit if you sell courses, coaching, or digital products and need automations and tagging to sell to your list.

    Can I move my existing newsletter to beehiiv?

    Yes. beehiiv supports importing your subscriber list and offers migration help from most major platforms, so switching doesn’t mean starting your audience from zero.