My Top 5 Money Making Activities
During our most recent Ask Us Anything session, one of the participants - Productivity & Time Management Coach Anna Pugacova - asked: “What are your top 5 tips for money making activities?”
I loved this question and thought that I would share my answers on my blog as well!
You won’t find any hustle tactics here, nor do I mention ads as I’ve never used them. My activities are all about providing excellent content and building relationships. It works - I’ve grown my business organically and calmly this way, and just completed my fifth six-figure year.
One more thing: there is a difference between being a service provider, like a web designer, and a product-based business, like online courses. I’ve done both and my money making activities have shifted as a result. As a designer for instance, my focus was on joining local business groups and fostering word-of-mouth recommendations. As an online teacher I am more focused on casting a wider net and audience building. In both cases I have always prioritized customer service and content excellence, more on that below!
Tip 1 | Blogging
“I have to say that after reading your blog and seeing your offers, I feel a sigh of relief. Your calm and simple (yet effective and profitable) approach to business has been like balm to my worries as to how this 53yo could ever run a business solo, let alone keep up with the online hustle culture. You created a path for us introverts, empaths, and simplicity-driven people. Thank you for that!” – Danielle D.
Why blogging?
Blogging is the #1 way that I grew my own business. I’ve actually been a blogger since 2005 but only started professional blogging in 2015. Blogging will help you:
Drive traffic to your site.
Boost your SEO.
Get people onto your newsletter.
Position yourself as an expert in your field.
Make money through affiliate marketing.
Sell your products or services.
What should you blog about?
Many business owners feel daunted by the prospect of blogging but it really is worth getting into a blogging habit. If you have neither the time nor inclination to blog, consider hiring someone. Here are some of the kinds of posts that will attract visitors to your site:
How To posts. Are you an expert in your field? Share your tips and tricks! And link to your products or services that can help with the topic at hand.
Insights. Have you learned something valuable? Share it.
Stories. People love a good story. Stories engage your audience and help build trust. Write about situations that happened in your business, share a case study or even something personal.
Guest posts. Having others write for your blog is an effective way to network while adding value to your blog content and driving more traffic to your site from your guest’s promotions. For instance, I interviewed 31 designers and entrepreneurs for my blog and made so many friends this way!
Affiliate posts. Affiliate marketing can be a very nice passive income stream! I only blog about products I love and that I use myself. This is an area where I definitely could do more myself, and I plan to revisit my friend Christy’s excellent Make Money with your Blog course, see below.
How often should you blog?
Well, that depends on how much time and effort you want to invest. I’ve had years where I blogged very little, and others where I was more productive. Frequent blogging can definitely help but I’ve never been a blogging machine. My focus has always been on quality over quantity, and that has served me well as it has resulted in a few top posts that consistently bring traffic.
Generally, I’d say that 1-2 posts a week is great, but 2 a month can also work.
Tip 2 | Email Marketing
The email marketing framework I teach in my Calm Email Marketing course.
“I've been a subscriber to your email list for a little less than a year now, and I'm finally biting the bullet to buy your course :)” – Dominique
“Over the last little while I've made enquiries about a few online Squarespace courses and have subsequently been inundated with marketing emails from all providers. Except you. You don't do the hard sell, or the repetitive posts and you come across as authentic, experienced and, as a fifty-something designer myself, someone I can relate to. So l just wanted to say thanks. I look forward to learning from you.” – Catherine
It is never too late.
I started my business in late 2014 and didn’t even have a newsletter until I launched my first online course in mid 2016. In the beginning, I wasn’t sure what to write about, especially as I was already sharing a lot of content on my blog. It probably took me a couple of years to find my stride, and these days writing to my subscribers is one of my favorite things to do!
My email marketing is very simple; there are no complicated funnels using tags and such, and I don’t bombard my audience with newsletters and promotions. Email marketing, to me, is all about having a conversation and building trust with my audience and potential customers, without overwhelming them.
How does it help?
You build trust and credibility.
A newsletter is a great way to share what you’re all about, how you can help people and what you stand for. By sharing your thoughts, opinions and expertise over time, your subscribers will get to know and trust you in a deeper way.You have control.
Unlike social media platforms where you’re at the mercy of algorithms and feature changes, a newsletter gives you more control. You don’t have to cross your fingers and hope your words show up in someone’s feed. Instead, it goes straight to their inbox. You also have full access to your subscriber data, so you can easily back it up or move to a different email provider at any time.It’s personal.
Away from the buzz of social media, newsletters are intimate and direct. Just like getting a letter in the post, they invite a deeper, more reflective way of communicating with your audience.It establishes your expertise.
When you generously share useful and interesting content that provides genuine value, it shows your subscribers that you truly know your stuff.It’s a great sales tool.
This doesn’t mean hammering people with Sale! Sale! Sale! emails all day long, but rather it’s seeing a newsletter as a trusty ambassador, reminding people each time you send a message who you are and how you operate. So when you do have a new offering to share, or a subscriber decides they need help in your area of expertise, you’ll be fresh in their mind.
My email marketing in a nutshell:
I use Squarespace Campaigns for all of my email marketing, and I love it so much!
My newsletter is structured as follows:
Intro with my musings on a topic that is on my mind.
Updates and news pertaining to my business and Squarespace.
Community news where I share launches and events from other entrepreneurs.
Summary of new blog posts, very easy to add in Campaigns.
The footer contains links to my courses, freebies, and Calm Business resources.
I don’t have a newsletter schedule. Most of the time I send it when a topic inspires me and I write it there and then. I have learned over the years that this is how I produce my best newsletter; they are always the ones I write spontaneously, right from my heart. Occasionally I send promotions, like a new course launch or my October Sale.
I have a 4-email welcome or nurture sequence. When you subscribe to my newsletter, you get four emails on consecutive days to help you get to know me and my business. Implementing this nurture sequence has been amazing! People often reply to my follow-up emails, and I’ve had some amazing conversations and made wonderful connections this way. I also got this lovely feedback from one of my subscribers: “I modeled my email welcome sequence on yours, and I am getting rave reviews from my new subscribers, and it converts!”
→ Subscribe to my newsletter and check it out!
I have two lead magnets; each of them has its own mailing list in Campaigns so I can see how many people come through for each:
My Calm Business Review, which is a seasonal workbook.
My freebies: free lessons to my courses.
The Calm Business Review mailing list has its own nurture sequence, and the freebies are part of a newsletter subscription.
Upsells. I use automations in Campaign to send upsell emails for my bundles to those who purchased an individual course. So far this has not rendered much, but that’s because most people buy a bundle upfront :-)
Want to learn my email marketing framework that helped me build build a six-figure online course business?
Tip 3 | Produce High Quality Content
“The knowledge you share through your blog, your notes, and your courses has helped me tremendously with my website and consequently with my business. I had to change my entire business model and what seemed unimaginable in the beginning, now turns out to be a blessing. Your work was and is a constant companion in this transition.” –Mirjam
“Your SQS BizBox course was the first digital course I ever took and it was fantastic. I then assumed everyone produced digital courses of the same quality… haha, nope, not the case!” –Kristine D.
Why it matters.
I care deeply about the quality of my content.
Whether I write a helpful blog post (like this one!) or create lessons for my courses, making my content as useful, clear and informative as possible is always my top priority.
One of my husband’s bosses once said: “It doesn’t have to be perfect, it just has to be done,” and I remember both of us shaking our heads, nope, that was not how we do things. Now, there is a time and place for just getting things done, absolutely, but when it comes to my content that is not it.
If you want high quality content that helps you learn and grow – I’m your girl!
How does it help?
My audience, clients and students appreciate quality. It’s why they frequently return to my blog, why they subscribe to my newsletter, why they buy my courses. They know that they’ll get what I promise, and often even more.
My courses have a high conversion and retention rate, and that’s in no small part due to the high quality of my content.
Tip 4 | Offer Excellent Customer Service
“Thank you, Kerstin & Shauna, for being so responsive and, frankly, nice about this! Can’t tell you how much it means to have a small business owner reply with such care and integrity, I will go ahead and sign up for Kerstin’s class now. Thank you!” –Roger R.
Why it matters.
Having worked decades in public-facing roles in the travel, hospitality and education industries I have a lot of experience when it comes to customer service. I have always loved working with and helping people, nothing makes me happier than making their days, jobs or even lives a little bit better.
As a solopreneur Customer Service can become overwhelming which is why getting help, as and when needed, and using tools like FAQ pages and auto-responders, is crucial. This is one area where I will never skimp on time or money.
What customer service looks like around here:
Working with a trusted VA who knows my voice and is aligned with my values.
Hiring an expert to help in my private student group.
Having a solid FAQ page so that people don’t have to wait for answers and can make informed decision quickly.
Auto-responders to acknowledge messages and set expectations.
Replying to DM’s, comments and messages.
Making my audience feel welcome, seen and heard, via my website, blog and interactions.
Sending thank you cards or thoughtful gifts when a situation calls for something special.
Tip 5 | YouTube
“Kerstin, I just started screaming. THIS video is GOLD! I'll be sharing with my list next week and also my clients who are having a hard time deciding on SQS as a course / membership platform. Thank you for this gem!” – Ash
“This video has helped me a ton. I’m just starting a new business and you just saved me a ton of hassle. Thank you for sharing!” – Whitney
Caught me by surprise!
There are more relationship building activities I could mention here, that indirectly and over time make money. But I realized that there is a relatively new activity that is actually bringing me quite a few students these days: YouTube!
Nobody is more surprised than me! Video is not a natural medium for me and I am not a fan, for instance, of Instagram reels. But last year I decided to start a YouTube channel because it’s an easy way to share Squarespace updates and to help with known issues. I already make instructional videos for my courses, so in some ways this was a relatively easy step to take.
Plus, my YouTube channel is also a great place to point potential students to who want to get a feel for how I teach.
Growth has been slow but steady, I don’t actively promote my channel (yet), other than share it in strategic places on my website, like the footer of all my posts. People seem to find me and that’s pretty much aligned with how my business has evolved.
How does it make me money?
My channel is still too small to be monetized but about 30% of my course sales come in from people who have found me on YouTube, which is pretty amazing!
My tools
You know me, calm and simple always wins! My videos are not overproduced, there is only a short intro and outro, no fancy graphics or gimmicks. Watching my videos is basically like I am sitting next to you showing you how to do something.
I use Screenflow as my editing software, it’s pretty intuitive and they have good support. I create my chapters/timestamps directly in Screenflow, who also make it easy to upload to YouTube from within the software.
For my intro and outro graphics I use Canva (affiliate link), they are nothing fancy, maybe one day I’ll try and create something snappier but for now they work fine.
I use my built-in iMac camera to record myself as I make the video, and my trusted Blue Yeti microphone for the voice recording.
For now I produce the videos myself, it takes me about 10-30 minutes to pull it all together, depending on how long the video is.
And that’s it! I definitely don’t overthink this and that approach has worked very well.
Update:
I stopped Youtubing when I pivoted to my Calm Business Courses in 2024. The channel was mostly about Squarespace and then I wasn’t sure what to do with it. In the end, the pivot cost a lot of energy, and I decided not to continue with YouTube. As of writing this in 2026, I haven’t quite made up my mind whether to go back to it. It still has a lot of useful videos so I am keeping it up for now. :-)
Conclusion
I hope this excursion into my Top 5 Money Making Activities was helpful. As you can see, relationship building and using tech to optimize processes is very much at the core of how I run a calm and successful business.
