It's been a few weeks since I've landed in your inbox.

And that's because I've been waist-deep in projects that are going really, really, REALLY well and taking up a lot more time than I thought they would.

So today I want to talk about what's working for me and what's not working for me (and others):

WHAT'S WORKING FOR BLOGGING ✅

#1) Facebook Pages.

Facebook has been working SO well that I'm almost back to Mediavine Pro with my travel site (which means $100,000+ in display ad income in one year). That hasn't happened in a couple of years.

And my new blog is about 5,000 pageviews away from qualifying for Raptive. I'll hit that marker in the next week or so.

The majority of that traffic is coming from Facebook and my email list. If you don't have an email list.. this is another sign from me to start one.

June was also a great month for RPMs, so Mediavine ad income was on fire 🔥

#2) Growing our email list through Facebook.

We're getting about 70 new subscribers a day to our decently new email list. And almost all of that is coming from our Facebook page + a ManyChat automation.

That list is at 8,000 subscribers now, which is insane 🤯 It's also bringing in about 50-100 readers per day to our blog.

🚨 One heads up: ManyChat charges based on how many contacts you have, so your bill grows with your list. I wish it was a flat fee, but it's not. But compared to what an email list is worth, it's still relatively cheap.

#3) Talking to your subscribers.

I've been asking our list questions NON-STOP. Polls and questions like,

"What can we deliver more of?"

"What's your favorite section of this week's newsletter?"

"What are you struggling with most?"

Not only does this make your emails better..

..it gives you product ideas on a silver platter. If the same problem keeps coming up, that's something people would pay you to solve.

A QUICK REALITY CHECK ON AFFILIATES

Affiliate income from Facebook traffic doesn't perform like SEO traffic did.

And that makes sense; my content right now is how-to and entertainment focused. I'm catching people in spontaneous moments, when they want a distraction, not when they're in the mood to buy.

Affiliates can still do well, but with social traffic, they usually won't outshine your ad income or sponsorship opportunities.

But your newsletter is a different story. Affiliate campaigns through email do really well, as long as you're not sending ONE email and giving up when nobody buys.

Build an actual campaign for your affiliate product or service. Like a promo with multiple emails over a few days. Don't just send it once and ghost.

WHAT'S NOT WORKING FOR BLOGGING ❌

All-AI content.

I'm seeing this everywhere on Facebook right now. People pumping out nothing but AI posts, all day, every day.

To be clear, we still use some AI content. Usually 2 of the 8 posts we publish per day.

But we make them really well done, and obviously AI on purpose. Things like sketches, cartoons, that kind of thing.

I never create fake "photos" of real places. In the travel niche especially, that will come back to bite you.

Essentially, if you put shoddy work in, you'll get shoddy results out.

And I can literally see this in our Kit dashboard.

When we leaned harder on AI content, subscribers and engagement dipped massively. When we put more of our own effort in, there was a night and day difference.

Check out our subscriber rate below - can you see where we stopped using primarily AI content?

The numbers don't lie.

There's actually another Facebook page copying us right now (hi, if you're reading this 👋). They use nothing but AI. And sure, they're getting fine results today.

But this will come back to bite them. Pinterest already labels AI content, and I can almost guarantee that Facebook follows.

Use AI as a tool, yes. But do it sparingly and smartly. And put your own human effort in.

That's the reason our travel blog will reach Mediavine Pro this year, and it's the reason our new blog is on the cusp of Raptive.

If you want the systems behind all of this (the Facebook strategy, the ManyChat automation, the newsletter frameworks), it's all inside The Blog & Newsletter Lab:

Cancel anytime, or stay as long as you'd like.

Talk to you soon,
Laura