How I Grew My Self Defense Blog To $72K/Year

Bryn Todd

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Published: June 17th, 2022

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Bryn Todd

Founder, I should have said

$6K

revenue/mo

Founders

Employees

I should have said

ishouldhavesaid.net

from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

started April 2022

$6,000

revenue/mo

Founders

Employees

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Want more updates on I should have said? Check out these stories:

1. How I Created A Profitable Blog Helping People Defend Against Bullies (2019) ➜

Hello again! Remind us who you are and what business you started.

I started my business I Should Have Said after I was verbally attacked at the planetarium in front of my children. A man was screaming at me for something minor that my son said.

My son said that a picture of the earth looked ugly, and the boy sitting next to my son complained. I explained that my son was entitled to his opinion. The boy’s dad marched up and started yelling at me in front of 20 families! I was so embarrassed and mad about how I meekly responded to his verbal attack.

I kept thinking I should have said and then I came up with the idea for the website: I Should have Said - Verbal Self Defense made Easy.

We sell products that help people with verbal self-defence. Verbal Self Defense Made Easy.

Tell us about what you’ve been up to! Has the business been growing?

I added a new revenue stream with digital products, selling bundles, and courses. When I first started the website I was focused on ad revenue. I never had any intention of creating products or promoting anything, everything happened organically.

Parents kept asking me for help with their kids with bullying and verbal self-defense. I have pivoted and created a new blog called Bully Proof Your Child Program.

The focus of that blog is to sell a course that will range from $97 to $297. The course helps parents bullyproof their kids and turn bullying situations around. I created the silver level of the course, and now I am creating a gold package. By having a higher-priced version of the course I will have more budget to run ads and acquire customers.

I wasted time reaching out to some people who have an audience of my target customer but don’t know how to market. It was a waste of time.

I am starting to run ads for this course, the Bullyproof Your Child Toolkit. I am also actively seeking affiliates for people with a parenting audience. We pay a 50% commission to our affiliates. I am also seeking affiliates for my verbal self-defense products. I am reaching out to bloggers who want to earn affiliate income on their site's site.

The audiences are middle-aged women and men 30 to 40 years old. I am reaching out to bloggers who want to earn affiliate income on their sites. I have a few affiliates already, and I am looking for more.

I market to my email list and I currently acquire customers through both blogs.

I am selling digital bundles and courses. At the beginning of my blog, I focused on SEO, however, my traffic is declining.

I will need to focus some energy on pumping out blog posts that will appeal to my target customer. I am also going to start running Google ads on my Bully-Proof Your Child Toolkit Product, which has a higher price point.

What have been your biggest lessons learned in the last year?

When reaching out to affiliates, only go with people who know how to market. I wasted time reaching out to some people who have an audience of my target customer but don’t know how to market. It was a waste of time.

One of the lessons I learned is: never start a business unless you can reach the target customer through paid marketing channels.

A lot of people who do well take their customers on a journey and create ascension products. With my products, once they’ve solved the problem they don’t need anything else. I picked a really hard market to get into. If I had to do it over again, I would probably pick something easier with more affiliate opportunities and product opportunities.

What’s in the plans for the upcoming year, and the next 5 years?

My upcoming plans are to market the Bully-Proof Your Child Toolkit into a six-figure business. I plan to go on podcasts, use paid advertising, expand the blog and find affiliates.

After that is running on semi autopilot, I want to create a physical products business with my kids. I look forward to working with them and spending time together and seeing them grow.

Have you read any good books in the last year?

The best book I've read in the last year is Alex Hormozi's $100M Offers: How to Make Offers So Good People Feel Stupid Saying No. Reading Alex’s book you will learn how to make your product irresistible to your customers.

I learn more from Alex’s Instagram than from many $1,000 courses. His Youtube Channel and podcast called The Game are full of unbelievable value.

Advice for other entrepreneurs who might be struggling to grow their business?

When you create a business, pick something where you can reach your customer by running ads so you can scale. With my verbal self-defense product, it is hard to target the customer with paid ads.

I acquire most of my customers through my website and then sell through my email list. If you pick something in gardening, that you can target by the interest it is easier to run Facebook ads.

I was stuck with a marketing issue and I wasn’t sure of the best way to proceed. I found someone who has a podcast and has all of the answers to how I can reach my goal.

I took courses to learn how to sell products and it helped create a new significant revenue stream for me. I would never have been able to figure out a lot of this stuff myself, and I highly recommend getting training.

I found that Activate Coaching helped learn about selling products and marketing to your list.

Where can we go to learn more?

If you have any questions or comments, drop a comment below!

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