How to Build Your Online Business with the Hourglass Funnel
Pro Bloggers are relentless with their time. They are not perfect. Just like all of us, they fall prey to lazy, unproductive days. But more often than not, they spend what time they have wisely.
In fact, I’ve observed and interviewed some of the best in the world, and I’ve found that they spend the majority of their time in four key areas. I call them the four keystone habits.
The four keystone habits of successful bloggers can be summed up in this simple graph.
The hourglass funnel illustrates for you how each of the four habits work together.
All full-time bloggers spend the majority of their week in these four areas.
How to Build Your Online Business with the Hourglass Funnel
1. The middle of the funnel (the capture habit).
We start in the middle because it’s the most important part of the funnel. Without it, you have no business. Without it, success will always elude you and you’ll wonder what you are missing. The middle of the funnel is the energy of your business.
Ask any Pro Blogger and they’ll tell you email list building is the most important thing in their business. We call this the capture habit. One Pro Blogger I know considers building an e-mail list to be so important that the only stat he tracks daily is: “How many e-mail subscribers did I add today?”
Blog traffic isn’t all that important to him as long as his daily subscription list is growing. In the Hourglass Funnel PDF, you’ll learn some of the favorite ways most Pro Bloggers build an e-mail list.
2. The top of the funnel (the create habit).
This is the hard work that many bloggers never do. To be successful at the top of the funnel, you’ll have to give way beyond your comfort level. The top of the funnel requires you to roll up your sleeves and create value for others at no cost.
Most of my mornings are spent in the create habit. Before you ever expect to receive income, you’ll first need to gain influence and impact with your audience.
Whether it’s in the form of writing blog posts, audio or video, you’ll need to create massive value through taking massive action way before you ever receive massive income. The create habit is at the top of the funnel because all your free, high-value content is what’s going to make your site attractive.
Your free content is so attractive that people will want to get on your e-mail list. I’m going to share with you not only some practical ways to create content for your audience but also how to repurpose that same content so you can get your message out to the masses sooner.
3. The bottom of the funnel (the compile habit).
This is often called “the back-end.” The compile habit is where you’ll spend your time packaging your knowledge and perspective into products and services. You’re not really open for business until you have something to sell on your blog. Many bloggers want to put this off until they have lots of traffic and a large e-mail list.
I’m going to share with you some shocking reasons as to why you shouldn’t wait to monetize your blog. You’ll also learn several ways you can earn money blogging your passion. It’s also important to point out that the reason this is the bottom of the funnel is because it’s much easier to sell to your e-mail subscribers who’ve received lots of free value from you already.
4. What pours into the top of the funnel (the connect habit).
Once you have the top of the funnel (content that creates value), middle of the funnel (ways to capture e-mail addresses) and back of the funnel (ways to sell your knowledge and perspective), it’s time to pour traffic into the top of the funnel.
You do this through connecting with other influencers and going where your audience is already hanging out. We call this the connect habit.
Every successful Pro Blogger will tell you how much they value their relationships with other influencers. Pro Bloggers don’t see other influencers as competition. They highly value the opportunity to surround themselves with other passionate people who are heading in the same direction.
