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Blogging in a Post-HCU World: The Savvy 7-Figure Online Business

Google’s Helpful Content Update (HCU) hit a lot of online businesses hard. Even well-established and authoritative websites experienced a significant drop in their rankings.

That’s why I went behind the scenes with Kelan Kline from The Savvy Couple, which has weathered the storm quite well.

Kelan built his online business up from making $50 in the first year to now seeing around 500k pageviews a month. That led to his online business making 7-figures last year.

Tune in to Episode 605 of the Side Hustle Show to learn:

Strategies for creating content that resonates with Google’s algorithm changes
Ways to diversify traffic sources beyond just Google search
Tools/tech for content creation, email marketing, monetization, and more.

Building Brand Authority After Google’s HCU

Kelan says a strong online brand is essential to surviving Google algorithm updates like the HCU.

“You have to build a brand,” he said, emphasizing the importance of social media, email lists, and video.

Backlinks from respected sites still carry weight in rankings. Staying in a niche also helps bloggers become the trusted source their audience relies on.

Creating Genuinely Helpful Content

But brand-building alone isn’t enough in Google’s eyes. Their crackdown demands truly helpful content that provides unique value beyond simply rewriting what’s already out there.

Heatmap Illustration from Crazy Egg

Kelan creates YouTube videos summarizing his blog posts to showcase his authority and experience on each topic. Tools like Heatmapit.com and Crazy Egg allow him to analyze visitor engagement metrics and optimize content layouts.

He also uses AI writing assistants like SurferSEO, Jasper AI, and ChatGPT. This accelerates production while preserving the human touch of the final product.

The Content Production Engine

Kelan’s team uses Asana for content workflow management. For The Savvy Couple, they publish 2-3 new posts per week, with a production cost around $150-200 each. For the newer The Savvy Mama blog (managed by his wife Brittany), that volume is ramped up to around 4-5 posts weekly.

They set a minimum of 500 monthly searches (per Ahrefs data) for new topics but don’t obsess over “keyword difficulty” scores. As long as at least one other blog ranks in the top 10 results, they’ll take a swing at that keyword.

“Make sure that when you’re doing keyword research, there’s at least one other blog that’s similar to yours within the SERPs or within the top 10. Because if it’s Forbes and New York Times … there’s no way you’re going to rank,” he shared.

The Content Audit and Republishing Process

Nowadays, more of Kelan’s content team’s time is spent updating and republishing existing articles rather than creating net new pieces.

Using SurferAI, they’ll analyze posts that are losing traffic according to Ahrefs data. Those audits identify what user experience or content upgrades are needed, like adding new videos, visuals, or interviews to make the post more valuable.

It’s a bit of a never-ending cycle. “By the time you’re done updating everything, it’s time to start back over at the beginning and do it all over again.”

However, content updates are crucial to maintain a high-quality library that Google likes after the HCU changes.

Diversifying Traffic Sources

While the email lists don’t convert particularly well for course sales/affiliate offers, Kelan does use them strategically to send traffic and engagement signals to new blog posts.

He’ll typically include a link to one or two fresh articles in the regular email newsletter send to that “warm” audience. Those initial surges in pageviews right after publishing can give posts a visibility boost in Google.

Email lists are built primarily through ConvertBox exit-intent popups promoting lead magnets like “Ready to Find Your Perfect Side Hustle?” quiz popup, or general opt-in offers for organization/productivity tips for moms.

The bigger traffic diversification play has been creating videos summarizing the same topics and keywords as Kelan’s top posts, then embedding those clips on the corresponding blog pages.

This allowed his “7 Best Budgeting Apps for 2024 (Mint Alternatives)” video to explode to 46,000+ views—generating a ton of new affiliate conversions and traffic back to the blog.

Pinterest has also become a major traffic source, especially for The Savvy Mama thanks to acquiring another site’s 100,000 follower Pinterest account.

And paid ads were a major investment, with Kelan’s team spending up to $10,000 a day at one point on Facebook campaigns to rapidly grow the Savvy Mama membership base around the holidays.

The Chaos to Control Bundle Funnel

Much of Kelan’s advertising dollars go toward promoting the SavvyMama side of the business.

A core funnel starter offer is the Chaos to Control bundle of digital products and printables designed to help busy moms get organized.

That bundle has a $35 average order value once you factor in upsells. Through some serious testing and tracking, Kelan found the cost to acquire those customers lands around $30 each.

The real goal of those paid campaigns is to get buyers into the membership lifecycle.

While the initial bundle transaction has a low(ish) profit margin, Kelan said it’s really about converting those customers into recurring subscribers.

The Savvy Mama Membership

Kelan said they follow a sequence outlined in Create & Go’s Six-Figure Course Creator. It all starts with agitating the problem potential members are struggling with.

There’s also an element of scarcity and limited time bonuses. For example, the Chaos to Control bundle might be offered as a bonus that goes away if you don’t join the membership within the launch window.

Kelan noted this evergreen launch funnel is all facilitated through ThriveCart. This all-in-one platform handles checkout flows, membership access, and content delivery for just a $495 one-time fee instead of recurring monthly charges from some competing solutions.

Once they join the membership, subscribers get access to a library of printables, meal plans, calendars, and other premium digital downloads refreshed every month. There’s also a Facebook group community component.

The membership was initially priced at $9 per month (they got the idea from Liz Wilcox), but it is now around $17 per month.

Just around 2 years in, the Savvy Mama membership has rapidly grown to over 2000 active paying subscribers.

The Tools and Tech Stack

To handle all of this, Kelan has an extensive tech stack powering the content production, website, email marketing, and membership sides of the business:

SurferSEO, Jasper AI, and ChatGPT – AI writing tools to assist with outlining, drafting, and optimizing blog content
HeatMapIt and Crazy Egg – Heat maps and scroll tracking to analyze how visitors engage with each webpage
Asana – Project management hub for delegating writing tasks to the freelance content team
ConvertBox – Popups and lead capture tools to build the email lists
ThriveCart – All-in-one platform handling Savvy Mama membership sales, access, and content delivery
Mediavine – Display ad network to monetize the growing blog traffic

A Day in the Life of a 7-Figure Blogger

With so many moving parts, you might expect Kelan and his wife Brittany to be chained to their computers 12 hours a day. But they’ve established efficient systems and brought on a team to divide up the workload.

Kelan described a fairly focused 3-4 hour work day. “After that, my brain is complete mush. I don’t know how people work 8 hours a day, I just become so less productive after 4 hours of deep work,” he admitted.

An operations manager runs point on the team of writers, editors, and virtual assistants actually doing the bulk of the day-to-day content creation, optimization, and other tasks.

Kelan just checks in to review analytics and identify which of their top 20 posts need further optimization efforts.

Challenges and Surprises

Business hasn’t been all smooth sailing, though.

Kelan recalled the painful experience of one of his top affiliate income streams—a partnership promoting the Steady App gig work service—shutting down unexpectedly.

“At our peak, we were making close to $5,000 per month. And if you extrapolate that out 12 months, that’s $60,000. And then all of a sudden, they come over and say, ‘Hey, program’s closed.’”

That taught Kelan how important it is to have different sources of income.

Hence, the Savvy Mama membership, “It’s been such a blessing to take the stress off of owning the Savvy Couple and being so reliant on Google by having this recurring monthly membership that we can rely on,” Kelan added.

What’s Next for the Savvy Blogger?

Looking ahead, Kelan’s goal is to continue growing the membership to 10,000 members, further strengthening that recurring revenue foundation.

YouTube is another major priority he’s doubling down on. With a powerful “double-dip” SEO strategy by co-producing videos and blog posts around the same topics, Kelan sees big potential on the video platform before AI-powered content oversaturates it.

Kelan’s online business, mixing blogs and videos with multiple income sources, is bound to not only survive but to also do well in the post-HCU era.

Kelan’s #1 Tip for Side Hustle Nation

“Action over perfection.”

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Amazon Wholesale: How I Sold $3.2M of Other People’s Products Last Year

Ever wish you could get a piece of the Amazon pie?

Corey Ganim banked $3.2 million in sales last year selling other people’s products on the e-commerce giant’s platform.

And he didn’t have to deal with the massive upfront costs and headaches of manufacturing his own products.

Corey got started in early 2019 and went full-time with his unique wholesale business model by mid-2020.

He’s since built a multi-million-dollar business buying brand-name inventory at wholesale prices and reselling it on Amazon at a profit.

In this episode, Corey shares his best tips and insights featured in his book, The 5 Pillars of Amazon Wholesale and his free Wholesale Challenge training.

The Appeal of Wholesale

There are plenty of ways to make money on Amazon—watching YouTube channels like WatchMeAmazon’s online arbitrage videos. A few important things, though, drew Corey to the wholesale model.

In late 2018, he was getting burned out on the retail arbitrage hustle. It was a grind finding one-off products that usually weren’t replenishable inventory he could buy again.

That’s when he discovered wholesaling’s compounding potential:

buy $5k in profitable inventory
sell it
and now you have $6k

Lather, rinse, and repeat.

But it’s not just about the math. As Corey says, to succeed, you have to be able to sell suppliers on letting you purchase their products, negotiate favorable terms, and persistently follow up.

Product Selection Criteria and Competitive Analysis

When evaluating potential wholesale products to sell, Corey looks for three main criteria:

Have existing FBA seller competition – proves there is already demand for the product
Not sold directly or dominated by Amazon – they’ll undercut prices aggressively.
Existing demand with solid sales per month – this justifies stocking and selling the product.

By meeting these criteria, you narrow Amazon’s huge catalog to products with good competition and sales volume, making wholesale distribution profitable.

Start With What You Know: Go Niche

Amazon has so many products that it can be difficult to know where to begin. Corey recommends starting with what you already know and understand.

“If you’re a car enthusiast, well, chances are, you’re probably going to find a lot of opportunities in that automotive category.”

For those without niche interests or expertise, he suggests choosing a main category and going extremely niche within it. “Choose a category automotive, and then find a subcategory within automotive that you can start to learn. So for example, spark plugs,” Corey explained.

You’ll be surprised how many spark plug brands are selling well on Amazon.

Tools/Tech

Having the right tools makes the research process much more efficient. A few of his most-used:

DS Amazon Quick View – free Chrome extension that shows competition on product listings
Amazon Listing Pages – Amazon displays estimated monthly unit sales for many listings
Seller Amp – Chrome extension that calculates your buy cost, fees, and profit after Amazon’s cut. $20/month
Keepa – tracks price history and competition
Seller Snap / Aura – Automated repricers. Seller Snap is around $500/month. Aura has a $27/month “starter” plan.

With these tools, Corey can quickly evaluate wholesale inventory opportunities using his three criteria before buying.

Minimum Sales Price and Order Volumes

The next question is—how much do you need to sell and how much profit do you need to make for a wholesale product to be worth going after?

Corey is not a fan of rules like “It must have 200 units in sales per month” or “I need at least 30% ROI.” He instead judges based on how much money a product could make in a month.

“So if I know that I only buy products and I’m expecting to make, say, $250 in profit per month, then if I can do the math based on estimated sales times my dollar profit per unit, if that’s greater than $250, then I buy it,” Corey explained.

His first “test” orders target 1-2 weeks of supply and lower sales volumes. This small commitment lets him test the product and numbers before investing more.

Finding and Contacting Potential Suppliers

Photo from wholesalechallenge.com

Corey’s preferred method is going directly to the manufacturer, and he goes for the phone every time, as he finds it gets better results.

The worst way to start a conversation is to say, “Hey, I’m an Amazon seller and I want to buy some of your products. Can you send me pricing?” That will get you nowhere fast, or even get you hung up on.

These brands get tons of requests from unprofessional Amazon sellers looking to make a quick buck. You need to differentiate yourself.

Instead, spend 2-3 minutes researching their product list first.

Then when you call, say, “I have 3 products specifically from your brand that I’m looking to purchase. I know the exact quantities that I want to buy, and I have a price in mind that I’m willing to pay. So if we can come to an agreement on that price point, then I can get you a purchase order today. So would you mind sending me over your dealer application?”

This makes you sound like a serious buyer who knows what they’re talking about—increasing your chances of getting a “yes” from the supplier and starting a good relationship with them.

Amazon Wholesale Startup Costs?

For those looking to get started with Amazon wholesale, one of the biggest questions is: how much capital is required? Corey recommends budgeting $5,000 – $10,000 for your initial inventory investments.

“Let’s say you’re starting off with $5k for inventory. Take that $5k, spread it out among 5 different suppliers, 5 different purchase orders, and 5-10 products per order. So you’ve got $5k spread over, let’s say, 50 different products.”

This lets you test more than one product-supplier combination while keeping your risk of losing money low.

Profit Margins

I asked Corey of the $3.2M in sales, how much actually flowed through to the bottom line.

After paying himself a 6-figure salary, the business netted 4.8% last year, or roughly $153,000.

Including his personal salary, the business made at least $250k.

“A healthy wholesale business is operating in the 5-8% net margin range,” he explained. “Ten percent net is crushing it.”

Licenses and Registrations

Starting as an Amazon wholesaler has fewer regulatory requirements than other business models.

The main requirements are:

Business Entity – for most, this will mean registering an LLC to operate under
Employer Identification Number (EIN) – this acts like a “social security number” for your business
Business Bank Account – you’ll need to open a dedicated business bank account, for which you’ll need that EIN
State Reseller/Retailer Registration – to avoid paying sales tax on your wholesale purchases (since your customers will pay it on the Amazon end), you’ll need to register with your state’s revenue department as a retailer

It’s simpler to do wholesale on Amazon compared to other online selling methods because there are fewer rules to follow to sell certain products.

Once you have the necessary registrations sorted out, you can start right away.

Automating Your Pricing with Repricer Tools

These third-party software platforms will change your Amazon listing prices to stay competitive and increase sales.

“So that way I’m not having to log into my Amazon account every hour and adjust my price by a dollar. My repricer is doing it for me automatically while I sleep.”

Corey uses the premium Seller Snap solution, which starts around $500 per month. While expensive, he said the software’s advanced repricing algorithms more than pay for themselves in additional sales.

For those on tighter budgets starting out, Corey suggested the newer Aura tool, which recently launched a $27/month “starter” plan for sellers doing less than $10,000 per month in revenue.

One way this business tool can help you make more money is by saving you time from having to change prices manually all the time.

The Logistics of Getting Inventory to Amazon

The next big problem is getting that stock ready and into Amazon’s fulfillment centers. There are two paths sellers can take:

Fulfilled by Merchant (FBM) – think of this like how you’d sell on eBay, packing and shipping individual orders yourself as they come in
Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA) – you ship all your inventory to Amazon upfront in bulk shipments. Then Amazon handles picking, packing, and shipping individual units to customers.

FBA has higher fees but unlocks Prime badging and generally higher sales conversions. It is also scalable because you do not have to handle each order yourself.

Given the sales volumes he operates at, FBA is Corey’s preferred approach. To deal with this, Corey hires prep centers—companies specialized in preparing products according to Amazon’s strict inbound policies—to handle fulfillment tasks.

Mistakes and Surprises

Corey’s inconsistency in the past has been his biggest mistake.

“If I’ve learned anything in the years of selling on Amazon, our business does the best when we’re consistently buying profitable inventory,” Corey admitted. “So whenever we’ve taken our foot off the gas, that’s when things start to slow down and fall off.”

But when they’re proactive, on top of their game, and consistently ordering profitable inventory, that’s when things continue to grow.

What’s Next for Corey?

After steadily growing his wholesale business for more than 5 years, Corey wants it to make between $5 and $8 million a year.

“So just continuing to scale what it is that we’re doing. In fact, about a year ago, I started posting content very heavily on Twitter at first. Now LinkedIn and YouTube, my podcast, I’ve got all these different media outlets that I’m trying to grow as well.”

With his VA staff handling supplier outreach, product research, and other operational tasks, Corey can remain focused on the highest leverage activities — negotiating deals, placing orders, and nurturing supplier relationships.