From Broke to $391,000/Year on YouTube

How does Cathrin Manning make money online?

Cathrin Manning is a vlogger and online entrepreneur. She helps people grow their online audience through her website The Content Bug and her YouTube videos.

In her November 2022 video, Catherine explains how she went from having $367.22 in her bank account to making almost 400k a year…

If you are a business owner, creator, or just getting started, I suggest you diversify your income like crazy. I have several streams of income, so I don’t have to rely on just one. It is also the easiest way to scale your income.

According to her video, Cathrin’s revenue consists of 6 sources:

1. Affiliate Marketing
2. YouTube Ads
3. Sponsorships
4. Digital Product Sales
5. Merchandise
6. Consulting Services

How much money does Cathrin Manning make?

In an April 2022 video, Cathrin reported that she made $400,000 in 2021…

Her revenue breakdown from that video…

• Affiliate Marketing
  $125,782
• YouTube Ads
  $113,615
• Sponsorships
  $105,040
• Digital Products Sales
  $30,236 (Content Calendar Template, Blow It Up Blueprint)
• Merchandise Sales
  $10,457
• Advising/Consulting
  $6,300 (speaking engagements, one-on-one consultations) 

How did Cathrin Manning get started?

Cathrin majored in photography and marketing. After a series of traumatic events in 2014, she spent the next 2 years just going through the motions. Tired of feeling unhappy, Cathrin created her blog in October 2016 and launched it in January 2017. ¹

In the beginning, she shared her digital marketing knowledge. At the time, she worked as a brand content manager on Facebook and wrote SEO-friendly content for their websites. ²

Almost exactly one year later, she left her desk job to become a full-time blogger. Still, as her blog wasn’t monetized yet, she worked as a part-time freelancer. ³

Then in 2017 Cathrin started her YouTube channel to enhance her blog posts. Slowly, she started sharing her personal development tips, bullet journal, and reading lists under a series titled ‘Create Your Success Online’. ⁴

However, she didn’t see any tangible success until 2019 when she started growing her audience…

A lot of people get started and then drop off. It’s going to take a while to see results. When I started my brand, I didn’t see results for years. If I gave up, as people have told me back then, I wouldn’t be living my dream life.

How did Cathrin Manning scale her business?

She started analyzing her favorite YouTubers, like Vanessa Lau and Gillian Perkins and studied what they did right. She also followed Sunny Lenarduzzi, Thank Media, and Roberto Blake. ⁵

I was consuming the information, but at the same time putting them into action. I remember a video about picking 3 topics for a YouTube channel, so I narrowed it down to blogging, Pinterest, and how I did things. 

One year into her business, Cathrin created an online writing course. The price was $37 and she got zero sales. When she offered it for free, she had some people sign up for it, but she wasn’t thrilled with that project. However, it inspired her to come up with new ideas such as selling her presets, ebooks, and merchandise. ⁶

I was really good at trying and failing, trying more and failing again. As an analytical person, it was easy for me to see what was succeeding and which way I needed to go in order to grow my brand.

However, the real shift for Cathrin’s brand came in October 2019. 

Cathrin’s YouTube channel started to grow and by March 2020 she was making $7,666 in revenue. This happened because she joined three affiliate marketing platforms, introduced several new digital products, and started taking sponsorship deals.

Following the same strategies, Cathrin earned $30,498 in March 2021, of which $12,036 came from affiliate marketing alone. Her advice on how to scale your passive income…

One, join different affiliate marketing programs and make sure those programs are aligned with the content that you create and share in your videos. 

Two, tell your audience about it and share the links as much as you can. I included affiliate links in the description bar of every single video I made!

What tools/resources does Cathrin Manning use?

According to Cathrin’s website, these are her favorite business tools:

• CoSchedule Headline Analyzer – Headline Analyzing App

I usually write 15+ headlines before I decide on the one I will use. But before I make my decision, I run each headline through this headline analyzer to see how it performs based on their evaluation. 

• Tailwind – Social Media & Email Marketing Tool

I only use it for Pinterest right now and it has provided amazing results! I set aside an hour each week to schedule over 200 pins and let Tailwind do the rest for me.

• AdSense – Google Advertising Program

I only use Google AdSense so that is the only platform I am comfortable with recommending. It is easy to use from creating the ads to placing them on your website.

• ShareASale – Affiliate Marketing Network

This is a great option for beginners who want to dive into affiliate marketing. I’ve been using them for about half a year and have really enjoyed my experience so far.

• ConvertKit – Email Marketing Platform