How The Creative Penn Became a Million-Dollar Self-Publishing and Blogging Business

The Creative Penn is a site about composing and creativity. It was established by Joanna Penn in 2008, and has because

ended up being a go-to resource for writers of all levels. The website includes posts on everything from how to get released to how to overcome innovative blocks, as well as interviews with effective authors and

market professionals. Today, Joanna produces around one third of her income from her writing business and the rest from innovative composing direction and blogging. She started writing in 2006 and stopped her business task to dedicate her time to composing in 2011.

Now, she even utilizes her husband full-time to assist her handle her growing composing empire. The website has over 1000+articles and over 500+hours of totally free audio and video, as well as additional downloads and bonus offer product!

Let’s take a deeper check out how The Creative Penn website supports a multi-million-dollar self-publishing success story.

How The Creative Penn Gets Its Traffic

The site appears to be drawing in 114k month-to-month sees.

creative penn traffic

According to SimilarWeb, almost 60%of its traffic originates from organicCreative penn traffic sources

search, with most of the rest being direct. What is interesting about this introduction is how little traffic the site gets from social networks. Delving deeper into the social networks traffic reveals that nearly 43%is from YouTube, where The Creative Penn channel has 47.1 k customers. The majority of the 800 +videos are recordings of the weekly podcast, along with some composing tutorials.

What Types of Keywords Does The Creative Penn Target? The Creative Penn site is looking pretty strong, but what does

it require to remain safe from Google charges? Out of all the keywords, over two-thirds have educational intent. That’s an excellent sign that the website isn’t just a dumping ground for money pages masquerading as useful

short articles. There’s enough valuable material here to keep things well balanced and provide readers what they’re searching for. As long as The Creative Penn keeps up this good work, they need to be safe from any future charges.
creative penn top pages

That stated, some of the top carrying out pages on the website include affiliate links. The top performing page after the home page is an article about book cover design.

How Their ‘Money Pages’ Look

Whilst it’s real that you should not judge a book by its cover, there’s no rejecting that a stunning cover can be the difference in between a reader providing your book a possibility or passing it over entirely.

This is NOT a job you need to depend your 15-year-old nephew who is taking an art class in high school!

cretive penn book design page 1

After a number of paragraphs motivating you to purchase an expert book cover style if you want to provide your work the very best possibility of success, this article lists over 80 resources for book cover style, many of which are affiliate links.

cretive penn book design page 2

Joanna lists book cover designers she has actually used personally, now and in the past, along with those who work for fellow writers, and some of the designers use discount codes.

Joanna’s non-fiction books for writers have actually long been essential in funneling visitors to the courses classification page, which is the third highest-performing page on the site.

Her composing courses are well concerned within the market, supplying authors with the tools they need to enhance their craft.


how the creative penn became a million dollar self publishing and blogging business 8


creative penn courses

As a result, the courses classification page is a fundamental part of the site, showcasing Joanna’s

knowledge and assisting authors to improve their skills. By using Teachable as her preferred platform for hosting her courses, Joanna can give students a fantastic user experience and increase the likelihood they’ll acquire once again.

What’s Their Link Profile Like?

Joanna’s site is doing rather well, drawing in links from high authority sites such as The Guardian, Wikipedia and the BBC.

It’s likely that the useful material drew these links in, however Joanna’s active presence as a podcast guest most likely didn’t harmed either.

creative penn backlinks

It’s clear that the website has actually succeeded in generating links– whether through natural methods or through active outreach. In any case, it’s clear that the site is doing something right.

Maintain the good work, Joanna!

What Does The Site Do Well?

The Creative Penn is a tidy, professional looking website with clear navigation and simple to find info. Joanna Penn has a background in marketing and it shows. The color scheme is pleasing to the eye, and the navigation is easy to comprehend.

First impressions are everything, especially on the web. Which is why it’s important to ensure your homepage is up to snuff. And when it comes to sign-ups, there’s no space for error.

The register to her mailing list is clear, succinct, and simple to find. It’s simply below the fold on the web page, so visitors won’t have to scroll down to discover it.

She’s got a great lead magnet to offer– and the buttons are crystal clear.

creative penn lead magnet

The email register is also featured in the sidebar and the footer. As far as mailing list platforms go, she’s utilizing ConvertKit. So you understand your information will be in good hands.

How Does The Creative Penn Make Its Money?

There are no advertisements on the website, so that’s not the source of profits. Instead, it appears to count on affiliate links for products and services that Joanna suggests and utilizes, such as writing software, book cover design and modifying services, and other resources.

In addition to affiliate earnings, The Creative Penn likewise offers Joanna’s items. These consist of e-books, audio books, and online courses.

How Much Money Does The Creative Penn Make?

It’s important to keep in mind The Creative Penn is part of a bigger ecosystem. In 2021, Joanna Penn’s book sales revenue was simply a little over 6 figures in GBP, but just comprises around 1/3 of her business income.

Her other streams (affiliate income, courses, podcast sponsorship and patronage) are driven by The Creative Penn site and her podcast, so we can assume that she’s generating upwards of $200K per year once the book sales are gotten of the equation.

And SimilarWeb estimates a yearly profits in between $1-5 million!

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What Can We Learn From The Creative Penn Website? The Creative Penn is a terrific example of how a well-run site can support a million-dollar author business owner organization. The site gets the majority of its traffic from organic search, and its top keywords reveal it is a go-to resource for authors of all levels.

What’s a lot more impressive is that she’s constructed all of this while being based in the UK, where the expense of living is infamously high.

If you would like to self publish a book however feel like your dreams are out of reach, bear in mind that Joanna Penn is evidence that anything is possible.

how the creative penn became a million dollar self publishing and blogging business

how the creative penn became a million dollar self publishing and blogging business

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