Today’s Deep Dive - The inner workings of Melissa Maker’s wildly successful cleaning content empire.

CLEAN MY SPACE 🧼 

Since launching as a YouTube channel in 2011, Melissa Maker has grown Clean My Space into an online following of 2.5 million people spanning 165 countries.

Here’s a deep dive into how she takes a niche she hates (cleaning) and turns it into a winning content business monetized in 8 different ways.

What You’ll Get Today:

• ⚙️ Strategy - The big-picture mechanics of the business

• 🚀 Traffic - How she generates attention (clicks, reads, views)

• 💖 Trust - How she nurtures and builds loyalty with the audience

• 💰 Monetization - How she turns that traffic and loyalty into revenue

• 🧰 Toolbox - Content tools Clean My Space is using right now

Let’s dive in.

⚙️ The Strategy

The Clean My Space business model in 3 steps:

• Generate traffic to the brand using Google, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram 

• Build trust through email marketing, comprehensive multimedia content, and authority signals.

• Turn traffic into revenue through:

  1. YouTube ads

  2. Blog ads

  3. Amazon affiliate revenue

  4. eBooks and Printables

  5. An $18 decluttering digital course

  6. Their own microfiber cleaning tools and products (“Maker’s Clean”)

  7. Physical book sales

  8. Sponsorships

Let’s dig into the content funnel, step by step.

Traffic → Trust → Monetization

🚀 Traffic Breakdown

Here’s where it is as of October 2023:

• Blog - 115K views/month (estimate from Ubersuggest/SimilarWeb)

• YouTube - 2.1m subs, 1.65m views/month (estimate from SocialBlade)

• TikTok - 19K followers

• Instagram - 135K followers

• Facebook - 273K followers

Melissa seems to focus on her YouTube channel, blog, and Instagram profile.

The Facebook Page has a large following but traffic to the blog is negligible according to SimilarWeb.

Let’s go through the main channels:

YouTube:

(link to channel)

The largest traffic source.

Main Roles:

• Generate YouTube ad revenue.

• Via links in YouTube video descriptions:

  • Direct people to her “Maker’s Clean” cleaning products shop.

  • Direct people to relevant paid eBooks

  • Direct people to a paid decluttering course

The most prominent call to action (CTA) in YouTube videos:

To go to the Maker’s Clean shop and buy their own microfiber cleaning products.

Content:

• Videos are often paired with blog posts to go with them.

• YouTube SEO-focused videos targeting specific keywords.

  • Example keywords: “diy cleaning products”, “how to clean bathroom”, “how to clean oven”

  • These videos rank very high when their respective keywords are searched for on YouTube.

  • The videos also often rank high on the video section of Google’s search results.

• Or “social” content created for viral potential or engagement and not targeting a specific keyword:

  • Eg. “The WORST Cleaning Advice Ever! (TikTok FAILS)” (link)

  • “1 Hour Of Cleaning Motivation With Melissa Maker!” (link)

Blog: 

(link)

Main Roles:

• Generate ad revenue (partnered with Raptive).

• Link people to paid eBooks through blog posts.

• Link people to the paid decluttering course.

• Link people to their Maker’s Clean shop via a banner in the sidebar.

• Grow the email list and sell more products through email marketing.

How The Blog Gets Traffic (from SimilarWeb):

1. Organic Search: 67%

   • Predominantly from Google

2. Direct Traffic: 21%

3. Social Traffic: 10%

   • Breakdown: 86% from YouTube links, 6% Reddit, 4.5% Facebook 

Content:

Blog posts siloed into four main categories: cleaning, products and tools, cleaning routines, and decluttering.

• Most blog posts seem to target a specific keyword to rank on Google, especially how-to posts. For example:

  • “How to Clean Bathroom Tiles, Soap Scum, and Bathroom Grout” (link) - Keyword: “how to clean bathroom tiles”

  • “Everything you Need to Know About Cleaning with Essential Oils” (link) - Keyword: “how to clean with essential oils”

• Some blog posts don’t target a keyword and seem to have just been written to go with a corresponding YouTube video. For example:

  • The WORST Cleaning Advice Ever! (TikTok FAILS) (link)

Instagram:

(link)

Main Roles:

• Through links in the profile bio:

  • Direct people to YouTube or the blog.

  • Direct people to the paid decluttering course.

  • Direct people to their Maker’s Clean shop.

  • Direct people to a recommendations page on their blog - Amazon affiliate revenue.

Content:

• Reels are often repurposed from YouTube content. Long-form videos clipped into short-form snippets.

  • Example - this YouTube video was clipped and repurposed into this Instagram Reel.

• Good engagement - 400 to 1000 likes per post on average.

💖 Building Trust

Melissa Maker builds trust with her audience in a couple of important ways:

The Dirty Dish Newsletter

Melissa’s weekly newsletter shares helpful cleaning hacks, DIY cleaning recipes, and more.

She regularly delivers value while also making soft pitches for her products.

A banner on the blog’s homepage:

There’s also a free lead magnet Melissa uses to collect email addresses through popular blog posts:

A decluttering challenge (3-day email course).

Once you sign up for the challenge, you’re on the email list.

Email 1: Links to helpful pieces of her decluttering content and also pitches an eBook mega bundle and the paid 90-day decluttering course.

Email 2: Decluttering tutorial video. No pitches/selling.

Email 3: Helpful decluttering content and a pitch for the paid 90-day decluttering course.

Here’s what the email funnel looks like:

Authority And Trust Signals

Melissa’s brand is peppered with signals that she can be trusted:

• Blog header: “Trusted Cleaning Advice Since 2009”. She lets her audience know she’s here for the long run.

• The author profile on blog posts mentions features on The Today Show, InStyle, Real Simple, and Better Homes and Gardens.

• The About Page mentions that she’s a bestselling author. Publishing a well-reviewed book is a badge of authority for a content creator.

So, she’s generated the traffic and built the trust.

Next:

…Bringing in the money.

💰 Monetization

A quick recap of the ways Clean My Space generates revenue:

1. YouTube ads

2. Blog ads

3. Amazon affiliate revenue

4. eBooks and Printables

5. An $18 decluttering digital course

6. Maker’s Clean - their own cleaning tools

7. Physical book sales

8. Sponsorships

Ad revenue will be substantial.

There aren’t many affiliate links on blog posts.

But there is an “Our Favorites” page with affiliate links to Melissa’s preferred cleaning products on Amazon.

Let’s go through the more interesting revenue sources:

Maker’s Clean - Own Products

Melissa's content often directs her audience to Maker’s Clean, her microfiber cleaning cloth brand.

The shop is linked to from:

• Blog navigation bar

• Banner in blog sidebar

• YouTube video descriptions

• Instagram bio

She's sold over 250,000 items since launching in 2015.

The profit margins are likely to be around 25-30%.

Compare this with the 4-5% they’d get recommending a similar product on Amazon as an affiliate.

While e-commerce demands more effort, it offers greater control and profit.

eBooks And Printables

Melissa frequently promotes her paid eBooks.

• Most blog posts direct readers to the “3 wave cleaning system” eBook.

• An eBooks and printables page is accessible from the navigation bar.

• Several YouTube video descriptions connect to relevant paid eBooks.

Prices are affordable, between $10 to $20.

She markets them extensively, suggesting high conversion.

A 5 eBook bundle is available for $29, promoted on the homepage and popular blog posts.

Though eBooks might not be as popular now, their consistent promotion indicates they’re still profitable for Melissa.

🧰 Toolbox

Some tools we found Clean My Space using at the time of writing:

• Blog Ads - Raptive (formerly known as AdThrive)

• Email Marketing - Active Campaign

• Site Speed - WP Rocket

• Contact Forms - OptinMonster Plugin

• SEO Optimization - Yoast

• E-commerce Platform - Shopify

• eBooks sales on blog - WooCommerce

• Blog Hosting - WPEngine 

• Camera - Canon 5D Mark II camera (not up to date - mentioned from video in 2013!)

📝 Key Takeaways:

🛍️ Consider Owning Your Products: Higher margins, more control than affiliate marketing.

📚 Don’t Underestimate eBooks: Still a viable business model and (relatively) easy to create.

💌 Newsletters Matter: Direct communication boosts trust, boosts sales, and reduces platform risk.

♻️ Repurpose Content: Expand reach by adapting content for various platforms. Turn blog posts into YouTube videos, YouTube videos into reels, and so on.

🔍 Mix Content: Balance between content created for social engagement/viral potential and content focused on targeting keywords for SEO.

And that’s all for today!

Dilshan And Misya, The Pen Pivot