Mallaury Agyei used to work in a corporate company, but she left that job to take care of her family. Now, she makes $5,000 every month by selling printables and templates online. Printables are things people can buy and print at home, like planners or recipe cards. Templates are designs people can use to make their own things, like Pinterest images or Instagram posts.
She first had a blog about pregnancy and birth. This blog did well, getting 40,000 to 50,000 people reading it each month. She sold this blog for $25,000. After selling her blog, she wasn't sure what to do next.
In 2021, Mallaury wanted to make some extra money for the holidays. She saw people selling Pinterest templates in Facebook groups and decided to try making some herself. She made 10 templates and sold four of them on the first day. This small success made her want to do more.
Now, Mallaury has a business called Premium PLR for Bloggers. She has sold more than 8,300 printables and templates to 700 customers. This year, she expects to earn $72,000. Her business is growing, and she's learned a lot along the way.
In this article, we'll look at how Mallaury built her business. We'll see how she makes her products, how she gets customers, and what tools she uses.
Mallaury Agyei
How Mallaury started her business journey
Mallaury's path to starting her own business wasn't straightforward. When she was younger, she thought she wanted to be a doctor, specifically an OB-GYN. But as a teenager, she discovered she really liked business. This interest led her to study business in college and university.
After finishing school, Mallaury got a job in finance. She did well and quickly moved up to higher positions. But things changed when she got married and had children between 2015 and 2017. Mallaury decided that she wanted to spend more time with her family, so she left her corporate job. She was 24 years old and had two young children, just 15 months apart in age.
Being at home with her children gave Mallaury a new idea. She decided to start a blog about pregnancy and childbirth. She worked on this blog for several years and it became successful enough to provide a full-time income. This was Mallaury's first experience with running her own online business.
Making printables from a blog
Mallaury's blog about pregnancy and childbirth did well. It was getting between 40,000 and 50,000 people reading it each month. She also built up a following on Pinterest, with a couple thousand followers and over 1 million monthly views. This success taught Mallaury a lot about creating content that people want to read and share.
While running her blog, Mallaury often made her own graphics and templates. She used these for her blog posts and for sharing on social media. This experience of making designs for her own use would later become very important for her new business.
After a few years of running the blog, Mallaury decided it was time for a change. She sold her blog for about $25,000. This gave her some money to work with and free time to think about what she wanted to do next. Mallaury says she's a creative person who gets bored easily, so she was excited to try something new.
Starting the printables business
In 2021, Mallaury was looking for a way to make some extra money for the holidays. While browsing Facebook groups for creators, she noticed many people were selling Pinterest templates. Having made many templates for her own blog, Mallaury thought she could try this too, even though she was a bit unsure at first.
She created a set of 10 templates and priced each one at $15. To her surprise, she sold four of them on the very first day. This quick success was exciting for Mallaury. She was used to waiting for payments from her blog's ad network and affiliate programs, so getting $60 right away and being able to use it immediately felt great.
Encouraged by this small win, Mallaury kept making more designs. Within a few weeks, people in the Facebook groups started recognizing her work. She was getting so many orders that it became hard to keep up. Her husband suggested she should start her own website to sell her designs, and that's how Premium PLR for Bloggers was born.
Mallaury started her website with just five products. She would work on making new designs while her children were napping. At first, she had no big plan. She just knew her designs were good enough to make a couple hundred dollars a day. She would look at different blogs for ideas and create templates and printables that she thought would be useful.
She began by making printables and templates related to food, and over time, she added items for other topics too. Mallaury has spent thousands of hours improving her skills, building her brand, and growing her business since then.
How much money Mallaury makes
Mallaury's business has grown a lot since she started. So far, she has sold over 8,300 printables and templates. She has served 700 customers and processed more than 3,100 orders. In total, since she started her business, Mallaury has made almost $200,000 in sales.
For this year (2024), Mallaury expects to earn $72,000. In the first half of the year, she had already made $36,256. She expects to make most of her money in the last three months of the year, which is her busiest time.
Mallaury's income comes from three main sources:
1. Digital product sales make up 55% of her income. This is when people buy her printables and templates.
2. Monthly subscriptions bring in 40% of her income. Some customers pay a monthly fee to get access to her products.
3. Affiliate sales account for 5% of her income. This is when she recommends other people's products and gets a commission if someone buys them.
Mallaury's website gets about 47,000 page views per year. It's important to note that her site is a shop for printables and templates, not a blog. This means people come to her site specifically to buy things, not just to read articles.
Mallaury typically works about 20 hours each week on her business. She spends a bit more time working during the last three months of the year when things get busier. She also has a virtual assistant who helps her manage tasks and keep everything running smoothly.
How Mallaury markets her products
Mallaury's main way of marketing her products is by building strong relationships with her customers. She spends a lot of time talking to people who buy her products and making sure they're happy. She does this mostly through her email list and her Facebook group.
This personal approach has worked well for Mallaury. She even shared a story about one customer who said she keeps coming back because she likes how much effort Mallaury puts into her designs. This customer said she plans to keep buying from Mallaury for a long time. When customers are this happy, they often tell their friends about Mallaury's products, which brings more people to her shop.
Mallaury believes that building these relationships is more important than using regular marketing tricks. By taking the time to talk to her customers and create a sense of community, she makes her business different from others. People feel like they know Mallaury and trust her, which makes them want to buy from her.
While Mallaury is thinking about using paid ads to make her business grow faster, she still thinks that building relationships with customers is the most important thing. She believes that when people feel connected to her and her business, they're more likely to keep buying from her and tell others about her products.
Using SEO to get found online
SEO, which stands for Search Engine Optimization, is very important for Mallaury's business. It helps people find her printables and templates when they're searching online. Mallaury has a few ways she uses SEO to help her business.
First, she does something called keyword research. This means she tries to figure out what words people use when they're looking for products like hers. She uses tools like Everbee and Etsy to find popular words and phrases that are related to printables and templates. She also looks at what words her competitors are using. This helps her find gaps where she can make products that other people aren't making.
Once Mallaury knows what words people are using, she puts these words in her product titles, descriptions, and tags. This helps search engines like Google understand what her products are about, so they can show her products to people who are looking for them.
Mallaury also plans to start a blog soon. This blog will talk about topics related to her products and will include links to the products in her shop. This will help create more content that search engines can find, which could bring more people to her website.
For link building, which is another important part of SEO, Mallaury uses her affiliate program. This means other people can share links to her products and earn money if someone buys through their link. These links from other websites help search engines see that Mallaury's site is trustworthy.
Mallaury keeps her SEO strategy simple. She focuses on thinking like her customers and using words that they would use when searching. This helps her connect with the right people who are looking for products like hers.
How Mallaury creates her products
Mallaury has a specific way of creating her printables and templates. She starts by making a big list of products she wants to create for each three-month period (or quarter). Then, she sets aside two or three days each week just for designing.
On her design days, Mallaury chooses what to work on based on what she feels inspired to create that day. She begins by picking out colors, fonts, and graphics or photos that she wants to use. Then, she opens up Canva, which is the design tool she uses, and starts with a blank page.
Mallaury experiments with different ideas until she has a rough version of the design that she likes. This might take several tries before she's happy with it. Once she has a rough design she likes, she starts to refine it. She makes small changes and improvements until she has a final product that she's proud of.
When it comes to choosing what kinds of products to make, Mallaury started with printables and templates related to food. Over time, she's added products for other topics too. She gets ideas by looking at different blogs that interest her and thinking about what kinds of printables or templates might be useful for those topics.
Mallaury spends a lot of time on her designs. She says she's put thousands of hours into improving her skills and creating products. This dedication shows in her work and is one reason why her customers keep coming back.
It's worth noting that Mallaury doesn't have a blog on her website yet. Her site is focused on selling her printables and templates. However, she plans to add a blog in the future, which will help her share more information with her customers and improve her SEO.
Growing Her email list
Mallaury knows that having a good email list is important for her business. To get people to sign up for her emails, she offers many different free things. One of her best offers is a big collection of free digital products that people can use and even sell themselves. This is very attractive to many people because they're getting something valuable for free.
To let people know about these free offers, Mallaury uses social media. She talks about them on TikTok and in her Facebook group. This helps her reach more people who might be interested in her products.
Mallaury also takes part in special events called B2B bundle events. These are like big online gatherings where many business owners work together. In these events, Mallaury can show her best free offer to over 200,000 people. This is a great way for her to get many new people to sign up for her email list.
Once people are on her email list, Mallaury makes sure to stay in touch with them regularly. She sends them helpful tips, special offers that only they can get, and updates about her business. This keeps people interested and makes them more likely to buy her products.
Tools Mallaury uses for her business
Mallaury relies on three main tools to run her business. The first and most important is Canva. She uses Canva for all of her design work. It's where she creates all of her printables and templates.
The second tool Mallaury uses a lot is MailChimp. This is what she uses to send emails to all the people on her email list. MailChimp helps her organize her subscribers and send out her regular updates and offers.
The third important tool for Mallaury is Facebook. She uses Facebook to connect directly with her customers and people who are interested in her products. She has a Facebook group where she can share updates, talk to people, and get feedback on her products.
These three tools - Canva, MailChimp, and Facebook - are the backbone of Mallaury's business. They help her create her products, stay in touch with her customers, and build a community around her brand.
Biggest challenges in running the business
As Mallaury's business grew, she faced some big challenges. The biggest one was trying to keep her work high-quality while dealing with more and more orders and tasks.
When her business started getting bigger, Mallaury found it hard to do everything by herself. She wanted every product to be really good, but it was difficult to manage all the work on her own. This problem got even harder because she also needed to keep coming up with new ideas and keep up with what customers wanted.
Mallaury realized that trying to do everything herself was making her very tired and stressed. She learned that it's okay to ask for help. She started to give some tasks to other people and hire help. This was a big change that made things much better.
By getting help, Mallaury was able to focus on the parts of her business she loves most - designing new products and talking to her customers. This made her work better and her business stronger.
Mallaury's proudest moments
Mallaury has had many proud moments in her business, but a few stand out. One thing she's really proud of is that her work has been used by creators of big blogs. These blogs have been featured on famous websites and TV shows like BuzzFeed, ABC News, Tasting Table, and Reader's Digest. Seeing her designs used by such well-known sites makes Mallaury feel very accomplished.
Another thing that makes Mallaury proud is that she can work for herself on her own terms. She can decide when she works and how she runs her business. This freedom is very important to her, especially as a mom with young children. She's proud that she can be successful in her business while also having the flexibility to be there for her family.
Mallaury is also proud of how much her business has grown. She started with just a few products and now has sold thousands of printables and templates. She's served hundreds of customers and processed over 3,000 orders. Seeing these numbers and knowing how far she's come makes her feel very accomplished.
All of these achievements show how Mallaury has turned her creativity and hard work into a successful business. They remind her of how much she's learned and grown since she started her journey as an entrepreneur.
What Mallaury wishes she knew at the start
When Mallaury looks back on her journey, there's one big lesson she wishes she had known from the beginning: it's okay to ask for help. In the early days of her business, Mallaury tried to do everything by herself. She handled all the design work, took care of customer service, managed her website, and did all the marketing. This approach led to a lot of stress and she often felt overwhelmed.
Now, Mallaury understands that trying to do everything alone can lead to burnout. She realizes that bringing in support and delegating tasks is not a sign of weakness, but a smart business move. If she had known this earlier, she might have been able to grow her business faster and with less stress.
Mallaury also wishes she had understood the importance of systems and processes from the start. As her business grew, she found herself spending a lot of time on repetitive tasks. If she had set up good systems earlier, she could have saved time and energy. Now, she has processes in place for everything from creating new products to handling customer inquiries, which makes her business run much more smoothly.
Another thing Mallaury wishes she had known is the value of networking with other entrepreneurs. In the beginning, she worked mostly in isolation. Now, she sees how much she can learn from others in similar businesses. Connecting with other entrepreneurs has given her new ideas, helped her solve problems, and provided emotional support when things get tough.
Plans for the future
Mallaury has big plans for the future of her business. One of her main goals is to continue growing her income. She's aiming to reach $100,000 in annual revenue in the near future. To achieve this, she's focusing on creating more high-value products and expanding her customer base.
Another important part of Mallaury's future plans is to start a blog on her website. She sees this as a way to provide more value to her customers and improve her website's SEO. The blog will cover topics related to her products, giving tips and ideas on how to use printables and templates effectively. This content will not only help her current customers but also attract new ones who are searching for information online.
Mallaury is also considering expanding into new product lines. While she currently focuses on printables and templates, she's exploring the idea of creating digital courses. These courses would teach her customers how to use her products more effectively or how to create their own digital products. This would add another income stream to her business and position her as an expert in her field.
In terms of marketing, Mallaury plans to explore paid advertising more in the future. While she's had great success with organic growth and word-of-mouth marketing, she sees potential in using targeted ads to reach new customers. She's particularly interested in testing Facebook and Instagram ads, as well as Pinterest promoted pins.
Lastly, Mallaury wants to continue building and nurturing her community. She plans to invest more time and resources into her Facebook group and email list, creating more engaging content and fostering deeper connections with her customers. She believes that a strong, loyal community will be key to her long-term success.
Advice for new entrepreneurs
Mallaury has learned a lot on her journey, and she has some valuable advice for new entrepreneurs:
1. Start before you feel ready: Mallaury emphasizes that you don't need to have everything perfect before you start. She began with just a few products and learned as she went along. Taking that first step is often the hardest, but it's necessary to get your business off the ground.
2. Focus on providing value: Mallaury's success comes from creating products that genuinely help her customers. She advises new entrepreneurs to focus on understanding their customers' needs and creating products or services that solve real problems.
3. Be willing to adapt: The business world is always changing, and Mallaury has had to adapt many times. She encourages new entrepreneurs to be flexible and willing to change their approach if something isn't working.
4. Invest in learning: Mallaury spent a lot of time learning new skills, from design to marketing. She advises new entrepreneurs to invest in their own education, whether through online courses, books, or mentorship.
5. Build relationships: One of Mallaury's key strategies has been building strong relationships with her customers. She advises new entrepreneurs to focus on creating a community around their brand, not just making sales.
6. Don't be afraid to ask for help: This is the lesson Mallaury wishes she had learned earlier. She encourages new entrepreneurs to reach out for help when they need it, whether that's hiring support or seeking advice from other business owners.
7. Take care of yourself: Running a business can be stressful, and Mallaury emphasizes the importance of self-care. She advises new entrepreneurs to make time for rest and activities they enjoy outside of work.
Conclusion
As more people shop online, there's room for creative entrepreneurs to find their niche. But it's not just about making products - it's about understanding what people want and how to reach them.
For those thinking about starting an online business, Mallaury's story shows it's possible, but it takes work. There's no magic formula, just consistent effort and a willingness to adapt.
In the end, success in online business comes down to solving problems for real people. That's what turns viewers into customers, and customers into long-term supporters.
