Case Study: How a Drawing Tutorial Website Earns $10K+/Month
EasyDrawingGuides.com teaches step-by-step drawing tutorials. With 2,300+ tutorials and 500,000+ monthly visitors, it generates an estimated $10,000-30,000/month. The most surprising fact: the founder says "I am terrible at drawing." He built a production system. Here is the full breakdown.
The SEO Strategy
"How to draw" is a keyword goldmine. Every object, animal, and character has a dedicated tutorial search:
- "How to draw a cat" — 90,000+ monthly searches
- "How to draw a dog" — 110,000+ monthly searches
- "How to draw a flower" — 60,000+ monthly searches
Multiply this by thousands of objects, animals, characters, and seasonal items. The keyword universe is essentially infinite. EasyDrawingGuides captured this by publishing systematically — 2,300 tutorials covering every imaginable subject.
Each tutorial targets one specific keyword. The content format is perfect for SEO: clear, visual, step-by-step, and satisfying user intent completely. Google ranks these highly because they are genuinely the best result for "how to draw X."
Traffic and Audience
500,000+ monthly visitors from three primary sources:
- Google Search (70%): Hundreds of ranking tutorials, each capturing its specific keyword
- Pinterest (20%): Drawing tutorials are highly pinnable. Each tutorial creates multiple pin opportunities
- Direct and referral (10%): Teachers, parents, and returning visitors
The audience is global and broad: children, parents, teachers, hobbyists, and aspiring artists. This diversity means traffic is stable — no single algorithm change can wipe it out.
Three Revenue Streams
1. Display Ads: $5,000-10,000/month With 500K+ monthly visitors, ad revenue is substantial. At a conservative $10-20 RPM (revenue per 1,000 pageviews), the site earns $5,000-10,000 from ads alone. Family-friendly content attracts premium advertisers.
2. Membership: $2,000-5,000/month The site offers a premium membership ($5.99/month) with exclusive tutorials, ad-free browsing, and printable resources. Even a small conversion rate (1-2% of visitors) generates meaningful recurring revenue.
3. Printables and Affiliate Links: $1,000-3,000/month Printable drawing worksheets, coloring pages, and art supply affiliate links (Amazon Associates for pencils, markers, sketchbooks) add a third revenue stream.
Total estimated revenue: $8,000-18,000/month
How to Build Something Similar
The beauty of this model is its replicability. The formula:
Step 1: Choose a niche with infinite how-to variations.
- Drawing tutorials (animals, objects, characters)
- Origami instructions
- Knitting patterns
- Cooking recipes
- Craft projects
- Coloring pages
Any topic where each specific item is a unique search query works.
Step 2: Build a production system. You do not need to be an expert artist. The founder of EasyDrawingGuides is not. He created a system:
- Research what people search for (keyword tools)
- Create simple step-by-step illustrations (can be outsourced or AI-assisted)
- Write clear instructions for each step
- Publish consistently (aim for 3-5 tutorials per week)
Step 3: Publish systematically.
- Year 1: Publish 200-300 tutorials. Traffic is minimal (10,000-50,000 visitors/month).
- Year 2: Library reaches 500+ tutorials. Traffic grows to 100,000-300,000 visitors/month. Income begins.
- Year 3: 1,000+ tutorials. Traffic reaches 300,000-500,000+. Income: $5,000-15,000/month.
Step 4: Monetize with ads. Join Google AdSense initially. Switch to Ezoic at 10,000+ visitors, then Mediavine at 50,000+ sessions. Each upgrade increases RPM significantly.
Lessons
1. Consistency beats talent. The founder is not a great artist. He is a great publisher. 2,300 tutorials published consistently over years created the success.
2. Volume is a strategy. In keyword-driven niches, each page targets one keyword. More pages = more keywords = more traffic. The quality threshold is "good enough" — each tutorial is clear and helpful, even if not artistically impressive.
3. Systems scale. A production system (template, workflow, outsourcing) allows consistent output. Without a system, you burn out after 50 tutorials.
4. Evergreen content compounds. A tutorial published in 2020 still generates traffic in 2026. Every tutorial is a permanent asset.
This model is one of the most reliable in content publishing. It is not glamorous or exciting. But the math is simple: publish 1,000 helpful tutorials on searchable topics, and you will have a site that generates five figures monthly.