Operation Vegas 2021: November Update
December is a fun month, right? It's pretty crazy around here with the holidays and whatnot, but I think it's fun! It's crazy how freaking fast time goes though. I can't believe this is my 14th month of reporting on my site.
Let's just get into the details.
Here's what I accomplished this month:
- Wrote 10 new posts
- Rewrote 2 posts
- Started being more consistent with emails (I write a "newsletter" style email every Saturday now
- Created a Black Friday bonus
- Created a Black Friday landing page
I feel like I did more, but I can't think of what it was at this point. Haha
One thing I did not do was get back on YouTube. This is a problem. The thing is, I also started my new part-time job this month. I work from 9-4. I felt like time was already so limited and now it's more limited.
But, I kind of like it because It's good to get out of the house and talk to real life people. haha
I mentioned this last month, but things will be going even slower now, but I'm OK with that. In fact, there's another positive to this. I can once again relate to the people who are on here making this work while working and having tons of other responsibilities.
I enjoy aligning myself with this group of people because it's hard. But we can do it! We'll just do what we can when we can. :)
Let's get to the stats.
Traffic and Stats
Here's October's stats from Search Console:
And here's what November looks like:
Another great thing about working is that I don't have time to be checking my stats all the time and worrying about them. This is the first time I'm seeing this, and I'm pretty happy with the results!
I have 121 keywords in the top 10 of Google, 26 of them from position 1 - 3.9.
For fun, let's look at the past year:
Traffic in October:
And now for November:
A little bit of growth, but not significant. This is something I need to work on. The past couple of days I've had an anomaly going on. I have had hundreds of people coming to my homepage per day.
The issue is that it seems that most of it is bot traffic from this site:
Have you heard of this site? I went to take a look and it looks like a site where you can buy traffic to make your site look better. I think that's a waste of money, so I have no idea why I would be getting this since I definitely did not buy it.
Daily / Weekly / Monthly Traffic:
Referrals:
- January = 10, 0 Premium = $0
- February = 11, 0 Premium = $0
- March = 25, 0 Premium = $0
- April = 30, 2 Premiums = $39.50*
- May = 25, 3 Premiums = $47.50
- June = 37, 2 Premiums = $63.00
- July = 35, 3 Premiums = $118.00
- August = 24, 4 Premiums = $149.50
- September = 12, 2 Premiums = $157
- October = 32, 4 Premiums = $164.50
Even though most of my stats are up, my referrals are down this month. But my sales are up. I also had 1 Black Friday sale so far (thanks Ken and Jane if you're reading this!), but that will get counted next month, I think.
What's kind of cool is that most of the people that I'm referring are at least adding their picture, profile and goals. So they seem to be people who are engaged and truly interested in WA.
I also ended up with a Jaaxy sale, which was a nice surprise. My old dead site also made another sale. One of my goals is to get that site back up and running to sell. (See my goals...)
Goals for December (and Beyond)
I'm starting to overwhelm myself because I want to accomplish so many things!
I wrote a comment in Kyle's post here of my 4 main goals for 2020. They are:
- Qualify for Vegas 2021
- Create a website that creates passive ad income
- Create a website where I sell my own products
- Create a niche website that makes a consistent income that I can eventually sell (this will be my site that I used to have up and then shut down. It still makes me sales even though it's been down for months. It should be good! haha)
It's lofty. I need to figure out a plan so that I can accomplish things on each site without going crazy.
The point of me telling you this is that I maybe need to find a way to cut down on the posts for my MMO website. But how can I do that and still make sure I'm grabbing enough people to qualify for Vegas?
Well, I won't worry about it too much at this point. For now, I'm going to say my goal for December is 8 posts. I'll see how that affects traffic and rankings, if at all. This should allow me some time to work on my other sites.
I don't want to just keep doing the same things over and over and getting the same results (isn't that insanity, or something?), so I need to switch things up.
That's it for this month!
- Christina :)
Now, tell me, how was your November? Have you made any Black Friday sales yet? Let me know how it's going for you in the comments below!
Recent Comments
37
Yes looks like you are moving in the right direction!! I believe that I will get there too eventually! I haven't made any money yet but I'll be patient and continue moving forward! Although we have other jobs and responsibilities, we can always use our time effectively at home! Instead of watching tv, work on our business 😁 That's pretty much how I'm doing this!!
All the best to achieving your goals! I know you will😁
Miranda:)
You will make money, Miranda! As long as you don't give up, that is. It's only a matter of time.
- Christina
My November was slower than I originally planned.
I wrote only 8 posts (most of them close to 2,000 words)
I was also re-writing old posts and making sure they are still up to date. (few of the ClickBank products are not available anymore)
I am amazed, Christina with your Average CTR.
In my opinion, 4-% is awesome!
(more experienced marketers, please correct me if I am wrong:)
What is interesting - I have also noticed an abnormal spike in traffic in the last 2 days.
More than 40% is direct traffic from Ashburn - I have no idea what that is.
Anyways, Congratulations on your progress!
Keep up the great work
See you in about 14 months in Vegas:)
Mike
Hey Mike!
I am really happy with my CTR. I honestly just think it's high because Google has me high up for some really nice keywords on a particular post.
So if my article is high up, more people are likely going to click on it. If that makes sense?
The lower-ranked posts get much lowes click-through rates, of course, because people click on the higher-ranked posts.
Ashburn? I had to Google that and I found this article: https://kwsmdesign.com/why-do-i-have-so-much-website-traffic-from-ashburn/
Looks like you're doing well with your site. Let's get to Vegas!!
- Christina
Thank you Christine for doing the research for me ;)
I really appreciate that.
Now it makes sense.
I have already applied the filter to exclude Ashburn.
Have a great rest of a weekend
Mike:)
4% is normal CTR any niche 5% really good, above 5% excellent.
Generally accepted across all niches by many experts like Neil Patel.
Rule of thumb, aim for 5% is drops optimise, if above, leave it alone!.
Hi Christina, great post. If there is one thing I know, it is how the hourly job affects my website and trying to get this business going.
So, I feel your pain there...but on the flip side, when you do achieve great things it could be a nice feeling to see that you are moving in the right direction.
I have been working long hours since I started this and then the little hiccup early in November really reinforced why I am doing this. I don't want to be answering to someone else for my income anymore...even more, than I before I started this...LOL!
Your earnings look great to me and I have started to go back and revamp all my posts to make improvements to see if the traffic will be better.
I look forward to seeing your next post and achievements.
As always, I wish you the best!
Bob
Thank you, Bob! It is certainly a challenge working on our sites while having so many other responsibilities, but I really feel it can be done. I know it can.
Everyone has responsibilities, even if they don't all look the same. We're all on this same 24-hour cycle and we have to make the best use of our time.
- Christina
Absolutely...that’s what I’ve been doing for the last 17 months...wow time is flying by.
I have recently come to the conclusion that I have to step it up or else my traffic situation isn’t going to change at all.
You touched on a subject near to my heart or shall I say my enemy and that is being full-time employed..., no own your own business having employees that need to be paid salaries every month, chasing outstanding accounts every month in a business so full of risks it can give you sleepless nights and then try to get an online business going. I have been trying for 2 years now, it doesn't matter with how good intentions is about starting my week on the online foot. When Monday comes it is crisis management at work and my online business has to suffer. The reason... the tradition business put food on the table and a roof over my family's head.
I've got a feeling my fate is going to change soon as I have put my head down and are now only focussing on 1 niche as opposed to chasing 2 or more rabbits at the same time and catch none.
Good luck with everything you have already accomplished so much.
All the best
Louis Munro
Operation Vegas 2021 .Great Stuff Congratulation to you for sharing such positive post. May you have continue success with your dreams and goals .All the best to you on your journey at WA.
Well, you do have to focus on what puts food on your table. There's no getting around that. Just do what you can on your online business when you can. Every bit of online work adds up over time.
- Christina
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Christina, I remember a while back you blogged that Google hates you. Now, from this blog, I see that they are starting to like you slowly but surely. Like you said, if do SEO correctly. Nathaniel did make a suggestion in researching for new information to avoid doing the same things over and over again. Google has a bot filter, (black box) in the Google Analytics page. According to Google, it states “To set up this filter, go to your view settings and check the box that says “Exclude all hits from known bots and spiders.” Try that, might not remove that bot but can prevent some from coming into your website from this point on. I am happy to learn that you are making progress.
Thanks for the suggestions, Brenda! I'll have to check out the post from Nathaniell. I do have bots blocked, but this seems to be something a little different. I'm not sure how to block it.
- Christina