6-Month Progress Report

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Yesterday was my 6-month anniversary of upgrading to premium. I like to do these progress reports every so often for myself--record keeping along the way so I know exactly how I've grown. If anyone else finds these interesting, awesome. :) If not, ignore.

Background: I blog about cloth diapers. Commissions are about 5% across the board. I also have some posts in the green cleaning/living niche and some products I'm promoting there.

To date, I have written 94 articles. I have sold 16 items on Amazon, and had 4 other orders from affiliate programs outside of Amazon. All in all, I've made $56.88 (though none of it has been cashed out to me--it's too spread out, but I do think I've surpassed the threshold for an Amazon payout, so I should see some money from there eventually). I reported $13.90 in my 5 month progress report blog post, so income has quadrupled. But nothing to write home about. ;)

I think I'm in the "Google Dance" right now, so organic search hits are all over the place, but even on good days I'm only in the teens from search engines. The vast majority of my traffic is from Pinterest, and overall I'm averaging 1700 visitors per month.

I've been seeking some counsel and wisdom from a few different people about the direction of my site. I'm struggling because even though there is definitely a market for cloth diapers, finding keywords with a decent search volume is INCREDIBLY difficult.

I was emailing with another cloth diaper blogger who has been around a few years, and she was honest that her top posts had nothing to do with cloth diapers. The amount of people using Google as a source of information about diapers has gone way down. Most people are getting cloth diaper information from Facebook groups and Pinterest.

As far as purchasing diapers go, seems like many people are getting their recommendations from Facebook groups nowadays and not googling reviews. People are also becoming more obsessed with cheap diapers made in China and are not as concerned with buying quality ethical brands as they once were (which baffles me--I would think it would be the opposite).

All that to say, I've been kind of down the last few days. I have been feeling like my niche is a dud. I'm going to need to do some serious work to turn this into something that can actually generate money. This is my plan (which is still changing in my mind constantly, so it's a tentative plan I guess):

1) YOUTUBE. I already have some youtube videos out there, but I'm going to be focusing much more heavily on Youtube video reviews going forward. I know of many people that used Youtube to help them with cloth diapering.

2) Traffic. I really think ads are going to be how I primarily monetize my site given the low commission rates and low potential with google. To make money from ads, I need to get my traffic up...I need 10x more monthly sessions than I have now to qualify for Mediavine (which is my goal ad network right now). I need to be writing posts that attract more visitors.

I need to find keywords that get more searches.

3) Broaden my niche and/or focus on my sub-niche more. Earning 5% commission on $20 (or less) products in a niche that doesn't gather many google searches is not going to make any money.

My affiliate sales are practically divided down the middle with diapers being half of my sales and various green products being the other half. However, my general green posts only make up about 10% of my blog. This tells me I have more potential there if I can grow it.

I'm considering taking the "Ditch the Disposables" route (more general beyond diapers) and see where I can go with it. But when I do keyword research, I'm still really struggling to find good keywords with low competition but good search volumes. I know that is the key. I can't keep spending hours on articles with hardly any SEO potential.

4) After my site is one year old, if I'm not making enough money on it that makes the time investment worth it to me, I plan to sell my site. I won't give up affiliate marketing as I have other niche ideas in my head already that would be more profitable, but the amount of hours I'm putting into my site with the low potential for affiliate income has me worried. I want to invest my time into something that can actually grow into a decent income eventually.

Which brings me to my last point I'm going to blog about. I am a teacher and stopped working full-time after last school year with the goal of spending more time with my small children. My oldest will be going to kindergarten next year (this year now, I guess...eek!) and I wanted to make up for some lost time.

I stumbled upon WA somehow searching for ways to pay off student loans faster. I was instantly intrigued and obviously decided to go for it, but this wasn't part of my original plan.

I have an obsessive personality....I really mean it. I can't let things go sometimes, and trying to work on my site and grow it has been a huge focus of my daytime hours the past few months. As much as I said, "I'll just work on this 10 hours a week during nap times!"....I'm really incapable of that. Once I get fixated on something, it's hard for me to be low-key.

The time I've spent on my site has interfered with the goals I had for my family that I made when decided to cut down to teaching only one day a week. I'm mostly feeling down about the realization that my niche may not be that profitable after all... and that I decided to be home more to make up lost time with my son, but then I gave a lot of that time to my website, and now I'm worried that this site won't be worth it. If my site had more potential, I'm sure I wouldn't be feeling this way.

I'm still very glad I found WA because I do see myself making a future here and in affiliate marketing. I just wish I had the ability to balance my life more (and I wish I had more foresight about my niche selection). I know I've blogged here about trying to find balance, and it's still an ongoing struggle.

So going forward, I am really going to commit to the time committment I orginally stated (10-15 hours a week). I know many people will think this is a step in the wrong direction, but it's what I feel I need to do right now, especially because I still need to define a clearer future direction for my site. I plan to post an article once or twice a week, and spend the rest of the time promoting my site to hopefully bring up traffic so I can reach my goal of using Mediavine.

I don't know if I can stick to that given my obsessive nature, but I'm really going to try. I haven't written an article for two days now and it feels great to be able to focus on my home and family. I just need to let myself be okay with that.

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Recent Comments

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You rule and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. You've definitely put a lot more effort into this than I have seen in others.

Thank you! That means a lot. I know I will have a successful site at some point. Don't know if it will be my current site, but maybe. :) We will see. Hoping if I take a step back to breath a little bit, I can look at it more objectively and find something that will work.

Youre right if its not monetizing for you then you can find other ways to diversify monetizing your sites, many have WA multiple streams of income coming in. I’ve been reading a lot of blogs on here that discusses other ways. There isnt just one niche, you can find other niche we have the referral affiliate to here thats another way to monetize your sites. Looking at Google Trends help you to find whats trending these days to help you find another niche that will have better ways of diversing your income. Best wishes to you.

Do what you love to do. Expanding your post ideas is great. Don't give up. Follow Maxine's advice.
Hoping for success.
Ray

Thanks Ray. Definitely not giving up, but taking a step back while I try to figure out the direction I need to go in. I feel as if I'm at a point where I need to be wise with my time as I am pulled in so many different directions between my kids/family, teaching job, and my site... I need to figure out what is going to be the biggest bang for my time-buck. The time I have been spending so far I'm worried isn't going to be very profitable. I need to iron out the details for my new plan.

Sounds like your doing the right thing, sometimes you do have to step back and refocus. I think you will find the right answer. Looking forward to hearing more on your next step.
Ray

Stick with it Hordo the big harvest is coming soon. Don't give up on your site just yet. Make sure you do all on page and off page SEO factors for each article. Check out Jay's webinar, "The 2019 SEO Checklist. This should help you to get Google's attention and probably some traffic. All the best, Maxine

Don't worry, not giving up! Just taking a step back until I figure out a clearer direction.

Can't wait to check out the webinar. Hopefully I will get a chance today, but we are doing house projects to get ready to get our house on the market and move. So my time for actively watching something this weekend may be limited. I hope to watch it soon, though. Unfortunately, even with perfect SEO techniques, it matters little when you can't find keywords with decent search volumes. I'm lucky to find keywords in my niche that go over 40 searches per month. Much difficult to find anything higher than that that also has a low enough QSR.

Hey Hordo,
I have used avg 0 traffic 0 QSR 4 and made it on page one position one for some keywords. Believe it, my Google trust is up to 70% and traffic is trickling in. You have a great niche because it caters to babies. To me your efforts will bear fruit. Do what needs to be done for your family and check back later for great results. That diaper site is a winner! if I wasn't so involved with my health and mmo site, I would help you grow that site to make BIG BUCKS. Anything dealing with babies is a winner. GET ON PAGE 1. YOU CAN DO IT. if you need me to write a post to get there let me know. All the best, Maxine

Thanks, Maxine. I do have some page 1 posts. I get a couple clicks per day on those. But with low average traffic, how do you get enough visitors to get conversions to make decent income if the average conversion rate is 5ish%? If I get 3 hits per day on a particular post, that might average one sale a month if I'm lucky. Commission on that product is $1 or so (5% of $20). $1 per month per post isn't too great of a return. I'm just curious how you monetize a post with an average of 0 traffic?

Finding "balance" is hard. I have received many questions on this same topic, especially from our new members. I am happy for you, and your family, that you have found yours.

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