Progress Report-One Week Shy of 5 months at WA
In about one week, it will be my 5-month anniversary here at WA. I thought I would update on my progress a bit for those who are even newer than I am out there to give you all an idea of what a "typical" experience may look like in the early months. What is inspiring this post now is the celebration of my 3rd Amazon sale! Hoping to finally get that official Amazon Affiliate status now. :)
My niche is mainly cloth diapers (I also dabble in green living for families). This is not an extremely lucrative niche by any means, but I do think there is money to be made. There are plenty of people out there who cloth diaper, but commission rates are pretty much 5% across the board and these products are not that expensive. I do have one affiliate program in the cloth diaper realm that pays 10%.
I'm also apart of other programs that fall into "green living" and those commission rates are higher.
So in my 5 months here, I have completed the OEC training (finished that after about a month or so) and watched some of Jay's webinars. I want to make more time for more webinar watching going forward. I have also joined a few Facebook groups for learning.
I have a total of 79 articles published and over 120k words written according to Site Content. I started out posting 5-6 times a week the first 2 months, but after that I have only been able to post 3 times a week. I am content with that--I have other duties in my life (like two small children underfoot ;)) that need my attention.
Once I had about 45-50 articles, I joined Tailwind for Pinterest. I highly recommend Tailwind for all newer bloggers IF you have a niche that would work well with Pinterest. You should have a basic understanding of how Pinterest works before jumping in--don't start with Tailwind if you're still learning the ins and outs of Pinterest. Also, don't go out and sign up if you only have 5 articles. I think my 50 articles was really pushing it. You can't spam Pinterest with your articles if you want to be taken seriously, and that was a struggle for me because it seems like you have lots of content to pin with 50 articles, but those pins go fast when you're trying to reach a "best practice" certain number of posts per day.
But Tailwind is a helpful tool (albeit pricey with lots of upsells--I have not purchased any of the upsells, but once I have more content I will really consider it) that can really help you gain traffic and momentum while you wait for Google to notice you.
My traffic picked up to between 50-90 on average a day with the use of Tailwind. That may not seem like much, but I'm still a week shy of 5 months old on the web. So I don't think that's too shabby for how new my site is.
My organic traffic from search engines is still low, but as you can see here, my impressions are going up. That's step one!
My organic users are increasing, though as you can see by the y-axis scale, those daily numbers aren't too impressive yet. However, it is motivating to see improvement!
I also have about 5 Youtube videos, but I really am not utilizing Youtube as I should yet. One thing at a time I suppose.
Here is what I have made so far:
5 sales: 3 Amazon (total of $3.66 in commission), 1 at an affiliate program through Shareasale ($5), 1 at an independent affiliate network ($0.75) Total Affiliate Revenue: $9.41
Ad revenue: $4.49 with Adsense
Total Revenue: $13.90
Here is what I have spent so far:
Yearly WA fee: $349
Domain: $15
Graphic Designer for Professional Logo: $27
Tailwind: $99
1-year PO Box Subscription: $82 (I wanted to be able to send newsletters without my home address attached)
Total: $562. Possible there is an expense here or there I overlooked, but I've been intentional to keep my overhead as low as I think I can right now.
As you can see, I still have a ways to go before I start breaking even on expenses and eventually profiting. But I'm on my way!
I would say the most important thing for those who are new here is to keep working through the training, prioritize it, and write write write. They say content is king, and it's true. Hard to gain any traction with a small about of content.
Recent Comments
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Are You Writing Content Targeting Keywords?
Yes! They are low competition keywords. I'm trying to find good keywords that are low competition but still have a decent search volume, and that is proving to be a little tricky in my niche. Some of my first articles have low search volume (around 30) but some of my more recent posts are trying to aim for at least 100 monthly search average if possible (and QSR under 100 and ideally an SEO score 95 or above)...but I'm just not finding as many relevant keyword phrases with low competition and that many searches. Hoping I have some breakthrough here soon.
But the sad Part is Return on your Investment is too low. You Spent $562 to get $13.
How do you get Ideas to Write Content
I would disagree. I think it is far too early in this process to say whether or not I get my return on investment. I'm already starting to see the return, but it is going to take a bit longer.
When I joined WA, most people told me I wouldn't start seeing consistent sales until it has been about 6 months to 1 year. And it can be 3 years or more to earn a full time income.
It WOULD be too low a return on investment if I quit right now! But I'm not quitting. I have plenty of time to earn a return on this investment.
People were very upfront that you spend a lot of time working for free in the beginning, so I was expecting this. Many people don't even make their first sale until after 6 months. I feel pretty lucky and motivated that I have made 5 sales before 5 months.
It takes time for Google rankings to happen. Google doesn't start ranking a new site over night. Google likes to rank sites that have been delivering original content and have proven that they can do that over a period of time. I am just now starting to see my google rankings and organic hits pick up. I had no prior experience in website development or SEO, so I have started at square 1. Being that I have no experience, I have more to learn than others, too. So I can't expect results overnight.
So long story short, I disagree that I have no return on investment. I have made 2 of those sales this week alone, which shows me I'm starting to get to the point where I should see them coming in more frequently.
As for where I get ideas for content, I know the ins and outs of my niche really well, so I already had a lot of topic ideas. But I also get topic ideas from Facebook groups I joined in my niche (based on questions people ask and stuff), sometimes I check competitor websites to see what sorts of topics they focus on to see what I'm overlooking, etc.
For Content Ideas I am also studying from Competitors. Anyway I got motivated by your Words. Keep Going & Have a Great Future. Thanks for Replying to my Comments
No problem and good luck to you! We will get there if we keep at it.
I am doing as far as possible to get a good income