$2,525.41 In October. From a Site Started in Jan 2021

So here's the part everyone wants to see...

And then the other type of person wants to see proof...

And here's the traffic (about 15k in October)

I'm just putting this here as I know how it feels when you start out with all of this stuff. You wonder will it ever work and will you ever see results.

Well, I just wanted to tell you that YES! It does work!

(...but it's not easy!)

What I've been up to

I've been a lot "less active" here recently (I still help referalls as much as I possibly can) for one main reason...

I wanted to focus!

About a year ago I took stock of what was working for me and what wasn't and stopped all non-income-producing activities almost immediately.

This was for a few reasons:

• We had our first child (which takes a LOT of time!)
• I knew I was starting back as a PE teacher in August as I was missing it, so my time was going to be reduced... A lot!
• I wasn't enjoying some of the things I was doing anymore! So why do them if they don't provide anything?!

So I decided to start a new niche at the start of this year.

Picking a niche

I would say this is what I have not been very good at typically. So I educated myself on this a bit more and took some new training, pretty much especially for this.

Here's something that I personally now think (and not enough people say)...

Your niche choice is super important in this business.

And it's hard to know what niche to pick!

Sure ANY niche can work.

But some niches are infinitely easier and more lucrative.

Figuring out how to do this well definitely helps!

Here are a few good tips:

1. Search for sites selling on sites like empire flippers, flippa, FE International and places where online businesses are sold! If they are selling for a decent price on there chances are there is money to be made!

2. Research the competitors. Check things like domain authority and traffic (you can get an idea with free tools like Moz or Ubersuggest)

3. Find affiliate opportunities (find brands that these websites are promoting- you don't want to rely soley on Amazon... or and one company)

4. Read my article on 5 tips to pick a niche (I go into some of the above points in more detail).

Expenses

Here's what I've spent money on for this site:

• Content (1 "expert" writer for the niche, 1 "commercial" content writer)
• Paying an "expert" to answer questions on HARO (commission based- this is to gain "authority" for the site by getting some links from some very well respected sites)
• GeneratePress Pro
• Elementor Pro (not needed & I wouldn't actually recommend this now)
• ShortPixel (compresses images)
• WP Rocket (good for site speed)
• Hosting the site here at WA
• Ahrefs (keyword research tool, which dives deep into other websites & helps see the competition... this is not needed (especially for beginners) and it's not cheap... but now I use I don't think I'll ever be able to live without it! It's a game changer for sure.)

Key Takeaways

• 46 articles published (all focusing on keywords that I can rank for and the majority of them are focused. on"commercial intent" i.e. review or a "best of" post)
• The site made $2,500 in October and is currently on pace to make over $4k in November (not accounting for Black Friday)
• I've spent $7,820.87 on the site so far and it's made $5,563
• I'm reinvesting income from other sites to kick start this one so it's still all in profit for my online business stuff
• Focusing on building systems and hiring good people so I'm not trading all of my time to keep growing the site

Despite this I want everyone that is still reading to read this part...

• I did EVERYTHING for the site at the start

I did the hours (weeks?? Months??) of research

I wrote over 20 articles.

I made the images.

I designed the site and I set up the high standards and systems that I expect anyone else working on the site.

I DID NOT just outsource content to an agency or expect miracles to happen on day one. I kept expenses on a shoe string budget at the start and once it started ranking and making money I've hired more people and outsourced more.

And the truth is...

I could only do all of this because I've spent a few years honing my skills on this and I keep learning.

Like I say I took a course that was specific for picking a niche and keyword research using Ahrefs, which I wanted to learn how to use.

Even today I'm in the middle of a new course that is specific for creating content that attracts links from other sites organically.

Bottom line

Keep Learning!

Keep changing for the better

Mike

P.S. Ask me anything you want below (I won't publicly share my niche though)