$6,600 Revenue in November 2021 - 11 Month Old Site

bymikebeatty

3.9K followers

Updated 3 years ago

11 Month Website Update

Bottom line for November:

$6,600 revenue

$2,250 expenses

$4,350 net profit (before taxes etc.)

Hey guys, here's another (pretty long) update & takeaways from me as I personally really like seeing these types of posts on here.

In October 2020 I took my time with niche research and picked my niche by December- Site went live in Jan with about 10 articles.

I have created a couple of websites before using WA training and what I picked up for free from podcasts/ YT videos along the way. This time it was much more strategic. I used a very specific system and "upskilled" myself with certain training on tools/ concepts.

I really dug into 3 specific aspects of creating a "niche website" aka authority site or content site or whatever you wanna call it!

1. Content
2. Backlinks
3. Systems/ outsourcing

Here are my main takeaways:

CONTENT

I remember "reading between the lines" from a lot of online marketers around that time (end of 2020) and thinking it just sounds like really, really, really good content seems to be the way to avoid these Google update penalties.

Bottom line- my other websites are content-heavy... pump out as much content as possible, and see what sticks. Focus hard on grinding and getting that juicy traffic from anywhere possible.

For this site, I went to the other extreme...

I literally, tried to legit find the BEST products for every review/ round up article.

If that means spending 50 hours of research, watching YT videos and creating spreadsheets of products specs, that's what I did.

I have hands-on experience with pretty much everything I write about (but obvs not every product... yet!)

Every info article I researched and put together the guide I would want to see if I Googled the keyword.

Every single article is A-grade work (at least I thought it was- content has improved a ton since the start)... no B-C stuff [side note- I think as the site scales and moves to phase 2, focusing on making money from ads etc then this may change a bit- atm it's only quality over quantity]

Personally, I think this has done a few things...

1. Makes Google see your site as more authoritative
2. Genuinely helps people that come to your website
3. Helps build trust and conversions for affiliate sales

LINKS

Like most people... I HATE building links!

There's a school of thought that you should just focus on content, and I agree to that in most part especially for beginners. But I was curious what the results would be like if I actively worked on this.

I've never done it before (properly) and I'm still figuring it out.

I've done a couple of "outreach campaigns" and I can see the potential for this (although everyone hates receiving them)- I still need to create my own system and outsource this properly (but I also need to create more of this "link-worthy" content so this is my next big project).

But what has worked for me is HARO.

(helpareporter.com sends you emails from journalists every day- if you answer them well and get picked they often send you a "backlink" which passes authority to your site in Google's eyes).

When I hired an "expert writer" for this niche I ended up having a shortlist of about 5 writers that had qualifications and could have done the job. I offered one writer the gig and then offered the next best one a HARO position (paid on a commission basis- I still haven't got the pricing quite right for this I think!)

She got me around 10 70+ DR links from some sites, which are pretty insane- and I would have no chance to do. She's since got a FT gig and stopped doing this, which is why I think my pricing wasn't quite right...

This is something I defo want to get back up and running.

Also, my Dad has recently retired and wanted to help me out. He has some qualifications (not really in the same space, but it's similar) and he's since started answering the odd one here and there for free.

Bottom line- Maybe you have someone close to you that may be willing to help. Just have organic conversations about what you're doing and don't be needy!

SYSTEMS/ OUTSOURCING

The key to this site working!!

I am back teaching in a FT job and with a young daughter, my time is pretty limited. But I am a teacher with some decent holidays and I had some time off at the start of the year, which really helped me get up and running.

Right now I'm putting in about 7-8 hours of work a week- mainly speaking to writers, tracking stuff & improving conversions/ getting into more affiliate programs etc. Also setting a plan for creating my next batch of link worthy content.

I hired a writer from Pro Blogger and I must admit I got lucky... he's fricking amazing and just loves this stuff ($0.06 per word)I also have a writer who writes the commercial stuff and puts an insane amount of time into the best research I've ever seen an "affiliate site" do... ($20 per hour for research and $0.08 per word).

I've hired people before but the difference this time is I've hired "A players" (read "Who" if you haven't)...

These guys improve my business... they don't just accept what I tell them.

(On that point I have created hours of training videos for them in different aspects... a lot of work goes into the systems and process rather than just being a busy fool- like I used to!)

Anyway sorry that's so long! Hopefully, it may help you though or at least provide some motivation

P.S. I'm fully aware November was mainly successful due to BF weekend etc. I'll keep you posted over the next few months how things settle down.

Also ask me anything- just not niche/ URL

As you can see most of the commission I got this month was not on Amazon...

Here's the GSC screenshot...