7 months at WA - Grinding period
Hello everyone,
It's been a while since my last blog post but all this time I haven't stopped working on my website. I am almost at my 7th month mark now and I wanted to give a bit of a heads up of where I am at the moment.
Content so far
My website is about home cinema and movies and up until now I have written 40 home cinema equipment reviews, 20 movie reviews, 7 articles and 4 video games reviews. In the beginning I was splitting my time evenly between these 4 categories but as time went by I saw that I was getting more traffic and interest from home cinema equipment so I started focusing more of my efforts towards this but without neglecting the rest completely.
For all 7 months I have been consistently writting 2 quality articles per week with very few exceptions. I try to keep this to the best of my ability and since now I was able to manage my time to achieve this. Having a full time job and two small kids leave me very little time to work freely.
Traffic so far
As far as traffic is concerned last month my organic traffic became my No1 traffic type with 35% of my total traffic comming from search engines. Also although i had a couple of reviews on the first page the last month one high traffic review went to first page and since then it gives me most of my organic traffic to this day.
On average I get 20-45 organic visitors every day for the last month and in total I get 25-88 visits every day with 88 users in one day being my highest traffic since the beginning.
Sales so far
I am posting affiliate links for both US and UK Amazon and I get a sale here and there mostly on the US shop. But in total comissions are very low and in total I am making a couple of dollars every month so nothing major yet.
Adsense has improved a little and from making nothing or 2-3 cents per day now I can make from 5 to 15 cents per day and this has to do with the increase in my total traffic. Since starting adsence I have made 9 euros total.
Content ranking
Up till the beginning of August I was ranking good with 3-4 articles in the first page, 6 articles in the 2nd and all others up to 5th page. After the August Google Core update many of my pages lost many positions loosing a considerable amount of traffic. Since then I recovered a bit but still a lot of my posts have not regained their initial positions so I am still struggling to get back to where I was.
All my new posts appear almost immediately in the 4th page of Google while before the Core update all my new posts were appearing on the third page of Google.
GOALS
Short term goals
My short term goals remain the same from when I first began here and that is to cover my expenses of the monthy WA subscription. This means that I aim at making at least 50 euros per month consistently.
Mid term goals
If I manage to catch my short term goal then my next goal is to double my monthly income which means to be able to make 100 euros per month.
Long term goals
My long term goal is to be able to have a sustained monthly income so I can quit my full time job. I don't know how long it will take but I am willing to spend the time needed to make it so.
Closing
I am in a position that I believe is the worst period because it's been a while since I started, I am grinding evey day but still I don't have any worthy results. There have been days where I cannot focus on my writting at all and it frustrates me because producing 2 quality articles every single week is very hard with the limited time I have.
For the moment I have managed to stay focus but I will be honest when I say that there have been a few times that I wanted to quit but I kept pushing. Trying so hard without any reward is the most difficult thing and I believe this is the reason why a lot of people quit. Hopefully I will see the results of my hard work soon.
See you all soon in my next update. Have a nice day to all WA members.
Stratos
Recent Comments
22
Great progress....keep focusing on what you've accomplished and work your plan. You are right about this being a tough time but the community support is helpful..
Debbie
Congratulations on your achievements so far. I’m In the same position as you are. I’m 5 months on my second website. The first one I gave up after 4 months because i hadn’t chosen a niche I really liked. So, I’m sticking with this one.
Little traffic so far, no sales yet, 2 articles per week and that is the most I can do because of time constraints. But I keep pushing really hard. Rankings still not going up. Need to focus more on reviews.
I’m also willing to spend the time necessary until this wirks for me and I can quit my job, or at least have more freedom.
Yes, Quiring is often an easy exit, but I won’t either.
Let’s keep this up. Wishing you much success. I encourage you to keep focusing on content as much as possible. Yes, it bugs me too when I cannot focus, but let’s try instill we make this out. .
Oscar
The feeling I get is that it is very important to create a website in a niche that you love. Because when the grinding starts and you get no results the love you have for your niche is what will keep you going.
I hope we will both find success soon Oscar.
Keep going mate. Try setting up another website as well? You have the skills, you're getting the traffic, maybe you just need a more lucrative niche?
The advice that I hear from most of the older members is to stick with one website in the beginning and this is what I will do for now. Splitting my time means less articles for this one.
The niche I chose is a bit competitive since for most reviews the first page of google is taken more or less by the same websites that have been around for a long time and have built authority.
But I don't want to change niche as this is what I want to do and it is hard already. Starting a niche that I don't like will definitely end in disaster.
Thanks very much. Hope you don't mind you mind me asking. But how do you know has many people are costing your site etc. Is there a way we can see it?
See more comments
Hey Stratos,
Thanks for your update!! Keep up your hard work. Keep on keeping on.
Tried and True
Elaine
I will Elaine, thank you.