[Journey] Scaling an Authority website to 10K a month (and beyond)

Hey, it's me again I have another question for ya.

When choosing a niche would you go broad with it, or do you prefer very targeted sites? For example, do you go for a DSLR camera site and only focus on those, or do you go for a general camera site that writes about digital, home security, micro cameras, etc?

With many of my previous domains, I had a problem choosing my next niche because I went too broad and then had a hard time ranking because of the strong competition. On the other hand, I was afraid to go too specific as there is a growth limit since you can only go so far with a site that's laser targeted.

How broad is your niche? I see that you have hundreds of articles on your site, I think that's not possible if your niche was very targeted like the example I gave above. I have read multiple times that laser targeted sites have a hard time ranking because of the small quantity of the overall content on their sites as there is only so much content you can write about DSLR cameras. In your opinion, how broad is too broad, and how targeted is too targeted?

RedMoonVPN said:

Hey, it's me again I have another question for ya.

When choosing a niche would you go broad with it, or do you prefer very targeted sites? For example, do you go for a DSLR camera site and only focus on those, or do you go for a general camera site that writes about digital, home security, micro cameras, etc?

With many of my previous domains, I had a problem choosing my next niche because I went too broad and then had a hard time ranking because of the strong competition. On the other hand, I was afraid to go too specific as there is a growth limit since you can only go so far with a site that's laser targeted.

How broad is your niche? I see that you have hundreds of articles on your site, I think that's not possible if your niche was very targeted like the example I gave above. I have read multiple times that laser targeted sites have a hard time ranking because of the small quantity of the overall content on their sites as there is only so much content you can write about DSLR cameras. In your opinion, how broad is too broad, and how targeted is too targeted?

Click to expand...

That's a good question actually.
What I noticed many times, whether in my niche or in others when looking for something on Google, is that Google doesn't like very broad niche sites--unless they are super big. Super big means thousands of articles.

When you look at top 10 of SEPRs, for serious niche, let's take finance as an example, for some specific term (keyword, content topic, not a general word), you'll typically see the combination of the following:

• A few very big websites (broad niches, thousands or tens of thousands of articles).
• Few smaller sites that can still be considered an authority (50-1000 articles), these sites are specific for the given sub-niche of finance.
• 1 or 2 MNS sites or odd results, very laser targeted.

So I say you can make it with any of the three--depending on your preferences, what sort of website you want to, and can build.

- It doesn't really make sense to go for a super broad niche, unless you have arsenal of writers on your disposal (or huge budget), and can afford waiting for years for something big to happen. If you have a huge budget and years, however, then such a site is definitely an interesting long-term investment opportunity...

- With super-targeted niche sites it is sometimes a hit and miss, because you can't really assess the potential of the keyword (monetary wise) unless you rank for it. And then Google likes these websites less and less... BUT, if, for example, you discovered a KW like I discovered recently with my latest eBook (one that has a potential of attracting decent number of buyers and generate high RPM), it may still make sense to make a 10-20 pages MNS around this specific KW.
There's also one other disadvantage with laser-targeted websites--they can rarely become big enough to apply for premium ad networks...

- Authority websites with 50-1000 articles, for example focusing on one specific sub-niche of finance (or cameras) are sort of a safest bet for most people, in my opinion.
You will find at least a few such websites in top 10 of SERPs for almost every low-medium search volume KW, you can build such a website with minimum budget (see my example), and you won't have to wait for years to see some results.
Plus the sites are big enough to apply for premium ad networks, which opens up possibilities for other monetization methods (if your primary monetization is Amazon, for example).

That's about it, any other questions, do not hesitate to ask

Update, 8th August 2020, day 89

- Published 4 new articles today, 1,509 words, 1,728 words, 1,428 words, 1,515 words.

- During the first half of August I always see a slight drop in traffic on my website (seasonality thing, repeats each year).

However, I do not know if there was a slight Google update in the last few days, or if it is related to the activity I do during this journey, but the last two days I had the best traffic for Thursday (from the start of the journey, 4,944 session), and also the best traffic for Friday (3,579 sessions).

Week by week it's almost 15% growth:

It's still a far cry from pre-covid times, when my Thursday record was over 7K sessions, but anyway, considering the conditions in which we live right now, things seem to be moving in the right direction. Better things are yet to come .

- The heat here now is almost unbearable, and I can't wait to leave this hot flat (I'm not permitted to install AC here) and spend some time in a more pleasant mountain climate, in a higher altitude, sleeping under the stars and enjoying the peace of the mountains...

So tomorrow it will be day 90 of the journey, three months in, and my last day of work. Then I will take at least 8 days off, because we won't come back earlier than Tuesday 18th, Maybe even on Wednesday 19th. I feel my eyes need such a break.

Hope that the temperatures will also drop while I am away, at least a bit, and it will also be interesting to see what happens with the website during these days . Maybe some new records, or some new ranking articles. Or no sales at al . We'll see...

That's it for now, have a nice evening everyone, and see you tomorrow.

Kikerinka said:

Update, 8th August 2020, day 89

- Published 4 new articles today, 1,509 words, 1,728 words, 1,428 words, 1,515 words.

- During the first half of August I always see a slight drop in traffic on my website (seasonality thing, repeats each year).

However, I do not know if there was a slight Google update in the last few days, or if it is related to the activity I do during this journey, but the last two days I had the best traffic for Thursday (from the start of the journey, 4,944 session), and also the best traffic for Friday (3,579 sessions).

Week by week it's almost 15% growth:
View attachment 142135
It's still a far cry from pre-covid times, when my Thursday record was over 7K sessions, but anyway, considering the conditions in which we live right now, things seem to be moving in the right direction. Better things are yet to come .

- The heat here now is almost unbearable, and I can't wait to leave this hot flat (I'm not permitted to install AC here) and spend some time in a more pleasant mountain climate, in a higher altitude, sleeping under the stars and enjoying the peace of the mountains...

So tomorrow it will be day 90 of the journey, three months in, and my last day of work. Then I will take at least 8 days off, because we won't come back earlier than Tuesday 18th, Maybe even on Wednesday 19th. I feel my eyes need such a break.

Hope that the temperatures will also drop while I am away, at least a bit, and it will also be interesting to see what happens with the website during these days . Maybe some new records, or some new ranking articles. Or no sales at al . We'll see...

That's it for now, have a nice evening everyone, and see you tomorrow.

Click to expand...

Enjoy your trip mate, sounds like a great vacation, you deserve it. I look forward to seeing what happens to your site during the 8+ days you're away. Hope you'll see some nice growth from aging articles.

i have some doubts regarding Adthrive approval process. I am still way behind for their approval traffic limits.
I am asking these questions, to have a better plan and act accordingly.

If you have time, please post your views on :

1. Does Adthrive approve only US Traffic? I have 60% UK and 40% US traffic.

2. Does they take "Session Duration" into consideration?

Waiting for your helpful answer as always!

Regards.

mithun7117 said:

i have some doubts regarding Adthrive approval process. I am still way behind for their approval traffic limits.
I am asking these questions, to have a better plan and act accordingly.

If you have time, please post your views on :

1. Does Adthrive approve only US Traffic? I have 60% UK and 40% US traffic.

2. Does they take "Session Duration" into consideration?

Waiting for your helpful answer as always!

Regards.

Click to expand...

- UK should be fine for them, it's 1st tier traffic as well. If you have 60% UK and 40% US you will for sure get accepted (of course upon meeting other requirements).
If you had 60% UK and 40% Indian, then probably you would not get accepted.

- I do not think they take session duration into consideration, because I know some sites from my niche who have Adthrive on, and I am sure their session duration (or average time on page) isn't great.

But you should know that the less time readers spend on your pages, the less ads they will see, and the worse the RPM from Adthrive you will get.
So looking ahead to the future, you can try to prolong the time people spend on your pages .

Kikerinka said:

- UK should be fine for them, it's 1st tier traffic as well. If you have 60% UK and 40% US you will for sure get accepted (of course upon meeting other requirements).
If you had 60% UK and 40% Indian, then probably you would not get accepted.

- I do not think they take session duration into consideration, because I know some sites from my niche who have Adthrive on, and I am sure their session duration (or average time on page) isn't great.

But you should know that the less time readers spend on your pages, the less ads they will see, and the worse the RPM from Adthrive you will get.
So looking ahead to the future, you can try to prolong the time people spend on your pages .

Click to expand...

Thank you so much for your detailed reply.

Update, 9th August 2020, Day 90

- Published 3 new articles today, 1,604 words, 1,591 words, 1,401 words.
- Yesterday I had the best Saturday traffic from the start of this journey, almost 2,500 sessions:

Saturday is by far the lowest day in the week for my niche, but I managed to make 3 sales from this traffic, which is actually better conversion rate than any other day in this rather poor week (conversion-wise, otherwise the week was nice ).

- I set two goals at the start of this journey, goals that are closely interlinked. First one was to at least double the amount of articles on the website (not including sales pages, about us, etc), so in fact to publish at least 330 new articles until the end of 2020.

Today I made a quick count, and if I didn't make a mistake, we've added 199 new articles to the website (not counting in new sales pages for new ebooks) in 90 days.

143 days still left until the end of the year, so I think it safe to say that I'll reach this goal ahead of time (unless something unexpected happens). 131 articles left to publish...

- The 2nd goal is to reach $10K USD monthly profit from the website, by May 11, 2021. To reach this we need much more traffic (hence the new articles), but also improve the monetization of existing articles, with new eBooks, with better sales pages, better conversion rates, more A-B testing, and so on...

This will be the main work for the second half of the journey. Until there's time for it, however, there's still a lot of articles to write... But so far I am happy about the progress .

GL everyone, and I will see you here, hopefully mentally rested, either on 18th or 19th August. (* May check BHW last time tomorrow morning, because we leave at about noon time )

Kikerinka said:

Update, 9th August 2020, Day 90

- Published 3 new articles today, 1,604 words, 1,591 words, 1,401 words.
- Yesterday I had the best Saturday traffic from the start of this journey, almost 2,500 sessions:
View attachment 142207
Saturday is by far the lowest day in the week for my niche, but I managed to make 3 sales from this traffic, which is actually better conversion rate than any other day in this rather poor week (conversion-wise, otherwise the week was nice ).

- I set two goals at the start of this journey, goals that are closely interlinked. First one was to at least double the amount of articles on the website (not including sales pages, about us, etc), so in fact to publish at least 330 new articles until the end of 2020.

Today I made a quick count, and if I didn't make a mistake, we've added 199 new articles to the website (not counting in new sales pages for new ebooks) in 90 days.

143 days still left until the end of the year, so I think it safe to say that I'll reach this goal ahead of time (unless something unexpected happens). 131 articles left to publish...

- The 2nd goal is to reach $10K USD monthly profit from the website, by May 11, 2021. To reach this we need much more traffic (hence the new articles), but also improve the monetization of existing articles, with new eBooks, with better sales pages, better conversion rates, more A-B testing, and so on...

This will be the main work for the second half of the journey. Until there's time for it, however, there's still a lot of articles to write... But so far I am happy about the progress .

GL everyone, and I will see you here, hopefully mentally rested, either on 18th or 19th August. (* May check BHW last time tomorrow morning, because we leave at about noon time )

Click to expand...

Enjoy your time out, you need it.

Hey @Kikerinka - Hope everything is well. I don't think this has been covered previously so I wanted to ask - do you use Schema with your site? And if so, have you interpreted any SEO benefits from doing so?

hey man i got inspired by your thread, i was interested in creating a site, but i feel that i don't know enough to start yet this is my main problem i got some ideas for niches i've been researching about how to make a website, seo and others things that i don't understand because they are written as acronym, i will continue reading your journey, good luck man

ruko said:

hey man i got inspired by your thread, i was interested in creating a site, but i feel that i don't know enough to start yet this is my main problem i got some ideas for niches i've been researching about how to make a website, seo and others things that i don't understand because they are written as acronym, i will continue reading your journey, good luck man

Click to expand...

You learn as you go my man, just start it before you have regrets on why you didn???t at least try

Kikerinka said:

Update, 9th August 2020, Day 90

- Published 3 new articles today, 1,604 words, 1,591 words, 1,401 words.
- Yesterday I had the best Saturday traffic from the start of this journey, almost 2,500 sessions:
View attachment 142207
Saturday is by far the lowest day in the week for my niche, but I managed to make 3 sales from this traffic, which is actually better conversion rate than any other day in this rather poor week (conversion-wise, otherwise the week was nice ).

- I set two goals at the start of this journey, goals that are closely interlinked. First one was to at least double the amount of articles on the website (not including sales pages, about us, etc), so in fact to publish at least 330 new articles until the end of 2020.

Today I made a quick count, and if I didn't make a mistake, we've added 199 new articles to the website (not counting in new sales pages for new ebooks) in 90 days.

143 days still left until the end of the year, so I think it safe to say that I'll reach this goal ahead of time (unless something unexpected happens). 131 articles left to publish...

- The 2nd goal is to reach $10K USD monthly profit from the website, by May 11, 2021. To reach this we need much more traffic (hence the new articles), but also improve the monetization of existing articles, with new eBooks, with better sales pages, better conversion rates, more A-B testing, and so on...

This will be the main work for the second half of the journey. Until there's time for it, however, there's still a lot of articles to write... But so far I am happy about the progress .

GL everyone, and I will see you here, hopefully mentally rested, either on 18th or 19th August. (* May check BHW last time tomorrow morning, because we leave at about noon time )

Click to expand...

Hello, I hope you are well! May I ask how did you set up your strategy and planned the timeframe for your journey? I have a montlhy budget of around 500-1000 USD to use for a year to spend in a brand new affiliate website. What would you suggest to spend this to start making some money by the end of the one year journey? Thank you.

Update, 19th August 2020, Day 100

- Came back from the mountains today in the afternoon. I can say that I managed to forget all work for 10 days, and it's been a great rest for both the mind and the eyes. I am physically tired now, but from tomorrow morning I'm back to writing .

- Thanks a lot to everyone who mentioned me in their new/existing journey. The fact that my efforts here inspire people to start their own journeys and perhaps escape the rat race, and follow their dreams, is equally important to me than the success of my own journey.

Today I am too tired (physically) to read the new journeys, but I will do so during the next days, and may provide some input. thanks again everyone.

- The website has been living and helping people during the time I was away, and the outcome was not bad at all!

I beat the daily Adthrive earnings record several times while I was away, with the best overall day yesterday:



I've also had a record number of page views in a day during the duration of this journey, this happened last Tuesday, on the 11th:


The highest number before my break was 7,162, so that's a nice increase!

- I see also some more new articles getting first hits from Google, and some that already got first few dozens of hits in July/first half of August are now getting more hits.
It's a slow but steady growth, which is what I expect during this part of the journey. More of an exponential growth of traffic is expected much later .

Answers & Reactions:

ruko said:

hey man i got inspired by your thread, i was interested in creating a site, but i feel that i don't know enough to start yet this is my main problem i got some ideas for niches i've been researching about how to make a website, seo and others things that i don't understand because they are written as acronym, i will continue reading your journey, good luck man

Click to expand...

Thank you Ruko. Maybe watch some YT tutorials if written guides aren't easy enough to understand for you. Making a website is really easy in 2020, with WP and similar CMS.
Design isn't the most important thing, at least at the beginning. Choose a nice theme, your niche, do KW research, and start writing. You will learn the rest along the way...

SpezzNacci said:

You learn as you go my man, just start it before you have regrets on why you didn???t at least try

Click to expand...

I second this .

seo1979 said:

Hello, I hope you are well! May I ask how did you set up your strategy and planned the timeframe for your journey? I have a montlhy budget of around 500-1000 USD to use for a year to spend in a brand new affiliate website. What would you suggest to spend this to start making some money by the end of the one year journey? Thank you.

Click to expand...

I suggest you to spend it carefully, and on content. But do your research first, send test orders, and find good writers before you start spending the money. And by good I mean really good writers.
Actually money isn't the most important thing if you want to succeed in your journey with a new affiliate site... You can succeed without investing anything, and you may fail even if you have 5K monthly budget... planning, KW research, consistency, patience, discipline in following your plan over the course of an entire year--these are the things that matter.

- I set the time frame for 1 year, because I believe that's a realistic time frame to reach my goals with this website, with my strategy and level of commitment. Plus I think it is better to set a specific time frame and goals, since it helps with planning and also puts some positive pressure on you, to keep working .
Hope it helps, let me know if you have any other questions.

Good job on keeping your mind off work for 10 days, Kikerinka!
Doing so is quite impressive considering how hard you work.

Well deserved, may your highest earning days go even higher

Kikerinka said:

Update, 19th August 2020, Day 100

- Came back from the mountains today in the afternoon. I can say that I managed to forget all work for 10 days, and it's been a great rest for both the mind and the eyes. I am physically tired now, but from tomorrow morning I'm back to writing .

- Thanks a lot to everyone who mentioned me in their new/existing journey. The fact that my efforts here inspire people to start their own journeys and perhaps escape the rat race, and follow their dreams, is equally important to me than the success of my own journey.

Today I am too tired (physically) to read the new journeys, but I will do so during the next days, and may provide some input. thanks again everyone.

- The website has been living and helping people during the time I was away, and the outcome was not bad at all!

I beat the daily Adthrive earnings record several times while I was away, with the best overall day yesterday:

View attachment 143370

I've also had a record number of page views in a day during the duration of this journey, this happened last Tuesday, on the 11th:

View attachment 143371
The highest number before my break was 7,162, so that's a nice increase!

- I see also some more new articles getting first hits from Google, and some that already got first few dozens of hits in July/first half of August are now getting more hits.
It's a slow but steady growth, which is what I expect during this part of the journey. More of an exponential growth of traffic is expected much later .

Answers & Reactions:


Thank you Ruko. Maybe watch some YT tutorials if written guides aren't easy enough to understand for you. Making a website is really easy in 2020, with WP and similar CMS.
Design isn't the most important thing, at least at the beginning. Choose a nice theme, your niche, do KW research, and start writing. You will learn the rest along the way...



I second this .



I suggest you to spend it carefully, and on content. But do your research first, send test orders, and find good writers before you start spending the money. And by good I mean really good writers.
Actually money isn't the most important thing if you want to succeed in your journey with a new affiliate site... You can succeed without investing anything, and you may fail even if you have 5K monthly budget... planning, KW research, consistency, patience, discipline in following your plan over the course of an entire year--these are the things that matter.

- I set the time frame for 1 year, because I believe that's a realistic time frame to reach my goals with this website, with my strategy and level of commitment. Plus I think it is better to set a specific time frame and goals, since it helps with planning and also puts some positive pressure on you, to keep working .
Hope it helps, let me know if you have any other questions.

Click to expand...

Thank you very much for your answer and for your insights! Actually, I'm having issues regarding the strategy to go with this website... Do you provide some consultancy or could indicate someone (or agency) trustworthy that I could contact for that matter? Should I look for writers from here perhaps?
Congratulations for your work and thank you again!

Update, 20th August 2020, Day 101

- Published 3 new articles today, 1,566 words, 1,707 words, 1,527 words.

- Yesterday I had the 2nd day in a row with $140+ from Adthrive, and also the 2nd best day with Adthrive overall during the journey.


- Today I checked all my mailboxes. Sales have picked up a bit while I was away, and on most days (excluding Friday and Saturday) the website generated 4-8 sales.
It's not excellent, but good enough considering the very slow start we had in August (in terms of digital product sales).

If this trend continues, we will once again beat the earnings from the last month. Let's see how it eventually pans out .

- I also got a lot of emails related to my non-profit activities + some personal stuff, and answering part of them was the reason why I published only 3 articles today.
Anyway, 4,800 words for a day isn't too shabby .
Tomorrow I will likely aim for a similar number, and answer another batch of emails unrelated to IM.

- Found also one unpleasant message in my inbox. A guy from Mexico (who bought one of my eBooks on 2nd August) opened a case with their bank, stating that they never made a purchase, that the card was charged without their permission.

Such cases are rather annoying, because they typically end up with a chargeback, which means that you refund the buyer a full amount, plus pay a stupid chargeback fee of $20...

But I checked the data in my Analytics and clearly saw that the guy downloaded the eBook from the website. So he's likely just aiming for the freebie, which would be fine if he contacted me directly, or opened the dispute with PayPal, and not a case with their banking institution...

Typically I just ignore such cases and do not waste energy dealing with them. but this time I decided to repond to the case, uploaded some screenshots from Analytics, and said that we do not agree with the refund (charge back). Let's see how PayPal resolves the case.


Answers & Reactions

GucciBoyRolex said:

Good job on keeping your mind off work for 10 days, Kikerinka!
Doing so is quite impressive considering how hard you work.

Well deserved, may your highest earning days go even higher

Click to expand...

Thank you mate . For me it is not hard to forget my work. During this trip we spent a lot of time in places where there's no mobile signal, so even if I wanted to check earnings, emails, or even BHW, I would not be able to do so.
But I didn't want to check them anyway. Break is a break

seo1979 said:

Thank you very much for your answer and for your insights! Actually, I'm having issues regarding the strategy to go with this website... Do you provide some consultancy or could indicate someone (or agency) trustworthy that I could contact for that matter? Should I look for writers from here perhaps?
Congratulations for your work and thank you again!

Click to expand...

- You're welcome.
I think that you can find decent writers here. Send a small test order (1 article, 500 words) to different writers, and then compare the quality, relevancy, style, personality, etc of the articles.

- I believe that once you send test orders to 10 writers (either here or on freelancer or anywhere else), you'll find at least one good writer--which means someone who is good in his writing, but also someone you find it easy to communicate and cooperate with.
It's not an easy process though, and you may have to repeat it several times, but if you want to invest money into content, it's the only sensible way to go...

- I do not provide any paid consultancy or sell anything here on BHW. I'm not allowed to anyway, and prefer to help people for free.

But I honestly believe that you do not need to waste your money on any consultants... just check other journeys here on BHW (for example @Shaunm or @larcha who are into building affiliate sites just like you), and read my journey from the beginning. You'll find all you need to start...

If, after doing this, you still have some doubts, you can send me a PM and I may give you some advice in private. But keep in mind that I do not reply to PMs very quickly, and that in the journeys you can find all you need to know

Good read

I thought that your niche is small and specific, but you still manage to post 2-3 articles per day

Where can I find really good writers at OP? I've tested a few on bhw but do you have any suggestions?