First Blogging Journey. Lets do this...

[blogmen]

Its just really really frustrating writing articles on a lot of these keywords and google slaps that article to page 2 and never budged it. Not even slightly. This person slaps a spun article with just the keyword in title and what do you know. Instantly top 3.

It's just temporary. They'll lose rank eventually.

 

[popbradley]

JANUARY UPDATE:

Site word count:785,713
Number Of Articles:448

Posted 16 articles last month. I was short 6 articles because my writer is currently sick with covid and trying to complete the work she missed last week right now. This Month seems to have gone a good step in the right direction.

TRAFFIC LAST 28 DAYS:


ALL-TIME SEARCH CONSOLE:





SEARCH CONSOLE LAST 28 VS PREVIOUS 28 DAYS



The blogs sessions have increased a rather large 36.8% over the last 28 days. I have had a few days hitting over 700 visits a day which I am quite surprised happened so quickly after things have felt so slow. I hope they keep going at this pace. It was just looking back in November and realized I was getting a little over 400 visits a day and now I am at 600+.

JANUARY EZOIC EARNINGS:



I managed to make more than I did in December in January. Partially due to the fact I joined Ezoic premium halfway into December and also because my traffic has increased. I still wish I could get that EPMV up but I am holding off messing with anything currently as it's such a pain in the butt messing with things on your site. Once you fix one thing you manage to break two other things I have learned lol.

I have noticed my largest contentful paint on Ezoic is now in the orange for some reason this month. I haven't changed a single thing I do but for some reason, things are loading a bit slower. Pushing me out of the green. I hope this doesn't end up hurting my site. I may take some time this coming month to try and fix that issue if possible.

AMAZON EARNINGS JANUARY:



I started to implement a strategy Shaun Marrs uses to add amazon product links to my articles the last couple of weeks. Earned a bit more and managed to get a few more clicks this month than in December. I have only done this to a few of my top-ranking articles to test and will try and implement this across more articles on my site this month.

Overall I am very happy with this month.

 

[popbradley]

Although I suspected you wasted several k $$$ reading your journey as you bought countless useless forum links, pbns et cetera.

You said that you (or a guy who you bought website from) targeted high-comp keywords at the beginning, the articles cover broad niche and are too bad. They are not going to rank anywhere.

What you should do:

1. Make a decent structure on your site and put articles in the proper categories. Example: Cars->Audi Cars->Audi Car A, Audi Car B and so on
2. Buy Ahrefs ($7 trial for 7 days is enough) or Semrush (30-day trial is cool too). Must have tools
3. Check for what keywords you rank, if you are in TOP-10/20 check them, sometimes editing and expanding articles (adding 0-10 relevant keywords) in a proper way helps them to get higher in serps.
4. Check competitors, how they write, what they target
5. Add articles targeting low competitive keywords for the categories that a) already have articles b) already ranking. In other words expand articles/categories you already getting organic traffic from Google.

Basically you have to rewrite and redo what you have done previously. If you are super serious about this site, order a website audit from some guy, theoretically a good audit will be more beneficial for you than hundreds of links.

And stop buying links before you understand what are good links and what are bad.

If everything done right, you increase your traffic from niches you already cover plus let the big G know that you're up to something else. Maybe reach 1k too. Will make good foundation to expand in the future as you already present in a broad niche.

Cause now it looks like a failed journey, you don't spend 10-15k for 200 bucks a month. With such expenses, 2-3k in revenue you should be your minimum otherwise it's totally useless. But for newbies it's useful case study as it tells them what NOT to do when you start in seo.

Thanks for the feedback.

I will try and respond to everything you said.

To me, a journey thread is my journey. Failing or succeeding. You literally cannot start and be a massive success from the get-go. I chose to invest and see what works and what does not. I literally listed all my mistakes in this thread so others can learn as well.

Here is a list of my expenses for this site.

5k was when I outsourced the start of the site. I spent another 1k or so fixing stuff that got messed up with the site because of the people who were working on the site and a little more than that trying to find a good writer. I used a writing service on here, I will not mention, for close to 1000 bucks and they were completely awful and a waste of time as well.

4k is to my main writer on Upwork and a few other writers.
I spent close to 1000 on buy-sell text testing articles from them as well.
I spent a couple of thousand on backlinks to get my site up to DA 30. Also several other small costs like canva, Ahrefs, Grammarly, etc.

The 6k I spent outsourcing the site from the start was a mistake and a learning experience for me. I thought I could pay someone to build a site for me and make money on it. I learned it was a bad idea. I listed it in this thread as such as well to help people not mess around with things and learn things yourself.

A lot of what I wrote is overestimating but id would say 7k was what was spent on the site that wasn't a complete waste. Such as backlinks, Ahrefs, Content.

Now, I am going to respond to your list of things I "should" do.

1. I do this already.
2. I have Ahrefs and have used it when trying to learn keyword research.
3. I will have to try this. Thanks.
4. I do this as well. Especially on my newer content. I have every single competitor in an excel sheet, all their keywords, all keywords related to them, how they write, how they structure each article, what they use for subheadings, etc.
5. This is what I have been doing for the last 4 months.

I don't really wanna touch on the rest but I know what a good backlink is. I follow several people over the years and have spent a lot of time learning things they have talked about.

I really wish I could be absolutely perfect and make my very first website a complete home run without any problems or learning but I don't think that's exactly possible. I have had a couple of people on here, who are actually very successful at this, look at my site and tell me my site looks fine and my keywords are all good. Exactly what they would do when creating a site. Not what I did at the start but what I am doing now.

I appreciate the constructive feedback though. Thanks for reading the thread.

Oh, and one more thing, since I didn't see it before, I never bought PBN links. To my knowledge, I did not mention anything about buying PBN links... I only bought guest posts, forums, and niche edits. I know a few really successful bloggers who are ONLY using forum links to rank and have had a lot of success with them. I used the same providers they used as well. Forum links are not useless. I am not sure where you got that information from either.

 

[Goen Lee]

Brief for lazy people: he spent 10k$ to order a lots posts and backlinks for his site, and after few month he had traffic about 600-700 and earned about 6-10$/1 day on ezoic

 

[popbradley]

Brief for lazy people: he spent 10k$ to order a lots posts and backlinks for his site, and after few month he had traffic about 600-700 and earned about 6-10$/1 day on ezoic

Don’t post on my thread if you aren’t gonna be constructive.

Thanks.

 

[popbradley]

I started to write this long drawn out thing to the user above me about why I’ve even been doing this thread but it’s not ment for you or other people who want to discredit learning and documenting everything.

I am documenting successes and failures in this thread. That’s all.

The start of the blog for several months? Failures. bad keyword research, bad articles, money waisted on outsourcing, etc.

The last few months? Successful.

Recent keywords are ranking more and more.

This is my last 30 days



Website traffic is increasing since I’ve learned things from testing. Check the last two months when I changed how I target keywords.



My traffic is increasing since I’ve learned what did not work and what is now working. My traffic increase is credited ONLY to articles written in the last 3 months. Most last 2.

100s of people start sites and quit when it doesn’t work. Complain about how it’s a scam when the first thing they try fails.

If you are reading this thread wanting someone to ,from start to finish, to have had 100% success then this thread was not ment for you. The title literally says first journey thread. Idk how I could make it any clearer then that.

If you wanna see someone try things, fail, try again, fail, then learn and have the knowledge to Improve this site and knowledge to have a far better sites In the future then read this thread.

Saying all that.

Don’t post in my thread anymore unless it’s constructive and gives advice.

Thanks guys.

 

[lazouille]

Don’t give up but yes I agree with Shwepps, a little bit of external help or audit would be useful!

 

[popbradley]

I told myself I wouldn't stop updating this thread no matter what and well... Guess who stopped updating lol.

I did not, however, stop actually working on this blog. I worked on it much slower after I wasn't sure what I was doing was working but just kept thinking it would eventually and that I needed to keep going.

I just wanted to give an update as to what has happened with the site in the last 4 to 5 months.

So here goes.

UPDATE:

In the last 4 months, I have published around 60 more articles.

In February my writers stopped working on the blog and needed to find a couple more writers. I only published about 4 articles in February.

I also did not want to keep putting new money into the site so decided I would only start putting money into the site that it makes. The site was only doing about 200 a month at the time so it wasn't very much.

After a few more months these are the stats.

SERP ROBOT



Once I switched my keyword focus and started to go after lower volume keywords with very low comp I've been getting more and more keywords to hit the top 3 positions. Most average 3 to 6 visits a day but some bring in upwards of 20 a day.

ANALYTICS LAST 28 DAYS



17k sessions to 30k sessions from February. This increase in traffic is about 90% of the articles I have posted in the last few months. My older content from a year ago with bad keyword research, and bad writing, bring in very little traffic.

SEARCH CONSOLE LAST 28 DAYS VS PREVIOUS




Almost double the impressions since my last update.

EZOIC LAST 30 DAYS




and amazon is roughly 70 dollars for everything combined (still need to incorporate more links into articles)

So roughly 700 a month now.

Since I have been making more and more on the blog I have slowly been adding more and more content again. I went from maybe 3 posts a week on average to maybe 5 now.

Since 4 or 5 months ago my goal is still the same, to get the blog into Mediavine. I am sure I will hit the 1k a month mark once I manage that. Heck, I might even be able to hit that before getting into mediavine. I just feel like if I can get into Mediavine my earnings will jump up a good amount. Ezoic pays well but I can't help but feel like the site could make even more.

Sorry for the super late update but at least I managed to actually update the thread after all this time for anyone who was curious lol.

 

[Endonici]

I pay about 20 bucks per 1500 words.

You got a good deal for articles if they are quality. Interesting journey

 

[popbradley]

Yeah, they were pretty good quality but I had to go through about 40 writers to find one. I pay a little more now for articles but the quality is better but still feel like the price is cheap. Just have to go through a LOT of crap writers to find ones that are very good. For most of the writers, I have had, I would pay easily 25 to 30 dollars per 1000 words If I used a content service.

 

[popbradley]

July update.

This update may not be super detailed, as I am not near my pc, so I am having to do this on my phone, but here is the update for July.

In July I posted 23 articles. My main writer quit, so that stunk, but she slowely started producing less and less content so I was ok getting rid of her. I found 3 other people so far to take her place. Currently trying to see who I like more And will keep them.

Serp Robot:



I am a little disappointed with my keyword movement, but I noticed this seems to happen. One month I will shoot up a bunch of keywords then the next not as much. The middle of the month I was already up 10 keywords in the top 10 but the second half of the month it just kept bouncing up and down. I did build a few links to the site this month so that might be why things moved up and down for me (google dance). Not too sure though. But as long as im still growing I don’t care lol.

Google Analytics Last 30 Days:



Ive gone from 30k sessions to almost 43k sessions since my last update. Really happy with the growth. If things continue this way I should be able to get into Mediavine by the end of the year, maybe sooner. Fingers crossed.

Search Console Last 28 Days:



Not Much to say. Still growing month over month so I’m satisfied. I will say though. I noticed in search consoles “queries” that I’m getting traffic for some stuff I wrote almost a year ago that just hit rank 1 to 3. They have been page 2 or very bottom page one for months. I thought those articles where complete duds. I wish I could figure out why some articles rank within a month and some take almost a year to 6 months to rank.

Ezoic:



Little more this month, but not much in correlation to my visits, mostly because my epmv dropped so much compared to last update but I heard this was normal and should pick back up this next coming month or two.

Also, mediation kicked in for Adsense and it made 125 this month. I’ve had it in there for a while and it never worked. Figured it just wouldn’t and then started getting money.

Amazon:



Pretty much the same as last month. I don’t really focus on amazon too much though but recent articles are having more links put into them. I just get worried to put to many as I don’t want google to see me as a “affiliate“ site and destroy me in a future update. I am not sure if that’s how it would work but I am still cautious about it.

If I had to guess, 1 in 6 articles will have an amazon link or two.

Final Thoughts:

Site is still growing so I am happy with it. I feel like I’m getting super close to my goal from over a year and a half ago. I feel like I have learned a lot, from both failing and succeeding.


Until next update!

 

[korni]

Nice update!

I read your thread, and I'm impressed by your dedication. There is no doubt that many people would've quit at some point in your journey.

You've stuck to it, and that's what matters. Now, you're reaping the rewards for your effort.

Not all journey threads are an instant success. We all make mistakes. What differentiates the winners from the losers is learning from those mistakes.

You have identified the issues, and now your website is growing steadily. Maybe not in the way you've expected, but the traffic is increasing and so are your earnings.

Good luck on getting into MV! You'll probably get a nice bump in RPM when you get there.

 

[charles133]

Nice plan and i wish you succes ,to achieve your target

 

[Matta28]

Awesome, Mediation finally worked for me and it had a day where it exploded really

 

[nguyenlan]

Tôi tin bạn sẽ thành công, cần thời gian để bùng nổ, thường là 1-2 năm, bạn nên nghiên cứu sâu và tối ưu thêm từ khóa, thu nhập hiện tại nên tái đầu tư nhiều hơn cho bài viết mới.

 

[popbradley]

Nice update!

I read your thread, and I'm impressed by your dedication. There is no doubt that many people would've quit at some point in your journey.

You've stuck to it, and that's what matters. Now, you're reaping the rewards for your effort.

Not all journey threads are an instant success. We all make mistakes. What differentiates the winners from the losers is learning from those mistakes.

You have identified the issues, and now your website is growing steadily. Maybe not in the way you've expected, but the traffic is increasing and so are your earnings.

Good luck on getting into MV! You'll probably get a nice bump in RPM when you get there.

Thank you very much for the kind words.

I kept telling myself I would keep going no matter how many mistakes I made until I figured out what worked and I get this site into mediavine. Then I’ll take what I learned into a new site and see if I can’t do a better job with that one.

I really do hope the RPM increases but I know that’s not guaranteed. Still, would be very nice.

 

[popbradley]

Nice plan and i wish you succes ,to achieve your target

Thank you Charles. I appreciate it

 

[popbradley]

Awesome, Mediation finally worked for me and it had a day where it exploded really

I had actually tried to get mediation active months ago, but google would never approve me. I contacted ezoic several times until they finally said it was some kind of bug and next thing I know it’s activated.

From then in I expected to start seeing Adsense ads compete, but every day it was a big fat zero, until just randomly it is making more than what ezoic premium is making me by itself. I’m still not sure how much it actually is helping my overall earnings but I assume it must be helping a little at least.

Yesterday I made 30 dollars in ad revenue and a large bit of that was because of mediation.

 

[Matta28]

I had actually tried to get mediation active months ago, but google would never approve me. I contacted ezoic several times until they finally said it was some kind of bug and next thing I know it’s activated.

From then in I expected to start seeing Adsense ads compete, but every day it was a big fat zero, until just randomly it is making more than what ezoic premium is making me by itself. I’m still not sure how much it actually is helping my overall earnings but I assume it must be helping a little at least.

Yesterday I made 30 dollars in ad revenue and a large bit of that was because of mediation.

View attachment 219992

I was too lazy to contact them, but some weeks ago it just randomly started to "work" and I'm really happy for it. The one day that Mediation/adsense really exploded I had like $130 EPMV

 

[popbradley]

A small little update, but I found out, just a couple of days ago, that video ads were not playing on the site anymore for at least a couple of months.

I saw an increase in traffic but saw a decrease in my ppmv, but I figured that was just because of the time of the year or something. I decided to check my site on my phone yesterday and noticed the video ads no longer played on the sidebar. Those brought a good 100 or so dollars a month extra a couple of months ago. I guess google had some kind of video player policy update, and now video ads will no longer play on the side of the page unless they see it at the top of the content first. I fixed this issue and already saw an extra 3-4 dollars a day in earnings the following couple of days.

I am going to track the average page duration, and if it ends up hurting it quite a bit, I will remove them again, but it was still interesting to find out I was probably missing out on a couple of hundred more a month because of this thing I hadn't noticed happening.