[Journey] Building an Authority Site from Scratch

[Rufai]

Mini Update
Seeing a spike in traffic. Probably due to Christmas or the ongoing Google update or the site just taking up.

 

[Kikerinka]

Mini Update
Seeing a spike in traffic. Probably due to Christmas or the ongoing Google update or the site just taking up.

View attachment 235584

To me it seems your website simply keeps growing in the right direction while aging, and with the new content you keep posting.
Great news in any case, and definitely a motivation to keep going

 

[Rufai]

To me it seems your website simply keeps growing in the right direction while aging, and with the new content you keep posting.
Great news in any case, and definitely a motivation to keep going

Yes it is indeed a motivation. Even though I've been slow with content publishing, I will keep pushing forward and continue publishing regularly.

One thing that is slowing me down now is because I started focusing on Affiliate content and they take a lot of time to research and writing.

Especially now that I'm using elementor to create the articles. Even though I created a template that I will just import, still I have to copy and everything for each product separately. From the title, features, content, affiliate links. So it is very time consuming.

Before, it used to take me around 4 hours to research, write, and publish articles for info content. But now I couldn't even publish I affiliate post per day.

@Kikerinka If you check the category for my affiliate posts, you'll see the format I'm using for the articles. I got the idea from one of the big sites in the niche and Matt Diggity also posted a video about it.

 

[Kikerinka]

Yes it is indeed a motivation. Even though I've been slow with content publishing, I will keep pushing forward and continue publishing regularly.

One thing that is slowing me down now is because I started focusing on Affiliate content and they take a lot of time to research and writing.

Especially now that I'm using elementor to create the articles. Even though I created a template that I will just import, still I have to copy and everything for each product separately. From the title, features, content, affiliate links. So it is very time consuming.

Before, it used to take me around 4 hours to research, write, and publish articles for info content. But now I couldn't even publish I affiliate post per day.

@Kikerinka If you check the category for my affiliate posts, you'll see the format I'm using for the articles. I got the idea from one of the big sites in the niche and Matt Diggity also posted a video about it.

Hey Rufai,
I checked your new aff articles and the template looks good. Also I can see you have implemented some of the changes I had suggested earlier. Overall things look better to me now!

Do not worry it takes you such a long time to publish the articles. As long as the quality is there, and the posts get some traffic, no doubt you'll make nice commission down the road. Consistency is the key. Just keep publishing, even if you manage just 1 new post/week.

Take care and I look forward to reading your updates.

 

[Rufai]

December 2022 Update, 6 Months of the Journey / Month 11
If you could recall in August 2022, I tried migrating the site from a shared hosting to a Vultr VPS hosting but faced some issues which made me migrated it back to the old shared hosting.

In December, I successfully migrated the site to a high performance VPS from Digital Ocean at $7/mo.

However, I also faced same issues I faced during the last migration but I was able to resolve it. I had to remove Ezoic from the site for 3 days because I thought it was the cause for the issues I faced during the last migration which it is not.

You will also notice some sudden drop in traffic on 5th & 6th December from my analytics graph. However everything looks good now and the site is also very fast, so I think it's worth the hassle.

Results for Last Month:

• Articles published: 4
• Total number of articles: 94

Milestones Reached

• 10k pageviews per month
• $100 per month

Traffic

• Analytics: 13,583 (+5682) pageviews
• Google: 8.91k (+4.31k)

The site is seeing many spikes in traffic with a record of 1,234 pageviews per day on December 31st.

I believe that this has to do with the holiday season and my highest performing article has went from 800 pageviews in November to around 2k pageviews in December.

Other articles have also seen around 50% increase in traffic and I hope that this trend will continue. If it does, we will reach 50k sessions in no time and will apply for Mediavine.

Analytics


GSC


Rankings

• Top 3 positions: 27
• 4-10 positions: 109
• 11-50 positions: 612
• Total ranking keywords: 1,342

Ahrefs


Earnings

• Ezoic: $79.57
• Ezoic EMPV: $7.3 (-46%)
• Amazon: $27.17
• Total: $106.74

Ad rates are currently at their all time lows and you can see that our EMPV dropped by almost 50% compared to November 2022.

Ezoic


Amazon


That's it for now guys, any questions or suggestions feel free to ask.

Thanks for following my journey.

 

[Rufai]

Quick Update
Got a collaboration with a very big website

• DR: 75
• Visits: 20 Million

After watching Morten's (Passive Income Geek) video on HARO, I decided to give it a try and started responding to queries using the exact same template he shared in the video.
So today, I received a response from this site and they want me to be providing expert reviews for their articles. Every article I review will be marked "Review by Me"just like on Healthline, WebMD, etc.

 

[Rufai]

Another Quick Update
Just got invited to Ezoic premium. I think I will just go with the month to month plan because I don't think I will stay with them for too long.

 

[Rufai]

January 2023 Update, 7 Months of the Journey / Month 12
Traffic is still increasing and new articles are quickly ranking on the first page outranking other authority sites in the niche. I think this has to do with topical authority and Google is starting to recognize me as an authority in the niche.
However Ezoic earnings remained the same despite the increase in traffic and being on the Ezoic premium thanks to ad rates being at the lowest. The site has generated around $125 from affiliates though which has made up for the low ads earnings.

What I have Done

• Published 7 articles
• Total: 102 published articles
• Enabled comments for newly published articles: this has resulted in a number of comments from readers which made me believe that people are finding my content helpful and engaging and I try to respond to comments as soon as I can so I can create a connection with my audience and establish credibility.

Milestones Reached

• 100 published articles

Traffic

• Analytics: 18,535 (+4,952) pageviews
• Google: 11.7k (+2.79k)
• Bing: 606 clicks

Earnings

• Ezoic: $120.08
• Amazon: $42.25
• Other affiliate network: $82.97
• Total: $245.3

Analytics


Bing


Ezoic


Amazon


Affiliate network

 

[Eternalman]

Good luck, I will be following ya

 

[Matta28]

Great update, noticed any difference vs. without Ezoic Premium?

 

[sscaz]

I decided to create this thread to keep myself accountable and motivated to keep working on this site.
Overview

• The website was started in January 2022
• 43 articles published
• Traffic: 3,693 pageviews
• Monetization: Ads & Affiliate
• Content type: Informational content

Analytics
View attachment 218277

Search Console
View attachment 218278
Bing Webmaster
View attachment 218279
Plan
Publish at least 1 article per day.

I'll be writing all articles myself in the meantime and will hire writers along the way when the site starts generating a decent amount of income.

No link building for now, though I try to interlink to as many articles as I can.

I havehttps://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/method-how-i-index-articles-for-my-9-days-old-blog-within-12-hours-in-2022.1385453/ to submit articles for indexing as soon as hit the publish button and so far my articles are indexing within a few hours after publishing.

I've also shared my keyword research process here for anyone struggling to find low-competition keywords:

• https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/method-how-to-find-the-best-keywords-for-your-niche.1408409/
• https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/guide-how-to-find-easy-to-rank-low-competition-keywords.1407283/

Goals
Articles

• 50 published articles
• 100 published articles
• 150 published articles
• 200 published articles by December 31, 2022
• 300 published articles
• 500 published articles by July 31, 2023
• 1000 published articles

Traffic Goals

• 5k pageviews
• 10k pageviews
• 20k pageviews
• 30k pageviews
• 50k pageviews
• 100k pageviews
• 200k pageviews

Income Goals

• $50 /m
• $100 /m
• $300 /m
• 500 /m
• $1,000 /m
• $2,000 /m
• $3,000 /m
• $5,000 /m

The site is currently monetized with AdSense but will switch to Ezoic and then Mediavine and eventually Adthrive.

I will be updating this journey weekly (on Sundays) and monthly.

That's it for now guys, wish me luck.

Questions and suggestions are welcomed.

Thanks

Up to now how many articles did you wrote?

 

[tattooedbuddha]

Have you connected GA4 to your website yet? It might be time to do so; universal will be gone soon.

 

[sagarmalik007]

Just one question
Are you creating backlinks or not?
If yes then can you please elaborate your backlinks journey?

Please

 

[Rufai]

Great update, noticed any difference vs. without Ezoic Premium?

Yes but not much, around $1 per day.

Up to now how many articles did you wrote?

There are currently 102 published articles on the site

Have you connected GA4 to your website yet? It might be time to do so; universal will be gone soon.

Yes I have already configured it since, just not using it as it doesn't provide a lot of data like UA.

Just one question
Are you creating backlinks or not?
If yes then can you please elaborate your backlinks journey?

Please

I don't actively build backlinks but I received a couple links as review copies.

 

[Matta28]

Yes but not much, around $1 per day.

Better than zero tho

 

[Rufai]

Better than zero tho

Agreed. That's around $30 per month. Minus $15 premium fee = $15 profit

 

[Matta28]

Agreed. That's around $30 per month. Minus $15 premium fee = $15 profit

That's dope, I'm still Access Now, and slowly moving on to level 1. I'm thinking about buying an existing site just to get there faster

 

[Kikerinka]

Agreed. That's around $30 per month. Minus $15 premium fee = $15 profit

That's dope, I'm still Access Now, and slowly moving on to level 1. I'm thinking about buying an existing site just to get there faster

The problem with Ezoic is that they send money to PayPal, instead of bank account. Which means that from the $30 they send you, you lose $2 immediately when receiving them, and you lose more when sending money to your bank account. Either you pay a fee, or, if your account is in another currency than USD, you lose money on their bad conversion rates. In some cases you may pay both .

For that reason, I actually opted out of Ezoic premium, because for me with the current levels of EPMV on Ezoic & the fee for premium, some months I was basically losing money being on premium...

 

[Rufai]

The problem with Ezoic is that they send money to PayPal, instead of bank account. Which means that from the $30 they send you, you lose $2 immediately when receiving them, and you lose more when sending money to your bank account.

In my case, I receive payments via Payoneer and they charge $10 to withdraw to bank account if you are withdrawing in USD. And I receive all my payments via Payoneer including payment from other affiliate programs. So with or without Ezoic, I have to pay the withdrawal fee.

Either you pay a fee, or, if your account is in another currency than USD, you lose money on their bad conversion rates. In some cases you may pay both .

I used to withdraw in my local currency but their exchange rate is very low (around 45% less). So I opened a USD account with my bank and withdraw my payments in USD. I then convert the USD to my local currency using the best exchange rates, usually buy crypto using my card and then sell it via P2P.
And when paying for Ezoic premium, I pay using my card in local currency and the exchange rate the banks use is lower than the rate at which I exchange my USD by converting it to crypto > P2P.

For that reason, I actually opted out of Ezoic premium, because for me with the current levels of EPMV on Ezoic & the fee for premium, some months I was basically losing money being on premium...

So in my case, am actually making profit instead of losing money.

 

[RedditGold]

I expected somewhat bigger ad revenue growth, switching from Adsense to Ezoic. But nice growth, anyway! I hope to see more updates.