[Journey] Growing a Historical Blog from 100 Clicks to 10k Clicks a Month

[metlivewin]

Hello everyone!
After reading this Journey (https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/j...w-website-to-50-000-visitors-a-month.1277740/) I've been inspired to begin my thread!

I created this blog in June from a brand new domain, posted one article and then left it, only to pick it up again in November.
It's an History blog in italian, where I write Summaries and detailed posts about historical events and facts. These are the starting stats:



I have written about 20 posts so far, with just a few ranking in the first 10 positions. I try to focus on low-competition keywords and topics, since I yet don't have the authority to compete for the hard ones. I'm not using any SEO tools and I'm trying to keep this White Hat.
I use Gemini 3 to write the starting article, then I manually check it, improve it and add Images.

My goal is to reach 1k Clicks a month, then 10k and so on. I'll then try to integrate adSense, and affiliate links for the books I use as source.

Wish me luck guys, I'll keep you updated!

 

[ProxyBoost]

Good luck, brother! You’re doing great, and you’ll succeed the most important thing is to keep going.

 

[Ley]

Good luck, hope you would be able to update us with the progress

 

[metlivewin]

Alright guys, I posted a new article and sent it to google and bing. Usually google takes just a few hours to index it, while bing doesn't always index it, I don't really know why. At the moment, the google search console is not updating, it says "last update: 41.5 hours ago", that's unlucky because from my analytics tools I've seen many clicks in the last few days, hopefully it will fix itself.

When I post an article I usually share it on reddit, and manage to get good clicks from it.
These are the stats from Clarity from the last 7 days.


In the first post I didn't say that I'm using a self made CMS, it makes it a bit harder to write articles but it gives me complete control over everything, it's also really fast. I'm also self-hosting it, so I don't have any hosting expenses.

Following some advice on here, a few days ago I created a tool that generates random historical facts and quotes from my original articles. I also made it embeddable from other websites, in order to gain some backlinks.

Now I just have to wait I guess, I'll keep you updated! Thanks for following, and if you have any suggestion, feel free to comment!

 

[metlivewin]

Hello everyone, it's been more than a week since the last update, but I decided to wait for the google search console data to update (there are being delays). This week I've posted 9/10 new articles, focusing on low-competition keywords and also writing a Pillar post linking to many other related articles.

Anyway, here are the updated analytics:


Google search console (last 28 days): 126 clicks (they should be more, since yesterday I should have received about 10 clicks from google, but It's not yet updated), 7,46k impressions, 1.7%ctr


Google Analytics (through Looker Studio, last 30 days)



Clarity (last 30 days)


Bing webmaster tools

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Usually when I post a new article, I share it on reddit and get many views and comments, ofc not everybody clicks on the link, but many do. I'm happy because I get to have traffic, but I would prefer it to be organic.

Tonight Google AdSense rejected me for the 4th time for low value content, and it's pretty annoying, so I was looking for some alternatives suitable for a website like mine, do you know any?

Hope you are doing great! Thanks for following

 

[metlivewin]

Nice journey to follow. Stick to tight topic clusters and keep updating older posts — historical niches grow fast when Google sees consistency.

Thank you, I will! I'm also getting some links from Wikipedia, I also made a tool that generates random historical events so people can hopefully link to it (no one has done it so far but still....).

In your opinion, should I keep trying with adsense or should I try something else? if so, what?

 

[metlivewin]

If you’re already getting links and traffic, diversify. Run AdSense but also test affiliate offers tied to history, books, documentaries, or education — mixed monetization usually pays better long-term.

I'm using affiliate links for the books I cite as source, so far I got 18 clicks to amazon and just a few to another online store, but no revenue.

I'll try to submit to AdSense one more time, hopefully this time they'll accept me (i'm quite skeptical)

 

[metlivewin]

Hello everyone! Happy new year!
Almost a month has passed, it's been quite a busy period irl for me, so I didn't have the chance to update the Journey, but here am I:

Since the last update I have posted 8 new articles (could have done better but I'm focusing on uni and technical changes), anyway, here are the analytics (last 28/30 days):

Google Search Console:


Bing Webmasters Tools:


Microsoft Clarity:


Google Analytics:



I feel like it's starting to get some traction, I definitely need to get more content online (both historical articles and pure seo content in the blog). I'm also receiving good feedback from users sending me emails (I had a teacher telling me that she would share my website with her students!!!) and new authors wanting to write content for the website.

Sadly Google AdSense rejected me again for the fourth time iirc (Low value content wtf), so I had to wait until the 31th of December to reapply (now I'm waiting). I also applied for 2 other ad networks but I feel like this is a google adsense or nothing situation since I already have about 40 eur in the balance (from another website) and i've got to reach 70 to withdraw.

Since the last update I improved the design and the quality-feel of the website, I also coded a dashboard to easily edit/create articles, this made the posting procedure way faster.

I also managed to get a quality backlink from a local online newspaper (50da, extremely related).
I'm now aiming for 10 stable google clicks a day, to at least get 200 clicks in 28 days, hope to reach it soon.

Hope you're all doing well, let me know what you think of this project and don't hesitate to ask me questions/give feedback!

 

[I am Mr feng]

I thought niche had died in front of AI, turns out there's still an effect?

 

[metlivewin]

I thought niche had died in front of AI, turns out there's still an effect?

wym niche had died? History? Probably there's less traffic since AI but I think there are many opportunities, there aren't really huge competitors (apart from Wikipedia I guess, but if I post recaps it shouldn't be the case)

 

[Fiducia]

How about participating in some relevant forums, too much effort?

 

[metlivewin]

How about participating in some relevant forums, too much effort?

I usually share the posts on italian history subreddit and I get good clicks but other than that, there aren't forums in my niche

 

[Fiducia]

I usually share the posts on italian history subreddit and I get good clicks but other than that, there aren't forums in my niche

There must be history forums, no? I guess your website is in Italian, right? Owning a good number of European sites, I would not rely on Reddit at all.

 

[metlivewin]

There must be history forums, no? I guess your website is in Italian, right? Owning a good number of European sites, I would not rely on Reddit at all.

honestly my goal is to rank and get clicks from google, forums would be great but I consider them secondary. However: there are only 3 forums (that I know of): 2 are completely dead (last posts in 2008...), 1 kept banning my posts or moving them to spam so don't really know what to do

Yes, my blog is in italian

 

[Fiducia]

honestly my goal is to rank and get clicks from google, forums would be great but I consider them secondary. However: there are only 3 forums (that I know of): 2 are completely dead (last posts in 2008...), 1 kept banning my posts or moving them to spam so don't really know what to do

Yes, my blog is in italian

Even a #1 position on Google search does not guarantee traffic anymore. Google AI will digest your content and provide answers before people click towards your website.

How about popular general Italian forums?

Consider Bing & Co as well. I guess much of your audience interested in history is not gen-Z. These people use older PCs with Bing as search engine pre-configured.

 

[metlivewin]

Even a #1 position on Google search does not guarantee traffic anymore. Google AI will digest your content and provide answers before people click towards your website.

How about popular general Italian forums?

Consider Bing & Co as well. I guess much of your audience interested in history is not gen-Z. These people use older PCs with Bing as search engine pre-configured.

I know that even a #1 position on google wouldn't guarantee traffic (even tho it would still bring some, otherwise how would my competitors still be alive).

There are no general italian forums and if there were, I wouldn't count on them. I think reddit in this case is the go-to, I get good views from it but I don't want to be spammy, so I don't share every article, just sometimes.


Look at the stats from my latest reddit post in italian history subreddit

I agree on Bing, even if in my mind the target audience is students (middle/high-school) and they usually do use google.
I usually rank higher on bing but get half or maybe a bit more from bing/yahoo than on google. The issue I'm currently facing on bing is that many of my pages are not being indexed, and I don't really know why (possibily lack of backlinks? idk, another website that I own and that relies primarily on bing doesn't have this issue and doesn't have many backlinks either, the quality is also waaay lower)

I'm also waiting for adsense approval, but as time passes, the chances of an approval are lower. If I get rejected again, which ad network would you reccommend for italian traffic?

 

[Don-Don]

So google dosent want to index unique Italian content? Low domain authority, new domain, duplicated content, no backlinks, ai generated/thin content all those can be the reason of not indexing. If you have truly unique content (i guess its unlikely in history niche) then definitely buy backlinks, citations, social media accs etc

 

[metlivewin]

So google dosent want to index unique Italian content? Low domain authority, new domain, duplicated content, no backlinks, ai generated/thin content all those can be the reason of not indexing. If you have truly unique content (i guess its unlikely in history niche) then definitely buy backlinks, citations, social media accs etc

google actually indexes my pages in no-time, i'm talking 1/2 hours. The problem is bing! Not always does it index my pages.

Apparently it's google adsense that does not like my content

 

[metlivewin]

Hello everyone, new update!

I finally reached 200+ clicks in 28 days on google search console!


The best day so far I got 19 clicks in a day!

Last 7 days:


I feel like it has started picking up!



Organic search is now my main source of traffic:


I'm in contact with a few ad agencies, hopefully adsense approves me but who knows, I'll keep you updated!

 

[sarahdebs]

best of luck for your journey...