gtull2
Power Member
- Apr 25, 2013
- 637
- 360
{Fair warning: I am long winded. If you want a quick read, ignore this journey please.}
Hey all,
Here comes another journey by me. I'm doing this again to document my steps and progress, try to force myself into sticking to the plan, maybe learn a thing or two from you, and just to have some fun. I'm not an online guru (by a long shot), but I give myself a pretty good chance at making this 2,000 +page silo authority site a big success. I think I have what it takes, so let's find out.
The Last Journey
My last little journey was kind of a fail. I say that because I stopped updating it, which is how almost all journeys end. But it wasn't a complete fail. I learned a lot by doing it. It led me to a path that has done very, very well for me.
That journey helped me to discover two thing:
1- Learning how to sell my product/service online. I put the pieces together with the pretty easy to use Shopify platform, but Shopify is just a tool really. There are much better ways to go about it, and this journey will be about me implementing what I have learned so far about selling my own products and services online.
2- Having a killer product or service is the most important ingredient in success. The remaining ingredients are: truly selling it well by going above and beyond what everyone else is doing, standing out from the crowd by becoming "the man" that people take notice of, making an emotional connection with my clients, and finding people that want what I have.
In my previous journey I started by trying to make a few churn and burn sites. That adventure kind of sucked, but those little sites still exist and do quite well. They are not "killing it", but I get some business out of them, so all is well.
While doing my previous journey I stumbled into the whole Shopify craze. I tried to do it like everyone else by dropshipping cheap Chinese crap. That was pretty much a complete failure (I suck). But then I tried Shopify again, but instead of selling Chinese crap, I tried to sell my own crap. The result of this was a major win.
I was learning the ropes with that Shopify site that did well. I dove into this newly discovered niche (well, kind of new to me) and learned everything I could about it. I have literally spent the last 9 months or so perfecting my skills in this niche/industry. I'm pretty confident in saying that I am now an expert in it, and that nobody can "outsell" me in it.
Wrapping up the last journey, the Shopify portion was successful. I started that Sopify site with PPC and the returns were pretty ridiculously good. I stopped PPC eventually because I started to get enough organic traffic to keep me plugging along while I continued learning my new craft. Today, the site makes a net of roughly $200 a day, and I'm happy with it. Could it make a lot more, with PPC? Yes, but.... I''l explain later if there's interest.
I 100% know that my revenue in this niche with the Shopify site is peanuts. I know what I need to do to get to the next level, and that is what this new journey is about.
New Journey
I am creating a huge authority site. When I have completed it, it will have over 2,000 static pages, in addition to continuously added blog pages.
The niche is the same one that I learned (and mastered?) in my previous journey. What is the niche? Of course I won't share details, but in a broad sense it could be considered entertainment I suppose?
This will be a true silo site. I am using a neat little silo wp theme that I bought from SEO Design Solutions. It's just a pretty simple way to make a proper silo site for dummies like me. So far, I really like it.
I have mapped out all of the silos (20 of them), categories within each silo (10 per silo on average), and identified all of the keywords for each supporting article (again, 10 per category on average). If you add that up, I'm looking at over 2k pages in total. I have spent the last few weeks studying the keywords and creating my blueprint (I'm old, so pen and paper). Of course mastering this niche over the last 9 months helped me understand what 90% of my customers are looking for.
What is the monetization? I will be selling my own products and services. More to come on that later.
What's the source of traffic? I may sprinkle some PPC in, but I'm really looking for pure organic traffic. There will not be another site as "all encompassing" in my niche when I am done. With the right architecture (silo), the right keywords (brain, experience, Adwords, etc), some hustle (old school talking over the phone with potential clients), and a little luck,I am excited about this journey's future.
I bought the domain a month or so ago. It's brand new. It does contain the primary keyword in it.
I have spent the last 9 months or so studying all of my competitors. I have even called or emailed all of them pretending to be a potential customer just to see what they are doing. I know them very well.
I do not plan on sending any bought links to this site at all. I am very familiar with pbn's, sape, spamming, G search content cloning, etc. I have been there and done that, I destroyed an authority site with it long ago. I will not take any risks with this one. I don't have to.
I will be creating all of my own content. I know precisely what needs to be said and how it needs to be told. I do not trust anyone to express what needs to be conveyed to hook clients. I can crank this out pretty fast because I know it backward and forwards.
The home page will contain roughly 5k words. Each of the silos will be around 2k words. Each category will have around 1k words. Each supporting article will be around 500 words. That's a rough estimate anyways.
So here I sit. I have a plan, a site, software to do what I want to do, and the will to make this happen. I am in the process right now of setting up the framework of the site. I should have that completed by this weekend. I should be adding content by the beginning of next week.
My goal is to have this site fully functional within 3 months. I will be patient with it. It will be done correctly, and it will be something that I can be proud of.
Lastly
I will do my best to throw an update out every week. I will try to make them short, but this is my spot to gab all I want.
If you have any thoughts or opinions, I would love to hear them. You can keep them lite and fluffy, or feel free to call me out for being an idiot. It's all good.
Here's to the journey!!!
