So I've been reading up on IM and how to earn some side-income and it's time to start getting a little more serious about it. While I have a regular job, I'm very conscious of the fact that most of us who work for someone else no longer really have job security in the modern day world and you can be let go at any time. With that in mind, it seems prudent to build up some alternative sources of income and hence this journey. What is the goal? Well, the first goal is simple: make any form of sale. Once that's done, I can start thinking about setting new goals. In terms of what I've done in silly fashion prior to this: a) set up a website to write about an area that I thought I liked. The problem is that it slowly became a drag when I realised that I really didn't like writing about this area that much. Bigger issue? The fact that there is no real way to monetize it because I was essentially writing about products in a very sophisticated niche and where the readers would probably already have the products. So that was money and time wasted. Key lesson? Keyword research is still incredibly important. This site is likely to be left alone for the foreseeable future. b) set up a 2nd website to write about another area and, yet again, I don't think I did the keyword research very well here. However, this will be the first site that I will monitor during this journey because it's broad enough that it could be built into an authority site. I'm not convinced it will succeed but it will be a useful case study for myself. If it doesn't seem to move anywhere, I may practice some blackhat techniques on it, just to see its effect. Henceforth known as Website 1. c) in the process of setting up a 3rd website based on a much more niche area. The hosting site has some issues with the domain registration though and won't let me register the domain so it's being manually done by them after a ticket was raised. While the initial idea is to target a very specific area, the initial keyword can potentially branch out into other areas so the website will have a more generic brand-name, rather than an EMD (which I understand is no longer useful anyway). Henceforth known as Website 2. So that's it, 2 websites to try and generate some income and, if successful, to scale the operations up more. The plan? The current plan is to let the 2 sites grow organically at the start, with some content being hand-written by me and maybe some being outsourced. I hear Natasha Nixon is good for this, let me know if you have any other recommendations. In terms of tools, I have a bunch that I bought, such as Scrapebox, GSA, Captcha Sniper, Kontent Machine and The Best Spinner. Not sure whether to invest in a serps tracking tool at some point as well but I suspect that will only happen if the sites actually show some potential. Now I'm a noob when it comes to these tools so I will be learning how to use them as I go, largely via YT videos and the like. I think these tools will only be used when I need to, rather than trying to create a churn-and-burn site from the get-go (although I may try that at some point). Current status and plans: Website 1: it has 4 articles and a couple of pages at this time. What I intend to do in the course of this week is the following: a) add in more standard pages, such as the contact form, the privacy policy, etc.; b) write 3 product reviews with content being drawn from Amazon and other review sites, each review likely to be between 500-900 words; c) update a news article section whenever there is noteworthy news in the sector that the site covers. This is a very simple update, not more than 300 words each time. Website 2: currently nothing until I can get the domain registration issue is resolved. Once done, I want to add an initial 3 reviews, the standard pages and maybe a couple of articles within 2 weeks. Hopefully I learn something on this journey, even if I don't earn anything! Feel free to comment or give me suggestions here, always happy to hear what others have done before.
Great start. I will follow your journey and learn from it. Hope You won't disappear after two or three updates. Keep it up!
Quick update: a) Website 2 hosting issues have been resolved. Unfortunately, I wasn't too happy with the design of the site and so I'm going to have to sit down and re-do it. It's not a bad thing since it allows me to try and figure out a template that I like and can use going forward. b) Have ordered 4 articles for Website 2 so that it can be a little more fleshed out soon. c) The intention is to spend time this week writing content for both websites. I need to get used to writing for longtail keywords rather than just writing, if that makes sense. It still feels unnatural to me but I think it's important to get the mindset right so that the sites can start to rank.
Managed to get a couple of articles out, 1 for each Website, each article around 700-900 words. Strictly reviews but with a focus on targeting some longtail keywords. What's kinda depressing is reading about the Google Sandbox. Anyone have any idea how long new sites stay in the Sandbox? I've read anything between 30 days to 12 months.
Update (7 Feb): Website 1: Intending to get out 2 reviews later today in a certain sub-niche within the website. The reason being that Website 1 is actually ranking at 4 and 5 on Yahoo! for a broad article on this sub-niche so I might as well see if I can get a little more momentum going. Also figured out how to submit a sitemap manually to Google (did I mention I'm a noob?). It's a little exciting to actually see a ranking even if I'm not actually monetizing anything, silly isn't it? Another review page is now ranking at positions 45 and 46 on Google (very similar longtail search terms) so again that feels good A lot of work to be done still. Website 2: I haven't started tracking this site yet since it's very young still. I managed to get up 2 more reviews today so that brings it to 3 review posts on this site right now. Other steps: I've created 3 Web 2.0s to start as my tier 1s. Need to create some content for these sites but trying to figure out exactly how much I need for this. Next steps: 1) write 2 reviews for Website 1 and upload it by today or tomorrow. 2) generate 1 article for each Web 2.0, with the intention to start building links in a couple of weeks.
Did a quick update on my rankings for Website 1 and it's interesting. First column is G's rankings, 2nd is Y's rankings and 3rd is B's. I have no idea why certain keywords are ranking well on Y (not that I'm complaining) but I need to work on those G rankings. B is a complete mystery for me. What I've done today? I was pretty lazy to be honest but I did manage to knock out 2 500+ word blog posts for Website 2. Content update so far: Website 1: 3 product reviews, 1 summary review (where I reviewed 5 items in high level fashion) and 4 blog posts. Website 2: 5 product reviews and 2 blog posts. What's next? 1) Generate content for web 2.0s. 2) Write a blog post for Website 2 that targets a longtail keyword which should be easy to rank for. 3) Write a review for Website 1 but need to decide what longtail keyword I intend to target.
Update 11 February Managed to get out 2 longish articles/reviews for Website 2 and 1 for Website 1. Was able to create another 4 more Web 2.0s that should be able to target both Website 1 and Website 2 when the time comes. A bit of an impasse at how to push Website 1 forward since I just found out that my domain name may have issues because it uses hyphens and apparently G doesn't like that. No real change in the rankings since it's still not ranking on G yet. Will probably give this another month and, if there's no real progress, may decide to use the site to test more BH methods. Website 2 I haven't started tracking its rankings yet, suspect it's still too early at this stage. For this one, I may see if I can subscribe for a service to create a PBN for it. Let me know if you know of a good and reliable service.
1 more review has gone up on each Website. Ranking for Website 1 are disappointing since most of the Y rankings have disappeared. There's only 1 left although it's in the top 10. Rankings for Website 2 are bouncing all over the place, to be expected I guess. Best ranking is a 19 ranking on B for a longtail keyword.
I know it's silly but Website 1 actually managed to get a click on an Amazon link, although there was no conversion. Hopefully that's a sign that it's moving in the right direction! I ordered a couple of services on BHW, one for each Website and will see how they perform.
How much content do you have on each of your websites? How come you're building web 2.0s already before filling out your site with more content?
