Authority site + membership - $5000/month journey (long term)

Hey guys,

You mught know me from the Kindle thread. That journey is still on but that is a part time journey. This one is a culmination of a lifetime of learning and work, so to speak.

My main project.

I've been working on this project since 2017, so for about 2 years now.

I've been creating content and video products for my membership and I have a nice catalog right now, enough to start my membership.

I did curate the products in certain marketplaces and I'm making a couple hundred (lower end) off of that every month. Around $7000 in the past 2 years.

Not bad, since I was basically getting paid to create my product. Though that can't sustain me, and income from marketplaces aren't reliable.

So now that I have something I can sell as a membership program (low end at $10/month or so), I want to create a real business around it.

I think it's time, and that's why I created this thread, to keep me accountable, share my journey and hopefully motivate, while getting help from the members here as well.

Ok, so the next steps:

1. I'm going to start with a YouTube channel and a blog. I'll post video versions of the articles on my blog on YouTube and embed them on my blog as well (right above the content).

2. My channel has around 50 subscribers so far but barely any videos, so I'll be building up on that.

3. I'll be writing the articles on a variety of keywords. I have around 200 selected for my main sub niche and I'll start with those. These are tutorial type keywords, so the corresponding content won't be too long. So a lot of mini how to content (500 words or so) on many viable keywords.

4. In the mean time, I'll also post occasional huge articles of around 2000+ words, but these would be in high competition keywords. That said, they should add value to the site, rank for long tail keywords and provide some natural link building opportunities.

5. I have enough content for a premium membership but not much for a free membership so I need to pass up my free membership. I'll send people to my free membership from YouTube and my blog.

6. As for traffic generation and link building, I'm kind of stumped. I'm thinking of using Instagram and Pinterest, but they don't work well for my niche. YouTube works the best for my niche, so I'm going to see how my channel goes.

7. Of course, I'll be creating more premium products for my paid membership every month or two, so thats not going to change.

Ok. That's it. I have a clear cut plan on content but a not so clear one on traffic/SEO. I hope to figure it out as I move on with the journey.

I don't have a specific timeline for achieving my goal, but my first goal would be $500/month from my membership, then $1000/month and so on. This is a long term business.

This seems like a solid plan, good luck on your journey man, keep us updated!

Update:

What did I do today?

1. Set up a blog page on my website. All my blog posts will go there so when people come in, the first thing they'll see is an invite to join my free membership (which I'm yet to set up).

2. I spent a good part of yesterday tinkering with my website, researching malware etc. Succuri scan says my site has a bunch of potentially suspicious files so I asked my hosting guys to run a malware scan. They came up with nothing.

When I start making more money from my website, I plan on hiring a developer to completely comb my website files and aso buy wordfence for $100/year.

I also want to completely redesign my website with a proper premium theme but that has to wait too. Once I get at least 10 paid subscribers on my website, I'll start reinvesting it to make my website better.

3. My site speed score is 70 in Google. Not great, but not too bad I guess? I'm buying a new, faster hosting plan next month. Hopefully that'll increase the speed. That, and the new theme I'll be putting up.

4. Consolidated all of my blog post ideas for the next 3 months at least. I have around 100 mini how-to tutorial topics (maximum of up to 500 words) and 50 longer topics (1000+ words) written down. I don't have any topics for pillar content yet, but I'll do that today.

4. Wrote down a list of the free products I need before launching the membership before launching it to the public and start gathering leads. I have 1 product ready to put up. I just need to consolidate 3 more mini products and I'll be ready to go. 2 of which are 90% done, I just need to polish them. So I have 3 free products ready to add to my free membership. That's a good start. I can add more later.

What next?

1. For the next 30 days, I'll work through the 100 mini blog posts at a rate of 3-5 a day with some free days in between.

2. In the mean time, I'll slowly convert these blog posts into videos. Not at the same rate, but at least at the rate of 1-2/day.

3. Working on my next premium product. I have the material almost done. I'll start recording from next week.

4. Setup the 3 free products I already have and set up a free membership area. Start sharing the free membership in relevant Facebook groups to get initial leads in. I don't think those leads will be of very high quality. They'll mostly be people looking for freebies with no disposable cash, but that's the nature of the game. I'll be happy even if I get 1% conversions after they have mulrie contacts with my articles, videos and Emails. So no lead is a bad lead I guess. What do you guys think?

Ok, so that's it. I'd love to hear the thoughts of more experienced members in authority sites & product/mbership sales.

good luck on your journey my man

Good luck, will be watching this

Update:
Last month's earnings: $250

This was just from the marketplaces my info products are at. As you can see, the amount is paltry.

Hopefully my site earnings will surpass marketplace earnings soon.

What I did so far

Posted my first article. It has 1500 words so much more than I anticipated.

I already set up a silo structure in my blog (I think), at least to my understanding.

It took me some to figure out how to structure my content know just site since it needs some unique structuring, but that's done now.

The post is structured like this: /blog/main-category1/sub-cat1/post_keyword

I'll be adding a plug-in to help with related posts (for each sub category) once I fill the first sub category with at least 10 articles.

Did keyword research based on the golden keyword ratio method for first sub-niche.

I'm still doing it coz I'm doing it all manually.

So far, I have 40 keywords to work with.

I'll continue posting blog posts based on these.

I'm not going to do much in terms of backlinking. I'll just create video versions of the blog posts, embed them in the blog page and link to the blog post from the YouTube video.

I'll also share certain articles in relevant FB groups. Not too much so I don't get banned.

Other than that, my posts should start ranking abd bringing in traffic within the next 6 months, as long as I write quality posts and be consistent. I'm still struggling with consistency, but I'll work harder and try harder.

Good luck on your journey!

Ok, so I only have 3 articles on my blog so far, but I'm already seeing rankings. I don't if these results are good or not, since this is literally my first time building a site and bringing traffic to it (especially organic). My businesses so far revolved around using marketplaces to make money or finding clients who need various services. This is my very first real business, so to speak.

Ok, so here are the results:





Hopefully, this will be a good start for my site.

May marketplace earnings: $337
May site earnings: $0

I have more keywords taken for a sister niche, so I'm contemplating starting a new site on that niche, so the site can age and get out of the sandbox by the time site#1 takes off. I haven't decided if I'll go with a second site yet. I'm not sure if I can manage creating articles + info products for site#1 and articles for #2. I'll keep you guys updated!

Experienced BHW members! Are these results decent for the work done? With 100+ articles, will I start pulling in decent traffic?

I only need a couple thousand visitors from first world countries to start building a decent sized list, so I'm not aiming for a lot

Great to see, keep up the good work. Baby steps man! Wish I could start my own website but I don't have the confidence to do so yet. Great to see a mixture of marketplace and memberships though. Hopefully that takes off soon.

Nice! Keep up the good work!

All the best for your journey.