[Blogging Journey] The best I can do

It's time to document my second blogging journey.

The first one is here, unsuccessful in terms of hitting initially set goals but successful in terms of gaining experience.

This time, I'm putting in everything I got, no excuses! I will do everything I know about blogging (perfect research, perfect interlinking, perfect visual elements, perfect formatting, etc.).

I also have the budget to hire native writers and enough time to research keywords properly this time. A failure isn't an option.

What have I done so far?

1. Picked a niche.
2. Registered a branded domain name on 31.10.2021.
3. Installed Astra and customized it to my taste. Got it hosted on Namecheap on 02.02.2022.
4. Read a lot of resources about the niche, I decided to acquire basic knowledge before proceeding to content production.
5. Published 12 1000-1500 words long AI-generated human-edited articles in the second half of February.
6. Contacted my old copywriter who wrote articles for my first website and he agreed to write for this site as well. I found one more writer to speed up the content production.
7. Migrated the website to WPX on 23.04.2022.
8. Published two articles (3144 and 3035 words long) written by my first copywriter in the last 6 days. Both indexed within 48 hours.

What am I going to do next?

1. I will publish at least 20 2500-3000 words long articles each month until I hit 300 articles.
2. I won't remove the AI articles I published in February. All of them are indexed and more or less ranking. I will get them all rewritten in May.
3. I will start building links the day I will have 50 indexed articles.
4. I will monetize this website mainly with ads. I will publish few to none affiliate (review, best N) articles.

FAQs:
1. How do I do keyword research?
I have one DR6 website in target with 80 published articles since late 2020 and currently at 100K pageviews. I will simply be rewriting all his articles and publish in the exact chronological order he did. So, every second article idea is being stolen from him. Regarding, my original research, I use Ahrefs and KeywordsEverywhere to get raw ideas and check them manually to make sure they're worth it. I can't say I'm targeting low volume, or extremely low competition keywords (like most baby sites are supposed to do). Instead, I'm going to write tons of long and extremely high-quality articles hoping they will take over already ranking mid-authority sites. (I haven't come to this conclusion blindly, the website I'm going to steal keywords from has seen a massive success sticking to this plan)

2. to be written and answered along the journey

And of course, screenshots.

Search Console. (29.04.2022)


Analytics. (29.04.2022)


Ahrefs. (29.04.2022)


I will be updating this thread once a week on Saturdays.

Wish me good luck and please share your thoughts if you see anything I'm doing wrong.

Thanks,
notNewB

Good luck man. Looking strong

First report (14.05.2022).

What was done on the website since 29.04.2022

1. Published 7 articles of 2600-2900 words each.
2. Did keyword research for 21 new articles and sent 7 of them to my copywriter. I provide detailed outline and resources to do research on in addition to general instructions. I'm proud of what we've (my with my writer) been producing so far.
3. Created a new amazon associate account, but haven't added any links to the site yet.

Current Status
Articles: 18 online articles - 9 new, 9 from the first batch of AI articles pending to be edited.
Backlinks: 1 organic (on a DR 37 e-store), 0 built
Expanses: $72 (annual Grammarly with a 50% off) + $27 (3 months of EasyWP hosting) + $25 (a month of WPX hosting) + $420 (14 articles) = $544
Profit: $0

Snapshots:
Search Console. (14.05.2022)


Analytics. (14.05.2022)


Ahrefs. (14.05.2022)


Going pretty slow, but that's okay. I know things will speed up once I hit 80-10 articles. I need topical relevancy.

Have a nice weekend ya'll.

Good luck man! following.

It's cool that you started again with an improved plan.

How much is your budget? I figure around $10k for 300 articles + hosting, grammarly and ahrefs but don't know your other expenses (such as links maybe).

Which ad network do you plan to use? Will you start with adsense/ezoic or you prefer to wait for traffic and skip directly to mediavine/adthrive?

Good luck, I hope this niche will be a winner.

Ff

blogmen said:

It's cool that you started again with an improved plan.

How much is your budget? I figure around $10k for 300 articles + hosting, grammarly and ahrefs but don't know your other expenses (such as links maybe).

Which ad network do you plan to use? Will you start with adsense/ezoic or you prefer to wait for traffic and skip directly to mediavine/adthrive?

Good luck, I hope this niche will be a winner.

Click to expand...

Hi man. Thank you for wishing me good luck.

I don't exactly have a fixed budget, but I have a pretty stable source of income this time that allows me to invest up to $1000 in this site per month. One of my copywriters is producing content actively, that's $480 (16 articles, fixed $30 per article). The second writer has been pretty inactive due to this family stuff. I'm passively looking for another writer who could replace him.

Regarding the backlinks, I haven't done anything yet. But I'll surely start reaching out to sites in my industry soon, maybe next month. I'll do link building manually through outreach, only on real sites. I know each link might cost me $200-300 or more, but I'm convinced 2-4 such links per month is way better than 10-20 "premium quality guest posts" everyone is selling around.

The current plan regarding the ad network is to wait until I hit 50k pageviews and apply to mediavine. I'm sure for 95% that I will stick to this plan.

Good luck man. Looking great

The second report (23.05.2022).


What was done on the website since 14.05.2022

1. Published 3 articles of 2600-2900 words each and updated 6 of the AI articles and now they are 2500-3000 words long each.
2. Sent 5 new article details to the main writer.
3. Sent emails to 12 big authority sites in the niche asking if they're open to guest post submissions. It was on the last Saturday, no one replied yet.

Current Status

Articles: 21 online articles - 18 new, 3 from the first batch of AI articles pending to be edited.
Backlinks: 1 organic, 0 built.
Expanses: $72 (annual Grammarly with a 50% off) + $27 (3 months of EasyWP hosting) + $50 (two months of WPX hosting) + $570 (19 articles) = $569
Profit: $0

I'm completely satisfied with how things are going so far. I submit each new article to GSC after I publish, and they get indexed within roughly 12 hours. I'm trying to pay less attention to my rankings at this stage, but as long as I know I have two keywords ranking on the first page at the moment. Both are question-based and are sitting strong on the first page without constantly disappearing and later returning.

I'm testing so many new techniques I haven't tried with my previous site and one of them is having all the articles on your homepage. I have seen this on the successful site I'm stealing keywords from. Basically, it's a nice thematic image on the hero and after that goes all the articles in 3 columns sorted by their published date. I'll be building guest posts only to the homepage for the first 3-4 months and the juice will be distributed evenly as the crawlers will be able to access all the articles in 1 click.

Snapshots:

Search Console. (23.05.2022)



Analytics. (23.05.2022)


Ahrefs. (23.05.2022)


Back to doing more research.

Hasta la vista!

great journey OP, I'll be following this as it's interesting to read about your process in setting the site and running it.

The third report (30.05.2022).


What was done on the website since 23.05.2022

1. Published 3 articles of 2600-2900 words each and updated 2 of the AI articles and now they are 2500-3000 words long each.
2. Sent 5 new article details to the main writer.

Current Status

Articles: 24 online articles - 23 new, 1 from the first batch of AI articles pending to be edited.
Backlinks: 1 organic, 1 built (I added one link to a related Wikipedia page, it's been 4 days and they haven't removed it yet, I can see it on Ahrefs).
Expanses: $72 (annual Grammarly with a 50% off) + $27 (3 months of EasyWP hosting) + $50 (two months of WPX hosting) + $720 (24 articles) = $869
Profit: $0

Everything is going solid. Can't wait to do more keyword research, and to publish more articles.

Snapshots:

Search Console. (30.05.2022)



Analytics. (30.05.2022)



Ahrefs. (30.05.2022)


Talk to you soon.

Solid journey, keep pushing man.

Great mindset and solid plan. I’ll be following.

The fourth report (06.06.2022).


What was done on the website since 30.05.2022

1. The last AI article was rewritten into a 2850 words article and republished. Yes, only 1 article was published in the last 7 days. I have 4 drafted ones from the first writer that I will be publishing throughout this week.
2. I did keyword research for two new articles and sent them to a new writer I found on Fiverr. The new writer has actual experience in the niche and since he is new on Fiverr, he agreed to write at a reasonably cheap rate. Even though my budget is bigger than the one I had for my first journey, I still cannot afford "real" writers who charge $40-$50 per 1k words.

The first writer is going to be not able to write for the next 7-10 days due to family stuff (this is what she said). I hope this is the truth and I will hear from her next week.

Current Status

Articles: 24
Average word length: 2,834
Backlinks: 1 organic, 1 built.
Expanses: $72 (annual Grammarly with a 50% off) + $27 (3 months of EasyWP hosting) + $50 (two months of WPX hosting) + $800 (24x30 + 2x40) = $949
Profit: $0



Two articles the new writer wrote so far are just incredibly good. Hopefully, he won't change his mind on the rate in the near future until the site hits at least a 100 articles milestone.

Snapshots:

Search Console. (06.06.2022)


Analytics. (06.06.2022)


Ahrefs. (06.06.2022)


Yesterday, I sent a report to a HARO query for the first time. I found a competitor site with 6-7 backlinks from huuuge sites and he clearly acquired from through HARO. I'm also actively looking for guest post opportunities, the plan is to have 4-5 strong links to the homepage until the end of June.

Yeah, I know, nothing exciting so far. But all the best is ahead and they won't make us wait long (my gut says so).

Till the next update,
notNewB

The fifth report (13.06.2022).


What was done on the website since 06.06.2022

1. Published 6 articles of 2700-2900 words long.
2. Did keyword research for 4 new article ideas and sent them to the second writer.
3. I paid $30 for one link insertion on a DR60 niche-related website with a real good backlink profile. That's not a website built for farming backlinks so I believe that was a good deal. I got one more link from a friend's DR50 niche-related website, I got this one for free

Current Status

Articles: 30
Average word length: 2,816
Backlinks: 1 organic, 3 built.
Expanses: $72 (annual Grammarly with a 50% off) + $27 (3 months of EasyWP hosting) + $50 (two months of WPX hosting) + $30 (1 guest post) + $920 (28x30 + 2x40) = $1099
Profit: $0



Snapshots:

Search Console. (13.06.2022)


Analytics. (13.06.2022)


Ahrefs. (13.06.2022)


Looking for more ways that can potentially allow me to speed up content production, will do my best to scale it up to 30 articles a month.

The sixth report (20.06.2022).


What was done on the website since 13.06.2022

1. Published 1 article of 2700-2900 words long.
2. Did keyword research for 7 new article ideas and sent 5 to the second writer and 2 to the third (new) one.

My first writer, unfortunately, said that she will be unable to write for the next few months to due an unforeseen family issue. She was doing real good job. I found another writer on Fiverr and sent him two test articles. We'll see how he will perform.

Current Status

Articles: 31
Average word length: 2,814
Backlinks: 1 organic, 3 built.
Expanses: $72 (annual Grammarly with a 50% off) + $27 (3 months of EasyWP hosting) + $70 (three months of WPX hosting) + $30 (1 guest post) + $950 (28x31 + 2x40) = $1129
Profit: $0



Snapshots:

Search Console. (20.06.2022)


Analytics. (20.06.2022)


Ahrefs. (20.06.2022)


I have multiple ready articles pending to be edited and published. I will have at least 8 articles published till the end of June.

I also added two "author" accounts to the website and will be publishing the writerss articles under their author names.