[Journey] Scaling an Authority website to 10K a month (and beyond)

Dude, you pushed me from being static and allowed me to become better at my work. And for this reason, I actually got close to 10K this month. So, I would like to thank you for everything you offered me and the other BHW members. But, at the same time, I am ashamed to be a part of the same community. Sure, blackhat means you do things in a non-conformist way, but the behavior of some is just pathetic - save your energy for Google, you little shitheads instead of attacking one of the most valuable members of this community. I am very much sure you're not looking for a solution, but you should consider creating a YouTube channel discussing about what you do (as you did in this thread for free) and monetize the shit out of it. There isn't much else that can be said, I just hope people will be at least half-decent and not succumb to the c*nt's whims, allowing you to do your work in peace.

Hello Kikerinka,
a further milestone you set here. In terms of the humanity, you bring to a person who may deprive you of the basis to realize your dreams.

However, I am also confident that you will not let this stop you and continue to go your way. Maybe with a new project, perhaps with other things that have nothing to do with the online world.

I wish you all the best in any case and just hope that you come out of this story well. For me, it was always like talking to an old acquaintance who has many similarities with me.

Thank you for your support and motivation.
Take care, stay healthy and keep your humanity whatever comes. Secretly, I hope that you will stay with us in the forum.

incredible...
good luck
you are inspiring, keep it up Kikerinka et thanks a lot for all your advices

Hey man.

Sorry to hear that.

Just ignore him. He can't do much.

Contact the ad network and PP to let em know you're being blackmailed, just in case he proceeds.

He can't create unlimited PP accounts to destroy you, and stealth PP accounts aren't cheap either. Bots are easy to detect too. Just tighten your Cloudflare security a bit now, and you're good.

Hi Kikerinka,

I'm sorry to hear that. You have shared a lot of knowledge here and helped many people to improve their websites. This thread was actually always the only reason for me to stop by BHW. And it has been for almost 2 years now.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it turns out well for you and your website continues to give you financial independence. It would be nice to read here from time to time how things are going for you.

All the best!

This was/is THE best thread on BHW for me in these 5+ years here...

It helped me quit my day job and focus only on IM, it provided me insights in things i didn't even know existed, etc.

Live long & prosper OP...

Thanks for everything, i am going to miss your updates...

M

P.s. should you decide to come on holidays at sea some 1500km to south, south west (if i calculated correctly in my head) next summer, first round of drinks is on me... ;-)

Kikerinka said:

Side projects update no. 12

I've finally come back from Spain (eventually choosing a house I want to buy, and paying a deposit for it), and realized I haven't updated you on the progress of my side IM projects this month. So here we go .

Click to expand...

Nice to see the journey doing well and congrats on deciding to move to Spain.

Where are you going to be living, which region?

What a pity mate, one of my fears was that someone would find my site and copy it, but what is happening to you .... uffff... and that's another level.

My advice is to contact Adthrive support and explain the situation, even if nothing happens.

I hope all the best and that the situation doesn't escalate.

We are here with you. We can combine strength together to give a proper reaction.

action = -reaction

Escehas said:

Dude, you pushed me from being static and allowed me to become better at my work. And for this reason, I actually got close to 10K this month. So, I would like to thank you for everything you offered me and the other BHW members. But, at the same time, I am ashamed to be a part of the same community. Sure, blackhat means you do things in a non-conformist way, but the behavior of some is just pathetic - save your energy for Google, you little shitheads instead of attacking one of the most valuable members of this community. I am very much sure you're not looking for a solution, but you should consider creating a YouTube channel discussing about what you do (as you did in this thread for free) and monetize the shit out of it. There isn't much else that can be said, I just hope people will be at least half-decent and not succumb to the c*nt's whims, allowing you to do your work in peace.

Click to expand...

Thanks mate, means a lot to me to read your lines, and big congrats to 10K/month!

molcho said:

Hello Kikerinka,
a further milestone you set here. In terms of the humanity, you bring to a person who may deprive you of the basis to realize your dreams.

However, I am also confident that you will not let this stop you and continue to go your way. Maybe with a new project, perhaps with other things that have nothing to do with the online world.

I wish you all the best in any case and just hope that you come out of this story well. For me, it was always like talking to an old acquaintance who has many similarities with me.

Thank you for your support and motivation.
Take care, stay healthy and keep your humanity whatever comes. Secretly, I hope that you will stay with us in the forum.

Click to expand...

I definitely felt the same way talking to you Molcho. Take care as well, so far I am here .

bruce willis said:

incredible...
good luck
you are inspiring, keep it up Kikerinka et thanks a lot for all your advices

Click to expand...

You too mate, I still hope you'll update me once in a while with a private message here, on how you're site is progressing. If I decide to close this account and open a new one, I will write to you.

mirrorer said:

Hey man.

Sorry to hear that.

Just ignore him. He can't do much.

Contact the ad network and PP to let em know you're being blackmailed, just in case he proceeds.

He can't create unlimited PP accounts to destroy you, and stealth PP accounts aren't cheap either. Bots are easy to detect too. Just tighten your Cloudflare security a bit now, and you're good.

Click to expand...

To be honest, since I never thought about doping damage to some another website, I do not know what can realistically be done... But as I said, he can do whatever he wants. I believe my business partners will understand & help, regardless of the action he takes.

And thanks for the Cloudflare tip, I've already done something on their end and may actually step it up even more now!

OLS_ said:

Hi Kikerinka,

I'm sorry to hear that. You have shared a lot of knowledge here and helped many people to improve their websites. This thread was actually always the only reason for me to stop by BHW. And it has been for almost 2 years now.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it turns out well for you and your website continues to give you financial independence. It would be nice to read here from time to time how things are going for you.

All the best!

Click to expand...

Thanks mate, I hope to update this here at least irregularly.

mezzofanti said:

This was/is THE best thread on BHW for me in these 5+ years here...

It helped me quit my day job and focus only on IM, it provided me insights in things i didn't even know existed, etc.

Live long & prosper OP...

Thanks for everything, i am going to miss your updates...

M

P.s. should you decide to come on holidays at sea some 1500km to south, south west (if i calculated correctly in my head) next summer, first round of drinks is on me... ;-)

Click to expand...

Invitation acknowledged . Maybe now I won't share so much info here, it is a chance to perhaps meet some people from here in person, which would be super nice.

Thank you for everything Mezzofanti and see you one day.

MisterF said:

Nice to see the journey doing well and congrats on deciding to move to Spain.

Where are you going to be living, which region?

Click to expand...

Well, not going that well . Probably you haven't read my last message.

Due to the things that happened, from now on I won't disclose here anything related to my personal life. That means, even if I move to Spain, I won't say when, where, etc.

leit said:

What a pity mate, one of my fears was that someone would find my site and copy it, but what is happening to you .... uffff... and that's another level.

My advice is to contact Adthrive support and explain the situation, even if nothing happens.

I hope all the best and that the situation doesn't escalate.

Click to expand...

Thank you mate, I will discuss it with them. I believe to have a good connection with the people at the network, and they will stand by me.

It was a pleasure following your journey here, and I hope things continue going well on your end!

balc said:

We are here with you. We can combine strength together to give a proper reaction.

action = -reaction

Click to expand...

Fighting evil with evil you just create more evil in the world.

The most important reaction is the internal reaction--one that happens within you. In my heart I tried to understand the guy, and to forgive him. Then to move on. Not let any negative emotions like fear, rancor, anxiety consume me.

Once you reach some success in any endeavor, many people will envy you or even hate you, or try to parasite on you. This is a part of the process and I learned to accept it...

@Kikerinka - at this point of your journey, exposing your site would do minimal damage to your site. Threats about DOD, Paypal refunds, etc seem illogical, to say the least. You have shown your method of kw research using Google Search Console and Analytics, which is more than enough.
Those who want to copy other successful sites can take any site that participates in Adthrive or Mediavine and has a decent ranking/weak-medium link profile. Your site is the biggest player in your niche, thus after setting up Cloudflare properly you should be golden.

@mentolinho reached 20K in 2 years and sold his site using simple formula - good kw research, good content, plus link buying.

It is possible that the blackmailer has sent such letters to other publishers that work with Adtrhive or Mediavine. Many of them have real personal or business contact information.

Anyways, if you decide to quit this journey I wish you success in your future hotel business

That idiots not gonna do shit. Sucks people like that get to breath on this earth.

@Kikerinka

Your thread is the absolute most helpful thread in the whole of BHW. I have benefitted a lot from your generous sharing. Thank you so so much. It's too bad that this has happened. I never imagined something like this can happen. Hopefully it's just a bluff ( I think it is ) and we can continue learning from your sharing.

RayBay said:

@Kikerinka - at this point of your journey, exposing your site would do minimal damage to your site. Threats about DOD, Paypal refunds, etc seem illogical, to say the least. You have shown your method of kw research using Google Search Console and Analytics, which is more than enough.
Those who want to copy other successful sites can take any site that participates in Adthrive or Mediavine and has a decent ranking/weak-medium link profile. Your site is the biggest player in your niche, thus after setting up Cloudflare properly you should be golden.

@mentolinho reached 20K in 2 years and sold his site using simple formula - good kw research, good content, plus link buying.

It is possible that the blackmailer has sent such letters to other publishers that work with Adtrhive or Mediavine. Many of them have real personal or business contact information.

Anyways, if you decide to quit this journey I wish you success in your future hotel business

Click to expand...

Thanks mate, you are likely right. The only difference between me and other people on Adthrive and Mediavine is that they do not run a journey thread like this one .

For now I am not quitting the journey, I just won't post updates in a way I've done before. Still hope to help some people with answers, and perhaps motivation with a screenshot here and there.

At the end of the day, I believe up to this point I've shared enough information for anyone who wants to build an authority website & brand in some niche, generating almost passive income month after month.
Even if I don't post anything new, people can find everything on the pages of this journey...

Thank you also for your wishes for my future "business" .

popbradley said:

That idiots not gonna do shit. Sucks people like that get to breath on this earth.

Click to expand...

Don't waste your energy on negativity mate. You have a good website, so better investing it into it .


Micro Update for October:


- October Google updates did not affect the website, there was a traffic drop from India due to Divali and other holidays, but in these days I had some of the best RPMs I've ever had.

- Did a solid rehaul of 40 older articles, adding to them certain elements, prolonging them in average by 700 words (some more, some less). It is an experiment to try to regain better rankings for articles in certain category. As a "side-benefit" this helped average time on page and in last 7 days it was 6:57, which is probably the longest ever. Longer time on page means better user metrics (something Google focuses on a lot) and also better RPM (more ad impressions).

- At the very end of the month I even improved the security of this website (which was good before anyway). Due to the well-known reasons, I won't disclose the security updates.

Take care everyone, and good luck with your projects!

Taking existing articles to improve them works really well and the results are often immediate. In a few days, if you work well, the articles can get up to 10 times their previous traffic

Kikerinka said:

Thanks mate, you are likely right. The only difference between me and other people on Adthrive and Mediavine is that they do not run a journey thread like this one .

For now I am not quitting the journey, I just won't post updates in a way I've done before. Still hope to help some people with answers, and perhaps motivation with a screenshot here and there.

At the end of the day, I believe up to this point I've shared enough information for anyone who wants to build an authority website & brand in some niche, generating almost passive income month after month.
Even if I don't post anything new, people can find everything on the pages of this journey...

Thank you also for your wishes for my future "business" .


Don't waste your energy on negativity mate. You have a good website, so better investing it into it .


Micro Update for October:
View attachment 231170

- October Google updates did not affect the website, there was a traffic drop from India due to Divali and other holidays, but in these days I had some of the best RPMs I've ever had.

- Did a solid rehaul of 40 older articles, adding to them certain elements, prolonging them in average by 700 words (some more, some less). It is an experiment to try to regain better rankings for articles in certain category. As a "side-benefit" this helped average time on page and in last 7 days it was 6:57, which is probably the longest ever. Longer time on page means better user metrics (something Google focuses on a lot) and also better RPM (more ad impressions).

- At the very end of the month I even improved the security of this website (which was good before anyway). Due to the well-known reasons, I won't disclose the security updates.

Take care everyone, and good luck with your projects!

Click to expand...

Thanks for this simple but powerful update.
You are the only one who confirms that Google updates didn't hit your site.

That is a very big message and motivation for me. Once you put effort and offer a great quality Google cares.

Kikerinka said:

Thanks mate, you are likely right. The only difference between me and other people on Adthrive and Mediavine is that they do not run a journey thread like this one .

For now I am not quitting the journey, I just won't post updates in a way I've done before. Still hope to help some people with answers, and perhaps motivation with a screenshot here and there.

At the end of the day, I believe up to this point I've shared enough information for anyone who wants to build an authority website & brand in some niche, generating almost passive income month after month.
Even if I don't post anything new, people can find everything on the pages of this journey...

Thank you also for your wishes for my future "business" .


Don't waste your energy on negativity mate. You have a good website, so better investing it into it .


Micro Update for October:
View attachment 231170

- October Google updates did not affect the website, there was a traffic drop from India due to Divali and other holidays, but in these days I had some of the best RPMs I've ever had.

- Did a solid rehaul of 40 older articles, adding to them certain elements, prolonging them in average by 700 words (some more, some less). It is an experiment to try to regain better rankings for articles in certain category. As a "side-benefit" this helped average time on page and in last 7 days it was 6:57, which is probably the longest ever. Longer time on page means better user metrics (something Google focuses on a lot) and also better RPM (more ad impressions).

- At the very end of the month I even improved the security of this website (which was good before anyway). Due to the well-known reasons, I won't disclose the security updates.

Take care everyone, and good luck with your projects!

Click to expand...

True. I just feel bad for you. I’ve had several things destroyed because people don’t care about working hard for themselves and would rather steal or blackmail your success.

Kikerinka said:

Thanks mate, you are likely right. The only difference between me and other people on Adthrive and Mediavine is that they do not run a journey thread like this one .

For now I am not quitting the journey, I just won't post updates in a way I've done before. Still hope to help some people with answers, and perhaps motivation with a screenshot here and there.

At the end of the day, I believe up to this point I've shared enough information for anyone who wants to build an authority website & brand in some niche, generating almost passive income month after month.
Even if I don't post anything new, people can find everything on the pages of this journey...

Thank you also for your wishes for my future "business" .


Don't waste your energy on negativity mate. You have a good website, so better investing it into it .


Micro Update for October:
View attachment 231170

- October Google updates did not affect the website, there was a traffic drop from India due to Divali and other holidays, but in these days I had some of the best RPMs I've ever had.

- Did a solid rehaul of 40 older articles, adding to them certain elements, prolonging them in average by 700 words (some more, some less). It is an experiment to try to regain better rankings for articles in certain category. As a "side-benefit" this helped average time on page and in last 7 days it was 6:57, which is probably the longest ever. Longer time on page means better user metrics (something Google focuses on a lot) and also better RPM (more ad impressions).

- At the very end of the month I even improved the security of this website (which was good before anyway). Due to the well-known reasons, I won't disclose the security updates.

Take care everyone, and good luck with your projects!

Click to expand...

Let's keep the journey going! Hurray! Thanks so much Kikerinka. If my memory serves me right, I have received similar email in the past.

They noted this and that about myself and asked for some dollars, and IF I CHOOSE TO IGNORE THIS EMAIL, GET READY TO SUFFER!

WELL... I did ignore the emails... And nothing happened. However I must point out I was no where as successful as you are @Kikerinka lol... I was just making 1k USD per month.

I am in the process of building my authoritative sites. Have more than a couple ideas in mind... Chances of success should be fairly high thanks to the things you have taught and shared with us here.

Focusing on the fundamentals is the key... And everyday I read this thread I get reminded of this.

Thanks again Kikerinka for all the experience and wisdom and most important of all the inspiration. Let's continue the hustle and grind!

ecomsim said:

@Kikerinka

Your thread is the absolute most helpful thread in the whole of BHW. I have benefitted a lot from your generous sharing. Thank you so so much. It's too bad that this has happened. I never imagined something like this can happen. Hopefully it's just a bluff ( I think it is ) and we can continue learning from your sharing.

Click to expand...

Thanks a lot Ecomsim, you've been always super kind to me .

To be honest, I do not know if it is a bluff or not. I just know I am not going to support blackmailing of any kind. And hope the guy will find right ways, and perhaps benefit in the right way from knowing my website--such as using it to build his own great website...

bruce willis said:

Taking existing articles to improve them works really well and the results are often immediate. In a few days, if you work well, the articles can get up to 10 times their previous traffic

Click to expand...

Here it is not going to be the case, since the article were pretty good already. I just added a certain element (content part) that wasn't there, and the sites outranking me in this category have it. My theory is that they are outranking me because of that. In a few months we will see if I was correct. If yes, I will add that element to all articles from this category. Because lot of these articles have high % of US traffic, and every extra hundred PV brings nice income increase.

Isaaqkeymarrow said:

Thanks for this simple but powerful update.
You are the only one who confirms that Google updates didn't hit your site.

That is a very big message and motivation for me. Once you put effort and offer a great quality Google cares.

Click to expand...

The last updates were hard for everyone. When you have a big authority website though, even if you get hit, it is typically 10%-20% loss, which is something you can live with.

But it is true that the journeys I follow and YT guys I watch, almost everyone got hit in one of these latest updates.

For that reason, I honestly believe there is a good chance this update will be reversed in near future.

popbradley said:

True. I just feel bad for you. I’ve had several things destroyed because people don’t care about working hard for themselves and would rather steal or blackmail your success.

Click to expand...

Thanks mate. I felt pretty bad one day too, but now it is OK. It is just something we have to accept: When you are successful in any endeavor, some people will always try to steal or blackmail your success.

Hope you're well, and I will read your update in a while (got a notification about it )

ecomsim said:

Let's keep the journey going! Hurray! Thanks so much Kikerinka. If my memory serves me right, I have received similar email in the past.

They noted this and that about myself and asked for some dollars, and IF I CHOOSE TO IGNORE THIS EMAIL, GET READY TO SUFFER!

WELL... I did ignore the emails... And nothing happened. However I must point out I was no where as successful as you are @Kikerinka lol... I was just making 1k USD per month.

I am in the process of building my authoritative sites. Have more than a couple ideas in mind... Chances of success should be fairly high thanks to the things you have taught and shared with us here.

Focusing on the fundamentals is the key... And everyday I read this thread I get reminded of this.

Thanks again Kikerinka for all the experience and wisdom and most important of all the inspiration. Let's continue the hustle and grind!

Click to expand...

$1K is still great online! As they rightly say, the first $ is the hardest. Or the first million .

Let's keep going, and I'll be glad to read your update once in a while, here or in PM. Take care mate!

I haven't posted anything in this thread before, but I think it's time to stop lurking and show you some support.

No amount of blackmail attempts will change the fact that your thread has helped people transform their lives and businesses.

Thanks for being so kind and helpful in a world that is anything but.