tg01's Amazon & Affiliate Niche Site. Goal: $500p/m

Hello Ladies, Gents, Boys and Girls,

Having read a million and one journeys I figured it's my time to get involved, show what I'm made of, share my knowledge and make some money in the process.

Just over a year ago I took action and jumped in to the Amazon rainforest of niche building websites. I had keyword research organised here, picked up all back links and most of the knowledge from BHW too. I joined another affiliate network at the same time and have just flipped the site to start a web dev company and this: An Amazon & Affiliate niche website.

The goal of the new site is to replace the old one, the previous averaged $250 a month and just peaked at $400. I'd like to hit $500 a month, that's enough to take me on a couple / few decent holidays a year.

So to the project:

Goal target high volume search with low keyword competition
Build out a website with between 30k - 50k content, depending on how many keywords I end up targeting, amount of fluff content and pillars to generate an income.
Eventually achieve $500p/m.

The how:

Keyword research: (I have a copy of Longtail Pro though use this to build out from a seed keyword I purchase)
I purchased 3 different keyword research services here on DigitalPoint, tempted to ask for a refund on one and purchase from another...
- jr D.I.P's Treasured 4k+ Searches amazon keywords $40. Ordered on the 27/12 delivered today, great communication, friendly seller. Sent over keyword competition details without keyword first to check whether you want it. Longtail pro gave it a KC of 25, it should be pretty easy to rank.
- KeywordSpot's V2.0, ordered on the 25/12 delivered today, keywords provided were pretty pants, though I have brought from them before and they always deliver the bacon. Still waiting on a mega keyword from them.
- nihalsad's Illuminati Keyword Research, order placed 24/12. I haven't heard a dickybird since, may have to ask for a refund on this one.
Finally, I haven't purchased this service, its a little more pricey though from communication, quality of details provided I would definitely recommend namhq89!

Webhosting:- Cost $0
I jumped on the Power Up hosting giveaway and have free hosting for the next six months, win!
By the looks of things there are few more accounts still up for grabs:-
http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackh...ting-giveaway-power-up-hostings-giveaway.html

Domain name:- Cost $0.99 (then got given $5 paypal)
Registered a partial match domain with branding. A cool little domain that will stick in people's mind.
Get in touch here:-
http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackh...55-quick-5-everyone-who-has-5-mins-spare.html

Theme / site:- Cost $49.20
As most do, its a wordpress site, they're easy to build out. Customisable and a simple setup.
So I've purchased a themeforest theme that's quite contemporary / designer, ideal for the type of product I'm promoting. I always use a unique premium theme as it sets you apart from the competition.

Logo design:- Cost $15.43
Using a designer called Logo Hulk he'll put three unique concepts together for the site, I use him for most projects and recommend. So these shall be here in 2 days tops!

Content writing & articles:- Cost up to $1 a 100, I'm trying out a new writer who's a little cheaper but I do not like to compromise on quality so I'll find out shortly. Just in case anyone asks I do not share my writers, as I've got more than enough work for them.
Sitting on the tube today I typed this out on my phone and am just waiting for some content back from my writers before I provide the next bulk of work.
So to help noob's (as I was in the same boat last year) this is my strategy:-
- Have or write 7 - 10 fluff articles each anything between 500 and 1000 words each, these need to be relevant and use a few of your main keywords, these add value and help establish your site's authority. TIP: brand your content, have your site name dropped in throughout. Also when your site is reviewed by Amazon when you sell your first product it appears to be a genuine site, not just full of adverts promoting other products. Should also, fingers crossed, help you get passed a manual review (I haven't had one so this is a guess).
- Home page, you need some killer content here, for this site I'm going to slap up a 2k - 2.5k pillar article introducing the site, niche, types of product and link out to the rest of the site. My previous site didn't have this and I think I missed a trick.
- Finally money pages, sorry I mean comparison / review pages. I'll let you know how this turns out later.

Then the SEO.. That'll come later, I shall update you as I start implementing.

Come for the ride and enjoy the journey.

Good luck on your journey.

kuywhy said:

Good luck on your journey.

Click to expand...

Thanks alot.

And as per your PM, you can find his keyword research here:-
http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackhat-seo/seo-other/541733-phenomenal-treasured-keywords-8-a.html

A quick update.

Keyword research / article planning:-
By using the keyword research carried out by Deep (jr D.I.P) as a seed keyword in Longtail Platinum I have identified 154 keywords to target in the content all with keyword competition lower than 29. I have found a few other keywords that have more traffic than the original paid for with the same or lower competition, this includes a 12.1k, 9.9k and 5.4k search.

The process, take your researched keyword, enter it as a seed keyword for the country you are targeting.
Each single keyword I believe is similar or directly related to the main keyword, I star and calculate the keyword competition, anything above 29 I bin as I want to rank keywords without a fight for a top 10 position.
Next up select all the starred keywords with a max competition of 29 and export the csv.
Open the csv using Excel to group the keywords to create content for the site.
Firstly I remove the column to leave the keyword, number of searches and competition, then sort alphabetically to get most related keywords together.
Take out the related keywords and create groups of related keywords, the idea being I will set up an individual page for each to target the long tail keywords.
Once complete, dependant on how varied each keyword group is, number of searches and terms decide roughly what each article length should be. For something with a handful of searches I would have an 800 word article written, something with a lot of searches say 1.5k, something with both a lot of searches and a variety of related keywords 2 - 2.5k.

Hosting and domain:
Powerup hosting sent out and approved the account today, the domain pointed to the hosting. I have installed wordpress and uploaded the theme, sadly propagation hasn't completed yet. The site should be live tomorrow.

Logo and graphics:
The order has been confirmed, should have the design tomorrow. Also having a few "award" graphics put together to install confidence in visitors.

I hope that's whet your appetite.

Are you in the finance niche? If you are, fuck off.

Kidding, good luck and all the best!

Good luck my friend, subscribed this thread

Thank you all for the encouragement.

Today I've been a tad busy and getting ready for a New Year's Eve party!

What's happened today, 6 pages worth of content including the about us page has been ordered due for the 5th January to place live. Just waiting for two other writers to finish other work to then order some of the major content for the site.

Progation. It's done, the site has appeared online. So I've installed and activated the Wordpress theme from themeforest, cleared out and deleted the Wordpress rubbish, then installed a few plugins. Firstly Yoast Seo, then WP Smush, total cache and the theme associated plugins. The theme I've picked up allows you to bin the author information and dates, I've removed both and set the perma links to post title.

A pivot. (Courtesy of joining in with a source wave webinar last night) I've decided to bin the existing domain whilst brandable and a partial match I'll need to build links out to get momentum and ranking. So to make this a little easier I'm having an expired brandable / niche based domain name researched for me with v.strong metrics. I'll share the supplier on completion.

The site is in the home niche although with quite valuable products, this presents an issue. From experience most people want to test and see expensive products as they're more of an investment, rather than a spur of the moment purchase. Needless to say the content will need to be spot on.

Watch this space! And happy New Years boys and girls. It's time to get messy.

Looking great. Love this type of journey. I'm with you. Good luck. Subscribed.

Thanks for that WebLycos.

Today's work / progress.
I have trawled through Amazon and LinkShare (the affiliate network I use) to find all relevant products to be compiled together for review. I base the research around the keywords found through Longtail Platinum and create an excel spreadsheet detailing characteristics of the product, link, dimensions, etc for the writers. I'll then send a mix of products along with the keywords and article writing guidance to ensure all get written in a similar style and to the same standard.

Logo:
Logohulk delivered 3 designs today with 2 variations on one logo's colouring, I've chosen it and should have it emailed over this evening.

Content:
First article at 1.6k received, quality is fantastic, well written and great for starting to build out fluff whilst targeting a handful of keywords. Cost $16.

Domain:
As I mentioned yesterday I've decided to pivot and use a expired domain with strong metrics to make it easier to rank. The research cost $75.

So total expense to date= $151.62

A progress report & update.

Content:
Another article has been completed and sent over, I haven't placed either live yet as am waiting for the new domain name.
Using yesterday's product research and keyword research put together I have started to create outlines for the writers to put the reviews / money content together. Two have been sent off, each to be 1.5k words.
The how: Using the researched keyword I ran a US search for those terms, I then create titles based on what the adword adverts whilst mixing in a lead phrase (ie best, top, quality, etc) and the year (2016). I provide all long tail keywords for the writer, a list of the products, titles and interesting information that may help. The content is written to persuade visitors to click through, as outside of Amazon most cookies last 30 days.

Graphics:
The award graphics have been ordered, I shall place SiteName Recommended, SiteName Quality, etc graphics on a few products to help increase the click through rate. 3 have been ordered from LogoHulk for $15.

Total spend to date = $166.62.

If you've any questions, let me know

Good luck to you journey.

Try to create related videos of the product you are trying to promote, upload it on youtube and do basic SEO. YT videos does rank faster and will help you to generate additional source of traffic.

Good luck, deciding to do an amazon affiliate niche site too.
Hope to see some results

Afternoon Ladies and Gents,
Thanks for the tip me100rabh, I'll get in touch with a couple of guys / gals on Fiverr to put a video review / comments about the site together. Would be a great way to kick the site off.
And TheNub jump in and get started, they usually take a little while to start earning though stick at it. I just sold my last site after a record month earning $400 a month.

Aside a quick update:
Icon's were delivered by LogoHulk , they look great and match with the site incredibly well.

Content:
6 articles have been uploaded including a glossary page (to add the appearance of an authority site) and a contact us page created (with 150 words). Thus a total of around 7.5k of content, another 1.5k is on its way to create an about us page and some more filler.
As mentioned previously this content is there to help pass a potential manual review and allow myself to apply for other affiliates alongside Amazon.

Affiliates:
Having previously used LinkShare, I have looked through their site and found all affiliates I can work with. A total of 3 others, commission is generally around 6% fixed. The benefit of LinkShare over Amazon is the cookies last for 30 days and with more expensive purchases people tend to want to think and then buy.
I shall apply to these affiliates once the remainder of the content is received.

Keyword Research: An update.
As mentioned I got in touch and purchased keyword research from numerous providers, I had used KeywordSpot's V2.0 research. The keyword research and service is far quality. See my post here:-
http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackh...yword-service-ever-get-0-a-4.html#post8549198

I'll keep you updated.

Since last update, I've had the pleasure of returning to work so development has slowed down a little.

Content, quite a bit more has been delivered and the first review / pillar article received at 2.2k. So I've spent $70.40 on content.

I've just brought LinkNinja, to install once the site is completely up and running, for 5 websites with a special offer as an existing customer I paid $14.80. Great value!

Images and photos. Today I signed up to GraphicStock on a 7 day free trial, they allow you to download 20 images a day and use as you wish. All are of good quality and suit my niche. Would recommend and ideal for getting a site started!

Total spend = $251.82

Good Evening Ladies and Gents,
Apologies for the lack of an update, I have been incredibly busy with friends and the every day job, having little time to update or do much on the site.
Since last update a has happened.

I have registered a new domain name, having had researched completed by ExpiredDomains on SourceWave. I've ended up with a good quality domain with strong trust flow, the supplier also gave a bunch of extra domain names to build a little pbn out. Spend $75 + $9.99 domain registration.

Content content content, I have had a tonne of content written. Totalling another $216.10. The site now has 10 pages live and 6 articles targeting keywords.

So far I have not applied for the new affiliates yet, though have another informative article being written adding value for readers, 3 articles targeting keywords waiting to be placed on the site and another 11 will then need to be put up afterwards.

For the home page I am having a pillar article written to outline the website, what's on offer, methodology, etc, thus creating an authoritative based site.

Total spend so far $552.91, clicks 1, no affiliate links up yet..