5,000+ Readers: I’ve Reached the 5,000 Subscribers Milestone! Thank You
Today I want to Thank YOU from the bottom of my heart for helping the Extra Money Blog reach 5,000 plus readers. This is a wonderful gift for me this holiday season and I want to thank you for making it all possible. This milestone is particularly special for me because this blog is very different from what I am used to doing online, and prior to just over a year ago, I knew very little about how blogs worked relative to static websites.
Over the past 14 or so months, I have talked about having established and sold an ecommerce website for a quarter million bucks, having sold numerous niche websites at a five figure price tag, as well as establishing a portfolio of niche websites all of which generate passive and residual income for me month after month.
But unlike any of these ventures, I started this blog with a completely different intent, one that involves interaction and discussion with the readership community. It’s been an interesting journey thus far, one that I’ve enjoyed more than any other online endeavor in the past.
I think you should know that although most of my time and effort is involved in growing this blog, it is my least profitable web property to date; yet I enjoy working on it more than anything else online. Some of you may be nodding your head just about now.
Just a little over a year ago, blogging was completely brand new to me. I entered the blogosphere not knowing what to expect and where it would take me. Today I stand at a healthy readership of just under 6,000 and I genuinely thank you for being the reason for such a wonderful achievement.
So with that I’d like to share with you a few upcoming initiatives to look forward to:
Survey on What You Want! – I want to focus more on what you want to read about. I will be launching a public survey in the near future and I would certainly appreciate your input. You are the reason this blog exists. Please help me shape its future direction with your valuable input. I conducted a similar survey just for my email list, but this one will be for the entire blog (RSS readers). I will be giving away a prize to one lucky participant.
Giving Back – I will start giving away free stuff as my way of showing appreciation and encouraging more interaction. Some of what I am thinking about giving away are the following: gift cards of all sorts, free consulting sessions, items I have won on contests and those that online vendors frequently send me, FREE VACATIONS as well as free niche websites! I will also give away an Apple Ipad 2 and $1,500 Cash.
Podcasting Series – I will be interviewing successful entrepreneurs from all walks of life, as well as many who have established successful side businesses while maintaining successful corporate careers.
Training / Coaching – The response to my 0 to $1,000 a month report has been tremendous. Although I don’t know how many times it has been downloaded, I often receive emails (at least once a day) with all kinds of questions about the process. I will be releasing a classroom type training program with a coaching component in form of a weekly conference call (Q&A session).
I am thinking a video training series at this point, but I am open to your input ? ? ?
This training will cover niche site establishment from end to end, from conceptualization, niche research, to keyword research, site establishment, SEO, marketing and monetization.
I will cover building niche sites for the non techie like me using free or low cost turn-key tools and solutions available online. I am very excited about this initiative. Many fellow niche site developers have already contacted me with an interest to collaborate. This may evolve into a joint venture with other niche site veterans.
The Kicker: While I will initially publish announcements here on my blog, I will eventually communicate special events, promos, contests, giveaways and most importantly the winners through my email newsletter.
Many readers are subscribed through RSS, which is fine, but in an effort to increase newsletter readership, I will provide this exclusive content through my email newsletters. I won’t be hurt if you unsubscribe from my RSS feed and resubscribe to my email newsletter instead. In fact, subscribing via email will get you my Free Report on How to Make $1,000 a Month in Passive and Residual Income all in Your Spare Time.
So I hope you found this quick update helpful. I will try to do this more often to keep you updated on what’s in the Extra Money Blog pipeline, like a “state of the blog update” of some sort.
Again, I cannot thank you enough for being part of my small community. Needless to say that this blog exists because of YOU.
Readers: Please help me shape up its future direction by providing your thoughts / comments / feedback in the comments section below . . .
I wish you a very happy and festive holiday season!
Sunil
Ever Grateful
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52 Responses to “5,000+ Readers: I’ve Reached the 5,000 Subscribers Milestone! Thank You”
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that’s a lot–congratulations. You deserve it. You have such a helpful blog.
Thank you Jim and I welcome all your constructive feedback. I’d love to hear your thoughts on likes / dislikes about the blog, as well as topics you’d like to see the blog discuss more going forward. Please let me know and thank you for being a regular reader.
I’m new here, now i’m in 5001 visitor here and i keep coming back.I find useful and interesting your post here.
Anyways, CONGRATS!!!
Welcome to the blog David. I look forward to interacting with you more. I’d like to hear your thoughts on what topics would you like to see discussed more on this blog?
Thank you for your feedback and I hope to see you more often in 2012.
Congratulations on your reaching 5,000+ readers! I am happily one of them. I came across your blog and report ($1000/mo passive) just a few weeks ago. I should say “Thank you” for sharing the report and your blog. It (your blog) has become a steady source of good, thought provoking material. I am brand new at internet marketing and passive income. What you have shared is right along the same track as several others regarding niche site building and in a way, that is confirming your material. Your personal style and expression is easy for me to read and I really look forward to the things you have to say. So, again, thank you. And a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and yours! Most sincerely, Bill
Thank you Bill for your insightful thoughts. I am glad that you find the information helpful. In 2012 I will continue to focus on more practical information that you can immediately implement.
That said, please do not hesitate to comment on the usefulness and relevancy of the topics I write about. It is your feedback that will help shape this blog’s direction going forward. I’d love to hear your thoughts here or through email, whatever you are more comfortable with.
Again, thank you. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you and yours as well.
Wow Sunil, that’s fantastic. Congratulations, what a great landmark to end 2011 on. Do you have even more ambitious goals for 2012?
Keep up the great work and enjoy the Holidays.
Cassie – thank you first of all. I know you are a regular reader. I woke up today and saw the subscribership count at 5,800+. I have a few goals for 2012, one of which is to hit 10,000 readers. I can’t do it without your support and I am counting on it.
I’d also like to hear about what you like / dislike about the blog. Please help me shape its direction going forward. I am looking forward to your feedback in public or private via email, whatever makes you more comfortable.
well done you for hitting the 5,000+ readers stage, merry christmas mate and see ya next year for some more of your great blogs!
Welcome Julie – I wish you the same. Please share your feedback about your likes and dislikes about the blog.
Thanks so much for writing this blog, despite its lower profitability compared to your other web properties. It is truly a valuable service, and I appreciate it. Cheers!
You are most welcome Roshawn. Would love to hear your feedback on what topics you’d like to read more of?
Hi Sunil,
You asked me to post this on a more recent post, so here are my first batch of questions (I plan to be an ACTIVE subscriber, so get ready! 🙂 Much of what I have been reading supports the use of a backlinking campaign for niche sites, but I am still trying to figure out its role for a regular website. 1) Can you please explain the implications of article marketing for regular blogs? 2) How laborious is it to spin articles so that your original content ranks well? 3) When should you begin to expect results if you submit to the standard directories (everyone says it is a long-term strategy)? 4)Lastly, can you please forward me your SEO person, as I would like to know what’s reasonable should I go that route too? Thanks in advance!!!!
Certainly welcome your questions.
Article marketing is no different – the purpose being to improve page rank and get pages/posts indexed. How much time spinning takes depending on how you do it / tools you use. Manually can be a nightmare especially for larger sites. I have a post planned on spinning/article marketing so stay tuned.
For not so competitive niches I have seen directories kick in benefits within 30 days. Read my post on directory submissions if you haven’t yet.
I’d be happy to recommend some SEO leads if you email me privately.
Congratulations on hitting this milestone. I can’t think of too much that I would change or want added to this site. You give out a lot of great information about starting an online business – especially with using niche sites.
Maybe if you took us through the process step by step – sort of like Pat Flynn’s niche site duel – that would be great.
Thank you Khaleef and thanks for your feedback as well. I have started drafting some posts on specific parts of the process and will interlink them all when done. Have you had a chance to read my free report? It covers the methodology – but I plan on digging into the depth in my posts.
Please do not hesitate to voice similar feedback / suggestions at any point.
Sunil, 5k, that’s awesome! I love the idea of free coaching sessions (I’d try to win one for sure).
As for feedback, I love hearing you discuss online marketing and building niche sites, and I’d also like to hear more about your brick and mortar entrepreneurial activities as well. Not as interested about podcasts and interviews though.
And a training series would be great!
Thanks Geoff. Will definitely keep that in mind. Any specific aspects of a brick and mortar small business that you are interested in?
I see your comments frequently here on the EMB – thank you for supporting all throughout.
Hey Sunil, First off, I just finished reading your ebook and I must say it’s the most comprehensive, honest, and best introduction to niche sites and Internet marketing I’ve ever read! And that’s saying a lot because I have a library of about 200 of ’em collected over the past couple years. I devour this stuff like candy. Now I’ve got to read “words that sell” the next time there’s a break in the Christmas festivities.
A question that came up while reading. Do you create separate Adsense, Commission Junction, etc. accounts for each new niche website? I can see several pluses and minuses with doing it either way. Also, do you host on the same IP address/hosting account, or separate accounts? (similar type of question).
As for your question, I’m interested in things like your dry cleaning business and upfront steps to create “physical-passive” business models…..and perhaps even how they compare to “online-passive” models.
Thanks Sunil!
Glad you enjoyed it Geoff. I do create separate accounts as each is registered under a separate LLC. The disadvantage of going this route is that if the business (the niche site) doesn’t pan out, then you will have gone through all the effort for nothing. I do mix the IPs up (i.e. hosts) but by no means in a calculated manner. Curious – what prompted that question?
There are exceptions. For example, if I create 3 websites that are closely related in theme/topic, then I lump the accounts together.
Managing becomes a nightmare if you try to go at it alone, but I have my VA manage my accounting monthly. I plan to write about how I streamline this process soon.
I will certainly write on establishing physical passive businesses.
Hey Sunil, I asked because the downside of separate accounts is more work and expense, and for affiliate relationships, you can sometimes leverage a single account that has a lot of activity (for approvals and negotiations).
The plus side of multiple accounts is the benefits of easily breaking off accounts for a sale, multiple IP’s (to pass link juice between sites), and also if you get penalized by google (ranking-wise or if for some reason adsense is cut-off), it only affects one of your sites.
Just curious how you did it. I have all my niche sites on one server (and one set of advertising accounts) and am strongly considering breaking them apart.
Congrats, what a great milestone 🙂
Thanks Jackie – I know you too have been around for quite some time. Thank you for your support. I’d also like to hear about what you’d like discussed more on the blog.
Congrats on the huge milestone! I am an email subscriber. Your training sessions sound great. I would like to learn more about growing my readership. Need to spend some time digging through your archives. Hope you have an even better 2012!
Sir Buck – very good to hear from you and thank you for your support.
I am assuming you mean your blog readership? I have written some articles on traffic generation, but will definitely focus more on the conversion aspect of it. Please let me know if more/other topics come to mind. I’d love to cover.
I think the Niche websites video series is an awesome idea. Looking forward to it.
Will keep that in mind Tushar. Hope all is well.
Great job getting so many readers! Any tips? Does having the reader count help you think? I’ve been remiss at updating my site with the stats and stuff and wondering if I should.
My goal is to double pageviews to 250-300K/month in 2012. Let’s what happens!
Thanks Sam. I will publish some posts around traffic generation / subscriber conversion and include my own experiences. IMO the count helps – it contributes to the social proof argument.
300k page views is a good goal, particularly if you are compensated based on impressions / or if your goal is a “sticky” site. That is roughly 10k per day. Assuming each unique visitors browses a couple, you are looking at 5k uniques per day. Does this mean you are currently at 2.5k uniques per day today?
Wish you all the best
i dont think i need to change or add anything to your site, its very professional and inspiring, well done too for reaching the 500+ mark, what a way to end 2011!!
Thank you Julie. I am interested in what additional topics you’d like to see discussed on the blog in 2012. What existing topics you’d like to hear more about?
Congratulations on that fantastic milestone. I, too, am an email subscriber and downloaded your ebook. It helped me to get to $1000 per month myself and confirmed I was on the right track. Best wishes in 2012.
Thank you for that. I’ve been following GPM and excited to see how it develops/evolves.
Congratulations on reaching $1K per month. Most side giggers would want just that and be very happy with the extra play money. I’d love to hear how you did it???
Also, kindly share your thoughts on your likes/dislikes about the EMB. What additional topics you’d like to see discussed / discussed more in depth.
Congratulations! Your site is full of valuable information, so it is no surprise to me to see that you have reached this milestone so quickly. Keep up the great work and content.
Thanks Melissa. Please voice your likes / dislikes – would love to get your thoughts.
Just found your website, it’s very informative. 6,000 subscribers is incredible for a 14-month old blog. Congratulations!
I’m curious about a few things that you probably have already touched on, but I haven’t had time to go through the archives yet:
Keyword research and SEO. Are the free tools good enough, or should we look into paid tools to get the most benefit? Is something like SEOmoz Pro worth the price ($99/month)?
Backlinking. Are you linking between all of your different niche sites, or just the one’s that are closely related? What kind of backlinking strategy do you use for your sites? Any low hanging fruit that we should all be taking advantage of (bookmarking, commenting, etc) or are you aiming for more quality linking through guest posts?
Social signals. What are your thoughts on Google +1, Facebook likes and number of Tweets factoring into the search results? How do you foster social engagement on an information-based niche site that has no real community?
Thank you and welcome to the blog.
The archives are certainly filled with many articles that address a lot of your questions. I will be writing more on keywords and SEO. I am personally not subscribed to any paid tools like SEOMoz. Will certainly address these in my articles going forward.
Backlinking: There should be some already, and I would estimate close to 10 very relevant BL articles by end of 2012.
Some great questions on social media as well that I plan to address. I do not use SM with niche sites, but have on a few. I will talk about the cause and effect relationship. As far as this blog, I do have SM accounts, but will fully leverage them sometime in 2012. Will definitely talk about those experiences as well.
Congrats on your milestone Sunil, Keep the great content coming as this is why we are all your readers 🙂
Thank you Mich. Big fan of your blog as well. Please feel free to share likes and dislikes, as well as topic considerations.
You know I am a HUGE fan! Good job
Thanks Evan, please spill the beans on likes / dislikes, as well as topics of discussion. I know at one point you were interested in niche sites – if still are, what particular aspects of it you’d like to see more detail on?
Sunil,
Yours was one of the first blogs that I discovered. As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve given way copies of your eBook on the subway. I’m glad that you’ve reached this milestone.
Thanks for your support Sandy, I know the story 🙂 Looking forward to your thoughts on what you’d like to see discussed in more depth on the blog.
Congrats on your milestone! Love your energy. Will try to think over your questions and get back to you.
Thanks Doc. Would love to hear your feedback.
This is awesome, Sunil! Congrats on reaching such a great milestone!
Thank you Jeffrey. Looking forward to your thoughts on likes/dislikes, as well as additional topics of coverage.
Congratulations on reaching your milestone. I am a new Yakezie member and will start the Challenge next week. Great to read your story because it helps those like me know that if we stick to it, it can work.
Best of luck in 2012!
Welcome John and I am glad you found the blog helpful. Hope to see you here more. All the best
great post, well done you on reaching your milestone. your story has inspired me, life helps those who stick at it and hang in there
Welcome Julie and thank you. Persistence is definitely a key ingredient. Would love to hear your thoughts, likes and dislikes that I can address on the blog.
Congratulations Sunil , how do you feel after achieving this ?