My June Income Report: $23,596.88 + Niche Sites + Authority Sites
I am not one for income reports (in fact I dislike them and I will tell you why in a future post), but this one was warranted because of an upcoming challenge that I am getting ready for.
Because I plan to publicly open my Kimono during the challenge (you have the right to close your eyes), I felt some background is necessary on why I am getting involved in this challenge. I felt this post was not only needed, but also timely given what I am about to embark on.
I will preview the challenge in the next few posts so stay tuned for more information on that one.
But for now, let’s dissect some numbers…
I will explain what each letter (income stream) refers to below.
This is a screen shot of one of my bank accounts belonging to one of my entities that is comprised of three very interrelated semi authority websites.
If you have read my previous posts in the archives, you may have noticed that I typically group multiple websites under one umbrella business entity for various reasons. When I say entity, I simply mean a legal business structure such as an LLC (Limited Liability Company).
Basically, each entity or company has a set number of web properties under it, and the entity as a whole then has its own EIN (Employee Identification Number), bank account, vendor accounts, affiliate accounts, etc. This way, if I was ever to sell the business (in this case the entity), I can easily transition over all the accounts to the buyer.
What Type of Websites are These and What Niche Are These Sites In?
The websites that make up this entity are all in the specialty finance niche. Finance is where the bulk of digital ad revenue dollars float in. In other words, financial products and services are the most highly spent on or spent after at least in the online space.
Have a read at where and how Google makes most of its online advertising revenue to put things in perspective. Although I don’t have factual data about the offline space, I am willing to bet that the story remains the same.
Fact: Facebook rakes in roughly $4Bn in annual advertising revenue
Now the reason I decided to lump these particular sites together is because of the interrelationship of these topics and the product and service mix they offer.
For example, imagine creating a website about birds, and then one about bird cages followed by one about bird seeds. Do you see how or why someone interested in one may also be interested in the others? This is not only a good way to leverage traffic and readership between your web properties, but also a great way to up sell and cross sell products and services.
The difference of course is while bird seeds and cages may cost you $10 to $100, the products and services in these financial sites average in the thousands of dollars, and even in the hundreds of thousands. And although I don’t believe I have reached the million dollar spender (there are several multi-million dollar online businesses targeting that specific client), the offering of these websites satisfies the million dollar appetite as well.
The two relatively large numbers other than Google Adsense that you see in the image are a result of the product pricing structure that I referred to above. These are lead generation commissions. The beauty of these is that they are passive and residual in nature. Basically, once you refer a client, you keep getting paid by the vendor as long as the client continues to do business with the vendor.
The best example I can give you is insurance. Once you purchase life insurance from your agent, each year you renew it, your agent makes a commission. If the same agent sells you disability insurance in the future to secure your number one asset, which is your career and the income from it, then the agent makes more money on an annual passive and residual basis.
Then you bring in your wife’s policies, your retirement accounts, and all sorts of other things. This is how the income keeps growing off of one client/customer only. The same principles are at work in the above example.
Why Did I Pick These Subjects?
I picked these topics because of my educational and professional background. You can read more about me here. Given my background in the financial services industry, I know where the “real world” or offline money flows. Now I don’t know everywhere that it flows, but I know of a good number of avenues where it flows.
These websites are not micro niche sites either, so unlike micro niche sites where keyword research predicates everything else, my approach when establishing these websites was to start with what I knew first and foremost. I later conducted keyword research to create more content on sub topics that people are searching for.
The key here in a nutshell is that I started with topics I know inside out, or am passionate about, or have interest in, or have a STRONG desire to learn about and then followed with keyword research. Are these the topics I am most knowledgeable and passionate about? No. But I know a ton about these topics and enjoy them as well.
So am I then saying that keyword research is not important? No. It is. But it is not a deal breaker in many cases. It shouldn’t be at least. I think its importance was blown out to unprecedented proportions and we all got carried away mainly because of the niche site craze.
Could keyword research have turned me off given the data I saw? Possibly. But in this case, in spite of the not so ideal data from keyword research, I knew I could establish a successful website because I knew these topics inside out. In fact, as you can imagine, from a keyword research perspective these topics are relatively more competitive given their nature and the “players” in this field.
So the keyword research wasn’t exactly stellar, but I decided to pursue these anyway. I had made a commitment to make these sites semi authority sites because I knew it was going to take a lot of content, and solid content, to stand a chance against the big boys. Semi authority sites are what I refer to as websites that are built with a decent amount of content. However, the content is expert content in that the writer knows about the topic inside out, thus the authority aspect.
When I observed the competition that was ranking high on search engines, I noticed that most were actual service providers that had relatively large websites, but disparate in nature in terms of content coverage. Those that focused very narrowly on either of the topics I chose were relatively thin compared to the sites I had committed to establishing.
The old adage that content is king remains true in this case. I created a lot of it. A ton of it. Way more than the competition has. As a result, over time, I was able to inch higher on search engines and claim a small percentage of a very large pie. Most of the time that is all we really need.
To give you some idea, these sites average about 80 pages each, with more than half generated by myself and the rest outsourced to expert writers and not just the lowest charging writer I could find on Elance.
I did not monetize these websites until a good 4 months into building and marketing them. The numbers you see above are roughly 18 months into these websites. Another anecdote that demonstrates that if you put in the work, the results will eventually come providing that your strategy and approach is sound (that’s actually the easy part).
Breakdown of the Multiple Streams of Income
Before I breakdown the income, I just want to emphasize here that there are two distinct ways you can establish multiple streams of income. I get so many emails from people asking me what else they can do to create new income streams. A lot of times they already have viable vehicles such as a website that is receiving decent traffic. Why look outside when the solution can be in your backyard?
Here is what I mean. You can surely establish multiple independent streams of income such as multiple websites each of which generate advertisement revenue (the replication or rinse and repeat model), or you can take an existing website that is already generating ad revenue and simply add more income streams to it. For example, repackage some of your content into an ebook and sell it on your website. Or add some affiliate offers. Leverage the traffic you already have.
You will have created multiple streams of income in either case. This is exactly what I did with each web property in this example, thereby establishing multiple streams of income per web property across multiple web properties.
Here is a breakdown of the earnings. A lot of these earnings were generated in May and paid out in June. As you likely know, many vendors pay at least one month in arrears. Some take much longer.
A – this is a royalty payment received from the Google Books program. I had recently submitted an ebook tied to one of the sites to test it out on Google. It made a whopping $15.59 for me in June.
B – this is the same ebook that has been selling on Barnes and Noble. Sales were actually better in previous months. But $94 in royalties nonetheless.
C – the same ebook once again, except on Amazon
D – this is the big one. An exclusive affiliate relationship with a vendor that compensates for each lead. Each lead can be worth tens of thousands and even hundreds of thousands to the vendor, therefore I am sure they are happy to offer a mere $13,909 payout in exchange for the leads.
E – $6,710.26 in Adsense. Some of these financial keywords pay in the $60+ range.
F – ($202) A check I issued to a local freelancer in town
G – $2,495 in private advertisements
H – $74.02 from Commission Junction (thinking about getting rid of this completely)
I – $222.36 in commissions from supplemental products I market on the sites as an affiliate
Total: $23,596.88
As you can tell the focus of these websites is primarily lead generation. That is quite apparent if you were to visit the sites. They are designed with lead capture as the first and foremost purpose.
The secondary focus is advertisement revenue. I will be focusing on shifting away from Adsense and concentrating more on private ad placements going forward.
What the Future Holds in the Online Business Space?
The biggest understatement that I can give you at this point is that it took a lot of hard work and patience to get to this stage. I don’t think I can ever articulate that well enough in words to truly convey a true sense of appreciation for the work and time it takes. However, anyone can do it in their respective area(s) of expertise and that’s a fact.
I know that I invested a ton of hours thinking through and building out the content of each of these websites. Even when I outsourced some of it to expert writers, not only did I pay a good amount for their work, but I spent just as much time reviewing and adding my thoughts on each piece as if it were my very own. Content relevancy and congruency is huge for me, and Google Penguin will agree with that!
And after having said all that, there are two main things I want to conclude this piece with:
First, I will be publicly experimenting with an online project from start to finish (if you can ever call something a finished product). This will be around a topic I not only know inside out, but one that I live and breathe.
Second, the micro niche site craze took us away from what is truly important, including myself, who lost perspective for a minute and got carried away with several micro niche sites chasing the dollars. Sadly, but deservingly so, many of mine failed flat on their face. They were bound to frankly.
We often loose perspective when shiny objects are flashed in front of us. Every blogger, including myself was talking about niche websites, keyword research, the tools and resources and everything that came with it. We were all chasing a temporary solutions that eventually got caught up on by search engines.
It’s time to go back to the basics. It’s time to offer something we are true experts in.
Topic selection is still key, but for all the reasons we forgot when we chased solely the dollars. Let’s refocus on what has always worked and what will continue to work.
Let’s get real. Let’s put in the sweat. Let’s focus on what matters. Let’s focus on longevitiy. Let’s focus on expertise. Let’s focus on quality. And in doing so collectively, let’s focus on excellence, and success (money) will follow us . . .
What are you working on these days? Are you still chasing after the dollars or building a solid, long term sustainable business in a subject matter you know inside out? Are you for or against income reports? Why?
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I do personally enjoy reading income reports. I think it’s motivating to see people doing what I would like and plan to do. I’m playing around with both site types. Microniche and authority sites. Authority sites are definitely a lot more work and I’m not sure if I even picked the right topic. I’m a lot more interested in the Microniche site an plan to add more content. I like the idea of diversification so I don’t know if I’ll decide to go with just one model in the future.
would a post on how to decide an authority topic be helpful?? the issue I am experiencing with niche sites is the unpredictability/volatility of its performance.
Sunil
That would be a great idea. It’s hard trying to think of a topic I’m passionate enough about to write multiple articles and expand a niche site.
there is no rush, so you can take your time 🙂
Thats a very good numbers Sunil, your income report is really encouraging, congrats.
I really love all the numbers there especially the D , wish you could shed more light on that particular one and maybe some of your readers will be interested to know the company……( Just a suggestion).
Thanks for sharing and keep it up friend.
I am a bit reluctant to share the exact company name as you can imagine (also because of the sensitivity of the relationship – although it is well disclosed on the website). that said, I am willing to share as much as possible about it. aside from the company name, do you have specific questions I can help with???
wow, this is only from 1 entity group of sites. that is impressive you can rank in niches that payout that much for leads/CPC. Could you elaborate how you provide your private leads for lead gen on your sites and tracking it ? is it from just providing a banner for visitor to click on or do you capture the actual information and sell it ?
great question Brian. the application for the product/service is extensive, so I have a form on my site where visitors enter info. that info is kicked out to me as well as the affiliate company. my VA helps reconcile the leads generated vs. the commissions received. make sense? would love to answer any other questions?
So to get a visitor to fill in all that info does your site have extra trust factors like a typical lead gen landing page such as trust seals, company contact info, SSL certificate, ecetera. I guess I am trying to understand if your sites look like your other example sites you’ve provided(bamboo) or like this site that is a traditional blog style/info site or more commercial looking with custom logos, custom design,author/company bio, facebook page,ecetera..so that people provide personal info.
I thought about doing a credit repair/debt authority site knowing it will take long time to make money on but the market is massive so your post here is motivating to realize I might be able to actually enter a market like that without stressing over what keyword competition says.
Brian, yes this site does look slightly different. the images/graphics are done professionally. it is still however purely an informational site. the goal is to educate readers. once educated, they are more comfortable filling out the form. no sensitive information (i.e. SSN) is collected at all. the site does have basic security measures, but because no sensitive info is required, it is in many ways similar to signing up for an email newsletter. this info is passed on to the vendor/firm, who then contacts the reader. does that answer your q?
PS- I was also curious what you do for niches you aren’t an expert in. Where do you generally find high quality writers(I tried TextBroker/Iwriter/Content Authority before but I didn’t think they were experts but just good researchers so the content seemed more like textbook than real life experience/knowledge working in the field).
I might actually has to look at doing some finance sites after seeing this as I thought the competition seems so daunting. I’ve had StockBroker/CFA/MortgageBroker/RealEstate licenses but those markets seemed so intense for SEO and wasn’t sure if I would ever rank.
Sunil, You are so generous with your knowledge, I am genuinely happy for your success. You are not only in my RSS reader, but on my bookmarks favorites bar. Congrats on a great month! Can’t wait to see what’s next.
thanks Barb please let me know if you have questions or topics of interest you’d like covered?
Awesome job Sunil! You are truly an inspiration. I agree with you that content relevancy and congruency is a key factor to not getting hit by Google. Keep up the great work man.
thanks Beau. open to your questions/comments. I know you are also making progress toward your goals. keep it up bud
Thanks man. I’ll give you an update via email in the coming weeks. Keep killing it!
looking forward to it Beau
You are an inspiration to us all, you`ve shown how hard work and staying power always pays off in the end, I comes across thata you really enjoy wh at you`re doing, this must be a bonus in itself eh!
thanks, I do enjoy creating profitable businesses online Amelia
Hi Sunil,
You mention that these sites are all finance related. What is your view on having 1 site with 400 pages, rather than 5 sites of 80 pages?
It seems to me that the benefit of having all the content in one site may offset the SEO benefit of 5 home-pages, if the material is all related. What is your view on this? Would you do things differently after all the Google updates? Or do you like having a very tightly defined niche in each site?
Chris, my observations and experiences dictate that authority/large sites are the direction in which most externalities are pushing us towards. my focus has been authority sites lately. stay tuned for some really interesting developments on/about it in the next couple weeks. what is your focus right now and why?
Hi Sunil,
My initial focus was to build a suite of finance related sites: macro investing, gold investing, value investing etc. However, I am wondering if it would be better to have one site, rather than a suite, as the material is broadly related around the concept of investing. I have the flexibility to do this as it is still early days.
Can I take it that you prefer a 1 site model, provided the material is naturally related? Or would you still develop your micro niche finance sites, for example, as 5 separate sites today?
interesting question and I may have answered differently in the past. today I would favor one big/heavy site focused around the main concept (investing), and then branch into the tangents. that said, why not create a heavy site on just any one of the branches and see where it takes you? it is difficult to conquer several sub topics at once because of dilution. you only have so much time and resources. make sense?
“make sense?”
Yes, it does. That is exactly what I will do.
We can’t argue with you success Sunil. All the best.
thanks Chris. I’d definitely like to stay updated with your progress. let me know if I can help
What an inspiring numbers these are. Great to know that you’re achieving these amount of online income, where I myself still at 2 figures online income, this is something as a hope and target to fight on.
Thanks and all the best to you Sunil. 🙂
thanks a ton JJ. at a two figure income you are ahead of many. by now you know 1) it’s possible and 2) the possibilities. keep making progress. looking forward to hearing more about what you are doing and how it is going on for you?
i like the way you break every thing down, this will as well encourage beginners.
Thanks for this great write up..
Inspirational. I have a blog in a tight niche like i was told but one thing is sure, i will surely make it to the front page of Google one day and enjoy much more money from it.
I like this your write up Sunil. One thing is this, your field has really helped you – i can surely say that again and again.
C’grats as this is a milestone lot of people are trying to cross…. As for me, my goal is to make a total of $30, 000 by Dec 31st so I could start my internet business school.
Sheyi
love the idea of an internet business school, classic case of reverse engineering. where are you planning on doing this?
Sunil, its going to be here in Nigeria. There is nothing like that here and with a population of 150million people – I can’t just think about how far this would go.
We’ll change lives. Touch people. Give people a good means of income. A new generation will be started.
Sheyi
I love the idea and I want to stay in touch, please keep me updated on the developments. a key challenge will be to overcome the lack of electronic payment system mechanisms (i.e. credit card usage and online transactions are still a foreign concept to many jurisdictions). what are your thoughts around that?
I thought I was doing good but then I see income reports like this, I remember I’m still a ways from where I want to be.
Definitely helps that your already an expert in the finance field. Couldn’t touch it if I wanted to. So boring. Looking forward to your upcoming project.
haha good one Tyler. what are you working on and how is it going for you? one thing I have learned, as much as we think we are dragging, we are ahead of several others. often times, most!
Wow, Sunil — thanks for sharing all that. My problem is that I don’t think I’m an authority and have not been building my site as such.
why not? do you think most people know more than you about your personal experiences? your passion/interests? your profession/trade? most people get tied up at the onset because they feel they are not an authority/expert. you can become an “expert” the minute you decide to become one. I really mean that. also, just because there are already experts out there doesn’t mean you can’t join the ranks. you can!
I enjoy the income reports. They help show those of us who aren’t making this kind of money to see that it is actually possible to build this kind of revenue.
Thanks also for reminding us that you don’t get to where you are by chasing the quick, easy dollars but rather by consistent diligence.
it did take a long while Stephen. how is your business coming along?
Slow and steady. 🙂 Each year is better than the last.
so you are making progress. good to hear and congratulations.
Get that money, Sunil!! LOL And I completely agree with you being selective about what you disclose here. Nice job!
makes two of us Lisa. I had such a difficult time writing this post, not because of the writing itself, but because of the inner battle I was fighting. to do or not to do…
Currently I’ve recently started my first blog 4 months ago and am just getting started. I want to really get going on this one and understand why I’m doing what I’m doing before I jump into something else, although I’m sure I’ll have another project one day.
that’s a very important question. it gives clarity which then allows you to focus
Dear Sunil
it’s impressive to see your incomes. i could understand that the tonnes of sweats and hard work that you have put. could you guide beginners like me the topics that we should choose. is it neccessary we should pick a topics that we know or we could pick a topic based on the popularity of the keywords for the particular topics. should i choose to be an authority site or create few niches sites . hopefully you can show some lights on this.
sutha
Sutha, thank you. I have discussed both on the blog in the past. KW research is the main ingredient of a small niche website, an authority site goes more in depth. which one are you interested in? please let me know so I can write a post about it.
I like the direction you are going Sunil. This gives me a lot to think about, since I just recently jumped into the niche site game. I still believe there is money to be made with smaller and even micro-niche sites. Think of them as real estate. There is a lot of it out there with some nice looking houses – but you can always build a better one. If you find a niche or micro-niche that somebody else already appears to have dominated, just build a better site and eventually you will have it dominated. This is the approach I am taking anyway as I start to build out some niche sites.
that is true Matt, as long as we understand that the niche sites will be bigger and better. many people immediately associate a niche site with a micro niche site of 2-3 pages. there is a difference, which I think is where you are headed. I’d like to stay updated with your progress if you can?
Good lord, you are crushing it. I am not anywhere near those numbers at this time. 😉
I am sure you are killing it in other ways. I know what you got Kev 😉
Wow you’re doing great! I don’t always like income reports, but I do like yours.
why don’t you like them? your responses will help me because I am writing a post about income reports. what can I do to make mine better in the future?
Hey Sunil! That was a good read. Also going over that Google article that you linked. Keep it up! Amazing job you’re doing.
thanks Miki – means a lot. let me know if I can help with any questions.
Hi Sunil, very interesting income report. I think the large amount of dollars from the lead-generation is a very telling statistic. It reminds me of the huge amount of money Pat Flynn gets from his affiliate marketing.
It seems like one of the best reasons to try multiple income streams is that one of them might really take off (lead gen for you, affiliate for Pat) and you won’t really know which will work unless you try them.
So far the plans for my two sites are affiliate/ads, and sponsorship. I know most people don’t go the sponsorship route, but I think it’s in a market that will be well suited to it. Do you have any experience asking for sponsorship from brands/companies?
Andy, give me a better idea of the monetization model you are thinking so I can better answer? what will be the mechanics like? in addition to diversification, you are correct in that a shot gun approach sometimes leads to pleasant discovery. the 80/20 rule works in every aspect of life. that of course doesn’t mean we shoot blindly 🙂 but yes, the more you put yourself out there, or the more you do, the more chances of discovery you will have.
my bread and butter approach which has worked very well for me over the years is a three prong monetization strategy involving ads and affiliates and my own digital products such as ebooks. I find that combo the simplest and most passive/turn key.
Well, it’s much like the way an professional athlete or race car driver gets a sponsorship. If you work hard to develop a blog with a dedicated audience, you’ve probably developed a like of certain brands associated with your content over other brands.
So you reach out to them and propose to work together. They pay X amount of dollars to receive X amount of mention on your blog. Of course different people do it differently, but I was planning on using a tiered approach, just like you often see at large events: Bronze level sponsorship, Silver level, Gold lever, Platinum, etc.
This is different than CPM or PPC advertising because it doesn’t matter what you’re statistics are, except when first arranging the deal. It’s also different than a sponsored post because they’re basically sponsoring your whole blog – it’s not a one-off thing, but a long-term relationship. Since you should only reach out to brands you already use, you don’t lose your audiences trust either.
Of course this only works in very non-passive ways, but when your blog is about something you WANT to actively do (my experience is with travel blogging), that is okay. I went to a large conference and attended a panel on working with brands that was giving by: http://www.theplanetd.com and http://everything-everywhere.com/ for some examples.
a very interesting twist to monetization Andy. I like what I am hearing. from an advertiser’s perspective however, how do you track whatever it is that you’re measuring (i.e. number of mentions). is there an automated way of doing it like say tracking TV impressions or online clicks? another thing, are advertisers willing already or is there an education curve in that you need to persuade them to buy in?
WOW! Ever consider taking on a few clients as a consultant?
I do Evan, both corporates and individuals depending on availability
Sunil,
Great report and thanks for shedding some light on one of your businesses. Did you set up your financial services site with wordpress and then a contact form plug-in? or is this a different CMS?
Thanks,
Adam
it’s on wordpress Adam. the contact form is simple HTML, I built it myself by following a guide. took me a lifetime – looking back in retro I should have outsourced it!
Awesome numbers Sunil! what I like most about your business is your high level of diversification. You have several websites generating different kind of income stream.
I can’t wait to start the authority site duel!
cheers,
Mike.
you are quite diversified yourself if I remember correctly Mike
I am, but you are better 😉 hehehe!
You know what’s funny? I just finished watching a presentation on micro niche sites, tempted to jump in, when I read this post. Thank you for bringing my focus back to having a quality site vs. 10 diluted sites. (I have a few sites and was thinking about getting more) For now I will focus and put all my training of the past couple of years into practice!
I think sharing your monthly reports is great because: 1) it illustrates that making money online is possible 2) shows what the various options are and 3) motivates me knowing that I can achieve success too if I put in the work — more work, LOL. Like JJ I’m also at the 2-figure level, but on the other hand, I was at 1-figure last year, so something is working 🙂
Thanks again!
great comment Debbie. curious now, which presentation is this? were you convinced/persuaded? how and why?
I actually watched two. Niche Profit Classroom and Micro Model Business Systems (on John Chow’s blog). Both seem to offer quality programs and I was very tempted to jump in. Call me crazy, but I’m not sure I like being too dependent on someone else’s system. Maybe I’m not ready yet to commit to such a program. So after reading your post, I decided to focus instead. 🙂
there are many programs out there, and they are blueprints to follow. you will not be reliant on them by any means. that said, I wish you the best as you focus on your authority. let me know if I can be of any help.
Dear sunil
thanks for willingness to write article for me
Well i do understand about the importance of keyword research which u already covered in your article.
If we want to do niche sites , does it have to be a niche that we already knew , have experience in it or else. Should we target a niche that people are looking for or money making niches even though we don’t have any knowledge on it ? should it be a niche that we are passionate about ?
On authority sites – how it differ from niche sites. ? do we need the knowledge on subjects that we are trying to be an authority. Lets look at Pat Flyn’s case . He never been a security guard before and yet he’s able to provide tonnes of information on security guard training .
i’m a maths teacher . can i write about maths . will it be a niche site or an authority site. ?
sorry for the long post sunil. thanks again
you can succeed either way, but in my opinion your chances are better with an authority site on a subject you know very well. there are always exceptions. it really comes down to what you want out of it and how much you are willing to put into it. Pat’s site is nearly 200 pages and even more in the future, mimicking what an authority site would be. you can always teach/train yourself a new subject matter if you are keen on pursuing profitable keywords/niches.
Dear sunil,
i’m not using market samurai. i’m gonna only use google keywords tool. can i still find profitable keywords . what niche i should target ? how i would know it’s profit making niches. any clue ? health ? personal development ? cooking ? identifying the niches is the greatest challenge that newbie is facing today. how we find the profitable niches ? any clue?
Google KW tool is fine, it will just take you much longer. for what’s you’re wanting it’s all a numbers game. maybe if you shared some numbers the community can better help you?
Great post Sunil, very insightful!
I particularly liked you comments on keyword research and pursuing topics that didn’t show great promise in the research stage. I too have content I know 100% that people in my niche would be interested to read, but the keyword figures for them would suggest it wasn’t worth the time and effort to create the content for them.
However I still wrote them (and have some more to write) in an attempt to build trust in what I have to say as I know I have a tonne of other keywords I can pursue (more retail based) later down the line once I have established my site as an authority site.
no doubt Dan your site does give the feel and sense of authority. targeting unpopular keywords is necessary sometimes so as to provide a complete readership experience. I cannot imagine an authority site on a subject that doesn’t cover as many tangents as it could relevant to it. another reason one can keep working on and expanding an authority site is the unlimited potential to add content.
I should have also added, even though the potential traffic shown from the keyword research for a lot of my information rich content was on the low side, I was very surprised to find that I am still getting a fair bit of traffic to those pages for long tail keywords I never would have ever thought of, further reinforcing the fact that keyword research figures aren’t everything.
If you feel in yourself that a piece of content is something people are looking for and would benefit from, regardless of what your research says, I say write it anyway. This is obviously something that comes from knowing and being involved with your niche.
you hit the nail on the head. traffic will come as a by product of writing ABOUT your niche
Wow Sunil, I am impressed, not only by all the great (and down to earth) information, but with the fact that you take time to reply to all your comments, that’s just awesome.
And, as some of the people said in the comments, this post opened my eyes as well, “stop chasing the money”, I was exactly heading towards that way with a micro site I launched, even though my authority site (the very first site I made) is doing so well… I guest I did not want to put all the hard work, an easy way out if you will… but no no, there are no shortcuts, just hard work.
Thank you very much for that man, may God keep blessing you, keep it up.
welcome Oscar. what is your business? would love to get to know your goals as well
Well Sunil, I’m kind of ashamed I don’t quite know what’s my business is at this point. I started my first website on January this year, did not know anything about SEO whatsoever, so I was on a learning trip (and I will always be I think).
But I managed to hit a huge keyword (this was actually unpurposely, I was just writing about what I thought was cool in the niche I was… hence your advice, focus on quality, not money) and now I’m getting a massive chunk of traffic: about 10k unique visitors per day, 45k pageviews.
Problem is, I don’t quite know how to monetize the site other than with adsense (which pays quite bad, 0.06 CPC). My main keyword is images (love images, actually)… so I’m still trying to figure out ways to monetize it better (sell an “images pack”?, maybe private advertising?… I don’t quite know, any suggestions are greatly welcomed).
As for my goals, I need to get straight on those as well, my life has been pretty crazy lately (I’m about to move to a new country), so I haven’t had time to sit down I write a plan… but they are definitely passive income my friend.
Thank you very much for reading, I think I typed way too much! 🙂
Oscar that is absolutely fantastic. I’d give my left testicle for those sort of daily visitor figures. All the best for the future of your site, I’m sure you’ll be able to make something of it with that amount of traffic.
Haha, thank you Dan!… all the best for you too, keep it up!
that is amazing Oscar. 10k per day is a gob. have you disclosed your niche? let me know if I can help. I am sure you can find some angle to monetize your traffic
Sure thing Sunil, I will be coming back at you as soon as I establish myself in the new country (I’m reading your ebook as well, so far so good, thanks).
My primary site is in the images / love niche, but it’s in spanish, that’s why the low CPC.
Thanks!
ah, it could be just a matter of time. if the digital ad market picks up in Spanish speaking countries, which I am sure it will, you will be right now top positioned just where you want to be
I am a little bit getting a trend that people that are making money online are in the niche of online business. It is a massive niche but I am getting an idea, it is not getting saturated anytime soon. It is because this is the first thing that people want to achieve online. Not sure but would want to read your thoughts.
Jose – the internet has opened up opportunities for everyone who wants to start a business without investing a ton of money. no matter how saturated I feel there is space for you to carve your own share.
Sunil, I would like to know how to price my e-books products, as I have two e-books in my website that I sell, but I didn’t sell any product from several months, what should i do? 🙂
read my ebook series on this blog – there is a full section on pricing your ebook.
Sunil do you tell people the URL of your sites
go through the archives I’ve mentioned about 8 or so to date
Hi Sunil
You’re doing awesome! I hope and pray things will only get better for you from here on =)
These days I’m spending more time between three projects, the largest being my physical brick-and-mortar business, then two smaller online businesses that are yet to be as profitable as I’d like them to be – but it’s a journey. =)
Definitely chasing both money and passion that I know or am interested in – a blend of both is ideal, for sustainability.
As for the income reports, I think it’d depend on what niche you’re looking at – if you’re looking at motivating people to think of the potential income they can achieve by looking at yours, and if you’re in the industry of teaching, then yes, income reports are great validators and carrots.
However, if you’re not in that industry of teaching or showing people how to make money online, what may be better is more results/testimonials of how you’d helped someone i.e. weight loss, remove blemishes, create jazzy business report etc.
What do you think?
it’s a great point Nigel. while the blog is read by many, my intention is certainly not for it to be the main income stream. in fact it is not at all relative to my other businesses online which are my main focus. I agree with what you’ve said, but I still don’t have an answer to how to best manage transparency and some of the negative repercussions that come with it (i.e fam / friends, etc). what are your thoughts specifically on those questions/concerns that I have?
Hey Sunil… I am curious. How have you been able to drive traffic to your adsense sites. because i know that the algorithms change very frequently which makes SEO somewhat of a challenge at times. and the fact that the financial niches are very competitive.
so the question is…
How have you been able to drive consistent targeted traffic to your adsense sites?
it’s mostly from effort invested in the past, which included keyword research, content creation, back link building and social media activity. legacy sites, although some have been hit, still are doing ok. it’s much harder in my experience to get a new site up and going. the sheer amount of content i have on some of my adsense sites alone result in the income you see. it helps that adsense pay outs are larger in financial niches as well
Appreciating the time and energy you put into your site and in depth information you
provide. It’s awesome to come across a blog every once in a while that isn’t the same outdated rehashed material.
Great read! I’ve saved your site and I’m adding your RSS feeds to my Google account.
Such a great Income Report.
Congrats for achieving this milestone.
I started my online career in 2012 and doing very good now. Such income reports always inspire me to do my best and to make more experiments.
One question – Are you from India?
Kulwant, please share with us what you are doing online and what kind of results you are seeing. Yes, I am Indian
I love the idea of an income report when it’s used in an educational/inspirational way. When it’s used to sell a product through money making potential, it becomes a joke.
I have started a site revolving around online business building and working from home
Please share with us what you are doing with your business and what kind of results you are seeing? what’s working really well for you?
Thanks for such a detailed and revealing post. I’ve been struggling with an affiliate marketing site and trying to keep the content strictly geared to the keyword research I did before starting. But now I feel that it’s more important to follow the specific interests within the niche to be most relevant. Thanks again. Chris
Chris, while we start with specific/niche focus, often times we realize that we need to expand scope to truly serve the audience that is interested in that niche
hi I visited many sites and wasted my time. Your site seems to be very realistic and down to earth. I will follow you to start my own business online. I hope you will help me on one to one basis . Thanks
I like the tips, already has more than a couple of months I’m studying about business online in an attempt to make money. One of my questions is about how to succeed with niche sites in order to get visits by google. Thanks for the information.