My first niche site

[Superbeni]

These last months I've been trying out pretty much everything I know there is in affiliate marketing and I've learned a lot.

As my goal is real passive income so I can spend more time living, I figured niche sites are a great option for me.
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I'm pretty far actually, but just decided that I should make a follow along to keep track of my progress and maybe get some advice and help.

Progress so far:

I've got a niche/keyword: Public Speaking (~33.000 searches per month)
I'm mostly focusing on sub-keywords, like "fear of..." or "... for kids" with a lower competition.

My site is: PublicSpeakingGladiator.com

I've got no placement on google yet as far as I can tell, and no traffic - but I'm patient.

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I've started by creating a Facebook fanpage that will hopefully grow, and copied my articles on various article sites. (Like EzineArticles and BuzzFeed)

I just got InstantLinkIndexer, not sure if/how much it will help, but I'll see.
Also tried a 10$ package of RealSocialSignals, same here.

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For tools, I use Cyfe - really great dashboard.
Website is running wordpress, using Yoast here.
For analysis/research I'm using: OpenSiteExplorer, KeywordFinder and SEMRush.

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Plans:

I'll try to get higher up in google first, once I have a steady stream of visitors, I'll start monetizing. I plan on adding Ads (not sure if AdSense yet), but subtle.
Also, if possible, I'll add a CPA offer.
Definitely will also promote a Clickbank product.

Once I got this page running okay (hoping for 1-2 months from now at worst), I'll start by creating another. (while maintaining/pushing my first one further)

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Updates:

Week #1: 50 Unique Visitors, no ranking yet.
Week #2: 89 Unique Visitors, first visitor through google, ranked on one keyword at place 238
Week #3: 117 Unique Visitors, ranking between 139 and 220 on four keywords.
Week #4: 158 Unique Visitors, best ranking at 77.
Week #8: First (~15) organic Visitors, best rankings at ~30.
Week #12: I'm letting this website go, working on a much better one. Learned a lot, moving on

 

[wordpressdev]

Nice theme and layout.

Here are few tips:

1. Use images in all posts, one at the start of post and one in the middle (if the post has more than 700 words). Images should have name and alt tags matching with post title / keyword.

2. Try to build up your social profile, at least on Twitter and Facebook. Share your content as much as you can.

3. Build a list. Put up a subscription form. You may offer a lead magnet to get people sign up for your list.

Hope this helps. Keep us posted with your progress.

Best of Luck

 

[Superbeni]

Yeah, I'm (kind of) building a facebook fanpage, but twitter is a good idea! Will set one up, too.

I'm just having troubles finding good images for this niche, probably didn't pick a very easy one. Any tips for good image sources? (images I'm allowed to use, I like to stay 100% on the legal side when building my business)

Thought about building a list already, probably a good idea. Will get this set up sometime, too.

Thanks for your feedback!

 

[T J Tutor]

Also add ZenCache to your plugins. It will give quicker loads to returning visitors.

Be sure to include the site in Google Analytic's, Google WebMaster Tools, add site maps and then add those to your Google account. Yoast will generate the site maps in WP.

I highly recommend you get yourself a camera and a photo release template. I've been doing this for many years and have quite a private collection now. Many will turn you down when you ask for the photo and release signature, but in my experience, about half the folks say yes.

 

[Superbeni]

Thanks for the tip with ZenCache!

I've added it to Analytics and WebMaster Tools already.

I don't quite understand the last paragraph - do you mean I should just make the photos myself? (and get written permission to use them)

 

[T J Tutor]

do you mean I should just make the photos myself? (and get written permission to use them)

Yes! I had become fed up with the upward costs of graphics, so I headed out one day some years back and started taking photos I knew I would need and then asked for permission from the folks I was photographing. A friend of mine is a professional photographer and he gave me the idea. He told me he had been doing it all his life. So i gave it a try and it worked well. I still buy artistic graphics, I have them made by a couple of guys I found on Fiverr, but seldom buy photos anymore and when I do it's stuff I have no way to photograph on my own.

 

[Bree227]

Yeah, I'm (kind of) building a facebook fanpage, but twitter is a good idea! Will set one up, too.

I'm just having troubles finding good images for this niche, probably didn't pick a very easy one. Any tips for good image sources? (images I'm allowed to use, I like to stay 100% on the legal side when building my business)

Thought about building a list already, probably a good idea. Will get this set up sometime, too.

Thanks for your feedback!

Some good images would be someone standing at a podium or a person in front of a crowd of people......

 

[Superbeni]

Update Week #1:
Just hit 50 unique visitors, doing better than expected!

Still not indexed by MOZ, AHREFS, or anything else I've checked, so can't really put many numbers here.

So far, I've posted 4 articles, have a Facebook, Tumblr and Twitter page (with about 0 followers each, but this content just isn't very viral/doesn't work well on social media) and put up about 10 articles (copied from my site) on various other article submission sites.

Also, I've tried a few things:

- Got one month (~12$) of InstantLinkIndexer. Looks good so far, but I don't have that many backlinks I need to index.
- Bought the Basic Package on RealSocialSignals. Haven't received anything so far, but it's just been two days.
After reading this post, I've decided to try using high PA Tumblrs, too.
- Bought 10 PA 30+ Tumblrs on Fiverr, not yet received. (10$ on Fiverr, includes setting up the blogs)
- Also tried two services that build backlinks in forums and stuff, not sure if/how much this will help. (5$ on Fiverr each)
- Finally, got one last gig with 66 backlinks on microblog sites. Received and put into InstantLinkIndexer.

As I don't get any info on my PR/PA or any other stats, I can't really say how much something really helps. Hopefully will have some more stats next week.

 

[Superbeni]

Update Week#2:

Had 89 unique visitors so far, first organic visitor through google. (rest through articles, affiliatefix, social media,...)

Only wrote one new article (with 1200 words though), planning on atleast two per week from now on.

I haven't heard anything from RealSocialSignals, just contacted them, let's see what's going on there.
Update: Their emails somehow got into my spam folder. I actually did received the promised signals and more. (600% of the promised pins on pinterest) Also, their customer support contacted me here because they read this post - can definitely recommend them now.

Got my Tumblr blogs, been drip-feeding my articles for a few days now.

And I am ranked on google with my first (really low volume) keyword - yay!
Only on place 238 so far, but it's been improving constantly. Finally seeing something getting better!

 

[Superbeni]

Update Week #3:

117 Unique Visitors o far, still only one through google.

I'm at 8 posts now, though 3 of them are infographics.

Continued posting on tumblr on my 30+ PA blogs and created a pinterest account.

I'm currently focusing more on long-tail keywords and low competition keywords to start actually building traffic. Should have started with this earlier.

As for rankings:
First keyword is now at 166, some good progress here.
Also, I got three more keywords at 220, 211 and 139.

The last one is actually one of my infographics which I published just two days ago. Definitely has a lot of potential, especially with about 1000 searches per month.

On AHREFS, I got a domain rating of 35 now, no idea what that means though. I'm sitting at rank ~42,000,000 but constantly rising.

Good week overall, but I think the next few weeks will be even better. Also reading up a lot about writing and SEO, so should see some improvements there aswell.

 

[Superbeni]

Update Week #4:

158 Unique Visitors. 9 Posts. Still got 4 ranked keywords, best one at 77.

Currently working on one huge guide covering pretty much everything, so not much new content.

As there is barely anything going on atm, I'll be posting every two or four weeks from now on.

 

[Superbeni]

hey @memme
yes, will update this sunday!

 

[Superbeni]

Update Week #8:

My website is two months old now and still not making me rich. Niche websites definitely require a lot of patience! (Not that I expected to get rich with it anytime soon, but still)

Anyway, I've seen some good progress already. In the last two weeks, I got around 15 organic visitors already, my average SERP rose from ~200 to ~100, with two keywords on the third page. Also, I found out that you can actually see how often your website has appeared in google and how often it is clicked - awesome stuff! (Available in webmaster tools and analytics)

I've published only one more post, but it has over 5,000 words. I've read that longer posts with tons of content rank better in google, but this one doesn't - too broad on the topic I guess.

Also, I've "learned" that semi-authority/content sites are probably not a good idea for beginners. Hard to rank, need lots of good content and not always easy to monetize. I'd recommend starting with a very small, specific niche site.

 

[Superbeni]

Update Week #12:
Probably going to be the last update. Getting a few clicks every day, most not organic but either bots or i dont know what.
Rankings are rather stale now (no surprise, didn't do anything to improve them).

I'm focussing on a new site that's running for only a week now, but doing much better. This site has taught me a lot and it's time to let it go. I'll just let it run and see where it goes, but not going to work on it any further.

(New site had 30 visitors and 8 organic ones in the first week. Keywords have more searches, are less competitive, the site was already ranked before and there is much more money to be made. Obviously a much better site to spend time on.)

If anyone's intrested, I can do a follow along of my other site, passing on what I've learned so far.

 

[Donfelix02]

Very interesting case study.
More grease to your niche hustle.
Just one question - How do you check the number of keywords indexed in Google, keyword position and traffic from these keywords?

 

[Superbeni]

1) Number of Keywords indexed: Well, that doesn't quite exist. But you can check on what keywords you rank! I'm using Free SERP checker - google ranking check | serplab.co.uk for this - really awesome free tool!
2) Keyword position: See above - SerpLab
3) Traffic: This is actually included in Google Webmaster Tools and can be accesed from Analytics, too. Go to Search Traffic > Search Analytics and check "Impressions". Now you can see the number of times your website showed up in any query (keyword), how many clicks these got and the CTR. Really cool stuff!
@Donfelix02

 

[Donfelix02]

Thanks a lot for direct answers to my questions.

 

[Roger Smith]

I find that while niche sites require a lot of patience, they are the name of the game. The more niche the better, the semi-authority sites can be fruitful, but they are a mixed bag. To expound on this, I'll use a travel product example. The results from an affiliate journey with a semi-niche travel site with the journey and targeted results that you get with a solid, socially responsive focus from a site that lives and breaths travel (e.g., such as Travel Favorites – Themed Travel Based on Your Interests). Ultimately, its a matter of time and resources and where you want to focus your time and efforts in terms of your own personal journey. For me, I want to place them where my efforts will really pay off, hence the more niche the better.

Update Week #8:

My website is two months old now and still not making me rich. Niche websites definitely require a lot of patience! (Not that I expected to get rich with it anytime soon, but still)

Anyway, I've seen some good progress already. In the last two weeks, I got around 15 organic visitors already, my average SERP rose from ~200 to ~100, with two keywords on the third page. Also, I found out that you can actually see how often your website has appeared in google and how often it is clicked - awesome stuff! (Available in webmaster tools and analytics)

I've published only one more post, but it has over 5,000 words. I've read that longer posts with tons of content rank better in google, but this one doesn't - too broad on the topic I guess.

Also, I've "learned" that semi-authority/content sites are probably not a good idea for beginners. Hard to rank, need lots of good content and not always easy to monetize. I'd recommend starting with a very small, specific niche site.

 

[The Lone Wolf]

I find that while niche sites require a lot of patience, they are the name of the game. The more niche the better, the semi-authority sites can be fruitful, but they are a mixed bag. To expound on this, I'll use a travel product example. The results from an affiliate journey with a semi-niche travel site with the journey and targeted results that you get with a solid, socially responsive focus from a site that lives and breaths travel (e.g., such as Travel Favorites – Themed Travel Based on Your Interests). Ultimately, its a matter of time and resources and where you want to focus your time and efforts in terms of your own personal journey. For me, I want to place them where my efforts will really pay off, hence the more niche the better.

Seriously.. This post is 2 years old and the website doesn't even exist anymore..

Another one bites the dust!!