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Follow Along [Journey #2] Hobby + Affiliate Site | will I make it this time?

OVERVIEW
My last journey was a flop, but I learned a great deal from that.

With the experience I got by running that first site in 2017, I've created 2 new sites in 2018.
  • Hobby site (3rd of March, 2018).
  • Affiliate site (5th of April, 2018).

Hobby Site Journey, 03.03.2018-31.05.2018.png

The hobby site will be monetized by adsense and the like; tech field.

Affiliate Site Journey, 05.04.2018-31.05.2018.png

The affiliate site will be monetized with Amazon mainly; outdoors sports. For June, the pageviews are around 1000 already.


PLANS
They are rapidly growing, which is motivating, but the problem is, I can't work on them in the coming 9 months starting from July (military service).

With that said, what I've done is I've layed a sort of groundwork only. I have not monetized them yet because I'm not sure how things will end up with me not being around to babysit and/or collect the money... I'm just going to let them sit like this and grow (including June's work) for those 9 months, pretty much. Maybe I'll get to do some maintenance on them from time to time, but that's about it.


TECHNICAL
The domains are bought via GoDaddy for 2 years. They are on a VPS (virtual private server, Vultr, $3.60/m) managed by ServerPilot hosting service (free). I've implemented https for both of them and they're using relatively optimized simple free themes (Best Simple and Wisteria).


SEO
I feel good about the SEO on those new sites. The hobby site has no SEO-level competition basically. The affiliate site has relatively low competition overall - there's some room to snap untouched keywords basically.

The on-page SEO for the affiliate site in particular has:
  • 1500-4000+ word articles with pictures, short paragraphs, useful content, etc;
  • interlinking to useful and relevant sources within the site itself with ultimate pillar content for each category;
  • low competition keywords for the most part already bringing in users with buyer intent.
  • (user friendly - useful yet simple and pleasant overall feel of the site(s))

The off-page SEO is not something I'm overly concerned about. I feel like there's no need for it in all actuality. I'm pretty sure that simply having better content will do the trick over time. I'm in no rush.


MONI
All is paid in advance for 2 years. The affiliate site is sure to make at least some money, that's a given. Just needs more content and time...

I'm not quite sure how I'm going to monetize the hobby site though. The audience is not looking to buy anything in particular, but there are some potential ways to monetize it (adsense; contacting digital product sellers and suggest to give their solutions more visibility on my site by demanding a small monthly fee - right now the free solutions are at the front and most nobody needs to scroll past the free solutions on the lists of ways to do what they want to do; etc).

Expenses:
  • 2 domains: $65
  • VPS: $70
Revenue:
  • not monetized yet
 
I'd like to start writing the "top" and "best" type of articles already. Here's a why:

The simple review posts and info pieces are not the money articles. When I look at the overall data I've gathered from other people's journeys, the review posts were performing the worst out of all their other type of content. But I need those review posts for internal linking purposes. WIthout those links, I won't rank for shit and the top and best type of articles would be a waste of time for they're more competitive SEO wise.

I have info pieces, but I have not monetized them yet. What could be done:

Although I know they're not the money articles and perhaps I should never put affiliate links into them for a cleaner looking website, I could still make use of them by linking to relevant little gadgets and accessories that the reader will likely need anyway once they've gotten their needed info from the info post. I've heard these convert much better than simple review posts. In the style of: "Oh, by the way..." - it won't feel so intrusive and people are more likely to click/take action.

Now here's the PROBLEM: how to write more content?

I've looked into this from so many angles now. Am I burnt out? Writing the small review posts seem so mundane I simply lack the motivation to go forward with it. Outsourcing is expensive, so what I've done so far is I've ordered the cheap ones only. The cheap ones are of utter shait quality, so I end up rewriting the whole thing myself each time anyway... Why would I do that, I often ask myself. The only reason is that those poor attempts at reviewing something make me want to fix them up. That's been the only way to keep myself motivated. That has been, really, the only way I start writing something I know has to be written in the grand scheme of things. Now, how dumb is that? Is there a better way of getting myself to write more content?


First world problems, I tell you. What would you do if you knew for certain you would succeed?

Apparently I would hesitate even more, as I am now. I mean, the money is there, more than I ever imagined. The affiliate site clearly https://www.beermoneyforum.com/ works. SO why am I not more motivated to simply write THE Content? I've been writing a couple of articles a month only...

I keep imagining how much I'd be making already right now if I just... just wrote that bloody content, spurred it out starting almost a year ago. I can't get anywhere like this I am right now.

Should I...
  • Burn my savings and buy lots of content and hope for the best?
  • Keep at it as I have till now? Work out my plan in a slow manner, like a snail.
  • or.. do something else to speed up the process?
...what would be your advice for speeding it up?
 
So I looked around more and I believe I've finally found the writer I've been looking for.

Decent quality content at $0.50 per 100 words. It's about the quality of a $3 per 100 words writer that people would recommend (not just a random $3-per-100-words writer). That's just wow. I'll give them a test run first and when I'm even moderately satisfied, I'm probably going to bulk order. Ideally, I'd need to finish up with my planned content before summer (so as to collect massive gains from the season).

Now that I got to divert my focus on to other things, I quickly found lots of worthwhile opportunities!

I guess I had a tunnel vision from all that competitor analysis and trying to make my content rank over them by taking my time to write all that, outsourcing that allowed me to actually look around a little. It didn't take me long to go deep and find all kinds of accessory items related to the main product. Besides the accessory items practically part of the product (talking special clothing, gadgets, etc), there are the niche themed T-shirt designs, stickers, mugs, and a load crap more stuff that I can see there being searches for on Google but NONE of my competitors in the search results for them!


Now it's really just a matter of time till I get things going, assuming the writer doesn't up the price or vanish... I'm still going at it at a snail pace though =(

By the way:
  • Changed my theme from "Best Simple" to "Oblique" - the new look of the site is aesthetically way more pleasing;
  • Updated the content by basically just adding 2019 to everything... Yeah;
  • Planned future content - new content simply needs to be brought to life, pretty much (time consuming, snail pace).


I'd like to finish up with this site at some point and then launch another one, scale this affiliate niche site thing and... BUT my snail pace... ehm.

I guess I need to find motivation somehow. Any1 else running an affiliate niche site?
 
I have learned something new out of this. Sometimes one has to be patient If at all one is to succeed. I have always rushed into things which seem not to be the best tactic. No wonder, your way is impressive and I must adapt it.

I don't know if it could be called a way of doing things. I'm simply just slow and unmotivated... I'm sure if I had done all that I've done so far and more in a few months, I'd be way more successful than I am now counting pennies in comparsion.

Already my replies sound a little demotivating, I've noticed. I don't mean to, it's just the way I am. I still appreciate you chiming in here, it's been otherwise pretty barren.
 
Just to give a visual update in regards to the affiliate site and to hype myself for what's to come.

From the following pictures, it should be clear that the site is seasonal (summer).

Affiliate Site Google Search Console 04.05.2018-17.01-2019.png
Affiliate Site Google Analytics 05.04.2018-18.01.2019.png

When looking at the traffic, the summer months in 2018 had a nice spike in traffic, right? But get this! The site was then super new and had less quality money posts. Now the site has nicely marinated and I feel like the coming summer (2019) will truly showcase the site's potential (the site is about 25% done, 90% would be all my current plans with it complete). At least I hope things go the way I want...

Affiliate Site Journey, 05.04.2018-31.08.2018.png

In retrospect, just from a few posts that weren't even fully indexed I got a massive influx of people searching for the little I had to offer back then. Lower quality posts, mostly consisting of info pieces as I was still trying to make sense of the niche. Trying to figure out what made a good product, what materials to look for, what price range was a good bang for the buck - I didn't know much and I bet it was reflected in the review posts... But now things have improved and should be a little better at converting.

Affiliate Site Journey, 05.04.2018-31.12.2018.png

Outside the season, at least I seem to be able to generate a little money every month.

Affiliate Site Amazon Affiliate Program 01.01.2019-18.01.2019.png

It's not much, but for me it definitely is. It's a proof of concept for me. Getting just one of the cheapest niche items sold nets me a whopping amount in commissions. And I can see that it's not that hard to sell at least one per month.

I don't even expect to sell the high quality pricey niche items any longer. That was probably the reason I got 0 sales the first summer - I tried to promote the high priced niche items without even looking at the cheaper ones, I assumed they were complete crap them cheaper ones. What I didn't realize was that the sport is somewhat new and it's the newcomers, the beginners, who look to buy an entry level cheapest niche item they can get that's of decent quality and allows them to start with the sport. There are only very few who can afford the high priced products (talking over $1000). And since they have so much spare money, they don't even have to research much. So they go directly to the most famous product line directly and just throw money at them with no worries whatsoever. It makes sense, doesn't it? Why work my butt off for such guys when they aren't even my target audience.

I'm still learning a great deal from my mistakes.
I think I'm thus on the right track to success.
2 more years to get where I want to be.
 
I simply have excess of time right now as I wait for content to be delivered and new affiliate programs to review my applications...

Otherwise I'm still in the military and only occasionally get to work on the site (mostly a little at the weekends and a few hours in some of the evenings on workdays). I don't think that's the only reason for my snail pace though... I wouldn't dare to bring it as an excuse as I know I'm a bit lazy too.
 
UPDATE (January)


Hobby Site Journey, 03.03.2018-31.01.2019.png

Affiliate Site Journey, 05.04.2018-31.01.2019.png

Expenses:
  • 2 domains: $65 (March, 2018 - March, 2020)
  • VPS: $70 ($34.65 left of that $70, approx $3.60 per month)
  • Outsourced content: $138
  • Total: $273

Earnings:
  • Adsense: 49.86 €
  • Amazon Affiliate program: 116.55 €
  • Total: 166.51 € ($190.36)

It seems the UK traffic has started to lose its domination - now there's a bunch from Canada, Australia, Germany, etc also. I guess I should sign up for all such regions on Amazon sometimes before the summer so as to not miss out on any commissions.
 
I've been using the Amazon.co.uk affiliate links for a long time now and expected OneLink to link to Amazon.com in case somebody closer to US happened to click on the links. Found out that that wasn't the case.

As there's less and less of traffic from UK, I've been missing out on potential commissions coming from other regions.


Here's the problem: altough Amazon OneLink works now with most if not all regions, it "works" works only when using the Amazon.com links (it doesn't work the other way - if I took the Amazon.co.uk link then it wouldn't redirect to Amazon.com etc, but it does redirect from Amazon.com link to Amazon.co.uk etc)


All I have to do is change all the affiliate links to Amazon.com for OneLink to function properly for other regions... But that's the limited free time I get I have to spend on fixing a problem and not progressing.
 
Now I've got just 1 goal to achieve before summer: to get done with that "best products listicle".

The main competitor has a 6000-word "best products listicle" I will need to beat. I guess I will need at least some backlinks for this one. So far I've outranked most of the competitor's single review posts, so here's to hoping that the same can be do with the best products listicle. I simply need to make a better one.

It seems that I will be able to rank at least for the first page just because there's not many competitors in this niche.

I recently dumped a lot of money ($100) into outsourcing some of the filler content (single review posts). I even made a very detailed template I wanted the writer to follow. I tried the template already on 2 outsourced single review posts and it seemed to have worked out nicely. So here's to hoping that those 10 new posts will need very little modifying from my end once they're delivered. This allows me to rush through the mundane but neccessary process of having a strong interlinking in place for the best products listicle to rank on it's own without the need of shady backlinks. But will see...
 
UPDATE
(February 2019)


Hobby Site Journey, 03.03.2018-28.02.2019.png


Affiliate Site Journey, 05.04.2018-28.02.2019.png

Didn't touch the hobby site. I haven't touched it for many months now (only updating plugins and such). This guy needs to reach 70 € for me to actually get the money.

When it comes to the affiliate site though, it seems to be doing its thing. I've already received 2 payments from Amazon. So it's alive! I hope to see it grow. Summer sunshine will hopefully make it blossom (or some shit - to add some manliness to the metaphor...).


Expenses:
  • 2 domains: $65 (March, 2018 - March, 2020)
  • VPS: $70 ($34.65 left of that $70, approx $3.60 per month)
  • Outsourced content: $238
  • Total: $373 (327.84 €)

Earnings:
  • Adsense: 57.04 €
  • Amazon Affiliate program: 132.11 €
  • Total: 189.15 € ($215.21)

The hobby site is a little too niched, to be fully honest. I haven't really worked on it because it takes more effort to find and write about topics people would actually be interested about. It's mainly trolls and memers associated to it, but right now I'm not really in the mood for that stuff. I can't really sell it either because it's on the same server with the affiliate site and I have no idea how to just strip one site away from a virtual private server like that...
 
So here's an idea to do with comment bot spam...

What if I used all the comment bots' comments, modified them, removed the links in them and made them into a trust factor for the potential real readers? Basically approve the bot comments after some modifying so as to make the real readers take those modified comments as a trust factor. I'd simply copy the real readers' comments vibe in modified comment bot spam.

I wonder what an impact it would have on sales. Has any1 got any experience with that?


I've been meaning to do that for a long time now, but I've got 2 concerns:
  • could I get in trouble for that
  • once I've approved a comment from a bot, the anti-spam plugin might allow further comments from said bot...
 
I wonder what an impact it would have on sales. Has any1 got any experience with that?
For sure it does, people always look for reviews and comments before buying products/services but make sure they look genuine.

Adsense: 57.04 €
These will increase after March, Since the beginning of January all Adsense publishers have very low CPM rates and is something only Google control, they say "few advertisers" but who knows. Good news earnings will most likely double from April and will continue to increase until end of the year like they always do. Keep pushing content and optimize your site for better rankings. Thanks for sharing your journey on our forum.!
 
Amazon UK gave me such a run-around that I ended up giving up on it. I never made a single coin from them. Intending to start on it again afresh.
 
Amazon UK gave me such a run-around that I ended up giving up on it. I never made a single coin from them. Intending to start on it again afresh.

You know what? I haven't made a single coin from Amazon com even though almost half the traffic I've gotten is from the US, the majority is from the UK. For some odd reason, the affiliate site generates sales from the UK region only, and so from the very start (just 3 indirect sales from Amazon com region way back when).

I wonder what would be the reason for basically no sales in the Amazon com region.

I've heard it was the Americans who were into buying all their stuff from Amazon. And yet I have not seen any of that claim to be even remotely true. May it be that I'm too analyzing and sincerely and brutally truthful about the products I review that it confuses Americans or something? If such a thing was true, I better sign up for German region ASAP because they'd freaking understand, trust and follow my content the way it is and would generate sales most often...
 
Last week I optimized my content a little more towards sales. (made the affiliate link more prominent within the content)

I had totally forgotten that the aim of the website was to make money, if you know what I mean. When writing the content, I always focused on being super helpful and trustworthy for the reader that I forgot why I wanted readers to trust my content...

I stumbled on this affiliatemarketingmc guy on youtube (I often just listen to guys like this on the background as I try to work on the site) and at about 7:49 into the video he starts to talk about the purpose of a content.
 
You know what? I haven't made a single coin from Amazon com even though almost half the traffic I've gotten is from the US, the majority is from the UK. For some odd reason, the affiliate site generates sales from the UK region only, and so from the very start (just 3 indirect sales from Amazon com region way back when).

I wonder what would be the reason for basically no sales in the Amazon com region.

I've heard it was the Americans who were into buying all their stuff from Amazon. And yet I have not seen any of that claim to be even remotely true. May it be that I'm too analyzing and sincerely and brutally truthful about the products I review that it confuses Americans or something? If such a thing was true, I better sign up for German region ASAP because they'd freaking understand, trust and follow my content the way it is and would generate sales most often...

Maybe they read the " brutally truthful" part of your post and it did not sit very well with them. You might need to be nice in your reviews (humor intended). Anywho, Amazon is a very complicated site and it can get on your nerves sometimes.
 
Maybe they read the " brutally truthful" part of your post and it did not sit very well with them. You might need to be nice in your reviews (humor intended)....

Upon closer inspection, I guess some of the cheaper ones deserve that - some of them are really that bad outsourced to Chinese manufacturers spitting out what some say is essentially garbage.

I did praise one of the chosen cheaper one and it's the only one generating sales. I guess people just want to hear nice things about the things they're about to buy anyway... I think it's going to be the first 100 € month this time around. Report says it's already 90 € and somebody has bought yet another item that generates me another 10 € at least (it's not yet delivered to them, so...).
 
UPDATE (March, 2019)

44627


44628

My focus has been on the Affiliate site only for quite a long time now.
  • updated theme from Oblique to Roseta (I use free themes only)
  • posted 4 more reviews posts
  • working on the "best..." listicle post
  • March has been the first 100 € month (clearly the summer is nearing)

Expenses:
  • 2 domains: $65 (March, 2018 - March, 2020)
  • VPS: $70 ($26.77 left of that $70, approx $3.60 per month)
  • Outsourced content: $238
  • Total: $373 (327.84 €)
Earnings:
  • Adsense: 62.92 €
  • Amazon Affiliate program: 230.61 €
  • Total: 293.53 € ($329.71)
Over 100 € in a month for doing what now feels like NOTHING. Not bad. not bad. But I wants more! I needs more. If only I wasn't so lazy. Have I been lazy or is it just an excuse of some sort for not being more successful than just those couple hundreds in a YEAR from the online venture... And I'm still at a loss with 1 year passed. Ehm...

On paper, it seems like building this site has become a sort of routine already, I could so easily make like 10 more sites similar to this one. All it would take is time (which I don't seem to have for another 2 months till the military service comes to an end...) and some effort of actually sitting down and "doing" all that.
 
So I'm working on that "best cheap..." listicle post. I'll probably dedicate this whole month (April) for it. I feel overwhelmed...


Things I need to do:

  1. Write over 6000 words
  2. Write about more than 6 products
  3. Employ at least 2 psychological marketing tricks
  4. ...

In order to beat my competitors, I think I need bloody good content for it, considering I'm not using any backlinks. It needs to be meaty (6000+ words) so as to increase user behavioural ranking factors (time on page, them not going to look elsewhere, etc) and allow me to interlink the crap out of this post for extra value. That means it can't be fluffy - this would effectively put me on the first page battling with about the 4 main competitors not using any fluff either.

To get more interlinking power to the post, I need to analyze ALL the cheap products in the niche category. That's... That's more than 20 brands with at least 3 fitting products each, so about 60 mini-reviews + actual reviews separately. I've worked out where each of them should rank in the listicle, but I haven't written a review for about half of them yet... The uncertainty is real and simply opening up the empty shell of a listicle I've created makes me want to take a mental break before I've even written 1 word.

In order to make the potential reader be more likely to buy within the 24 hour frame, I need to start emplyoing at least some psychological triggers this time around. For one, I think I'm going to subtly mention a high quality SUPER high priced product before the listicle itself starts so as to make the cheaper ones easier to mentally swallow in comparison. Otherwise I'm browsing through tips & tricks and methods over the internet.


Problems:

First up is a simple dilemma. Most of these cheap products are basically the same thing when you start comparing them. The only difference sometimes is the logo on them. It begs the question: how the heck am I supposed to address something like that? Do I include the duplicates in the list but rank them accordingly based on their quality or do I simply leave them out? Which one is the original one anyway? And what does something like that tell you about the original's quality? Should I sugarcoat certain things? It's messed up...

Secondly, the structure and/or the layout of the content. I need to make the content featured-snippet-worthy. I need to cram all the necessary details into it without overburdening the reader's mental capacity. I need to address all the red flags, such as the factors I ranked all the products based off of. I need to address all the burning questions the target audience may have about the topic in general. I've worked out the initial structure for it, but I don't quite feel it's right yet.

Where do I get the time to work on it...

Will this even work or am I wasting this entire limited free time this month for nothing...


Have I missed anything?
 
I'm cramming the entire freaking site into this one "best cheap..." listicle post now.

If this isn't going to rank high then I've clearly went with the wrong approach this entire time...

It's already at around 3000 words and there's still a lot of gaps to fill.

I worked out the layout/structure for the post and I've simply been filling it up with the content accordingly.

I felt like I was starting to drift away from the main keyword in the FAQ section that's below the list, but lucklily Income School released a video where they touch on this problem I almost had specifically (staying on topic). I was able to turn the tables by simply changing the tone or the emphasizis to be more to do with the "cheap" products, or something along those lines.


Am I overthinking this sh#t?
 

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