Content Website Progress Thread

[DougeFreshAK]

Good Afternoon,

I’m a longtime Fastlane fan and reader but rarely post. I’ve always suffered from analysis paralysis or shiny object syndrome. My situation isn’t ideal for entrepreneurship as I have young children and work full time so free time is at a premium, additionally, I live in Alaska so shipping a physical product isn’t much of an option since shipping costs would destroy pricing and margin.

My venture will be into informational content website creation and here is how CENTS applies from my view.
Control - The product is articles I write and the lack of control would be from the mercy of SEO and Google
Entry - I would put the barrier to entry in the low to medium. There are tons of websites out there and easier to produce and you will be going up against companies that have teams of writers producing 1,000’s of articles a year.
Need- There will always be a need for information on the internet and there are useful tools on the internet to see what people are searching for.
Time- The initial time investment is grueling but the goal is eventually to be passive.
Scale- The scale will be slow growth initially but can take off exponentially.

With all that being said I know the hurdles and challenges ahead but with my lifestyle this is a venture that I can comfortably take on at this time. Also for me this is “doing something”, I have procrastinated for years without every doing anything so I feel I’m actually working towards something. I plan on updating every couple weeks or months with numbers. I fully expect this to be a slow grind and hopefully see growth within 1-2 years. I won’t be looking at monetizing with ads until substantial traffic is there.

Month 1

Website setup
Using Wordpress with a purchased theme
Built site structure and layout. Main pain, pages that will populate with posts with category criteria.
Write on my lunches, before bed and whenever I can get on the computer. I have been able to do 17 posts averaging 1,000 words.

Visitors: not sure just set up Google Analytics lol

 

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[BizyDad]

Good Afternoon,

I’m a longtime Fastlane fan and reader but rarely post. I’ve always suffered from analysis paralysis or shiny object syndrome. My situation isn’t ideal for entrepreneurship as I have young children and work full time so free time is at a premium, additionally, I live in Alaska so shipping a physical product isn’t much of an option since shipping costs would destroy pricing and margin.

My venture will be into informational content website creation and here is how CENTS applies from my view.
Control - The product is articles I write and the lack of control would be from the mercy of SEO and Google
Entry - I would put the barrier to entry in the low to medium. There are tons of websites out there and easier to produce and you will be going up against companies that have teams of writers producing 1,000’s of articles a year.
Need- There will always be a need for information on the internet and there are useful tools on the internet to see what people are searching for.
Time- The initial time investment is grueling but the goal is eventually to be passive.
Scale- The scale will be slow growth initially but can take off exponentially.

With all that being said I know the hurdles and challenges ahead but with my lifestyle this is a venture that I can comfortably take on at this time. Also for me this is “doing something”, I have procrastinated for years without every doing anything so I feel I’m actually working towards something. I plan on updating every couple weeks or months with numbers. I fully expect this to be a slow grind and hopefully see growth within 1-2 years. I won’t be looking at monetizing with ads until substantial traffic is there.

Month 1

Website setup
Using Wordpress with a purchased theme
Built site structure and layout. Main pain, pages that will populate with posts with category criteria.
Write on my lunches, before bed and whenever I can get on the computer. I have been able to do 17 posts averaging 1,000 words.

Visitors: not sure just set up Google Analytics lol

Following. I hope you are more consistent with your website than I have been with mine.

 

[fl_architect]

Good luck! I think im overall in a very similar situation (young children , remote location,… ) so i know how hard it is to get something started! Looking forward to updates

 

[Supa]

Following along as I‘m also currently working on a content website. Since I started to also do drawings for the articles I write, shit‘s taking me really long. Let‘s see if there‘s a way to get faster at drawing, as the writing itself is not the problem

 

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[heavy_industry]

Control - The product is articles I write and the lack of control would be from the mercy of SEO and Google

Unless you are planning on promoting far right extremism on your blog, there is nothing to worry about. Google will always try to push forward the most useful / valuable content. It's in their best interest to do this. Providing relevant search results is the core of their business model.

So don't worry about trying to trick the algorithm, worry about the quality of your content.

Good luck, keep us updated.

 

[monnffffiiiiiii]

Good Afternoon,

I’m a longtime Fastlane fan and reader but rarely post. I’ve always suffered from analysis paralysis or shiny object syndrome. My situation isn’t ideal for entrepreneurship as I have young children and work full time so free time is at a premium, additionally, I live in Alaska so shipping a physical product isn’t much of an option since shipping costs would destroy pricing and margin.

My venture will be into informational content website creation and here is how CENTS applies from my view.
Control - The product is articles I write and the lack of control would be from the mercy of SEO and Google
Entry - I would put the barrier to entry in the low to medium. There are tons of websites out there and easier to produce and you will be going up against companies that have teams of writers producing 1,000’s of articles a year.
Need- There will always be a need for information on the internet and there are useful tools on the internet to see what people are searching for.
Time- The initial time investment is grueling but the goal is eventually to be passive.
Scale- The scale will be slow growth initially but can take off exponentially.

With all that being said I know the hurdles and challenges ahead but with my lifestyle this is a venture that I can comfortably take on at this time. Also for me this is “doing something”, I have procrastinated for years without every doing anything so I feel I’m actually working towards something. I plan on updating every couple weeks or months with numbers. I fully expect this to be a slow grind and hopefully see growth within 1-2 years. I won’t be looking at monetizing with ads until substantial traffic is there.

Month 1

Website setup
Using Wordpress with a purchased theme
Built site structure and layout. Main pain, pages that will populate with posts with category criteria.
Write on my lunches, before bed and whenever I can get on the computer. I have been able to do 17 posts averaging 1,000 words.

Visitors: not sure just set up Google Analytics lol

Hey,

Good for you to start.

I also have a content website, 199 articles reaching 25k viewers per month.

The truth about content is that it's not easy. If I were you, I'd spend a couple of weeks reading about how content businesses work. They need to be properly set up from the start if you hope to make money with them at some point.

Basically, the questions you need to answer are:

- What's the niche, is anyone interested, and what's the competition?
- How will you attract people (SEO or Social)
- How you're going to make money (forget about ads, need to sell products, affiliate marketing, or subscription like Substack).

I advise anyone that wants to start a content business to do everything EXCEPT a website due to the crowded nature of SEO and the looming threat that AI is.

I'd try instead to build something on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Medium, or Substacktwitter (they go hand in hand).

Good luck.

PS: Given your location, maybe an offline biz is better? Something like in the tourism industry (trips, hotels, hostels, Airbnb, scooter rental, shooting range, etc)

 

[DougeFreshAK]

Hey,

Good for you to start.

I also have a content website, 199 articles reaching 25k viewers per month.

The truth about content is that it's not easy. If I were you, I'd spend a couple of weeks reading about how content businesses work. They need to be properly set up from the start if you hope to make money with them at some point.

Basically, the questions you need to answer are:

- What's the niche, is anyone interested, and what's the competition?
- How will you attract people (SEO or Social)
- How you're going to make money (forget about ads, need to sell products, affiliate marketing, or subscription like Substack).

I advise anyone that wants to start a content business to do everything EXCEPT a website due to the crowded nature of SEO and the looming threat that AI is.

I'd try instead to build something on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Medium, or Substacktwitter (they go hand in hand).

Good luck.

PS: Given your location, maybe an offline biz is better? Something like in the tourism industry (trips, hotels, hostels, Airbnb, scooter rental, shooting range, etc)

I’ve done a decent amount of research and understand it’s not easy. From what I read is that it’s a slow grind but ideally has a hockey stick effect where it takes off.

I’ve identified a Niche, done keyword research, and the competitors pages are ranked high and really not that great so I plan at producing better content and a better looking site. I plan on providing interactive features and free printables to attract visitors. Figured I would offer free versus trying to charge for a $1-2 printable at this time.

Attract people via SEO, might venture into Pinterest or other social media

Ads would be ideal but realize you need 100-500k visitors a months which is no small feat. I initially wanted to try and go the subscription and digital product route but struggled finding the right path.

I have an above average full time job with free medical and with kids and bills I can’t just leave to start a offline biz anytime soon so online and on the side is what I fee is my best option.

 

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[Yucca]

Good for you to start. Stick on it and it will grow. I know this from experience.

I got my FTE event in 2015 when I was made as self employed consultant, instead of employer in the company I've had been working for 10 years, losing the shareholder scheme and all.

My first born was 4 months old and I had to act. I wanted to start a content/authority site. So I did with the help of my wife. We had been dabbling with websites before, but nothing much came out of it.

The site was there, sometimes dormant while doing other side hustles and some life, but we always went back to it and came up with new approaches.

Long story short. We both left our jobs 4 months ago finally (due the income from the site). That site we formed is making now steady 10-15K/month and growing fast, as we invest A LOT of funds to more content etc. Wife had travel blog on the side, and now thats going to be added to adplatform and will generate additional 1K-2K/month. Also started fresh site couple months ago and its growing great. And now we purchased one site and will get that to grow and take it as high as possible.

So, now we're planning to grow/flip websites and look for opportunities within that AND looking for form an ecom brand (that's been a plan for long time)

Anyhow, best of luck to you. It's a longterm game, but rewarding in the end =)

 

[DougeFreshAK]

Good for you to start. Stick on it and it will grow. I know this from experience.

I got my FTE event in 2015 when I was made as self employed consultant, instead of employer in the company I've had been working for 10 years, losing the shareholder scheme and all.

My first born was 4 months old and I had to act. I wanted to start a content/authority site. So I did with the help of my wife. We had been dabbling with websites before, but nothing much came out of it.

The site was there, sometimes dormant while doing other side hustles and some life, but we always went back to it and came up with new approaches.

Long story short. We both left our jobs 4 months ago finally (due the income from the site). That site we formed is making now steady 10-15K/month and growing fast, as we invest A LOT of funds to more content etc. Wife had travel blog on the side, and now thats going to be added to adplatform and will generate additional 1K-2K/month. Also started fresh site couple months ago and its growing great. And now we purchased one site and will get that to grow and take it as high as possible.

So, now we're planning to grow/flip websites and look for opportunities within that AND looking for form an ecom brand (that's been a plan for long time)

Anyhow, best of luck to you. It's a longterm game, but rewarding in the end =)

Awesome to hear!!
At 10-15k a month what are your visitors a month? If the revenue is Ad based I would guess 500Kish?

I would be willing to invest profits into more content as 1 person can only write so many quality articles, I hear its a needle in a haystack somewhat to find quality writers though. How much do you pay per article or for your writers if you don't mind me asking.

I originally set a minimum goal of an article a week for 52 a year, but after month 1 I was surprised I was able to do about 15 so now I'm shooting for 10 or so a month. Most articles are around 1,000 words, I'm going to try and do a few 2,500+ and see how those perform as well.

Did a Ahrefs site scan and cleaning up some minor issues which was nice to know about and trying to get everything squared away before the total pages grown.

Thanks again for the insight.

 

[Yucca]

Awesome to hear!!
At 10-15k a month what are your visitors a month? If the revenue is Ad based I would guess 500Kish?

I would be willing to invest profits into more content as 1 person can only write so many quality articles, I hear its a needle in a haystack somewhat to find quality writers though. How much do you pay per article or for your writers if you don't mind me asking.

I originally set a minimum goal of an article a week for 52 a year, but after month 1 I was surprised I was able to do about 15 so now I'm shooting for 10 or so a month. Most articles are around 1,000 words, I'm going to try and do a few 2,500+ and see how those perform as well.

Did a Ahrefs site scan and cleaning up some minor issues which was nice to know about and trying to get everything squared away before the total pages grown.

Thanks again for the insight.

The traffic now is about 250-350K visitors per month. on that website. We swapped the theme, and everything just now to where even went better...in case someone want's to know, generatepress...with all the trimmings(premium)...! done it now for few sites, and you can use the same designs again. its like copy paste....love it...AND, it the fastest framework out there...AND giving you the most chance to make it...not affiliated with them in any way, but just giving the heads up.

What comes to writing, that's not my cup fo tea. that's done someone than myself. Anyhoo, writing yourself, OR outsourcing it, doesn't matter, you still need to do get your shit right.

About outsourcing the articles etc. we were quite lucky to find find some good writers
doing us 20 articles at $600 AND, promise if all goes good, more work n better paid work (these articles had to be edited quite a bit before going live.

* about writers, test upwork or such, give them one long article to finish 1500 words minimum, AND you're paying for it...IF they seem good, more work, if not, they still got paid, and you know. they are not your thing. win win.


What comes to writing, don't ask me, I have no clue. I know a good article when I see one. That's it. but for you, there's many ways to get inspired, just know the shit, or just want to know the shit. OR just being interested in the shit...OR, you just buy someone to know the shit.

I don't want to sound harsh, but dabble along and make your own mind. there's plenty of options there.

 

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[DougeFreshAK]

February Update
Total Posts on Site (29)
No traffic yet

Indexed with Google, it seems like some of the pages are discovered but having issues being indexed so if they don't get indexed will need to look into further. It looks like some of them are though.

Changed themes to Generate Press which I like much more. Got Ahrefs Health Score up to 100 so no broken links or big errors. Will keep trying to put out articles and monitor to see if I can generate even a little bit of traffic to get a ball rolling.