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My Business Progress Report: Failures, Successes & Accountability

Anything considered a "hustle" and not necessarily a CENTS-based Fastlane

AmppaDamppa

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I was ''lurking'' the forum once again and decided to start a progress report to provide insights into different failures and successes along the way.

My ''business'' is a website or two actually, but I'm focusing on my second site as of now. I started my website journey on the 13th of January, 2021, so I've been at it for a little over a year now. My monetization methods for the website(s) are Ezoic Display Ads and Amazon Associates.

Here are some stats (site 1 | site 2)

Age(s): 15months & 11months
Artices: 193 & 436
Sessions last 30 days: 12,500 & 22,000
Earnings last 30 days: $740 (Probably nothing for some of you)

Below is Google Search Console (site 2) from the start date current.Screen shot.png

Now, failures, setbacks & successes.

Failures & Setbacks:
- Didn't have ANY experience in Digital Marketing, SEO, etc, before starting. Hence, progress hasn't been the fastest.
- Dived right into the execution. Initial articles weren't good from the start.
- I have a lot of articles, but the traffic doesen't correlate. Thus, I have been targeting too low competition phrases, etc.
- Started my site on Wix. Needed to migrate to WordPress at some point.
- Didn't read Amazon TOS properly. Got kicked out at one point but did manage to re-apply & be accepted.
- Nearly died at the hands of a stranger last summer, so production stalled for awhile
- Invested 5k to content out of excitement without PROPER research. There was a synonym or research pointing out the inaccurate volume. Thus, ROI is low or nonexistent.
- My monetization skills aren't the best, but I'm determined to improve. Hence, Display Ads & Amazon Associates are only for now.
- Have tried to acquire Email newsletter Leads with Popups & Forms, but the conversion rate is around 0,02% if that so yeah, learning!

That's all I could think of now, but I'm certain there's more.

Successes:
- I'm very determined, and I show up consistently & grind like hell.
- My mindset is in the right place (Even more so after MJ's books & others)
- Progress has started to become faster and faster each month.
- I actually landed a job as Digital Marketing Specialist (2 months back). That gave me confidence in my abilities and there I can learn more. However, it's taking a lot of time from me, so I'll quit when I can focus on my business full time.


Near future plans:
- Apply for Mediavine ads as soon as I hit 50,000 sessions on my website (Better earnings per thousand views)
- Improve on gaining email list signups for email marketing
- Research the market and make an info product / other digital product for better earnings
- General traffic increase
- I will quit my job as soon as I hit $4000/month earnings, if not sooner.

How do niche-websites land on the CENTS?
1. Control: My biggest issue. Websites are in the hands of Google, and my monetization is at the hands of Amazon and Ad providers. For example, third-party cookies will end at the end of 2023, so I'm curious what that will do to ad earnings.
2. Entry: Entry is kind of low, so it can be saturated. However, I know where to look for unserved topics, and by creating quality content, you can rank for decent phrases. Authority is required for competitive phrases, but that's a good way to get rid of people who aren't willing to invest effort.
3. Need: The need is massive. Have you ever searched something on Google, but the answer has been unsatisfying? Value is relatively high.
4. Time: The business will continue to grow and thrive for years after content creation, so the time aspect is good. Upfront time investment is
required.
5. Scale: The business can be scaled well by outsourcing or creating a team. I'm positive about the scaling possibilities and eventual exits.


My website could be classified as Content System when considering the five business seedlings to money trees. This is good as it doesen't rely on my time when the content is up, and it's very passive when doing affiliate, ads, and producing evergreen content. Also, the exit strategy is good as websites sell with 30-40x average multipliers. So, a $10,000/month website would sell $300,000-$400,000.


I hope my failures are valuable to someone reading. I know they would have if I were just starting, heh. Feel free to add any thoughts, insights, tips, warnings, recommendations, and everything between, as they are all welcome.

I will add monthly progress reports on the 20th day of each month.

PS. this became way longer than anticipated, so I'm not surprised if anyone doesn't read it. I hope this is valuable content for the forum.
 
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Jobless

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Jun 8, 2017
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Great post, informative.

When you describe the value as a monthly multiplier of "30-40x" that is a yearly multiple of approx. 2.5 to 3 times earnings. Not so fantastic considering the initial time investment? Does this low multiple not indicate that the income is far from passive, and requires continued upkeep? Or is the lifespan of a content system simply so affected by third-party risk that it hardly lasts long-term?
 

AmppaDamppa

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Apr 7, 2022
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Great post, informative.

When you describe the value as a monthly multiplier of "30-40x" that is a yearly multiple of approx. 2.5 to 3 times earnings. Not so fantastic considering the initial time investment? Does this low multiple not indicate that the income is far from passive, and requires continued upkeep? Or is the lifespan of a content system simply so affected by third-party risk that it hardly lasts long-term?
Okay good to hear and glad you took the time to read it!

I'm not yet as experienced as I haven't had the opportunity to sell a website yet. However, I have spoken to people who have. A common time a website is sold is after 3 to 4 years (Again, this can vary drastically). So, all the earnings are to be collected from that time too before the exit. The initial time investment is tough, although it depends on how well you nail the research and content creation. For some, it might take 100 posts to make over 5k/month when the time investment isn't as large as for someone who writes 500 for the same amount.

There are so many different types of sites that it can be quite passive or not so much. For example, ads and affiliate sites are very passive, almost entirely (after the initial time investment). However, an e-commerce site with products or a membership site would consistently need substantial or some time investment.

Anything bad rarely happens to a site because of a third party, or at least that is my knowledge. Still, it can happen, like when amazon cut the commissions some years back, etc.

I hope this answers your question!
 

AmppaDamppa

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Apr 7, 2022
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Great post, informative.

When you describe the value as a monthly multiplier of "30-40x" that is a yearly multiple of approx. 2.5 to 3 times earnings. Not so fantastic considering the initial time investment? Does this low multiple not indicate that the income is far from passive, and requires continued upkeep? Or is the lifespan of a content system simply so affected by third-party risk that it hardly lasts long-term?
PS. When examining sites for sale from places such as Empireflippers.com, very successful sites, even with just amazon affiliates and display ads, can sell with a 45 to 55x monthly multiplier. The 30 to 40x is the lower end of the average so to speak...
 
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AmppaDamppa

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Apr 7, 2022
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4 Days too late, but reached 12 months on my website. A quick update;
Month 12.png
Pageviews : 26,170 → 44,128
Sessions : 23,277 → 39,843 (almost 40k, damn!)
Earnings: Amazon $250, Ads $469
Posts: 442 → 458

This was a good month and it's going to accelerate from here I'm sure! I applied to Mediavine Ad Management, so my earnings per thousand visitors should soon double from ads. Here are some milestones broken this month;
  • 2k pageview days.
  • $1000 within the last 30 days broken yesterday (I have another smaller site on the side)
It took me 16 months from the start of my first site to reach $1000/month. What a long journey and far from over. I'm anticipating 2k/month within 3 months. This may seem like a massive time and effort commitment for so little for some of you but to be honest, I'm stoked!

I probably should start to think about a product for my readers that would bring great value. That's a tough one!
 
Last edited:

seomatic

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Impressive results, congratulations on the progress.
I'm wondering if you have seen a correlation between content quality and results?
 

seomatic

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have you seen any success by updating existing articles? my thought is it should improve the ranking to add more information and it should be more effective to update existing content than publishing new content.
 
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AmppaDamppa

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Apr 7, 2022
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Impressive results, congratulations on the progress.
I'm wondering if you have seen a correlation between content quality and results?
Thank you. Definitely! The content must be better than the top 3 on the search results page, especially with a site that isn't as authoritative as some. Otherwise, why would I be granted a good position? Quality is important!
 

AmppaDamppa

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Apr 7, 2022
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have you seen any success by updating existing articles? my thought is it should improve the ranking to add more information and it should be more effective to update existing content than publishing new content.
90% Is mainly evergreen content I'm writing and I try to make as a good post as I possibly can every time, so going back hasn't been necessary, yet. I have updated a few articles from my more newbie days, but haven't seen drastic success from them. I'm sure it can help tremendously!
 

seomatic

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Thank you. Definitely! The content must be better than the top 3 on the search results page, especially with a site that isn't as authoritative as some. Otherwise, why would I be granted a good position? Quality is important!
Yes makes sense. I'm just wondering how google exactly measures content quality. Based on my experience it seems that word count is important and also the keywords and variations used. So a good page goes into the details and explains a topic from different angles if you will.
 
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seomatic

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90% Is mainly evergreen content I'm writing and I try to make as a good post as I possibly can every time, so going back hasn't been necessary, yet. I have updated a few articles from my more newbie days, but haven't seen drastic success from them. I'm sure it can help tremendously!
Ah okay, I've seen some of my content is ranking in position 10-20 and I thought I can give it some sort of push by improving the content. I will let you know if it works.
 

AmppaDamppa

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Yes makes sense. I'm just wondering how google exactly measures content quality. Based on my experience it seems that word count is important and also the keywords and variations used. So a good page goes into the details and explains a topic from different angles if you will.
Yes! The word count in itself isn't what it counts. However, with a longer word count, one is explaining the topic more in-depth and providing more quality content. So there's definitely a correlation between the two.
 

AmppaDamppa

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Ah okay, I've seen some of my content is ranking in position 10-20 and I thought I can give it some sort of push by improving the content. I will let you know if it works.
Yes those are the positions you should target when improving. Adding related subheadings or more information to the matters you went through will help. Adding data tables, research and studies, or original value are all good things to do!
 
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AmppaDamppa

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Apr 7, 2022
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Month 13 competed! It’s setback month.

month 13
month 131538×580 42.9 KB


Pageviews : 44,128 → 51,252
Sessions : 39,843 → 46,068
Earnings : Amazon $200, Ezoic $657
Posts : 458 → 466
US Traffic : 62% → 65.7%

Like many others, I got affected by the Google algorithm update. I lost all of my snippets (answer paragraphs seen on the first position of Google), and according to Ahrefs (SEO tool), I’m very slowly losing my rankings altogether. (The losses are so small, so I might be overthinking, yet it’s there.)

ahrefs
ahrefs716×282 7.14 KB



I also applied to Mediavine (Premium Ad network) but lucky for me, I didn’t reach the threshold and didn’t get in because of the update heh. I have another one pending at the moment.

Anyways, I’m adding more content and getting more serious about getting backlinks as I hardly have any. This way, I'll gain some more authority and be less likely to be hit by updates and rank for more competitive terms.

As you can see, this business model heavily violates the commandment of control, as such algorithm updates can rock everything upside down, like many people I know far more than I did. However, the skills I'm learning are valuable and I can picture myself running a small digital marketing agency on my own at some point which is quite amazing.

At work, (which I got by showing my website without any sort of formal education), I'm learning to work with customers, a bit of selling even, Advertising (Google, Facebook, LinkedIn), copywriting, and SEO, of course. That's a powerful package right there, I believe.

I'll keep learning! Until next month.

PS, instructions, comments, or discussion is welcomed!
 

AmppaDamppa

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Month 14 completed.

month 14
month 141541×645 47.9 KB


Pageviews : 51,252 → 44,235
Sessions : 46,068 → 40,296
Earnings: Amazon $350, Ezoic $547, Other $24
Posts: 466 → 504
US Traffic : 65.7% → 60.57%

The first month where things progressed backward. I guess that’s bound to happen at some point. May update took away my snippets that are yet to be regained, and a clear dip happened in traffic & ranked keywords. However, a slight recovery is noticeable from the graph above.

Ahrefs ( SEO tool) that you can see below says I have more traffic and keywords than ever, but it doesn’t show on the analytics. Probably because of the answer targets (snippets).

Ahrefs
Ahrefs724×662 19.1 KB


Content production continues as always. I also applied for many other affiliate programs and am making a new, more professional homepage instead of blog posts, other significant improvements on the site, and other cool pages to drive up affiliate revenue.

I also broke the 500 posts mark, which is insane, yet my accomplishments aren’t nearly as good as they should, or I expected. Consistency and learning continues!!
 
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AmppaDamppa

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Apr 7, 2022
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Month 15 completed The plateau continues

month 15
month 152158×1002 185 KB


Pageviews : 44,235 → 48,436
Sessions : 40,296 → 43,850
Earnings: Amazon $250, Ezoic $551
Posts: 504 → 514
US Traffic 60.57% → 61.91%


The echoes of may 2022 update are still strong, but as seen from the graph, a slight and extremely slow recovery is seen especially in clicks.

Looking forward to the next week’s Google Helpfulness Update, as many of us are. I’m feeling optimistic about it, but it’s Google, so maybe hopes will get destroyed harder because of it, lol. Time will tell.

I’m moving to Spain soon for the winter, so I haven’t had the time to post as frequently. If the Google update goes well, I’m considering quitting my job and focusing solely on this, SEO, and learning as many new things as I possibly can! I have something saved up and could live and work the winter in Spain without issues. I’ll decide later on that one.

The grind continues!
 

SSTrey

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I was ''lurking'' the forum once again and decided to start a progress report to provide insights into different failures and successes along the way.

My ''business'' is a website or two actually, but I'm focusing on my second site as of now. I started my website journey on the 13th of January, 2021, so I've been at it for a little over a year now. My monetization methods for the website(s) are Ezoic Display Ads and Amazon Associates.

Here are some stats (site 1 | site 2)

Age(s): 15months & 11months
Artices: 193 & 436
Sessions last 30 days: 12,500 & 22,000
Earnings last 30 days: $740 (Probably nothing for some of you)

Below is Google Search Console (site 2) from the start date current.View attachment 43036

Now, failures, setbacks & successes.

Failures & Setbacks:
- Didn't have ANY experience in Digital Marketing, SEO, etc, before starting. Hence, progress hasn't been the fastest.
- Dived right into the execution. Initial articles weren't good from the start.
- I have a lot of articles, but the traffic doesen't correlate. Thus, I have been targeting too low competition phrases, etc.
- Started my site on Wix. Needed to migrate to WordPress at some point.
- Didn't read Amazon TOS properly. Got kicked out at one point but did manage to re-apply & be accepted.
- Nearly died at the hands of a stranger last summer, so production stalled for awhile
- Invested 5k to content out of excitement without PROPER research. There was a synonym or research pointing out the inaccurate volume. Thus, ROI is low or nonexistent.
- My monetization skills aren't the best, but I'm determined to improve. Hence, Display Ads & Amazon Associates are only for now.
- Have tried to acquire Email newsletter Leads with Popups & Forms, but the conversion rate is around 0,02% if that so yeah, learning!

That's all I could think of now, but I'm certain there's more.

Successes:
- I'm very determined, and I show up consistently & grind like hell.
- My mindset is in the right place (Even more so after MJ's books & others)
- Progress has started to become faster and faster each month.
- I actually landed a job as Digital Marketing Specialist (2 months back). That gave me confidence in my abilities and there I can learn more. However, it's taking a lot of time from me, so I'll quit when I can focus on my business full time.


Near future plans:
- Apply for Mediavine ads as soon as I hit 50,000 sessions on my website (Better earnings per thousand views)
- Improve on gaining email list signups for email marketing
- Research the market and make an info product / other digital product for better earnings
- General traffic increase
- I will quit my job as soon as I hit $4000/month earnings, if not sooner.

How do niche-websites land on the CENTS?
1. Control: My biggest issue. Websites are in the hands of Google, and my monetization is at the hands of Amazon and Ad providers. For example, third-party cookies will end at the end of 2023, so I'm curious what that will do to ad earnings.
2. Entry: Entry is kind of low, so it can be saturated. However, I know where to look for unserved topics, and by creating quality content, you can rank for decent phrases. Authority is required for competitive phrases, but that's a good way to get rid of people who aren't willing to invest effort.
3. Need: The need is massive. Have you ever searched something on Google, but the answer has been unsatisfying? Value is relatively high.
4. Time: The business will continue to grow and thrive for years after content creation, so the time aspect is good. Upfront time investment is
required.
5. Scale: The business can be scaled well by outsourcing or creating a team. I'm positive about the scaling possibilities and eventual exits.


My website could be classified as Content System when considering the five business seedlings to money trees. This is good as it doesen't rely on my time when the content is up, and it's very passive when doing affiliate, ads, and producing evergreen content. Also, the exit strategy is good as websites sell with 30-40x average multipliers. So, a $10,000/month website would sell $300,000-$400,000.


I hope my failures are valuable to someone reading. I know they would have if I were just starting, heh. Feel free to add any thoughts, insights, tips, warnings, recommendations, and everything between, as they are all welcome.

I will add monthly progress reports on the 20th day of each month.

PS. this became way longer than anticipated, so I'm not surprised if anyone doesn't read it. I hope this is valuable content for the forum.
Apart from Amazom Associates (which I assume is to direct traffic to Amazon sold products), what Need are you referring to ?ie. What content are you writing? (I hope I understood your post correctly)
 

SSTrey

Bronze Contributor
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
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May 24, 2021
169
148
4 Days too late, but reached 12 months on my website. A quick update;
View attachment 43625
Pageviews : 26,170 → 44,128
Sessions : 23,277 → 39,843 (almost 40k, damn!)
Earnings: Amazon $250, Ads $469
Posts: 442 → 458

This was a good month and it's going to accelerate from here I'm sure! I applied to Mediavine Ad Management, so my earnings per thousand visitors should soon double from ads. Here are some milestones broken this month;
  • 2k pageview days.
  • $1000 within the last 30 days broken yesterday (I have another smaller site on the side)
It took me 16 months from the start of my first site to reach $1000/month. What a long journey and far from over. I'm anticipating 2k/month within 3 months. This may seem like a massive time and effort commitment for so little for some of you but to be honest, I'm stoked!

I probably should start to think about a product for my readers that would bring great value. That's a tough one!
Exactly what content are your posts made up of?
 
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AmppaDamppa

Bronze Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
173%
Apr 7, 2022
62
107
Exactly what content are your posts made up of?
I have many sorts of content. How-to guides, listicles, answering specific queries, product reviews, etc. I got hit again with a Google algorithm update even when my content's number 1. focus is on being helpful and in-depth without schemes or tricking.

I'm re-evaluating my strategy and have decided that this is a great business model, but it should only be a secondary one. The potential profits are incredible when websites are sold, if you ever reach into a. position to sell.

My way of doing content sites (no SaaS or anything) and relying on organic Google traffic violates the CENTS, which I have now discovered firsthand many times and chose to ignore, but not more.

I'm now working on a way to start a web design business (focus on value & results over design) with SEO services and logo design on the side. Won't quit SEO for myself either, but keeping it in a secondary priority where I don't rely on it.

lol i started to drift but hope you like my answer xD
 

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