Two Weeks In – Where I’m At With My Niche Sites
Posted in Writing & Blogging on 25. May, 2010
Quick update about the last few days: I forgot to post yesterday, but I was working hard and got my posts done. Over the weekend I also managed to write 15 blog posts! I didn’t plan it but I was very happy I did. I even enjoyed the beautiful weather (a bit too much – got sunburnt so I guess it’s good it’s getting a little colder again). Unfortunately today I travelled on the train to visit my parents and didn’t get work done. I’m writing today off – I’ll start afresh tomorrow.
As for what this post is about, I decided to post about my niche blogs and where I’m at. This will help me and also help anyone who’s following my progress.
Blogs Started Last Year: 6 blogs: two in the “green” niche, one self help, three health blogs. I don’t think my keyword research was perfect by any means. This is where my passive income comes from at the moment (not much I might add). All these blogs have between 40 and 60 posts and mainly earn from Adsense though they are niches that in theory should earn from other sites but just don’t.
Blogs Started in April: I stepped things up a little in April but still wasn’t working properly like I have been for the last two weeks. I set up 7 new sites but I have only just promoted them a little. A few are ranking well but get little traffic ( I just need to push them up further on page 1 and I’m confident I can). One gets decent traffic but isn’t converting so I’m still working on it. Above all these sites don’t have enough content so I’m still working on that before I 100% focus on marketing.
Blogs Started in May: Since I started my challenge to “step things up” I bought a lot of domains, though many of them have been sites to flip. 7 are sites I am planning to develop properly and have set up with at least 5 posts each (that’s just to start). Again I am working on a bit more content before I market properly. I will probably buy a few more domains before the month’s out but not start working on them yet.
Other domains: I do have “X Factor” sites that I never finished, so they’re also on my to-do list to fill out with content. I also have 4 other domains with the potential to become authority sites that I’m waiting to develop.
The niches I picked are generally in topics I find interesting. Quite a few are health niches, but the main niches I really like are green living and also certain hobbies that I have. I know a lot of people say don’t do what you love, do what pays best – but I do have to do what I love to make sure I put the effort in and actually make sure these sites are useful.
As you can see, I never really had many sites before. I don’t know why, but I constantly wondered why my progress was so slow until literally this month I thought “it’s because I haven’t been working at it!” Those first 6 sites were almost learning sites, I didn’t even look for “exact” searched keywords on them, one of them doesn’t even have any kind of keyword phrase in the domain (not that this is always a bad thing), and I didn’t even market them properly. Why on earth did I expect so much when I didn’t put in the work?
This is why I decided to take action each and every day. I know I may seem crazy working on so many sites at once, but I have a virtual assistant now working to help me, and you’d be surprised at how fast you can move forward writing 10 blog posts per day. I’m just going to continue blog posts for a little while then I’m going to go full on with article marketing.
It’s so odd – even though this blog is a year old (and I have been working online for nearly two years now) – I only really feel that I’ve started my real passive income journey this month. It’s so exciting!
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Twitter: frugalzeitgeist
says:
It took me over two years to really start to get somewhere too…. Believe it or not this is my first ever $1k adsense month…. Very happy
.
You are doing awesome.
Forest´s last blog ..A Pledge To Never Take Credit Again!
Twitter: webcareergirl
says:
Forest – Nice work! Congrats!! That’s excellent news.
Twitter: lbogaerts
says:
Ruth, you know what they say: better late then never. I started the year pretty well, finishing a few blogs, but in april I started the losing it already. Too much client work, too much blog flipping and I’m not on track anymore. Trying to do better in June again, but I’m not promising anything, I mean, I do have my first coaching class starting on June 7 LOL
Leslie´s last blog ..Busy Schedule But Making Progress
Twitter: webcareergirl
says:
Leslie – It can be hard to keep the momentum up sometimes! I really hope this time I’ll finally manage. Good luck with your coaching – that’s a big step!
Twitter: lbogaerts
says:
It’s a big step, and up till now it’s flopping. No sign ups (well, one, but that was one I knew about before I put up my WSO). Hope to get a few spots filled by June 7, but not getting my hopes up.
Oh well, at least it teaches me something too
Leslie´s last blog ..My Coaching WSO Is Live
Twitter: webcareergirl
says:
Leslie – You’ve still got a little while. I guess with coaching it’s less of a rush than a standard, very low priced WSO. If you’re around the forums a lot helping people then you’ll probably get someone noticing your signature link that way.
Twitter: lbogaerts
says:
Yeah, that’s what I’m hoping for
By the way, if you know someone that needs WordPress training, I offer a commission LOL (hey, we’re marketeers, so I’m always promoting my stuff :p)
Leslie
Leslie´s last blog ..My Coaching WSO Is Live
Twitter: AffProgress
says:
Hi Ruth,
sounds like you have a lot on your plate there!
How many blogs are you hoping to run yourself in the long term? And are they all “proper” blogs or are some of them more static but just happen to be built on WP?
Sorry for being nosey, but was just interested in what your passive income empire might look like further down the line.
Des @ Affiliate Progress´s last blog ..What is on the AP Reading List?
Twitter: webcareergirl
says:
Des – No need to apologise for asking those questions, that’s the kind of stuff I’d like to share anyway.
Basically, they are all proper blogs. I am writing lots of shortish posts so that they are scheduled to go out at least twice a week (eventually I will use a plugin to recycle the old posts and keep them looking fresh at the top of the blog “Old Post Promoter”)
I do have the sites based on pages that don’t get updated often, but I need to add more content to them. My new strategy is just to get out as much quality content as possible.
Hopefully will be able to post more info about my methods as I progress.
Twitter: DennisEdell
says:
Green, Self help, and health are ripe with juicy affiliate products, have you looked into it?
How do you produce sites so fast? Set them up and all.
Thanks for the old posts plugin.
Dennis Edell | Direct Sales Marketing´s last blog ..I asked – You Answered – 4 more Social Icons Added
Twitter: webcareergirl
says:
Dennis – I love that old post plugin, should probably write a whole post about that sometime. As for the affiliate programs, yes I use a mixture of affiliate products and Adsense on blogs – just takes time to find what converts the best – and of course what I believe to be worth promoting
As for producing sites so fast – practice, practice, practice. I have it down to a fine art now 
I have all the setup steps written in a list that I do for every site to make sure I set it up as quickly as possible and then I move as quickly as possible onto the content to get at least 5 posts up when it goes live, more scheduled into future.
Twitter: DennisEdell
says:
Hmm, any chance I can get a peak at that list?
Dennis Edell | Direct Sales Marketing´s last blog ..New Form of Human SPAM – Now via Yahoo Messenger
Twitter: webcareergirl
says:
Dennis – Lol well the basic is this: 1) register domain in Hostgator reseller account
2) Setup WordPress through fantastico
3) bookmark the wordpress login and cpanel for that site in its own folder (I have LOTS of bookmarks).
4) Then go through the wordpress settings: Add the www. in the “general”, add a list of sites to ping under writing, change the permalinks to include “postname”
Sounds pretty basic when I write it there, but it’s ingrained in my mind and I always know what needs doing. Of course then I need to go through other steps like installing privacy policies, building sitemaps, installing themes. I have a folder of plugins that I upload by FTP each time I create a new blog so I don’t even need to remember which plugins I use anymore.
Twitter: mikeroosa
says:
Way to step it up Ruth. I just purchased the book from Xfactor and it has a few gold nuggets in it that I hadn’t thought about. It’s exciting to get started.
Mike Roosa´s last blog ..Making The First Dollar
Twitter: webcareergirl
says:
Mike – I’m looking forward to seeing how you do!
Twitter: alexwhalley23
says:
Why have I taken so long to come visit Ruth?!
I see you are a regular commenter on Mike Roosa’s blog so thought I would come and see what you are up to here.
I am pleasantly surprised with the content and the direction you have chosen to take. Awesome work!
How on earth do you manage so many tasks at once though, do you find they all suffer as a result or are you, in typical female style, doing heaps at once no worries?
I ask because I tend to build sites ten at a time, but ALL in the same niche, 1: so that it’s easier to focus on a given topic, and 2; so they can link to each other with valid anchors afterward.
I’ll be back and look forward to seeing how you progress and comparing stories etc.
I see you use UAW too. How you finding it?
Alex´s last blog ..SMART Goals, Small Wins, & Coconuts
Twitter: webcareergirl
says:
Alex – You’re right, I have taken on a lot in the number of sites I’ve built. I have to be very organized so I know that I won’t run out of blog posts on any sites etc. This is why my challenge for the last few weeks was simply writing 10 blog posts each day. That gave me a good foundation so that I can soon work through the blogs and properly market them all. I also try to invest money back into outsourcing tasks but my passive earnings can’t justify me spending that much right now.
With UAW, I do really like it. I find that it helps new sites that aren’t getting any traffic start to get the traffic in. I haven’t been “scientific” about testing it though, as I do also submit RSS feeds and an Ezine Article when I first start my sites too. I really should be more scientific about seeing how well my backlinking methods work but I find the whole idea of that overwhelming!