Niche Site Project 4 Monthly Report: September 2018!

Another month has zipped by, and it's time to report for September 2018.

If you want to catch up on everything going on with Niche Site Project 4, you can check it out here.  Overall, I've made a lot of progress on my new site and I'm excited to share with you the latest.

In addition, as I did last month in the August report, I've asked all the participants in the project to report their progress as well.  You will find that report below as well.

Traffic and Earnings

I wish I had some massive earnings to report, but alas, there are no earnings to report!  However, that's in line with what I expected.

In some ways, it feels like this project has been going on for quite a while now…but when I look at Google Analytics, the first visitor to my site came on Sept. 7th.  So, that's less than 1 month from today is all.

However, I am happy to report that the site is starting to receive some visitors besides myself and my writers!  Here's the Google Analytics screenshot:

As you can see, my site received 258 sessions for the month of September.  

I should point out that around Sept. 13th, I check the box in Google Analytics to no longer track bot traffic, so everything after that is “real” visitors.

Now, some of those sessions came from me and my writers (4 writers).  So, the Avg. session duration is affected by that obviously.

Here is a breakdown of the traffic source:

The organic traffic is the one I'll be looking to increase over the long term.  Right now, most of the organic traffic is coming from Bing, with a little bit coming from Google as well.  

Earnings

Even though there was no earnings on the site last month, I did start to get a few Amazon clicks.  Here's the stats:

So, my Amazon affiliate links got 12 clicks total for the month, but no sales.  Again, this was expected.

How Long Will It Take For My Site to Make Money?

This is a good reality check for everyone involved in Niche Site Project 4.  My site got it's first visitor less than 30 days ago.  Am I freaking out because I haven't made any money yet?  Of course not!

Getting traffic and ranking in Google takes time.  At the initial start of the project, I projected that it would likely take 3 months or so before I see any real earnings.  After 6 months if my site is making $500/month that would be a good trajectory.

Remember, things start REALLY slow and feel like it's a snails pace.  This is all expected and part of the process.  Once I've put in the hard work for a few months, things will start to pay off.

Having said that, I'd like to at least make 1 or 2 sales in the month of October.  I think that's a good goal.  My site will be live for less than 2 months at the end of October, and I think a couple sales is totally doable.

What Was Accomplished in September?

Now that you've seen the traffic and “earnings” screenshot, I'd like to share briefly what I focused on for the month.

I now have 4 authors writing for the site and a total of 20 articles were published in September!  I found 2 of these authors on Upwork, and the other 2 I found through the Niche Pursuits FB group.

I'm paying approximately $15/hr for these authors, and for the most part they are doing a great job.  I've created a “buying guide” template that they follow and complete a checklist to make sure the article is published the way I like it.

In addition to the articles published, I did spend a lot of time getting the site to “look” just right.  Even though I found a theme that I liked on GeneratePress, I still found myself spending time tweaking things like the sidebar, header, and colors of things to make everything look good.

I also got a logo designed on Fiverr. It cost $12 in case anyone is wondering.

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I'm generally happy with the way the site looks now, but I may do a few more things like increase font sizes and header sizes in the future.

Link Building

For some reason, many people think SEO = links.  I'm not one of those people.  However, I know this is top of mind for people, so I'll just mention what I've done here.

I left maybe 5 total blog comments on other sites.  They are all no-follow links, and I didn't really do it for the link “power”.  I'm just making myself known in the niche and may develop a more robust outreach plan to some of these bloggers in the future.

In addition, my site has gotten a few “trackbacks”.  This is just an automated link that some sites give when you mention their site in an article.

Finally, even though I don't see Pinterest as a link building strategy but a social sharing strategy, I did create a Pinterest account.   I have yet to create my first pin, but I'm getting closer!

I'm working with a Pinterest branding person to help me come up with the best look and feel for my pins and will have a “template” in place using Canva very soon.  Once that happens, I plan to start creating my own pins and getting the word up on Pinterest about my site.

I'd be surprised if I don't get more traffic from Pinterest in October than Google traffic.  But I'm hopeful that Google traffic will pick up shortly after that.

Overall, I'm happy with the progress and look forward to building something significant!

Monthly Report from Niche Site Project 4 Participants

Niche Site Project 4 is not just all about my own website.  One of the biggest reasons I do this project is to get others excited about the process and excited to build their own sites.

Several hundred people have decided to start niche sites because of this project.  Below you will find the brief reports and progress from everyone that wanted to report.  At total of 73 people reported.

As you can see below, a couple of people are definitely seeing some early success!  I'd like to point out 2 of those people.

The first is Jae Jun with an earnings of $889!  What?!   If you look at his report below, you can see that he provided a link to his website, so you can see it's not a traditional niche website. (I asked/allowed people to post a link to their niche sites or their blogs discussing their updates in more detail).

I reached out to Jae via email to get more details, and it's legit.  He's selling a Google Sheets Addon (which I didn't know was a thing).  He's focused on building an email list and selling through the Google store.  I've invited him to come on the podcast next week and discuss his progress and what's worked.  So, stay tuned!

Next is Ryan Faucher with $22.20 in earnings.  No, it's not a significant amount of earnings, but its' a great start!  In addition, he has a link to his full blog post that I recommend you check out.  

Overall, I love seeing the increase in traffic from people and hearing about the work they are putting in!

If you want to start a new niche site and start reporting…you can start now!  Be sure to join the email list, and I'll email you at the beginning of each month asking for your monthly report.

<td data-sheets-value=”{“1″:2,”2″:”domain name picked, theme installed, keyword research on 23 words so far, 4 posts published, 3 in draft”}”>

<td data-sheets-value=”{“1″:2,”2”:”I decided to give up on my original niche site and selected a new one so it took me almost 4 weeks to have the new site up and running, do some keyword research and publish two articles. “}”>

<td data-sheets-value=”{“1″:2,”2”:”I picked my niche. I have my domain bought. I have the theme chosen (I think) – will be bought when I am in funds later this week. I have the site struture mapped out. I am working on Keyword Research as well as mind mapping the content ideas for the cornerstone articles and supporting shorter articles – around 20 in total. Researched plugins – contemplated Squirrly but decided monthly fees too high. Will stick with my existing workflow. Foundations are in the ground and brickwork should be up to damp course level by mid month. “}”>