Hey peeps, here’s the 7th installment in my niche site case study – can’t believe that’s another month in the books already!
If you want to check out how I grew the site to where it’s at now, you can find my previous posts here:
If you’re new here, I started a brand-new site on the 1st of this year with some very simple goals:
- Publish as much SEO-focused content around low-comp keywords as possible
- Invest no time or money in link building or outreach
- Monetize preliminary with ads and some affiliate stuff where possible
- Create a nice passive income stream
So far, I can’t complain with the progress. Obviously, this year has been far from normal, although working on online projects like this has been a blessing. I’m happy with how the site is growing, and the techniques I’ve been using seem to be working well.
Essentially there are two key elements to how I’ve grown this site;
- Keyword research – You can read how I find low competition keywords here.
- SEO-focused content – You can read how I write and format my articles so they rank well here.
That’s pretty much all there is to it as to how I’ve built this site. Here’s a look at how it’s performing:
Contents
Traffic and Earnings Stats for Jan-July 2020
| Month | # of articles | Pageviews | Ezoic earnings ($) | AdSense earnings ($) | Affiliate earnings ($) | Total ($) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 31 | 109 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Feb | 70 | 677 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mar | 86 | 6,533 | 0 | 0 | 11.49 | 11.49 |
| Apr | 33 | 30,001 | 190.84 | 18.89 | 64.84 | 274.55 |
| May | 35 | 48,275 | 474.67 | 46.83 | 94.60 | 616.10 |
| June | 22 | 42,748 | 454.75 | 60.41 | 62.52 | 577.68 |
| July | 25 | 48,058 | 572.68 | 88.15 | 126.26 | 787.09 |
| Totals | 302 | 176,401 | 1,692.94 | 214.29 | 287.48 | 2,266.92 |
Ezoic Earnings for July
My EPMV on Ezoic picked up a little this month to an average of $13.58 for the month. It was still trending up towards the end of the month, so fingers crossed it keeps climbing.
Here’s a screenshot of the Ezoic earnings:
I’m happy with Ezoic at this point. I don’t know of a better way to monetize the type of traffic I’m targeting, at least not as passively as ads.
If you’re not yet using Ezoic you should sign up and at least give them a try. I’d appreciate it if you used my affiliate link here – let me know if you do and I’ll be happy to help in any way I can.
Amazon Earnings for July
Clicks and earnings were very similar to last month. This isn’t a surprise, I only added a couple of new Amazon links in informational posts where relevant.
I still haven’t written any affiliate posts on the site, it’s on my to-do list. However, I’m more excited about the third-party affiliate program I joined this month – see below:
New Affiliate Program Earnings for July
I applied for an affiliate program a good few weeks ago, and on the 15th July the links finally went live.
I made a sale on the first day…then nothing for a week, then a sale for a few days in a row. It’s been a bit random.
As you can see from the screenshot above, I’m sending 15-20 clicks to this site a day. So, I’m hopeful that this can turn into a nice income stream.
The company I’m working with is a cool little family-owned business that are passionate about what they do, so I’m excited to send more traffic their ways than Amazon’s going forward.
The best part is that they sell something that’s not available on Amazon, so it’s not like they are competing with them. Oh, and I get 10% commission, which adds up quickly compared to the 3% I get from Amazon.
Traffic Stats for July
I only published 25 articles in July. All of those were in the first two weeks too. I didn’t touch the site for the second half of the month so it’s interesting to see the traffic trending up in the final two weeks.
Overall, traffic was up 6k on June, and close to my record high in May.
I think I’ve picked off a lot of the “easy” keywords now. I’ve also noticed an increase in sites competing in the same niche, so I think it’s time to do another hard push on content.
Total Word Count To-Date as at July 2020
I get asked about word count a lot, but never tracked it and was always kind of guessing when saying my posts average 800-900 words.
I installed WP Word Count to calculate an accurate word count – and I wasn’t far off with my guess! 🙂
Wrapping Up: Month in Review – Looking Forward
I spent about 30 hours working on the site in July, and most of that was just two long days I had spare near the beginning of the month. I’m happy with the $780 for the work I put it, and it was nice not to have any issues crop up.
Looking back over the last 2-3 months, if I’m honest, I’ve been cruising, slacking a little, and spending too much time experimenting with content rather than focusing on what was working early on.
I feel that fire burning again to dig in and start publishing SEO-focused content to try and increase the traffic some more. I’m going to go hard in August, let’s see how it goes!
How’s everything going with your projects? I know some of you have been trying out how I do keyword research and on-page SEO, and I really appreciate all of you dropping comments and reaching out to me.
I’ve heard from some of you that you’re already having more success than you previously did – keep it up and here’s to continued success!
Brilliant, congratulations on your success. Well deserved !! Let’s see what you’ve got for the next month !!
Thanks, Ahmad, planning on going hard this month. 🙂
Hi Phil,
Nice report as always. Your website is growing really nicely, glad to see that!
Can I ask you about what WordPress theme do you use on this case study website? And do you use any special Ezoid ad placements, or you let their AI do it’s job?
Thanks!
Josh
Hi Josh
I just use the free Astra theme, I haven’t customized it at all other than changing the color scheme.
I set up loads of placeholders with Ezoic then just left their AI to do what it does, yeah. I have all the settings for number of ads etc on recommended, I haven’t changed anything.
Another great update Phil! Added roughly 3,000 sessions compared to June on my main project and have seen EPMV increase to just shy of $8 (I’ve not been with Ezoic for a month yet but this is already higher than the $3.50 I was seeing when I first started).
Keep these updates coming mate! Hugely motivational.
That’s awesome, Lewis, 3k sessions more is a lot. Keep building, and the numbers will keep going up! 🙂
Thanks for dropping by.
Great progress phil!
300 articles in 7 months! I need to step up my game lol.
Do you silo your contents?
Thanks mate.
I don’t silo, no. I’ve tried it in the past and it never seemed to do much. I kept this site simple, just 5 categories, and almost every post goes into one of those categories anyway. I inter-link where relevant of course.
Just come on your blog from reading your post ob Reddit and found your post motivational because after seeing your stats, I am also trying this month to get results like you. But I have a question :-
If I want to monetize my blog with ezoic ads should it is compulsory for ezoic to have an approved Adsense account?
Hi Hitesh, it’s not compulsory to have an AdSense account, no. Your blog does have to meet all the same standards as AdSense requires though, so I think it helps the process if you are approved. But I do know people without AdSense accounts on Ezoic.
Hi Phil, you’ve motivated me to start my first site following this method. What plug-ins do you think are necessary? You mentioned you keep it light previously and being a beginner I’m curious just how light that is. Thanks a lot, Becky
Hi Becky, cool, good to hear you’re going to get started!
The plugins I’m running are:
Contact Form 7
Easy Table of Contents
Google Analytics by MonsterInsights
Imagify
Insert Headers and Footers
Rank Math
TablePress
W3 Total Cache
Hope that helps.
Hello Phil, I just found you on reddit and from there your blog. Infact, this is the 1st post ive read (im going to read all the stuff you’ve written here)
I’m really amazed at the volume of content you’re able to crank out month after month. It’s quite inspirational!
I take almost 3 days to complete a 1500 word article. Haha! I don’t know if you’ve already mentioned else where on this blog. What process do u follow before u write. Does what u write take a lot of research?
Hey, Gautam
Yeah, I’m pretty quick. The thing is, when targeting these specific question type keywords, there is generally a right or wrong, yes/no answer. I link out to the most credible source, then I build the article with related content. I use a lot of my own opinions, which makes it quicker to write. And generally use a friendly and fun tone – kind of like how I write here. So, it’s not too scientific.
Hi Phil, how’s going? Any updates?
Hey Alex, I will write up a Q1 update at the beginning of next month. It’s going well though, and I just changed Ad provider – there’s a small spoiler! hah
Really appreciate the thorough, and straight forward approach you’ve provided within your articles.
How do you go about niche selection/discovery? I understand that your approach will generally be niche insensitive, in that you hit the things others ignore, but for someone new, and inexperienced such as myself, there’s some cushion in finding the correct niche, and implementing your methodology, so it would be helpful to get an idea of how you scope out, or would scope out, a niche.
Thanks!
Hi Stephen
You’re right, picking a niche is tough. I tend to pick niches I know something about, and I think there is some real value in knowing about a niche and using the correct lingo, understanding the nuances, and finding deeper topics to talk about.
I possibly miss out on some higher paying RPMs doing that, but much like my keyword approach, I’d rather just rank well and get something going than enter a higher paying niche and have the barrier of needing to get familiar with it.
So, a cushion for you – and for me – is to pick something you know about. Sure, you need to check there is volume and the potential for loads of longtail questions, but that shouldn’t be too hard to verify.