Arielle has made a huge amount of progress this year. She recently launched her own Bulk Publishing Framework Masterclass. It includes an AI Powered Google sheet, which has been essential for Arielle to publish so much content. *I’m an affiliate, so I get a commission if you make a purchase at no additional cost to you.
This Month in a Nutshell
We have just approached the 2-year mark in my niche site journey. What a journey it has been!
I have had more ups (and to the right) than downs, for sure.
It is funny, because, day by day and month by month, you do not notice the small changes and growth, so every now and then you need to zoom out for clarity.
Here is a snapshot of my Ezoic account over the past 12 months. Apart from the aftermath of Site 2 being hit in July (August felt the wrath!), everything has gone in a consistent upward trajectory.
As I mentioned in my catch-up with Doug, I am finally ready to sell some of the sites in my portfolio. It is going to be a process and I do not think anything is ready to go just yet.
But I have done the work to emotionally attach to them and stay focused on the ones that matter the most to me. This might be the end of my “niche site” journey as I focus on the two I want to grow into authority sites and brands that stand alone.
Anywho, that is where I am at! Let’s look at the sites we have been following and how they performed in November.
Results Snapshot (Site 2)
Site 2 November 2022 Ezoic Earnings
Earnings
This month: $1,843.14
Revenue Breakdown:
- Affiliates – $809
- Ezoic Display Ads – $882.20
- Amazon – $4.36
- Digital products – $73.71
Expenses
No content was ordered this month. However, I managed to write 8-10 articles myself, improve many older articles, and record videos for the site’s channel. The site is still hosted on Ezoic’s free WordPress hosting. and any other costs are split between the site portfolio.
Running costs such as Canva, SEMRush, Mailchimp, my Virtual Assistants, and Ezoic premium is split between 8 sites. I upgraded to a higher-tier premium subscription last month ($220)
Traffic
Still not quite where it used to be, but getting there.
Pageviews This Month: 24,376
All Time: 218,814
Visits This Month: 19,644
All Time: 179,500
Results Snapshot (Site 7)
Earnings
Site 7 – November 2022 Amazon Earnings
This month: $361.96
Revenue Breakdown:
- Ezoic Display Ads – $89.77
- Amazon – $156.51
- Digital products – $9.68
- Affiliate Programs – $106
Expenses
This month: $40
Hosting – $40
Traffic
I have not looked into why the traffic has started dropping these past few months, I have not gone into the site at all, so I will make some updates before the year is out and assess it before I decide what to do with it.
Pageviews This Month: 16,626
Lifetime: 182,332
Visits This Month: 14,081
Lifetime: 153,577
What’s Working
Site 2:
I have recently started writing more articles on Site 2 myself. I mentioned in previous episodes that it was just one writer, and occasionally myself writing. Well, I lost interest in the SEO topics I had to write for to fulfill keywords and gave my writer all the work.
Her health had been deteriorating for a while, and she has since decided to take a break from writing. This left me with a healthy site (still recovering) and nothing happening on it. So I decided to go through all the NicheIQ keywords I had gathered for the site and start writing again!
I used ChatGPT to generate some related topics and blog post ideas, and that worked really well. Instead of finding random keywords that vaguely relate to the niche, I think I’ll focus on topic clusters for this site and use social media to really solidify the brand.
None of the keyword data for this site has been accurate since the beginning; they all show low volume with high competition. This is why I left this site alone when I first started it. I didn’t see its potential once my keyword research skills got “better.”
Fast-forward two years, those 20 high-volume Google autosuggest keywords are pulling in 800 visits a month!
Site 7:
I have not worked on this site for a few months and plan to sell it. I must say, though, that despite it not growing the way I thought it would and me shelving it, it isn’t doing all that badly.
It costs me $40 a month to keep it going, and I could easily max out my opportunity for affiliate earnings and not care about display ads. But it is the same story as the rest of my portfolio; I don’t have time.
If I go ahead with selling, I will likely work on it for a couple of months to get it into better standing and go from there.
On the Horizon
Next Month
- More Topic Clusters, More Writing, More Branding
Last month, I mentioned not wanting to hire just any writers for Site 2. This still stands, but now that I am forming topic clusters to help me own a larger share of voice in the niche, I am pumped to be writing on it again.
I am using a combination of NicheIQ and ChatGPT to build out topic clusters which looks a little like this:
- Go to NicheIQ, and find 10 suggested keywords with healthy metrics and opportunities.
- Plug them into ChatGPT and ask it to give me 10 related blog topics for each of them.
- Write one cluster at a time (10 posts)
- Internal link all throughout the cluster (only to other posts in the cluster)
- Make 2-3 videos for each cluster.
- Digital Products
I have had two digital products sitting in Canva for months now, waiting to be finished and uploaded! I am leaving money on the table with these because my niche loves this sort of thing and my single digital product already does so well.
- Keeping The EPMV And Time On Page:
Trying to maintain the high EPMVs I’ve been getting while publishing more content. I am a bit more aware of on-page SEO, formatting, and keeping things reader-optimized. I am hoping the videos I plan to embed on the site can help with this.
- Using Unique Images:
I am taking more of my own shots and using Jasper Art. This way I get to create unique images under each heading. I can get my kids to help with the picture taking (and pay them, of course!)
Parting Thoughts
Focusing on the long-term (5-year plan)
My whole theme now is Topical Dominance. I am getting out of the “niche site rat race.” Two sites in my portfolio deserve the lion’s share of my attention, and they both slot nicely into my long-term plans.
While I love the dividends that my multiple niche sites pay me, I don’t love the idea of having a tray of half-baked cookies, (as nice as those are!) So, I will sell a few sites and focus on sites 2 and 8.
I’ve been working on a method that I’ve used to publish over 1,000 articles and grow my youngest site to 40,000 pageviews a month. The site is still in its infancy and is growing month-on-month with a combination of outsourced articles, articles written by me, and Bulk Published articles (Top X in Y and Brand Swap-type articles)
Check out Arielle’s Bulk Publishing Framework Masterclass. It includes an AI Powered Google sheet, which has been essential for Arielle to publish so much content. *I’m an affiliate, so I get a commission if you make a purchase at no additional cost to you.
Now that I have finally solidified my method, I can outsource a high-quality article, turn that into a template, and then make variations with it, using my Bulk Publishing framework.
So, naturally, that is all I want to focus on!
I plan to close all of these tabs and buckle down to my mission of topical dominance in my niche. I should have some more exciting results to share, too.
I truly believe that in 2023, branding and topical authority are the only things that will matter, so it is time to go for both in full force.
