What a month this has been for this running case study.
Both of the flagship websites I’m building hit record traffic (and also record income) but there were also some world-issues (like the coronavirus) which look like they’d be hindering my progress and chances of scaling the past month’s success.
This will be one of the most important updates I’ve ever published for this case study as I now have two fast-growing websites – both making a decent income – but of course, nothing is ever “perfectly right”.
As usual, I will go first through the numbers for each website, and then I’ll give you my thoughts on what’s going on, how I plan on moving forward, overcoming challenges and share with you my plans for the coming months.
Let’s get started…
Niche Site 01: STSP (Name & URL TBA)
- Pageviews in January 2020: 13,135
- Pageviews in February 2020: 15,612 (new record)
- Earnings in February 2020: $498.47 (new record)
- New Posts Published in February 2020: 15
- Total Posts Published: 82
- Total Words Published: 167,152
- Average Word Count Per Post: 2,038
Thoughts on February 2020:
With regard to traffic, I really can’t complain. With 15,000+ page views, this website has yet again registered steady month-on-month growth and has proved once again this website is worth investing in. Seeing how this website is growing so rapidly, I’d even say it’s now one of my favorites in my overall affiliate portfolio.
Content-wise, I’ve also managed to publish 15 new posts, bringing the total to 82 LIVE posts indexed and ready to bring in even more traffic in the future.
Another milestone is this website’s revenue. Having generated just shy of $500 (a new record), this website is well on its way to be making the $3000 a month goal I’ve set for it (and hopefully it can be done by end of 2020).
However, there is an issue that I think will affect my earnings going forward. That damn coronavirus.
I’ve mentioned in the past how I want to add more high-ticket items to quickly increase profits, and I managed to do that selling 2 items which collectively made me $250. However – that product I’m selling is manufactured in China and I doubt they will be producing more of it (for the time being).
In fact, due to this handicap, I think the company I’m affiliated with will not be shipping these orders out (and they’ll probably refund the customers as well) but they still agreed to pay me my commissions (which I thought was very noble of them).
Right now, I’m at a bit of a crossroads.
Should I keep promoting these high-ticket items, or switch up the strategy? I’ll have to think about this.
I’m doubting how reliable these high-ticket items will be till this whole coronavirus thing blows over. My challenge is now to find yet another source of high-revenue to promote, which is exactly my plan for next month.
Plans For March 2020:
I’ve mentioned in a previous post how I’m slowly-but-surely moving away from affiliate and starting to create my own products. That is the approach I’m going to be taking in March 2020 for this website.
We’ve created a course for the website, one I’ll be selling for a one-time fee of $49, and even though it’s not a high-ticket commission per se, I’m pretty sure it’s going to supply this website with a fresh injection of income, hopefully taking it to the $800 to $1000 a month region.
The course content is now complete (thanks to my amazing writers), and it’s now up to me to create all the peripherals (sales page, email sequence, course formatting, etc). That is what I’ll be working on in March.
I’m hoping for an April 1st release but I will try to get it out faster as I don’t want to launch on April Fools! Of course, I will be updating you on how that goes in future case-study updates.
As was planned, I will also halt publishing new content for the upcoming two months as it’s time for the second major website in this case study to get some shine.
Niche Site 02: TSCC (Name & URL TBA)
- Pageviews in January 2020: 11,607
- Pageviews in February 2020: 14,083 (new record)
- Earnings in February 2020: $71.43 (new record)
- Posts Published in February 2019: 0
- Total Posts Published: 100
- Total Words Published: 154,194
- Average Word Count Per Post: 1,542
Thoughts on February 2020:
As I’ve told you in the previous update, after hitting 10,000 pageviews in January, it was time for this website to start making some money.
On February 1st, I went live with Ezoic and in all of February, the site has generated just over $70 in ad revenue. (I also made like $1-something on Amazon but I’m not counting that here).
What’s surprising about this is the EPVM (earnings per monthly views). I was expecting to make ~$10 p/1000 views but the site is actually earning $22.53 p/1000 views.
So how come I only made $70 when the site had 14,000 pageviews?
That’s because I’ve restricted the ads greatly on this website.
I’ve only allowed them on a few pages (depending on the world-length of the post) which is why the actual earnings should’ve been much higher. Personally, I think Ezoic goes a bit overboard with all the ads they push on your website, which is why I decided to cut down on the ads.
To be honest, I’d much have a great user experience on my website then make a few more $$, even though the site would’ve earned around ~$300 if I had let the ads run on all the pages as Ezoic suggests.
SN: Ezoic is a pain in the butt to deal with. The support is terrible and even when they do reply, they’re somewhat rude! I just thought I’d let you know about this if you’re also building up a site with the hopes of joining Ezoic.
Plans For March 2020:
The plan for these two websites I’m telling you about here is to focus on each one for 2 months at a time.
The above-mentioned website (STSP) was going full-speed-ahead in January and February while this website (TSCC) saw 0 posts being published. Now that we’re in March, it’s time to flip that.
For March and April, the focus will be put solely on this website and I plan on publishing at least another 30 posts in the coming two months.
That + the momentum I already have with this website (this one is also breaking records every month) I’m sure I can get the traffic up tp at least 30,000 (which will qualify me for Mediavine ads) and also start hitting new income records every month.
Even though I’ve had plans to create our own products for this website, it’s proven to be harder than expected to monetize that way so for now, the main focus is to continue making money from ads.
I also have goals for this website to start earning $3,000+ a month, but I’m sure it will take much longer to get there than with STSP above.
With that said, I am very excited about the EPMV I’m seeing here so this could definitely grow fast IF I can maintain the month-on-month increases in traffic.
How To Start An Affiliate Website (Step-By-Step Video Course)
So that’s all for my case-study update for February.
As you can see, everything is slowly but surely growing and earning me money and these sites are taking off in their own right all reaching new goals bring forth new records, and new challenges.
Note the emphasis on challenges.
As an affiliate marketer, you will always have to face things that are “unexpected” (this month was the coronavirus, next month might be WW3).
However – as you can see – you can still build an affiliate website and YES, it will also start to make you money if you stick with it long enough.
This past month, these sites earned ~$600, 10 months ago, these websites didn’t even exist. Imagine where these sites will be in the next 10 months.
If you’d like a piece of this pie, you can get started with a money-making affiliate website here.
The link leads you to some training that you can join (for free) to start learning how to put this all together.
I’ll leave you to it and I’ll see you on the inside.
See How I Built Up This Case Study
