[Journey] Growing A Money Tree Via Blogging In 2021!

[T J Tutor]

This is most excellent!

 

[shaunm]

• Amazon income is down even though we had Amazon prime day this week, Ezoic income is up as the adspend on their network is increasing the later we get into the year.
• Broke the 500 organic his per day mark, hovered around 525ish per day before the weekend lul kicked in.
• Did a little more keyword research as I was running low on low comp keywords.
• Article 1 - 1688 Words.
• Article 2 - 1980 Words.
• Article 3 - 1088 Words.
• Article 4 - 1417 Words.
• Article 5 - 1260 Words.
• Article 6 - 1255 Words.
• Article 7 - 1297 Words.
• Article 8 - 1514 Words.
• Article 9 - 1298 Words.
• Article 10 - 1297 Words.
• Article 11 - 1064 Words.
• Article 12 - 1294 Words.
• Article 13 - 1268 Words.
• Article 14 - 1419 Words.

 

[shaunm]

• The site has been hit by the July core algorithm update from Google. I haven't had a chance to check all pages yet but it looks like it is mainly the YouTube widget being added to the Google SERP for this niche. Keywords I did keyword research for over the last 6 weeks and haven't published an article for yet pretty much all have the YouTube widget at the top now too. This blog is still my main focus on the blogging side of things for the rest of this year but I am brainstorming a potential travel based project for next year. YouTube will probably be the main focus for the travel project with a blog to supplement it as Google has just been changing the SERP to push more traffic to YouTube since the May 2020 core algorithm update and I think it will only get worse so if you cant beat them, join them.
• Ordered two more guest posts before the update hit.
• 100 manual forum links and 8 guest posts delivered.
• Moved up to the Ezoic Premium 4 Star service but not sure if I will still be in the earning bracket to keep it after the update.
• Article 1 - 1558 Words.
• Article 2 - 2632 Words.
• Article 3 - 2721 Words.
• Article 4 - 1149 Words.
• Article 5 - 2679 Words.
• Article 6 - 1099 Words.
• Article 7 - 1579 Words.
• Article 8 - 2555 Words.
• Article 9 - 1220 Words.

I also published the monthly update video for the month of June below but this was prior to the July core algorithm update rolling out.

 

[shaunm]

• Article 1 - 3106 Words.
• Article 2 - 2656 Words.
• Article 3 - 4244 Words.
• Rather than focusing on the low competition, low search volume keywords that I have been, I am going to be publishing articles testing stuff for my next project for 2022 for the next few weeks until the Google SERP settles.
• Had the potential domains sent through for the 2 new guest posts and chose the two that I like the look of the most.
• I have been trying to go over the SERP to see what Google has changed with the July core algorithm update but as you can see from the traffic analytics screenshot above and the Algoroo screenshot below, Google has released a number of updates this month. Each one has changed the SERP by a large amount but thankfully for me, after the initial rollout, the subsequent smaller updates have been pushing the affected keywords higher in the SERP. It's just a waiting game for now I guess it has been a really strange week in blogging when it comes to updates from Google.

I have also seen a number of people reaching out recently on various platforms thinking blogging is a very easy way to make money and its far from it. I have published the video below offering a more realistic look at the potential downsides of being a blogger to try and balance the overly positive stuff going around on social media right now.

 

[Honeybadger]

Blogging is very easy
Find highly searched questions
Provide high quality answers
Use blog templates to save time
Different type of blog ---> different template
Write blog, add pictures / video
Download at Hubspot --> HubSpot | Free Blogging Templates
Check SEO with Yoast
Publish
Track keywords with Ubersuggest

 

[shaunm]

Blogging is very easy
Find highly searched questions
Provide high quality answers
Use blog templates to save time
Different type of blog ---> different template
Write blog, add pictures / video
Download at Hubspot --> HubSpot | Free Blogging Templates
Check SEO with Yoast
Publish
Track keywords with Ubersuggest

What kind of traffic and income are you pulling with that strategy?

 

[Honeybadger]

What kind of traffic and income are you pulling with that strategy?

2 sites each pulling 300-400 visits/day
Customers are English-speaking mainly USA and GB
Some from EU and Australia
95% Google search traffic
Combined income is $2k/mo
Majority of income is from Amazon Associates
Also using Flex and CJ
Fashion clothing niche
Many seasonal trends
But niche is always popular
Using Ubersuggest to find questions with search volume
Then posting short but detailed answers
Following Google SEO rules
Difficult for competitors to get foothold
Products are changing constantly every day
Technology and fashion also merging
Massive room for new affiliates
Your RAF background is very useful
Many people wear sport-military combo gear
Following your videos on YouTube
Really great content
Thank you for your new thread
Respect

 

[shaunm]

• The July core algorithm update should have stopped its rollout now and the SERP is looking more settled. I put some time in going over the keywords that have been hit and the main two things that I have noticed is a bunch of buyer intent keywords now have the YouTube widget at the top. Some of these keywords were checked last month as I wrote the article for them so it looks like the widget has been added with the update. The second is that articles using the Army Ants Method and other catch all keywords seem to have drastically dropped in traffic. Pages from user generated content sites with specific answers to the search query are now beating them in the SERP and from what I have checked so far its as if there is something in the update for specific pages to rank rather than catch all style pages. Although it will take time to produce new articles, I have a bunch of data on the main keywords that were pushing traffic for the articles using the Army Ants Method anyway so I will just produce a dedicated article for that keyword over the coming weeks.
• Although its hard to work out, I think between 1/4 and 1/3 of the current articles on this blog could have been affected by the update so it may slow traffic growth down for a few months until the content from last month ages in. Although some of it is buyer intent, the majority if short but dedicated answers to specific search queries that I think Google seem to be favouring. My plan for moving forward is to finish the keywords that I have banked that are similar to the bulk of last months keywords and then spend a month just smashing out keywords using PhilReddit7s method (explained here, Phils blog, not mine). The thinking is that the articles are short and easy to produce so making them fits in better with the other things I am working on right now, the articles are laser targeted to the keyword rather than catch all, and the search volume is so low that I doubt many people will make YouTube videos for them reducing the chance of the YouTube widget being injected too. If this initial test pays off, I plan to put most of my gains from my Crypto trading into freelance writers to produce content using the method to try and get this project back on track ASAP.
• The blog turned 6 month old this month so I would like to see some nice growth month on month from now on but really now sure whats going to happen due to what I explained above.
• Article 1 - 3773 Words.
• Article 2 - 3142 Words.
• Article 3 - 1544 Words.
• Article 4 - 1194 Words.
• Article 5 - 1314 Words.
• Article 6 - 1320 Words.
• Article 7 - 1657 Words.

 

[iamb]

• The July core algorithm update should have stopped its rollout now and the SERP is looking more settled. I put some time in going over the keywords that have been hit and the main two things that I have noticed is a bunch of buyer intent keywords now have the YouTube widget at the top. Some of these keywords were checked last month as I wrote the article for them so it looks like the widget has been added with the update. The second is that articles using the Army Ants Method and other catch all keywords seem to have drastically dropped in traffic. Pages from user generated content sites with specific answers to the search query are now beating them in the SERP and from what I have checked so far its as if there is something in the update for specific pages to rank rather than catch all style pages. Although it will take time to produce new articles, I have a bunch of data on the main keywords that were pushing traffic for the articles using the Army Ants Method anyway so I will just produce a dedicated article for that keyword over the coming weeks.
• Although its hard to work out, I think between 1/4 and 1/3 of the current articles on this blog could have been affected by the update so it may slow traffic growth down for a few months until the content from last month ages in. Although some of it is buyer intent, the majority if short but dedicated answers to specific search queries that I think Google seem to be favouring. My plan for moving forward is to finish the keywords that I have banked that are similar to the bulk of last months keywords and then spend a month just smashing out keywords using PhilReddit7s method (explained here, Phils blog, not mine). The thinking is that the articles are short and easy to produce so making them fits in better with the other things I am working on right now, the articles are laser targeted to the keyword rather than catch all, and the search volume is so low that I doubt many people will make YouTube videos for them reducing the chance of the YouTube widget being injected too. If this initial test pays off, I plan to put most of my gains from my Crypto trading into freelance writers to produce content using the method to try and get this project back on track ASAP.
• The blog turned 6 month old this month so I would like to see some nice growth month on month from now on but really now sure whats going to happen due to what I explained above.
• Article 1 - 3773 Words.
• Article 2 - 3142 Words.
• Article 3 - 1544 Words.
• Article 4 - 1194 Words.
• Article 5 - 1314 Words.
• Article 6 - 1320 Words.
• Article 7 - 1657 Words.

Thanks for the frequent updates and I hope you bring this project back on track as you explained following the big G's update. I believe you mentioned early in your journey that you are outsourcing your content writing for the most part with the guys at BST.

How much would you say you have invested so far in content? $1k, $2k, more?

The main reason why i asked is because you say you will test some new content strategy using Phil's keyword research method. From what I understand Phil writes all his content mostly short 750-900 words and he seems to be a prolific writer with upwards 500+ articles for his projects.

 

[shaunm]

• Reached out to the SERPRobot team to ask if there is a way for them to show the number of 1st position rankings in their dashboard rather than top 3 as 2nd and 3rd don't bring as much traffic as they once did due to the YouTube widget being so prevalent in the SERP these days. They were working on a new overlay anyway so I am curious to see what it looks like but should make tracking and fault finding easier.
• Changed up the ad placeholders for this site slightly. It could result in slightly less income from ads but I think that the user experience is much better.
• I have put an end to trying to fault find the SERP after the July core algo update. It seems that it is mostly buyer intent and catch all informational content that has been hit for me. I'm not planning on doing much buyer intent from now on anyway but definitely want to stick to laser targeted articles for a specific keyword for the informational stuff moving forward. All of the articles below are using the method I spoke about in last weeks update. I have been averaging 45-60 mins per article using it so if it works I should be able to scale into it very quickly.
• Article 1 - 1033 Words.
• Article 2 - 1254 Words.
• Article 3 - 1135 Words.
• Article 4 - 1256 Words.
• Article 5 - 1564 Words.
• Article 6 - 1157 Words.
• Article 7 - 997 Words.
• Article 8 - 1112 Words.
• Article 9 - 978 Words.
• Article 10 - 933 Words.
• Article 11 - 1243 Words.
• Article 12 - 1079 Words.
• Article 13 - 1048 Words.

Thanks for the frequent updates and I hope you bring this project back on track as you explained following the big G's update. I believe you mentioned early in your journey that you are outsourcing your content writing for the most part with the guys at BST.

How much would you say you have invested so far in content? $1k, $2k, more?

The main reason why i asked is because you say you will test some new content strategy using Phil's keyword research method. From what I understand Phil writes all his content mostly short 750-900 words and he seems to be a prolific writer with upwards 500+ articles for his projects.

For this particular project not even $1000. If these initial tests work and look good then I will be putting a bunch of my own time into articles using this method as well as dropping more cash into freelance writers to scale quicker. Its just finding the time as this blog is not the only project that I am working on right now.

 

[shaunm]

• I haven't had much spare time for this project this week so it's pretty much been left to do its own thing but I should be able to put more time in growing it from tomorrow.
• It's nice to see the organic traffic slowly growing after the domain was hit by the July core algorithm update again but this is different keywords using different methods of article, not the articles that were hit from the update. I'm just planning on scaling into laser-targeted articles for the foreseeable future that are laser targeted to one keyword using the method I mentioned a few updates back as that's close to what I have on the log that is working already but should be quicker to write.
• The domain actually got a new organic traffic daily record this week as well.
• Traffic from Pinterest is slowly picking up now, its only getting around 2-4 hits per day but it could be some type of sand box effect with Pinterest so I am curious how this will go. I have pins scheduled for the next two weeks in Tailwind but if the growth from the platform maintains on an upward curve I will make more pings and schedule them out too.
• There's a small increase in affiliate income this week so hoping that it holds too rather than dropping back down.
• Article 1 - 1294 Words.

 

[shaunm]

• Got a new organic traffic record for the blog this week coming in at almost 700 hits in a day with a nice little traffic spike that has held so far too.
• Pinterest traffic is increasing very slowly with each passing week now too.
• Conversions on Amazon are slowly dropping off for some reason and I'm not sure why. Its still extra cash that I wouldn't have if I hadn't added the links though I guess.
• I am averaging around 45 minutes for all articles with the method I linked to a few updates back so can easily scale if I find the time.
• Article 1 - 1406 words.
• Article 2 - 1081 words.
• Article 3 - 1053 words.
• Article 4 - 1224 Words.
• Article 5 - 1087 Words.
• Article 6 - 1220 Words.
• Article 7 - 1060 Words.
• Article 8 - 1063 Words.
• Article 9 - 988 Words.
• Article 10 - 1209 Words.
• Article 11 - 1458 Words.
• Article 12 - 1394 Words.
• I also uploaded my video update for this project going into more detail.

I was also featured on the WP Eagle channel for my thoughts on the Google Link Spam update too that may help some people.

 

[shaunm]

• Although traffic is up, income is down due to pulling some place holders for display ads off the site for testing as well as dropping a level in Ezoic Premium. I think I will leave the place holders as they are right now for another week or so to see how they perform and then put them back in to pump the EPMV back up a bit.
• Another organic traffic record for a single day of 724 hits but it ended up dropping off rather than maintaining but it looks like its climbing again now.
• Sticking around 45 minutes writing time per article even though I am working in sub-niches that I don’t know too well so I am happy with that. I think I can get it closer to 30 minutes when I know the sub-niche better.
• Other than reading and paddleboarding, I haven't had much on this week so been able to pump the content out.
• Article 1 - 1365 Words.
• Article 2 - 1265 Words.
• Article 3 - 1281 Words.
• Article 4 - 1031 Words.
• Article 5 - 1004 Words.
• Article 6 - 1067 Words.
• Article 7 - 1161 Words.
• Article 8 - 1019 Words.
• Article 9 - 969 Words.
• Article 10 - 1019 Words.
• Article 11 - 991 Words.
• Article 12 - 1116 Words.
• Article 13 - 1294 Words.
• Article 14 - 1224 Words.
• Article 15 - 1134 Words.
• Article 16 - 1150 Words.
• Article 17 - 1171 Words.
• Article 18 - 1018 Words.
• Article 19 - 1000 Words.
• Article 20 - 1148 Words.
• Article 21 - 1141 Words.
• Article 22 - 1306 Words.
• Article 23 - 1104 Words.
• Article 24 - 1086 Words.
• Article 25 - 1320 Words.
• Article 26 - 1384 Words.
• Although Pinterest traffic still makes up a very small amount of the daily traffic, it is slowly climbing still. My Tailwind account had pins to post until mid next week but I will leave it empty for a month or two so I can see if the Pinterest traffic keeps growing before I make more pins as it takes a bunch of time that I rather put into articles for Google traffic.

Pinterest traffic for the blog since I started to publish pins via Tailwind to my Pinterest account.

​

 

[shaunm]

• Found a new sub-niche for this blog, it looks like its all medium to high competition but the traffic/income potential is definitely there so I might expand into that niche in 2022 once this blog is making more money and I can put profits back into link building efforts for it.
• New organic traffic only daily record of 760. This will be my main focus now for the blog rather than total traffic from all sources as Pinterest is currently under performing for what I would have liked.
• Pinterest traffic has climbed again compared to last week and Tailwind has ran out of pins to post. I guess growth on the platform from this point forward is just down to my pins aging in rather than new ones getting views straight away.
• Added the place holders back to the blog from Ezoic as the test I did last week with less placeholders didn't really change anything on UX or page load times.
• Received an offer from a friend to buy this blog but I will hold it until at least January 2022 as there is plenty of content on it left to age in and increase the multiple.
• Article 1 - 1467 Words.
• Article 2 - 1060 Words.
• Article 3 - 1280 Words.
• Article 4 - 1089 Words.
• Article 5 - 1039 Words.
• Article 6 - 1281 Words.
• Article 7 - 1296 Words.
• Article 8 - 1044 Words.
• Article 9 - 1760 Words.
• Article 10 - 971 Words.
• Article 11 - 1067 Words.
• Article 12 - 1159 Words.
• Article 13 - 1489 Words.
• Article 14 - 1336 Words.
• Article 15 - 1661 Words.
• Article 16 - 1165 Words.
• Article 17 - 1288 Words.
• Article 18 - 1212 Words.

I also uploaded a video going over the predicted search volume from Keywords Everywhere and the actual traffic that the site pulls this week to.

 

[iamb]

Impressive progress Shaun, well done!

I am gearing up for an informational site as well in the coming days. Wanting to put few assumptions to the test. For this project of yours, are you in a position to share some numbers pertaining to the following?

- how many articles/posts do you have now on your site?
- how much have you spent on link building thus far?
- how much have you spent on content outsourcing till now?
-how much have you earned so far and how would you rate your ROI? I know the site will likely bring in more revenues, just want to assess how it looks like after 7-8 months of working on it.

These numbers would give me an indication of what i am up against while starting my content site project.

Thank you for sharing.

 

[shaunm]

• I ended up with sun stroke for the best part of the week from Paddleboarding on the sea so couldn't get much done. Once I recovered most of my time had to be put into putting the finishing touches on a new project and planning the future for this one.
• Income for this project is lower than I would have liked by this stage so I am thinking of switching over to longer form articles like article 2 this week for medium to high competition keywords and then building a bunch of backlinks to them. I was planning to moving over to this content strategy in January but have decided to start it now instead.
• Thinking of going back and updating some older articles as I think I have seen something correlating to the pages hit by the July core algorithm update but it will take a ton of time. For now, I want to work on the higher comp articles and moving forward.
• New all time traffic record of 862 and organic record of 805.
• Pinterest is hovering around 14 hits per day now, hoping it will grow more in September.
• Article 1 - 1236 Words.
• Article 2 - 5581 Words.

Now if you could scale it somehow ...
Definitely, some nice progress..

Yea, hoping that it will start to grow faster now due to the domain aging in.

Impressive progress Shaun, well done!

I am gearing up for an informational site as well in the coming days. Wanting to put few assumptions to the test. For this project of yours, are you in a position to share some numbers pertaining to the following?

- how many articles/posts do you have now on your site?
- how much have you spent on link building thus far?
- how much have you spent on content outsourcing till now?
-how much have you earned so far and how would you rate your ROI? I know the site will likely bring in more revenues, just want to assess how it looks like after 7-8 months of working on it.

These numbers would give me an indication of what i am up against while starting my content site project.

Thank you for sharing.

• About 360 articles.
• $4190 on links so far.
• About $500 on content, I have done the vast majority of the content for this site myself.
• Rev is about $1281.51 right now and its sitting at around $631.87 rev this month to add to that too.

I consider this project to be under performing though, you can set in the traffic graph in the image at the top of the post, the July core algorithm update hit the blog and around 80 of its articles.

 

[shaunm]

• Theres been a slight dip in traffic over the last few days, not sure if it is due to the update at the start of September or just random. My rank tracker shows that I have record high numbers in the top 3 for their target keywords so I will leave it to see if anything changes.
• Fixed an issue that was preventing AAWP from auto redirecting people to their local Amazon stores for the blog, this should spike the Amazon income by 10%-25% with any luck.
• Ordered 50 forum links.
• Moved back up to 4 star Ezoic Premium, waiting for the premium ads to kick in to hope that it sees a jump in the income from the display ad side of things.
• New daily organic traffic record of 873 and all traffic record of 907.
• Article 1 - 3199 Words.
• Article 2 - 3539 Words.
• Article 3 - 2345 Words.
• Article 4 - 2614 Words.
• Article 5 - 2617 Words.
• Article 6 - 2329 Words.
• Article 7 - 2281 Words.

Uploaded the monthly update for this project on YouTube too.

 

[shaunm]

• Knocked down to Ezoic Premium 3 star but I can’t see why as my traffic/income are within the bracket for 4 star. I know I have said it before but I just wish that the Ezoic Premium service would be revenue share so there's no need to plan cashflows just for their system to downgrade you so you have dead money in your account.
• Spent a day doing keyword research due to most of the keywords that I had left for the project being the type that was hit by the July core algorithm update and wanting to avoid that type of article. I have some decent keywords banked now and I am curious to see how they perform once I get their articles churned out.
• Bottom of page 1 for two high search volume keywords for the first time so I'm really hoping to see them climb to the top 3 of Google soon.
• Pinterest traffic has started to slowly climb again, its only 16 a day right now but its better than the downward trend it was on.
• Google traffic has went a bit crazy this week even though my rank tracker is reporting nothing but upward movement in the SERP.
• Article 1 - 1589 Words.
• Article 2 - 1956 Words.
• Article 3 - 1578 Words.
• Article 4 - 2133 Words.
• Article 5 - 2626 Words.
• Article 6 - 2131 Words.
• Article 7 - 1744 Words.
• Article 8 - 2324 Words.
• Article 9 - 2167 Words.

Break that $200.00 wk ceiling Maybe, The Halloween season?

I hope so mate, I would happy is traffic would just grow in correlation to my rank tracker rather than going mental and doing its own thing though >.<. I was really hoping to break $1000 this month but I doubt it will happen now .

 

[T J Tutor]

ALL I SEE IS LOADS OF PROGRESS / LEARNING/ PERSEVERENCE!

Never Give Up!

Go All The Way!​

 

[shaunm]

• Noticed the YouTube widget in the Google SERP popping in for more and more keywords this week. Even though I have gained around 20 keywords in the top 3 of Google this week, traffic is actually down due to the widget pushing blogs below the fold. Kind of knocked the wind out of my sales so just took an easy week when it comes to content production for this blog. I will still knock out a few articles each week but I am putting more time into other projects right now until I see how the widget will go.
• Been reinvited back to Ezoic Premium 4 Star that the system kicked me out of last week or the week before, going to give it another try but if it kicked me again then I will probably just drop Ezoic Premium altogether.
• Article 1 - 2343 Words.
• Article 2 - 1971 Words.
• Article 3 - 2551 Words.
• Article 4 - 1716 Words.
• Article 5 - 1944 Words.
• Article 6 - 1536 Words.

ALL I SEE IS LOADS OF PROGRESS / LEARNING/ PERSEVERENCE!

Never Give Up!

Go All The Way!​

Cheers mate .