[ClintTalks]

What would you do if you've got a niche site that's making around $150/month after hosting and content expenses, but don't care about the industry it's in?

It used to be at around ~600/month but I got dropped by a bigger magazine and now it's following a downward trend.

I tried selling it off, but since it dropped rank and couldn't get shit for it.

[Suits]

(11-17-2017 12:59 PM)nomadbrah Wrote:  

(11-16-2017 09:01 PM)HardcoreSexpatMotherfucker Wrote:  

Yes, there's lots of talk about "passive income" but these days you really have to build value into a site, aka active income. It's a business like any other.

Nothing is really passive because the internet improves better non stop, and a "niche site" that might give you "passive income" for a few months or years can dry up very quickly after a Google update, an improvement in web standards, etc. So you always have to keep up. Rather than creating plenty of crap niche sites, I focus on 2 or 3 that I'm relly into it and that I know I'm able to watch and keep updated (in terms of content and technology) over the years.

Passive income, is income that doesn't depend directly on hours in -> wage out.

You do make money while you sleep if you have a business of this kind. You also make money while you build a new moneymaking project. This is a fundamental difference from wageslavery.

That's not what passive income is.

The fact that you make money while you sleep just means that you own a business with employees or have a website with an automated payment system.

From talking to guys who actually have setups like this, they have to sleep a phone next to their head that'll wake them up with automated notifications the moment their Google Adword results start dropping off so that they can wake up at 4AM and fix whatever went wrong.

There's nothing passive about that.

Passive income would be building profit generating business or website, hiring people to do all of the daily management and just give you an update every month of two. That would be passive income.

[redbeard]

(11-20-2017 09:13 AM)ClintTalks Wrote:  

What would you do if you've got a niche site that's making around $150/month after hosting and content expenses, but don't care about the industry it's in?

It used to be at around ~600/month but I got dropped by a bigger magazine and now it's following a downward trend.

I tried selling it off, but since it dropped rank and couldn't get shit for it.

I have no experience doing this so take it with a grain of salt, but reading some of the posts here, maybe you could:

1. Start pumping into content creation/SEO/adwords for two months to beef up your stats. Show that it has promise.

2. Network your ass off (@Leads style) and find buyers.

[nomadbrah]

(11-20-2017 09:13 AM)ClintTalks Wrote:  

What would you do if you've got a niche site that's making around $150/month after hosting and content expenses, but don't care about the industry it's in?

It used to be at around ~600/month but I got dropped by a bigger magazine and now it's following a downward trend.

I tried selling it off, but since it dropped rank and couldn't get shit for it.

Where did you try to sell it?

How is it monetized?

Is the content static/evergreen or needs updating?

I'm not really sure selling such sites is worth it. Why not just take the money? Maybe you could be lucky and get like 20 months profit. Would that make a big difference?

Better to just spend some of that revenue on new content. Find a writer, get a bunch of articles, plan them out for publication automatically, do automatic SoMe promotion.

There's other ways to take advantage of a web property than strict ad/affiliate income. Swap content, links, network.

I'd just keep it running if it makes money, but not spend a lot of time on it. Check in once a week to confirm everything working as it should.

[This Is Trouble]

(11-20-2017 09:13 AM)ClintTalks Wrote:  

What would you do if you've got a niche site that's making around $150/month after hosting and content expenses, but don't care about the industry it's in?

It used to be at around ~600/month but I got dropped by a bigger magazine and now it's following a downward trend.

I tried selling it off, but since it dropped rank and couldn't get shit for it.

How much effort would it take to restore it close to the glory days?

And how much does it cost to create the content?

[ClintTalks]

I'm still putting out content on it. The issue is the competition.
I've got to either link build links like a mofo or spend cash on pbns.

The sites bumping my rank are definitely backed by pbns as well. They're young and don't have solid visible backlinks.

I think the amount of effort to restore it would maybe take a month and around 1k.

If anyone knows some good ways of making money on the site besides amazon affiliate and AdSense, let me know.

I've reached out to Etsy product owners to try and get them onboard, but not much luck.

[Leads]

Quick Pro Tip - When you SSL your site, use reddit as the golden standard for implementation. (i.e.: Avoid chain redirects at all costs). Do it correctly and you will see a boost, but do it wrong and you will die

This free tool has been a godsend: https://www.linksspy.com/seo-tools/free-...l-scan/new and lays it all out for you to see. Remember to change all of your on-site links (adding the s) but also social accounts and any external inbound links you have control over

Of course, you'll first have to pay your hosting company to upgrade to SSL and get the digital cert.

[CleanSlate]

^ if you happen to have a chain redirect, how do you fix that?

[Leads]

(11-23-2017 06:11 PM)CleanSlate Wrote:  

^ if you happen to have a chain redirect, how do you fix that?

Fiverr/Upwork

[Shimmy]

You can get free SSL from https://letsencrypt.org

[bullet]

Hey guys. Newbie question. Where do you actually follow the news about SEO updates and updates from Facebook/Linkedin ads? Is there like a good portal website for this?

[Kdog]

Slightly off topic but are any of you guys also into CPA affiliate stuff?

[nomadbrah]

(12-02-2017 01:16 AM)Kdog Wrote:  

Slightly off topic but are any of you guys also into CPA affiliate stuff?

What do you mean by CPA affiliate stuff?

[skptc]

This is a terrible business model tbh unless you have a decent chunk of capital and can run content arbitrage on a native network/adsense.

For this to make real money you will need to leverage paid traffic.

[WeekendCasanova]

(12-08-2017 10:09 AM)skptc Wrote:  

This is a terrible business model tbh unless you have a decent chunk of capital and can run content arbitrage on a native network/adsense.

For this to make real money you will need to leverage paid traffic.

This is actually a decent business model. I used to do this years ago, when I was big into being an affiliate, and was earning a decent income each month from it.

In saying that, I would agree with you - paid traffic is how you get to the next level. With paid traffic you can take your affiliate income from $1,000 to $5,000, provided it's a good niche and your content is good as well.

[Beyond Borders]

(12-08-2017 10:09 AM)skptc Wrote:  

This is a terrible business model tbh unless you have a decent chunk of capital and can run content arbitrage on a native network/adsense.

For this to make real money you will need to leverage paid traffic.

Instead of just swatting the thread right down...



...how about recommending a better business model, or a constructive plan for making this one better, then?

[zoom]

It's not a great business model anymore because the barrier to entry is so low. It's never been easier or cheaper to buy a domain, buy cheap hosting, and setup a wordpress blog. It's also easy to outsource content and backlinking. This is why there is so much competition now. Full disclosure I own several different niche sites.

[Beyond Borders]

^ This stuff was easy and cheap 10 years ago too.

[zoom]

(12-08-2017 01:39 PM)Beyond Borders Wrote:  

^ This stuff was easy and cheap 10 years ago too.

Yes, but now wordpress is easier to use and more people are aware of the business model.

I've been in the game for about 8 years and it seems like there is more competition now than ever before.

If you want to succeed then you need to differentiate yourself somehow. Make a unique website with a higher barrier to entry, something that's not so easy to copy. For example, make a directory website for local tattoo shops and charge them a yearly fee for inclusion.

[This Is Trouble]

Deleted

[stefpdt]

The goal of building a niche site isn’t to get filthy rich.

It’s about learning how to drive traffic, write effective sales copy, and build a community of your own for the first time.

This is an entry-level building block that you can apply to thousands of other business models.

As an added bonus, you can absolutely earn a few thousand dollars per month with a niche site.

So it’s one of the best business models for guys who are new to making money online.

For more experienced marketers, of course you’ll want a business model that’s more scalable.

But there’s nothing wrong with this model for most guys out there.

[This Is Trouble]

(12-08-2017 05:13 PM)stefpdt Wrote:  

The goal of building a niche site isn’t to get filthy rich.

It’s about learning how to drive traffic, write effective sales copy, and build a community of your own for the first time.

This is an entry-level building block that you can apply to thousands of other business models.

As an added bonus, you can absolutely earn a few thousand dollars per month with a niche site.

So it’s one of the best business models for guys who are new to making money online.

For more experienced marketers, of course you’ll want a business model that’s more scalable.

But there’s nothing wrong with this model for most guys out there.

This.

Doing a couple niche sites helped me leverage that knowledge into my main site, which then grew considerably.

And all the knowledge has also transferred into other areas not related, all while truly making passive income.

[icrus]

The one area I am struggling with the most is getting people on my mailing list. I've read all the great materal that's out there on how to create a compelling opt-in offer, how it's supposed to solve one small problem and all that jazz. The problem might be due to the fact that I haven't niched down my target client enough yet: traveler vs local, whoremonger vs pua guy, hell not even only men or men and women.

Kyle, your site on Ukraine is fairly comparable, what size is your mailing list on that one? No need for a precise number but maybe ballpark, three figures four figures?

I think I'll try the same idea with the quick start guide to collect some addresses, hence my question. What I've been trying so far evidently isn't working.

[This Is Trouble]

(12-09-2017 04:02 AM)icrus Wrote:  

The one area I am struggling with the most is getting people on my mailing list. I've read all the great materal that's out there on how to create a compelling opt-in offer, how it's supposed to solve one small problem and all that jazz. The problem might be due to the fact that I haven't niched down my target client enough yet: traveler vs local, whoremonger vs pua guy, hell not even only men or men and women.

Kyle, your site on Ukraine is fairly comparable, what size is your mailing list on that one? No need for a precise number but maybe ballpark, three figures four figures?

I think I'll try the same idea with the quick start guide to collect some addresses, hence my question. What I've been trying so far evidently isn't working.

4 figures.

I will say though, the current offer only converts at about 2% - albeit it’s not optimized. Whereas on This Is Trouble, there’s a couple offers I’m running right now that are converting at 5% and 8% (cold).

Takes a lot of time to get enough raw numbers to really run good A/B tests, otherwise there’s not enough data to make a real conclusion. This stuff takes a lot of time and a lot of tweaking to get right. I’d never advise someone building a niche site to work too much on the email list until they’re getting at least a few hundred organic hits a day of traffic.

[This Is Trouble]

BTW, icrus, if you want to PM me your site I’d be happy to take a look and advise you re: opt-in offer.

I know some of mine are out there but I totally understand people wanting to keep their projects on the down-low.