I always thought that it would take a long time for any site to build authority and enough visitors to start earning a decent income, but a few days ago one of my newer sites broke the $1000 a month barrier, right before it´s 7 month birthday.
So in case you have been following my blog from the beginning and was wondering if I were still working online and why I was not blogging here anymore, the answer is “yes, but I have been busy creating some profitable websites!”
Today though I have decided to post here, because I want to share what I did to get a new site to earning $1000 this month as a way of encouraging you to never give up on this fantastic business called Internet Marketing.
I have been a member at the The Keyword Academy for years, in fact, I am going to share a screenshot with you guys, so that you can see my shiny $1000 badge as proof. (remember that that money came from just ONE site I am going to talk to you about in a minute!).
It is actually funny, because this is the first time I applied for a members badge, and even though I make a lot more than $1000 a month, I wanted the $1000 badge because I feel good about the site that is earning me that kind of money, after only 7 months online.
Not sure if you know about The Keyword Academy, but in short, it is a place where you can learn how to make money with websites, how to do the keyword research, setting up the site, how to use the keywords in your content and how to build your links in order to get traffice etc. If you are new to making money online, signing up there is probably the best thing you can do, to get sincere information and find out what really works.
If you are not new to the online business, but you could use some help increasing your earnings, I´d definitely go there too, besides, signing up gives you a free trial month to dig into the forums and material, participate in some webinars and get a real feel of the value of TKA.
Anyways, at present they are making some changes in order to stay in line with the recent Panda shifts and are moving towards building authority sites that will become steady earners, offering great content for your visitors and basically, a safer way to earn your money online, because it will provide a steadier site in the long run.
They used to teach to build sites with 5-20 posts per website and then build links to those posts until you dropped, but now they focus on building sites with many more articles that are longer, so that you can focus on getting traffic through long tail keywords. The backlinking is also changing, in fact, you will spend more time writing quality articles for your websites than actually backlinking those articles, something I really like.
So, January 31st of 2011, I decided to build a website in quite a competitive niche. A niche that most people say is far too saturated and loaded with big gun websites, to ever stand a fighting chance at making money, but I started it anyways, for personal reasons.
I was not even planning on making money with it, actually because I too believed the myth that some niches are just too hard to earn money in. I did do some keyword research, just to use some long tail keywords that had more than 1000 monthly searches but that was about it. I just started writing and writing, and because I love the topic, it didn´t feel that hard to create good content.
Solid content, well researched content, really offering value to my readers. Instead of following all the rules and blueprints, I just started publishing 1 article a day, that could be 300 words long, or 3000 words or anything between that, but offering something interesting to people searching around in my niche topic.
I got one blogroll exchange in order to get my site indexed for it´s main keyword, but that was all I did for linkbuilding.
The continuous new and fresh articles proved to be the best tactic I have ever used, in order to increase traffic and earnings!
In the screenshot below you can see the traffic stats from the past 30 days. As you can see, traffic can vary greatly, and while I would normally freak out about that, with this site it actually makes sense, and because I know the target traffic, I know that the dips come from missing traffic on Saturday, when my target traffic is not online. I used to freak out every time I´d see that dip, until I started comparing all other Saturdays and saw that traffic would go up again on Sunday.
Another traffic graphic, to show the development of traffic during the 7 months my site has been online. July has not shown the growth you´d expect but I think that is mainly due to the fact that the people in my target area started going on holiday, so my topic was less searched for.
I think that will be less off an issue in September though, especially because I have a strategy planned out that should increase traffic growth.
Remember that the first post was on the 31st of January and to be fair, during the month of February I only posted 4 articles, and did not start to really post 5 times a week until halfway through March. After that the stream of fresh content has been growing my site into a steady earner with around 150 articles at present. And my plans are to reach 500 published quality articles before the end is over.
Traffic is growing nicely and it is something I will be working on in the future. Adding lots of fresh content on a daily basis will definitely help, but I will also start going back into posts that are already published, trying to optimize them and add more text and long tails in order to catch more traffic there as well.
Apart from that, I am going to use an awesome tool that I will be talking about in the future, that will not only improve my internal linking structure, but it will also tell me which posts to update and improve in order to stay in favor with the Big G.
The thing I have learned from this site is the main reason for wanting to share this success with you guys, is that it pays off to be really really in to your topic!
There has been a huge increase of mediocre websites online, the so called sniper websites or the MFA themes (made for adsense) that would be build in a jiffy, on EMD´s (exact match domains) to just rank a few keywords and cash in on adsense, and even though that business model might still be highly profitable for many people, you can notice that there is a huge shift going to be towards creating high quality, bulky sites that offer true value to the visitor.
This is only logical, if you understand what Google wants. Their reputation depends on being the best search engine, so if the results that keep showing up on the first page, are crappy MFA websites that offer nothing interesting of value, than they are made to look like a fool.
However, if you create this huge wonderful useful valuable website that gives your visitor exactly what they are after, you are much more likely to start ranking well in the SERP´s (search engine results page) for many keywords, even keywords you never thought would bring your traffic!
In other words, this means that the most succesful way to create an online business, is to focus on the long term, and start creating one awesome site, the type of site you can´t stop talking about, the site that is about your passion, talking about what you love to do and what you know a lot about.
For me personally, it is such a relief to have broken the $1,000 barrier with this site, because it is about a topic I can write thousands of articles about, without ever running out of inspiration! That is such a nice change after having created site after site on topics that not even remotely interested me, but that I created because of the monthly potential showing it could become a real earner.
That old business model does still work, but creating that type of sites just kills your brain!
If you are totally fed up with not earning enough money online and feel like all you do is just struggle to keep your head up high and some money in your pocket, I would really advise you to give the TKA 2.0 new style a chance, it could completely change your life!
Learn how to build a site you can really be proud of and cash in big at the same time!
Over the course of this month, I am going to publish a few more articles to explain what I did exactly to bring this site to where it is, so stay posted if you want to know how to build a successful site as well!
Update: As of October 2011 I am no longer a member at TKA, because after 2 years of membership, I had learned so much that I sort of “gratuated the Academy”.
I will however, keep sending people there if they need to learn how to make money, it is the place that taught me how to do it, and I know it worked.
I will always be thankful to TKA for changing my life and for showing me what to do, in order to create a fulltime income online.
Mirjam:
Congratulation on your progress! You know I always love to see your story since a long time ago. I also see the shifting of google search ranking, if you have good quality content.
Backlinks is always the last thing I a worry about.
I also start my own digital photography blog recently. It starts getting some traction too.
Anyway, I look forward to seeing your new blog post. It does make you feel good, isn’t it?
Terence Chang´s last [type] ..Personal Branding With More Exposures
Terence!!
great to see you here again
Man, it is such a kick to see this ONE site take off and grow at lightening speed, it is almost unreal! What a breeze of fresh air to actually work on a site that I loooove and get some pretty good ROI the same time as well!
I will in time do some backlinking, in an attempt to increase the ranking of particular posts that are already on the first page but not in the top 3, for now though, I am just going to focus on offering quality content and set this site apart from the competition… we´ll see where it goes, but it definitely has given me an increase in spirit and dedication, much more than any other site has ever given me
:D
I am gonna hop over to your blog now
(HUG)
hey:) Could you please tell me how many articles did you used to post each day?
I’m starting nowadays a review site, but I can only post about 1-2 articles per day. Is that enough?
matei´s last [type] ..Inflatable Wetsuit: Mandatory Accessory For Surfers?
Congratulations on your milestone! You have achieved what many dream of achieving and that is something to be proud of.
It’s like I’ve always said, building a blog is not enough to be successful, you also need to build targeted traffic to it as it’s the traffic that brings the potential to generate and income.
Sire´s last [type] ..Lottery Ticket Humour And How Prayers Only Go So Far
Hi Matei,
thanks for the question. I can not tell you how many articles are going to be enough because I do not know what your “enough” means. Plus, I don´t know about the quality of your reviews, the way you are going to target them, nor the market they are in, so many variables, it is hard to give you a number.
After all, I think it boils down to doing what feels right and works for you, and more importantly, be consistent with that!
thank you very much for the congratulations! Now that I got the site to this point, I am actually more proud of the site itself, because it is a site I would not mind showing my relatives, than of the fact that it is pulling in this kind of money right now. For me, the most important thing right now, is adding more solid quality content and grow the site into a huge database of information my visitors are looking for, but I´ll will take a moment and throgoughly enjoy the feel of reaching this point
thanks for your visit!
Now that’s a nice little earner! Looks like you are onto a nicely converting niche too – so many people think its all about the traffic- its not – its all about the buying traffic
LIssie´s last [type] ..An Apology – I Need To Come Clean – A C-List Blogger Is Born
Hi Mirjam,
As you know I have left TKA for exactly that reason several months ago, I still think it is the best place to send newbies to to learn the ropes without being scammed out of their money. I am now using another tool and I have an inkling it is the same one you mentioned in this post 
That is one huge achievement in breaking the magic $1,000 barrier in only 7 months! I am glad to hear that TKA is now also focusing more on building quality sites rather then backlinking thin sites to death
Hospitalera´s last [type] ..Which Aweber Alternative Should I Choose?
hi! nice to see you here!
this post was actually a while back, I have since left the TKA for a bit, I still do feel, like you, that it is the perfect place for newbies and people who don´t know how to make money online and want to build a strong online income, but for me, it just wasn´t right anymore. Aside from that, I really needed to up my productivity and having open access to an im forum was too big of a distraction. The tool you are referring to, I am sure it is the one that I was using for a while, untill all data got screwed up with the google API changes and all, and foreign data just seemed way off. Again, my main income now comes from foreign websites so the mainstream im tools just don´t see to do the trick, flying almost solo now, except for the occasional touch down landing in the “pond”
Anyways, breaking the $1000 totally inspired me, setting up more sites now, all bulky sites with loads of content, so I am not just TKA, nor Fraser nor whomever, I am just doing what seems to work for me, and not wanting to put my money on one site, I am putting my money on a niche and making the most out of it
Thanks for stopping by and leaving me a comment!
well, this was the site that got me the $1000 badge a few months back, since them I have actually build quite a few more sites, in the same niche. Like the Duck King says, dominate your niche, own the first page and that is where I am heading! Traffic is great as long as it converts, and it seems to go well so far! Thanks for stopping by, Lis! you know what, I think today was about the first time I ever placed a link to my site in “reach” of the TKA crowd (in my comment on your blog), I have had this thing for ages, but never wanted to brand myself, just keeping it to myself so to speak.
Although on the net, that really is an illusion LOL
Nice to be here, I didn’t know you had this blog, if I had known, I would have made an appearance earlier
First of all, if I click on reply in an existing comment a box pops up stating
‘Error: Can’t find the commandformid div.’
Thought you should to know…
As for foreign websites, I am in exactly the same boat as you, most of my income is from non-English sites, but for me the KST tool has sorted itself out and works like a charm on these, perhaps you need to try it again? For me it is a life and sanity saver! And yes, I agree with you also when it comes to forums, they are useful sources of information, but can also suck up your time if you are not careful ! SY
Hospitalera´s last [type] ..Which Aweber Alternative Should I Choose?
ehm… about the error, no idea what that is about, I´ll look into it (or not
)
I never really promoted this blog, it has been around for a few years now, but I don´t publish on a regular base anymore, basically because my other sites that are making me money take up a lot of my time and my goal with this one wasn´t making money to begin with
So at one point in time, it just wasn´t good use of my time anymore. Even thought of getting rid of it, but somehow I just can´t 
I´ll see about KST. I might go back there at some point, but right now the tools that I am using are working for me, I guess it is just about making choices when it comes to how to spend your time.
When I signed up at the pond, I told myself I could only stay if it would not totally interfere with my productivity. We´ll see about that, so far it is proven to be an awesome place with so much brilliant information that I might have to rethink my promise. Oh well, as long as I keep up with my current goals, I´ll stay around there, it is just nice to be able to touch base with other IM-ers and chat a bit, or have a place to go to for answers.
Why do all posts have your image next to them – I know branding is cool but that’s maybe a little too much LOL?
LIssie´s last [type] ..I Am A Z-List Blogger!
@ lissie, probably a glitch of some sort, seeing your image on your last comment without a prob … although don´t you dig my pic?
hahahaha
cool – now I can see myself – but the reply button is broken – don’t you love tech stuff!
LIssie´s last [type] ..I Am A Z-List Blogger!
hmmm. I´m seeing it … love it love it love it LOL (and this is why I should not go online before writing my daily portion of articles … 10.30 am and only posted a few articles to Cobra, nothing else (btw, you are allowed to link to foreign sites, as long as the anchor itself is in english and you don´t link to bad sites, so cool)
In that case Mirjam, I would add “hreflang =whatever your language code is” to the link to tell Google that it is relevant but in an other language
Codes can be found here: http://www.w3schools.com/tags/ref_language_codes.asp and more background info than you ever wanted to know here: http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/struct/links.html#adef-hreflang Hope that helps, SY
Hospitalera´s last [type] ..Which Aweber Alternative Should I Choose?
and the reply button gonna drive me mad. in firefox it is broken, in chrome it doesn´t show up!
And just to add to your coding worries, I get every ‘there is a new comment’ email double … not sure why. SY
Hospitalera´s last [type] ..Which Aweber Alternative Should I Choose?