Fat Stacks Blog - a Podcast About Blogging and Email Newsletters

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Show Notes:

Multi-Niche Case Study
=> Bought established movie review site in 2015
=> 8 years old at the time - well established
=> 20,000 published posts
=> 250K to 500K monthly visitors
=> It was losing money (yeah, I know).  I paid $10K anyway (yeah, I know).
=> I thought I could increase ad revenue.  I was WRONG.

I had a GREAT idea 💡
=> Couldn’t decide on a more lucrative related niche
=> Decided to turn it into a multi-niche site.
=> Tech, lifestyle, travel, fashion, food, animals, listicles, biz...
=> More ambition than brains
=> Poured on the content
=> When the smoke cleared I had added 460 articles


Where is at now?
=> 4,000+/- daily visitors
=> $1,430 revenue in March 2020
=> Value: 30 x $1,400 = $45,000 (ad rates very low right now BTW)
=> Cost of content:  $30,000+/-
=> Earned revenue to date: $25,000+/-
=> Paid $10,000 for the site
=> Net profit: $30,000 (plus my time). 
=> Not the best result, but better than a kick in the teeth.

Morals of the story...

1. Everything and the kitchen sink sites probably not the best strategy.
2. Only buy a site if you have a plan for it.

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This is the income reports for Feb. and March 2020.  Includes niche site revenue, expenses and content investment.

Show Notes:

New Developments

• Pinterest - doubled traffic from Pinterest in one month (from 4,000 to 10K).

Feb & March 2020 Revenue

Feb. 2020

• Niche Site 1: $39,794
• Niche Site 2: $5,355
• Niche Site 3: $1,694
• Niche Site 4: $954
• Niche Site 5: $41
• Niche Site 6: $42
• Niche Site 7: $90

TOTAL: $47,970*

March 2020

• Niche Site 1: $37,978
• Niche Site 2: $5,261
• Niche Site 3: $1,430
• Niche Site 4: $707
• Niche Site 5: $31
• Niche Site 6: $41
• Niche Site 7: $100

TOTAL: $45,548*

*Does NOT include any revenue from Fat Stacks.

Feb. & Mar. 2020 Expenses

February

• Ezoic premium ads: $575
• Kinsta: 1,200
• VAs: 3,350
• Plus a handful of software I use (Ahrefs, Tailwind, OptinMonster, etc.)

TOTAL EXPENSES: $6,857

NET INC. $41,113 (before content investment)

March

• Ezoic premium ads: $575
• Kinsta: $1,200
• VAs: $4,435
• Plus a handful of software I use (Ahrefs, Tailwind, OptinMonster, etc.)

TOTAL EXPENSES: $7,799

NET INC. $37,749 (before content investment)

Content Investment Feb. & March 2020

February

• WriterAccess: $10,000
• In-House writers: $3500
• Podcast content: $750

TOTAL: $14,250

Feb. net income after content: $26,863

March

• WriterAccess: $5,500
• In-House writers: $900
• AskWonder: $960
• Podcast content: $750
• Content Strategist: $1,520

TOTAL: $9,630

March net income after content: $28,119 

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Short Answer to “How Much You Should Pay per 1,000 words?

• $60 per 1,000 words
• Why that much?
• Because it’s what I pay.
• Correct answer: It depends.

The Range

• Lowest rate for something workable:  $27 per 1,000 words ($.027 per word)
• Will likely require editing.
• Where? Textbroker
• Limited research
• BUT can build up a list of decent writers to improve quality for the same rate.
• What about spending less?
• I did once and it was atrocious. Don’t count on it unless you really luck out with a hire.

Diminishing Returns

• On the flip side, spending $250 per 1,000 words for general content is overkill UNLESS you’re:
• looking for conversions.
• in a highly technical niche that requires high-level expertise such as law or medicine.
• creating a link-bait piece of content.
• have more money than you know what to do with and want to publish the best-written site on the planet.

The Sweet Spot is...

• $40 to $80 per 1,000 words.
• I primarily use WriterAccess plus a couple in-house writers and that’s the range I pay.
• I pay $40 per 1,000 words for simple.  Includes a little research.
• I pay $60 per 1,000 words for the lion’s share.  Includes finding images and research.
• I pay $80+ per 1,000 words for more technical work when I seek out a writer with credentials.

If I was forced to pick ONE rate it would be:

• $60 per 1,000 words.
• This seems to strike the best balance among quality and ROI.
• I’ve paid $27 to $350 and everything in between.
• TIP: Hire writers directly to save.
• Since I use a content agency, the agency takes a chunk.
• You can hire writers directly at Problogger and Craigslist.

Don’t forget that you can reduce average cost of content by

• Writing some of it yourself.
• Outsourcing is not either/or.  
• You can do both.
• I started writing everything.
• I then outsourced a little.
• I now outsource a lot but still write for my niche sites.

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Show Notes:

1. Link Images to Merchants with an Affiliate Link

• One of my favorite methods because visitors click images.
• Add a caption with text to the effect “Click image to learn more” or Click image for pricing”
• I use AMZImage plugin (there’s a free version in WordPress plugins)
• Amazon: must embed images via API. Most Amazon affiliate plugins will do this.

2. Poll Links

• Can work well when used in “buyer intent content”
• Example: Do you prefer white or red sneakers?
• Each response when clicked sends visitor the either white or red sneakers at merchant.
• Kind of sneaky - some visitors won’t like it.
• Best reserved for content that is preselling very close to a purchase.
• I’m currently not doing this, but have.

3. Quiz Link

• These can work amazingly well.
• Create a quiz that helps people narrow down their choice for a particular product within a product line.
• Example: Smartwatch purchase
• Q1: Phone type: Apple, Samsung or Pixel
• Q2: Your budget: $100 to $200 / $200 to $300 / $300 to $500 / etc.
• Drill down until you can make a reasonably good recommendation.

3. Quiz Links (con’t)

• The quiz result makes one recommendation with an affiliate link.
• Best used in “buyer intent” content and for more complex purchases.
• IMO you should have used several products in the product line to create such a quiz. 
• I currently run several quizzes doing this.

4. Text Links

• Standard stuff - Still works
• => Arrows can help CTR.
• Be sure to underline it and use a different text color
• Call to action: 
• Click here 
• Visit 
• Learn More 
• Check Pricing

5. Buttons

• Buttons CAN work better than text.
• Image file or use a shortcode.
• If you use a page builder, use the button options.
• Deploy a hover effect
• Text matters - test different button text.

6. Native ads with affiliate links

• Amazon’s native ads is the best example
• Can earn reasonably well due to Amazon’s ability to display relevant products (some of the time - depending on the content)
• You can certainly create your own image product grid with your own affiliate links.
• I use Amazon’s native ads.

7. Skimlinks

• Carpet bomb your site with affiliate links
• Automatically turn every merchant link into an affiliate link
• Convenient and fast.

OR

• Create individual product links with Skimlinks’ link building tool.
• I currently use the Skimlinks link creation tool.

8. Email Sign-Up Redirect

• Works best with software.
• Need free version with premium upgrade options.
• Offer free software for visitors’ email and redirect them to the free software.
• I’ve done this on and off. Currently, I’m not doing this.

9. Menu Link(s)

• Create affiliate links in your navigation menus.
• Menus are prominent, site-wide links.
• Should be very relevant to your entire site.
• I used to do this with one sit

10. Social media links

• I haven’t done much of this.
• Why not? 
• It’s best for influencer/personality social media channels.
• My sites aren’t influencer/personality sites. They are corporate brands.

A Few More Tips

• Don’t mislead
• Deploy tests on high traffic / high affiliate earning pages
• Affiliate links work best in “buyer intent” content

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Show Notes:

Types of Affiliate Networks

• Networks: ex. ShareASale
• In-House: Amazon
• Custom Arrangements: Set up custom landers or some other tracking
• Local Lead Gen:  Make a deal with any brick and mortar

3 Criteria

• Chance of approval
• Chance of success
• Ease-of-use

6 Best Affiliate Programs for Beginners

1. Shareasale

• Chance of approval:  High
• Chance of success: Reasonably good – although it varies by merchant.  The plus side is you have 1,000s of merchants to choose from.  That said, you are approved on a merchant-by-merchant basis.
• Ease-of-use: Very easy to use. It’s by far my favorite affiliate network user interface.

2. Skimlinks

• Chance of approval:  Good
• Chance of success: Very good – although again it varies by merchant.  The plus side once approved with Skimlinks, you are approved with every merchant.  That means you have a lot of promotional opportunities at your disposal.
• Ease-of-use: Very easy to use. It’s a very slick and easy-to-use interface.

3. Amazon

• Chance of approval:  Good
• Chance of success: Very good.  If you can send visitors to Amazon, you can generate commissions.  Of course, the more aligned your content with the products, the better you’ll do, but even sending people there randomly will result in commissions.
• Ease-of-use: Very easy to use.  In fact, there are many plugins that help promote Amazon.  Amazon also offers many tools you can use as well.  All-in-all, it’s a dead-simple program to use.

4. Software

• Many offer recurring commissions,
• Software converts well,
• If you choose the right niche, there are many with low competition.  That said some have high competition such as email software and website hosting. I stear clear of those. I look for super niche software that most people have no idea exists.
• Relatively easy to get approved.  If your site aligns with a particular software, they’ll approve you.  I seldom get rejected.  Most are very happy to get affiliates on board and are willing to work with you.

5. Custom affiliate arrangements

• “No or little competition!”
• ‘Nuff said

6. Clickbank

• Chance of approval:  Very good
• Chance of success: Moderate.  I say this because it’s mostly info-products and it must align very tightly with your audience.  If you do successfully sell CB offers, you can make a lot of money because the commissions are high.
• Ease-of-use: Very easy to use.  You can get affiliate links with a few clicks of the mouse.  It’s a well designed affiliate portal.

Difficult Affiliate Programs for Beginners

Most of the following are in this list because they are difficult to get approved for.  They should not necessarily be avoided!!!

• CJ.com
• Viglink
• Credit Cards
• Lead Gen
• Impact Radius
• Walmart
• Finance Offers

Don’t forget about display ads

• Affiliate marketing rocks, but so do ads
• Ads make it possible to monetize almost any content - not just “buyer intent” content.
• If you’re a newbie - try Ezoic.

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Not my idea

• Ashley Pearce of Future State Media posted this info in the Fat Stacks Forum.
• He said I could tell you about it. 
• So here it goes...

Question: How much does my site make per 1 million words?

• Answer:  $40,000 to $70,000
• Type of site: Amazon Affiliate
• Question: Is this good?
• Answer: Yes

The breakdown

• So from 1,000,000 visitors:
• 200,000-400,000 clicks
• Resulting in 20,000-40,000 sales
• Take an average product value of $30
• An affiliate commission of approx 5%
• 5% of 30 = $1.50
• 20,000 * $1.50 = $30,000
• 40,000 * $1.50 = $60,000
• Assume $10 per 1,000 visitors in display ads (assuming worst case of 1 page view per visitor)
• That’s also $10,000 in display Ad revenue.
• Assuming $50 per 1,000 words budget for writing.

That’s $50,000 to get the site to 1,000,000 words.

Applied to Jon’s biggest niche site

Analysis (Case Study)

• Here are my numbers for 2019:
• Total words published on the site by December: 7,100,000 (this is total words published, not just the number of words published in 2019).
• Total revenue in 2019: $568,624
• Revenue per 1 million published words in 2019: $80,087 ($568,624 / 7.1)
• Revenue per 1,000 published words in 2019: $80

Which means...

• Paying my current average rate of $.06 per word is worth it. 
• I’m earning that back inside of one year. 
• Of course, that’s partly a result of having plenty of older content earning quite a bit… but that’s the point. Aggregate content value grows as earnings stack.

What about traffic from 1 million words?
Ashley’s goal (that he achieved):

• 1 million words =  1 million annual visitors

Jon’s results:

• Total words published: 7.1 million words
• Total traffic in 2019: 9.3 million

Considerations

1. Site size: This analysis is much less helpful for sites less than one year old and/or with less than 100,000 words of content. However, keep this email in your hip pocket for when you get there.

2. My site earns above-average ad revenue per 1,000 visitors. It also earns a little from affiliate promotions. The analysis should result in more money per 1 million words for sites focusing on affiliate promotions.

3. Established: My site has considerable domain authority which helps in ranking. It’s an established site which skews the results favorably.

4. Site sale: The above analysis doesn’t take into account the additional proceeds realized when a site is sold. It merely looks at revenue generated, but as you can see, when also including the value of the site, content sites can be very lucrative.

5. Passive income: I use the term loosely. Over time, older content will be less effective. I do not suggest that content will earn forever.

How to count ALL the words on your site?
Very carefully - one by one.

There’s a plugin for that:  
WP Word Count at wordpress.org/plugins/wp-word-count/

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Show Notes:

My Ad Revenue is DOWN

• March ad revenue wasn’t great, but it wasn’t terrible.
• April 1 came and it was a disaster.  Down 40%. 
• Probably going down more.

Why? 

• April is the start of Q2. Many companies slashed ad budgets for Q2.
• Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.

What I’m currently doing to deal with lower rev.

• Cut content investment by 50%
• Writing content myself (again)
• Building out affiliate clusters: Digital products, Software & Lead Gen
• Improving older content
  • Junk content
  • Good content sitting pretty in spots 5 to 30

Need cash now?

• Consider freelancing: writing, graphic design, link building, etc.
• Saved my bacon when Google Penguin hit in 2012.
• Many people jumping in?  Likely
• Publishers ordering less content?  Probably.  I am.
• Easy? No, but possible.
• But, many established freelancers can’t take on as much work - kids at home.
• It’s not instant cash, but faster than building out a blog.

TIP: Offer services that you’re best at. Take time to hone them now.

Your freelancing advantage

• If you’re listening to this presentation, you probably started a blog, have written articles and know a lot more about working online than other people.
• This is your advantage.  You know more than you think. 
• Again, not an instant cash solution, but it’s better than nothing.

What do I do if ad revenue drops 60%+?

• At that point, I pretty much have no content budget.
• I will keep my VAs on payroll at all costs.  I’d rather have no content budget than let VAs go.  They’re my team.  They are great folks.
• I have a plan in place:  Focus 100% on content and website improvement.

Content and Website Improvement Tips

• Design: Normally I preach spending time on design is time wasted until you have massive traffic, but in this case, it MIGHT be worth doing.
• Improve decently ranking content:
• Look for content ranking in spots 5 to 30 and improve them to give them a chance for higher rankings.
• Improve old garbage content you published when you didn’t know any better.

How to improve content… fast and for free

• Charts, graphs and stats
• Images
• FAQ: Answerthepublic.org / Ahrefs questions / Textoptimizer.com
• Quotes from experts
• Add videos
• Add internal links
• KW research

See: 29 Ways to Improve Content

Improve content via KW research

Drill down:  

• Run what you’re currently ranking for in your favorite KW research grinder to find more long tails.
• Enter those KWs in Google and check the “Related Terms” at bottom of Google.

Add content sections targeting those new long tails.

• Quick n’ Dirty: Clearscope / Textoptimizer.com

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How much can a single article earn?

Short answer:  LOTS

My niche sites have 2 strikes against them when it comes to high revenue per article.  They are:

Display ads:  The lion's share of my revenue is from display ads, which are at the bottom of the website monetization food chain.  The plus side is I can publish on any topic I want within my niche, target low competition keywords and rank for plenty without a bunch of off-site SEO shenanigans.

Low search keywords:  I intentionally target lower search volume keywords so I can rank them without link building.  This will naturally result in a fairly low revenue per article overall.

The Numbers

• Top 50 articles ad revenue over the last 30 days:  $8,048 (24% of total ad revenue / $160 per article).
• Top 10 articles ad revenue over the last 30 days: $3,361 (10% of total ad revenue / $336 per article).
• Top earning article ad revenue over the last 30 days: $485 (1.4% of total ad revenue).
• Ad revenue for the 50th highest earning article for the last 30 days:  $32.45 (talk about a quick decline within the top 50 articles).
• Page view volume range (last 30 days): 3,435 to 27,849

Observations

1. What's interesting is no single article accounts for all that big of a percentage of revenue. 

2. My best-earning article accounts for only 1.4% of total ad revenue.
In other words, my Crank n' Bank content strategy ends up with a highly dispersed revenue distribution across my entire site. 

Benefit

I like this because if I stop ranking for any single keyword, it won't have a big impact on revenue. 

That's not to say that I'm not vulnerable.  I am.  If my entire site was denigrated in search, revenue distribution is meaningless.

Why do I tell you this stuff?

Because many Fat Stacks readers ask me these questions regularly… Inquiring minds want to know.

That tells me people are curious as to how other people are doing and I suppose what’s possible.

Learn more: https://fatstacksblog.com/
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So, was January 2020 a disaster, success or meh?  I reveal all the details for 7 of my niche sites here in this January 2020 income report installment.

Read full report here.

Sponsored by Ezoic.

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Do you want to be a writer or a publisher?  It's an important distinction and very important business decision.  Can you do both?  Yes, you can.  BUT you don't have to write in order to publish a successful niche content site or a blog.  I step you through how I transitioned from writing all content on my site to now being a successful full-fledged publisher.

Check out incredible blogging income reports.

Sponsored by Ezoic: https://www.ezoic.com/?utm_source=fatstacks_podcast&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=jon_dykstra

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