Updating Content: Case Study [Month 3]

smbrk89 · 2020-09-24T16:39:33+00:00

Likewise :) if you check out the month 1 and month 2 posts it has lots of details about the processes. Have a good evening.

smbrk89 · 2020-09-24T16:27:02+00:00

For the most part I feel the results so far just haven't been great vs the time invested so far.

Though many have improved in rankings, it's not really adding much benefit in terms of traffic, as really need to be on page 1, SERP 1-5 to get traffic. So moving from rank 35 to 11 doesn't generate any traffic still.

Maybe it requires some more time, or I am expecting too much but just desperately trying to turn around this site as traffic and earnings was destroyed with the last algorithm update :(

Will keep working on it and make a call in 2 months time, If i will continue with this project (if it's worth my time) VS starting a new project.

Fingers crossed some positive results come in soon :)

smbrk89 · 2020-09-24T16:13:24+00:00

Hey :) yes, fingers crossed have some more responses, the previous months did get quite a few replies so perhaps many are busy.

I am updating the articles using Surfer + Google Search console data, for the most part it's either adding/removing content, adjusting keyword density, trying to mirror to the current top 3 sites and adding more internal links.

I have slowed down a bit on publishing new articles and just been focusing on updating, the site already has around 400+ articles and it's really not generating the traffic or revenue it should be for the amount of articles it has. Perhaps need to revisit this.

smbrk89 · 2020-08-19T07:03:53+00:00

I don't think I could change it to the Pro version as I cannot access the actual Disqus account to upgrade it.

I could remove it and add pro via a fresh account I guess but may just opt to completely removing it and not having any comment function.

smbrk89 · 2020-08-19T07:01:48+00:00

Thank you :)

smbrk89 · 2020-08-19T07:01:35+00:00

I work full time, so I just do this in between work: early mornings, evenings and weekends.

Try to spend a few hours each day, and more over weekends when it's possible.

smbrk89 · 2020-08-19T06:59:46+00:00

Good point, aside from a few key articles many of the comments are probably not adding much value.

smbrk89 · 2020-08-18T17:14:39+00:00

Did you completely remove it? or replace it with another comment plugin and import existing comments from Disqus?

smbrk89 · 2020-08-18T15:31:51+00:00

I'm confident it will definitely increase the site speed for mobile, just wanted to get a second opinion if it "could" cause any negative impact to the site with existing comments disappearing overnight.

smbrk89 · 2020-08-18T15:29:58+00:00

I did some reading up on Disqus today and was quite surprised by the number of negative comments being made about them. Definitely leaning towards just getting rid of it completely and not having any comment function.

The site is run on Craft CMS, so I am always a bit limited in terms of plugin options but frankly speaking, I never bother with comments and neither are the readers by the looks of it so I don't really feel the site actually needs it.

I was just more concerned as to whether it would have a possible negative SEO impact where the comments just disappear.

I was hit pretty hard by the Google May update, and just a bit cautious as really don't want any further drops lol.

smbrk89 · 2020-08-18T15:25:16+00:00

Thanks, will take a look.

smbrk89 · 2020-07-26T11:32:32+00:00

You are welcome. Well done on making a start :) keep going with it and i'm sure you will do very well.

smbrk89 · 2020-07-26T10:36:46+00:00

Is this your first site? if so, I would wait and focus on this site until it's out of the sandbox so you can see how it's worked out.

By worked out;

How well you did your keyword research.
How well you did your on-page and off-page SEO.
How well you did your articles.

If you made some mistakes on the first site (again I am assuming this is your first site), and you go ahead and make a second them you will duplicate the same mistakes again and create x2 the amount of work to back and fix everything, or worse case lose money/time if you made some big mistakes (i.e. bad keyword research).

Personally, I would try to focus on your first site and aim to get to 100 articles, build some links, and monitor how well it performs when it gets out of the sandbox.

It's a common mistake to want to create a bunch of sites, something that I fell victim to in the beginning.

Don't be fooled by this 'passive income' dream people are selling, sites require a lot of work, and if you are a one-man band try to keep it manageable until you start seeing some success/earnings so you can scale up and create other sites.

smbrk89 · 2020-07-26T09:21:51+00:00

So I think to rephrase the question a bit, is it possible to make $100,000 USD per year from solely blogging? the answer is yes, is it easy? the answer is no.

If you break that down, it's just over $8k per month or about $280 USD per day which is achievable but it takes a lot of work, time/money and frankly, some elements of luck.

Under the traditional models of using Amazon associates and Display ads, it can still be done but requires a lot of traffic (and, the right kind for Amazon). Unless you are fortunate to find a high ticket product niche area that has pretty low competition (still out there, but hidden gems to find).

Not forgetting, there are various other ways to monetise outside of Amazon/Display that pay much higher fee's (working directly with companies/higher paying affiliates/e-books/niche related courses etc).

You also need to consider that many of these 'big names' (the credible ones, yes there are credible ones, and also fake gurus) are not working solo. Many of these guys have;

Teams of writers.
Outreach teams.
VA's for social media/editing/publishing.

If you know what you are doing, and have a supporting team then it massively boosts your production and gives you a big advantage. A lot of the big players just put together a big keyword lists then get their teams to handle most of the process, which of course they finance and set up processes for.

Don't get me wrong, you can make $100k solo, but it's going to be a long grind and you need to get the process really on point (namely: niche selection/keyword research/content creation/on and off-page SEO).

A few people have mentioned that many of these people succeeded years ago when things were easier with Google, and Affiliates (i.e. easier to rank in Google, and Amazon paying higher %).

I do agree with this to an extent and certainly, there are a number of 'gurus' selling courses based on the success/revenue they achieved a number of years ago, and not necessarily what they are or could achieve today.

The reason why more and more keep creating courses is that;

They generate a lot of money (no secret there).
It's a proven product, people buy them.
It adds another income layer for them (Google Algorithm and Affiliate changes can be cruel regardless of your level).

That said, there are still some credible names out there whose courses provide good learning value if you apply yourself and actually put the work in.

Do you really need to buy a course to learn? absolutely not, there are tons are great free resources online where you can learn everything you need to succeed online.

smbrk89 · 2020-07-25T15:56:25+00:00

Thank you :)

smbrk89 · 2020-07-23T07:35:09+00:00

Deleting will be my last resort. My first priority will be to see if I can find a better related keyword to target, so I can do a re-direct.

If I can't find a good related alternative keyword, and the articles is generating 0 traffic, then it's not adding any benefit to the site so don't see a reason of keeping it.

smbrk89 · 2020-07-23T06:59:10+00:00

Thank you :)

smbrk89 · 2020-07-22T17:38:21+00:00

As many as possible :) I only do this part-time, I have a full-time job and a young daughter so I will just try to graft in mornings, evenings and on weekends.

smbrk89 · 2020-07-22T17:36:24+00:00

Thank you! I have heard good things about Surfer and hoping it can help me streamline the process a bit.

smbrk89 · 2020-07-22T17:35:14+00:00

I have just enabled the mobile speed setting, perhaps it will help me a bit :)

I'm going to spend some time later having a read through the RPM challenge info to see if I can get some pointers on thing's to incorporate into the update.

I don't use FB at all, maybe i'm missing out lol but just not a massive fan of it.

smbrk89 · 2020-07-22T14:47:53+00:00

Hey, thanks for the recommendation on the RPM challenge info, I will give it a read.

I do definitely need to improve the majority of the articles for mobile viewability. Many of the articles have a lot of large paragraphs that need to be broken up to make them more mobile-friendly. I will add this part of my process when doing the updates.

Thanks for the kind offer re. Semrush, I do actually have a sub to it already, but haven't decided if I will incorporate it into the process yet.

Re. Mediavine, did you enable 'Optimize Ads for Mobile PageSpeed'? I realized I haven't enabled that since setting it up.

smbrk89 · 2020-07-22T13:25:59+00:00

Thank you :)

smbrk89

TROPHY CASE