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Quick 'newbie' question about income and niche sites

by shaneketterman
12 replies
Hey all -
I just sold a large, branded affiliate blog after building it up to 12,000 unique visitors per day in 7 months.....and while that was great, and I was making about $4,500 per month that fast...I wanted to focus on smaller niche sites for passive income so I could build up a larger site.

My question is about income. Is it possible to build smaller niche sites that make $1,000 per month and have around 10 of them so there is a nice income flow?

I see people saying that they have a ton of sites which is GREAT but what is the reality of these sites?

I also know it takes work - I worked for 8-10 hours per day on my site I sold but I also grew it fast using techniques I learned getting my graduate degree so whatever I did worked

Thanks for any help and advice!
#income #newbie #niche #question #quick #sites
  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
    Banned
    Originally Posted by shaneketterman View Post

    Is it possible to build smaller niche sites that make $1,000 per month and have around 10 of them so there is a nice income flow?
    Yes.

    I have 8, at the moment, anyway. Each took me between 1 and 2 months to get going, and takes me a few hours a week to maintain. It would certainly be possible to have 10 of them. It might just about be possible for me to maintain 20 of them. Not much more (without a lot of outsourcing, anyway).

    It takes time, and work, and skills, though - of course you understand this already from the big site you've built up.
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    • Profile picture of the author shaneketterman
      Thanks Alexa - wow, 8 is impressive - I think my strategy will have to be different because with my ONE site it was taking me 8 hours per day....I better learn a new set of tricks
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      • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
        Banned
        Originally Posted by shaneketterman View Post

        Thanks Alexa - wow, 8 is impressive - I think my strategy will have to be different because with my ONE site it was taking me 8 hours per day....
        Well, those 8 sites were built up over about 15 months, and you do get a bit quicker as you do more of them, of course, because you're further along the learning-curve each time.

        I don't think there are "right answers" to these questions. Some people do very well with one big site which they can grow indefinitely; others prefer diversifying.

        I do think (for myself, anyway) it's much easier and safer to do this as an affiliate than as a vendor, though, because as an affiliate you can sell whatever you like, add and remove products freely, and have your eggs divided between far more baskets to avoid accidents. I'm promoting nearly 20 different things, now, between my 8 sites, so the disappearance or unexpected failure of any one individual product would have only a very limited downside for me.

        I think it also varies greatly, for people, according to the importance SEO has to their business model, and specifically the extent to which their business and its income are dependent on Google.
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  • Profile picture of the author BigNorm
    To be honest, judging from what you just said, if you spread your efforts to more than one site you could probably have 5 sites each pulling more than that a month. That's impressive to say the least. Then your 5 sites will help you build another ten, then those ten maybe another 20 and so on. I'm willing to bet if you follow your original layout as the first website in any niche you choose, you could easily be making 40+k a month with passive income.
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    • Profile picture of the author shaneketterman
      Thanks Norm - -

      Yeah, it was a "branded affiliate blog" so it took up A LOT of time and effort...and I'm glad I did it because I learned that hard work is what is really necessary - my first site was more of a blog so I posted 4-5 times per day at over 1,000 words a day but that's because of the niche it was in so it was necessary. I'd love to have sites where I can apply the same principles but not spend 8 hours a day on one site.
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  • Profile picture of the author BigNorm
    Thats where out sourcing comes in. It's alot easier to proof read and correct an article written for you than research it and write it yourself.....well it is for me anyways. You could always start off with a couple of sites and outsource a bulk of the content writing and concentrate mainly on your promotion as you would have the first one. Once those two are running, move on to the next one or two depending on how many you wish to continue with.
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  • Profile picture of the author palmer9999
    Originally Posted by shaneketterman View Post

    Hey all -
    I just sold a large, branded affiliate blog after building it up to 12,000 unique visitors per day in 7 months.....and while that was great, and I was making about $4,500 per month that fast...I wanted to focus on smaller niche sites for passive income so I could build up a larger site.

    My question is about income. Is it possible to build smaller niche sites that make $1,000 per month and have around 10 of them so there is a nice income flow?

    I see people saying that they have a ton of sites which is GREAT but what is the reality of these sites?

    I also know it takes work - I worked for 8-10 hours per day on my site I sold but I also grew it fast using techniques I learned getting my graduate degree so whatever I did worked

    Thanks for any help and advice!
    How much did you sell your original blog for if you don't mind me asking?

    Also if you were making this much money 54k per year and you decided to sell it? Why not try to work on another smaller site without selling it? Obviously you probably got a lot of money from your sale but now what?

    I have been considering this myself, what would work better IMO is maybe 5 sites that wouldn't require to much "Updating" I presume you were putting a lot of work into your blog if you got that many unique's.

    For example I have a site that I set up its not making $1000 a month but its making about $100 month I virtually have to do nothing maybe once a month update a few things here and there. My point is in theory it would be completely possible to make $1000 off 10 separate site's but can you imagine the work you will have to put in. I would aim to focus as much as you can in setting up site's that make a bit of money but require little updating.

    So my 1 site thats making $100, I am now going to expand to another one until that is making a steady $100 and so on and so on.

    IMO I would take a long long long long time and a lot of work to get 10 blogs up to $1000 each.

    Possible? Yes, but I would venture down another route. Just my 2 cents.
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    • Profile picture of the author shaneketterman
      Hi Palmer -

      The income from my original site was due to several "events" that I rode on top of...I'm big on using a technique I call "event marketing" or "event blogging"....so it was all over the map - and once Google's Panda hit.....there went the traffic and income...I had no idea what bumped me off the rankings but spent weeks trying to fix stuff as I went through analysis....

      At any rate - it was quite the kick in the gut.

      So it really does take a long time to get a niche affiliate site to $1,000 per month??
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  • Profile picture of the author LMC
    I have a portfolio of over 600 niche sites making a few dollars each and everyday, and some that do $50-$100 per day. It all varies...

    The biggest concept you will need to learn is allocating tedious tasks and taking down the 8hrs per day per site using a system of outsourcing.

    Generally my time commitments are in the research of the niche and keyword selection. Everything else is outsource.

    I spend about 2-4 hours on the research on a new site and then within 3-4 weeks the site is up and functioning.

    In overall, time spent on ONE site is around 5 hours per day, but those 5 hours are not mine. Instead they are spread across 80 VAs across the globe.

    I have 3 project managers that manage a network of sites and they all let me know the status.

    My daily routine is checking my stats and looking and current ranking positions or ways to drive more traffic.

    What you ask is without a doubt possible, it has taken me 3 years to build up this portfolio and it started with just 20 sites, those 20 sites I did myself and soon learned the process of outsourcing.

    I highly recommend you start to create a list of tasks that you do to your sites, and realize which ones can be outsourced.

    Good Luck
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    • Profile picture of the author shaneketterman
      @LMC Thanks...wow, the one thing that is standing out to me here is outsourcing. I am now just learning more about the "VA" concept, etc. I think it's getting more obvious that you have to weigh what is more valuable - your time or the cost to outsource? My guess is that it's your time!
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  • Profile picture of the author koppster
    Selling the site was not a bad idea for you never know what Google is up to.
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  • Profile picture of the author Gclunis
    It's very possible to do what you are asking. The key is in learning to create a system. Repeat that system for each site, and you're golden.

    Keep in mind; however, that your system will have to include a lot of outsourcing in order to cut back on your time commitments for each site.

    Rich Schefren talks a lot about setting up proper systems, check out some of his stuff.
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    Cheers,
    Gregg

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