Niche Sites, Search Traffic, and Say No to Amazon
March 30th, 2008 Posted by ChanyaI’m busy working on my 2 niche sites and fine-tuning two new sites that I just stood up. Still looking for a new focus for this blog. Reading up on BANS and link building. Checking out Vic’s vlogs at Blogger Unleashed. His advice is priceless.
The last time we visited I told you about my niche blog (which focuses on book reviews) that I developed for search engine traffic but has attracted a few readers (and authors for that matter). That blog gets about 66% of its traffic from search engines. My goal for that blog is to a) increase search engine traffic by increasing the keyword density in the articles, and b) get more inbound links by submitting posts to Article Marketer and Squidoo.
As stated previously people are busy clicking away on the Amazon ads at that site. This is great except for one thing: they’re not buying anything and the Amazon links aren’t pay-per-click ads so you don’t profit unless the user purchases something from Amazon. After viewing one of Vic’s vlog posts in which he talks about the challenges of Amazon monetization (I’m paraphrasing here), I removed every trace of it from the site and replaced it with a different affiliate program. I’m simply testing the waters here; I might end up replacing the new links a few weeks down the road depending on how things work out.
Now. Let me tell you about my second niche site. It’s about a surgical procedure I had about a year ago. Before my surgery I searched the internet looking for info. on the surgery and its after effects. Although I found a few medical sites I didn’t see much written in layman’s terms. So I did some keyword research, checked out the competition, and decided to put up a site. This site was written purely for search engine traffic HOWEVER the site actually contains some good information. I did my research to make sure I didn’t mislead anyone about the procedure.
The site is only 10 weeks old, contains 9 articles, and gets 94% of it’s traffic comes from search engines. I have ZERO inbound links but surprisingly enough I’m making the first page in Google for terms like:
xxx surgery recovery times
webmd xxx surgery recovery
where “xxx” is the name of the surgical procedure.
The site isn’t monetized and I haven’t written a new post in 5 weeks. But the search traffic keeps coming. Don’t get me wrong, we’re only talking about a miniscule number of visitors but understand that this is my first foray into building a niche site that exclusively targets search engine traffic.
My goal for this blog is to a) increase search engine traffic by writing new articles that focus on my keywords, and b) get inbound links by submitting articles to Article Marketer and creating a Squidoo lens.
Hmmn, those goals are similar to the ones I have in mind for my book review site . . .
My Trip to Oz: Developing a Niche Blog
March 17th, 2008 Posted by ChanyaI feel like I’m wandering along the yellow brick road looking for a new direction for this blog. Along the way I’m also working on a couple of niche sites. Perhaps the wizard can help.
Until then I thought it would be interesting to share my experiences with one of my niche blogs. To get started, let’s look at some of the stats:
Domain Age:
10 weeks old
First Posting:
8 weeks ago
# of Posts:
22
Page Rank:
0
Inbound Links:
51
Highest PR of Inbound Links:
PR4
Target Audience:
1) search traffic, 2)readers
Total Visits:
635
First time visitors:
588
Return visitors:
47
Traffic Analysis
Search engines:
66%
Other:
34%
Monetization
Type:
Amazon.com affiliate sales
Google Adsense for Content
Income:
$0
Let’s chat about some of this:
Domain Age (10 weeks). I searched and searched but couldn’t find an existing domain that contained any of my keywords. Actually I did find one domain that would have worked: it was 5 years old and the seller simply said “make me an offer.” Unfortunately after digging around a bit I discovered that none of the site’s pages had been indexed, a sure red flag I was told. Therefore I decided to go ahead and purchase a new domain. I mean heck, each day it gets a little older.
Inbound Links (51). Most of these links are the result of visiting similar sites and leaving interesting comments. This is by far the most time consuming part of running this particular niche site. I try to leave good comments. If someone writes a post that I can’t relate to I don’t say “good post.” I simply move on until I find something that I can comment on.
So, how did I find the relevant sites and determine their page rank?
I used these tools: Comment Hut Lite and SEO Elite. Comment Hut Lite rocks. You simply enter your main keywords and it searches the Internet for sites with similar keywords. It then provides a nice report that gives you the page rank of each site. Comment Hut Lite is free. It only provides results from WordPress sites and will only report on about 10% of the potential backlink opportunities but again, it’s free. The full version runs about $150.
SEO Elite is outstanding (see the sidebar ad). It works similar to Comment Hut in that you enter your main keywords, tell it to find similar sites, and let it provide the page rank for each relevant site. SEO Elite however has numerous other options that help you analyze, target, and improve your SEO efforts. For example, you can determine how many results you want to see per keyword (10-1,000) and choose the minimum page rank you’re interested in targeting.
SEO Elite also has several other features which to be honest I’ve not thoroughly explored yet. However, in addition to the feature that lets you find relevant sites with backlink potential it’s got a feature that lets you analyze your current backlinks.
With this feature you enter the name of your domain, determine how many backlink results you want to see (10-1,000), select which search engines the software should query, determine which (if any) domains should be excluded in the analysis, determine whether you want to see the page rank, Alexa rank, and age of the website where your backlinks reside, etc., etc. It’s a fairly feature rich piece of software.
The resulting report shows you all of the information above in addition to displaying the page on which your backlink resides, the anchor text that’s associated with your backlink, the total number of outbound links on the page, and most importantly, whether the site uses nofollow! This immediately lets you know whether the backlink from that site is any good from an SEO standpoint. I’m sure you can see how powerful this tool can be. When I run this report I base my website visits on the page rank of the site and whether it uses nofollow. I know that might sound somewhat calculating but, well, it is what it is. I think this is necessary when running niche sites. Some may suggest it’s a necessary attitude that internet marketers looking to make money online should adopt. Oh gracious, did I just use the term “make money online”? Gulp.
Back to business. SEO Elite costs about $167. You can purchase SEO Elite here (yeah, I get a small commission if you do that) or go directly to their website. I can’t stand their web page (it looks too spammy to me) but I’m here to tell you that it’s a great product. To be fair to the Comment Hut folks I’ve only used their free product so I don’t know how the full product compares to SEO Elite.
Highest PR of Inbound Links (PR4). My new site has been added to blogrolls at 3 sites, one of which has a PR4. I didn’t ask the site owners to do this, they added me on their own. I’ve been told to contact site owners to see if they’d be willing to exchange links for free but advised only to do this if the website’s content is relevant to your site. I haven’t done this yet because I feel like I need to get some page rank before asking.
Perhaps I should reconsider based on the breakdown of the 51 inbound links. Here’s the detail:
PR4: 4
PR3: 12
PR2: 14
PR1: 4
PR0: 18
Most of these links were obtained BEFORE using SEO Elite by the way. As you can see I need to spend more time using that product so I can target sites with higher page rankings.
Target Audience. Grizz will tell you that you have to decide whether you’re writing for search engines or readers. It’s that simple. I’m writing for search engines but what’s happened is this: as a result of visiting relevant sites I’ve picked up regular readers and RSS subscribers, which helps explain the return visitors (I think). I’m still targeting search engine traffic though and most of the search terms that bring visitors to the site are completely relevant to the site’s content i.e., organic traffic.
Traffic Analysis (search engines: 66%). As you can see the majority of my traffic comes from search engines but I want this number to be much higher. However I can tell you that the search engine traffic I’m getting is directly linked to my keyword optimization efforts. Duh, I finally get it. Almost each post title contains long tail keywords. My articles vary in length from 250 to 750 words and I include keywords at the beginning and end of EVERY article. Additionally, I try to link to other articles on my site whenever possible. As a result I’m ranking on pages 1 - 3 in Google for some of my long tails.
Monetization (Type=Amazon.com & Adsense; Income=$0). Almost each post contains an Amazon link (some are text only, some contain both images and text). Readers are happily clicking away on the links but they haven’t purchased anything yet. I tried adding Adsense ads but no one clicked on them at all even though they were configured to blend in with the rest of the text and embedded inside the articles. So I eventually got smart-priced. I can only assume Adsense didn’t work because the “readers” know better. I’ve got to rethink this strategy so I can reintroduce Adsense and get the search engine visitors to stay longer, poke around, and click on Google ads.
I recently reconfigured my Amazon links so it’s crystal clear to visitors that if they click on that particular anchor text they’ll end up at the Amazon site. This hasn’t slowed them down much, they’re still clicking away but not buying. Each article reviews a particular niche product that can be purchased at Amazon.com so it’s not like I write an article about a digital camera model and then insert an Amazon link for the I Am Legend DVD. No, the links are directly related to the content of the articles.
Hey, I just thought of something. My Amazon links are always located at the end of the articles. This means visitors are reading through to the end of the article (or scrolling through to the end) and then clicking the Amazon links. Hmmn. Perhaps I’ll revisit Google and run some tests where I won’t include Amazon links but instead place Google ads at the end of a few articles. I’ll let you know what happens.
In Summation
Here are the things I need to continue working on:
- Use SEO Elite and Comment Hut Lite to locate potential backlinks.
- Optimize titles and post content for keywords. For the niche site in question I can tell you that this is getting a lot easier to do; it’s almost become second nature. I think that’s because it’s a focused subject area that I know a lot about.
- Rewrite posts and submit them to Article Marketer. I just submitted my first article to them (related to the niche site we’re discussing). It’s supposed to be reviewed today so I can’t wait to see if the article gets picked up.
- Experiment with Adsense ad placement.
This may seem elementary to some of you but for me it’s new territory. Also, I know my traffic stats are pretty pitiful but they’re slowly getting better.
This is by far the longest article I’ve written since I started blogging; it was also one of the easiest ones to write. I guess that’s because I’m simply writing about my personal experiences setting up niche blogs. Hmmn, could this be it? The focus for this blog? Nah, that would mean it’s another blog about blogging.
My next post will be about my other niche site. It’s totally different from the one above in that it’s only 5 weeks old and is getting about 80% organic search engine traffic. I’ll also write about the other niche sites I’m trying to get up and running. As Vic says, diversification is key.
Enough of that, it’s now your turn. Have you started a niche blog? If so, how’s it doing? Also, if you have something to add about my monetization efforts I’d love to hear from you.
My Road to Recovery and Change
March 9th, 2008 Posted by ChanyaLately, my life has been spiralling out of control. As such I’ve made a decision that’s been a long time coming. I’ve debated whether to share this part of my life with you because it’s a very private issue. In the end I think it’s in my best interest to tell you about my problem.
You see, I’ve decided to check myself into rehab.
Has BloggingZoom Been Hacked Again?
March 9th, 2008 Posted by ChanyaI’ve been trying to access the BloggingZoom site but keep getting a “Cannot find server” error. I hope the site hasn’t been hacked again. If you’ll remember, this happened on January 24th as well.
BloggingZoom is a great resource for bloggers. When I submit a post to the site it’s not unusual for the BloggingZoom link to a) get indexed quickly and b) score higher in the SERPs than my original post. You can’t buy that type of service. Well, I guess you could, but at BloggingZoom it’s free.
Here’s hoping BloggingZoom didn’t get hacked but is instead undergoing a bit of maintenance.
Article Marketer: Do I Have the Right Stuff?
March 2nd, 2008 Posted by ChanyaYes folks, it’s been over a week since my last post. I’ve been working hard on my niche blog.
You know how it is when you get the overwhelming urge to write and you don’t dare stop for fear that you’ll lose the magic? That’s what’s been happening recently at my other site. As such I’ve got several new articles lined up, one of which I plan to submit to Article Marketer. I’ll let you know how that goes. The last time I submitted an article to them (using their free service) there was a 2 week delay to get published. In the end I chickened out and withdrew the article before it was reviewed. It’s interesting - I thought it was a good article for my niche blog, but didn’t know if it was good enough for a service like Article Marketer. So I pulled it back.
I think I view Article Marketer as this prestigious article service that only caters to sophisticated publishers. I’m envisioning companies like Time Magazine, Life, etc. As such I keep thinking my work isn’t good enough.
Reality Check: I just paused the writing of this post to read a few articles at a site that publishes Article Marketer articles and although some were really good, they’re like the articles I read every day on the blogs that I visit. That makes me feel better.
Okay, back to the article that I pulled back from Article Marketer. The irony is that although my new site is well, new, the article that I withdrew garnered 5 links from sites relevant to the niche. So it might have done well if I’d let it go through AM.
So, don’t do like me and let fear stop you from putting yourself out there. Stretch a bit. Step outside your comfort zone. Take a chance. Consider submitting a new post to Article Marketer using their free service, which works with over 12,000 publishers. For more information on the service click on the link in the sidebar.
As for me, I’m gonna’ put the finishing touches on the post I’m writing for Article Marketer. I’ll let you know how I fare.
3 Great Blog Limericks!
February 22nd, 2008 Posted by ChanyaI just added a new limerick to the top of the list. Keep goin’ folks!
I just read a post by a blogger named Jeff,
The photo of him in a dress is so def,
He posed like Barack;
When it struck twelve o’clock;
His pumpkin was sent to Hugh Hef!
I just read a post by a blogger named Pete,
But it hurt my brain so I had to retreat,
So much clutter I have never seen;
The text runs off the screen;
Windows Live Writer could make things more neat!
I Just Read A Post By A Blogger Named Vic,
Man, that guy thinks he’s so slick,
Yeah that guy Vic is such a _____ LMAO;
I am sorry this was just too good to let go;
If you need a mentor he’s a guy you should pick!
I just read a post by a blogger named Dan,
His sense of humor will make you a fan,
Another good read called It’s Write Now”;
Is great and the owner deserves a bow;
Go read about her new master plan!
Thanks to everyone that participated!
You Finish The Blog Limerick!
February 16th, 2008 Posted by ChanyaI got this idea from Teeni who runs the Vaguetarian Tea Room blog. Teeni created a wonderful way to encourage reader participation in a post called A Story Game. Teeni wrote the opening paragraph for a story and asked her readers to continue it. I got to the party late but was really impressed with the originality.
So, I’ve decided to do something similar except we’re going to write a limerick together. In particular, we’re going to write limericks about blogging and bloggers. Your entry can contain a link or a reference to a blog, a blogger, or whatever fits. Feel free to promote your own blog!
Remember, limericks are 5 lines and follow this pattern:
a
a
b
b
a
Here’s an example:
“I just read a post about using BloggingZoom
Which said “350 characters” your summary must consume
Take your time and don’t haste
Be careful with copy-paste
‘Cause your SERP ranking you just might doom.”
Got it?
To help you out there’s a great site called Rhyme Zone that gives you rhyming words. Just type in the word you need to rhyme with and click Enter.
I’m going to get things started by providing the first line of the limerick. Enter your contribution in the comments section. Be sure to read the other entries first. The line that you add to the poem should follow the limerick pattern and fit with the entry directly above yours.
If the last line of the limerick has already been added just start another one. The first line of the limericks should always begin with “I just read a post . . .”
Ready? Here’s the 1st line of our first limerick:
“I just read a post by a blogger named Pete,”
