Project Alcyone: $0 to $142,453 Monthly Revenue with SEO
Shipped Items Revenue
Pageviews
Top 3 Keywords
Top 10 Keywords
Project Alcyone was a live, over-the-shoulder type case study wherein we took a site from 0 to 75,000 organic visitors per month in 13 months. It was first published on BoostZeus.com in 2019 and we published an update every month from November 2019 to November 2020. The goal was to show our readers a general overview of the processes and strategies we use to achieve the results we do at 607 Media.
This project is a great case study for those who are just starting out because we take a very simple and straightforward approach. We built an Amazon Affiliate site from scratch on a brand new domain. No tricks, no fancy tactics. Something a complete newbie can follow along and learn a lot from. We’ve compiled everything here for you to enjoy!
The Strategy
To protect the asset, we will obviously not be revealing the site, the niche, or go into too much detail about the strategy. We will, however, be giving a monthly overview of the steps we are taking. We will be sharing KPIs such as Traffic, Earnings, Expenses, Articles Published, Links Built, and more.
We will primarily be using what majority call “white-hat” SEO strategies.
The Niche
We carried out some niche and keyword research to identify a low-competition sub-niche in Home and Gardening. We chose a low-competition sub-niche because we first need to target keywords that are easier to rank for and work our way up. Especially since we’re building our site on a brand new domain.
Monetization
To start, the site will be monetized solely using the Amazon affiliate program. However, once the site does grow beyond a certain point, we will start considering switching to some non-Amazon affiliate programs.
Earning Potential
Because we chose to operate in a small, low-competition sub-niche, the site has a low ceiling. We project the site to make around low 5-figures per month once we build it out and rank for most of our target keywords.
Expectations
Since we are starting from scratch on a brand new domain, we expect a 6-month sandbox period wherein we won’t be ranking for anything significant.
However, once we get out of the sandbox, we should be poised to see a nice increase in traffic if we did our niche and keyword research correctly.
Quick Recap:
- We will be building an Amazon Affiliate Site in a sub-niche of Home and Gardening
- We will be sharing monthly KPIs such as Traffic, Earnings, Expenses, Articles Published, Links Built, etc.
- We will be implementing a “white-hat” SEO strategy
- We don’t expect to see much traffic until after month 6
Month 1 – November 2019
The first month is probably the busiest month when building a brand new affiliate site from scratch. After picking a niche and registering a domain name, we worked on the initial site setup (WordPress, Hosting, Branding, etc.). After setting that up, we published our first batch of content immediately. We also signed up for ABC Plus (there was a Black Friday sale) to start getting some links built to the site next month.
Initial Site Setup
Whenever we start a new project, we use the same hosting, theme, page builder, and plugins because we have the agency plans on all of these.
- Hosting: Kinsta
- Theme: Astra PRO
- Page Builder: Elementor PRO
- Plugins: Advanced Custom Fields, Asset CleanUp PRO, Code Snippets, Flying Analytics, Flying Scripts, Rank Math SEO, ShortPixel Image Optimizer, WP Last Modified Info, WP Rocket
After setting these up, we also built these pages: About Us, Contact, Privacy Policy, Accessibility, Terms of Use, Legal Disclaimer, Amazon Disclaimer.
We also set up Google Analytics & Search Console.
Content
We published 12 articles (36,310 words). All round-up reviews. We can’t really start ranking unless we have some content published, so it’s important to get content published on your website as soon as possible. The sooner you get your content published, the sooner Google can familiarize itself with said content.
All content was written by our in-house editorial team [at 607 Media: SEO Content], using our templates & guidelines, and optimized using Surfer SEO.
Links
We built 0 links. However, we did sign up for ABC Plus. We went with Authority Builders because they can provide high-quality guest posts at a consistent velocity. We also left it to them to decide on which sites and anchor text were optimal. We highly recommend ABC Plus for those who want a hands-off link-building campaign executed by one of the best in the industry.
We don’t do any link building outside of guest posts because we take a quality over quantity approach to link-building.
Social Signals & Citations
We also bought some social signals and citations from SEO Butler. The reason we purchased these is to justify the number of links we are building next month. The site isn’t getting any traffic yet, so we need to find another way to justify the links being built so that it looks as natural as possible.
Traffic
It’s still month 1, so we didn’t expect any traffic. As you can see in the graph below, we had 26 sessions this month. This was probably just me and my team setting up and tinkering with the site.
Earnings
No Traffic = No Earnings
Expenses
This month, we spent a total of $3,309.19. We spent $1,815.50 on content, $1,000 on links, and $38.70 on social signals and citations.
Despite having the agency plans on the hosting, theme, page builder, and plugins, we wanted to include these in the expenses to show the true cost of actually building an affiliate site from scratch. To do this, we added the cost of the basic plans of each of these tools (shown below).
- Kinsta – $300 per year
- Astra PRO – $47 per year
- Elementor PRO – $49 per year
- ShortPixel Image Optimizer (One-Time 10K) – $9.99
- WP Rocket – $49 per year
Quick Recap
- Completed initial site setup
- Published 12 articles (36,310 words)
- Built 0 links, but signed up for ABC Plus
- Purchased social signals and citations
- No traffic = no earnings
- Total expenses this month: $3,309.19
Month 2 – December 2019
The goal this month was to simply continue publishing more articles. Again, we can’t really start ranking unless we have some content published, so it’s really important to get content published on your website as soon as possible.
Other than publishing more articles, we also continued refining the site build but nothing noteworthy.
Content
We published 6 articles (15,754 words). All round-up reviews.
Project Total Content Published = 18 Articles (52,064 Words)
All content was written by our in-house editorial team [at 607 Media: SEO Content], using our templates & guidelines, and optimized using Surfer SEO.
Links
We built 8 links (guest posts) through our ABC Plus subscription.
Project Total Links Built = 8
Social Signals
We continued to purchase social signals from SEO Butler. The site isn’t getting any traffic yet, so we need to find another way to justify the links we built this month so that it looks as natural as possible.
Traffic
It’s still month 2, so we didn’t expect any traffic. We’re probably still in the sandbox so we probably won’t be seeing any traffic until after month 6. As you can see in the graph below, we had 129 sessions this month. This was probably just me and my team publishing more content and tinkering with the site.
Earnings
No Traffic = No Earnings
Expenses
This month, we spent a total of $1,815.70. We spent $787.70 on content, $1,000 on links, and $28 on social signals.
Project Total Expenses on Content: $2,603.20
Project Total Expenses on Links: $2,000
Project Total Expenses (Others): $521.69
Project Total Expenses: $5,124.89
Disclaimer: The $2,603.20 we spent on content is actually the price of the content if it was purchased from our service ([607 Media]: SEO Content). We want to demonstrate how this strategy can still work even if you outsource both content and links.
Quick Recap
- Published 6 articles (15,754 words)
- Built 8 links (guest posts) through ABC Plus
- Purchased social signals
- No traffic = no earnings
- Total expenses this month: $1,815.70
Month 3 – January 2020
This was a slow month since we were focusing on another project. The goal this month was to continue publishing more articles. We do our best to maintain a consistent publishing schedule even if it’s just a few articles. Content frequency seems to help crawling and indexing.
Other than being a slow month, we actually made our first commissions this month.
We made $1.41.
Content
We published 3 articles (9,628 words). All round-up reviews.
Project Total Content Published = 21 Articles (61,692 Words)
All content was written by our in-house editorial team [at 607 Media: SEO Content], using our templates & guidelines, and optimized using Surfer SEO.
Links
We built 7 links (guest posts) through our ABC Plus subscription.
Project Total Links Built = 15
Social Signals
We continued to purchase social signals from SEO Butler. The site isn’t getting any traffic yet, so we need to find another way to justify the links we built this month so that it looks as natural as possible.
Traffic
It’s still month 3, so we’re probably still in the sandbox. We probably won’t be seeing any significant traffic until around month 6. As you can see in the graph below, we had 145 sessions this month. We assumed this was just me and my team, but upon further inspection, we’re actually starting to get some organic visitors.
Earnings
We actually earned our first commissions this month. We made $1.41. It isn’t much, but it’s a step in the right direction.
Project Total Earnings: $1.41
Expenses
This month, we spent a total of $1,509.40. We spent $481.40 on content, $1,000 on links, and $28 on social signals.
Project Total Expenses on Content: $3,084.60
Project Total Expenses on Links: $3,000
Project Total Expenses (Others): $549.69
Project Total Expenses: $6,634.29
Disclaimer: The $3,084.60 we spent on content is actually the price of the content if it was purchased from our service ([607 Media]: SEO Content). We want to demonstrate how this strategy can still work even if you outsource both content and links.
Project Total Profit/Loss
Project Total Earnings: $1.41
Project Total Expenses: $6,634.29
Project Total Profit/Loss: -$6,632.88
Quick Recap
- Published 3 articles (9,628 words)
- Built 7 links (guest posts) through ABC Plus
- Purchased social signals
- 145 sessions
- First commissions this month! Earnings this month: $1.41
- Expenses this month: $1,509.40
- Project total profit/loss: -$6,632.88
Month 4 – February 2020
This was also a slow month since we were focusing on another project. The goal this month was to simply maintain our consistent publishing schedule even if it’s just a few articles.
Commissions grew by about $10 this month.
Content
We published 3 articles (11,008 words). All round-up reviews.
Project Total Content Published = 24 Articles (72,700 Words)
All content was written by our in-house editorial team [at 607 Media: SEO Content], using our templates & guidelines, and optimized using Surfer SEO.
Links
We built 7 links (guest posts) through our ABC Plus subscription.
Project Total Links Built = 22
Social Signals
We continued to purchase social signals from SEO Butler. The site isn’t getting any traffic yet, so we need to find another way to justify the links we built this month so that it looks as natural as possible.
Traffic
It’s month 4, and we’re probably still in the sandbox but we’re starting to see some consistent organic traffic trickle in. As you can see in the graph below, we had 242 sessions this month.
Earnings
We earned $11.52 in commissions this month. Again, it isn’t much, but it’s something.
Project Total Earnings: $12.93
Expenses
This month, we spent a total of $1,578.40. We spent $550.40 on content, $1,000 on links, and $28 on social signals.
Project Total Expenses on Content: $3,635
Project Total Expenses on Links: $4,000
Project Total Expenses (Others): $577.69
Project Total Expenses: $8,212.69
Disclaimer: The $3,635 we spent on content is actually the price of the content if it was purchased from our service ([607 Media]: SEO Content). We want to demonstrate how this strategy can still work even if you outsource both content and links.
Project Total Profit/Loss
Project Total Earnings: $12.93
Project Total Expenses: $8,212.69
Project Total Profit/Loss: -$8,199.76
Quick Recap
- Published 3 articles (11,008 words)
- Built 7 links (guest posts) through ABC Plus
- Purchased social signals
- 242 sessions
- Earnings this month: $11.52
- Expenses this month: $1,578.40
- Project total profit/loss: -$8,199.76
Month 5 – March 2020
Traffic tripled this month.
Content + Links. That’s all we did this month. Sometimes that’s all you need to do.
Content
We published 4 articles (12,360 words). All round-up reviews.
Project Total Content Published = 28 Articles (85,060 Words)
All content was written by our in-house editorial team [at 607 Media: SEO Content], using our templates & guidelines, and optimized using Surfer SEO.
Links
We built 7 links (guest posts) through our ABC Plus subscription.
Project Total Links Built = 29
Social Signals
We continued to purchase social signals from SEO Butler. The site isn’t getting any traffic yet, so we need to find another way to justify the links we built this month so that it looks as natural as possible.
Traffic
We saw traffic triple, from 242 sessions last month to 726 sessions this month.
Earnings
Despite seeing 3x traffic, we actually only earned $18.03 in commissions this month. It isn’t much but the increase in clicks is promising.
Project Total Earnings: $30.96
Expenses
This month, we spent a total of $1,646. We spent $618 on content, $1,000 on links, and $28 on social signals.
Project Total Expenses on Content: $4,253
Project Total Expenses on Links: $5,000
Project Total Expenses (Others): $605.69
Project Total Expenses: $9,858.69
Disclaimer: The $4,253 we spent on content is actually the price of the content if it was purchased from our service ([607 Media]: SEO Content). We want to demonstrate how this strategy can still work even if you outsource both content and links.
Project Total Profit/Loss
Project Total Earnings: $30.96
Project Total Expenses: $9,858.69
Project Total Profit/Loss: -$9,827.73
Quick Recap
- Published 4 articles (12,360 words)
- Built 7 links (guest posts) through ABC Plus
- Purchased social signals
- Traffic tripled to 726 sessions
- Earnings this month: $18.03
- Expenses this month: $1,646
- Project total profit/loss: -$9,827.73
Month 6 – April 2020
So on my birthday (April 14th), Amazon announced that it would slash the commission rates of their affiliate program. This is not good news when you’re building an Amazon affiliate site.
Happy birthday to me.
Amazon Slashes Commission Rates
As you can see in the table above, Amazon drastically cut commission rates! Most affiliates will be losing at least half of their income!
What does this mean for Amazon affiliate sites? Are they still viable? Probably. But they will definitely not be as profitable as they once were.
This may force us to sign up to non-Amazon affiliate programs sooner than we were planning to.
Content
Regarding content, it was business as usual.
We published 4 articles (13,753 words). 1 round-up review and 3 how-to posts.
Project Total Content Published = 32 Articles (98,813 Words). 29 Round-up Reviews and 3 How-To Posts.
All content was written by our in-house editorial team [at 607 Media: SEO Content], using our templates & guidelines, and optimized using Surfer SEO.
Links
We built 6 links (guest posts) through our ABC Plus subscription.
Project Total Links Built = 35
We also changed our ABC Plus subscription from the $1,000/mo plan to the $500/mo plan. We’re building out our own in-house link-building team to cut costs.
We also started experimenting with tier 2 PBNs. We purchased 5 tier 2 PBN links from RankClub.
Project Total Tier 2 PBN Links Built = 5
Traffic
It’s month 6 and I think we’re finally out of the sandbox. Traffic soared to 3,287 sessions this month vs 726 sessions last month.
Earnings
Traffic soared so it only makes sense that our income increases as well, we earned $78.20 in commissions this month.
Project Total Earnings: $109.16
Expenses
This month, we spent a total of $1,222.65. We spent $637.65 on content, and $585 on links.
Project Total Expenses on Content: $4,890.65
Project Total Expenses on Links: $5,585
Project Total Expenses (Others): $605.69
Project Total Expenses: $11,081.34
Disclaimer: The $4,890.65 we spent on content is actually the price of the content if it was purchased from our service ([607 Media]: SEO Content). We want to demonstrate how this strategy can still work even if you outsource both content and links.
Project Total Profit/Loss
Project Total Earnings: $109.16
Project Total Expenses: $11,081.34
Project Total Profit/Loss: -$10,972.18
Quick Recap
- Published 4 articles (13,753 words)
- Built 6 links (guest posts) through ABC Plus
- Purchased 5 tier 2 PBN links
- 3,287 sessions. Finally out of the sandbox.
- Earnings this month: $78.20
- Expenses this month: $1,222.65
- Project total profit/loss: -$10,972.18
Month 7 – May 2020
Despite Amazon drastically slashing commission rates last month, we actually did quite well this month.
We saw a 150% increase in monthly traffic and a 500% increase in commissions.
I can only imagine what commissions would’ve been if Amazon didn’t cut their rates.
Content
We published 5 articles (16,744 words). All round-up reviews.
Project Total Content Published = 37 Articles (115,557 Words). 34 Round-up Reviews and 3 How-To Posts.
All content was written by our in-house editorial team [at 607 Media: SEO Content], using our templates & guidelines, and optimized using Surfer SEO.
Traffic
Traffic continues to increase. We saw a 150% increase in monthly traffic from 3,287 sessions last month to 8,152 sessions this month.
Earnings
Despite last month’s Amazon commission rate cut, we earned $481.16 in commissions this month.
Project Total Earnings: $590.32
Expenses
This month, we spent a total of $1,429. We spent $837.20 on content, and $591.80 on links.
Project Total Expenses on Content: $5,727.85
Project Total Expenses on Links: $6,176.80
Project Total Expenses (Others): $605.69
Project Total Expenses: $12,510.34
Disclaimer: The $5,727.85 we spent on content is actually the price of the content if it was purchased from our service ([607 Media]: SEO Content). We want to demonstrate how this strategy can still work even if you outsource both content and links.
Project Total Profit/Loss
Project Total Earnings: $590.32
Project Total Expenses: $12,510.34
Project Total Profit/Loss: -$11,920.02
So it’s month 7, and we’ve spent a little over $12,500 on this site and made nearly $600 in earnings. As a result, we’re still in the “hole” for nearly $12,000.
However, we’re not concerned by this at all.
SEO is a marathon, not a sprint. This is a long-term asset that will get more valuable over time as it continues to grow.
And if we were to try and sell the site today (which we’re obviously not going to), we would expect to sell it for somewhere between $15,000 to $17,000.
Sites like these are being sold on Empire Flippers for between 30x-39x monthly profit.
Quick Recap
- Published 5 articles (16,744 words)
- Built 3 links (guest posts) through ABC Plus
- Purchased 6 tier 2 PBN links
- 150% increase in monthly traffic to 8,152 sessions
- Earnings this month: $481.16
- Expenses this month: $1,429
- Project total profit/loss: -$11,920.02
Month 8 – June 2020
This month we saw a slight increase in both traffic and earnings. We’re continuing to pump out content and build links consistently to improve traffic and earnings down the road.
Content
We published 5 articles (14,002 words). All round-up reviews.
Project Total Content Published = 42 Articles (129,559 Words). 39 Round-up Reviews and 3 How-To Posts.
All content was written by our in-house editorial team [at 607 Media: SEO Content], using our templates & guidelines, and optimized using Surfer SEO.
Traffic
We saw a slight increase in traffic this month. From 8,152 sessions last month to 9,643 sessions this month.
Earnings
We also saw an increase in earnings this month. We earned $624.57 in commissions this month.
Project Total Earnings: $1,214.89
Expenses
This month, we spent a total of $1,302.10. We spent $700.10 on content, and $602 on links.
Project Total Expenses on Content: $6,427.95
Project Total Expenses on Links: $6,778.80
Project Total Expenses (Others): $605.69
Project Total Expenses: $13,812.44
Disclaimer: The $6,427.95 we spent on content is actually the price of the content if it was purchased from our service ([607 Media]: SEO Content). We want to demonstrate how this strategy can still work even if you outsource both content and links.
Project Total Profit/Loss
Project Total Earnings: $1,214.89
Project Total Expenses: $13,812.44
Project Total Profit/Loss: -$12,597.55
So it’s month 8, and we’ve spent nearly $14,000 on this site and made a little over $1,200 in earnings. As a result, we’re still in the “hole” for nearly $13,000.
However, as I’ve said before, we’re not concerned by this at all.
This is a long term asset that will get more valuable over time as it continues to grow.
And if we were to try and sell the site today (which we’re obviously not going to), we would expect to sell it for somewhere between $18,000 to $23,000.
Sites like these are being sold on Empire Flippers for between 30x-39x monthly profit.
Quick Recap
- Published 5 articles (14,002 words)
- Built 3 links (guest posts) through ABC Plus
- Purchased 6 tier 2 PBN links
- 9,643 sessions
- Earnings this month: $624.57
- Expenses this month: $1,302.10
- Project total profit/loss: -$12,597.55
Month 9 – July 2020
This month, we saw a 40% increase in traffic and we earned over $1,000+ in commissions. Because of this, we decided to pump out more content than usual.
We also started implementing Genius Link to all of our posts. We use it to squeeze more revenue out of every post we have.
Genius Link gives us automatic Amazon localization and helps us monitor our existing links for when items go out of stock.
Content
We published 8 articles (25,359 words). All round-up reviews.
Project Total Content Published = 50 Articles (154,918 Words). 47 Round-up Reviews and 3 How-To Posts.
All content was written by our in-house editorial team [at 607 Media: SEO Content], using our templates & guidelines, and optimized using Surfer SEO.
Traffic
We saw a 40% increase in traffic this month. From 9,643 sessions last month to 13,580 sessions this month.
Earnings
We saw earnings soar to $1,413.99 this month. We earned $1,350.75 from Amazon US.
And because of Genius Link, we also started earning commissions from Amazon UK, Canada, and Australia. You can find these earnings (converted to USD) below:
- Earnings from Amazon UK: $21.59
- Earnings from Amazon CA: $36.39
- Earnings from Amazon Aus: $5.26
Project Total Earnings: $2,628.88
Expenses
This month, we spent a total of $1,923.78. We spent $1,267.95 on content, and $655.83 on links.
Project Total Expenses on Content: $7,695.90
Project Total Expenses on Links: $7,434.63
Project Total Expenses (Others): $605.69
Project Total Expenses: $15,736.22
Disclaimer: The $7,695.90 we spent on content is actually the price of the content if it was purchased from our service ([607 Media]: SEO Content). We want to demonstrate how this strategy can still work even if you outsource both content and links.
Project Total Profit/Loss
Project Total Earnings: $2,628.88
Project Total Expenses: $15,736.22
Project Total Profit/Loss: -$13,107.34
We’ve spent nearly $16,000 on this site and made a little over $2,600 in earnings. As a result, we’re still in the “hole” for a little over $13,000.
However, we’re not concerned by this at all.
As I’ve said before: SEO is a marathon, not a sprint. This is a long term asset that will get more valuable over time as it continues to grow.
And if we were to try and sell the site today (which we’re obviously not going to), we would expect to sell it for somewhere between $42,000 to $50,000.
Not a bad return in 9 months, considering we’re in the “hole” for only $13,000.
Sites like these are being sold on Empire Flippers for between 30x-39x monthly profit.
Quick Recap
- Published 8 articles (25,359 words)
- Built 4 links (guest posts)
- Purchased 6 tier 2 PBN links
- 40% increase in traffic to 13,580 sessions
- Earnings this month: $1,413.99
- Expenses this month: $1,923.78
- Project total profit/loss: -$13,107.34
Month 10 – August 2020
This month, we saw a 100% increase in traffic and we earned over $2,000+ in commissions.
We’re continuing to pump out even more content and build more links.
Content
We published 12 articles (30,603 words). 9 round-up reviews, 2 how-to posts, and 1 question post.
Project Total Content Published = 62 Articles (185,521 Words). 56 Round-up Reviews, 5 How-To Posts, and 1 Question Post.
All content was written by our in-house editorial team [at 607 Media: SEO Content], using our templates & guidelines, and optimized using Surfer SEO.
Links
We built 3 links (guest posts) through our ABC Plus subscription.
We also built 6 links (guest posts) through our in-house link-building team.
Project Total Links Built = 54
We decided to take advantage of a discount and purchased 20 tier 2 PBN links from RankClub.
Project Total Tier 2 PBN Links Built = 43
Traffic
We saw a 100% increase in traffic this month. From 13,580 sessions last month to 27,117 sessions this month.
Earnings
We saw earnings soar to $2,312.54 this month. We earned $2,042 from Amazon US.
You can also find our earnings from Amazon UK, Canada, and Australia (converted to USD) below:
- Earnings from Amazon UK: $21.59
- Earnings from Amazon CA: $36.39
- Earnings from Amazon Aus: $5.26
We also started earning from non-Amazon affiliate programs:
- Earnings from ShareASale: $53.15
Project Total Earnings: $4,941.42
Expenses
This month, we spent a total of $2,706.50. We spent $1,530.15 on content, and $1,176.35 on links.
Project Total Expenses on Content: $9,226.05
Project Total Expenses on Links: $8,610.98
Project Total Expenses (Others): $605.69
Project Total Expenses: $18,442.72
Disclaimer: The $9,226.05 we spent on content is actually the price of the content if it was purchased from our service ([607 Media]: SEO Content). We want to demonstrate how this strategy can still work even if you outsource both content and links.
Project Total Profit/Loss
Project Total Earnings: $4,941.42
Project Total Expenses: $18,442.72
Project Total Profit/Loss: -$13,501.30
So now, we’ve spent a little over $18,000 on this site and made nearly $5,000 in earnings. As a result, we’re still in the “hole” for a little over $13,000.
However, we’re not concerned by this at all.
As I’ve said before: This is a long term asset that will only get more valuable over time as it continues to grow.
We can choose to stop spending on new content and links and just take the little over $2,000 in passive income every month. But that’s not what we want to do. The earning projection we set for this site at the beginning of this project was low 5-figures per month, and we aren’t going to stop until we reach that goal.
But if we were to try and sell the site today (which we’re obviously not going to), we would expect to sell it for somewhere between $69,000 to $83,000.
Not a bad return in 10 months, considering we’re in the “hole” for only $13,000.
Sites like these are being sold on Empire Flippers for between 30x-39x monthly profit.
Quick Recap
- Published 12 articles (30,603 words)
- Built 9 links (guest posts)
- Purchased 20 tier 2 PBN links
- 100% increase in traffic to 27,117 sessions
- Earnings this month: $2,312.54
- Expenses this month: $2,706.50
- Project total profit/loss: -$13,501.30
Month 11 – September 2020
This month, we saw an increase in both traffic and earnings. Not as much growth as the last couple of months, but we’re still moving in the right direction.
We actually published less content this month because we started 2 new projects. One similar to this, built on a brand new domain in the parenting niche. And another built on an aged domain in the software niche.
Content
We published 4 articles (11,719 words). 2 round-up reviews and 2 how-to posts.
We may have published less content, but we still made sure to follow a consistent publishing schedule. This month, we published 1 article per week. And we will continue to do so moving forward.
Project Total Content Published = 66 Articles (197,240 Words). 58 Round-up Reviews, 7 How-To Posts, and 1 Question Post.
All content was written by our in-house editorial team [at 607 Media: SEO Content], using our templates & guidelines, and optimized using Surfer SEO.
Traffic
We saw a 20% increase in traffic this month. From 27,117 sessions last month to 33,233 sessions this month.
Earnings
We also saw an increase in earnings to $2,712.13 this month. We earned $2,280.50 from Amazon US.
You can also find our earnings from Amazon UK, Canada, and Australia (converted to USD) below:
- Earnings from Amazon UK: $196.94
- Earnings from Amazon CA: $213.76
- Earnings from Amazon Aus: $20.93
Project Total Earnings: $7,653.55
Expenses
This month, we spent a total of $1,582.95. We spent $585.95 on content, and $997 on links.
Project Total Expenses on Content: $9,812
Project Total Expenses on Links: $9,607.98
Project Total Expenses (Others): $605.69
Project Total Expenses: $20,025.67
Disclaimer: The $9,812 we spent on content is actually the price of the content if it was purchased from our service ([607 Media]: SEO Content). We want to demonstrate how this strategy can still work even if you outsource both content and links.
Project Total Profit/Loss
Project Total Earnings: $7,653.55
Project Total Expenses: $20,025.67
Project Total Profit/Loss: -$12,372.12
So now, we’ve spent a little over $20,000 on this project and made nearly $8,000 in earnings. As a result, we’re still in the “hole” for a little over $12,000.
Again, this is not concerning.
As I’ve said before: This is a long term asset that will only get more valuable over time as it continues to grow.
We can choose to stop spending on new content and links and just take the little over $2,500 in passive income every month. But that’s not what we want to do. The earning projection we set for this site at the beginning of this project was low 5-figures per month, and we aren’t going to stop until we reach that goal.
But if we were to try and sell the site today (which we’re obviously not going to), we would expect to sell it for somewhere between $81,000 to $97,200.
Not a bad return in less than a year, considering we’re in the “hole” for only $12,000.
Sites like these are being sold on Empire Flippers for between 30x-39x monthly profit.
Quick Recap
- Published 4 articles (11,719 words)
- Built 7 links (guest posts)
- Purchased 15 tier 2 PBN links
- 20% increase in traffic to 33,233 sessions
- Earnings this month: $2,712.13
- Expenses this month: $1,582.95
- Project total profit/loss: -$12,372.12
Month 12 – October 2020
This month, we saw both traffic and earnings increase by 50% and we earned nearly $4,000 in commissions!
This case study has become a great example of how you can grow an affiliate site from $0 to $4,000 per month in 12 months using a brand new domain.
Content
We published 6 articles (12,555 words). 3 versus posts, 2 how-to posts, and 1 alternatives post.
We made sure to continue following a consistent publishing schedule. This month, we published 1-2 articles per week. And we will continue to do so moving forward.
Project Total Content Published = 72 Articles (209,795 Words). 58 Round-up Reviews, 9 How-To Posts, 3 Versus Posts, 1 Question Post, and 1 Alternatives Post.
All content was written by our in-house editorial team [at 607 Media: SEO Content], using our templates & guidelines, and optimized using Surfer SEO.
Links
We built 3 links (guest posts) through our ABC Plus subscription.
We also built 6 links (guest posts) through our in-house link-building team.
Project Total Links Built = 70
We also purchased another 15 tier 2 PBN links from RankClub before their October promo ended.
Project Total Tier 2 PBN Links Built = 73
Traffic
We saw a 50% increase in traffic this month. From 33,233 sessions last month to 50,379 sessions this month.
Since we’re now over the 50,000 sessions per month threshold to get approved with Mediavine, we sent over our application. If approved, this should give us at least another $700+ in earnings from display ad revenue.
Earnings
We also saw a huge jump in earnings to $3,990.59 this month. We earned $3,136.20 from Amazon US.
You can also find our earnings from Amazon UK, Canada, and Australia (converted to USD) below:
- Earnings from Amazon UK: $351.50
- Earnings from Amazon CA: $385.21
- Earnings from Amazon Aus: $117.68
Project Total Earnings: $11,644.14
Expenses
This month, we spent a total of $1,734.75. We spent $627.75 on content, and $1,107 on links.
Project Total Expenses on Content: $10,439.75
Project Total Expenses on Links: $10,714.98
Project Total Expenses (Others): $650.74
Project Total Expenses: $21,805.47
Disclaimer: The $10,439.75 we spent on content is actually the price of the content if it was purchased from our service ([607 Media]: SEO Content). We want to demonstrate how this strategy can still work even if you outsource both content and links.
Project Total Profit/Loss
Project Total Earnings: $11,644.14
Project Total Expenses: $21,805.47
Project Total Profit/Loss: -$10,161.33
We’re now a year into this project, and we’ve now spent nearly $22,000 and made nearly $12,000 in earnings. As a result, we’re still in the “hole” for a little over $10,000.
However, this is not concerning. If we continue to improve earnings, we will eventually get out of this “hole” within the next few months.
And as I’ve said before: This is a long term asset that will only get more valuable over time as it continues to grow.
We can choose to stop spending on new content and links and just take the nearly $4,000 in passive income every month. But that’s not what we want to do. The earning projection we set for this site at the beginning of this project was low 5-figures per month, and we aren’t going to stop until we reach that goal.
But if we were to try and sell the site today (which we’re obviously not going to – because earnings are still improving every month), we wouldn’t sell it for anything less than $120,000.
Sites like these are being sold on Empire Flippers for between 30x-39x monthly profit.
Not a bad return in a year, considering we’re in the “hole” for only $10,000.
Quick Recap
- Published 6 articles (12,555 words)
- Built 9 links (guest posts)
- Purchased 15 tier 2 PBN links
- 50% increase in traffic to 50,379 sessions
- Earnings this month: $3,990.59
- Expenses this month: $1,734.75
- Project total profit/loss: -$10,161.33
Month 13 – November 2020
This month, we saw both traffic and earnings increase by another 50% and we earned nearly $6,000 in commissions!
That’s two 50% increases in two consecutive months.
Just in time for the holidays!
Content
We published 6 articles (13,903 words). 4 How-To Posts, 1 Round-up Review and 1 List Post.
We made sure to continue following a consistent publishing schedule. This month, we published 1-2 articles per week. And we will continue to do so.
Project Total Content Published = 78 Articles (223,698 Words). 59 Round-up Reviews, 13 How-To Posts, 3 Versus Posts, 1 Question Post, 1 List Post, and 1 Alternatives Post.
All content was written by our in-house editorial team [at 607 Media: SEO Content], using our templates & guidelines, and optimized using Surfer SEO.
Links
Traffic
We saw another 50% increase in traffic this month. From 50,379 sessions last month to 74,333 sessions this month.
We’ve already gotten approved with Mediavine, but we’re still working out the details on how we want the display ads inserted into our site. But once we get started, we estimate to earn at least another $1,000+ in display ad revenue.
Earnings
We also saw another huge jump in earnings to $5,999.77 this month. We earned $4,588.76 from Amazon US. ($142,453.05 in shipped items revenue)
As you can see in the chart below, Black Friday and Cyber Monday gave us a slight bump. But the increase in earnings is more likely due to the increase in traffic.
You can also find our earnings from Amazon UK, Canada, and Australia (converted to USD) below:
- Earnings from Amazon UK: $580.52
- Earnings from Amazon CA: $614.52
- Earnings from Amazon Aus: $146.62
We also have some earnings from ShareASale:
- Earnings from ShareASale: $69.35
Project Total Earnings: $17,643.91
Expenses
This month, we spent a total of $1,951.15. We spent $695.15 on content, and $1,256 on links.
Project Total Expenses on Content: $11,134.90
Project Total Expenses on Links: $11,970.98
Project Total Expenses (Others): $725.28
Project Total Expenses: $23,831.16
Disclaimer: The $11,134.90 we spent on content is actually the price of the content if it was purchased from our service ([607 Media]: SEO Content). We want to demonstrate how this strategy can still work even if you outsource both content and links.
Project Total Profit/Loss
Project Total Earnings: $17,643.91
Project Total Expenses: $23,831.16
Project Total Profit/Loss: -$6,187.25
We’re now over a year into this project, and we’ve spent nearly $24,000 and made over $17,000 in earnings. As a result, we’re only in the “hole” for a little over $6,000 and should be in the green within the next couple of months.
However, that doesn’t actually really matter to us.
As I’ve said before: This is a long term asset that will only get more valuable over time as it continues to grow.
We can choose to stop spending on new content and links and just take the nearly $6,000 in passive income every month. But that’s not what we want to do. The earning projection we set for this site at the beginning of this project was low 5-figures per month.
Looking at our current rankings, we should still be able to reach that goal. As you can see in the image below, there are still thousands of keywords we are not ranking in the top 3 for.
But if we were to try and sell the site today (which we’re obviously not going to – because earnings and traffic are still improving every month), we wouldn’t sell it for anything less than $180,000.
Sites like these are being sold on Empire Flippers for between 30x-39x monthly profit.
Not a bad return in a little over a year. Considering we’re in the “hole” for only $6,000.
Quick Recap
- Published 6 articles (13,903 words)
- Built 8 links (guest posts)
- Purchased 35 tier 2 PBN links
- 50% increase in traffic to 74,333 sessions
- Earnings this month: $5,999.77
- Expenses this month: $1,951.15
- Project total profit/loss: -$6,187.25
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