It’s been a while since I’ve had the time to update this case study.
While you may think that means things have gone awry, that is not it.
Honestly, I’ve just been swamped, so this will be a multi-month catch-up of what’s going on.
Spoiler alert: a lot of the same
But hey, maybe you’ll still find something interesting!
If this is your first time here, then I suggest catching up on the old updates first:
- Beginnings
- Update #1
- Update #2
- Update #3
- Update #4
- Update #5
- Update #6
- Update #7
- Update #8
- Update #9
- Update #10
- Update #11
- Update #12
- Update #13
- Update #14
- Update #15
- Update #16
- Update #17
**And as always, I’m an affiliate marketer and this post probably contains affiliate links, meaning I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links
Months 19 and 20 – What Happened?
This update covers the periods of April 2022 and May 2022.
I got more done on this site in April than I did in May as a result of another site in my portfolio getting hit by the algo update and distracting me.
For April, I got up 30 posts and only half that amount in May.
Traffic in April was up, likely due to the content push in both March and April.
But, likely as a result of my neglect, the site did slip a bit in May.
Granted, it’s also probable that the SERPs turbulence from that massive core update is to blame here.
It wasn’t a big drop though, so it wasn’t really something that I worried about for the site.
As with the previous update, the new content that was posted on this during this two-month period was largely from using LowFruits.io and focusing on those low competition types of keywords just cause they’re so easy.
And honestly, that quick traffic – even if it is a small amount – is a nice injection for your site if you’re focused on traffic patterns.
Truthfully, I didn’t really do much on this site during these two months so there aren’t really any insights to share here.
Except that you can neglect a site and still have it bringing in money.
One interesting note though is that I discovered that someone I know, and who knows my domain, started competing with me and has been poaching those easy keywords that I was ranking for and dropped a few spots.
But on a more positive note, the income for this site is back to trending updwards.
Months 19 and 20 Summary
Despite my renewed interest in this site as of the previous update, things didn’t quite go as planned.
That being said, at this point I am focused on being happy that the core update didn’t wipe out the site since I did see some aged domain people talking about getting hit.
And, spoiler alert, I think it will be late August before I’m back to being able to focus on this site for various reasons.
Here’s how the 30 day period for this update looked:
- Traffic: 38K/37K sessions (approximately)
- New Published Posts: 30/15
- Total spent this month: $10/10 for hosting, $1285.40/$313.16 for content
- Per article average cost of outsourced content: $42.84 this month
- Total published words to date: 646,704
- Average word count per article (all): 1,184
- Income: $762.49 this month, $782.90 last month ($10,448.47 to date)
- Links built: 0
- New natural links: ?
- Initial Budget Remaining: $0 (I’m over-budget)
I think it’s been obvious for a while that I’m tired of this site. Especially since sites like the Project Pepperoni site are more exciting to work on.
So, I’ve decided that I’ll likely sell this site before the end of the year, regardless of if I meet my original goals.
That’s unfortunate since I’m still not profitable on this site, but cashing out with only a small profit is exactly the way it goes sometimes.
Questions?
Did you miss how this case study started? Get caught up from the beginning here.
Hey, I’m Shawna. I make a living working from my laptop in places like London, Sydney, Dubai, Rome, Oslo, Bangkok, Las Vegas, Barcelona, and Amsterdam. I share how I do some of that on this website.
You said someone found your site and stole your easy topics.
Just assuming they may have even stole some titles.
Do you think Google penalizes titles if they are too similar? Like giving you a lower ranking because you used the same adjective, for example.
10 Powerful Books to read in 2022
12 Powerful Books to read this Year
Any experience with that?
BTW, sounds like a wise choice to let go of this boring site. I hope you’ll make a fun profit in the end.
Yes, the titles appear to be the same as well. I don’t really think Google cares about that though, otherwise we’d see 100% unique titles on page one for every query. Of course, trying to make your stuff unique is always a good idea though 🙂
How do u decide how much budget to allocate for each project?
I do some research into the niche before I start a site to determine what I think the potential is and base my spending on that + how long I think I’ll keep the site before flipping it.