Earning your first $100 is the hardest. I made it in less than 5 months (after failing 10+ times).
Here is how:
→ Pick a niche you are interested in
People say, “Pick a profitable niche, even if you are not interested in the topic.” I agree with the first part, but I can’t agree with the second one.
I tried this so many times, and it never worked for me.
If I am passionate about something, there is a higher chance I’ll be in that for the long run.
And SEO is all about the long run.
→ Build topical clusters
Topical clusters are game changers!
Revolve your keyword research around topical clusters.
Imagine your website is about CRMs.
The idea is to categorize your keywords into a few buckets.
- Money makers
- Education
- Expertise
Money makers are your BOFU content. Tools round-ups, single tool reviews, tool 1 vs. tool 2, tools alternatives. These are incredibly competitive keywords, so just focusing on those won’t make you $$$. You need supporting content.
That’s where Education content comes in. Educate your audience about CRMs. Cover everything that starts with “how, why, what, when, who”.
Expertise is just the cream on the cake. Interview industry experts. Share case studies and experiments.
And then. Make sure to do a proper internal linking.
→ Don’t ignore a traffic value
I saw many websites having loads of organic traffic, but their traffic value is below $1,000. You don’t want that.
The idea is to focus on traffic that brings in the money.
Having 1k organic traffic with a value of $5,000 is better than having 5k organic traffic with a value of $1,000.
→ Produce a LOT of content
I am all about the velocity. The Pareto principle applies to almost any website. 20% of your content will be responsible for 80% of your results.
Publish 20+ long-form articles per month. Measure the impact, pick 1 or 2 that start to rank, and rework it.
You should aim that every piece is comparable to the Top 10 results.
→ Build relevant backlinks
Let’s be honest about this. The higher competition means the higher link building budgets.
If your competitors build 30 links per month and their content and topical authority are on point, it is hard to expect to outrank them without backlinks.
Don’t just focus on vanity metrics such as DR and ST. Analyze the websites, their content, relevancy, and growth over time.
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And here are the numbers I’d like to use as benchmarks:
→ Identify 100 keywords and add them to clusters
→ Cover informational and expert content first
→ Publish 20+ articles per month
→ Build 5 relevant backlinks per month
→ Internal linking rounds
And the best part? I am doing all that with a team of 2 people.
What’s stopping you?