INTRODUCTION
The climate of the world is changing.
COVID-19 is making a big impact on the way businesses operate and working from home has become the new norm.
People are turning to the internet to find and learn skills to make money online from the comfort of their own homes.
Internet marketing has never looked sweeter.
This case study will show you how to build a website that can generate consistent recurring revenue through affiliate commissions and display ads.
The website will then be sold and profits will be taken for use in a new project.
Even though internet marketing looks easy, it takes a lot of time and dedication – not to mention an insane amount of patience!
So before we get into the case study, let me introduce myself a bit…
My Background
I started building websites back in 2016 while I was studying at University after stumbling across a subreddit called /r/juststart.
Back then there was so much useful information there.
It was honestly insane.
Unfortunately, you can’t just build a website and expect it to perform well without any knowledge in SEO, CRO, and UX.
This meant that my skills had to be built up and refined through trial-and-error and reading through many case studies that were posted online (just like this one).
As you can expect, I made a lot of mistakes, but the important thing is that I learned from those mistakes.
In the end, I was able to build out a handful of websites that were generating a decent sum of money (primarily through Amazon Associates before their commissions were slashed).
Eventually, I had to sell my website portfolio due to time constraints and life commitments.
Fast forward to the present day and I am now looking to build out my portfolio and start earning some passive income again.
The Website
Unfortunately, I am not able to disclose the name of the domain, but I can provide some background information about it.
I purchased the website last month on Flippa for around $3000 USD dollars and it currently brings in around $70-$100 per month through Amazon Affiliate commissions.
The domain is 5 years old with an okay backlink profile and no spammy links pointing to it.
Here is the earnings report for the month of June:
And here are the numbers taken straight from Google Analytics for the month of June:
There are many issues with the website, but there are also many positive points.
I believe that this website has a lot of potential.
One good thing about the domain is that it has a brandable URL, which allows me to cover other topics in the niche once I have finished covering the main topics on the website.
Plans This Month
There’s quite a bit to do this month, so let’s get down to the nitty-gritty.
Here is a list of the things that I have planned for the website:
- Remove/improve pages that are not currently generating any traffic
- Optimise website page speed
- Design and implement new homepage layout
- Improve ‘about us’ page
- Create social media accounts
- Fix up ‘privacy policy,’ ‘disclosure,’ and other miscellaneous pages
- Compile a list of target keywords
- Create a handful of local citations
- Start generating new content and outsourcing as necessary
That should cover most of it.
As you can see, this month I will be primarily focusing on fixing up the website so I can start generating and pushing out content as soon as possible.
I do not expect to see a noticeable improvement in traffic or revenue until I start publishing articles consistently.
So there you go!
Now let me turn this back on you, the reader, and ask you a few questions.
- What are your goals for the month of July?
- What are you doing to get them done?
It’s always good to state your goals and what you are doing to get them done to give yourself some accountability.
To be honest, it also motivates me to hear what others are doing and how they are progressing with their tasks.
Regardless, I hope you are doing well and hope you achieve success with whatever you are doing.
I hope to see you back again for next month’s case study!
Thanks everyone!
Michael has a passion for all-things SEO and internet marketing. He is always keen to learn new things and keep up-to-date with all the best practices for ranking websites on Google and other search engines.