LowFruits Case Study Site, Month 11: Future Plans and Revisiting Old Content
Dim
August was a good month for Barbehow.
The website had 20,000 page views and made $327.15.
(That’s 1k impressions and $60 less than July, but I’m not worried—July 4 was a great day for BBQ. I predicted the possible drop in last month’s case study update.)
Since barbecue is an all-time favorite holiday activity, I expect a Labor Day spike in September.
On the Road to ROI
In the past 75 days of monetization, the site has brought in $812.13.
I’ve invested roughly $5,700 in content and $300 in link building, so the website is slowly starting to recoup the investment.
It’s a marathon, not a sprint, but all the indicators show we’re going in the right direction!
So, this month…
It’s Time to Revisit Old Content!
For the rest of the year, the content plan will focus on:
- Keywords that can bring in more traffic
- “Best X for Y” posts
All to bring in more affiliate revenue to the site.
Since we’re almost at the end of Year 1, I will soon go back to the October 2021 posts to do a content audit:
- How are the posts doing?
- Do any posts need to be rewritten?
- Do I need to expand some posts?
- Which posts might need to get deleted?
(For my websites, I like to use the Ahrefs content audit as a template.)
Why You Should Update Your Website’s Content
? Updating your website’s existing content is an underestimated growth opportunity.
If a batch of articles is 9-12 months old, fire up Google Search Console and see how each performs:
- Duds that missed search intent and aren’t getting any visitors? -> Rewrite or delete.
- Articles that rank for terms you didn’t originally think of? -> Expand them.
Do this consistently for every batch of articles that matures for 9 to 12 months, and you’ll boost your site’s organic traffic on a budget.
LowFruits Tip of the Month
Have you recently run a report for seed keywords in LowFruits, but you’re not sure which keyword to create content for first?
Take a look at the “Clusters” tab.
The “Clusters” tab groups together the different terms that people use to search for the same thing.
? Create content for the clusters with the most keywords and the highest number of low-hanging fruits (apple icons).
What About Year 2 Updates?
Many of you emailed me ([email protected]) asking if the case study will continue into the second year and, if so, what my goals for next year are.
Honestly? I don’t know yet.
I launched this website almost a year ago to show you that you can use LowFruits to create a website that will make you money by the end of the first year.
We’re pretty much there.
Yes, I have a portfolio of websites and invest in them as assets. Behind them is a roster of freelance writers and agencies—and a set of practices that, together, I call a media business.
If you had started this website, you might as well have written the articles yourself as a side hustle. And that side hustle would have brought in three hundred plus bucks per month.
Every month, passively.
It’s a good way to earn extra income and, with consistent hard work, maybe even earn a living.
So, tell me: what would you want to see next?
Metrics Over Time
Traffic
| Time Period | August 1, 2022 – August 31, 2022 |
| Monthly Pageviews | 20,000 |
| Avg. Engagement Time | 1m 01s |
| Engaged Sessions / User | 0.57 |
| Pageviews / Published Post (PPP) | 163.93 |
Source: Google Analytics
Content
Rankings
| Date Checked | September 9, 2022 |
| Avg. Position (Google, USA) | 16.14 |
| Top 3 | 65 / 122 |
| Top 10 | 97 / 122 |
| Top 30 | 104 / 122 |
| Top 100 | 107 / 122 |
Source: SERProbot
Earnings
| Time Period | August 1, 2022 – August 31, 2022 |
| Total Revenue Since Start of Site | $812.13 |
| Total Revenue Year to Date(2022) | $812.13 |
| Monthly Revenue | $327.15, of which: $312.61 from display ads$14.54 from affiliate programs |
| Monthly Revenue / Published Post (MRPP) | $3.27 |
Source: Ezoic, Amazon Associates
Who I Am
Hey!
My name’s Dim.
Thanks for reading (or skimming) this far.
I started my first site in 2007 after I stumbled upon a blog about making money online. I’ve been buying, growing, and selling sites ever since.
These days, I own an indie media company and run an email newsletter for online publishers called “Publetise.”
Don’t be a stranger: Subscribe to my newsletter at Publetise.com and get my best strategies and tactics delivered to your inbox once a week.
Yuppie duppity! I want to see 2 year and 3 year updates. Make this an ongoing thing. No need for a month-by-month update as the site matures and gets older a once per quarter is fine.
Derek,
Thanks for following along and sharing your thoughts! Noted.
Dim
Its amazing case study. Ty for share lots of insights.
Thank you for reading and leaving a reply, Rama! Glad you’re finding the case study helpful 🙂
Which plagiarism tool do you use to check plagiarism
Hi, Nauman,
My go-to tools are Copyscape Premium for manual checks (single URLs and URL batches) and Copysentry for automated checks.
Dim
Thanks a lot for your reply
What’s your average blogpost wordcount for this blog
copy scape
It is beneficial if you explore more about the Steps to Update Your Website’s Content and the small parameters one should consider.
I also need to update or remove my old content, which is not performing well, but the only problem is I am getting a good road map.
Thanks in Advance 🙂
Hi, Amit,
The Ahrefs content audit that I linked to has everything you need. Check it out, it’s a really good resource.
Dim
Thanks again for sharing a great story with us. I released a comment when you revealed the site and niche and am still waiting for a reply. Keep moving and share some good stories. Stay happy ):
Hey there, Rahul!
Yes, I remember, you had asked a set of really good questions.
Clear your cache on that post or open it from an Incognito window, and you should be able to see my reply 😛
Dim
Thanks Dim, for sharing your insights and this case study.
I’d be interested in a year 2 and may be year 3, because of the seasonality of the barbecue niche. I’d like to see how it behaves and may be some thoughts about holiday season promotions, and how you prepare for the next season.
The seasonality was (of course) poorly reflected in a first year of a blog.
Hey there, OliverK,
Agree with you that the seasonality wasn’t well reflected in Year 1 because of the site’s early growth. Will take your feedback into account as Paul of LowFruits and I discuss the case study’s future.
Like you, I’m also quite curious to see what that seasonality looks like in terms of advertiser and consumer behavior over the next two quarters!
Dim
Hey Dim!
I see you use the same page Title and H1 in your posts. I thought it might be some difference between these tags.
Is it the right way to best ranking in SERP?
Thanks for sharing your experience;)
Hi, Red,
Thanks for stopping by!
I used to write my and tags differently; it was a good way to boost CTR in the SERPs by playing around with the without necessarily changing the tag on the site.
But then Google started rewriting titles in the SERPs whenever they decided to, and I no longer see value in this. Now, I just have my and tags the same.
It may make a difference in highly competitive searches where it’s worth tweaking and testing every single thing. But I don’t think it moves the needle much on low-competition search terms like the one I mostly target with the case study site.
Let me know if this answered your question,
Dim
Thanks for the detailed answer. Completely satisfied!)
Okay, so I won’t bother either. It’ll be a little less work for me:)