My 4 Hour Workweek

I realize the title of this post sounds like I’m about to try and sell you a product…the good news is, I’m not! I actually just wanted to share with you a quick story about how one of my niche sites landed on the first page of Google and received an ad click without me doing much of anything.

Although I uploaded a WordPress theme and added my usual plugins, this site was ranking on page 1 before I even added the content.

While you can’t plan for this in any way, I thought it might be interesting to take a deeper look at this site and the keyword that it targets to see if we can learn anything…

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Although this case study seems complete (the site is currently on page 2 for its targeted keyword, but on page 1 for secondary keywords), it’s actually just the beginning.  The purpose of this case study was not just to create one stand alone project.  After all, what good is one micro-niche AdSense site that will probably never earn more than $50 in a given month?

The exciting part of this case study was not the case study itself – I know it was helpful to a lot of people out there, based on feedback I received, but the excitement is yet to come.  This case study was merely a springboard to much greater things and hopefully positive learning experiences.

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If I had to pick a word that sums up my past couple months of online work, it would be this: irony.  Both December and November were highly productive months, yet somehow, they have led to two of my lowest consecutive earning months.  December is somewhat understandable – while it’s generally a good month for Amazon affiliates (because of holiday shopping), it’s often a bad month for just about everything else.

Nevertheless, passive income projects are all about future income, so I’m less concerned with the past.  I’ve added a lot of income-producing properties to my portfolio over the past couple of months, and it’s only a matter of time before I start to see the benefit of it all.

Let’s get into the details of December!

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Happy New Year! For the past week or so (and probably for the next week or two to come), you’ve been beaten over the head with everyone else’s goals.  Now it’s my turn!

There’s nothing wrong with the overwhelming amount of “goals” posts out there – I love reading others’ goals and resolutions, even if we all know that 25-50% or more of these goals won’t be achieved throughout the year (as much as we’d like to believe that isn’t true).  To me, having goals is more about the journey and the path – even if you never arrive at your destination.  No one likes to fail, but I think the value of goals is that they help keep you on track.  Even if you don’t fully accomplish a goal, you can still be successful.

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As I’ve mentioned in the past, I think this is the most important step of the process. Despite all other efforts, if people can’t find you on Google, your micro-niche site is destined to be a failure.  Search engine optimization (SEO) is merely the process of tweaking a few things on and off your site so that Google views your site as more relevant for a particular keyword or keywords.

On-site optimization, although important, is easy (especially with various WordPress plugins out there).  Off-site optimization (primarily building backlinks) is more time consuming, and probably what will make or break your site’s rankings on Google.  In this section of the case study, I will show you what I’ve done with my site’s SEO.

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If you’re anything like me, giving up on a goal or project is extremely difficult to do.  You’ve invested a lot of time and probably some money as well, so you’re determined to see it through.  With niche sites, most of the work is already done before you can see whether or not the project is a failure or success, so it’s tricky to determine when, if at all, to quit.

Ironically, failure is an important step to success, so knowing when to quit is extremely important, because it will impact your ultimate success (that is, if you eventually to become successful).

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November was a very productive month for me, which is a nice change of pace from the many past months where all I have to say is “I didn’t do much this month…”  As with most passive income ventures, the efforts of this month probably won’t hit my bottom line for at least another month or two, but it’s a great feeling to put in the work and feel confident that you’ll reap the benefits at some point in the future.

Anyway, keep reading for November’s income report…

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Internet marketing as a whole is a pretty amazing phenomenon, if you can even call it that.  Few things in this world have allowed people with no experience or formal education to hop on a computer and make a living, sometimes without a ton of effort.  Low barriers to entry have allowed a diverse mix of people into this space, and while the stories of success stand out, most people don’t make it.

I’ll be the first to admit: I love internet marketing.  Even as someone who doesn’t make a lot from it (yet), it intrigues me. With that said, there are plenty of things that outright annoy me about internet marketers.   It’s not to say that these things are done by all internet marketers, but I’ve seen them more than once or twice.  Let me know if you agree…

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