My 4 Hour Workweek

I’m going to start this case study by pointing out the obvious: Making money online with AdSense-focused niche sites is probably one of the oldest methods around.  You can read about it in a million places – much of the information is free, but there are plenty of people looking to make money off teaching you how to create a profitable AdSense niche site.

With that said, I’ve decided to diversify my niche sites a bit, and start creating micro niche sites that are primarily monetized through AdSense.  To kick off this new project, I’ve decided to do one site in a fully transparent way – you will see everything I do and every tool I use.  By the time I’m done, you’ll be able to replicate my process exactly (whether you choose to or not is up to you).

If you want to jump ahead to the other sections of this case study, here are some links:

• Part 1: Introduction
• Part 2: Research & Initial Setup
• Part 3: Setup, Configuration, & Design
• Part 4: Content & Ad Placement
• Part 5: SEO / Backlinking
• Part 6: Plan for the Future

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It’s been a long time since I’ve done an official niche site duel update (although I track my progress monthly in my income reports), and there’s a good reason for that: My site has acted much like a ship that has sunk to the bottom of the ocean – it’s still there, but it’s not going anywhere.

Foolishly or not (it’s debatable), I’ve still continued to work on the site periodically.  What was once a promising niche site has now become a rehab project.  I expected the ups and downs early in the site’s life due to your standard Google dance, or whatever you want to call it, however I never expected that 9  months later I would still be trying to get the site in motion.

Anyway, let’s do some analysis…

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I ask this question because I know my answer – not too efficiently.  Granted, I’ve done my best to outsource content and put it on “autopilot” but there was still one thing missing: a way to effectively and efficiently implement Amazon affiliate links without having to bounce back and forth between my site and my Amazon.com affiliate account.  Not to mention this wasn’t something I could have a VA do, because I didn’t want them having access to my account.

Let me say one thing up front – this is a product review (for a WordPress plugin), which you know I rarely publish here.  And it’s not for everyone.  But if you build Amazon niche sites or plan to, this is a tool you’re probably going to want to at least read about.

[Note: I'm actually going to be giving away at least one copy of this plugin for free.  The details are at the end of this post, and it'll be really easy to enter (all you have to do is leave a comment!).]

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We spend a lot of our time focused on driving conversions on our niche sites: testing ad placements, building e-mail lists, strategically placing affiliate links, etc. Although some people make a lot of money doing this, results almost always fall below expectations.  You create a site, work hard at building backlinks, but are ultimately disappointed by the actual income earned.  Either our expectations are too high, or we simply aren’t working hard enough to reach those expectations.

That’s why when you’re hit with unexpected income, it’s really exciting, no matter how small the income.  I decided to share three short examples with you today from my own niche sites, where I’ve run into “unexpected” income.

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Ever since I read Tim Ferriss’s The 4-Hour Workweek, I’ve known about virtual assistants (“VAs”).  For whatever reason, even after being constantly reminded about VAs from various blogs that I read, it’s always been something I haven’t fully utilized.  Sure, I wrote all about how to create a niche site in 0 hours.  Unfortunately, writing about something and actually doing it are two completely different things.

I’ve outsourced a few tasks before – in particular, article writing and backlink building.  My results have been mixed.  The backlink quality isn’t always great.  And the articles, even if they’re decent quality, still take time to format and publish on your niche site.  Adding images, formatting, affiliate links, and other miscellaneous things take time.

I complain a lot about not having enough time to get my projects to where they want to be. Maybe Maren Kate’s guest post here about the 80/20 principle and delegation was the kick in the rear that I needed to finally execute on some more advanced outsourcing ideas. Let me tell you about what I did.

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It’s been more than two months since my last niche side duel update, so many of you are probably wondering if I’m even still working on this site.  The truth is, I hadn’t for awhile, but I have recently started making some changes.  There were a lot of things that had kind of demotivated me, but one of the main ones was a domain change that put me off of Google’s radar for awhile.

The good thing is, I got back on Google’s radar, and in a big way.  This got my motivation back up and I made some changes to the site that I think will make a difference in my earnings.  This short story doesn’t have a very happy ending though, at least for the time being, so you’ll have to keep reading to see what happened.

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When I first explained my Amazon niche site challenge and followed it up with an earnings update in my November income report, many of you wanted to know more about exactly what I do to monetize these sites (besides using Amazon) and why earnings may have varied between sites.

I’m still not going to reveal the actual URLs of the sites, but I will go into a lot more detail about the general niches I’m targeting and provide a lot of other information that I think you will find helpful and/or interesting.  If you don’t already know about my Amazon niche site challenge, I suggest you read the introduction first.

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As the niche site duel continues, I’ve gotten to the point where, aside from adding periodic content and backlinks, the site has become a passive project for me.  I’ll still share my earnings in my monthly income reports and maybe another post here or there about new strategies I’m using, but the vast majority of my niche site’s configuration has already been publicized here for you to read.

I’m a huge fan of personal challenges, and I think it’s about time to layer another one on top of my already existing projects.  You can criticize me for juggling too many projects at once, but I’ve learned that this is how I keep it interesting and enjoyable for myself.  If I can still produce positive results, I’m not going to complain about it.

I really believe that this new challenge is going to do wonders for my passive income portfolio, as I continue to diversify it.  Let’s jump into the details.

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