Niche websites can be a great way to build passive income streams. There are plenty of methods or strategies that have been successful in creating these types of sites. One strategy that I have been using recently is called The $5 Mini-Site Formula.
I have just completed my third week implementing the $5 Formula on one of my niche websites. I am finally starting to see things pick up over the last couple of days as a result of some hard work put in. I am still only a portion of the way through the steps laid out in the formula, but am starting to see my traffic pick up as well as my earnings. I think in a couple more weeks, I should be earning over $5 per day from my niche site!
Eventually I plan to earn $500 per month ($16.67 per day) from this niche site that will align with my SMART Goals. I am using the $5 Formula as a test to try and jump start this income stream.
Here are my recent notes and current status from this experiment.
Outsourcing
The ghost writer I hired has completed the assigned task of writing 27 short articles centered around the key words I am targeting for my niche website. I requested each article use identified keywords so that I could publish them on several different article marketing websites. Each article is between 250 – 300 words in length.
The total project will cost me $81 and I plan recoup these costs in less than one months time if everything goes to plan. One of the reasons to outsource this type of work is to help take some of the time burden off myself and make this a passive income stream.
I will spending this week taking the articles provided by my ghost writer and publishing them on various article marketing websites (not EzineArticles).
Traffic
The $5 Mini-Site Formula focuses on driving traffic to your niche site through article marketing. According to the plan, I need to send about 120 visitors (17 per day) to my site each week in order to bring in $5 of income per day. Up until a few days ago, I was only averaging about 7 pageviews per day.
Just in the past couple of days, I have seen a sharp increase in the visitors and pageviews to my niche website. At this point it is hard to tell if it is just a fluke or a result of some of the hard work I have put into this project.
Here are my pageview results to date -
- Week #1 – 59
- Week #2 – 39
- Week #3 – 79
The number of visitors to the site also jumped in the past couple of days. The next couple of days will be an important indicator of the sustainability of this increased traffic.
Earnings
My earnings have really started to take off which is a huge motivator for me. I can finally see all those hard hours I put in paying off. I am very pleased with my choice of keywords and know that as I continue to send more traffic to my niche website, the more my earnings will increase.
Here are my earnings results to date -
- Week #1 – $0.44
- Week #2 – $2.32
- Week #3 – $16.16
I averaged $2.31 in earnings over the past seven days. I am almost half way to the $5 goal and I have not even finished 50% of the required tasks laid out in this formula. While I don’t want to get ahead of myself, I can really see the potential income that this site can bring someday!
Final Thoughts
Over the next several days I will be publishing the articles provided to me by my ghost writer which should help increase traffic and earnings overtime. In addition, I am writing all of my content to publish on EzineArticles and still have 15 to go (only have published 12 so far). I hope to knock several more of these articles off this week to see additional earning growth.
The past couple of days have been a real eye opener for me. Maybe there is some other explanation for the jump in traffic and earnings, but I believe it is a result of my hard work. I am very excited about the potential this niche website can bring and look forward to sharing my results with you!
In case you missed them, here are my first two status reports detailing the The $5 Mini-Site Formula –
How are your niche websites coming along? Are you using the $5 Formula?
Related posts:
- The $5 Mini-Site Formula – Week 4
- The $5 Mini-Site Formula – Week 2
- The $5 Mini-Site Formula – Week 5 & 6
- The $5 Mini-Site Formula – Week 1
- The $5 Mini-Site Formula Review
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Excellent progress! Today I just started working on my site again more – and I also signed up to oDesk and Elance. Really finding it confusing right now, and am just getting poor English writers apply mainly (I can tell just from their messages to me). I guess it helps to either pay more or wait to find a gem among the cheaper writers. Outsourcing will help so much, though.
@Ruth – Thanks so much! Agreed, the cheaper writers typically have poor English and grammar skills. You can tell the companies that simply apply for every job there is. For me, it is cheaper to go outside the US, but probably not worth it so I have been trying to hire writers from US, UK, or Australia for now.
John,
Can I ask you a couple of questions? The Niche Site, how’re you earning any money from it? Google ads? Is that it? Or also other affiliate products?
Is it a regular website or did you use WP or something? Do you plan on always adding new content to this site? Is the Ghost Writer only for article marketing?
I think, most of us are fine with creating the site but find it hard to promote the site. Who wants to write 20-40 short articles to promote, so I’m glad this is paying off for you!
Sorry about the questions, I love learning about new endeavors.
@Moon – I appreciate the questions to be honest. I think the more I can disclose the better shape my sites will be as I can also learn from others.
At this time, AdSense is the only revenue source on the site. I may eventually add some affiliate links, but not until I get some decent traffic headed there. I used a simple WordPress theme for the site which I can explain in further detail in a future post. I will only be using the ghost writer for now to write the article marketing content. As time goes on, this may change.
The one question I have is how sustainable will a niche website like this be with as little effort on my part as possible. Only time will tell.
John,
It would be excellent to shed some light on the theme you’re using, all the ways you’re promoting your site, is it meant to look like a blog or just an informative site, etc.
Love transparency. I guess, in the end, that is what I was trying to lead to….. how sustainable will it be in the future? How much work will it require on a constant basis? Only time can tell.
@Moon – I will plan a couple future posts on the topic of Wordpress themes.
Hello John,
Great articles, I’m learning alot, keep all the information coming!! We’re all rooting you on, I love to see people succeed, and also it gives me hope. I think you might have covered this before, but can you explain what kind of research you do on your keywords for your niche site, more specifically, do you try and create a niche site with a certain CPC range? If so, what’s a good range to use? Thinking about trying some niche sites, so I need to ask the experts like yourself.
@Steven – I appreciate it.
In terms of keyword research, I don’t have an exact plan, but I typically try to find keywords that have a CPC in the double digits. I typically use a combination of Google’s Keyword Tool and Micro Niche Finder for my research.
I was make sure that my keyword selection covers a topic that I am interested in. Otherwise, if I didn’t like the topic, it would be work!
I will post more on keyword selection and CPC ranges in the future.
What a motivating post! I believe the reason why many newcomers to making money online fail is because they get caught up in the hype of $158,840 checks by “gurus” and become discouraged when their results are not the same.
It is encouraging to see that you’re sticking things out with one project and seeing it through as well as rejoicing in the little things because they will soon roll over into a greater passive income stream for you and your family!
@Flippa – Why thank you! I have to admit I got caught up in the hype when I first started out almost two years ago. I have been discouraged far too many times, but also realize the potential that one can earn online so I stick with it.
Excellent post, I have had good success with the $5 formula and also using techniques from it for other bigger sites… I learned the basics of article marketing from that course.
@Forest – Thanks. Can I ask – Once you get a site up and earning daily income, how much maintenance is required to keep your mini site fresh and current? Or is it hands off once it is fully built?
This is great progress. I am new to ehow (my first foray into making residual income online) but after I get more articles posted I would like to branch out and diversify into other income opportunities. This definitely gives me hope that I can be successful online.
@Clark – Building niche websites definitely goes through it’s ups and downs. After a very positive set of results last week, this week is just awful. That won’t stop me as I can tell the earnings potential a site like the one I am building can bring.