Introducing The Useful Niche Authority Website Case Study

How I will be earning six figures again and how you can too

My new niche authority website will be the first post in a series designed to show you step-by-step how you can start to build passive online income. It will also make up an important part of the six figures I plan to earn again.

As you may know, even though I have been living an internet lifestyle for over ten years, the website I am about to reveal is brand new. It has been built using WordPress and as you will see it is my first attempt to build a website on my own. In the past I just paid others, but this time I wanted to do it and also wanted to use it for this blog as an example to show that anyone else can do it too – part-time and with no previous experience.

For the record, prior to undertaking this project:

– I had never built a WordPress website and do not a have a software background

– Never used Twitter, Google+ or even Facebook with any level of business success

Basically three months ago I was a complete newbie in terms of building WordPress sites.

So why on earth should this succeed?

• My past experience online has taught me first hand that useful niche authority websites can generate Pat Flynn levels of earnings without requiring anywhere near the same level of awesomeness Pat Flynn displays.
• I am not distracted by 90% of what gurus say. I just stick to good old common sense business practices like Seth Godin has put so well.

“Don’t worry so much about the ‘online’ part. Instead, figure out how to create value. The online part will take care of itself.”          Seth Godin

Sound easy?

It’s not. But it is a hell of a lot easier than starting an off-line business, and it has much better upside and little cost or risk. It is also a lot cheaper than business school.

“You need to learn – start – build and persevere”

How I will do it (and how you can too)

Here is the blueprint I will be using to build six figures online. This plan is an improvement on what I have done in the past and that made me over seven figures:

• Focus on just one awesome way to make money – niche authority websites.

• Smartphone Apps, Software and WordPress Plugins are all potentially great ways to make money online. So too are Blogs and Podcasts however I like to keep things simple as possible so that I can master the skill and also so that I can repeat the process and build other sites. (Focusing on too many things is a great way to fail)

• Create diversified sources of income – The biggest mistake I have made in the business I have done to date is not having diversified enough. This time it will be different. Fortunately by only focusing on niche authority websites this will be made easier.

• Focus on being useful (and not keywords) I prefer the word “useful” to “adding value” but really we are talking about the same thing.

I recently wrote about the benefits of being useful, but here are just three:

1. By adding more value, more income can be made (much more income)
2. Useful websites get shared
3. Useful websites get natural links

Then you can simply rinse and repeat

The website I am about to reveal was chosen based around these principles.

How I chose my idea

For many people ideas come easily, but for others ideas do not come easily. Regardless, in both cases starting is usually the biggest challenge. To help solve this problem and find the most profitable and enjoyable idea, I created a little system I use based on these factors:

• Problems and Fears of others
• Commercial Potential
• Ability for me to add value
• My passion
• My knowledge
• Noteworthy Competitors

Basically what I do is start with a whole bunch of “ideas” an then I make notes and score my ideas based on the list above.

The trick to this system of finding the best useful niche websites is not to get too worried about details, but just actually working through the list. By doing that you will start to see some clear favourites.

If you are looking for ideas, I wrote a post about a great way to find profitable ideas.

So what is the site?

After working through this list, I actually ended up with three sites ideas that I wanted to start immediately.

But only one could be done first – so here it is:

www.RSACoursesOnline.com

If you want to know what the site is about probably the easiest way to explain is to watch the video below which is my first attempt at a video using Camtasia. Basically RSA training in Australia is a requirement for most the States of Australia if you want to work in a job that serves alcohol. RSA stands for Responsible Service of Alcohol.

When you watch this video you might get a laugh out of the number of times I say “top tips”, but more importantly I think you will see how the site is being useful to my visitors.

Why I decided on this Niche?

1. I know that I can be useful because almost all my search results bring up training organizations with one agenda – make sales. There are many ways I can add value, but the one the stood out the most to me was just to contrast and compare them. I also found out some are really bad.
2. Although a relatively narrow niche, it should make a reasonable return based on the hours of work required
3. Low competition, because all my competitors are training organizations. Just by virtue of being a third party I have power to recommend and endorse good products based on proof.
4. I knew something about it, or I soon would after I had done some courses.
5. It had a simple way to monetize – affiliates

I also chose this niche because it was most suitable as a great case study for this blog.

Goals

• To earn over $70/hour based on the number of hours I put in and measuring the income the site generates in years two, three and four
• To spend a total maximum of 150 hours in first year
• To earn $300/month after one year ($300 x 36 months = $10800 / 150 hours = $72/hour)

For me, $300/month is not a lot of money but $70/hour is perfectly respectable for my first website. I think using an hourly rate is a much more useful metric. For anyone wanting to be cubicle free, time is a valuable commodity. I expect I will be able to improve on this number with my next sites, because of the things I will have learned and I will get A LOT faster at doing everything. $200/hour is a reasonable target based on what I have done before.

Rules of Engagement

• At the expense of earning income fast I will not be doing anything that is potentially harmful including fancy backlink strategies that may or may not work. I know I could possibly make things happen a lot faster, and that would also look a lot sexier on this blog, but not at the expense of my future livelihood. My policy is strictly no stuff that could harm my income.
• I am focused on the amount of money I can generate for each hour I work – not the total number
• It is very early days for the website, but so far I am pleased to tell you that things seem to be working well. The site is starting to generate traffic and it has even generated four sales resulting in $40 in income.

Here are the numbers for you:

Traffic:

As you can see traffic has been steadily increasing. At 57%, the “returning visitors” percentage is encouraging because to me this is a good indicator of usefulness. “Visit duration” and “pages per visit” are within acceptable limits too but these are two things I will be watching carefully to see how they affect the delivery of sales.

As an interesting aside, prior to the EMD update (which I discussed in my “Niche Site Strategy That Works” post, I was ranking really well for “RSA Courses Online”. It was no surprise that on the day EMD update was added to Google (27 September) my traffic for that keyword went to zero. What is however very surprising is that I have sporadically been getting traffic for “RSA Courses Online”.

Time Spent: (Budgeted hours prior to launch shown in brackets)

1. Research into ideas and niche selection (using system above) – 10 hours (10)
2. Defining problems and solutions I could offer through the website – 5 hours (3)
3. Additional checks to ensure potential to make money – 2 hours (0)
4. Writing initial pages of content before launch (6 Pages) – 21 hours (30)
5. Build initial website (AWeber) – 9 hours (10)
6. Launch – 2 hours (0)
7. Logo (99 Designs) – 2 hours
8. Adding additional pages after launch (3 pages) – 19 hours
9. Adding Video – 5 hours
10. Squidoo Page – 3 hours
11. Marketing – 25 hours includes setting up Twitter and Google+

Costs to Date:

• Hosting for one year (Bluehost) – $53.94 (shared with this blog)
• Premium Theme (Studiopress) – $39.99 (shared with this blog)
• Article (oDesk) – $6.66
• Logo (99Designs) – $99

Total Costs = $159.60 + 103 hours of my time

Income:

• Four sales over 2 months

Current Monthly Income = $20/month  – four sales in total all through one training affiliate at $10 commission for each sale

As you can see the actual costs to build a website are basically insignificant compared to the time spent.

So far, I have blown my time budget quite significantly. At this point I would have hoped to be around the 75 hour mark. I still have a lot of content to add including reviews for other training organizations. Marketing too is something I underestimated, unfortunately for the 25 hours I spent, I do not have much to show for it. The majority of my 25 hours was spent assessing backlink strategies and deciding that even the best ones were either useless or risky. Discovering this was time well spent but unfortunately I have nothing to show for it except peace of mind and a better strategy going forward.

So what now?

I am at a point now where Google needs time to appreciate the authority my site has. To help Google I will be doing consistent ninja marketing and working my content strategy so that the site is truly useful. This will take me a few hours per week, which means that I am ready to give some of my time to other projects.

I have a lot more to reveal, including more details of how to choose profitable niches, my ninja marketing strategy, onsite SEO and content strategy.

Until my next post, I would love to hear you thoughts on this case study. Do you think I am back on the road to six figures? Or do you think I will be working at my local Starbucks by this time next year? Also, what else would you like me to reveal? Please leave your comments below!