(The Entrepreneur Ridealong) Building A Healthy Food Niche Site From $0 to $10,000: Day 1
Updated on June 6, 2023
TLDR;
SEO
Nell VH
Niche
Healthy food
Content Strategy
Topical authority, monitoring crawl budget and indexing
Linkbuilding Strategy
Organic social media, citation back links, guest posting
Monetization Plan
Ezoic ads, Amazon Associates, product sales
Target Earnings
$300/month
Target Exit
$10,000
Get ready to join me on a ridealong as I create a website from scratch with the goal of selling it on Empire Flippers. Throughout this SEO case study, I’ll cover every step, from designing the site to writing high-quality content and implementing effective SEO strategies.
The primary source of income for this website will come from Ezoic’s ad networks and affiliate income, most likely from Amazon. To achieve the goal of a successful sale, we’ll focus on building topical authority by writing high-quality articles with the help of AI and human editors.
We’ll also concentrate on advanced on-page SEO techniques such as entity optimization, Google NLP, schema implementation, and more; backlink building will play a smaller role in our strategy.
Our main focus will be creating a website with topical authority, which will help us attract high-quality traffic and generate more revenue through Ezoic ads and affiliate marketing.
To achieve this, we’ll start by conducting extensive research into our chosen niche and identifying the most relevant topics to cover.
Next, we’ll use AI tools to create high-quality articles that are well-optimized for SEO. We’ll also enlist the help of human editors to ensure that the content is of the highest quality possible.
Advanced on-page SEO techniques, such as entity optimization and schema implementation, will be utilized to improve our rankings and drive more traffic.
While backlink building will be a part of our strategy, it won’t be our primary focus. Instead, we’ll concentrate on creating high-quality content that naturally attracts backlinks from other reputable websites.
By focusing on topical authority, we’ll be able to create a website that stands out from the competition and generates significant revenue through Ezoic ads and affiliate income.
About Me
I’m Nell, and I hail from Indonesia. I’ve had a nomadic lifestyle throughout my business journey, and it all started with my trading company that imported electronics from Singapore/Hongkong to Indonesia.
I eventually moved to Hongkong and started a company there with my family; importing from the United States to Hongkong. Later, I moved to the USA, living in Houston for a while, and then in San Gabriel, CA. Unfortunately, I faced failure in my investments in US stock options during the 2009 subprime crisis, which led me back to Hongkong.
It was in Hongkong that I began exploring China and its potential, and as we got to know it well enough, we started selling products from Chinese factories to the USA. Our focus shifted to Amazon and we became an eCommerce company specializing in Amazon FBA. In fact, we’re currently in the process of selling one of my FBA businesses on Empire Flippers.
Since I’m in the digital marketing industry, I started an SEO project in early 2022. I managed to build a gardening site from scratch and attract 10k visits per month in just ten months.
Buoyed by this success, I purchased an aged domain for $4k and started building a food blog, which yielded the same results. I still have both sites with me, and my main focus has been on topical authority as it has brought me success twice already.
The Goal of My Ridealong
It’s always a great idea to work backward and have a plan in motion.
So, here it is…
The aim is for a $10,000 – $16,000 exit, hopefully in 15 months.
At a 30x multiple the site will need to be earning $333.33 – $533.33 per month in net profit to achieve this exit target; at a 40x multiple, it will need to earn between $250 – $400; and at a 50x multiple, it will need to earn between $200 – $320.
Empire Flippers has plenty on how to get a higher multiple, but quality content, high-quality links, and diverse traffic across the sites help.
My monthly profit target is $300, which is $3,600 a year.
The math behind a $3,600 per-year blog:
- $300 per month
- $10 per day
Monetized with ads only:
- $10 RPM (revenue per 1,000 visitors)
- 1,000 visitors per day
Monetized with ads and affiliates:
- 500 visitors per day
- $5 from ads at $10 RPM
- 5 affiliate orders at 3% commission on $50 each product sale
- $75 from affiliate sales
Monetized with ads, affiliates, and product sales:
- 750 visitors per day
- $7.50 from ads at $10 RPM
- 3 affiliate orders for $50 each at 3% conversion
- $45 from affiliate sales
- 2 product sales for $100 each at 5% conversion
- $200 from product sales
Breakdown of costs:
- Content: $450/month
- Software/Hosting: $30/month
- Virtual Assistants/Operator: $20/month
Content will be the majority of my costs. This is primarily because I will hire writers for 90% of the work. I have a few writers that do articles for $0.05 – $0.08 per word.
Be sure to bookmark this page for future reference. Whether you’re starting out or already have a website generating some revenue, this ridealong should provide you with valuable insights and ideas to take your website to the next level.
My Niche Selection Process
I often search for niches on competitor sites with low domain authority (DA)/domain ranking (DR) and weak backlink profiles but that still have high rankings and a lot of traffic.
When I have some free time, I browse Flippa to see if there are any interesting niches available for purchase. I have also found success in selecting niches from explodingtopics.com. In fact, the niche for my gardening site was discovered on this website.
At the time, the niche was “jade plant”, and due to the increase in gardening during the pandemic, it was a popular topic with a high search volume.
My Content Production and SEO Strategy
I have a team of 15 in-house writers in my country and we have been producing tens of articles per day long before AI tools became widespread.
At that time, we used tools like Frase and Jarvis (now known as Jasper). However, since the emergence of numerous AI writing tools, we have combined several of them. I have access to most of the AI writing tools available in the market. We usually spend time on keyword planning, clustering topics, and scheduling before we start working on a site.
My strategy hinges on utilizing the topical authority approach, where content is key. Not only does quantity matter, but quality does too.
In this era of AI-generated writing, there is a race to churn out as much content as possible, aiming for quick results. I’ve tried that route, experienced it, and seen it fail. From this, I learned about a concept I call ‘content velocity.’
While Google or John Mueller may not have discussed this, as someone who produces dozens of starter blogs each week, I can attest to its existence. Therefore, I maintain a modest content output, limiting it to fewer than five articles per day, even though I’m capable of producing over 50 articles daily.
I monitor the crawl budget and keep track of how many articles are indexed each day. Based on these metrics, I adjust my content creation strategy accordingly.
Link Building
I plan to conduct minimal link-building. As a starting point, I establish social media channels and then work on gaining followers.
In the initial weeks, I will create local citation backlinks, essentially mirroring the natural business progression. I may add one or two backlinks per week through guest posts. Having said that, my primary focus will remain on my topical clusters. I will regularly review which cluster topics need optimization and expansion.
How I Set Up My Website
I built my website using various hosting providers: DreamHost, HostArmada, and most recently Namecheap’s EasyWP. Although the setup process is similar across all three, I typically use WP-Rocket, ShortPixel, and RankMath for optimization.
In addition to building websites for myself, I have a small division at my agency that sells starter sites on Flippa. This allows us to build numerous websites with ease.
To migrate or clone sites, we use All-in-One WP Migration. When it comes to themes, I primarily use Genesis, but I also use WP Astra and Divi on occasion.
How I’ll Monetize the Site
I don’t intend to keep this blog for a long period, and thus I won’t delve deeply into the business niche; in this case, healthy food. Therefore, the monetization strategy will be straightforward.
As a Level 3 client with Ezoic, I will utilize the Ezoic ad network for the initial monetization phase. Furthermore, given my background in the Amazon business, it’s relatively easy for me to create a Kindle book.
This will be an added bonus as I will promote my own Kindle book and also act as an Amazon affiliate, recommending physical products.
Project Summary
I’m starting a new website in the combative sports niche in June 2023.
I found the niche by searching for niches on competitor sites with low domain authority (DA)/domain ranking (DR) and weak backlink profiles but that still have high rankings and a lot of traffic.
My team of 15 in-house writers is going to produce content using AI tools. Content velocity is going to be the spine of my content production strategy. I will maintain a modest content output, limiting it to fewer than five articles per day, even though I’m capable of producing over 50 articles daily.
As a starting point, I establish social media channels and then work on gaining followers for organic social backlinks.
In the initial weeks, I will create local citation backlinks, essentially mirroring the natural business progression. I may add one or two backlinks per week through guest posts.
I’m going to monetize the site through Ezoic advertising, Amazon Associates, and Kindle book sales. The performance targets for the site are as follows:
- Revenue: $500/month
- Costs: $200/month
- Profit: $300/month
- 750 visitors per day
- $7.50 from ads at $10 RPM
- 3 affiliate orders for $50 each at 3% conversion
- $45 from affiliate sales
- 2 product sales for $100 each at 5% conversion
- $200 from product sales
Follow along my journey to learn how to grow a site from $0/mo to $300/mo for a $7,500 – $10,000 exit!
Project Completion Targets
