100K Project: Episode 7 (Burn Out)

October came and man, I was burned out. I’ve been grinding on this site since July and I couldn’t stomach it anymore last month.

Let’s start with a recap of the goals I’d set from the last post.

i) Put Titles for All Articles

I accomplished this goal. I went through all the posts on the site and set their titles. The titles are basically optimized for the keywords that each article is targeting. There’s no rocket science here.

I’m using Rank Math plugin instead of the popular Yoast SEO for my sites. Rank Math has a couple of options that I love, which Yoast SEO doesn’t. For example, there’s an option to set links to follow or no follow built within the plugin.

ii) Uploading Images

I also inserted images to all the posts on the site. The affiliate site is quite image-heavy so I’m using ShortPixel Plugin to optimize the images to ensure the site does not take ages to load.

Using ShortPixel is easy. I’ve just uploaded the plugin on the site and it automatically optimizes any image that is uploaded. If you are not using WordPress, there is a web interface where you can upload your images manually to optimize them.

iii) Proofreading Content

I did not manage to proofread any content on the site mostly because of burnout. Towards the middle of the month, I really got burned out from working on the site. Lots of fires to put out on other areas of the business and I also got lazy. Every time I wanted to proofread the content, I procrastinated!

Other Things

In no particular order, here are other things I managed to do in October.

i) Signed up for a couple of affiliate programs. I don’t want the site to rely solely on Amazon so I’m getting as many partners as I can on board.  One of the networks I applied to join, but got rejected, is Awin.

ii) Set up WooCommerce store section for the site. I will start dropshipping in the coming months.

iii) Made a list of about 50 forums where I’ve started posting to make my accounts legit. I haven’t started doing any traffic leaking to the site.

iv) I’ve been occasionally answering questions on Quora and Yahoo

v) Made a couple of Pinterest templates, which I plan to use for promoting the site.

That’s how I fared.

Stats

SEMRush

Overall traffic reduced based on SEMrush data:

Google Analytics

Well, SEMRush may be showing that traffic declined but we know it’s not as accurate as Google Analytics. In October, the overall number of visitors to the site increased to just over 600!

Earnings

Earnings are still in their 30s. Here’s what I made from Amazon Associates.

I also made $6 from Sovrn (VigLink)

November Plans

I have a couple of posts that were written in October for the site. I’ll be posting these posts on my PBN network. Apart from this, I will continue proofreading the content on the site and optimizing it with related keywords.

I know Black Friday and Cyber Monday are coming up but I don’t have any plans for the site for these two holidays. I’ve been debating whether I should go hard with promotions during these upcoming holidays but I realized doing so will take me off my goal.

So, I’ll stick to my plan and stay the course.