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I need some advice please. How likely is it that (a) a new site could rank on page one for (as an example) “best lawn mowers” within six/nine months relying only on content and, if so, (b) could money be made from it using affiliate marketing and ads? (Further details below)
I’m asking because I’m a web designer and someone has contacted me seeing if I’d be willing to partner with them building several sites unpaid but with a view to sharing the (eventual) profits 50/50. This person has researched a number of product areas which are relatively underrepresented. She is confident we’ll get to page one in six/nine months but, from what I can see, they don’t have that much SEO experience so I’m obviously concerned I might end up getting nothing out of it. This strategy revolves around creating a lot of high quality content (which is an area where I know they can deliver) rather than getting any backlinks. Could it succeed? Any advice greatly appreciated.
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4 Replies
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It could be very doable.
It very much depends on what you’re aiming to rank for.
Content is always king and will be the base of any good organic marketing strategy. But, when it comes to SEO, there also has to be a strategy, keyword planning, internal linking, etc.
Not to mention the technical side of SEO. Are they planning on keeping you around for maintenance of this?
Monetisation is very possible for good performing sites. But, again, it all depends on their strategy.
Sorry if this isn’t helpful OP, just things worth noting.
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Sign up for a $7 trial of Ahrefs and assess the competition of the keywords. Look at the sites and articles that are currently ranking in the top 5 or so spots. Can they do better? Is the competition writing content that’s relevant to the query?
Look at some of the similar queries like “best self propelled lawn mowers” or “best riding lawn mowers”.
There’s real value to these sites and guides, which is why people are making them.
Something to think about as well is for things like lawn mowers, as a new home owner I could spend 2 hours reading guides on the best lawn mower for my yard but at the end of the day I’m probably going to go to Lowes or Home Depot and buy it. What this means is that while you might get traffic and potentially ad revenue for something like a lawn mower, affiliate revenue isn’t going to be the same as for something the user can just click through and buy online.
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It might be possible, but it’d be very difficult and would require a huge amount of time and effort, not to mention a very experienced and skilled SEO.
If done correctly, it could do fairly well. But I think there’s a lot more than that to consider.
If I were you, I’d run a mile. In my opinion, if she was a capable SEO she’d easily be able to put together her own website that was technically sound. That would be a red flag for me.
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who is building the site? you, her, or a third person?
> but, from what I can see, they don’t have that much SEO experience
you probably want to shift to a better pay structure model. For example, asking for a symbolic amount upfront (like $250, $500, $1000), whatever. (you can agree to return this amount after a particular site monetizes).
The reason for this is more than the money itself, it’s to safeguard you from bad situations.
If you work totally for free, then to the other person, whether you make 1 site, 10 sites, or 100… it’s the same. There’s a strong risk that you this person is purely an “idea” person. (especially if they’ve never create a site and made it monetize-able before). You make 2 sites, early on it seems like it’s not working, so rather than trying hard to make it work, they ask you to build a 3rd site… and a fourth…
Having a price (even if it’s as low as $250) makes them think twice before pivoting. It also makes them value the site a bit more (vs just abandoning it). It protects you from them continuing to ask for more work from you, while not putting in the full work themselves (if they’ve never done this before, 100% they have no idea how much work is needed). They probably think it’s easy peasy. (“if I just had a site… it’ll all work… if only I had a site”)
AND, if they truly have good content, try youtube and wordpress. There’s really not much reason for a web designer to really get involved. Just to a wordpress template, no need for an actual design. WordPress templates are amazing these days. And they take care of both the need to design and develop. It’s fully ready to go, and probably better looking than any site people can build on a budget. Actually, just youtube channel is good enough to monetize, no need for even a website if you have the content.
> She has a big list (over 100 niches)
I mean, if I’m being honest… if she has 100 niches, she has none.To make niche content work you have to actually know/care about the niche. That’s what makes it different than regular content. People in the niche care, a lot, and they can easily tell who knows and doesn’t know their shit (and who cares). You don’t have to necessarily be an expert in the niche, but it should be a niche that you personally know. This advice changes if the purpose of the sites is not to write content, but rather, some sort of sales or aggregation. For example, if you don’t care or own a hamster, you can’t make a content site talking about hamster ownership. However, you can still make a e-commerce site selling hamster related items.
If the idea is forums, you will need content and personality (people in the space know your name). otherwise, people will just use subreddits or facebook groups. Most forums that still exists now gained traffic a decade ago (when forums were everything), and that’s why they have the user base volume to continue. I can’t think of any forum that began in the last 5 years without a specific personality (or site identity) driving it.
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