Sorry guys, but this blog post sucks.

I don’t really have anything to say right now.  It’s 9 minutes past midnight.  I’m super tired, but I don’t want to get up from the table and go to bed yet.  Something inside my head is telling me I’ve got to write a blog post before I go to bed.

Why would I write something sucky instead of just getting some rest and coming up with something meaningful tomorrow?  Because I’m a blogger, dammit, and sometimes bloggers waste people’s time by writing boring crap.  We keep telling ourselves that if we just keep typing out our random thoughts, eventually something good will come out.

Doesn’t always work, though.

I realized today that I’ve only published a handful of posts on here this year, and several of those were actually guest posts by other bloggers.  I’ve been working on some other niche site projects the past couple months and have been ignoring my blog.  But even before that I was kind of in a rut.

Anyways, here’s what I did today.

1.  Outsourced An Article On Textbroker

I came up with an article idea that I want to publish on HubPages, but since it is basically a review of several products, I outsourced it on Textbroker.  I hate paying other writers to write articles for me, especially when I write better than they do, but I hate writing product reviews even more.

2.  Wrote An Article And Published It On HubPages

I also wrote a 1700 word article today and published it on HubPages.  I figure it’ll start drawing traffic within the next month or so.  Unfortunately, it’s not product oriented — actually kind of anti-product oriented — so I won’t be adding any Amazon links in there.  But hopefully I judged the keyword competitiveness accurately and it’ll get some views and add some pennies or nickels into my account every day because of it.

3.  Updated My Affiliate Links On iWOC

I finally got approved and added into the PostRunner affiliate program today, so I went onto those couple of pages where I had links to PR and inserted my affiliate ID.  While I was browsing my exit link stats (boring shit bloggers do when they’re supposed to be writing), I noticed several links to HubPages, The Keyword Academy, PostRunner and even Amazon that were missing affiliate IDs, so I went through all of them and updated the ones with my little code so I can hopefully get paid through those.

4.  Tweaked The Sidebar On One Of My Niche Sites

There was a little graphic in there that links to a page with a big comparison chart of 29 Amazon products, but the graphic blended in a little too well with the site design and actually didn’t really look like something to you’re supposed to click.

So I redid it with new text and colors and now it looks more obvious that it’s something to click on.  Hopefully that will help push some traffic to that page and get me some sales.

5.  Published a sucky 511 word blog post on this blog.

I previously talked about an open case study by Spencer Haws, where he’s been taking his readers step-by-step through his method of building profitable niche sites.  For the study, he started with how to choose a niche/topic, keyword research, link-building, etc., and he let us follow along as he chose a topic and created a new site and got it onto Google’s radar.

Ranked #1 in Google in Just 62 Days!!!

Well, it’s been 62 days since he started that little niche site, and now that website is firmly ranked at #1 in Google for his main keyword.  He’s made about $250 in Amazon commissions and is on track to earn double that amount next month.

I talked more about Spencer’s niche site in the previous post:  ”Micro Niche Sites Are Not Dead“.  If you haven’t yet, go check it out and see how Spencer’s making money online.

The last couple of months I’ve been following along with Spencer Haws of NichePursuits.com.  Spencer’s main income is from really small websites — known as micro niche sites — that focus in on one little niche and bring in income from AdSense or some other affiliate method.

A lot of people made little el cheapo sites like these a few years ago and lost everything when Panda came along and wiped them out.  Because of that, you’ll find plenty of people out there insisting that the micro niche site model is dead and no longer profitable.

But that’s not really the case.

It’s true that low-quality sites — thin on content and thick on advertisements — are pretty much a dead end today, but it’s not necessarily true that a small site doesn’t have a chance to get traffic from Google.

Another one of my e-heroes, Courtney Tuttle (TheKeywordAcademy.com), is also still making small sites — less than 20 pages, or even less than 10 — that Google loves.  The important thing is to simply provide real quality.  If people like it, then Google likes it, so you’ve got to make a site that real people like.  It doesn’t have to be huge to provide real value.

On Niche Pursuits, Spencer is doing a public case study which follows exactly how he makes these sites.  He started a new niche site about 2 months ago and is already earning money through Amazon affiliate links.  And I’m not just talking about 50 cents or a dollar.  I mean, it’s really doing well for such a young site.

Not only is he using a small site, but he’s even using an exact match domain!  In 2013!  Gasp!

Anyways, the point is that with solid keyword research and a little push via some relevant backlinks, even a little site with 5-10 pages of content can earn money.  Go check out Spencer’s public niche site project and see how he does it.

What To Do Next…

Just getting started with the whole Internet marketing/blogging thing and don’t even know where to start or how to make your own niche site or blog?  Check out my page, “How To Start A Blog And Make Some Money.”