I’m a hypocrite.
There, I said it.
Phew, big relief off my shoulders. That dark cloud is gone.
I like keeping a clean house (metaphorically speaking).
What am I talking about?
I’m talking about how I run Fat Stacks quite a bit differently than my niche sites. Granted, Fat Stacks is a different business model in many ways than ad-supported niche sites, but still, I really need to take my own advice running FS.
Most content on FS doesn’t target keywords all that well. I don’t do KW research for FS for the most part… until very recently.
I’m changing the FS publishing model for the blog. Or at least I’m giving it a shot.
Don’t worry, the email newsletter format isn’t changing.
I suspect most of you never visit Fat Stacks blog anyway because I seldom link to it. The good stuff is in the newsletter and my courses and that’s not changing.
What is changing is I’ve hired a writer to start publishing search-friendly content.
It’s time to grow FS traffic. It’s been in a plateau for a long time.
Why now?
Because it occurred to me I’m not leveraging all that awesome site authority FS has accrued over the years.
It has an Ahrefs DR of 47. That’s not bad. My biggest niche site has DR 72 which is awesome. However, I think 47 can rocket some good content to the top of the SERPs.
FS attracts links from many sites quite nicely thanks to original content. Ahrefs reports 890 referring domains. Many of them from great sites.
For years I’ve said the following:
- Target low competition keywords.
- Rank that obscure content.
- Attract links naturally.
- Grow site authority.
- Leverage site authority to rank for more and better KWs.
- Rinse and repeat.
That’s my niche site model in a nutshell.
And yet, I don’t deploy it on FS… until now.
Why am I telling you this?
In case you stumble upon different content on the site not written by me you’ll know why. There’s some of that already. There’s going to be a lot more.
I’m also telling you this because it’s a simple way to remind you of my niche site model.
I don’t really have a lot of strategies, tips or methods to talk about.
Instead, I deliver the same strategy over and over wrapped up in different messages.
What else am I doing on FS?
I’m going to treat it more like a niche site which involves:
- Expanding the topics to capture more traffic;
- Deploy taxonomies better and more consistently (tags and categories);
- Plan out and implement MUCH better interlinking. As an aside, I’ve been doing a ton of interlinking on niche sites lately and have pinned down a system for it. It’s an automated / manual hybrid that is working great. This system will be added shortly to my On-Site SEO course.
That’s about it. It’s a lot but it’s also not all that complex. I like to keep things simple.
Is this a big mistake?
I don’t think so and here’s why.
The meat and potatoes of the Fat Stacks business is this email newsletter, which is not changing.
If I can attract more newsletter readers, that’s a good thing.
I also hope to improve on-site FS affiliate revenue. I’ve been delinquent about that as well. Downright lazy about it.
Will I stick with it?
I think so assuming I can keep a good writer or two on board to do the heavy lifting.
I don’t relish writing the keyword-friendly content, at least not five per day.
I’d rather write the emails.
Will it work?
Who knows.
It’s worth trying.
Site authority is a terrible thing to waste.
Jon Dykstra is a six figure niche site creator with 10+ years of experience. His willingness to openly share his wins and losses in the email newsletter he publishes has made him a go-to source of guidance and motivation for many. His popular “Niche site profits” course has helped thousands follow his footsteps in creating simple niche sites that earn big.
