This Affiliate Site Makes $40k/Year with 90% Organic Traffic!

The Scott Max Newsletter

In Partnership with International Intrigue

Issue #2

Reading time:

15 mins

Hi 👋, this is the Scott Max Newsletter. The soon-to-be daily email bringing you one step closer to your own thriving online business.

We analyze a wonderful, small, online business each week with a full breakdown of how it makes money, why it makes money, and its opportunities to grow. Below that, we give you the action steps to build a business like this to create freedom for yourself.

This is the best way to learn the tactics, skillset, and nuance of making money online.

Let’s get to the good stuff you'll see in this email:

An annual income of $42k
Content-led SEO with high organic traffic
As always, a blueprint you can use to build a business like this one or better!

But first, let me introduce our partner for this email, International Intrigue

Staying informed about the world doesn’t have to be boring.

International Intrigue is a free global affairs briefing created by former diplomats to help the next generation of leaders better understand how geopolitics, business and technology intersect. They deliver the most important geopolitical news and analysis in <5-minute daily briefing that you’ll actually look forward to reading.

The What 🚀

An affiliate site earning $42,000 yearly, with little to no paid traffic!

In this week's newsletter, we take a deep dive into a content business that generates an average income of $3,000 monthly. Further below, we break down the revenue sources and practices that enable this business to achieve its results.

The How 💻

Most of this site's revenue is made through Affiliate networks like Amazon Affiliate program, Fiverr affiliates, and Ads using Google Adsense.

Affiliate links are embedded cleverly throughout the site's content, especially in images, which typically translate into earnings whenever a user clicks on and makes a purchase through the link.

Blog posts and articles on this site are optimised around keywords related to car accessories, Amazon tutorials, furniture reviews, Fiverr, sports, electronics, technology and others.

According to findings from Ubersuggest, this site ranks on the first page for the keywords —Skullcandy crusher (electronics niche), Glute machines (sports), and Amazon prime senior discounts—which drive the most traffic to this site.

Keyword Research from Ubersuggest

They feature product reviews, comparison posts and blogs on products or services that readers often find useful.

Furthermore, this business is leveraging the use of relevant, well-placed ads, to earn money anytime a user clicks on an ad.

The Why 🔥

Finding the right keywords to target and using them for on-page optimization has helped this affiliate site increase its traffic over time.

On-page optimization is important for SEO ranking because it involves including target keywords in the title, meta description, and throughout the content on a website.

By prioritizing high-quality content and targeting the right keywords—with low competition and high traffic—readers get value for their time, plus, the business earns from their purchases or ad clicks

Source: Semrush

According to Semrush, this site attracts 21,000 organic traffic per month on average which is a decline from its recent peak of almost 50k traffic.

The decline can be linked to the fact that this site explores various niches which include car accessories, Amazon tutorials, furniture reviews, Fiverr, sports, electronics, technology and others.

This practice can lead to keyword dilution—a lower concentration of relevant keywords—making it difficult to rank well in search engines. It can also result in thin, low-quality content which is bad for engagement, CTR (Click through rate) and SEO.

Source: Semrush

Nonetheless, this site has an impressive number of backlinks with as much as 16.6k from notable sites like Reader's Digest (rd.com), Business Insider (businessinsider.com), Taste of Home (tasteofhome.com) and more.

The simple website design, appealing user interface and easy navigation all provide a positive user experience which increases CTR—Click Through Rate—, dwell time and page views. Altogether, these of course increase earnings for the site.

The Opportunities 🔥🔥🔥

This affiliate site can earn more by adopting the following;

Focus on a specific niche
Use a strong CTA
Have a mailing list
Utilize Social Media

Focus on a specific niche

As we stated before, the traffic on this site is declining and it might be a result of the broad niche that the site features.

The lack of a specific niche is harming this site's authority and keyword relevance.

This is because search engines like google, rank websites according to factors like the relevance of that site to its niche. Now, without a specific niche, google may find it hard to rank the website, leading to lower traffic.

Google's algorithm also favors websites that have established authority in a particular niche through high-quality content. So again, without a specific niche, this site risks having reduced visibility.

Focusing on a specific niche also helps a business to build a consistent brand message, voice and audience.

Use a Strong CTA

Most articles on this website don’t close with a strong CTA (call to action) or any CTA at all.

A CTA will prompt readers to sign up for exclusive offers, discounts, or a mailing list. The absence of one might suggest that this business is missing out on increased conversions, increased interactions and a higher click-through rate.

Have a mailing list

Email marketing for this affiliate site appears to be nonexistent as there are no prompts to sign up for a mailing list anywhere on the website.

Having a mailing list can have several benefits for any business including;

Personalized marketing: Sending targeted messages to customers based on their interests and behaviour leads to more personalized and effective marketing.

Increased traffic and sales: Sending regular emails to your subscribers, can drive traffic to your site and promote your affiliate products, potentially leading to increased sales

Higher engagement and retention: Staying in touch with subscribers and providing them with valuable content, can increase engagement and retention, leading to a more loyal and dedicated audience.

Data and insights: A mailing list provides you with valuable data and insights into your audience, such as open and click-through rates, which can help you refine your marketing strategy and improve your overall performance.

However, it is important to note that it is more difficult for a business with a broad niche and a mixed audience to be successful with email marketing.

Utilize Social Media

This business is leaving potential revenue on the table due to its low social media presence. There are no links to any social media handles on the website which snuffs out a major opportunity for direct engagement with users.

Social media can be a powerful way to increase brand awareness, engage with your audience, and drive traffic and revenue to your site.

While this site has less than 100 followers/posts, focusing on a specific niche and audience, consistently posting quality, engaging content, and analyzing metrics can improve its social media presence.

Findings from Instagram

The Big Reveal 👀

We're pleased to announce that the star of this week's analysis is a wonderful business called Parker-Marker!

Parker-Marker was created in 2019 by Bennett Heyn, who was a college senior at the time looking to learn about SEO and affiliate marketing. While Bennett was an intern, his boss ran an Amazon affiliate site that earned him money and this sparked Bennett's curiosity.

He decided to learn more about it by launching Parker-Marker, an affiliate content site that helps users to have the ideal online shopping experience by providing them with relevant comparison blogs to find great products.

The Takeaway, What We Learned 🎓

Below are key takeaways from this week's analysis

You must prioritize SEO for your online business to succeed.

Focus on a specific niche. This will improve keyword relevance, SEO and your site's authority/ranking.

Keyword research and finding the right keywords to target are essential for content-led SEO.

Without proper on-page optimization, you risk wasting keyword research and SEO efforts.

Improve your site's authority by building high-quality backlinks.

Create value for users by providing high-quality content together with a website that is appealing, and easy to use.

Drive higher traffic and revenue by leveraging direct engagement with your audience through social media and email marketing.

Action Steps, From Day 0 To ∞👩‍💻

So, you will have your own website, hosting account, and a good grasp of digital marketing fundamentals if you are a student/graduate of Max Business School.

If not, get started here, it’s totally free and will teach you all the skills you need to build yourself a business (and the freedom it provides you) similar to the one we’ve analyzed today.

Day 0

You’ve read this email and love this particular business model and/or niche.

If not, we'll be sending more ideas in our next email or check our archive here.

If yes;

Consider if this is a business you can happily commit to for 3-5 years.

If yes;

Is it a customer/topic/day-to-day activity you can't get passionate about?

If yes;

Would starting this business cause you to lose focus on the business that you are currently building?

If yes, don’t do it.

Focus on building what you have and take lessons from my analysis above to implement them into your current business.

But if not, then move to day 1.

Day 1

Identify the purpose of the business: With the business purpose in mind, set clear goals accordingly. The purpose of Parker-Marker for instance is to help users have the ideal online shopping experience. So ideally, some of its goals would be to feature relevant products and reach as many users as possible.
Determine your niche: It is important to select a profitable niche that aligns with your interests and expertise. This will help you create content and market products that you are passionate about.
Research affiliate programs: Research and select affiliate programs that are relevant to your niche and offer high-quality products or services that your audience will be interested in.
Identify your target audience: Use research to gather data on your ideal clients. This includes their demographics, interests, behaviours, and pain points. Using tools like AdSpy and SpyFu can also give insight into the type of ads that will work best for your audience,
Choose your business name: This doubles as your domain name which is your website's address on the internet. Therefore, it's important to choose a name that is memorable, easy to spell, and relevant to your content. For a beginner-friendly experience setting up your domain name, we highly recommend our Dreamhost deal which is both user and pocket-friendly.
Build your website: Build a website that is user-friendly, and optimized for search engines. Have a clear understanding of what your website will do in order to make decisions about design, content, and functionality. Consider using a website builder like WordPress to make it easy to create and manage your site. Find a step-by-step guide on how to build a WordPress website from scratch here.

Optimise your website: Go for content that is relevant to your niche and appeals to your target audience. Employ keyword research using tools like Google Keyword Planner and include low-competition keywords in your content.
Engage with your audience: Drive more traffic, promote your content and build a loyal following by engaging your audience through various platforms. Tools like Monday.com CRM help tremendously with managing interactions with customers while tools like Mailify, are perfectly suited for email marketing.

Day 2

Create appealing, quality content that is suited to your niche and target audience. Tools like Grammarly can help with your writing style and plagiarism—important for SEO—while a tool like Jarvis is great for writing content in minutes. Promote your content on social media and manage interactions using tools like Hootsuite.
Copymatic is a great tool for creating captivating content to drive organic traffic and conversion. Your blog posts should feature a clear headline, compelling copy, high-quality images, and a clear call to action.
Reach out to potential affiliate partners on platforms like Amazon, Shopify or eBay and include your affiliate links in relevant lead-generating content.

Day 3 to ∞

Using SEO techniques, consistently publish relevant, engaging content and promote them through social media, ads and email marketing.
Monitor and analyse the performance of your website using tools like Google Analytics, and track the performance of ads and social media engagement.
Seek user feedback and track metrics like open rate (for emails), click-through rate, traffic, conversion, changes and trends in your niche. These are key metrics that will help you optimise your marketing strategy for improved performance.
The best resources to improve your business can be found here.

Before You Go 👋

That’s a wrap for today, thank you for reading.

Next email, I’ll have another business breakdown for you.

Remember, if you know someone who might like this newsletter, sharing is caring.

If you are ready to get started with your own website, click here for our exclusive hosting deal and click here for an invite to our Max Business School community where you’ll hang out with thousands of fellow ambitious business builders.

Remember to check out the classroom tab (top left corner) for all of our free courses teaching you all you need to succeed online.

Bye for now,

Scott Max

14 Cool Stuff Road

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