Spencer Hawes hits $1000 in 9 months with new niche site

[Erayz]

10k backilnks (including non follow) in nine months seems a little "unnatural" seo to me.

 

[secretagentdad]

This thread is hurting me.

Maybe we need a straight shot competition series on builder society.

I think there are dozens of people here who can do far more with a 10k cap on budget.

 

[Erayz]

What I think is he started the site, put up all the content, did get much traction.
Need to make something happen for the audience so buy some links. Maybe a shitload LoL.
Site ranks, guru remains guru, if site tanks it must be those evil bullies on the internet.
In the meantime market your results as fast as possible.

Or (most likely)
Start 3 to 5 sites in different niches, repeat process from above.
Reveal the first one to make 1k in a month.
His expenses would've been enough for this.

 

[bernard]

New update from Spencer.

2300 USD / month in a little over 14 months:

I will be interested to see what he does from here.

I will say that making 2K/month in 12 months of hard work SEO is very doable. Can he take it to 5K? Then I'll listen.

 

[JamaicanMoose]

Well, that $2.3k is the holidays. Adjusted for seasonality, it's still at like $1k. But good for him.

 

[1836]

I would put 100% of that into YouTube pre-roll ADs and production of videos that are targeting specific cities within the content and copy. A little secret that most people don't realize is when a user clicks "SKIP" on an AD the advertiser doesn't pay anything. So if you are clever enough you can get that 5 seconds of branding in place before they are allowed to click "SKIP".

So the game plan is this (BTW I am about to launch a campaign doing EXACTLY this for 2 operations):

1. Find the countries and cities with the target audience I am after.

2. Create Video content each with an intro stating "Hey Chicago, are you looking for XYZ", Logo and spokesperson right there on screen. I will create this customized content for each city and country I am targeting in the country's language of course.

3. Then run a video campaign against YouTube Channels using the customized level of targeting. You can even target people that Googled "Buy XYZ", then later on went to YouTube to watch videos on another topic and hit them with an AD "Hey Chicago, were you looking to Buy XYZ?"

4. Profit.

I might do a case study on this - with one or both of the operations I will be launching this initiative with, cause I have a bet with @Ryuzaki on being able to do a sick ROI with a low budget. I didn't tell him that all those "SKIP" clicks still get the branding done though.

YouTube is extremely cheap right now, (especially if you are targeting non-english countries), and can get specific to "30-41 females" with "income level above $100K" living in "Austin Texas" that Googled "Buy XYZ" recently. Then create content with an actress with a Texan accent that looks like the exact demographic, and start off with some crazy low budget like $200, sort of hard not to make money unless your content sucks. And even if it sucks you can create 3-10 variations of the same AD relatively cheap, Fiverr spokesperson.

Now imagine getting that level of targeted clicks for $0.10 to $0.50 - even at 3% conversion rate off of $200 spend, that's would turn $200 into at least 12 to 60 conversions, multiply by that whatever your product/service costs, lets say $50, that's $600 to $3,000 in revenue from $200 spend.

But this is only possible right now cause YouTube is EXTREMELY cheap, yet you can get super targeted like a Mofo, and create ADs literally tailored to the target audience. It's like the Adwords days where you could get $0.05 to $0.10 a click. In 5-6 years it'll be over-saturated eventually but might as well strike while the iron is hot.

On-top just think about this, YouTube gets 5 BILLION video views daily. There are videos about everything, so there is definitely videos about your niche that you can use YouTube pre-roll ADs to get in-front of.

Or you could waste 9 months with SEO. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

But none of this means jack-shit without proof, so I gotta show the non-believer @Ryuzaki what's really going on.

@CCarter did you ever get the chance to pursue this youtube endevour?

 

[CCarter]

@CCarter did you ever get the chance to pursue this youtube endevour?

Yes, multiple. In the last 3 months or so I’ve been guiding a BuSo member in their own Youtube endevour.

Last week he reported Tripling his revenue and subscribers are rising! Perhaps he’ll have time to share his experience.

 

[bernard]

I was on Youtube today to find some video reviews to embed in my post.

I found a really good video review of a popular indoor bike, 5 minutes long, good sound, professional setup and presented by an attractive woman.

It had 10000 views since 2018, that's about 4000 a year.

I have no idea what the CTR to their site is, probably decent, lets assume 25%.

In total that's 2500 visitors.

Now here it gets interesting, what could the total value be of those visitors?

I'm guessing something like 0,5 USD to 1 USD a visitor, which puts the value at a probable range of 1250 to 2500 USD.

What does it cost to produce that video?

I suppose for the english language market, or any major language market, the numbers at least seem reasonable.

The problem is, this channel also has like 8 year old reviews with 500 visitors. That's a big hole.

That's not the full story of course. There's the brand value. Can't underestimate that.

Video is certainly interesting as an affiliate/reviewer, but I also think you got to think things through really well to avoid getting burned financially.

 

[mikey3times]

I saw this the other day:

1200 hours x $50 per hour (I made that up, but guessing they are hiring pros) = $60,000 per video. whoa.

I am about to embark on a YouTube experiment. Key word: experiment. I’m not going all in on anything (cost, style, equipment, etc). I’m just going to try different things to see what works. It might produce results and I will start upgrading or my niche might not favor video yet. Who knows. Make a few MVPs and see what works.

 

[DanielS]

I think people would be blown away at how much money YouTube channels earn only through Adsense, let alone affiliate marketing, brand deals, etc. I managed a channel for 3 months with around 93,000 subscribers and 150,000 views per month (average) that had a $14.00 USD CPM. Literally, $14.00 USD for just 1000 monetized views- it can get really insane when you don't make videos in the "normal" niches like gaming, "vlogging" etc. Only thing is, it can take 3 years to get to the point where you're able to earn this kind of money, which is why doing YouTube for Adsense income is not a wise idea IMO.

 

[CCarter]

which is why doing YouTube for Adsense income is not a wise idea IMO.

I don't understand - Why? You seriously aren't willing to invest 3 years into a brand to get to a point where you are making $20-40K a month in revenue? This thought process is wild.

What are you after I guess? I know a BuSo member that spent 6 years working in their brand and exited with 7 figures - an affiliate site mind you. SEO itself is a long term game plan, so why not expose yourself to the massive amount of YouTube Traffic as well?

 

[DanielS]

I don't understand - Why? You seriously aren't willing to invest 3 years into a brand to get to a point where you are making $20-40K a month in revenue? This thought process is wild.

What are you after I guess? I know a BuSo member that spent 6 years working in their brand and exited with 7 figures - an affiliate site mind you. SEO itself is a long term game plan, so why not expose yourself to the massive amount of YouTube Traffic as well?

I think the long-term value of a website is higher than a YouTube channel due to the short-term cycle that is YouTube success.

Very few YouTube content creators remain at their peak for more than 1 year because of the way YouTube works in regards to publish frequency. In other words, viewers on YouTube get sick of watching the same person over and over again faster due to the fact that publish frequency is so important for growing on YouTube. Whereas with a website you can publish 1 blog post a week if you want (not at the start of a website- but in year 2, 3, etc) and still grow exponentially due to the heavy emphasis on search.

You can also sell a website much easier than a YouTube channel- YouTube channel sales only work for the purchaser 1% of the time because of how personal YouTube is.

With all this said- we both have the same opinion for the most part about SEO in regards to it being a long-term game. Both a website and a YouTube channel are ultimately a long-term game. I guess my thought process is this: What will you get further with in 1 year- a YouTube channel or a website? It will depend on the person, but from what I've seen on this forum, people can grind out a website for a year and either be earning a significant amount of money by month 12 or be selling the website by month 12 for a pretty significant chunk of money. Whereas with YouTube, for 90% of the people out there, it will take 12 months to even reach 1000 subscribers (which is essentially nothing).

I dunno. Nothing is guaranteed of course, but at least with a website you can sell it and move on, as opposed to spending "x" amount of hours every week creating videos, optimizing metadata, promoting videos, etc just to have the YouTube channel sit dormant if burnout/failure occurs.

Ultimately, doing both would be ideal, but like many people have mentioned, YouTube isn't such a "cheap" medium anymore with the $1000 cameras being used, the studios being rented, editors being hired, etc. Yes, you can do everything yourself and use a cheap set-up, but for how long? Whereas with a blog, words are words. You hire writers, and if they suck you can correct their mistakes or hire different writers. Or, you can write everything yourself- the reader can't tell the difference after all is said and done.

P.S. Keep in mind I've neither had a successful website or a large YouTube channel of my own, so take my thoughts with a grain of salt. I've managed YouTube channels as large as 400,000 subscribers, but I was in charge of post-production work like video SEO, playlist creation, etc.

 

[CCarter]

I think the long-term value of a website is higher than a YouTube channel due to the short-term cycle that is YouTube success.

I see your situation - you are separating YouTube channels from being a medium for brands to expand upon and putting it on its own.

Given another scenario - if you are creating "twitter accounts" to sell then that's similar. But that's not how brands are ran.

Coco-Cola exists outside of any one medium. They have a website, YouTube, Twitter, but also a offline presence. That's a Brand.

Tila Tequila was a Myspace personality. She never "jumped" to newer social platforms as they were emerging and soon died with the platform.

As a "personality" - regarding a person, that individual needs to be able to create a "personal brand" that exists outside of any one platform, by being active on as many as possible - if their audience is there.

As a business - youtube, twitter, and social platforms are mediums to send your message out into the world.

If you have a website that has no social presence you are strictly existing in the "Google" world - AND you'll be obviously subject or enslaved by their algo and updates. SEO, what a waste of time...

At the end of the day - shit is wild if people are leaving YouTube traffic and other social traffic behind since most users spend the majority on the internet NOT on websites or in the Safari/Chrome browser, but rather Mobile Apps like YouTube or Twitter or Instagram.

 

[jäger]

Very few YouTube content creators remain at their peak for more than 1 year because of the way YouTube works in regards to publish frequency. In other words, viewers on YouTube get sick of watching the same person over and over again faster due to the fact that publish frequency is so important for growing on YouTube.

Actually, it would seem like it's the exact opposite.

People want and expect to see that same person over and over again, even multiple times a day, every day for years and years, as you see with almost every successful tech channel, for instance.

Linus from Linus Tech Tips have previously stated that click throughs alone on vids is like 20%+ higher if he's in the thumb. And they post at least once a day on their main channel, along with all the other channels they run. And they've been at this for, what, a decade now?

 

[DanielS]

I see your situation - you are separating YouTube channels from being a medium for brands to expand upon and putting it on its own.

Yes- maybe I should have specified that I was coming at this with a "YouTube vs. Website" mentality.

As a "personality" - regarding a person, that individual needs to be able to create a "personal brand" that exists outside of any one platform, by being active on as many as possible - if their audience is there.

As a business - youtube, twitter, and social platforms are mediums to send your message out into the world.

100% agree. What are your thoughts on also using popular parasite SEO sites like Medium as marketing platforms?

 

[CCarter]

100% agree. What are your thoughts on also using popular parasite SEO sites like Medium as marketing platforms?

Test EVERYTHING. You never know where your audience might find you.

 

[tyealia]

10k backilnks (including non follow) in nine months seems a little "unnatural" seo to me.

Looking at the ahrefs of the site i see 230 unique do-follows from single link domains where did you get 10k backlinks from?

Its the link building costs that get me super suspicious. He outlines them here per month and they look like complete BS considering everything hes been mentioning in his updates.

He definitely has some outside help of friends sending links. Since he did reveal immediately and he has a boatload of affiliates he shoutouts to in all the articles it wouldn't be out of the question for AB to give him a ton of links to boost their profile, as well as friends out there. (also not counting the 50+ backlinks he has from nichepursuits pages sending him juice.)

Here I reference where he himself says he got links from authority builders 7 links. I buy from AB their cheapest links are $200ish each with it going up to $1000 a link. You think that AB gave him the cheap links? No, at this point he got im guessing $3000 dollars worth of links from AB, he probably got a massive discount here since hes promoting them maybe even getting them for free for the shoutout. Also got links from the Hoth who knows how much he paid for those or if free due to the shoutout.

I wouldn't be too suspicious if it weren't for the fact that niche site project 3 with 3 people and a lot of coaching couldn't get any of them to break through $120 a month, that was probably the most transparent project since it had non-affiliated people from start to finish, he completely abandoned even updating that project.

I have tried the authority hackers training and no pay outreach approach on 4 new sites, it is slow as all hell for growth they claim its safer than pbns but their health ambition site got algo penalized so who knows.

I did a test following the AH approach 8 months ago started 4 sites followed all their guides did massive email outreach (about 50-100 links each) sites are just starting to grow now with tiny profit. Had a site doing my own method with pbns with same budget in the same niche and its month 2 and im at $250 a month.

I am calling 50% BS on the nichepursuits case study. Too many glaring inconsistencies in backlinking and his reported budget. The profit for an average person without all these seemingly phantom links being thrown at him would be much less.

If you liked the case study though please subscribe to my 12 week program...real results photo below. These results all happened to me once I built 10 outreach links.

 

[blackcanary]

Its the link building costs that get me super suspicious. He outlines them here per month and they look like complete BS considering everything hes been mentioning in his updates.

What's he not disclosing is that's he's doing outreach to buy link insertions. I know because his team contacted me via one of my sites before he revealed the domain name publicly. If I remember correctly, they were offering $10 for a link in an old article.