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How to Structure and Write Content for Your Niche Site

Are you struggling with how to structure your written content for a niche site?

Having well-optimized ​and organized money pages is one of the most important factors in creating a successful niche site.

Well, as it turns out, there is one "formula" that I like to follow with all my money pages that helps me to rank high in Google and convert that traffic into clicks over to Amazon.

And in today's post, I'm going to show you what that "formula" is ... and exactly how you can use it to better optimize all of your money pages.​

Better yet, I'm going to show you an actual example from a brand new niche site of mine, so that you can see for yourself. 

More...

Bonus content: Want to see a list of every WordPress plugin that I make sure to install on all of my niche sites?

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A Niche Site Builder's Biggest Challenge?

It's funny, in the six weeks or so that I've been running this blog, there are two types of topics that I have been asked about far more than any other. 

One is: how do you build backlinks to your site? (Don't worry, we'll be covering that in a future post).

The other one is: how exactly do you structure your written content​ on your niche sites?

Let me show you an image from my Clicky account to give you an idea of what I mean.

What you're looking at is the "outgoing links" metric from my analytics account since this site has been live. 

And this screenshot shows the two most clicked on outgoing links from my blog, ever.

What are they?

​Well, the first one is a link to The Wirecutter from this post, when I was discussing what "template" I like to model my reviews after.

Here's a screen grab of that section of the post:​

And that link led to this review from The Wirecutter, where they wrote a 13,000 word review of the "best on-ear headphones". That review has been the most clicked-on outgoing link from my blog by a wide margin!

The second most clicked-on outgoing link? Here's another screen shot:

And that link led to this post by Dom Wells about how to write a product review if you've never actually used the product. 

So the two most popular outgoing links from this blog have both been about how to write content for your niche sites.

How to write content has also been a hot topic of discussion based on the questions that I receive from readers and other niche site builders.

Clearly, this is an area that a lot of people are struggling with.

Want to See One of My Sites?

I admit, it can't be much fun as a reader of this blog to try and follow along with all my tips and tactics without actually seeing a real, live example of one of my niche sites.

And so I decided to change that.

​No, I'm not going to reveal any of my sites that are currently making money. 

But in the past few weeks I have been building out a brand new niche site, more for the purposes of being able to illustrate my tactics​ to readers of this site, and less for the purposes of trying to rank and monetize it.

I mean, how can I write a blog post about how to structure the content of your niche site, without showing you an example of mine?​

A lot of internet marketers are happy to simply tell you what they're doing; the goal of this site however is to show you exactly how I'm doing it.​

Before I reveal the URL, I want to make one thing absolutely crystal clear:

This is not a "finished" site by any stretch of the imagination; in fact, it is ONLY the homepage (and a handle of individual product reviews) that's even set up right now, and even that is not done, either.

When the homepage is complete, there will be six individual product reviews on the page; right now, there is only one.

Got it? This site is very much a work in progress.​ The only reason I'm revealing it now is because I wanted to show a real-life example of how I personally structure my content.

So, with that out of the way, here is the URL: www.showerspecialists.com

Alright, let's break this thing down.

Focus on Monetizing One Page at a Time

I see niche site builders out there trying to do too much at once. 

For example, they launch a new site, and they write 10 articles, targeting 10 different keywords, and each article is about 1,000 words or so.

This is not the way to build a niche site.​

You need to focus on building, ranking, and monetizing ONE epic page at a time. That's it.

For my Niche Site 2, which is over a year old now and bringing in ~$700 per month on auto-pilot, how many pages do you think are responsible for that income?

Two.

Yes, just two money pages which brought in $7​42 in income last month. (I do have a third money page working its way up the SERPs, but it's not monetized yet).

So, yeah: starting off, it should just be one ridiculously well-written, epic resource page that you are going to focus all your time and attention trying to rank and make money with.

Take a look at my home page here for Shower Specialists: when all the individual product reviews are done, the page will end up being over 4,200 words long.

Obviously, the keywords I'm targeting are "best shower head" and "shower head reviews". And my strategy is to laser focus on the two keywords, by building out an epic home page with tons of content. ​

There are dozens of other keywords that I can target with additional money pages, and probably a decent amount of actually helpful informational articles that I can write about as well ... but for now, those don't matter. All that matters is ranking my home page.

Note: Of course, that doesn't mean you're going to throw up a one-page site and call it a day. You are, eventually, going to build out your site with reviews, other money pages, and non-monetized articles. But that's not the focus when you're just starting out building a new site.

Why Content is Important

A lot of "content marketers" will tell you to not worry about link building, and that if you just focus on creating "great content" then that will be enough to get you rankings and traffic.

While that may be an effective strategy for some people, it's not one that I can really recommend for niche site builders. Why not?

Well, the "content is king" mantra just does not apply if you have a niche site that, in our example, reviews shower heads, right? How much "epic content" can you write about shower heads?

However ...

... that does NOT mean that content for a niche site is unimportant.​

You Write for the Google Bots

I write my niche site content with two audiences in mind, and one of them is Google.

We all know by now that Google is able to determine (best as they can; they're still an algorithm) the general quality of a site's content.​ This means that the days of simply throwing up a one-page, 500-word niche site are long over.

So you need to produce a niche site with decent enough content so that the Google bot will not only NOT penalize you, but will reward you in the SERPs.​

Longer is Better

And that's why I like to produce money pages with tons of content on them, at least 2,500 words, and that's at an absolute minimum. These days, I always shoot for 4,000+ words on new money sites/pages.

I can't cite any supporting evidence or anything, but I strongly believe that Google loves longer content.

Just remember ​that Google is "reading" your site, and when you're writing content for your niche site, you must always keep this in mind.

Let me show you what I mean.

If you scroll down all the way to the bottom of my home page, you'll come across this section.​

Now, you may be wondering: what is the purpose of that section? It's all the way at the bottom, so the chances of an actual visitor to my site reading it is probably less than 10%.

And the answer to that is: I write some content for the visitors to my site, and some content for Google.

The way I look at it is, sure, someone that lands on my site likely won't make it all the way down to that part of the page (hopefully by then they've already clicked over to Amazon), but the Google bot sure will.

The Google bot reads everything.​ So be sure to keep it fed with loads of content.

You Write for Your Visitors

While it's nice to give the Google bot 4,000+ words of great content, unfortunately the Google bot is not the one that buys shower heads on Amazon, giving you a commission.

The readers of your site do. So you also need to focus on them.

UPDATE: A follower reached out to me on Twitter and told me that including prices on your sites violates Amazon Terms of Service, so be careful. I checked sites like The Wirecutter, and they include prices in all their reviews, but it's better to be safe than sorry.

The Pricing Table​

And that's where the pricing table comes in.

I'm certainly not the one who came up with the idea of the pricing table (the first I heard of it was from Spencer), all I know is that they convert ... incredibly well.

Here's the way to look at it.

I think I heard Doug say this one time, and I'm paraphrasing here: when a visitor lands on your site from a Google search, they are obviously in buying mode. All they're looking for is a little validation from a third-party source that this is the right product for them to buy.

And so your job, as quickly as possible, is to act as the middle man by sending them along to Amazon via your affiliate link.

And that's where the pricing table comes in. It's a devilishly simple little tactic.

It provides the reader with a clean, simple comparison of various products with an image, name, price, and rating, so that they can quickly scan the table and click on the product that is most appealing to them, landing them on Amazon.

And boom, Amazon affiliate cookie dropped, and your job is done.​

(Again, Shower Specialists is brand new, so I don't have any affiliate links on my page or in my table yet, but the product images and names would be linked).

And so that's what I mean when I say that you have to structure your page for your readers; you want to quickly and clearly present them with buying options, right when they land on your page, and I've found no better tactic than that than the pricing table.

Individual Reviews on the Home Page

How the heck are you supposed to write 4,000+ words about shower heads?

Easy, just review 5-6 products at 500 words a pop, and instead of making those reviews individual posts, stick them all one your money page​.

By "saving" some of your individual product reviews to use on the home page (instead of their own posts), you are guaranteed to be able to produce a ridiculously long money page.

How to Structure Your Actual Reviews

Alright, now that you know how to properly hide your affiliate links from Google, let's talk about how to write your product reviews.

First thing's first: there are a LOT of ways to structure your product reviews for a niche site. I'm not saying my way it better than someone else's, this is just my personal preference for writing these things. As is usually the case, your mileage may vary.

Let's take a look at this review, as an example.​

It checks in at around 550 words, which is actually on the shorter end for what I like to typically target. ​I prefer at least 750 words, and 1,000 if you can manage it.

However, I wanted to get this niche site up and running for you as quick as possible so that I could use it as an example, so I took a little shortcut.

The other issue is the product-type that I'm reviewing: it's a shower head. How can you realistically write 1,000 words about a product like that? ​So, that's also something to keep in mind.

For more complicated and involved products, you can usually write more words, whereas for relatively simpler products, there's not as much you can say about them.

The Snapshot 

This is the first thing a visitor to my review post sees when they land on the page: a nice, clean, simple product snapshot, showing my "ratings", the price on Amazon, and a quick and dirty summary of the product, and two links to Amazon so that they can easily check it out over there. (Again, I don't have any affiliate links on the site yet, but the name of the shower head in the upper left, and the giant green button at the bottom would both be affiliate links).

By the way, if you're wondering how I created that nice looking template, I did it with the ridiculously awesome Thrive Content Builder. ​

The Features

For the next part of my reviews, I like to create 4-5 bullet points and write about the features of the product.

The thing to note here is that my "reviews" are effectively just summaries of what the product has to offer.​

I'm not making any claims on this site that I have actually used the product and recommend it for x and y reasons (though I see nothing wrong with that angle), but rather: let me give you everything that's good about the product, everything that Amazon customers liked about it, and a few things they didn't, and put it all together in one easy-to-read summary that will make it easier for you to making a buying decision about the product.

So that's what I'm doing here, basically taking all of the available information from the Amazon product pages, and writing them into a narrative form.

The Advantages

The next part of my reviews are the "advantages" section. 

Everything I wrote about above about the "features" section also applies here: you're writing 3-4 bullets basically just summarizing the "advantages" of the product, or how it will benefit the user.​

The Disadvantages

As much as we want the visitors to our niche sites to click over to Amazon and buy the product, in order for your "reviews" to have any credibility, you really need to include a brief section outlining any "disadvantages" of the product.

Otherwise, you will come across as a biased cheerleader just trying to make a sale.

So, I like to include a few points that the potential customer needs to be aware of, taken from some of the negative Amazon reviews.​

The Bottom Line

Here, it's time to put a wrap on our review.

I like to write a quick little summary of the product, highlighting its most important features, and then including a nice big call-to-action for the reader (assuming they've made it down this far) to click on over to Amazon.

And really, that's all there is to it. It's not rocket science, it's just about coming up with a consistent structure that you can then apply to all your products.

I will reiterate one more time: this is just how I personally like to have my reviews written. Is it definitely the best way to write product reviews? Probably not.

You can search Google for some nice buying keywords, check out a few niche sites raking on Page 1, and see what they're doing too. There are many, many different ways to structure your reviews.​

How to Get Your Reviews Written

So how do you actually go about having your reviews written? You have several options.

One, you can write them yourself. If you're short on budget, have some free time, and/or are a decent enough writer, ​there's no reason you can't write these product reviews yourself.

This will save you on content costs, and allow you to structure your reviews exactly as you want.​ So that's option #1.

The other option, and this is what I do, is to pay someone else to write them for you.

I really dislike writing product reviews — I find the whole process incredibly tedious — and I also have a full-time job, so I prefer to pay a writer (or two) write them for me. It also helps that my niche sites are earning consistent income, so I have the spare cash to spend.​

I've used both Textbroker and oDesk to hire writers for my content.

I pay the Textbroker guy 2.4 cents per word ($12 for a 500 word review), and a girl on oDesk 1.5 cents per word ($7.50 per 500 word review).​ So, it's not exactly cheap. But I value my time more, so I have no issue paying for it.

Wondering how exactly I found these writers? Well, this post is getting long enough, so I'll just direct you over to a few very helpful resources.

There's Dom's recent post on this subject, which is also worth a read. There's also Steve Rendell's breakdown of iWriter vs HireWriters. Finally, there's this crazy in-depth guide by No Hat Digital that you can also take a look at.

One service I recommend you check out is the article service from HumanProofDesigns here.​

Future Plans for Shower Specialists 

So, now that I've created a brand new niche site specifically for the purposes of this blog, what do I plan to do with it?

Truth is, I really haven't decided. I haven't ordered any new content. I have placed a order for a new The Hoth package, to use as an initial layer of links, and I expect to have that review up at some point.

But other than that, I'm just going to let the site and its content marinate in Google, so to speak. The site is less than a month old, so for the next two months, I'm probably just going to leave it alone.

After that, if I start to see some movement in the SERPs, I may throw some PBN links at it and see if I can rank it.

But really, the purpose of me building that site was so that I could have a real, actual site of mine that I could use as an example to show readers of this blog how I go about my niche site building.

THANKS FOR READING: As a special bonus for this post, I have created a 21-point tips & tricks checklist to building a profitable Amazon niche site. Click the button below for your free copy.

Note: you will be sent a confirmation email to confirm your email address. You must click the link in the confirmation email to complete your sign-up process.

Any questions, let me know in the comments.​

Mike Bradford
 

Hi there, I'm Mike, the guy behind Niche Site Azon. I made $32,000 in 12 months with Amazon niche sites. This blog is where I share my tips, tricks, and tactics to building and profiting from Amazon affiliate sites.

Click Here to Leave a Comment Below 76 comments
Justin - June 14, 2015

Awesome post, Mike! I’ve been waiting for you to explain how you go about writing up your content.

The shower head site looks amazing. I may have to invest in Thrive Themes after all 🙂

Question: have you considered selling “ready made” sites like this one, where you’ve already done the keyword research, have all of the content written, and have the site up & running? I’d consider buying one 🙂

Keep up the great posts!

Reply
    Mike Bradford - June 14, 2015

    Hey Justin, thanks for stopping by – glad you liked the post!

    Yes, I made that niche site with Thrive Themes and their Content Builder – totally worth the investment in my opinion.

    Interesting idea there about building custom-built niche sites for my readers. I’d have to see first if the demand was there. I’d also have to figure out a reasonable price point. I could make them similar to the shower heads example, but probably not with the exact pretty formatting with the different boxes and icons and such – that takes a LONG time!

    Anyway, shoot me an e-mail if you’re interested, and I’ll dig a little further with other readers to see if there’s other interest there as well.

    Reply
Anthony - June 15, 2015

Thanks for the great post Mike. It makes a change to actually see the physical process of building a site from scratch!

Some great insights, just a couple of questions.

Do you order the pricing table in any way? I note it’s not by price or rating.

For the google bot section at the bottom of the post (in this case “what to look for in a shower head”) are there any rules/ guidelines as to what you put in it?

Also at the bottom there are no further CTA’s is that on purpose or would you usually put some there?

Thanks again for the post, look forward to the next one!

Reply
    Mike Bradford - June 15, 2015

    Hi Anthony,

    I would typically order the pricing table by best-seller ranking from Amazon.

    For the What to Look For Section, you just have to make it intuitive. What would a customer need to know when they’re looking for product x? It will differ for every product.

    Not a bad idea to include a CTA at the bottom of the post, hadn’t thought of that. I guess my thinking is that if a reader has reached the bottom but still hasn’t clicked over to Amazon yet, then they probably aren’t going to. But I like that idea.

    Reply
Hooman - June 15, 2015

Hi Mike,
I look forward to this post, I always had this problem that how should I organize my site properly? this post is really great and helpful my friend,
Thanks so much for your help.

Reply
    Mike Bradford - June 15, 2015

    Glad you enjoyed it, Hooman!

    Reply
Mohit - June 15, 2015

Nice informative article Mike. I just wish to know Amazon states we should not cloak links on our sites so by using cloaked is that a violation(I might be wrong)?
Also I don’t see many affiliates using Elf but still rank at top of Google. So I think either free plugin like Thirsty affiliate or simple php redirect should work?

It would be nice if you can cover silo structure in future posts.

Reply
    Mike Bradford - June 15, 2015

    Hi Mohit,

    Yeah, I’ve read different things about cloaking links, so be careful.

    Those sites may be ranking now, because Panda hasn’t been run in almost 1 year. I like Elf Links because there is no hint of any affiliate links of any kind on your site.

    Reply
Carlo - June 15, 2015

Great post Mike.

1 question.

With elf links – is it compatible with easyazon?

I use it for link localisation, but I’m not sure elf links would cover the link.

Reply
    Mike Bradford - June 15, 2015

    Hi Carlo,

    I’m not sure about that one – maybe reach out to EasyAzon support and ask.

    How are you liking the link localization feature? Do you find it is bringing in a lot more sales? That’s something I definitely need to look into.

    Reply
Vusa - June 15, 2015

Hey Mike,

Thanks for sharing your niche tips with us. I will utilize Elf Links once my site takes off. I have one question though – I know you you Thrive Themes. Have you ever used Thesis Themes? and if you did, how user friendly did you find them to be?

Reply
    Mike Bradford - June 15, 2015

    Hi Vusa,

    I have used Thesis before and it’s totally fine. No issues with it, just think Thrive looks a lot better.

    Reply
Isaiah Joe - June 15, 2015

Wow! I just really love the concept of this website. You’re totally focusing on Niche websites, which is growing bigger by the day and much bloggers are into it.

I don’t write my articles though, i prefer purchasing them from people with strong English command.

I have one request to ask, please, what did you used in creating that Table of Contents? It’s really beautiful and i will really love to use it.

You did create a wonderful site here Mike

Reply
    Mike Bradford - June 15, 2015

    Hi Isaiah,

    Thanks for the kind words!

    Everything on this site is created using the Thrive Content Builder. Highly recommended.

    Reply
Lorry Frank - June 15, 2015

Great website and wonderful content you’ve got here! thanks for everything!

Reply
    Mike Bradford - June 15, 2015

    Thanks, Lorry!

    Reply
Del - June 16, 2015

Hi Mike, I think you must be a mind reader as well as a niche site builder because I was just about to email you about this very topic. You have managed to answer every question I had and a few more I hadn’t thought of!

The example site you set up for us is a great example as well. Thanks.

Now I know that the two things I need to do to improve my own niche sites are:

1) Increase the content. Goodbye 500 word articles 🙁
2) Buy the Thrive content builder.

One question though. Which thrive theme do you use for your niche sites?

Reply
    Mike Bradford - June 16, 2015

    Hey Del!

    Yes, longer content is a must, and as you know, I do love Thrive Content Builder 🙂

    I try to mix it up with themes, but I do like the Focus Theme a lot.

    Reply
john - June 16, 2015

wow thanks, i learned something new

1. build first ( no amazon links first), rank after 3 months, then monetize ( amazon aff or Gads ) thats cool, my mistake is i put the amazon aff during the page creation..

2. also i agree that 4,000 words money page is better, my homepage was about 2k to 2.5k while the number 1 site in my niche has about 3k or 4k not sure but his main page is really long and informative and neatly formatted … Doug used to emphasize question type subsection to make a long money page.

3. target BEST and REVIEW .. since these keywords suggests that the visitor is looking for second opinion .. while ranking for the exact product model name they want to land on ecommerce website not blog nor review site….

thanks Mike.. and wow your theme is really neat and well-formatted … any footprint issues you can think of from there themes ?

Reply
    Mike Bradford - June 16, 2015

    Hi John,

    Thanks for the comment.

    Not sure how Thrive would be leaving any footprints for Google, it’s just a standard WordPress theme.

    Reply
Bob - June 16, 2015

Excellent resource right here! I’m experimenting with the same model right now. It’s interesting that the keywords I’m trying to rank for are Google-dancing right now, but super cool getting the long tail keywords I wasn’t going for right off the bat! I posted my article less than a week ago and have a small amount of traffic coming in already!

Do you find you rank faster with articles in the range of 2000-4000 words any faster? Assuming no links have been built to that site yet.

Reply
    Mike Bradford - June 16, 2015

    Hi Bob,

    No, I find the sandbox effect is still pretty consistent, regardless of content length.

    Reply
Vusa - June 17, 2015

Thanks for your prompt response Mike. Have a great week!

Reply
David Throop - June 17, 2015

Thanks for the incredible tutorial Mike! I’ve been spinning from too much information overload with regard to getting a niche site started, but this article makes it really clear the steps to get moving forward.

One question, the format that you have from Thrive themes and their Content Builder is what you used without additional coding? I’m a newbie and like an easier user experience than having to get a coder to help.

Thanks again for such valuable information. Stuart sent me to this article and it’s incredible.

Reply
    Mike Bradford - June 18, 2015

    Hi David,

    Thanks for the feedback!

    Yes, there are zero coding skills required to use the Content Builder. It’s a 100% drag and drop editor. There is a bit of a learning curve when you’re first using it, but after that, it’s a pleasure to use.

    Reply
Laur - June 18, 2015

Congrats for the article and for this blog, Mike, it provides so much value (for me at least)!

I have one quick question: As I understand, you focus on “best” and “reviews” keywords. That means your homepage article (4200+ words) is optimized for “best” kw and the other review articles are optimized for “reviews” kw, or you combine “best” and “reviews” for the homepage article?

Reply
    Mike Bradford - June 19, 2015

    Hi Laur,

    Thanks for the feeback!

    The homepage is set up to capture both the “best” and “review” keywords. The other review articles are designed to hopefully catch some long tail keywords for those individual products, and are also really there to just feed Google some more content.

    Reply
Steve Collins - June 19, 2015

Thanks for a brilliant article Mike, it’s really helpful. It’s refreshing to find someone so open and willing to help others do better – all credit to you!

One question though, regarding Elf Links, Amazon doesn’t like link cloaking, doesn’t it go against their TOS? I’ve done it in the past, but not anymore as I don’t want to risk getting my account closed.

What are your thoughts?

Reply
    Mike Bradford - June 19, 2015

    Hi Steve,

    It’s true that Amazon doesn’t like cloaking in the sense that you shouldn’t deceive your visitors on where they’ll be going if they click one of your links.

    So, as long as your links are structured so that the amazon.com is still in the URL, you should be fine.

    To be clear, Elf Links does not “cloak” the way that your link looks or appears on the site – it simply renders the source code as a tag instead of the URL. But on the front end of your site, when a visitor hovers over your link, they will still see the amazon.com/whatever

    Reply
Philip - June 19, 2015

Hi Mike

Thanks for a detailed post, very helpful.

Quick question.

Do you use any plugins with the Thrive content builder such as Yoast & EasyAzon and if so, how do you integrate them?

Regards Philip

Reply
    Mike Bradford - June 19, 2015

    Hi Philip,

    I do use Yoast with TCB and it works no problem. Haven’t tried EasyAzon, not sure it’s compatible though.

    Reply
Rekt - June 20, 2015

Curious as to why you wait to monetize your sites/add affiliate links.

I can understand from a penalization view, in regards to google probably looking @ these links in a bad light and potentially not ranking a site to it’s full potential, delaying the ranking, or just penalizing a site altogether.

Then turn around and promote a plugin that is said to hide aff links in the eyes of google (which it seems to do).

I just don’t understand that method of waiting + the elf links situation.

Seems like a contradiction.

It’s technically not fooling google in the traditional sense.
User sees a certain source code and google sees a totally different code based off of bot blocking or ip-range blocking. Then google crawls the site w/ an unknown bot, sees the new links, recrawls w/ the known bot, references the both indexes, and ends up sending a WMT alert, dropping the site from it’s index or sandboxing it to some unknown degree.

Hopefully there is reasoning behind that madness. I just can’t grasp it.

Or maybe you just found out about the plugin (elf links) (which you’ve stated) and are no longer waiting to monetize sites w/ amazon aff links.

Reply
    Mike Bradford - June 20, 2015

    It’s a matter of preference, Rekt.

    Why insert affiliate links on a brand new site that has no shot of ranking for at least 3 months? What is the point? Creating the Elf Links is a bit of work, you’ve just added at least another hour+ in creating your site by having to copy/paste/insert all the new code.

    If/when the site starts to rank, then I go back and insert the links. This isn’t that complicated.

    And no, I didn’t “just find out” about the plugin. Read the post. I found out about it after I was hit by Panda all the way back last fall, when I was researching ways to avoid it. Now, I use it on all my sites, and will continue to use it on this new site.

    If your preference is to add the affiliate links when making your site straight away, then do just that.

    As I said, a matter of preference.

    You’re looking for some big (bizarre) conspiracy I guess, that just isn’t there.

    Reply
Rekt - June 20, 2015

Sorry. Seems I got to the bottom of the post somehow assuming the plugin was a recent discovery. Was just wanting to get a sense of why you were waiting on linking out when it seems you’ve found a hidden gem to combat what I thought was the reason you were not building links straight away (the idea/theory/fact that google may look down upon aff links).

I can understand if it takes a while to set up the link(s) w/ pretty links and then direct that link into elf links. Seems a fresh day is best to sift through content doing text link/image link placement. Even if it being week/months later (preference).

No conspiracy here.

Did see a 2015 update note on their site (elf links) stating that it automatically inputs/outputs (w/e it is) certain affiliate links into elf links on it’s own.

“New for 2015 and version 4 – faster Elf Links for Amazon, Ebay and Clickbank and affiliate links. You don’t even need to create the link in the WordPress admin panel. Just include your product code in your WordPress page or post and the software will automatically create an Elf Link, detect which affiliate program the product is for, and create a url with your affiliate ID.”

Seems like that wouldn’t apply w/ pretty links though.

Reply
    Mike Bradford - June 20, 2015

    Yeah no worries, understood.

    I did see that new update. Haven’t tried it yet, though.

    Reply
john - June 25, 2015

hi Mike,

i just followed your idea of posting 4000 to 5000 words.. i have 1 article that has those numbers published… but i noticed that its now 4 days yet that 5,000 article was still not indexed…. have you encounted this problem ?

Reply
    Mike Bradford - June 26, 2015

    Hi John,

    As long as your site is healthy, the page will index just fine. I don’t even pay attention to it. Google will index it.

    Reply
      john - June 27, 2015

      this is really wierd for me, this is the first time i published a 5000 word post and first time its not indexed for almost a week now.. google just indexed the homepage, the 500 word and the 150 words… the standard about us, contact us, policy, disclaimer are not yet indexed.. this is a really new site maybe just 2 weeks+ old ….anyway ill keep monitoring this

      Reply
Ian - June 27, 2015

Hi Mike

Just wanted to say that this blog is exactly what I’ve been looking for. I’ve been making sites since 1999, and my three main sites are all 12+ years old. All provide me with a good income, but it’s not passive. They’re hard work.

So I want to try something new & have been looking into best practices for keyword research, building Amazon niche sites & utlitizing PBNs & The HOTH etc

This site is an awesome resource. Many thanks for putting it together. You’re saving me loads of time in my research.

Reply
    Mike Bradford - June 27, 2015

    Glad you’re finding it useful, Ian!

    Reply
Corrin - June 29, 2015

Hi Mike!

I wanna make an ANS centered in a main product, like sandals for example, I would target keywords like “best summer sandals”, “best winter sandals”, “best city sandals”, making a post for each kw.

The question is: In order to rank in Google`s first page, is required to make a home page with 4000+ words of content?

My idea for the begining, is to make a blog style homepage (brief intro & showing all posts), a contact page and a few monetized posts of “best articles with reviews” (4000+ words each). After that, i would start building links for these posts (The Hoth or PBNs are serious options).

Link building for:
domain/best-winter-sandal
domain/best-summer-sandal
domain/best-city-sandal

It is a good strategy? Or it is always preferable to create links only to the home page?

Please tell me, what do you think about that? Your opinion would help me a lot.

Thanks Mike!
Regards,

Reply
    Mike Bradford - June 29, 2015

    Hi Corrin,

    No, it doesn’t matter if your money page(s) is your home page, or a separate page on your blog.

    I have a homepage for one of my sites that is NOT monetized at all. The money pages are on separate pages, and I create links for those pages.

    Reply
      Corrin - June 30, 2015

      Thanks Mike! Again, this is a great resource of information, you are doing a good job here.

      It inspires a lot,

      Have a great time man!
      Corrin

      Reply
Rob - July 3, 2015

Hey Mike, just wanted to let you know you’re doing an awesome job with this site! Found you through a reddit post btw that I believe you had linked your monthly income twitter post. (Figured you’d enjoy hearing about how I found your page)

Anyways, I’m just starting out with my first couple affiliate niche sites, and am about to purchase Thrive Content Builder based on your recommendation. Seems like it will speed up the whole process greatly.

Question: I really want to hire out my content writing (thinking about a budget of ~$100 or so for a 4000 word main page and about 10 longtail keyword ‘blog’ posts). Do you think this is a realistic number? How do you gain trust in your writers? I’m thinking about doing a sample 500 word post to judge their writing abilities. Do you use any specific sites? I know it seems basic, but this is the biggest hump I’ve yet to overcome is feeling comfortable outsourcing work, especially due to the fact that this content is 99% of my website, haha.

Thanks,
Rob

Reply
    Mike Bradford - July 4, 2015

    Hi Rob,

    What I would recommend doing is writing some of the content yourself, to your specifications. Then, when you are looking to hire a writer – you can send them a link to the content you’ve written, and ask/tell them that’s how you would like them to write it. Basically, you are giving them a template to follow. And yes, start with small tasks first, 500 words at a time. That’s how I approach it.

    In terms of price, I’ve been on oDesk for a while now (was on Textbroker before then) and I’m paying $16 for every 1,000 words. You can probably shop around for better rates.

    Reply
Del - July 9, 2015

Hi Mike,

After reading your posts I decided to give Thrive content builder a go. I’m impressed. I would say it took my no more than an hour to get to grips with it. The table of contents is my favorite part. I think it would take an hour plus to code this, but content builder does it in seconds.

I have one question though. How do you add elf links using the content builder? I tried using the custom html box but it doesn’t work.

Cheers

Reply
    Mike Bradford - July 10, 2015

    Del, I sent you an e-mail.

    Guys, it looks like Thrive updated the Content Builder, and it’s not exactly compatible with Elf Links anymore. There is a workaround, but it’s a pain in the ass.

    Reply
      Randy - August 26, 2015

      Do you have a link to the workaround? I bought Thrive and perhaps I can give it a shot to make it work.

      Reply
        Mike Bradford - August 27, 2015

        Send me an e-mail, Randy.

        Reply
Corrin - July 10, 2015

Hey Mike!

Do you use an email suscriber plugin in your ANS?

Please, could you recommend one?

Thanks my friend!

Have a great time, regards
Corrin

Reply
    Mike Bradford - July 10, 2015

    Hi Corrin,

    I don’t do e-mail marketing with my niche sites. My thinking is: I only have ONE goal for my visitor when they reach my page – to click on over to Amazon! I don’t want to distract them with anything else.

    Not saying it’s not a good idea, just not something I’ve ever tried.

    Reply
Rohit Palit - July 10, 2015

Hey Mike,

I’m wondering if you’re getting my comments and emails that I’ve been posting since the last few days. I’m not seeing either my comments go live or any email reply from you.

Please let me know.

Rohit

Reply
    Mike Bradford - July 10, 2015

    Sorry Rohit, looks like you’ve been in the spam folder!

    Not interested in doing any partnership at the time, but thanks for reaching out 🙂

    Reply
salo - July 16, 2015

hi i want to know if i can use the thrive content builder with monarch i try and the monarch ABOVE CONTENT ALWAYS GO TO THE BOTTON, PLEASE ANY SOLUTION??

Reply
    Mike Bradford - July 17, 2015

    I have no idea what Monarch is. Reach out to Thrive support and ask them.

    Reply
Mike - July 17, 2015

Starting the niche website thing here and was wondering how imperative is it that my niche or top keyword is in my web address. Thinking of names for url and right now I have one that is available and sounds really good but it has like a secondary keyword instead of a primary? Hope that make sense. Please help!!!!
Thx Mike,

Reply
    Mike Bradford - July 18, 2015

    It’s not imperative at all. You don’t even need a KW in your domain name.

    Reply
Dominic Wells - July 25, 2015

Only just realized that you’ve been sending me a decent amount of traffic, thought I’d come by and say thanks!

Also this is a really good post!

Reply
    Mike Bradford - July 27, 2015

    Thanks, Dom!

    Reply
sohaib hasan - August 2, 2015

Hi there Mike. Its been almost a year months now I have been building niche sites to monetize through Amazon and your content is epic. Specific and to the core. No BS! Well you earned yourself a loyal subscriber and I will follow all of these tips to take my Amazon niche sites to a whole new level. Appreciate it man!

Reply
    Mike Bradford - August 2, 2015

    Thanks, Sohaib – good luck!

    Reply
Corrin - August 9, 2015

Hi Mike!

It’s Corrin, hope you remember me!

I’ve already done my amazon niche site, it has original content and two 4000+ words money posts, the competition for the kw is poor so i am really exited. But i’m really upset too…

The two posts are indexed by Google. But when I enter my keyword in Google “best ____” I can’t find my posts in the first 300 results.

I really don’t know what is happening, the oldest post has already 24 days online. Is this normal? I should wait more? What is your advice?

Thanks a lot Mike!

Regards
Corrin

Reply
    Mike Bradford - August 11, 2015

    Your site is only 24 days old?

    Have you built any backlinks to it?

    24 days is nothing. Try closer to 3 months before you start to worry.

    Reply
      Corrin - August 12, 2015

      That relieves me a lot. It’s awesome to have someone in whom you can support to, thanks my friend!

      Yes, the first money post complies 27 days today.

      Taking inspiration from your exploits I’m making my own PBN, it has already 3 sites. So that are the links to my site.

      I will continue doing that, hoping better results.

      Thanks again Mike!

      Have a great time
      Regards
      Corrin

      Reply
Yaro Park - August 21, 2015

Hey Mike,
Quick question about Elf Links.
Does it work better than pretty links + disallow in robot.txt?
I bought Elf Links, but currently it doesn’t work for me and unable to test it out.
Did you test both setups (elf links vs pretty links + disallow in robot.txt)?
Thanks,
Yaro

Reply
    Mike Bradford - August 21, 2015

    Hi Yaro,

    I’ve never used the disallow in robot.txt thing, so I can’t really comment on that technique.

    Why doesn’t Elf Links work for you? You should reach out to their support.

    Reply
Raj - August 27, 2015

Hey Mike,

I too bought the ELF links after your recommendation but I am unable to use it using thrive content builder. any ideas? How do you use it with Thrive Content Builder? if you have use a button from it.

Thanks for your help

Reply
    Mike Bradford - September 3, 2015

    Hi Raj,

    Send me an e-mail.

    Reply
Francesco - September 8, 2015

Hi Mike!

Your website is pure gold, and I am learning so much thanks to you.

About content creation, I was looking at a way to check step by step relevance and keyword stuffing.

I also read a lot about LSI (latence semantic indexing) and how it can be benefical for content overhall quality.

So my question is: do you care about specific keyword density? What do you think about LSI and Siloing?

Do you know Seopressor plugin (it can perform LSI suggestions and keyword densoty check). What do you think about this tool? I am trying the demo and it seems good (but I am not an expert indeed).

Thanks for your thoughts.

Francesco

Reply
    Mike Bradford - September 8, 2015

    Hi Francesco,

    Keyword density is not something I worry about — and by that I mean, I do NOT keyword stuff at all. I definitely use it in the page title, URL, H1 & H2, but other than that, only where it should appear naturally. No need to risk getting your site penalized.

    No, never heard of that plug-in.

    Reply
Paul - September 14, 2015

Hey Mike,

I thought doing something like elf links is against amazon policy? Please verify.

Reply
    Mike Bradford - September 15, 2015

    Hi Paul,

    It’s kind of a gray area. If you feel more comfortable linking straight to Amazon, then you should do that.

    Reply
Sandra - October 7, 2015

Hi Mike,

Great information – Thank you!

I sent you an email about Elf Links and TCB and Pretty link combined use as mentioned above – hope you can spare time to get back to me on this one.

PS – I found your site when I was searching for info on Elf Links – ranked no.8 on Google from the UK

Reply
    Mike Bradford - October 13, 2015

    Sent – thanks!

    Reply
Mao - October 13, 2015

Thank you Mike, I really learn a lot from you. Thank you for your sharing

Reply
Mark Netrib - May 15, 2016

Hi,

My site has a lot of external links (non-affiliate) to several merchant. Now I’m planning use Skimlinks or Viglink to monetize them.

Can I use Elf Links with Skimlinks or Viglink?

My concern is, if Google don’t recognize the Elf Links, how will Skimlinks or Viglink find them?

Kind Regards,

Anand

Reply

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