$10K Challenge Update #5

10k challenge 5

Welcome to the 5th update of my $10K Challenge. If this is your first time reading, check out what this challenge is all about here.

Be sure to read till the end as I'll make a big announcement that you'll absolutely not want to miss.

Below are the things that happened since the last update (March 2016)

More...

Key Successes​

  • Daily traffic continued to grow (40% increase).
  • Created a new team structure and filled in key roles with the right people.
  • Acquired new backlinks through guest posting and content promotion.

Key Failures​

  • Failed to reach 5 new posts a week

Website Stats as of May 22nd 2016

Domain Profile

I use Ahrefs (paid) and Open Site Explorer (free) to help measure the effectiveness of my promotional efforts by tracking these metrics:

  • Domain Rating: 41 (+2)
  • Domain Authority: 26 (+4)
  • Referring Domains: 85 (+11)
  • Organic Keywords: 20,000 (+9,000)​

Traffic

10kchallenge update 5

Traffic continued to grow but at a slower pace as my site has reached its maturity stage now. A lot more effort needs to be put in to achieve breakthrough.

Currently, it’s at around 2,800 hits a day on average. My pages per session and time on site seem low because the top visited pages on my site currently are affiliate content.

I plan to increase those 2 numbers by publishing a lot more helpful informational content over the coming weeks to balance it out.

Income

March 2016

April 2016

Amazon Affiliate Income

$2,882.35

$3,209.31

Expenses

$453.66

$868.87

Net Profit

$2,428.69

$2,340.44

10kchallenge update 5 earnings

Revenue from Amazon is nice & stable at around $3,000 a month.

However, my daily traffic has increased by 40% since March and I want to see the same growth trajectory with income, too.

With current traffic, I should be making $5000 - $6000 a month from various sources of revenue. So, there are a lot of rooms for improvement here. My plan is to start collecting emails as well as testing some display ads to improve monetization.

Content & Promotion

We published 23 new posts and gained 11 new backlinks during this period.

Also, we’re about to launch an EPIC piece of content with lots of white hat promotion to really establish our site as an authority in the niche.

I’ll talk more about this later in the next updates.

New Team Structure and Key Roles

I couldn’t achieve all the big plans I have for this site alone, so I created an accountability chart with defined roles and responsibilities to build a team around it.

accountability chart

Here are more details about each of the role:

Role

Responsibilities

Salary

Hours / Month

Visionary

  • R & D new ideas
  • Keep up with latest industry trends
  • Team Building
  • Monetization & Split Testing
  • Strategy and Planning

BPM 

  • Build/improve business systems and SOPs.
  • Assisting in creating business plans.

$10/hr

As Needed

Integrator
(currently filled by SEO Manager)

  • Keyword and Content Research.
  • Make sure things get done on time with great quality and accuracy.
  • Coordinate with team members.

Content Editor

  • Plan content based on publishing frequency.
  • Write or order content from freelance writers.
  • Proofread, edit, improve content before checking off.
  • Grow and manage a team of freelance writers.
  • Coordinate with content designer, content poster and SEO manager.

$5.371 per hour

140 - 160 hours per month

SEO Manager

  • Create and implement SEO outreach plans.
    • Blog Commenting
    • Guest Posting
    • Guestographics
    • Skyscraper Technique
  • Coordinate with content editor and content designer

$150 a month

140 - 160 hours per month

Graphic Designer

  • Lead the creation of visual content and infographics.
  • Coordinate with content editor, SEO manager, and

$150 a month

80 hours per month

Content Poster

  • Publish and schedule content to WordPress
  • Find and insert relevant images for articles.
  • Design thumbnails and blog images.
  • Coordinate with content editor, SEO manager, and content designer.

$150 per month

80 hours per month

One great book about building business system that I’ve been digging is Traction: Get a Grip with your Business.

If you’re in a similar stage and want to build a team, then I highly recommend you to check out the book.

Conclusion

There you have it- the 5th update for my $10k challenge.

Here are what we’re gonna do over the upcoming months to grow the site to $10k/month:

  • Launch the EPIC article and promotional campaign for it.
  • Increase content publication on the blog to 5 high-quality new posts a week.
  • Improve monetization.
  • Start collecting emails.​

This case study has been great and I hope you had fun following my progress.

If you have any question for me, feel free to leave a comment below or post in our Facebook community.

Now on to the big announcement…

As you probably knew from my last updates, since December 2015, I’ve been working on a new online coaching program with the goal of teaching you a proven step-by-step system to build,rank and profit from Amazon affiliate websites.

amz

It’s finished now. The official launch date for the program is June 6th, 2016

Click here to sign up for the early bird list!

This is the exact system that I’ve used to grow Thank Your Skin from nothing to making over $3,000 a month in less than a year.

The program includes 5 core modules with over 44 high-quality videos. There are also worksheets, templates and checklists included to help you follow and execute the process even easier.

As for support, you’ll get help from me and my team on our private community forum.

I included a way for you to get my personal feedback on your potential niches as well.

If this sounds interesting to you, then visit http://www.amzaffiliatebootcamp.com/ and sign up to get notified once it gets launched.

Also, here is another reason why you should sign up.

Next week, I’ll be sending out 3 pieces of content talking about the valuable lessons I learned this year on building a successful Amazon affiliate websites in 2016.

Be sure to sign up so you won’t miss any of those!​

Tung Tran

I’ve built and sold a bunch of highly profitable internet businesses since 2010. After selling my last one in November 2020, I decided to go all... [Read full bio]