The Interview

1. Where do you live?

Living in England is great for content creators. In the UK, we generally get paid less than our US counterparts, so getting paid in US dollars from ad networks means that the money stretches much further.

2. When did you start creating content?

I launched my first successful niche website around three years ago.

3. Are you a full-time Creator?

Yes, I’ve been doing this full time for around 18 months now.

4. What was the “Click” that made you decide you can make full-time money online.

I started with a travel Instagram as a hobby. Then, I built a travel blog, also as a hobby, still not knowing it could make much money! It was only when the money started coming in that I realised what was possible. I honestly had no idea.

5. How many niche sites have you created?

I have four niche sites.

6. How many are you still running now?

I’m still running four, although one is currently for sale.

7. Have you sold any sites or online businesses? And what was the ROI like?

I haven’t made a sale yet, but one of my sites is listed on Empire Flippers for a little over $200,000. I’ve worked on it about 8 hours per week for 2 years, so that ROI is pretty good!

8. How many sites or online businesses have failed or not gotten going?

I first started a niche site in 2012 after I lost my job and had a lot of time on my hands. I only worked on it for six weeks and then I found another job, so I stopped it. I really wish I would have kept it up. That site would probably be worth millions now if I had!

I think a lot of people give up too soon. Please, don’t make that mistake.

9. How much are you earning each month?

• $10,001 – $50,000

10. What are your current streams of revenue?

• Affiliate Sales
• Display Ads
• Sponsored posts

11. What are your Top 3 on-page SEO strategies?

1. Optimising for featured snippets. I always include at least one paragraph that perfectly answers the main topic of the article.

2. I check the length of competing articles and use that as a guide to how much to write.

3. Including real, unique images. Google can tell if you took the photo yourself or took it from a stock photo site. Real photos prove that you have real experience, making you more credible and trustworthy.

12. What’s the biggest issue(s) that you’re facing today?

Finding good writers is tough. When I send out test articles, I can expect that over 90% of them won’t be up to scratch. So you can waste a lot of money on paying for test articles that you then have to heavily edit to be able to use. Some of them I can’t use at all.

There seem to be a lot of writers pumping out crappy content with AI, hoping that someone will accept it. Or perhaps they’re just making money from test articles, who knows?

13. What tool(s) do you rely on the most?

I use ahrefs a lot for keyword research and analysing competitor sites. I use a bunch of free tools as well like Grammarly.

As I’m in the UK but often write for a US audience, USearchFrom.com is an easy way to look at the SERP as if I’m in the US.

14. What has been the biggest mistake you made?

The biggest mistakes I’ve made have been with choosing domain names. I have a .co.uk domain with mostly US traffic. I don’t know how much that puts readers off from clicking and how much more traffic I could be getting with a .com, but I can’t change it now.

Also, I have a micro-niche site on a micro-niche domain. I can’t add on any more categories to that as it wouldn’t make sense. I should have picked a broader domain name for that one.

15. What has been the best decision you’ve made?

The best decision I made was to start my own business. When I was employed, I hated knowing that when I worked longer and harder, all I was doing was making millionaires even more money. My salary stayed the same. Now, the harder I work, the more money I make for myself. I love that.

16. What’s one thing that you felt accelerated your journey the most?

Learning from YouTube videos. I’ve watched and listened to over 1000 hours of free SEO and blogging tips on YouTube. I’m addicted to it. Whenever I’m driving, walking the dogs, cooking, folding laundry, in the gym, I’m always watching or listening to YouTube.

17. What’s your 12 month goal?

Whenever I set goals I always get there so much faster! I reached my 5-year goal in 12 months. So I’ve stopped setting goals, for now anyway. I’m just going to do my best every day and see what happens.

18. How do you stay up to date on the SEO, affiliate marketing, display ad, and other news?

YouTube. However, I’ve recently joined Twitter and have found so much good advice there. I love the community.

19. What do you eat or drink for fuel to keep going?

If I feel tired in the afternoon, I drink a cup of coffee and immediately take a 30-minute nap. When my alarm goes off 30 minutes later the caffeine kicks in and I’m ready to go back to work! You should try that.

20. Where can people follow you?

You can find me on Twitter @nichesitelady.

BONUS: Anything else you’d like to share that can help others?

I’m really open about sharing my knowledge on Twitter. I want to help as many people as I can there, so please consider following me at @nichesitelady if you want to learn more.