The Interview

1. Where do you live?

England.

2. When did you start creating content?

I personally began creating content in July 2021 with the launch of my first niche site. That said, I have been exposed to the world of content creation for ~5 years as a web developer.

3. Are you a full-time Creator?

Yes, I’ve been a full-time creator for one year.

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

A combination of ‘insider knowledge’ from having been part of other successful online projects as well as finding other case studies online (such as those on Twitter and Reddit) led me to dive feet-first into full-time niche site creation myself.

5. How many niche sites or online businesses have you created?

Niche sites – 3.

Online businesses – 6.

6. How many are you still running now?

Still running all three niche sites, still running two online businesses.

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

I don’t intend to actively attempt to sell *any* of my sites or businesses. If the right offer comes my way, though, of course I would be somewhat open to the idea.

When I set up an online business, I much prefer the idea of piloting it the whole way (as opposed to abandoning ship and selling at the first signs of life).

I totally understand the rationale behind the ‘flipping’ business model, but it’s just not for me. The real money – in my opinion – is in riding (and successfully fuelling) the exponential wave of growth of a ‘winner’.

Granted, that is easier said than done, but I have seen it being achieved first-hand, and I’ll be damned if I don’t attempt it myself.

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

4 online businesses never got off the ground after the MVP was born due to timing and circumstance. I’d like to come back around to these ideas again at some point, though.

9. How much are you earning each month?

• $1,001 – $5,000

10. What are your current streams of revenue?

• Affiliate Sales
• Display Ads
• Digital Products & Courses

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

1) Accurately addressing search intent

2) Maintaining a deliberate internal linking structure that ‘makes sense’

3) Going above-and-beyond with UX

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

Burnout. Despite my best efforts, I struggle to let myself truly relax or take breaks even on days that I have ‘off’, and this has led to some actual mental and physical consequences (albeit relatively mild).

I’m getting better at it, but my workaholic tendencies have been notoriously difficult to stave off.

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

• Semrush
• WhatsMySerp
• Keywords Everywhere
• Gyazo

14. What has been the biggest mistake you made?

Forgoing the use of Google Analytics for the sake of optimisation (which delayed my application to Mediavine by a whole month).

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

Spending additional time refining my site’s technical edge and designing something ‘different’ to stand out in a niche that is otherwise dominated by bloated WordPress sites.

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

The ‘avalanche’ technique of targeting low volume, low competition keywords to begin with and gradually working towards higher volume keywords as traffic increases has worked wonders for me and created a glorious exponential curve on my Google Search Console performance graph. 

17. What’s your 12 month goal?

12 months from now, my vision is for my then 2-year-old niche site to have ‘levelled-up’ to being an actual ~brand~ with a more diversified distribution of direct, social, and organic traffic (at the moment, it’s sat at a perilous percentage of organic search traffic: 95%).

I’m struggling to envision the ceiling for this niche, so it’s becoming increasingly difficult to stick tangible revenue and traffic numbers in my goals, but I’m hoping for ~$5k/month.

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

Twitter and Reddit.

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

Water! I’m not big on caffeine or sugar.

20. Where can people follow you?

@VictoriaSEO_ on Twitter.

seoptimi.se is where I will eventually share some juicier tips and tricks.

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

Patience and persistence are key to beating the delayed gratification loop that is niche site building.