ISSUE 96

2 Google Updates Incoming; Amazon Affiliate Alternatives; Finding Private Buyers; Elevator Pitches; 95 Blog Topic Ideas; and More!

Author

Yoyao
August 20, 2022 • Est. Learning Time: 11 minutes

Issue 2

FIRST…

Raise your hand if you've heard of Google's Helpful Content Update coming next week.

Now raise your hand if you heard of Google's next Product Reviews Update that Barry Schwartz thinks is coming the week after.

Yep, they were both announced the same day in separate blog posts, but the product reviews one was more hidden and received far fewer mentions.

Is preannouncing updates the norm now? Maybe it's a good thing? Maybe it'll help people clean up their sites more?

Just remember that changing your sites now probably won't help your site with the updates. John Mueller has said it can take months for an update, so cleaning up a site now won't help with this update.

It's still good to look at your sites though and see what you can do to make them better. We should all be reviewing our sites regularly.

The skill of objectively reviewing your own sites is something I often tell people to learn how to do. That will only make you better and help you earn more with your sites.

If you ever need help with reviewing your site and content, feel free to reach out. I can help with website teardowns, site and content strategy, and topical maps. We can also work together on a 1-on-1 strategy call if you prefer.

NICHE CREATORS

ISSUE 96

This week's two Niche Creators - James Brockbank and Joe Davies - are very active in sharing their expertise with others on Twitter. They both have their own SEO agencies and Joe also has a very useful WordPress plugin called Query Hunter.

Check out their interviews and learn what they're all about:

SEO

Google preannounces the "helpful content update" and what to focus on with your content in this blog post. Yep, it was preannounced, meaning what exactly? I interpret it as being a major update, so they want people prepared for it.

They break it down into 3 sections:

  1. Focus on people-first content

  2. Avoid creating content for search engines first

  3. How the update works

I have oh so many thoughts about this blog post and the upcoming update, but the overarching theme that I see Google asking when it comes to assessing a site is: Is there topical authority here and does the content help people?

How they plan to address that...we'll see next week!

I also think another sign that this is a significant update is that there are so many blog posts about this update almost immediately after Google's announcement on Twitter. It looks like many of the top SEOs already knew about the update and there was a press embargo until the announcement. Some authors also said they "spoke with the Google team about the Helpful Content Update."

There's no shortage of predictions and hypotheses out there. Here is what some of the top SEOs are saying:

While everyone talks about the helpful content update, Danny Sullivan releases a blog post the same days as the update announcement. He talkes about helping searchers find helpful, authentic information.

At the end of the post, he discusses product reviews and the series of updates last year. Then he says "...in the coming weeks, we'll roll out another update to make it even easier to find high-quality, original reviews."

Barry Schwartz seems to be one of the few that has also noticed this. He seems to think it's being released the week of August 29th in his article.

JC Chouinard takes a look at a Google patent covering how anchors are used in ranking search results. He describes the patent and some of the key aspects:

"If a web page (A) links to another web page (B), and that linked web page (B) is also relevant to the query (Q) for which the linking page (A) ranks, then behaviour data for the linking page (A) will be passed on the linked page (B)."

  • Behaviour data can impact not only a search result, but pages that it links to.

  • Links on page that do not rank, nor have behaviour data for a given query are not impacted by this patent.

  • Links with negative anchor text about a page may be excluded (e.g. containing text like “bad”, “terrible”, “horrible”, etc.). This feature may only be done for specific categories of queries such as travel and products.

CONTENT

Need some blog topic ideas to write about? Here are 95 blog post ideas that will keep you going for a while.

Big list of ideas and many that would work well, especially if you have a personal blog and want to build an audience. It's not just a list of niche site ideas. Lots of things that you can use to build on.

This is a good article from Jackie Pearce on how to end blog posts. It's something that not many people think about. Some will throw up a "I hope you enjoyed reading" type of conclusion. Not very helpful to the reader or to you as the site owner. Take advantage of the end of a post with a call to action. Options will obviously vary depending on the content, but it's still good to try and get the reader to do what you want them to do, including:

  • Call to action: Buy a thing

  • Call to action: Leave a comment

  • Call to action: Share the post

  • Call to action: Follow on social media

  • Call to action: Sign up for an email list Call to action: Offer further reading

EDUCATION

This article covers writing an elevator pitch for your business and shares 13 elevator pitch examples and templates for inspiration. When you think about it, your blog post intros are elevator pitches to readers to keep them on the page to continue reading. Use some of these tips to engage your visitors right off the bat.

Mushfiq and Charles Sipe over at The Website Flip cover 9 ways to find private buyers if you're looking to sell your website. Finding your own buyers can be more work, but it'll also save you lots on broker fees (upwards of 20%).

  1. Facebook Communities (Groups)

  2. Niche Website Forum Communities

  3. Twitter

  4. The Website Flip Brokerage

  5. Email Outreach to Competitors

  6. Email Outreach to Brands

  7. For Sale Message on Site

  8. Advertise in an Email Newsletter

  9. Networking with Niche Site Owners and Website Flippers

If you're looking to move away from Amazon, take a look at other solutions for affiliate commissions. Matt Diggity offers up 19 different options:

  1. Go Direct With The Brand

  2. Affiliate Networks - e.g., ShareASale, CJ, Impact, and others.

  3. Niche Solutions - Specific ones for niches.

  4. Direct Amazon Alternatives - Target, Walmart, Home Depot, and others.

I will now include links to other affiliate programs next to the Amazon ones, but Amazon still converts much better. That leads to Amazon still out earning other stores, so you will want to try it out first. See how different affiliate programs convert for you compared to Amazon before making sudden changes.

CASE STUDY

Do you want to increase your website's traffic by nearly 100%? In this video, Matt Diggity gives a step-by-step case study on how he and his team doubled a client's traffic in just 8 months by focusing on the 3 Pillars of SEO:

  1. Technical SEO

  2. Content

  3. Link Building

There is lots of great info in this video, especially for beginners.

LIKE NICHE SURFER?

Be sure to also join others riding the passive income wave in the Niche Surfer Discord group.

Have questions? Reply or email me at [email protected]. I’d love to know what you think and if you have any ideas.

I’d also appreciate it if you shared it with fellow niche surfers.

Have a great week taking your niche sites to another level!

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