In November of 2019 I started a new blog. I start new blogs all the time so for the most part it was business as usual. However, from day one I had a specific goal with this niche site. That goal was to get to 100k monthly page views, but why that exact number? Because 100k monthly page views is the minimum traffic requirement to apply to Adthrive.
Adthrive is an ad management company that puts ads on your site, manages all aspects of it, and basically converts your traffic into money in your bank. Plain and simple.
Since I just reached that goal I’m going to talk about the journey of that site, an overview of the strategy to get here, and why this was a goal of mine for so long.
Let’s get right to it!
How long to 100k monthly page views
So as you may have guessed, the answer is it depends. If you have your sights set on 100k, here are some of the main factors that are going to determine how long it will take you to get your niche website there.
- Your niche
- Topic selections
- Your skill level
- Amount of content
- Content quality
- Element of luck
So I’m not going to go into each one of those in detail, but they are the usual suspects. Some can just slow your growth if you don’t get it right, others will completely stop it. The only way to find what works best for your site is through lots of trial and error and testing. Find what types of articles get the most traffic and make more like them.
Having said all that, from here on I’ll discuss my experience with my 100k site.
How long it took me
It took me almost exactly 18 months to get an informational based blog to 100k page views in the last 30 days. I registered a new domain in November 2019 and hit 100,366 page views on May 7th 2021. This was an informational niche blog. I published hundreds of SEO articles to this site for display ads. There are some Amazon affiliate links, but they account for only a small portion of revenue.
Looking back there are things I could have done differently that could have sped things up. But overall I’m happy with 100k page views in 18 months. I’ve done this before so I had a game plan from the beginning. I wasn’t fumbling around with a site that had no direction. I stuck with the same strategy for this site the entire time and will continue to do so.
Let’s look at the site first, then the strategy. I’ll wrap it up talking a little bit about Adthrive and what the big deal is.
About the website
As I mentioned, this website was created with the intention of display ad monetization. Even before Amazon cut their affiliate commissions the last time I have been shifting focus to display ads. There are many advantages to this form of monetization that drew me in, which I’ll talk about below.
For now though, here’s some more info and stats about this blog.
The niche
Even though it’s not in a super secret niche, I’m still not going to open the door to even more competition and reveal it. Having said that I will tell you some things that led me to this niche and why I chose it.
The first thing is the search volume. If you are going for ad revenue then you need a lot of traffic. So you can’t choose some obscure hobby niche that gets barely any search volume. So I did research and make sure the volume was there.
The next thing I looked at was the range of topics available. I opened up a spreadsheet and spent a couple of hours coming up with as many topics in an as many areas of the niche as I could. I recorded search volumes for each topic and made notes for myself. There were virtually unlimited topics, there’s no way they could all be covered in my lifetime.
Once I was sure there was plenty of search volume and a wide range of topics within the niche, I looked at competition. It was there, but it wasn’t enough to scare me away. Keep in mind this was mostly informational in nature, so there weren’t a bunch of ravenous affiliate sites competing for the first page of Google.
The last thing I looked at was commercial potential. It’s true that this site wasn’t going on the affiliate path like some of my other sites, but I always want to keep that option open. As it turns out there were plenty of commercial opportunities for down the road.
The niche I chose:
- Is a broad niche
- Has a ton of search volume
- Has infinite topic potential
- Is low enough competition
- Does have commercial opportunities
Current size of website
I started this site started off pretty strong outsourcing about 60 articles in the first 30 days, a respectable amount of content in the first month for sure. As I mentioned above, I already had a long list of topics and it’s so easy to find more that I know will eventually rank.
After that I stayed pretty consistent publishing 10-20 each month. Some months a little more, some a little less. After 18 months this site has around 320 articles. Out of those articles I’d say 75% are purely informational, 15% are guides that are partially informational with some affiliate links mixed in, and then the remaining 10% are heavily commercial “best” articles.
These 300+ articles are currently earning me around $2500/month through display ads and affiliate offers while I’ve been waiting to hit that 100k mark. Not too shabby.
How long are the articles?
Some people always wonder how long a person’s article is. What’s the word count? How many words for guides and how many words for listicles? I’ll address this briefly.
The article length for this site ranges from 500 words to 7k words. I have 500 word articles that bring in the same amount of traffic as a 5k word article, but it’s a different audience with a different intent.
Don’t focus on the article length, never count words. Just fulfill the intent of the searcher and cover the topic thoroughly. That’s what I’ve always done and the article word count ends up being what it is. If the topic has a little more competition I will look at the competition and that might influence the thoroughness of the article, but that’s it.
The basic strategy
As I’ve alluded to, the strategy was to publish a ton of informational content on a new domain for as long as it took. I’ve been carefully monitoring traffic on this site for a year and a half. Making tweaks and adjustments in this strategy where needed, but for the most part it hasn’t changed.
I have a small portfolio of sites where I use this same strategy to make 5 figures/month, so I know it works. This isn’t my biggest site.
Every site’s journey is different though, and even though I knew this strategy would eventually work I didn’t know how long it would take. I will admit my initial goal was a little to ambitions at 1 year. I just thought it would be cool to hit the goal in a year, and it wasn’t totally out of the realm of possibility.
My basic strategy was:
- Choose a broad niche with endless topics
- Register a broad domain name
- Publish lots of low competition informational content
- Mix in some affiliate content, but only a small % of total
- Once the site gains traction (~6 mos), move to higher volume topics
- Stick to the higher volume topics until 100k
- Apply to Adthrive at 100k page views
- Profit
A word on link building
I do not manually build links. It’s just a choice. Some of you may be great at outreach and building links, I’ve never liked it. It probably takes a lot longer for my sites to reach profitability, but that’s ok. I can wait, I have other sites to work on while newer ones are in the incubator.
Having said that, I do publish certain types of content that tend to attract links naturally. I think most people that don’t link build through outreach and are fairly successful, have some tricks up their sleeve when it comes to organic link building. I know I do.
Why Adthrive?
Adthrive is a 3rd party ad management company, you’ve probably heard of them if you found your way here. You can go to their website and read more about them here, but here’s the short version of why I wanted to apply.
Adthrive is known as one of the top “ad networks” among publishers like me. A couple of other examples are Mediavine and Ezoic, I have websites on both of their platforms.
Is Adthrive better?
Not necessarily, but some might say so. There are also some that say Mediavine and Ezoic are the best. How can I judge for myself without testing out all 3 platforms though? The answer is I can’t. So that’s really been the reasoning behind this whole quest to achieve Adthrive status for the last year and a half.
I want to be on all 3 platforms and judge for myself who I think will make me the most money. Because let’s be real, that’s what it’s about. I want to make the most money I can for the work I’ve put in.
But also diversification. I like the idea of having my foot in the door of all 3 places. If everything goes as planned then that’s exactly how it will be. I’ve already been emailing with Adthrive support and they are currently reviewing my application.
As far as why I like display ads right now more than affiliate links…
Pros of display ads:
- More consistent income – Affiliate income can be volatile and risky
- More passive – No updating broken links
- Topic potential – Publish content about almost anything (lower competition)
- Scalability – The business model is easily scalable
- Very lucrative – Once its has the traffic a single website can make $10k/mo and beyond (well beyond).
Conclusion
So after all this waiting I finally applied to Adthrive yesterday. Will I even get accepted? I honestly don’t know, but I think so. My sites are aesthetically pleasing to look at, and the traffic is what most advertisers are looking for. Almost all U.S. traffic from Google with consistent growth month after month.
Having said that, the site isn’t flawless. There are some things I could improve, but I’m confident that I’ll be approved nonetheless.
If I’m not I’ll head straight to Mediavine and apply where I already have one site.