I know that quite a few people have been keenly watching my niche website case study progress so here’s another update for anyone that is following along. For anyone that missed the first couple of parts be sure to check out both part one and two to get up to speed.

So far I’ve built up a website that’s targetting the keyword ‘Wine Aerator’. The website is a simple WordPress blog that’s using the ShopperPress theme and the last time I posted an updated I had added six different products to the site.

Update: This case study was done a while ago now and I ended up giving the site in the case study away to the winner of a competition who failed to renew the domain (despite it making money!). So even though all of the strategy is still here along with screenshots and all that jazz you wont be able to visit the actual site anymore!

Here’s what’s happened since my last update…

I’ve Added 3 New Products…

I’ve added three new products to the site. Once again I just used the Google Keyword Tool to find low hanging fruit in the forms of products with a decent number of searches but little competition in the search engines.

The three products I settled on were the following:

I’ve Built More Backlinks…

If you’ve been listening to anything that I’ve been saying you’ll know that backlinks are essential to getting a top ranking (and heaps of traffic) from the search engines.

So naturally as well as adding more content I’ve also been building more backlinks. This time I’ve been going through the social bookmarking websites found on Knowem.com and building up profiles on these sites with links back to my website:

You might notice in the example above that I’ve also added a link to a website called “Wine Australia”. I always like to add at least one other link to another relevant site on all of the profiles that I set up. It just makes them seem more natural and less like spam. I only add links to sites that are generally related to mine but not to sites that are in direct competition with me (why give them free backlinks?)… so a website about “Wine Vineyards” or “Brewing Wine” would be fine but not another site that’s targeting “Wine Aerators”.

So far I’ve created links on about half of the social bookmarking sites that are listed (a bit over 20).

Traffic is Increasing…

My website traffic is starting to pick up and is looking pretty positive.

Here’s a screenshot of last months traffic stats:

Admittedly some of these visitors are LazyAssStoner.com readers that are following the case study and checking out the website but there’s still a lot of people finding the site through the search engines.

The First Sales Arrive!

Last but definitely not least – I’ve made my first few commissions from the site:

Sure the commissions aren’t much to write home about – but it’s a positive sign.

Also note that two of these products I’m not even directly promoting on my website but that’s the beauty of Amazon. Even if the person doesn’t end up buying the actual item that you sent them too – Amazon does such a good job at suggesting and recommending other related products that they often end up buying something or rather… and whatever it is you get a commission.

More in Part 4…

So far everything seems to be progressing pretty nicely.

Click Here to Check Out Part 4 of the Case Study!