Explore every episode of the podcast Fat Stacks Blog - a Podcast About Blogging and Email Newsletters

I've been a full-time online publisher and content creator since 2012. Along the way, I've had to take some sizeable risks to both survive financially and grow my business.  

This video sets out 6 of those risks I took along the way that ultimately paid off.  

FYI, not all risks I took paid off. I'll go through the failures in another video.

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PROMPT: "As you know my site is X. I publish content about A, B and C. Topic C is not doing so great.  I want to stay in the same vertical but need to publish content that is both engaging and will earn really high ad RPMs? Please list out ten options" (at 2:23 in podcast).

Optional addition to prompt: Give three specific article/post/video title examples for each.

Yes, this is ridiculously simple but it really opened my eyes. Hope it does the same for you.

The podcast also walks you through the entire process, from the initial prototype, rigorous testing, countless prototypes, and intense workflow optimization, to scaling a profitable new content category that continues to thrive today. Plus, learn how I've replicated this success again and again, including a recent launch that generated millions of views and thousands of dollars in just weeks.

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Can you actually make $100K a month from a single online platform? The answer might surprise you. In this video, I break down the secrets behind massive online earnings, exploring exactly what it takes to turn your favorite social platform into a lucrative powerhouse. 

Whether you're an introvert, extrovert, writer, designer, or speaker—there's a path for you. But one crucial detail determines your success or failure. Watch to discover what it is.

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Fact is right now offers one of the best opportunities online whether you publish a website or not. I explain why and what it is.  Hint - involves vibe coding.

This is also an update on getting email clicks, niche site content strategy generally and how to create the best website possible for your readers.

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It's been a tad over a year since I switched from old-school SEO publishing to email newsletter focus. This podcast is an update including some blunders and how I resolved them.

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I read a tweet this week saying B2C is a waste of time. While there are arguments that support that I disagree. This podcast explains why I disagree and that I believe there's good opportunity with B2C.

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Joe, Mike and Jon discuss the how and why of the Leapfrog Rank n' Rent online business model which is essentially building and renting sites out for local businesses helping those local businesses get new clients or customers.

=> Learn more about Leapfrog Rank n' Rent here.

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Are you thinking of launching an email newsletter?  If so, find out how to test quickly and inexpensively whether it'll work in the long run.

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I go through a list of website features you should consider incorporating for a better niche site.

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In this episode, I set out exactly how I would get my site to the magical 50K monthly visitors for Mediavine ads from scratch as a sprint... as fast as possible.

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I set out and explain the 6 blogging levers so that you don't trade money for time publishing niche sites and instead build up a successful online publishing business.

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I discuss the number one mistake aspiring bloggers make and how to prevent it. I also go into unimportant mistakes vs important mistakes to avoid as a blogger.

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I discuss what I think is the hardest part of publishing niche sites.

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Learn when and how to use this effective word on your website for more traffic and more engagement from visitors.

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I discuss the pros and cons of operating what I call a crossover niche site which is personality and/or audience driven.

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Join me with my SEO guy, Taylor Kimball as we tackle the question what you need to do to rank niche sites in 2023 & beyond!

- What's the best strategy to focus on for a niche site in 2023?
- Should you even be creating a niche site right now?
- The mindset shift that will boost your site's authority
- The hidden advantage of niche sites vs broad sites

- The costly mistake affiliate sites make
- AI content's Achilles heel that niche sites can exploit
- The sneaky way to get a topical map done for you
- The inconvenient truth of Bing's AI search engine

- The easy way to increase your CRT on Google
- The small shift in strategy you need to keep safe from potential AI slaps
- First thing to look for if your site traffic starts tanking
- What is a reasonable timeline for site recovery?

Get transcriptions here

🧰 Resources mentioned

• Fatstacks coaching program
• The Affiliate Lab 
• Internet Marketing Gold
• Niche Site Profits
• Taylor's AI course (IMG)

✅Want more?
My best stuff is reserved for my email subscribers. It's 17,175 strong and counting. It's free and you get a starter kit to kickstart your niche site or blog. 

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I discuss merits of focusing on what you like in the blogging business and balancing it with running a business.

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This podcast discusses a recent situation where a company asked about paying for a premium placement on one of my niche sites. I go through the entire analysis of this revenue stream.

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I discuss how I'm going forward with my niche sites in an AI content world.

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In this episode I discuss how to reduce your risk to losing traffic if you have a one niche-site portfilio.

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This episode explains why focusing on bigger sites is better in the beginning and my reason for moving one site and potentially more to Mediavine from AdThrive.

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This episode reveals a new way I hire writers that it working out to be the best way to hire writers. I'm getting the best writers ever and it's easy and relatively fast.  I also go over my plans for 2022.

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Lately I've been publishing some very opinionated articles on my niche sites with strong views. Should you? If so here's how to go about it.

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I explain how to create email newsletter content for regular niche sites that also benefits the niche site SEO and content production.

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This episode goest through what I call the microscope keyword research method for finding great article topics for your website that doesn't require any keyword research software or tools at all.

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This is a discussion about tacking on shoulder niches to existing niche sites, why I do it, how I do it with pivot cornerstones and the future of content niche sites.

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This video steps you through my most important SEO methods for millions of monthly website visitors.  It includes:

• Content strategies,
• Link building strategies,
• On-site SEO, and
• Keyword research concepts.

Learn more: Get my 6-Figure Baseline Blogging course (FREE)
Learn a LOT more with my paid course

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Watch the demo in the video version of this presentation here.

This is just the start.  Only two weeks ago did I start this new "affiliate lander" project for two of my niche sites and it's already shown revenue increases.  The detailed video explains everything about why and how I build and use affiliate landing pages on niche sites, including informational articles to increase affiliate revenue, page views and improve user experience.

Learn more: get my free course on this stuff.

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In this episode and break down building up niche sites into bite-sized chunks. 

I end this episode discussing the results of a recent link-building campaign.

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This video pokes a bit of fun at the SEO community going through the 12 types of SEO.  Which type of SEO are you.  I fall into 4 types. 

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This episode steps you through the 21 considerations for producing good niche website and blog content.  Based on years of experience and recent Google algo changes.

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I get a lot done fast when I work.  It's a result of being very efficient.  Here are my top 21 techniques fo getting more content published faster across my portfolio of websites.

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I've ordered clusters, which are multiple articles within the same topic, only to end up with this big problem.  It was my fault. I'm glad I spotted it.  I figured out a fix and now it's not a problem.  It's a widespread issue so watch out for it.

Resources mentioned:

• Passion Posts
• WriterAccess

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What are the 8 purposes of content on a niche website?  This episode goes through these 8 purposes that you need to know about and keep in mind for every piece of content you published because a website's whole is far greater than the sum of its parts.

Tools mentioned:

• Fat Stacks Bundle
• Niche Website Builders (Skyscraper link building)
• Converkit Email Software
• Convertbox Email Software

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This episode steps you through exactly how I figure out how many words to order from writers or how long content needs to be to stand a good chance of ranking #1 in Google.  It's more art than science but we can take some of the guesswork out of it.

Tools mentioned:
MarketMuse:  https://fatstacksblog.com/go/marketmuse/
SurferSEO: https://fatstacksblog.com/go/surferseo/
WriterAccess:  https://fatstacksblog.com/go/writer-access/
My free course: https://fatstacksblog.com/

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Every day I'm faced with decisions.  I've learned over the years, often there is no right way to go about things.  The important thing to do is to make the decision and do something.  You can always go back and fix stuff.   I also delve into bird's eye view SEO logic, home pages and content production.

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Learn about my two methods for improving content.  There's the "Quick n' Dirty" Hands Off method and the "Full Workup - Swingin' for the Fences" method.

Show Notes:

1. Quick n’ dirty “hands off” method

Identify new sections/subheadings and sub-topics to add

Outsource the write-ups

Add as chunks to existing.

Listicles: New list or add to list. Keep old list at bottom.

2. The full workup - swingin’ for the fences

Better intro - answer the main question right away (I’ve been doing this in a roundabout way for years)

Rewrite clumsy writing

• Dog beds are… Dog beds should… Dog beds…

New/better images

Full keyword analysis and injection

• Insert more long tails in content and as sections

Update any dates in the content/titles

Convert to Gutenberg and add more styling

Improve any Conversion Rate Optimization opportunities

Consider removing sidebar

Content enhancer opportunities:

• Facts/data/statistics (don’t forget tables and charts)
• Quotes - get quotes from industry experts in videos or articles (reference the links)
• jokes
• Anecdotes/stories/examples

FAQ section (don’t forget schema markup)

Improve interlinking

Improve referencing

Pagespeed analysis:  If low page speed scores - remove embeds, compress images, remove scripts (quizzes, maps, videos, etc.)

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This episode explains why your goal as a content publisher or blogger should be "get to boring."  I explain what that means, how to get there and how to leverage a boring business.

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I love shoulder niches. I tack them on like crazy to grow authority, traffic and revenue. Learn why and how I do it.

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This episode analyzes the pros and cons of getting content for your niche site with writers directly (in-house) vs. using a writing agency vs. using a writing service.  And yes, I explain the differences of all three as well.

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See all the charts at the blog here.

This episode presents 3 scenarios compared by analyzing what could happen if you scaled up your website portfolio business by bringing on investors.

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This episode discusses the interesting SEO Avalanche theory.

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This episode discusses the formula for building up a successful niche site business ... includes attracting links.   

References: The Hoth article about Nerd Wallet SEO.

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Recently working with a group of writers I discovered a duplicate content problem.  Fortunately, I discovered it fairly quickly, but it could have been bad.  If you work with writers or write your own content, you need to watch this video to ensure it doesn't happen to you.

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In this episode, I talk about whether it's okay to regurgitate info in content across your site.  I run through several examples.

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Why I loathe schedules and how I operate my publishing business with no schedule or expectations.  I also talk about how I guard against that nasty bright shiny object syndrome.

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In this episode I share a very simple way to increase ad revenue that's also good for visitors and SEO.  In a nutshell I share a couple very simple ways to increase content length that increases ad revenue considerably.

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How I use video ads to increase total ad revenue by 20% overnight

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You need this ad type on your site to make money after this Google search change!

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I step through each task in my publishing workflow.

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