#10 - Niche Sites Are Like Marathons

Here’s what we’re going to cover in this week’s newsletter:

• Why Content Sites Are Like Marathons 🏃🏼‍♂️

• Creating Eye-Catching Thumbnails With Midjourney

• AI gets impressively good and threatens content sites

I’ve Been Training For The Paris Marathon

I’m running the Paris Marathon this Sunday, as long as it goes ahead with the protests.

It’s got me thinking about the similarities between Marathons and content sites.

This is the most consistent Marathon training block I have ever completed. In the past, I have done 4 different marathons however I never really took them that seriously.

I wouldn’t stick to my training plan and would only do the bare minimum to cross the finish line.

This resulted in okay results but didn’t represent what my full potential was if I had trained properly.

My best Marathon so far is a 3:55.

This time around I barely missed a session. If the training plan said it, I did it.

Throughout this block of training, I have seen the biggest ever improvement in my running. While I haven’t done the race yet, I’m aiming for a 3:35 but just during my training, I have broken my PBs for some shorter races significantly.

So, you’re probably saying, James WTF does this have to do with Niche sites?

Well, just like running, when you’re inconsistent with your output on a Niche Site, the results you get will be lackluster.

When you’re consistent with your content output, you will see your traffic go up.

Over the 2 years, I owned my main site, I published over 1200 pieces of content. There was rarely a day I didn’t make a post.

However, there’s a caveat. Posting content isn’t the only variable.

Just like running, you have to run to improve but there are other variables.

• Is Your Content High Quality / Are Your Workouts High Quality

• Do You Feed Your Site With Link Signals / Do You Feed Your Body The Right Food

• Are you being patient with results / Are you allowing your body to recover

• Google update / Blow my Achilles

The formula to get results in anything is

Consistent quality over time = results.

So that’s my little rant on running and content sites. Like anything worth having, it takes time to get results.

Make sure to tune in next week and see if I hit that 3:35 target I’m aiming for…

Improving The Branding Of My Blog

This past week I have been working on the branding of my blog. I got a new theme to make things look a little better and I have also been working on my thumbnails.

While I wouldn’t focus on this on Day 1, I think it’s worthwhile once you get a bit of traction.

When someone lands on your site, does it look like a legit brand? Or does it look like you made it in your mum’s basement?

If it’s the later, spend a little time sprucing things up.

I have been using Midjourney to create amazing-looking thumbnails for my blogs.

It’s super easy to use. You can use it for free inside discord right now:

1. Join the Midjourney Discord Here

2. On the discord go to one of the Newbie Channels

3. In the chat type /imagine [Prompt]

Midjourney will now start creating your image. Now, prompting is extremely important to get good results. I’m not the best at it, but if you know what you want you can google “prompts for x” to get good prompts for the results you are looking.

For example, let’s say I have a website about celebrity net worths and I wanted a cartoon version of each person I write about, we can use mid-journey to do it.

We can then re-use the same prompt over and over again to get similar style designs for each person we write about.

Let’s take Leonardo di Caprio and Elon Musk for example:

Prompt: cartoon image of [person], high quality, 4k, positioned left in the frame, black background, room for text on the right-hand side --ar 16:9

We can then pull these into photoshop, add our brand text on the thumbnail, and have a consistent-looking image for each person we write about. We can do this much cheaper than higher a designer to create these.

If you want to get even more in-depth, you can add a link to a photo of the person in your prompt and it will generate the images based on that photo.

Get A Site Review

Want me to review your Niche Site and send you a 15 min video breaking the site down? Check out my Niche Site Audit Service. If you’re struggling to get results, you’re probably making some obvious mistakes that you just can’t see because you haven’t been in the game long enough. That’s what I’m here for.

The Threat Of AI Gets Stronger

The more I have been using AI, the more of a threat to content sites it seems. Low-Competition queries are going to become harder and harder to find.

With the release of GPT-4 you can feed chatgpt articles and it will spit out a new original article targeting the same keyword.

I have been doing this all week and the content is starting to rank. The articles it produces are as good if not better than what writers would provide.

Most of the time writers are doing the exact same thing anyway. They’re looking at the top articles in search and re-writing them in their own words.

I mean that’s pretty much what all content is anyway. People regurgitate things with their own slight spin on it.

Now with GPT3, the articles it spat out were basically straight plagiarism. With GPT-4 I would pass them as original. They also completely pass copyscape etc.

Now if everyone has access to this, where does that leave us?

Honestly, I’m not sure. I’m starting to re-think my strategy and where I want to take this business to get that 7 Figure exit I’m after.

I’m in no need to rush into anything just yet but I do have my mind on other options as we may have to picot this challenge and go after better returns elsewhere.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this! Reply to this email and let me know…

That’s it from me this week. I’m going to go and consume lots of Pasta and Rice this week to get carbed up for Sundays Marathon! Let’s hope the protests don’t stop us from running.

Next week I’ll have a full portfolio update for you!

My Favorite Tools (Affiliate)

Hosting - Cloudways (Very Fast + Great Customer Support)
Keyword Research - Lowfruits.io
Theme - Astra Theme
Course - Passive Income Geek
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