This email is an hour late,
Sorry.
I Googled ‘late excuse’
And it came up with
‘My dog buried my car in the backyard’
So I’m going with that one.
Seriously though,
I don’t know why I thought it would be a good idea
To hire and train two team members
Work on the transfer of a website I sold
And have the kids off school
All at the same time.
Let’s just say…
Planning is not my strong suit.
So this email is a little late
Because instead of writing it
I’ve been swimming
To the cinema
And to McDonald’s.
#momlife
Another thing that I didn’t plan for
Was the impulse purchase of the site
That I bought a little over a month ago.
I mean,
I don’t regret it
But I’ve had barely any time to work on it.
Just one day, actually.
But in that one day,
I managed to increase the traffic by 42% month on month
From 8,300 to 11,800 page views.
And added affiliate links that made $185.
Not bad for a day’s work.
Want to know exactly what I did?
Okay, here we go… 🙂
1. I changed the theme from Acabado to Generate Press
I don’t think that Acabado is a bad theme
But my other sites use GeneratePress
And I couldn’t be bothered to learn a new one.
2. I did a plugin audit
I deleted lots of plugins that I didn’t want.
All I have now is:
- Affiliate Booster (more on that below)
- GP Premium (for the theme)
- iThemes Security (to keep baddies out)
- Query Hunter (more on that below)
- Updraft Plus (for backups)
- Yoast SEO (which I slightly prefer to RankMath)
3. I did a tech SEO audit
I used to do these for my job so I can do it in my sleep,
But otherwise, I’d just use ahrefs.
Ahrefs is great,
But I’ll admit it’s pricey.
If you don’t have ahrefs
And you want to find any hidden SEO mistakes
That could be holding you back from growing
Then I’d suggest signing up for a 7-day free trial of SEMRush
And using their Site Audit tool
to check for 130+ technical SEO mistakes.
I found a few things to fix, but it didn’t take long.
4. I changed the categories
They were a bit weird so I changed the structure.
No biggie.
5. I updated the About Me page
I added details to show authority
And links to my new social accounts
6. I edited four posts
These took about an hour each.
I picked the top four based on most traffic.
I used Query Hunter
To see which keywords I should add.
This tool is free
And I did a Twitter thread about it here.
7. I added Amazon affiliate links
The site was using Amalinks Pro
And it was ugly AF.
So I just turned it off.
It was barely generating any money anyway.
Then, I added Affiliate Booster product blocks.
These pre-made blocks are converting really well
They look beautiful
And it’s so easy to set them up.
I can customise them exactly how I like
With no code.
This site is informational – it’s not product-focused
But by adding Affiliate Booster blocks into just four posts
I’ve made $185 in the first month!
So I’ll definitely be adding these to more pages
And to my other sites.
The lifetime pro version is pretty cheap too
I’ll definitely be trying out more block types
So I’ll let you know how that goes.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this little update
And keep working away on your own sites.
Until next week!
– NSL