Online Success Story:
Travis Van Slooten
http://bestonlinestorage.com
The site is an affiliate niche site that provides information on online backup as well as in-depth reviews and comparisons of online backup providers. The site is 100% monetized via affiliate offers and all traffic is organic.
1. When did you set up your website?
February 2009
2. What gave you the idea for this particular niche & website?
The radio! I'm a talk show nut. I listen to talk radio for about 12 hours per day. I kept hearing about online backup (specifically Carbonite) so I figured if Carbonite and other companies like it (i.e. Mozy) are willing to spend thousands of dollars of advertising on all these nationally syndicated shows, there must be a massive market for it - and there was!
3. Did you have any experience with online business prior to creating this website?
Yes. I've been an affiliate marketer since about 2005. All of my sites, except for one I recently sold on Flippa, has been an affiliate site.
4. What did you do for work prior to setting up an online business?
I was a part-time radio announcer and before that I was a licensed real estate assistant.
5. How did you initially promote your website, and if different - how do you promote it now?
The bulk of the "promotions" were by article marketing. And while article marketing still makes up the bulk of my promotions, I also do link directory submissions, social bookmarking, video marketing, and will be entering the social marketing world as well with Twitter and Facebook.
6. Is your website profitable? Can you share some basic traffic & profit stats with us?
Yes! The traffic has been increasing every month.
Today it gets over 15,000 unique visitors per month (and growing) and grosses a solid $5k per month (and also growing).
7. What are your plans for the site going forward?
As I mentioned, I'll be doing more social marketing that will include Twitter and Facebook. I will also be beefing up my video marketing efforts. Those are the promotional plans for the site.
For the site itself, I'm working with a designer right now to do a total revamp of the site to make it more appealing and professional looking. The redesign will also help with sales conversions. In addition to that, I'll continue to roll out more indepth reviews of online backup providers and will be doing a variety of video walk throughs of these services as well as tutorials on how to use them all.
The goal is to become the "go to" place for information, reviews, and HELP with online backup services.
8. What ONE piece of advice would you give someone interested in starting their own niche site or blog?
Focus on ONE site at a time and one thing at a time.
Don't do anything else until you "master" those things. Most people spread themselves too thin and jump from one niche to another and from one thing to another (i.e. affiliate marketing to AdSense).
Travis Van Slooten
http://bestonlinestorage.com
- Thank you, Travis and congratulations on your success!
About Lynn Terry
Amazing story, Travis, I love it! Very narrowed in niche, and one that I think is important especially for online businesses. Storing things "in the cloud" can be such a valuable thing for any level of business, from the tiny one person start up to the big multi-location companies.
I like the advice on #8, that's actually one of my biggest problems. I do a lot of things and finish only a fraction of them. Right now i'm working on 5-6 websites and i'm not satisfied of either of them.
Interesting to read the story of one of my competitors in that niche. He has done a lot of work on the site recently but he better look out, I am climbing fast. 🙂
Great site Travis and congrats! I like your advice to stick to one site and build it up to a success. Lynn suggests the same. I jumped around for a while, but now focus primarily on one project which is working out nicely.
I like your Hello Bar at the top. I tried getting one, but it's in beta. How did you get it, if you don't mind my asking?
Hey, Peter:
You need a personal invite? At least that was the case a month or so ago. I have some, if you would like one.
Let me know.
Cheers,
Missy
What is important is his advice he gives in point 8. Focus!
IMers get distracted, want to do this and that and follow new ideas so often, that they forget to do one important thing right.
Thanks for this reminder.
Great story, Travis. Congrats on your success.
I also definitely agree on the focus tip.
Great stuff Travis! Congrats on your success with this site. Your #8 advice is spot on - great advice.
@John:
I've been keeping an eye on you and others in this niche;) You have a great site and I welcome the competition!
@Peter:
I actually got in through the Hello Bar website. It said it was in beta but I could sign up for their list to be notified when they went live so I did. The next day I got an email from them welcoming me aboard. Otherwise, you have to get an invite. If you do a search on Twitter or Google for "Hello Bar invite" you'll probably be able to find someone giving them away.
@Gene:
Great to hear from you. It's been a while. Thanks for the kind words.
Thanks for the compliments from everyone else. I appreciate it. And there is no doubt the single cause of failure for Internet Marketers is lack of focus. I don't do a lot of things right in this business but the one thing I do well is focus, which has been the "secret" to my success.
If anyone has any specific "how to" questions...fire away. I'm an open book so I'll share anything.
I also want to thank Lynn for the interview!
TravisVS
Hey, Travis:
Another whopper of a site you've got there. Looks awesome! I think I will follow your lead and create a better and bigger comparison guide on a blog of mine. It needs a tad more TLC. lol.
Congrats! (on your success story)
Cheers
Missy
Lynn & Travis,
Thank you so much for sharing. It's so incredibly helpful to be able to see real examples of sites along with real stats and income. I learn so much from seeing real results and then being able to apply to my own situation.
Travis, are you full time focused on that site? How much time are you putting into it now?
Thanks so much, and Lynn please keep these coming!
Good luck with your business
@John:
I've been keeping an eye on you and others in this niche;) You have a great site and I welcome the competition!
@Peter:
I actually got in through the Hello Bar website. It said it was in beta but I could sign up for their list to be notified when they went live so I did. The next day I got an email from them welcoming me aboard. Otherwise, you have to get an invite. If you do a search on Twitter or Google for "Hello Bar invite" you'll probably be able to find someone giving them away.
@Gene:
Great to hear from you. It's been a while. Thanks for the kind words.
@Lara:
Yes, I pretty much spend all my time with this site. Once I get burned our or bored with it, I will sell it. That's basically my routine. I work a site to death for several months (12-18 months), make great money with it, and then I sell it on Flippa for a nice profit. The money I make from the sale I then use as seed money to build another authority site. Rinse and repeat:)
Thanks for the compliments from everyone else. I appreciate it. And there is no doubt the single cause of failure for Internet Marketers is lack of focus. I don't do a lot of things right in this business but the one thing I do well is focus, which has been the "secret" to my success.
I also want to thank Lynn for the interview!
TravisVS
Travis, your sharing is inspiring n simple to digest. As you said focus is important in any niche because without it no one achieve success. Thank you and how do you motivate yourself to write excellent content n attract people to your site
@james samy:
What motivates me is watching my traffic and revenue grow:) And to be honest, reading posts from bloggers that preach the importance of quality content (i.e. Lynn Terry, Jon Morrow of CopyBlogger, et al).
TravisVS
great site! is it a "template" website? or did you build it from scratch?
@Missy:
Hey Missy! It's been a while. How are your sites coming along? Great I'm sure. People LOVE comparison guides and comparison articles (HINT HINT). On all of my sites, the types of keywords that generate the most traffic and interest (and conversions consequently) are comparison keywords. Examples: Apple vs Android, Apple or Android, Compare Apple and Android.
Take care!
@LenyJay:
It's a customized Thesis theme. I use Thesis for all of my sites. I absolutely love the theme and *highly* recommend it. The theme has a built in editor so you can make a lot of customizations yourself but there are a variety of things I like to tweak that I can't do with the Thesis editor so I hire someone to make those customizations.
TravisVS
Another vote for #8!!! Things started to change for me once I started consistently spending time on creating quality content, driving traffic and focusing on one money making approach.