avatarChristopher Kokoski

Summary

An author shares their strategy for writing a highly successful article that generates significant traffic and ad revenue, emphasizing the importance of keyword research, personal experience, and content quality.

Abstract

The article details the author's journey in creating a top-performing piece that attracts 17K clicks every month and yields over $300 in ad revenue. Initially hesitant to write on a peripheral sub-niche, the author's fiance encouraged the endeavor, leading to a series of successful related articles. The author's approach involved extensive keyword research using Ahrefs, targeting low-competition keywords with high search volume, and ensuring the content was more comprehensive and valuable than existing resources. The article's success is attributed to its length, personal touch, inclusion of expert advice, and free downloadable resources, all aimed at making it the best available resource on the topic.

Opinions

  • The author believes in the value of personal experience and expert collaboration to create standout content.
  • There is a clear emphasis on the importance of thorough keyword research and competition analysis.
  • The author suggests that providing exceptional value through comprehensive and well-researched articles is key to outperforming competitors.
  • Creating unique, original resources, such as downloadable templates, is seen as a way to enhance an article's appeal and shareability.
  • The author advocates for a personal writing style, using parentheticals and personal anecdotes to engage readers.
  • The success of the article has led the author to expand on the topic, launching more articles and a new website dedicated to the sub-niche.

My Article Gets 17K Clicks Every 30 Days — This Is How I Wrote It

A map of my strategy from start to finish

Image by Author via Canva

The top-performing article across my entire portfolio of websites gets 17K clicks and pageviews every month.

It also makes me approximately $300+ dollars per month in ad revenue.

Crazily, I resisted writing the article for months. Finally, I gave in to better judgment, wrote it, and am extremely happy with the results.

Here is a screenshot for some proof:

Redacted screenshot of analytics by author: Credit — Christopher Kokoski

This article is about how I wrote the article from start to finish.

I hope, by reading it, you might gain insight on how to replicate this process for yourself.

Let’s get started.

How I Found The Article Idea In the First Place

It was astonishingly simple.

I plugged, “How to [niche word]” into a keyword tool. In this case, I used Ahrefs.

Once the tool spat out the thousands of possible keywords, I filtered them by competition and search volume. I tend to target very low competition keywords.

The sweet spot is low competition with high search volume.

Almost right away, I noticed that this keyword (a derivation of “How to XYZ”) fit the bill. It came with a competition difficulty score of zero and several thousand monthly pageviews.

Since keyword tools are not always accurate, I didn’t believe it at first.

It seemed too good to be true.

As I always do, I went to Google and typed in the search term (keyword). I read through a few of the top articles. What I found confirmed (not contradicted) the keyword tool results.

While there were articles already written on the topic, I knew I could do better.

I knew that because I have years of personal experience on the topic.

Yet, I still didn’t write the article for several months. And there is a very good reason why.

Why I Didn’t Want To Write It

Here’s the thing: I didn’t want to write the article.

It seemed like a lot of hard work on a topic I wasn’t sure I really wanted to explore. Yes, it still technically fit into my broad niche but it was a peripheral sub-niche, a topic that existed on the outskirts.

This is probably why it had low competition.

Although I regret not writing it sooner, I procrastinated for months and months.

It was only until my fiance encouraged me to write it that I finally bit the bullet. Boy am I glad that I did.

This one article spun into several other related articles that all drive thousands of page views and hundreds of dollars in revenue each month.

This Is What I Did To Write the #1 Article In the World for My Topic

When I finally sat down to write this article, I knew that I needed to bring out all the stops.

I cracked my metaphorical knuckles, and made a game plan:

  • I would write an article twice or three times as long and comprehensive as anything that existed. I wouldn’t hold anything back.
  • I would include other related keywords to pull in as many pageviews as possible.
  • I needed the best advice, so I combined my personal experience with another expert. In this case, my brother, who has decades of experience on the subject.
  • I wanted to make it personal, so I mentioned my personal experience right up front in the article. Then I added my personal examples all throughout the post.

After a phone interview with my brother, I got to work. I used a simple structure, lots of subheadings, lists, charts, examples, and even took the time to put together a free downloadable template.

My goal was (and is) to make the very best resource on the internet for this topic.

As usual, I put the most important information at the top of the blog post. I gave value early and often.

After each revision, I asked myself two questions:

  • How can I add more value?
  • How can I make this even better?

The article ended up being 2,800 words — not even close to the longest article on my site.

Here are some other article stats:

  • 7 H2 Subheadings
  • 11 H3 Subheadings
  • 1 Image
  • 1 Video
  • 1 Free downloadable PDF file (with no email sign-up requirement)

That last part is important. The download is 100% free with no strings attached.

I wanted the resource to be so good that people would tell all of their friends about it. And, hopefully, other sites would link to it.

From the backend analytics, that seems to have happened.

Although I’m not sure it’s important, I did include quite a few parentheticals throughout this article.

The exact number is an almost embarrassing 39.

That’s a lot, and not something that I would recommend you do for every article. But adding in a few well-placed parentheticals (like this one) can give the impression that you are leaning over to secretly communicate with your reader.

The Tools I Use To Write Top-Ranking Articles

I use several tools to write top-ranking articles like this one.

Some of my favorite tools are (These are not affiliate links):

Summary of Takeaways

Let’s summarize:

  • Find low-competition keywords. Identify topics and subtopics in your niche by searching broadly using keyword tools. I usually shoot for a competition score of 0–1. Use search strings like, “How to [Niche Word]”.
  • Analyze the competition. How long are their articles? How old are their posts? Do you think you can create a better resource?
  • Do original research. Use your own experience. Run tests. Interview an expert on the topic. Do something your competitors didn’t or can’t do.
  • Be comprehensive. Cover the topic completely from every angle. Write something you’re proud of and that really helps people.
  • Offer more value. Create something unique and original to give the reader. I like templates because I can make them easily with Canva and give them away for free on my blog post.
  • Put yourself into every post. Be personal. Share your experience with the topic and, when appropriate, use parentheticals.

Final Thoughts

I’ll let you in on a little secret.

After this article did so well on my website, not only did I write five more articles around the same subtopic, but I also launched a completely new website where I focus entirely on this topic.

You never know where you will find your next cash cow topic.

Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

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Writing
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