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I built https://basicbands.com/ https://basicbands.com/ a fashion blog about watch straps. Its not very much work. Brands send me photography and I post it, or

I built https://basicbands.com/ https://basicbands.com/ a fashion blog about watch straps. Its not very much work. Brands send me photography and I post it, or go to websites and request it and people send pictures to me to post. When I have time I write an article, but now most of the obvious articles have been written (how to replace your watch strap, etc), so I don't do that as much. It's an affiliate income model, and it makes me enough to buy groceries and have a few nights out a month. It's much more fun than I expected it to be though. Turns out there are a lot of custom leather workers out there doing watch straps as a hobby and they produce AMAZING work, just incredible. Stingray leather, horween, lizard, I had no idea this stuff existed before I started. They are also a lot of fun to contact and hear their stories, so now I send them interview questions by email and post those. All in all I'm very happy with it. I got my inspiration from this subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/juststart/ https://www.reddit.com/r/juststart/

minhaz23 8y ago
So how much are you making exactly monthly? How did you decide on a niche? How did you research your niche? How long have you been doing it? How did you do keyword research and such? How much content do you write/produce? Do you do reviews? If so whats your method? Who are your affiliates? It sounds like you work with independent strap makers, how does being compensated for sales work with them? How long did you blog before you started seeing a profit? Do you think one day you’d be on track to promote your own watch/strap? How did you make the actual site? Thanks in advance. Hope you dont mind the questions
- tstegart 8y ago
  I make anywhere from $100 - $300 a month, once over $450 when someone bought a Rolex. I came across the niche browsing reddit's r/watches. There are a lot of watch blogs and websites, but almost nothing devoted just to watch bands & straps. It turns out a lot of people have an old watch they'd like to fix up because the strap broke. The research wasn't very hard. I bought some straps and installed them to get the hang of it. Its actually very easy, and now they make quick release straps, so you can change out your strap every day if you want. Mostly it's a fashion blog, so the companies do the work for me by putting out great photography. I've been doing it about a year and a half. The first 6 months I hardly made money and almost gave up, but then I wrote a popular article and managed to rank quickly and and people purchase watches through it. I don't really do keyword research. Most of my money comes from two or three articles, one of which is about a particular watch. So I could write more articles about other watches when I have the time. But I have a full-time job that I love, so I only do this for fun. I've done some advertising on Pinterest that seems to have been useful, and Pinterest itself brings in visitors. I used to write a lot of content but got a new position at my full time job that's been taking up a ton of time. When things settle down I'll write more. Other people hire writers, I'm not sure about that just yet. I don't do reviews, mainly because I didn't want to handle the shipping of bands back and forth. Seems weird to keep the review bands, although plenty of companies have offered free bands I've never accepted any. I'm an Amazon affiliate, and also Etsy & Jomashop (a popular online watch seller) and one or two others that I've never got a sale from. I usually don't get compensated from featuring independent strapmakers, unless someone buys through Etsy. But they provide the interviews and a lot of great photography, so I basically feature them for free. The blog would be boring otherwise and they're very talented artists and fun to work with. Check out Combat Straps (https://www.combat-straps.com/GALLERY.html https://www.combat-straps.com/GALLERY.html) or Jones in Tokyo (https://www.etsy.com/shop/JonesInTokyoLeather https://www.etsy.com/shop/JonesInTokyoLeather) and you'll see what I mean. I'm not interested in my own straps or watches, there are enough people doing that already so I'll stick with my quiet little niche. My website is just a WordPress theme. Hope that helps. Check out the reddit link for r/juststart. It really is very informative and fun. This is my second business. The first one was an iPad travel magazine that failed miserably and never made a profit, but was also a lot of fun.

minhaz23 8y ago

So how much are you making exactly monthly? How did you decide on a niche? How did you research your niche? How long have you been doing it? How did you do keyword research and such? How much content do you write/produce? Do you do reviews? If so whats your method? Who are your affiliates? It sounds like you work with independent strap makers, how does being compensated for sales work with them? How long did you blog before you started seeing a profit? Do you think one day you’d be on track to promote your own watch/strap? How did you make the actual site? Thanks in advance. Hope you dont mind the questions

tstegart 8y ago
I make anywhere from $100 - $300 a month, once over $450 when someone bought a Rolex. I came across the niche browsing reddit's r/watches. There are a lot of watch blogs and websites, but almost nothing devoted just to watch bands & straps. It turns out a lot of people have an old watch they'd like to fix up because the strap broke. The research wasn't very hard. I bought some straps and installed them to get the hang of it. Its actually very easy, and now they make quick release straps, so you can change out your strap every day if you want. Mostly it's a fashion blog, so the companies do the work for me by putting out great photography. I've been doing it about a year and a half. The first 6 months I hardly made money and almost gave up, but then I wrote a popular article and managed to rank quickly and and people purchase watches through it. I don't really do keyword research. Most of my money comes from two or three articles, one of which is about a particular watch. So I could write more articles about other watches when I have the time. But I have a full-time job that I love, so I only do this for fun. I've done some advertising on Pinterest that seems to have been useful, and Pinterest itself brings in visitors. I used to write a lot of content but got a new position at my full time job that's been taking up a ton of time. When things settle down I'll write more. Other people hire writers, I'm not sure about that just yet. I don't do reviews, mainly because I didn't want to handle the shipping of bands back and forth. Seems weird to keep the review bands, although plenty of companies have offered free bands I've never accepted any. I'm an Amazon affiliate, and also Etsy & Jomashop (a popular online watch seller) and one or two others that I've never got a sale from. I usually don't get compensated from featuring independent strapmakers, unless someone buys through Etsy. But they provide the interviews and a lot of great photography, so I basically feature them for free. The blog would be boring otherwise and they're very talented artists and fun to work with. Check out Combat Straps (https://www.combat-straps.com/GALLERY.html https://www.combat-straps.com/GALLERY.html) or Jones in Tokyo (https://www.etsy.com/shop/JonesInTokyoLeather https://www.etsy.com/shop/JonesInTokyoLeather) and you'll see what I mean. I'm not interested in my own straps or watches, there are enough people doing that already so I'll stick with my quiet little niche. My website is just a WordPress theme. Hope that helps. Check out the reddit link for r/juststart. It really is very informative and fun. This is my second business. The first one was an iPad travel magazine that failed miserably and never made a profit, but was also a lot of fun.