“Niche Review Website Blueprint” – Review and Case Study Part 3

Hi again 🙂 I got up very early today to have plenty of time to work on this project.

Yesterday, I finished the first three steps (and you can read about it in part 2 of my review here). So I started out today by adding my new domain to my webhosting. Normally, I can see it immediately after online, but for some reason the DNS change still haven’t taken place. They say it can take 24-48 hours (19 hours now), but it usually happens in a few minutes.

Oh, well, I guess this will teach me patience.

So, let’s get on to today’s steps.

Step 4: Customize WordPress

Kurt Chrisler recommends a specific theme. It’s not made specially for review pages, but it’s a nice and simple theme, very easy to work with, it seems.

I’m not going to use it, though, because I have Thesis. You don’t have to use either of them. Kurt shows you which criteria you should go after, if you use a free theme, and he also shows you where to find it.

Then he goes through the necessary changes of the settings in WordPress. This is very easy to follow, and it’s quickly done.

Step 5: Adding Your Content

Wow, so now it’s time! Finally we’re adding content to the front page of our new money-maker. Kurt spends 10 minutes and 30 seconds explaining what to go for here, how to write it, and what kind of onpage SEO you need to do.

Make sure the theme you choose uses H1 tags for the titles. Kurt doesn’t talk about this, but I’ve seen many themes that uses H2 for some strange reason. And SEO wise it’s not… wise.

He also shows and tells how you make sure that this page is always to be found on your front page.

So I chose six products to add to the front page, based on the criteria Kurt mentions. I also set it up as he shows. This is not the way I would have chosen myself, but he says it works, and I’m going to test it.

Step 6: Adding Your Affiliate Links

In video 6 (8:40), Kurt uses Amazon to show you how to add affiliate links to your text, but you can use any affiliate program,  you like.

He makes it really easy to add images, text and links to the site.

I had a problem with two of the products I’ve chosen, though, since they didn’t have images available on Amazon. I just went without them, but I wonder what the best things would have been to do. Probably to save images from Amazon and then upload them manually and add the links to them.

Still, this was easy. Just copy and paste all the way.

Step 7: Writing Your Product Review

In video 7 (which lasts 13 minutes and 20 seconds), Kurt tells you exactly what he puts in his reviews. He says that we don’t have to follow this template, but that it works for him.

I’m going to copy it for now, because it’s very easy and simple, and then maybe try other things later… Maybe.

I’ve only added one thing so far to the suggestions he had. Hopefully that thing will make my reviews even better. I’m using some basic copywriting principles here, but you can easily go with the guidelines Kurt sets up.

He tells us to make about 10 reviews this way. In fact, he also says that he doesn’t write them himself, but shows us how and where we can get these reviews written for us for $2 per review.

I just ordered my first EVER outsourced texts that way, and I followed step-by-step his guidance here. A few minutes after I posted them, somebody started writing them.

While I wait for them to get finished, I’m going to watch video 8.

Step 8: Publishing Your Product Reviews

After I’d watch video 8, I checked and saw that one of my articles were written. Unfortunately, I wasn’t satisfied, so now I’m waiting for a new one.

Get ready to take lots of notes here. The first time I watched this video, I only wrote a few things down. When I watched it again just now, I noticed several other important things that I had to remember. This is why it helps to do things immediately after learning. You find out what is important and what is not.

I’m ready to publish product reviews. That is… almost ready, because since the ones I’ve outsourced aren’t ready yet, I’m going to write two reviews myself and post those.

Okay, I’m back. I wrote one review and published it the way it should be according to Kurt.

Step 9: Final WP Tweaks

After I published my first reviw (plus the ones on the front page), I went back to the member’s area to watch video 9.

This is a walk-through of which widgets you should use and how you should set them up. Kurt also shows how he gets rid of text at the buttom of the theme, and gives other tips, such as changing the color of the hyperlink to blue.

He doesn’t say anything about adding the Amazon affiliate disclaimer text, which you should, so I’ll add it here, but you can find it on Amazon’s site somewhere, and if they update it, you should get the latest version.

YOUR NAME is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.

You should probably also add pages for About, Disclosure, Disclaimer, and that kind of things, even though Kurt doesn’t mention those.

Right, this is where I’m going to stop today. If I get the time tomorrow, I’ll add more reviews and start on step 10 (Getting backlinks), but it’s shopping day, Thursday, and we’re going out to eat in the evening, so I will not have much time to work tomorrow.

I hope you enjoy this reivew of Niche Review Website Blueprint so far, though. I’ll be back with more. After I’ve been throug step 10, I’m going to add my conclusion and tell you things like whether or not it’s useful if you want to do this on Squidoo, etc.

You can get the product here, if you think it sounds interesting: Niche Review Website Blueprint.