We’ve previously discussed the benefits of owning a quality website or online business as a fantastic form of passive income and how a website can be a great way to diversify a more traditional share or property investment portfolio. Website ownership can also provide investment returns that outperform traditional investments.
Another great thing about websites, they can be built by someone on a very limited budget and or limited experience or education. They can also be scaled to 6 and 7 figures in value! Now 6 and 7 figure website isn’t the norm however website investment success can be achieved through a lot of hard work, some savvy techniques and implementing tips and ideas from successful website builders/owners. .
For someone that is new to the online world or a website owner/investor who is looking to turbocharge their website’s growth it makes sense to follow some of the successful website entrepreneurs who have built and scaled what you are looking to do. Below we go through a list of 5 successful niche website builders you should be following.
Shawna Newman from Skipblast
Who is Shawna and Skipblast?
From her bio on her website on skipblast.com
“I do SEO. In my pajamas.
I’ve been living my best “daytime pajamas” life and doing this full-time since April 18, 2009 (my first day of cubicle freedom, though technically it was a Saturday – but that still counts, right?) and have seen my income go from nothing to five figures a month.
I build and flip sites for a living.
My biggest income month was around $20K (so far?), but I usually flip my sites around the $2K-$3K/month mark instead of holding onto them for the long haul.”
Why you should be following Shawna
In a word, Shawna is awesome! In an industry where there is a lot of hype and a lot of rip offs, Shawna is an honest voice that is true to her convictions and will call a spade a spade. Not afraid to call out people or techniques that are disingenuous or even plain dodgy, Shawna is one of the first people you should be following in your online journey.
Shawna has been full time building and flipping websites since 2008s and has seen her fair share or website traffic trends and Google updates and after successful years of building and flipping websites went on to set up the website skipblast.com
Shawna offers regular site update, conducts regular site and traffic experiments among her site portfolio and always shares the results of these experiments (good or bad) and never overhypes her abilities for the sake of getting new subscribers or selling courses.
Shawna also brings a big GIF game as you’ll see throughout her Skipblast blog posts or her social media feeds.
We recommend you sign up for Shawna’s Skipblast newsletter and also to enrol in one of her courses such as the Beginners Guide To Niche Authority Sites or Success-Focused Niche Selection That Works. Shawna also offers a members only forum (available to students who purchase her courses) which is an excellent space to reach out for questions or just to follow an interesting conversation that you can learn from.
Courses or products offered by Shawna
- Beginners Guide To Niche Authority Sites
- Success-Focused Niche Selection That Works.
- Using Competitive Analysis To Make Smarter SEO Decisions
- Rule The SERPS with Topic Clusters
- Scale Your Income With Multiple Income Streams
- Website Flipping For Site Builders
- Aged Domains: Your Fast Pass To Rankings and Revenue
- Building Your Own HARO team
- The Skipblast Courses Collection Bundle
Places where you can find more about Shawna and her methods
Shawna has been featured in interviews with Empire Flippers, Niche Pursuits and Niche Website Builders
Jon Dykstra from Fat Stacks
Who is Jon and his website Fat Stacks?
From his bio on fatstacks.com
“Blogger. Niche site publisher. Enjoys walks on the blah blah blah and publishing blogs. Has fun with the Fat Stacks email newsletter and Twitter account too.
I’ve been around the block working online for a few years in a number of niches. I love publishing niche sites. In 2009 the niche site concept appealed to me instantly.
That’s what I do… I publish informational and entertaining niche sites that generate revenue from ads and product promotion. It’s the online magazine model and I love it.
This blog shares what I do to build successful, popular and profitable niche sites.
While I make money from Fat Stacks, the lion’s share of my revenue is from other niche sites not related to the “how to make money online” or “entrepreneur-related” niches.
I publish 16 other niche websites, 8 of which I feature in income reports.
What I share on this blog is how to make money in all kinds of niches. It’s based on my real portfolio of sites. In other words, Fat Stacks isn’t my only site.
In fact, FAT Stacks is just a side thing. It’s a fun project. I think it will make money (it better), but what I teach is based on creating killer magazine style sites in all kinds of niches as well as smaller, high-value niche blogs.”
Why you should be following Jon
An ex-lawyer from Canada, Jon stumbled into the online world setting up and running his law office’s website blog. After ranking number 1 locally for the keywords the law firm was targeting and getting many clients from this, Jon was hooked on the power of the internet and making money online.
Jon then set up his first website and after building a few other websites was making enough money online to replace his law firm salary. Jon then moved full time into the online world and hasn’t looked back, bringing in 6 figures a month from his websites.
Jon will be the first to tell you he didn’t start online as an expert and isn’t an expert in various online areas however he is not afraid to try things and once he sees something that works will send resources to scale this.
Similar to Shawna above, Jon has an excellent (available to members of the Fat Stacks course) forum that has lots of members engaging regularly on a whole range of topics.
Jon has recently been building his Fat Stacks twitter feed offering some great insight into his success.
We recommend you sign up for Jon’s fatstacks.com newsletter and also to purchase Jon’s Niche Site Bundle course (formerly the Fat Stacks Bundle) once enrollment is open again.
Courses or products offered by Jon
Niche Site Profits (formerly The Fat Stacks Bundle)
The bundle gives you access to the following courses
- 60 minute Niche Sites course
- 6-Figure Baseline Blogging
- Niche Site Profits (including keywords, niches, ads
- Niche Site Tools content providers compared
- 7 Figure flipping course
- SEO Zero to Hero course
- Facebook Traffic Magnet
- Pinterest Magnate
- plus access to the awesome Fat Stackers Mastermind Forum
and Access to Jon’s Niche Site reports
Places where you can find more about Jon and his methods
fatstacks.com and it is highly recommended you subscribe to Jon’s Fat Stacks Free Course and fantastic fatstacks.com newsletter. Jon is one of the best email salespersons with his affiliate sales pitches intertwined with some great personal stories or examples.
Jon has been featured in interviews with ODYS and Niche Pursuits.
Gael Breton & Mark Webster from Authority Hacker
Who are Gael & Mark and authorityhacker.com?
From their bio on authorityhacker.com
Gael
“Gael has over 10 years of experience in building and growing websites. He has worked with a wide range of clients, from local businesses to Fortune 500 company sites.
Since starting out online, he has managed to take multiple blogs from blank WordPress installations to highly successful web properties that attract millions of visitors and generate 7-figures each year.
Along the way, Gael shared his internet marketing knowledge as a speaker at Harvard, Wharton, and Oxford University.”
Mark
“Mark started his first profitable site in 2008 and is obsessed with building efficient systems and processes. If there is a way to squeeze some extra efficiency out of a site, Mark will find it.
He has been an entrepreneur since the age of 13. Having built multiple businesses, Mark knows how to deliver results. He’ll show you the best way to do that too.
Having worked with Gael since 2010, together they represent the proverbial Yin and Yang of online marketing. If Gael can dream it, Mark can do it.”
Why you should be following Authority Hacker
Similar to Shawna and Jon, these guys are the real deal! They offer some really good free advice on their website or through their email newsletter and offer one of the best website building/income growing online courses in the business!
Authority Hacker offer some great blog post content such as their recent post Hand Curated List Of 115+ Best Niches For Affiliate Marketing In 2022
Authority Hacker also has an excellent YouTube channel that also has some great content!
Prior to entering into the world of building websites, Gael & Mark had an online marketing business. They did such a good job they decided to build their own websites and use their online marketing skills on these.
Not only have they built and sold many successful websites, they now have many happy and successful customers who have given some awesome testimonials!
We recommend you sign up for the Authority Hacker newsletter and free training also to purchase their excellent beginners course The Authority Site System 3.0 or their also excellent (for established website owners) the Authority Hacker Pro once enrolment is open again.
Courses or products offered by Authority Hacker
Authority Site System 3.0 (for beginners or those with a basic understanding of the website game)
This course goes through topics such as:
- Finding a niche
- How to build a website
- Introduction to keyword research
- How to create great ranking content
- Link building
- and monetization ideas, just to name a few
Authority Hacker Pro (for established website owners looking to go big)
This cou