You have to remember I come from a dev-heavy background. I’ve mostly built on WordPress, but I can also quickly code up a simple HTML/CSS site in hours. And now with AI tools and a solid prompt structure, I can get the base code out and on my server in literal minutes.

Because of this, the in-between nature of Grav just doesn’t work for me. Because I haven’t used it much, it took more time than either WordPress or hand-coding a site, and definitely longer than using AI assistance. So I’d moved on with other projects and let that test case sit because I simply didn’t enjoy the process, and it didn’t make sense to adopt the tool in my particular case.

If you’re looking to get off database driven CMS options, still check out Grav and other flat-file CMS alternatives, especially if you’re not looking to code sites from scratch. It’s still a good in-between, even if it’s not for me.

You absolutely deserve a raise Sharon!

I think that’s a common concern. And I’m so grateful that not only were you able to turn something so negative into a positive experience, but that you’ve been willing to share it with other writers. So thank you for that! I hope others feel encouraged to speak out more freely about things that are important to them without worrying it’ll harm their careers.

Thanks for the kind words Sandra. I’ve been lucky to know Sharon through most of my freelance writing career, and she’s one of the colleagues I trust the most. As professionals, we’re sometimes told to keep the personal out of our businesses. I’ve never believed that. And I’m thrilled Sharon’s been able to successfully incorporate the issues that matter to her into her career. I hope other freelance writers see her example and feel more comfortable to do similar.

Thank you, Jennifer!😀

Hi Stacey,

A content management system is a tool that helps you build your website and manage its content in your database. WordPress is the most popular CMS, and I highly recommend the self-hosted version found at https://wordpress.org.

I’ve used several web hosts over the years, and I’ve been happiest with KnownHost (https://knownhost.com). They’re my current host for just about everything. I use their VPS accounts (virtual private servers), though they do have cheaper shared hosting accounts now. That’s what most people use when first starting out. I can’t speak to those directly as I haven’t used shared hosting with this company, but I’ve been very happy with them in general, and their support has been quick and responsive on the rare occasion I’ve needed to contact them (mostly about customizations and upgrades as I don’t recall having any actual problems since switching to them).

On a related note, you’ll need a domain name. I highly recommend https://NameSilo.com for that. Unlike a lot of companies that pull people in with low initial prices only to drastically raise the price for renewals, you’ll get steady pricing from Name Silo. And at around $9 / year for a .com domain, they’re one of the best all-around bargains. This is another company I’ve never had any problems with (and I’ve seen my share of shady behavior from registrars — please stay away from 1&1 and Netfirms at the very least). I currently have close to 80 domains with them. And I couldn’t be happier with them.

For email management, I currently use MooSend. They’re a newer company, so they’re still growing and ironing some things out. I’ve actually been trying to sort out an issue with them for the past several weeks. It’s been frustrating, but my use case is out of the norm. And their support have spent countless hours working with me to figure out where the issue is, which is in itself impressive. I left MailChimp when they decided to become a broader marketing service and started charging customers for unsubscribed contacts. MooSend was the closest I found in terms of features, was one of very few who could easily handle email lists for multiple domains as I needed to manage dozens in one place, and surprisingly were much less expensive. They also have a free account level with fewer limitations than MailChimp’s, meaning you can build your first 1000 subscribers before having to pay (unless it’s recently changed). You can check them out at https://moosend.com. Another service I tested and liked in general was BirdSend (https://birdsend.co I believe). But they were lacking one key multi-domain feature I needed at the time which is why I passed on them. But if you only have one list to manage, I’d say they’re also worth a look.

I hope that helps! Feel free to ask if you have other questions.

And for readers in general, know that once these email automation issues are sorted out, I’ll be getting back to planned projects which will include building a new “quiet site” to show you an actual example. I expect to let subscribers help make a few choices along the way, so if you’d like to follow along and help me make those calls for an example site, make sure you subscribe to the email list at https://freelancewritingpros.com/subscribe/

I like the idea of “Quiet Sites” and I have questions regarding various parts of building the sites. For example, you mentioned something about using a content management system (what do you mean?). Second, is there a webhost service that you would recommend or does it matter? And finally, any email management system you recommend?

Thank You
Stacey Cooley

Hi Lakshmi.

I can’t say whether a regional focus would work or not, either for “quiet sites” or a blog, because I’m not sure how strong the regional markets. If you do some market research and find there’s significant demand in the region you want to target, adequate potential income sources, and you also think you can build a well-targeted regional audience, it could be worth a try! You could also focus on different project types photo printing services offer, or write about a certain style of photography itself, letting the photo printing services serve as your income streams via affiliate income, contextual ads, and/or sponsorships. Remember you want to create something people will come back to, even if it’s a small site, whenever possible. So do some keyword research to see if enough potential people are searching for info about photo printing services vs photography tips and inspiration. And understand that if they’re searching for a service, they’ll likely visit the site of someone offering the service over a site writing about them. And it could be tough to rank well compared to those actual services.

So think about it like this:

1. Is there enough search demand for the niche you want to target?
2. If so, what’s the intent behind those searches (information vs buying for example)?
3. Can your site idea satisfy not just the keyword phrases, but that intent?
4. Can you compete with established companies (probably not against the main service providers, but maybe for some longtail phrases).
5. Is this a broad-interest topic, or something of narrower interest? (Keep in mind going regional seriously limits your target visitors, and that traffic is what you’re monetizing.)
6. Either way, are there adequate sources of income for the niche you want to target?

If you’re still satisfied with an idea after that, I’d set up a very small site to at least test-run in the niche.

As for SEO guides, I don’t recommend most because so much SEO info is either dated or solely about algorithm-chasing (and if you’re doing that, it means you didn’t engage in effective SEO in the first place). But the one source I’d refer someone new to SEO to is probably Moz. Here’s a link to their beginner’s guide to SEO.

https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo

Also, do you recommend any resources or guide to use for SEO?

I wouldn’t say it’s easier or more difficult now so much as it’s simply different.

For example, you absolutely want to focus on longtail keywords now. You could get away with more general ones years ago. An exact match domain name won’t do it for you anymore (keyword-rich is good, but ideally in a brandable way). But perhaps the best change is the amount of data available to us — keyword research, backlink research for competing sites, better analytics, etc.

In the end, the basic idea is the same. You want a realistic revenue stream. And you want keyword targets with as few competitors as possible. In an ideal situation, I prefer to see each internal page’s keyword target with fewer than 100,000 results (and as low as possible where there’s still reasonable search volume). But your primary (home page) one could be a little more competitive, with those internal pages supporting it.

For example, in response to a previous comment I gave an example that had around 900k results for the main target keyword phrase. But internal pages would focus on specific tools, plans, or even recipes, and they would want those pages to have less competition in the SERPs. Even there though, always look at who is ranking. If it’s primary sources like government sites and research universities, you’ll have a much tougher time than if those top competitors are otherwise relatively unknown sites.

Not sure how much that helps for the niche you had in mind, but I hope you find a plan to make something work, whether a “quiet site” or something else. 🙂

The number of websites (and thus the competition) keeps growing every year. I have a few ideas for narrow niche sites, but I’m concerned about being able to make it to page 1 for important search terms.

It’s going to be tougher to narrow down a niche if you already have a general product in mind. But think about who might benefit most from the type of planning you’re thinking of. Can you tailor it to a certain group of people, preferably a narrow audience (not something too broad like mothers or those trying to lose weight).

Here’s an example though. I’m a big fan of keto for example. So a narrower niche in that area might be keto meal planning.

That’s still pretty general though. If you wanted to dig deeper you might do keto meal planning for one, or for large groups, or parties, or for when you’re on the road or on vacation and it’s tougher to stick to. Or you could go super-specific and do a 3-day or 5-day keto egg fast meal plan (something some use to get onto the keto diet initially or to get back on it after falling off — fyi for those curious, it’s not actually just eggs).

After doing some very preliminary keyword research, a few examples came up that are good examples of what to look for. I specifically searched for keywords related to “meal planning” that had a search volume of 1k-10k per month. Then I checked the number of search results you’d be competing with.

One option that came up was “Aldi meal plan.” I wouldn’t build a site like this around a specific brand because there’s some risk there, and they’ll generally outrank you by far anyway. But you’ll see there are around 3 million total Google results. Ideally, I’d want to see that even lower. But it’s not a terrible start. (In comparison, there’s well over 1 billion results for “meal planning.”)

Another option I noticed was “free printable meal planner.” On the surface, this sounds like it could be better. Offer a free limited version of your meal planner template, and use it to upsell visitors to the paid product.

But there are more than twice as many search results (over 7 million). So competition would be higher here, and it would likely be tough to rank this kind of site on the first page results (especially in the top 3-5 spots).

Another example that came up was “1800 calorie meal plan.” This one had a little over 1 million competing search results. Better, right? Until you look at the results. They’re all fairly large, authoritative sites (including universities and large publications). Could you outrank them for that query? Perhaps. But I’d look for a safer bet for my first very small site like this. On the plus side though, you could create a group of these mini quiet sites with downloadable meal planners built around different calorie goals (several turned up in the keyword research). Just look at similar ones, you might find a better option. “1600 calorie meal plans” for example also sees 1k-10k search queries, but it has closer to 900k results, and the top 10 results are a mix of authority sites and much smaller ones. That you might have a better chance at ranking well for.

I’m not sure how those specific examples fit your current idea, but I hope they give you somewhere to start in narrowing things down. 🙂

I have a post on the calendar specifically about 90-day planning and 90-day challenges. I’ll consider bumping that up to this Wednesday’s post if I can work in time to create the worksheet / tracker I’d like to release with it. 🙂