Niche Site Owners, Ask Yourselves: How Helpful Is Your Content, Really?

By •

Earlier I wrote this article, where I ranted about how some niche site owners and bloggers are reacting to the changes in Google, mainly the September 2023 helpful content update and the March 2024 core update.

At the end of the article, I promised to review some content shared by the creators, that is deemed by them as helpful, but might not be as helpful as they really think it is.

I am aware of the impact of losing rankings on your income and life. Having been there myself, also having lost quite a chunk of my income with the last updates. Even without getting hammered by the Google updates.

With that said, I have no intention of bashing any of the examples mentioned in this article, but I do try to keep an unbiased view of what might not be as helpful to the reader as it seems and provide insights in how I would change it.

Bucketlistly.blog

My best example is Bucketlistly.blog a website that I had never heard of, but the owner mentioned having lost rankings on X, so I decided to have a look. Having just celebrated my birthday in Singapore and planning to return to the city state, this 3-day itinerary sparked my interest.

At first glance it looks like the best kind of article you could wish for. Personal experience, using pictures of the guy being there in Singapore, even showing up in front of the camera himself. Maybe a bit too many of the same pictures for my liking, but in the end a very useful piece of information.

However, taking a deeper look into it there are over 40 affiliate links showing up in the article. Which is not even the worst part, it gets worse with a lot of those affiliate links not being relevant to the article about a visit to Singapore.

Let’s take a look:

  • Several mentions of clothing, what does this have to do with Singapore? Being naked in public is a bad idea and even in private it’s illegal when someone might be able to look into your hotel room.
  • Car rental, really? Singapore is not that big and the public transport brings you anywhere conveniently and for little money. For the average visitor there is 0.0 need to rent a car in this country.
  • VPN, Singapore has less freedom of speech than most Western countries, but there is no explanation here of why a tourist would need one in Singapore.
  • Internet, Airalo charges you $4,50 for 1GB for 7 days. Buying a regular Singtel tourist sim gives you 100GB of data for 14 days, for $12.
  • The hotels and tours mentioned are nowhere part of his own experience. A classic case of “the best” without even having tried it yourself.

All and all, the ginormous amount of affiliate links used in this article is not there to be helpful to you, they are only there to line Pete’s pockets. Being only there to make him money without providing any real value to the reader.

On top of this all, the article starts with “3 Days Singapore Itinerary The Best Things To Do And See In Singapore”, but as soon as you start reading you get more of a “My 3 days in Singapore” article. Which means that the promise of the title and subtitle is not completely met here.

Yes… it might inspire me to do, or not do some activities while visiting Singapore, but it does not provide me with a proper 3-day itinerary and/or a list of best things to do and see.

I get it, when it’s your website and you write this article then you obviously think it’s very helpful to everyone and Singapore is expensive so you try to heavily monetize it too. But that might not make it objectively the most helpful piece of content about this topic.

It’s just my humble opinion, so feel free to disagree, but the top results that I get in Google provide me with a lot more helpful information when I’m looking for a 3-day Singapore itinerary. Without excessive use of irrelevant affiliate links.

This kind of over-monetization is very common along websites that have been hit hard by the latest Google updates. I have a portfolio of niche sites too and monetization is important to survive in a world where everything gets rapidly more expensive.

But there is a huge difference between promoting products or services that are relevant for the reader and by doing so making the content more helpful. Or just pouring a bucket of affiliate links over an article hoping to have as much money stick to your website. (If you don’t believe me, read the complaints in this Reddit topic)

Another big issue is making promises in the title or subtitle of an article and not keeping those promises in the content itself. Like I mentioned in my rant, time is limited and when I’m looking for an answer, I want the answer as quick as possible. Without wasting my time reading, or watching, content that only makes me click back to Google and try again.

Website having a very high percentage of “best of x” or “best places in location”, or any other kind of typical SEO-tool keyword, seem to get hit harder as well. Don’t forget that the algorithm is a computer that can easily do the automatic version of “ctrl+f” and filter out all websites that only target SEO keywords and topics.

With the biggest issue probably being the mindset of a lot of people making money online. If this doesn’t include you, no need to be offended, but many people are only interested in their bank account. In making as much money with as little effort as possible, hence the popularity of “get rich quick” schemes and passive income.

Either they start a website thinking about how much money it’s going to make them, or along the way they learn that there is more money to be made by adding more affiliate links and ads. In the meantime, they forget their audience, the people looking for answers or help on the internet.

The people, that if you really help them, will without a doubt start spending money and lining your pockets along the go.

Something I learned from following the advice of Miles Beckler, advice that made my niche sites way more profitable and successful compared to when I was only thinking about how much money I could make. 

What I Would Do to Improve the 3-Day Singapore Itinerary

What would I change to the 3-day Singapore itinerary reviewed earlier in this article? I’d start with getting rid of most of the affiliate links, especially the ones that have no relevance to someone looking to visit Singapore.

I would also get rid of the “where to stay” block, or add additional information about why I chose to highlight these three. Making it more helpful to the reader, instead of just acting as a “quick” moneymaker.

But probably the most important change is that I would give the article a different title. Something more like “My 3-days in Singapore” because that is what the article is all about, it does not provide a real itinerary for tourists still having to get on the airplane.

Which also provides opportunities to create a real itinerary article, more in line with the ones from the Google screenshot above. Or an article about my favorite airline(s) to fly to Singapore, in my case Singapore Airlines.

The affiliate links that I would keep in the article, I would make those more helpful. A VPN can be useful in Singapore, but it needs some explaining and I’d link to an article about what VPN I use while travelling and why.

Even mentioning an outer shell jacket is not bad for Singapore, both on my way to and from the Marina Bay Sands the journey got accompanied by a nice tropical downpour. Making a good water proof jacket a smart choice.

In general, I’d create more opportunities to combine monetization while providing context in additional articles. Instead of the “click & GTFO” flow that comes with placing a lot of affiliate links in your content.

Scroll to Top