I regularly ask for readers to share questions or suggestions for future articles.  One suggestion I received was about my thought process as I started WaxPackHero.  That seemed like a great idea! While I’m no internet expert, I’m happy to share what my goals were for the site, the content strategy I rolled out, and what I’ve done to try and gain readers and listeners.

As I’ve mentioned before, when I returned to the hobby in 2015 it didn’t take long for me to realize a lot had changed since the 80s.  There was a lot for me to learn, and in addition to the education I was receiving from my local LCS, I was starving to find sports card content online.  I read blogs, I read forums, and I scoured sites like Beckett to find as much info as I could.  I found several sports card podcasts including Sports Card Radio.

One of the things I love about that show is that they actually give you a lot of good advice if you’re listening.  They had several episodes talking about the potential income that could be made from creating content on your own website, they gave ideas on topics to cover, and they challenged listeners to take a shot at starting your own site.  At the same time, my recent return made me want to find a way to help other returning collectors transition back into collecting.  That goal and the challenge from Colin and Ryan, were the main driver for starting WaxPackHero.  

Getting off the Ground - Technology

Now that I’d decided to start a site, I needed to decide where and how I wanted to do it.  I don’t have a technical, web development background, so I needed to find a platform that was easy to use and understand.  I wanted it to be flexible for future expansion whether that be podcasting, creating an online storefront, hosting large amounts of photo and video content etc.  I ultimately decided on Squarespace.  I could register my domain and use their drag and drop website building tools to create a full featured site.  That was worth the roughly $200 a year cost to me. 

Getting off the Ground - Business Goals

I wanted to write about cards, collecting, and how I buy and sell cards to create a self sustaining hobby.   While I  was excited to share this with the hobby community, there is a reason the overarching mission of the site and podcast is combining the hobby and business sides of collecting.  I like the business side too!

One of my goals was to learn how to generate income from the blog while still giving away the content for free.  That meant I wanted to see if I could successfully generate revenue from Google Adsense and Affiliate Income.  It took me a few months to get approved for Adsense.  I signed up for the Ebay Partner Network, the Sportlots Affiliate Program, the Topps Affiliate program, and Amazon.  My traffic was pretty low to start, and I actually didn’t even generate an Amazon commission in the first six months.  I had to resubmit and try again!  I wasn’t sure what to expect, but my first goal was to just generate enough revenue to cover the annual Squarespace charge.  Yes, that’s right, I wanted to create a self-sustaining website!

I knew the potential was huge for Adsense and Affiliates, and several blogs and podcasts have covered using these platforms to generate significant income.  So growing these programs was a goal, but to do that I needed to do something else first.  I needed to grow an audience!

Getting off the Ground - Content

There are multiple aspects to the whole content discussion.  There is the topic to be discussed.  There is the style or “voice” the content is created in.  And there is the structure that surrounds it all.

I had a good idea of the topics I wanted to write about, but I wasn’t confident in the voice I wanted to use and I had no idea on best practices to get this content to rank in Google search results.

Fortunately, there are some great podcasts and blogs that cover this topic!  I did a lot of reading and listening, and I did my best to incorporate these best practices into the site.  For instance, I try to create a post title that is likely to match a topic that readers are searching for.  I try to make each post a minimum of 600 words, and ideally closer to 1,000.  Almost every article contains pictures or video content which helps engage readers.  I’m still not an expert or authority on SEO, but I’m thrilled with how well WaxPackHero articles rank in search results.  I must be doing something right because many articles rank in the top ten soon after publishing.

I try to cover topics that have the potential to be evergreen.  That is I want them to be relevant regardless of when the reader finds the article.  I want them to be clear, concise, and authoritative so that readers will want to use my articles as a reference guide to the topic they are interested in learning about.  Now that doesn’t mean I won’t throw in an occasional “hot topic” or discussion of a current event, but I try to make the majority of what I publish evergreen.

Getting off the Ground - Social Media

Another key piece of my strategy was to grow my presence on social media.  This is another thing I knew very little about.  Can you pick up on that theme?  I didn’t know much about any of this stuff when I started.  But the Google Machine was my friend.  I started engaging and sharing content on Twitter and Facebook.  I reached out to ask for feedback on my posts from respected bloggers and content creators like Joey “Dub Mentality” Shiver, Kin “Bean’s Ball Card Blog” Kinsley, and Eric “The Fatpack” Norton amongst others.  I wanted to make sure I was putting out quality content, and getting tips and feedback from these guys was super helpful.

Over time, social media allowed me to build relationships with others in the community.  It allowed people to get to know more about me and what I stood for, and I think it’s contributed to the growth the site and podcast.

I’m only two years into this and i have a ton still to learn, but I’m having a ton of fun.  The traffic to the site and podcast continue to grow.  The Adsense, Affiliate, and Sponsorship income are covering their costs plus giving me a little extra!  I’m so glad I listed to Colin and Ryan and gave all this a shot.

Wrapping it Up

So now I need to hear from you.  Did you find this background helpful?  Do you have any questions of your own about starting your own site?  Reach out and let me know.  I’d love to chat!

If you haven’t already subscribed to the podcast, I’d appreciate you checking it out! t’s available here directly on the site at the Podcast link at the top of the page, or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play, and TuneIn!  Check it out, let me know what you think, and tell your friends!