In this week’s niche site teardown, I analyze a 15-year-old travel website, NYCInsiderGuide.com. The site earns about $5,400 monthly from 32,000 visitors per month and is currently listed for sale for $182k on Motion Invest.
The owner of this site has put in a lot of work on this site over the past 15 years and published over 600 articles with tons of unique images from first-hand experience.
The site focuses on things to do and events in New York City including content about the largest tourism events like Broadway Week and the Thanksgiving Parade.
In this teardown we look at what the site does very well and some areas that it could improve to increase traffic and revenue.
This is what I cover in this report:
- Website overview
- Major highlights
- Competitor overview
- Easy wins to increase revenue and/or traffic
- Actionable takeaways you can apply
Let’s get into it!
✅ Website Overview & Highlights
The website has had a steady decline in organic traffic since the September 2023 Helpful Content Update like many sites. However, it is still able to earn strong revenue without a huge amount of traffic.
Ahrefs shows a strong link profile of 2,700 referring domains which has been built steadily over the past 15 years.
The site was started from scratch in 2008 by Melissa, a fourth-generation lifelong New Yorker, who wrote all the content except for user-submitted articles from event businesses.
Several types of content are working well including listicles of best hotels, NYC events in a specific month, and guides to the biggest local events like NYC Restaurant Week.
It is monetized by multiple revenue sources like Mediavine display ads which earned $1,700 in January from 78,000 pageviews (about $22 per 1,000 pageviews). A majority of revenue comes from travel and event affiliate programs like Viator, Booking, and Ticketmaster.
The website design looks slightly outdated with a large slideshow above the fold on the homepage and some difficult-to-read white text. It also lacks a real logo.
Highlights
- 2,700 referring domains
- 600+ unique human-written articles
- 2 Facebook Pages with 19k total followers
- 2 email lists with 7k total subscribers
- Earning from multiple affiliate programs: Viator, Booking, and Ticketmaster
- Digital product that sells for $19.99 (printable map and guide)
Why is this site winning?
- Links from authoritative sites like NYC.gov, NJ.com, Wikipedia
- Lots of valuable information written by an expert with first-hand experience
- Earning a high revenue per visitor with affiliate programs
Top 3 Competitors
Here are similar competitors targeting many of the same keywords.
- Loving-Newyork.com – A similar New York City travel site with 74k organic traffic per month (Ahrefs)
- SecretNYC.co – A popular New York City travel site with 419k organic traffic per month (Ahrefs)
- NewYorkSimply.com – Another New York City travel site focusing on events and activities with 27k organic traffic per month (Ahrefs)
Let’s get into the easy wins to grow this specific website.
🔥 5 Easy Wins To Grow This Website
There are opportunities to significantly grow this brand. I break down the following easy wins:
- Refresh the Design of the Site and Digital Products
- Work on Growing Traffic on Social Media Channels
- Add Popups to Increase Conversions
- Add Product Boxes and CTA Buttons to Pages
- Partner With Local Businesses for Advertising and Lead Generation
Let’s get into it!
➡️ Win #1: Refresh the Design of the Site and Digital Products
When compared to other sites in the niche, this site does not look as clean, modern, and professional as its competitors.
Most articles have a large featured image that takes up a lot of the space above the fold. Removing the huge featured image can provide space for calls to action for affiliate offers and will allow more impressions for display ads.
Additionally, the full page layout on many pages results in very long lines of text that stretch across the entire width of the screen. The Baymard Institute says long lines of text can hurt readability and recommends 50-75 characters as the optimal line length (this site has about 100 characters per line).
Adding a sidebar to the page layout would provide space for calls to action and display ads and shorten the length of each line of text so it is easier to read.
Additionally, the design of the digital product looks somewhat outdated, so redesigning the covers to look more modern and recent should help generate more sales.
The owner can also add a sale price so that the visitor feels like they are getting a good deal.
If the guide is not selling many copies, it could be turned into a free lead magnet to help grow a valuable email newsletter list.
➡️ Win #2: Work on Growing Traffic on Social Media Channels
With tons of useful news and expert information on enjoying New York City, the content from many articles can be repurposed into social media content. The owner also recommends more social media activity to grow the site.
Covering news in the NYC entertainment space like new events, shows, restaurants, or other activities is something people are interested in seeing on social media.
One competitor, Secret NYC, does a good job at generating social shares and traffic with its frequent Facebook posts about new things going on in NYC.
This site already has two established Facebook groups so there is a good opportunity to build on this foundation.
Other social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok are also a good fit for travel-related content.
Things to do in New York City is a popular topic on YouTube so content can be potentially repurposed for video which can be profitable due to the high affiliate revenue available in the travel niche. An idea would be to reuse the content from articles like “Things To Do in New York in March” for videos on YouTube.
➡️ Win #3: Add Popups to Increase Conversions
Adding popups is one of the best ways to increase conversions and works best if there is a great offer that is highly relevant. I did not see any popups used on this site.
Their competitor, Loving New York, has a popup for the New York Explorer Pass, which is highly relevant to visitors who are looking for things to do in New York City.
NYC Insider Guide could add popups for the New York Explorer Pass or other affiliate offers that are relevant to a specific page.
➡️ Win #4: Add Product Boxes and CTA Buttons to Pages
Most of the articles primarily use text links for affiliate links throughout the page. However, text links can often be missed by visitors who are quickly scanning the page for information.
Adding product boxes that stand out from the text will attract more clicks and conversions from affiliate links.
Here’s a good example is the product box used by TheMostPerfectView.com on their listicle pages, which ranks highly for “best NYC hotel with a view”.
Additionally, putting a product box at the top of the page and above the fold (instead of a large featured image) will help increase the number of clicks on affiliate links.
Adding a brightly colored CTA button with text like “Book Now”, “Check Prices”, or “Check Availability” for each hotel or Broadway show in a listicle article, can also help increase clicks.
➡️ Win #5: Partner With Local Businesses for Advertising and Lead Generation
Many local businesses would like to get in front of this site’s audience that is actively looking for activities to do in New York City.
There is an opportunity to conduct email outreach to businesses that would likely be interested in being featured on the site for a set price or are willing to pay for each lead.
The “Get Listed” page could be updated and improved. Currently, they feature outdated rankings screenshots from 2019. The owner can leverage high rankings for specific keywords like “romance packages nyc” and “new york city tourist map” to show businesses the opportunity.
I would simplify the “Get Listed” page which currently has over 10 different advertising options and an overwhelming amount of information on requirements. A table with just 3 options at the top of the page could help improve the conversion rate.
I would also add an “Email Us” or contact button near the top to make it easier for visitors to inquire about advertising.
They have previously partnered with many high-profile companies in New York like the Museum of Natural History, The MET, Central Park, and Bronx Zoo so featuring these logos at the top of the “Get Listed” page is a great way to increase credibility.
👉 Actionable Takeaways
Here are actionable takeaways that you can apply to your niche website today:
- For outdated websites, a design refresh can improve both user experience and conversion rate optimization.
- If traffic is too dependent on one source like Google, explore what is working for content creators covering the same niche on social media platforms.
- Local sites have a great opportunity to generate additional revenue by reaching out to local businesses to sell advertising, sponsorships, and lead generation.
