Step 1 — the on-ramp
10K
Ezoic
Wider eligibility than the bigger networks — the place to start once you have meaningful traffic. RPMs climb as the site learns and you move up the tiers.
RPM$8–20
Hearthpost helps solo founders launch profitable niche content websites — the evergreen path to a content business that compounds from display ads and affiliate commissions, not from selling your own product.
Realistic timeline: 18–24 months to $5–15K/month. No overnight-income promises.
18-month arc
trailing 30 days
Numbers below the network gates stay in ad revenue; above them, affiliates stack on top — typically adding 40–80% to display ad income.
The Hearthpost method
Most "passive income" playbooks skip the boring middle. Hearthpost's whole job is to keep you moving through it — the keyword workflow, the writing cadence, and the network promotion path, one step at a time.
Google's Helpful Content Update and AI Overview pressure are squeezing mass-produced articles out of the SERP. Real experience — your own tests, your own case files, your own trips — is the only durable signal in 2024-2026.
A repeatable process for long-tail keywords where a subject-matter expert beats a generic publisher. Ten strong articles usually beats a hundred shallow ones.
150–300 quality articles on a topic you already know. The corpus matures, the income compounds, and the site keeps running once the heavy lifting is done.
Stepping-stone monetizers
Each network has a session threshold and a typical RPM band. Crossing a gate is the event that turns a hobby project into a small business — usually once, sometimes twice.
Q4 (Oct–Dec) typically runs 30–80% above baseline — useful to know when you time your last publishing push before the year-end ad surge.
Wider eligibility than the bigger networks — the place to start once you have meaningful traffic. RPMs climb as the site learns and you move up the tiers.
Trailing-30-day sessions gate; once you cross, you trade up. Most niche sites land here in year one if the cadence holds.
Strongest RPMs in finance, health, and tech. The top of the ladder for publishers with a category-defining site.
Affiliate stack
Most niche sites launch with display ads and add affiliate programs as soon as a relevant merchant shows up. The right program depends on your vertical — physical-product niches lean Amazon, software/fintech niches lean direct deals that pay $50–300 per conversion.
Amazon Associates
1–10%
Volume play; works for physical-product niches.
Impact
$50–300 / conv
Direct SaaS and fintech deals — high payout, slow traffic.
ShareASale
Varies
Mid-tier merchants; the workhorse for niche ecommerce.
Direct fintech & SaaS
$50–300 / conv
Negotiated partnerships; the highest-leverage deals.
The 2–4-articles-per-week rhythm
The cadence is what turns a working professional into a niche-site operator. Four publishing slots per week is enough to clear 150–300 articles over 18 months, and small enough to keep quality up.
Compounding math
3 articles / week→~200
articles in 18 months — typically the corpus size at which display ad income crosses four figures.
Mon
SERP sweep + keyword pick
Tue
Outline + first-hand notes
Thu
Draft + on-page optimization
Fri
Edit, publish, internal links
First quarter, line by line
Niche sites are run on a shoestring, not a runway. The starter kit is sized to fit money that's already in your account — no growth funding, no angel check, no spouse negotiation required.
Total — under $500
Get the full checklist →Frequently asked
Not on the list? Drop a note — the brief reply goes from a real human within a few days.
hearthpost-93mlvt@polsia.appGet the brief
Send a two-paragraph intro — your topic, why you know it, and what you've published so far. You'll get back a written brief, not a sales sequence.
hearthpost-93mlvt@polsia.app