If you’ve ever tried to build a niche website from scratch, you can probably relate to the heavy-lifting of building a solid foundation. It tends to be a mix of excitement, confusion, and second-guessing all the decisions or actions you’ve made up to this point.
If you’re new to the affiliate marketing or online business world in general and may be feeling a bit overwhelmed, know that you’re not alone. It gets better after you get the site up and running.
That’s exactly where I am right now and why I’ve decided to start this case study while I build out my new site Outdoor Cat Enclosures. So that you can see and follow along with the process of putting in the work upfront to get sustainable gains in the future.
TL;DR Outdoor Cat Enclosures Case Study: Phase 1
I’m starting fresh with my Outdoor Cat Enclosures site — a niche that’s challenging but needed because cat parents everywhere want safe ways for their cats to enjoy the outdoors.
Right now, I’m focused on laying the foundation: rebuilding the site structure, adding the legal and about pages, and creating the Outdoor Cat Enclosures Hub to organize future content.
It’s early days, but the site’s already seeing signs of life with a 46% increase in visitors this month. My next steps include building cornerstone articles, setting up a steady workflow, and expanding keyword research.
I’m not rushing for quick wins this time — I’m building for people, not just algorithms. Follow along as I grow this project step by step toward sustainable success.
Table of Contents
Why I Chose This Pet Niche for My Site
To start, I think it might be beneficial to speak on my inspiration and mission for this site. Most of my sites are in the pet niche because my passion is to help people handle common pet issues instead of giving them up to animal shelters.
While I am a passionate person and can get in a serious debate on subjects that especially concern animals, in general, I’d rather avoid arguing. My advocacy is largely spread through my content.
I chose this niche because first of all, I anticipate it being a bit of a challenge, so I’ll be able to effectively demonstrate how you can succesfully build a brand even in a competitive niche. The most important aspect is to choose a niche that solves a real problem.
In this case, cat parents everywhere want their pets to safely enjoy the outdoors.
When you choose your niche, make sure you understand this concept along with finding the right balance between what’s good for SEO, what’s helpful for readers, and what truly supports your target audience.
🧱 Step 1: Setting Up the Foundation
At this point I’m going to assume you know how to do the initial setup. If not, checkout my guide on How To Start A Pet Affiliate Blog or Website here.
Before I even touched new content, I focused on structure. That meant:
- Creating the Privacy Policy, About, and Disclosure pages.
- Building out the Outdoor Cat Enclosures Hub, which will serve as the site’s main navigation point and topic organizer.
- Cleaning up menus and links for a smoother user experience.
This phase is never glamorous, but it’s what keeps a website strong in the long run. Like I always say, a solid foundation keeps everything standing, even through quiet seasons.
📊 Current Stats
This is the part where I’m not the best at and that’s stats. This site has been sitting around doing nothing for a while before I decided to revamp it.
Here’s a quick snapshot from my analytics dashboard along with a screenshot for us visual people:
- Visitors: 19 (↑ 46.2% compared to the previous 28 days)
- Traffic Sources:
- 52.6% Direct
- 31.6% Organic Social
- 10.5% Referral
- 5.3% Organic Search
It’s not a lot yet, but this shows the site is being found, visited, and indexed, which is exactly what we want at this stage.
🐾 The Goal for This Phase
My focus now is on creating strong, evergreen content around core topics:
- How to safely build or buy outdoor cat enclosures
- Seasonal care (winter, summer, predators)
- Apartment-friendly and DIY solutions
Each of these will tie into the main hub to make navigation and topic clusters easy to follow.
💬 Reflection
I’ll be honest, starting from near zero again feels a little strange, but also grounding. This time, I’m doing things with more clarity, data, and purpose.
The biggest difference between this project and when I built my first profitable site in 2018?
I’m not rushing to publish for the algorithm. I’m building for people and that should be your priority too.
Yes, we do want to make money for our efforts but remember that we are serving a greater purpose than money at the same time. Whe you lead in this manor, you will find that your profits will increase accordingly.
🧭 Next Phase: Content Expansion
Going forward, my next goals include:
- Write 3–5 cornerstone posts based on search intent and reader needs.
- Set up a consistent publishing workflow.
- Begin low-volume keyword research using tools like Jaaxy and Google Search Console trends.
✨ Follow Along
If you want to follow my journey or see more of my work, you can follow this project through my Case Studies Hub here:
Or directly on the project site:
👉🏾 Visit the Outdoor Cat Enclosures Hub
See you next time!
Marlinda