Getting started in MFA sites, my journal

BNR34

BNR34

RB26DETT
Feb 16, 2011
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Blighty
G;day

This thread will be a journal of my attempt at starting an MFA minisite farm. I can code in PHP pretty well, have a small knowledge of researching niches (will no doubt need help here), and a small budget.

The basics:

  • Exact match domains only, .com/.net/.org/.info(maybe)
  • More than 1000 global monthly searches
  • "low" competition (according to GAKT)
  • Hosted in US or UK, depending on which has more local searches

The sites themselves:

  • I have written a script to generate the sites. I will be parking all of the domains on this folder. The script will detect the domain and then generate a clean, xfactor style site. I chose to do this instead of using wordpress as it'll be far easier for me to manage things like ad positions, split testing etc. 1 change to the script will happen instantly across all sites.
  • Will get 1x 300-400 word article written, this will be on the root / of the domain
  • Will be using 1 adsense account to start with.
  • Will use my own small stats script to pick up what keywords and stuff people are coming in on.

Tools used so far:

  • Google keyword tool
  • PHP


I've completed the script for the sites, it's now incredibly easy for me to create a new one. I literally "add domain", fill in basic details, pick the images I want up top, create index page, paste article in. Done.

Anyway, so I had 2 3-4 year old domains which I was doing little with. They arent bad domains and I've used them to test my script out, and also just to get an idea of what I'm doing.

Domain 1: EMD.com, 27k global searches, 9.9k uk, 1.6k us, medium competition, 69p CPC

I've put this on my UK server as this gets more UK searches than US. I've had 3 articles written and put them on it. Pinged the site.
I then run scrape box for 20 mins and netted about 70 backlinks which have stuck. (didnt want to get carried away). I then bought 2000 xrumer links for 5$. 18 social bookmarks for free.

Domain 2: EMD.info, 27k global, 9.9k uk, 4.4k us, low comp, £1 CPC

Put this on UK server too. Already had some content which I had copied from another sites previously, I have put this content on, for now. No link building.

Thats all I have done so far.

I will update this will my outgoings/revenue as time goes on, if people would like. I am planning to buy another 8 domains to bring this up to 10 domains.

Total outgoing: 50$ on domains (have had them a few years), 5$ on link building.

Incoming: 0$ :)
 


The first thing I need help with is US hosting.

As I said in the first post, I have a small budget, I'd like to spend as little as possible to start with.

Host gator @ $9.95 a month is too much to start with, Can anyone recommend somewhere cheaper that's fast and reliable? I will need probably < 100MB disk space, not much bandwidth, I wont need unlimited domains, but a max of say 25-50 would be fine to start with. I will move when/if I make more, as it will mean im making money :)
 
You're right, I'm going with hostgator :)

I *wont* be using wordpress, so no need for wp supercache or the like.
 
In your research be certain to analyze the top ranking sites for your EM search. For low search niche's you are going to want to rank 1-4, actually 1-2 to make decent money. Make certain you are prepared to outrank those sites.
 
good tip

I've been researching other MFA sites that are doing the same thing, I see some of them ranking #1 above sites with PR4/5, more back links to the actual URL, older etc - it doesn't make sense to me, what am I not taking into account apart from the domain?
 
The higher ranking sites that the MFA's are beating, I am assuming are not EM and the links are, I am assuming, not targeting their EM term.

For real advice on what to look for - hopefully someone with more experience can help you with that.
 
Well I have one example where EMD.net is beating EMD.com

.net is PR 0 (will ignore that tho), has 6 indexed pages, 74 backlinks to /, a few months old

.com is PR 3, 25 pages, 838 backlinks to /, 11 years old...

as you say, maybe the anchors of those 838 are unrelated "click heres" etc. Is there a tool that can parse site explorer links to check for anchor texts to relevent domain? if not i'll write one :D
 
the .com guy has a total of (at least) 89 domains all linking to each other, which would account for most of these links by the looks of it. I guess that shows what NOT to do lol.
 
BNR34 said:
Is there a tool that can parse site explorer links to check for anchor texts to relevent domain? if not i'll write one :D
Click to expand...

Market Samurai does this. You can get a free trial of it by signing up for the Challenge and downloading it. It's worth paying for, though, IMO.

Also you mentioned using the GKT to show the low competition. This is only showing you adwords advertiser competition and is useless for organic. I actually like to see the higher competition in GKT for my MFA sites since it often translates into higher CPCs.
This is another analysis that Market Samurai does well, but you can always just go look at the top 10 or 20 yourself.
 
DanWesson said:
Market Samurai does this. You can get a free trial of it by signing up for the Challenge and downloading it. It's worth paying for, though, IMO.

Also you mentioned using the GKT to show the low competition. This is only showing you adwords advertiser competition and is useless for organic. I actually like to see the higher competition in GKT for my MFA sites since it often translates into higher CPCs.
This is another analysis that Market Samurai does well, but you can always just go look at the top 10 or 20 yourself.
Click to expand...

I think stupidly I had been using GKT how you suggest. Makes more sense now, lol.

I will try Market Samurai, but would like to find out more about how it and other calculate the competition :) will start googling :p
 
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