ScottDaMan's Lets Make Some Fuckin Money!

[ScottDaMan]

Listen, I suck at writing. So although I do know the enter key and can make paragraphs, comprehending is your job. Sorry. This is why I use the good content writing services of GeekCognito.

Also, this is geared towards newbies and all others in the research phase.

Anyway, I made the mistake of putting all of my eggs in one basket and focusing on only one niche with many domains and various types of sites for several years. Until recently, I was satisfied that I was self employed and got extremely lazy. I basically took a complete year off and only answered emails to get sales completed. No new websites, no new link building efforts, no nothing. Then it happened; The niche market I was in crashed pretty bad. I was getting 20-40% of the sales I used to and I had the obvious bills to pay (no side jobs).

So, back to the drawing board. I did some affiliate marketing research like I did several years ago and got busy as hell reading, reading, and reading more. Then I found this forum through a newly found friend in a new niche market I was getting ready to begin promoting.

Now I have a plan that will work based on all of my research, careful market analysis, and heavy study into my future competition.

What am I getting at? Oh right. MAKING MONEY.

So What is My New Plan?

My plan (which is already working btw) is to build long term websites that will build rank in heavy competition fields over time. This means, quite a bit of work but a much bigger payoff.

How Will You Get Started?

Well, my previous experience is all in web development. I am pretty good in Photoshop to make a decent effort at building professional looking websites. My weakness is anything to do with programming. I refuse to learn PHP, I only can manipulate PHP once it is written.

So it is very obvious I will need some bankroll to hire any programming I need. You will need even more cash if you refuse to learn how to make a template, how to HTML that template, and learn PHP or other programming language.

Therefore, what I am saying is you need to identify your strengths and weaknesses. Once you have that, you'll know exactly what you need to get started.

The Plan

I am a huge fan of having major content sites. I love them. They help me in more ways than you realize. With a major content site available, you have the power to easily get other related sites indexed by google by simply dropping a link or two on that site.

After 3 months of research on WickedFire (I think I've read about 85% of all posts), I knew it was time to act on all my new knowledge. So I went on elance and hired PHP development firms in Pakistan, India, and a couple other countries. I knew I wanted a major content site for each major niche so I opted for user submitted content sites. These sites focus on getting the customer to submit reviews, tips, and other tidbits via forms. Since I want to be a baller, I took some risk and hired quite a few projects to be done all at once.

Now that my new major content sites are being developed, I started researching and buying new domains for my new niche network. I will have one major content site for each major niche, for which, I need to hire out the programming to get it developed. That one major content site (100,000+ pages) will feed (link to) my smaller domains in the same niche. In other words, as an example:
niche.com - Major Content Site with 100,000+ pages
- nichekeyword.com - Linked to from niche.com from several internal related pages
- nichekeyword2.com - Linked to from niche.com from several internal related pages
etc.

The nichekeyword.com domains can do anything from offer specific deals for an offer (20% off coupon), target different popular keyword sets within the same niche (keyword research people!), a keyword rich blog for refined keyword targeting in natural SERPS, and much more.

The Payoff and Awesome Snowball Effect!

That was a lot of work! Now we get to see some results.

Niche.com gets lots of free content by users who submit to it. Those users also link to their submitted content for bragging rights on many locations such as blogs, forums, etc. Their bragging gets me much needed backlinks. My popularity due to those backlinks in all search engines go up. My links to nichekeyword.com domains from niche.com become stronger. Therefore, those nichekeyword domains become more popular and start driving their own sales.

Nice cycle isn't it?

Once I am satisfied I have saturated this niche enough, I move onto the next market and do the same shit all over again. By then, hopefully you'll be making enough cash to easily hire people without thinking twice. Or, if your like me, once a comfortable amount of cash is flowing, you'll actually take the time to learn your weaknesses better (for me, php programming).

Notes

First, hiring a lot of development projects all at once is probably a bad idea and unnecessary risk. I took on a lot of business write off debt to get these projects started. It is very hard to keep track of all projects and keep on the programmers to keep shit moving forward. Testing bugs, making suggestions, and working out other minor kinks can be confusing when you are doing more than one project at a time. Be prepared!

Your new major content sites will not skyrocket from nowhere right from the beginning. You need to help it along in the early stages. Building your own links (1000+ directory submission services, like from Kamesh here at WF help), submitting your own user generated content (hi GeekCognito, you rock man!), and lots of time and patience.

While waiting for the Google Gods to love you, build your satellite sites so you'll have the network you need to focus your keywords on. Never stop working. Don't be an idiot like me and get lazy. Ignore short term sales (they will be slow to start) and keep focused on the long term.

Least of all, act. Act. ACT! If you don't spend a hurtful amount of money now, what will drive you to keep pushing forward to earn that money back? Finally, remember, no risk, no reward.

Enjoy the post. Now my guilt for taking all the tips from this site and not providing good shit in return can subside. Yeah, it took me an hour to write this, good enough!

 

[illusion]

Nice post man +rep

 

[bubbles]

Do the network sites need to be hosted on different IPs?

 

[lamrobertson]

Nice post. Your writing doesn't suck.

Lorna

 

[wrstroud]

I don't really understand the major content site you are making (the niche.com one). So its basically a review site based on your niche. Ex.- If your niche is based around computer parts, users submit reviews to your big site about particular computer parts?

When you said this:

Those users also link to their submitted content for bragging rights on many locations such as blogs, forums, etc. Their bragging gets me much needed backlinks.

I don't understand why they brag about a review they submitted?

Awesome post man, thanks.

 

[chatmasta]

Nice post. I think the most important thing I took away from it was the satellite sites. Eli's written about them, and they really are a great idea. It's all about leverage - I mean isn't it better to have 5 of your sites in the top 10 rather than 1?

And wrstroud, maybe you can't understand that with reviews, but he never said that was his niche. What if it was something like a tutorial site? That's very linkable content.

 

[Catt]

Scott, that's a great plan. I too have begun to focus some of my effort on building large content sites (at the research phase) and have recently come to the decision not to worry about short-term monetization on them (this was holding me back), rather, to think long-term and have a detailed plan to work from. Creating a site with the user in mind (and the search engines) rather than the money kind of frees me up and I think helps in building a quality site, monetization can always be added on later. This will only work if I am making money elsewhere so for short-term funds so I will continue to do PPC to affiliate offers, which I get to do double duty - making some dosh and researching the markets I am interested in.

My problem in the process though, unlike you, I don't have sufficient funds to hire other people to do all the required stuff. My strengths are research, writing content, strategic planning, statistical analysis and design (but I mean offline design, I have yet to learn photoshop). I can manipulate basic templates with html and css and am learning more of that at the moment for my PPC landing pages/sites when required. Php is next on my list to learn.

My plan is to start developing these large (eventually to be authority), content sites slowly, doing the research, adding content. As I already have the domains I feel it is best to get them up there with at least some content so that they start developing a history. But they will be very basic sites because of my lack of programming skills, hopefully in the future I will be able to afford someone else to give them some polish and make them more interactive.

My question is: will it hurt the sites long-term status in the SERPS if I start out like this and then later have a complete redesign (with the same and additional content)? In other words is this a good plan?

Or would it be best to develop the sites offline without 'getting them out there' until I have the money to hire specialists to make them what I really want them to be, given that it could take a while as I have to build up my PPC earnings.

If you think this plan really stinks, please tell me, I am a relative newbie apart from adwords PPC direct to merchant marketing (and only just begun to be successful there). Just by writing this post I've begun to think that the process I have outlined sounds painfully slow ... and now my head is going round in circles again.

Thanks.

 

[JamesH]

I've always had problems trying to digest it when people suggest we get sites with 100,000+ pages of content. Even if the site was centered around user generated content, it would take an extremely good reputable site and a long time to generate 100,000+ pages of content. Were you being sarcastic? If not, could you further elaborate on this concept?

 

[Blastyourass]

Coolyo Scott!

Even though we don't meet eye to eye on everything, I'm 100% with you here and if you want any long term stability in this business then you need to do this.

This is online real estate building 101 for the future.

 

[Blastyourass]

I think the plan with so many pages is to rank for almost every imaginable short and longtail keyword imagineable. Correct me if I'm wrong Scott?

I've always had problems trying to digest it when people suggest we get sites with 100,000+ pages of content. Even if the site was centered around user generated content, it would take an extremely good reputable site and a long time to generate 100,000+ pages of content. Were you being sarcastic? If not, could you further elaborate on this concept?

 

[ChrisS]

Good post Scott, I'm glad you made the effort.

 

[Airkat]

great post. I'm definitely going to bookmark this thread. some good information here.

 

[ScottDaMan]

Do the network sites need to be hosted on different IPs?

I strongly recommend different IPs. I currently have 10 shared / reseller hosting accounts. Even if I bought my own server to manage these sites later on as they get "too popular," I will still maintain my shared accounts.

One host I recommend is pair for no-support-required dedicated IPs per site. It's a nice feature. The bad thing about Pair is it isn't cpanel, so you gotta use shell to install PHPMyAdmin and use their config process for decent stats. Their servers though? Rock fucking solid.

In the end, any host will do. Just buy some static IPs in blocks of 10.. not all on the same class C.

 

[ScottDaMan]

I don't really understand the major content site you are making (the niche.com one). So its basically a review site based on your niche. Ex.- If your niche is based around computer parts, users submit reviews to your big site about particular computer parts?

I think review sites are a bit played out. If I wanted to sell computer parts, I could easily think of a few ways to get user submitted content without it being reviews. Off the top of my head, user submitted computer builds, articles, computer building stories (setup issues, problems, etc), and maybe a hardware related pligg (open source digg) site. Think outside of the box a little bit. There's a lot of shit you can do besides a review site

I don't understand why they brag about a review they submitted?

When you are thinking computer hardware, how could you not believe people wouldn't link to their approved reviews? Take newegg who does hardware reviews, I've sent quite a few people to my reviews on certain hardware items so I wouldn't have to retype it. I've done this by email, forums, and other means.

Not eveyone will, but those that do, you'll get backlinks. If not, outsource a team from India to go around all the related blogs in your niche.com and have them post links to "their reviews" in blog posts. Again, act first and get the ball rolling, by any means necessary.

 

[ScottDaMan]

Nice post. I think the most important thing I took away from it was the satellite sites. Eli's written about them, and they really are a great idea. It's all about leverage - I mean isn't it better to have 5 of your sites in the top 10 rather than 1?

Your missing the point slightly. You don't want 10 sites in the top 10 for the same keywords. There's many keywords related to each niche that you must focus on. So you want 10 sites getting in the top 3 for different keywords, not the same keyword.

This all gets back to keyword research. I use keyword discovery but the price may turn you off. I get a month access about once every 3 months or as I need it. I download/export my keyword research by market via the CSVs they offer. These are also good for making some decent satellite sites.

 

[ScottDaMan]

My problem in the process though, unlike you, I don't have sufficient funds to hire other people to do all the required stuff. My strengths are research, writing content, strategic planning, statistical analysis and design (but I mean offline design, I have yet to learn photoshop). I can manipulate basic templates with html and css and am learning more of that at the moment for my PPC landing pages/sites when required. Php is next on my list to learn.

This is an excuse. I didn't have the money either, so I used a business credit card with 0% APR for 15 months. It's a little offtopic but check out Advanta's current CC offer. See I'm a standup guy, no afflinks either.

It's either that or you need to build static niche.com sites. A ton of work man, but if you want it bad enough, you won't have a problem with it. Once you see $$$ rolling, get that shit hired out immediately so you can manage it 99% easier via a backend and CMS.

My question is: will it hurt the sites long-term status in the SERPS if I start out like this and then later have a complete redesign (with the same and additional content)? In other words is this a good plan?

The only problem I see with this is burnout on your end. You won't see the great results I see because user submitted content will take a shitload of time and effort to publish. You might consider a blog CMS platform like wordpress at first until you go full out custom.

Wordpress will give you search, SEO, and other functionality via built in functions and plugins. Search this forum and learn more about Wordpress. It's pretty easy to convert your wordpress install into a CMS so it doesn't have the blog feel. If going the cheap/free route is what you need to do, Wordpress is my #1 suggestion to get started.

Or would it be best to develop the sites offline without 'getting them out there' until I have the money to hire specialists to make them what I really want them to be, given that it could take a while as I have to build up my PPC earnings.

My strategy is a non-ppc strategy. I like natural/free clicks better. That being said, developing offline is a stupid idea. Get whatever you can out there. Google loves older sites anyways so if you can get google to notice you, by the time you are ready for a real launch with a nice user driven site, you'll be out of the sandbox and in regular results.

 

[ScottDaMan]

I've always had problems trying to digest it when people suggest we get sites with 100,000+ pages of content. Even if the site was centered around user generated content, it would take an extremely good reputable site and a long time to generate 100,000+ pages of content. Were you being sarcastic? If not, could you further elaborate on this concept?

Take a step back dude. These 100,000+ page sites don't just happen overnight (unless you go the blackhat route and want a large but short term benefit site).

This is why I hire content writers. A user generated content site with no content equals no user submitted content either. So either you need to spend a lot of money getting quality content for the site or write it all yourself.

Its obvious what I choose because I hate writing. It reminds me of college and term papers and I abhor writing because of it. So I hire this out to those who enjoy it.

Once my content is out there and gets traffic started, I begin seeing actual user submitted content coming in. Once that happens, the site is golden. It will continue to build and gain strength.

So yeah, your 100,000 page content site will start as a 1000 page site and build from there. Once you have it up to 5 digits, the spiral effect I talked about will naturally occur.

Opening Your Eyes Tip: There's other ways to get 100,000 page sites too by the use of databases and php. Hehehe

 

[ScottDaMan]

I think the plan with so many pages is to rank for almost every imaginable short and longtail keyword imagineable. Correct me if I'm wrong Scott?

Your user submitted content on niche.com naturally does this for you. People will hit your longtail keywords continuously with their submitted text. As long as you have the site coded right and use mod-rewrite so that engines can easily find, cache, and index your content, you'll get your deserved traffic, via natural means. This is just the way google wants your site to work anyways.

Using your logs and stats data, you can discover solid longtail keywords related to your niche.com for new satellite sites. Again, your customer is giving you all of this data by their searches on the engines. Every time they click a natural listing result in google, your stats will log it... From there you'll have many ideas one what your satellite sites should have in them.

If the niche is big enough, I don't see why you couldn't have 100 satellite sites being fed from your main niche.com site. Think about it.

 

[Blastyourass]

fucken golden Scott!

my M.O. is all about this plan for long term stability in a unstable online world by not having your eggs in one basket (as you mentioned) but in hundreds of baskets built with sweat and blood.

later on if you play your cards right, many of those eggs will be golden and may be the new form of CD or Mutual Fund that provides residual income for people like us. you know this scott and i know this bro. once the momentum goes (like pushing a car, hard as fuck at first but one you get it rolling, its cake) its payday time. delayed gratification.

Your user submitted content on niche.com naturally does this for you. People will hit your longtail keywords continuously with their submitted text. As long as you have the site coded right and use mod-rewrite so that engines can easily find, cache, and index your content, you'll get your deserved traffic, via natural means. This is just the way google wants your site to work anyways.

Using your logs and stats data, you can discover solid longtail keywords related to your niche.com for new satellite sites. Again, your customer is giving you all of this data by their searches on the engines. Every time they click a natural listing result in google, your stats will log it... From there you'll have many ideas one what your satellite sites should have in them.

If the niche is big enough, I don't see why you couldn't have 100 satellite sites being fed from your main niche.com site. Think about it.

 

[LazyHippy]

Great post ScottDaMan!

I've actually got a not-too-dissimilar project on hold at the moment, got so far myself using a cms now it needs me to find the time to properly plan it and the cash to get it completed.

I agree with you completely, large content sites are the way to go and the only way to do it is with user submitted content. I'm trying to tie together a lot of useful content with lots of user participation and interactivity. Networks linking users based on patterns, etc. Some nice photo and video stuff. Create a site where users want to participate and tell other people about it and as you said... snowball time!

This thread is making me re-think things a bit (cheers!), but my plan was to develop the site - a potentially brandable domain - focussing on one niche to start with then expanding, but under the same domain/brand. Adding niches in a way that would hopefully encourage existing users to contribute and tell their friends. (eg start with music, a lot of music lovers like movies, quite a lot of both groups would be interested in travel, so on)

My problem is trying to scale it down - it just keeps getting bigger. I'm fighting a battle between half of me saying "just get it up and running and making money now, add the bells and whistles later" and the other half saying "it's better to wait and get it all there, all working, and a fuckin great site so it does the whole natural viral shit"

Are you branding your sites as a 'network' or something like that or keeping them seperate? Do you plan on promoting your new niches to your existing users?