Introductions Thread

Hello all. I'm from the UK and been in internet marketing most of my life. Currently focusing on building some passive income with lead gen and affiliate whilst growing my new company, a business consultancy :smile:
 
Welcome, @StaszMan, glad to have you aboard.

Have you had any wild successes or failures prior to now? What's your preferred method of driving traffic?
 
Hello BuSo members,

My name is Joe and I have been doing internet marketing (in addition to my full-time Financial Analyst job) for the last 4 years. I was pointed to this forum by @SerpWolf last summer after seeing their services offered elsewhere. I was immediately impressed by the high quality discussion that takes place here (note: I have pretty much exclusively used BHW in the past).

My sole focus is in Amazon Affiliate marketing by ranking organically on Google. I have been pretty lucky. My first site was a success and sold for just over $100,000 after two years of operation. I have also had sales of $225,000 and $30,000. Currently, I run around 10 sites, some of which are very profitable, others not so much (including one that's $40,000 in the hole!).

My business strategy revolves around getting sites profitable within 12 months and selling after 18 months. While it would probably be more advantageous for me to hold the sites and continue to grow them, it causes me too much stress. I prefer to take the lump sum and invest it into the stock market. Let the giant corporations earn a solid return for me.

I realized I hadn't posted enough to leave reviews in the threads of @SerpWolf , @Steve Brownlie , and @TextBoss , so here we are.

I look forward to interacting with you all.

Best,
Joe
 
@JamaicanMoose, Welcome!

Do you feel you hit close to a maximum revenue on these sites at the 18 month mark? Or is it just a hard deadline to minimize the risk of holding the sites?

Those are impressive sales. I hope you can get all 10 (even the one that's way in the hole) to flips of those size.

I have a few questions:
  • How much content and how fast are you pumping into these sites when you start them?
  • Are you starting on new or aged and linked domains?
  • Are you buying links? If so, are you using PBNs? If so, do you disclose this to the buyers or replace the PBN links over time or what?
  • Do you know about what kind of RPM you're getting on the traffic?
Glad to have you aboard.
 
Ryuzaki said:
@JamaicanMoose, Welcome!

Do you feel you hit close to a maximum revenue on these sites at the 18 month mark? Or is it just a hard deadline to minimize the risk of holding the sites?

Those are impressive sales. I hope you can get all 10 (even the one that's way in the hole) to flips of those size.

I have a few questions:
  • How much content and how fast are you pumping into these sites when you start them?
  • Are you starting on new or aged and linked domains?
  • Are you buying links? If so, are you using PBNs? If so, do you disclose this to the buyers or replace the PBN links over time or what?
  • Do you know about what kind of RPM you're getting on the traffic?
Glad to have you aboard.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the message.

I sell around the 18 month mark in order to minimize risk. I learned my lesson early on. The third site I had started had average profit of $8,000 L6M in February 2017. I thought great, I'll hold until April 2017 and then sell so I would only have to pay capital gains tax rather than regular income tax + FICA.

Well, at the end of February, Amazon changed their fee structure. Suddenly that $8,000 became $5,000. Then on March 8, 2017, a day I will never forget, I woke up to the Google Fred update. That $5,000 suddenly became $700. An easy 30x sale of $240,000 down to $21,000 in the matter of two weeks.

Lesson learned: get out before you get smacked.

I still hold and work on that site because I am way too emotionally attached to it. It's not about the money at this point. However, I can't seem to get it to budge. It's similar to the lab thread that you have.

"Those are impressive sales. I hope you can get all 10 (even the one that's way in the hole) to flips of those size."

Thanks. Three of them should be ready to sell this Spring. Five are still in scaling mode. The remaining two are brand new. I keep telling myself I'm not going to start anymore sites, but opportunities present themselves and I have to capitalize. Who knows how long I'll be able to do this for.

For your questions:

"How much content and how fast are you pumping into these sites when you start them?"

Once I find an opportunity, I will order around 150,000 words worth of content for the site. Most of these are buying guides, some individual reviews if there are popular products, and a few how-to articles.

I post the content once it's delivered to me. I haven't found dripping content to be worthwhile. I prefer posting it and letting it age.

I usually cheap out on content ($2/500 word Indian stuff) and let it age. Once I see the posts hitting page 2/3, I upgrade the content. A large part of the $40,000 hole on that one site is content costs. Cheap content lets me test the concept before going all in.

Are you starting on new or aged and linked domains?

Both, although I am heavily favoring auction domains lately. Paying $1,000~ for an RD500+ domain with 100~ or so of those being high authority / niche links is so worth it. I can get a site ranking/earning well within 6 months this way, whereas a new domain is a complete crapshoot (usually 12 months).

I don't really care about the niche. I care about being able to rank without having to invest much money in links.

Say I buy a domain for $1,000 and spend $500 on initial content for it. The site flops and barely earns me anything per month. As long as the site is earning at least $25/mo in revenue, I can sell it on Flippa for the $1,500. Very low risk.

"Are you buying links? If so, are you using PBNs? If so, do you disclose this to the buyers or replace the PBN links over time or what?"

I used to solely rely on PBN links, both my own and public PBNs due to cost. I didn't have much money to invest in the business when I was starting out. $10 PBN links for $100, sign me up.

Nowadays, I rely more on niche edits (@SerpWolf ) and guest posts (@Steve Brownlie ). Getting smacked with a couple manual action link building penalties has caused me to be safer. $5,000/mo gone for 5 months (Thanks for taking your time on approval, Google).

I am fully transparent with buyers during the due diligence process. Not only is it the right thing to do, but I don't feel like getting sued. I typically sell through FE International. Not sure if they're on here or not.

"Do you know about what kind of RPM you're getting on the traffic?"

I should measure that (and other analytics), but I don't. I'll leave traffic conversion optimization as an area of opportunity to potential buyers.
 
Hey welcome to the forum, nice to have you on board. I think FEI has a presence here, they used to at one point but I don't think they're active anymore.

As you grow, I imagine you can scale out and build more sites at a time. Have you considered holding onto some of them for longer for higher upside?
 
Impressive, sounds like you are seeing a lot of success and have a nice system in place. Are you still working a full-time job in addition to building the sites?

JamaicanMoose said:
Once I find an opportunity, I will order around 150,000 words worth of content for the site. Most of these are buying guides, some individual reviews if there are popular products, and a few how-to articles.

I post the content once it's delivered to me. I haven't found dripping content to be worthwhile. I prefer posting it and letting it age.

I usually cheap out on content ($2/500 word Indian stuff) and let it age. Once I see the posts hitting page 2/3, I upgrade the content. A large part of the $40,000 hole on that one site is content costs. Cheap content lets me test the concept before going all in.
Click to expand...

How much work do you put into the initial content, are you editing and formatting them, or just posting them as they are?

Are you doing any initial on-page optimisation to the articles?

JamaicanMoose said:
Both, although I am heavily favoring auction domains lately. Paying $1,000~ for an RD500+ domain with 100~ or so of those being high authority / niche links is so worth it. I can get a site ranking/earning well within 6 months this way, whereas a new domain is a complete crapshoot (usually 12 months).
Click to expand...

Are you using dropped or non-dropped domains? Do you have any specific vendors that you use or are you finding them yourself?

Welcome to the forum, looking forward to reading more about your business!
 
Potatoe said:
Hey welcome to the forum, nice to have you on board. I think FEI has a presence here, they used to at one point but I don't think they're active anymore.

As you grow, I imagine you can scale out and build more sites at a time. Have you considered holding onto some of them for longer for higher upside?
Click to expand...

Thanks for the message. I have considered holding them longer, but frankly, I don't have the stomach for it. I would rather take the lump sum of cash while I can and invest it in the stock market. The returns are obviously a lot less in the stock market, but it's a safe hedge against Google dumpstering my business.

More perspective - I would rather have 10 sites earning $1,000/mo than 1 site earning $10,000/mo. Much less risk during a Google algorithm update.

Cash Builder said:
Impressive, sounds like you are seeing a lot of success and have a nice system in place. Are you still working a full-time job in addition to building the sites?

How much work do you put into the initial content, are you editing and formatting them, or just posting them as they are?

Are you doing any initial on-page optimisation to the articles?

Are you using dropped or non-dropped domains? Do you have any specific vendors that you use or are you finding them yourself?

Welcome to the forum, looking forward to reading more about your business!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the welcome.

I do still work a full time 9-5 job in addition to working on my websites. I despise my 9-5 job. I am not meant to work in a cubicle surrounded by people who's career goal is that job. It's a pointless, bureaucratic, thankless, blue-collar welfare job. But, it pays well, has great benefits, and isn't stressful. It's a means to an end - financial independence. It's also a hedge against my website business going tits up.

Anyways, my websites don't take much time since I outsource all content and link building. If I'm not setting up a new site, I barely spend any time on the business. Maybe 4 hours, if that.

The main time commitment I have with my websites is the initial setup. Even that has become negligible. I have theme and plugins setup, logo ordered, and first 25x pieces of content ordered within 2-3 hours of concept. Using my competitor's content strategy works well for me. No need to reinvent the wheel here.

I don't edit my writers' articles. Although, I probably should look at them before I approve. I've recently come across a batch of junk that I need rewritten. However, even that is such an immaterial amount of content in comparison to what I've ordered, I'm not sure it's worth my time.

I do format the articles into the standard format that I use across all of my websites. No optimization aside from adding a Tablepress table. I could probably outsource the formatting and posting, but I do like to have some control of my sites.

Heck, I don't even believe in KW optimization anymore. Google is smart enough to know what an article is about without stuffing with odd phrasing LSI. If Google wants to rank the article, they'll rank the article.

The domains are usually expired and won via drop-catching. I use a vendor from BHW. Not sure if I'm allowed to post links to that forum / his website / Skype here.

Overall, my goal is to earn as much as I can with as little work as I can. The American dream.
 
Wow, you are the epitome of productivity. I clearly spend too much time outlining articles and editing/formatting them. Good inspiration - thanks.

What is your investing strategy? You may have something to add here: where do you put your money.
 
mikey3times said:
Wow, you are the epitome of productivity. I clearly spend too much time outlining articles and editing/formatting them. Good inspiration - thanks.

What is your investing strategy? You may have something to add here: where do you put your money.
Click to expand...

Max 401k, max IRA, contribute as much as I can to my business employer-side 401k contributions, rest into brokerage. I keep very little cash on hand, outside of what I hold for taxes. My credit score is high enough where I can get (and do leverage) 0% 18 month introductory interest rates. I use that to scale my business quite frequently.

I am a value investor - find companies trading at a depressed price that have a high ROIC, solid free cash flow, wide-moat, good leadership, strong name-brand recognition, and growing dividend. Think companies like $SBUX, which they market hadn't favored the past few years due to uncertainty around their expansion into China and loyalty through their mobile app. I learned to invest this way from a few of my professors/classes during my MBA program.

All of my investments go into these companies, aside from my 9-5 401k, which can only be put into VTSAX.
 
I like that you have a completely different approach from most of us here. We obsess over our on-page SEO and mobile pagespeed scores. You just outsource everything and don't even proofread the content. :D Welcome!
 
Hello,

I am a long-time lurker. I go way back from the WickedFire days, and see a lot of familiar names here. Thank you Builder Society for lots of great information. I want to start contributing and asking questions. I am going to data dump a few nuggets below to start paying forward.


1. FREE Wordpress CDN that works great! https://wordpress.org/plugins/shift8-cdn/
2. FREE Backlink top 100 Ahrefs backlink checker if you're on a budget. https://ahrefs.com/backlink-checker
3. FREE AI Content Generator (not meant for this, but you can create a fake article, use relevant url, input article title into Headline and press Generate next to Article box) https://grover.allenai.org
4. Recently launched https://inlinks.net FREE Plan available. Stay current with Google Bert and NLP. Great Schema too
5. Replacement for Keywords Everywhere FREE Extension https://surferseo.com/keyword-surfer-extension/
 
NetZero said:
4. Recently launched https://inlinks.net FREE Plan available. Stay current with Google Bert and NLP. Great Schema too
Click to expand...
This one's actually interesting. I didn't know about the schema trick that it does - automatically generating the following for each page you feed into it:

Code: 
/* This inlinks.net schema code should not be cut and pasted directly onto a web page.
* A free InLinks account allows you to
* - analyse more words per page, creating better schemas,
* - automate schema generation from your InLinks dashboard,
* - allow you to easily modify the schema.
* */
<script type="application/ld+json"> {
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "WebPage",
  "headline": "Builder Society",
  "about": [
    {"@type": "Thing","name": "Builder","sameAs": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Architecture"}
  ],
  "mentions": [
    {"@type": "Thing","name": "digital strategy","sameAs": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_strategy"},
    {"@type": "Thing","name": "online","sameAs": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet"},
    {"@type": "Thing","name": "entrepreneurship","sameAs": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entrepreneurship"},
    {"@type": "Thing","name": "Building","sameAs": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skyscraper"},
    {"@type": "Thing","name": "Commerce","sameAs": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commerce"},
    {"@type": "Thing","name": "Forums","sameAs": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_forum"}
  ]
}
</script>
/* This inlinks.net schema code should not be cut and pasted directly onto a web page.
* A free InLinks account allows you to
* - analyse more words per page, creating better schemas,
* - automate schema generation from your InLinks dashboard,
* - allow you to easily modify the schema.
* */

This supposedly helps Google to understand what the page is about better. It looks like an overkill to me, but I'm not a technical SEO expert. Maybe someone else can chip in.
 
Yeah the association of identified keywords with wikipedia pages is intriguing.. @NetZero what's your experience been with that one?
 
The scan that they do populates this, and then you clean it up with delete options within the tool. I just started using this to test on several sites. I like the NLP API and content scoring with your target keyword. You can see how you stack up with topics and entities (similar to Page Optimizer Pro Agency plan offering).
 
I've building an online business since 2011 and still have no niche websites, affiliate subscriptions, or email lists. I guess I have gotten hung up on the "Shiny Object" syndrome for too long. What a shame.
 
You've undoubtedly learned a thing or two during that time and honed some skills, so it's not a total loss even if you don't have anything tangible to show for it.

What's your next move?
 
Thanks, for your reply. Learning is never a total loss, however giving up is. Undoubtedly, I have never lost the belief or correct mindset to be successful. I believe I have big moves now taking massive action, as they say. Like Tony Robbins indicated, if something starts to hurt you will move away from pain. I am doing everything I can financially and mentally do to make it happen this time around. Currently, I don't know the professional or structured power moves, but I will put some systems into place, and then ask for help, if needed. After my hiatus, I have been studying some programs (not spending money on courses) to improve my lacking knowledge for about two months. I can at least see what what it is that I am looking at from a newbie position all the way to a seasoned guru veteran perspective in the business. This present process that I will expose myself to is going to take 2-3 months to implement to make my first dollar online.
 
Welcome aboard, @edricb2000. What kind of projects are you planning? You might as well let the people here interested in helping out go ahead and start commenting. Also, what has caused you to continually give up? The more specific you can answer these questions, the better people can help you succeed.
 
Thank you Ryuzaki.
Right now I am planning to develop a personal branded website and this is underway. I am going to beautify my website and this time it will sell stuff. Never did I have a functioning website that had links to sell stuff and that is what is different this time. What I have learned there is a right way to do this process and a wrong way. I had previously been eating fish, but never learned how to fish. Foolishly joining this and that program that promises the world, but manages to consistently under deliver. That situation has repeated itself over and over. I believe that the technical side of this online business has constantly bogged me down especially when no one was available to answer questions. This left me with giving up as to only solution.
 
I'm EraticConquer and I'm returning to internet marketing after 10 years away from the grind. For almost a decade I've been running a web development shop and after selling my share of the agency, I've decided that I want to get back to my roots in IM as I'm done with pitching and schmoozing.

It seems that the old haunts such as WickedFire are dead, people like Shoemoney and John Chow have been revealed as less than credible and the days of wild west style internet marketing are numbered so I have a lot of catching up to do.
 
Welcome aboard :smile:

Interesting you mention Shoemoney as I was wondering what the heck happened to that guy? I followed him way back in the days of ringtones but he seems to have fallen off the grid?

John Chow was always a slime ball IMO. He sells any crap to his viewers, at least SM had some strategies that actually worked.
 
Darth said:
Interesting you mention Shoemoney as I was wondering what the heck happened to that guy? I followed him way back in the days of ringtones but he seems to have fallen off the grid?
Click to expand...

He's selling guest posts on his main blog now. Oh how the mighty have fallen.

Welcome, @EraticConquer. Another old timer. Wickedfire died due to bad administrative choices, WarriorForum sold to Freelancer and they basically killed that, Black Hat World is still spam posting central. There's Facebook groups that move to fast and are too low quality. People have tried to create private chats and things of that nature. The forum platform is still the best when the users and moderators make a point of keeping everything high quality. You found the last remaining stronghold against the tide of dummies.
 
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