My Volume Content Strategy

Lowrider said:
I, personally, don't think that it will become worse.

Organic results are a crucial part of google search engine and the future success. I found it funny when I discussed once with my father about his search experience with Google. He told me that he always gets spam in the first search results (not knowing that ads are shown in the first results) Most ads are not matching search intent properly, which will lead to disappointed users, which isn't in the interest of Google.
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The interest of google is to maximise revenue.

My interest in to max out before the hammer comes down.

Let’s not pretend this seo game is not a race to cash out on a decade old+ loophole.
 
MrMedia said:
This is already happening. Search Is becoming a zero click game with the intent of keeping users with Google’s walled garden.

This will not decrease over time and I expect it to increase exponentially as snippets become more evolved.

combine this with a cookieless future and the squeeze on display based content sites is obvious to see.

Ecom, SAAS and apps will be fine. Display ads based… not so much.
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I know asking people to predict the future is a bit dumb, but where do you think the SEO/display ads crowd will be forced to go to? Do you think that traditional website SEO will cease to exist, and every individual in the industry will need to learn a completely new skillset, such as paid Facebook/Google advertising (who knows if that will even be around in a decade).

It's just weird- I can't imagine Google would ever want to stop a steady flow of fresh and updated content from being created to serve to searchers, but it sounds like they won't even offer this ability based on what you said- they'll just offer shallow, 50-word snippets. People always say "they'll always be new longtail terms" but if the entire nature of the search engine changes then...?
 
No idea tbh but the squeeze is obvious and incoming. Of course there will be people who still make it work but the margins will be smaller and not worth my time.

Adthrive sent an email warning that RPMs would take a major hit when cookies were removed. When this was delayed there was a mass celebration. This should tell you a lot about what the future holds for seo > content > display models
 
Eventually all the one man shows will be squeezed out by agencies and media companies and those one man shows, will no longer have exits, but $5000 salaries and being put in their rightful nerd place, as decided by society.
 
@MrMedia sorry if you have answered this is in previous case study or AMA but where do you usually go to build up your teams?
 
Thanks for doing this @MrMedia, Your insights are always valuable.

Do you ever stop aggressively adding content in the duration of holding a site? Do you have a number in mind or do you just try to cover everything in a vertical? Or do you leave some for a buyer to feel like they can add value?

Does the law of diminishing returns apply as the site grows in content? Is there ever a point you feel that it has reached a saturation point? Is that when you think about selling? Or could you just continue to scale like John Dykstra and get sites to 100K/month etc.

Anyway, thanks a lot.
 
I tend to go super aggressive and load up content in the first 12-18 months. After that I will pull back and go into maintenance mode to make sure the site looks updated and fresh and drip out maybe 4 articles per week.

Of course you will reach saturation point if you go long enough on any topic but I always pick broad sites that lend themselves to expansion into different topics.

I like to give the buyers a roadmap of what I would do if I were to keep the site.

My exit point is always determined by my overall balance within my portfolio. So for example when this site hits its valuation target (around $1.5M) it will represent too big a proportion of my overall wealth. At that point I will sell and diversify into more houses, index funds and crypto.

As you can tell - having had my ass handed to me several times - my appetite for prolonged risk is extremely limited.
 
Keeping what you've said in mind about the likely decline of organic search reach over the coming years, would you still advise someone recently new to the content website building game (<2 years) to continue on the path for the next 2+ years?

As you've stated, your personal goal is to cash out and diversify- but what about those who are at level 1 still? What would you do in their shoes? Stay the course and adjust when the hammer drops? Or, knowing what you know, would you advise them to learn another skill- paid ads, copywriting, etc.
 
DanielS said:
Keeping what you've said in mind about the likely decline of organic search reach over the coming years, would you still advise someone recently new to the content website building game (<2 years) to continue on the path for the next 2+ years?

As you've stated, your personal goal is to cash out and diversify- but what about those who are at level 1 still? What would you do in their shoes? Stay the course and adjust when the hammer drops? Or, knowing what you know, would you advise them to learn another skill- paid ads, copywriting, etc.
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I would never advise anyone to NOT start since this has been very lucrative for me but I do believe it is important to diversify as you go once you hit a certain level.

If your 1 golden goose gets hit with penalty and you have no other income what's the plan?

The riskiest part of the journey is always building up to the first big exit. After you exit and take the cash and spread it across multiple income earning assets it would be very unlikley you would get wiped out.

For me to get REKT now it would take -
  • A major google penalty
  • A 10x rise in Bank of England Interest Rates
  • My buy to let properties all burning to the ground
  • An Economic Depression
  • Bitcoin going to Zero

ALL AT ONCE.

The odds of this happening are slim to say the least.

Compare this to when you have one authority site which is one Google update away from getting wiped out.

Diversify as much as you can as quick as you can. In your case at level one that might mean learning paid traffic as your income from your content site grows.
 
Hi, are these purely evergreen/guide/informational type articles that you create? Zero news?

I ask because you referred to it as a loophole. If you are ranking for something I assume you cover it decently and still provide value to the reader (otherwise all things being equal you wouldn't rank for it). How can that be a loophole?
 
Darth said:
Hi, are these purely evergreen/guide/informational type articles that you create? Zero news?

I ask because you referred to it as a loophole. If you are ranking for something I assume you cover it decently and still provide value to the reader (otherwise all things being equal you wouldn't rank for it). How can that be a loophole?
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I mean SEO as a whole is a loophole but that is a deeper philosophical conversation lol.

We are playing in someone else's garden (SERPs) with someone else's toys (Display ads) until the adults tell us playtime is over. Until you own the garden (paid traffic or other distribution method) or the toys (your own product, or SAAS) its always going to be working the system to find the loophole where you can squeeze a profit.

I am proud of the content I produce and would stand over it any day and yes all evergreen.

I don't mean to be a prophet of doom on seo content sites with display ads since it has made me a lot of money but to expect it to last forever is naïve. Always be planning ahead and diversifying out.
 
When do you consider a website to be "complete" in regards to content? When you use up all the keywords you discovered worth targeting, or when the website reaches a certain earnings milestone, etc?

For example, some people create a list of 150 keywords, write out posts targeting all 150 terms, and then move on and repeat the process with another website and check back in 6-8 months.
 
DanielS said:
When do you consider a website to be "complete" in regards to content? When you use up all the keywords you discovered worth targeting, or when the website reaches a certain earnings milestone, etc?

For example, some people create a list of 150 keywords, write out posts targeting all 150 terms, and then move on and repeat the process with another website and check back in 6-8 months.
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When all keywords worth targeting have been targeted or if the overall revenue gets to a level where it makes sense to exit.

Whichever comes first.
 
MrMedia said:
This is already happening. Search Is becoming a zero click game with the intent of keeping users with Google’s walled garden.

This will not decrease over time and I expect it to increase exponentially as snippets become more evolved.

combine this with a cookieless future and the squeeze on display based content sites is obvious to see.

Ecom, SAAS and apps will be fine. Display ads based… not so much.
Click to expand...

I don't think the future is so grim. GDN & Google AdX are major sources of revenue for Google, why would they want to give that away? Especially when they have cookieless targeting initiatives coming up that will further draw advertisers into their ecosystem and away from other networks. Also programmatic advertising CAGR is double than search (around 12% vs 6%). It would be foolish for Google to kill the content site model.

I also believe algorithm updates towards punishing affiliate promotion is one way to move more publishers to display ads monetization.

Of course they can reduce profit share with publishers or do something like that when they have even more power.

Google sounds pretty evil company or maybe I'm just too pessimistic...
 
An interesting thought occurred to me about your approach.
I would be interested in what you think about it.

If I copy the content from an established Authority Site in a Niche and google-translate it, that's duplicate content, right?!

So if I use this massive content and rewrite it and optimize it for "another Language". I would take your "Volume-Content-Strategy" approach but I build a Niche-Site on a proven Seo/Structure-Blueprint.

Simply "Copy & Paste" a Niche Authority Site, translate, rewrite & optimize it in another Language. I mean only the SEO Structure & Content, not the Design and Layout-pattens.

The writer's Briefing would be the Google-Translation + My Seo Briefing.
 
Nobody said:
An interesting thought occurred to me about your approach.
I would be interested in what you think about it.

If I copy the content from an established Authority Site in a Niche and google-translate it, that's duplicate content, right?!

So if I use this massive content and rewrite it and optimize it for "another Language". I would take your "Volume-Content-Strategy" approach but I build a Niche-Site on a proven Seo/Structure-Blueprint.

Simply "Copy & Paste" a Niche Authority Site, translate, rewrite & optimize it in another Language. I mean only the SEO Structure & Content, not the Design and Layout-pattens.

The writer's Briefing would be the Google-Translation + My Seo Briefing.
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Sounds like a scam spam play.

Might work. Not for my tastes though.

When I say volume do not misinterpret this as trash content.

where is the value in your model?
 
Nobody said:
An interesting thought occurred to me about your approach.
I would be interested in what you think about it.

If I copy the content from an established Authority Site in a Niche and google-translate it, that's duplicate content, right?!

So if I use this massive content and rewrite it and optimize it for "another Language". I would take your "Volume-Content-Strategy" approach but I build a Niche-Site on a proven Seo/Structure-Blueprint.

Simply "Copy & Paste" a Niche Authority Site, translate, rewrite & optimize it in another Language. I mean only the SEO Structure & Content, not the Design and Layout-pattens.

The writer's Briefing would be the Google-Translation + My Seo Briefing.
Click to expand...
People already do something like this. They find foreign websites and translate the content into English. Then they change a few words and hit the publish button. It works for them now, but who knows for how much longer.
 
How detailed are you content brief? Are you providing only the keyword or also H2's and sources?
How long does it take you to write one brief?

Thanks for sharing all the valuable information.
 
How can a good piece of content, translated, rewritten and optimized for the new language being trash?
 
I have no idea how to insert images to this forum... MODS - help.

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Progress....
 
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