We Built & Sold A Website For Over $690,000 in Under 2 Years. Ask Us Anything!

Did you use SERPWoo at all to track this?

Would be nice to add to our, "our users did this with SERPWoo" testimonial log I am starting...

No matter what, congrats !
 
eliquid said:
Did you use SERPWoo at all to track this?

Would be nice to add to our, "our users did this with SERPWoo" testimonial log I am starting...

No matter what, congrats !
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Thanks JB!

I actually don't have a SERPwoo account yet. Being that we have a few more sites to work on...I should probably get on that!
 
Congrats this is a big win and thank you for taking the time to do an ama.

How important was updating and refreshing content over the timeline of the site in terms of both rankings and conversions?
 
animalstyle said:
Congrats this is a big win and thank you for taking the time to do an ama.

How important was updating and refreshing content over the timeline of the site in terms of both rankings and conversions?
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We updated content only when we needed to update factual information.

I have a sinking feeling that content updates will be a part of rankings going forward...
 
How strong was the competition in terms of content, backlinks and social media?
Was the niche relatively new and low comp or did you only care for profitability even with a fierce competition?

Asking because there are still alot of people who have analysis paralysis and search all day for the "right" niche.

Congrats on the sale. On to the second one.
 
turtle said:
How strong was the competition in terms of content, backlinks and social media?
Was the niche relatively new and low comp or did you only care for profitability even with a fierce competition?

Asking because there are still alot of people who have analysis paralysis and search all day for the "right" niche.

Congrats on the sale. On to the second one.
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Competition was stiff. Probably about 5 niche websites around the same size as us and 3-5 HUGE magazine still sites that covered our niche plus other related niches. So, the first 2 pages for most keywords were very difficult.

The sales commission per sale was attractive enough for us to go after the niche, regardless of the competition.
 
stackcash said:
We updated content only when we needed to update factual information.

I have a sinking feeling that content updates will be a part of rankings going forward...
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Thanks for that. A follow up question, why a "sinking" feeling? (I'm assuming that's a negative feeling, correct me if I am wrong)
 
animalstyle said:
Thanks for that. A follow up question, why a "sinking" feeling? (I'm assuming that's a negative feeling, correct me if I am wrong)
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I've seen a notable uptick in the number of Top 5 sites that are actively updating their content on what seems to be a quarterly basis. They make sure to let you know, too.... instead of having the published date, they have the updated date listed.
 
What's the value add for the buyer that bought your project to overcome these potential future obstacles you mention? Already a player in the space acquiring additional assets? Large network to leverage, or some other advantage you don't have access to?
 
chanilla said:
What's the value add for the buyer that bought your project to overcome these potential future obstacles you mention? Already a player in the space acquiring additional assets? Large network to leverage, or some other advantage you don't have access to?
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No idea. Not really any of my business what they do with the site now.
 
stackcash said:
No idea. Not really any of my business what they do with the site now.
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Really?? There's probably a LOT more that can be learned there for your next project... Normally, half savvy investors won't drop half a mil or more without decent due diligence/pre-planned upside.
 
stackcash said:
I don't have this exact breakdown, as we have content and link building under one expense. In 2015, we spent around $5,000, and in 2016 we spent just under $2,000. The highest cost we paid was time.
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Great case study, Vin. Congratulations on the success. Did you guys do any of the link building outreach yourselves or was it all 100% on the services you outlined here in BuSo?
 
vinnypolston said:
Great case study, Vin. Congratulations on the success. Did you guys do any of the link building outreach yourselves or was it all 100% on the services you outlined here in BuSo?
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I did some outreach, yes. Much better to outsource if you have a good vendor.
 
Gotcha. I'm also a member of AHP and that is definitely my main struggle. Building the site = no problem. Prepping and posting the content = no problem. Outreach? ugh. I'd rather spend the money than spend the time on outreach. Thanks for the answer!
 
turtle said:
Asking because there are still alot of people who have analysis paralysis and search all day for the "right" niche.
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I think that's one of the biggest hurdles that most people face when starting out, so you're not alone there.

I always tend to go to the most obvious niches, ones that you know have a lot of money flowing through it. Health, Relationships, Finance, etc.... Then find your sub-niche inside those markets, and find a way to penetrate and get your piece of the pie. If you spend your whole time looking for the perfect niche with lots of money being spent and minimal competition, you're going to be looking for a long time.
 
Great AMA. I'm following along and have just started reading the case study and will no doubt be back with some questions for you.

Cheers
 
Woaaawww!! Great AMA and post as well. Very informative and motivating. I read the post 3 times already and I am still finding golden nuggets every-time I go through it.

Do you agree that having a partner is necessary when venturing into a massive project like this? And considering this project took 2 years - I am wondering if you had a pre-arranged schedule or tasks to complete, as well as clear boundaries on who is responsible for what, etc.. If so, how did you agree on boundaries and split the work? Was it based on each person's expertise or was everything discussed before every task/goal was set?

Congratulations!
 
You said the site had 75 articles, averaging between 1,000 and 2,000 words per article. You've also said the monetization came from just 3-5 affiliate pages.

Two questions:

1. Were these affiliate pages significantly longer than the average article length? If so, can you give us an estimate of how length they were, on average?

2. In terms of quality, how would you say they compare to review pages on The Wirecutter? Higher, lower, about the same?

Thanks.
 
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kingofthewiki said:
Woaaawww!! Great AMA and post as well. Very informative and motivating. I read the post 3 times already and I am still finding golden nuggets every-time I go through it.

Do you agree that having a partner is necessary when venturing into a massive project like this? And considering this project took 2 years - I am wondering if you had a pre-arranged schedule or tasks to complete, as well as clear boundaries on who is responsible for what, etc.. If so, how did you agree on boundaries and split the work? Was it based on each person's expertise or was everything discussed before every task/goal was set?

Congratulations!
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Thanks man!

It's a lot of work for sure. If you have someone that you're on the same page with - it's definitely helpful. Dan and I had a lot of conversations about SEO in general before we began any work together. By the time the site was thought up - we kinda already knew our goals were aligned.

But...can it be done alone? Sure it can.

As far as responsibilities, we were pretty loose with it. Even though there was a shit ton of work to do at points, we still weren't big enough to necessitate a formal structure like that.

Dan handled the links, I handled the content and some traffic leaks, and we both chipped away at on-site tasks here and there.

Jared said:
You said the site had 75 articles, averaging between 1,000 and 2,000 words per article. You've also said the monetization came from just 3-5 affiliate pages.

Two questions:

1. Were these affiliate pages significantly longer than the average article length? If so, can you give us an estimate of how length they were, on average?

2. In terms of quality, how would you say they compare to review pages on The Wirecutter? Higher, lower, about the same?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Affiliate pages were in that same word range.

Our affiliate pages aren't really comparable to them. I can say that no one puts in as much time into physically using products / services as they do, though.
 
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What is your next targeted project and what was the biggest mistake you learned from this venture?
 
Hey Stackcash!

Brilliant thread mate and i'm going to be having a crack at something in the new year so if you are ameniable I would love to hit you up on skype to run your eyes over it. If you don't have time...no worries...understand totally.

A quick question regarding the sale process and due diligence. How much paperwork did you collect in the early days as far as licensing rights to say a theme or a specific plugin or software you used? I'm just wondering with due diligence for sale whether they literally want you to provide source documents for every single decision and SEO service you used or whether its really more compliance/documents around the income streams?

I never been through a brokerage process before ut to me this sounds like you need to collect everything from day one with the view that a sale will occur in the future.

Thoughts?
 
CHARTO911 said:
What is your next targeted project and what was the biggest mistake you learned from this venture?
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Dan and I currently have 3 other sites that follow this same format. All three are hanging around low page 1 through page 5...so just chipping away at them.

I have another site I'm working on with a good friend - basically showing him the ropes. This one just started the link building process.

There's another site I had from 2012-13 that I has about ~150 pages live. It was hit by Penguin 2. Working on resurrecting it.

Finally, I have another site being worked on that is largely a project that will be worked on when I have the time. It'll focus on social traffic almost exclusively.

Biggest thing I learned was the importance of creating processes and systems for just about everything.

aussiefly said:
Hey Stackcash!

Brilliant thread mate and i'm going to be having a crack at something in the new year so if you are ameniable I would love to hit you up on skype to run your eyes over it. If you don't have time...no worries...understand totally.

A quick question regarding the sale process and due diligence. How much paperwork did you collect in the early days as far as licensing rights to say a theme or a specific plugin or software you used? I'm just wondering with due diligence for sale whether they literally want you to provide source documents for every single decision and SEO service you used or whether its really more compliance/documents around the income streams?

I never been through a brokerage process before ut to me this sounds like you need to collect everything from day one with the view that a sale will occur in the future.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...

I tried to keep as many records as possible. They didn't ask for that level of detail.

As far as the theme, it was custom - so no license necessary.

Most of the plugins we used were free, but if I use a paid plugin - I buy the enterprise licenses so I never have to worry about an issue like this.

The due diligence period was mostly focused on financials and backing them up with evidence.
 
Congrats on the sale!

"In our case, we found a few issues in the contract that were then negotiated and agreed with the buyer. "

What were the issues you found in the contract? Do you mind sharing the top ones with us?
 
builder said:
Congrats on the sale!

"In our case, we found a few issues in the contract that were then negotiated and agreed with the buyer. "

What were the issues you found in the contract? Do you mind sharing the top ones with us?
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Thanks!

The issues were unique to our sale, so I'm not sure this is something that everyone will experience in the exact same way.

It was all the fine print stuff - the exact dates of milestone payments, what happens if either party doesn't hold up there end of the bargain, the order assets were released, etc.
 
Out of interest...you said you front loaded the content prior to launch. How much content did you launch the site with?
 
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