Where are the Niche Gurus? I need Tips to Rank my site on Top 15 to Top 10 in 2 weeks

[Kay81]

Hello,

Four months ago I started my first niche site copingwithdepressioncenter.com . I did my research before starting it and knew the keyword was competitive, especially since almost all top 10 sites for the keyword are authority sites. But I decided to still go for it because I felt there's one or two sites on the top 10 I can beat.

The keyword is quite profitable with Adsense which means it will be profitable with other monetization models. And since it was my first niche site I didn't want to spend a dime. I wanted a keyword I know enough to write content for myself.

I've spent a lot of time on the site. The site has 31 articles written by me.
And I have a free ebook available to those who sign up for newsletter.

And I've built quality links to the site. The link building methods I've used so far are:

I set up about 10 automated content syndication. So those sites are updated automatically each time I make a post.

Copycat link building - Spied on competitors backlink sources and got backlinks from some of their sources that had opportunity for a backlink for me.

Link wheel - Created 5 free blogs sites and added backlinks on them to my site.

copingwithdepressiontips.wordpress.com/
coping-with-depression.tumblr.com/
squidoo.com/coping-with-depression-tips
kaydavid.livejournal.com/663.html
copingwith-depression.blogspot.com/

Article submission - I wrote 4 articles initially and submitted to Ezinearticles and spun them and submitted to another 7 directories. Two weeks ago I wrote another 6 original articles and submitted to Ezinearticles. I would have love to spun them and submit to other directories but I hate spinning, it takes me so much time to spin one article, so I didn't bother. Just search for Karol David to see all the ezinearticles I submitted.

Directories - The ones I got from competitors backlinks list

Blog commenting - I did this for 2 months into the site and stopped.

And the links created from article submission and free blogs I pinged them. But pinging daily is just tiring so I don't do this effectively.

I feel I have done enough for backlinks and this site should have rank on top 10 for the keyword 'coping with depression' but as at writing using Scroogle to check my ranking shows the site on top 15. And it has been on the second page for few weeks now.

I want to see this site on top 10 within the next 2 weeks but I don't know what to do. I mentioned all the link building methods I've used so you don't suggest I do something I've already done. I don't feel like writing more articles for directories and I don't feel like doing anything involving spinning articles. Honestly that thing is so bothering and tiring. So I decided to ask for tips here. I am always ready to learn. I know there are people who are specialist in ranking smaller niches that can help me with some quick but effective link building method I have not explored.

So please, offer your tips, but understand my post before commenting. I've been able to take this site to top 15 within 4 months without working on it full time and I have outlined all I've done to achieve this. I am ONLY asking for effective link building methods I haven't tried, that I can do to take this site to top 10 in 2 weeks. Your comment will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

[LondonPaladin]

You just need an active backlinking campaign to push you over the top. Sometimes you just linger on page 2 for a while and then Google gives you the bump. Try grabbing some .edu backlinks off fiverr. Or run a press release

[rajathss]

Use digg and stumble to get massive results in short time...Find atleast 100 real followers then submit your link...Then Watch the results..I don't think that backlinks are more important to get good site rank in short time..And my personal suggestion is you may use some sites like traffup.net and magic traffic bot software like that....

[Kay81]

Originally Posted by LondonPaladin

You just need an active backlinking campaign to push you over the top. Sometimes you just linger on page 2 for a while and then Google gives you the bump. Try grabbing some .edu backlinks off fiverr. Or run a press release

Hello, thanks for your comment. Fiverr requires money and I really don't want to spend money on ranking this site because it's my first niche site and I need to be able to prove that I rank the site without spending any more money than the hosting fee. Moreover this niche site started as a challenge that I documented my step by step process on my site blogging-the-beginners-complete-guide.com , and part of the rules I gave for the challenge was that I will not spend any money to rank the site. This is because since I deal with beginners I wanted a process anyone can follow without worrying about money.

I'll try press release.

[fin]

You could try free accounts at socialadr and socialmonkee

[Kay81]

Originally Posted by rajathss

Use digg and stumble to get massive results in short time...Find atleast 100 real followers then submit your link...Then Watch the results..I don't think that backlinks are more important to get good site rank in short time..And my personal suggestion is you may use some sites like traffup.net and magic traffic bot software like that....

Of course backlinks are not more important at every stage of a site but when you've done other things right and can't think of anything else and you want higher rankings backlinks can give you an advantage. I'm just looking for some advantage to bump me up to top 10.

100 real followers? That will take more than 2 weeks to do, don't you think?

Just visited traffup.net and I'm still wondering whether it's really beneficial. It's not about how many traffic that comes to a site you know. With traffup.net I feel people will just be visiting your site to get points. That I believe will increase one's bounce rate. Or what do you think?

[Kay81]

Originally Posted by fin

You could try free accounts at socialadr and socialmonkee

I already have an account with Socialmonkee. I started using Socialmonkee recently to build backlinks to my articles on directories. So that it can improve the link juices to my site from those articles.

[JonnyHardwick]

Unfortunately you can't get top rankings on Google for a popular keyword without spending money, it just doesn't happen. If it did, everyone would have top rankings right?

People who are willing to invest money are the ones who reap the rewards. Those who try and do it for free will always be a few steps behind because you will never be able to gain top rankings by manually submitting articles to directories. Why? Because there's too many people out there automating this process meaning they can get a lot more submissions done than any one person doing submissions manually.

Even if you have the software to automate this yourself, you will have still spent money buying the software, then you've got to learn how to use it properly and effectively, which also takes time. Time = Money.

You can get top rankings if you invest just a small amount of money in some quality link building services. But if you're not willing to spend money, the best advice I could give you is to carry on doing what you are doing and you will see results eventually, however it will probably take a few more months at least to get where you want to be.

[Kay King]

You may be looking for an "advantage" that doesn't exist. You are competing with 15.5 million results for "coping with depression and quite a few are authority sites.

I found 10 articles on EZA but none submitted in July or August and several subbmitted at one time in September. Better to spread out submission so all the articles don't go live at once. I'd also advise linking to an inside page for one of the links in your author bio.

Backlinking is ongoing and you seem to be on the right track with what you are doing. Consistency is key as you have to work on a site...UNTIL...you get the results you want. No matter what you do, you may not jump to the top ten in 2 weeks.

I understand the reason for "free" and that you are doing this as a challenge and building a "how to" product for newbies with the process. One important thing to teach is that sites take time to be ranked at the top.

If you work too hard and fast to manipulate a blog into a top position - it won't hold that position. Much better to move up gradually with consistent efforts every week and create a site that is stable in ranking.

Just my 2 cents.

kay

[OAG]

Try some more Social Bookmarking, Onlywire.com offers one-click publishing to 51 Social Networks. Obviously you're not going to have a lot of friends on all those Networks but keep working on it.

Add in SocialADR, IMAutomator, socialmonkee.

Build more backlinks with dropmylink.com.

Rinse & repeat.

[VinnyBock]

Originally Posted by rajathss

Use digg and stumble to get massive results in short time...Find atleast 100 real followers then submit your link...Then Watch the results..I don't think that backlinks are more important to get good site rank in short time..And my personal suggestion is you may use some sites like traffup.net and magic traffic bot software like that....

Great advice - I think Folks under estimate Digg submissions when you have followers its really powerful. You can buy 100 real followers pretty cheap...

[outwest]

Actually have you looked at the competition top 3 backlink profiles in Market Samurai for "coping with depression" for Google top 10 competition?
its not that strong, My view is you should be able to take the number 2 spot since it is extremely poorly backlinked. The number 3 spot does not even have the kw in the Title, url or description, which means no onpage SEO of that site, and their backlinks are weak also

I think you could easily get to number 2 however how long that would take is the question..........................2 weeks? is a bit ridiculous IMO. 2 months maybe

[Spectresoft]

I may as well be the first to say "you don't want or like to do the work so what do you expect"? Really, not to be rude, but it looks like you want a free works-in-two-weeks magic bullet. There aren't any.

You know what, I created link pyramids, link wheels, link magnets. I submitted 7 or 8 original articles to EZA and spun to 70% and submitted to every other top 30 article site I could! I reverse engineered my competitors backlinks, I did everything I could for free. Guess what? Stuck at page 2.

I as well wanted to prove I could do it for free! And I WILL! With one caveat. I will choose a simple 1000 search a month keyword to do it. For the more competitive one? Screw it, I subscribed to BMR.

One week later I'm top 3 in google (and yahoo but whoopee).

The fellow above who said spend money to make money? Bang on. Otherwise it will take more than two weeks. It can be done, but it will require work!

[Kay81]

Originally Posted by outwest

Actually have you looked at the competition top 3 backlink profiles in Market Samurai for "coping with depression" for Google top 10 competition?
its not that strong, My view is you should be able to take the number 2 spot since it is extremely poorly backlinked. The number 3 spot does not even have the kw in the Title, url or description, which means no onpage SEO of that site, and their backlinks are weak also

I think you could easily get to number 2 however how long that would take is the question..........................2 weeks? is a bit ridiculous IMO. 2 months maybe

I realize during my competition research that it's not always about the number of backlinks. Most of the sites in the top 10 for the keyword are up to 10 years old. So that's why they rank there. I know of course that I can rank the site in top 10 in another 2 months or so, I just wanted something quicker than that. This may not be realistic afterall.

[Kay81]

Originally Posted by Spectresoft

I may as well be the first to say "you don't want or like to do the work so what do you expect"? Really, not to be rude, but it looks like you want a free works-in-two-weeks magic bullet. There aren't any.

You know what, I created link pyramids, link wheels, link magnets. I submitted 7 or 8 original articles to EZA and spun to 70% and submitted to every other top 30 article site I could! I reverse engineered my competitors backlinks, I did everything I could for free. Guess what? Stuck at page 2.

I as well wanted to prove I could do it for free! And I WILL! With one caveat. I will choose a simple 1000 search a month keyword to do it. For the more competitive one? Screw it, I subscribed to BMR.

One week later I'm top 3 in google (and yahoo but whoopee).

The fellow above who said spend money to make money? Bang on. Otherwise it will take more than two weeks. It can be done, but it will require work!

Hmmm... I'm sorry what's BMR? I'm not used to some of these abbreviations.

[outwest]

Originally Posted by Kay81

I realize during my competition research that it's not always about the number of backlinks. Most of the sites in the top 10 for the keyword are up to 10 years old. So that's why they rank there. I know of course that I can rank the site in top 10 in another 2 months or so, I just wanted something quicker than that. This may not be realistic afterall.

Not true
on the resort we own
I just bought the domain in january
I was outranking sites with 6 yr old domains within 6 months with better content and backlinks. As far as importance I would rate Backlinks a 10, and age of site.........a .5

Ask on the board, domain age is not that relevant
Actually I believe now we are ranked number 1 above my two closest competitors with 5 and 6 yr old domains and my site is still about 9 months old
and by the way my backlinks are really pathetic, all free, the most I have is like 1 pr4, 1pr6 and the rest I think 1 is pr2, the rest are pr0

theirs are more pathetic though
remember you are not ranking sites, google ranks pages not sites
its all relative to the kw you are entering. ARe there other kws for your niche you can try to rank for? more easily ? on that site? just build an SEO optimized page for the kw and start to backlink it. You dont have an EMD anyways, so your domain name is really not helping you much, you might as well target more than one kw on the site anyways. thats normal
Heck
this one site that drives me up the wall, they are ranked 1 AND 2 for at least 100 kws I want to rank for.............thats right, every one of them.

[Kay King]

I think your site has moved up very well - but the idea that you can look at a "backlink profile" of the top sites for the phrase and say "they aren't that strong" is hooey!

I think it's your site I found on the bottom of the first page of results and that is fantastic in that niche. Question will be whether you can maintain that ranking without constant effort but that knowledge will only come in time. To place the site on page 1 in such a short period of time is an accomplishment in that niche. Looks like your efforts paid off.

Leading sites in that niche (as you know) are sites that have been online since before 2000. Site age does count with google - and when the names on the sites are things like mayo clinic and menninger clinic... the idea "they aren't that strong" is just crazy.

kay

[mrdomains]

Consider a change of theme. Some of my sleepy sites have taken a good jump through a theme change. I tried Atahualpa theme which you are using on a couple of sites a long time ago but never liked it for a myriad of reasons.

Consider trying a static index page about your main keyword. I get the feeling Google sometimes recognizes what the niche is but can´t make up its mind on the exact keywords to rank you for, no matter how good your backlinking is. Changing to a static page with very clear content strengthening the domain name has helped quite dramatically, more than once.

[NEseO]

You seem to be doing a lot of the things you need to.

In all honesty that is pretty much all you can do without wanting to spend any money but just ramp it up. You will of course need to spend more time on it to get the links and you could start building link pyramids (build links to the links you have already built) to give them more juice and help your site.

Make sure you have enough diversity in your anchor text i.e. link to your site with a good variety and add in some "Click Here" and "Check this site" and "yourdomain.com" type links.

Another thing would be to add some more content to your site, just a page or two and this can help.

If you cannot afford to pay for any link building or automation (like profile links, or mass blog comments) then you could always go into the classified adds and post an exchange offer i.e. I will write you 2 500 word articles for some mass submissions, send your offers!! or something like that? Not sure if it costs to place anything there or even if people do that but have seen it before so may be worth a try.

By the way, get these mass links to the links you have already created to make tiers.

[Kay81]

Originally Posted by outwest

Not true
on the resort we own
I just bought the domain in january
I was outranking sites with 6 yr old domains within 6 months with better content and backlinks. As far as importance I would rate Backlinks a 10, and age of site.........a .5

Ask on the board, domain age is not that relevant
Actually I believe now we are ranked number 1 above my two closest competitors with 5 and 6 yr old domains and my site is still about 9 months old
and by the way my backlinks are really pathetic, all free, the most I have is like 1 pr4, 1pr6 and the rest I think 1 is pr2, the rest are pr0

theirs are more pathetic though
remember you are not ranking sites, google ranks pages not sites
its all relative to the kw you are entering. ARe there other kws for your niche you can try to rank for? more easily ? on that site? just build an SEO optimized page for the kw and start to backlink it. You dont have an EMD anyways, so your domain name is really not helping you much, you might as well target more than one kw on the site anyways. thats normal
Heck
this one site that drives me up the wall, they are ranked 1 AND 2 for at least 100 kws I want to rank for.............thats right, every one of them.

Yes, backlinks may be more important than the age of a site. But it's different if the site is a quality site. If a site is 10 years old and of quality it becomes more difficult to beat, than a site that is 10 years old but crappy. Moreover my site is not 6 months old yet, by 6 months it naturally should be doing better in ranking.

Did you check the sites on top 10 for my keyword? You will see that the competition is stiffer than yours. Your competitors page ranks already shows that (1 pr4, 1pr6 and the rest I think 1 is pr2, the rest are pr0). The page ranks for the top 10 site for the keyword "coping with depression" as at when I did the research 4 months ago was as follows:

Position 1 - 5
Position 2 - 4
Position 3 - 5
Position 4 - 3
Position 5 - 4
Position 6 - 1
Position 7 - 5
Position 8 - 0
Position 9 - 5
Position 10 - 0

And I even doubt if there was really any PR 0, because when I checked ranking for the keyword using Scroogle, (which shows actual rankings) I believe those 2 PR 0 sites and maybe even the PR 1 site weren't even in top 10 for the keyword. So I knew it would require more work to rank top. I am even sure I can't get the top 1 position because the site there is ranking for more than 30,000 related keywords and a real quality site.

What do you mean Google ranks pages not sites? Yes, I have a page on 'coping with depression' but it's my site's home page that is ranked at top 15 for the keyword, which is my aim. For niche sites your aim should be to rank your home page for your primary keyword, not a page on the site. When the post for the keyword eventually ranks close to the top, then that is a bonus. And since I used a lot of the same keyword tags, some other posts can even still rank close to the top for that keyword, increasing your search engine traffic potential for that one keyword.

[Kay81]

Originally Posted by LRDavids

Wow, if you type Copycat Linkbuilding on Google, then this thread is ranked no. 2 Impressive!

I can also but say WOW! The name actually is not funny, makes me feel like a real copycat. I can't remember for certain where I picked the name from, maybe from Ann of traffic generation. Well, that's another benefit of posting to a forum. You have the possibility of being found for several keywords you never even thought of while writing your post.

[Kay81]

Originally Posted by Kay King

I think your site has moved up very well - but the idea that you can look at a "backlink profile" of the top sites for the phrase and say "they aren't that strong" is hooey!

I think it's your site I found on the bottom of the first page of results and that is fantastic in that niche. Question will be whether you can maintain that ranking without constant effort but that knowledge will only come in time. To place the site on page 1 in such a short period of time is an accomplishment in that niche. Looks like your efforts paid off.

Leading sites in that niche (as you know) are sites that have been online since before 2000. Site age does count with google - and when the names on the sites are things like mayo clinic and menninger clinic... the idea "they aren't that strong" is just crazy.

kay

Yeah I would say so too. It has done well in such a short period for that kind of competitive niche. I never said the top sites backlinks aren't strong. I actually said "I did my research before starting it and knew the keyword was competitive, especially since almost all top 10 sites for the keyword are authority sites." And anyone who insinuates that obviously didn't take the time to check out the top 10 sites. I believe there are sites that have been online for years for that niche that are not even in the top 10 pages for that keyword, because really, the niche as a whole is quite competitive, and funny enough my site is getting traffic for keyword tough as "depression", and my home page is ranking top 23 for the keyword "dealing with depression" which has an even higher searches than my primary keyword and higher competition. So I know the site is not doing badly.

I am even sure that if I was more committed to the site, it would have been in the top 10 by now; which makes it incorrect that most people believe you can't rank a good keyword in the top 10 with free tools. You can do that and in a really short time too, if you can committee primarily to the site. And that I am sure a beginner who is just starting can do and start making money online only after few months. For me I have other projects which takes my time. And I actually built the site to sell it. My first experiment with niche sites and it wasn't bad at all.

Whether I can maintain the ranking? Well, I think I can. It depends on the quality of links to the site and how they were built and I think sometimes posting frequency. I built the links to the site gradually except recently that I wrote 6 articles for directories within a week. And I did that with the assumption that Google will not pick all the links the same time. Right now the site fluctuates in ranking but not bad at all. It fluctuates with only 2-3 page down. But mostly it's been constant on its ranking in second page. I'm hoping that once it moves up again, it will jump high.

You're sure you found my site at the bottom of the first page? That would be great! Rank checker told me it was in top 13 but as at writing it's saying it's in top 15. While Scroogle which is supposedly the most accurate is showing my site in top 16.

Thanks really for your comment. It was encouraging.

[Kay81]

Originally Posted by outwest

Actually have you looked at the competition top 3 backlink profiles in Market Samurai for "coping with depression" for Google top 10 competition?
its not that strong, My view is you should be able to take the number 2 spot since it is extremely poorly backlinked. The number 3 spot does not even have the kw in the Title, url or description, which means no onpage SEO of that site, and their backlinks are weak also

I think you could easily get to number 2 however how long that would take is the question..........................2 weeks? is a bit ridiculous IMO. 2 months maybe

Don't believe everything your tool tells you my friend. Your tool might be telling you they're not strong, but when you check them out yourself they are. And I basically checked out the top 20 sites on that keyword before I started and those on top 10 are all very strong sites. Where they lack one thing, they have another thing working for them. And in terms of quality the whole top 10 sites are great.

[Kay81]

Originally Posted by mrdomains

Consider a change of theme. Some of my sleepy sites have taken a good jump through a theme change. I tried Atahualpa theme which you are using on a couple of sites a long time ago but never liked it for a myriad of reasons.

Consider trying a static index page about your main keyword. I get the feeling Google sometimes recognizes what the niche is but can´t make up its mind on the exact keywords to rank you for, no matter how good your backlinking is. Changing to a static page with very clear content strengthening the domain name has helped quite dramatically, more than once.

I was already thinking of changing my theme, not because of possible jump but because my site is not displaying adsense codes and since I can't see any reason why, I was thinking if I change theme, things might work. Now you're giving me another reason to. I'll do that. Thank you for your points, it's noted.

[Kay81]

Originally Posted by NEseO

You seem to be doing a lot of the things you need to.

In all honesty that is pretty much all you can do without wanting to spend any money but just ramp it up. You will of course need to spend more time on it to get the links and you could start building link pyramids (build links to the links you have already built) to give them more juice and help your site.

Make sure you have enough diversity in your anchor text i.e. link to your site with a good variety and add in some "Click Here" and "Check this site" and "yourdomain.com" type links.

Another thing would be to add some more content to your site, just a page or two and this can help.

If you cannot afford to pay for any link building or automation (like profile links, or mass blog comments) then you could always go into the classified adds and post an exchange offer i.e. I will write you 2 500 word articles for some mass submissions, send your offers!! or something like that? Not sure if it costs to place anything there or even if people do that but have seen it before so may be worth a try.

By the way, get these mass links to the links you have already created to make tiers.

Thanks, you made good points. I was already building links to my articles in the directories using socialmonkee.com but I did that for just 2 or 3 articles (sends 100 links within few days to article). I might now continue this or try the classified here as you suggested, though I'm almost sure I'll be required to have a certain number of posts or pay for it. But I'll give it a try.

I'll definitely write 2 new articles. Thanks again for taking out the time to add your comment.

[guzpra]

hey Kay81, After read this whole thread I think you no need to ask anymore because you seem already know all the answer!

[Kay81]

Originally Posted by guzpra

hey Kay81, After read this whole thread I think you no need to ask anymore because you seem already know all the answer!

Thank you for reading the whole thread, that's great and thank you for what you said. Yes, I know a lot because I have been online for sometime learning and practicing. But I am not above learning, nobody is in fact. The day you stop to learn you stop to progress. I posted this hoping to get unique ideas from fellow colleagues, and they've been so nice to offer their comments. Even though nothing they've said is new to me, but it gives me a kick to get it done. But more importantly others get to learn too from this post and comments.

[outwest]

also are there any other kws you want to rank for related to your main kw? those might be much quicker to rank for than the main kw and have way less competition
and sometimes surprisingly even have good search volume

I found a TON of kws this month in a new nich with 10k,15k, 25k exact match monthly searches (local USA) That have under 100 backlinks on them to those kw pages

[packerfan]

Spend some time researching this forum. All the links you are building are low quality. If you're going to go that route you will need a lot of links. That means either paying for them or buying software.

What I would recommend is guest blogging. Find some related sites, write some great posts for them, and enjoy the visitors and the links.

For example, find a pregnancy blog and write an aritcle about overcoming post pardom depression or whatever.

I'm a big believer in Build My Rank, but it's $60/month and you have to constantly write 150 word posts.

[guynextdoor]

Try:

PAD submission (put up a piece of software on your website(toolbar, puzzle) and submit your site to software directories.


PDF.. write a good article and include some hyperlinks to your homepage and also to innerpages! submit to document sharing sites.


Press Release.. if google is picking up your "NEWS" from a autorithy news site you may see a fast jump in your ranking.

[keepgoin]

Well done for getting this far with such a competitive keyword and niche!

That's further than a lot of people would get!

Andy