Build Your Very Own Adsense Empire - No Bull**** Guide!

[bnetwork]

NOTE: Read this is you are struggling or new. You are going to make money if you follow the advice here. You may also decide that IM is not for you, because this is a load of hard work.

UPDATE: once your'e done with this post, read my quick niche research example here.

IMPORTANT: MOST OF THE BACKLINK BUILDING STUFF HERE IS OUTDATED NOW AND SHOULD BE USED WITH CAUTION. THINGS CHANGE FAST, BUT QUALITY LINKS ALWAYS WORK LONG TERM. STICK TO THAT. THANK YOU!

I've been reading the forum for a while now, answering questions where I can. It seems like this place gets thousands of newbie visitors every single day, as the same threads are created daily.

I also recognize that most of you are never going to make it in IM. That's because you aren't treating this as a business, lack motivation, have no focus, want to get rick quick now, etc. That's fine.

Here's a tested strategy that I've been using to build up a side business which doesn't require a lot of babysitting.

Basically, what I do is create medium sized, high quality information websites and get the pages ranked #1 for multiple keywords. Then, once traffic starts to pick up, I add Adsense and start optimising. Keep some of the sites, sell (flip) the rest.

I'll structure this post into several key sections, but feel free to ask questions in the thread. This is just a quick overview.

1. Keyword research (selection)

I honestly have no idea which way is best, but I tend to follow these rules:

• Pick keywords that get a minimum of 5000+ exact match local US searches for main keywords.
• For inner pages I'll take anything that gets over 300+ exact match local US searches.
• Must have high/medium Adwords competition (Google KWT) and a decent CPC $1+.

Okay so here goes the whole process...

1. Decide what will be the main keyword. Lets call it keyword1, it has high Adwords competition, CPC of $1+ and gets 6600 exact local US searches.

2. Put this keyword into Google KWT and pick 3-5 closely related keywords that make sense to use in the same article as sub-headings. This is important, because I always go for top quality.

So now we have 3-5 keywords with CPCs of $1+, medium/high Adwords competition and search counts of 300+ exact match US local. These keywords complement keyword1 well.

3. Now the task is to choose keywords for inner pages. Call these keyword2, keyword3, keyword4 and keyword5.

These should be around 700+ exact local US searches, at least medium Adwords CPC and -this is important- they must not be the same (or variations) of keywords used to build the homepage.

Think about it. You want your inner pages to complement the homepage nicely. To be like an extension of it. No need to repeat the same (homepage) info over and over again in the inner pages.

4. Once you have your inner page keywords ready, it's time to find 1-2 related sub-heading keywords for each of them. These can be anything related (must make sense in the article) with at least 300+ local US exact match searches.

2. Domain name selection

I know that EMDs (exact match domains) are still all the craze, but I honestly don't use them.

• I use partial EMDs that make sense and can be branded.
• Only .com

Most of my sites are bestkeyword1.com or topkeyword1.com or aboutkeyword1.com or keyword1advice.com or keyword1fast.com or keyword1quickly.com... you get the point.

Because I'm not obsessed with finding EMDs, I tend to go after much more lucrative keywords.

3. Website structure

1. Homepage. I go with at least 1500 words of quality content. Most of my sites have 2000 word homepages. This allows me to rank for multiple keywords.

Homepage structure:

[page title - main keyword]
[intro paragraph]
[contents table]
[sub-heading1 (remember keywords)]
[sub-heading2]
[sub-heading3]
...
[conclusion]
[either related posts area or a disclaimer if needed]

Now don't forget to format the whole thing properly. Put the main keyword in h1 tags and each sub-heading in h2 tags.

Content tables aren't necessary, but they do help. Especially if the page is long. Think about user experience.

Related posts at the end are not necessary either, it's all up to you and what you think would improve visitor experience.

I always have Facebook like and Google+ buttons at the top of the page, under article title. This is important to me, because most of the sites I have get regular likes (daily). That tells me that people love the sites. Great.

Inner-pages.

Pretty much the same as the homepage, but less content.

• Articles 500 to 1200 words long (depends on the topic and how many sub-headings you have for each article).
• Same structure. Don't forget to h1 and h2 relevant keywords/titles.
• Don't forget Facebook like/Google+ buttons.
• Related posts at the end if you feel they are needed. In most cases I have Google Ads there.

Important.

Format the articles well. Use related images/pictures throughout, place them inside the text nicely.

Some more structure stuff.

I only use WordPress. I like it, find it easy to use and all that. No other reason.

All of my sites have static homepages. Inner pages are set as "pages" as well. I don't use "posts" at first, but I do have a "page" called /blog or /articles for future use (if I want to expand the site and add a blog part).

Get rid of all the crap links. Credentials, meta stuff, bylines, all that crap goes. Clean and nice.

4. Rankings

Okay, there's a lot to talk about here and I can't cover it all. Just a quick summary.

Week One

Build the site, add homepage content and 2 inner pages. Set the other 3-4 pages to be posted weekly.

Blast the homepage with 1000+ social bookmarks using 4-5 anchor text titles (remember main keyword+sub-headings). I do this on days 3-5 or whatever...

Get someone to send 100+ Facebook likes and 20 or more Google+1s to your homepage. This is important to get the ball rolling. People are hesitant to "like" a site until they see others doing it. It really does make a massive difference.

Week Two

Purchase 5-10 high quality blog posts. Unique content, PR4+ blogs. Drip feed these over 3-5 days. I only use the main keyword, one URL per blog post and target the homepage only.

Week Three

Get 30+ high PR blog comments to the homepage. Use all of the homepage keywords.

I tend to blast all of the inner pages with 1000+ social bookmarks (200-300 bookmarks per page).

Order a press release. Use the homepage keyword (just one). You need to use a quality service for this, not just any $20 provider.

Week Four

Use ALN (authority link network) to post to 500 or so blogs rotating all of your inner page URLs and using random anchors (blog/article/here/post/my blog/this post/click here, etc).

Use ALN to send 500+ posts to your homepage using loads of anchors (all of your target ones along with click here, here, post, this blog, blog, site, read more, more, to learn more, etc).

ALN posting can easily be outsourced for around $100.

Note that this step is only needed in seriously competitive niches.

I use my own blog network to post 1 blog post a day with an anchor to the homepage. Rotate all homepage keywords and do this for 30-50 days.

Week Five

Note that this step is not compulsory, it all depends on your current rankings.

I like to strengthen my link portfolio and send a huge 3000+ social bookmarking blast to the homepage using 20 or so anchors (random phrases, very short keywords, etc).

Week Six

At this point I'm normally #1 for at least 2-3 homepage keywords. How you proceed from here is up to you. Tweak your pages, rank inner pages, add a blog and do some internal linking to the important pages, etc.

At this point adding a /blog and scheduling 50 or 100 articles to be posted to it over a few months can pay off big time. Only do it if you see that the site has lots of potential.

5. Monetization

I use Adsense. Only add it once the site starts getting 50+ search visitors daily.

• Make sure that the ads complement the site structure/colours nicely.
• I don't have ads at the very top.
• Play around with different placements.
• Sidebar ads never convert for me.

Some of my best earners are bottom of page ads. Either using a large rectangle (text only) at the end of each article or using two medium rectangles (image only and text only) side-by-side.

I tend to have two 486x60 (I think) text-only ads inside the content. You need to know where your visitors focus most of their attention and place them there.

6. Some extras

Don't obsess with tracking your rankings. I use serpfox.com and find them good for my needs. Cheap as well. Only check rankings once a day. Sometimes less often.

Never used Google Analytics myself, no reason why. I like getclicky. Get a paid (very cheap) version - it's amazing. Real time visitor statistics, etc. Simply amazing.

Aim for a bounce rate below or around 30% (search visitors).

You can try using clicktale.com to find where your visitors are focusing their attention. They have a free account which was enough for me when I got started.

My worst earners average $4-$4.50 daily with Adsense. These sites cost me around $400-$500 each to build and rank (depends on niche). Can go all the way up to $1000 if I see lots of potential - but those earn $10+ daily.

When you have rankings proof, proper visitor statistics and earnings history (at least 3 months of steady earnings) - you can easily flip the site for 15x monthly earnings. It also helps to wait until a PR update hits, because you'll normally get PR3 or so which helps the site look more established.

Sell some of the sites, keep the rest.

I'm pretty sure that I've forgotten to mention a lot of important stuff, but this is getting really long. I'll stop here - feel free to ask questions. I may take a while to answer, cause I only check here once a day.

Good luck.

[Web Design Sunshine Coast]

Wow nice article you have gone to a lot of effort there and certainly raise alot of valid points. If your going to start an adsense site following your method would be the way to go and its good to see that your posting realistic earnings rather that over exaggerated earnings

[bnetwork]

Originally Posted by Web Design Sunshine Coast

Wow nice article you have gone to a lot of effort there and certainly raise alot of valid points. If your going to start an adsense site following your method would be the way to go and its good to see that your posting realistic earnings rather that over exaggerated earnings

Thanks! Didn't take that long to write this up to be honest. Having actually done all of this many times over helps.

The earnings are what they are, why exaggerate things. One can still make great money from a $4.5/day site (since most of these cost around $400 to build and rank). Keep it for 3-4 months and then sell for $1600 or so.

Some of the sites make $8+/day just like that. Others only do $5/day no matter how hard you try to optimise. Keep the winners and sell off the losers (if you can call a $5/day site that).

Another great thing is that if you sell top quality sites, after the first couple of deals, you aren't going to need any of that auction/flippa crap. I sell all of my sites to repeat buyers (also get lots of offers through contact forms on my sites, some of them from pretty big IM guru names).

[BigNorm]

Nice step by step site set up and promotion and that's not a lot of work when you consider the time it's taken for a lot of us to make consistent money. And that's the trick, consistent money, not sporadic.

[Tom Albas]

Any one use this trick for SEO?

[Yeeee Ha]

Very good strategy.

Thanks for sharing. It will certainly help anyone get started with making a decent income with adsense on the right foot.

Cheers

[bnetwork]

Originally Posted by BigNorm

Nice step by step site set up and promotion and that's not a lot of work when you consider the time it's taken for a lot of us to make consistent money. And that's the trick, consistent money, not sporadic.

Yeah. I still make 90% of my income providing services, but this is a good way to transition from "hectic business" to earning a passive income.

Starting out can be very slow, especially if you're new to all of this. Basic coding knowledge is vital, as well as a good understanding of all the terminology people in IM use every single day.

Oh and common sense when dealing with service providers.

Originally Posted by Tom Albas

Any one use this trick for SEO?

What trick? There's no trick. This is exactly what works for me right now.

Originally Posted by Yeeee Ha

Very good strategy.

Thanks for sharing. It will certainly help anyone get started with making a decent income with adsense on the right foot.

Cheers

No problem.

I know people who own loads of terribly looking Adsense sites that make $1 on a good day and average $20/month or less... They keep telling me that this stuff is hard and I keep saying no it's not - you're just doing it wrong. But they don't listen.

[bnetwork]

Okay something I completely forgot to include in the OP...

When it comes to keyword selection, I tend to go with sort of "evergreen" niches: health related (but not very serious - think acne, snoring, healthy skin) and similar.

The main reason for this is that I just can't force myself to sit there for hours and hours trying to put together keywords for a nice homepage and inner pages on the topic of "underbed shoe storage". I mean it's doable, but it isn't fun and I believe in offering my visitors value. People who are looking for products are looking to buy them.

So yeah, while I don't necessarily go with topics that I "love" writing about, I definitely try to avoid every product related keyword out there.

At the very least, if you go after product keywords, use Amazon (or another merchant) for monetization. That way your visitors get some kind of value out of the site. Otherwise it's just a crap site.

[JSProjects]

The main reason for this is that I just can't force myself to sit there for hours and hours trying to put together keywords for a nice homepage and inner pages on the topic of "underbed shoe storage". I mean it's doable, but it isn't fun and I believe in offering my visitors value. People who are looking for products are looking to buy them.

Well dang. How did you find out my biggest money making niche? (Kidding)

Great post!

[Maraun]

Great post, thanks for the share. If a shameless plug is allowed, I have a little guide in my sig that helps anyone doing Adsense sites in choosing better, more profitable keywords.

[bnetwork]

Originally Posted by JSProjects

Well dang. How did you find out my biggest money making niche? (Kidding)

Great post!

Thanks. Yeah along with "box spring mattress" and "teen room wallpaper". Some funny keywords people build MFAs for, seriously.

Originally Posted by Maraun

Great post, thanks for the share. If a shameless plug is allowed, I have a little guide in my sig that helps anyone doing Adsense sites in choosing better, more profitable keywords.

No problem, I don't mind. Never ready any keyword guides myself, just kind of went with what I thought made sense to me at the time... and it seems to be working well.

[jRad]

Great post man! this has helped me a lot.

I got one question though - I've been told be a few people that I should go after long tail keywords that are anywhere from 500-1000 global searches a month, cause these are usually untapped.

If this is true, why do you say to go for keywords that have 5000 word searches?

[bnetwork]

Originally Posted by jRad

Great post man! this has helped me a lot.

I got one question though - I've been told be a few people that I should go after long tail keywords that are anywhere from 500-1000 global searches a month, cause these are usually untapped.

If this is true, why do you say to go for keywords that have 5000 word searches?

I go after 5000+ search keywords, because keywords that are in high demand + rankings = traffic = money.

Seriously though, you can always rank inner pages for 1000 exact search keywords.

I put $400-$500 into a site and rank the homepage (usually) for up to 10 keywords ranging from 6000+ exact searches to 300+ searches and lord knows how many longtails.

So yeah, I guess I do it because I know that I can rank them anyway. Same reason for not caring about EMDs - I prefer having all .com domains that I can brand if needed. Doesn't stop me from taking #1s for all of those keywords.

[jRad]

Originally Posted by bnetwork

I go after 5000+ search keywords, because keywords that are in high demand + rankings = traffic = money.

Seriously though, you can always rank inner pages for 1000 exact search keywords.

I put $400-$500 into a site and rank the homepage (usually) for up to 10 keywords ranging from 6000+ exact searches to 300+ searches and lord knows how many longtails.

So yeah, I guess I do it because I know that I can rank them anyway. Same reason for not caring about EMDs - I prefer having all .com domains that I can brand if needed. Doesn't stop me from taking #1s for all of those keywords.

Thanks for the help man!

When you grab these 5,000 globally searched keywords, are they usually phrases? (like, three keywords), or simply one or two keywords?

For a newbie like me, I think it'd be best if I target a low competition, not very highly searched keyword, so I don't butcher my confidence in this field. That way when I see I'm #1 on Google in the future for this low competitive keyword, that isn't searched highly, it'll boost my confidence a bit.

That's my view. If I start off with something like a 5,000 globally search KW, I'd be screwing myself in the end cause it's tough to rank those (or maybe it's not, I just don't know how to).

[bnetwork]

^^ nah not really that hard to rank. Just do what I have outlined in the OP and you will rank.

While getting to #1 for a low traffic keyword is easy, it's also pretty disheartening to find that your site only makes $15/month from "all that" traffic.

Oh and the keywords get 5000+ exact local US searches.

Forgot to add: keywords are normally phrases that can be easily expanded upon. For example... erm... "anxiety disorders" or "remedies for anxiety". Stuff like that.

[patrich]

Excellent article and should be a great guide for those getting started or still trying to learn the ropes. I have been doing this for several years now and still picked up a few nice tips so it is definitely worth reading!

One question for you, what are you using to send out your social bookmarks? BMD, a service or something else?

Oh and on a side note, totally agree with you on the product keywords. Its pretty painful to sit and write a 1000+ words on red womens boots or something. I always try and stick with a more "generic" term as it makes the content creation much easier.

[shakil754]

This is a really great post for anyone who wants to start making money from adsense.

I use s similar method and it works. Period

Thanks for sharing

[dminorfmajor]

Great article man, thanks for the info.

One of the best parts, imo, is capitalizing on using anchor texts OTHER than your may keywords. It's overlooked even by me far too often. This is the natural/organic look that Google goes nuts over.

[jRad]

Originally Posted by bnetwork

^^ nah not really that hard to rank. Just do what I have outlined in the OP and you will rank.

While getting to #1 for a low traffic keyword is easy, it's also pretty disheartening to find that your site only makes $15/month from "all that" traffic.

Oh and the keywords get 5000+ exact local US searches.

Forgot to add: keywords are normally phrases that can be easily expanded upon. For example... erm... "anxiety disorders" or "remedies for anxiety". Stuff like that.

D'oh! I thought you meant global searches..damn, haha!

Thanks for the advice man! Just got one quick question left. This isn't my niche, but say I go to GKT and type in, 'skin tags'. Lets say I wanted to educate people on getting rid of skin tags, or treating them. So I type in 'skin tags', and it ends up being medium competition, has 5,400 global searches, and 4,400 local US searches.

And say I wanted to have 'skin tags' in my domain. What would you suggest? Something like, 'howtogetridofskintags.com', 'learningaboutskintags.com', 'howtotreatskintags.com'... I'm just brainstorming, but how would you tackle it?

[patrich]

Just thought of another question

I use ALN quite a bit already, when submitting content I usually just take a plr article or something, auto-spin it in TBS and submit. Do you do something similar or are your writing "fresh" content? Do you auto spin, or do a manual spin?

And, just out of curiosity, why do you choose to wait until the traffic starts flowing to place your adsense? I have tried both waiting until traffic picks up and placing the ads on the site as it is built, across numerous sites and have never found any difference. Seems to be no negative or positive impact either way. Is this just a personal preference or do you know something I don't? lol

[hammertorch]

I know some of the steps already, i will definitely add some new tips here... thanks for sharing this article,

[Fatality]

This is one of the best guides I have seen on WF so far. I love how you took us through what you do, especially in regards to what SEO practice you use for each week.

[ldiaz117]

Good write up here. Thx

[scorpi]

Thank you for your very well built guide. If you don't mind could you give an example of your sites. It would be very good form newbies like me.

[Legit SEO]

Originally Posted by bnetwork

5. Monetization

I use Adsense. Only add it once the site starts getting 50+ search visitors daily.

• Make sure that the ads complement the site structure/colours nicely.
• I don't have ads at the very top.
• Play around with different placements.
• Sidebar ads never convert for me. (same here!)
  

Some of my best earners are bottom of page ads. Either using a large rectangle (text only) at the end of each article or using two medium rectangles (image only and text only) side-by-side.

I tend to have two 486x60 (I think) text-only ads inside the content. You need to know where your visitors focus most of their attention and place them there.

6. Some extras

Never used Google Analytics myself, no reason why. I like getclicky. Get a paid (very cheap) version - it's amazing. Real time visitor statistics, etc. Simply amazing.

This is one of the best posts I've seen on here. Thanks for sharing all of this EXTREMELY useful knowledge. I am using a similar strategy and have bolded a few parts I wanted to talk about..

I've been using CTR theme and only averaging 2-3% CTR the past few days. I've noticed nobody ever clicks on the sidebar banner (160x600 text only) so I am going to try switching it out for a 468x60 in content text box. Thanks for that tip

I'm also not a big fan of G Analytics myself so I will try out that getclicky you recommended. My only worry is if I want to sell a site eventually. Do you have any problems selling on flippa when you don't have Analytics running? I know that is one thing many people look for when buying, do the getclicky reports work just as well?

[Legit SEO]

Originally Posted by bnetwork

Yeah. I still make 90% of my income providing services, but this is a good way to transition from "hectic business" to earning a passive income.

I'm curious as to what type of services you provide? I'm doing the exact opposite of you, 90% of my income is coming from adsense

[Bambu]

Newbies, take note. This is pretty solid SEO advice in my opinion and can be used to rank most low to medium competition terms (with medium competition requiring a couple more cycles).

This is the same advice you will find in many SEO WSOs being sold here. So save your cash, thank the op, and spend that money elsewhere.

The only section I would add to is the keyword section. This is critical to success. Try and choose keywords with lots of advertisers targeting it. You can determine if lots of advertisers target a keyword by looking at the competition level in Google Keyword Tool. Shoot for keywords that have medium to high advertiser competition. You can also check if advertisers are targeting the keyword by simply doing a Google search in the country you are targeting. If you see lots of Adwords ads, odds are you have found a keyword that lots of advertisers are targeting.

Your keyword should ideally have some buyer intent. If the majority of your visitors are looking for free entertainment, you won't get many clicks. Case in point, I have a video game website that gets about 5K visitors a day, but has a lousy CTR @ just 0.6%. I have a tech website with a 30% CTR. The only difference being buyer intent of the keywords.

In addition to the above keyword advice, make sure that the first page of Google search results for the keyword isn't too competitive. Generally, if you see one or more 0 year old pages in the top ten, one or more PR1 pages in the top ten, and one or more pages with less than 300 low PR backlinks, then odds are you have found a good keyword. Also check for on page SEO factors in the top 10 (keyword in title, keyword in description, keyword in H1 tag, keyword in domain, etc)

[bnetwork]

Originally Posted by patrich

One question for you, what are you using to send out your social bookmarks? BMD, a service or something else?

I own a pretty big SEO agency, we use a variety of tools for this, not BMD though. There are numerous people offering big social bookmarking blasts with prices ranging anywhere from $20 to $40 for 1000 bookmarks. Well worth it.

Originally Posted by dminorfmajor

One of the best parts, imo, is capitalizing on using anchor texts OTHER than your may keywords. It's overlooked even by me far too often. This is the natural/organic look that Google goes nuts over.

Yeah, people talk about it, but few actually take the time to do it properly. Not that my way is the best or anything, but it works for me.

This step is very important IMO.

Originally Posted by jRad

Thanks for the advice man! Just got one quick question left. This isn't my niche, but say I go to GKT and type in, 'skin tags'. Lets say I wanted to educate people on getting rid of skin tags, or treating them. So I type in 'skin tags', and it ends up being medium competition, has 5,400 global searches, and 4,400 local US searches.

And say I wanted to have 'skin tags' in my domain. What would you suggest? Something like, 'howtogetridofskintags.com', 'learningaboutskintags.com', 'howtotreatskintags.com'... I'm just brainstorming, but how would you tackle it?

No problem.

howtogetridofskintags.com and howtotreatskintags.com both look pretty damn perfect for this.

It all depends on the "intent" of the user really. Say for a keyword like "healthy skin" I'd go with healthyskinguide.com or similar.

For "get rid of acne" go with howtogetridofacne.com (obviously taken) or getridofacnefast.com or getridofacnequickly.com or waystogetridofacne.com etc... <- all taken, tough niche.

Originally Posted by patrich

I use ALN quite a bit already, when submitting content I usually just take a plr article or something, auto-spin it in TBS and submit. Do you do something similar or are your writing "fresh" content? Do you auto spin, or do a manual spin?

And, just out of curiosity, why do you choose to wait until the traffic starts flowing to place your adsense? I have tried both waiting until traffic picks up and placing the ads on the site as it is built, across numerous sites and have never found any difference. Seems to be no negative or positive impact either way. Is this just a personal preference or do you know something I don't? lol

1. I've experimented with ALN a bit and there's really no difference whether you use auto spun content or quality manual spintax. I get a writer do an article for me and re-write each paragraph once or twice, then auto spin on top. It's ALN (read low quality, but it works at the moment).

2. No reason. I know this sounds funny, but I often over think simple things like that. I don't want my Adsense code on sites that aren't ranking yet. Don't think it makes any difference in the long run.

Originally Posted by Fatality

This is one of the best guides I have seen on WF so far. I love how you took us through what you do, especially in regards to what SEO practice you use for each week.

Thanks! Now use it!

Originally Posted by scorpi

Thank you for your very well built guide. If you don't mind could you give an example of your sites. It would be very good form newbies like me.

Not keen on sharing my sites here, it's a public forum after all. Sorry.

Originally Posted by talkmeow

I've been using CTR theme and only averaging 2-3% CTR the past few days. I've noticed nobody ever clicks on the sidebar banner (160x600 text only) so I am going to try switching it out for a 468x60 in content text box. Thanks for that tip.

No problem. You have to experiment with different ad types though... 468x60 might not work as well for you as it does for me (different layouts, keywords, etc). Sidebars never convert, definitely use that ad inventory somewhere else.

I'm also not a big fan of G Analytics myself so I will try out that getclicky you recommended. My only worry is if I want to sell a site eventually. Do you have any problems selling on flippa when you don't have Analytics running? I know that is one thing many people look for when buying, do the getclicky reports work just as well?

Getclicky reports are the awesome sauce. Honestly. You get loads of data, all real time... Never had a problem with selling sites that use getclicky stats.

Originally Posted by talkmeow

I'm curious as to what type of services you provide? I'm doing the exact opposite of you, 90% of my income is coming from adsense

Mostly SEO at the moment.

Originally Posted by Bambu

This is pretty solid SEO advice in my opinion and can be used to rank most low to medium competition terms (with medium competition requiring a couple more cycles).

Not exactly true. You can rank for pretty much any keyword (apart from the likes of "lose weight" and "credit cards") with just one full iteration. I've so many keywords in #1s it's ridiculous. Most of them in difficult health related niches.

The only section I would add to is the keyword section. This is critical to success. Try and choose keywords with lots of advertisers targeting it. You can determine if lots of advertisers target a keyword by looking at the competition level in Google Keyword Tool. Shoot for keywords that have medium to high advertiser competition. You can also check if advertisers are targeting the keyword by simply doing a Google search in the country you are targeting. If you see lots of Adwords ads, odds are you have found a keyword that lots of advertisers are targeting.

Yeah that is why I say that your main keyword must have "high" Adwords competition (in the keyword tool) as well as a lot of searches. All of my main keywords are high competition and over 5400 exact match local searches.

In addition to the above keyword advice, make sure that the first page of Google search results for the keyword isn't too competitive. Generally, if you see one or more 0 year old pages in the top ten, one or more PR1 pages in the top ten, and one or more pages with less than 300 low PR backlinks, then odds are you have found a good keyword. Also check for on page SEO factors in the top 10 (keyword in title, keyword in description, keyword in H1 tag, keyword in domain, etc)

I wouldn't be too worried about competition. Honestly all of my sites outrank wikipedia (unless it's #1 for that term, but those are mostly browsing terms that I don't target anyways), mayoclinic, helpguide, webmd, about, etc...

To me good keywords have these characteristics:

1. High demand, lots of advertisers.
2. High traffic.
3. Can write about a lot.

My advice would be to stop looking for magical keywords that are easy to rank for and just focus on building good websites (using keywords that will make you $$$). SEO is easy. It really is.

[lukedidit]

Wow - simply an epic post. The info in here would metaphorically wipe the floor on a lot of paid for WSO's on ranking.

Very valuable for me, thank you very much.

May I ask the following:

The social bookmarking, you do this direct to your site? I set up some bookmarking last night using social monkee (only 25 links drip fed) and 2-3 buildmyrank P2-3 posts. Now my site has disappeared beyond the first 1000 pages. I am sure it will come back, but I was thinking perhaps I am being to harsh. However, if you are blasting 1000 SM bookmarks then I suppose my little link tasks were very minor.

Do you find during the SEO phase of your steps Google pulls you right out and then brings you back in again?

[SerpSmasher]

Good post, I stay away from adsense as I don't think it's a good long term business, but this method looks like a winner

[bnetwork]

Originally Posted by lukedidit

The social bookmarking, you do this direct to your site? I set up some bookmarking last night using social monkee (only 25 links drip fed) and 2-3 buildmyrank P2-3 posts. Now my site has disappeared beyond the first 1000 pages. I am sure it will come back, but I was thinking perhaps I am being to harsh. However, if you are blasting 1000 SM bookmarks then I suppose my little link tasks were very minor.

Yep, I always blast direct to my sites.

Do you find during the SEO phase of your steps Google pulls you right out and then brings you back in again?

Yes. It's happened to me quite a few times, but the sites always come back stronger. Last time I had sites disappear from top 500 was last November, and they came back to page 2 about a month later. Both are ranking #1 at the moment (for multiple keywords).

This doesn't happen all the time, about half of my sites never disappear and just go from n/a to page 2 and then top 3... ALL of my sites rank #1 eventually.

[bnetwork]

Originally Posted by SerpSmasher

Good post, I stay away from adsense as I don't think it's a good long term business, but this method looks like a winner

I know what you mean.

This is one of the reasons for selling some of these sites. I'm not too worried as I use 2 separate Adsense accounts across my sites.

To me this is a medium-term investment strategy. Definitely not my main source of income.

[littledan]

Fantastic infomation, and very detailed too. I still like Adsense even though many people are backing away from it these days stating that it is as not as good as it once was, maybe true? But I still like it anyway.

One thing I have heard recently regarding ads in general, not just adsense. Google are starting to penalise sites that have ads above the fold. Not sure if that was mentioned in the post, apologies if I missed it.

[bnetwork]

Originally Posted by littledan

One thing I have heard recently regarding ads in general, not just adsense. Google are starting to penalise sites that have ads above the fold. Not sure if that was mentioned in the post, apologies if I missed it.

Yeah, that would be the latest algo change (probably not the latest any more, lulz).

I don't really have many ads above the fold. They don't seem to convert in the niches that I'm in. Some of the sites have 480x60 Adsense text ad blocks in the second paragraph, but that's hardly "above the fold" really.

No link units, no sidebar ads/link units, no large rectangles in top left corner... I don't use any of those. Tested - didn't work.

[agmantz]

Originally Posted by bnetwork

To me good keywords have these characteristics:

1. High demand, lots of advertisers.
2. High traffic.
3. Can write about a lot.

My advise would be to stop looking for magical keywords that are easy to rank for and just focus on building good websites (using keywords that will make you $$$). SEO is easy. It really is.

Thanks for Advice...
I think I need to change my strategy...

[bnetwork]

Originally Posted by agmantz

Thanks for Advice...
I think I need to change my strategy...

Oh damn it I made a typo.

Go go go! And good luck.

[xxxJamesxxx]

Thanks for your Adsense guide, I dabble in a bit of Adsense myself.

James Scholes

[bnetwork]

Originally Posted by xxxJamesxxx

Thanks for your Adsense guide, I dabble in a bit of Adsense myself.

James Scholes

No problem. Have any advice or insights you want to share?

[4morereferrals]

Care to show us a site you've flipped ?

How many articles / content pieces go on?

[bnetwork]

Originally Posted by 4morereferrals

Care to show us a site you've flipped ?

Nope, sorry. Buyers wouldn't like it since they've become repeat buyers of my sites. Private sales are better: no flippa fees, direct transfer to bank, no uncertainty.

How many articles / content pieces go on?

Smaller sites have the homepage and 5-6 pages (excluding privacy, contact, etc). Bigger sites anywhere from 10-20 pages plus blog posts (20-100 posts, depends how much money they make).

[TheBoyScout]

Thanks for all the good info. Nice breakdown of instructions.

[Ryan Sterling]

Thanks buddy for this fantastic report. I'm going to follow your exact step by step method.

People do quickly forget that is is just like any business. Start off with a plan. Make wise investments and allow some time.

Just a quick question, if you are trying to target a minimum 5000 exact searches with a CPC of say...$2.00. Would you recommend targeting 2500 exact searches with a CPC of $4.00?

Would this be the same?

[bnetwork]

Originally Posted by Ryan Sterling

Just a quick question, if you are trying to target a minimum 5000 exact searches with a CPC of say...$2.00. Would you recommend targeting 2500 exact searches with a CPC of $4.00?

Would this be the same?

Nope, because (from my experience) high CPC reported by Google (those are for Adwords aren't they?) doesn't always mean that you will get higher value Adsense clicks. It's just an educated guess... I'd go with more traffic.

If you can find one that's 5000 exact and $4 CPC - go for it.

Good luck!

[lifeisfun]

Thanks for the great post and I have a couple of questions.

You said:
"Get someone to send 100+ Facebook likes and 20 or more Google+1s to your homepage."

On my homepage, I get about 1 google plus every week; i have a bit of a better rate on the inner pages. I thought of getting a google+ gig, but then i thought, wouldn't it be weird that i get one google+ a day and suddenly i got 10, 20, etc? I know some services drip them, but still I'm paranoid that it might have a bad impact. What are your thoughts on that?

[bnetwork]

Originally Posted by lifeisfun

Thanks for the great post and I have a couple of questions.

You said:
"Get someone to send 100+ Facebook likes and 20 or more Google+1s to your homepage."

On my homepage, I get about 1 google plus every week; i have a bit of a better rate on the inner pages. I thought of getting a google+ gig, but then i thought, wouldn't it be weird that i get one google+ a day and suddenly i got 10, 20, etc? I know some services drip them, but still I'm paranoid that it might have a bad impact. What are your thoughts on that?

Never had any problems. The idea is to make the site appear "liked" by a lot of people. Then your new visitors will be more likely to "like" or "+1" it as well.

It's the same principle used in offline business - pay a group of people to hang outside your bar to make it look busy.

I've sent hundreds of +1's to my sites without problems. But you really only need 20 or so - not going to be a problem.

[jRad]

hey man,

okay I'm following your strategy. I have my website up and running, I just need to add content now (I'll be outsourcing the articles).

the next part up is to write the homepage. now for that, i've written a sort of 'about me' page, with the 'my story' kind of feel integrated. however it's not the home page, per say - it's not the first page people go to when they visit my site.

the first page people go to is where are my blogs are listed. visit viperchill's website to see what i'm talking about. I pretty much have the same layout (the home page is blogs, next page is 'new? start here' and that's where the 'about me' page is.

so in regards to the homepage, would I treat my 'new? start here' page as my home page? as in, getting Facebook likes and google likes for that page?

[bnetwork]

Originally Posted by jRad

the first page people go to is where are my blogs are listed. visit viperchill's website to see what i'm talking about. I pretty much have the same layout (the home page is blogs, next page is 'new? start here' and that's where the 'about me' page is.

so in regards to the homepage, would I treat my 'new? start here' page as my home page? as in, getting Facebook likes and google likes for that page?

Hey,

Yeah that's not exactly how I build my sites as I only use static home pages (not recent blog posts) and "pages" for my inner-pages.

But that doesn't mean that your approach is wrong, either. Viper's (thanks for the link) blog uses the standard WP blog layout, which works great for most people.

I would focus on the page which your visitors see first. The reason why I use static home pages is exactly that - they are static. I don't like having constantly changing content on the homepage.

[jRad]

Originally Posted by bnetwork

Hey,

Yeah that's not exactly how I build my sites as I only use static home pages (not recent blog posts) and "pages" for my inner-pages.

But that doesn't mean that your approach is wrong, either. Viper's (thanks for the link) blog uses the standard WP blog layout, which works great for most people.

I would focus on the page which your visitors see first. The reason why I use static home pages is exactly that - they are static. I don't like having constantly changing content on the homepage.

Okay awesome, thanks a lot.

I have about 15-20 keywords, branching off from my main keyword (I followed your keyword steps). Would I be writing articles about these keywords? I easily could, just wondering if it's wise.

[bnetwork]

Originally Posted by jRad

Okay awesome, thanks a lot.

I have about 15-20 keywords, branching off from my main keyword (I followed your keyword steps). Would I be writing articles about these keywords? I easily could, just wondering if it's wise.

Think about your visitors when crafting article titles and sub-headings. Have your keywords in a longer phrase if that makes the title more user friendly.

If you followed my guide, you should have headings (keywords) along with sub-headings (sub-keywords) for each article (page). Use them to structure/write articles.

To make the site more user friendly I'd avoid repeating the same info from one article to the next. Take this into account when choosing article headings/sub-headings.

[bnetwork]

Alright... if any of you guys have advice on how I could improve this system, please share. I'm especially interested in these:

1. Keyword research for large websites (100+ pages).
2. Website structure (especially the home page) of big sites (100 pages+).
3. Internal linking strategies.
4. How do you avoid talking about the same thing over and over again with large sites? I know there are hundreds of topics/keywords for every niche, but most can be put into 20 or 30 similar "categories". To me it makes sense to create big articles focused on categories, not just a single keyword.
5. How do you add that "little extra" to info sites? Build a community, something "social", you know..? Got any ideas/suggestions?

Those are the questions that keep me up at night.