Check out my automated niche blog business model (it really works)

[Paul Myers]

Keith,

If they don't want it re-published, they shouldn't put it in a feed, is my thinking. But depending on their specific TOCs, I might be stepping on some toes, but not so far as I know.

I would caution folks to read those terms and conditions prior to adding a feed. Some people disagree with you on your idea that it shouldn't be in an RSS feed unless they want it re-published.

I provide a feed for the benefit of my visitors, not for other people to use my material, commercially or otherwise. There is a notification to that effect on the front page, above the fold.

That said, for feeds that allow it, and that's probably the vast majority of them, this is an excellent idea, well presented. Nice stuff, sir.


Paul

[bgmacaw]

Originally Posted by Keith Kogane

Hmm. I've never had any trouble getting it to work. The only thing I can think of is if you don't have PHP5. You need PHP5 to run the SimplePie library that WP-O-Matic uses.

But I'm not a technical person. It works easy peasy for me and I've never had an issue.

Ha! It's probably not working for me because I am a technical person, just not in PHP and Linux (I do the Windows/ASP.NET corporate programming side of things). I'll have to dig into it further if there isn't a quick answer.

My server, Host Gator, does pass the SimplePie library test and the plugin runs but doesn't post anything. It almost looks like the WP-O-Matic can't deal with Google News or Blog Search, Yahoo Pipes, eBay feeds, Feedburner or anything else other than a plain Jane WordPress RSS feed. If you're using anything other than WP feeds let me know so I won't pursue a blind alley looking at code but instead look at configuration issues.

[Easy_Money]

Great Post! I just purchased an autoblog two days ago. I was going to build another type of site, but realized how pricey and time consuming it would be. I knew of the concept, but not the technicals to set it up.

The site I purchased does not have all theses nifty traffic building features built in. All I can say is ... Wow! When I finish adding these nifty litle extras to it, this established blog will take off!

Realistically ... It should be fairly easy to build one of these every day or two. Think about the flipping opportunities in 3 to 6 months, with a reseller hosting account!

[bgmacaw]

Originally Posted by Paul Myers

I provide a feed for the benefit of my visitors, not for other people to use my material, commercially or otherwise. There is a notification to that effect on the front page, above the fold.

Better go to Google Webmaster Tools and request they deindex your site so they aren't taking your content and using it commercially without your permission then.

[Keith Kogane]

Originally Posted by bgmacaw

Ha! It's probably not working for me because I am a technical person, just not in PHP and Linux (I do the Windows/ASP.NET corporate programming side of things). I'll have to dig into it further if there isn't a quick answer.

My server, Host Gator, does pass the SimplePie library test and the plugin runs but doesn't post anything. It almost looks like the WP-O-Matic can't deal with Google News or Blog Search, Yahoo Pipes, eBay feeds, Feedburner or anything else other than a plain Jane WordPress RSS feed. If you're using anything other than WP feeds let me know so I won't pursue a blind alley looking at code but instead look at configuration issues.

No, I use Google News and Blog Search. I don't use the others, but the only time I have trouble is when the feed content itself has some weird junk in it that messes up the formatting. It definitely doesn't affect the posting. Check out the support forum for the plugin, or maybe try it with a different host. I like GoDaddy, but it works fine on Dreamhost as well.

[Keith Kogane]

Originally Posted by Easy_Money

Great Post! I just purchased an autoblog two days ago. I was going to build another type of site, but realized how pricey and time consuming it would be. I knew of the concept, but not the technicals to set it up.

The site I purchased does not have all theses nifty traffic building features built in. All I can say is ... Wow! When I finish adding these nifty litle extras to it, this established blog will take off!

Realistically ... It should be fairly easy to build one of these every day or two. Think about the flipping opportunities in 3 to 6 months, with a reseller hosting account!

Now you're talking! Way to take the initiative and run with the idea.

[tommygadget]

Originally Posted by Keith Kogane

Now you're talking! Way to take the initiative and run with the idea.

Now all you need is the keywords and presto! Instant VRE empire. Just add water and stir.

TomG.

[Keith Kogane]

Originally Posted by tommygadget

Now all you need is the keywords and presto! Instant VRE empire. Just add water and stir.

TomG.

That's the sincere hope. I actually need to start doing more flipping. I'll be checking out the links in your sig for that. Also, I just noticed your location is "Up North" - how funny.

[tommygadget]

Originally Posted by Keith Kogane

That's the sincere hope. I actually need to start doing more flipping. I'll be checking out the links in your sig for that. Also, I just noticed your location is "Up North" - how funny.

I just noticed your location. Actually, my location statement is more of a temperature joke. In the last few years, the weather has been so mild, there's hardly any snow here, not like when I was a kid.

TomG.

PS - I think you'll really like the book, contrary to the title, it also mentions not flipping the blogs you are making the most cash from

[napoleonfirst]

An OMPL file is really good.

[Kael41]

Keith, thanks for a great share. If you have any insight, can you us know of any full text feeds that you may be privy towards? I know there's got a be a directory someplace, i just haven't found it yet

[rokeby23]

thanks! the first post I read and seems to be useful..i think i like this place

[Keith Kogane]

Originally Posted by Kael41

Keith, thanks for a great share. If you have any insight, can you us know of any full text feeds that you may be privy towards? I know there's got a be a directory someplace, i just haven't found it yet

I don't worry so much about finding full text feeds. They're out there, I find blogs that do it now and again and syndicate them. However, most of the stuff I use are just short, a few hundred words at most. I've been looking around here and I see some folks like to post longer articles on their sites, or maybe even sales or squeezes. I'd recommend putting that kind of thing into a page, rather than a post. Then, you can actually use THOSE urls in your backlink building and start getting those pages to rank.

If you want to post some lengthier original content but still keep it automated, you can check out a plugin called "Wordpress Article Importer" that I've got. I haven't used it in a long time, but basically you can take a bunch of PLR, zip it, upload it, and this plugin will drip out posts using the article content.

That's a pretty cool option by itself. You could even get another plugin called "Scheduled Post Shift" that will re-post your archive of posts in a rolling manner. Then you could try something like WordPress ReWriter to make it unique each time.

Meh, I'm rambling. I guess that's not quite the answer to your question, but hopefully it's useful. There really are a lot of possibilites of what you can do with this method.

[Alminc]

Keith,

What is the stable version of W-P-O-Matic plugin
that you use and where can I download it?

I was on the author's page and it seems that this
plugin has many bugs and problems, that's why I
ask. He states that it still can have bugs (v. 1.0-RC4)

Is it compatible with 2.6.x version of wordpress?


Could you please point me into right direction?


Almin

[Keith Kogane]

Originally Posted by Alminc

Keith,

What is the stable version of W-P-O-matic plugin
and where can I download it?

Is it compatible with 2.6.x version of wordpress?

I have same questions about GoCodes plugin.

Could you please point me into right direction?


Almin

1. Whatever version is linked to from the main site for the plugin. It's spelled "WP-O-Matic" - I think the site it's hosted on is called DevThought or something like that, but you can download it from the WordPress.org plug in depository. That's under the "Extend" link on their site, if I recall.

2. Yes, I'm using it right now with the most current version of WordPress.

3. I'm not sure what your questions are about the GoCodes plugin, so you'll have to ask em before I can answer em. GoCodes is available in the Wordpress plugin directory as well. Maybe you can get the answers you want there? If not, let me know!

Hope those answers help. Let me know if I can make anything clearer.

[Alminc]

Thank you for your answers.

I don't have questions about GoCode .

But there is one part of your post that I don't understand:

Your blog domain is getting the benefit of all this backlink love so you will start to grow PR over time too. (This is yet another reason we're using GoCodes. All the backlinks you're generating link back to your own domain, giving YOU the PR benefit).

If I am linking to my 'money sites' using GoCode, then those are all outgoing links that leads to my monetized URLs. How is then the number of backlinks to the blog itself increased and blog getting higher PR?

[jazzyjeff]

Keith,

Thanks for sharing this terrific business model with all of the members in the warrior forum. I also have heard of this model before. People claim it has worked. I have no doubt that you were able to be successful. I am sure that you were able to focus and be successful with this business model. After all, you did spend one entire year before you got noticeable income.

I have the same problem as most newbie marketers have. I tend to lose focus and jump from business model to business model. I hope that one day I will be able to strap down and just go full out on one type of business model instead of jumping around.

[Keith Kogane]

Originally Posted by Alminc

Thank you for your answers.

I don't have questions about GoCode .

But there is one part of your post that I don't understand:



If I am linking to my 'money sites' using GoCode, then those are all outgoing links that leads to my monetized URLs. How is then the number of backlinks to the blog itself increased and blog getting higher PR?

Sorry, I read your other post as "I have SOME questions about GoCodes, not "same" - my bad. Note that if you just go check out the plugins and do a Google search to find them, you can quickly see compatibility, etc. Just saying you don't have to wait around in a forum for me to answer - the answers are all out there already. Just need to search.

For your GoCodes question:

So you have hypothetically, some affiliate URL like hxxp://www.someaffiliateurl.com - you paste that into gocodes and it will create something like hxxp://www.myblog.com/go/someaffiliateurl - you can specify it the setup. The /go url redirects to whatever you tell it to, in this case, we've set it to redirect to hxxp://www.someaffiliateurl.com.

Now, you use your gocodes urls to make hyperlinks out of the keywords in your posts - you do this part in WP-O-Matic. All the backlinks going out for syndication are pointing to hxxp://www.myblog.com/go/whatever, which is on *your* domain. You decide what the redirect goes to in the gocodes interface.

When you submit your RSS feed to various other sites, every time you update your blog, your content (with your links back to your domain) will get published in various places on the web, get crawled by spiders, get your pages indexed, add to your PR value to your domain, etc. If those links are *clicked* by a person, they will get redirected to the offer. However, the links will still count as pointing to your own domain.

At least, this is the way it was explained to me by my tech guy. GoCodes operates at the htaccess level, so spiders think the content on the redirect is actually on your own site. I hope I'm explaining that the right way - remember, I'm not a technical person.

The bottom line is, it works.

Does that make sense? If not, install it and try it out. It'll make sense when you actually do it, and you'll answer almost all your own questions in the process. Or, ask a more detailed question here and I'll try to answer further as best I can.

I talked earlier about the "Fallacy of Information" - don't waste time pursuing additional information that will have no affect on the outcome. If you set it up like I told, you, it'll work as described. To keep asking questions without trying it out for yourself is procrastination and distraction.

Not trying to chide you, just sharing that thought with others. I know I personally used to struggle with that problem, but I started having real success when I just focus on *doing* stuff and quit learning for a while.

Edit: The forum software made links out of my made up dummy urls, so I had to make the "http" above into "hxxp" so you could see the example and not see some link to a video game thing. The links above are just for illustration purposes.

[Keith Kogane]

Originally Posted by jazzyjeff

Keith,

Thanks for sharing this terrific business model with all of the members in the warrior forum. I also have heard of this model before. People claim it has worked. I have no doubt that you were able to be successful. I am sure that you were able to focus and be successful with this business model. After all, you did spend one entire year before you got noticeable income.

I have the same problem as most newbie marketers have. I tend to lose focus and jump from business model to business model. I hope that one day I will be able to strap down and just go full out on one type of business model instead of jumping around.

Dude, I used to have the EXACT SAME PROBLEM! That's what I love about this system is that every blog has a degree of uniqueness - I can mess with some new templates and plugins, I end up learning a new niche by doing the keyword and product research, etc. I try different money making methods too. I originally started by focusing entirely on AdSense, but that's really chump change. There's much better money to be made doing other things with this kind of blog.

But my point is, the work's different enough to be interesting each time. Even though I *could* churn these out in about an hour's time, I usually end up spending at least a day on them when I make them. I love messing with WordPress.

But even so, it's just a day. I set it up and forget about it. I check back in after a few months and then make adjustments as needed. In other words, it works without me. But that little bit of work ends up growing into an asset that I can do something with.

I never have to think "oh, what's my next project going to be" because I always have something to do. One blog is getting a lot of traffic, so I'll add a squeeze page and build a list. One blog isn't getting good content, so I refine the WP-O-Matic campaign. One blog isn't making any affiliate sales, so I swap out the products, etc. etc. I find it easier to work on something that's already in progress. Maybe that'll help you out too.

And when I *do* get bored messing with a given blog, that's how I can tell it's time to set it aside and start a new one.

[JustVisiting]

Hi

I've used WP-O-Matic and it can often produce duplicate posts, from the same feed.

Anyone else checked their blogs for dupes?

[budfox]

Very interesting business model. I'm a bit in the dark about why your visitor count would grow over time though. You are just publishing duplicate content so you are not building any kind of presence in the SERPs. Where the heck is the traffic coming from?

[Keith Kogane]

Originally Posted by JustVisiting

Hi

I've used WP-O-Matic and it can often produce duplicate posts, from the same feed.

Anyone else checked their blogs for dupes?

I've seen them sometimes, but only rarely. I wouldn't say "often" - maybe once in like 50 posts or so. When I see em, I'll just go ahead and delete the duplicates. However, my sites usually have a lot of different categorized feeds being posted, so it's not really a problem. If you're worried about a duplicate content penalty on your own site, there are several plugins like "uniquifier" which will make all your site content appear unique to search spiders (though it doesn't actually alter the data in the post or the feed).
However, the duplicate posts won't have any negative impact on the syndication portion of the business model, so it doesn't matter.

If you're getting a lot of dupes, try using different feeds. Some seem to do it more often than others, but it's not a huge problem I've found. It's a known bug and hopefully they'll get it worked out in a later release. If not, maybe I'll pay a coder to fix it for me one day.

It could look weird if the point of this was to make a great unique classy blog. But it's not. I just want a mediocre but AUTOMATED system, so I take what I can get, and this is really, REALLY good for the investment of time (an hour) and money (none).

Okay, technically, not none. The domains cost like $6.

[JustVisiting]

Originally Posted by Keith Kogane

I've seen them sometimes, but only rarely. I wouldn't say "often" - maybe once in like 50 posts or so. When I see em, I'll just go ahead and delete the duplicates. However, my sites usually have a lot of different categorized feeds being posted, so it's not really a problem. If you're worried about a duplicate content penalty on your own site, there are several plugins like "uniquifier" which will make all your site content appear unique to search spiders (though it doesn't actually alter the data in the post or the feed).
However, the duplicate posts won't have any negative impact on the syndication portion of the business model, so it doesn't matter.

If you're getting a lot of dupes, try using different feeds. Some seem to do it more often than others, but it's not a huge problem I've found. It's a known bug and hopefully they'll get it worked out in a later release. If not, maybe I'll pay a coder to fix it for me one day.

It could look weird if the point of this was to make a great unique classy blog. But it's not. I just want a mediocre but AUTOMATED system, so I take what I can get, and this is really, REALLY good for the investment of time (an hour) and money (none).

Okay, technically, not none. The domains cost like $6.

Keith

The reason I asked is I sorted the WP-O-Matic dupe problem so they are deleted automatically

You mentioned "Uniquifier" which is fine for cloaking the dupe content from the search engines - but having random chars throughout the post doesn't do much for KW optimization.

Also, if posting dupe articles they will be hidden from the se's BUT software such as Copyscape will find dupes.

[Alminc]

For your GoCodes question:

So you have hypothetically, some affiliate URL like hxxp://www.someaffiliateurl.com - you paste that into gocodes and it will create something like hxxp://www.myblog.com/go/someaffiliateurl - you can specify it the setup. The /go url redirects to whatever you tell it to, in this case, we've set it to redirect to hxxp://www.someaffiliateurl.com.

Now, you use your gocodes urls to make hyperlinks out of the keywords in your posts - you do this part in WP-O-Matic. All the backlinks going out for syndication are pointing to hxxp://www.myblog.com/go/whatever, which is on *your* domain. You decide what the redirect goes to in the gocodes interface.

When you submit your RSS feed to various other sites, every time you update your blog, your content (with your links back to your domain) will get published in various places on the web, get crawled by spiders, get your pages indexed, add to your PR value to your domain, etc. If those links are *clicked* by a person, they will get redirected to the offer. However, the links will still count as pointing to your own domain.

At least, this is the way it was explained to me by my tech guy. GoCodes operates at the htaccess level, so spiders think the content on the redirect is actually on your own site. I hope I'm explaining that the right way - remember, I'm not a technical person.

The bottom line is, it works.

Thank you very much for the explanation, now I understand how
the backlinks are built automatically.

You mentioned that you are using some newsy themes, so the blog
looks more like niche authority news sindicating site.

Would you mind pointing us to a couple of sample themes that
would be good for that purpose ?

[Alminc]

The reason I asked is I sorted the WP-O-Matic dupe problem so they are deleted automatically

JustVisiting,

Would you mind sharing your method to delete dups automatically?
It's something we all can need.

[Keith Kogane]

Originally Posted by budfox

Very interesting business model. I'm a bit in the dark about why your visitor count would grow over time though. You are just publishing duplicate content so you are not building any kind of presence in the SERPs. Where the heck is the traffic coming from?

The traffic comes from all over. I've given that some thought too, and I know some guys that flat out don't believe in the duplicate content penalty at all. But here's some speculation on my non-technical part as to why if it IS a factor, why it's not keeping me from getting traffic.

For one, I think because it's constantly building backlinks in. If I ever STOPPED building the backlinks, my pages would fall out of the serps. However, that never happens, it just keeps building new links.

Another factor that's possibly mitigating the still-debated duplicate content filter is that the OTHER stuff I have on my pages (links to related posts, randomizing blog roll, random quotes plugin, etc.) may be enough to overcome it. That's just a guess.

Also, those links point to my gocodes, which re-direct to the affiliate offers. Those pages are NOT duplicate content, and my goCode links actually rank in the serps themselves (even though they are just redirects), and that's entirely because of the backlink building.

In some cases, instead of linking to affiliate sites with GoCodes, I'll make the backlinks point to a static page on the blog that has a squeeze or presell on it. Those pages end up ranking pretty well, though I've never deliberately tried to competatively rank for a specific phrase.

That's not to say I have killer Serps postions. I don't really (lots of them in the first 10 pages of results, but rarely any page 1s), but my logs say I get organic traffic, so I'm getting it somehow. Also, I've recently started using the "Uniquifier" plugin, which *seems* to be helping, but I'm not being scientific about testing it, and I did pretty good without it. I've barely used that one though, so maybe not.

Now, don't forget those links get published on other sites that are re-publishing RSS content it's not just me that does this. I get some traffic directly form those sites visitors clicking over.

Some of the blogs that get caught in my RSS net automatically credit me with a trackback when I link to them. That sends over traffic as well, as it kind of piggy-backs off whatever they're doing. When this happens is what I think really spikes up that PR.

See, though it gets some, this model isn't really just all about getting traffic. It's about the fact that these sites will grow their own PR automatically, and that means you can sell advertising, specifically text links. At that point, it's not about traffic anymore. That PR juice means you can give SERP boosts to OTHERS. That means a monthly income from the site no matter if it does well with traffic, or ads, or affiliate products. It can absolutely suck, and it can make money if it has PR.

Now, I didn't focus on that so much for this writeup, as most people here are still in the adsense/affiliate game. Personally, my stuff is shifting more towards selling ads directly and I want to do more flipping.

But even without that, it WILL make Adsense revenue, and it WILL make affiliate sales. I haven't set up a single one of these yet that doesn't turn a profit, especially considering that it's extremely fast and easy to set up, and once you do, you can just leave it alone and go do something else. I've gone a year now just doing adsense and affiliate stuff myself. How well that mix performs depends on the niche, but when you have 50 or 60 of these things, you're going to be doing pretty well with like, zero ongoing effort.

Set one up, then leave it alone for awhile, see what happens. I'm sure there's all kinds of things "wrong" with it from an SEO or whatever standpoint. However, it's not keeping it from being profitable, so I don't let that worry me.

[Keith Kogane]

Originally Posted by JustVisiting

Keith

The reason I asked is I sorted the WP-O-Matic dupe problem so they are deleted automatically

You mentioned "Uniquifier" which is fine for cloaking the dupe content from the search engines - but having random chars throughout the post doesn't do much for KW optimization.

Also, if posting dupe articles they will be hidden from the se's BUT software such as Copyscape will find dupes.

Yeah, let us know how you did it! That would make things just *that* much more hands-off.

I only just started messing with Uniquifier. I thought it was helping, but if that's what it actually does, I don't see how that's a help. I might have to quit using that one. There's another rewriting plugin I wanted to try, but it just got sold and isn't available right now. Thanks for pointing that out!

I also found one that will allow you to make a pages/subpages with a bunch of items on em, then use a tag to randomly pull from those items and add them to your posts. It's meant for doing like, random quotes or "tip of the day" kind of things, but I can see using it to remix content to make the total page more unique. I haven't used it yet though. Need to find that again, actually.

Re: Copyscape - yeah, I'm not really trying to post whole articles by others on my site. That's good advice for others here though. I'm not so into the full-length feeds myself. I prefer snippets.

Originally Posted by Alminc

Thank you very much for the explanation, now I understand how
the backlinks are built automatically.

You mentioned that you are using some newsy themes, so the blog
looks more like niche authority news sindicating site.

Would you mind pointing us to a couple of sample themes that
would be good for that purpose ?

I'm currently digging the Revolution two series of themes, though I just picked those up.

I don't have a single go-to resource, I just look for em when I'm making a blog and pick one I like. Here's something I just found that should give you an idea of the style I go for though: Top 10 Wordpress Magazine Style Themes | Sooth Brush

I generally want something with that "magazine" or news site feel. There are plenty around.

[mudmat]

Phew! I just finish reading the 1st to the last post and taking down some notes.

Going to take action now!

[mudmat]

Wp-o-matic and gocodes only works in firefox or safari which means I have to get Firefox browser..

[Keith Kogane]

Originally Posted by mudmat

Wp-o-matic and gocodes only works in firefox or safari which means I have to get Firefox browser..

Hm. Guess I never noticed because I already use FireFox. Good thing it's free!

[Marcus Paul]

Keith,

Great business model. Kudos on putting this together!

I have two questions:

1 - I notice you mention PR in a number of instances, but how are you generating PR when you are using duplicate content? I always understood that the duplicate content penalty really suppresses PR, even with backlinks.

2 - What hosting company do you use? I use GoDaddy and I have had a sports blog for a while that uses WP O Matic for some of the content. Problem is I can never get it to automatically retrieve. I have to manually hit the button twice a day. Did you have this issue?

Thanks!

[Keith Kogane]

Originally Posted by youTribunedotcom

Keith,

Great business model. Kudos on putting this together!

I have two questions:

1 - I notice you mention PR in a number of instances, but how are you generating PR when you are using duplicate content? I always understood that the duplicate content penalty really suppresses PR, even with backlinks.

2 - What hosting company do you use? I use GoDaddy and I have had a sports blog for a while that uses WP O Matic for some of the content. Problem is I can never get it to automatically retrieve. I have to manually hit the button twice a day. Did you have this issue?

Thanks!

Thank YOU. Here are your answers.

1. I don't really know. Google gives out PR and they don't really say how. I've heard the same thing said as well, but it happens, so... I mean, I really don't know what to say other than try it, and you'll see that it works. When you get a blog that gets some PR, link to other of your blogs from that one, etc. I guess there's things you "know" because that's what everyone says, or there's things that you "know" because you did it and it worked.

2. I use GoDaddy. I never got the unix cron working through their system, but if you turn that off and just let it auto update when someone visits, that works fine for me. Also, you wouldn't have to hit that button if you use the pseudo cron URL. Just bookmark it and click that instead of having to log in to manually fill it. At least that will save you a little trouble.

Anyway, hope that answers your questions. Let me know if I can clarify anything.

[mudmat]

Hi keith,

For the gocodes plugin, how do I edit the .htaccess file to include the code?

I'm not so good in this.. Your advice on doing this?

Regards,

Muhammad Noor

[kenkos68]

Hi Keith,

I was just about to launch something nearly identical to what you have set up here, before reading your thread. I am glad to see that it is proven to work and my resources aren't wasted.

Mine are like yours - a mix of rss and articles, complete with resource boxes in tact. I think this is the key as each site DOES cater to real people. I have seen many sites where the content is all garbled. I don't know how those sites provide any benefit to the user.

Instead of using blog software like Wordpress, mine is built using a set of php scripts. The site will look like a Wordpress site, using a popular Wordpress template. The only thing I have to do to set one up is find a good keyword for the main domain (or subdomain), and write an affiliate review for the product I am promoting. All other pages will 'support' the main page with the affiliate review. For updating, I have a Linux server at home using cron that will send a special update url to the site to cause it to generate a new page, and then generate a new sitemap and rss feed. Lastly it will ping.

My questions for you are these:

1. How often do you auto update the site? Once, twice, three times a day? I want my growth to look natural, but not too fast.

2. Approximately how much per day is each site averaging? This will determine how many I place.

I plan on using this network to feed my regular review sites that are fed by article traffic. Once they are all indexed, they are capable of providing a lot of link juice to any site if needed.

-Ken

[Keith Kogane]

Originally Posted by kenkos68

Hi Keith,

I was just about to launch something nearly identical to what you have set up here, before reading your thread. I am glad to see that it is proven to work and my resources aren't wasted.

Mine are like yours - a mix of rss and articles, complete with resource boxes in tact. I think this is the key as each site DOES cater to real people. I have seen many sites where the content is all garbled. I don't know how those sites provide any benefit to the user.

Instead of using blog software like Wordpress, mine is built using a set of php scripts. The site will look like a Wordpress site, using a popular Wordpress template. The only thing I have to do to set one up is find a good keyword for the main domain (or subdomain), and write an affiliate review for the product I am promoting. All other pages will 'support' the main page with the affiliate review. For updating, I have a Linux server at home using cron that will send a special update url to the site to cause it to generate a new page, and then generate a new sitemap and rss feed. Lastly it will ping.

My questions for you are these:

1. How often do you auto update the site? Once, twice, three times a day? I want my growth to look natural, but not too fast.

2. Approximately how much per day is each site averaging? This will determine how many I place.

I plan on using this network to feed my regular review sites that are fed by article traffic. Once they are all indexed, they are capable of providing a lot of link juice to any site if needed.

-Ken

Right now, about 55 blogs are making around $1500 a month in affiliate sales and adsense/YPN. That's completely passive, just set it up and leave it alone. However, truth be told, that's only the top 10 or so making the most of that. That's why I hesitate to give out an average. Some of these make like, less than $10 a month (no good affiliate products), one of them makes almost $300 a month consistently (killer affiliate product w/backend). The key is not to think I need XX income, so therefore I need XX blogs. If you're going to go this route, you can't expect any particular outcome. They are ALL profitable, but the measure of profitability varies widely. It's easy to be profitable when all you need is $6 for a domain and an hour to set it up.

Now, $1500 a month isn't much by some measures. Whatever, it pays my house note, you know? Plus, I have a pretty well paying day job that takes long hours, and I really only mess with IM stuff as a hobby (though my day job is related). That's why it took me a year to make only 60 of these things, and I spent WAY more time messing with parts of it that have ZERO to do with making the method work (messing with themes and various vanity widgets and whatnot).

As I was telling someone in PM, I have two things going against me. One, I'm incredibly lazy. Two, I'm just one guy and I really don't feel like outsourcing. Because of that, I'm really limiting my growth/income. I can make one of these things literally, top to bottom in about an hour. If I were building these to flip, and I was crazy aggressive with selling them and selling advertising on my other VRE, I could be making 5 figures a month (or at least way more than I make now) but that would be a good deal more work. I also don't do a good job of going back and putting in more work on these after the initial setup. I tend to get a little bored and move onto the next one. If I bothered to measure and look at data to tweak things, I could be doing more as well.

But overall, it's a really flexible model. You can do a lot with it, and even if you don't do much beyond what I've outlined in the original post, you'll do very well, considering the cost of trying it. The more of these you make, the better you'll do. For someone with resources and time, this could be a huge business - particularly if you use it as a model for VRE/flipping (which I'm admittedly only getting started with).

P.S. I'm making another $1500 or so a month selling text link ads, but a guy I know brokers that for me, and he sells pretty much only to HIS customer list. I didn't include that in the total above, since I can't really say "Next step, find a buddy who can sell text link ads to his targeted list and split it with him." It's not really repeatable directly, but like I said, that gives you an idea of what you can do if you want to SELL on top of this platform and not just go for the lowest effort passive thing.

EDIT: I forgot to answer how many times a day I update - I go for once or twice daily, depending on how much content there is available. I don't worry so much about natural growth on my side. I tend to build up a lot of content very quickly, but what I trickle out is where I submit my RSS feeds. My list is up to the hundreds, and I'll do like 10 here, 10 there. But in addition to being lazy, I also suffer from poor project organization. I don't think I've ever finished putting a single site through EVERY submission yet. But as far as them growing organically, if you keep the number of post updates, it does grow pretty organically, but consistently. It's not like these content farms where you have a million pages overnight.

[kenkos68]

Thanks for your reply, Keith.

I will start off with 2 updates / submissions a day and see how that fairs. As for your $1500/month, that is each site making almost a buck a day on average. That is good enough for me. These sites should be able to make at least a buck a day.

-Ken

[Keith Kogane]

Oh man, I just had a total "DUH!" moment. For all you folks concerned about unique content, WP-O-Matic does synonym replacement. I happen to use it to replace words with linked versions of the same word, but you could stock it up with a bunch of standard synonyms and never worry about unique content problems.

Seriously, DUH! I can't believe I didn't think of that. Sorry guys! :P

[Lee MacRae]

I can get everything to work except how to set it up in WP-O-Matic to make the affiliate link show up in a post? That's my duh moment!

[alexei_aus]

i think i know how to perfect this system

thanks for sharing

[Keith Kogane]

Originally Posted by mudmat

Hi keith,

For the gocodes plugin, how do I edit the .htaccess file to include the code?

I'm not so good in this.. Your advice on doing this?

Regards,

Muhammad Noor

If you have FTP access to your site and the .htaccess file isn't in the root directory, you may need to ask your host to help you. I know it's there, because it's how WordPress handles its permalink structure, all through .htaccess. Sorry I can't be of more help on that.

Originally Posted by kenkos68

Thanks for your reply, Keith.

I will start off with 2 updates / submissions a day and see how that fairs. As for your $1500/month, that is each site making almost a buck a day on average. That is good enough for me. These sites should be able to make at least a buck a day.

-Ken

I never did the math, but it's pretty awesome when you think of it that way. Yes, a dollar per day per site is not an out-of-reach expectation if you choose niches where there is money being made. That's literally the only way you can fail is if you pick a niche that no one is publishing stuff about (you'd get no posts) and no one is selling anything (you wouldn't be able to find affiliate products, and no adsense ads would show).

Originally Posted by Lee MacRae

I can get everything to work except how to set it up in WP-O-Matic to make the affiliate link show up in a post? That's my duh moment!

In the plugin options when you set up a campaign, there's a tab where you set up the word replacement. You specify the target word, the word you want to replace it with, and the URL you want it to link to (optional).

Originally Posted by alexei_aus

i think i know how to perfect this system

thanks for sharing

I'll PM you since you obviously don't want to post here. I'd love to hear your ideas!

[mudmat]

Hi Keith,

Thanks for the info! I'll check with my web host to help me edit the .htaccess file.

Yeah, what you say was indeed correct.. The file is there but somehow I could not click on it or get to it.

[Ken]

For anyone looking for a great theme for this purpose try "Flexibilty Theme".
Registration is required but the theme is free otherwise.
I was extremely pleased and with the theme and made a donation, always a good idea if you want the creators to keep on working.

Flexibility Theme for WordPress

Ken

[JustVisiting]

Originally Posted by Ken

For anyone looking for a great theme for this purpose try "Flexibilty Theme".
Registration is required but the theme is free otherwise.
I was extremely pleased and with the theme and made a donation, always a good idea if you want the creators to keep on working.

Flexibility Theme for WordPress

Ken

Thanks Ken. I haven't tested it fully yet but this has to be one one of nicest looking themes available.

[mudmat]

Originally Posted by Ken

For anyone looking for a great theme for this purpose try "Flexibilty Theme".
Registration is required but the theme is free otherwise.
I was extremely pleased and with the theme and made a donation, always a good idea if you want the creators to keep on working.

Flexibility Theme for WordPress

Ken

Thanks ken!

My host server people has just edited the .htaccess file for me and I will resume work again. Now I have to test whether the redirect works.

I'm a newbie when it comes to rss. How do I actually submit my blogs rss feed?


Regards,

Muhammad Noor

[iMerickz]

hi Keith,
thks for the sharing. i will be trying out to test a few blogs with your automated system and see how its goes. i have quite a number of unused domains which i havn't touched for months. besides this method, i am working on other blogs which is purely on unique written content.
i believe that the system itself is workable and one can be flexible and creative to make some twists here and there. you can mixed up your content by adding unique content and also syndicated content in the blog too.

sorry to ask some questions as i am a newbie and not technically strong in the WP setup. how do i set up a no-follow in your system?
isit by unchecking the first box in the "Default article settings" in the Discussion tab?
also, i am cloaking my affiliate link by manually masking it on another page.
does the gocodes plugin does the same function?
so instead of creating another page to cloak the link, we just use the plugin for easy n quick setup?

[Keith Kogane]

Originally Posted by mudmat

Thanks ken!

My host server people has just edited the .htaccess file for me and I will resume work again. Now I have to test whether the redirect works.

I'm a newbie when it comes to rss. How do I actually submit my blogs rss feed?


Regards,

Muhammad Noor

That's great! Glad they were so accommodating. To submit your RSS feed, most of the sites you submit to will simply have a form to fill out - one of the fields will be fore your RSS link. Most templates will include a link to your blog's feeds in the navigation somewhere. It's usually located at yourblogURL.com/feed or something similar.

Originally Posted by iMerickz

hi Keith,
thks for the sharing. i will be trying out to test a few blogs with your automated system and see how its goes. i have quite a number of unused domains which i havn't touched for months. besides this method, i am working on other blogs which is purely on unique written content.
i believe that the system itself is workable and one can be flexible and creative to make some twists here and there. you can mixed up your content by adding unique content and also syndicated content in the blog too.

sorry to ask some questions as i am a newbie and not technically strong in the WP setup. how do i set up a no-follow in your system?
isit by unchecking the first box in the "Default article settings" in the Discussion tab?
also, i am cloaking my affiliate link by manually masking it on another page.
does the gocodes plugin does the same function?
so instead of creating another page to cloak the link, we just use the plugin for easy n quick setup?

Yep. I think a lot of people are interested in some methods to work unique content into the feed based stuff, so I'm revisiting a couple of techniques I've used in the past so I can make sure they're still working. I'll include those in the inevitable report I'll be releasing.

I know, I know. It sounds cliche and I'm sure a bunch of folks will think this has been my plan all along. It hasn't. It barely took me ten minutes to write the first post. I never thought this method would be just what som many people need right now. Seriously, I went from 0 Private messages to 43, just because of this thread, and it's mostly people telling me to please make something because they will pay for more information, so who am I not to oblige? Gotta love this forum! People introduce themselves and then ask to give you money. Amazing!

But back to your question, I'm not sure what you're asking. Nofollow doesn't really enter into the standard setup and isn't required for it to work. The only time I've messed with using nofollow plugins (of which there are many, depending on what you're trying to do) is when you want to keep your page rank very tightly controlled by not spreading it to your categories or spreading it out to your external links. And even then, I'm not a master at that. It's kind of advanced SEO, and overall, I think that goes into the 80 part of the 80/20 Pareto Principle. I'm better off focusing on something else that will have more of an effect on profit than those minor tweaks. Your mileage may vary, but I wouldn't worry about it until you have enough backlinks coming in for it to make a difference.

And yes, the point of the GoCodes plugin in this method is partially to mask affiliate links, but it also serves to make sure all your link building points to a resource you control, and that has the double benefit of using your blog's main domain. That way, you can always change what those backlinks are redirecting to (if you want to change affiliate offers, for example) and not lose any of the backlinking benefit your blog has produced up to that point.

Make sense?

[iMerickz]

ya, i keeps heading people talking about putting the "nofollow" tag in your blog to prevent the PR link juice going out. hmm.. i think i do not need to think so much in advanced first as i am only in the beginning and my blog havn't even got any traffic.. lol.. i'll look into that when i have enough traffic and PR for me to worry about.. lol..
btw, i saw this checkbox "Perform pingbacks" in the options, do i need to check that? i did not check the box for the first 2 blogs that i have setup for this system. do i need to need to perform ping backs?

[Keith Kogane]

Originally Posted by iMerickz

ya, i keeps heading people talking about putting the "nofollow" tag in your blog to prevent the PR link juice going out. hmm.. i think i do not need to think so much in advanced first as i am only in the beginning and my blog havn't even got any traffic.. lol.. i'll look into that when i have enough traffic and PR for me to worry about.. lol..
btw, i saw this checkbox "Perform pingbacks" in the options, do i need to check that? i did not check the box for the first 2 blogs that i have setup for this system. do i need to need to perform ping backs?

It depends on if you want pingbacks or not. Pingbacks are going to notify when you link to other blogs and sites that are equipped with pingback. If you want that to happen, then equip it. If you don't, then don't. I like having it on. Some people don't like to have it on when they repurpose content. Up to you.

[natalie1]

I'd be interested in more (paid) help w/gocodes and url redirection. I was able to easily set up the feeds to my blog but not sure if I'm doing the redirects correctly. I would love it if you did a WSO for your blog concept.

[mudmat]

Thanks keith for the info!

You really have been a real help explaining some of the technical stuff.