Just sold 48 "Micro Sites" for $75,000.

Adie

12 years ago

Congrats then and good luck to the buyer...

Thanks

Signature

Moderator's Note: You're only allowed to put your own products or sites in your signature.

Signature edited.

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6065732].message }}

Green Moon

12 years ago

I think it is a very smart move.

Normally, I'd say you were nuts to sell $70K in annual income for barely 1x but given what has happened to many sites in the last few days, I am seeing many micro niche sites dropping to nearly nothing. I think it is increasing likely that Google is cracking down on microsites.

If that were to happen with your sites, even though you might revive them after a lot of work, you will have lost a lot of revenue in the interim.

Thanks
1 reply

Signature

Find an Accountant | Tax Help

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6065783].message }}

retsek

12 years ago

Originally Posted by Green Moon

I think it is a very smart move.

Normally, I'd say you were nuts to sell $70K in annual income for barely 1x but given what has happened to many sites in the last few days, I am seeing many micro niche sites dropping to nearly nothing. I think it is increasing likely that Google is cracking down on microsites.

If that were to happen with your sites, even though you might revive them after a lot of work, you will have lost a lot of revenue in the interim.

Yes if I had taken the time to list them in smaller lots I could have gotten more on Flippa. But I had buyers I can trust already and was glad for the quick sale. Not to mention no fees to pay.

Thanks

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6065803].message }}

ThatAblaze

12 years ago

Nice. That's some real money there. The internet is an interesting place, with estate sales... makes you wonder why they've called it "real estate" for so many centuries when "virtual estate" has only been around for the past 20 years or so.

But I digress.....

Thanks

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6065840].message }}

cyrilsneer86

12 years ago

Well done. That is an impressive chunk of change

Thanks

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6065983].message }}

sandra98

12 years ago

Good for you. You are the man. This is probably the best time to sell. It's also very nice that you have buyers that you trust and didn't have to pay intermediary fees.

Good luck with the 5 sites. With your sensible approach, I am sure you are going to do very well. Thanks your advice too.

Thanks

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6066232].message }}

giseo

12 years ago

Nice man. Who knows, with the way things are going they could be wiped out tomorrow.

Thanks

Signature

Tired about blogging about tedious subjects like blue widgets and four slice toasters? Learn how to have fun and profit blogging about a continually growing massive multi-billion industry. Find out how to do it for only $5 here!

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6066539].message }}

ThatGuy1

12 years ago

wow congrats man, the hard work paid off.. How much unique content did you have on each site and how long did it take you to develop those 48 sites?

Thanks

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6067016].message }}

Mantasmo

12 years ago

Well done.

I did something similar at the start of the year - sold most of my 5-20 page sites (high quality, great stats, etc) for very good $$ and started working on a few bigger projects. I've also invested a lot into my own "guest posting" blog network (I don't actually sell guest posts lol) - fantastic results so far.

Oh and I also lost a few sites to the ALN/BMR/NETWORK deindexing thing - it's a loss, but I can take it.

Nicely done!

Thanks

Signature

If you have a legit, high quality website - this offer is for you.

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6068081].message }}

minisite

12 years ago

I think is a great move in your part because you are able to make a profit from the website that you deem less important for you. You probably also have more time to spend on your 5 large websites and its good that you're investing the money you've made on it.

Thanks

Signature

Manual DoFollow Blog Comments | $25 for a custom made Minisite?

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6068124].message }}

dagnyjbarber

12 years ago

great news

Thanks

Signature

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6068155].message }}

StevenJones

12 years ago

I think you covered your own ass very well

We all don't know what is going to happen next. Plus you got some few other websites you can make money with, so you are not really losing at all. It's time for your to re-evaluate your strategy and I think you are doing just great.. It takes courage to set up a deal like this, that's what a real entrepeneur is about.

Thanks

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6068482].message }}

NXmarketeer

12 years ago

congrats man!

I would do the same thing. These days google just drops sites for fun it seems and everything is high risk venture nowadays. Invest in something else in my honest opinion.

Thanks

Signature

- Pinterest Bots Get Pin Blaster Bot Now -

- The free web proxies site! -

- Make money online -

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6068564].message }}

Cyber Rankings

12 years ago

I can see why you sold out but personally i would have just forked out $10,000 and beefed the sites up myself and kept them.

If you didn't have the time to do the work you should have hired somebody for like $1,500 a month who's sole job is to look after and maintain those sites. Including finding guest bloggers, quality links, hiring writers for link bait posts etc...

Thanks

Signature

Support/Contact Me: Cyber@Cyberrankings.com
Page one of Google Guaranteed For Your Chosen Keyword

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6068773].message }}

Henri Lind

12 years ago

wow, congratz. waiting to reach that point myself too in future.

Thanks

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6072557].message }}

derprinz

12 years ago

Well done !

Thanks
1 reply

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6072865].message }}

xiro25 12 years ago

First off that is awesome on your success.

What kind of income does your 5 large sites generate? How many pages of content do you have on them?
- Thanks
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6072967].message }}

TheKing

12 years ago

I have 1 question for you ..

How you monetize your sites ?? Adsense , CPA or own products ?

Thanks
1 reply

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6073228].message }}

retsek 12 years ago

Originally Posted by punjabi

I have 1 question for you ..

How you monetize your sites ?? Adsense , CPA or own products ?

These small niche sites were all adsense. A few had cpa recommendations where appropriate.
- Thanks
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6073234].message }}

n0tr3v3

12 years ago

Probably a smart move, but then again you could have made that 75k easily by year end as you stated.

Any ways congratz and make use of the cash while it last because nothing last for ever...

Thanks

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6073312].message }}

PriceMaster

12 years ago

Wow, looking at your success story gives me confidence! Congrats bro

Thanks

Signature

DoFollow Backlinking, SEO and Internet Marketing Forum - Discuss SEO, IM and everything else!

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6073624].message }}

Nicky Papers

12 years ago

Talk about cashing out at the right time! Well done.

Thanks

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6073720].message }}

retsek

12 years ago

I thought I'd bump this for those who were wondering.

After Penguin hit, half of the 48 sites were wiped out completely or badly affected.
The 5 sites which i focus saw increases due to spammers being taken out as well.

I did in fact make the right decision.

Thanks
2 replies

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6195655].message }}

yukon

Banned 12 years ago

Originally Posted by retsek

I thought I'd bump this for those who were wondering.

After Penguin hit, half of the 48 sites were wiped out completely or badly affected.
The 5 sites which i focus saw increases due to spammers being taken out as well.

I did in fact make the right decision.

You pushed it to the max. as far as timing.

Hows the authority health site working out, I think you said that's what your working on in another forum thread?

Thanks
1 reply

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6195727].message }}

retsek

12 years ago

Originally Posted by yukon

You pushed it to the max. as far as timing.

Hows the authority health site working out, I think you said that's what your working on in another forum thread?

Working out great. It started in March and it's already at PR5 and 2k uniques per day mostly from long tail. I have 300 articles up so far in Silos - and another 1,500 to go.

[ 3 ] Thanks
1 reply

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6195795].message }}

yukon

Banned 12 years ago

Originally Posted by retsek

Working out great. It started in March and it's already at PR5 and 2k uniques per day mostly from long tail. I have 300 articles up so far in Silos - and another 1,500 to go.

Nice,

Are you planning on flipping the health site in the future?

I think it was you who was promoting their site with prweb or something similar, If so, how long does an average press release generate traffic for you? I would imagine that traffic slowly fades out once the press release stops getting picked up by larger sites. I've never done any press releases, is that how you built links to get the PR5?

I think we talked about this before, you say you have 1,500 articles to go, are you working with a single writer or multiple writers (ehow style)?

Thanks,

Thanks
1 reply

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6195959].message }}

retsek

12 years ago

Originally Posted by yukon

Nice,

Are you planning on flipping the health site in the future?

I think it was you who was promoting their site with prweb or something similar, If so, how long does an average press release generate traffic for you? I would imagine that traffic slowly fades out once the press release stops getting picked up by larger sites. I've never done any press releases, is that how you built links to get the PR5?

I think we talked about this before, you say you have 1,500 articles to go, are you working with a single writer or multiple writers (ehow style)?

Thanks,

No, don't think I'll be flipping this one. It's a good niche, and there's only 6 competing health sites, and mostly sites like Yahoo Answers.

I have several writers working on this - most of them are medical students. I also send alot of the writing work out to an agency which does good research for their articles.

The press release traffic from Prweb quickly fades within a week of publication. But while the traffic is good, the links it generates are even better.

Even got a guest post published on Forbes, which i think is the major reason for jumping from PR0 straight to PR5. You won't believe the amount of the sites that scrape Forbes.com.

[ 4 ] Thanks
2 replies

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6196056].message }}

aygabtu

12 years ago

Originally Posted by retsek

No, don't think I'll be flipping this one. It's a good niche, and there's only 6 competing health sites, and mostly sites like Yahoo Answers.

I have several writers working on this - most of them are medical students. I also send alot of the writing work out to an agency which does good research for their articles.

The press release traffic from Prweb quickly fades within a week of publication. But while the traffic is good, the links it generates are even better.

Even got a guest post published on Forbes, which i think is the major reason for jumping from PR0 straight to PR5. You won't believe the amount of the sites that scrape Forbes.com.

I have a site that is a PR 5 after just 2 months. Not exactly sure how it got that high so fast, but PR is meaningless when it comes to SERP position and income.

Thanks

Signature

Check top 300 Google SERP results free. WhatsMySERP.com tracks and graphs changes for multiple domains/keywords/regions. Also includes advanced keyword density tool.

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6196473].message }}

wilsonm

12 years ago

Originally Posted by retsek

Even got a guest post published on Forbes, which i think is the major reason for jumping from PR0 straight to PR5. You won't believe the amount of the sites that scrape Forbes.com.

How does someone go about getting a guest post somewhere prestigious likes Forbes?

Thanks
2 replies

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6196474].message }}

nik0 Banned 12 years ago

Originally Posted by wilsonm

How does someone go about getting a guest post somewhere prestigious likes Forbes?

He already mentioned he submitted a press release and it got picked up. Probably a very news worthy press release. He used PRweb for that.
- Thanks
- 1 reply
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6196486].message }}
- Mercusio 12 years ago
  
  Looking back... if this guy is like anyone else. I bet he is very happy he sold his sites when he did Especially being micro sites!
  
  Thanks
  
  {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6196520].message }}
retsek 12 years ago

Originally Posted by wilsonm

How does someone go about getting a guest post somewhere prestigious likes Forbes?

In that particular instance, I sent an unsolicited email with a guest article to someone for their personal site. The article was written by one my regular writers and I edited and added several things.

They were quite impressed it and they also happened to be a contributor at Forbes. They published the original article on their blog and requested I write another for Forbes on a related topic they needed. They published it under their Forbes username with a note citing me as the guest author.
- Thanks
- 1 reply
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6196674].message }}
- wilsonm 12 years ago
  
  Nice to see someone winning.
  
  Thanks
  
  {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6196686].message }}

nik0

Banned 12 years ago

Originally Posted by retsek

I thought I'd bump this for those who were wondering.

After Penguin hit, half of the 48 sites were wiped out completely or badly affected.
The 5 sites which i focus saw increases due to spammers being taken out as well.

I did in fact make the right decision.

OMG, when I read the original post I was immidiatly looking at the date when it was posted and afterwards scrolled down the whole way instantly.

This buyer must feel so sick, although good for you lol.

What are your plans now?

Thanks

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6195794].message }}

spoofies

12 years ago

Damn, feel bad for the other guy, but good for you!

Thanks
1 reply

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6195716].message }}

retsek 12 years ago

Originally Posted by spoofies

Damn, feel bad for the other guy, but good for you!

Well I did warn of exactly what's coming and they agreed they'll buy it and make changes. I didn't know Penguin was coming so soon after -- just 8 days.
- Thanks
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6195778].message }}

dp40oz

12 years ago

That is awesome congratulations!

Thanks

Signature

The Keyword Research Tool You've Been Waiting For!
Keyword Research - Competitor Analysis - Rank Tracking - Keyword Difficulty - White Label Reporting

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6196101].message }}

teachingking

12 years ago

Would you mind sharing a little more about your Authority Health Site Silo Structure?

Specifically...

How many top category silos and how many levels down?
How do you work your internal links?
Are all 300 articles on static pages?
Do you incorporate a blog, and if so, how?

Thanks a bunch,
Aaron

Thanks
1 reply

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6196429].message }}

retsek

12 years ago

Originally Posted by teachingking

Would you mind sharing a little more about your Authority Health Site Silo Structure?

Specifically...

How many top category silos and how many levels down?

For this site, there's four top level categories and the blog. Those 5 are linked in global navigation menu for the whole site.

For the four categories, I use Wordpress Pages instead of Categories. So these four are in fact the top (or 1st level) Parent. I then use Wordpress template magic to make them look like categories completely with pagination.

Originally Posted by teachingking

How do you work your internal links?

Since most of my external links go to the homepage and top level categories, I do internal links like this:

First on the homepage, I have a Featured list. There i link to the Top 50 or Top 100 (depending on the site) pages. These top pages would be high traffic keywords, and they would also be a top or lead page of various silos. These pages are also child pages of one of the four categories, so they are at the 2nd level in the hierarchy. Confused yet?

So these 2nd level pages are then given child pages which target lower volume keywords. Each child page (3rd level now) links to each other and the parent at the 2nd level.

The internal linking rules are:

- never link to a 3rd level Child from a 2nd level page that isn't its parent.
- cross linking between 2nd level pages is fine.
- a 3rd level child can link to a 2nd level page that isn't its parent

Those above are all in-content links, so it only occurs when certain words are mentioned in the content. To help with that I use the SEO SmartLinks plugin. But it is important to limit the "Max Links to Same Page" setting to 1. Otherwise you'll get smacked by Penguin.

In addition to the in-content links, I have a related posts plugin which is displayed ONLY on 2nd level pages and its pool is filled with ONLY 2nd level pages. So no 1st level or 3rd level pages are ever returned as a related post.

Third, I use Breadcrumbs. Helpful for both the use and search engines. Use a plugin that marks up appropriately so Google will give you rich snippets.

Forth, read the below in blog section.

Originally Posted by teachingking

Are all 300 articles on static pages?

Yes.

Originally Posted by teachingking

Do you incorporate a blog, and if so, how?

Thanks a bunch,
Aaron

Yes I have a blog. It's important to have one on a content site, especially when the content isn't exciting or its not content that people are eager to link to. I use the blog to post linkbait, infographics, top 10 lists, etc - stuff like that - things that easily attrack links and social shares.

The blog is part of the nav menu as mentioned before, but its not setup the same way.

- The /blog itself is a wordpress category. (I may have sub-categories under it). Never put your blog on a subdomain if your goals are SEO.
- I try to make the permalinks different from the content section. That's as simple as using a Permalinks option like /%category%/%postname.html%.

Internal Linking.

My blog posts are themes towards the content in the four pages, so there's always lots of opportunity to inter-link. In the blog section, you are free to link however or wherever you want. A blog post can include links to 1st, 2nd, or 3rd level content where appropriate.

So my permalinks look like this

Lvl 0 - hxxp://www.domain.com/
Lvl 1 - hxxp://www.domain.com/cat1
Lvl 2 - hxxp://www.domain.com/cat1/high-traffic-kw-landing-page
Lvl 3 - hxxp://www.domain.com/cat1/high-traffic-kw-landing-page/lower-volume-related-page
Lvl 3 - hxxp://www.domain.com/cat1/high-traffic-kw-landing-page/lower-volume-related-page
Lvl 3 - hxxp://www.domain.com/cat1/high-traffic-kw-landing-page/lower-volume-related-page
Lvl 3 - hxxp://www.domain.com/cat1/high-traffic-kw-landing-page/lower-volume-related-page
Lvl 3 - hxxp://www.domain.com/cat1/high-traffic-kw-landing-page/lower-volume-related-page
Lvl 3 - hxxp://www.domain.com/cat1/high-traffic-kw-landing-page/lower-volume-related-page

Blog - hxxp://www.domain.com/blog/
Blogpost - hxxp://www.domain.com/blog/blogcat1/top-10-ways-to-xxxxxxxxx.html

Of course, you take caution not to keyword stuff your URLs. And don't create pages which are similar. Many lower volume keywords can be combined and targeted with one page if you write a great title.

[ 7 ] Thanks

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6196620].message }}

nik0

Banned 12 years ago

I think it's a great idea to lurk at universities to get top notch content for a fair price. It are all students and I'm sure they are already fine with $10 for an article. Could just walk into some university and put some paper at the billboard asking for writers.

As a matter of a fact I have 2 students living next door who are writing content for me for 5 euro / 400-500 words. It's not exactly connected to what they study but wth, we all need to make money and if they can do 2 per hour they make 10 euro/hour, which is better then most jobs in this region. They both study logistics so not sure if there is much to write about that. Should ask them.

Thanks

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6196456].message }}

JeanneLynn

12 years ago

Wow, congrats!

It looks like you jumped off the Titanic at just the right moment. I love synchronicity.

Thanks
1 reply

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6196460].message }}

n0tr3v3 12 years ago

My thoughts as well

Originally Posted by JeanneLynn

Wow, congrats! It looks like you jumped off the Titanic at just the right moment. I love synchronicity.
- Thanks
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6196542].message }}

aygabtu

12 years ago

Originally Posted by retsek

I just sold off 48 micro sites (about 3 - 10 pages each) in two private sales for $75,000 total. These sites are making 70k per year on 75-90% traffic from Google.

At one time I had almost 400 sites. These 48 were the last and the best of the lot. It was actually 56 at the start of the year, but 8 got dinged in the recent spate of google love letters. Those 8 all used BMR heavily.

So Why did I sell out?

I feel laser targeted sites like these will be in for some real problems in the very near future. I have no real evidence it will be so, it's just a gut feeling. Quality-wise these sites weren't bad at all. They all had custom designed themes and quality content. If you base it on bounce rate, time on site, and social sharing, you can say visitors were quite satisfied.

Now I didn't just off load what I think will be a problem to unsuspecting fools. I made it clear what they need to do - expand the sites that have room to grow and combine the closely related ones onto new or existing domains with 301s. The latter I feel is more necessary for the longerexactmatchdomains.com.

It's up to them to heed my advice or not. On the other side I may have given away a stable revenue source for short-term gains. I guess I'll know soon enough

.

Either way you put it, I just don't have the time or energy to treat these sites the way they should, so I've decided to cash out.

Now I still have 5 very large sites which bring the most of my income by far. I plan on putting 30k in the bank and using the remaining on content and links for these sites. First up is this great linkbait idea that's gonna cost me 3k alone just to code and design.

So, no more micro sites for me. Your thoughts?

P.S. please don't attack me

All i'm saying is that you might you want to find a middle ground where you fatten up your micro-niche sites a bit more versus adding/creating more sites to increase earnings. Take a measurement of how useful your current visitors are finding them. If you're ranked #1 or #2, ask yourself honestly if you deserve the spot because you have the best content or is it because you have an exact match domain and/or lotsa unnatural backlinks.

Bad move. Why sell of assets for the same price you can make annually on them? Kinda stupid in my opinion, unless there was a lot of risk in the future potential.

Thanks

Signature

Check top 300 Google SERP results free. WhatsMySERP.com tracks and graphs changes for multiple domains/keywords/regions. Also includes advanced keyword density tool.

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6196465].message }}

TheProgrammer

12 years ago

Well done man, you did great work.

Thanks

Signature

WordHero [LIFETIME DEAL] - #1 AI WRITING SOFTWARE
We Are Faster Than Your Current Hosting Provider at Half the Price

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6196515].message }}

allsystems

12 years ago

How much money are you making out of 2k visitors daily? How are you monetanizing your site? Congratz on the sale man, must have been well deserved to get there

Thanks

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6196604].message }}

teachingking

12 years ago

Wow, thanks for taking the time to reply so thoroughly. I am still digesting it

Couple of quick questions:

1. Why do you use Template Magic on the static pages? Not sure I understand the benefit.

2. Does your main navigation (5 buttons) have sub menus to link down to all levels?

3. My sites are wordpress generated so the blog is installed on the root domain. Is this fine?

4. Do you put your featured list in a sidebar? If so, do you also have a Recent Posts section?

5. What do you use for your homepage? Static Post? Static Page?

6. Why do you make the blog permalinks different than the static pages?

Thanks again,
Aaron

Thanks
1 reply

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6196699].message }}

retsek

12 years ago

Originally Posted by teachingking

Wow, thanks for taking the time to reply so thoroughly. I am still digesting it

Couple of quick questions:

1. Why do you use Template Magic on the static pages? Not sure I understand the benefit.

"Template magic" is just a word I used for designing custom pages in wordpress. Like for example, if you create a "category-blog.php", Wordpress will automatically use that file when displaying the /blog category only.

Originally Posted by teachingking

2. Does your main navigation (5 buttons) have sub menus to link down to all levels?

Nope. But it's good practise if you have cateorgies that can be further sub-divided.

The only problem is you don't any page to be too far away from your homepage (lvl0). General rule is no page should be more than 3 clicks or less away from the homepage.

Originally Posted by teachingking

3. My sites are wordpress generated so the blog is installed on the root domain. Is this fine?

Yep.

Originally Posted by teachingking

4. Do you put your featured list in a sidebar? If so, do you also have a Recent Posts section?

Avoid putting super-important links in divs such as "sidebar" or "footer". Create a homepage that displays your important pages prominently.

Originally Posted by teachingking

5. What do you use for your homepage? Static Post? Static Page?

Static page, and set via Settings > Reading > Frontpage displays

Originally Posted by teachingking

6. Why do you make the blog permalinks different than the static pages?

Thanks again,
Aaron

Personal preference.

Thanks

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6197140].message }}

teachingking

12 years ago

Retsek,

Thanks again for the reply. Is there anyway I can contact you outside of this thread? I can't send you a PM because I don't have 50 posts yet.

Aaron

Thanks

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6197167].message }}

John Williamson

12 years ago

Congrats on your sale! I did the same thing a while back and had the same 'gut feeling' about the micro site Adsense model not being reliable for much longer, to the point where it kept me up at night sometimes, so I sold off most of my sites, but for much less money than you got. Very impressive.

Thanks

Signature

The Google Adwords Keyword Tool is hiding your valuable keywords!
OFFLINERS, Start using this simple technique and these 6 "weapons" today to get more clients and skyrocket your conversions! - FREE, no opt-in.
Make some money by helping me market this idea.

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6197201].message }}

retsek

12 years ago

Originally Posted by teachingking

Retsek,

Thanks again for the reply. Is there anyway I can contact you outside of this thread? I can't send you a PM because I don't have 50 posts yet.

Aaron

I don't sell seo services, if u have a question just ask here and i'll try to answer.

Check out sites like seomoz.org. There's years worth of killer free info and tactics there that still work today - there is some filler though.

If you're looking to buy SEO services the last place to look is forums like this. Just about everything in the warrior for hire and WSO section should be avoided. In most cases, you're better off spending that money on content and managing the seo by doing a bit yourself and outsourcing the rest -- in effect - become your own seo firm.

Thanks

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6197211].message }}

OneManSEO

12 years ago

Great info. I'll be back - slapping a comment in so I don't have to work too hard to find this post again.

Thanks

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6197217].message }}

danfac2012

12 years ago

How do you manage 400 sites? Did you build them from scratch? To get 75-90% traffic from Google is not an easy things to do. Do you purchase paid traffic?

Originally Posted by retsek

I just sold off 48 micro sites (about 3 - 10 pages each) in two private sales for $75,000 total. These sites are making 70k per year on 75-90% traffic from Google.

At one time I had almost 400 sites. These 48 were the last and the best of the lot. It was actually 56 at the start of the year, but 8 got dinged in the recent spate of google love letters. Those 8 all used BMR heavily.

So Why did I sell out?

I feel laser targeted sites like these will be in for some real problems in the very near future. I have no real evidence it will be so, it's just a gut feeling. Quality-wise these sites weren't bad at all. They all had custom designed themes and quality content. If you base it on bounce rate, time on site, and social sharing, you can say visitors were quite satisfied.

Now I didn't just off load what I think will be a problem to unsuspecting fools. I made it clear what they need to do - expand the sites that have room to grow and combine the closely related ones onto new or existing domains with 301s. The latter I feel is more necessary for the longerexactmatchdomains.com.

It's up to them to heed my advice or not. On the other side I may have given away a stable revenue source for short-term gains. I guess I'll know soon enough

.

Either way you put it, I just don't have the time or energy to treat these sites the way they should, so I've decided to cash out.

Now I still have 5 very large sites which bring the most of my income by far. I plan on putting 30k in the bank and using the remaining on content and links for these sites. First up is this great linkbait idea that's gonna cost me 3k alone just to code and design.

So, no more micro sites for me. Your thoughts?

P.S. please don't attack me

All i'm saying is that you might you want to find a middle ground where you fatten up your micro-niche sites a bit more versus adding/creating more sites to increase earnings. Take a measurement of how useful your current visitors are finding them. If you're ranked #1 or #2, ask yourself honestly if you deserve the spot because you have the best content or is it because you have an exact match domain and/or lotsa unnatural backlinks.

Thanks

Signature

Get Thousands Of Visitors Flooding Your Website Now!!!

(Coupon Code WARRIOR40 for 40% Discount)

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6197615].message }}

teachingking

12 years ago

Retsek,

No, problem. I had some more specific questions for you and didn't want to hijack the thread.

Anyway...

Do you create your Cat1 titles using specific high volume keywords/keyword phrases or are they more generic?

Do your blog categories ever match or level 1, 2, or 3 titles or is this a bad thing?

Also, would you be willing to critique the following "partial and rough" site structure using 'Obesity' as a hypothetical site topic? I think it is a bit of a mess. (I didn't include the blog, but that is assumed)

Lvl 0 - hxxp://howtoovercomeobesity.com

Lvl 1 - hxxp://howtoovercomeobesity.com/what-is-obesity
Lvl 2 - hxxp://howtoovercomeobesity.com/what-is-obesity/signs-and-symptoms-of-obesity
Lvl 2 - hxxp://howtoovercomeobesity.com/what-is-obesity/causes-of-obesity
Lvl 2 - hxxp://howtoovercomeobesity.com/what-is-obesity/obesity-tests
Lvl 2 - hxxp://howtoovercomeobesity.com/what-is-obesity/types-of-obesity
Lvl 3 - hxxp://howtoovercomeobesity.com/what-is-obesity/types-of-obesity/obesity-type-a
Lvl 3 - hxxp://howtoovercomeobesity.com/what-is-obesity/types-of-obesity/obesity-type-b

Lvl 1 - hxxp://howtoovercomeobesity.com/obesity-in-men
Lvl 2 - hxxp://howtoovercomeobesity.com/obesity-in-men/signs-and-symptoms-of-obesity-in-men
Lvl 2 - hxxp://howtoovercomeobesity.com/obesity-in-men/causes-of-obesity-in-men

Lvl 1 - hxxp://howtoovercomeobesity.com/obesity-in-women
Lvl 2 - hxxp://howtoovercomeobesity.com/obesity-in-men/signs-and-symptoms-of-obesity-in-women
Lvl 2 - hxxp://howtoovercomeobesity.com/obesity-in-men/causes-of-obesity-in-women

Lvl 1 - hxxp://howtoovercomeobesity.com/how-to-overcome-obesity
Lvl 2 - hxxp://howtoovercomeobesity.com/how-to-overcome-obesity/obesity-treatments
Lvl 3 - hxxp://howtoovercomeobesity.com/how-to-overcome-obesity/obesity-treatments/drug-a
Lvl 3 - hxxp://howtoovercomeobesity.com/how-to-overcome-obesity/obesity-treatments/drug-b
Lvl 3 - hxxp://howtoovercomeobesity.com/how-to-overcome-obesity/obesity-treatments/natural-treatments-for-obesity
Lvl 2 - hxxp://howtoovercomeobesity.com/how-to-overcome-obesity/natural-remedies-for-obesity
Lvl 3 - hxxp://howtoovercomeobesity.com/how-to-overcome-obesity/natural-remedies-for-obesity/herbs-for-obesity
Lvl 3 - hxxp://howtoovercomeobesity.com/how-to-overcome-obesity/natural-remedies-for-obesity/supplements-for-obesity
Lvl 3 - hxxp://howtoovercomeobesity.com/how-to-overcome-obesity/natural-remedies-for-obesity/excercise-for-obesity

Thanks again,
Aaron

Thanks

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6200962].message }}

retsek

12 years ago

First I wouldn't register a domain like howtoovercomeobsesity.com.

Try these:
ObesityHelp.com
OvercomingObsesity.com
Obesity"InsertUnique3-5LetterWordHere".com

You want to create a domain that you can brand. For example, I have an interest in Diabetes as my mother was recently diagnosed so I've been doing alot of reading and stuff. DiabetesMine.com is a good example of a site that has branded itself well in a health niche.

Edit: Ok, I just checked Diabetesmine.com's rankings and I don't see them anywhere for the term 'diabetes'. It doesn't even look like they are even trying to rank for that term. If they put a little effort, they can easily land Page 1.

In your examples the keywords are stuffed quite a bit.

Instead of:

Lvl 1 - hxxp://howtoovercomeobesity.com/obesity-in-men
Lvl 2 - hxxp://howtoovercomeobesity.com/obesity-in-men/signs-and-symptoms-of-obesity-in-men
Lvl 2 - hxxp://howtoovercomeobesity.com/obesity-in-men/causes-of-obesity-in-men

I would do:

Lvl 1 - hxxp://obesityhelp.com/men
Lvl 2 - hxxp://obesityhelp.com/men/signs-and-symptoms
Lvl 2 - hxxp://obesityhelp.com/men/causes

Do you create your Cat1 titles using specific high volume keywords/keyword phrases or are they more generic?

My Cat1 titles aren't keywords and are generic. I don't want users from search landing on category pages of this health site. So they don't really target any keywords and their purpose is purely navigational.

However, it does depend on the topic and so there are exceptions. For example, Let's say the site is OldSchoolGames.com. My cat1 pages would be FPS, RPG, Racing, Sports, etc. I'd want the FPS category page to rank for "FPS games". I'd also have a second level of navigation using Tags to definite "Playstation", "XBox", "NES", "Nintendo", etc. And i'd want those to rank for "Playstation Games", etc - with my site title included so visitors know I focus on the old school.

Thanks

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6201055].message }}

TheDollar

12 years ago

Nice going! I am just starting site flipping so it's good hearing these stories. I've never worked with micro niche sites but I've heard they are really good for making money by flipping.

Thanks

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6201071].message }}

teachingking

12 years ago

So in the example below, are we looking at article/page titles of 'Men' (level 1) and 'Signs and Symptoms' (level 2)? This doesn't seem specific enough.

Lvl 2 - hxxp://obesityhelp.com/men/signs-and-symptoms

Also, are we assuming a google penalty for overly stuffed URLs?

Thanks

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6201095].message }}

retsek

12 years ago

I think it is. Your titles would, of course be more descriptive of what the content is. You really don't need the word obesity repeated 3 times.

Thanks

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6201288].message }}

teachingking

12 years ago

So the page name/permalink 'Men' doesn't have to match the page/article title 'Obesity in Men'?

For some reason, I thought it was important they match.

Thanks again,
Aaron

Thanks
1 reply

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6201369].message }}

retsek

12 years ago

Originally Posted by teachingking

So the page name/permalink 'Men' doesn't have to match the page/article title 'Obesity in Men'?

For some reason, I thought it was important they match.

Thanks again,
Aaron

Nope they don't have to.

Look the Page 1 results for "Obesity in Men". Only 2 of the 10 have those three words in that exact order in their url. And those two are at the bottom of the page.

Repetitive stuff like this throughout an entire site will get it in trouble with Penguin. Many posting here saying "they did nothing wrong but still lost rankings...Google is EVIL" often overlook stuff like this.

[ 1 ] Thanks

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6202038].message }}

knish

12 years ago

It sounds like you made quite a bit of profit on your domains. Congratulations. I wish I was built up that solid that I could do that.

Thanks

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6202006].message }}

teachingking

12 years ago

Retsek,

I did check out diabetesmine.com. Do you know of any other websites that provide good examples of the silo structure/layout you advocate? (I assume you don't wish to share your own)

As for the domain name, do you prefer something more "brandable" strictly for resale purposes? Won't an EMD perform better in terms of seo?

Also, let me know if you ever decide to do any personal coaching.

Thanks again for the help. I appreciate it.

Aaron

Thanks
1 reply

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6202184].message }}

yukon

Banned 12 years ago

Originally Posted by teachingking

Retsek,

I did check out diabetesmine.com. Do you know of any other websites that provide good examples of the silo structure/layout you advocate? (I assume you don't wish to share your own)

As for the domain name, do you prefer something more "brandable" strictly for resale purposes? Won't an EMD perform better in terms of seo?

Also, let me know if you ever decide to do any personal coaching.

Thanks again for the help. I appreciate it.

Aaron

Amazon is a perfect example of a virtual silo, by virtual I mean the sites hyperlinks change in the left sidebar depending on what category your currently looking at & what your shopping for on the site.

Never mind that Amazon is a huge site, that's irrelevant, you can build a small 50 page site with the exact same strategy. You can scale each individual silo as large or small as needed. The key is relevancy between all pages that you group together. Keyword themes are important, use multiple keywords from the same subject.

A silo is basically taking traffic & search bots by the hand & leading them down a pre-planned path towards your ultimate goal (sale, email optin, whatever...).

[ 3 ] Thanks

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6202966].message }}

GetSomeDollar

12 years ago

Well done. Congrats on the sale and great timing!

Thanks

Signature

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6203232].message }}

ginder

12 years ago

Obviously this worked out great for you, so why change your strategy. Why not do the same thing you did to get those 48 sites making 70k a year. Maybe instead of selling them off or keeping them "micro" expand the sites.

I dont understand why people dont expand their sites which are clearly performing well. You are leaving a lot of money on the table if you dont expand your winners!

Thanks

Signature

Cant Make Money With Your MNS? Read Our Live Case Study With MNS & Authority Niche Sites

Buy Our Authority Niche Websites For Less Than The Price Of MNS

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6203816].message }}

Fraggler

12 years ago

Ginder, did you not read the reason and the inevitable result on the first page?

Sure, expand a site that is built solidly and 'white hat' but when you are forcing results (manipulating Google) you have to always be aware of your opportunities. I held onto a site that I was offered $30k for because it was financially a bad deal but I was soon to be shown how foolish I was. This was for the first site I ever built for making money so it was the site I learnt with. It still had many bad decisions pointing to it from years ago and they eventually came back to bite me on the bum.

Thanks

Signature

- Stop Wasting Time & Money on Traffic!
- You Can't Improve What You Don't Measure
- Why You Should Create Separate Desktop and Mobile Google Adwords Campaigns

Connect with me on LinkedIn

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6203936].message }}

teachingking

12 years ago

Retesk,

So I ditched the EMD in favor of something much more brandable.

Where and how to you use breadcrumbs?

Also, which related post plugin do you use?

Thanks again,
Aaron

Thanks
1 reply

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6206971].message }}

retsek 12 years ago

Originally Posted by teachingking

Retesk,

So I ditched the EMD in favor of something much more brandable.

Where and how to you use breadcrumbs?

Best place is where users expect it. That's usually between the top navigational menu and the content page title (or your H1 tag).

I use the Yoast Wordpress SEO plugin. It's great, but it includes a breadcrumbs fuction which I disable. For breadcrumbs, I use this instead:
WordPress › RDFa Breadcrumb « WordPress Plugins

It creates RDFa mark up that is readable by both Google and Bing. If you create an HTML breadcrumb, it takes them a while (several months, years) before they start showing. With RDFa and Google, it usually happens the next time your page is cached.

Having your breadcrumbs in SERPs increases click through rate. The same goes for having rel=author.

Originally Posted by teachingking

Also, which related post plugin do you use?

Thanks again,
Aaron

I've found this one to be the best in that you can edit the display and specify which posts and pages should be in the pool of "relatedness".

WordPress › Similar Posts « WordPress Plugins

You'll also need this one, so you can have dynamic content in your sidebar. For example, you don't want to displaying a silo lists on your homepage or on categories.

WordPress › Widget Logic « WordPress Plugins
- [ 1 ] Thanks
- 1 reply
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6207021].message }}
- teachingking 12 years ago
  
  Having your breadcrumbs in SERPs increases click through rate. The same goes for having rel=author.
  
  Would you mind elaborating on rel=author?
  
  Thanks
  
  1 reply
  
  {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6208740].message }}
  
  retsek 12 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by teachingking
  
  Would you mind elaborating on rel=author?
  
  It's how you mark up your page so that the author's google+ profile & pic show up in SERPs alongside their articles. It gives more visibility and thus increases click through rate. Also helps if you're not ugly. j/king.
  
  Here's:
  http://yoast.com/wordpress-rel-author-rel-me/
  
  Authorship markup - YouTube
  
  Thanks
  
  {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6208760].message }}

Tjalling

12 years ago

I think you made a great decision. Many adsense accounts are getting banned. It's pretty hard to make Adsense sites at the moment in my opinion.

Thanks

Signature

Paleo ontbijt

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6208225].message }}

teachingking

12 years ago

Thanks...not too ugly

I'm playing around with RDFa. So far I've added it to the page template. It shows up, but the background is black, which doesn't work. Do I have change this in the code? It doesn't appear their is any GUI interface.

I assume you don't use breadcrumbs on the blog.

Thanks,
Aaron

Thanks

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6208840].message }}

teachingking

12 years ago

It appears that Breadcrumb NAVXT is much more compatible with flexsqueeze. I guess that will have to do.

Thanks

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6219047].message }}

owlfowl

12 years ago

Congrats, you're genius. Now people will love micro niche more than before.

Thanks

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6222140].message }}

Danny Woolard

12 years ago

How long are your articles for the lowest tier pages?

Thanks
1 reply

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6425008].message }}

retsek 12 years ago

Originally Posted by denutza

How long are your articles for the lowest tier pages?

It varies ...depending on the topic. Some topics warrant 2500 words or more, while others much less.

With Panda, I try to ensure that no lower tier page has less than 300 words. They usually average around 750.
- Thanks
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6427146].message }}

Just sold 48 "Micro Sites" for $75,000.

Trending Topics

Should i Index Author pages?

best high quality crypto traffic.

Some interesting stats about brand comms

What's the Best IM-Related Skill to Learn Today That Can Help in the Future?

Fixing a massive traffic drop after rebranding