Currently I have a diversified, three-prong approach:
1) Create Niche sites (7500 words of content), in new niches.
2) Create new silos (7500 words of content each) for existing sites with high RPMs on long-tail.
3) Create new authority sites in known strong niches.
Let me explain my reasoning a bit more.
Stage 1 – Creating New Niche Sites in Unexplored Niches
This is where I put the least content, as niche sites for me now exist merely to test the waters on a niche. By test, I mean see if I can rank, and when I do, see what kind of RPMs I am getting on Adsense. To me a decent RPM is $100+ on longish tail content. The issue here is that you’re looking at 6 months before getting decent earnings, which means a 9 month minimum timeline on a flip. I also no longer build out EMDs/PMDs but start them out on a fairly generic domain, thinking about branding to a demographic first and foremost. This allows me to later work with these sites on Phases 2 and 3.
Stage 2 – Creating New Silos for Existing Earners
This is where I put the majority of my content. The main reason being I can skip the sandbox and see earnings off this content month 1. Just like my old business model, if I can see a 100% month to month ROI in just 2 months, I’ve got a nice, scalable site. The 2 metrics that pivot off of each other are page RPM, and # of page views per unit of content. Again I like to look at longish tail here, but if one is very high, the other is fairly low. Longish tail in a strong niche is $120 RPM, and 100 pageviews/mo per unit of content, so $12/mo in earnings (which at 15x flip brings in $180 per unit of content).
Stage 3 – Create New Authority Sites in Known Strong Niches
This is the final phase and what I’m just testing out now. I take the strongest niches and create authority sites (1000+ pages) on them. The goal here is to have a demo-focused magazine-style site and to capture leads by building a list and social profiles. Ultimately I aim to turn these into real sites that make income off of their lists, and eventually sell advertising directly on an RPM basis (which is far better than Adsense when you’re dealing with lots of returning visitors). Of course I’d also look into other forms of monetization through my own products if there’s a good fit. The flip multiples on this type of site is also massive (3 years as opposed to 20 months), but finding the right buyer may take time.
If you’re just starting out, I suggest building out a few Stage 1 sites per month for the first 4 months, while building out or accessing a PBN through the Links for Life program (what all interns and PTC graduates get access to). This may seem like a lot, but you will actually need these aged sites later. Even if you don’t, I predict people in the near future paying a premium for aged sites in order to skip the sandbox. Once you have aged sites ranking and earning, you can work on Stage 2, and once you’ve found some really strong earners in Stage 2, you can convert some of your Stage 1 sites into Stage 3 sites.
As of August 2014, the internship currently teaches all of the above, along with a couple keyword research technique, some experiment viral content techniques, and how to find, and develop your PBN (with access to my spam checker pre-populated with DA25+ available domains, enough to setup your own mini-network!). If you’re on the fence, I highly recommend you sign up as I’m positive this will be the best internship to date!
How do you approach your build outs? Anything you think I can improve? Comment below!
Mark G. says:
Love all the new content on the blog. I have a couple of questions.
If you are building a stage 1 site, it is obviously going to be narrowly focused. If, as we hope, it shows great promise and it ends up potentially as a stage 2 or stage 3 site, do we simply widen the scope as needed? Say if the original site is about camping, the bigger site could be about all outdoor activities?
Concerning the internship, are the next couple of sessions likely to be similar? I want to participate in the August one but am not sure I will be able to. Also, the page about the internships lists both a $500 deposit, and a $250 one. could you clarify which one is correct? Thanks
GregNunan says:
Hi Mark, will get that about page fixed. It’s a $500 refundable deposit for the Internship ($250 was for a far different iteration from the start of 2014).
As for taking a site from stage 1 to stage 2, yes that’s exactly the idea, which is why going with a fairly generic initial domain is important. e.g. rather than the initial domain being “CampingEquipmentGuide.com” (fairly specific) a more flexible domain such as “OutdoorsGuide.com” is the way to go.
Stephen says:
Nice. Looking forward to the August internship.
GregNunan says:
We’re looking forward to it too Stephen!
Koen van Emden says:
Thanks Hayden for all the infomation on your blog. I’ve been following you along for quiete some time now and have seen succes on my own sites for a few monhts now.
I’ve been wondering one thing about the internship. Ofcourse I understand that you get a ton of value, but can you keep the sites you make? Or, how does that work?
Kind regards,
Koen
Scott Davis says:
Hey Koen, the PTC option allows you to keep the sites you build. The internship allows you learn everything we know for free by applying the training we give give you by working on our sites. We have a heap of info on both the PTC and internships here: https://hq.nohatseo.com/
Noah says:
Thanks for the post- I’ve been writing content for a new site and was hoping to move from stage 1 to 2 with it, but didn’t even think about how building out a few niche sites at the same time to test the waters would show which one(s) to focus on. Was hoping to do something apart from Adsense, so don’t know how to measure success. Stage 3 didn’t even occur to me.
I’m locked in for the August internship and stupidly excited about covering all this and more.
GregNunan says:
August internship sounds like great timing for you Noah. Look forward to taking you through the training.