The clock is ticking .. no not THAT clock.
I’m probably fairly slow to know who some people are online, but being a member of the secret forum The Pond I ran across someone called Fraser Cain.
For those that don’t know (although I suspect most of you do), Fraser is the webmaster (is that the correct term these days) of the über popular blog Universe Today.
According to statistics it get’s 100,000 visitors per day. Yes you read that right. 100,000 PER DAY!
Fraser’s main method of getting this traffic is not backlinking, guestposting or writing articles on other web 2.0′s or other sites; it’s simply to write more keyword focused quality content for his own website.
By writing more content for his own site he has effectively build a behemoth of a site that contains anything you wanted to know about space, physics, the universe and more.
Without building a single backlink.
Impressive.
Of course he does have millions of backlinks which he has gained over the many years that the site has been running (and I’ve just given him another one). But these have come from other’s linking to him, he didn’t actively acquire these links himself.
All of this has got me questioning my current method of getting traffic which is write a post, build some backlinks to it (using something like BMR) and move to another blog (Yes I know I have too many blogs to keep up with).
A method while reasonably successful, has not gotten me to the levels that I really want online.
So are building backlinks a waste of time?
Should I instead be focusing any spare time I have (spare time – ha!) to focusing on just ONE website and building up content on that site exclusively.
I already use a method of keyword selection on my blogs (not on THIS site though obviously) so that isn’t new to me, and I do (for the most part) try to make the posts that I write informative, entertaining, and useful.
But what I don’t do is really take the time to build ONE site up and build lots and lots and lots of content for it for every conceivable keyword I can think of.
I’m starting to think that that’s what I should be doing.
Not spending a week here and a week there writing the odd post on my many blogs. Which by the way I have been getting much better at – I’ve recently let about 50 domains ‘expire’ because I just don’t have the time for them.
And not spending any time on HubPages, Squidoo, Wizzley, Blogger or other web 2.0 site either.
But my own site.
But which one? Which one do I focus on? I’ve got so many babies (website babies that is, not real babies of which I only have two) I don’t even know which ones I should even pick to build up.
This one?
My Simple Rules Site since it promotes my books? Any of my many affiliate sites (and no I’m not linking to my good ones from here).
Man, I just don’t know.
But what I do know is that I think Fraser Cain is a genius. I’m thinking his method is more and more the way I want to go.
I’m starting to really believe that backlinks ARE a waste of time. Really.
Thoughts?
Hi Tracey, nice idea but…
You have to remember that Fraser targeted a niche that has no emphasis on selling anything. Its a science niche that naturally has a lot of geeky followers (yeah, I’ve been a keen amateur astronomer since I was a kid) and that means a good, well written site that covers interesting aspects of that niche is going to do well naturally.
In the early days of Fraser’s site, I bet he naturally attracted visits for lots of unusual long tails with zero competition. Just writing a good post would guarantee the page ranked for its title because no one else would be writing about it. But plenty of people interested in that subject would be searching those terms. Other website owners would naturally link to it because the articles were good.
For anyone targeting a niche where we have to sell stuff, its a totally different ball game. Name any niche you want. There will be a hundred people trying to rank for every long tail imaginable and they will be actively building their own links. You go ahead and write a great post, it won’t rank because there is competition and no one will link to it because other website owners ARE the competition!
So I say, if you want to work a niche where you want to sell something, you don’t have the luxury Fraser enjoyed when he built up his site. I bet if he tried to build that site from scratch right now, it would NOT be so successful because there would be competition for adsense clicks. His methods worked for HIM back then. They may not work for YOU now.
So say’th Mr Weight Loss, who knows damn well that even with the really big, authority site I have, I still won’t rank for anything I don’t build some links to. Granted, I need fewer links to beat the competition now… and I do have a ton of quality content that I put into the site. But I still have to be proactive and DO something.
Terry, that’s a good point that now competition is much more fierce than it was 10 years ago.
But if your competition is actively building links all the time, then if you try and match that and get more – it’s a constant race, never ending. It’s that race that I’m stick of playing.
You are right that it should be a mix of both, but I think Fraser’s main points is that the reason he doesn’t backlink (apart from the time it takes) is that he can’t control where those backlinks end up. I guess if we are using our own support sites then we have full control and isn’t this a better alternative to using networks such as BMR where we don’t have that control and could disappear at any stage?
I know backlinking works but is it the best way to go now that social metrics and personalised search is the way forward? I just don’t know the answer ..
I replied to Fraser further down and talked about how I get my backlinks to my main site. It IS from my own network so I do control them.
Its not a never ending battle either. I just took over a week off (long time in IM and a really bad time with Christmas looming) with acute conjunctivitis – I could barely read what was on my bloody laptop screen LOL! No link building and I didn’t lose any ranking (even gained in some areas which is interesting!)
But your also right about trying to figure out the best way to go forward. I still have a feeling the social metrics thing is a smokescreen to send SEOs up the wrong path. My feeling is the authority site is definitely the way and a branded one all the better.
But tomorrow it could all change. Interesting job we do, innit?
Hi Terry,
I actually like the way you are building up your main weightloss site with support sites that you can control. I think this is more the direction I was meaning – in that this way you can control your links rather than using services like BMR. My main issue with BMR right now is that it has become SO popular. Everyone seems to be using it and when the masses jump on board I get nervous and want to jump out quickly. Too many passengers sink the ship.
I still like the ‘idea’ of Fraser’s method but like you mentioned I’m not sure how practical it is when you are in a competitive niche. I’d rather do what most others are not prepared to do and that’s the work. If that work and content is on my own sites and I’m writing great content that’s link worthy that seems to me to be a much better (safer) way to work imo.
But yes definitely this ranking thing is complicated business
What’s a backlink?
Just kidding.
Tracey this is a tough call to make. I agree with Terry but I also agree with you. You NEED the authority first, and that means links. Natural or hand-made, you still need them to begin with.
There is definitely a mystical tipping point though. You build up a certain amount of trust and then you can just write content on your site and do minimal backlinks. If you already have that authority then your time is better spent just writing on-site content.
But for sites without authority?
Maybe after 5 years of writing a ton of content it will gain the authority without you having backlinked. I don’t know.
But for earnings now and not at some point down the line I think backlinks are still where it is at.
But what do I know?
I don’t have sites old enough to know what will happen 5 or 10 years down the line.
Dave, I do have some sites that are 5 years plus and they do well with minimal backlinking (I may have written some articles for ezinearticles for them back then but that’s about all I did). Those stupid little sites that I had no idea what I was doing 6 or 7 years ago (but I haven’t really built up) are ranking better than sites that I actively backlink now. They aren’t optimized, some of them have stupid domain names but they seem to just plod along. One of them only has a few articles on it and regularly makes me over $150 a month and I haven’t touched it for years. I’ve never bothered about it much since it isn’t a huge earner (although if you count 150+ per month over 6 years that’s over $10k which is awesome passive income).
I don’t really want to build it up because I’m not sure there is more money to be made, but it has made me think since it ranks so well for it’s terms and I haven’t really backlinked it at all.
So I’m just wondering if it’s worth my time anymore to build backlinks when I could concentrate my efforts on other factors like content instead?
But I just don’t know ..
I would tend to agree with Dave and Terry. Of course you could build 2 sites targeting the same keyword as an experiment and backlink one and not the other. That would probably answer a lot of questions.
My first thought as I read your post was about the 50 domains you let expire. I have never sold a site but I like to look at the Flippa auctions. It appears that a ton of sites sell with little content and little revenue. I was wondering if you could have possibly made $100+ for each domain?
Steve, I tried selling some of the domains but no-one was interested
They were pretty spammy exact match domains that I had no interest in keeping so it’s no big loss (I didn’t even want them for the age since many of them had penalties up the wazoo).
Just want to add my 2 cents: here’s a post from KS https://www.keywordstrategy.org/1020/heres-exactly-what-your-traffic-should-look-like/
I asked Fraser about these websites and he replied that 2 of them are brand new…
LOL, I wish my traffic looked like that .. a nice steady increase over time would be awesome.
I don’t see why it has to be content or backlinks -do both. But maybe 80% content and 20% backlinks all on one site.
I think the focusing on one site may be the biggest factor.
Yes I think you’ve hit my main point in that I don’t focus on one site. I’m all over the place.
The reason I continue to do it is that it brings in a nice income. But I’m starting to think I could have done much better just concentrating on ONE site. Or perhaps I wouldn’t have? And if I do just choose one site going forward which one do I choose?
I also agree that you still need to do both – but I’m thinking I’d rather control the backlinks with support sites rather than use web 2.0′s or BMR which I can’t control.
I am going to focus on content. and if I can get a backlink in there from time to time, then so be it.
I just have this feeling that google is going to up the ante on content and downgrade backlinks. no proof of course but plus-ones are a start and social shares, etc
I just know that I don’t want to pay for backlinks. So, I have to do them myself and I have to use my time wisely
I’m inclined to agree that over time backlinks as we currently know them will become less and less important. They’ll still play their part of course but I think the days of using article directories (and that includes places like BMR which in essence is really just a big blog article directory) will become less effective over time.
If there are other, better, ways to get traffic I’m all for it.
Thanks for the article Tracey, I’m glad to at least shake up your thought process.
A little history is in order, because that might give you more perspective.
I founded Universe Today back in 1999, and ran it mostly solo until 2008. Every article I wrote would get a huge boost in traffic from my readers and then it would drop back down to 0 a few days later. In order to keep the traffic going, I had keep writing – sometimes 10 articles a day.
I was getting a total of 1,500 search visitors a day from articles that randomly matched search terms.
And then in 2008 my daughter asked me “what’s the biggest star in the Universe?” I didn’t know the answer so I researched it and decided to write an article with the answer. You can Google “biggest star” if you want to see my first keyword-targeted article.
This article performed differently than normal. It got the initial boost of readers, but then it was bringing in several hundred readers a day. It’s still one of the most popular articles on my site.
So then I tried to see if I could make lightning strike twice. I wrote an article about why Pluto isn’t a planet any more, and it gave me a big boost in traffic too.
At that point I just started adding hundreds of articles to my site, mixed in with the regular news articles I was writing. And my traffic took off. I’m now at the point that I get 100,000 search visitors a day.
But I was concerned that all this traffic came to my site because it already had a lot of authority. Would this work for a brand new site?
So I started a second website with my wife. It was a mixture of educational keyword targeted stuff and general musings from my wife. The site is 3 years old now, and gets about 5,000 search visitors a day with 250 articles. She doesn’t really like to work on it much (she works in a toy store and prefers the company of human beings), so it could have many more articles. But my point is, it showed the same overall growth as those sites that atma pointed at.
Here’s the takeaway. You could create a website that earns you money, and fully complies with Google’s policies. You can make the internet better, and improve peoples’ lives and still be able to make a profit.
Oh, and Keyword Strategy is the database I built with my partner to organize all those keywords, track the traffic and rank, figure out the internal links, get more keyword ideas, etc.
Hi Fraser,
Thanks for dropping by (I was hoping you would). You’ve definitely shaken up my thinking so now it’s a matter of what I do forward from here. I like the idea of a steady increase in traffic over time although I’m not sure how well it would do in some niches depending on the competition. That’s what I’ve got to figure out. But I’ll certainly be moving towards much content and only concentrating on a handful of sites from now (I’ve been thinking about that for some time anyway, so discovering you has solidified my direction more).
Tracey xx
You have to look at competition from a long term point of view. You choose a niche because you have something important to offer the world, not because it’s easier.
I’ve already chosen my niche, personal finance, as I have written books on the topic and feel I have something to offer. But it’s a high competition niche with many established players already. I’m not sure how many sites Google is prepared to give traffic to on the same subject matter especially if there are already many authority sites on the subject. I’d like to think it could work well, and of course the only way to find out is to write articles and find out, but it means a change in thinking from building up many sites and backlinking them like I do now.
The main issue is my current method of working IS successful. So changing what I do would require a leap of faith. i am however optimistic that this is where I should head.
Tracey even though that is a very competitive niche. You will still gain lots of traffic over time if you produce lots of content that will pick up those long tails. I think the best way to do this is to pump out lots of 1k plus word
Articles that are geared towards the reader and not the search engines. Let your passion be ur guide
Hi Fraser,
I actually love looking in at Universe Today every now and then and really admire what you’ve put together on there. Its a great site. I can see how it would have grown over its many years because of the way in which you have approached its natural growth.
Even starting a site 3 years ago, which is about the same time I got into the weight loss niche (for better or for worse), it was possible to build it up slowly through posting great content regularly and it would attract natural backlinks from other site owners.
This method works better in some niches while in others it works less well and still others it simply won’t.
Maybe a little of my history might shed some light on where I’m coming from…
My history goes back even further to 1996 when I put up my first website promoting my hypnotherapy practice. Back then I had no idea how to promote it and naturally it didn’t attract a lot of interest despite my writing some long, professional articles on the subject. I let it stagnate and die, unfortunately.
I worked a lot with weight loss patients, which is why I got into that niche more recently as a full time thing. I have the knowledge and professional experience in working with overweight people so its not as if I’m idly writing about white, blue and red socks and claiming to be an authority.
I stay away from the spammy side of things and have built a decent, quality site from the ground up. Its all me in there, no outsourced junk. I’m pretty sure a big part of why my site ranks well for certain keywords in that niche is thanks to its quality of content. I attract around 3k visitors a day to that site and people do read the articles and leave a lot of real comments (the ones without a url in the box). But it has needed links to rank highly for certain very competitive terms. Links that I would not have attracted naturally from site owners in the same niche.
I have a few reciprocal deals done but only with sites that have similar authority or that rank well in areas of the niche I’m not targeting. The rest of the way up has been through link building.
But this part is where I differ from most IM’ers…
While I have used services such as postrunner and BMR in the past (but no longer), the bulk of that link building went directly to my own network of sites that I have hand-built, again with original, well written content. These satellite sites are the ones that send quality links to my main site. In this sense, I totally control the links that go to that site. Tracey mentioned about not having control over links. I don’t have that problem.
The amount of work it took (and still takes) to build that substantial network of satellites would floor most people coming into IM. Most people simply have no idea how much writing is involved in this kind of undertaking.
But while it has been a lot of work, it has been worth it for two reasons.
One it has secured a fairly stable and rising full time income and
Two, it displaces the amount of work I probably would have done anyway had I been working for someone else at a J-O-B.
What I do is not exactly passive, but more on-going maintenance while I continue to grow by branching out into other areas of the niche. Its a huge one! I don’t think you can create true passive income where you can literally sit back in your rocking chair and watch the cheques being delivered to your door. There is always something that needs doing. But even if you aim for a high level of passivity, you are stunting your own growth and that is not for me. With me its grow or die.
Fraser, my point is that we all have our own way of working and what works for you in astronomy, will in all likelihood not work for me in weight loss. That’s not to say that either method is wrong, they’re just better suited to different niches.
Its for people who look to link building or not link building as their way forward to decide what’s best for their chosen niche. Either way, quality content building is (and always was) the most effective way of building long term authority for any site no matter the niche.
Anyway, I seem to have taken a break from writing to, um, write this. I’ll stop before it gets too long.
Tracey, thanks for the oppo to open up a little!
Gawd in 1996 I didn’t even know what a website was, I was playing around on bulletin boards I think! And thought email was cool!
So you guys both have it on me, I really took a decade more to figure out there were some opportunities here.
I agree that niches are very, very different. I think Google also treats them differently. But so do your visitors. Your visitors may be delighted at your content and comment – but they don’t have wewbsites – even if they have a blogspot blog – they don’t know that sending you a link is the best “thank you”.
Science geeks have both blogs and the desire to talk about and link to other sites – they may call it a citation – but Google will call it a link!
And the second site – well if my friend’s start new sites I link to them too don’t I? Whether or not they ask me to?
Hello Tracey,
I will have to say that I totally agree and have known this for quite sometime because my husband has such a blog that gets on average 3-5K visits a day simply because he only focused on building high quality content and over the years others have linked to this site because for one alot of his articles are contravesal (sp LOL) or very popular in nature. He got so much traffic one day because of an article he wrote that he crashed my server because I have his blog hosted on my server. I was really mad because I lost alot of business that day for one of my sites. I think he got about a half million hits that day. This was back earlier this summer.
I believe that is the key to long term success with any site. I do believe that IF we are NOT in a hurry to rank and MAKE THE MONEY and only focus on high quality content on our own sites, we can all achieve ths.
But in the IM world, sometimes that i not the case. The focus is getting the golden niche and driving traffic as quick as you can so that you can make money as quick as you can, leaving you no choice but to build links by artificial means rather than others naturally linking to you because of your quality content.
I for one have been guilty of this but decided last month to finally build out my name sake site into quality site that will have valuable content. I know it will take a while but I am willing to see it through.
Tracey, thanks for bringing this up. I have been thinking about this alot lately.
Hi Dee,
half a million hits in one day – whoa! that’s a lot of traffic.
I agree with you that many of us in the IM world are in too much of a hurry to rank and that means less than stellar content and spammy backlinks in an effort for some quick money. But those sites seem to burn out quickly.
So then it’s what is best? Some quick money that’s not sustainable long term or a site that takes ages to bring in some money but will last you many years? Or maybe it’s a combination of both?
Ah this game get’s more confusing the more you immerse yourself in it
t
Hi Tracey,
I am kind in the same boat with spreading myself out over too many websites
But I am also a Keyword Strategy user since it was in beta and can really say that this approach works, I haven’t build any backlinks since, uh, oh, don’t remember and my visitors and income go up. My main problem is to focus on writing more articles, I get so easily distracted with other stuff, both online as well as offline. But I did start a new website on a new domain several months ago using only the KST method and have now an average of 100 visitors / day and increasing. That might not sound like much, but as I have only 15 articles published so far, that is not too bad 
I really encourage you to check it out for yourself, it is so much more fun (and so much more lucrative also) to write for your own site, SY
you have 100 visitors a day on 15 pages? Wow that is impressive! Do you think that had to do with the niche you are in? Are others linking to you? Sorry for so many questions, just trying to get my head around it.
t
The niche is some how a specific topic in the home and garden area, sorry, I don’t want to be more specific
It is certainly and information niche, and whilst people are looking for products to help with the problem, this is only a minor part. No backlinks so far, but already a few people commenting, all traffic basically from search engines. Hope that helps 
BTW, I don’t know how you are about self-promo in your comments, but I am writing at the moment a ‘Keyword Strategy Tips’ series on my blog, hint, hint 
@hospitalera that is awesome. Some time ago when I was still new to IM I befriended a lady in the nicheblogger who I still talk to almost on a daily basis. I think it is very helpful to connect with someone that you can trust and bounce ideas off of. She has shown me some of her sites and I have shown mine to her.
I think that is important to have an accountability partner since the IM world can be lonely and even if you do connect with others via forums and blogs, it’s really hard to know who to trust but one thing I do know and realize you have to take a risk and trust some one. Who you do trust is up to you. But for me it has helped my business tremendously. Dave(zen duck) is also one of those people that I trust.
It was just the other day I was sharing with my master mind partner that I was feeling stuck and I wrote out a list of sites I was working on. She helped me make sense of it and to regain my focus because I was getting a little overwhelmed. and she also helped me to spark some ideas to sharpen my focus on just 3 sites to target right now.
I just wanted to share hoping this would help someone.
Good tip Dee, I have an online friend like this also
Plus I tend to do a bit of public accountability by posting things about it on my blog 
SY
Tracey, one more tip for this site, you need a plugin that allows people to subscribe to new comments on a blog post they have commented on (free: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/subscribe-to-double-opt-in-comments/) this way you can engage your visitors more and they will come back more easily to further engage in the conversation. It is really tedious to keep manually track of the posts you have commented on and to check every few days if somebody has something new to say. SY