Thread: $100 Per Month Case Study

Originally Posted by javanx3d

12/21 Update

What I’ve Done:
Proceeding on the content development plan. All 18 articles are > 500 words. Average length is 800, longest is > 1100 words

I don't think that Panda is targeting the article length. The updates appear to be focusing on duplicate content, spun content, unorginal "me too" articles and SEo keyword content (where the website has multiple versions of the same materical each targeting a different keyword). The original Panda was called the Farmer update that targeted content farms. So that gives you a lot of clues.

Most of ny sites that were affected by Panda had duplicate content issues that triggered the penalty.

Overall Panda seems to me to be about duplicate content penalties and assigning authority.

Originally Posted by javanx3d

Facebook Fan Page Creation – Done. One off post in addition to auto article syndication using Networked Blogs (found through Facebook Search).

Originally Posted by javanx3d

Search Engine Lessons:
Bing and Yahoo picked up the main content same day as posting.
Once I started syndicating to Facebook, Google started indexing content on the same day. Note, don’t know if this is just accidental or because of the Facebook page.

I thought about this a few minutes. It seems that the Networked Blogs feed is being picked up by Google and they may be giving it more importance. Because, they don't have direct access to the FaceBook feed and Edge Rank. Whereas, Bing and FaceBook have an alliance and FaceBook shares more information with Microsoft Bing/Yahoo.

Well, a few things have pushed me to go with longer posts on this site from the start. First was of the two sites that I just have not been able to recover fully from Panda on (if it was really Panda and not some other algorithmic change), the only common factor I've found is that they have a fair amount of content well left of 500 words (on each). Course, these same 2 sites had some linkbuilding done on a blog network that I believe is "outed" now too...(teach me to post > 1-2 articles to the same site on any one network again!!!) so who knows....

Second - Looking back over the past year to two years, most of the money articles I've had were > 400 words in length.

So, it was pretty easy to add the minimal cost to set a 500 word or more goal and stick to it.

Regardless of those factors, the tactic really seems to be hitting the long tail here early which is cool. Hitting > 50 uniques for 3 days and counting now (not counting today). Trending up and we're not even 1/2 a month in yet! Maybe we'll be able to add a 0 to the visitors by this time next month!

Next update after Santa takes care of the rest of his "shopping"!

Originally Posted by javanx3d

Regardless of those factors, the tactic really seems to be hitting the long tail here early which is cool. Hitting > 50 uniques for 3 days and counting now (not counting today). Trending up and we're not even 1/2 a month in yet! Maybe we'll be able to add a 0 to the visitors by this time next month!

Whatever works is good. I like to mix up the lengths with some articles as little as 200 words and some 1000+ words.

I really don't have an opinion on what length is best.

Originally Posted by javanx3d

Well, a few things have pushed me to go with longer posts on this site from the start. First was of the two sites that I just have not been able to recover fully from Panda on (if it was really Panda and not some other algorithmic change), the only common factor I've found is that they have a fair amount of content well left of 500 words (on each).

With regards to Panda, the common denominator with a few of my sites that have been Panda-ized has been duplicate content.

One of my sites that has been Panda-ized has a mix of article lengths. There are quite a few articles 1000+ words. The site had been Panda-ized for over six months. But is a minor Panda-isation. The homepage doesn't show up for any of the main keywords. I added a new homepage 1000+ words and the site still hasn't recovered. But I'm still making money on the longtails. So, that's a good reason to have meaty articles. The duplicate content is what is killing me. I double-posted a few articles on another site and found that around 10 sites have stolen some of my content. I just removed the double-posted artices and replaced with new ones and filed take down notices in the stolen content. Hoping for a recovery after the new year! But not holding my breath.

Originally Posted by javanx3d

Second - Looking back over the past year to two years, most of the money articles I've had were > 400 words in length.


So, it was pretty easy to add the minimal cost to set a 500 word or more goal and stick to it.

I have a site making between $350-$750 a month and all the articles are between 300-350 words and the site has less than 10 pages.

My best earning web page ever contained minimal content, and it still generates revenue over a decade later. I was shocked how much it made when Adsense paid well (it was about 50% of my full time income from the day job). So I have to agree that it is not vital to have long content, just authoritative content.

In some cases it is hard to write a lot anyway. For a new blog, I think it may help to gain readers if the content is longer since 300 words is only a few paragraphs. The most successful bloggers seem to write long posts.

On the other side of the coin, there's an advantage to long articles. When someone steals a portion with cut & paste, you usually have around 40% uniqueness which is enough to get by the filters. When you have a short article, they usually copy the whole thing which is "Panda" waiting to happen.

Isn't there a first-discovered factor? Like if you originally published the content, then your site is ranked as the #1 source of the material. If not, then the SE must be stupid IMO.

Originally Posted by Andy101

Isn't there a first-discovered factor? Like if you originally published the content, then your site is ranked as the #1 source of the material. If not, then the SE must be stupid IMO.

Panda sucks at determining the original content source

Read more: Google Panda Algorithm Exploit Uncovered | SEO Book.com

12/27/2011 Update

What I’ve Done:
Posted 7 new articles
Posted SlideShare.net power points for Nr 2 and Nr 3 targeted keywords

Posted Zinepal and Scribd content for Nr 2 and Nr 3 targeted keywords
Tweeted and shared the links to the Zinepal, Scribd, and Slideshare content

I’ve not really used SlideShare, Zinepal, or Scribd much before, so I decided to try them out on this site. Below are some bits and pieces for using the services if you choose to do so.
SlideShare.net:
- I’m using the free service. You basically can post PowerPoint presentations on the site with links included in the slides. Kind of funny that my PPT for the nr 3 keyword has more views than the article…. this should eventually even out, but still humorous.
- Don’t forget at least one link to your site per PPT page and a unique description if possible.
- I did these myself. Made 2 x 6 slide presentations based on outlines in the respective articles. I did not copy->paste the articles, but more of wrote summaries and included some images from Wikimedia for them.
Zinepal:
- From their website, “Zinepal creates eBooks in the PDF, ePub, Kindle and Mobipocket formats. It's one of the easiest ways to make eBooks and printable PDFs from existing web content in order to reach additional audiences and offer readers more choices.”
- Now, to try it out, I paid for the $15 USD one month option. This is cheaper if you sign up for a longer timeframe. When it expires, it just means no new content can go up til you pay again, but you can edit, keep, etc other content that is up. You can alternatively pay $5 for 1 “eBook” to see if you like it or not. I figured I would burn $15 so I wouldn’t throw away five bucks since it was something I’ve been wanting to try out for a while.
- Zinepal will suck into one or more blog articles from your targeted site into editable PDF format. You can then change, edit, add images, etc. ** Note if you try this service, do not forget the intro paragraph and include a link on it. This will be posted in HTML on its own site on Zinepal as a doFollow link.
- I also included a minimum of one link per page in the PDF file.
- Same file can be auto-sent to Scribd or manually loaded (I did the manual option).
- I included 1-3 images per PDF created.
What’s In Progress:
Web 2.0’s are in development for first 24 articles
AMR content being spun/written.

What “I’m Gonna Do”:
- Applied to add the site on Kontera to run in parallel with Adsense. On my other sports sites, Kontera regularly brings in 10-20% (and sometimes more) of what I see in Adsense and I recommend them. For sites where people are going to buy stuff (ie an affiliate site), I don’t recommend any context link network as that will hurt your sales.

- Make a basic YouTube video for each of the top 3 articles. Animoto or direct contract is the way I’m looking at doing this. Haven’t decided yet.

- Have to decide what beyond the Web 2.0 I want the AMR content to blast if anything. This domain is young and I don’t want to deal with filters/sandbox by blasting it too heavy directly while its young. I have experienced this more than once in the past six months, so will go with what I have seen personally on this bit. If the domain was older, I might muck around more with going directly to the money content, but not doing so for this site. One thought is to include the Scribd, Slide Share, and the videos I haven’t made yet.

- Take a look at analytics this week to see if there are any new keyphrases to target based on the traffic to the site so far. If so, add 3-5 new articles based on this analysis.
- Add the +1, Like, Facebook Share, and Twitter buttons at the bottom of the posts soon.
- Remove the Facebook icon used for validation of the syndication service for Networked Blogs when I remember to do so (not required to stay up).
Search Engine Bits:
- Seeing a fair bit of long tail traffic at this point on the site.
- I’ve not syndicated to Facebook or Twitter this early in the process of building a site before. This appears to be something that you shouldn’t wait to do.
- I’m seeing Google Mobile referrers now… does anyone do anything special for mobile content delivery at this stage out there? I’m not really so wasn’t sure if I was missing anything.
-
Content Site Traffic Report:
Total Number of Articles Posted: 25 (7 since last update that I did myself)
Total Number of New Articles Ordered: 10

KW 1 – Ranking #1 as of right now (not logged into google accounts, going to google.com/ncr). I think this is either dancing or some kind of Google logged in artifact. If the traffic matches over the next day or I get it going through my VPN on the wife’s computer then maybe I’ll believe it at this point… (Ranked #12 last update)
KW 2 – Ranking #72 (**Was #65 last week (new blog effect??)…what is funny is the SlideShare PPT is ranking #23…)
KW 3 - Raking # 9 (**Was #10 last week)

Overall happy with the rankings for the "Top 3" and others. Traffic is picking up a lot faster than I have experienced before. Last time I had a site pick up traffic fast, I promptly blasted it with AMR and it never has been quite right…..

** Note, I’m not tracking opening my #4-6 unless they become significant enough to bother you. I’m not personally tracking beyond #10 until numbers jump out enough to make me…just my way to personally save a little time.

I’m curious to see what if any effect comes from doing the PPTs and PDFs other than direct traffic.

I’m also wondering if I need to plan for a wave 2 on the plan where I put up more Web 2.0’s strategically as we get through the initial building. Will see.
I did post a list of DoFollow Web 2.0 sites here the other day for those looking for something beyond Wordpress.com or Hubpages being skitzo…: DoFollow Web 2.0 Sites

Current Site Expenses:
Domain Name: $7
Content (So Far): $35.73
Zinepal 1 x Month Subscription: $15
Total Spent: $57.73
Total Obligated (Not Spent yet, but ordered):
$215
Grand Total (Obligated and Spent): $272.73

Budget Remaining:
$400 - $272.73 = $127.27

Current Site Income:
December (from mid-month when posted) (Adsense Only): $11.50

That’s it for now. If you haven’t ready Andy101’s case study that he’s started on making a weight loss blog here on NB, Weight Loss Blog Case Study, highly recommended. Plus he’s smarter than me!!!!
Til next time.

Question: Content (So Far): $35.73? How many articles did you write yourself?

Of the 25, I have written 10 myself, 15 from a writer that I regularly use for other sites that lives in North America. I wrote the main page myself which is not included in the total.