FP - How I Build Huge Sites, Get Good Traffic and Make Nice Money

[BassTrackerBoats]

Hopefully some of you will benefit from this post and hopefully some of you will offer ideas to tweak my process for all to benefit.

First things first... Keyword research.

My method for keyword research is probably a little different than most... I get an idea about something that I would like to write about... generally when I am sleeping or driving a long distance.

I know strange but that is how I roll.

I carry a tape recorder in my car so if something pops into my head I can record it and I keep a notepad next to my bed so when I get an idea I can write it down.

No, I don't wear a pocket protector but I have no issues with those that do.

I take some of the phrases that I thought about and put them in google's wonder wheel and get more phrases.

I then take those keywords and put them in the adwords keyword tool while logged into my adwords account and can get as many as 800 other keywords.

I download that into an excel sheet and sort first by volume and if there is not enough traffic (under 480 local) I eliminate those keywords... then I sort by competition and generally weed out anything out that is higher than .65 or so unless the traffic is over 200K local and I end up with my keyword list for a specific project.

After the KW research is done, I then find a domain name that would fit the theme of the keywords... if an aged one is around and for sale, I like to grab them if possible but a new one is fine as well.

I then build my site starting with the main thought as the main page, no matter how hard the competition and proceed to add to the site using the easiest keywords first and going down my list. I build a page and hit it with a linkpush, and continue on until all my keywords are in place.

My structure is such that I make the main page a WP page and customize it some making sure that I name any graphic a KW and using this ping list http://www.mediafire.com/?beopaip2rqq2e26 as well as the All in one SEO pack and I also use the onlywire plug in.

I only put about 8 - 10 articles on the WP blog.. enough to make Google see that I have some activity there and enough to get the main site indexed.

Then I build html pages for each keyword and have an article of at least 450 words on that page with KW density of 3 - 4% for the targeted KW and 2 - 3% for 2 ancillary keywords from my research.

I continue along this path until I have used all my keywords on the list and making sure that there are links on the pages so there are no more than 2 clicks to go from one page to another on the site.

Lots of work, huh?

It is and I outsource the majority of it because I just do not have the time nor the knowledge to get all that done and still handle my other responsibilities.

What does it cost to build a big site like that if I outsource it?

I'm in the middle of 2 such projects and this is what I have done for the one:

I set up the WP site and did the initial writing and alterations to the theme.

I had a guy build all the other pages in html that mirror the WP design so everything looked clean. He added in my statcounter and placed my ads where I wanted them. This site is going to be monetized using a well paying couple of CPA offers. Total pages 287. Cost 250.00.

I had another guy write articles for me that I will use for the linkpushes.
250 articles/ 450 - 500 words each - Cost 350.00.

I have a third person writing the articles for the site itself.

First 265 articles @ 2.60 each and 2.50 Per after the fact
Articles 450 - 500 words 4 - 5% KW density. Total should be around 800.00 initially.

After the site is complete, I'll hire her to write another 300 articles or so and add the pages of content so it will cost me another 1,000.00 to her and another 250.00 to html page guy.

Ok, so I just blew 2500.00+ USD, what do I expect?

Total monthly traffic for all those keywords for that site is over 6 million and I hope to get at least 5% which would be 300,000 monthly or 10,000 a day.

If I get a lousy .002 conversion rate, I should make over 1,000.00 daily from it but I doubt that I will only get 10K visitors a day and I expect that the conversion rate will be as low as .002.

So there you go... that is a formula for success and those of you with skills can do most of that yourself it won't cost you that kind of cash.

I'm dumb as a bag of vegetables when it comes to anything technical so I have to outsource the page building process and no longer have the time to write a lot of articles hence the reason I outsourced that as well.

Lots of work but good long term revenue.

Let's see what some of you others are doing and what you would think is a {better|different|thought process} {idea|strategy|method}.

[springer98]

Nice description BTB, thanks!

Why do you make the plain HTML pages, instead of continuing to use WP? Unless I'm missing something, it seems to me that continuing to use WP would save you a lot of money you're paying to have the HTML pages made. Wondering what your strategy is.

[BassTrackerBoats]

Nice description BTB, thanks!

Why do you make the plain HTML pages, instead of continuing to use WP? Unless I'm missing something, it seems to me that continuing to use WP would save you a lot of money you're paying to have the HTML pages made. Wondering what your strategy is.

Because to me a WP site with a lot of pages can look messy. I like the sites to be as clean as a whistle, keyword in the <h1> tag title, ad above the title and an ad on the right hand side of the content... the only images are the header and I name them all the KW I am trying to get that site ranked for.

[stackable]

Excellent post, BTB
A really good description.
For me, the keyword research is vital, when I identify the potential keywords, I check page 1 on Google for the keywords. Use SEOQuake or something like that and you can do it with a quick glance. If you can get a decent position on that page then its on, if not - more keyword research.
Forget about the number of competing sites, its the 10 on page 1 you have to compete with, not the other 20,000,000 matches
I've made mistakes in the past with choosing keywords that have a monthly search volume too low, and also targetting keywords with competition I can't beat. Get the right keywords and with the steps outlined by BTB, you can dominate them

[BassTrackerBoats]

For me, the keyword research is vital, when I identify the potential keywords, I check page 1 on Google for the keywords. Use SEOQuake or something like that and you can do it with a quick glance. If you can get a decent position on that page then its on, if not - more keyword research.
Forget about the number of competing sites, its the 10 on page 1 you have to compete with, not the other 20,000,000 matches

Stackable actually taught me a lot about KW research over a very small dinner and a few beers one night so
a majority of the KW research part should be credited to him.

Plus he paid for the beers so I'd really be remiss in not pointing that out.

Someone asked to see what my sight looked like because I was explaining how I generally like my sites to look.

I try to make them so clean looking that you could eat off of them... no distractions, just read some content and buy
something/click an adsense ad/fill out a CPA offer/whatever method of monetization works for you.

http://i368.photobucket.com/albums/o...dits/Clean.jpg

Very simple, no fancy this, no fancy that... just content, ads and keywords.

[springer98]

These kinds of discussions intrigue me. I'm all about figuring out how to beat out any of the top ten. As Stack said, they're the real competition.

I use the Ultimate Keyword Theme Extractor - http://mturkjob.com/keywordthemes/ (<--- no affiliation) It's super for finding one of the major keys to ranking at or near the top... quality content. Couple that with a solid linking strategy and you're golden.

[GreyWolf]

That's a pretty damn good general strategy for internet marketing.

BassTrackerBoats just gave a very concise well laid out plan. Everything else that everyone talks about for this particular type of marketing is simply about the various ways of doing each of the steps he laid out.

1. niche keyword selection
2. product selection (or creation)
3. web page design
4. traffic generation

You might think content creation should be in the list but that's really just a tool for steps 2, 3, and 4. Everything else you read in any ebooks, blogs or marketing forums is just the details necessary to accomplish those things.

Do each of those steps right, and the plan will work for any website based marketing; CPA offers, affiliate product sales, your own physical or digital product sales. Even a complete ecommerce store can be marketed like that.

Follow the suggestions BassTrackerBoats gave for what he does to accomplish each of those steps and anyone can have a good chance of success.

[G-Flips]

What theme do you use? Is it a basic white theme with a header graphic added? I like the simplicity of it.

[BassTrackerBoats]

That theme is Twenty Ten just modified... I'm certainly no graphics guy and all I want the visitor to see is some content and my ads... I don't want them distracted by pretty unicorns and dancing monkeys.

[Bryan]

Made this thread a sticky as I believe it will be tons of help for a lot of people in here and wouldn't want newcomers to miss it!