I was going to report back after Christmas, but I’ve had a ton of other things come up, like the Niche Rivalry, and Day 90 seemed like a good milestone.
When I first created this site I didn’t really intend to make it any type of case study and to be honest it’s killing me not to send backlinks at it right now. I’m dying to go set up some Web 2.0, satellite sites, Post Runner articles, and more, but I’ve held my ground.
If you missed out on the first 2 posts in this case study, make sure you take a look before reading this update:
- Is it Possible to Build a Profitable Site Without Link Building
- Is it Possible to Build a Profitable Site Without Link Building 002
A quick look at the last 30 days
Before we get into some of the stats and analytics I thought I’d point out a few things that happened over the past 30 days.
Day 60
On this exact day the site began to dance, which I talked about here. I dropped from Page 1 of Google to as far as Page 17. This was not a good feeling, though deep down I think I knew it was coming. Nearly every site I’ve built has danced at some point, so this one shouldn’t be any different.
Day 64
This was one of the coolest days in my internet marketing career to date.
One of the leading manufacturers for the products I’m reviewing contacted me just to say thank you for labeling their product as the “Best KEYWORD of 2011″. She was the Public Relations Manager from the company (which is a multi-million dollar company) and told me the CEO personally says,”Thanks.” Not sure how much I buy that last line, but it was cool nonetheless. We traded emails and she’s supposed to be sending me some updates on products to be released in the future. Who knows if this will go anywhere.
In addition, I’m guessing the company had people visit my site for some Facebook likes, or possibly posted my article on their Facebook page (I never checked, though now that I’m thinking about it I’m a bit curious). I got around 70 likes for that one post, which sent me one of my highest traffic days ever. That was a good feeling since I was sitting on Page 17 at the time.
Day 74
My site returns to Page 1 of Google. It never actually left Page 1 in Yahoo or Bing, but those crazy cats don’t know what’s going on. I still haven’t broken the top 3 in Google, but I’m getting closer.
Day 90
I’m still on Page 1 for 3 of my top 4 keywords. Day 60 wasn’t a very good day, so I’m hoping Day 90 doesn’t turn out the same way.
Content Report
I wanted to break down the content that I’ve put on this site, so that everyone can get a better picture of how I’m building this site out.
- Product Reviews: 33 reviews (around 350-500 words each)
- Product Accessory Reviews: 6 reviews
- Product Articles: 32 articles (only a few of these articles contain affiliate links, most link out to other reviews)
- Product Tips: 4 tips
I have Google Alerts set up for my main keywords and it’s been very interesting. Whenever I post a “Product Article” I usually write 600-1000 words and these posts are indexed almost instantly. I wrote a post the other day around 3pm and by 10pm when I got the Google Alert it was included.
I think it is very important to ensure you’re balancing any Amazon site with some high quality content that doesn’t link back to Amazon, but rather internally to other posts.
I continue to post almost everyday. Like I mentioned previously it wasn’t my intention to make very many posts in December, but after my rankings dropped I went back to creating content daily. My plan is to continue to do this until I run out of things to write about.
Traffic Report
My traffic has been up around 700 page views a day, which I think is around 150-200 visitors. So, you can see I’m getting a decent amount of page views per visitor. It has dropped off the last couple days even though my ranking hasn’t changed, which makes me think either 1) people are traveling for the holidays or 2)traffic was just up for the holidays and is settling. I haven’t been through Christmas as an internet marketer, so I’m not entirely sure what to expect.
Below you can find my analytics for Day 59 – Day 89, which shows the number of page views (not visitors) per day.
Day 59 - Day 89 Page Views Per Day
I also took a quick snapshot of my traffic for Week 1 – Week 12. Note that Week 12 is currently only showing 3 days of traffic, though it is on par to match or surpass Week 11.
Week 1 - Week 12 Page Views Per Week
Rank Report
I started tracking my daily rankings on Day 64, thinking you guys might like to see how the site bounces around. The graph below shows the 4 primary keywords I’m trying to rank for from Day 64 – Day 90. These are all Google rankings.
Day 64 - Day 90 Google Rankings
Link Report
According to ahrefs I have a total of 45 backlinks.
If you’ll recall I built around 5-10 links before I decided to make this site a case study. I have (2) PR1 links and (1) PR0 link from Post Runner, (2) forum responses, and some social bookmarks. I haven’t done any link building since other than submit my “Holiday KEYWORD Gift Guide” to SocialAdr, which appears to have done nothing.
Earnings Report
Since the purpose of this was to build a profitable site here’s a quick breakdown of my earnings to date:
- September: $0.00
- October: $24.62
- November: $215.53
- December: $371.77
TOTAL: $611.92
It will be interesting to see how my earnings are after Christmas. If I had to guess I’d say they decline by 50%, but hopefully not 
My next 30 days
As of now I’m going to just continue to post more quality content. I don’t even have time to build links as I’m working on so many other things, but that’s not to say I won’t start. My plan is to try and make a final update around Day 120, but no promises I’ll make it that long without backlinking.
If you build it, they will come.
I wanted to clarify something real quick. I’m in no way implying that “If you build it, they will come.” When I first created this site it ranked fairly easily and I’ve been able to tackle quite a few long tail keywords that have definitely helped. I know the quality of the content is very high because I’ve spent a lot of time constructing all my review articles and other articles in the niche.
With that said I probably won’t ever build a site without link building again. I know I’ve gotten some decent results and even picked up a fair amount of natural links, but to be honest, I still don’t trust that sites can last on quality and content alone. I could be wrong, and if I don’t end up sending any links until Day 120 and I’m continuing to rank then that might be a different story. But for now I’m still a fan of building links.
Hi Wesley!, thanks for sharing your knowledge with us!.
It will be really interesting to see how long your rankings stay the same only relying on high quality content, I have read so many times that content is king, but, to be honest, I don’t think this is totally true
, links are very important to rankings.
Thanks again!.
Daniel.
I do agree that content is king, but you’re right, links play an important part. You’ll notice I picked up around 40 natural links and could very well continue that way, but I just feel I’d be better off building some links as well. We’ll see what happens, I’m going to do my best to wait until Day 120.
Thanks for this series, Wesley. I need to start link-building, but it’s good to know that you can make some progress without it by writing good quality content.
I’m really learning a lot from your posts. I’ve been subscribed for a couple of weeks. I have a full-time job as well and have to do my work for an hour or two after the kids go to bed.
Speaking of which, have you thought about or ever posted about how to balance time for those of us who do this part time?
Keep up the great work!
I’m glad this has been helpful. I like your idea about a post on work, life, and IM balance. I’m no expert, but I could definitely share how I manage it.
Hi Wesley,
It looks like your monthly earnings are increasing every month which is a good thing.
Take care…
Hopefully I can keep it up. Thanks for stopping by!
It’s cool that you were contacted by a major company, did you manage to get a link from them too?
I hadn’t found anything as of posting this, nor had I really looked much. But I recently found that they did mention my blog on their Facebook, which is where all the “likes” came from. I’ve checked ahrefs and OSE, but still haven’t found a link. I have a feeling that there is a link somewhere on the inner pages of their site, but I searched their “news” section and couldn’t find anything.
Quite an interesting experiment here. As link building was a key element in the TKA MMO style, besides finding the necessary keywords, doing just one part professionally and seeing the results is very inspiring. I never liked the link building part, because it’s point – blank unnatural and you’re always on the Google radar for over optimization thing. I wonder how your site is going to carry on after 4 – 5 months this year, without any links. The income and rankings might drop; the question is – to what extent?
I still think link building is key. The site in this study has managed to generate around 40 organic links, and without those links I doubt it would be ranking.