AMA about PBNs (setup, footprints, things to avoid, et al.)

[janist]

I'm thinking of using dropped domains to use them as pbn. Have you registered them in the past for your pbn and how well did they work?

Sure, especially in higherr volume. Make sure to analyze the domains in depth and set them up correctly. Then dropped / expired domains work quite well (especially in foreign SERPs).

Having said that, a couple of really good auction domains can be a game changer. So keep an eye out for those aswell.

 

[ANewBeginning]

especially in higherr volume

Right, as with spam, volume is king

 

[PatagoniaHat5202]

First of all, thank you so much for doing this thread. It's incredible you've been willing to share knowledge for 9 months and counting.

My question is about a competitor's money site. I did some backlink research on the competitor's website, and I found that 4.5k of their 9.5k backlinks are coming from 3 domains that are clearly PBNs. The PBN sites look somewhat powerful - they're built like directory sites and have an authority score of 30 and 47k backlinks themselves. My key question is what you think the strategy there is? It seems like that goes against all of the great advice you've given here (ex: 1 OBL per PBN site), yet their money site is getting 80k visitors/month and ranking high for competitive keywords. Are they just getting lucky and Google hasting figured it out yet, or is there a deeper strategy here?

Thanks in advance!

 

[sawecer]

What is the best and cheapest way to host PBNs?

 

[janist]

First of all, thank you so much for doing this thread. It's incredible you've been willing to share knowledge for 9 months and counting.

My question is about a competitor's money site. I did some backlink research on the competitor's website, and I found that 4.5k of their 9.5k backlinks are coming from 3 domains that are clearly PBNs. The PBN sites look somewhat powerful - they're built like directory sites and have an authority score of 30 and 47k backlinks themselves. My key question is what you think the strategy there is? It seems like that goes against all of the great advice you've given here (ex: 1 OBL per PBN site), yet their money site is getting 80k visitors/month and ranking high for competitive keywords. Are they just getting lucky and Google hasting figured it out yet, or is there a deeper strategy here?

Thanks in advance!

Sounds like they added site-wide links to those 3x domains.

Definitely risky, but if it works, it works. I personally wouldn't do it, though.

What is the best and cheapest way to host PBNs?

All layed out in the first pages of the thread ;-)

 

[head2head]

nice reads from the first page of this thread.

i have a question,
so i want to build my own PBN, i learnt that good domain comes from auction with the detailed specs.
but, how many domain is needed for kickstarting this whole PBN ? i mean, for a small scale PBN that works.

thanks.

 

[janist]

nice reads from the first page of this thread.

i have a question,
so i want to build my own PBN, i learnt that good domain comes from auction with the detailed specs.
but, how many domain is needed for kickstarting this whole PBN ? i mean, for a small scale PBN that works.

thanks.

That really depends on the niche, your target keywords and the competitors.

For small local niches (especially foreign) 3-4 decent auction PBNs will already help to cause some damage in the SERPs.

Basically: The more the merrier. A good PBN is never a bad investment, imo.

Just work stick your budget and build as you go.

If you only have a supes mall budget per PBN (<$300), i'd suggest to go with some lower tier expired domains and power them up with something like sape or cheaper link inserts / guest posts (DR5-DR20) - these can be acquired typically for $15-30 bucks. This can push a low-tier expired domains to mid-tier level, for sure.

 

[janist]

Ready top answer more of your PBN related questions. Fire away...

 

[ANewBeginning]

Ready top answer more of your PBN related questions. Fire away...

What do you think it's better to grow the site, add a 20 sites dropped domain PBN or just focus on pumping more content?

 

[janist]

What do you think it's better to grow the site, add a 20 sites dropped domain PBN or just focus on pumping more content?

How is the link profile of the site?

If the link profile is already quite strong, you can simply leverage internal linking and let the link equity (or whatever you want to call it) flow to new articles / pages. New and well-optimized content should start to rank quickly for their main keywords, without much additional link support (for low-mid competitive keywords).

If the link profile is not as strong yet or your keywords are more competitive, I'd certainly consider adding the PBN into the mix. It's a huge asset to have.

 

[Postercamp]

Just finished reading all through.
This is amazing AMA thread indeed! Thanks a lot OP for sharing this.
I have questions regarding the image of article.

1. Do you put any images on the article on your PBNs?

2. If you use pics from other websites, do you give credit link to the source? If thats case then you said it can diminish the power. Because means more OBL.

3. Does putting images or videos really matter for this?

Thanks in advance!

 

[janist]

Just finished reading all through.
This is amazing AMA thread indeed! Thanks a lot OP for sharing this.
I have questions regarding the image of article.

1. Do you put any images on the article on your PBNs?

2. If you use pics from other websites, do you give credit link to the source? If thats case then you said it can diminish the power. Because means more OBL.

3. Does putting images or videos really matter for this?

Thanks in advance!

Thanks for the kind words.

1.) Yes, a lot of them.

2.) We use mostly images that don't require attribution: Pixabay/Unsplash etc. On top of that I can highly recommend a sub to envato elements and/or freepik.

3.) They add a fiinishing touch to the site and make it look more like a real site. So yes, media is mandatory for a good PBN, imo.

JT

 

[AlbertoMR3]

Hey,

my partner in crime (@roman375) and I saw a lot of new PBN related threads pop up over the past few weeks. Unfortunately, we also saw a lot of misinformation and misguided advice.

So we've decided to start this little AMA, where you can ask us anything regarding PBNs.

Quick background:

We've been running a relatively decent sized niche network here on BHW for a few years now. We also have a bunch of completely private blog networks for our own sites. We've gathered some valuable experience in creating and managing PBNs for large scale link building over the past few years. Of course, the beginnings were bumpy, but that's how we learned to blend in with the masses and stay in the shadows of big G.

So, let the questions flood in.

time... How many time you take to create a 250 domains PBN with an average of 40 1k words posts per site.. And how much it may cost if using new domains vs expired domains? And how much the monthly/yearly maintenance?

 

[SureShot]

is it possible to host 5 pbns all in the same hosting plan? Trying to find a host that can allow me to have 5 different sites with different ips so that I can manage it all under one site, but also prevent google from knowing I own all 5. I’m trying to find a deal instead of 5 separate hosting plans that can be costly.

 

[janist]

time... How many time you take to create a 250 domains PBN with an average of 40 1k words posts per site.. And how much it may cost if using new domains vs expired domains? And how much the monthly/yearly maintenance?

I've covered the costs of a mid-scale PBN in the first pages of the thread already. Here it is again:

Maintenance and scaling is easy, once the site's are running. Price wise a 10x PBN network would cost you roughly:

• 10x mid quality expired domains (RD20+, decent 3rd party metrics (if you want those), top TLDs (com/net/org) incl. domain registration = $450 minimum. But for really good domains you pay easily pay $100+ / domain. So this is a bare minimum. You basically leverage domain volume over domain quality. Would possibly argue that you need more around $1000-3000 for 10 good domains + registration fee.
• 10x good cloud droplets incl. backups (via Vultr, Digitalocean, Linode, AWS, etc.) = $60 / month absolute minimum. Don't cheap out on PBN hosting. Having a decent hosting infrastructure is imo the most important aspect of any good PBN.
• 10x PBN set-ups with no footprints, theme customization, necessary plugins, htaccess customization, redirections, blocked IP lists etc. = $300-400 minimum, usually more around 500$ - unless you want to set them up all by yourself.
• 10x niche relevant articles (at least 1500-2000 words split over at least 1-3 articles) = $250 minimum
• A few premium themes + Elementor PRO ~ $500

So per domain you pay at least $100-150.

is it possible to host 5 pbns all in the same hosting plan? Trying to find a host that can allow me to have 5 different sites with different ips so that I can manage it all under one site, but also prevent google from knowing I own all 5. I’m trying to find a deal instead of 5 separate hosting plans that can be costly.

Same hosting plan, as in same IP for all 5 PBNs ? Then no.

However, it's quite easy to handle your PBN with just 3-4 good cloud hosts as long as you create a fresh droplet for each PBN domain. It should be: One Droplet = one IP = one PBN site.

We heavily use: Digital ocean, Vultr, Atlantic, RackSpace and Linode for all our PBN sites. But you can go with just Digitalocean + Vultr and you'll be fine.

A droplet with backups generally runs you $6 to $10 / per month.

 

[schttrj]

Most PBN sites have zero traffic. Do you think a site without any traffic is worth it in the eyes of Google even if it has got DR 50+ and DA 40+?

 

[sashilover]

Unbelievable, OP mention use RD 20+ expired domain as PBN, from my experience, you won't rank anything with such crap PBNs.
A decent expired domain at least has RD 300+ with a bunch of backlinks from the authority sites in your niche.
Usually such domain costs $1k - $3k if you know how to properly bid on domain auction platform with programming skills involved.
Even you have every skill to search/filter/bid on an expired domain which looks perfectly in every espect.
The expired domain may still loose its power of backlinks for some reasons you can't fingure out.

 

[janist]

Most PBN sites have zero traffic. Do you think a site without any traffic is worth it in the eyes of Google even if it has got DR 50+ and DA 40+?

If the link profile is strong, it'll work. A PBN is made for one purpose and one purpose only. Traffic is irrelevant in that context.

Unbelievable, OP mention use RD 20+ expired domain as PBN, from my experience, you won't rank anything with such crap PBNs.
A decent expired domain at least has RD 300+ with a bunch of backlinks from the authority sites in your niche.
Usually such domain costs $1k - $3k if you know how to properly bid on domain auction platform with programming skills involved.
Even you have every skill to search/filter/bid on an expired domain which looks perfectly in every espect.
The expired domain may still loose its power of backlinks for some reasons you can't fingure out.

I concur and mentioned several times throughout the thread, that auction domains would be the best choice, if the budget allows for it and you want to rank for mid-high competitive keywords.

But believe it or not, a PBN consisting of 5-10 expired domains with clean histories and 20-30 decent links (RD20-30) are capable to rank low-mid competetive local keywords alone. For a local client with a small budget of 1000-1500$ that's a great ROI in the long-run.

In the end it comes down to user preference, budget restrictions and use case - but saying that domains are 'crap' just because the RD is on the lower end is a bit short-sighted, imo.

 

[trebhin]

This thread is a veritable gold mine. Thank you for your service, fine sir!

With respect to building T2 links, what are your thoughts on using a marketplace diversity service for say $100-150, something like sherlock hacks or equivalent. Is it a problem to get a whole lot of links in one hit for a ~RD60 domain. Does drip feeding over say two months make it ok, if it isn't OK in a blast?

 

[janist]

This thread is a veritable gold mine. Thank you for your service, fine sir!

With respect to building T2 links, what are your thoughts on using a marketplace diversity service for say $100-150, something like sherlock hacks or equivalent. Is it a problem to get a whole lot of links in one hit for a ~RD60 domain. Does drip feeding over say two months make it ok, if it isn't OK in a blast?

Hm, they don't pack enough link equity, imo. If you want to push your PBN, I'd recommend cheaper link insertions, guest posts and even filtered sape for tier 2. Those usually help to push the needle.

For $100-150 you can get 2-3x decent link inserts (DR20+).