Own private blog network worth the costs?

moonlighsunligh said:

You mean, you found a way to get .com domains for free. But if you talk about the way to do this that i know be aware there is a footprint.

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Be aware, there is always a footprint with everything you do as far as SEO.
The way you think it's done almost certainly isn't the way I'm doing it though.

It most likely isn't. There are probably 2-3 ways to do this.

Yet, money that needs to be spend on domains isn't a problem. Promotion and content writing cost is probably way more than $10 per site, most probably around $100, even if spun content is used.

Some people from the forum are buying $100 seo services for their 1000 searches/month MNS, which doesn't make much sense.

Expertpeon said:

It doesn't take years to develop "huge PR and insane BL profiles", that's the problem with many networks.
Time is money, but well-designed bots (which I use for my own sites anyway) don't take any extra time. I generated PR3 and DAs of 16+ (some up to 30) in the network simply by some intelligent campaigns that took around a week.

They're certainly not PR6 with DAs of 60 mind you, but what kind of networks actually have tons of sites like that anyway?
$700 for 120 domains all with DA of 16+ and PR3+ is extremely good... You'd spend about $15k-20k for the domains alone if you bought them. I think 2-3 days of set-up time is worth $15k...

There's lots of advantages to building the network from scratch as well, as all backlinks are relevant and they can be niche specific sites.

If you wanted aged domains you can get 4-15 year old ones every day for $12 with $8 renewel.


.com, .orgs and .nets

The downside to any network is that they simply won't work that well. Yes, they generate some powerful results, but they have limitations post penguin.
People who say otherwise are fooling themselves.

There are also ways to generate tens of thousands of free domains for a network to build them up with no renewal costs, where you only have to host them (yes they are on main TLDs, .com, .org. net etc) but I'm certainly not going to be revealing this anywhere.

I've shift into that direction of late, and I cannot be happier with the decision.

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Question: What do you use for hosting? If you're looking at unique ip's for all these seems like it would cost more that $700 after doing backlinking + purchasing domains.

On a sidenote: has anybody tried building these on amazon ec2 opening up multiple instances?

moonlighsunligh said:

It most likely isn't. There are probably 2-3 ways to do this.

Yet, money that needs to be spend on domains isn't a problem. Promotion and content writing cost is probably way more than $10 per site, most probably around $100, even if spun content is used.

Some people from the forum are buying $100 seo services for their 1000 searches/month MNS, which doesn't make much sense.

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Considering I'm the only SEOer doing this (there are public listings as such showing interaction/use), I'm quite certain you have no clue what I'm talking about. It is not "registering" free .com domains anyway... I never said I was registering them.

People have no clue what they're doing as far as SEO, and laziness reigns. Hell, even building a network is actually a very, very lazy way to rank most of the time (and less effective, yet much more expensive than other methods)

Promotion can be as easy or as hard as you make it really. Since people who rely heavily on networks generally lack all other kinds of SEO capabilities, it's no surprise I guess that people choose to buy up expensive domains.

Question: What do you use for hosting? If you're looking at unique ip's for all these seems like it would cost more that $700 after doing backlinking + purchasing domains.

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I don't see how you'd avoid the hosting thing at all... so I don't see the point.
Whether you buy the sites for $1500/ea with DA of 10+ or develop them yourself, you still have to host the network.

However, as always, people think inside the box as far as hosting goes. There's tons of ways to get unique IPs with cheap mthly costs. And no, buying them on hostgator isn't the way to go.
Paying over $1/unique IP (and yes, even Class A if you insist) per month basically means you're doing it wrong.

Expertpeon said:

Considering I'm the only SEOer doing this (there are public listings as such showing interaction/use), I'm quite certain you have no clue what I'm talking about. It is not "registering" free .com domains anyway... I never said I was registering them.

People have no clue what they're doing as far as SEO, and laziness reigns. Hell, even building a network is actually a very, very lazy way to rank most of the time (and less effective, yet much more expensive than other methods)

Promotion can be as easy or as hard as you make it really. Since people who rely heavily on networks generally lack all other kinds of SEO capabilities, it's no surprise I guess that people choose to buy up expensive domains.


I don't see how you'd avoid the hosting thing at all... so I don't see the point.
Whether you buy the sites for $1500/ea with DA of 10+ or develop them yourself, you still have to host the network.

However, as always, people think inside the box as far as hosting goes. There's tons of ways to get unique IPs with cheap mthly costs. And no, buying them on hostgator isn't the way to go.
Paying over $1/unique IP (and yes, even Class A if you insist) per month basically means you're doing it wrong.

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No figured you have to host them all on separate ip's but I was wondering how you got it so cheap but you answered my question sorta. I know hostgator is a bit of a rip and I don't think it's the best quality service to use for something like this either. I guess I'll mosey on over to webhosting talk lol.

Expertpeon said:

.com, .orgs and .nets

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At $700 that would be roughly $5.80 per domain, and this doesn't include the hosting and all the other expenses that come with building such a network. $700 doesn't sound right for a 120 domain network, I think you got your numbers wrong or your network is completely rubbish.

Do we have a conclusion here? A lot of people with different views on this, for sure.

Expertpeon said:

Considering I'm the only SEOer doing this (there are public listings as such showing interaction/use), I'm quite certain you have no clue what I'm talking about. It is not "registering" free .com domains anyway... I never said I was registering them.

People have no clue what they're doing as far as SEO, and laziness reigns. Hell, even building a network is actually a very, very lazy way to rank most of the time (and less effective, yet much more expensive than other methods)

Promotion can be as easy or as hard as you make it really. Since people who rely heavily on networks generally lack all other kinds of SEO capabilities, it's no surprise I guess that people choose to buy up expensive domains.


I don't see how you'd avoid the hosting thing at all... so I don't see the point.
Whether you buy the sites for $1500/ea with DA of 10+ or develop them yourself, you still have to host the network.

However, as always, people think inside the box as far as hosting goes. There's tons of ways to get unique IPs with cheap mthly costs. And no, buying them on hostgator isn't the way to go.
Paying over $1/unique IP (and yes, even Class A if you insist) per month basically means you're doing it wrong.

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Whats the right way to do it then? Do share...

Expertpeon says he is getting cheap A class IP's and hosting from somewhere (I don't know) this I doubt, how much disck space has suck hosting?
And cheap domains (this I know).

When register.com had their .99 domain deal it was up to 3 domains per account. I created around 20 register.com accounts and paid all using the same paypal account. I guess this is the reason that Godaddy does not allow most of their coupon codes to be paired with paypal payments.

I have a pretty decent private network. The kind many people would be jealous of. guess what? I havent even bothered implementing some of my sites into my network. Learning to spam and spam correctly is the way to go imo. Its so much easier once you get decent at it, then trying to maintain a clunky private network.

Expertpeon said:

Considering I'm the only SEOer doing this (there are public listings as such showing interaction/use), I'm quite certain you have no clue what I'm talking about. It is not "registering" free .com domains anyway... I never said I was registering them.

Paying over $1/unique IP (and yes, even Class A if you insist) per month basically means you're doing it wrong.

Click to expand...

Well you didn't tell me your method, so obviously I do not know which method are you talking about, however there are few other methods to do the same.

For hosting I know how to get it for I think $0.2 per month, but DNS/RDNS would probably be the same for all domains. Not sure can it hold the water.

ShadeDream said:

At $700 that would be roughly $5.80 per domain, and this doesn't include the hosting and all the other expenses that come with building such a network. $700 doesn't sound right for a 120 domain network, I think you got your numbers wrong or your network is completely rubbish.

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Yeah, your logic is unassailable.

DNS/RDNS would probably be the same for all domains

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I cannot even tell you all of the many ways to cloak NSs, but there are tons of them.

cheap A class IP's and hosting from somewhere

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A good place to start is cheap $1/mth hosting accounts... there's literally thousands of them.

Expertpeon wrote:
I regret building my network of around 120 sites, as I simply do not get the results I want usually and it was QUITE expensive.

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$700 is expensive? I thought you were a baller...

Expertpeon said:

I think this is one of the stupidest things I've read on BHW in awhile.
Cheers to that.


Wrong, there are a host of very reliable and "free" ways to rank out there. Blog networks are the lazy way to go about it (and yes, I have my own network).
Network links are horrible for ranking sites without fantastic foundations. Likewise, they have a "limit" of usefulness.
They're probably very useful for very easy terms, but once you get into things that actually take some thought to build links to, blog networks are just 1 piece of a complex puzzle.

I regret building my network of around 120 sites, as I simply do not get the results I want usually and it was QUITE expensive.

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Blog/site networks are "lazy"?

Hahaha. Not even close. Just because you coded up a 2.0 bot and have a content system that works for you, doesn't mean the best spammers in the world are lazy- ie Russians etc.
I don't see pharma, insurance, payday and other huge verts driven by 2.0s lol.
These people use what WORKS. Coding a 2.0 bot isn't rocket (or nuclear ) science. They simply use what works.
Parasites, networks etc. They rinse+ repeat, 301, et al and the framework has worked for years and still does with some minor mods.
Your weightloss vert is competitive of course, but take a foray into insurance or viagra with your 2.0 bot and lets see if you can break past page 2.

affarmy said:

$700 is expensive? I thought you were a baller...

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I really don't see how this guy could have a 120 domain private blog network with .com, .org, .net domains for $700. It must be completely shit.

affarmy said:

$700 is expensive? I thought you were a baller...

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1) You have to be an idiot to use the word "baller"
2) There are much greater costs to a network than buying some fresh domains, especially if you value your time. My regrets involve the upkeep, not the initial costs. I suspect, however, you just were looking to jerk one out on a minute point I made.

Hahaha. Not even close. Just because you coded up a 2.0 bot and have a content system that works for you, doesn't mean the best spammers in the world are lazy- ie Russians etc.
I don't see pharma, insurance, payday and other huge verts driven by 2.0s lol.

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I don't "drive" my sites by 2.0s, I create foundations of web 2.0s along with massive amounts of high PR contextual links you do not even know about (nor do these "non-lazy spammers")
That being said, I don't pretend to "rock out" payday terms. I've beat out sites spending 10-20k/mth on blog network links by spending 1% that amount...

My goals, however, are modest. I like ranking ultra competitive terms, that rake in major cash, on a string budget. It's offered a lot of success so far, and continues to do so.

I have my hands in many niches, I'm unsure what you think I do with my tools exactly. You're right I'm not in payday at the moment, but a lot of payday related terms (cash advance for instance) are baby terms as far as SEO effort.
Blog networks are indeed lazy, the link building structures of the sites are generally piss poor. They do not even use unique content on the networks, for the most part. Yes, they have value... no they are not limitless in their value.

Now 301 redirections techniques I could go on and on about and actually discussed this at some great length in several threads.
That being said, you've done nothing to convince me of the innate value in blog networks alone, and I stand behind my earlier statements that networks are of limited value for the vast, vast majority of sites. Without the proper understanding, and the ability, to structure links they will fall flat.

I really don't see how this guy could have a 120 domain private blog network with .com, .org, .net domains for $700. It must be completely shit.

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$700 was how must it cost as an initial investment, but I'd put my network up against any very expensive "paid" network out there as far as strength. It was built from scratch and has some amazing link structures to it. Homepage space network wide would rent for a minimum of $250/month per slot on this network based upon the going rates at wickedfire. The PR is solid and the DA is massive.

If you want to start your own network and want sites with PR already, you'll spent at least $2000 for the same number of domains... but the added PR won't get you much. If you want sites with PR/DA you'll spend at least $10k...
My network has both, and I'm merely stating that I'm dissatisfied with the results. Feel free to build your own and try ranking for car insurance...

Tomato, tommaato....there's different methods to skin a cat here EP-
But either you're locked up in a room where you don't ever look at BL profiles of the most challenging serps
or you simply don't understand what they are doing.
1) Site networks
2) Hacked WP and other sites
3) Parasites (edu et al)

Now does this mean what you're doing isn't efficient? Of course not. But if you are clued in to how G NOW crawls and indexes/ranks new content/sites etc, you will notice it is getting more challenging to generate PR, and to power sites via 2.0's takes time. Sure...if you want to WAIT and be pennywise go ahead and build your massive 2.0 networks coupled with your content system. Good on you my man. Kudos.
But the big boys..call them lazy or stupid or whatever..continue to use the above mentioned strategies and own many of the toughest verts in the business.
You mentioned "go rank for auto insurance with site networks"..ok..here's a spotlight on someone I know who ranked for 'easy auto insurance' just a few months back for about 3 months..crushing progressive and geico and the other multi-BILLION dollar conglomerates.. http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-garbage-ranks-in-the-serps-a-case-study
but hey..what do I know..

Expertpeon said:

1) You have to be an idiot to use the word "baller"
2) There are much greater costs to a network than buying some fresh domains, especially if you value your time. My regrets involve the upkeep, not the initial costs. I suspect, however, you just were looking to jerk one out on a minute point I made.


I don't "drive" my sites by 2.0s, I create foundations of web 2.0s along with massive amounts of high PR contextual links you do not even know about (nor do these "non-lazy spammers")
That being said, I don't pretend to "rock out" payday terms. I've beat out sites spending 10-20k/mth on blog network links by spending 1% that amount...

My goals, however, are modest. I like ranking ultra competitive terms, that rake in major cash, on a string budget. It's offered a lot of success so far, and continues to do so.

I have my hands in many niches, I'm unsure what you think I do with my tools exactly. You're right I'm not in payday at the moment, but a lot of payday related terms (cash advance for instance) are baby terms as far as SEO effort.
Blog networks are indeed lazy, the link building structures of the sites are generally piss poor. They do not even use unique content on the networks, for the most part. Yes, they have value... no they are not limitless in their value.

Now 301 redirections techniques I could go on and on about and actually discussed this at some great length in several threads.
That being said, you've done nothing to convince me of the innate value in blog networks alone, and I stand behind my earlier statements that networks are of limited value for the vast, vast majority of sites. Without the proper understanding, and the ability, to structure links they will fall flat.


$700 was how must it cost as an initial investment, but I'd put my network up against any very expensive "paid" network out there as far as strength. It was built from scratch and has some amazing link structures to it. Homepage space network wide would rent for a minimum of $250/month per slot on this network based upon the going rates at wickedfire. The PR is solid and the DA is massive.

If you want to start your own network and want sites with PR already, you'll spent at least $2000 for the same number of domains... but the added PR won't get you much. If you want sites with PR/DA you'll spend at least $10k...
My network has both, and I'm merely stating that I'm dissatisfied with the results. Feel free to build your own and try ranking for car insurance...

Click to expand...

affarmy said:

Tomato, tommaato....there's different methods to skin a cat here EP-
But either you're locked up in a room where you don't ever look at BL profiles of the most challenging serps
or you simply don't understand what they are doing.
1) Site networks
2) Hacked WP and other sites
3) Parasites (edu et al)

Click to expand...

I spend several hours a day pulling links and analyzing structures. I do get it, but it's not the only way to do it, nor likely the most cost effective way.

Now does this mean what you're doing isn't efficient? Of course not. But if you are clued in to how G NOW crawls and indexes/ranks new content/sites etc, you will notice it is getting more challenging to generate PR, and to power sites via 2.0's takes time. Sure...if you want to WAIT and be pennywise go ahead and build your massive 2.0 networks coupled with your content system. Good on you my man. Kudos.
But the big boys..call them lazy or stupid or whatever..continue to use the above mentioned strategies and own many of the toughest verts in the business.
You mentioned "go rank for auto insurance with site networks"..ok..here's a spotlight on someone I know who ranked for 'easy auto insurance' just a few months back for about 3 months..crushing progressive and geico and the other multi-BILLION dollar conglomerates.. http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-garbage-ranks-in-the-serps-a-case-study
but hey..what do I know..

Click to expand...

"easy auto insurance" isn't a tough term, "cash advance" isn't a tough term. I rank harder terms regularly.
http://www.majesticseo.com/reports/...www.easierautoinsurance.com&IndexDataSource=F
This site is #3, and has a whopping 144 backlinks. My bots generate 10 times this amount, and all better quality, in a day.

However, I never said I only use web 2.0s (in fact, web 2.0s aren't even 10% of the links I build to domains), nor did I say I don't use blog networks. Maintaining your own network is a different story, however, and is what is being discussed here.

Google is not "reevaluating" PR generation, in fact, it's easier than ever from what I've experienced. You also don't recognize that PR is far less important than domain authority, which is generated from links in. However, it's very easy to generate PR 3 on fresh domains.

Recently, I beat out a site, and have maintained the position 3 times as long as he did so far, who spent at a minimum $10k on paid high PR homepage links... I did this, for $100 and using my tools I've built. He did, however, only use paid links and spam links.
It took around 2-3 days worth of work on my part (though articles are added every other day). In fact, though, I do this all the time. I do this with at least 5 new sites a month right now (some are less competitive but would still be considered high competition), as I have enough content to do it and the tools are all well maintained.

Did I use my network? Yes... did I use other networks? Yes... but it wouldn't have worked at all if I didn't have my tools beforehand. I generated a structure of over 500 domains with HPR in content links and structured it to such an insane degree, before I even got into networks. The site was on the top of page 2 for the particular term before I even added high PR links from my network and others.

one site may not worth costs...as there is ways to manage to get cheap IPs