PBN Development Cycle: Content, Surrogate Testing etc.

Hi folks. I'm new here but have been active for many years on other well-known, similar but inferior forums.

What has become obvious to me through the years when buying/trading backlinks is that the average PBN (really semi-public) link seller* usually turn all – and I mean all – of their normally vast lists of sites into certified, grade A excrement that would have zero chance to pass a manual review.

*note: this is past experience talking. I'm not talking about the average BHW seller, of who I have little experience (just one so far which was OK).

Now that I have that out of my system I would like to ask those of you with a more long-term approach, who mainly build PBNs for themselves/clients:

What does your timeline look like, on average, from point A: acquiring a nice-looking domain, to point B: entering the first "<a href..." with gentle, sticky fingers, aching to point to your bread and butter?

1. How do you pick domains?
2. How much content do you normally add first?
3. Do you test on surrogates first (e.g. 3rd party sites with non-competitive but similar keywords) to check whether the domain is OK?
4. How long before you add your first money-site link?

My own methods are barely methods, which is why I ask, but here they are anyway:

• First, I select domains only if I have a rough idea of what I can actually build there and where the links will go.
• I might pilfer select (linked-to) stuff from waybackmachine, but I don't systematically scrape. Depending on the topic, I will often add content that will not only make it look like a real site, but actually turn it into a (content-wise) real site/blog. This is a ton of work and probably not needed under most circumstances, but my targets tend to be in demanding niches.
• I suck at testing, though I should probably try harder. I never do surrogate testing, only check for indexation, and get results that I can rarely pinpoint one way or the other.
• Links to money sites will not appear for weeks up to a couple of months, before I've added enough 'real' content linking to relevant, not competing sites in the niche (or close to it). I don't just link to Wikipedia, but also minor, real sites with OK backlink credentials. Just stuff I like, basically, that isn't directly competing for my bread and butter.

Interesting take on running a PBN.

I know what you mean about most PBN link sellers. It never ceases to amaze me just how many people run their PBN properties into the ground by selling links off at a really low price and take no care over the site's themselves. A real PBN site should look like a real site, it will be better in the long run and should be worth the effort overall.

Cheers

interesting attitude... note taken!