Success, Failure, Starting Over - How to do it in 2015?

Hi everyone

Its been a while since i've set up a new site, but its time I have to.

I set a site up quite some time back got it to rank through tiered link building.
- Web 2.0s
- Guest Blogging
- Conducting Interviews
- Having guest bloggers write on my site, and they'd naturall link & share
- Social signals

Nothing bought. No services used. Did it all myself.

Had some good success, hitting the top rankings for my niche, and made some ok money.

Unfortunately, a few big sites (already established in the space) started to focus efforts around my niche. I went from 1st to 4/6 on pretty much all my money keywords. As such my income is not enough to support me off this site.

In the beginning i worked really hard. Every day, countless hours until I hit the top spot. I slowly got lazy. Working on it less. Doing less link building. Doing less outreach. Writing less content to be published on my own site. I just saw it as a passive income.

I dropped rankings, slightly, in the Panda update from last year. From 1st for all my money terms, to 2nd-4th. Not a slap. Not a penalty, just a more powerful, established domain, outranking me.

At this point I began working hard again. Putting out more content, doing more link building. My rankings then began to improve slightly, moving up from the 4th spot to 2nd 3rd. I've pretty much been working on the sight consistently (its my only "real money making site") and the work just isn't paying off.

Im not sitting 4th-6th, despite all the additional work ive been putting into the site.

The 3 sites above me, had they been there when i first started this site, I would not have entered the niche.

It was a case of smaller sites occupying the spot, I created one, and managed to hit top spot. Since then, these big sites must have placed on a focus on this niche & these keywords, and now there is pretty much no way i'll be able to outrank them.

The sight makes a small amount of income still, so i don't want to blast it with links and churn & burn it.

Rather, i want it to carry on as it is, i'll put some work into it still, but i want to focus on a few site, maybe even a new niche.

Im just wondering, in 2015, where is the starting point?

In the past I would
- Niche / Keyword Research
- Look at competition in SERPS for selected keywords
- If page 1 had "weak" sites at the top (low DA/PA/PR), a niche site itself etc I'd decide to go ahead
- Register domain, put a wordpress on it
- Create a facebook, twitter, youtube and g+ for it
- Plan content based around my main keywords and then LSI terms
- Write high quality pieces for the bigger money making keywords, 1500 words +. Include images, video (if relevant), link to authoritive sites from the piece
- Write additional blogs based around the LSI terms. Minimum word count would be 700 on these.
- Manually spin, or write unique articles to post on web 2.0 properties
- 3 high quality articles 700 words +
- A few "filler content pieces" 300 words +
- I would create these web 2.0 properties by hand, post the articles, and link to my money site from 1 - 2 of the main money articles.
- Link to other sites in the other posts & internally link to the main articles pointing to my money site
- Blast these properties with GSA
- Create content for GSA using Kontent Machine
- Black my tier 2 links with GSA again
- Find other sites/bloggers in my niche
- Use these sites as a way to get new content ideas & write further posts for my money site
- Contact bloggers within my niche to get guest post on their site, linking back to my money site (homepage and inner pages)
- Contact site owners & bloggers to interview them
- Sign up to relevant forums & post links in a non spammy way
- Join facebook groups and post links in a non spammy way
- Schedule in posts on facebook/twitter
- Share new posts on G+
- Anchord text, when i started was probably over optimised for my links. I then began linking more using my domain, domain name, or partial match anchors.

Long post, but yea that was how i've done stuff in the past.

In 2015, how much of this would work now? What changes would you guys recommend I'd make, and have you any up to date guides I could follow?

I remember looking at a keyword research / identifying niche guide on here a while back. It looked at how to conduct keyword research. Then the metrics to check the serps for to see if it would be viable. I remember SEOquake was used in scanning the SERPS. (Cant remember the post though)

Its time i get working hard again, on a new idea, new site, and start making money again.

Any and all help / links to useful resources would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks Everyone.

As far as SEO what you've outlined seems ok (sorry I just glanced through the post)

I think though you're missing diversity when it comes to traffic, you're too heavily invested in SEO.

I would recommend bringing up your social media game and exploring ways to diversify your traffic just in case Google decides to go full retard this year (and beyond).

Gyuman82 said:

As far as SEO what you've outlined seems ok (sorry I just glanced through the post)

I think though you're missing diversity when it comes to traffic, you're too heavily invested in SEO.

I would recommend bringing up your social media game and exploring ways to diversify your traffic just in case Google decides to go full retard this year (and beyond).

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Thanks for the reply.

In terms of social, this is what i've done:
Facebook -
Post meme pictures
Post articles from the site
Normally 1-3 posts a day.
Growth rate is really really slow.
I've never done any kind of advertising on there, or competitions to get likes/shares. So maybe advertising and competitions going forward would be worth while?

Twitter
Post my own articles, hashtag them
Follow influencers. Build relationships with them, tweet on their posts, favourite/retweet

So in terms of SEO there is definitely more to look at there.

On a side note, why aren't you using a private blog network?

You seem to be putting a lot of work into tiered stuff, and these days if you can afford it a PBN is more effective.

Shift your focus man to social signals. Participate actively in social platforms your audience do frequent. Believe me, you'll get loads of traffic coming in.

jahbuzor said:

Shift your focus man to social signals. Participate actively in social platforms your audience do frequent. Believe me, you'll get loads of traffic coming in.

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Any advice on the kinds of activity I should be doing / guides to help me out please?

Your strategy is pretty solid and would still work in 2015, particularly if your target keywords have moderate to low competition. Guest posts can earn you stronger links but they don't always work, and that's why I suggest incorporating PBN links in your strategy. PBN links = guaranteed strong links as long as you keep paying.

I would also say focus more on social signals share great content not just your own but offcouse your own content every know and then, use the propper #'s to gain more exposure and people will start seeing you as the cool guy who gives them loads of great content without being selfish and your social channels will get even more exposure when your audience starts sharing what you shared, plus you build a relationship and trust with your audience wich will end up in a high CTR for email sign ups and even direct sales

If I were you, I would buy one of the t0mmy's or BassTrackerBoat's services, because them guys know ho to rank.

Gyuman82 said:

On a side note, why aren't you using a private blog network?

You seem to be putting a lot of work into tiered stuff, and these days if you can afford it a PBN is more effective.

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I suppose this comes down to the getting lazy aspect. I registered domains, with the intention of doing just that, did some research into expired domains (which i never got round to buying). It fell by the way side, so i need to up my game.

On a side note,

Are article directories still worth while submitting to? How about Wiki's?

If so, what are some of the article directories worth submitting to, and has anyone got a list of recent web 2.0 properties, or a link to one please?

Thanks!

Brad100 said:

If I were you, I would buy one of the t0mmy's or BassTrackerBoat's services, because them guys know ho to rank.

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I want to steer away from buying links / social services, at least for my money site, as i've seen (on this forum) time and time again people getting burned through buying links etc.

Anyone have any good guides to creating PBN's?

lion1978 said:

I would also say focus more on social signals share great content not just your own but offcouse your own content every know and then, use the propper #'s to gain more exposure and people will start seeing you as the cool guy who gives them loads of great content without being selfish and your social channels will get even more exposure when your audience starts sharing what you shared, plus you build a relationship and trust with your audience wich will end up in a high CTR for email sign ups and even direct sales

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Thanks for this, sound advice. Will look to start sharing more stuff, both as posts, and shares/retweets. Thanks

Here is a good thread about PBN-s. How to set up and avoid common footprints etc.
http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackh...thing-about-how-i-build-manage-rank-pbns.html

karupoiss said:

Here is a good thread about PBN-s. How to set up and avoid common footprints etc.
http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackh...thing-about-how-i-build-manage-rank-pbns.html

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Thanks very much

you can still get reults with the same strategy, but remenber, like other ones well said, you need to focus more on social media, as you grow your social profiles you can see how much traffic is coming to you