TRAFFIC
Figure 1: Starting a budget plan
Year No of domains Cost (each) Domain renewal
(each) Hosting (each) Hosting renewal
(each) One 50 £10 n/a £30 n/a £2,000
Two 50 £10 £10 £30 £30 £4,000
autogenerated spun articles is not enough
of a reason for a site to exist in most cases.
Topical relevance is important.
The value you would get from a link on
a domain on topic X to your main site
about topic X is much greater than the
value you would get from a domain on
topic Y – unless you can logically tie up
topic Y to topic X. For example there is
no use in getting a domain about kittens
and linking it to a casino site, unless you
spin it along the lines of “kitten- themed
casino games” or something similar, then
create a piece of content for it.
getting any random domain and
changing it to a completely different
topic and/or content.
Nothing screams “unnatural” like a
private network built in one go. Spread
your activities over time; do not buy a
bunch of domains at once, link them
to your main site and then call it a day.
While this approach may give you a quick
temporary boost, chances are it won’t
last long. Treat your private network
building efforts like you would treat your
linkbuilding efforts because consistency
is key.
“Nothing screams ‘unnatural’ like a private
network built in one go”
When using aged domains, you can
improve your chances of keeping their
value long term if you look at them
through the eyes of the site owners that
are linking to them. Ask yourself the
question: if this domain has been linked
from my site previously, why would I
want to keep that link? Domains lose
their link value over time for two reasons:
domains linking to them expire, or their
owners remove the links. It might be
worth grabbing the expired domains at
that point if they were good domains
and if you can get your hands on them.
It may not be completely under your
control where owners remove the links
but at least you can ensure the domain
is still linkworthy.
Natural resurrection
Restoring aged domains can be a tricky
process, so make sure their “resurrection”
looks as natural as possible because this
will help prevent immediate loss of value.
This includes – but is not limited to –
24
iGB Affiliate Issue 68 APR/MAY 2018
Domains get hacked all the time.
Sometimes domains get dropped by
their previous owners because they were
hacked, it got out of hand and they gave
up cleaning them up. When you get an
expired domain and restore its original
content, make sure you don’t keep the
malware, parasite pages or any other
traces of the old hacks. Needless to say,
you should also take steps to prevent any
further hacks once the domains are in your
ownership. Should any hacks happen, fix
them as soon as possible.
On-site SEO is something your main
site needs, and by improving your private
network sites’ on-site SEO you can get
a lot more out of your private network.
Fix broken links on your private
network sites and ensure the stronger
version of the site is the default; that is
www vs. non-www, https vs. http, and
that others are redirected to it because
this helps consolidate the value.
Keep an eye on the uptime of your
network sites. This can be a complicated
Total cost
task if they are hosted across different
service providers, but it needs to be
done. After all, if your sites are down
half the time, what value can you get
from them?
Should you build links and/or run
social media accounts for your network
sites? If it makes sense and you have
the resources for it, then why not?
However, if you do it, make sure it’s
done properly, otherwise it may hinder
more than help.
Once you acquire good sites you need
to hold on to them, so after the first year,
remember to renew the domains and
hosting to avoid losing them. Needless to
say, these yearly recurring expenses should
be planned for and t