As the new kid on the block, I’ve been reading through all the posts & have been digesting as many of the powerful ingredients I am able to so I can create my own domination “secret sauce’. It seems like the recurring theme is:

1. Identify your niche
2. Develop a list of high KEI keywords
3. Build your gold site(s)
4. Build a bunch of “internet properties” (silver & tin) that point to your gold(s)
5. Promote, promote, promote

Before even getting to the world of strategies for #5 above, I have a few questions on “gold/silver/tin” site building & I was hoping someone can help fill in the missing pieces. If anyone has the answers, please feel free to answer just 1 or as many as you can:

1. Keyword research – I created a list of about 100 high KEI keywords in my niche that I believe I am supposed to target. I read somewhere that a good goal is to create 10 “internet properties” for each keyword & have them point back to your gold sites with the keywords as the anchor text. My question is if I should be using the high KEI keywords, or should I be more focused on “Buying keywords” (or is that more of a PPC focus)?

2. Silver Sites – If I am aiming to create 10 internet properties for each high KEI keyword, I tried to narrow down the best list of places to create them. I read your post on where to build silver sites. While some of them allow commercial links (Squidoo, hubpages, ezinearticles, etc.), others seem to be more for personal pages (MySpace, LinkedIn, facebook, etc.). Is there a tactful way to create these or do I just create instructional posts similar to the others and not worry about it?

3. Duplicate Content #1 – I read in several places that the only real duplicate content issue Google cares about is having the same content on your own site over & over, but off site duplicate content is not a problem. If that’s the case, and I am aiming to create 10 internet properties for each keyword, can I just post the identical info for 10 silver sites in 10 different places (Squidoo, hubpages, facebook, etc)?

4. Duplicate Content #2 – If offsite duplicate content is really not an issue, do I need to waste time & money on creating/outsourcing original content, or can I scrape & spin, and just add hyperlinks to the keywords pointing to my gold/silver sites?

5. Multiple IP Addresses – It seems like one of the main obstacles to overcome is developing all of these internet properties on hosts with different IP addresses. I read your post on using various free/cheap hosting services, but I’ve also read about people using “proxy servers” and a “network of C class IP addresses” (class c when promoting, bookmarking, etc.)? Can you offer any advice/insight on going with this route? Pros/Cons? Suggested resources to try?

6. In your link building strategies section, I really liked the Creative Hosting concept (10 domains x 10 subdomains on each = 100 domains. 5 pages on each sub (50 pages per domain) x 20 links on each page = 10,000 linking opportunities). I love this concept as it seems like one of the simplest to create, but even if the 10 domains were on 10 different servers (cheap/free hosting), wouldn’t there still be issues with each having approx 1,000 links on the same server? Is there a way to overcome this? Also, would you structure each of these subs as “www.keyword.genericdomain.com” and simply title them as the “20 Best (keyword) Resources” with links back to your other silver & gold sites? Would Google look at this structure as doorway pages? Would you also include high quality links to other non-commercial sites?

7. Using Fatty – At first I didn’t think I would have a need for Fatty as my goal was not to create a search engine, but I think I am starting to understand it’s use. If I understand correctly, it’s not necessarily to get users to come & search (i.e. a Google replacement), but Fatty allows you to control the search results, so you have your gold & silver sites appear in “good neighborhoods” as search results with other high quality, non-commercial sites, which, from what I understand, will lend influence to how Google views your listed sites. If this is correct, are there other uses for Fatty for traffic generation? Is there a way to get Google to spider & index the thousands of pages you can generate on fatty to get traffic for thousands of keywords? If the Fatty site needs to be promoted the same way as your other gold sites, what’s the advantage of using Fatty sites over just promoting your gold sites?

Any insight is appreciated!

Thanks,

Mike
Master Bomber in Training

>1. Keyword research – I created a list of about 100 high KEI
>keywords in my niche that I believe I am supposed to target.
>I read somewhere that a good goal is to create 10 “internet
>properties” for each keyword & have them point back to your
>gold sites with the keywords as the anchor text. My question
>is if I should be using the high KEI keywords, or should I
>be more focused on “Buying keywords” (or is that more of a
>PPC focus)?

You should focus on both/all types of keywords. If it's a content site, go after all keywords of "value".

If you're selling something, put more focus on psychographic type keywords that use words like buy, cheap, coupon, review, save, etc.

>2. Silver Sites – If I am aiming to create 10 internet
>properties for each high KEI keyword, I tried to narrow down
>the best list of places to create them. I read your post on
>where to build silver sites. While some of them allow
>commercial links (Squidoo, hubpages, ezinearticles, etc.),
>others seem to be more for personal pages (MySpace,
>LinkedIn, facebook, etc.). Is there a tactful way to create
>these or do I just create instructional posts similar to the
>others and not worry about it?

I wouldn't worry too much...

>3. Duplicate Content #1 – I read in several places that the
>only real duplicate content issue Google cares about is
>having the same content on your own site over & over, but
>off site duplicate content is not a problem. If that’s the
>case, and I am aiming to create 10 internet properties for
>each keyword, can I just post the identical info for 10
>silver sites in 10 different places (Squidoo, hubpages,
>facebook, etc)?

Google doesn't penalized dupe pages, it filters dupe content. This is a difference, but should still be avoided when possible.

Refer to this thread about "spinning" content using Tuelz.
http://www.dombom.com/cgi-bin/dcforum/dcboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=98&forum=DCForumID42

>4. Duplicate Content #2 – If offsite duplicate content is
>really not an issue, do I need to waste time & money on
>creating/outsourcing original content, or can I scrape &
>spin, and just add hyperlinks to the keywords pointing to my
>gold/silver sites?

Again, I suggest you ue the method on this thread:
http://www.dombom.com/cgi-bin/dcforum/dcboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=98&forum=DCForumID42

>5. Multiple IP Addresses – It seems like one of the main
>obstacles to overcome is developing all of these internet
>properties on hosts with different IP addresses. I read your
>post on using various free/cheap hosting services, but I’ve
>also read about people using “proxy servers” and a “network
>of C class IP addresses” (class c when promoting,
>bookmarking, etc.)? Can you offer any advice/insight on
>going with this route? Pros/Cons? Suggested resources to
>try?

The old "I'll fool Google with different C blocks" trick.

Google's way smarter than that. They use a system called "hilltop" (google it) to see how sites/pages are related. Hilltop has been around for a while and is an important concept, yet you never hear SEOers discuss it.

Hilltop is Google's way of telling if two pages are "affiliated". It uses more info than just c block IP numbers. ARe you using the same host/DNS names. Are all the sites hosted in the same geographical area, etc.

Best way to get around this is to use different free hosting services, as well as different affilite accounts. For example, it doesn't matter what you do if you use AdSense on all your sites, Google will know who you are and that the pages are "affiliated" by looking at the AdSense ID. Same with other affiliate programs.

>6. In your link building strategies section, I really liked
>the Creative Hosting concept (10 domains x 10 subdomains on
>each = 100 domains. 5 pages on each sub (50 pages per
>domain) x 20 links on each page = 10,000 linking
>opportunities). I love this concept as it seems like one of
>the simplest to create, but even if the 10 domains were on
>10 different servers (cheap/free hosting), wouldn’t there
>still be issues with each having approx 1,000 links on the
>same server? Is there a way to overcome this? Also, would
>you structure each of these subs as
>“www.keyword.genericdomain.com” and simply title them as the
>“20 Best (keyword) Resources” with links back to your other
>silver & gold sites? Would Google look at this structure as
>doorway pages? Would you also include high quality links to
>other non-commercial sites?

I'm not as fond of this strategy as I used to be. Using the free third-party resources takes care of almost all these concerns.

>7. Using Fatty – At first I didn’t think I would have a need
>for Fatty as my goal was not to create a search engine, but
>I think I am starting to understand it’s use. If I
>understand correctly, it’s not necessarily to get users to
>come & search (i.e. a Google replacement), but Fatty allows
>you to control the search results, so you have your gold &
>silver sites appear in “good neighborhoods” as search
>results with other high quality, non-commercial sites,
>which, from what I understand, will lend influence to how
>Google views your listed sites. If this is correct, are
>there other uses for Fatty for traffic generation? Is there
>a way to get Google to spider & index the thousands of pages
>you can generate on fatty to get traffic for thousands of
>keywords? If the Fatty site needs to be promoted the same
>way as your other gold sites, what’s the advantage of using
>Fatty sites over just promoting your gold sites?

Fatty has a number of uses. First and foremost is to create tons of content to put on pages.

Fatty will build "hub" sites. (google "hub and authority sites"). Everyone just talks about "authority" sites, as if that's all there is. Google also loves "hub" sites. A hub site is a site that links to other quality pages about the same topic.

Fatty takes a while to set up, but once set up, it can produce tons and tons of pages with just a few clicks. While some of our stuff is a single article posted to Squidoo, or a small 5 page niche site, Fatty lets us make megasites quickly and easily.

Both authority and hub sites need lots of links. The difference is, authority sites don't link out often, while hub sites have tons of links to quality resources.

A good example of a hub site/page is a search for "free photoshop plugins". Often, the high ranking pages are simple lists of links to various Photoshop plugins.

It may seem that linking out means losing traffic. However, SE stats show us that the majority of users will click on the first link. By putting your own links 1st and 2nd, you'll get almost all the clicks, while using the other resources to get traffic.

Thanks for the quick reply. My only question(s) then with regard to Fatty is once I have my mega fatty site established, if there's anything I can do to get the various fatty pages indexed? I know I'm probably missing something here, but if there isn't a sitemap on my Fatty site (for reasons you've explained...and which would look unnatural for a "search engine"), how would the search engines know what content was on the various pages to index? Any advice or steps for getting a fatty site indexed for the thousands and thousands of keywords would be extremely helpful.

Thanks!

Mike

After a few more days of reading/learning, I am starting to put together my game plan for my gold/silver/tin strategy....but I have questions I was hoping someone can help with.

I have my main gold site built. I plan on first developing a bunch of tin micro-sites, mostly with spun content (per Kurt's post referenced about on how to spin), and RSS feeds with archives. In general, my goal for these is to develop hundreds of keyword specific pages that can expand/update/build links with little or no maintenance so I can then focus on building my silver sites.

While I am definitely starting to understand the power of developing my own RSS feeds, I don't yet have enough content & thought using other RSS sources on autopilot could at least build me some good links until I can replace the feeds. Here are my 2 questions:

1. Most of the settings/software I've played with post RSS snippets on my pages with links back to the content sources. I've figured out how to dynamically replace certain keywords with anchor text to my various URLs, but realized that for every 2-3 links on the page I'm generating to my own site(s), I'm also generating 5-10 to my competitors' sites via the RSS feeds. I'm still new to all of this, but it would seem counter productive in trying to rank in the SERPS if I am building more links for my competition than for myself. Am I correct in assuming this or is there an answer right under my nose??

2. In pulling RSS feeds from various sources with the attempt of replacing low competition keywords with anchor text, I am finding that most of the feeds in my niche have many primary keywords, but not many long-tail keywords. My goal is to get many links for the less competitive long tails, however I can't replace what doesn't exist in the RSS feeds. I noticed that most of the content would still make sense if the primary keywords were replaced with various long-tail phrases. Is there a way to dynamically find primary keywords in various RSS feeds & replace them with long-tail anchor text? How about archiving them first then replacing the keywords? (preferably a system that would work on autopilot)

Please have patience if any of this was already explained, I'm absorbing as quick as I can!

Thanks!

Mike

>While I am definitely starting to understand the power of
>developing my own RSS feeds, I don't yet have enough content

If you've already spun content, you can spin some RSS pheeds. Easu to do. Create a RSS document with 100 items and use the Randomz Tuel.

>
>1. Most of the settings/software I've played with post RSS
>snippets on my pages with links back to the content sources.
>I've figured out how to dynamically replace certain keywords
>with anchor text to my various URLs,

Due to fair use copyright rules, I'd be careful about changing/modifying someone else's pheeds. Use others' pheeds for legit/quality content purposes.

>but realized that for
>every 2-3 links on the page I'm generating to my own
>site(s), I'm also generating 5-10 to my competitors' sites
>via the RSS feeds. I'm still new to all of this, but it
>would seem counter productive in trying to rank in the SERPS
>if I am building more links for my competition than for
>myself. Am I correct in assuming this or is there an answer
>right under my nose??

If you are pulling pheeds from quality sites, it's likely that your pages "inherit" some of the relevancy and quality of that site. I think it's good to link to other sites, especially high quality, relevant pages.

You could add nocomment tags to BlogBomb's output template so each RSS pheed is no comment, but you're also more likely to get some blogger to complain.

Or, use your own.

>2. In pulling RSS feeds from various sources with the
>attempt of replacing low competition keywords with anchor
>text, I am finding that most of the feeds in my niche have
>many primary keywords, but not many long-tail keywords. My
>goal is to get many links for the less competitive long
>tails, however I can't replace what doesn't exist in the RSS
>feeds. I noticed that most of the content would still make
>sense if the primary keywords were replaced with various
>long-tail phrases. Is there a way to dynamically find
>primary keywords in various RSS feeds & replace them with
>long-tail anchor text? How about archiving them first then
>replacing the keywords? (preferably a system that would work
>on autopilot)

RSS isn't very good for long tail. Optimize other elements of the pages for long tail and add RSS as "Content Helper" (like Hamburger Helper) to stretch the content on a page.

What I would do is spin some more pages using the stuff you've already done, but only use 1-4 items per page. Do your keyword anchor text swap on this content. Then, add just a RSS item or two from a quality site.

I have a quick question if you don’t mind.

Buffet Syndrome:

First of all, as a newer member I realized I was making a HUGE mistake. Just like when you go to a buffet where they give you that “small” plate & you try to stack EVERYTHING on your plate (including the croissant under the chin) on the first go around, even though you can go back as many times as you want, I was doing the same thing in the forum. Everything looks sooo good for market domination, I was attempting to tackle about 6-8 different tools & techniques at the same time, which only led to mental paralysis & lots of Tylenol.

On a scale from 1-10, I got to about a level 2-3 on 5 different techniques, which as you know, produces LOTS of frustration and NO RESULTS. With that said, I realized that I WAS THE PROBLEM! and decided to CHOOSE ONE tool/technique at a time, and put the blinders on until I was proficient with it. Then, move on to another, etc. I am trying to select the tools/techniques which can run on autopilot first or will have the greatest impact on my new campaigns. Per your advice to me, I started by creating an RSS feed by hand & then created a black hole RSS feed per these instructions http://www.dombom.com/cgi-bin/dcforum/dcboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=2&forum=DCForumID42 .

At first, nothing was working. As none of the data in my txt files was coming through, I figured there were issues with the tweakrandom.cgi file. I called Bluehost & asked them to verify my path to pearl. They recommended I add a #!/ to the beginning of my path….HOLY CRAP! IT WORKED!!

Next, I realized I had to clean my descriptions.txt files to remove all the punctuation symbols not compatible with RSS. I had no idea what was compatible & what wasn’t, but I found the site http://feedvalidator.org to be extremely valuable in pointing out the errors with my feeds. I wound up creating new descriptions.txt files about 6-7 times, but I finally had a batch that was validated.

I then went to the Pingz tuel & set it up to ping my feed with Ping-O-Matic every 2 hours. I titled the feed “(niche)News”.

I believe my next plan of action is to establish about 5-10 free hosting accounts & repeat the process, same URLs, Keywords, Descriptions text files, slightly changing the feed titles, but have a few questions before taking this step:

1. I have about 300 keywords in my keywords.txt files, 200 lines in my descriptions.txt files, and 60 URLs in my links.txt. Are any of these too many to have in the txt files? Is there a number I should try to stay around?

2. Since I really don’t have any other silver sites established for this niche, I created the feeds with 60 different URLs to the same 1 domain (my primary gold site). Is this going to be a problem or pose a risk of getting my IP banned?

3. In studying my competitor’s RSS feeds (as aggregated on my other site), I noticed their RSS feeds are pretty much the same as what I set up above; 1 or 2 sentences with a link to one of their basic site pages or home page (not an article or updated page with same content as feed). I also noticed that several of them have different feeds several times a day with different descriptions, but leading to the same static site pages. Can I assume they’re doing the same thing? If so, and this technique is widely used, is there really a big “black hat” concern of getting banned or delisted? Can I submit my RSS pheed to Yahoo & other majors as well or am I asking for trouble?

4. Please let me know if there’s anything you would change about my above mentioned strategy. After setting up 10 of these on auto pilot, I’m going to move to set up 50 blogs/sub-domains populated with my RSS feeds, but modifying the anchor text to target more keywords. What would you suggest I tackle next? After the blogs are set up, then I will tackle article spinning & mass posting to article directories.

I know I still have so much to learn, but I can’t tell you how good it feels to start to see something working!

IT’S WORKING…YEAH!

Mike
SWAT