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A True 4HWW Case Study: Part 4 – All about content

Hey guys and gals, we're back after a one week gap while I was sorting stuff out with my newly joined web biz partner and reading some more about my next planned stages to ensure I'm going the right way.

This week's update is all about content (the content that got posponed last episode) and a few interesting insights I've gained around this topic.

Let's get started.

Weeks 3 Summary

  • Research & Order Infographic - Check
  • Order KGR Articles - Check (20 articles total)
  • Order expired 2.0s - Cancelled

Time input and Expenses for the week

I've put a total of 7 hours of work on the site these 2 weeks, but technically only had week 3 accomplished, which is nicht gut ("not good" for the non-German speakers).

The main issue here has been researching the topic for an infographic. I didn't want to put just a random infographic together, and I fell too far down the rabbit hole of "must be better". This reminded me of art school when I was 8 and my teacher telling me "Best is enemy of good". 

  • Content: $450 (Human Proof, a pack of 24,000 words which will automatically more than double my existing content.)
  • Infographic: $50 (My Graphic Design friend was kind enough to charge me 25% of what he usually would. )

So technically we've just invested $500 on content which is exactly what I originally paid for the site. Now, let's jump into the why.

Investing in content Vs. something else.

As you know, one of the things I wanted to get were some expired 2.0s like Weebly, Tumblr, Blogger etc. They are cheap to get in Fiverr, but it doesn't mean it's cheap to make them the right way so that they stick, pass juice and don't harm your site. 

After some more thorough reading, I discarded the idea of setting up a mini 2.0 PBN because the amount of work needed is similar to setting a real PBN (in terms of adding filler content, legal pages, images logos blahblah), for a substantially lower ranking power.

Too much time.

Alright so I thought, let's go with The Hoth. Then I checked and it's $250 for three 2.0s. Three. $83.33 per 2.0 blog.  

Time and money balance.

I won't lie to you, and I'm sure you'll relate with this, but at this point I got mentally stuck and I couldn't move forward in any direction.

One option seemed too time consuming. The other one seemed too expensive, and I wasn't even sure I should get the 2.0s, but then I publicly said I would but and I've read they help diversify the backlink profile and this and that and before I realized I spent 2 hours thinking in loop. 

Let me tell you. I like this loops:

Roller coaster loops are fun.

And this loop:

Not just any loop...

But there's few things I hate more than mind traps aka idea loops. And my default for those situations is to throw it into the "f**k it bucket" and move on.  And that's what I did. 

​I rather spend that money on actual content inside my site, or buy good PBN links than spending just another minute figuring out 2.0s  when their impact is going to be minuscule in the big picture.

How many people get nowhere with their site because of spending too much time thinking what will work?​

About content, KGR, top level posts and guidelines.

I want to give you more details about the content I've ordered for my site, MMG. It was a mix of 12 KGR keywords (KGR being <0.25) 3 quasi KGR keywords (between 0.25 and 1) and 5 top level posts or "best blahblah" kind of post. 

The few quasi KGR posts I ordered revolve around some keywords that look very profitable. They are the exact niche of the site, talk about expensive products and are on the 200 searches range.

I thought it worth trying and see later what the difference in terms of ease of rank is between those and the other articles that focus keywords with a much lower ratio (real KGRs)

Then the 5 top level are other products. Some fitness apparatuses, other nutrition products.

I want to broaden the site slowly but surely so I went for some extremely low competition keywords with barely a few hundred searches per month, but all I want is to rank for those and get a few sales. This will compound over time.​

Guidelines: Keeping your site consistent.

Another thing that worried me was that, as different writers will be producing content for the site, it would end up looking a bit Frankensteiny, without a clear style or structure. 

It may be my favorite movie, but I don't want visitors looking at my site like Igor does here.

So before I placed the order, I spent a while creating a template that looked similar to the style the site currently has.

It's pretty much as follows:

  • Introduction. Short and sweet.
  • Top 5 blablahs: Includes specific features, the good, the bad, a conclusion and a pros and cons table after which I place the "check price" button.
  • How to use blablah (when appropiate)
  • What to know about blahblahs

Then I specified to use a first person singular voice and to talk like the main audience is males aged 18-30 which I understand is who mainly uses this sort of products I review.

I also added some links to other articles inside MMG so that the writer has internal references to quote.

Hopefully this will help the site look uniform and make the interlinking process easier later on when I'm publishing. 

What's next?

Next week I'll be doing research for a skyscraper post  

Considering the amount of time I've spent researching the topic for an infographic, this may take me well over the 4 hours I want to spend weekly, so I'll keep my projections for next week simple.

Have you ever published a skyscraper blog post? What were your results?

Let me know in the comments below! I'll see you there.

Daniel Stark
 

Click Here to Leave a Comment Below 12 comments
Adrian - August 5, 2017

Hi Daniel,
I happily follow your posts and like reading how you progress.

One remark on the Hoth Web 2.0 (I know you said you are done with it but anyways…). For $250 you get 8 Web 2.0 and not 3. So the price is $31.25. Each Web 2.0 then consists of 3 posts.

Wish you all the best with MMG.

Adrian

Reply
    Daniel Stark - August 10, 2017

    Hey Adrian,

    yeah that’s true, I got the numbers the wrong way around (I thought it was 3 2.0s with 8 post each)

    Reply
Rashed Reza Arif - August 8, 2017

Thanks for your nice post. I’m really appreciated your article. Yes, I’m interested your next article regarding skyscraper. I hope you explain this topic very deeply.

Reply
    Daniel Stark - August 10, 2017

    I’ll try my best! I’m working on it ATM and it’s proving a bigger challenge than expected. Next update will be live tomorrow most likely so stay tuned!

    Reply
Srenivas - August 8, 2017

Hi Daniel,

Not going with Web 2.0s seems to be good to me at least. We don’t know just by placing 2 or 3 500 word articles and linking back to our main website will add any value.

Instead the same amount can be used to create content and link internally and it will definitely work in the longer run.

Reply
    Daniel Stark - August 10, 2017

    Yeah that’s my thinking. At the end of the day, I only have so much money to spend, so I’m trying to put my € where it’s going to matter the most.

    Reply
Bobbi - August 8, 2017

This post was great! I loved how you talked about spinning around. This was my favorite line: “How many people get nowhere with their site because of spending too much time thinking what will work?​”

I’ve been there and done that WAY too many times, in fact, most of last week was spent like that. But I think I’m going to create a f**k it bucket and throw the things in there are get me spinning. REALLY appreciate the insights and tips, thanks!

Reply
    Daniel Stark - August 10, 2017

    Hey Bobbi, i’m glad you liked it!

    It’s one of my favorite buckets to be honest haha. Same as with money, our attention can only go so many places at any given time. Most of those places don’t matter, so chucking them into the f**k it bucket and moving on tends to work very well.

    The site your name links to looks pretty good! I wish mine can get as big soon 😀

    Reply
Tuhin Adhikary - August 8, 2017

Whom did you use for the Infographic? Any other source for Infographic?

Reply
    Daniel Stark - August 10, 2017

    A pal from highschool 😀

    If I didn’t know him I guess I’d have gone to people per hour or upwork. Maybe even Fiverr?

    or I’d done it myself on Canva, given the s**t weather lately I may aswell do something productive with the extra indoor hours haha.

    Reply
Arturo Meza - August 8, 2017

Daniel,

Great case study! follwoing since week 1 and it is getting more and more interesting. I really liked you comment about “I realized I spent 2 hours thinking in loop.” I think anyone who’s been working online trying to figure out the best strategy for their blog or ecommerce site has gone through that stage.

Keep up the great work! Thanks!

Reply
    Daniel Stark - August 10, 2017

    Hey Arturo!

    Thanks thanks! I’m happy to see you’ve been following along since the beginning. I had no idea if anyone would even be interested on following the case study, but apparently there is! 😀

    And, it’s true right? It’s so easy to get trapped in a thought and bounce from one side of the idea to the other one for hours without ever taking a decision… always because we want the best! (Perhaps too many “best this for that” sort of blog posts written? haha)

    Reply

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