So I have this new recipe site which is just over a month old. I add about 300 recipes a month. Being a highly sought after keyword ("recipe"), I am definitely sandboxed (or whatever you may choose to call it, Matt Cutts calls it domain penalization). I would probably assume a 6 month period is good enough time for Google's penalization effects to wear off given the quantity and quality of content added on the website. By this 6 month period, I would probably have 2000 recipes added and indexed (Webmaster tools shows 3-4 days between indexing). I currently use Adsense, and a couple of other CPMs. Would focus heavily on affiliate marketing (Amazon + Google Affiliates) 6 months down the line. Although the site is Geo'd to India, majority of the UV's are from the US and Europe who come in through Twitter marketing. Oh yes, I use Twitter heavily for getting the word out and though I have been doing it for a week now, I have seen some good souls RT some of my best work. I also submit once a day to foodbuzz.com and hope to have some decent and natural backlicks when big G decides I am not a spam site. Here is what I expect: The Keyword "recipe" has a global 101MM searches WW alone. Not counting long tail at all. With 2000 pages indexed and a couple of hundred genuine backlinks from other sites plus social boost from Twitter and FB, an average of 1000 UV per article per month. An average of $3.5 CPM across the board (Adsense and a couple of other CPM networks) Now the calculation makes me giddy but here it is: 2000(pages) x 1000(UV/month/article) X $3.5(CPM) = $7000 Will go back to all my articles and insert Amazon and GA links when I hit 2000 pages. Should add some more change but let's keep that aside for now. Am I being the optimistic fool or is this achievable? Thanks Phoenix
What I will say is calculation is all base on the assumption, not the exact data It is achievable but you gotta try them out before you can ensure your earning
Maybe it is.. then again who is to say how things may unfold... unless you can prove me wrong otherwise. I have seen blogs with tech help come up to $2.5k in adsense in under a year but they say competition is much great in that niche... You never know if you'll drown until you jump my son.
Hi Phoenix Dragon Firstly let me start of by saying I am not one to ever be intimidated by competition when it comes to a niche, some of us thrive on a challenge However, I think u need to keep in mind as much as your game plan is NOT impossible, you should not put all ur eggs in one basket and bank on ur site ranking for such a highly competitive keyword within the time frame u mentioned above. Now don't get me wrong here, I am not at all saying that it can not be done....just saying that u should cover ur @ss and not depend on this project as ur primary source of income, just in case it takes longer than anticipated. Now, about ur campaign... the fact that you will be adding constant fresh content, which I assume will all be unique content and you will also be adding a considerable amount of content... This will have an incredible effect on ur sites credibility and rankings. I would strongly suggest that u do a much more indept keyword analysis and try rank for at least 3 or 4 keywords even ones with less search volume and less competition. So whilst u are trying to rank for the main keyword at least u will be ranked for secondary keywords as well. This adds to ur sites credibility. Secondly, why do u assume ur site is sandboxed or penalized? what link building strategy have u been using? If you want to compete in an competitive niche like this then u need to ensure that u have a solid back linking strategy that includes, high quality links, contextual links with low OBL, relevant links and that u maintain an good link diversity. This is essential in you want to improve ur rankings.. a poor link building strategy could destroy ur chances of ranking ur site completely
If he's adding about 300 recipes a month it means it won't be original. Will you cook the food and take pictures? I don't think so. It means 10 recipes a day, that's about the time you can have in a typical work day to copy it from a book by hand (by keyboard) if copying and pasting or scanning with OCR then it should take only a couple of hours per day. And a recipe is a recipe.. If you don't add more text content which should be original like commenting on the ingredients and talking about their tastes when mixed together, etc.. Then one recipe will look like the same meal on another site. If you do add insights in each recipe, then there's no way you can produce 10 recipes a day. But even then, assuming that each article (each recipe) will be viewed by 1000 unique visitors a month (33 per day, for each recipe) is over optimistic with the existing competition of authoritative sites, forums and other amateurs. But good luck as Deez said it's not unhealthy to try to compete with other webmasters. It's just that there could be easier ways to make the same money, with less competition and higher average CPM for instance.
I wouldn't focus on getting the keyword "recipe". Instead focus on specializing in a niche within recipes. How about "everyday food recipes". A keyword like that will be easier to rank for. As you build on bigger keywords your site will hopefully become more popular. And one day you might just get recipe because of all the other recipe keyword you have ranked for. Good luck!
Yes, you are being an optimistic fool. lol. I've been trying to rank for a 5million global searched keyword for 4 years now. I was ranked 6th near the end but penguin bumped all of the corporations up and I went down. Your keyword is nearly 101million global. Its purely impossible because ever since the penguin its not about content, seo, backlinks, or promotion. Its about "Are you the internet movie database?" "Are you Walmart?" "Are you considered a favorite by google like wikipedia?". the answer is never. You can squirm all you want to try to rank but consider that in the top ten results for that keyword there is wikipedia, CTV, dictionary, bettycrocker, and the food network. You don't have a chance unless you are going to have your own global TV show. If you are going to continue then don't cry about it when in 3yrs you've gotten no where. If you want to stand a chance then go for longer tailed keywords like "easy dinner Recipes" or "recipe finder" etc. And while you are reading this take note that all of the clowns above that are saying that the content has to be unique will give you a chance, are all foolish. Google search does not work that way anymore. Unique content is better than stolen content but if you are not some huge fad like American Idol then you won't rank for major keywords like that.
I think James makes some excellent points that you should consider. I don't think anyone will want to visit a site that churns out 300 generic recipes a month, especially when there are plenty of recipe sites. If you look at the successfully bloggers they all have original content and success usually took several years. My advice is to take your time, create original articles, build an audience, and success will gradually follow. It probably isn't achieveable the way you are going about it, but you can't succeed without dreams or planning and looks like you are trying to do both. Good Luck!
The website has recipes which are being tweeted by chefs and food blogs... I run them through copyscape before posting and no they are not OCR'd though I don't appreciate the sentiments. How I manage that number is my business and which I do not wish to discuss in an open forum.I did go head to head on a niche blog with a major game developer. Google "Evony Age 2", I happen to #4 (www.age2evony.com). So I don't buy Penguin will crush me if I am not a corporation. I don't expect to rank anywhere on major keywords like "recipe". I am aiming for long tails. Example : Google "Button Ham Biscuits Recipe", I am #2. Once again, if content were not original, I would be burried somewhere in the hay stack.
These guys in here are definitely programmed by society. My advice to you is close this thread, never revisit it, only after you have achieved what the average human may have referred to as being an "optimistic fool". Instead of asking if it is possible, try to find out how to make it possible, cuz what your asking is definitely possible, take it from me. Be sure to follow Google's activities carefully, observe their rules and guidelines, think outside the box, and don't take time to read why penguin/panda updates makes this or that impossible.
I am inclined to agree with you... unless someone can discredit my example of my fan site with a logical explanation, this thread serves no purpose due to lack of knowledge. There are hundreds of blogs out there with similar answers to what I have got here.. probably I am wasting my time here. Now that I think of it, why would someone successful give away free advise in the first place... silly me.
It's possible if you have over a million visitors per month. My advice is for you to grow the site little by little rather than trying to force it. Build a brand and provide good quality content to your visitors, they will come back
Of course you will agree with him. Its because you are not here for advice. You WANT to do this and you want others to give you a confidence boost. I've given you information using a realistic judgement on if this niche you are going after is worth it. I said no. Then some hippy comes in the topic and says "Instead of asking if it is possible, try to find out how to make it possible". and you ignore all FACTS presented and say "YAY, I can do everything. I'm a big boy". You can dance around with the elephants in Disney all you want saying that if you put your heart into something, you have no limits, but realistically you don't have a chance.
You contribution was that unless I am a major corp, I cannot rank on Google. My reply was my fansite www.age2evony.com ranks #4 on Google for the name of the game "Evony Age 2". Your logic is discredited.
I think this is the problem in your math: 2000(pages) x 1000(UV/month/article) While some pages could get 1000 views in a month, it is very unlikely that you are going to get 2000 pages that are all getting 1000 views in a month.... and your CPM might be a little high. Just build your site and hope for the best.
Now that makes sense. Since I cannot control how many UVs the site gets on an individual page basis (due to the volume), my next best shot would be to increase the page count. Thank you.
If my attitude was like this, I'd be stuck building and running PHPBB forums all my life too. Yes you did state facts and thanks a lot for that. We all love information. But if I was stuck on facts, reading internet articles, listening to why this and that won't work, I wouldn't have had half of what I have today. It's good that you gave him the facts, but your negativity earlier up was uncalled for. Anyway, who am I to determine what your character should be like. No I'm not religious and this ain't any hippie weed smoking confidence BS. I say this from experience trying to get a slice of the internet $$. It's up to you now whether or not you'll think on your own or adhere to society's structured BS and insult others because they think differently.
that's correct. Unless you are a major corp or Justin Bieber you cannot rank on highly competitive keywords. Your fan site keyword has 40,500 global searches. Recipe has 101Million. There is a fair bit a a difference. Surely you can see that you can't really use the example you provided as evidence that you can rank a 101million searched keyword. I have not been running phpbb forums all my life. I don't even run one now. I own one of the top 5 biggest and best compilations of dinosaur information networks online......currently ranked 97th from the penguin update because google thought it would be better to rank sites like "bed, bath, and beyond" so that people searching for information about dinosaurs can see towels that the franchise sells with little dino-paw prints. I'm just being bold. If you want to see positive advice then ask you mother to come in the topic and give her say. Positive is not exactly correct. I'm just stating the obvious. No single person can rank for a keyword like that without being internationally known. Its really the guys choice to waste his time on this or not. He can waste 5yrs for nothing for it, quit to save the waste, or get Miley Sirus to recommend a recipe publicly.