iconrate.com allinanchor: buddy icons - 3 position:11 allinanchor: aim icons -2 position: 5 ovt results aim icons: 120884 buddy icons: 500686 Given those results I believe it's not beyond the realm of possibilities that a #1 position for both terms would bring over 20,000 visits/day. The above results are from google. If any seo would be interested in getting the positions up there I would be willing to split revenue with him/her please let me know. We can also discuss revenue sources. I think I'm going to need help with this...
Good luck with that... I have dedicated several hours a day, 7 days a week, for 9 months, and I am still struggling. The first positions are dominated by the big guys, sites that are well established and have been online for several years. (originalicons, coolbuddy, ballericons, badassbuddy) Imbuddy.net spent loads of money on a professional SEO campaign to get his spot. Animeim has his spot thanks to duplicate sites, hidden text, and all kind of crap. I have reported him several times, and I am glad to see that he is slowly going down. Iconhell is a monster, a huge network of sites that help boost up his position. It will cost big$ to get to #1, if it is even possible. If you own a minimart, no matter how much you spend you will never be able to compete against Kmart.
I agree fryman, I'm about 100% sure I'd never be able to do it on my own. It won't be easy but if neither of us thought it were possible I don't think we would have began making icon sites to begin with. There's always hope right?
Also before 3 days ago I had not even targeted aim icons, I was below 100 probably closer to 500 for aim icons but now am up to #5 above badassbuddy. I really didn't think that would happen.
I think you should just hang on a bit since you are using the coop - and keep all the profit. With the coop, I find that it takes some time to move up on the first page. On a very competitive term, I shot to the third page then second. But it took a while for me to get on the first page, now it varies between #3 & #5.
Looks like you're right. I'm just being impatient, I'll give it more time. Moved up 5 positions today