Understanding key domain metrics

When you are looking to buy a new domain for your private nework, there are a few metrics that you
need to check to ensure you are going to get as much bang for buck as possible.
You don't want to splash money on a domain only later to realise that it's not as powerful
as you thought.
So before you buy any domain, always use your due diligence and check everything I am about
outline bellow not just the key metrics.

Domain Authority (DA)

This is a metric that was developed by Moz as part of their OpenSiteExploder tool
It takes a range of metrics into account to give an authority score measuring between 0 to 100. You
can learn how it is caculated.

I generally look for domains that have a DA of 15 or above.

Page Authority (PA)

This is another Moz metric that comes straight out of OpenSiteExploder.
It also works on a 0-100 point scale

Like with DA, I always look for domain with a PA of 15 or above

Majestic Trust Flow (TF)

Majestic launched the Trust Flow metric to great fanfare and it is a solid indication of how trustworthy the websites that link to you are.
Again this works on a 0-100 scale, the higher the number - the better the Trust Flow.

When it comes to TF, I always seek out domains with 15 or above. However there is another metric to consider along side TF

Majestic Citation Flow (CF)

Another metric that was launched at the same time as Majestic Trust Flow was Majestic Citation Flow
This is based on the strength of the links pointing to your website rather that their trust worthiness

Again I always seek out domains that have a CF of 15 or above. But it is critial that you combine TF with CF to come up with

Majestic Trust Ratio (TR)

This is the ration between Majestic's Trust Flow and Citation Flow figures. Majestic analysed the top
1 million domain on the internet and found the top 25% domains had an average CF/TF ratio of 1.09
They found that the median average site had a ratio of 1.81 and spammy domains had ratios upto 9.87
So with that said you want to make sure that the domains you buy for your network have a trust ratio
between 0 and 1.81

To caculate this just follow this simple formula
Citation Flow /Trust flow = Trust Ratio
Essentially the closer to zero it is, the less spammed it is.

Any domain that is within the 0-1.81 trust ratio range is good to go. Any domain that falls outside of
that range should be avoided

The Domain Expiration Process

On the surface you might think that when a domain name reaches it's expiration date, if it's not renewed anyone can snap it up.
Although it does work like that in some manner, it is actually a bit more complicated than that. In general owners have around 1-75 days to renew a domain once it expires but mostly towards the higher end of that range.

Interestingly around 120,000 domains expire every single day with around 50,000 of those eventually coming up for anyone to register.
It is also worth noting that .com domains get deleted/made available to renew every day between 11am and 2pm pacific time in batches.
The Life Cycle Of A Domain
There are five stages to a domain's life cycle-

It is important that you understand each phase.

Stage 1- Active 

This means the domain is currently registered and active. You cannot register a domain that is active.
It possible to register domains from 1-10 years and then many domain owners have them set to auto renew at the end of their expiration period.

Stage 2 - Expired Holding 

Period Once a domain reaches it's expiration date it is held by the registrar for anywhere between 1-45 days. At this point any associated website stops working, but the domain is still available to renew to the original
owner.

Stage 3 - Expired Redemption Grace Period 

The next stage of the expiration process is the renewal grace period which typically lasts for around 30 days. At this point any Whois data is deleted.
This gives the original owner a last chance to register the domain before it gets moved into the pending deletion queue.

Stage 4 - Pending Delete 

Once a domain reaches the pending delete phase it can no longer be renewed by the original owner or anyone else.
During this period the domain is erased entirely from the ICANN database.

Stage 5 - Available 

To Buy After the pending delete phase the domain drops entirely and is released back into the general pool. At this point anyone can register the domain through any registrar.

The Cost Of Building A Private Blog Network

A lot of people think that building their own network is expensive, but that's not true at all. 

In fact you can build the start of your network for cheaper than what it would cost you to buy posts on a public network you would find advertised on forums like BlackHatWorld. 

You also have to consider that each site in your private blog network is a business asset that will bring huge financial returns in the near future. 

So let's take a look at the rough costs involved. 

Authoritative Domain 

You have a number of options when it comes to buying your domains and I have 16 different sources that I use to get domains. 

Prices depend on a number of factors like where you buy them from & how authoritative they are. 

For example you can often register a relevant expired domain with authority for the same price as a new domain which is around $8. 

But if you go through a domain broker or service that specialises in selling these domains you can expect to pay around $30-$100 each. 

I will take you through all of these different options later in the course but on average you can expect to pay around $15 per domain for your network. 

Hosting As with domains the price you pay for hosting can also vary. It is important that you use a different host for each site in your network and I will talk about that later in the course along with all of my personal hosting sources and how to avoid leaving hosting footprints. 

But on average you can expect to pay around $2-56 per month to host each site in your network. 

Content 

Sourcing content for each site in your network is usually the biggest expense you will face. 

There is an endless amount of places you can source content from (again I will discuss this in detail later) but you will need 4 to 8 articles of 400-800 words each at random for each site in the network. 

You can either choose to write this yourself which costs nothing more than your time or if you are short on time you can outsource this work to writers. 

You will pay around $6-$8 per article and you need 4 to 8 of them at random for each site. 

So on the low end of the costs you can expect to pay around $28-$56 for the content you need if you don't write it yourself. 

Costs Summary 

With all of that said, here is a summary of the costs for each site in your network-

One Off Costs

1. Domain $15
2. Content $40

Recurring Costs 1. Hosting $4 per month So you are looking at $55 per site you setup along with $4 per month on average. This makes private blog networks one of the most cost effective ways of ranking sites period. 

The One Type Of Blog Network You Must Avoid

There is one type of blog network you should avoid at all costs and that is public blog networks. Especially public 'private' blog networks that you tend to find advertised in forums like BlackHatWorld.

Let me be clear here, the second you start selling posts on your private blog network it is no longer a private blog network.

It is a regular occurrence to hear news of yet another 'private' blog network getting completely deindexed then you have everyone running around saying 'private' blog networks are dead.
But those networks are not truly private networks and Google actively invest their time & effort into infiltrating these networks and deindexing them.

It has happened countless times starting with AuthorityLinkNetwork (ALN) & Build My Rank (BMR) in 2012 and still happens to this day (Anglo Rank).

Public 'private' blog networks are a false economy. Sure they work in the here and now, but that success is built on a foundation of failure.

Here are some of the other drawbacks of public networks-

1. The sites are usually poor in design
2. They use junky unreadable spun content
3. They sell hundreds of posts per month per site
4. The domains themselves usually have a spammy backlink profile
5. You have zero control

The last point being the most important of all - not having control is a risk and it is critical to manage risk throughout all of your SEO efforts.
You are much better off investing your time & money into business assets that you control.

The Risks Of Private Blog Networks

I want to be very clear with this. If Google catches you using a private blog network, you will be penalised. There are no two ways about it.
In fact, if Google catches you trying to manipulate their algorithm in any way at all they will penalise you for it. Regardless of how you built your links. SEO is risk management plain & simple.
So as with any form of SEO & link building it is important that we approach the planning & execution of our private blog networks in the right way.

It is very easy to leave a footprint behind if you are not careful, so it is critical that you pay attention to every piece of advice and follow every step in this course.
But here are the two worst case scenarios-

#1 - Google Detects The Network 

If Google detects your network a few different things can happen. There is no doubt that you will receive a link penalty, either through failing a manual review (I have a great tip to survive manual reviews later) or an algorithm update.

If this happens your site will lose rankings & traffic and it is possible your private blog network will be partially or fully deindexed depending on what they detect.
Now that is an absolutely worst case scenario, but it is important that you know what that scenario is.
But remember the hidden benefit of private blog networks is control and we can exercise the control in a couple of different ways.

First of all if we build the network correctly and take care not to leave any kind of footprint, we mitigate the risk of detection.
Secondly if all hell breaks lose and we do get penalised, we are still in full control. It is just a case of removing the links from our network and submitting a reconsideration request.

#2 - Competitor Reports You 

The most common way people get penalised when using a private blog network is after going through a manual review that was triggered by a competitor submitting a spam complaint.
This is very common and after dealing with SEO clients for a number of years I can tell you that when people see competitors whizzing past them in the SERPS they have 2 responses-

1. How can we do the same?
2. How can we stop them?

Trust me, if you are in the top 10 for a low-medium competition keyword - your competitors are watching closely. What you do with your site and what you do with your backlinks.
So if you start getting an edge on them and they notice that, then they can put a stop to that in a few clicks by filing a spam report and triggering the manual review.
I always advise my clients against reporting networks because what could happen, is the person that you report figures out it was you that reported them.

They now have a penalised network of sites in their control which might just end up pointing at your site, a power you granted them by submitting a spam request. I believe in karma with things like that, so never snitch on your competitors.

However what you will have that your competitors won't have is my tip to hide your private blog networks from your competitors completely, along with the 1 thing your sites need to survive a manual review.

This protects against both your competitors finding the network in the first place and the manual review as well.

The Hidden Private Blog Network Advantage

SEO is nothing more than risk management and one of the most overlooked benefits of private blog networks is the control of that risk that it gives us.

In fact there is no other type of backlink that can be built that offers the same level of control that a private blog network does. What other type of link gives you full control over everything? And when I say everything I mean-

1. Design/layout
 2. Content topic
 3. Internal links
4. Outbound links
5. Anchor text

Having that level of control allows you to mitigate any risks.
Don't get me wrong, if you get caught you will be penalised and I will teach you about those risks and how to stay undetected later on.
But unlike any other type of link, you have full control to login to your network and instantly clean up your link profile in a few clicks.
Everything you do in SEO is a calculated risk and when it comes to calculated risks, private blog networks make the maths pretty simple.

Revealing The True Power Of Private Blog Networks

Now you have a better understanding of private blog networks and how they work, I want to show you what they actually do.
A lot of people underestimate the true power of a private blog network, however they are the easiest and most cost efficient way to rank any site.
I have used them to rank sites across a number of my own sites and client sites in various niches, here are just a handful of the results.

Case Study #1 - T-Shirt Ecommerce Store 

This site sells T-Shirts online but organic traffic had been degrading for the past year steadily. A private blog network was deployed at the start of Februrary to drive authority back into the site.

Within 6 months of the campaign starting, organic traffic & business revenue levels grew to the best they have been in over 2 years. This was achieved by securing 92 keywords in the top 5 positions, 221 in positions 6-10 & 213 in positions 11-20. 

Case Study #2 - E-Commerce Pet Store 

Selling products online in the pet niche, this e-commerce store was struggling to gain any real traction in the search results. 

A niche relevant private blog network was deployed which had an immediate impact on rankings-

Not only did traffic double, but the site secured 155 keywords on the top 2 pages with 43 product line keywords that have high commercial intent placed in the top 5. 

Case Study #3 - Diet & Weight Loss 

This site sells digital products in the diet & weight loss niche & got hit with the Penguin 2.1 penalty at the end of 2013. We started to rebuild authority to the penalised site with private blog networks at the start of February 2014. 

Within 2 months organic traffic exploded and continued to grow. 

The site is currently ranking for 9,120 keywords within the top 20 positions. 4,051 of which are on the 1st page and 2,158 of those terms in the top 5. 

This previously Penguin penalised site now enjoys over 500,000 organic visitors per month which has seen other channels like social media explode at the same time. 

Wrapping It Up 

As you can see I have used private blog networks to great effect across a number of niches. Not only that but they have been a fundamental part in recovering from backlink penalties. 

So now I hope you are starting to understand the true power of private blog networks when they are done right. 

I've said it before and I will say it again, once built your private blog network is a true business asset that takes the control out of Google's hands and puts it in yours. 

What Is A Private Blog Network?

A private blog network is simply a collection of authoritative domains & websites that you own. You can then use them to rank whatever site(s) you want.

Basically you are buying a domain that has expired but still has authority, then building a site on it with a link back to your own website(s). It's a very simple approach, but it is a powerful one.
It takes a bit of time to set up but private blog networks should be considered serious long term business assets. Over the next few topics I'm going to show you how powerful they really are.
Building the first site in your network might seem daunting at first, but once you have done it a few times it becomes a very quick & efficient process.

It is also important that you do not get private blog network confused with public blog network. You can find many services offering to sell posts on their private blog networks, but the very nature of selling posts makes it a public blog network.
We are purely focused on building a private blog network that is exclusive to us & under our full control.

A Closer Look At The Private Blog Network Process 
To make things easier to understand, I'm going to briefly break down each step of building a single site in your private blog network.
Don't worry if you get lost at this point, the following lessons & topics will teach you everything you need to know!

1. Buy An Expired Domain With Authority 

The very start of the process is finding an expired domain that still has authority. Ideally we want this domain to be relevant to our niche or at least of general relevancy.
For example www.datingsecrets.com would only be relevant to the dating niche, but we could get away with using www./ive/ove/augh.comfor niches like dating, travel, lifestyle, humour etc.
Prices for domains vary but I'm going to show you a ton of different methods to find the best domains at the best prices.

2. Setup Web Hosting 

Once you have the domain you need to set it up with some web hosting. I will cover the specifics of hosting in more detail later in the course.
For now just understand we have registered an expired domain (much like registering a new domain) and then set up hosting.

3. Build The Site 

The final step is to build out a site on our newly hosted highly authoritative domain.
This is as simple as installing WordPress, adding some content, adding some plugins and inserting links to the sites you are trying to rank of course.

Voila! 

That is really all there is to it, once you have done that you now have the first site in your private blog network.
Obviously there is a bit more to it than that along with some best practices & guidelines to follow, but in a nutshell it is as easy as 1,2,3!
I'm going to guide you through every single step over my shoulder so don't worry about that!