In this case I’ve selected a blog of mine that is built on an aged domain. The last Google visit was 3 days ago. I know the site will rank because I tested its current rankings with long-tail phrases. I’ve decided to go after a niche in the Halloween costumes vertical (a fairly high competition arena). It’s coming on that time of year and I figure I’m up for the challenge. I will be live blogging my progress daily.

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Case study start date: Sept 14th, 2011 9:41 PM

I found an old domain I had and set up a blog on it. I’ve posted 3 of 4 youtube videos with brief 100 word synopsis of each video.

I installed the all in one SEO plugin and configured accordingly.
My goal is to create a page that will rank for our main keyphrase.

The keyphrase we want to rank for is 2 words. High competition with 60,500 local searches every month. I’m sure it skyrockets in October. We have about a month to get the top for maximum exposure. I have my work cut out for me.

More tomorrow
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I plan to take this baby from 0 to hero and I’ll blog about it the whole way.  So before we start building links and promoting I’ll catch you up to what I’ve done so far:

• Purchased domain. I use namecheap for my registrar.
• Installed wordpress (via one click installs thanks to my host dreamhost.com (ask me for a coupon code to save $$$ at dreamhost)
• Downloaded and installed the free article directory theme and plug-in

So far I’m out $10 bucks for the domain name.  Dreamhost lets me host unlimited sites my yearly plan is about $150 bucks. I won’t count the hosting as an expense.  The next step for me is to add a few articles and flush out the categories so the site doesn’t look like the ghost town that it does now.

After than I’ll start the promotion. Stay tuned.

Quite simply stated: The more related links you have pointing into your site the higher your will rank for your key words and phrases.

A simple yet grueling task, link-building is easy to do, but it does take effort and good old-fashioned hard work.

Here are a few good places to start when considering your link building strategy:

Social Networks

While posting a link on facebook might not help you in the SERPS, some one else seeing your post and sending through their twitter and posting it on their blog will.

In other words, get your content everywhere. The more eyes that see and like your stuff, the more chances you have to acquire a backlink from a fellow blogger/webmaster.

The Blog-o-sphere

Reaching out to bloggers who share similar interests is a great idea. Offer to write a guest post in exchange for a back link. Another way to get the attention of bloggers is through the use of linkbaiting and social news aggregators.

Link Baiting

The art of link baiting is something that I truly enjoy. Creating an article that gets a lot of attention is a thrill that is second to none. Hitting the front page of Digg, Mixx, or Yahoo Buzz will drive thousands of people to your site. Webmasters and bloggers frequent sites like these for ideas on new posts. I once picked up a link from msn.com for one of my clients by using the link-baiting method.

Web 2.0 Properties

There are tons of sites that allow you to create your own information pages. Sites like Squidoo, Hubpages, Wikidot and more. Use these sites to create mini-networks. By creating this pages and building links to them monthly, you will drive juice to your site.

Article Submission sites

There are several of these types of sites on the internet.  A few examples are: ezinearticles.com and goarticles.com

As you can imagine, creating links out of thin air is a never-ending process and takes alot of work.  While some webmasters choose to do it all themselves, smarter webmasters choose to automate and outsource the manual labor side of linkbuilding.  It’s a grind to say the least. But your hard work will payoff in pure traffic.

I realize this is a no-brainer, however, what I didn’t realize was the extent to which this was true.

Allow me to rephrase the extent of my discovery:

It is possible to rank a brand new site with less than 100 backlinks, on the first page of Bing for a moderately competitive term using only Twitter.

In other words, social networking matters. And it seems like it matters more and more every day. With Google announcing their new real time search results, and my new recent discovery about the Bing algorithm, doesn’t it make sense to start building social awareness around your flagship sites?

Create a Facebook, get a Twitter account, make your content easy to access and update frequently. (be careful not to become spammy or annoying with your updates, offer something useful).

Information’s habit of spreading socially, coupled with aggressive online social networking and relevant keyword research implementation is a sure fire ticket to the traffic you’re looking for.

I have spent the last 2 years perfecting the art of blog building. And while nothing is “perfect” per se, I have been able to earn a living from the blogs in my network.

I started this website as a guide and journal of my various adventures and experiences with web publishing. Please excuse the dust, while we build this site. I plan to document the entire process of building this blog as well as offering case studies from other projects I’m working on.

I look forward to the ongoing discussion and sharing what I’ve learned so far.  Comments are always encouraged. 

Please subscribe to follow the progress as we develop this in-the-trenches blog building resource.

Feel free to contact me here.