Google’s generally advice to website owners over the years has been to “create good unique content” and you will be rewarded. We all know this to be bogus – and if you didn’t know this by now – welcome to my blog. For at least the next several years we’ll continue to see updates to the Google algorithm and everyone will continue to sound the “death of SEO” alarm, but what will continue to be among the most important ranking factors will be the number and quality of links pointing to your website. Because after all…
It’s not the quality of the product that matters most, but the marketing behind it
That philosophy rings true in most markets, but especially with niche websites. No matter how good your website is about dual flush toilets, no one cares enough about what you’re writing to link to you. The same can be said for millions of other topics that can be used as the basis for building a niche website on and that’s where these article marketing tools can help.
Now, if you’ve spent any time reading blogs about how to make money with websites then the first part of this blog post has probably not come as a surprise. Most everyone understands the importance of links but what most people don’t know is how to actually build links in a scalable way. The most common answer to this problem has always been to outsource link building and/or use software to help. Since I’ve had success with both of these solutions I thought I’d take it a step further and document most of the major software based article marketing / link building services in a public case study.
The goal of this case study is to find the top article marketing tools for link building based on data I collect.
What Services Will I Use?
Unique Article Wizard�– $67 per month
My Article Network – $67 per month
Build My Rank – Starts at $59 per month (10 free links trial with no credit card) – Sadly I just got an email a few days ago they were closing new user registration so I’ll have to hold off on Build My Rank for a while.
ArticleRanks – Starts at $39 per month
Distribute Your Articles – Starts at $99 per quarter
Traffic Kaboom – Starts at $197 per quarter
SEO Link Monster – Starts at $47 per month and $147 per month after that
Digi Traffic Accelerator – $19.95 per month (currently half off)
My monthly bill for just link building services will be roughly $500 a month (and I might add a few more services if there is enough demand in the comments). I will be using affiliate links during this study while referencing the tools I use so I appreciate the support when you buy through my links and as an extra bonus I plan to create and give away instructional videos where I’ll show you the best way to maximize your results with the software I find is best that you can watch yourself or hand over to your VA’s so they can do the work for you (just another way of saying thanks for the support). I’m doing this study because link building in general (let alone software assisted link building) is something that I’ve found most people don’t understand so I fully expect this to be one of the most popular case studies I share on this blog so don’t be afraid to ask questions.
What Other Expenses Will I Have?
I’ll be paying for a few dozen domain names, TextBroker.com for some of the content creation and using my full time VA to help with setting up the websites and writing some of the content etc. but I’ll be the one running the software tools for this study so that I can be absolutely sure everything is done the way I want it to be.
Total monthly expenses should run me roughly $1,000 per month, but again I’m spending my money and (in some cases wasting my time) so you don’t have to. You don’t need all of these tools listed above. At most you’ll only need one or two of these services – only if – you’re really interested in building out niche websites as a business model as opposed to going for a more authority focused model without building links through software etc. In that case, stay tuned for a follow up blog post where I cover other link building alternatives.
How I Will Conduct This Experiment?
I’ve thought about this for quite a while and I’ve looked at other experiments and I’ve discovered the best way to do this is to focus on three key areas:
1. The number of backlinks indexed from each service
2. The page rank for each of these backlinks from each service
3. The keyword rankings I get from using these services
I’ll be using ahrefs tool for backlink analysis, but if you want me to check out another program simultaneously for this case study let me know in the comments below. I’ll look at these three criteria over a time period of at least 90 days – so I expect to spend at least $3,000 on this experiment. I’m going to be buying brand new domains with a plan to launch the case study March 1st so I’ll have all of the domains and keywords picked out ahead of time.
In rating the tools I’ll not only looking at the above factors but I’ll also be looking at how easy it is to use the tools as well. If there are two tools that provide roughly the same results but one takes less time and is less confusing to use then I’ll be recommending that one instead.
Overall Summary
The results of this experiment should provide a lot of helpful data for those of you interested in building backlinks to your websites so I’m pretty excited about getting this case study underway. Once I’ve found the best services based on my data I’ll host a webinar and walk you through the various tools I think are the best and show you more of what I learned etc. and provide video recordings for anyone who decides to buy the tools I recommend (again as just another way to say thanks for the support). My goal here is to cut through the crap and invest a lot of my own time so you don’t have to.
Please note: There is no way that I can reveal the websites, keyword choices etc. while I’m conducting the study for obvious reasons and because it opens the study to external factors (limiting variables will already be difficult enough).
If you want to make sure you get all of the case study updates join my email list here. What do you think of how I plan to conduct this case study?
Off Topic PS: Be on the lookout for an email from me early next week inviting you to a webinar where I’ll be showing off some awesome new software that’s been created to help with Amazon focused keyword research. The week after that the WordPress theme I’ve been working with on a partner on should finally be complete as well! We’ve had about a dozen beta testers helping us test it for the past several weeks.
Wow Chris, that’s a ton of work you are getting yourself into. The results will be immensely appreciated by those of us without the huge budget to use all these tools.
Thanks for putting your resources ‘out there’ to show what works.
Showing the ease of use of these tools too will help in deciding which to run with.
Will follow this case study really closely.
Cheers.
Ade.
Thanks yah I think it’s going to be really helpful. Feel free to let me know if you have any other things you think I should focus on etc.
Chris
Looks like a great study. I use DTA a lot and was thinking of buying SEO Link Monster although I am going to hold off now and see how your evaluation goes. Of course, I will use your link if I decide to buy it.
Thanks for the update!
Thanks Jim – I’m sure this case study will be pretty valuable to you for sure 😀
Hi Chris. Do you know if all those services you’ll test would work for Spanish language backlinking? Thanks!
I’ll have to see… the way most work is people take the articles for use on their website. So I’m not sure if they support multiple languages or not
$500 for link building is very expensive. There are many ways to build a link without spending very expensive like yours.
I keep this in mind once i have now a budget for these tools.thanks for the heads up!
Hi Chris,
I’m new to your blog but this look like a massive and very cool case study you are doing. I personally find it difficult to know what link building is working and what isn’t. I’m very interested to see the results.
Good Luck!
Hey Matt,
Thanks yah this should be a really fun case study!
Chris
This is really interesting.
Looking forward to the series.
Looks awesome Chris! I must admit this is a pretty serious case study, but with you behind it I’m sure it will be a success. One service you may find interesting is LinkAuthority – it’s a little more involved but seems like it’s worth the premium. I know you already got a lot on your plate but it’s worth taking a look at.
Pretty cool experiment. A couple of really popular blog networks. Be pretty nice to see Traffic Kaboom in the mix too.
BMR will win hands down.
Hey Matt, I’ve read other studies and I’ve seen some good things said about these different services and often times people end up recommending one over the other (in opposition to each other) so I’m just really interested in seeing if the reason for the mixed results is because those bloggers had something to gain by recommending one over the other or not.
We shall see… 😀
Chris,
This case study looks awesome. But the only exception which I see here is all these are paid services.I agree that these services do provide excellent results but one can afford those services only if they earn money.People who are new to online marketing may not have that much money to afford.
Can you please consider writing an exclusive article on strategies for Free Link Building ?
Have seen this kind of article from Pat but would love to have them from your experience.
Regards
Phanindra
The old adage is often times true – “it takes money to make money.”
In the case of making money online I’d refine it to say…
“it takes a little money to make money.”
Domains + Hosting = Can’t live without
But unless you have a true marketing plan and really unique approach towards building links to your website then it really is impossible to expect natural links to the hypothetical niche website about “dual flushing toilets”
So I would argue (and we’ll see once this study is done) is that if you’re serious about niche websites (in particular) one or two of these tools would be difficult to live without as well (Again – only if you’re serious about niche websites specifically)
Really looking forward to this Chris, it’s something I’ve always thought about doing but because of a lack of time never got around to, but really excited to see the results.
Chris, all I can say is WOW. This will be an epic project!
Very much looking forward to the results.
Chris,
This sounds like an awesome project. I have used(am using) a few of these programs, and I will be interested in seeing if your opinions jibe with mine. (And of course there are some that I HAVEN’T checked out yet)
Anyhow it sounds like a great experiment and one that should produce some very useful results. I look forward to seeing how it goes.
Great idea!
Hey Steve, yah I think it will be a fun one to test out for sure and will provide a lot of value as well.
Hi Chris… sounds stellar!
Is it possible to add High PR Society to your list for testing? On the fence for this service as well and would like to get your feedback on it.
Their site is http://highprsociety.com/
Based on your list above I’ve gotten good results using both UAW and BMR and the combination has served me well.
Look forward to your case study updates!
Might check it out I’ll look it over.
This is really exciting Chris. I really think the next step for all my niche sites is some serious link building using software. What is stopping me at the moment is the monthly cost and it scares me that’ll lose a lot of money. I guess I just need to take the plunge after you recommend one of these services. In the meanwhile you think it would be a good idea to get some of these services though fiverr? One off projects.
I normally have done one off packages before. But again it’s all about scalability and I think that a few of these software solutions will turn out to be good winners (at least in the niche website game)
Okay – I guess I’ll just take the plunge then and get one of these software packages and see how it works for my niche sites. Hopefully I can get myself onto page 1 of Google for some of my sites and then I’ll make my money back and be able to afford continuing to purchase these services.
Thanks. Look forward to seeing your results.
Looks like a heck of a list.
You also mentioned textbroker.com. Have you used their services before? I mostly use oDesk now, but am having trouble finding quality writers for a reasonable price.
Yah I’ve used TextBroker the most for content (beyond having hired people on a part time / full time basis)
Hey Chris,
This is going to be an awesome case study!
I’m particularly interested in how you will go with Traffic Kaboom. I signed up to it around a month ago and the first thing that struck me is that they are a lot more strict on the quality of the spun articles that we submit. I think they actually have a human read what we post and if any synonyms are not quite right they reject the article.
We have no chance getting anything approved there with auto-spun stuff, so i’d love to hear how you handle it.
Cheers
Hey Steve,
What I’ll probably turn this study into is multiple reviews of all the link building services to mention nuances like you said so I’ll have the case study I finish first and I’ll write the individual reviews while I’m doing the case study to publish those after I publish the results.
Chris
Sounds great mate, I can’t wait! 🙂
Hi Chris,
Since my earlier post, I have been wondering about link diversity. Some of the services are oriented mostly towards one type of link (DTA/social links, for example). Do you think that the best approach will be a combination of services? Have you considered doing a follow-up study with combinations of the best 3 or 4 services? You could make it a WSO or by subscription-only project to help with your expenses.
Yes the best strategy is almost certainly building links from a combination of different sources, but I’m really trying to limit variables as much as possible. What I’ll probably do is a combination of a follow up case study using additional link sources and/or (if I have time) running a second case study at the same time showing the article marketing sources + other link building methods.
If I do that later option my plan will probably be to do that to some older niche sites that I had up late last year with content, but haven’t built any links to yet.
Also – I don’t think I have any plans of selling the information (if I did perhaps I’d do it really low priced maybe) but I’d prefer to just rely on people signing up through my affiliate links based on what I recommend to be the best.
Great project Chris! I use traffic kaboom and it works quite well, only issue is getting some articles approved which can end up time consuming.
Can’t wait to see your results, there are plenty of good services out there but it is hard to know which will be the most efficient for yourself or VAs.
Cheers
Sean
Hey Sean,
Yah that’s what I’m excited about doing this experiment for – should be a ton of fun and a lot of value.
Chris
Looks interesting! It should be interesting to compare notes once this is done. Feel free to get in touch, Chris.
Cheers,
Shane
Hey Shane,
I think I’ll probably take you up on that offer. I’ll be most likely using ahrefs like you used in your study and I’ll additionally mention your study in future blog posts for sure.
Chris
Chris,
This is huge! There is a TON of misinformation about link building so this is very useful. I will stay tuned.
Chris
Hey Chris,
Yah I’m loving the feedback so far and that probably means I may even do full on reviews of every single service in addition to showing my case study with the results all together.
We shall see.
Chris
Dont forget the massive spend you will need with decatpcha to work on DTA
.. one of the main reasons I am thinking of dumping it.
Please clarify… I haven’t even used DTA at all so I’ll probably see what you mean once I start but yah please clarify heh heh.
Hey Chris,
Great scott! You are ridiculous aren’t you? But seriously, thanks from everyone for taking a bullet on the massive costs of this experiment. I’m sure you’ll recoup it with all the affiliate sales, if your past content is the judge you’ll be providing great advice so I hope everyone who purchases repays you for it..
I’ve been thinking about a link builder of some sort for a while now, I’ve just been using Fiverr and getting others to submit for me though. I wouldn’t say I’m “into” niche sites as such, but I certainly dabble.. the plan is to setup about 1 site a month, so I’m on the fence as to if something like this will be worth it for me.
Will be reading your coming articles thoroughly…
Oh.. one question, what are you using for keyword research? Something like Market Samurai? Or Long Tail Pro?
I’ll be using Market Samurai, Longtail Pro and Google Adwords Keyword Tool so probably all three and maybe a few others lol.
This will be fun to watch Chris! Love it!
Pat
Thanks I’m eager to try it out as well for sure 😀
Hey Chris,
Did you see / read Darren Browse’s review / opinion about SEO Link Monster?
>> https://plus.google.com/u/0/112726038360301567381/posts/aujaqRyV43j
I use Build My Rank myself and it works very straight forward which is great and seems to work properly too 🙂
Hey Ralph,
I just read through some of those comments, I guess that’s why I’m not someone who is promoting these programs without trying them. I’d be more apt to call these grey-hat tactics than straight black-hat but let’s face it the goal is to game Google basically.
Sadly I just heard BMR closed their doors to new members so I’ll have to remove them for now.
Chris
That’s too bad about BMR, I heard a lot of people saying it was the best and was looking forward to you comparing it with all the others before I got ahead and make the leap.
hi chris
BMR have only closed temp while they build the network out further or so the sites says)
if you inside I think you should still include them.
Ill say for a fact buck for buck BMR crushes the otehr guys. Its not a close call its awesome. Sure ou need to use it correctly and vary up the anchor text etc but… its worth every cent
regards
Yah, I’ve heard good things about BMR – I’ll see what I can do about including them but I already tried to get an exception and wasn’t able to.
Chris,
I just started going through all your podcasts. Great information so far.
I’m curious, have you tried software like SE Nuke X, Xrumor, and scrape box? I’d be curious to hear a case study on those, too. When I read what these services do I often get the feeling they’re simply using these software packages.
Ashley
Haven’t tried those but I might test them out we’ll see. I already know that I’m biting off a huge chunk of work… lol
Hi Chris,
Hopefully, you’re buying multiple domains in the exact same niche to test these services? Or is your intention to use multiple keywords across multiple niches with different search/CPC data?
What I’m getting at, is that it’s more useful to see if you can rank “dog training” better with BMR vs. UAW for example, by targeting BMR at dogtraining1.com and UAW at dogtraining2.com.
It seems like you already have a plan though, so I don’t want to derail that. After working hard at it the past couple of months with my niche sites, the thing that I’ve learned is just to test, test, and test again!
Andre
One idea I had was to pick three niches that I would test each network on using three different domain names for each link building service, but really it’s impossible to account for all variables.
I don’t think I’ll try and target the exact same keyword but I’ll be going for the same niche, same keyword volume and same competition though.
Sorry I forgot to add, MajesticSEO is also good for checking backlinks, as well as SEO Spyglass.
LOVE that you’re doing this 🙂 I would also be interested in hearing your thoughts on SENukeX if you can afford to bring that one into the mix as well. Thanks!
Yah I might see if I can fit that one in as well.
Link building is a good way to earn some reputation in terms of Google page rank and other stuffs which all contribute to high exposure.
Hi Chris,
Thanks for all the great info.
Do you usually check the strength of the competition (first 10 sites on google) for each keyword you try to rank when building an authority site?
Yes / No. Biggest question I ask myself is “Can I make a better website (in terms of content and link quality) than the top 10 ranking sites”
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Excellent advice which should all pay attention too. Howverever beware there are many internet sharks ou there who are unscrupilous, ready and will to scam you out of your hard eaned money. I am say this because I have been a victim of this type behavior more than once.
I really agree! Sometimes your audience or market will choose your website not because you have the better quality or services offered.. But how hard you market your website. Thank you for sharing this..
Hey Chris,
Have you used any of these services in the past ?
I just started using that back linking strategy Pat Flynn used on his niche site: http://www.smartpassiveincome.com/the-backlinking-strategy-that-works/
His approach is a bit different when it comes to how he links back to his niche site and it might be an approach you might want to try out in your case study.
I look foreword to reading about how it all plays out : )
David
Hi chris
I cant see it mentioned above. So i’d suggest adding
http://www.linkemperor.com
The theory is awesome. But does it work?
Steve
Very useful blog indeed.. I really love to learn more to be a great blogger.. Thanks for a very wonderful guide.. Be back here for more! 🙂
AWESOME study. I can’t wait to follow this. And I’m hoping BMR comes out on top haha… seriously.
Looking forward to the outcome of your case study – all the forums are saying that Google deindexed sites from these types of networks starting on 18th Feb. I guess your case study should prove one way or another whether this is actually true, or whether the people suffering ranking drops were just blaming it on the networks!
The people on the forums are the ones not making money – they’re too busy talking about it… I never listen to what people in forums are saying. I just do stuff for myself to see if it works. 🙂
Chris, I use UAW and Article Ranks and have pretty good results with them. I love to see how it works out for you.
In case you have cheaper and better backlinking options, I love to check out too. Looking forward to your report and findings.
Hi Chris … I didn’t read through all the responses … but how about doing another experiment such as this WITHOUT spending money on anything?? (or at least a minimal as one can)?
You mentioned you plan on spending approx $3000, plus what $500 a month for other expenses…it great that you have the resources! BUT that’s not realistic for many marketers, especially the newbies that are just starting out.
Dont get me wrong, this should be a great case study and I am sure with your experience and resources you will succeed!!
This case study, and if you did one with all free tools and minimal out-of-pocket expenses, would be an even better experience for your readers!!
My point: you show someone how to do it low-cost and be successful, then another with resources showing an even greater success story … shows the benefits of scaling up!!
Just a thought and wishing you the best!!
David
Hey David,
Well the point is that I’m spending several thousand dollars so that everyone reading my blog won’t have to. I’m going to find the tools worth using and then only recommend those. (I’ve never said you’d need all of the tools – at most like 1 or 2 article marketing resources)
But this method does work for niche websites. I’ve taught one of my best friends how to make money with Adsense and he’s averaged over $1k a month using the stuff I taught him… so it does work. I’m just setting out on this experiment to find exactly which tools are best to use.
Chris
Hi Chris..Looking forward for the results.
In your free 10 day course you suggest that if the domain name is not available we can add a keyword modifier.
What about adding a hyphen say for example Photography-Tips.com
Joe
I’m interested to see how this turns out since I don’t have much of a budget to work with. I’ve been trying to find some sources to help me with SEO and there is just so many options out there that it’s difficult to find one that’s reliable. I was going to sign up for BMR but I had heard that they weren’t accepting atm. I joined Social Monkee just to submit my articles since I’m starting to work on social bookmarking for one of my sites so hoping that helps.
Lisa, many people (such as myself) use fiverr for cheap link building. Im interested to see chris’s results, becuase all of the tools he talked about, you can find someone over at fiverr that will do the work for $5
Hey Chris, I’m excited to see the results of your experiment. Curious what is going to perform best for you. Are you going to wait the full 90 days plus before releasing any of your findings or are you going to be doing constant updates if interesting results start showing up? 3 months plus is so long! Hah.
Hey Chris – Any update on the results ?
Thanks
Hello Chris, this article is so helpful for me.
I had no idea about more than a half of the sites you mentioned, but unfortunately my budget is very low.
I’m very curious to see how your experiment works and after that maybe will make an effort and raise my budget a little.
thanks
~alex
Hey Chris, great case study, cant wait for the results and for part2, hurry up man!
Hello Chris, very informative information. Looking forward to your results. Please post.
Hi Chris, Thanks for sharing this great article! It’s very helpful for me and specially for my Gifts niche website.
Hi Chris,
Looking forward to hearing an update with regards to your case study. I do believe you have hit upon something we all struggle with..backlinks that are worthwhile…and what services provide a useful means of providing such!
cheers, Patrick
I want to read your great article over and over. Building links to niche is very important work of all the bloggers who want to succeed. But this is not an easy job, need to work hard and smart. I really feel this. What a job requires persistence and patience are very high. Thank you very much.
I’ve been using InstantArticleWizard, and I like its built in spinner. It’s $77 to buy, $67 a month is a lot of money for all but blogging moguls!
hello chris, l am trying to build some backlinks, and built my pagerank, l have a blog only one month, when will l have results?
This is a very ambitious project! Am looking forward to more info.
Hi Chris I assume this back linking strategy is outdated?
Hi Chris. Had a look around and can’t find the results of this. Can you point me to the URL?
Hi Chris, do these methods still work after the latest Google Penguin/Panda updates
I think some of the link building tactics posted here might no longer work due to recent Penguin and Panda updates, but making quality content and semantic link building tactics would still work today.
Ferdinand the strategy is a year old.
A very good posting. I like it. This is what I am developing that is how to build links to niche websites to raise my blog’s rank. This posting is very useful and can be my reference. Thank you for sharing this topics.
Building link to niche websites is really important and urgent to do. Many bloggers do this to increase the rank of their blogs in the search engines and I do, too. Thank you for this nice posting. Really useful and informative.
Hey Chris, when are we going to get an update on this?
A lot of stuff has changed since I first posted this update and I’m trying to think about how I can best talk about it. So for now I don’t have an update planned just yet.
Will update you when I do though
Hi Chris I myself are tring to build backlinks but doing it on a limited buget makes it a lot harder I’m having do it the old fashioned way which is a lot slower but with the same results in the long run!
I don`t want to sound like a party pooper but if you use these tactics google will surely penalize your site. Google has put a stop to all link building software and now wants only natural links pointed to your site. thanks…
Chris –About populating a new Amazon mini-site with content: If I’ve prepared, say, 6 keyword-focused information articles related to the product I’m about to promote, should I publish all 6 articles at once or over a period of time?
Hi Chris, Very effective post. I learned a lot from your awesome post but as far i know BMR hit hard by google few months ago.
Hi Chris, Thank you so much for all the great tips you have sheared here. Hope this is really help me to build links to my niche websites to raise my serp�s rank.
Last comment was November 2013
Is there a part 2?
Hey Joseph, Sadly no. This was one of the things I got side tracked on last year + shortly after posting Google owned a bunch of the networks I was going to test.
Hi Chris,
Building links to other niche websites is something we can ignore as part of SEO.
There are also some other factors to optimize our websites or blogs such as social media promotion, guest posting etc. But links building is still quite relevant in the efforts to get high rank in the search engines.
Thanks for sharing this useful posting.
Hello Chris,
Very nice list of tools to use for backlinking purpose.
I have used UAW with fairly success.
I am going to give ArticleRanks a try. I have heard good stuff about this tool.
Cheers
So I’m curious – do any of these work these days, or did Penguin render all of this pretty much dead in the water?
Thanks much!
Pauline
Most of what I’m doing for SEO now I don’t talk about on the blog. Perhaps I’ll do a webinar sometime with no recording.
Building a niche site has never been easy. But one thing I know is that it takes money to make money.