In my last post, a few weeks ago, I wrote about sharing my strategy for those who are sick and tired of linkbuilding. As you might already know, I set up a site last year, that has completely changed the way I have been working all these years.

While that site grew bigger and bigger, I started worrying about losing it´s income. Low and behold, I was told about 4 months ago, that starting 2012, I could no longer participate in the affiliate network that was the main earner on that particular site!

Big shocker of course, especially since I had started to set up another site in the same style, working with the same affiliate network, and that site had also started picking up traffic.

Fortunately, things worked out in the end and I got to continue working the way I had done before and the way it looks right now, all will be good. So while that first site keeps on growing and the second site is also starting to pick up, and site 3&4 are already in the oven, I am thinking of building a 5th site that is going to be way bigger than site 1,2,3 & 4 combined.

After all, there is no reason to think small, is there, so I might as well think B-I-G!

Seeing that it is going to be a HUGE project, and one that is going to be based on what I have learned this past year, PLUS getting inspired by Tiffany´s case study, I thought it would be a good idea, to make a case study out of it.

As you might now, I have learned my basic knowledge as a member of The Keyword Academy and even though they have gone through a rough year, I believe that they are at the right track by showing people to build authority sites.

My case study (and the sites I have been building this past year) is all about building an authority site. I got sick and tired of thin sites and linkbuilding. My heart just wasn´t in there, probably because all my life I have tried helping others in some way or another, and well, these thin sites really do nothing more than pollute the internet.

However, the sites I have been building this past year, really do serve a purpose. They contain great information and even though I do use the foundations of TKA, keyword research and search engine optimization, I try to write for the readers as much as possible.

My Case Study

Goal: Build a solid foundation of (what is meant to become) an authority site, that makes 90 sales a month before September 2012

Topic: Improving life in all aspects (yes, broad topic, but I want to go B-I-G)

Domain: brandable, 7 year old, PR1 domain I already bought

Target market: the Netherlands

My tactics: publish 25 articles per week in different categories, starting the fifth of March 2012.

I will post updates on this case study every month, showing traffic data and whatever notable I have to share, as well as things I have done to the site.

Coming week however, I am going to write my blueprint, the way that I set up the site. Once I have set up the groundwork, I only need to focus on writing content, which allows for more focus.

“So what about the linkbuilding?” you might ask.

Well, as part of the case study, I am going to fully outsource my linkbuilding. I want to fully focus on writing good content for this site and I will be writing ALL the content myself.

Yes, I know I am setting myself up for a real challenge, writing 5 articles a day along with all the rest of my work, but I feel I have to get moving and really going for something B-I-G right now.

The linkbuilding will be done through different services, like fiverr gigs, but also hands off link building networks and the occasional “big boost” when I feel it is appropriate. It is what I call “passive linkbuilding”, seeing that I won´t be writing articles for this purpose at all. All will be done by others.

There are a few things that inspired me to do this case study. One is the post I mentioned by Tiffany. Another is a thread I read in the Pond, somebody asking whether it is possible to earn $3000/month within 6 months.

With this site, I want to prove that it is possible, hoping that I won´t have to surgically remove my foot from my mouth later this year!

Plus, yesterday I went to visit a friend of mine and we talked about Internet Marketing. She has a 8 month old baby girl and they cut her hours down at her job, to such an extend that she felt she had to take action and work on getting more income another way. Thing is, that she had asked me about setting up a website a few times before and I had been explaining how to go about it.

Usually people don´t go further than that and just keep thinking that it won´t work anyways, but when we started talking about it yesterday, she picked up a little notebook and showed me a list of categories and subjects she wanted her site to be about.

We did a little bit of investigating her niche together and I explained a few more things and she got even more into the idea of setting up a site herself. At one point, she asked if she could make money with her idea and to be honest, I think that she could earn more with the site before the end of the year, than she is making right now at her present job.

Those three “events” combined, made me come up with this case study to test myself and to challenge myself in a B-I-G way and hopefully, further down the road, I can turn it into an inspiration point for others!

Seeing that case studies should be transparent and show all data:

23-2-2102 :

• Commitment to creating a Dutch authority site
• Posting 25 articles a week
• A 7-year old PR1 domain
• No content
• No traffic
• No “active” link building
• Monetization method: Affiliate marketing
• Income: 0 sales

Before April 2012 I want to reach 50 unique visitors a day and make at least 1 sale.

Before September 2012 I want to reach 1000 unique visitors a day and make at least 90 sales a month.

Feel free to sign up for my feed to follow my progress,

ask questions or leave your comments below!

Do YOU think I am going to make it?!?