This is an ongoing case study of an authority site built on an aged domain bought from Odys Global marketplace.
After publishing just the first batch of articles in late January, the site started getting organic traffic immediately thus showcasing the power of aged domain site rebuilds.
In this introductory niche site case study, I will explain how I resurrected the aged domain and then generated $780 in the first full month of operations.
This is what I cover:
- Aged domain metrics
- Traffic and revenue stats
- Why did I buy the aged domain
- Issues with the aged domain
- What I did in Month 1
- Plans for Month 2
Let’s get to it!
Table of Contents
📊 Aged Domain Acquisition Summary
Here are the domain stats at the time of purchase:
- Purchase price: $4,000 on Odys marketplace
- Niche: B2B, technology, information
- Ahrefs DR: 31
- Referring domains: 404
- Backlinks: 4,280
This domain used to be a search engine (of sorts) for finding information about people, phone numbers, email, etc.
Why did I buy this domain?
I spotted many synergies with this domain and the niches that I understand and have partnerships in. Here are the main reasons summarized:
- Direct affiliate partnership: I had a lucrative partnership already in place which was a perfect fit for this domain’s main topic
- Clear content strategy: based on the past history of the site (and backlinks), it was very clear what kind of content I would put on it
- Quality backlinks: the domain had relevant and quality backlinks already in place
2 Issues with the domain
There were two main issues that made me hesitant to go forward with the domain due to previous experiences. However, it still worked out.
- Domain WhoIs aged did not match the actual website age
- Domain was not indexed in Google
Check out the Who.is snapshot for this domain:
And here is the Archive.org snapshot showing the site was live and registered since 2004:
When buying an aged domain, you want the Who.is age to be the same data as the original site launch date. Otherwise, this is a signal the domain may have been dropped thus putting it into the category of an “expired domain”.
This was a risk but I still went forward with it due to the opportunities that I saw. It was worth the risk.
Furthermore, the domain was not indexed in Google when doing a site operator search, e.g., “site:domainame.com”. This was another red flag because it’s not clear if the domain was penalized in the past.
Even with that, I moved forward and purchased the domain. The site has done well so that shows that there is not always a clear one-size-fits-all criterion for aged domains.
📊 Traffic and Revenue Stats
Here are the high-level stats related to the site launch:
- First article was published on January 23rd
- 58,000 words published
- Total of 30 articles
- Monetized in late February
- March was the first full month of operations
Traffic Breakdown
Here are the traffic metrics since launch:
The aged domain started getting traffic on day one after the content was put on it. This is usually unheard of as it can take some time (if done right) to start getting traffic.
Revenue & Cost Breakdown
The revenue was as follows:
- February: $180
- March: $780
The site made a total of $960 since its launch!
The growth costs were as follows:
- February: $287
- March: $807
The majority of the costs were for content
The net profit to date is -$134.
💸 Improvements Done in Month 1
Month 1 was the revamp phase of this aged domain. This is what took place.
1. Performed 301 Redirects
Old URLs of aged domains need to be analyzed and properly redirect to new relevant pages that were created.
The process was as follows:
- Analyze AHREFs “Best By Links” report for the aged domain
- Pinpoint a shortlist of old URLs that are relevant and have backlinks
- Recreate the pages as best as possible by writing new content
- Perform a 301 redirect using a WP plugin
Any old URL that is not relevant can go to the 404 page naturally. Others like to redirect these to the homepage, but I prefer a 404 as there is no relevancy anymore for these articles.
The 301 redirects were done as the content was added to the site to ensure all of the past link authority still flows through properly.
3. Added 30 Articles
The first major step of reviving an aged domain is to add content that is relevant to the original domain.
This is how I determine relevancy:
- Analyze the past website history in Archive.org
- Analyze the past URLs to understand the topic
- Analyze each quality incoming backlink to understand what the journalists/bloggers wrote about the aged domain
The first step is to recreate the same topics on the site that had backlinks or that have major topical relevancy. Of the 30 articles published, 15 of them were for this purpose.
The remaining 15 articles were new keywords that I was targeting.
2. Monetized with Call To Action Boxes
Once traffic started flowing in February, I created a simple call-to-action box promoting the affiliate product.
Here is what the CTA looks like:
Click tracking was done via Pretty Links plugin in Wordpress.
👉 Plans for Month 2
For the next month, here are the plans:
- Add another 10 articles that are low-competition
- Monetize all pages with more CTA buttons, contextual links, sidebar widgets, etc.
- Start the process of a redesign to make the site more appealing
The initial design of the site was done in GeneratePress with a basic template (archive of posts). Since the site is showing signs of massive growth, it’s time to double down with more content, and a quality redesign.
Stay tuned for the next update!
