Here atari hackers welcome to this Week’s podcast episode I guess you are in full christmas wind Down right now we definitely are here At atari hacker so we decided to do a Bit more of a laid back episode where we Give you an update of where mark and i Are In business what we’ve done this year And you know essentially recapping the Different projects we’ve been working on And What’s been doing well what’s been doing Not so well and putting that in Perspective with what’s happening in the Industry etc so Usually in podcast episodes we try to Focus on tactics that you can use we try To talk about you or Real life examples etc and not really Talk too much about us unless it’s Relevant to the story But i know some people want to know how We’re doing and the things we do so this Podcast is for these people so if you Are interested in that stay tuned and Let’s get started with the episode [Music] Hey everyone welcome back to the atari Hacker podcast uh today is kind of like Our christmas episode so you know i have Like a I’m pretending i have a hot drink it’s Actually empty if you guys check
But you should get a hot drink uh it’s Going to be a casual episode where We’re not really going to share any new Tactics or anything like that But rather just kind of like give you an Update on where we were at personally How 2020 went for us and maybe like a Bit of a read on like what happened and Hopefully what our future plans are etc So Obviously i’m not doing this with a Guest today so i’m doing this with mark So i guess the question is like how is 2020 Going mark you know it’s been a pretty Good year i gotta say Um and i i guess i want to say we had a Discussion like in private the other day And you said 2020 has been The best year of my life or something Like this um And a lot of people would like jump off A bridge hearing these but uh Apparently for you it wasn’t the case Yes so I mean obviously there’s been a lot of going on that Hasn’t been ideal um and Yeah that stuff hasn’t been great Talking about the global pandemic of Course But the truth is for most website owners And obviously there’s People in travel industry and other
Places that definitely have not had a Good year Most website owners at least the ones I’ve talked to have had really good Years Most online businesses are thriving more And more people are being forced to use Them because of everything that’s going On Uh and i think that transition is likely To Continue um rather than revert back to To how things were i agree last year It’s maybe just accelerated the Process which is was already changing so As an authority site owner It’s been a really good year what can i Say Yeah i don’t think it’s going to reverse Back i think a lot of people were forced To buy online when they were kind of Like Against it initially and maybe they Found like a better deal or they got a Pretty good experience or something and They’d be like well Why don’t i just keep doing this um so i Think From that point of view is quite good i Was actually catching up with some Um task members because i’m redoing the New sales page for the new Uh tasks that we’re gonna release later We’ll talk about this a bit later
But you know i was catching up and like It was for testimonials but i was also Like hey how was your year etc because Most of these testimonies were shot last Year Um because obviously it was easier to Meet people face to face and shoot Testimonials Um so so i was like hey how did it go Like because I wouldn’t want to like feature a story If like their stuff crashed that yeah or Something went wrong or something like This and so I most people that i talk to like There’s a There’s a guy that went from 15 to 30k Per month This year and um charlie as well who was Like His testimony was future a little bit in The last age pro launch like he was the The british guy that was like rejected From mcdonald’s that was the story and Then he did well with his side Same he doubled his revenue this year Actually so he did really well Um so yeah quite quite happy overall For what the industry is it’s kind of Like to be honest it’s a bit at the Expense of like physical businesses et Cetera so You know it’s not my fault but uh you Know it’s been good for the business in
General so Yeah not not so bad um i think before we Jump into our personal stuff we’re gonna Do a bit of uh what has changed this Year right Yeah um so go ahead get started Uh so i mean obviously pandemic and Stuff aside let’s talk about some actual Marketing stuff that’s That’s changed and for me what i’ve been Seeing Is that content on authority sites has Been getting better and better So i cast my mind back up five six years And basically all content on the web was Terrible there were a few exceptions but Everything was atrocious Uh so three four two three years ago Stuff started getting a lot better and People started Really starting to understand search Intent uh but I’m still seeing all these kind of Fluffy intros and just Poorly thought out from a reader’s Perspective like getting them to take Action and Those kind of things weren’t thought Through but in 2020 i’ve seen Numerous sites and these are not just Like authority hacker members or people People we know but just random sites That i’ve found with browsing That like really capture your attention
Tell you exactly what you need to do Communicate clearly have clearly thought Out The the content production process in Detail and are not just You know sending a writer a title and a Word count Um which is seem to be the norm you know Two three Years ago so i i feel like we’ve we’ve Really turned a corner In that sense um and it’s great great For Users uh great for people uh just Browsing the web trying to find Information But it’s also raised the bar Significantly for authority site owners And I think that’s a good thing i still Think there’s a huge amount of headroom And huge amount of scope to improve Further we’ve seen that with Some of the sites that we’ve started This year looking around some of the Content uh from competitors maybe sort Of two three years old Uh and while it’s good in places and we Certainly like gotten some Cool ideas from it um now coming at it With a 2020 mindset Uh you know the stuff we’re producing is Is quite a lot better than than Than what’s out there so um yeah pretty
Happy with with how that’s going But i’m i’m excited to see that content Quality is Is becoming more of a thing that people Care about Do you think it helps with rankings Though like it’s like you know it’s like I think it helps with conversion for Sure So just for that reason it’s probably Worthy but Does it really help with rankings it’s Hard to tell like i also remember this Shitty sleep site that we saw when we Analyzed the size as well right it’s Like And these sites are ranking in like Massive industries so but Yeah so you’re right i i firmly believe That User engagement user signals user Metrics whatever you call it Uh play a significant part in in the Algorithm Uh that sleep site like it still kind of Bothers me a little bit like how the Hell are they ranking for For those those terms um we’ll put a Link to it for those watching on youtube If you want to go check out that episode Where we analyzed a bunch of sites and It was basically like a dr 30 site or something like that which was Just dominating the
The niche the the sleep product niche i Think Sites like that are not going to last Forever Whatever they’re doing underneath the Hood uh it’s it’s not gonna Not gonna work so well we should monitor These sites you know when we find a Really site ranking we should Literally set some tracking on it Um so that we get an idea of that Because you know it’s like it It’s been kind of like that forever like You take a webinar from wren fishkin in 2012 and he’s like these sites they Won’t last And here we are you know oh god you know Black and white And stuff but it’s true It’s like to some extent it’s not the Same size ranking for his defense you Know it’s like yeah Just like new craft sites um but But yeah it’s like yeah i i see it you Know like the black and white film of Renfish king with the little like lines Of old film etc and him saying that And saying that these crap sizes won’t Last and and and We still see sites like that rank today You know or maybe we can do Uh sites where are they now the Reunion episode in The first time in 10 years that should
Be uh Yeah i mean it’s it is it is interesting To look at I’m i’m just a little bit cynical i Think i think it helps with link Acquisition And i think it helps so like indirectly Rankings I think it helps massively with Conversion rate um But i still think google is not that Smart that they Will reward you for going the extra mile For that sake if you take that page and You put No links to it i or like the same amount Of links as like a page that’s like Software optimized but crap content To read i’m not sure i will do better You know or even like A self-optimized page but crap content Versus a non-self optimized page But great content you know which one Ranks you know Sure but it’s not like an either or Calculation it’s like you you I know but it allows you to like put Weight on things you know Like if you just like if you like i have This one all this one which one does Better It allows you and it’s like they might Do similar And i think even over time the good
Content page might do better because it Collects more links eventually just Um just because it’s good but like I think for the for a while i think the The Semantically optimized page would do Better you know i mean if you really Want to get into it it’s like you could Just go into the let’s spam a bunch of 500 word articles and then focus all on Like the Surfer-esque optimization side of things And and see what happens but I don’t think i’ll try it don’t think That’s going to get you very far in Especially in a competitive space i Think we should I guess then you have like the other Dimension of like link building and like How much of a waiting factor that is on It as as well And yeah we’ve one thing we’ve seen and Kind of brings us on to the next point One thing we’ve seen this year is and i Want to preface this because a lot of Nuance to it link building is getting Harder in some ways uh what i what i Mean by that is There’s a lot more noise a lot more People doing outreach and Sites first of all sites have realized The value of links so More of them are charging for it that’s A trend that sort of continued over the
Last couple years And probably will continue um in the Into the future unless Google does something significant about It in some way which i don’t see Happening Um but even if you do have like the best Outreach campaign like Really really good content uh it there’s A lot of noise in there And getting someone to open your email Or realize that you’re not just another One of these like spammers Saying hey please link me sir or Whatever then It’s it’s difficult to stand out So but if you’re able to do that if You’re able to be creative in some way And grab people’s attention more Customization more personalization this Kind of stuff Um and just like the way you write your Emails and i think like more casual Friendly kind of funny way seems to seem To be working quite well at the moment Yeah then i’m still struggling with that I mean personally that doesn’t affect me You know so it’s like it’s um i’m sure It works so it’s kind of like A lot of tactics that wouldn’t work on Me would work on many people Um we always say like you are not your Audience kind of thing Yeah but there’s been a lot of
Situations this year when we’ve got Replies from people like oh I get like a dozen of these a day i Don’t normally reply to them But and then they they they give us a Link Yeah okay yeah fair enough i just like i Mean i receive a lot of these Yeah and i don’t answer to any uh answer To the really crap ones to just see Like how bad they are you know but Actually oh like i offer them like a 70 000 for a link or something like this Like Some crazy i used to get a lot of These as well but like i really don’t Get any anymore and I think it’s because i got a hunter to Remove me my email from their database Or something so People how do you do that i can’t Remember you you can either go in and There’s a form or email them or Something but There’s a way you can just go and They’ll they’ll remove it so that people Won’t be able to find it and then You don’t get as many outreach requests So if that’s yeah you know a little bit More public so Yeah yeah my even has a bit more public So i think it’s people would still find It Yeah um another thing that happened
Is amazon cut their rates this year i Think in march april april they did End of april uh uh uh like to something This reason It kind of killed amazon i think like The health industry went to one percent Et cetera I mean sure you’re making some money but It’s pretty terrible to be frank Um and i mean at the beginning I don’t think we felt it so much because It was really offset a lot by all the Lockdowns and people buying so much more Than amazon Um like yeah i haven’t i haven’t seen Like i’m sure some people feel a bit More now that like the economies are a Bit more reopened etc and like people Go out more in real shops and so on um We haven’t seen it Too much to be honest it’s not like Amazon was a massive focus for us lately So i’m not too surprised but yeah it’s Like That has been an issue and uh in my Prediction i said like i think uh people Will move off amazon this year Uh i mean next year or something like They will most people will try to build Non-amazon sites And yeah that’s one thing that changed And that’s not so great because it was Nice For beginners to start with it at least
At the same time it can almost be a Little bit of a blessing in disguise Because pre on the the pre-reduced rates Um like in the first half of the year i Think a lot of people were kind of Coasting on that and not Spending the time and energy and effort To find other offers find other Affiliate programs that could Potentially make them a lot more money If they just went out and looked there Because amazon is so low friction it’s So easy It’s kind of you sign up to one program And you just you know find a product Yeah into it kind of thing So i think whenever you have a change Like this it focus It forces people to re-evaluate their Their kind of Strategy with this and i think i’ve seen Quite a few people Make that or more of a leak not just cut Amazon completely For moral reasons or whatever more just Try harder Yeah try harder to find specific niche Specific affiliate programs that pay You know 10 20 times as much as amazon Does now in In some cases um and you know make a lot More money from them that way The thing is like i liked it because for Beginners it allowed you to not really
Have to worry about how you monetize That’s true And like you could focus on just let’s Start generating some traffic Get paid by amazon an okay amount uh Which you can still do by the way like Most niches that are like three percent Or above i think they’re still good Enough That you can still do that and you Shouldn’t really like completely Discount amazon but it’s Definitely worse now that it used to be Oh yeah i liked it for that and i think For every person that You know managed to move on there’s also A lot of people that didn’t And uh and struggled a bit so that was Definitely a big negative of like the Industry this year for me it’s the Biggest negative of this year even more Than the core updates and all that stuff Etc Yeah um so yeah it it’s a fact you know It’s like You have to deal with it it’s it’s still Manageable you can still and there’s a Lot of affiliate programs Out there it’s like it’s i especially Realized it when i was looking for Alternatives for sites etc and like even In some like pretty weird niches that Some affiliate programs that Do okay uh make us okay money often
Mixed with amazon not just On their own but uh yeah that’s that’s The biggest negative point of the year For me basically um I think uh okay so that anything else That Has changed in 2020 that you want to Talk about i know All right let’s talk about us because i Think people like they know all these Stuff People listen to but it’s funny but Before this episode gail was like oh my God This is so our stuff is so boring like Nobody will want to hear or hear Our stuff no one cares about what we’re Doing Yeah well i i think it’s still i mean i Think a lot of these things people know Basically that’s why it’s like it’s cool To have a recap but let’s talk about our Stuff so i guess Sorry i think it’s just like when you’re Really close to it and you’re working on This stuff every day it seems like so Normal and Like everyone i mean obviously that’s What we’re doing kind of thing but You know i think people don’t yeah so This year was a bit of a transition here So basically what happened is like Our main the site that we focused on the Most that we sold now
One year and uh eight months ago Something like this Um at the time which were recording this Podcast Um like we sold that and then this was Our big Guest project we had other sites but it Was our biggest project then Essentially this six to eight months After we focused on updating age pro Because we felt that there was a lot of Stuff missing or that we could do better On some stuff etc So we did a lot of videos for each pro And then after that we started new Projects And this year is this year where we kind Of like Established these projects as like Running on their own so now they all Have like an editorial team and they Have all of that Um but it’s kind of like that grind Phase still i i can see on some projects It’s getting to the end and it’s growing Nicely Um but it’s kind of like been that grind Phase of growing New properties etc and some of them Start to see the end some of them are Still in the middle of that So it’s been this kind of a lot of work For Not the most amount of reward this year
I would say Um in terms of like monetary like we’ve Seen progress et cetera but I think that’s you were to cash in now On those sites You’re right but like we see the upwards Trajectory Yeah yeah it’s going okay where it’s Going each month so i think 2021 is Going to be quite good for those I’m not worried for it it’s just like Yeah is this kind of like this first Year year and a half of Many projects is just like meh um and And i think I think so quite a few of these are in There so the first one i want to talk About Uh one that is probably at the end of This kind of like grind period that has Seen some nice growth Recently it’s like a spot site uh we Did a lot of content we did a hundred And fifty pages i think on this site This year or something Uh yeah it’s basically we did no link Building for it as well Um mostly because it’s like and we’ll Talk a little bit about link building But um Because it’s like a small dish it was a Little bit difficult more difficult to Do some Of the stuff that we do usually but i
Think it’s nice to get exposed to that So that we can figure that out actually Um but that side yeah that size like Meet four figures uh and kind of like We’re slowly starting to ramp up playing Building so i’m quite hopeful that Uh by next spring uh we can take these Two Fingers cross five figures per month you Know Part of me when i see these these case Studies from Other online marketers about building Sites with no link building And i i genuinely doubted it i was like Is that really Like is there really no league building Going on is there like actually some That you just don’t know about or is it Hidden or Is there something hidden pbs going on But like legitimately Built built this site no link built no Links I think we’ve got one link or something Like that maybe no we built three or Four We built throughout the whole year uh Yeah yeah And so and but it’s making like Job replacement income kind of level Yeah yeah Sdr6 so So i mean it’s good it’s right it shows
You that the thing that’s good with that Site Is the site structure is really good Because the site structure was planned Properly on day one and uh it pays off Today i think uh and it’s like a few Years old so it’s like it’s not brand New domain Um so i think these two things together Work out well but the link equity is Pretty shitty even compared to the Competition yeah um so it’s quite Yeah it’s quite good and i think i do Believe we can take this site to like Five figures or something Uh which would be nice i think i think And spring summer time Could be done if we keep pushing the Content and we kind of like accelerate a Little bit on the link building Um i think it can be done uh the other Side Is what we started this year actually uh That was a bit challenging From a comment perspective we needed Some like technical writers and people With degrees and things like that To be legitimate to write about Technical things basically Uh and you worked mostly on that Actually yeah that was that was Really like i would say the most Difficult thing we did This year just like trying to get your
Head around The content when i don’t necessarily Understand like anything that’s going on There Um looking at competitors trying to like Figure out what they’re doing and mimic The best parts of that And and really just like deliver complex Information In a succinct way to that like a normal Person can Can understand is right really really Difficult to do Um not to mention the challenge with Like finding qualified writers and All these sorts of stuffed side of Things it’s just been a Massive pain we kind of like updated our Our content templates on this as well I’ll try to like Do this more engaging type of content et Cetera i train the writers at that and So on And yeah there was a bit of a try and Error Like usually when we built the editorial Team for a site it’s like You know the first 10 15 pieces are a Bit cheap and uh and we’re trying to Like Throw everything away and do it again And and that happened again this time so Here we go i ended up having to um pay One of our writers to write like the
Same article Three times i think just because yeah And this wasn’t Her fault necessarily that uh it wasn’t Right the first time It’s a learning process for us in that Like we weren’t Clear about what we wanted to begin with So having like the first version So that we could like have something to Go on and give feedback on Um was was kind of necessary to to go Through that but We’ve been through this process before On other sites so fortunately we were Mentally prepared for it and i remember In her um Final interview i i was like this is Likely going to happen It doesn’t mean your your content is bad It’s just our our Process for figuring it out so yeah Yeah i mean i think a lot of people who Want good content on their site Kind of goes through that basically Anyway this is like much earlier days Than the other one it’s already higher Dial though So it’s not it’s not so hard so like We’re doing a bit more link building There Uh good hope for it in 2020 uh it’s not Making too much right now so i wouldn’t Worry about like it’s not
We need to we need to push it more it’s Kind of like something we started late This year So yeah basically let’s just let’s just See how this site does uh We are ramping up content quite a lot i Think we get like one article a day or Something These days on on this attic on this post On this site sorry Uh i don’t want to slow it down to be Honest i want to keep it going as long As we can For this stretch you know we have like Two writers writing so let’s see how it Goes but Yeah let’s keep pushing it see what Happens and another thing that i’ve been Working on as well is i’ve been Experimenting with expired domains and Not expired domains but auction domains Which is a little bit different Truth is i’ve been i’ve been like Reading a lot about what pb and people Say about Expired domains because they’re the People who deal with this the most in an Seo term And they said that auction domain tend To be more successful for them as pbns So i was like my idea is not to be lvpns By the way my idea is to build sites On these but rather like skip the Sandbox start with the i20 dr20 to 30
Site maybe And um you know see if i can rank so so Far it’s just experiments right i Haven’t been building a proper service Site I’ve more like picked up some sites i’ve Picked up Yeah i picked up two uh And i’ve been putting content on it that Is related to what the site was about And My goal was like okay can i get some Early rankings right and I get some but nothing’s on page one uh Maybe because i picked a bit too Difficult keywords to start with I might i order some more content for Like really easy keywords to see if i Can write Like because you know the sandbox i can See this other side that we mentioned Just before We have like several rankings like Number 11 you know And like google’s literally not letting Us go on page one And uh and it’s like that’s the sandbox Right and so My question is are we are in the same Situation with uh Expired domains on x5 slash auction Domain or not And my guess is no because Literally some of these articles have
Been starting to rank after two weeks or Something and did Okay but i need to do more experiments But If this works then i can see myself Starting some new sites On auction domains not expired i need to Stop saying that Uh next year and i think i might even do Some Pro content or something around that Maybe add a lesson to tess if people Want to do that Because i think you could cut the Starting time quite a bit so Um it’s kind of like this experimental Pool that’s Uh here to figure stuff out but could Turn into real sites because Some of them are in pretty good niches Actually that can make quite a lot of Affiliate money um so yeah that’s Basically It’s basically the new stuff that we’ve Been focusing on this year Uh as i said it’s been mostly a Rebuilding year and uh And and this stuff a lot of this stuff Is going to pan out next year some of it The first site we mentioned Definitely and then the others let’s see Um but let’s talk about attorney hacker Now Um and let’s talk about the
Disappointing stuff which is uh The blog so well the blog we’ve actually Been Publishing a lot of like support content On the site but we don’t really promote It it’s like it’s not written by us or Anything it’s more Um you know content that’s related to Things that are talked about on the Existing blog post that we link to and Like capture some seo traffic right And to be frank we’ve been quite Successful with that like seo traffic Anatomy hacker is like 35 up even More i think 47.6 Up this year um so i’m Happy enough you know for Competitiveness like that it’s it’s Pretty okay for like a New site and so on uh so it’s been Pretty good but we didn’t really do any Proper blog posts you know any blog Posts that’s like for the community Um it’s the thing is like Blogging at least in this industry like The Real hardcore blogging like putting up Blog posts it’s not nearly as rewarded As it was Three four years ago i feel like people Tend to engage more now with podcasts And youtube videos and things like that And social media in general like just Facebook groups etc these things
Then then they did on blogs before uh And so For this kind of like pillar content We’ve definitely seen A drop in engagement a drop in all that I know brendan still does it but even When i check his new post they don’t get Nearly as much engagement as like some Of his early posts did for example Yeah so i think it’s uh i think it’s i Just want to be vlogging in this niche Yeah just wanna pick up on that there’s A phenomenon i noticed that like no Matter how Good your content or the level of your Content becomes People will like normalize it very Quickly and they’re just not gonna Consume it all like we’ve We’ve seen it with in the podcast we’ll Talk more about in a second with like New show ideas and structures and ways Of doing things which Work very well like the first second Time you do it but then People are just like you know okay i’ve Had enough of this Back back back to normal kind of thing Yeah i think so and uh and i think just The mode of consumption of content is Just changing in this industry And so blogs are becoming more of an seo Play now to like Have new people discover you rather than
Like A community event where your followers Get really excited about it like These podcasts are that community event You know and Youtube videos like when i did this one On refreshing content on using The tracking domains from affiliate um From affiliate networks to find Affiliate sites and reverse engineering Issues etc like this Stuff um does get quite a bit more Momentum than Most blog posts do and actually also Takes less time to produce so that’s why We kind of like slowed down on this Uh and the blog is it blogs up in this Industry are basically becoming A support channel like it’s not becoming A main channel anymore like you Your main channel now is going to be Video content it’s going to be Audio content it’s going to be uh and And there could be like some guys like Some big guys or something like Something really good But it’s kind of like one offs and you Kind of need to come up with a new Concept every time you do this rather Than like have this format that you Repeat again and again And that the community reacts equally Well to every time you release it you Know
Um so it’s kind of our analysis of that I think spencer Like niche pursuits he also came to the Same conclusion because he basically Said well my blog is now An seo thing and uh i’m going to do the Cool stuff on youtube Um so i think that’s just the way the World’s going these days i mean Uh people consume content on on youtube Now That’s they engage on youtube you know Like they they engage on youtube they Engage on like I think stories as well would work Really well like if i see like russell Branson etc like people who are not Exactly non-niche but Similar doing really well on these so Yeah i think I think yeah you don’t engage people With blogs anymore you kept you Get new people discover you with blogs By ranking on google So yeah and and the seo stats say that Like we actually did better this year in Terms of seo growth than we did on a Year we would publish You know one big community post per Month and uh and no support content So we did better than that um so yeah For people who like the big blog post That’s the plan is actually and let’s Jump on youtube right now because i
Think These are these are together but my plan For next year actually is to I did a couple of like what i call real Youtube videos where it’s like you know Like a 10 minute video not a podcast or Something like this Where you know i give a tutorial or a Teacher tactic or something i’ll show Something cool These went really well they even went Quite a bit better than podcast videos And um and i think that’s going to be Becoming our flagship content this stuff But We’re working with our team of writers To take these videos and actually make You know posts with screenshots etc to Like essentially break down what’s in The video and you can have it in a Written Content format and you have like the Video on top and you have the The notes below basically we are working On that becoming our main content Rather than like actual blog posts etc And focus more on yeah using these Cameras without using all that stuff and And creating that kind of content around That Third think um something that really Appeals to me about that is it’s more Authentic In that it’s you or i producing like the
Core message of that content that Yeah not someone else even though we’re Augmenting ourselves by because We have to for time purposes without Having other people write it up and Stuff Like coming up with a concept the the Way we’re presenting the idea That’s that’s still going to be kind of Us i think that In the past whenever we’ve tried to grow The blog um We’ve always always had to wrestle with That that Just time-wise it takes we didn’t have Time to do it properly And then then we just outsourced the Content and then People people want our stuff not these Writers you know it’s like It works for like support content right Like when we write about a specific Niche or something like this or whatever Like that’s okay and some reviews uh our Writers do but Uh you know one thing i’m considering Doing as well uh next year So our product reviews are quite popular As well right even though i did the Linguist for review on youtube for Example this year i did really well Um i am considering actually doing a Live stream Of me essentially preparing the review
And like literally just like setting up A dummy site and like installing it and People can join and ask questions etc And then Essentially make a 10 minute youtube Video from a mix of a voiceover of me Writing something that’s Quite nice and like flows really nice But you can take B-roll from from the stream To overlay that like i said i had this Problem with that etc and then you see That part of the stream that i had this Problem and so on Essentially doing that so we can have Some live mixed with some real youtube Videos Um and then that becomes written content From the proper youtube video or Something um so That’s the kind of stuff where we’re Going because to be honest i’ve been Enjoying youtube a lot This year and the reason why i think is Because you unlike seo you get fast Feedback and fast results right because Youtube is both a social network and a Search engine It’s a search engine powered by a social Network so social network metrics Basically So if people watch your videos a lot if They like it if they comment et cetera Then
You’re gonna start ranking for your Keywords you’re gonna get more people Discovering you subscribing then more People watch your next video and kind of Like snowballs like that And you can ping pong between the social Side and the seo side of youtube which Is Great and it’s much more fun than seo to Be honest Um so that’s that’s been quite fun and I think we’ve been putting the podcast On youtube obviously Um i think one thing that that it has Changed as well is like when you have an Audio podcast You get the same downloads every week Right and it’s like it’s like What happens is like these apps that People subscribe to a podcast on a lot Of them will automatically download New episodes and that triggers another View Uh so you don’t really get that much Kind of like tactile feedback On whether each episode is good you do If it’s something’s really good it’ll Generally get more um Downloads a lot more but on youtube that The difference between like a an average Podcast and a really Like popular one is like 30x or Something like that you know it’s it’s Massive yeah so it’s like it’s
Good because you know like when we just Had the audio numbers it would be like Okay let’s do a podcast and we Didn’t get any feedback we didn’t know What was good it was bad we didn’t know How well we were doing etc Now with youtube it really shows you Like last week was or like last Week was great or something and Um it’s like for us it makes it’s like If we had a bad week the week before i’m Like we need to change something we Need to do something a bit better etc And and that’s forced us to do a better Job actually um Overall the podcast has done quite well Uh to be honest like I i don’t think you believed in it at The beginning i think you were like what The hell you know No i i did believe in it i just want so Here’s the issue Right we’re trying to squeeze what it Was inherently an audio Publication the authority agro podcast Onto youtube And at times we felt we were being like Too too much pulled by the The youtube side of things and it was Becoming more just a video And then it was well like well it would Be this topic While we could do a 40 minute podcast on It it would actually be better if we did
A proper 10 minute well published well edited Youtube video that was like meant for Youtube and not meant to be a podcast so We’ve been like Kind of wrestling with that two sides of That fence a little bit this year That’s why we uh we experimented with Doing the daily podcast for a couple Weeks uh over the summer yeah Which actually like metrics wise turned Out pretty well Uh to be honest and it was it was kind Of cool like allowed us to Express ourselves in different ways and Talk about some smaller topics that Wouldn’t necessarily fit into a a bigger Show but it wasn’t kind of what we’ve Been Known for a lot of like existing members Of our our courses Didn’t like it yeah uh to be honest the Numbers were relatively inconclusive Um like 50 or like 40 Of people liked it 60 didn’t or Something But you know that’s a very small sample Sample size so We don’t we don’t really know too much But either way it wasn’t like Oh my god people love this let’s just do That so we reverted back to the the Longer form Stuff i i think it was losing a bit of
Momentum at the end as well it was kind Of like this people were excited at the Beginning and it just kind of like Stabilizes and goes down a bit like the Daily numbers were going down a bit and So on i can see what it does With youtube is it gives you more Opportunity for uh People to discover you through random Keywords i think that’s what it does I could see ourselves doing like another Couple weeks this year or next year with Um yeah we might try again With doing that um just because there Are these certain ideas that like you Just They’re way too short to fit on a normal Podcast yeah But i think one thing we did on youtube I want to talk about the premieres as Well So basically there’s that function on Youtube that not many people know about Called premieres when you post your Video and what it does is essentially It’s Pretending your video is a live stream Um And creates a live chat on the right et Cetera at the time at which you You release it and it’s that one time That you set and then everyone kind of Like Goes and checks it out and everyone has
To watch it at the same Same time like you can’t fast forward or Rewind it kind of thing So it feels like a life but we’ve been Going on these ones and answering People’s questions and that means that a Lot of people actually started showing Up to these and like they Show up weekly and like we chat with Them etc um Not only is that a cool way to engage With people in your community but Actually what it does is it boosts your Early metrics on youtube So you get way more people like you get You get like way more people watch the Video in the first two hours And what that does is like youtube loves That when a video gets started At the beginning it just promotes it a Lot more and then eventually you get a Lot more reach so Not only has this been a really good Promotion tactic i don’t think it scales Necessarily like you know if you’re like A one million plus subscriber Youtuber i don’t think it makes as much Sense but when you start i think it’s It’s been quite good and you can just Promote this and be like hey like if Anyone ever asks you a question you’ll Be like i answer questions on them from Here just come Every monday at 5pm or something and
Then we’ll just go there and then people Would come and and it would just Increase our own numbers and actually Help us with that so that Helped quite a lot uh we crossed we Don’t display our subscriber numbers you Know Uh it was on purpose but outside on this Podcast we crossed Uh ten thousand subs uh funny story About that actually we used to uh we Used to have another youtube channel With 10 000 subscribers and we’re doing a g Suite migration sort of merging all our Domains into one one g suite and Uh yeah we accidentally deleted it and There’s no way to get it back Um because yeah google youtube help Uh is just not really that great Um so it’s good that we finally got back There two and a half years later or However It was i don’t i think it’s not fair Because like the Ten thousand we had were mostly from Giveaways yeah so it was people who Don’t give a about our content I mean give less of a they’d rather Just win free stuff Yeah um whereas um Whereas now it’s like people who Actually enjoy the content like we Haven’t really cheated
The system this time so yeah it’s it’s Still growing regularly like We’re not we’re not skyrocketing or Something i think the silver button is Still a while away Um but who knows if i start doing lives Etc it might help actually like i was Checking the stats i did Uh two lives and we got a lot of Subscribers when i did it so I might i might do my my life stuff to Prepare videos People can join and like see the behind The scene of me testing tools or like Unboxing it etc And make a clean video from that and Then that creates two pieces of content Basically Um anyway the audio podcast grew a Little bit as well but growing on audio Podcast is an Absolute pain yes which was one of the Main motivation to Go on youtube so it’s like 515 000 Downloads in 2020 but like yeah we’re Not done with 20 20 yet so how did you Get that no i did so i did like december To december 29 uh 17 so it was two 12 month periods Um up until yes so we grew like 10.5 11 Basically like yeah um which is i mean It’s good For lasting that’s just on the audio Podcast that same podcast
Also now on video going to youtube we Got 106 170k views on that this year So when you add in that that’s a A bigger uplift actually i’m calculating Now I just want to know divided by four 46. yeah so 46 gross Point actually two if you want uh on the Actual number Um but uh but yeah that’s pretty um Yeah i’m pretty happy about it i guess i Guess this has worked but i think One of the big factors of gross is Actually that feedback from youtube you Know yeah like the fact that it pushes Us like It makes us try harder it doesn’t be Like ah it’s friday night we have to do A podcast I just couldn’t do it you know yeah um Speaking of which Like if you guys want more of a specific Kind Of of content go on our youtube channel And like leave a comment and let us know Like hey this is great this is You know do more of this don’t do this Like give us that feedback And we really do listen to all those Comments and respond to most of them as Well So that’s a good way of kind of having a Bit of an influence on the direction
Where we go with this next year Of course it’s great to pump our social Metrics you know Also like Anything else to say about youtube Podcast a lot of stuff No okay so overall pretty good i guess If you count 45.9 percent but i think The the adding it on youtube was a big Deal actually i think it was The right move and i wouldn’t be Surprised if next year youtube gets Close to the Audio numbers actually um okay You wanted to talk about conferences but Uh yeah just because we talked about it We talk about this every year but um In 2019 we did a a couple of talks at Some conferences Obviously 2020 except from early in the Year there hasn’t really been any Um we were planning to go to a few of Them this year but specifically Not speak at them because as we said Last year the Time it takes to prepare presentations And that kind of stuff is just Not really worth it for us compared to All the other stuff we could be Doing um but next year i think it’ll be A big party at uh Chiang mai seo conference uh assuming it Goes ahead and Vaccines are around and all that kind of
Stuff it makes me think of uh A meme i saw the other day which was uh Like some kind of like apple Presentation And there was uh oh twenty you saw 2020 Was bad and there’s a like apple guy and In the screen behind this like covet 20 Copy 20 pro Oh yeah i was like Okay well hopefully not but let’s see Um okay so no conferences no speaking Obviously link building you want to talk About link building as well we went from Dr 74 to the r75 Which doesn’t sound like much but Remember it’s a logarithmic scale So it gets progressive the the increase Is progressively higher Um what what is interesting though is we Went from 2 300 referring domain to the start of the Year to 3 500 which is a what fifty percent Something increase Uh now obviously one point of deal yeah Um So it just just goes to show you um like How That scale sort of measure one one issue Um and you can kind of get a more Granular look of dr by looking at the Ahrefs rank metric Um but at least when i was looking at The dashboard we could only seem to get
The last three months of data there i’m Not sure why Um but yeah we’ve we’ve captured what it Is at the moment it’s like 33 700 and something um so we’ll we’ll be Able to compare this year versus next Year more More accurately from from that Perspective um Do you think there’s a lot of links In there as well i think there is Actually probably I mean obviously we have good links in There so i mean we’ve been doing a lot Of link building for authority hacker Like active stuff Obviously the higher dr your site Becomes like the less Marginal impact each new guest post or Each new Of these kind of links has um but What’s what’s also interesting is that Why screwing your face up because i’m Checking hives and i see a lot of like Foreign like viagra Encortex pointing to our site okay well You know negative seo then yeah I mean we did build a lot of links but i Think there’s some of that as well Um to some extent which would also Explain that this many linking domains For only one point of view I think the uh a lot of the posts we’ve Done
In previous years like some of the data Posts and just some of the stuff that Naturally Acquires a lot of links has also Naturally acquired a lot of the You know when you get into when you’re Ranking number one for a term Uh like an info term that a lot of People talk about people quote you and People link to you Quite frequently for for that kind of Stuff Yeah fair enough it’s actually Interesting uh It’s funny like i’m looking at this Right now and um They’re linking to a search Page that has like some pawn keywords in There right But if you click on that link it doesn’t Give you a full Four it just gives you a page with the Keywords up there And then just knows nothing was found on The website but what it does is it Essentially might be indexing that url For google with essentially pawn Keywords on it um so quite interesting You see i sent you the url yeah so quite Interesting actually i might change the Way our search works or something Because i can see how this is actually Uh An exploit here anyway that was not
Intended but uh i was checking as you Were talking about it Um we did build a lot of good links as Well so that was quite interesting but If you want to see some spam go check Our link Profile and check the links in the last 60 days it’s been quite a bit Um okay anything else to say about link Building Uh no not really okay so one big part of Our year as well was Uh refreshing the authority side system It’s You know i counted the other day again i Was working on the sales page right and It was 201 videos which i’m like It’s kind of crazy actually that we’ve Shot this much This year and the way it happened it was Not like some kind of like long-term Plan or something it’s one day Mark just decided to rewatch the course And watch maybe half of it and was like He called me and he’s like i’m not happy We can do much better I think there’s like some issues here Etc and bam it just got us into a Six-month reshoot of the course Basically And we’re just finishing i think my Exact words were This course is terrible we can
Do a lot better Don’t say that people are still taking It well it’s gonna be the new version is Actually out Uh early january so it’s like literally Just a few days after this podcast is Out Current members also have access to the Beta like the first 10 modules i think are already in there If you’re more yeah You can see pretty much everything at This point um so yeah the official Launch is um When i say something’s terrible i got Into real trouble with word agents once When they sent out some content and i Was like this is terrible Um i don’t actually mean it’s like Terrible terrible i mean it’s like not Perfect um it’s like default feedback by A bit Bit of a perfectionist of these things So yeah yeah Um so now that we’re done with task 2.0 3.0 We definitely don’t know is 2.0 but um With the three like how much better do You think it is than the old version Like how How happy are you let’s be honest like It’s kind of like hard because it’s just Before the launch but like Just be honest it’s like out of 10.
So like right now i look back at task 2.0 and i think oh that’s maybe like a 6 out of 10 and then 3.0 it’s like a Nine Like i i really think it’s like 50 Better in in that sense Um it’s it’s a lot bigger but we’ve just Like Thought through the explanation and it’s Not necessarily that there’s like a ho Here’s all these brand new tactics that No one’s ever heard of before It’s just our teaching and our way of Getting people to understand things and Take actions Has gotten significantly better yeah Fair enough i I have new tactics in there as well Quite a lot actually um like one of them Was this reverse engineering Uh affiliate networks for example like That youtube video i made Um but there’s there’s several others uh The niche research is like a lot deeper A lot more like tactics to find more More of everything really like pretty Happy with that yeah so A lot of this came from uh i think it’s Gonna be good a lot of this came from a Survey we did of our Members back in i think it was march or April of time Uh and we we just asked them a bunch of Bunch of questions we had like 200
Something people Reply and we just aggregated all the Data we looked at Things like pain points where people Were getting stuck we looked at our Usage statistics in uh learn dash And in member math you know use memory Mastery No we looked at our uh usage statistics In in learn dash to see like where People were Getting to and where people were getting Stuck we implemented a bunch of changes Like even in the existing version so we Started reaching out to people when they Reached a certain point to check they’re Okay and We went to town on explaining things Much more clearly for the the niche Research keyword research uh Modules split into to many more Different lessons So i think that whole side of things is Much much clearer now Yeah i mean i’m excited now i mean and If you want more yeah i mean there is an Official launch In literally a few days beginning of January so you know expect this Watch out for our emails if you are not On email please go on the home page and Sign up for the email list And you will hear about this uh authoria Hacker pro there was actually three new
Blueprints but mostly they were at the Beginning of the year Um so and we also had single lessons we Did 18 new single lessons as well for Each pro Early class updates were also included In age pro so i mean until that’s still Like 200 and maybe 250 videos something like This 260. I i actually i really found this i’m Quite a big fan of those uh Single lesson uh single lessons we Released it just allowed us to cover a Lot of like really small topics that We were way too small to make into their Own blueprint But i think we’re very actionable very Kind of Useful especially some link building Ones yeah I still think that on the pro side it Was lighter than the year before where We focused That’s because we spent the last six Months working on tasks so yeah yeah i Mean Again pro member got it anyway but uh Yeah i think next year they would Definitely be more pro a lot more Because we put so much effort so it’s Like yeah it’s mostly going to be hp Content next year And then there’s some cool blueprints
That will be coming actually um Anything else that you want to cover This year Um no not really i think that’s that’s It like It really feels like i don’t know it Really feels like this year we’ve just Done tasks although i i forgot that There was that no that was six months Before Yeah yeah no we did we did some stuff But yeah there was like this reset of Like a lot of new properties Like projects building up editorial Teams etc There was this support content on Toyhaka there was the podcast New format youtube figuring out etc uh A lot of like behind the scenes things Going on as well like we Did really like a lot of work improving Our customer support this year Uh it now takes uh during business hours Like Three hours for someone to get back to You uh whereas this time last year at The end of last year i think it was like A day Or a day and a half uh so like all those Metrics all those numbers all the the Kind of um nps scores and stuff have Gone massively up so You guys seem to be having a better Experience there as well
Yeah i think we have really good Feedback on the on the support and so on I fixed a lot of like email stuff as Well like how we revamped our email System we did like a lot of like small Projects that yeah it’s like maintenance Right or like Just gross stuff that you need to do Millions of tags we had for everyone an Active campaign Started cleaning those up yeah it was uh It was fun But that actually is funny because at The time which we’re recording there’s Literally 20 000 emails being deleted From the list if they don’t open Like this warning email right now so um That gives you an idea of the kind of Projects that we have going on right now Um okay uh any final rules of wisdom Yes when life gives you lemons make Lemonade that’s the 2020 motto Okay yeah you sound so impressed you Know by the way i wanted to say We are recording this podcast literally Today google is releasing a new core Update so that’s why we’re not Mentioning it in this podcast The tweet came out like an hour before We recalled it right so Let’s let’s record two versions so yeah Like that last update that google did This this earlier this year was amazing Um oh my god like that last update was
Terrible it’s been so bad So yeah it’s like uh we can’t tell you What’s gonna what happened Or anything but uh obviously you Probably know just go on some facebook Groups and you’ll see what people say Uh anyway uh is this the last podcast of The year Uh no there’s gonna be another one uh Next monday Um but this is the last one before Christmas so if you celebrate christmas Merry christmas Um uh-huh and we can still say well Thank you for tuning in This year if you’re still listening to The audio but haven’t checked youtube You should check that out as well Because we tried to add some cool stuff On video as well so Uh yeah check it out and if you’re on Youtube and you have not subscribed Which I think 36 percent of people are because I checked the stats Around uh click on the subscribe button So you don’t miss the next videos click On the bell so you really don’t miss the Next videos Uh because youtube wants you to click Twice and uh thumb it up if you like These kind of podcasts if you want to Hear more about our projects and so on And let us know in the comments how your
Year of 2020 went And we are quite curious to see uh how It was and if you want to interact More with us you can come to the Premieres every monday on youtube just Check out youtube channel it’s going to Be announced You can set a reminder so you can join Us there so thank you for tuning in And we’ll see you next week Like something we started late this year So yeah that’s Sorry one second that’s my dog oh okay i Was like Sweetie