My Odys Aged Domain Case Study (4 Months Since Site Launch)

This case study pertains to Site #11 in my income reports.

After selling a handful of websites end of 2020 and early 2021, I was left with 4 niche sites I was actively growing (Fat Stacks being one of them).

Three of them I started from scratch with a fresh domain (never registered before).

One of those sites I purchased years ago and have kicked it around for years.

With two sites performing and earning well and two with good potential, it was time to try something different.

I had read for years how launching a new site on an aged domain with inbound links and established authority could speed up traffic growth.  I had never put it to the test other than registering a couple cooked domains years ago.

Those cooked domain experiences soured me on starting any site on a domain previously registered.

However, when I learned about Odys and the fact they vet domains, I was intrigued… intrigued enough to give it a try.

I don’t “give sites a try” lightly because I invest a lot of time and money into them.

I recognized there was risk investing in an aged domain.  Not just for the domain itself but all the content and time spent growing the site.  If it didn’t work, it would be a huge waste of time.

Part of my business model is trying new things so I decided to give launching a new site on an aged domain a shot.

Here’s how it’s going.

Rocky start

After shopping around Odys’ impressive inventory of aged domains I settled on one. I got it on March 11, 2021.  I was excited to skyrocket a new site to 25 million visitors in 12 months (I’m joking… I’m optimistic but not that optimistic).

After a couple of days, the domain was transferred to me.

On March 25, 2021, I published the first article.  March 25 was launch day.

Bad news – it was trademarked

After adding 27 articles, a colleague who knew about this site told me that the domain was trademarked.

I never thought to check. I assumed Odys checked for that.

I checked after being alerted to it and sure enough it was trademarked.

I immediately told Odys.

They explained at the time I obtained the domain they were transitioning to a new legal team and that domain fell through the legal due diligence cracks.

I was choked.  I had spent time setting up the site and had published around 27 articles.

Now I had to start over.

Odys said choose any domain I wanted.

Seeing as I had ordered a pile of content for that niche, I restricted my search to that niche.

On April 15, 2021, I found an even better domain on Odys priced at 3,800 (about the same cost as the first domain I had obtained).  In its previous life, it more closely matched the direction I wanted to go within the niche.  This domain had a DR 36 upon acquiring it which is great.  Here’s the referring domains chart:

My Traffic Strategies

I’m focusing on two traffic strategies plus building up a YouTube channel that I hope will be an okay revenue source in its own right.

My search traffic strategy for this site is the same as my other niche sites which is:

• Target low competition keywords.
• Publish decent content targeting those keywords.
• Incorporate plenty of custom graphics to serve as linkbait.

The other traffic source will be Pinterest… I hope.  It’s in a perfect Pinterest niche so I might as well leverage that platform as well.

While I’m building out a YouTube channel, I’m not doing so for traffic. Even if I get a lot of views at some point, I doubt that would translate into much traffic.  I’m building the YT channel to earn from YouTube ads and brand exposure.

Video production

I found great gig on Fiverr who makes great videos perfect for this niche.  This makes it easy. I wouldn’t do videos otherwise.

I also found a great gig for custom graphics to serve as good content, linkbait and pins.

This niche site is shaping up to be an all-out multi-platform assault for scooping up as much traffic as fast as possible.

My monetization game plan

There’s a little affiliate opportunity here but my main monetization strategy once I have some decent traffic will be AdThrive ads.

That’s it… at least for now.

I don’t have ads on the site yet.  I’ll wait until I’m getting 50 to 100 daily visitors.

The Build

This site is shaping up into something far better than I ever expected.  I have high hopes for it. The potential is huge.  I have over 1,000 topics in my keyword list already.  It’s a niche with seemingly unlimited low competition keywords… just the way I like it.

While the tradmarked domain fiasco was a hassle, I have to admit the new domain and the new direction it nudged me to is going to result in something much, much better than I initially envisioned with the first domain.

Because I had plenty of content, I loaded up the site with 27 articles the very first day I received the domain. Actually, Odys transferred the content.

I have to say that while the trademark issue was a pretty bad mistake, they did their best to make up for it.

They threw in 50,000 words of free content.  That was a nice gesture.

They handled as much of migrated sites as they could.

They provided me plenty of free advice.

In the end it’s worked out well… at least at this stage.

It’s far too early to know whether this entire project will be worthwhile. I won’t know for 6 to 12 months.

By June 9, the date I published the first part of this odys case study, I have just over 100 articles published.  I’m building it out as fast as I can.

The Hand Off

On May 4, 2021, I hired a VA to take over content uploading and formatting.

On May 31, 2021 I handed off content organization, ordering and management to my project manager.

I worked like crazy on this thing for over 2 months but now that it’s all set up, it’s time to let this thing grow on its own.  While I’m still closely monitoring the site daily, I no longer need to spend 5+ hours per day on it.

Results as of June 9, 2021 (2-month mark)

So far, things are looking great.  It’s been almost 2 months since the site went live with the first article (April 15 to June 9, 2021).

Currently, I’ve published just over 100 pieces of content.

Traffic is growing.  More and more keywords are moving up the ranks daily.  Things are happening.

Here’s what I’m seeing in Ahrefs as of June 9, 2021

Finally, here’s a 3-month chart from Search Console

While traffic isn’t anything to write home about, key metrics are approaching hockey stick formation which I’m very happy about inside 2 months since launch.

Results as of Aug 17/21 (4-month mark )

I’m pretty happy with how this site is doing at the 4-month mark. It’s currently getting 300 to 400 daily organic search visitors.

Traffic

I didn’t get Google Analytics code on the site until June 17, 2021. I have not built any links or used any link-building service for this site.

Total traffic last 30 days: 9,670 visitors.

How much traffic do the articles I migrated from an existing site get? I tallied them up for the last 30 days and the total they take up is 1,749.

So new content traffic for the last 30 days is 7,921 which is 264 per day.

In other words, if I hadn’t migrated 11 articles, this site’s traffic would be pretty good for the 4-month mark.

Revenue (July 18 to Aug 17, 2021)

The revenue per 1,000 visitors for this site is not great. I expected that when I chose the niche. I hope to make up for that with a lot of traffic.

Referring Domains

Adding good content reversed the declining referring domains trend and now referring domains are pouring in totaling 1,178 as of Aug. 17, 2021.

Timeline of Events

My Odys Verdict

It’s way too early to know whether going the aged domain was a good move.  It’s looking good but it’s early days.

While Odys failed to discover the trademark it worked out nicely in the end (at least so far).  They did their best to make it right.  These things happen.

If using aged domains is a good strategy, I would definitely get a domain from Odys again… without hesitation.  The amount of aged domains they have in inventory is incredible.  They span almost every niche.

How much do aged domains cost from Odys?

Aged domains from Odys cost anywhere from $700 to $7,900+.

How many aged domains do they have in inventory?

The tally fluctuates but on June 9, 2021, there were 1,012 aged domains available.

Is anything else included?

You get a logo with your purchase.  I thought both logos I received looked great. I’m using the one they provided.

Is the domain transfer difficult?

Nope and I don’t know how to transfer domains.  I gave them the info they needed about my GoDaddy account and within a couple or few days, the domain was there.  They handled it all.

Next up

I’m at the rinse and repeat stage. I have over 1,000 low-competition topics to cover which will take some time… probably at least the rest of the year.

I’ll update this case study in due course.