ODYS Aged Domain Case Study: 9 Months In

So, I’ve decided to do an aged domain case study by building a niche website on an aged domain from Odys Global. I’ve been contemplating doing this for a while and finally got started.

odys aged domain case study

By building this aged domain niche site, I want to prove to myself (and to you) that it’s actually beneficial compared to starting a site on a fresh domain. I have a hunch that it will help a lot, but now we can find out for sure.

My goals aren’t set in stone, to begin with, but I’d really like to get the site to the following stats by the 1-year mark:

  • 1000 Posted Articles (52% Complete)
  • 100k Sessions per Month (11% Complete)
  • $2,000 Revenue per Month (8% Complete)

(Completion %’s Updated Jan 1, 2023)

I know this is possible, so let’s see if I can make it happen. Most likely in year one, the revenue will come from display ads and affiliate programs. One thing that is a big wildcard in the revenue goal is that I have no idea what the RPM’s will be for the topic of the site. I’ll keep you updated…

My Aged Domain Details

Odys Global Aged domain case study month 1 Ahrefs Backlinks

Aged Domain Price on Odys Global: $3500

I picked this domain because for the price it seemed to have a large number of total backlinks, a few high domain backlinks, a clean and long history (it’s a 90’s baby), and it seemed like a topic with an abundance of article ideas.

When Did I Receive the Domain?

~December 1, 2021. It typically takes less than a week to receive your domain, depending on what registrar it’s currently at.

Aged Domain Value per Odys: $48,000+

Wow! That seems like a lot of value… Over 10X the price tag. Hopefully, it pays off.

Odys Global uses a few stats to come up with their domain value. Here are the approximate stats that my aged domain had according to Odys:

  • Domain Age: $500+ ($15 per year)
  • Referring Domains: $40,000+ (~$50 per referring domain)
  • High Authority Links: $5,000+ (~$650 per link)
  • Name Value: $1,000+ (Go Daddy Appraisal Value)

Ahrefs DR:

30. Looking at the domain’s history on Ahrefs, it nearly had a DR of 50 at one point… Hopefully, it will get back up there!

Want to Buy Your Own Aged Domain?

If you’re looking to start a niche site on an aged domain, I’d definitely suggest taking a look at Odys Global. They take a lot of the risk out by doing much of the due diligence for you. Apply for an account below and you’ll get a $100 credit toward your first aged domain.

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Month 1: April 2022 (also including the last week of March)

When I decided on the aged domain to get from Odys Global, I immediately started working on a list of keywords. Within the same week, I placed a bulk content order of 400 articles, averaging about 1000 words each. Unfortunately, these articles have been taking quite some time to get back to me…

Finally, in March I started getting some of the articles back from the content agency and started publishing them to the site on March 24th. To my surprise, the site started getting organic traffic the next day. Interestingly, the very early organic traffic came from non-Google search engines like Bing, DuckDuckGo, and Yahoo. A trickle of Google organic traffic started about a week after posting the first article.

Posts Live:

127 Posts (Informational: 81, Commercial: 46)

Traffic:

Impressions: 8,580

odys aged domain case study gsc april 2022

Sessions: 941 (80% Organic Search)

odys aged domain case study april 2022

Revenue:

Display Ads: $0 (no ads yet)

Amazon: $2.07 (5 ordered items)

Month 1 in Review

Welp, the site got a bit of traffic immediately and it made its first dollar! I’d say things are off to a good start. Both impressions and traffic are steadily growing.

Month 2: May 2022

As month 2 of my ODYS aged domain case study comes to a close, I want to look back at the month of May 2022 and see how it went. Month 1 was pretty successful with reaching milestones of 100 posts live, steadily growing traffic, and the sites first revenue. Month 2 was more of the same in some departments.

Of course, a Google algorithm core update started about halfway through the month. It may have caused some tremors in the traffic department, but we won’t let that stop us… Let’s take a look at the month 2 results.

Posts Live:

200 Posts (73 new posts were added in May, but weren’t live until the last week of the month.)

Traffic:

Impressions: 11,700

odys aged domain case study gsc may 2022

In month 2, impressions have grown at a modest pace of 38% from the previous 31 days. I’d like this growth to be larger, but it’s nothing to complain about, especially with only adding new posts near the end of the month. I’d expect to see better results next month, but only time will tell.

Sessions: 1324 (71% Organic Search)

odys aged domain case study sessions may 2022

*The blue dots are May and the orange dots are April.

In month 2, the total sessions grew by a whopping 86% from the previous 31 days. This is great, as the new posts that I added in May are barely accounted for in that, which gets me excited for the June traffic potential. Fingers crossed, due to the Google update, though…

Revenue:

Display Ads: $0 (still no display ads)

Amazon: $24.70 (18 ordered items)

Over 10X the revenue from April, but it’s a bit inflated due to the purchase of a drone, which has nothing to do with the sites content. Got lucky there! It’s nice to see ordered items on Amazon up 260% from last month.

Month 2 in Review

Month 2 of this ODYS aged domain case study has been a success for the most part. As you can see below, there was growth in all three goal markers that I set at the beginning of the case study. I am a bit worried about the sharp decline of impressions over the last few days of the month during the Google algorithm core update. Hopefully, it will recover a bit and continue to grow.

  • Posts: Up 56% from April
  • Traffic: Up 86% from April
  • Revenue: Up 1093% from April

Month 3: June 2022

While the traffic went up in June, the Google organic traffic took a steep drop due to the Google core algorithm update. Impressions on Google dropped to almost nothing. While it’s frustrating to see this bad of a drop in the early months of the site, it’s good to see that impressions started on an upward trend over the last few days of the month. Fingers crossed that this will continue to go up.

As expected, revenue took a big drop. As mentioned last month, there was a random large product purchased through my affiliate links in May that boosted revenue. I still have no display ads because the plan is to wait for Mediavine levels of traffic (as a secondary site).

Most of June was spent letting the dust settle from the Google update. I didn’t do much to the site. I have a good amount of drafts that I plan to get live on WordPress early this month. If impressions continue on their upward trend I think July will be much improved.

Posts Live:

218 Posts (18 new posts were added in June.)

Traffic:

Impressions: 1,500

june 2022 impressions odys aged domain case study

In month 3, impressions dropped by 87%… OUCH! That’s about all I’ve got to say about impressions.

Sessions: 1326 (86% Organic Search)

june 2022 sessions odys aged domain case study

*The blue dots are June and the orange dots are May.

Even with the huge drop in organic Google traffic, overall sessions were up in June. Most of the traffic is coming from other search engines including Bing, DuckDuckGo, and Yahoo. Hopefully soon, Google can be added back into the mix.

Revenue:

Display Ads: $0 (still no display ads)

Amazon: $2.39 (7 ordered items)

It’s not surprising that revenue is way down from May. In May the site was fortunate to have an Amazon purchase of an expensive drone that boosted the revenue. This month there were no such anomaly purchases, and there were less ordered items. This was expected.

Month 3 in Review

The Google Core Algorithm update was definitely a bummer and slowed the traffic growth. I’m hoping that with continued work on the site and some easy optimizations like adding internal links and improving EAT, the site will get back on track.

  • Posts: Up 9% from May
  • Traffic: Up 12% from May
  • Revenue: Down 90% from May

Month 4: July 2022

July saw some nice growth for the site. The month started out with Google impressions climbing nicely again, but then mid-month they dropped back down. Revenue from Amazon is up, which is predictable as there was more traffic.

I went ahead and ordered another 120 articles to be written, so within the next few months, the site should have a total of over 500 articles posted.

The site needs some work on internal links, which could be part of the problem with Google search. I plan to add a good amount of internal linking in August and see if it helps.

Posts Live:

256 Posts (38 new posts were added in July.)

Traffic:

Impressions: 4,160

impressions july 2022

In month 4, impressions were up by 177%… but, mid-month they dropped back down to the levels of last month. It would be just dandy if the Google traffic would steadily go up without the cliff dives… (head hitting desk)

Sessions: 2543 (79% Organic Search)

sessions GA july 2022

*The blue dots are July and the orange dots are June. It’s always nice to see no July dots below the June dots!

Sessions were up nearly 70% in July. Much of the traffic is still coming from other search engines including Bing, DuckDuckGo, and Yahoo. I’m still hoping that Google will officially decide that it likes the site and trend up without dropping off again and again.

Revenue:

Display Ads: $0 (still no display ads)

Amazon: $12.49 (27 ordered items)

With the jump in traffic, comes a jump in revenue. Honestly, my goal for this site is to make money primarily through display ads, so I’m not too worried about affiliate commissions at this time.

Month 4 in Review

While Google organic traffic is still up in the air, the site overall is gaining traffic from other avenues. If Google ever does kick in, it will be a nice boost. The hope is to get enough traffic to apply for Mediavine (as a secondary site) by November/December. Fingers crossed.

  • Posts: Up 17% from June
  • Traffic: Up 70% from June
  • Revenue: Up 422% from June

Month 5: August 2022

July saw some nice growth for the site. The month started out with Google impressions climbing nicely again, but then mid-month they dropped back down. Revenue from Amazon is up, which is predictable as there was more traffic.

I went ahead and ordered another 120 articles to be written, so within the next few months, the site should have a total of over 500 articles posted.

The site needs some work on internal links, which could be part of the problem with Google search. I plan to add a good amount of internal linking in August and see if it helps.

Posts Live:

261 Posts (5 new posts were added in August.)

Traffic:

Impressions: 2,180

aged domain case study impressions august 2022

In month 5, impressions were down by 47%… the site has been having issues with Google, but I may have realized what the issue was a while ago and was too lazy to fix it. A lack of internal linking may be holding the site back in Google search. I will be working on it in September. If this is correct, the next few months will show better results for impressions, as I’m now working on internal linking to reduce orphaned pages.

Sessions: 3242

aged domain case study sessions august 2022

*The blue dots are August and the orange dots are July.

Sessions were up 27% in August. The site is still getting most of its traffic from non-Google organic search. If I could just turn that Google-switch on, I think the site would be rolling along nicely, but it’s just not happening yet.

Revenue:

Display Ads: $0 (still no display ads)

Amazon: $17.26 (28 ordered items)

Amazon revenue is up 38% which somewhat coincides with the traffic growth. There are still no ads on the site as I’m waiting for Mediavine as a secondary site. If I have to wait too long, I may end up sticking on some Ezoic ads, but I don’t like that Ezoic will greatly slow down the site, which Google doesn’t like…

Month 5 in Review

I was a slacker and didn’t do too much on the case study site in August. Hopefully, I’ll get more done in September, including working on the internal linking. The site did hit the 3000 sessions per month milestone. The sessions growth chart is looking nice, but the impressions have been such a roller coaster.

  • Posts: Up 2% from July
  • Traffic: Up 27% from July
  • Revenue: Up 38% from July

Month 6: September 2022

Month 6 for my aged domain case study site saw steady growth. I didn’t do much to the site except internally link some posts using Link Whisper. I slacked on internally linking pretty badly, so it’s now turned into a decent-sized project to go back and add a few incoming links to each page.

Posts Live:

261 Posts (0 new posts were added in September.)

Traffic:

Impressions: 2,400

September aged domain impressions

In month 6, impressions were up by 10%… still having Google issues.

Sessions: 4,052

september aged domain case study sessions

*The blue dots are September and the orange dots are August.

Sessions were up 27% again in September.

Revenue:

Display Ads: $0 (still no display ads)

Amazon: $27.19 (64 ordered items)

Amazon revenue is up 57% from August. Ads await. I’m sort of tempted to add Ezoic ads while I wait for Mediavine numbers just to see how the RPM’s compare. What is holding me back is the known site speed drop that will incur.

Month 6 in Review

In September, the site steadily grew as far as sessions and revenue go.

  • Posts: Up 0% from August
  • Traffic: Up 27% from August
  • Revenue: Up 57% from August

Month 7: October 2022

October was more of the same.

Posts Live:

261 Posts (0 new posts were added in September.)

Traffic:

Impressions: 7,590

October aged domain case study impressions

In month 7, impressions were up 216%!!! Hello, Google, my long-lost friend…

Sessions: 5,375

october aged domain case study sessions

*The blue dots are October and the orange dots are September.

Sessions were up 28% in October. Google traffic nearly doubled from September. I believe the internal linking, combined with using IndexMeNow, has jumpstarted the Google engines.

Revenue:

Display Ads: $0 (still no display ads)

Amazon: $19.69 (35 ordered items)

Amazon revenue is down 28%. While the traffic is still pretty low, I assume these revenue numbers to be pretty volatile.

Month 7 in Review

Again in October, I didn’t add any new posts, but did work on internal links for the current posts. I saw some nice growth in sessions, being the third month in a row with nearly 30% more traffic.

  • Posts: Up 0% from September
  • Traffic: Up 28% from September
  • Revenue: Down 28% from September

Month 8: November 2022

November saw some nice growth in all aspects. I nearly doubled the live posts, impressions and sessions were up a lot, and revenue followed suit.

Posts Live:

519 Posts (258 new posts were added in November)

Traffic:

Impressions: 17,900

aged domain case study impressions november 2022

 

In month 8, impressions were up big again, coming in at a gain of 136%.

Sessions: 8,133

aged domain case study sessions november 2022

 

*The blue dots are November and the orange dots are October.

Sessions were up 55% in November. Google traffic was up big again as well. It was up 76% from October. I believe the ongoing internal linking is helping Google indexing issues.

Revenue:

Display Ads: $0 (I decided to apply for Ezoic, but it’s taking forever to get the site approved)

Amazon: $93.21 (105 ordered items)

Revenue from Amazon is up 373%. It’s nice to see a jump in ordered items and revenue to go along with the upward movement of traffic. Almost hit that $100 milestone. Maybe in December…

Month 8 in Review

In November, I finally got around to posting the rest of the drafts that were sitting there for a bit. Most of them were informational posts, so they were very easy to get live. I added quite a few internal links making sure no pages were completely orphaned. I still have some improvement to do in this area though.

  • Posts: Up 99% from October
  • Traffic: Up 55% from October
  • Revenue: Up 373% from October

Month 9: December 2022

To end the year, I’ve seen some good growth in month 9 of this aged domain case study. I didn’t add any new posts but continued working on internal linking. I also added Ezoic to add some extra monetization in the form of display ads.

I originally planned to wait for Mediavine as a secondary site, but Mediavine doubled the traffic needed for second sites. Adding Ezoic will allow me to test the RPM levels and compare them to Mediavine or Adthrive later. As of now, the RPMs for the site are terrible (sub $10).

Posts Live:

519 Posts (0 new posts were added in December)

Traffic:

Impressions: 39,300

aged domain case study dec 2022 impressions

In month 9, impressions were up by over 100% again, coming in at a gain of 119%.

Sessions: 11,034

aged domain case study dec 2022 sessions

 

*The blue dots are December, and the orange dots are November.

Sessions were up 33% in December. Google traffic was up considerably as well. It was up 121% from November.

Revenue:

Display Ads: $110.45 (Approved for Ezoic Dec. 7th)

Amazon: $65.42 (90 ordered items)

Total Revenue: $175.87

Thanks to my new revenue source, it’s up 88%. Amazon revenue was down a bit, but the new Ezoic display ads made up for it.

Month 9 in Review

In December, I didn’t do a whole lot of work on the site. I continued adding some more internal links and got Ezoic approved and set up.

  • Posts: No Change from November
  • Traffic: Up 33% from November
  • Revenue: Up 88% from November

Timeline of My Odys Global Aged Domain Case Study

  • December 1, 2021 Obtained Aged Domain from Odys Global
  • December 7, 2021 Ordered 400 Articles
  • March 24, 2022 First Post Live
  • April 6, 2022 First Amazon Sale ($0.36 commission!)
  • April, 2022 100+ Posts Live
  • May, 2022 200+ Posts Live
  • May, 2022 1000+ Sessions/mo
  • May, 2022 Google Core Algorithm Update (Ouch)
  • July, 2022 250+ Posts Live
  • July, 2022 2000+ Sessions/mo
  • July, 2022 Ordered 120 Articles
  • July, 2022 First 100+ Session Day
  • August, 2022 3000+ Sessions/mo
  • August, 2022 Started Building Internal Links
  • September, 2022 4000+ Sessions/mo
  • September, 2022 First 200+ Session Day
  • October, 2022 5000+ Sessions/mo
  • November, 2022 First 300+ Session Day
  • November, 2022 First 400+ Session Day
  • November, 2022 8000+ Sessions/mo
  • December, 2022 10,000+ Sessions/mo
  • December, 2022 First $100 Revenue Month

all time sessions aged domain case study dec 2022

 

all time impressions aged domain case study dec 2022

Want to Start a Niche Site on an Aged Domain as Well?

If you’re interested in doing what I’m doing here in this case study, I’d recommend taking a look at the large inventory of aged domains over at Odys Global. I’ve purchased a handful of domains from them and am very happy.

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