Niche Website Builders, a well-known content agency specializing in niche sites, offers a service to rebuild a site with 100,000 words of content on a vetted aged domain.
Is this worth the price of around $10,000? How have previously sold domains performed so far?
For this report, the team analyzed the following:
- Average referring domains, number of pages, and traffic
- Average price of domains
- Number of domains that have been actively worked on
- How aged domain sites are being built by Niche Website Builders
Let’s get into it!
Summary of Key Findings
Here is the bottom-line-up-front:
- 24 sites were active with a working site and at least a few published articles.
- 2 sites had over 1,000 monthly traffic according to AHREFs (5 months later this increased to 11 sites).
- Average domain price was $1,792.
- Domains had an average AHREFs DR of 20 and 144 dofollow referring domains
- NWB performs good keyword research and publishes well-written articles, typically on sites using the Astra WordPress theme
View Raw Data For Niche Website Builder Domains
If you would like access to a Google Sheet with a breakdown of all of the data, including the domain, AHREF metrics, traffic metrics, costs, among others, check it out below:
Average AHREFs Traffic = 147
The average monthly traffic for active sites was 147 according to AHREFS (for all domains the average traffic was 53). 5 months later, in August 2022, the average monthly traffic for active sites increased to 6,897.
- Only 2 sites have over 1,000 monthly traffic according to AHREFs. In August 2022, this increased to 11 sites.
- 18 of the 24 active sites (75%) had less than 100 monthly traffic according to AHREFs. In August 2022, this decreased to 9 (38%).
- Most sites have very little traffic so far, but it is too early to tell if they are failed sites. In August 2022, there were 3 sites with over 10,000 AHREFs traffic (one with over 100,000 AHREFs traffic).
Average Pages (AHREFs) = 41
We checked the number of pages in AHREFs for each domain using the Top Pages report.
For active sites, the average number of pages according to AHREFs was 41. The average number of pages for all domains was 19.
Avg. Number of Indexed Pages (Google) = 25
We used the Google API to check the number of indexed pages in Google. For active sites, the average number of indexed pages was 25 (the average was 18 for all domains).
Average Referring Domains (DoFollow) = 144
The domains offered by NWB had a good number of referring domains, often from very high authority sites like the Huffington Post, CNN, Washington Post, and Healthline. They typically have several niche-specific links from relevant sites as well.
The highest number of referring domains was 753 and the lowest was 9.
Average Domain Rating = 20
The average domain rating was 20 which is a good starting point for building a niche site.
The highest DR in the sample was 38 and the lowest was 0 (the DR decreased since it was listed for sale).
Keep in mind that Domain Rating is a proprietary AHREFs metric based on the strength of the total backlink profile of a site. It doesn’t tell you whether the links are relevant to the niche.
Average Cost of Domain = $1,792
Based on the 36 of 72 total domains we had pricing data for, the average price for the domain was $1,792.
This was almost half of the average price of the ODYS domains that we analyzed which had an average price of $3,369.
The most expensive domain offered by Niche Website Builders was priced at $2,795 and the lowest price was $795.
47 Domains Sold, 25 Domains Still Available
As of January 2022, a majority of domains that were listed for sale are no longer available. Of the domains still available, some are stale listings and some were recently listed.
You can view the domains for sale at the Niche Website Builders website or by signing up for their email newsletter.
24 Domains Actively Worked On
Just over half of sold domains have been actively worked on. These sites had a working WordPress site set up (usually Astra theme) and at least a few published articles.
Several sites had WordPress sites set up using the Astra theme, but have yet to publish any articles.
There was also one domain that was 301 redirected to an existing site.
5 Interesting Aged Domain Rebuild Examples
1. Things to Do in New York City Niche
This aged domain that was the website for a popular NYC restaurant that was reviewed by the New York Times. It was relaunched as a guide to the best places to eat or drink in New York City. The main content type is listicles such as “best X in New York City”.
With around 40 pages of content, several page one rankings, and over 1,000 monthly traffic (AHREFs), this site shows good traction after just a few months.
2. Gluten-Free Niche
This aged domain was previously a site for a gluten-free bakery and cafe with several links from gluten-free blogs. The site was relaunched as a blog that answers questions about gluten-free foods.
According to Google Trends, interest in “gluten free” peaked in 2013 and has remained a popular topic for the past several years. There is a good opportunity to find low competition keywords in this niche that also have good search volume. AHREFs shows over 37,000 matching terms related to “gluten free” with a Keyword Difficulty of 10 or less.
3. River Rafting Niche
An aged domain that originally started in 2000, previously provided information about river rafting trips in various states around the country. It has some excellent links from sites like How Stuff Works and Rivers.gov.
The resurrected site currently has mostly affiliate articles but there is also a great opportunity to provide useful informational content around the sport of river rafting and location-specific topics (e.g., best river rafting trips in [state]).
4. Pigeon Niche
This niche site that is all about pigeons has the potential to grow to many thousands of page views per month. A similar site in this niche has monthly AHREFs traffic of over 67,000 with a DR of 27.
This domain was previously a website for a business that sold pigeon supplies and had an online presence since 2001. This is a good fit to be converted into an informational site with the potential for successful affiliate content as well.
5. Barbeque Niche
This domain was previously a blog that reviewed 359 barbeque and burger restaurants in the Northeastern United States before calling it quits in 2018. The site was relaunched with mostly affiliate content about barbeque equipment with a few informational articles added as well.
It appears this domain may have been retained by Niche Website Builders and is being built out as a case study because the author of the articles is “Niche Website Builders”.
Review of Niche Website Builder’s Aged Domain + Content Service
Niche Website Builders charges $7,495 for the site setup and 100k words of content (7.5 cents per word). This is in addition to the domain price which can range from $795 to $2,795.
The site setup includes:
- WordPress install and set up with the Astra theme. Most of the sites built by Niche Website Builders look very similar with minor differences.
- A professional quality logo that appears in the header of the site.
- Plugins installed like Contextual Related Posts plugin for internal links and AAWP for affiliate tables (needs to be purchased separately).
- 12 months of hosting.
How The Aged Domains Are Acquired
Typically the aged domains are acquired by Niche Website Builders through an expired domain auction like GoDaddy Auctions.
Some domains offered are from the ODYS Global marketplace (they have partnered with ODYS).
How Aged Domains are Vetted
NWB conducts due diligence on aged domains and reviews multiple factors before offering them for sale. Their due diligence process includes checking:
- Site history using Archive.org.
- Existence of any trademarks.
- Quality of backlinks.
- Topical relevance of backlinks.
- Historical traffic.
- Pages indexed in Google.
Keyword Research and “Tomb Raiding” Technique
NWB conducts keyword research to find good opportunities for content that can rank highly in Google and then publishes content about those topics.
They often target low competition keyword opportunities such as question-based keyword phrases.
Some common article topics from the sample of active sites include:
- What is the difference between X and Y?
- X vs Y: Which is better?
- How much does it cost for X?
- Where to purchase X
- Best X for Y
They also use the “Tomb Raiding” technique which is to publish content based on the highest traffic pages by competitors that have weaker authority.
Quality of Articles
The articles are claimed to be written by in-house native English speakers and the articles are written well-enough to rank in Google. Is it A+ content? No, but it’s good enough.
They are well formatted for good readability and include H2s with related keyword phrases. They are also optimized for featured snippets with a good summary of the topic at the top of many articles.
Internal Linking
Several sites use the Contextual Related Posts plugin, which is a good way to distribute link authority throughout a site with internal links.
Partnership with ODYS Global
Niche Website Builders has partnered with ODYS to provide content packages with site setup to individuals that purchase an aged domain from the ODYS Global marketplace.
The options for content packages with an ODYS domain include:
- 30,000 words for $2,940 (9.8 cents per word)
- 50,000 words for $4,200 (8.4 cents per word)
- 100,000 words for $7,880 (7.9 cents per word)
- 150,000 words for $11,560 (7.7 cents per word)
Final Takeaways
So is Niche Website Builders aged domain service worth the money?
We recommend Niche Website Builders for keyword research and content writing if you lack the time and expertise.
If you have more time than money, you may consider finding your own aged domain at auction, conducting keyword research, and writing the content yourself (or hire writers on services like Upwork or ProBlogger’s job board).
You may also consider buying a website that is already profitable as an alternative. For around $10,000 you can purchase a site earning around $250 per month on a marketplace like Flippa or Motion Invest.
Since several of the aged domains that were actively worked on have less than 100 AHREFs traffic per month, it may be a good approach to test how the domain performs with a small number of articles in the beginning. If rankings and traffic data demonstrate good progress, then continue investing in more content to grow the site.
