Update (27th March): literally hours after I published this post, BuildMyRank announced that the “overwhelming majority” of its blog network has been de-indexed by Google. And yesterday, RankJumpers closed its doors to new customers. I believe that this is the end of private blog networks as we know it.
BuildMyRank seems to be the daddy of private blog networks. So much so that it has temporarily closed its doors in order to “remain relevant over the long run”. By this I assume they mean that the supply of blogs they have does not match the current demand.
I know that there are some amongst you who are looking for a good alternative – the next best thing, if you will. However, I have discovered that you shouldn’t just be looking for the next best thing – I have found a better service.
The Bias of Online Product Reviews
I have always read the vast amount of praise lavished upon BuildMyRank with some skepticism. Call me cynical, but you should take any review of a product with an excellent affiliate program with a pinch of salt. However, assigning bias to a particular product because I might be able to profit from doing so is not in my nature – regular readers of my blog know that.
Anyway, in an effort to help you find the best private blog network, I took it upon myself to do some lengthy and extensive testing. This post is something I actually first mentioned doing back at the end of last year, and I finally have everything I need. My findings, based upon hard data, demonstrate BuildMyRank’s relative impotence alongside a comparably-priced product.
Details of My Study
Any study such as this is only as good as the data upon which the findings are based, so I would like to take a moment to explain what I have actually done.
I have recently worked with three private blog networks – BuildMyRank, Linkvana, and RankJumpers. For each service, I analyzed 20 posts that were all created around the end of 2011, and ascertained the following:
- Is the post indexed in Google?
- Is it a live page?
- Does the post link back to my blog as intended?
- Is the post hosted on the same domain as another post?
- What is the domain’s PR?
- What is the post’s PR?
A larger sample pool would have of course been better, but with the results being as comprehensive as they are, I do not really see that as an issue.
To check whether or not a post was indexed in Google, I selected a proportion of the content (enclosed within speech marks), and entered it as a search query in Google. I repeated this process two more times if my search did not initially return any results.
I used this tool to check the page and domain PRs of each post.
All in all, I’m happy with the way in which I conducted my research – I think it returned reliable data.
The Shocking Results
I’m sure you are eager to discover what I found, so without further ado, here are the results:
The numbers really do speak for themselves. Whilst RankJumpers and BuildMyRank share the same percentage of indexed, live and unique links, the average page and domain PR of RankJumpers’ posts are far superior to that of BuildMyRank’s.
Linkvana is unfortunately barely even worth talking about. There were an enormous proportion of duplicate domains within the posts, the page PRs were zero across the board, and the domain PRs were very low.
Some Pointers
In fairness, BuildMyRank seemed to have the most diverse range of blog designs – most of the RankJumpers blogs were based on the standard WordPress Twenty Eleven theme. Additionally, BuildMyRank added photos and occasionally videos to the posts. Having said that, it is debatable as to whether these factors are actually of any benefit.
One thing that is interesting to note is that all three services are misleading their customers about domain PR. They all claim to own minimum PR1 domains, but all three have PR0 domains in their networks.
Pricing
Linkvana charges a flat fee of $147 for submission to an unlimited number of sites. You would have to own a considerable number of websites to make their service cost-effective, even if it were the best.
Their pricing model is completely different to that of BuildMyRank and RankJumpers, who follow a structure based upon the number of domains you want to link to. Those two services are comparably priced (with BuildMyRank starting at $59 per month and RankJumpers starting at $57.95), but BuildMyRank is slightly less expensive as you move up through the pricing brackets.
What They Had To Say
When I was carrying out this research, I decided to contact both BuildMyRank and Linkvana to see what they had to say about my findings.
BuildMyRank
I spoke with John, who I believe is the owner of BuildMyRank (correct me if I am wrong).
He claims that the service offers a historical initial indexing rate of over 90%, although he did admit that “slippage” could occur, in the region of 5-10%. Based upon my findings, he is wrong on either one of those counts (or both). My analysis demonstrated an indexing rate of just 70%. My guess is that initial indexing is perhaps in the region of 90%, but that slippage is far greater than 5-10%.
He claimed that the BuildMyRank network has an average PR of 2.5, and concluded that my findings were simply a result of “luck of the draw”. There are two problems with his argument:
- My findings most definitely do not indicate an average PR of 2.5. If the average PR were a little lower than the claimed amount, you could write it off as a statistical anomaly, but the actual PR is less than half of the claimed PR.
- He is likely basing his averages upon all posts, whether they are indexed or not – but an unindexed post is in reality a PR0, regardless of how high the actual PR is.
I decided to test his argument further by checking the average PR of the last 100 posts I submitted via BuildMyRank. The results? An average PR of 1.75 – and that is based upon the assumption that every single post was indexed (and we know they weren’t).
Either way, his claim appears to be false.
Linkvana
I spoke with Dave at Linkvana, and he had two main points to make.
The first was that my account is on the lowest “node”, which translated into English apparently means that I do not post to their highest PR network. To be perfectly honest, I consider that largely irrelevant, given the high number of duplicate domains and unindexed posts. And the question then is, how much more do you have to pay to get on a higher node, and why would you even bother when initial results are so poor?
Dave was also eager to point out that they are rolling out a “brand new system for indexing”. He claimed that they are seeing “close to 100%” in indexing rates – a bold claim indeed. But again, even if indexing rates do increase, the low PR coupled with duplicate domains cripples the gains made.
Linkvana appears to have the trifecta of what you don’t want to see in a private blog network – low PR, low indexing rate, high duplicate domains.
Conclusion
In my opinion, the evidence is comprehensive – RankJumpers is the clear winner. If you are looking to build links via a private blog network, I would recommend RankJumpers as the service to use. You can explore their site and sign up to a free seven day trial by clicking here.
Creative Commons image courtesy of vitroid
This is great information! I have been looking for a BMR alternative and was really unsure of the choices. I unfortunately missed the BMR train, when I had finally made up my mind they had closed there doors!
I will be looking into Rankjumpers extensively, do you have any more data than just 20 post?
Chris
Unfortunately not Chris, but I think 20 posts is good enough to draw some pretty concrete conclusions – especially considering the gap between the services in terms of performance (based upon my findings).
Hi Tom
My results over 1000’s of BMR links are closer to “john from buildmyrank” than yours. I agree with his indexing rate and the PR has better than suggested by your tests. Of course any subset may have a variable PR in testing.
I see a ton of PR3 sites and very very few PR0.
WHAT IS HAPPENING is BMR is doing less well on indexing and PR right now than it did 🙁 Im not suprised they have temporarily shut the doors and thats a very good thing for existing users 🙂 I for one am happy the doors are shut and if a few more folks leave the network that wil be good for the quality i think.
HOWEVER I do agree rankjumpers is great! shame thats outof the bag now 🙁 I can hear the stampede coming 🙂
Very useufll blog post.
Hi Steve,
Thanks for the kind words 🙂
It’s very important to make clear what I have done – I’ve manually analyzed posts that are over three months old to ascertain whether or not they remain indexed.
May I ask how you have personally calculated the PR and index rate of 1000s of aged posts? I checked my last 100 posts and still only found a PR rank of 1.75 (which doesn’t take into account non-indexed posts, which brings down the “true” average PR).
I would be truly astonished if the data varied that much if you increased the sample size to say 1000. I’m almost tempted to go back and find out the average PR of every single BMR post I submitted…
Cheers,
Tom
Hi Tom
Ah i missed a point Im taking the PR from their report.. that’s subject to their audit so hum maybe you have a point.
The Backlink indexing I have a VPS and just use the index checker tool which then give me a count.
Yep we extract the links from BMr manually incase you wonder!!” painfull but patrt of the VA BMR writers task.
regards
Steve,
Can’t you just pull the links with SEO Spyglass and export? Even if you use the free version you can semi-automate the task with a VA.
I use another network that has pretty good indexing rates. Would’ve loved to put it head-to-head vs. BMR but unfortunately they closed up shop for now.
Very interesting stuff, Tom, and you answered many of the questions I had about these networks and how they compared. Thanks for putting in the time to do the research!
I’m not sure how long these numbers will remain relevant with the constant Google algo changes, but it’s nice to know how that stack up at this one snapshot in time.
Hey Jeff,
There’s little point in second-guessing Google – if it works now, I’ll roll with it! I think it will be very difficult for Google to eradicate private blog networks; should make for an interesting battle though 😉
Cheers,
Tom
Thanks Tom for another very informative post! I’m just starting my adventure with niche sites and wondering about an efficient link building strategy for for people with just a few sites (1-3) that would utilise private blog networks. As I’ve read the people that are in this business and are mentioned by you in your blog (Spencer, Jason and Joe) all started by setting up a couple of sites. They saw how this model performed and on the basis of that decided to scale it up. The problem that I have and will ask you for your thoughts about is that none of the private blog networks seems to be suitable for people that have 1,2 or 3 niche sites aimed at generating small (10$/mth) income each. Paying a subscription fee of 60$ cost you more then you earn on them… It probably does become more cost effective for a person like Spencer with hundreds of sites but what is the best way for “beginners” in this area? Have come across any service where you pay a once off fee and get your articles (with links) distributed? Or even better – written, spun and distributed?
Hello Oloo,
You need to go and check out Fiverr – you can spend $5 bucks for a “one off” shot of a lot of the services you will have read about. Be careful with who you go with though – look out for top ratings. And I would say that trusting your backlinking in anyone else’s hands is always a risk (above that of black hat SEO in general).
Cheers,
Tom
Your sample size is way too small to be drawing any real conclusions, and that’s besides the fact that there’s tons of other ranking factors in search engine algorithms like domain age, number of OBLs, home page time, IP diversity, relevance, social indicators, and so on.
The real question is which service provided the the largest boost in the SERPs? And were rankings sustained.
Hi Wes,
Thanks for the feedback.
I disagree with your first point – I think my research has merit.
Your “real question” is completely academic – there is no way of accurately comparing SERP boosts across private blog networks – there are far too many factors at play.
Whilst judging these sites by PR alone is not perfect, there is no such thing as a “perfect” method of judging the relative value of private blog network A against private blog network B.
Like it or not, PR has relevance – even if Google doesn’t give it a great deal of consideration, it still represents a cumulative score of various factors that ARE taken into consideration.
Cheers,
Tom
Good read.
Indexing is definitely important as it is the first step to getting the link recognized.
However, I think pr is not a good gauge of whether the indexed link will pass value. A more refined test, although a more troublesome one, is whether the link can rank the page for terms not found on it. For example, your page might be about cars but your backlink’s anchor text can be for a non search term such as ‘I love to live in funny places’.
If the page ranks for that term even though it doesn’t contain it, we can conclude that the link is a value passing link
Hi Aaron,
I’m afraid that I don’t really understand what you’re getting at…
Cheers,
Tom
Hi Tom,
Let me try this again.
This is a form of test to know whether a link passes value.
It all starts with knowing not all links passes value. In fact, most links don’t as the search engines simply discounts the links that they don’t ‘trust’.
So, to test whether a link passes value, the link must be able to help a page to rank for a unique expression that is not found on the page.
For example, if I link my site to this page, with the anchor text called “Tom is brilliant!”, and this page really ranked for this expression, even though it never appeared on the page, then you can say that my link is value passing.
Only links that pass value will help your site to rank, regardless of whether they have high PR.
That is why some SEO folks say that they only need a couple of good quality links while some might say they need a couple of hundreds.
If you have a couple of value passing links, you don’t need a lot of them. Unfortunately, most people can’t tell and hence needs to shoot lots of arrows to find some value passing links.
Hey Aaron,
Interesting idea, although I don’t agree that this alone determines whether or not a link passes value. For instance, what if the anchor text you used was very common? Or are you simply saying that if the link gets a page indexed for a particular anchor text, that is proof enough?
Cheers,
Tom
Good roundup of all three services. I haven’t tried RankJumpers or Linkvana because I’ve had such good results with Build My Rank. I do have to agree with Steve that I’m a little happy that BMR closed its doors because that gives a better benefit to existing customers.
With that said; I’m a little worried now because I’ve seen a few sites get Sandboxed lately. One of the things that might have cause this is the links from BMR. I’m doing a few tests on sites now to find out if this is true. BUT; if it that’s the case then I’d be worried to recommend ANYONE use Build My Rank. Hopefully I’ll know more in a few weeks.
You know more now!
Another nice post Tom 🙂
Blog networks in general are experiencing their hard days. And I know BMR has been hit hard with the recent Google algorithm update. Some people think that BMR and other networks are closing their doors because they believe there are people who jumped in the network, did extensive posting schedules, collected the data then reported it to Google! But it’s just a theory and nobody knows for sure.
Anyway, I think there will always be another ‘BMR’ lol! Talking about that, have you tried LinkAuthority network yet? Here is the link: http://www.linkauthority.com/index.php
It works the same way as BMR. And the best part is, you can use the network for free if you contribute your own high PR blogs. So, it’s like a combination of both private (their own blogs) and public (users’ blogs) blog network.
I’ve been using the network since January this year and the results are good. So far, I’ve made a total of 56 posts, 21 of them are on PR2 domains, 22 are on PR3, and 13 are on PR4. And the indexation rate is close to 100% 🙂
LinkAuthority is just my suggestion for BMR’s alternative as I see people seem to talk about this one much less than other networks. However, I haven’t done any research like yours, so if you can, you should test this one out Tom.
Again, thanks a lot for your post. Have a nice day!
Hey Duy,
Nice suggestion – I may have to give that a look. Thanks!
Tom
Hey Tom, interesting study. I’ve never used RankAuthority (or LinkAuthority as of yet, although signed up for this via Andre Garde’s affili link).
Most of the tools I’ve used for SEO over the past few years are either okay or simply don’t get results. BMR is and continues to be a very solid performer indeed (for me). Linkvana – over-priced rubbish! I’m sure Steve Wyman will agree on that since he helped me with a trial of the tool fairly recently, and it was the same old same old with it that I’d seen from long before, even though they’d totally overhauled the service.
What I’ve found is that you can do all sorts of statistical analysis, but at the end of the day, if a tool works – it works.
Joseph
Hey Jo,
Wise words indeed – if it works, use it! Agree with you on Linkvana – wasn’t impressed at all (and that is backed up by my findings).
Cheers,
Tom
Hey Tom! Not sure if this test reveals the effectiveness of each blog network. Ideally, you would want three different yet similar domains (perhaps a .com, .net and .org of the same domain name) then target each domain with one service and track rankings. Your test only shows results for just a few of MANY ranking variables. There’s a backlink service I use that only has low PR sites in their network, but they believe in quantity over quality and they ALWAYS get me a page one ranking. And some believe that a link doesn’t even need to be indexed to count, but rather crawled. Long story short, SERP position is a better guage than PR or index rate.
Hey Tory,
Thanks for the constructive feedback.
I think you would need to repeat your experiment many times over in order to extract any kind of meaningful findings.
SERP position is indeed a better gauge, but as I said in an earlier comment, comparing SERP positions is nigh-on impossible. I think what I did is enough to reveal the relative value of the networks I studied.
Cheers,
Tom
Farewell BMR
You must be clairvoyant 🙂
I know, eery right 😉
Okay, the real reason why BMR isn’t the best private network is because it’s been completely de-indexed by the big G: http://www.buildmyrank.com/news/its-been-a-great-run
Yeah…that is also quite a compelling reason 🙂
Hey thanks for the info on this post. Good timing lol not. Guess you can count BMR out since they shut down today. Ugh not fun.
BMR has ceased operation.
Tom, it’s great that you actually took time to compare three services side by side. It’s nice to see that you’re not evaluating it in a complete vacuum. There are other alternatives that exist and now people can make up their minds which direction to go in… though in this case it seems pretty obvious!
Hey Stephen,
Thanks, I appreciate that. It took me a long time to put this together so it’s good that it is appreciated by some 🙂
Cheers,
Tom
Hey Tom,
Thanks for conducting this study and sharing your results. The last two weeks has been quite “exciting” for my niche site portfolio – to say the least. Last week, I saw quite a few of my sites drop in the rankings, and then this week, they all came roaring back.
Of the 30 sites I’m referring to, last week, just 14 were on page one, this week, that number is 23. All links have been built with UAW/MAN using spun content. I’ve also used SocialAdr to bookmark every page of every site. For five of the sites, I used BMR and during the week when many of my sites dropped, the sites with BMR links didn’t drop.
As I run a membership sites with a ‘done for you’ VA service, I’m not in the process of looking for a replacement for BMR. A respected friend of mine had good things to say about Linkvana so that is on my short list – despite what I’ve read in your comment thread.
As a result of your results, I think I’ll have to give RankJumpers a go as well.
Cheers,
Trent
Hey Trent,
Interesting stuff – thanks for sharing! I’m especially encouraged to know that you have had success with the UAW/MAN combination (a la Spencer Haws I presume), as that is the backlinking strategy that I am following too.
It looks like you will certainly need to look for a replacement for BMR now…I would strongly recommend against Linkvana though – if nothing else, the huge number of posts on the same domain rings off warning bells in my head.
Cheers,
Tom
Too bad BMR is done. I got good results with it. I’m glad it was a small percentage of my strategy though now that they are deindexed. I did look at RankJumpers but they probably have a target on their back too now. I’m taking a look at stuff like Get Links Pro for link building that I outsource now, I’m getting the feeling that these public blog networks aren’t going to be a very good investment moving forward now that Google has them in the crosshairs. Get Link Pro (just as an example) can get me links via guest blog posts, on sites that aren’t part of a blog network that might run the risk of getting chopped down.
Interesting comments Mr. WebGuy303 – you make a valid point about private blog networks. I will certainly be interested to see if BMR’s competitors have anything to say about what has happened. If only we could know how Google managed to effectively shut it down…
Apparently BuildMyRank closed down because Google caught on to them and realized their “blogs” are nothing more than glorified link farms. Frankly I’m too scared to try RankJumpers –or any other service that only uses blog links– because who’s to say that Google won’t do the same to their blogs.
All I know is that since BuildMyRank folded shop, I’m out over $224 In existing credit I still had with them, to say nothing of all the money I wasted with them building links over the past year+ for clients who are now screaming at me because all their links no longer exist!
Hi Ken,
I’m pretty sure BMR are refunding existing credit so you may want to check that out.
I understand why you might have reservations over using any private blog networks, but let’s be honest, any kind of “grey” hat or black hat SEO carries inherent risks.
I think the best we can do is diversify our link building, use what works for us in the present, and react quickly when things change.
Cheers,
Tom
That’s good advice about diversifying link building. I absolutely, positively will keep it in mind in the future.
Incidentally, I did get my update from BMR, but it was only $42 not the $224 they owed me.
Looks like I’m going to have to start begging for money on the street to make up for the loss. Sigh.
Ken,
They said that they will first issue pro-rated refunds for monthly subscriptions and then any credits left in the system (for outsourcing the posts to them I believe). So what you got is most likely the partial refund for your $79 a month.
You will most likely receive the refund for outsourcing credits soon.
I don’t use these sites, and quite frankly, now with the news, I’m surprised that anyone would. It’s pretty obvious that Google doesn’t like these types of networks, and is coming after all of them sooner or later. Why would anyone want to be associated with them? Why jeopardize your niche sites and all the hard work put into them? I just don’t get it.
Hi Richard,
It’s simple – Google is going after ALL grey/black hat SEO tactics. Unless you have found a way to build backlinks to your site in a completely natural way (and that in itself is a contradiction in terms), anything you do is a risk. Would love to get your thoughts on that.
Cheers,
Tom
I’ve been having a lot of thoughts about BMR and this content answered my questions. Thanks for this Tom. I am quite relieved to have made the right choice on not using these types of networks. Google never liked these types of networks. What it like is doing some slow-paced SEO tactic with more focused on quality.
Spatch Merlin
More Web Site Traffic Guide
I wouldn’t recommend any blog networks regardless of the average PR of the domains where the link comes from. At the end of the day any blog network that sells links will eventually grow big enough to be noticed by Google and get de-indexed. I’ve written a guide for small businesses on how to approach SEO more ethically and recover if they were affected by the blog network de-indexing. http://www.designquotes.com.au/resources/business/internet-marketing-business-resources/5-tips-to-recover-from-googles-sting-operation-blog-network-de-indexing
I agree with previous comments that staying diversified is your safest bet. I had a few clients in BMR and they all took a hit but a service I started using a couple months ago has held up great. They even do all the work for you.
Great article Daniel but don’t you think +1 can be abused? Someone will figure out a business model around selling +1’s and so the game will continue.
Best
Fiona
The game will always continue…it’s just a case of moving with the tide (in my humble opinion).
Nice blog Tom. As with all the link networks it’s a risk using your main money sites.
I had nearly 1200 posts on BMR and from my tests I would have to say the indexing rate was very high compared to other networks.
I am testing LinkVana, it’s expensive but another option to test.
I’m using Link Authority now but am getting tired of writing the content for it.
I think I will start using smaller services that write the content and post it to their own networks as it is more cost and time effective.
I’m trying a few out and will hopefully know soon which ones work the best.