How Rhino Rank Generated $14K in Revenue in Just 4 Months

Overview

Customer: Rhino Rank

Results: Generated $14K in revenue in just 4 months and executed 6 months’ worth of content in just a quarter of the time with BrandWell

Customer: Rhino Rank

Established in 2017, Rhino Rank is one of the top link-building agencies today. Rhino Rank invented the concept of “curated links” and specializes solely in link building so clients gain access to experts fluent in this particular field of SEO.

Based in Shrewsbury, England, the 42-strong Rhino Rank team builds a whopping 120,000+ curated links every year for more than 2,500 businesses and SEOs in more than 20 countries worldwide.

The beauty of being in the SEO link-building business is that it’s for everybody. Rhino Rank has probably worked in every industry in the UK, the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Mexico, and any country you’re from.

Rhino Rank serves agencies, freelancers, and businesses in the travel, insurance, finance, health, beauty, and lifestyle niches just to name a few. They even cater to some of the more obscure ones like the CBD/cannabis industry, the gambling industry, the adult industry, and other areas that most SEOs are afraid to touch.

By 2021, industry publications began recognizing Rhino Rank’s expertise, ranking it among the top link-building agencies.

Rhino Rank excels at offering white-label solutions — and has made its mark as the most cost-efficient vendor for businesses.

The team carefully vets potential referring domains, ensuring that each link is a quality link from a good source. This focus on detail is crucial in today’s SEO landscape because one wrong link can be detrimental to months of hard work.

In 2022, Rhino Rank started adopting the tech of the future — artificial intelligence and machine learning — to optimize its link-building strategies.

That leads us to Rhino Rank’s case study with BrandWell. (This is a great use case for not just how to use AI tools in your content marketing, but also how to monetize that content. Check out the original case study on Rhino Rank’s blog for full details.)

AI content is the hottest topic in digital marketing today, with prominent SEO experts talking about how artificial intelligence could significantly impact our industry in the coming decade.

AI is here to stay, and if you’re not adapting, you’ll get left behind.

Is it time to transition over?

Rhino Rank decided to put it to the test through a rigorous case study of two websites using its curated links strategy, and hundreds of AI-generated blog posts.

Goal: Combine AI Content and Link Building to Rank Websites and Scale Revenue

Rhino Rank set three goals for this case study:

• Goal 1: Combine AI-written content and link building to rank sites in Google.
• Goal 2: Generate revenue from that content.
• Goal 3: Scale that revenue into 4 figures per month.

Solution: Build Money Content with BrandWell

“Money content” refers to content that’s designed to earn revenue. These blog posts are focused on high-CPC keywords (for ads), product and service reviews, affiliate links, and sales.

According to the Rhino Rank team, BrandWell is the most powerful content creation tool they have come across. It uses three AI engines to generate articles that read like they were written by a human.

With those three engines, the app looks at all the top-ranking content on Google for a specific niche and writes a fresh take while trying to improve what competitors have written. The end result is long-form content that reads well and ranks high.

This is why Rhino Rank uses BrandWell for all of its money content.

BrandWell in a nutshell:

• Actively researches your competitors’ articles and writes content designed to beat them.
• Enter a keyword and get a 3,000+ word, well-researched, well-written blog post within minutes.
• Built-in SEO tools produce copy that is designed to rank well.
• 3 AI engines produce content that passes all AI detection software.

The last item is quite important for Rhino Rank because, while Google may be AI-friendly today, it may not be tomorrow. So every piece of content Rhino Rank publishes goes through AI detection software and gets a quick proofread and rewrite where necessary.

Rhino Rank believes that Google can and will rank AI-written content as long as it provides value to the user — meaning accurate and helpful information. That means removing parts of AI content that are not necessary (fluff) or factually correct. 

Proofreading and humanization will continue to be an important part of publishing AI-written content. Google needs to know that a human author has reviewed the content and vouches for that content.

So how did Rhino Rank put AI to the test?

Step 1: Identify Niches and Produce Content

For this case study, Rhino Rank looked for niches that had keywords that were relatively easy to rank, long-tail, and in a question format.

They also wanted to find a niche that had a “donor site” they could effectively copy. A donor site is a website that already exists, ranks well for thousands of keywords, and has a good amount of traffic. 

Entering this donor site into a tool like Semrush or Ahrefs will quickly reveal all of the keywords they rank for. And by analyzing their content, one can easily figure out how to outrank them for similar searches.

To find a donor site, just go to Google and search for topics such as “outdoors blog” or a specific query like “how long does it take to jog a mile?”

Look for websites that rank in the top three, were built with WordPress, and have a simple navigation structure. Ignore everything that is clearly an authority site such as Forbes, BBC, or WebMD.

Rhino Rank picked an outdoor website that was built as a typical WordPress magazine page and covered everything that had to do with the outdoors – from jogging, cycling, and camping, to covering the latest marathons and mountain hikes.

This was an ideal donor site because it allowed Rhino Rank to monetize it in many ways:

1. Write reviews about jogging shoes and link to Amazon.
2. Write high-value content and monetize it with display ads.
3. Link to health and weight loss CPA offers and write reviews on them.
4. Write “Top 10” guides and sprinkle affiliate links throughout. 

Semrush graphs for organic traffic and keywords for Rhino Rank’s chosen donor site

After choosing its donor site, Rhino Rank used Semrush and Ahrefs to see every single keyword the site ranked for as well as the keyword difficulty and traffic. This information formed the base of its entire strategy.

The keyword list was filtered to only show those with a keyword difficulty of 0-40, minimum 300K traffic, and “reviews” as an intent modifier.

Step 2: Buy An Aged Domain

Next, Rank Rhino bought an expired domain that already has authority so they didn’t have to start building that from scratch.

There are thousands of premium, aged domains out there that have dozens of links and have existed for 20+ years. To find these domains, Rank Rhino recommends signing up with reputable domain brokers like SerpDomains or Domain Coasters.

5 tips on how to buy an aged domain, via Rank Rhino:

1. Pick a site with a DA of 20 or higher.
2. Avoid sites with a high CF (citation flow) and low TF (trust flow). Look for domains with a TF that almost matches the CF.
3. Make sure high-powered links still exist and are still live.
4. Search Archive.org for the site and make sure it has never been used as a PBN.
5. Check if the site has already been indexed in Google.

Step 3: Build the WordPress Site

The next step in Rank Rhino’s process was to build out a WordPress site for the domain they purchased.

They have some tips for that, too: Look at your donor site and try to replicate it. Pick a good WordPress theme that has high PageSpeed insights score and is well-optimized for SEO.

Rhino Rank built a typical personal blog with a nice logo, relevant categories in the menu, and a homepage showing the latest blog posts.

Step 4: Create Money Content with BrandWell

This is the fun part. From the keyword list generated earlier from the donor site, Rhino Rank produced dozens of long-form, SEO-driven blog articles that all passed AI detection.

Its secret weapon? BrandWell.

Rhino Rank only uses BrandWell for its money content – content that they want to actively earn revenue from.

The process is simple:

1. Sign up for BrandWell and create a new project.
2. Enter the site details and write a brief introduction.
3. Set the word count to 3,000+ (more is better).
4. Start generating money content using keywords.

In less than 10 minutes, you’ll have a 3,000+ word article that’s well-researched and search-engine-optimized out of the door.

Step 5: Build Links with Rhino Rank

The core of Rhino Ranks’ curated links strategy is to find aged posts that already exist on real websites, owned by real people, and then secure a link within them. 

These drive authority and serious value because the content has already established authority within Google’s index.

The most important thing about building links is the anchor text ratio.

Here’s a quick guide on anchor text ratios for building a brand and establishing initial trust:

• Branded anchor text (50%)
• Partial match anchor text (25%)
• Generic anchor text (10%)
• Descriptive anchor text (10%)
• Exact match anchor text (5%)

Keep it natural and avoid being too aggressive.

Exact match keywords should have high-grade links because they drive more authority.

Lower-grade links are ideal for building anchor text profiles naturally.

To get its money content to rank, drive trust, and build authority to the homepage, Rhino Rank chose 4-5 money content pages with low Keyword Difficulty scores and good CPC and traffic estimates.

• 60% of links went to money content.
• 30% of links went to the homepage, with mostly branded anchor text and a few descriptive anchor texts.
• 10% of links went to blog content.

Step 6: Monetize Content

There are tens of thousands of affiliate programs out there, and it’s easy to earn money if you know where to look.

Here’s how Rhino Rank monetizes its content:

• Ezoic Display Ads: Ezoic does not require minimum traffic so it’s great for brand new websites. Rhino Rank has Ezoic on its blog posts but none on its money content.
• Guest Posts: A well-maintained aged domain with strong metrics can easily fetch $100 to $200 per link.
• Service Reviews: Just like this case study, if you use a product that’s relevant to your niche, then promote it. VPN services often pay $50+ for every signup.
• Email Newsletters: If you have an engaged audience, then promote relevant products or sell advertisements through an email newsletter.

Think outside the box when building and running profitable niches.

If Google is sending 20,000 monthly visitors your way, how would you monetize them? 

Results: Generated $14K in Revenue After 4 Months

After four months of going through the whole process – from finding the niche to monetizing content – Rhino Rank was able to publish over 200 pieces of content and generate $14,000 in revenue.

They continue to publish money content daily with BrandWell, and the rankings, traffic, and keywords are all climbing every week.

One of the two websites now has 15,000+ keywords in Google’s index and has generated $9,400 in revenue so far.

15,000+ keywords in Google’s index22,000+ traffic per month

For the first six years, Rhino Rank grew just from word-of-mouth recommendations without doing any marketing. But now they’re ready to go full swing and take their brand to new heights.

Rhino Rank is now using AI tools, including BrandWell, for:

• Structuring its internal content plans
• Researching ranking data in real time
• Researching keywords in real time
• Publishing content on their own website

All these tasks are time-consuming and are almost impossible to cram in a day’s work.

Thanks to AI, Rhino Rank now has a foundation it can build on to produce more high-quality content that resonates with users’ needs and interests — without taking hours and hours every single week.

What does Rhino Rank’s content marketing process look like?

1. Do initial keyword research.
2. Pick a seed keyword with low difficulty or in an untapped market.
3. Build content around that keyword.
4. Use AI-generated content as a starting point.

From there, Rhino Rank adds its branding, promotes its link-building service, and integrates its unique perspective — essentially making AI content its own.

That’s how you get those rankings.

Because if everybody uses the same AI tool, and doesn’t add any personal involvement in the output, they will sound like everyone else.

AI is amazing but it needs that personal touch to be able to resonate with real people.

BrandWell’s output is already very good straight out of AI but that extra human touch is what makes it special.

It’s important to note that Rhino Rank always edits its AI content. These edits may include some format changes or nuance tweaks as different brands have different ways of articulating themselves.

And since AI is not perfect, fact-checking is important as well. Rhino Rank will never publish an article that’s not worth of putting its name to it.

What BrandWell’s RankWell® SEO suite has done for Rhino Rank long-term is save a substantial amount of time.

While they still do manual research, SERP analysis, competitive analysis, and keyword gap analysis, they combine all that with BrandWell’s keyword research tool — which has become a huge time saver!

As wonderful as the human brain is, it cannot match the processing power of AI.

BrandWell has also helped Rhino Rank produce more content, specifically creating a content schedule for the next six months.

Instead of having to sit down one day a week, sucking a lot of time and resources, just to fully concentrate on content, Rhino Rank was able to plan and execute six full months’ worth of content in just a quarter of the time.

Best of all, BrandWell has pushed Rhino Rank to the top of Google. It has a perfect index rate, it can reach different target markets, and it continues to rank well for its chosen keywords.

Rhino Rank also uses BrandWell’s output to build internal links to its services and product pages, which further boosts its ranking.

The Verdict? AI Content Works!

AI content writing is not a futuristic concept — it’s here and it’s going to change SEO.

This case study has proven that AI-generated content can help your business rank for keywords and drive traffic.

And with powerful link-building, this strategy could yield results for many years to come.

Some individuals and organizations are already making 6 figures a month from AI content.

As long as you’re publishing helpful and accurate content – written by AI and optimized by humans – then Google should reward that content.

A final word from Rhino Rank’s Jack Johnson:

“If you’re going to use AI tools like BrandWell, make sure there’s a human element in your output. Instead of looking at AI as some shiny new tool that will save you a whole lot of time — and money — consider if it’s going to actually help your brand, improve what your human team is already putting out there, and develop and grow your business.”