This is a Premium SEO case study. Access the full library for £17 per month.
Note: This is a Premium case study. Subscribe here to read.
The case study I share below is more of a success than many of us can dream.
Expect to learn:
- ⚡ How to build a niche blog site around your passion that *actually* earns traffic and loyal followers.
- ⚡ How to build an organic content strategy that wins highly monetizable keywords (how Retro Dodo earns $50K in monthly)
- ⚡ Best practices for interlinking, backlink building, keyword choice, and many more SEO fundamentals.
Case Study Background
Retro Dodo is an online magazine dedicated to showcasing the world's best retro gaming products. Founder, Brandon Saltalamacchia, began building the site as a side project with the first piece of content going live in June 2019.
He initially published at a rate of one blog post a week, steadily moving up to two, four, and eventually hiring a writer in year two to go “all in” on the content.
Alongside the blog, Retro Dodo hosts a YouTube channel dedicated to retro console and game reviews.
Three years and 1,000s of bits of content later, Retro Dodo is a retro gaming brand that, in November 2022, pulled in:
- 1 million clicks from Google
- 270,000 total YouTube subscribers
- $50,000 in revenue
- 15,000 total Twitter followers
- 68,000 total Instagram followers
About the Creator
Brandon has been in the niche blogging sphere for over 10 years, and like many, blogged for years without knowledge of SEO as a distribution channel. He worked at Future, a publishing company with 220 brands like GamesRadar, TechRadar, PCGamer, most of which got most of their revenue from search.
He worked in the video production team—which explains his high-quality YouTube channel for Retro Dodo but learned Search alongside the content teams at Future.
Prior to Retro Dodo, he sold a niche blog for £100,000 which focused on Van Life (campervan living and automotive) which had 50,000 YT subscribers and 250,000 Facebook followers.
Monetization and Profit
- $45k through display advertising (via Mediavine)
- $8k through affiliates
- $2-3k through YouTube ad revenue
“I started something I’m genuinely interested in, which is Retro Dodo, and I went in with that to create a hybrid of video and SEO. That’s my personal key to success and how I’ve got a different route to many niche sites. Now, here we are 3 years later with a million clicks and $50k a month in revenue”—Brandon Saltalamacchia
.png)
.png)
.png)