Rank Tracker: How to Monitor Your Website Rankings Without Going Broke [LNIM085]

Tracking where your website ranks in Google is essential for understanding whether your SEO efforts are working. In this episode, Mark answers a listener question about whether small affiliate sites still work, shares exactly how many sites he manages and why, and walks through his complete setup for tracking keyword rankings across all of his sites using Rank Tracker software, a VPN, and a dedicated Mac Mini server.

What You'll Learn in This Episode

• Whether small affiliate sites still work and the realistic income range you can expect
• How many sites Mark manages and why 10 is his optimal number
• How to track keyword rankings without expensive monthly subscriptions
• How to use Rank Tracker with a VPN to avoid Google's captcha blocks
• Why you should focus on one site at a time when starting out

Episode Summary

A mystery caller asks three questions: do small affiliate sites still work, how many sites does Mark have, and how much money is he making? Mark answers all three with characteristic transparency.

Do small affiliate sites still work? Unequivocally yes. Mark knows this from his own experience and from watching Rankings Institute members build sites from scratch and start earning. A small affiliate site starts with roughly 10 pieces of targeted content (1,000-word product reviews or problem-solving articles) plus five boilerplate pages. That is maybe 20 pages total. These are not one-page landing pages and they are not 200-page authority sites. They are focused, well-researched niche sites.

Income ranges from zero (it happens) to thousands per month. Mark's Corn Sheller site, built in a deliberately unattractive niche, consistently earns around $30 per month with zero maintenance, with occasional spikes near $200. A Rankings Institute member named Blaine, a welder with no prior experience, built a single site that reached thousands per month. Results are not typical — most people who try this do not follow through — but the model works for those who execute properly.

How many sites does Mark manage? He peaked at around 100 sites in 2009 during the era of mass-produced Adsense sites. Most of those were damaged by spammy link strategies and duplicate content. Today he maintains about 10 sites and considers that the right number. If he builds an 11th, it is with the goal of replacing one of the 10. He recommends beginners work on one site, maybe two at most, and get it to profit before starting another.

The bulk of the episode covers keyword rank tracking. Mark explains the problem: online rank tracking services like Authority Labs, Moz, and RankWatch work well but create recurring monthly costs that scale poorly as you add more sites and keywords. If you have 10 sites with 20 to 100 keywords each, the monthly expense becomes significant.

Mark's solution is Rank Tracker, a desktop application from Link-Assistant that is part of their SEO Power Suite. The software tracks unlimited keywords across Google, Bing, and Yahoo for a one-time purchase price. It integrates with Google Analytics and the Google Keyword Tool, maintains historical trend data, and can schedule automatic updates.

The challenge is that Rank Tracker works by querying Google directly, and Google blocks automated queries with captcha codes. Mark solves this with two tools: a VPN service that rotates his IP address every five minutes so Google sees what looks like normal human activity from different locations, and Death by Captcha, a service that automatically solves any captcha codes that do get triggered. He runs the entire setup on a $500 Mac Mini that sits in a closet near his cable modem, updating keywords overnight at a rate of one query every 30 to 40 seconds.

The result: unlimited keyword tracking across all his sites for a small fixed cost. He does not care if updates take 24 hours because he only reviews the data monthly.

Key Takeaways

• Small affiliate sites absolutely still work — realistic income ranges from $30 to $5,000+ per month
• Ten well-maintained sites is a strong portfolio; beginners should focus on one at a time
• Avoid accumulating recurring monthly costs for tools when starting out
• Rank Tracker with a VPN and captcha solver provides unlimited keyword tracking for a fixed cost
• You do not need real-time ranking data — monthly trend analysis is sufficient for most affiliate marketers

What's Changed Since This Episode

The rank tracking landscape has changed substantially since 2014. Google Search Console now provides much better ranking data than it did when Mark recorded this, including average position, impressions, and click-through rates for your keywords. For many affiliate marketers, Search Console alone provides sufficient ranking visibility without any additional tools.

Professional rank tracking has consolidated around tools like Ahrefs, Semrush, and SE Ranking, which bundle rank tracking with backlink analysis, content auditing, and competitor research. Pricing has become more competitive, and many offer affordable starter tiers. The VPN-and-captcha approach Mark described still works in principle but is less necessary given better alternatives.

The affiliate site model has evolved. Small 20-page sites still work, but Google's quality standards are significantly higher. E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) signals matter more. Thin content and sites without real expertise behind them struggle to rank. The sites that succeed in 2026 demonstrate genuine knowledge and provide information that AI-generated competitors cannot match.

Mark's advice about avoiding unnecessary recurring costs remains excellent. The modern equivalent: use free tiers of tools like Google Search Console, Ahrefs Webmaster Tools, and Ubersuggest before committing to paid subscriptions.

Resources Mentioned

• Google Search Console — free ranking and site health data
• Rank Tracker by Link-Assistant (SEO Power Suite)
• Ahrefs — modern rank tracking and SEO analysis

Related Episodes

If you found this episode helpful, you might also enjoy:

• LNIM085 Show Notes — Track Your Website Rankings
• LNIM084 — Google Penguin 3.0 Update

Listen and Subscribe

Listen to Late Night Internet Marketing on Apple Podcasts or subscribe at latenightim.com/internet-marketing-podcast/. Have a question for Mark? Call the digital recorder at 214-444-8655 or drop a comment below.