Last Updated on November 12, 2025
Building a high-authority website isn’t easy.
Building one from Kashmir, without funding, without a big agency team, and without shortcuts, feels almost impossible.
Yet in October 2025, MarketingLad.io crossed DR 69 and generated over $90,000 in sponsored-post revenue since 2023, becoming one of the highest-authority digital marketing websites to emerge from Kashmir.
Greater Kashmir’s DR
To put that in perspective, Greater Kashmir, one of the region’s most renowned and widely-read newspapers, has a Domain Rating (DR) of 68.
So when MarketingLad.io crossed 69, it wasn’t just another SEO metric; it was a proud moment that proved a digital-first brand from Kashmir could outperform even a legacy media giant in online authority.
Marketing Lad’s DR
Now, if you’re completely new to SEO and wondering what “DR” even means, here’s a simple breakdown:
Domain Rating (DR) is a metric created by Ahrefs, a popular SEO tool, that measures the authority and strength of a website’s backlink profile on a scale from 0 to 100.
You can think of DR as your website’s online reputation score.
- A new website usually starts at DR 0.
- Well-known blogs and companies sit somewhere around DR 50–70.
- Global giants like Google, Facebook, HubSpot, and Forbes have a DR of 90 or higher.
The higher your DR, the more trusted your site becomes in Google’s eyes, which helps your content rank better, attract collaborations, and earn natural backlinks faster.
So when MarketingLad.io crossed DR 69, it wasn’t just about SEO; it was about credibility, consistency, and years of compounding effort finally being recognized.
This milestone isn’t about bragging or flexing a number.
It’s about proving something bigger:
You don’t need to live in Silicon Valley, Dubai, or Bangalore to build a global digital brand.
SEO still works when you stay patient & ethical.
Discipline beats shortcuts.
You can start with what you have, where you are.
I started this journey in 2019, working alone, publishing a few pages and learning link-building.
Today, we are a team of 15+, serving global clients, generating consistent revenue, and building towards the future, from Kashmir to Abu Dhabi.
This is my story.
Not of overnight success, but of consistency, long-term thinking, and belief.
In this blog, I’ll break down:
- How I got from DR 0 to DR 69.
- What strategies worked (and what didn’t).
- How I balanced mistakes, patience & experimentation.
- Lessons for anyone dreaming big from a small city.
Let’s begin.
Where It All Began.
After completing my MBA in Marketing in 2018, I knew one thing for sure: I didn’t just want a career in marketing; I wanted to build something in marketing.
Like many first-time dreamers, I didn’t start big.
In 2017, I launched my first website, Shahmiris.com.
It didn’t scale.
It didn’t make revenue.
It didn’t give me my money back.
But it became my real MBA in:
- WordPress.
- Domains & hosting.
- Basic SEO.
- Content publishing.
- The mindset of learning.
Most importantly, it gave me that creator’s fever, the feeling that I could build something meaningful online.
So even though Shahmiris.com didn’t work out, it wasn’t a failure.
It was Phase 1 of a much bigger story.
In 2019, I launched Marketing Lad, not with a perfect plan, not with a team, not with a roadmap.
But with belief.
Belief that if I kept learning, kept publishing, and stayed consistent.
Something would eventually click.
And honestly, that belief was the only asset I had at that time.
The Turning Point: COVID & Kashmir.
When COVID hit in 2020, the world slowed down.
But for me, that pause became momentum.
Like many, I shifted to work-from-home, but instead of treating it as a temporary setup, I treated it as an opportunity to build something permanent.
Kashmir wasn’t known as a hub for startups or SEO.
There were no community spaces, no meetups, no industry buzz around digital marketing.
But it had something else, focus.
No office distractions.
No city chaos.
No pressure to “look successful.”
Just time, internet, and ambition.
While many were scrolling through lockdown boredom, I decided to double down on Marketing Lad.
It was just a simple thought:
“If the world can pause, why can’t I accelerate?”
So I started spending hours learning, testing, publishing, building systems, brick by digital brick.
COVID didn’t slow my journey.
It started my journey.
Early Days: No Team, No Roadmap, Just Discipline.
In the beginning, Marketing Lad wasn’t a “startup.”
It wasn’t a brand.
It was just me, a laptop, and a belief that I could build something valuable online.
There was no roadmap, no “secret formula,” and honestly, no idea where this would end up.
I wasn’t thinking about DR 50 or DR 69.
I was thinking about surviving the first 6 months without quitting.
I published a few core pages.
I tested what I knew.
I learned what I didn’t.
And most importantly, I embraced what most people avoid:
The boring part of success, discipline.
While many chase viral hacks and quick breakthroughs, I decided to play the long game:
- One helpful article at a time
- One backlink at a time
- One client conversation at a time
- One skill improvement at a time
And slowly, the results started showing:
Impressions increased
Clicks improved
DR moved
Confidence grew
That early phase didn’t feel glamorous; it felt like quiet consistency.
There was no audience applauding.
No validation.
Just progress and that was enough to keep me going.
When I saw the first meaningful DR and Clicks movement, I remember thinking:
“Okay. This works. Now let’s get serious.”
That mindset shift was the spark that turned a small idea into a long-term mission.
The Strategy Nobody Talks About
Most people tell the SEO story backward.
They say:
“Create amazing content, and links will follow.”
My path wasn’t that poetic.
In the real world, authority earns trust before content earns clicks.
So I flipped the script.
Authority first, content later
In the early phase, I didn’t publish 100 articles.
I focused on building site authority.
A few high-value pages.
A clean site.
Strong link profile foundations.
Once Marketing Lad reached DR 30, I then scaled the content.
That’s when velocity kicked in.
600+ articles later, the compounding effect is very real.
Editorial Links, Not Random Guest Posts
I never relied heavily on guest posts for my own site.
Instead, I focused on:
- Editorial insertions
- Contextual relevance
- Quality over quantity
Why?
Because in SEO, relevance + trust > volume + noise.
Guest posting has its place but true authority comes when other sites reference you naturally (or editorially).
Ethical Paid Links (No Black-Hat Fiction)
Let’s be honest, the SEO world has its fair share of hypocrisy.
People pretend everything is “purely organic.”
I don’t.
I purchased high-quality links from reputable, high-DR sites early on.
Not PBNs.
Not spam farms.
Not Fiverr shortcuts.
Strategic links. Ethical deals. Smart investments.
Not abusing SEO, just accelerating trust.
And yes, it made a difference.
90-Day Testing Rule
One of the most valuable rules I followed:
Try everything for 90 days before judging it.
If it moved KPIs, we doubled down.
If it didn’t, we learned and moved on.
This single rule prevented:
- Emotional decision-making
- Random strategy jumps
- “Shiny object syndrome”
Slow is smooth. Smooth becomes fast.
Leadership With Zero Micromanagement
As the site grew, the team grew:
From 3 in 2020 → 15+ now.
My rule?
Trust smart people and give them space.
No micromanagement.
No ego.
No “boss mode.”
Just direction, support, and kindness.
And it worked, because culture builds companies before KPIs scale them.
The Real Strategy? Silence + Consistency
No overnight hype.
No shortcuts disguised as genius.
No noise.
Just:
- Publishing
- Building links
- Tracking KPIs
- Improving steadily
No virality.
No magic moment.
Just quiet, patient progress.
And that’s the strategy most people never talk about.
Because it’s not glamorous, it’s real.
The DR Milestones & Timeline
Milestones don’t happen overnight; they stack slowly, quietly, one disciplined month at a time.
Here’s what the journey looked like in numbers:
| Stage | Milestone | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Starting Point | Marketing Lad launched | 2019 |
| Acceleration | Took it seriously during COVID | 2020 |
| Authority Breakthrough | Reached DR 30 | July 2021 |
| Trust Signal | Migrated from .in → .io | Sept 2022 |
| Mid Authority | Reached DR 50 | July 2022 |
| Strong Authority | Reached DR 60+ | March 2023 |
| High Authority | Reached DR 69 | 2025 |
No viral spike.
No magic trick.
Just steady, compounding SEO execution.
Traffic
From 0 to 30K+ organic visitors/month.
Not millions, but a targeted and qualified marketing audience traffic.
For a B2B SEO-focused site, that’s solid.
Revenue Streams
Marketing Lad today earns through:
- SEO clients
- Sponsored posts
- Google Ads
- Link-building services
And one number I’m especially proud of:
Over $90,000 earned from only sponsored posts alone since 2023.
Sales report Screenshot from the sponsored posts via PayPal in 2024
This isn’t just a blog.
It’s a business.
A system.
A machine that compounds.
Backlinks & Mentions
Featured/linked by:
- Canva
- HubSpot
- Neil Patel
- G2
- ActiveCampaign
- FreeCodeCamp
- And many more industry leaders
When your industry starts referencing you, you’re doing something right.
Milestone Mindset
Every time DR moved, even by 1 point, it felt like confirmation.
“Keep going. It’s working.”
That slow reward cycle trained patience, confidence, and focus.
Milestones weren’t trophies; they were green lights to push harder.
Challenges That Shaped the Journey
Every growth story has two sides:
The part the world sees and the part only the builder knows.
Marketing Lad’s journey was no different.
The Migration Scare
On 1st September 2022, I took one of the riskiest decisions:
Migrating from .in → .io
Anyone in SEO knows how dangerous a domain switch can be.
One wrong redirect.
One technical gap.
One overlooked plugin setting.
And years of effort can vanish.
However, with patience, planning, and discipline, the migration was successful.
Traffic survived.
Authority transferred.
And the journey continued stronger.
Experiments That Didn’t Work
Not every move paid off.
Some things I tried and learned from:
- Redirecting niche sites for faster DR growth (not worth it).
- Publishing content outside our niche for volume (traffic ≠ value).
- Believing that speed equals success (it doesn’t; consistency does).
Each “failure” sharpened the strategy.
Isolation & the 16-Hour Days
There was a phase, especially in early scaling, where I isolated myself completely.
I worked 16+ hours a day:
- Building pages.
- Answering clients.
- Managing operations.
- Learning technical SEO.
- Handling link deals.
- Watching analytics.
It wasn’t glamorous.
It wasn’t motivational-poster entrepreneurship.
It was just willpower and discipline.
But it came with a cost.
I gained weight.
Health suffered.
Mentally exhausted.
The Silent Journey
Most people around me had no idea what I was building.
There was no local SEO ecosystem.
No startup buzz.
No one to explain metrics to.
In Kashmir, during the early days, discussing SEO felt like speaking another language.
But I didn’t need approval.
I needed momentum.
And that’s exactly what I created.
The Power of Support
Even during solo grind, I wasn’t truly alone.
My family trusted me.
My early team believed in me.
That support mattered more than any backlink.
And today, we are a group of 15+ people, built on trust, not titles.
Hard days grow foundations
Every mistake, late night, migration risk, and self-doubt period contributed to shaping the result.
The challenges weren’t setbacks,
They were training.
And that’s why reaching DR 69 means more than a number.
It represents every stage survived and every lesson earned.
The Team & Culture Behind Success
Marketing Lad didn’t grow because of tools, tactics, or trends.
It grew because of people.
When I started, it was just me learning, testing, working late nights, and figuring things out one step at a time.
In 2020, I hired my first 3 team members.
Today, we are a team of 15+ members, distributed, disciplined, and driven.
Not built through hiring hype, but through trust, training, and time.
A Culture of Trust, Not Control
One core principle shaped our growth:
Hire smart people and don’t stand in their way.
While most agencies micromanage deliverables, time clocks, and Slack pings, we took a different path.
No micromanagement.
No ego leadership.
Just guidance, systems, and freedom.
Everyone owns their role.
Everyone has a voice.
Everyone grows.
Kindness & Empathy as Leadership Tools
The internet loves talking about “grind mode.”
But kindness built more for me than hustle ever could.
- We listen
- We support
- We encourage
- We solve, not blame
Because work isn’t just tasks, it’s trust.
And when you lead with empathy, people don’t work for you, they work with you.
Growing Talent in Kashmir
Kashmir is full of potential, but its digital ecosystem is still in its early stages.
Instead of waiting for talent to appear, I helped build it:
- Training on SEO & outreach
- Hands-on learning
- Opportunity over experience
- Culture over resumes
Witnessing people from Kashmir grow into successful SEO professionals and secure global clients is one of the most rewarding aspects of this journey.
Team DNA
Our team’s foundation:
- Curiosity over credentials
- Execution over talk
- Honesty over shortcuts
- Long-term thinking over quick wins
No fancy offices.
No VC funds.
Just people committed to excellence.
The truth is simple:
Marketing Lad is not “my” success, it’s “our” story.
A group of young people proving that with skills, discipline, and belief, you can build something global from anywhere, even a quiet corner of Kashmir.
What Worked For Us (Core Lessons)
Success rarely comes from one breakthrough.
It comes from small habits stacked consistently.
Here are the principles that made MarketingLad.io what it is today:
1. Authority First, Content Later
Most blogs start by publishing 100 posts and hope links will come.
I started with:
- A few high-quality pages
- Strong link-building
- Clean structure
- Trust signals
Once authority began to compound, content finally gained leverage.
Traffic follows trust. Trust follows authority.
2. Editorial Links > Random Guest Posts
Anyone can publish a guest post.
Not everyone earns (or strategically acquires) editorial placements.
Our formula:
- Earn relevance
- Pay ethically for quality
- Avoid spam
- Focus on contextual links
Not just backlinks, brand placements.
3. Strategic Link Investment
No myths. No hypocrisy.
I invested in quality links.
Not shortcuts, smart bets.
Because in SEO:
Capital accelerates effort, effort builds authority.
4. The 90-Day Rule
Every strategy deserves 90 days of execution before judgment.
If it worked → scale it.
If it didn’t → learn, pivot, improve.
No emotional reactions.
No shiny-object hopping.
Consistency beats intensity.
5. Team Before Tools
Tools don’t build websites.
People do.
Training > Buying software
Culture > Policies
Trust > Micromanagement
Talent grows when leaders create space, not pressure.
6. KPIs Over Opinions
We didn’t chase noise like:
- viral posts
- follower counts
- hype buzzwords
We chased:
- Impressions
- DR
- Conversions
- Revenue
- Client results
Data builds confidence. Confidence builds momentum.
7. Affordable Value-Driven Services
We focused on:
- Being accessible
- Delivering real value
- Driving SEO outcomes, not selling metrics
- Always being available for support
Not the “agency premium” model,
the value + trust + results model.
8. Patience Is a Skill
SEO is slow.
Compounding is quiet.
Progress is invisible until it isn’t.
I didn’t try to win in 6 months,
I stayed committed for 6 years.
If you give time time, it returns everything.
With these principles, we didn’t just grow a website;
We built a brand, a business, and a foundation for the future.
What’s Next
Crossing DR 69 isn’t the finish line; it’s a checkpoint.
A signal that the foundation is strong, and now it’s time to build even bigger.
The vision now is to evolve beyond just link-building and content. The future of Marketing Lad lies at the intersection of SEO, AI, and automation, and we are already working toward building tools and products that will help brands scale smarter, not harder.
We don’t just want to be another agency; we want to become a global marketing technology company.
Alongside this, we’re expanding our business footprint.
I’ve started ventures in real estate with my father and a travel business with my brother, a reminder that entrepreneurship doesn’t fit neatly into a single box. Skills compound, and opportunities scale when you stay curious and fearless.
Another priority is giving back, especially to the youth in Kashmir. I want to see more digital founders, more product builders, and more tech innovators coming from the Valley. I’m happy to mentor, collaborate, and even invest in serious ideas because I don’t just want to build a company; I want to help build an ecosystem.
We have big plans ahead, globally and locally.
And if there’s one thing this journey has taught me, it’s that the compounding effect of consistent work is always underestimated.
The mission now:
To build products, empower people, and prove that world-class digital companies can rise from unexpected places.
And this is just the beginning.
Final Message
If there’s one truth this journey has taught me, it’s this:
You don’t need the “perfect environment” to build something meaningful.
You don’t need to live in a big city.
You don’t need investors.
You don’t need a fancy setup or a head start.
What you truly need is belief, patience, and the courage to start, even when nobody understands what you’re doing.
I built this from Kashmir, with a laptop, consistency, and the stubborn conviction that small beginnings are not weaknesses, they’re advantages. They teach resilience, creativity, and a hunger for learning.
There were days I worked alone, nights I doubted everything, and months where results moved painfully slow. But that’s how real growth feels:
Quiet.
Unseen.
Uncelebrated, until it isn’t.
Today, reaching DR 69 and 30K+ traffic is not a vanity metric for me; it’s a reminder that consistency compounds, and dreams don’t expire just because they take time.
So if you’re reading this and you’re building something, keep going.
Don’t quit because it’s slow.
Don’t compare your chapter one to someone’s chapter ten.
Your journey has its own pace, honor it.
And if you’re from Kashmir or any small place in the world, remember this:
You don’t have to leave to succeed. You just have to begin.
Start small.
Work daily.
Believe quietly.
Let the results do the talking.
The future is full of builders.
And your story is just waiting to be written.
Thank you for reading.
If this story inspired you, feel free to connect with me, collaborate, or simply say hi.
Let’s build.
Let’s inspire.
Let’s create global impact, from wherever we are.
Want to grow your brand’s search authority the right way, without shortcuts, without inflated pricing, and without complexity?
My team and I at MarketingLad.io specialize in:
High-quality editorial backlinks.
SEO content growth.
Affordable, results-driven marketing.
24/7 accessibility & founder-led guidance.
Let’s build your authority together.
