[herbst]

I agree to 100% that Google is nearly useless at this point because of SEO hacking.

However Google is not that stupid. If your site is the only one users don't leave after 10 seconds Google knows that.

AI content works well, but only if you input the right things and there is hours of work and expertise as well to get that right, even if it's automated in the end. Each problem needs to be tackled specifically no recipe just transports properly to another niche.

IMO organic traffic & SEO is still king. A few Reddit posts or well placed blog comments are enough to establish a new domain. If users spend time on your site, because you share actual knowledge, traffic grows from its own. Even more if you grow with content as well. Sure it takes time, but I still earn my few hundred dollars once and then from things I built years ago and never touched again. Each of them tackling a niche problem I had, researched and then shared in a accessible format. My sites don't look like affiliate spam because they bring value and I target the traffic trough SEO looking for that exact value.

[mejutoco]

Google might wait 6 months until they rank your site higher (same as you mention some old websites). I think for a new website it would take a while to rank properly. This matches my experience with own domains too.