43 responses so far ↓

• krlread // Aug 4, 2006 at 9:15 pm

  As I just dicovered this blog today I’m looking forward to catching up on the reading. I like you calling a spade a spade. Mighty refreshing for this old man.

  Have already picked up on a couple of tips and took action just a little while ago.

• Splork // Aug 4, 2006 at 9:35 pm

  Glad you found the site. Thanks for reading.

• April // Aug 14, 2006 at 9:48 pm

  Hello
  I have enjoyed reading your blog – I like your straightforward style.

  You seem to be doing very well for your alexa rating. I also see that you don’t put adsense here and was wondering if this is why google likes this site and not your “article” sites. Maybe also because people are commenting on your posts it shows to google that you are writing something worth commenting on.

  I am sure that you are a member of seo2020.com so you will see that I have been putting details of my bonsai site on the case studies. I have been a member of PLRpro but didn’t continue my subscription purely because I felt I wouldn’t be able to keep up with the articles.

  I have also been creating websites that aren’t made with articles so it will be interesting to see how things go.

  Google seemed to like my site http://www.ofscotland.co.uk which is a combo of me and articles, but then I changed from wordpress to frontpage and so am still waiting for all the pages to be properly indexed. I think google had a memory of the old sitemap and so kept re-visiting my non-existent pages. Google seems to keep doing this with me. I have to ping my new sitemap a few times which seems to get the message through.

  I would be interested to see what sites you consider to be “spam”.

  I think in the long-term quality sites will win. I hope so anyway.

  April

• Splork // Aug 15, 2006 at 1:43 am

  April, thanks for dropping by and reading the blog. I haven’t really checked the Alexa rankings for the site so thanks for letting me know.

  I don’t think G really cares if Adsense is on here or not. What I think it likes is that it’s getting linked to and talked about on other sites. Backlinks. It’s all the rage, you know.

  But the other thing is I think G has a way of knowing if your site is being written by a person or just a collection of stale articles. How? I don’t know. And it’s just a hunch. But this site and my other site like this, Tour Squad, has done fine from the start. And the only thing I did was post comments on other sites and write a few posts. People came to visit and kept coming back. I think that is the formula that G ultimately wants. I don’t see how I can do that with 70 sites on topics from baby diapers to kitchen cabinets.

  I think if you have a lot to say about Scotland you may want to go back to using WP. Frontpage will ultimately be tough to keep updating a site with.

  I love SEO2020. The dude who runs the site actually provides good information. But, wow, I have totally overlooked his forum! Thanks for mentioning that.

  A spam site to me is one that simply does not educate, inform or entertain. I’ve built plenty that do not fall into those broad categories.

  I’m with you on the quality sites. I’m trying to build good sites now.

  I like PLRPro, but am having the same problem you had with article quantity. Too much. But I think that is a good problem to have.

  Thanks again for reading.

• April // Aug 15, 2006 at 8:47 pm

  I hope you have been able to visit the seo2020 forum. Charles has been giving me some good advice for my bonsai site. If I can do well with that site, then I will feel more confident with going on to other sites.

  Your alexa rating for lostball is 337,899. You deserve a pat on the back. Just getting a rating of under a million is something I have not even been able to achieve.

  April

• Splork // Aug 15, 2006 at 11:53 pm

  Hey April. I signed up last night and even left a comment. 338K. Hopefully I can do better. As a comparison seo2020 is like 4K or something. I have a lot of work to do.

• April // Aug 16, 2006 at 7:43 am

  Hello

  I was looking at your site healthybodyinfo.com and was wondering if you plan on using the silo structure?

  Also you might want to try a blend in adsense like http://www.kitchen-helper.com See the “we offer” and “other resources” on the home page. The google ads look like just another link menu.

  April

• Splork // Aug 16, 2006 at 12:45 pm

  Nice site, that one. Not sure if blending the Adsense would work as well on my site but I suppose it could be worth a try. Silo structure. Well I didn’t start out thinking of using it, but it may be worth reading up more on it and seeing if it will work for this site.

• Judassy // Sep 12, 2006 at 8:05 am

  I am just really glad that i chanced upon your blog. Was actually serching for reviews on the ‘Master Plan’. what you have shared in your blog really resonate deeply with me. I have had enuf of crap out there in over hyped internet marketing areana. In fact because of your honest sharing, i signed up for affilorama. thanks a million splork. once i have my blog up. you will be on my blogroll for sure.

• Splork // Sep 12, 2006 at 12:30 pm

  Hey Judassy. Thanks for dropping by and reading. I think you’ll enjoy Affilorama. The owner is a straight up nice guy willing to help however he can.

• Oskars // Sep 18, 2006 at 10:03 am

  April, you could put a .htaccess file in your root folder with redirects (301 Moved Permanently) to your new pages. This way Google would find your new web pages from the old site map.

• Trying-to-change-careers // Oct 17, 2006 at 3:58 pm

  In your many mistakes and lessons learned, do you know typically how long it takes for PageRank to get updated?

  Also, I use

  http://www.prchecker.info/check_page_rank.php

  to check Page Rank rather than the Google Toolbar, because there was something about enabling the PageRank or some options on Google Toolbar that supposedly meant more information about me would be being collected by Google. I mean I love Google, but frankly I think there is more than enough info about me already collected (fascinating though I might be).

  I agree with you though there are too many experts in Internet Marketing who want to “HELP” a newbie make big $$$ for anything from “free advice” to the big $$$. Thanks for fessing up that I’m not alone kicking around looking for the ball.

• Splork // Oct 17, 2006 at 5:46 pm

  I have no idea. This blog went from 0 to 3 in about a month. That has been the fastest for sure. Most of my other sites takes like 3-6 months (maybe never) to get anything. Has a lot to do with the links coming in and the quality.

• jim gillen // Nov 22, 2006 at 10:44 pm

  Hi,
  I have been perusing sites for some time seeking an avenue to make money. I think there is a market for someone like you who obviously knows the lingo and has actually made money as you indicated today, to mentor some neophyte like me to learn a step by step approach to doing what you have said you are intending i.e. make dozens of similar sites that will generate ongoing revenue. I, and I am sure many others, would gladly pay for this tutoring!! In other words franchise yourself and teach me. What say you??
  Best wishes
  Jim Gillen
  p.s. All the others who have sent me tons of “latest and greatest” offers such as Mark Ling, Nick MArks, Sebastian Foss, John Denton etc. etc. didn’t even have the courtesy to reply to my offer of paid mentoring!!I think this tells me all I need to know about the validity of their offers.

• Splork // Nov 23, 2006 at 1:22 am

  Hey Jim. I’m not your guy. I’ll do what I can to help you but I can’t take money from you. My knowledge is hardly worth paying for. I paid $5K for a mentorship and got ripped off completely. I know they are crap. Just ask us questions and let’s see if we can get you going in the right direction.

• Imgiver // Mar 28, 2007 at 10:09 am

  Hey Splork, I was inspired by your blog to start my own with a similar critical tone.

  I’d appreciate any feedback you may give.
  http://www.imgiver.com

  Thanks

• Barry Harmon // Aug 16, 2007 at 8:52 pm

  Hi Splork,

  I’ve been reading your blog for a bit now. You have done the following for me:

  1. Saved me a bunch of money by confirming my fears about the gurus.

  2. Given me hope that my strategy of building real, content-heavy web sites will make me some money, if not a million dollars a day.

  3. Shown me that there is an honest, ethical side to the internet marketing business.

  Keep up the good work and please, keep posting.

  Barry

• Splork // Aug 17, 2007 at 6:49 am

  Hey Barry. Thanks for reading. You can never go wrong with offering the web real content. All this other stuff is just costly ways of gaming a system that never lasts.

• Mark // Aug 20, 2007 at 3:40 am

  I’ve just found this site and I have to say ..well done. I started a blog about all the Pimp’s and their shady tatics last year (http://guru-watch.blogspot.com/) but it sort of died when I unsubscribed from all of their newletters and didn’t have to read their drivel anymore. ..Doh!

  I was considering resurecting it but you see to have it covered.

  Anyway it seems that I am in 100% agreement with you so keep up the good work..

• Splork // Aug 20, 2007 at 6:56 am

  Hey Mark. Yea I’ve done the same thing getting rid of all those newsletters. From a productivity standpoint it’s the best thing that I could have done. To give this blog a purpose, maybe not so much.

• Manual directory submission // Aug 20, 2007 at 7:31 pm

  Hey Splork,

  I landed on your blog today when I read about the problems you have with healthybodyinfo.com. I love that site! Good looking, decent structure. But the monetizing doesn’t seem to work? (I assume it’s still the case) Well, you deserve better & I already located the problem. If you still believe in ‘help’ I would love to ‘help’ you. Just go to my site http://www.highprbacklinks.com & complete the free SEO report form (like I say, it’s free). I won’t run away either.
  Regards,
  Kurt

• Mark // Oct 11, 2007 at 8:15 am

  Dude,

  I don’t normally like to read people’s comments much – I found you while looking for info on plug and play niche marketing. I was actually looking for an affiliate link.

  Anyway, this is a kudos e-mail – hope your interest stays up – Interesting tone, fun reading – I’ll be visiting often.

  Mark

• Barry // Jan 23, 2008 at 11:11 am

  Hi,

  I didn’t know where else to post this, so here it is.

  Affiliate Elite is for sale “to a limited number of people,” “those on the mailing list,” for $4.95.

  Thought you’d be interested, since you’ve written on it before.

  Barry

• Offgrid // Apr 5, 2008 at 7:49 pm

  Great Blog here. I came over from Grizzly’s page on Entrecard. Are you there also ? I’ll bookmark you r blog and visit often. Good work.

• Splork // Apr 6, 2008 at 10:16 am

  Thanks for reading Offgrid. Look forward to your visits.

• MMO Store » Blog Archive » What are Hubpages? // May 26, 2008 at 11:17 am

  [...] by Splork (The first link will take you to [...]

• Sly from SlyVisions dot Com // Aug 28, 2008 at 8:30 pm

  I’m thinking of getting StoreStacker myself as it looks like a very promising software. I have never tried BANS and I don’t think I ever will because SS looks much better and easier to use.

• barry // Sep 3, 2008 at 12:15 pm

  Splork,

  I’ve got a hobby blog that I’m not really monetizing. That’s on WP.

  I’m setting up a couple of money blogs and I can’t decide whether to use WP or Blogger.

  From what I’ve read here, Blogger is easier to monetize, but WP may be a better long-term solution with bigger long-term paydays.

  Any thoughts? Maybe worth a post?

  Cheers,

  Barry

• Splork // Sep 3, 2008 at 1:09 pm

  Are you talking about self-hosted WP or WP.com?

  If WP.com, you can’t monetize anyway. Go with Blogger.

  If self hosted, I do both Blogger and WP blogs. If it’s something you hope to make long term with an eye for on-going profits or selling the domain then you’ll want to go with WP. Anything could happen with Blogger. They could take the blog away or terminate it.

  I use Blogger blogs a lot but it’s for money blog…um, spam. If they go away I’ll build another. They are quick to build. They cost nothing.

  I find WP, generally, not always, easier to get indexed in Google.

  Anyway if I was you I would do both. It can’t hurt.

• barry // Sep 3, 2008 at 1:59 pm

  Thanks for the tips.

  I get WP through my hosting company, Dreamhost. I’ll work up the WP blog and see how that goes. The first one will be my original content and no articles from other sources, at least at first. I’ll do a second one on Blogger — I can’t/shouldn’t do the same content on both, right? VBG

  Cheers,

  Barry

• barry // Sep 4, 2008 at 7:51 pm

  Splork,

  Have you beengetting a lot fo gurus emailing you about Stomping the Search Engines II?

  Seems like they are all pimping the hell out of this.

  Barry

• Larry // Sep 26, 2008 at 7:09 am

  I like your blog and want to subscribe Rss . When I clicked on Rss button I got a page of code. I’ll try again later.

• Joseph Salamone // Oct 15, 2008 at 7:38 am

  I just wanted to say that I love your blog and that your experiences are very similar to mine. I have learned (the hard way) that there are no magic bullets in making money online. I love your blog and will visit often. I have looked at some of the products on your blog and they all look promising.

• Splork // Oct 15, 2008 at 7:56 am

  Thanks for visiting Joseph. I appreciate you taking the time to read my ramblings.

• Chak // Nov 23, 2008 at 9:14 pm

  How do you build a list from Store Stacker stores?
  Let’s say you send traffic to your Stacker store, then after they click on an item from your store, it will send them straight to the affiliate Sales Page.

  So how do you capture their emails??

  Thank you. I am new at this.

• Splork // Nov 24, 2008 at 10:21 am

  You can put a email collector on these sites just as well as you can any other site. StoreStacker is a site builder like Wordpress or XSP or anything else. Capture emails by putting up a 6 day autoresponder series like you would for any other niche site.

• Charles // Nov 26, 2008 at 2:58 am

  Hi Splork,
  glad i chance upon your website.
  Was researching for the biggest firesale and whether its just crap or really worth what it says.

  Alot of what you wrote resonates with me.

  Nice blog.

• Malcolm Lambe // Dec 23, 2008 at 7:42 am

  Mate, I just signed up for a fully-loaded StoreStacker using your affiliate link and now I wish I hadn’t. There was no “System Requirements” section or warning before so I presumed it would work with Mac. Mistake. never presume anything. The fucking thing is Windows/PC-based. And you need to be something of a coder to install it. GRRR. I fucking HATE IT when this happens. The bastards take your money quick enough and then just hang you out to dry. Plus their site is clunky and riddled with 404s. Not a happy camper.

• Splork // Dec 23, 2008 at 8:49 am

  Sorry bro. They’ll get you your money back. But I’m pretty sure it doesn’t matter if you run Mac or PC. It’s server side. I just upload the package to my domain and do all the configuration from the web browser . I can’t think of a thing I have to do on my computer.
  I’ve never coded a thing to get the stores up and running. The only thing I’ve ever configured was a header graphic on a couple of them. Other than that it’s pretty simple as long as you can create a database.

• Malcolm Lambe // Dec 24, 2008 at 6:05 pm

  @ Splork, I emailed the “Customer Support” department (and that’s a misnomer if ever I heard one) and gave them a blast which started with “I am really annoyed. I’ve just signed up for your $1 trial and the fully-loaded version of StoreStacker to find it’s an absolute nightmare to install. I’m on a Mac so there’s a problem right there to begin with. And my site is hosted through Squarespace.com I’m not a coder and I don’t want to be mucking around with PHP/FTP and all the other bullshit. I just want to install the thing on my site and have it do what you say it will do.”
  I was answered pretty quick by “Omar” (from Bucharest) who rather than try and help me out got all precious and offended by my language. Particularly this bit – “Why don’t you do things logically? I’ve bought the thing and now I need to know how to install it. I went to your video tutorial and it was crap. It was Windows-based for starters. Why can’t you just have a page with “Installation for Dummies. Step 1. Step 2 Step 3. I haven’t the time to be pissing about watching videos.”
  He replied (in part) “We do things logically, there is a very clear link in a very clear spot about system requirements, refund policy and terms of use right on the order page, http://StoreStacker.com/order.html. If you did not read that, or not understood something is not our fault. If you don’t have time for what you call “bullshit” or to watch video tutorials, i am sorry but is nothing we can do. You either know what you are doing and do it, or do not know and learn it (watch the movie, read the manuals). You can’t just snap your fingers and get everything on a silver plate. What you say is like blaming a car manufacturer because you can not drive their car but you don’t even have a driver license and don’t want to “lose” time learning how to drive. Since you consider our tutorials “crap” and knowing how to work with FTP “bullshit” i think it will be best for both of us to just cancel your trial.”
  I wrote back (in part) “I see your “System Requirements” is indeed on the order page – in small lettering, below the fold and after the 5th Option. You wonder why I missed it? Ditto the “Terms of Use” and “Refund Policy”. So much for “very clear link in a very clear spot”.
  BTW you ever heard the term “the customer is always right”? You don’t get anywhere being snarky with me. You could have turned this around by showing me how to use the thing. You could have resolved the Mac and Squarespace issues and you could have helped me with the FTP. I’m a writer not a computer geek. I’ve built sites and I’ve used Hostmaster and FTP but like I said I haven’t the time to be pissing about with it.
  You are not the right man for Customer Relations. You’ve just suceeded in alienating me.”
  And then he replies (in part) “Nobody is “always right” no matter if he is a client or not. If you are my client it does not make me your slave nor make you smarter. If you think that i would just jump and do your work after you been hostile from the start, called ftp “bullshit” and our work “crap” then you are very wrong. If you need one man’s help don’t be rude, even if you are his (potential) client. If you don’t have time “to be pissing about”, at least you could politely asking for help, not say tutorials are crap, we are stupid (since we are not making things logical, we must be stupid or something) although we do it as everybody else does it and so on.
  I may not be the right person for this work, but here I am and I would better have no client then a rude client that thinks only his time is valuable and he is always right. I have enough experience to know that such clients are not actually good clients. It will always be something wrong and never their fault, since they are “always right”.”

  What a humourless dick. I was keen to buy this program. And it wasn’t cheap at $221. All he needed to do was tell me how to install the bloody thing not argue with me.
  Sorry about your affiliate commish! Now I’m about to buy Commission Blueprint and take it for a testdrive. I made sure it was Mac compatible before buying.
  Keep writing, I enjoy your style. Mal, Paris.

• Splork // Dec 24, 2008 at 7:26 pm

  Sorry for the aggravation on your part. I’m glad you were able to get your refund.

• kirky // Jan 24, 2009 at 2:22 pm

  Hey Splork
  Your blog is cool and has put me on Project Green Button so this is the main tool you would recommend for us newbies? Just interested on your take as this software seems to appeal to me more than CommissionBlueprint. “Fascinating ” as Spock would say
  Peace m8

  Kirky

  Cheers m8

• Splork // Jan 24, 2009 at 6:10 pm

  Yep. I’ve been with PLRPro since day one and believe in Marc and Daniel. PGB is pretty damn cool. And definitely very doable for newbies. They lay out exactly what you need to do to make the money. Follow the plan and you should do well. If I didn’t already have BMD and XSP at my disposal I’d be using PGB like crazy. Matter of fact if I had PGB I’m not certain I’d spend money on XSP and BMD. Though BMD is now an awesome tool.

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