Does anyone beside me find it odd, that the way to succeed in this business, not only do you have to work hard on a single website, but you have to replicate that effort 10-20 times over? It’s like getting paid to cut someones yard but only if you cut 10 other yards. If you have a “money site” you have to build links to it. In order to do that you have to build 5 Squidoo lenses, 5 Hubpages and a few Blogger blogs. Write articles for directories. Make sure you leave your comment droppings on other blogs. Add your link to one of the 7,124 blog directories. Bookmark your pages. Build mini-networks. Socialize. Tweet. Videos. Podcasts.
It’s utterly insane.
You can’t simply build a website anymore and expect anything to come of it without building massive amounts of backlinks. Actually that is wholly untrue but I don’t know if I can wait 12-18 months to be discovered naturally.
Think about how absurd it is that in order to succeed you have to basically manufacture interest in your own sites. Sorry, I am not going to bookmark your PLR content rubber kayak site. It’s crap. You know it and I know it. But the amazing thing is you will build 100 backlinks to it every day and that dinky little site will rank #1 in Google and provide you with a tidy $3 a day in Adsense. All the while nobody on this planet will backlink naturally to that site. Nobody. You will have Squidoo and Hubpages pointing to it. You’ll have outsourced slave labor building links to it. You’ll have non-native English writers crapping outsource content to splash across the article directories. It’s a sham. Astroturf linking.
I hate that I have to compete on every site with the stupid as shit game of who can build the most backlinks.
I can’t imagine how much time I have spent (wasted) building satellite sites to support my main sites. And the shit doesn’t stop there. Oh no. Build a Squidoo page and you have to get backlinks to that as well. Build up that authority through your network, man. Tier 1 linking to Tier 2 linking to Tier 3. Make sure Tier 3 doesn’t link to Tier 1. Is Blogger part of my Tier 1 or will it be Tier 2? And hey is that a Do-Follow or No-Follow site? You mean they want you to add your links to their service but only they get to benefit from it? Huh. You can’t even have a normal fucking browser anymore because you have to have SEO and traffic toolbars 5 levels deep hanging off the top of the damn thing.
I haven’t cracked the code of owning 3-5 authority blogs that make $10K per month. So I am reduced to this shit. I slung (slinged? slanged?) over 1000 links with BMD, I built a lens, a Blogger blog. I wrote an article for inclusion in AMA. This is how I spent a couple of hours after work. Insane.
How many fucking accounts do you have for all your Squidoo lenses, Hubpages, Blogger blogs and various crap? I have to use Google Docs to keep up with all my accounts and websites. It’s ridiculous. You aren’t supposed to build more than 5 blogs per Blogger account because they may delete the whole account on a whim. Or at least that is what “they” tell us. I’ve had blogs suspended but never accounts. Anyway, the number of Yahoo and Gmail accounts I have is stupid. All for diffent profiles on Squidoo, Hubpages, Blogger and bookmarking sites. I’m not even sure who the hell I am online anymore.
It cracks me up, in that cuckoo nest kind of way, that this is our normal. Nobody thinks twice about it. Got a website idea? Great. You’ll also need 5 lenses, 5 hubpages, 10 Blogger blogs, 100 comments, 25 articles spun into 3,000 additional articles, 20 profiles to use on 97 bookmarking sites, $100-200 for sustained outsourcing of links to web directories. You’ll need to figure out how to get your Hubpages and lenses indexed as well. They’ll need juice so they can provide juice. Yea, and let’s not forget what you built last week chump.
What am I doing to combat this misery?
1. Autoblogging with WP Robot for product blogs. I refuse to blog niche sites. There are some good niches that sell well that I have no interest in blogging. Saves time.
2. Information niches are built using XSP for Adsense clicks.
3. I love Squidoo. For making money. Testing. Backlinks.
4. I use BMD for indexing.
5. I use Article Marketing Automation for backlinks.
6. There are a few RSS directories I submit to.
7. Do the best I can to find really good keywords to rally around.
Just trying to keep things as simple as possible. Nothing I do has changed that much except using some different tools to help my time management. Adjustments on how I approach long term viability of sites. Traffic considerations. I still do keyword research, build sites and promote them. The basics. I’m just trying to figure out how to best utilize my time and energy without having to duplicate an effort 10 times over past the initial site. Backlinks are the bitch.
If something turns out to be a hit I’ll make a bigger effort to get more traffic. I’m kind of done building a site then immediately creating a network around it. Maybe after it proves viable after a few months or longer I’ll build a network backlink of sorts. But for now I’ll do some rudimentary work to see what the interest looks like. Of course you risk being a chump; if you could have done more it would have been successful. But then again if you spent precious time and energy building up something that was not to be you still end up a chump. I don’t see how these dudes handle building a network across numerous dedicated servers and shit. It would blow my mind. I get that they are raking in huge sums of dough, but the effort is crazy.
I don’t have any great answers. Just have to shrug it off and deal with it. But it makes me feel better to point out the utter stupidity of this shit.
{ 32 comments… read them below or add one }
Yes backlink strategies are totally insane.
It completely does my head in every time I think of it.
I have two dedicated servers, 8 (or is it 9?) shared hosting accounts, gmail accounts and own hosted emails I forget to look at, and several of my relatives helping me out with whois, to cut down on the cost of all those private proxy domain names (and of course there’s all the different registrars as well…).
And to pay for all this, even before I pay the rent, I have to keep building and of course getting more and more backlinks.
At least in my neck of the woods, it’s easier to do link trades, which helps a lot.
But then you have to have scripts set up to make sure the trades stay put…
I just wish I could make a website and leave it at that.
Well I could, if I went for something totally obscur which has no competition, but then it would get hardly any searches either…
Yep, the backlink strategies most of us use can drive you round the bend if you think about it too hard.
It is so true. It is so crazy the things you have to do. I did laugh while reading the post as I feel your pain.
Amen Brother!
If I had a magic lamp I would only have to find a keyword, set-up a site, and add posts from time to time.
Is there a legitimate service that will backlink for you? Sure would be worth paying someone else to do it.
Funny, I was just thinking about this the other day. I was thinking how nice it would be to be able to simply create content about stuff that interests me and leave it at that, without spending all the time & effort I currently do on getting links (plus research etc). It would be great to create a site purely for enjoyment, but I just don’t have the time right now.
As it is, I spend most of my time link building, but I’m focusing on creating good quality content for my sites in the hope they’ll pick up natural links as they grow too.
I agree about not creating a whole network until a site has proven itself. Although my networks are pretty simple compared to some I’ve read about – no multiple dedicated servers here lol
Hi Splork
I can totally empathise with everything you say. I’ve only just started this and have Tier 1,2,3, etc and already keeping track of everything is becoming a pain, as is getting backlinks etc.
I had not realised just how much time and effort is required to get and keep a site high on google.
This is probably why most people don’t get far along this track before giving up.
Very few stick to it the way you have done.
And that actually provides me with the inspiration to continue, knowing that someone else is having the exact same problems, although with vastly more experience.
The problems and frustrations don’t seem to change no matter how many sites you build.
Anyway thanks for this post, it shows that I’m not alone in my own thoughts on all this.
Aarggh. Couldn’t agree more.
Sod, it, I’m off to the beach with the Dogs and the good lady.
At least there are some perks to working from home. I have said it before, backlinking be the Devil’s reward for how we make our money.
Anyway, thought I would say Hi, and I enjoy the way you tackle the realities of this here living we are struggling with.
This is why programs like Brute Force are made. I’d sooner use SENuke. But the point is, I came to the conclusion a while back that if I was going to build a support network for a so-called money site then I would make those properties worthwhile as well. I mean, I could quickly build 5 Squidoo lenses for a backlink. But why not try to make at least $10-15 a month (or more of course, but I’m being realistic) with them? Same with Hubpages. So I put effort into them. I think maybe that is what burns me out because I actually try to build something worthwhile at each step.
Splork & Everyone Else who is frustrated with the time, energy, and organizational skills it takes to make a living at this,
If you hate building backlinks and spending money on outsourced content, why not try PPC???
You can find tons of keywords related to any website you build where the average cost per click would be $0.05. Even you paid $.07 per visitor im sure most affiliate websites would still profit…and after you have enough data, you can perfect your PPC strategy so you would spending less and having higher conversions.
But yes, still a ton of work – but no backlinking needed. PPC also allows you to forget about the changes that search engines do it seems constantly.
With this whole “natural traffic” thing, we are really at the disposal of the search engines…which i think, is not good. Our businesses shouldn’t be up to the search engines…they really have us by the balls.
As for trying to make money with Adsense, as long as the KW has the ability to make at least $100 a month and is very easy to rank for – i go with adsense. I am a member of TKA but I’m not gonna spend endless hours trying to get to #1 for $20 a month-thats just dumb. There IS a lot of kw’s out there that you can rank for in about a month or two that would provide around $100 in adsense…u just have to find them which is the hard part.
Bottom line – if ur sick of backlinks, take a shot at PPC and go for KW’s with very low ave. CPC
Hey Eric. You are totally correct. Honestly I just don’t know much about PPC. I tried it before and basically broke even. Maybe I’ll look into it again.
I had a nice laugh reading this post in my RSS reader this morning.
I too enjoy creating the “money sites”, but when it comes to getting them backlinked I just freeze at the sheer enormity of how stupid it is, and don’t get much done!
Sure you can outsource it, but first your money sites have to be… MAKING MONEY! Hence the problem
Oh the tangled web we weave!
“I think maybe that is what burns me out because I actually try to build something worthwhile at each step.”
Got it in one.
And yes, I feel your pain, because that’s what I try to do as well.
That is why I aim to build only authority sites, now that I am getting a decent online income. Read Sugarrae’s latest blog post (I think she published it yesterday). I think that is the way to go!
-Zeeray
Authority sites need backlinks too. There are no shortcuts. Just gotta grind through it unless you want to pay for it like was mentioned above.
Hey Splork!
I could live with that… LOL. Keep whining man, I love it. It reminds me that we’re surrounded by shit. Full of shit that we have to live with as an internet marketer.
I am your 13th’s reader.
Internet marketing is crap, but I wish you were not so negative all the time splork. Maybe you need a break from the internet marketing biz?
I am creating niche sites without backlinks just fine. Is it a lot of writing? Yeah. Do the sites need to age? Check. Would perfect backlinks probably help? Yes.
But I can make money without them and I don’t have to worry about ridiculous spam sites like Article Marketing Automation.
Rubberkayaks.net or .org would not take very long to rank with writing a thousand word article every other day. Make it an authority site, not some crap xpro spun content.
Maybe you need to narrow down your sites. I currently write for around 30 sites of the 5$ a day variety, which is a hell of a lot easier than crapping out mini sites.
They are basically authority sites in a small niche, meaning they will naturally get backlinks over time. I don’t have to worry about them getting kicked out the index either.
I think you are just doing too much at one time and so you end up getting nowhere.
I ditched the tools a long time ago. Most of them are a joke. Google is placing increasing emphasis on site content (i.e. SEO writing), and this will only increase in the future as their algos improve.
Everyone who keeps talking about site networks, tier 1, 2, 3 kind of miss the big picture. That is that you are flooding the internet with crappy sites of a shelf life of a year, when instead you could be writing LSI content.
Keep the faith,
Anders
Yes, I’m planning to learn PPC too. I like the idea of not being totally dependent on organic traffic (though I wouldn’t want to rely only on paid traffic either). It’ll have to wait for a while though – my plate’s full right now : (
Anders, a lot of what you say is true. I do take breaks. But I like making money too. Google improves each year in how they value content but the algos are still not at the stage where I have to worry it is evaluating whether some writer is better than me at delivering information. So backlinks continue to rule the game. You can rank well with SEO writing and you need to write with SEO in mind for all those on page factors. But my backlinks will beat any good content just about any time head to head. I use tools and should outsource more. I have (many) money sites that I write huge posts/articles for. But I also link to them with mediocre satellite sites. Like I mentioned, most of my satellite sites are actually very good content sites. I include Hubpages and Squidoo lenses in those. A few well-written money sites have proven not to meet my monetary goals. I choose to do more.
No, you are not the only one!
I am starting to think the whole damn business is a bit crackers really.
Planning your approach is key to keeping sane and maximizing $$$ with your support sites. I sell stuff or put adsense on my Teir 1′s also. It just makes sense because they should be decent sites anyway.
Automation and outsourcing is how you do it. You can work your ass off and spin your wheels and get it done over time but it would be very hard.
I use PPC on all my product sites, even when they rank.
If was as easy as the 200 emails I get everyday says it is…….
And btw, suggestion. Build a bunch of support sites that can juice any niche. It will help in not duplicating your efforts so much
Use database sites, news sites, public interest blogs and such.
I completely feel you. I’ve been reading your blog for a while now…you’re the only person that doesn’t BS about this biz…it can be frustrating, boring, and I’ve quit about 136.3333 times already. Lately I’ve been exploring black hatters & how they do what they do. I just do a quick Google search for “buy cialis” or “buy tramadol” and then back-trace the top ranking sites’ links in Yahoo Explorer (still haven’t bought SEO Elite). Some of the tactics are downright brilliant. At least black hatters aren’t trying to act like they’re legit. The rest of us are, but are still doing extremely goofy crap to achieve basically the same end.
Splork Sez…
“Hey Eric. You are totally correct. Honestly I just don’t know much about PPC. I tried it before and basically broke even. Maybe I’ll look into it again.”
Might want to check out a site called PPC – Coach.com. 14 day one dollar trial.
Some pretty good reviews, but due diligence is always suggested. I have avoided PPC because I am afraid of watching my money circle the drain from devising a loosing campaign.
This is probably the only membership type site I might consider joining to learn “PPC Proper”..
Then again, my advice has not always been the greatest – lol. Proceed with caution…..
Robert C…
“At least black hatters aren’t trying to act like they’re legit. The rest of us are, but are still doing extremely goofy crap to achieve basically the same end.”
Damn straight.
Hey Robert. I’ve done a couple of campaigns and sold some crap and came out slightly ahead. It was before the Google slapping and scoring and all that junk. Seemed like it got too confusing to bid on cheap words so I bailed. I just have too much going on right now but may give it a whirl when I get bored again.
i tried ppc on very cheap long tail keywords and i kept getting something like “there are not enough daily searches for this keyword term” and so the ad doesn’t show.
i would totally do ppc if i could get it to work for long tail keywords because to me, keyword research is the easiest part of making money online. getting links takes me forever (seriously it takes me like a whole day to write one or two hubpages b/c i hate writing crap).
Hilariously. You ranting about this shit is some of the best link building advice you can get. Any noobs reading well you just got yourself a to do list!
Paul B put me onto your site, glad he did
Thanks for reading Chris.
Splork…you continue to crack me up, mate. You must be my doppelganger, or I’m you in a parralell universe.
As Chris said (and I’m glad he checked in like I suggested) your take on this has just got to be the best IM training program for newbies out there.
Don’t know if you know of ‘shitmydadsays’ from Twitter? Hilarious and spot on. You are our version of him in IM – hope that comes across as it’s meant and not smoke being blown up your a***.
Once again, I thank you.
Keep on mate.
Hey Paul. Thanks for reading. Yea shitmydadsays is funny. I hear it’s also going to be made into a TV show. Maybe I should pitch Lost Ball.
hey splork,
if your so annoyed by creating back links you should go for ppc
for people like me well we earn our living by doing this crap everyday
Yea, its not for me. I’m doing fine with organic traffic and I really have no interest in spending more time learning yet another technique for Internet riches.
ery interesting post.
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