Know when I fail miserably? When I follow other people. When I take a flyer on some other person’s technique. It may in fact be working for them but it typically doesn’t do shit for me.
Take the Blogger Unleashed BANS recipe. I drank the kool-aid and bought up 25 .info domains like all the other readers, slapped BANS on there and did the BMD dance. How stupid was that shit!? Is it any wonder people all over are complaining that their sites aren’t getting indexed? For one, the sites are simply fancy spam sites. They offer nothing. Apologies to those who add a bit of content before and after the product listings but your sites are still shitola. Then all of us render the scuttle sites worthless by submitting BANS after BANS sites into those bookmark sites. And finally we all have .info domains. Could we please leave a bigger footprint?
The only thing left to do is keep pounding them with links and hope they get out of the sandbox. Do we really think thousands of BANS on .info domains are going to be miraculously one day loved by Google? Hey if you can point a few PR4 and 5 links at your sites then maybe you have half a chance. I think it is a waste of time. I’m just glad I only bought 25. Maybe I’m wrong and will wish I kept building BANS, but I’m not willing to believe there will be a happy ending.
So while I continued grazing with the BANS herd, something very cool was happening on the other fields I used to graze on. I had my best month with blogs and using Shareasale datafeeds. I used WPDFI for this. I did pretty good with StoreStacker sites bolted onto existing sites. Blogging at Wordpress.com has exceeded my expectations, for now (I felt the same about Squidoo and Hubpages but this seems different for some reason).
I’m trying different things. It’s not like I’m inventing anything but I’m just trying anything that might be a bit different than what everyone else is doing. Maybe it just feels like I’m being different but I don’t want to go to some dude’s blog and blindly follow 8,000 other readers anymore. This never works. OK, it never works for me. I hope everybody else continues to follow the shepard to monetary bliss.
If everyone is building BANS, then that’s fantastic. I’m building Blogger blogs and adding Ebay widgets and CJ SmartLinks. If everyone is building niche blogs…great. Have at it. I’m building XSP static sites. Go ahead and submit your articles to the article sites. I’m going to spend my time writing content for Wordpress.com blogs.
Maybe this is stupid, but it’s a lot less stressful. It’s not like I’ll stop reading other blogs for ideas. I’ll just be reading to find justification in what I’m doing. Not trying to find yet another way to make money. For instance, Frank and Griz seem to go in a general direction that the wind blows me. They have ideas that work well with what I’m already doing. I’ll continue reading and taking whatever advice they offer, as long as it fits what I want to do and am currently doing. I won’t be following anybody down the rabbit hole anymore.
Maybe it’s better to follow “what works”. But it’s not my thing. It doesn’t matter to me as this doesn’t pay the bills. I can afford to play around. But what I have learned is I do far better doing what is comfortable for me rather than trying out a new technique. The promise of making money because someone else is, never, nevverrrrrr, never works for me. Whether I pay for it or it is from good intentions. It is always a failure. For me.
26 responses so far ↓
Frank C // Jun 12, 2008 at 9:49 am
I didn’t jump on the .info bandwagon since I had already dealt with Google’s reluctance to send traffic to a new .info last year. I was already starting to get results with the Blogger/eBay combo so I decided to stick with that.
As best I can gather, Vic thought that using cheap .infos to build BANS sites would bring in trickle traffic and earn an average of $100 a day across all sites, not bad money at all. However, it appears that some blackhatters thought the same and did a script that combined YACG and BANS and Google had a fit and deindexed or penalized all .infos less than a year old. That left everyone who wanted to do it legit holding the bag.
I agree with the idea of doing your own thing but seeing what others are doing and how you might adapt it. For example, I’m probably going to give some static sites a try again based on what you’ve said about XSP except that I’ll be building them with other tools I already have.
Splork // Jun 12, 2008 at 11:19 am
Yea, I’m enjoying the Blogger/Ebay combo too. Like I mentioned, I’m also doing the same thing with CJ and Shareasale. Combine that with Wordpress blogs and these things get indexed pretty quick.
It’s cool because all the bots see is my content I update the blog with a couple of times a week. They see it as the main deal. But in reality the Javascript with CJ/Ebay or Shareasale feeds are taking up a whole lot of real estate for the visitors. Javascript is worthless for SEO but I rely on my content for that anyway. The blog stays (relatively) safe and I get affiliate sales (hopefully). No adsense included so Google should give a shit anyway.
I’ll have to decide in a year what to do with the .infos. I’ll may hang on to a couple.
Sunshine // Jun 12, 2008 at 2:49 pm
Sounds great Splork, glad you’re seeing positive results.
By the way the success you’re seeing with Wordpress, is it by using free Wordpress blogs or hosting them yourself?
Diane // Jun 12, 2008 at 3:02 pm
Well like all the gurus say, once you find something that works for you, you should stick with it and “wash, rinse, repeat” and reap the profits. I too tend to jump on new info but I always try to see if there is a way to tweak it and make it fit into my current workflow. I read BloggerUnleashed as well, but he has such a large following that if everyone does as he says, I think the strategies become much less effective.
Splork // Jun 12, 2008 at 4:20 pm
Wordpress hosted. I built 5 WP blogs. Fed them every day for about a month before adding links. I add a single link to maybe every 3rd post. Nothing fishy going on here. I blog what I like. I write the post in a way that is related to the anchor text I want to use. Google indexes these posts now in about 30 minutes. The link to my site follows the next day. Nothing else works as fast for me.
What I like about it WP is not going to allow any funny business. They monitor this shit and its effectiveness should continue. I blog for real on there.
Dinheiro // Jun 12, 2008 at 6:39 pm
Splork, don’t you’ve problems blogging the 5 blogs on wordpress with the same ip/computer?
Glag you found your formula, it’s very cool to read that.
BTW, what is the CJ Smartlinks?
Sunshine // Jun 12, 2008 at 9:00 pm
I hear ya. Wordpress blogs are THE enforcer when it comes to their Terms of svc.
Wordpress closed my first and only wp blog. Initially I had both a squidoo link and a cj affiliate product link on the blog.
I then removed the cj link with only the link to my squidoo page remaining . Nonetheless, the site was still shut down by WP. Apparently the link to the squidoo lense was a problem too.
Does the single link you add to every 3rd post go out to a commercial/affiliate site or another information rich only site?
Thanks.
Leo Dimilo // Jun 12, 2008 at 10:57 pm
good to hear you are doing your own thing. I have always said that if you do what everyone else is doing, then you can pretty much expect to get the results that everyone else is getting.
I am doing BANS but in no way is it the main part of my portfolio. I have learned a couple ways to actually get the “buyer” traffic to my BANS but as you would probably guess, when you find something that not many people are doing, then you milk it for all its worth before some “guru” comes around and ruins it for you.
Roger // Jun 13, 2008 at 1:03 am
Hi Splork,
Quote - ‘I’m Done Following the Herd’
Be careful you don’t create your own herd that is following you - or it might have the same effect, or (shudders) you might have to become a guru and start feeding your flock duff information…
Grizzly // Jun 13, 2008 at 5:34 am
Splork,
You more than most, have the brains and ability to figure out your own system and it appears you have. I can only speak for myself but I have found that the simple systems always seem to work and the more complex it gets the worse the results get. Just do your thing - anyone who works as hard as you can’t help but find a method that works. Always a pleasure reading your thoughts - hell I think I’m reading my own post half the time!
Splork // Jun 13, 2008 at 7:34 am
Griz
Thanks man. I don’t know, the only thing that I’ve figured out after, a zillion years it seems, is that following the herd has gotten me nowhere. Doesn’t seem too smart that it’s taken me this freaking long to draw that conclusion.
You’re right. It’s the simple stuff.
Splork // Jun 13, 2008 at 7:49 am
Roger, I was thinking about that yesterday. In fact, I had stopped writing the probably the first post on here. I thought, I don’t really want to be that shepard. The stuff I’m doing is not invented. It’s not some new age website building. I’m not doing anything blackhat. I simply done following the herd. I’m doing what I want to do good or bad.
I felt stress, yes stress, trying to keep up with the stuff Vic was doing. I’d watch his videos and he’d be “get off your asses dumbfucks and get your sites up and stop wasting time and make money with BANS and BMD those sites and do your keyword research and…” and I’d be working trying to get those BANS sites up and HATING every freaking minute of it.
I started blogging again, just writing and reading back through Griz and Frank’s stuff and realizing that they were more in line with what I was doing. And that I had done things like WPDFI script blogs that were successful. I decided to just go my own way. It’s not a path that’s different. Hell tons of people write content and build websites.
It’s like this: I’m doing things that I thought of putting together. Pieces of Griz and Frank’s methodology, tools that I like, with stuff that I like doing. It’s my thing. But it ain’t new.
Splork // Jun 13, 2008 at 7:53 am
Sunshine, any links that I add goes to another one of my blogs or websites, whether it’s a XSP site or Blogger blog. One link. Every so often. And my blog is a true blog. I write a bunch of content and add photos and encourage comments. I also link to other Wordpress.com blogs to remain “social”.
Splork // Jun 13, 2008 at 7:56 am
Dinheiro, I blog to those Wordpress.com blogs from work and home. But I really don’t think it matters much about how many you have as long as the content is original. It’s just a feeling I get that as long as the content is….true, then they welcome it.
Splork // Jun 13, 2008 at 7:59 am
Leo, yea, it’s just too bad it’s taken so long to figure it out.
It’s not like I’ve found this secret way to riches or some shit. I’m simply done following the herd. It just never works for me. It may work for the other 99.9%, but never for me. Time for me to stop trying that and do my own thing whether it works or not.
Barry // Jun 13, 2008 at 8:30 am
Splork,
Way to go! Your posts are always interesting but this one may be hard to beat.
Barry
Jennifer // Jun 13, 2008 at 8:58 am
I think a lot of us have reached the same point you have, seeing that we have to find our own way through this stuff. With me I had to focus more on skill building and less on “systems.” Once I shifted into that mode everything came together.
If you can work on getting better at building simple html sites with a feed, or get better at driving traffic to your site, or work at creating more interesting copy to entice people to return to your blog and click on your links - that’s the stuff I think we should all be focusing on.
It’s so easy to get caught up in the “toys” - I used to lose months learning the latest hot software, only to discover that it was obsolete around the same time I mastered it. In retrospect, all those wasted hours and months should have been spent building sites, driving traffic, making sales.
So I’m a big fan of simplification, too - and doing your own thing instead of chasing the experts. Thanks for reminding us about it!
Jennifer the “Internet Marketing Badger”
Martin // Jun 13, 2008 at 9:16 am
I also watched Vic s video s and got off my ass and build 110 BANS sites in like a month.Must say I was pretty impressed with myself.
And now nothing is happening.Not one of them is indexed.
Well maybe in a years time I will start making something from them.
Splork // Jun 13, 2008 at 10:42 am
CJ SmartLinks - some, not all, affiliate programs in CJ offer tools to create product catalogs for your websites. It’s like “Make a Page” or Widgets from Ebay.
zania // Jun 13, 2008 at 11:19 am
Splork that is one of the best posts I have read in a long time!
And I think you speak for many of us when you say you have to go with what works for you and not get stressed trying to follow someone else’s plan to the letter.
Those type of schemes only work for people who are new to making money online and have no experience of working with anything else. Because, once you do have other methods already assembled to bring into the mix, you are bound to find following a scheme devised by someone else boring.
I was unable to follow the BANS model because I could not get accepted by ebay. Now I’m glad.
Although I doubt I would have made those sites with info domains if I had been able to, because, working mainly in adult, I had already seen a bucketload of info adult spam blogs, so for me the info domains never cut it in terms of credibility anyhow.
And personally, I reckon that, even when you are setting up a crap BANS site (or an adult one come to that), to get decent sales you still need to generate trust, otherwise customers will be wary of buying from your site. And for me an info domain doesn’t provide the element of trust required. But that’s just my thoughts. I could well be wrong…
Nevertheless, I am sorry for what happened to those who set up the info BANS sites - they could have worked given the chance. I also feel sorry for people who set up business sites on info domains because they were ’special offer’, not knowing what was going on in the BANS world. They must be wondering what the hell happened right now.
But now I’m wondering how long the WP dot com era will last before we all get caught out there as well.
As you say, you are making genuine blogs there, so am I, but there may be others who jump on the bandwagon here too and push things too far and mess it up for the rest of us…
Splork // Jun 13, 2008 at 1:34 pm
Thanks for reading Zania.
You may be right about Google and Wordpress. Maybe they will stop being enthusiastic about indexing those blogs. And maybe I’ve convinced a bunch of people to go over and blog and helped contribute to its demise. yikes!
I guess I’d encourage folks to figure out what is working for them. I got the idea for the Wordpress blogs from BU. I had planned to build like 20 of the things like Vic had suggested one time. Blogging works for me but I decided to go my own way with it and luckily it’s working for me.
To all: Respectfully, I’m not a shepard. Just a guy doing a thing and blogging about it. Just ’cause it’s working for me doesn’t mean it will work for you. And vice versa.
Dave O // Jun 16, 2008 at 2:48 am
Spork,
Found your site through Griz’s. At the end of the day (it’s 2:00 am) I always turn to your blog because you keep it real and I know that you are not out there to make a buck from me. Sometimes I wonder about others…
I am just getting started. I did a test sniper site (ala Court) 2 months ago and have made a tiny amount… actually I’m still in the hole but it’s still fun for me at the moment so what the hell.
Though all of a sudden I went from ~30 in google to ~60. What gives?
Dave
John // Jun 16, 2008 at 5:24 am
Hi Splork
Seems like we are on the same page as I recently decided to go my own way as well! I know it makes a bit of money, although it might not be the new “breakthrough” that will make me millions.
On your WPDFI sites, do you list the price? I have a few of these sites that continue to make me money and wondered if listing the price will help clickthroughs.
Splork // Jun 16, 2008 at 6:27 am
Hey Dave. Not sure about the listings. Just get more links. I know everybody keeps saying that, but it works. It’s really all that matters. If your site is a blog, maybe keep it fresh. I have a theory not shared by many that Google expects a blog to be blogged. They don’t expect static sites to go through as much change.
Splork // Jun 16, 2008 at 6:32 am
Hey John. I don’t list the price. I just want people to be curious and to click through so I can get the cookie embedded on the visitors hard drive. I don’t try to sell. My sites aren’t all that pretty. It’s not a catalog. It’s not an ecom site. It’s simply a cookie delivery system.
Anyway, I figure they may not like the price if I list it and go visit some other site. But if they are curious enough about the product and go see the price, they may hate the price, but the site already has them and they may sell them something else.
Dan Cruz // Jun 16, 2008 at 9:09 am
.info domains were falling out of favor with Google before IMers started doing their thing with BANS and the late BANS push just cemented the fate of .info domains.
I built about 10 before I stopped (probably saw what you were seeing as well) but I didn’t stop building BANS sites indefinitely I just switched from .info domains to .com domains and those sites seem to be doing ok for me. I have customized them quite a bit though…
Making money online is all trial and error right now as the internet and its’ users continue to change and adapt to new and different advertising models… I think the key is building websites or blogs that get traffic and offer some value to the readers and then tinkering with monetization until you find something that works.
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