41 responses so far ↓

• Mitch // Jul 27, 2009 at 7:52 pm

  I don’t know what to tell you dude. I like reading your stuff, but you sure do seem to make this shit harder than you need to.

  Have you ever thought about developing your own products. I really think you will find that the payoff is much better. At least that is the way it has worked out for me.

• Splork // Jul 27, 2009 at 8:39 pm

  No interest in creating a product.
  I don’t do anything more, and probably not less, than anybody else trying to make money with niche sites. This shit is hard. Maintaining an “authority site” is no doubt even harder. The point of the post, if it was lost, was to consider being focused on a couple sites rather than many. I don’t think it would be any easier or less stressful as you are essentially putting all your eggs in a couple of baskets instead of spreading the shit around. But I think having a couple of authority sites might keep things more focused and better organized.
  Hope that makes sense and thanks for reading.

• Robert C // Jul 28, 2009 at 1:17 am

  Basically, that is what I am working on. Building just a few sites in very competitive markets, and marketing my own products.

  One, will be almost impossible to get into the top ten SE wise. But, if I can break just a chunk off the market with some long tails, there will be some decent money with the affiliate offers..

  The other niche will be mostly adsense. But, even the long tails in this particular category will have a high payout for the top 1-3, and will be easy to rank for..

  I think there is even an affiliate or two for the product, so adding datafeeds to the mix will double down on profitability. That is the hope anyway.

  Creating my own products is usually a major undertaking and takes me forever because I like everything to be perfect. So, affiliate and adsense sites can be a bit easier.

  So, I guess my point is, yes, just create a few good sites, take some Ritalin, (LOL!) and focus your efforts toward creating some lasting and profitable sites. i.e., authority sites..

  Outsource some of the link, article writing, and Hub page building. I have plenty of information for outsourcing services if you need them. Some not all that expensive

  Also, I would be “remiss” if I did not offer you some ideas for your possible new project as well.

  Below, are some of the sites I wish I could create if I had the time and money. But they can be done with the tools you probably already have. And, these sites have been around for sometime, so you know that they are profitable.

  BradDeals
  http://www.bradsdeals.com

  FatWallet.com
  http://www.fatwallet.com/

  TechBargains.com
  http://www.techbargains.com/

  Go to Elance.com, Guru.com, Scriptlance.com,
  and post a project to have someone combine data feeds from a few affiliates like Linkshare, or CJ. Slap into a WP blog, or whatever and you are good to go.

  If you can figure out datafeeds on your own, then the point is moot. One software program that can change datafeeds to HTML is Fourth Worlds web merge.

  Webmerge..
  http://www.fourthworld.com/products/webmerge/index.html

  From what I can see, that is what some of these sites did (datafeeds from affiliates). Except that Braddeals.com has a small staff and has them, or him, add their own “personal product picks” to the mix. Either way, the idea is that the datafeed is the content..

  And you can have 100,000 pages or more up in no time. You will have tons of products and indexed pages that will show up in the SE’s.

  Just have to get links to them. No article writing, no hub pages (unless you want to). The links will be the hard part.

  Just some thoughts from my ever rambling mind..

  Robert C – The Wholesale Guy

• Brawnydt // Jul 28, 2009 at 8:41 am

  Focused effort makes a big difference. I hate dancing around, and I find I do it too much as well. Each month I set a goal and give myself a purpose. I run a couple authority sites that make most of my money that I live off of. Don’t go for niche sniping if you are going for big authority, pick a broad topic and target the subniches with the posts and pages. Do Courts 100 posts in 30 days thing on the site, 4 main topics, 25 articles each topic. Work on the single site for 1 month, and see where you stand. Then give it a rest and start another the next month. Repeat a third time. By then, your first site should be making money or you should see what you need to do to improve it.

  You know how to do it. Authority sites aren’t hard. I pick a niche and innundate it with articles on all the big sources, so that all you find are my articles and my sites when you search. Works pretty darn good.

• Marc // Jul 28, 2009 at 10:11 am

  Dude you know what to do

  follow outsourcemethod and outsource the shit.

  You should have access Dan told ya to email him.

  EzineArticles…. Outsourced
  AMA….. Outsourced
  Sitesetup…. Outsourced
  AffiliateSetup…. Outsourced

  Marc

• Doug Taylor // Jul 28, 2009 at 12:09 pm

  I too am sick and tired of building site after site. It gets sort of mind numbing after awhile. The worst part is putting up sites where you have no firsthand knowledge. I made a decision a couple of weeks ago to concentrate on a couple of sites and see what happens. Guess we are sort of on the same wave link.
  I really enjoy reading your blog, and I love how you tell it like it is.
  Doug

• Splork // Jul 28, 2009 at 12:21 pm

  Hey Marc. I did. I sent in my subscription stats to the email address that Daniel said to send it to. Some chick. Late last week. No reply.

• Splork // Jul 28, 2009 at 12:22 pm

  Hey Doug. Thanks for reading. Hope you can stay more focused that I can. I tend to try to do everything, all at once.

• Ray // Jul 28, 2009 at 4:58 pm

  Hey Splork,

  Are you planning to sell a few sites or domains?

  - Ray

• Marc // Jul 29, 2009 at 3:16 am

  Hey Mate,

  Addhhh snap she was off sick all last week.

  Hit me up mate on the email you see here just include your desired username & password with email to use.

  Cheers
  Marc

• Splork // Jul 29, 2009 at 12:56 pm

  Hi Ray. I haven’t really thought much about selling any sites or domains. At this point I don’t have any home runs worth tens of thousands of dollars I don’t think and those that work I’d rather just keep the money dripping into PayPal.

• Terry Didcott // Jul 30, 2009 at 7:06 am

  Hey Splork,

  I came here cause I saw you getting some shit over Niche Devil at Griz’s and I can’t seem to get a comment to post there.

  Those headless chickens don’t know what they’re talking about as usual.

  ND is BANS with some extra shit that still won’t keep Google from scoping out all the domains with it on and then its bye bye $97 and whatever money you’re wasting on .info domains. This is just to let you know I’m with you on this as I couldn’t do it at Griz’s.

  And as for your post, I can’t understand why sop many people sit there and say this shit is easy when clearly its a truckload of work and a lot of time then the results are not guaranteed.

  There are only a small number “real” people that actually know what they’re doing. The rest of them are talking out of their asses!

• Splork // Jul 30, 2009 at 9:25 am

  Yea, I figured I would stir the pot. Make a few enemies. I really don’t care. Scripts like this come and go. The people that make money with it use time tested keyword and niche research and build sites people want to visit. They make a load and move along to the next thing after Google sees them for the spammy shit they are (I’m not insulting spam or shit. I fling both and make money with each. I just don’t participate with the herd.) Nothing wrong with that at all. It’s just disingenuous to make this out to be a replacement for the shitpie that flopped a year ago. I stupidly participated in that mess and no matter how decent my sites were, how much content I added, how redesigned I made the sites, Google threw them out. Sure the people that started early and got sites out quick made some good money. But all those BANS/.info sites were canned. I even tried to put blogs and shit on the domains many months afterwards and G still locked them out.

• Sam // Jul 30, 2009 at 11:24 am

  Glad to see I am not the only one that has doubts about ND. I was the first one there to ask about the difference between ND and BANS and I got some shit from both Griz and Vic. Unfortunately it has turned into a cult over there…much like the one they attacked over at Site Build It.

• Splork // Jul 30, 2009 at 12:34 pm

  I stopped bothering with Vic’s site last year after the BANS/info fiasco. He has a nice cult following and I am definitely not one to drink the Kool-aid. I thought he was rude and obnoxious and just got tired of his shtick. Particularly the videos. Not for me but he apparently does well with his deal so, you know, whatever. There are plenty of other people to learn from and plenty of different ways to make a buck in this racket.

  I’m fine with people following my frustrations and interests, but I don’t want anyone to follow what I do. I’m not here to teach or instruct. Just talk about what I see and maybe do. I’ll shut this shit down before the Kool-aid gets served.

• dab0neman // Jul 30, 2009 at 12:59 pm

  Splork you certainly are a refreshing albeit too Real-World breath of fresh air in this “make money on da web” craphole of a subject.

  I bought into BANS and the dotInfo craze as well. I didn’t do the 100 site deal that Vic had us all believing was the answer to all our dreams though. Just couldn’t justify the cash to do so.

  I was thinking very seriously about buying this ND thing once I got some extra cash next month but now I’m skeptical. I have the same problem with poisoned sites as you and I also hate the drudgery of link/site/SEO building. I was hoping for a simple 36.6 second fix but that may be a pipe dream.

  However, if Bing/Yahoo gives these ND sites some love, maybe it’s worth a shot?

• bk // Jul 30, 2009 at 3:47 pm

  I posted at Griz also but its not moderated yet. The problem with ND is all the Noobs will run out and fuck it up. It happens over and over and over. The ND will be especially fucked because there is an inherent incentive to host all of your sites on the same domain with .info’s. There is a wordpress site that does the same thing but they charge based on # of sites you build and they host your site. It is a better model that will actually last.
  Having said that, I am going to buy ND because from what I can tell it will compliment my other automated tools. I don’t care if I sell a single item but If I can put up a bunch of sites and keep them indexed (under the radar) than it will be well worth the price.

• Zania // Jul 30, 2009 at 7:46 pm

  I was going to post a very long follow up comment on Griz’s blog in your support, but then I found he had more or less answered your criticism himself, so I just left a brief (as yet unmoderated) comment.

  Whether ND works or not, as bk says, it will be used by people who don’t have a clue and spoil it for everyone else.

  What I find difficult with Vic, is that he started a blog to ‘out’ scammers, pushed it to the top of the serps, then opened a paid for affiliate site and now just uses that blog to promote his or other’s products, rather in the same way the scammers started out.

  I’m not saying he’s a scammer, just that the models are so similar.

  I don’t blame Vic, or Griz, for making all the money they can out of IM. Of course not. But both guys – Vic in particular – encouraged us all to be sceptical, so they really must agree to us being sceptical about the things they promote.

  Griz is gracious about it. Don’t know about Vic though, as, although his blog still comes into my feed reader, I stopped actually going to his site long ago.

• Bryan // Jul 30, 2009 at 7:59 pm

  Splork

  Pretty admire you for the thing you said over Griz blog and look like Terry is smarter not to comment there

  I have learnt to just read and not comment since I got some shit sometimes back. I have come to understand that people over there just want quick fix and if they think that ND is the way to make money fast, let them be.

  And seriously, if making money is so easy and simple, just wondering why I have to work long hours on my PC daily.

• Lis - Online Income // Jul 30, 2009 at 9:26 pm

  Oh good a decent debate going on! I am shamlessly self-promoting my most recent blog post on the whole Niche devil/BANS comparison. I failed at BANS too – just let most of the deindexed infos go. But I think ND has legs mainly because its not going to be sold forever – the 14 days limit on the sales page isn’t just a hook to make you take action now- its how long that script is going to be available.

  I’m not just using it on dot infos – I am primarily buying preowned indexed domains – and its kick arse in that area IMHO. Yeah it may all go to shit – but I will have the $$ in my bank account by then LOL

  But I’m glad some of you guys don’t like it – you would be way too much competition LOL

• Splork // Jul 30, 2009 at 10:02 pm

  Daboneman – thanks for reading. The script is only $97. It might be worth shot. I dunno. You just have to remember to choose the right niche and keywords.

• Splork // Jul 30, 2009 at 10:08 pm

  bk – hope it works out for you. You’re right about the newbies. I didn’t consider that, which is a good point.

• Splork // Jul 30, 2009 at 10:09 pm

  Hey Zania. Appreciate the support. You and bk are right about the noobs. Agree with you about Vic. I hold Griz in much higher esteem.

• Splork // Jul 30, 2009 at 10:22 pm

  Bryan thanks for reading and the comment. Sometimes people act offended if you don’t agree with what they are doing, like mass approval matters. Personally I couldn’t care less what people buy. I simply point out the prats and falls of said purchase if I recognize them. Take it with a grain.

• Splork // Jul 30, 2009 at 10:37 pm

  Lis. Yea it might be a good strategy if no one buys. I doubt that their intention is to secretly sell to a few people then close the doors. I would argue that the first 14 days is when the vast majority of IM products are bought. After that it is simply a trickle in for most. They know what they are doing and have developed a strategy to make the most amount of dough possible in a short amount of time. I’m guessing that a large majority of his cult will be a buyer. So, I’m guessing you will have plenty of competition. There are plenty of BANS and StoreStacker sites out there too. Should be interesting.

  You’re pretty savvy. Hopefully you’ll stray from the herd and knock it out of the park.

• Griz // Jul 31, 2009 at 7:28 am

  Hey Gang!

  Damn I knew ND wasn’t going to sail by you lot! Lol

  Needless to say I am obligated to help those who have helped me and hope that my friends are cool with that. BK is spot on in that the noobs will likely screw it up regardless of how well the software is set up. I see some short term black hat opportunities with it but won’t be building 1000’s of .info domains.

  At the moment I am simply milking the blog or rather the search traffic who have proven to be uninterested in reading anything that doesn’t promise immediate riches. Why not? I gave Terry a little peek at some of the income the site is generating these days – income that drops off each time I post. Strange but noticeable and hence why I have left the site alone for the past few months. I do need to change the post once in a while and have kept it to sending traffic that benefits those that have helped me – Court, Lissie, Vic, RT, Frank etc. Needless to say if any of you have something you’d like to flog to my traffic let me know. Try and Splorkproof it if you can!

  What else can I say – I built the site to make gobs of money and it is. I never expected to make friends with it and certainly don’t want to take your money so please ignore any post that is obviously meant for the SE’s. Perhaps I need a BS badge to insert on posts my readers should ignore. lol

  Splork – as always you crack me up and if you see me flogging SBI go easy on me!

• Splork // Jul 31, 2009 at 9:15 am

  Hey Griz. Interesting that you make more money not posting but I’ve found that on some of my sites as well.

  I don’t blame you for pimping these products. People love the idea of easy and fast riches so you may as well make a buck off it. Hopefully I aided a good discussion and got people buying. I have no problem with people making money and buying shit. I enjoy commentating on BS but I really have no interest on the outcome.

  You should create a site like Court. It’s obvious folks are interested in your opinion and would like your help. Charge a a nominal fee that makes it worth your while and that people can afford. You could post once a week and answer questions, much like you used to do on your blog. Win-win for everybody.

• Terry Didcott // Jul 31, 2009 at 10:15 am

  Why do I feel like that won’t appeal to Griz. While he likes to help people, he doesn’t want to be at their beck and call – posting once a week and answering questions is all about that.

  Even I get a ton of the same old dumbass questions in my email from the headless chickens out there so gawd knows what Griz’s inbox must look like. Can you imagine what a couple hundred of them would do with an opportunity to spam the same tired questions over and over and over to a Griz Help Desk!

  LMAO, I wouldn’t want that job…

• bk // Jul 31, 2009 at 12:37 pm

  I think Splork is on to something there Griz, the thing I like about private forums/blogs is you can discuss things there that you can’t in public.
  like this: lol
  L2
  ?
  L3
  ? ? ? ? ?
  ND +autoblog+freehosted+WPMU….etc….
  ? ? ? ? ?
  xrmr ????????????????

  The ND will fit right in.

  btw ..Griz: you didn’t pass along my redirect link for the frustrated blogger that got their site scraped. LOL I didn’t think you would let it go, it could have given one of your readers a stroke and we would be in big trouble….lol

  Shit Griz you are #4 for ND. I also see templates being sold already.

• Griz // Jul 31, 2009 at 3:50 pm

  I’m afraid I just can’t answer the same questions over and over… even for money. I have also found that when you answer one question they send two more and on and on – the moment I accept their money I would be obliged to answer and it would never end. Uggggh! Passive and anonymous income is the only way to do this for me. How Court does what he does baffles me and I don’t mind sending people his way in the least.

• Jesus // Jul 31, 2009 at 4:42 pm

  FLIP THEM! Make some immediate cash off the sites you haven’t updated in 6+ months. Bring it down to 10-20 sites you really feel have growth potential. Flip the rest.

• Splork // Jul 31, 2009 at 8:22 pm

  Yea, it would suck. Can’t blame you a bit. I’m all about the passive and anonymous as well. I would never want to maintain a paid for site. Not in IM for sure. I would have to be really passionate about the topic to do it otherwise. Too lazy.

• Splork // Jul 31, 2009 at 8:24 pm

  Might just do it Jesus. But I’m definitely whittling my shit down to a more manageable level. Focus on them. Utilize AMA, BMD, BCD, Ezine and Court article blogs and get ranked for those with huge potential. All those outlier sites that I never update or whatever I will simply use for backlinks as well.

• Tiptopcat // Jul 31, 2009 at 10:20 pm

  Hello,
  I found my way here via Griz’s site. I am officially a noobie. Check out my basic noobie adsense filled blog for proof.

  When I started looking for ways to make money online last year, I read a lot about BANS. It sounded fantastic and I wanted some of that instant money. However, being ever so cautious, I did a lot of reading and researching and realised that just getting the site does mean instant money. So I walked away and learned bits and pieces from Ed Dale’s 30 day challenge, Caroline Middlebrook on how to set up a wordpress blog and I continue to learn from the likes of Lissie, Griz and now Ben at Make Money online with seo.com

  Now, one year later, I am glad i didn’t get sucked into buying BANS because I don’t think I would have been able to get an ebay affiliate link anyway – so would have completely wasted my money.
  This new Niche Devil thing will be a great money maker for 2 sets of people: those that have affiliate links and know exactly how to set up a couple hundred sites in a short space of time to really milk the opportunity before the bubble burst and Google kicks up a fuss; and two – all the lazy people who want to “make $10,000 in 10 mins”. They deserve to lose their cash. If you are not prepared to put in the time – get ready to be exploited to the max.

  Anyhoo – back to the subject of the post:
  There are soooo many money making opportunities that it really is hard to stick to one thing and concentrate all your efforts. I plan to make just info barrels this month but I know i will get distracted and start more blogger blogs.
  I suppose we will just have to get used to our brains wanting to push and pull us into different directions at the same time.

• Ben // Aug 2, 2009 at 1:55 am

  Interesting take guys. I too have some serious doubts about the long term profitability of ND — so I agree with Grizz on that point.

  I can understand Grizz’s frustration with answering the same damn questions over and over. How he did two years of that boggles my mind.

  In regards to ND, I can see a quick way to make some money by flinging out 1000 or so sites and scooping in the cash before the entire house of cards crashes. I want to cash in and cash out. I may not make anything, but I have a suspicion I might just be able to. And what the hell, I like pushing the boundaries of what’s possible or not, so it’s a personal challenge.

  But, there is no “easy money” to be had — that’s fucking for sure.

  Anyways, I’m making enough from my other IM ventures to have a brief and hopefully very torrid affair with ND. We’ll all find out in short order if it’s bull shit or not.

  Wish me luck lol, I’m going to need it for the next two weeks.

  Ben

• Stephen // Aug 2, 2009 at 1:03 pm

  Hey splork,

  I just wanted to say that I enjoyed reading your comments over on Grizz’s blog; I am glad that the first real question mark thrown up about ND in his comments section was put forth in an intelligent and well thought out manner instead of by someone with a short fuse going off half-cocked. : )
  … of course that didn’t save you from taking some shots, lol …

  I have not visited/lurked here in a while (my bad) and am enjoying your stuff so future visits now on the agenda : )

  Re. your spread thin frustrations: I am there with you; before Grizz and others went and opened my eyes to the way things really work in the MMO world, I didnt really have much of a web presence, now I find myself with sooo many little sites everywhere and when you stop and think about it all it can really make you wonder. On top of it all I have not been among the more successful out there (too much time spent babying, I believe) and to that end, I have recently ‘relaunched’ myself (lol) or rethought my efforts and approach and feel that I am the better for it. I understand your message of focus and believe that will be more my route for the next little while. I really do have alist of things like most do and look forward to each time that I can honestly tick another thing off the list. However at the sametime I do believe that there has to be some multi-tasking going on to reach any level of success.

  BTW, to those who brought up the subject, Grizz does have that second site out there already, right? The WP site is one where I would expect Grizz to handle the newbie cries for help while having it earn him at least some coin at the same time; at the least he has helped enough people (moi included) to earn the right to let his blogger blog flagship become just a money pump – esp if he can still help somewhere else. (but that is not a stipulation or anything lol)

  Okay, time to end this rambling and sign off.

  Cheers!

• Splork // Aug 2, 2009 at 8:03 pm

  Hey Tiptocat. You’re right. There are a lot of different ways to make money. Just have to find what works for you best. I like to point out both what’s good and bad for me. Grain of salt should be taken and stirred carefully. Thanks for reading.

• Splork // Aug 2, 2009 at 8:07 pm

  Cool Ben. Good luck. If anyone can make a go of it I’m certain you can. I think it will be useful for people willing to put in a large amount of work up front with keyword and niche topic selection and get to the front and scoop up the cash before it crashes. I think speed will be important.

• Splork // Aug 2, 2009 at 8:08 pm

  Hey Stephen. Thanks for reading. I hope I can keep finding decent stuff to write about.

• Phaz // Aug 3, 2009 at 8:34 pm

  Splork, love this site It’s almost like a quiet getaway for those who read Vic and Griz without all the extra noise. I’ll be looking forward to future postings.

  I too read, Griz, Vic, and Court. While I loved getting information from Vic’s vids, I noticed that he’s always promoting “products” to buy. I’ve never read Griz even mentioning using BMD or socialbookmarking as link building methods, but Vic seems insistant upon it in order for the “average joe” to get anywhere. I’m not trying to knock anyone though, I love the information everyone has I just don’t see ND that appealing.

  I’ll also agree that nothing is more demoralizing than putting time and effort into a site, starting to see a change and then have something come along to screw it up. Lets face it, noone wants to start from scratch after putting time and effort into building links.

  An example would be with blogspot. I don’t trust making a blog on there and enabling their feeds(I’ll only go into it if anyone really cares why), but without that you have no sitemap which makes things a tad more difficult. There’s a whole bunch of headaches, but I like to do as much as possible with as little money spent. Maybe that’s my problem, but I do see results when I put time into it. Anyone else feel the same?

• Tucson SEO // Aug 4, 2009 at 1:12 am

  Funny I should stumble across your post…I was just thinking the same thing.

  In business they call it the point of diminishing returns. Micro niche sites are great, but unless you have got one that is on fire, income will be limited. Like you I have the same reservation about standing up one or two “flagship” blogs and putting all of my eggs in those baskets.

  I think I am going to focus on a dozen or so sites that have profit for high traffic and profit. Time will tell if it is prudent or not.

  Thanks for the great post.

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