Using Fiverr To Promote Your Business

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Since I am a huge fan of Fiverr.com - as a buyer - not (yet) a seller - I figured a few words about the site where you can "Hire people to do things for $5" were in order.

Cheap Labor

Talk about cheap labor.  I'll give you an example....

I own a lot of websites - lots.   Often times when I start a new project to "test the waters" and see if I can gain any traction in that market I don't worry too much about graphics and such, but more often that not - and especially lately - I'll start a new business/website with the intent of branding it right away.

How do you brand?

Well that's a multi answer question and if you really want to know you should read the book "Brand Against The Machine", but for the purpose of this discussion - one sided though it may be - is that (in my mind anyway) after coming up with the idea and seeing that it is worthwhile pursuing after some good keyword research and the like you should have a Logo.

Back to the cheap labor or fiverr idea....

I was paying up to $150.00 for a good logo before I found fiverr.  I am sure there are plenty of good graphic artists and business marketing companies - ad agencies and the like - that charge even more than that.

The thing is - you can get the same work done - often times even better work done - by people offering their services on fiverr.  Amazing!

I re-learned a hard and expensive lesson recently after re-doing 5 of my old sites that were just plugging along - mostly just information type sites - but good original content and consistent traffic, albeit not much.

I paid $25.00 to have five different logos/headers/branding graphics made for each of theses sites.   What I can tell you is that not only has my return visitor traffic increased, my customer's overall "time spent on the site(s)" has more than doubled and I have increased sales by a huge factor.

Now what does this all have to do with using fiverr to promote your business?

All of this (and the logo/graphics/branding thing is just a small part - you can get a lot of other types of website promotion done from those on fiverr willing to do it) got me to thinking.

How can I use fiverr to promote my own business(es) or broker some work (charge more and get it done for less) and make some (maybe big) money?

1) Maybe offer a service that I would normally charge $25 or $50 for - local client stuff, etc - Things that I would normally do myself or pay one of my employees to do - and farm out the work to those on fiverr - for five bucks!  Outsourcing.

2) What about offering a "loss leader" on fiverr for work that I do - and then in the follow up after the sale let them know that I have a website/business that not only does that kind of work - but a whole lot of other stuff too.  If you (or me - or anyone) can use fiverr in this way and attract clients I think in many cases it is well worth the money.

Not only is it cheap advertising - it's smart advertising.

Here's Fiverr's take on what they have to offer over there.

fiverr graphic

 

Now I know that's a lot to take in.  I also know that this is a bit of a rambling type post.  But I figured for those who have not heard about fiverr or for those who have but never really considered using them - either as a buyer or a seller - might want to take a second look and see what they have to offer.

My personal testimonial/review about them - as a buyer -  is that you sometimes have to go through a couple of people to find the ones that really satisfy.  If you do decide to hire someone just take a look at their satisfaction rating  and how long they have been offering the "gig".   The good ones will have positive reviews and a rating above 90%.

That's it for now.  I'm off to the lake.

Jack

Filed Under: Business, Internet Marketing Tagged With: , ,

Does SEO Still Work?

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Things have changed a lot in the last 6 months or so in the internet marketing world - at least for those who built their business on the premise of getting free traffic (free advertising) from Google.

image of crying kidIt turns out that the big G didn't like getting gamed so they changed the way they rank sites.

What this means is that in many cases, people who were earning a living (sometimes a really good living) by getting free traffic to their websites by having a listing on the first page of the Google search results (that is no longer there) have been (almost) wiped out.

Boo Hoo...

I've said on this site - and others - that that was not a viable business model.  It was while it lasted - but as in most things in life, things change.

So what to do now?

There are some folks who say it is important to build a brand. (I'm in that camp)

There are others who say they have the search engine game figured out again.  One of those is Chris Rempel.  (nice guy, excellent marketer - he even commented regarding my thoughts on this matter down below)

Once in a while I make my way over to his Lazy Marketers blog to see what he has to say.

Chris feels that it is a total waste of time to try and build a brand because Google can just wipe your site out of its listing whenever they want.  This is true.  If all you ever do is try and game them. Which has been his business model from the beginning.  It's probably true that you can still game them - and says he has proof.  But why?

Ignore Google?

Why not just ignore Google?  If you happen to rank - great.  You get some free traffic.  If not, no big deal - because you are building a brand (and a customer base) that doesn't rely on Google.

Things are ever changing in not just the internet business, but in every kind of business.  If you want to make a living (and have a business that will last) by selling stuff to people you need to make them happy.  The thing about SEO in the past ie. gaming Google - was that you really didn't need to have a product that was all that good.  You just needed lots and lots of (free) traffic.  The percentages took care of themselves.

Now that it is much harder to "rank" in the SERPS - and that Google is putting more and more "paid" advertisements on their front page people are finding that they have to have an actual product that people are willing to pay for in order to make any money.

Can the SERPS still be gamed?

There are plenty of companies in the SEO business that will tell you that they have the "new secret key" for getting a site ranked on the first page of the SERPS.  This is still probably true.  But the days of using the search engines as a business model are drawing to a close.

I think that in less than five years SEO as a business model will pretty much be dead.  The search engines are very quickly becoming relegated to just another "app" that one downloads onto their smartphone or tablet.  One will still be able to get some traffic and business from them, it will just be a lot different in years to come.

Branding with Pinterest, Apps, and Others

Sites like Pinterest, You Tube, and others such as Instagram have come along and made it much easier to build a brand and drive traffic and in many cases paying customers right to your site.  One does not need Google anymore to make money online.

I'll write more in the future about how to ignore Google, build a brand - and still build an online business, but for now...

Good luck out there,

Jack

Filed Under: Business, Internet Marketing Tagged With: , ,

Sell Health vs Market Health Affiliate Review

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I've been selling health products on the internet for quite a long time now and figured I'd do a quick review on two of the top rated health affiliate programs - Sell Health and Market Health.

Affiliate Products To Promote

sell health products onlineBoth of these programs have a lot of excellent products that you can sell - from acne and other skin care products such as wrinkle creams and scar lotions and such.  These are excellent affiliate products to promote if you have traffic in the niche, and still good even if you don't - more on that below.

They also have Male and Female enhancement products, Anti aging, HGH Releasers, Low Testosterone supplements and the like.  These are some of my personal best sellers and I'll tell you a little bit of how I go about selling them further down the page.

I have achieved Super Affiliate status and make a full time income working from home - a dream for many people, and unfortunately not one that is easily achieved.

Who's Better - Sell Health or Market Health?

Keep in mind that the following is personal opinion and I am going to tell you which of these companies I make the most money with and that one will obviously be my favorite.  Both companies have their benefits and I am more than happy to argue/discuss with anyone if they disagree with me.

Far and away - above and beyond - the top rated company to go with if you are looking to make good money on the internet selling health products is... Sell Health.

Why Is The Sell Health Affiliate Program Better?

I'll list a few things off the top of my head.  Then you can check them out and see for yourself.

  • Cookies Last A Long Time! That's right. If someone clicks on your link today but does not purchase and then later goes directly to the vendor site and makes a purchase you get credit anyway. (as long as they didn't clear their cookie cache of course, but few people do that very often).
  • Besides... have you noticed that some companies (such as Amazon) only offer 24 Hour cookies?  Other companies offer 10 day to 30 day ones, and you can find some that offer as much as 90 days, but that is pretty much the max.
  • Repeat Orders!  People will re-order products and when they do you get another commission from the sale.  Very few companies will do this for you.  Most vendors out there are more than happy to have you do ALL the work of getting them a new customer, paying you once, and not even saying thanks for all of the repeat business they are getting off of your hard work.
  • Excellent Commissions!  Sell Health pays the highest commissions of any health product affiliate company out there.  Market Health's commissions are nearly as good too.
  • The amazing thing is this.  There are other affiliate networks selling similar (and in some cases the exact same) products and paying less than a 10% commission.  This pales in comparison to the 40 -50% commissions that Sell Health pays.
  • Twice Per Month Payments.  Both Market Health and Sell Health pay twice per month, but many other companies pay only once per month. The thing I like about both of these companies is that if I make a sale between the 1st and 15th of the month I will get paid within two weeks.  The edge goes to Sell Health on this one, as they will cut the check as early as 5 days after the pay period ends, whereas Market Health waits until the end of the month.
  • Sell Health has a better back end.  What I mean by that is a couple of things.  First of all - they make it real easy to get your banners, links, make tracking codes, etc.  They also have a lot more marketing resources you can use such as articles that you can use (spin or rewrite) in your marketing efforts.  They also provide more tips and advice about how to go about doing things correctly.  (honesty is the best policy type stuff)
  • Access To Affiliate Manager.  The nice thing about Sell Health is how quickly they respond to your questions and concerns, as well as any suggestions and requests you might have such as making a custom banner for you.  You can email them, or call them, and they take care of your needs.
  • Honesty In Marketing.  Not that I have any complaints in this area about the Market Health Products, but every single one of the Sell Health Products has a generous money back guarantee.  They also make it real easy for your customers to order.  Many people still are not comfortable putting in credit card numbers over the internet - so they have the option to either call and place an order, or even fax one in.  (pretty sure not many people do that anymore, but hey... the option is there).

beach butt imageSleazy Marketing Tactics?

I have not had any concerns with Sell Health as far as any sort of sleazy marketing tactics. 

The company is above board and I highly recommend them.  Market Health is good too,  I make decent conversions and commissions from them, but I get a different feeling from them.

Maybe it is some of the kinds of products they sell (Slap Happy - anyone?), or maybe it's that they aren't up front with their pricing, (you have to fill out a form with your name and email before they tell you how much their product costs - probably excellent lead capture and "follow up" emails to sell product - but I think affiliate conversions suffer because of it )

Or maybe their "testimonials" seem made up sometimes.  I'm not quite sure what it is about them, probably a little bit of all those things.

More Complaints With Market Health's Affiliate Program

Market Health does a good job too, but my sales conversions are quite a bit lower with them and think that's because of the way their product landing pages are.  Market Health does not provide any sort of pricing for their products until a customer fills out a form with their personal information.

Affiliate Conversions Suffer With Market Health?

I think (I know) that turns a lot of people off.  Why not just show the price of the product up front?  I have tested the exact same traffic (by alternating links and banners) sending the potential customer to similar products that each company sells and my conversions are nearly twice as much with Sell Health as they are with Market Health. (in almost every case)  

My Recommendation?

So if you are looking for the best health product affiliate program I highly recommend Sell Health over Market Health. (but join Market Health too - just another option to use when your Sell Health offers aren't converting)

Both companies have plenty of benefits to them, they just go about things differently and Sell Health's interface is much easier (and faster) to use when you are making a new link that you want tracking on.

Sub-Affiliates? Make money off of the people you recruit.

sell health sub affiliate program commissionsBeing an internet marketer myself, I know that when I see a product that I think I can sell I always look to see if the company that is selling it offers an affiliate program.

If the page I landed on happened to be an affiliate's marketing/selling/landing page and not the vendor's main site - and the affiliate is a smart one - they will have an "affiliates" or "webmasters" link somewhere on the page.

Usually near the bottom.  I have no idea how many people I am making money for every day, but I know they are happy I clicked on that link and signed up as an affiliate too.  Because now they have me as a sub-affiliate.

Both Market Health and Sell Health will pay you commissions on sub-affiliates too, meaning that if you refer another marketer and they sign up and start selling products you will get a small commission off of their efforts.  Usually 5% or so.

As a matter of fact, that is the main reason I wrote this article.  I hope that you will visit these companies through the links I provide on this page and sign up with them so I can make some money off of your efforts.  Not to worry though, your commissions will not be any less than what they would be if you don't use my links.

If you do sign up through the links (or banners) on this page I'd appreciate it if you would let me know.  I'd like to help you sell lots and lots of stuff so we both make more money.

What's The Easiest Way To Sell Health Products On The Internet?

Next I am going to tell you one of the best ways to sell health (and most any other) products for that matter.

If you already have a website that gets more than 100 unique visitors a day then you probably don't need any sort of affiliate income advice as you can just put up banners and write another article extolling the virtues of a certain product and start getting sales, but most people don't have that yet, so here's how I would go about it (and did myself in the beginning).

As a matter of fact I still use this tactic because it works so well.

Take Advantage of Brand New Keywords

(I talk at length about this in my new e-book.  You learn more specific techniques by signing up for it HERE.)

I am assuming that you know enough about internet marketing that you know what a keyword is.  If you don't know, you will soon enough.  Basically a keyword is anything that someone will type into the search box on Google, Yahoo, etc. when they are trying to find something out.

They may be looking for "product X review", or typing in something like "is product X any good?"  That's how you ended up on this page right?  Good. Now that we have that out of the way...

Product Name Keywords

You started (or are starting) an internet business to make money right?

If you have been at it for any length of time you have found out that making sales is hard.  It is not nearly as easy as what you were led to believe.  You probably spent good money on some sort of e-book that promised you an easy way to get rich, and found out that you got suckered into something that just does not work.

It will also be worth your time to visit Becker's Source-Wave site.  Lots of good stuff from beginning to advanced.

Anyway... I digress(ed).  I was starting to talk about Product Name Keywords and how to use them to your advantage.

Everyone knows how hard it is to rank a site (or page on a site) for the very popular keywords.  It is also (usually) very expensive to buy traffic - as in advertise - with Google Adwords, Facebook, and the like.

What you want to be on the lookout for is a brand new product.  If you are into keyword research - and if you are not, you should be.  Once again I'll recommend Source-Wave for lots of free information.  Check them out.

The reason you want a brand new (or little known) product is that the competition is very minimal, and in many cases non existent.  If you write an article with the "brand new product" keyword in the title you can have your article on the first page of Google within minutes sometimes.

This is almost always the case  if you have an established blog or website.

But What Do I Do Specifically With A Brand New Product Keyword?

The keywords I am talking about here are not ones that are attached to huge established brands (in most cases).  It will be hard (for most people) to rank for Nike's Newest Running Shoe or Apple's Newest Product in short (or even long) order.

No.

What you want to be on the look out for is things like this:

  • Product promotions that you get in the mail.  (male enhancement anyone?)
  • Late Night Television product ads. (skin and hair care products)
  • Late Night Radio Ads.  (hair care - baldness cures - etc.)

The idea is to piggyback your efforts on top of the efforts that the product sellers are already doing.  Sometimes you can become an affiliate for that particular product, but the best and easiest way to use that "new product name keyword" is to already be an affiliate for a similar product and offer "your product" as either a "better one" or a "good alternative" for your customer to check out.

You want to be honest when talking about any product.  If you have not used the product you should say so.

People know when someone is trying to be sneaky.  Some of my best selling pages are the reviews where I say something like - "this "new product keyword" looks like it might be pretty good, but maybe you should check out "my affiliate product keyword" as they have tons of happy user testimonials, an excellent money back guarantee, etc.".

I also have great success ripping on the blatant lies that all of the scammy male enhancement marketers tell.  I just point out the obvious in a 300 -1000 word article and then tell them that if they are looking for something that actually works they should take a look at "product X". (my product)

What Kind Of Conversion Rate Should You Expect?

Now don't get discouraged here when I tell you that you can expect "only" about a 2 - 3% conversion rate.  What that means that is for every 100 people that you get to click through your affiliate link only two or three of them will buy something.  Less expensive products will often get you a better conversion rate, but that means a lesser commission too.

I sell lots of product through Amazon, but what you get as a commission (4 - 8% usually) - lets take an average of 7% - means that I have to sell $10,000.00 worth of stuff to make $700.  Lots of sales for very little reward.

Compare that to Sell Health's products where the average commission is 40 - 50% and the average sale (for me anyway) is just over $200.00.  That means I only need 7 - 8 sales to make the same amount of money as selling $10,000.00 worth of product through my Amazon affiliate links.

It takes just as much effort to write a review article for a $20 Amazon product where you'll make $1.50 in commission as it does for a Sell Health or Market Health product where you'll make $50 - $200 (or more) in commission.   The same amount of effort.  Think about that.

What If I Don't Have A Website?

You don't have a website?  No problem.  You can write your review articles on many, many different "free sites", and your "new product name keyword" will rank real well.  Oftentimes better than even if you have a website of your own.  This is because these sites have more authority than your own site.

What Are Some Good Sites To Use?

I'm going to tell you about just two sites you should can use that work well for me.  USFreeAds and Squidoo work well for me, along with Weebly, and other sites that you can make a free blog on.

I could give you dozens more, but then you'd wonder which one is best.  There is no best.  Except for your own once you build it the right way using the info you can get for free from Becker at Source Wave.

Hopefully this 2400+ word article has given you some insight and pointed you in the right direction.  If you skipped right to the bottom, here is what I recommend.

Sign Up With Sell Health first.  Go through all of their marketing material, newsletters, tips and advice on how to go about selling their products.  If you have been marketing on the internet for a while now then you can just jump right in and grab some links or banners to test out how well they work.  Then go and sign up for my FREE E-BOOK.

After you have some sales and traffic with them, then sign up with Market Health.  They do have more offers to choose from and quite a few CPA offers too.  Test out both networks with the traffic you are generating and see which one converts better for you.

Good Luck out there.

Jack

Click on the banner below to be taken directly to the affiliates page of Sell Health.

And the following is the Market Health affiliate site.

Filed Under: Internet Marketing Tagged With: , , , , ,

The Two Rules

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picture of earth and sky - the two rulesSome people spend hours a day on the internet.  Myself included....  although I don't consider my time on the internet a waste.

I suppose very few people who spend hours a day online consider their time wasted, although if they spent any time actually thinking about what they accomplished during all of those hours they might think otherwise.

"What else is there to do?"  Some might ask.

Other people might say that it is "entertainment".

True.

All of them.

The beauty of it is this.

No one has to justify anything to anybody.

We live our lives.

To each his own.

As long as everyone follows two very simple rules.

Rule #1

Do everything you have agreed to do.

Rule #2

Do not encroach upon any other person or their property.

It is that simple.

If you really think about it.  These two rules, if followed, will help to avoid 99.9% of the problems in this world.

After all....

......... every problem starts out as an individual one.

The problems of  "society" at large have all started out as individual's problems.

Oftentimes "government" rushes in to "fix" the problem.

The thing is this.

Individual "problems" can not be fixed by government, or any group of people.

We all have free will.

We can do whatever we want...

As long as we follow the two rules.

If we choose to not follow the two rules, then in many cases other people will start to impose their rules upon us for our misbehavior.   Or for our own good.

This is of course notwithstanding all of the far overreaching rules and regulations imposed upon us by our "benevolent governments".

We should all have a right to private contract without interference from anyone.  Especially from our governments.

Thanks Richard.

NOTE: This line of thinking is thanks to Richard Maybury.  Mr. Maybury has published a number of books including the Uncle Eric series.

 

Filed Under: Home & Family Tagged With: , ,

Self Motivation… and the List

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Building a successful business at home using the internet as your playing field takes a fair amount of self motivation, and without a daily list of things to do one is hard pressed to make a living at it.

That's because most people need a boss to tell them what to do.  Let me explain.

You may say that you don't need a boss.  That you are self motivated.  That you don't need anyone to tell you what to do in order to accomplish something.  Great.  But I bet you still make a list of things to do don't you?  You might even be in the rare 1/2 of 1% who don't even need to write anything down in order to bring a project to its successful conclusion.

Either way, The List exists in some form.  If it does not, you are probably not even reading this far down the page.

I am a true believer in The List being the boss.  Obviously someone has to write the list.  If you are self employed, you are the one making the list after all.  You can justifiably call yourself  "your own boss".    Congratulations.  If you haven't leveraged every thing you own and all of your credit cards to the point that you are now just breaking even, I salute you.

If you are drowning in debt, having panic attacks, losing sleep at night, and generally feeling a sense of bewilderment about when things are going to change, then I suggest you cut your losses now, file bankruptcy if you have to, and start over.  Maybe all that you need is a debt settlement attorney.  Either way...

Yep.  Take your lumps.  Do it.  It will be the best thing you ever did.  Take it from someone who's been there.  Find yourself a bankruptcy attorney that you can afford (they will negotiate), and stick your middle finger to all of those who believed in you.  That you gave your word to.

Yeah.  It sucks.

If you know deep down inside, that your current business model has no chance of succeeding, even with five more years of 12 hour days and a lot of luck then it is time to pull the plug.  Shed some tears if you have to.  You'll come out better in the end.  Trust me.

Okay.  All of that out of the way, I have a few more things to say about that Damn List.

Building a business online, or anywhere else takes an awful lot of time and energy.  I don't care about all of those emails you get from the self sanctifying gurus who tell you otherwise.

Those guys are full of shit.

Everyone of them.

Not that they don't have something good to say.  A lot if their ideas have some value.  But if you are buying everything that comes along that is called something along the lines of Emergency Money Machines and wondering why you aren't able to make money online, I will tell you.

YOU DON'T HAVE A LIST!!!!

A list is a plan of action.  That you follow. The list is your boss.

I have yet to buy an online money making course that actually gave me a list of things to do.  Yeah, they might talk about this or that, and give you a general direction to go in, but I have yet to see 1-2-3 and A-B-C.   Save for the Keyword Academy.

Even as much as I respect Fraser at Keyword Strategy, his stuff is for the middle and upper tier marketers who already have something going on.  There is a place for all of it.  I pay both the KWA and KWS monthly because they provide me value.  And they are honest.

I still occasionally work a 10 or 12 hour day.  It is exhilarating.  But the thing is... two years full time in internet marketing , and a previous decade of 16 hour days and another 100 dollars in debt (every day) for the effort ( and a couple of bankruptcies) has taught me a few things.  One thing in particular.

I need a list.

A list of things to do.  Otherwise I barely get anything done.

You should have one too.

Without The List, I would not be making a living at home, in my man cave, without anyone to answer to but myself (and occasionally my wife).

All the best,

Jack Folsgood

 

Filed Under: Business Tagged With: , , ,

Can The Little Guy Still Make A Living On The Internet?

By 11 Comments

Figuring out how to get and keep an income by building a website or websites seems to be a constantly changing battle.  The most recent Google search engine algorithm changes have many webmasters up in arms.  It seems that what used to work as far as gaming the SERPS no longer works as well as it used to.

The ideas that most of the purveyors of internet riches are selling in their "$30,000.00 in 90 days" Clickjunk Crap Programs aren't working so well anymore.  Google is on to the game and is working hard to identify the spammasters and kill them off.  The big G really does not seem to care all that much if all of these "updates" kills off a big chunk of their income as long as they can make the "search experience useful for their users".

Great!  Now what am I supposed to do?  Build an actual website that can help someone?  (more on that later)

The internet (with regard to SEO) has been up until this point (2011) been free and open, much like the days of the old wild west.  The Search Engines have been like the banks that sprouted up in every little town and anyone with enough guts, determination, and persistence could break into the bank and take as much money as they pleased.  (well... not as much as they pleased, but enough to make a living at it in many cases)

Those who have been working tirelessly to optimize their websites and build links, links, and more links in order to get on the first page of Google are starting to realize the jig is just about up.  Many of these folks have had their "business" cut out from underneath them.  But was it really a "business" in the first place?  Not according to a guy named Fraser over at Keyword Strategy.

Just look at the recent Google updates. They have come fast and furious and many of those with "thin" sites have all but been knocked out of the SERPS never to return again.  The time it takes for the Search Engine Masters of the Universe to realize that they are getting robbed is getting shorter and shorter.  Splork has a good article about one recent technique that spammers used to work the "trends" recently.

While I am quite sure that "bank robbing techniques" such as these aren't going away anytime soon, I am quite sure that this one in particular won't gain any traction and make anyone any money for very long.  Yahoo is way too smart for that.  Besides, it is embarrassing to them.

Having been in business my whole life, (paper route at 8 years old, chicken farmer at 12) I have learned a thing or two about advertising, and when I realized that I could get "free advertising" from the SERPS it seemed almost too good to be true.  Many of those who built up a nice internet income from all of this free advertising provided by Google seem to think that the big G owes them something.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

I remember one time committing to $12,000 worth of radio advertising (for one of my local "brick and mortar" businesses) because it seemed like a good idea at the time (and the sales gal was really cute) only to realize 60 days or so later that I had completely wasted  my money.  Who's fault was that?  Did the radio station owe me?  Hell no.  My fault.  Take your lumps and move on.

All of this being said, another thing I am quite sure of is that 10 years from now there will still be plenty of guys hawking e-courses that promise "Internet riches of 1 million in 90 days" and there will be plenty of anxious buyers, even at the incredibly low price of $19,997.00.  (inflation you see)  I also know that even if there is some semblance of an ability to actually make that kind of money from a course like that, that less than 1/10 of 1% will actually follow it and make any money with it.

So where to go from here?

Having built some semblance of authority type sites over the last year and a half and not really having taken a big hit in income due to the last "updates", I am going to side with Fraser Cain and say that the days of thin spammy type sites that are relying on adsense and even Amazon products are going to have a hard time maintaining position in the SERPS for any length of time, even if they have thousands of backlinks.

I'm not saying that "back links" are not important anymore, but they sure are a lot less important than some people would have you believe.  Quality is key, not only with the content on your site, but also with where your links are coming from.

So if you have not yet wasted your money on a "10,000 back links for $20" deal, save your money.  That shit stopped working over two years ago.  Now even sites with "better back links" from original content articles spread across the web on high quality blogs are getting killed off.

I'm not saying that these sites deserved what they got in the recent update, and if they are truly genuine original content that actually helps people with their search query then they should and probably will come back to rank quite well.

Those of us who have been building websites for a while now and ranking them in the SERPS with little difficulty are now realizing that it won't be so easy in the future to do so with our current business model(s).  This in not to say that there won't be a place for certain kinds of niche sites and such in the future, but for a real long term sustainable income from the internet I think that a larger perspective is in order.

Those of us who have had some monetary success by way of the internet for the last couple of years or so have a lot of talent as far as how to build a website, optimize it, gain the attraction of the SERPS, etc., but we really need to take a good hard look at what we are "building" and ask ourselves if it will last.

I'm personally going the way of building an internet business model that will capture the attention of, and gain long term returning visitors and customers.  Something that won't bend to and fro with the whims of the likes of Google and whoever else is going to replace them.  I am looking ten years out to 2021 and building something that will be worth 10 million bucks (in today's dollars) at that point.  What are you going to do?

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The Categorization of Electrons – New ERIAL Project Goes Bananas

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It seems that the only people who are really able to appreciate the value of a good internet search engine are over 30 years old.  With the likes of Google, Yahoo, and hundreds of others, the Search Engine Masters of the Universe are doing everything that they can to figure out how to categorize all of the quintillions of electrons floating out in cyberspace and organize them in a way that people can understand what the hell they all mean.

Some of those electrons are gathered in such a way that they are a lot more desirable than other clumps of lesser quality ones.  It is the former of those that get listed at the top of the SERPS.

But I digress.  Check out this article written by Sarah Kessler about a recent ERIAL study where they tested college kids on their ability to conduct a meaningful search for topics with meaningful interest. (meaning they were thought to be important)

I first read about the study via Yahoo News.  You can do your own search and find plenty of other results too.

It seems that this current generation of 20 somethings (and I would imagine ages 8-17) can't figure out how to find the things they need on the internet when using the top search engines.

I am imagining the study was funded by Google.  But I'm not really sure because I was to lazy to check that out.  It's mentioned in one of the articles that Ethnographic Research in Illinois Academic Libraries project  carried out the study, but I have not taken the time to check out who funds them. Nor do I really care to.

Maybe it is the cynical side of me that just assume that Google funded it because the gist of the article (written by an unbiased Google staffer of course... in my mind) seemed to blame the college students for their lack of ability in this very important matter.  It is very important after all.  wink, wink.  There are better search engines than Google after all.

Perhaps I'll debate (later on) whether or not it is important or not.  Maybe people can get by without the instant access to any fact they could possibly want to know about.  Maybe it's not important.  Probably it is not as important as the multi-billion dollar Google would like it to be.

Maybe, just maybe, the reason these smart college kids couldn't find what they wanted in order to gather facts for important research articles is that Google (and others) still haven't figured out how to categorize all of those electrons in a proper way.  Meaning that other than things that people are shopping for (where the money is made) the ability to categorize things in a meaningful way, and ability to comprehend way, is still a long way off.

Or maybe it's true (as the Article mentioned above suggests) that college aged kids are just stupid and Google is doing a fine job.

I don't know.  I never went to college.  It seemed like it would be a waste of my time.  20 years past my college aged prime years I am quite sure I made the right decision.

Not to rip on college.  I think it's a great place to waste a half a decade.  Especially if mommy and daddy are paying the bill.  Who knows... you might come out with something important to do.  You might even make some great discoveries.  Either way, college is important for those who need it (and are focused and smart enough to actually use the time their wisely).

What I do know is that I am 42 and I use Google and Yahoo a lot and find them quite useful for anything I wish to find.  But I am an internet marketer.  And I see what I want to see.  Meaning I comprehend what I see differently than other people who don't spend their time online looking for stuff.

The search engines are important to me because I use them to make a living.  Sometimes it seems that the Masters of the Universal Search are doing everything that they can to make my job harder.  They say that they do this to improve the quality of the top showing results.  I am not yet convinced, because democracy is always doomed to fail.

I think that Google especially will be around for a while as a relevant search engine, but in its current form, which seems so big, will be relegated to a mere app that you download 1st into your smartphone, (which already has happened), and in 50 years into that chip you (voluntarily) placed in your head.  Just a tiny bit of code, and Google will be down to a couple dozen engineers and programmers to keep the power on, the electrons properly categorized, and the viruses and worms at bay.

 

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