Closed Indefinitely…Because I Was Wrong and I Intend to Stop Adding Junk to the Web

If you haven’t noticed by now, any prior content that I’ve published on this blog has been delegated to what I now call “The Old Archives.” Rather than go into a long drawn out story about why I needed a clean slate and consequently removed what I believed to be erroneous content, suffice to say I’m bored out of my mind blogging about questionable niche website practices, writing content for search engines and building questionable links – you know all the artificial things that we do to make ourselves believe that our websites are an asset to the web. There is really only so much I can take before I bash my head against my monitor out of sheer boredom and frustration that I fooled myself (and my readers) into believing I’m building a “business.”

The Shocking Truth…

For the past 2 years I blogged a great deal about quasi-SEO (or what I thought to be SEO), building niche websites, flipping websites, etc. I used many tools to help build spammy, artificial, low-quality junk links and I spent a great deal of time waiting to be ranked — favorably of course. Ultimately, I got what I wanted (read: rankings) but it wasn’t sustainable and it was mind-numbing and certainly not what I was passionate about doing since I only wanted to get in, get ranked, get paid and then get out.

In truth, I am guilty of adding a lot of junk to the web and like a drug, I kept running back to the “eggs in hundreds of baskets” mentality or the “multiply junk websites and conquer by making passive income in my sleep without really providing anything of value besides outsourced reviews of John Deere Tractors that are hosted on a trademarked infringed exact match domain name and are a re-write of the material found on the branded domain because even though I don’t own a farm or have use for a John Deere tractor, the CPC is so high that I can’t pass this up since Adsense is the only way to go to truly make money” mentality.

…did you get that? Good.

Lately I have been on a mission of tweeting a great deal of noteworthy articles surrounding authentic SEO / link building as well as tips about launching startups and creating products — the latter being what I finally accomplished during my hiatus. During that time I also cleaned out my RSS reader, choosing to filter out all the erroneous noise and instead focus on people who are actually building something sustainable.

I don’t claim to know it all, not even by a long shot. In fact, I have a minuscule understanding of SEO, but what I do know is that most of the garbage being passed off as so-called SEO isn’t worth its salt. I took the initiative to stop promoting this crap (e.g. like when I stopped selling link packets on an automated link building software forum where I previously served as a moderator) as well as by stopping the spread of substandard affiliate marketing practices through some of my blog posts.

My hiatus is and will continue to be a period for me to refresh and refocus on things that are really important, fulfilling and sustainable for my business.

Open Your Eyes: Who Are You Gonna’ Blame?

Stop blaming Google for your diminishing traffic and earnings because when the going gets tough, you either suck it up and revamp or you go back to your day job!

Google is not your enemy. I repeat: “Google is not the enemy.” It just may be that Y-O-U are your own worst enemy.

The barriers to entry in this business are extremely low, if they even exist at all. Yet and still, this is not the type of business you quit your day job for if all you intend to do is follow the masses and churn out junk website after junk website so that you can live the 4 hour work week lifestyle. If you’re looking for a step-by-step blueprint or someone to hold your hand and reveal their business model and exact websites while you turn around replicate it without thinking outside the box or at least testing it to see if it converts for your own target audience — then this isn’t the business for you.

Affiliate marketing isn’t dead. Promoting someone else’s products instead of creating your own is still very much lucrative, but expecting to get results from dead-end ‘marketing’ tactics and then whining when you don’t get rich within the proverbial 6 months that “gurus” tell you wait doesn’t work.

7 reasons why its best that you keep your day job:

Your website doesn’t really solve a problem or provide a solution because you believe that is the job of Adsense ads.
You don’t know where your audience is online — and you have no intentions of finding out either because long-tail search traffic from Google is all your website needs to survive.
You believe that SEO stands for HubPages, Squidoo, Ezine Articles, mass press release submissions and forum profile links.
The latest WSO that you purchased told you exactly what you need to do in order to make money online.
If Google disappeared, you wouldn’t know how to get traffic since you hedged all your bets on the trickle of traffic you receive from your 70+ websites.
You believe that you DESERVE to be ranked number one in search engine results because you have 5,000+ links while your competitors have less than 100.
Your online marketing strategy = write content + automate backlinks + outsource more content for linkwheels + automate more backlinks to said linkwheels + repeat 4 more times and then start a new website.

If you suffer from these ideologies, these articles may help you: Must-read #1 , Must-read #2 and Must-read #3.

…if you plan to change nothing about your outlook or business model after reading this, then start updating your resume and cover letter. It’s a hard pill to swallow, but Mr. Panda Update meant business.

Blogs, Leaders and Thinkers You Should Be Following

In order to get started off on the right foot online, you should have a trusted source (or sources) from where you can obtain results-proven advice, tips and strategies. Below are a few of the thinkers/blogs that I feel have been paramount to the way I operate online:

Randy Ray – I don’t play poker, but Randy Ray’s Poker SEO blog is by-far one of the best SEO blogs I’ve stumbled upon this year. You see, many webmasters or internet marketers are looking for the latest shiny new toy or “method” to help them make money or trick search engines into bestowing rankings they probably don’t deserve. So when they hear what they believe to be “outdated” methods they run for the hills because “surely that doesn’t work.” Randy’s blog is geared toward poker affiliates, but the same strategies can be applied to any niche market and it is certainly worth your time go back through his archives to see what you could be doing better. Additionally, the archives found here: http://affiliatemarketingprograms.blogspot.com/ (another one of his blogs) are worth reading as well.

Amy Hoy – I’ve been lurking around Amy’s blog for the past few months. When I started searching for some tips on how to accurately price my educational product, I landed on this monumental post. If you’re tired of slinging affiliate products and want to learn how to actually put your knowledge and talents to use by creating and selling your own products, her blog Unicorn Free is a must-read.

Eric Ward – Before the year is up, I fully intend to pay to enlist Eric Ward’s help in order to uncover untapped linking opportunities for my educational product. In the meantime, going back through 16 years worth of link building knowledge from someone coined as “LinkMoses” is certainly opening my eyes to whitehat link building practices that I’ve overlooked.

Leo Dimilo – There are very few people that I allow to invade my inbox and Leo is one of them — and I’ve allowed him to do so for well over one year now because I know the content I’ll read is worth my time. If you’re looking for noteworthy internet marketing strategies and tips, his website as well as his blog is one you should take the time to devour and commit to memory.

Mixergy – This website, run by entrepreneur Andrew Warner, has become a favorite in my RSS reader. I don’t think there’s a comparable website on the net that provides the type of in-depth interviews with successful businessmen and women that you’ll find here. If you want to find out how some of the net’s most popular million dollar online business got their start, what stumbling blocks they faced before they obtained success and how they built hundreds (sometimes thousands of paying subscribers) this is the place to go.

Noteworthy Posts You Should Read Immediately

I suppose I’ll end my “this blog is closed but let me say this one last thing before I stop posting for good this time” rant with a few links to great articles I’ve come across and that I feel should be read by anyone who is currently trying to optimize their website(s) for success — or just get their feet in the door to make money online:

These articles are not a “blueprint” in any sense of the word, but if you’re someone that is willing to piece together a few golden nuggets gleaned from reading and put them into action, it will serve you well. #realtalk

…cheers to your success,

Yolanda

P.S.> Feel free to shout, comment, disagree, or rip me a new one for exposing the truth by reaching out to me on Twitter (@paidinpassive).