Just a quick post to let you know I deleted all the old feeds for MMOFB – seems a spammer now has the site and judging by the facebook comments some of you were getting a bit annoyed… ooops. If I missed any feeds let me know.

Needless to say I have taken the summer off – no computer – just golf!

I vowed this was the year I was going to shoot par or better and it took 93 games to do it… a 71. That is 1 under par or 6 strokes better than Tiger’s last tournament… hehehe…

Unfortunately I have now run out of life encompassing goals so I may have to catch up with the rest of you online. Google plus? Anyone care to fill me in… I’m not kidding when I say I haven’t turned on a computer in a few months. Seems I may have missed a few things…

Just perused my extremely full inbox and yes I am still kicking… thanks to all for your concern.

If I have missed any other Earth shattering news please fill me in otherwise I just wanted to say hello and hope all is well with everyone.

It's been a tough summer...

Cheers,

Griz

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Over the years Google has always relied on a tried and true method of curbing the manipulation of its search algorithm. They take a few well known sites and spank them. Matt Cutts releases a new algo udate post indicating that they now have a way of using the algo to take down sites that don’t fit G’s guidelines and the webverse takes a cumulative dump in its boxers. The example sites are bandied about in forums and leading websites and everyone speculates on the how and why and what this means to them. Google is branded as evil by the losers and cheered by the winners. Happens every time…

Did Google really eliminate all the content farms with this update? Did they really remove all the low quality content from the serps? C’mon… What they did was set an example by slamming some of the most conspicuous violators knowing full well that the marketing establishment would get the word out lickety split. And it did – in record time no less.

Article directories exist for two reasons – to provide adsense earnings for the owner and a backlink for the writers. Those owners and writers who pretend they exist to provide quality content and drive targeted traffic are fooling themselves. Article directories are used to game Google. Ezine Articles is the most conspicuous article directory online. Slap it hard and people will stop using article directories.

Ranking well in the serps still – let me rephrase that – STILL – depends foremost on what links you have pointing to your site. Everyone knows that. G has not found a better way to rank content – maybe they never will. People buy and sell links. If you want to rank well you need links. Google believes that writing quality content will get you links. Sure it will – if you happen to have a site that is information based and you are an authority in your field. The problem is that the majority of sites online don’t fit into this description. Does not an eCommerce site have a right to sell its wares online? Why not? The thing is an eCommerce site is never going to get backlinks from happy purchasers who also happen to own a website and can’t wait to tell their readers how wonderful ABC was in selling them a toothbrush… or oil filter… So what do eCommerce sites do – they buy links. They have too. JCPenny did it and would have likely been left alone (Yes – they spend 30 million a year on adwords but they also happen to be relevant to the keywords they ranked for) had the New York Times not outed them. Overstock.com did it and got spanked. They were outed as well. Can an algorithm pick out all the sites that buy links? Nope. Can a competitor? Yup.

I put up a post yesterday just to make people aware that Google is spending money on manual reviews. Before G spanked EZA they had to be sure that they didn’t act hastily – maybe the content was quality? Spend a little money and review some of the site’s pages and see what the consensus is from paid reviewers. They don’t have to review every post to see a pattern – if 80% of the reviews are negative then they can probably make a few safe assumptions from that data and maybe even find enough common footprints regarding crap content posts that enable them to tweak the algo. This is of course speculation as I don’t know how they decided which pages would be dumped and which would live to see another day.

What I do know is that over the past year I have had a number of readers email me with their own tale of being slapped hard by Google. The first to come forward were the owners of big and successful sites – they all had 10k plus a day visitors, they all made between $5k and $15k a month, they all used adsense, they all had original content and they all had their adsense disabled first and then slowly dropped out of the serps. Did the algo do this? Probably not. They were all in very competitive niches and I am pretty certain they all got reported by the competition or were reviewed by the adsense team. Yes – they all used crappy links – forum profiles and paid links. If the algo can discern these links then they wouldn’t work anymore – but they do. A manual review brought on by complaints would easily see the link manipulation and penalties would be leveled at the sites. And they were. Many of their competitors have link profiles just as shaky but I noticed none used adsense. It is possible that they were manually reviewed by the adsense team and not reported by competitors. Either way – regardless of the content, the sites existed to profit from adsense and were obvious about it. Does Google want to eliminate made for adsense sites? Yes they do but the algo cannot do this on its own. If you are using adsense and questionable linking tactics then you may well get the boot if you make it high enough in the serps to start generating real income. What this threshold is I can’t say but $25/day is probably under the radar – $100/day from a site and you can probably expect a visit at some point. If your links are legit you probably won’t have a problem – if they are spammy then don’t be surprised if you lose your adsense and likely your serp rankings as well. This isn’t all conjecture – I lost 3 of 9 high paying adsense sites this year myself and received two warnings regarding the remaining 6. Guess what – the 3 I lost were all using crappy links to attain ranking. The other six have legit links that have accrued over the years from authoritative sources – media, wikipedia and leading sites in the niche. I never had to build links as the sites grew naturally.

At this point I should clear something up that I saw on a recent Hubpages forum thread. One of the resident experts made this comment;

Its just another theory. Im not sure how Grizz even has an adsense account anymore and Im pretty sure he gets a check from Google’s PR and Propaganda department now to make up for the massive loss to his splog empire after he received manual review.

Two things… G would never pay me and I never built splogs other than a few I used for demo purposes. My readers built splogs unfortunately and G didn’t much like that and nuked me for aiding and abetting. My sites however have grown and prospered because I have always built original quality sites that have a purpose other than adsense – in most cases they provide legit free info that the competition charges for. This is still the best way to get traffic and real links.

I’ve read a lot of comments similar in tone to the one above and it seems people don’t quite get me – I’m not telling you to stop what you are doing – I’m telling you to catch up. What worked in 2008 still works… until you get outed or rise above the radar. If your sites never make it to the big leagues then you have little to worry about but if you find your sites on page 1 for some competitive terms that drive traffic and produce income then you had better beware of the competition. If you are still using 2008 linking tactics then you may be in for a surprise. I’m not telling you this because Google wants me to – I’m telling you this for the same reason I always have – to fleece your pockets. My methods worked in the past as most of you learned and was worth every penny I charged you – funny that people don’t want to listen now. Am I charging too much?

So what exactly am I saying?

Use the knowledge you have acquired, take into account the fact that G will likely review a successful site at some point and make sure you are comfortable having it critically evaluated. I have a small group of readers (Lisa, Kimberly, James, Les etc) who recently asked me to check out their sites – I have and for the most part they all have very good content and provide useful info. I haven’t replied to each individually as I can do so here and perhaps help a few others out at the same time. All the sites (there are 23 in the list) are in one of the following categories; Weight Loss, Insurance, Finance/Banking – Mortgages or CD rates and the ever popular MMO. 23 different people and yet only 5 niches – niches that are known for spam since they are also known for being profitable. Almost everyone is using Adsense (a couple are lead gen sites) and have made some headway for a few popular keywords but haven’t quite reached the “holy shit I’m making big bucks” stage. Let me say this to all – look at page 1 of the serps for your keywords and notice the type of sites G has listed. Most but not all are legit sites in the sense that they are real insurance companies and real banks and real producers of weight loss products. The MMO niche excepted – everyone is a crap site. Now also notice most of the competition doesn’t use adsense – they are selling their own products or services. And you are trying to get page 1 ranking for an info site plastered with adsense…

My point – you may make coin from some of the long tails you rank well for but don’t pursue page 1 ranking for the main keywords. You will get destroyed if you ever succeed and all your work will be lost. Some times you are better off hovering close to but not attaining the top positions – best to stay under the radar and reap what you can for months and years rather than make payday that will be short lived. Yeah I know – F**k you Griz – I’m going for it anyway – what do you know?

I’ll tell you one thing I do know – the friends I’ve met online that are doing well and will continue to do well all have niches that are far removed from the spam topics mentioned above and cater to… drum roll… women and kids. In fact most of the successful marketers I know are women. I live with three females – a wife and two daughters (condolences accepted – thanks) and I am amazed, on a daily basis, about what women find interesting and what they will spend money on. Have any of you guys heard about “silly bands”? Do you know how elaborate kids birthday parties are these days – my wife has no problem spending a small fortune on them. Apparently this is common to mothers everywhere.

Two years ago big business hadn’t caught on to IM – today the big brands are dominating the landscape. Their money buys all the SEO’s they can get their hands on and will eventually own the big niches and most of the long tails that go with them. And G is ok with that as they are still happier with JC Penny ranking number 1 for “bed linens” – gamed or not – than having Bob`s no name adsense site in the top spot. This is the new reality but it doesn’t mean that Bob can’t make a living online. Bob has to find a niche that isn’t brand orientated and there are millions to chose from – start with those that kids and their mothers are interested in. I’m not joking – it works for me. The thing is most of you won’t – you are planning to rank #1 for “Payday Loans” come hell or high water and that’s the end of it. I wish you well.

I say this in all seriousness – many of you have been at this for a few years or more and have shown you are in it for the long haul. Do yourself a favor and stop spinning content, building MFA’s and spamming link profiles – you have enough of those nickle and dime sites – spend at least part of your time (and it is time consuming isn’t it folks?) working on something that will last. You can thank me in 5 years.

I have a ton more to talk about – Facebook – Tests – You Guys – but this is long enough – I hand the crown of “Long Posts” over to Dave at his Marketing blog – always a fun read but pack a lunch… (If you want to lesson your dependence on Adsense he has a lot of free info monetizing with Amazon – huge resource you should read – no sales crap.)

be back…

Cheers

Griz

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Over the years I have had an entourage of Spies who really aren’t that subtle about watching what I do (Statcounter is great for spying on the spies) In truth I have always encouraged people to pay attention to what I do rather than just what I say and a large group of friends have done just that. In part I can’t always speak about everything openly (G gets persnickety about some things) and in part because I really don’t want to give the malicious saboteurs any ideas or ammo. Having said that I want to clear up a few things now that I have re-entered the MMO sewer as my old friend Splork likes to call it. (Quite an apt description I think.)

Before going any further I’d like you to read a couple of comments that Lorecee and Red left on my last post and then I’ll throw in my reply to them.

RED

Grizz, or anyone else that may know…I’m going to test this out soon, but what does everyone think about getting a strong link to be indexed with from the beginning. Is there a better effect or no effect at all by getting a few links and then a strong one, or having your strong one be your first link to get indexed? Anyone test weather G throws more weight in one way or another? My plan was to build “normal links” and then a month later or so then throw in one that will have considerable weight. I was just curious if anyone knew anything about that. I think I remember reading somewhere(possible MMFB) that its good to get a strong link first, but now that things are changing I might want to go as natural as possible. I think I answered my own question, but if anyone else has any input, it would be greatly appreciated. I love theories on this stuff. They are addicting in their own right.

Lorecee

I think I can help Red with his question:

“I’m going to test this out soon, but what does everyone think about getting a strong link to be indexed with from the beginning.”

I’ve been watching the construction process of Griz’s other two MMO blogs. The cardinal rule of bear watching is “watch what he does more than what he says.” Of course you need to remember that that some things he does may be tests, as in don’t try this at home or you might blow something up.

I’ve been wrong before (or so my BF tells me), but it would be just like Griz to model the construction of a new site from the ground up for those who care to pay attention. True or not, he’s sure got mine.

Glad to see you back, Griz. –Lorecee

RED

I’ve actually been watching what Griz has been doing with internetmarketinglessons.ca. It appears to be heavily bookmarked(scuttle plus) on individual posts. I don’t know if this is Grizz’s doing, or if someone just decided to help him out. I also noticed they are on bookmarking sites that are indexed in G and some have pr2′s or higher on their index page. The anchor text looks to be a mixture of heavily targeted and general related terms. I also noticed not just anyone can register on these bookmarking sites. So either, Grizz owns them or a buddy of his does. Or the third option. I once came across a “service” that allowed you access to a number of scuttle plus sites(with PR) for a fee. I’m not trying to blow the lid off anything your doing Grizz, so if you want to edit my post I understand. That being said I think all of the above is common knowledge with the folks that do this IM stuff. It also looks like he is trying to relate the words “Grizzly” and “Brears” with having to do with Internet Marketing and SEO. I’m not an expert on G, but I assume if it finds Grizzly and Brears on pages related to that stuff, it will start to equate those words with having to do with the niche. How many other people will choose those words for their IM or SEO site? Most likely only Grizzly. I guess it helps with branding. Just a theory, though. It may not work like that at all. By the way Grizz, which site should we watch most. Internetmarketinglessons.ca, Grizzlybrears.com, or this one? I’ve already picked the .ca to closely watch. Am I in the right ballpark er.. golf course?

Red,

Believe it or not – I haven’t built a single link anywhere for any of the three sites you mentioned. In fact, this may surprise most of you – I don’t link build anymore and haven’t in ages – yes I do acquire relevant links from appropriate sites but not for G’s benefit and not in any way that falls afoul of G’s guidelines. (I will talk about this in due course on the IM Lessons site.)  The IM.ca site has ranked page 1, position 3 on the Canadian data center for over a month now and page 7 on the US DC. If you are finding links to them then others have been bookmarking – would you believe I have never bookmarked any site – ever.

I have simply created what I consider properly SEO’d on site pages and then wait as the SE’s sort them out. So far they have been indexed quickly (without links) and ranked where they are without experiencing the G dance.

For those watching – the IM.ca site has only two posts. The GB site has 40ish put up rather quickly and then I stopped completely. In both cases G and the other SE’s treated the sites exactly the same – quick indexing and ranking without the usual dancing around.

Why?

Because I don’t manipulate them in any way shape or form. Or to put it another way they mimic a natural progression because they are in fact natural.

Over the past year I have seen this happen over and over again with all the business sites I have built for my clients. No this will not get you to position 1 but that can wait.

My goal with every new site I build is to avoid penalties and gain trust. The easiest way to do this is not to do anything other than introduce optimized content – either slowly or rapidly – makes no difference, just don’t build links. Be patient. Concentrate on optimized long tail related Posts/Pages and the SE’s will send traffic. More content = more long tail traffic. More traffic and surprise, surprise – real links will start to appear on their own or by legit means instigated by you and acceptable by G – in fact G is more than happy to give you a link themselves. (Surely some of you have learned how this is done by now?) If this sounds like just what G is looking for… it is. And it works – at least for legit sites in business niches. I’m just seeing if it will work in the cesspool niche we call IM/MMO.

You know how G has always stated that we should just provide good content and the rest will take care of itself? Well the Algo is actually capable of doing that in the mostly uncompetitive niches these days – I’m interested in seeing the results in a competitive niche. Most (read “all”) of the competition manipulates their rankings and while they may achieve results for a while I believe they will all shoot themselves in the foot sooner or later through penalties. In the end the non manipulated sites should rise to the top for no reason other than they aren’t penalized – it may take a while but once there they will never falter. As I said this has worked well in the not so competitive business niches so I am testing it in this niche now. I have some reservations though – this niche attracts saboteurs and an endless stream of new competition which I don’t see in the Aviation SMS niche or the Shrink Wrap niche or the Timbuktu Equipment Rental niche etc.

So that’s about it for those watching and wondering what I’m doing with these MMO sites. I am simply allowing G to do what it says it can do – weed out quality from the morass of sewage in this niche. Btw – I have no designs on any particular keywords – not interested. I just want to see if these sites acquire trust as quite frankly none of the sites in MMO have it in any meaningful way.

On a side note I linked to a clients site above – shrink wrap – so you can see just how quickly a site can rank without any manipulation in a local niche with moderate competition. Keep in mind that the business is located in Winnipeg and the owners only need to rank well for people searching for their product in Winnipeg. The site was built near the end of Oct. 2010 and within days it was sitting in 3rd position with nothing more than a link from G and a link from a relevant business directory.

Click to Enlarge

And how will this help you make money online?

Well I intend to drag you all out of the sewage niches and put your knowledge to work providing services to people who could use your help and are willing to pay you for it. There is a huge market out there for people with the skills you’ve acquired and you will be surprised at how little competition there really is.

More to come…

Griz

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If you are a beginner then pay attention.

Internet Marketing Product Developers are just that. They make money online by continually repackaging one or several components necessary for selling online. These components are 1) Traffic Generation, 2) List building, 3) Sales Copy, 4) Web Site building, 5) Content Generation, 6) Search Engine Optimization, 7) Backlink Generation. In most cases they develop automated tools (software) to do the above. Each time they release the latest greatest method to instant wealth you can be sure that they have simply repackaged one or more of the above with a new “twist”. Many don’t even bother to do that.

These developers do not and never have made a dime using any of the products they produce. They make money by enticing the hoards of clickbank noobs to sell their product for them to people who are even less experienced than the clickbank noobs.

Six months later the developer comes up with yet another latest greatest method to get rich and the process begins all over again.

Ask yourself this – if the product does what it claims then…

1) why sell it in the first place? Keep it to yourself and make millions using it. Wouldn’t you?

2) why are the clickbank noobs selling it? Again if it is so great and they own a copy why aren’t they using it to make money instead of promoting it to others? (Answer – they didn’t buy it – they are just selling it)

3) what happened to the last great get rich quick product that was released last month, six months ago, last year etc? How could it be so wonderful then and no longer on the map today?

If you Google “Total Traffic Annihilation Review” you will see pages of fake bullshit reviews as all the clickbank noobs vie for top spot in the serps. There is not a single real review among them. Not one. Everyone of them is praising a program that they haven’t even seen – it doesn’t get released until today – and of course offering the ever popular bonuses in order to get you to buy through their link and not someone else. Btw – the bonuses are almost always crap PLR products that are 1) useless and 2) available for free if you do a little Googling. (Don’t bother – as I said they are crap)

And who am I to tell you this… I’m the guy who invented fake reviews. I started this whole sorry mess years ago and have regretted it ever since. It’s how I got known online – not the fake reviews so much but when I started telling people the truth when readers asked.

And how can I review Total Traffic Annihilation without seeing it myself? Simple. Experience and common sense.

The guy who created it – Steven Johnson – has a history of products on clickbank. More rehashed stuff like “Sales Letters Creator”, “Elite Money Maker”, “The Quick List Formulas”, “The Next Affiliate Idol”. Are they scams? Not really. Just more of the same regurgitation of basic marketing principles than are constantly repackaged and sold to the latest group of beginners who get it into their mind that they want to make a living online. The problem is – everything you need to know about internet marketing has been said countless times before and is available for free. I should know – I’ve provided it.

In a month from now Total Traffic Annihilation will be collecting virtual dust on countless noob hard drives where it will never see the light of day and the developer will be offering another sure thing. Pass on it if you are smart.

And just so they know they are scum and should be ashamed of themselves here are the sites dutifully no-followed that sit on page one of the serp’s offering up their fake reviews of the product…

Fake Total Traffic Annihilation Review 1
Fake Total Traffic Annihilation Review 2
Fake Total Traffic Annihilation Review 3
Fake Total Traffic Annihilation Review 4
Fake Total Traffic Annihilation Review 5
Fake Total Traffic Annihilation Review 6
Fake Total Traffic Annihilation Review 7
Fake Total Traffic Annihilation Review 8
Fake Total Traffic Annihilation Review 9
Fake Total Traffic Annihilation Review 10

Should you click on any of those links you will find most of the sites use pop unders to further piss you off while trying to escape. Morons. Oh and almost every site has a bad reputation on WOT (Web of Trust)

Alright… for my old friends

I have left this site sit for some time now as I’ve been busy with other projects but it seems a shame not to use it. To that end I will open it up to any and all of you who are interested in guest posting. It has a little juice which should grow with use and you will have your posts on the home page long enough to benefit. I am interested in anything related to IM, real reviews, software etc. You know the community and what will benefit us – no posts about your un-related niche sites please. Once it picks up I will share the revenue with everyone who contributes. Just email me your post and we’re good to go. Original content only.

In other news, no secret I will be starting lessons shortly on the new IM site as soon as I finish re-posting the MMOFB content on grizzlybrears.com. I’m about 1/4 done – bloody tedious job – and will then find a use for that site as well. I want to see how G treats it before making plans. As many of you know I have basically distanced myself from the whole IM crowd as my client work has occupied my time for most of the last year or so. I have now hired a few assistants to do the basic day in day out stuff and hope to have more time for the IM sites going forward. I must admit I have missed yakking with you all – looking forward to finding out what has been happening.

Cheers,

Griz

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(note – this site is not associated with Google.com or Google Adsense and you are encouraged to visit Google directly for more information.)

The idea behind Interest Based Ads is to increase CTR and conversions in regards to Adsense. The current Adsense model is based on Targeted Placement ads and while it has helped Google keep their Advertisers happy in the sense that they save money by not paying for poorly converting clicks (smart pricing) it has not had the effect of increasing Google’s revenue or in increasing the advertisiers overall sales. Ultimately Google needs to increase revenue without loosing advertisers in the process. Moreover Google wants to increase it’s advertising inventory and the best way to achieve this is by getting advertisers to buy more advertising. To do this they will have to provide better ROI to the advertisers.

Hence… Interest Based Ads. The premise being that a large portion of adsense page views are shown daily to untargeted visitors who may be reading any given site for any number of reasons but not necessarily because of any particular interest in the subject matter. Think of people who follow links from one article to another and end up on a site that has little to do thematically with the site they began their journey on. In most cases these visitors are never going to click on an ad and for the few that do they are unlikely to lead to a conversion for the advertiser. The question is – what if such users were presented with ads relevant to their search history rather than ads relevant to the current page they are browsing? Could Google entice more clicks and could this lead to higher conversions for the Advertisers? We will find out…

As for Publishers this should not be viewed negatively as there is a potential upside and especially for those publishers who don’t drive primarily targeted traffic to their sites. Given the fact that Google will decide whether to show targeted ads or Interest based ads to any particular visitor means this should reduce the likelihood of a publisher being smart priced as G can’t hold the publisher accountable for poor performance of Interest Based clicks. (or it shouldn’t as the performance or lack thereof is not in the publishers hands)

To put it simply Google is trying to increase CTR where it feels it can and is not likely to penalize Publishers for poorly converting ads that Google displays on their sites beyond the publisher’s control. The real upside is that publishers may see a nice increase in CTR and earn more revenue even from low paying CPC ads without being smart priced in the process.

Whether this pans out or not I recommend everyone at least take part and test it before opting out. There is nothing to be gained by not giving it a shot. It may not work for some and one can always opt out later.

For those of you driving mostly social traffic this is what you have been waiting for – Google like everyone else is trying to convert social traffic. It is a huge market and so far has proven hard to monetize. Will Interest based ads work? Who knows but if it does publishers will see much better returns from their Adsense accounts. If it doesn’t then publishers are no worse off than they are now. And that is why I recommend everyone give this a trial period in order to evaluate the results. If your earnings tank – opt out but at least find out first.

Cheers

Griz

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