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I have been in this industry for pretty much the same amount of time as Merlin and I totally understand what he is saying and can understand his frustration. It seems to be a losing battle staying honest in this industry and not being tempted to give way to all the spammy techniques when you find that your clean white hat techniques are no longer working.
However, Having said that I have always believed and will always believe that honesty and keeping your nose clean will prevail in the long term.
I have never really followed Google or even kept an eye on the progress of our keywords, and maybe if I had done – I may have higher positions on most of my sites, but I just plod along in my ignorance and find that in this instance ignorance is bliss because I don’t get depressed when I see a sudden drop in a sites rankings – why? Because I never knew what it was before the drop!!
Some may say this is sheer stupidity and how can I operate a business like this…but I have to say that I have been making a 5 figure income for a good 7 years of the 10 years or so I have been in the business, so I guess whatever I am doing I must be getting something right.
Granted – Maybe I could be doubling this income if I followed all of google’s algo changes and panda, penguin updates – but I also believe in the pendulum aspect – In one update I may lose out on some sites and gain on others and this is often turned around in the next update.
Granted I do have a lot of sites so can afford to lose positions on some – if you only have one or 2 sites – I agree – it can be a huge problem to lose rankings.
I don’t have the answers but I still believe there is a future in this industry for serious affiliates who maintain a good clean site, and are in it for the long run.
@Inspiration 251528 wrote:
The techniques used are very high tech and those who use the throw away domains can continue to do so : the method used is faster than the google kick out time.
simple.
I read a thread of comments at SEOroundtable.com regarding the latest Penguin, and many of the posters came to the same conclusion about Gambling SERPs and the epic White vs. Black Hat SEO battle:
White hat sites should aim for the highest rankings they can get without crossing quality guidelines, and tolerate the fact that occasional spammers will hold top positions for weeks (or months) until Google removes them.
If Google SEO is your traffic source, that’s the reality you have to accept if you follow Google’s SEO guidelines to a T. There is simply too much money to be made in the Gambling vertical to shoo away spammers with infrequent updates. Their business model is different and not really “cheating” as much as it is disposable websites and sketchy backlinks.
casinoplanet wrote:casinoplanet:
I truly believe that any webmaster who is relying on just one single traffic source (ie Google organic search) has choosen the wrong tactic. Really, whether Penguin, Panda or whatever animal will be implemented in the future, I couldn’t care less.This is where the white hat crowd can diversify their acquisition strategies, especially when spammers are temporarily ahead of the crowd: build a forum, run a good newsletter, use social media, offline advertising, giveaways, inside information, act as a news source, etc.
Relying solely on Google traffic is a roller coaster ride. Add other methods of acquiring traffic. Why not start now? You have nothing to lose!
@JaxCasinos 251618 wrote:
Relying solely on Google traffic is a roller coaster ride.
Agreed.
While a lot of us feel cheated by Google’s inability to rid the index of spam etc etc, I think the job of cleaning the index up and also maintaining this status qou is a mammoth task. One which I believe would even stretch the available resources of Google.
As I see it, it’s the inherent structure of Google’s and the value of IBL (in bound links) which ironically allows these blackhats to manipulate the index to their advantage.
Maybe it would be an easier task for the Google Web Spam Team to identify sites giving these blog spam links etc etc and disavow the lot of them.
Personally, I still rank well for long tails in Google, I’m sure others do too. But it’s those highly competitive phrases the blackhats target, where I’m being hammered.
However like Webzcas, TopBoss and others, if I didn’t have a network I’d be totally scr#wed too.
Lets face it, we’re in a vertical which is synonymous with changes. I honestly believe if you can roll with the punches and take diversities in your stride and work on ways to always have a few alternative traffic sources, you will continue to ride out the storms.
@topboss 251612 wrote:
I have always believed and will always believe that honesty and keeping your nose clean will prevail in the long term.
I have never really followed Google or even kept an eye on the progress of our keywords, and maybe if I had done – I may have higher positions on most of my sites, but I just plod along in my ignorance and find that in this instance ignorance is bliss because I don’t get depressed when I see a sudden drop in a sites rankings – why? Because I never knew what it was before the drop!!
Some may say this is sheer stupidity and how can I operate a business like this…but I have to say that I have been making a 5 figure income for a good 7 years of the 10 years or so I have been in the business, so I guess whatever I am doing I must be getting something right.
Granted – Maybe I could be doubling this income if I followed all of google’s algo changes and panda, penguin updates – but I also believe in the pendulum aspect – In one update I may lose out on some sites and gain on others and this is often turned around in the next update.
Granted I do have a lot of sites so can afford to lose positions on some – if you only have one or 2 sites – I agree – it can be a huge problem to lose rankings.
I don’t have the answers but I still believe there is a future in this industry for serious affiliates who maintain a good clean site, and are in it for the long run.
lol I’m like you TB, never really got into all the hoopla with google analytics. Albeit I do use GWT. Point is though, I just tend to plod along. I try not to get caught up in the Cutt’s doctrine or any other SEO bantering because frankly I don’t see the point.
Besides, You, I and others have been around since the early days and we’re still here. We must be doing something right, hey?
@Merlin 251520 wrote:
With all due respect Webzcas, I’ve been doing this as long as you and there is not a single white hat site that gets that much traffic daily. Unless you rank for “free slots”, which is kinda pointless.
Not meant to be an attack, just find it hard to believe. I’m stumped at how I can make any cash with my white hat sites. They are just sitting there gathering dust.
Ranking for any gambling related term is not pointless, whether it is ‘free slots’ or ‘free casino money’ or any other term of the like.
If you have a network of sites, which I know you do, the key is to direct what traffic you get into the network to the sites and pages which are most likely to convert said traffic.
BTW, if you have any ‘pointless’ traffic that you don’t want, feel free to send it my way
@Webzcas 251630 wrote:
if you have any ‘pointless’ traffic that you don’t want, feel free to send it my way
that made me laugh!I’m glad I found this thread. I had been trying to figure out how sites a few weeks old with one or two pages and little content could be appearing in the top 5 for keyword searches.
I though these guys had a magic formula but now I understand they are temporary throw away sites. Still they probably will make more in the month they are live than I did for the last 6 months doing it by the rules. Seems very unfair!
Can they be reported? Is Google interested to know who these guys are?
