TNX.net - Part Two

TNX.NET Review

In one of my previous posts about Niche Marketing I revealed a little tactic I use to rank on page one of the serps by being negative. A serp troll if you will. I like to do this with programs that are dominated by affiliates pushing their links. This is a simple way to get traffic.

The first page of the search listings for the keyword tnx.net contains 10 affiliate sites all pushing this program. How many searchers will read all 10 sites? Not many - usually only the first couple of sites will get any traffic at all. When you search for information on a topic are you only interested in the opinion of the people who are pushing the program? No, what you really want to find is an opposite opinion so you can gauge a product from both sides. Is someone selling a product going to be as honest about it as someone who isn't selling it?

If 1 site in ten has a negative review then it will draw the majority of the traffic looking for information on the product. I posted yesterdays "negative" review and waited for the Google bot. It wasn't long after that I checked the serp's for "tnx.net" and this is what I found...

Ranked 4 on Google.com



Ranked 3 on Google.co.uk



Ranked 3 on Google.co.au



If this program becomes popular I have just created another stream of traffic for this blog much like I did with Roadmap to Riches and Project Payday. While I won't make any sales with it I will get a few Adsense clicks and it all adds up. The owner of tnx.net may be sharp enough to entice me to change my stance as well... (was that subtle enough?)

One of the things I am wrestling with is the fact that I have developed a reader base on this blog. It's obvious that this blog was set up as an adsense/affiliate sales site but in spite of it's looks people started reading it - who knew. The above example shows you how much money I could be making if I said "to hell with my readers" and started producing affiliate sales posts. I have built up my PR and keyword authority to the point that I know I would outrank just about everyone for any and all affiliate programs I chose to pimp. Make no mistake this would be lucrative as I am drawing a lot of search engine traffic - yesterday I set a new record - 1210 Google visitors and all searching for "make money online" keywords. Who are these people? They aren't savvy Internet marketers - they are total newcomers to the game. Who else would use a search term like "How to Make Money"?

Since I don't want to piss my readers off I will stick with the Adsense for now and concentrate on obtaining advertising revenue. This niche is so goofy that it boggles my mind sometimes. In Niche Markets I get tons of advertisers beating down my door the moment I rank high on Google. In this "make money online/blogging" niche it appears the advertisers don't understand the power of search traffic. They should be swarming all over me to get a piece of those 1000 noobs dropping in. Instead they want to advertise on blogs that have big RSS feed number and a low Alexa rank. This is idiotic as those numbers simply mean a blog gets lots of "Internet marketers" stopping in to read something and then they move on - they don't spend money - the noobs do! If you can't beat them then join them I guess.

To this end I have been using entrecard - not because I think it's a good program but because it brings in Alexa toolbar users and more readers (a few but not much). This has had the effect of increasing my RSS count and lowering my Alexa ranking. This is all bullshit but that's how the game is played in this niche - sad but true. If you are an advertiser I suggest you place a few ads on the top serp sites and see how this compares with your ads on the A-list sites. You might be surprised at the difference in conversions. Most of you don't even realize that the top serp sites aren't the A-listers.

I am rambling today as I want to catch up on a few questions that need answering.

I will paraphrase my readers questions to save time.

I get asked this a lot;

Of all the "make money online" sites available who do you recommend?

This isn't conclusive as there may be a few gems out there that I am not familiar with but my list of sites that are "truly helpful" is pretty short.

Vic at Blogger Unleashed

Court at Courtney Tuttle's Internet Marketing School

Garry Conn at Garry Conn's Blog Tips

Josh Spaulding at Internet Marketing with Josh Spaulding

As I said this isn't conclusive so if you know of anybody who has their sh*t together then please let me know. I don't know Garry or Josh but Garry is much like Vic, another black hatter who cuts through the crap and talks from experience. Josh is much like Court - a clean and ethical professional. Most people who blab about making money online are parrots and these are the four people they are parroting. (I am referring to the people pretending to know it all - there are plenty of good sites that share what they are learning but are honest enough to let their readers know where they get their info - the know it all's act like they have experience which they don't and it shines through to those that do.)

Moving on...

There is a really nice woman who has vaulted up the A-list this year by the name of Caroline Middlebrook and most of you are probably familiar with her. If you want to learn how to be an A-lister then she is a good role model. She is a very good writer and has a wonderful personality. Qualities that have made her fairly well known in a short period of time. She is not an experienced marketer and I don't think she will be upset with me saying that - she is willing to learn though and I think she has a great future online. To that end I want to post an email she has been sending out to a few of us marketers;

Hi Griz,

My name is Caroline Middlebrook and I'm writing to you to ask for a favour. I have recently released a free ebook which is called "How to Develop Money-Making Niche Sites with WordPress" and I am trying to promote it. If you think it would be useful to your readers I would be really grateful if you could mention it on your blog.

Here is the download link:

How to Develop Money-Making Niche Sites with WordPress

Many thanks,

Caroline Middlebrook

I get a lot of requests like this but they are usually rudely worded and the people asking make it obvious that they aren't familiar with my site - a word to the wise, if you are asking someone for a favor don't start your email with "Dear makemoneyonline.blogspot.com" - it's not hard to find out my name - sheesh!

Anyway Caroline asked quite nicely and since I like her I would love to help her out. I do have one concern with her book though - it is more of a "wordpress primer" than a guide for "money making niches". Frank at OpTempo did a good review of her ebook and I hope she understands that I don't want to mislead my readers. Her book is quite good but the title is a bit misleading.

More moving on...

The Sandbox

Let me start by saying that no one knows the ins and outs of Google's mysterious Sandbox - it doesn't exist and yet it does. I can only give you my two cents based on my experience with building blogs.

If you start a new blog on any popular subject you will likely get sandboxed - you will get indexed, stick around on the serp's for a few days and then poof! - your blog will disappear from the index. This is the sandbox. If you continue to post and show that you are not a spam site Google will release you back into the index. This can take a month or it can take 6 months.

Is there anything that you can do to avoid it?

To a degree yes but as much as what I am going to tell you helps there are times I still get sandboxed. There are forces at work here that only Darth Vader understands.

Monetizing your Blog

The best way to avoid it is to not monetize your blog. A new site with monetization all over it screams "spam". If a site is not monetized it's likely legit - why else would someone start a blog and not monetize it unless they truly just wanted to impart their knowledge to the masses. Google loves fresh unique content and has no reason to sandbox a site that isn't monetized. The exception to this is starting a blog aimed at the taboo niches like "law", "online drugs", "loans", "adult" and the rest of the spammers favorite targets. With or without monetization these type of blogs are sandboxed.

How long do you have to wait before you can monetize the site?

This answer sucks but "It depends". I have found that waiting until you develop keyword authority is the best route. The faster you develop it the faster you can monetize and this depends on how many keyword anchored backlinks you can produce over a reasonable amount of time - say a month or two - and how much original content you can produce over the same period. I didn't say how fast you could produce the backlinks as this is a mistake. You have to appear natural and getting 100 links the first week to a new blog is not natural and this will get you sent to the sandbox as quickly as monetizing your blog will. Take your time and build up your backlinks slowly but efficiently - get proper anchor text for your main keywords - not just one keyword but several different variations of it. Again this is how a natural site would grow. If every backlink uses the same term - sandbox. Be smart.

How do you know when you have enough keyword authority?

You know when you start writing new posts optimized for your keywords and they are immediately indexed and you see a movement up the serps from one post to the next. I am not talking about PR - I mean keyword authority. You can have a PR0 and rank well on the serp's if all your backlinks tell Google that you are an authority for your keywords.

To understand this use this blog as an example. In the recent PR update I lost a point - I went from a PR5 blog to a PR4 and yet most of you know I just climbed onto page 1 of the serp's for "Make Money Online". I lost PR but gained serp rankings - this is because of my keyword authority.

Once you see that you have authority then you can introduce monetization on your site and usually this will keep you out of the sandbox - not always but most of the time.

Adding Outbound Links to Your Blog.

Just like monetization, if you start a new blog and pack a bunch of links on it to other sites you will get sandboxed. Think about this - why would you put links on a new site? You want to send backlinks to other sites and usually to your own. This is why spammers create thousands of sites - they use them to send links (keyword authority - not PR) to their anchor sites or money sites. The moment you add links to a brand new blog you are seen as a likely spam site - don't do it. Wait until you can monetize the site.

The best way to avoid the "box" is to take your time writing lots of original keyword rich posts and work on your backlinks - be patient, always think about how a natural site would grow and mimic it. You aren't going to have a lot of traffic in the beginning anyway so not monetizing isn't costing you anything. Be patient and be smart.

Where did my Post Go?

On a side note I have noticed a lot of people commenting about their posts being ranked well one day on the serp's and then suddenly vanishing the next day. This refers to established non-sandboxed sites.

This is completely natural and this is why. When you write a new post on any given topic Google jumps on it because it's fresh. Fresh content is prized by Google - it keeps their index up to date on all the latest news. If you don't have enough keyword authority to take you to the first (and sometimes the second) page of the serp's you will get listed on page 3 or higher for a few days and then drop down to page 90 as other newer fresh content replaces you. You will bounce around the back pages for a while until you build up your authority. More relevant posts on the topic will help your authority just like proper backlinks do.

If you make the first page (and sometimes the second) then you are an authority and will likely stay there until some prick like me decides to bump you out by any and all means at my disposal. Don't get complacent when you reach page 1 - always add backlinks in order to keep others from overtaking you. A couple of sites on page 1 of "make money online" got complacent and are now wondering who the ass with the cheesy blogspot blog is that just passed them by. There is never a finish line folks - it keeps moving away from you as you try and catch it.

I was going to yak about Adsense and Social Traffic today but I want to optimize an entire post around the topic so it can wait until next time.

A final comment. My email is as good as broke so please ask your questions in the comments. I have noticed that my emails are from all the beginners who find my blog through the serp's and that my comments are usually from friends and experienced bloggers. I suspect that beginners are too intimidated to ask "stupid" questions in public and choose to email me instead. Please do not be intimidated as there is no question too "stupid" to ask. Everyone of us started out as a beginner and we all had to learn the same way - by asking questions. I can guarantee that none of us will ever ridicule you for asking questions - ever. I am here to help and so are my readers who I have come to know as caring and decent bloggers. If you use the comments to ask your questions they will get answered - if you send me an email I don't know when I will get to it. Fair enough? Don't be shy as you will make a lot of friends using the comments - I have.

Till next time,

Griz