Darren Rowse wants you to pay him $2 a month so that you can join a forum full of noobs who don't know how to make money online. Be quick though because the price is going to go up soon unless you lock in the special first month only introductory price! He has already raised $2,000 for his coffers - ooops I mean raised 1000 members. This is true genius as he will take your money while you do all the work. Brilliant!
I can just imagine the wealth of knowledge that will be spread around. We all know how valuable forums are and this one has someone named Lara Kulpa moderating it which should be a real help since she owns a site called Ginko Consulting (according to her URL in Darren's riveting comments). She will be able to explain to noobs how not to use a useful search term in their domain name too. If you follow her advice then you will learn how to create a pretty site like hers that flogs Darren Rowses' 31 Days to be a Better Blogger. Better yet you will learn how to write posts using the ever popular "5 ways to use numbered lists in blog posts" and "9 Things you must have in blog posts" just like Darren does.
Best of all she will tell you "Why Free Hosted blogs Suck" - even I didn't know they sucked. Guess what - they suck because...
Let's hear it right from Lara shall we...
"They’re simply NOT search engine friendly. Not even Blogger (which is owned by Google). Go to Google right now, and punch in your favorite keyword phrase. I’ll give you a hand: Here’s the results for the phrase “personal finance blog” (opens in new window). How many of those are on blogger, blogspot, or wordpress.com? ZERO. Not convinced? How about “diet blog”? Zero free hosted blogs again. Sure there are exceptions, but those exceptions have likely been online for 5 years or more, and it’s SO rare. I can almost say with 100% certainty that you can’t come up with a phrase that will have a free hosted blog in the top 5."
Wow. 100% certainty.
Thankfully she picked a "popular" keyword for her helpful example. It gets 266 searches a day. Wow. "Diet Blog" gets 891 searches a day Wow - even more popular. (Keyword research by Market Samurai)
Clearly she is an expert and has learned that it is the blog platform that matters - not the ability of the blogger. She does mention exceptions... but disregard them because obviously they have been online for 5 years or more. Yah... that would explain the exceptions...
Like these...
Hmmm... Not 1 Blogspot blog in the top five. 2 Actually. Then again it's only for a term that Problogger "Mr. Make Money Online" himself ranks on page 7 in Google's search rankings. Number 68 at the moment. It's also only for a term that gets 32,877 searches a day according to Market Samurai. (It doesn't but I've explained how bad these estimates are numerous times - just use it for comparitive purposes) As for the "age" factor - let's see, Alan started moneymakerinfo in July 2006 which makes it just over 3 years old. It has been in the top 5 for "make money online" for more than 2 years now. And that "other" blogspot blog was started in Dec 2006 which makes it just under 3 years old and it has been in the Top 5 for about a year and a half... Both have been number 1 for the term. They also occupy top 5 positions for dozens of other MMO keywords...
Any other exceptions - perhaps Lara only likes using examples of "useless" keywords - you know - keywords that get no traffic like...
Asia'h Epperson
or Reactolite Spectacles
or well I could show you hundreds of well ranked Blogspot blogs but that would be telling and I really don't want the competition. Most were ranked number 1 in a matter of a few weeks to a few months and some in 5 minutes... Do Ants Scratch their Asses... (Google it)
Now I know - some of you may think I'm picking on poor Darren again because it might look like he is just flogging another useless program to noobs in order to take their money (he is) but I really hope every blogger and internet marketer online signs up and listens to the advice of quality moderators like Lara. If they do then they will be busy building pretty sites like hers that have an Alexa rank of 751,000 (that's about 5 visitors a day - on a good day), targeted for keywords that drive no traffic, selling Darren's 31 Days to be a Better Blogger and above all - not doing a single thing that might interfere with me dominating the search engines and making money online. Please encourage everyone you know to sign up and send Darren money.
If you would rather make money then buy Janet's ebook and learn how a blogspot blog or any other type of blog for that matter can rank on top of the serp's for terms that actually drive traffic and sales (making money online has nothing to do with the platform you use - it's about driving targeted traffic to your site using SEO) or spend $1 and try out Court's Keyword Academy for a month and follow the tried and true methods of "real" SEO. Will I make money if you do - yup. But you will too... You might also visit Ben for free and read everything on his site - Make Money Online Using SEO. Note: Janet's Book is based on my teaching and is perfect for a beginner just starting out - if you are already familiar with my site and methods you wont learn anything new. Stick with Court and Ben. Or you can just read this blog from back to front.
Cheers,
Griz
If you happen to wonder why I`m picking on poor Darren Rowse see this post Problogger.com
137 comments:
OMG-LOL!!! No you didn't......to put it in golf terms, this post was a hole in one for anyone interested in the true ways of the IM Jedi masters. Bravo Griz!
;-) another one of your BS "Blog Stragglers!"
BS - let's hope Darren's forum is a success. Nothing could eliminate competition for the rest of us better than people following him and his crowd.
I like this, making money online is different from teaching people how to make money online, some ppl focus more on making money while telling people how to and forget to be honest in their approach. say "The end justify the means" that was a good one Griz
I have yet to hear of a single person who has claimed to make any money online following Darren's advice. He sell's crap to noobs who think the crap will make them famous so that they can then sell crap to noobs... This forum is the ultimate scam - brilliant. And he has others running it so he doesn't have to do a thing. I love it.
Darren has really pissed me off after reading this and listening to his spiel (sp) on his site).
But you are right, he is really doing us all a favor so I guess I should be happy and hope his forum is a HUGE SUCCESS!
Hi Griz,
What percentage of your readers do you think would have clicked on the mail informing problogger network. I am sure many of them just clicked on "delete."
Probably but this post is for the 4000 search visitors who drop by looking for "how to make money online" everyday... I write for search engines but readers are always welcome ;-)
Jessie - did you like his reasons for charging a fee. Pretty lame - I find spammers can just be deleted but I guess using them as an excuse for charging money might fool a few people... Of course he needs the money to pay for quality moderators like Lara - not a bad gig for someone who knows nothing!
My wife makes about 1k per month following the advise of Darren and other B5Media players. It has taken about 4 yrs to get to this point and she spends a good 2-3 hours each day working the social traffic. She makes money from advertisers only and the income is NOT passive! She constantly struggles to keep the 'readers' number high to impress potential advertisers. Each month is filled with emails trying to get people to renew their advertising and make sure that current advertisers are happy. If you want to build a blog (it will take several years) that caters to the social scene, Darren is the man. Otherwise, TKA is the way to go!
Love a good ass chewing. Can tell you use to tend bar. Honestly though, the forum thing is no different than the TKA. The forum is my main resource knowledge. The DIFFERENCE between the two is, useful information I have found on other sites have all sited TKA or Grizz as the source. They fill in the missing pieces you leave out. You said at the beginning of your blog. Its more about watching what people do, not what they say. I'm starting to see the whole eb and flow of this game. Why you motivate with very do able and proven information, yet leave out some key elements. People that wil make it will put the big picture together and find their angle I guess. The people that this isn't ment for will throw a bunch of wasted money at it then give up. I do find it ironic that you preach "keep it simple, seo, get organic traffic, adsense, get them out of there" but your a pro sales man
Oh...That stuff from Lara drives me crazy. I can't stand it when people make such ignorant statements (is it ignorance or blatant dishonesty?).
Your blog is more than enough evidence to show everybody that free blog hosts can more than get the job done.
It's people like Lara that confuse honest folks that are trying to learn the real way to make money online. It's quite a cancer to because sometimes when working a link with someone they are unwilling to link because my site is a on a free host.
One guy recently said this to me in his email back once he found out my site was a blogspot
"I don't exchange links with blogspots but I commend you for how well your site is doing. I can just imagine what you would have achieved had you hosted your own site :-)"
All the while I am making at least 50 times his site income on the one blogspot I showed him.
Strathy - you describe the A-List method to a "T". Constant work to flog advertising. Of course social traffic doesn't convert worth a crap for most advertisers so you need to keep finding new advertisers... 4 years of hard work for a grand a month. No thanks. Imagine 4 years of targeted keyword traffic - your wife would be so much farther ahead making more money off of Adsense/affiliate sales/leads with a lot less work or at least working when she wanted to. Great example - thanks.
Griz - lol - thanks. Thats why we joined TKA 3 months ago. For the month of Sept, we made a little over $500 bucks strictly from Adsense ... that's in 3 months of working/learning. The cool thing is that if we do nothing else with what we've built using what we learned at TKA, we should earn approx. the same amount for the foreseeable future - a truly passive income.
Brendan,
I don't leave out the missing pieces as I have been pretty direct about what I do - I just don't reveal my own sources as that would be stupid. I have told everyone how to rank well but it is up to everyone to find those links themselves. Every time I have revealed some of my sources they get slapped - not something I plan on doing again. The Keyword Academy forum is probably the best source of info online (for a forum) as everyone there is learning SEO and helping each other. Nobody is selling a thing and there is no place for social media crap which does nothing more than waste your time. As for being a pro sales man... I suck. That's why I like Adsense - no selling involved. The few dollars (from readers) made on this site don't amount to a hill of beans in the over all picture. Besides - my readers all know how to strip an aff link - they are there for the search visitors only.
Strathy - My wife still doesn't understand how I made more money in August than she made as a teacher last year and all I did was golf... That is Passive income and I didn't get a single customer complain about selling them a crappy product. I have no customers!
Chetty,
Lol. She is not misleading anyone - she has no readers or search traffic! :-)
Btw - I got your email, read it and put it aside to reply to you and damned if I can find it. I am interested in what you were discussing - please send more info. Sorry about that and glad you dropped in.
Wow... talk about the slap heard around the world! I am a noob, and I find posts like these refreshing. Nice work Mr. Grizzly. Veronica.
Griz,
Took me a little bit to remember what I had emailed you about. I guess I've been to busy working my sites and have sort of forgotten anything else related to my online stuff. I'm only 26 years old and I swear my memory is already getting bad. It's gonna be ugly once I hit my 50s.
I'll get an email sent over to you in a few minutes.
Veronica - welcome. If this post saved you from becoming a "problogger" then it was worth it. If I happen to rank well for "Problogger.com" even more so...
Good luck to you and thanks for dropping in.
Chetty - 50? Hell I'm already buggered in my 40's!
I'll look out for the email and thanks.
she think blog as subdomain...even freehost has limited control..if you give right tool to right hand..it will works..
Email sent.
Let me know if I didn't explain it correctly. As I said, I'm no expert when it comes to these kinds of things...
Grizz - I couldn't help but notice the other players for the term "make money online". My niche is different so I haven't analyzed your niche in a while. On my data center, about.com is #1 but where did the other site come from? I will refer to the site as MD (don't want to mention this site with out your permission).
I have to say that I am impressed with MD taking a 6 month old site to the #1 or #2 spot, depending on server, in your niche. He/She has only about 1/4 of the inbound links that you and moneymaker have and the site also has 53 .edu links. But I'm sure you know all of this.
My theory is that you challenged yourself to create new Wordpress blog and take it to the # 1 spot for make money online. Afterall, April, May, June and July was pretty light on posts over on this blog. New Secret Project - To one day own all the Top 10 sites for your niche?
Oh, and Darren Rowse wants our money for nothing.
Thanks for your posts, I've learned a lot over the years.
Troy
Troy,
Very observant - mooladays has indeed topped the charts in six months and if everyone takes the time to analyze the site you will notice exactly how it did this. Hint: it has nothing to do with using social media, good content, readers or anything else that Problogger tells his readers to do. It has to do with one thing only... and it worked in spite of the "new" Google algorithm... ;-)
can someone say that blog commenting still works! Mooladays didn't f- around getting those links... Hmm...Guess wasn't kidding either when he says put your head down and get those damn links... the spammed to hell pages didn't seem to hurt him either...
It's a good thing you call out these sites in your blog Griz , I wish I knew about your blog when I first started out but I guess its all part of the learning process.
Matt... enlightening isn't it?
Griz's teachings are definitely the real thing. I do believe I stumbled upon one of your beastly blogspot blogs this week.
It had all of the markings of methods all over it. I won't dare divulge what the url is, but let's just say that thing was deadly ( in a good way)
Trust me dear readers, if you want to approach this game the exact way he's outlined in this blog and you've ever doubted this guy teachings he is the genuine all that he's disclosed on this blog.
When I saw the actual keyword phrase this blogspot targets, I was in awe of how you actually grew this monsterous site from a little .05 keyword as you've so eloquently noted many times before into this whale sized site which morphed into a powerhouse coming up for high paying keywords and then some for this particular niche.
I mean when I discovered it, it was if I'd found some long lost old world treasure:)
I must be one of the luckiest girls alive for experiencing this Jacques Cousteau discovery.
Touche. I guess by missing pieces I meant that you don't lay it out step by step like say Court and Mark. Yes you leave it up for people to figure it out. I look at you as more of a motivator type, while tka is more of the instructor type. Either way I like the passive income approach because I have spent waaay to much time in the hospitality biz to want to deal with too many people online =)
Cheers Griz!
Let them waste their time with their pointless and pretty sites. It just means less competition for us that are doing it the right way!
I found it very interesting that the Ginko Consulting website, though it looks very pretty, has featured posts up at the top of the page that are almost a year old.
Indeed, since I do some affiliate marketing, my first glance at the site caught the "Black Friday" heading on that first post below the Rowse ad -- and I thought, OMG, have I really slept so long I haven't got my affiliate marketing sites tuned up in time for 4th quarter??
Then I remembered that I'm revamping my entire business model to fit more with that of Griz and the good folks at TKA.
Went back in for a nap, then it's back to the REAL ways to make money online with "blogs," i.e., using the blogging software as a tool and focus on keywords, traffic, all those goodies.
FWI -- Affiliate marketing toys for the Christmas holidays is very low commission, hard work. Writing keyword content for good looking keywords related to toys and holidays, not so bad. LOL!
Nishadha,
It's never too late to start doing what works - remember most bloggers and IMers will never figure it out. Most of the competition you will face are members of this community and you can work with them rather than against them. I don't compete with Court - we help each other.
God I love reading your posts that try to save people time, money and misery. The truth is your blog is practically a public service message to noods and the like that just love to piss away their money. Making money online is very possible and many have done so in abundance. But 95% of the noobs out there go for the flash in the pan that rarely if ever pans out. I like how you try to drive home the fact they are pissing their money away by insulting them a little bit. But an insult now with a change could save the noobs tons of money and time, so hopefully it works.
Grizzly, I think it is time you stopped holding back and told us what you really think. Too often we are worried about the responses of others and temper our comments in order to soothe their egos.
:D
Thanks for the reminder that there is more than one way to skin a cat - or to make money online. One of these days I will get serious about the idea and the money will start pouring in!
Why does blogger not let the robots crawl content?
People search,
It doesn't? The bots crawl my content all day - every day.
Sunshine,
Thanks and what works for me works for everyone else too. You can dominate any topic in any niche doing the exact same thing. And make a lot of money doing it.
Brendan,
Unfortunately this blog can't lay things out step by step anymore as I have become a little to public if you get my drift. Fortunately Court and crew are behind closed doors and can.
Grizz, I sent you an e-mail about what we talked about a couple days ago.
I am not trying to be annoying, just reminding you, as it is probably already buried, plus I am excited about what you have to say :-)
Also really want to hear what you have to say about the new serp update, my main blog dropped big-time, and now I get like 10 uniques a day.
Geoff,
Amen. Since the advent of social media I have found dominating niches has become easier than it was a few years ago. It has succeeded in sidetracking everyone else. The day everyone catches on to mooladays is the day we will have to start working at this in earnest.
Gary,
When I saw and read a few of Lara's posts I just had to laugh. She's a noob and Rowse wants her moderating his forum... says volumes.
Josh - how's the temperature in Fargo this fine day? Cold as hell north of the border!
Me Insult? Naaaaaw! :-)
Kathryn,
I know - I have always had a problem expressing my true feelings! I just wouldn't want people to think Darren Rowse is just trying to take their money without providing anything useful in return!
He's one of the "good guys" after all.
Btw - sorry I forgot to tweet this post - I know how much you like twitter. :-) I'll never succeed online as I just can't get the hang of twitter. I keep thinking it's a huge waste of my time and a spammers paradise but what do I know... ;-)
Dino - sorry about the delay. I have your email (and 30 more that jumped in) put to the side. Just working on a strategy for you - I'll be in touch soon.
The serp update isn't quite finished so I'm waiting - mooladays was going to be the example I used so you can all get a head start and dissect the site now.
That Alexa number is interesting. You can't usually give those Alexa numbers much value. For example, I have a niche site that gets around 1000 unique visitors a day but has an Alexa that hovers around 900,000. But, if you're in the MMO sector, those numbers become more meaningful since just about everybody in that market is using the toolbar to boost Alexa numbers.
As for the Blogger argument, geez, they never get tired of that one do they? And, Blogger isn't the only one that can rank well. I was doing some research on a niche earlier this week and the number one position was an 'ancient' Tripod.com site done in ugly 1998 style HTML.
Pretty lucky today 53 and rainy. Ha. I might have to make a trip north of the boarder to do some ice fishing soon, any tips? A couple of my friends are heading to Winnipeg tomorrow for the premier of Tailor Park Boys.
You're awesome grizz.
That's weird, my crappy looking "Blogspot" guitar blog is under two years old, and sitting at No.2 on Google.
It was recently rated no.24 of the top 100 guitar sites on the Internet based on Technorati and Alexa.
Griz, I'm feeling a one-two punch from the internets 2 most popular video blogs on this one. Lol! I think the sea turtles may rear their ugly heads again. This is just begging for a video ass kicking from Allyn and his sidekick.
$2 a month - what a bargain! I might be able to double my investment in no time. I really like forums (especially paid ones) because you can spend hours and hours there and learn so much. And of course you can make lots of friends who you can get to visit your site so you look really cool and popular. Awesome.
I think it will fit nicely into my 2 to 3 hour schedule that I dedicate to working on my online sites. I might even have about 10 or so minutes left over to actually work on my sites - but that doesn't matter because I'll be making so many friends I won't need to worry about writing content or building support sites or getting backlinks (I hear that stuff is for losers who don't have any online friends anyway).
Yipee. Thanks for letting us know Griz.
Tracey - LOL ;)
Hey Griz - looking at Mooladays links .... what would be a safe rate to 'drip out' links like that? Would it be more like 10 a day or 1 a day, or somewhere in between? Assuming the target site is 3-6 months or so old and not so liable to be sandboxed.
Who, besides an internet marketer, puts the word "blog" after a search query? No one looking for advice on how to manage their money is going to search for "personal finance blog" Jeez!
Haha how did I know as soon as I heard about the problogger community that there would be a post about it here?!
The sad part is that he'll probably get 20,000 members to the damn thing and make $40,000 per month off it. And not a single person there will learn anything useful.
BTW... mooladays rose quickly in the MMO ranks and looks like they are #2 now. That came outta nowhere! But I see that has already been discussed in a few comments above so I am late to that train.
I did a little digging around tonight and found some interesting diet and finance buying keywords where the site in the #1 to #3 position do have social blogging "no no's" like being on Blogger or on a .info domain. I guess if you're not looking for a buying keyword but a social keyword like 'blog' you may not find these.
Don't ask me what those keywords are because, as I said, they're 'interesting' ;)
The $2 a month is just the introductory price. I expect it will go up to $10 or $20.
I expect there will be a lot of newbs on the forums along with a bunch of internet marketers flogging their ebooks and membership sites.
If he can get away with charging people with to join a forum, I say why not, but as you say it's not going to help people make money.
As you have proven, blogger blogs can rank in the top ten of google searches.
I was just wondering if other 2.0 web properties have been sucessful like for example - weebly.com. Anyone know if this is any good?
Regarding Market Samurai's traffic figures - I'm not sure why they persist in insisting that the # 1 position in the SERPS gets 42% of the searches. In reality, for a given keyword, #1 gets about 20-23% of searches, #2 gets 5-6% of the searches and #3 gets 4-5% of the searches. And almost everyone who has been collecting stats knows this...
Regarding Mooladays - they seem to have gone heavily for the keywords "make money online", "ways to make money online" and "how to make money online". Some of their links are legit - eg I notice Courtney Tuttle gave him a link from within a blog post saying "visit my friend Albert's blog, Ways to make money online".
But Albert seems to have also gone very heavily for the anchored comment strategy - eg Ronpaulforpresident's abandoned blog gets a "make money online" comment (a whole bunch of other people have posted anchored comments too on stuff that would make Ron Paul blush!)
As for the about.com page that is in position 2 - I'm assuming there is massive internal linking going on to support all their pages and shove them up the rankings. Pretty similar to how wikipedia gets ranked.
P.S. not sure why you go on about problogger so much - as you say, he takes a lot of competition out of the system. Is your do-gooding conscience at war with your commercial instincts?
I know of a whole bunch of innocent, probably honest Problogger.com folks who are going to want to kick their own a***es (and Darren Rowse's) in a few months when they figure out they have been HAD.
Sad to say, been there - done that:-(
Strathy-
I'm no Griz, but I would think you would be safe @ 10 per day. None of the SE's are going to pick up all the links in one day so personally I don't think it will hurt you.
Of course I am thinking of just running through the first 50-100 results that SEO Elite shows for MD and leaving comments pointing to one of my latest posts. =)
On a side note Griz, it's nice to see you posting and commenting a bit more. I'd say that While you were clammed up I concentrated on getting links, but I've been a bit lazy. Unfortunately the "real" job has been busy so this little intarweb thing took a back seat for a while.
I signed up for the forum because I figured it was only $2 and wasn't much of a risk.
There are a handful of people there with big blog, but you are correct, most of the people are noobs. That is the problem I've had with every blog forum I've checked out.
I think I would pay money if there was a forum with some sort of noob filter.
Frank,
It seems that Alexa is only semi-accurate in the MMO/Blogging/Social arenas these days. My top traffic site is still ignored by them while the MMO sites are accurate relative to other MMO sites. They are picking up some search traffic though - one day they may even be useful...
As for platforms only a blogger thinks the platform matters - search engines and search visitors couldn't care less.
But Gary ... would you be allowed in? lol. You should check out TKA - there are a lot of noobs there (they drive me crazy) but there are a lot of good experienced IM'ers there too - you might do well to join...
Josh,
You know about "The Trailer Park Boys?" Damn, I thought it was strictly a Canadian cult classic. I figured only a Canadian would even understand the humor - glad it has made an impression on you folks south of the 49th - probably doesn't say much about our taste though. :-)
Ben - you can't be ranking number 2 with a Blogspot blog. Lara says she is 100% certain that is impossible!
Steve, Can't wait to see the vids. Seems we keep giving Allyn work - poor guy wont have time to get the Beer Blog going at this rate.
Tracey... You are just about as sarcastic as I am - stop that! There's only room for 1 smart ass around here... ;-)
Strathy,
May I suggest just observe Mooladays for a bit - the serp update isn't finished and it will be worth waiting to see if the site stays put. I think it will but he went heavy on the edu links and there could be fall out. I don't think there will be but conventional wisdom states that it was too many, too fast and too non-relevant - basically he did everything Matt Cutts warns about and claims the Algo can detect. I think we will find out once again that it can't but best to wait and verify before you jump in guns blazin'.
Jeff, I agree but I think you meant to say who other than a "blogger" would use the term "personal finance blog" - an Internet marketer wouldn't be so stupid - not a real one that is.
What's the different between a blogger and an internet marketer? I don't get it!
;)
Just jokes buddy! Keep up the good work!
Trent,
As I said - brilliant! I hope he drowns in money off of the silly twits but I doubt that many will join. His blog doesn't garner much in the way of comments so I suspect most people are tired of his fluff. People are tired of forums as well. He'll get a few noobs each month hoping for "the secret" and they will mosey along after reading endless threads about the "5 must have twitter apps". It's not like anything of real value is ever going to be discussed based on his posts.
And you noticed MD as well - if nothing else we all have a good list of edu sites now. lol
Frank - you bugger. I did a little research myself before posting this - yes interesting and we have just the sites needed over in the bike shed - see you there. ;-)
Mike - I can't wait to see what the price jumps up too - just how much can a noob be milked for anyway. Of course the forum might end up being free... remember Garry Conn tried charging a buck a post? That didn't go over well - seems some people think they are worth more than they really are.
Estimate,
About.com is just a reflection of the weight G is now giving trust rank - all the big sites are getting a pass to the front of the line and number of links has little to do with it - the quality of their links makes them an authority. Get a single link from the New York Times and you will vault past sites with a 1000 lesser links.
PS - I can't rank for ProBlogger.com without going on about him and if I have to mention him I sure as hell won't be giving him a pat on the back - don't take me too seriously, everything I do is for keywords and my own amusement. (I want to know what kind of traffic searches for the term and I need to rank for it to find out - number 6 last I checked) Why I want to know is another matter...
Jo Ann - lol. Haven't we all.
Hey Aaron - nice to hear from ya'. I suspect we will recognize a few people using MD's backlink network in the weeks to come but be careful just in case G does a visual. I know first hand that they tend to pay a visit to top ranking sites in certain niches.
Hey Gary - how's the traveling going? A noob filter - you build it and I'll sell it for ya' lol
I was going to spend the $2 but let's face it - we all know what to expect - the same ass kissing dumb asses that leave comments on his site. I couldn't stomach another noob telling Darren how wonderful his "7 tips for cleaning a toilet while blogging" post is...
how much can a noob be milked for,
I smell a new keyword to rank for
Great post, how is your affiliate tests going, any updates, now that Ad-sense is gone.
-Antoine
Right you are Griz. I think the newest thing on some of the *ahem* darker hat color forums I read is this new angelas/pauls backlink stuff. Basically you register at multiple web 2.0 sites, drop a link in your profile and move on. I think it would work except now it's getting spammed to death.
Linkwheels are getting big too. Same kinda thing except you're just linking them all together. Seems like a good way to get a whole rind discounted or deindexed to me.
I think you should take on Mr. Problogger; you could start with "5 ways to make money online with oil filters" =)
Antoine,
The affiliate results are pretty stable - long posts and my income drops in half (about what Adsense delivered 3K - 5K a month). Short posts and my sales hit 8K - 10K. Today I will take a beating. Fortunately the latest serp update has been very nice to me - I now have 8 of 10 spots on page 1 of my most profitable niche and finally hit page 1 for a certain niche I have worked on for almost 2 years. 7 more spots and I can start looking at aircraft carriers to buy - on deck custom built golf course included. :-)
Aaron - I already own oil filters - need a bigger challenge - maybe carburetors? :-)
I'm staying far and clear from the angelas/pauls backlink stuff - a train wreck waiting to happen. As usual - too many noobs and too much publicity.
I actually am not very familiar with him, I know who he is but I've never really followed his blog much. Just visited a few times.. I had no idea he's planning to do this forum thing. I think it's BS to tell you the truth. Why do people have to join some "secret club" to learn how to make money online when there are so many free resources available, like this blog.
I for one.. am somewhat of a noob. I mean I've been learning this stuff since I started but I'm no pro. But I'm ranked better than him for the keyword make money online free. :)
Great post Griz.. I love stopping by your blog.. keep the personality in the posts.. it's what makes you stand out!
Why would I sign up for a forum for $2 when I can get the same bad advice from digital point or warrior forums for free?
If you think you're going to make money online reading forums, then you better go to a site like Mylot where at least you get paid a couple of cents for every post you write.
Griz,
Hi!! Thanks for the heads up! You are my saviour next to my Creator.lol!
I just wanna ask if linking pages to my homepage is bad...lol! I read your lessons for beginners and picked it up from there. Just today I read your post saying that it dsnt work already and Mr.G might slapped us...guess I know the answer to my question already.lol!
I have a new blog and follow your ten commandments. Its my third day now and gee I cant wait..loL! Can I email you Griz? Im afraid you are too busy...I just have something to consult about keyword stuff...
Thanks for your time and effort!!!Word are not enough friend.
Best regards,
Tessah
It's official, you have saved me from becoming a "problogger"! thank you. No cult for me, lol.
Hi Griz,
Thanks again for mentioning my blog.
You have done well in getting your blog ranked and also teaching others doing SEO. Loads of useful SEO stuff you've share. I learned much more reading your blog.
It would be great if you release your own SEO books or courses in future.
Know what Griz? After reading this, I think I'm going to spent the $2 and sign up. It's a good crowd to be selling "Adsense Optimized" Themes to.
LOL.
Grizz I am very much accepting the thoughts of you about being there on the top of search.Just these people are selling their ideas for money and nor really useful stuff.
My blog is a blogspot blog about sap abap ( a programming language of ERP) at
http:www.abapprogramming.net
and is being listed for top key words of the area like SAP ABAP at the second and for ABAP fifth right now at google search.
I request the people to say blogspot is useless platform and do understand that May be your content and seo is not useful to be ranked.
Cheers dear friend Grizzz and you always rocks.
I remember when I first started blogging and trying to make money online a few years ago, that it seemed like all the top bloggers would often say things like:
"you need to be an expert on your subject"
-or-
"write posts that illustrate your authority in your niche"
I actually bought into this philosophy and for the first 12 months or so (while trying to build a blog the Problogger way) I stayed in niches that I knew I was truly an expert in.
What's funny is that folks like Lara Kulpa use that same thinking but they are NOT experts in their subject, hence Griz comes along and makes them look like jackarses.
ROFL
AL
Grizzly - I'll try to remember to handle the twitter end for you :D Thanks for remembering me, you made my day ;)
Wow Griz now that takes guts to call out one of the biggest bloggers online today. I mean to call Darren at Pro Blogger out like that hat my jaw drop. I have to admit you got guts my friend.
Kris,
Chelle = the funny thing is that it will be the same no-nothings on Rowses' blog that give bad advice on Warrior and Digital Point.
Tessah,
Yes - you can link your post pages to your home page. I do.
Mark,
I have always laughed at the term "problogger" - such a nonsensical term when you think about it. Every person who has made 1 cent from Adsense is a "pro" Blogger. :-)
Alan,
Old friend - you have been dominating this niche longer than I have - when are you going to release a book? I will if you do. ;-)
Always nice to have you stop by Alan.
Costa,
Doh - I did this all wrong. We should all join up and make a mockery of his forum. We could start by asking Lara if she is 100% certain that she isn't full of crap.
SAP - everytime I hear a noob give an opinion regarding "platforms" my blood boils. Rowse and crew are wrong about everything they claim to be experts about. This blog and my friend Alan Liew's are prime examples of everything they claim you shouldn't do if you want to be a successful blogger or if you want to make money online.
Success online comes down to an individuals ability to use his/her brain to adapt their sites to a given niche and provide the appropriate content in order to trigger the results they seek.
Rowse and crew constantly spew "one size fits all" nonsense to their readers that is designed to sell useless crap to them instead of helping them. Lara's ignorance is a case in point - her whole site is set up to do one thing - sell Rowse's useless ebook and she makes blatantly false and stupid assertions to achieve that goal.
The real irony is that she follows Rowse's advice and has zero traffic to her site. Some expert huh - and Rowse is going to have someone like that moderate a forum he wants to charge noobs to join. To me that says it all.
Allyn,
Funny huh - Lara does everything Rowse says "you have to do" right down to the inane 5 point posts and she is a total failure. The whole notion that success online (in the form of becoming famous) can be reduced to following a set of guidelines is such bullshit. By extension I suppose every musician will become famous if they just do the exact same thing as famous musicians? Talent has nothing to do with it - just follow a formula right?
This is what Rowse is flogging - if you do this then you will become well known online. And if you buy my book I will give you all the tips to become famous. And if you send me $2 I'll give you all the tips in my special forum that creates famous bloggers.
So why aren't there 120,000 famous Rowse subscribers? It couldn't be that they have no talent... could it? Naaaah.
Kathryn - how could I forget you - you gave me shit for not using twitter when posting! ;-) I'm really trying to be better - promise!
Kris,
I'm afraid I don't see why it takes guts to have an opinion about anyone or anything. Rowse is just another schmo with a blog who hands out useless advice with the intention of taking money from his readers. I have shown that you can do everything completely contrary to his advice and succeed online. Moreover my system can be duplicated and it works for others.
"BS - let's hope Darren's forum is a success. Nothing could eliminate competition for the rest of us better than people following him and his crowd."
lol...yes...you are right.I love problogger just because of this.If people follow him they will never ever MMO.Thanks Darren - for throwing the competition out of our way.I love you :D
how about all of us calling him TheoryBlogger instead of problogger?That is right,isn't it?
"A theory a day keeps the money away" is Theoryblogger's motto
Jeeze Griz would you please stop posting - you are a serious distraction - I am REALLY tempted to join the forum - can anyone tell me whether they allow anchored sig links - that could drive some traffic - maybe I could get a blog review - I know I have done too many 5 points posts and sometimes my language is questionable - and my commentators are even worse! In fact Allyn says that anyone with bad language on their blogs is clearly a bad neighbourhood - so maybe I really should join ProBlogger and find out how to be a better blogger ....
I don't know why you all are bashing this so much. If you listen to his video, he says there will be other "layers" coming soon. $1.95 is a great price and it is especially cheap if there will be other "layers" besides the forum.
Has "layermarketing.com" been taken yet?
Griz, I LOVE it when you go after the so-called "A Lister" pro blogger types! Ha! You're a real "tell it like it is" kinda guy and it's not only refreshing, but hysterical too!
Making money online has nothing to do with what these "experts" are telling bloggers to do, and it's about time they are called out publicly. I make money from my blogs and it's a hell of a lot more than pennies each month, and the more I read legit blogs on how to make money online like yours, Vic's, Court and Mark's Keyword Academy and others, the money I make from my blogs (I have 3 now) is only going to get better. Maybe I'll go buy myself another Corvette to celebrate the money I'm making! I guess that makes me a ProBlogger! Ha!
Griz,
I followed the Lara Kulpa (Ginko Consulting) trail to find out who she is since I've never heard of her.
To start with, I have to agree that her website is 95% built to push the Problogger.com .net ideology and 5% business. I do believe that she is running her business with this site but her business doesn't come from search engines. Instead, her business comes from coattail riding.
Lara is a blog designer and social media marketer, so who better to team up with than Darren Rowse? He sucks in the noobs and this gives her plenty of blog design business as she sets up new WP blogs one after the other. Unfortunately, good SEO and link building isn't part of the equation.
Lara's education? She studied Zoo Technology and she is a certified Zookeeper.
Lara worked for b5media for almost 2 years which Darren Rowse is associated with. Maybe this is how they met? In a video interview on her website, she says that she is Darren's virtual assistant and that she answers comments for him and alerts him of any issues. Interesting. She also runs his twitip dot com site. I've never been jealous of Darren Rowse and his accomplishments but I wish I had a lapdog.
Lara's twitter account has been counting down the $1.95 Problogger.com forum for weeks. Her last "business" tweet was about a new website Ginko created that was about to go live. Thirteen Yards To Victory - a band promotion/album sales blog with another great url - 13ytv dot com. That url just screams optimization. The site itself is poorly optimized as well and for someone that builds WP blogs for a living, I would think she might want to look into some of the WP SEO plug-ins.
On a good note, Lara has found her calling as long as she sticks with social sites. Band sites are all about social traffic but that poor Problogger.com person that wants to sell his carburetors needs a good SEO plan and link building strategy to succeed. I wonder how many sites Lara has created for these noobs and how long have they been waiting for the money to come in?
Troy
Well fuck me running, who the hell is Darren Rowse and what the hell is Problogger. Jeeeze I need to get out more.
No time to read the comments today, but I read the post. I lol'd
btw.. I snatched MD's PR7 Thunder. sneeky sneeky
bk
Yo Grizzo!
How do you know the SERP update hasn't settle down yet? I'm just curious because one of my best performing niche site got knock down the 1st page and the site that took my #1 spot has similar "method" of BL like this MD site. I'm starting to see a trend :P
Wow too many comments - people type too much - Mr Fang is an inscrutable fellow he makes me want to howl - so congratulations to him and thank him for all the edu links - to be used with moderation of course - I too look forward to the next update to see what happens if anything - when is it due ? VicWWW(R)
"By extension I suppose every musician will become famous if they just do the exact same thing as famous musicians? Talent has nothing to do with it - just follow a formula right?"
LMAO 99% of really talented musicians will never make it because the business is designed from top to bottom to sell bland, unassuming crap because that's what the majority of brain-dead listeners like. Therefore most "musicians" who actually do make it are hardly experts in their field and most can hardly play a damn note. It also helps if you're young, good looking and give the come on to the producer. Ha, what has changed in 100 years of the media?
Oh yeah, Hi Griz...
Seems I can post comments again from FF - the new laptop!
Interestingly, Robert Puddy, he of the list-building fraternity, built a paid "experts" forum 2 years ago and charged $10 a head to join. He amassed over 1,000 members in about 2 weeks. Yeah, I was a noob and joined with everyone else in those days, because we didn't know any different (Trent was there, so was Monika so I was in good company LMAO). Did I learn anything that made me money from all those so-called experts?
Did I bollocks!
What a waste of time, as were most great ideas back then. One thing I couldn't fault is that the scheme did make money... for its creator! A nice $10k paycheque for sitting on your arse for 2 weeks and putting up a free phpbb forum and spreading the word throughout forums like WF and several others.
So Rowse's latest brainwave is just an old idea rehashed, re-packaged and regurgitated like the proverbial technicolour yawn. Just like his theories and methods.
Anyway, that's enough reading! Back to writing some more articles for promotional purposes only (wouldn't want anyone to think I was garnering links, heaven forbid)!
Terry - lol. You sound so cynical regarding today`s music scene... ya`mean looks help? Good thing Bob Dylan came along before MTV then.
Btw - this post is so yesterday - check out the new post!
Well, another nice post, Griz. How dull the blogging world is if not for "smart" bloggers like Darren, Shoe, Lara, Conn, Chow, Wiki bloggers and don't forget Middlebrook. Without them we'll be so much poorer for blog horror tales. BTW, some blogspot blogs have made my day.
Geez - is Conn and Caroline still around?
Grizz,
Damn, I'm reading your posts before Dilbert every morning LOL. BTW, Mooladays = nice one.
I guess Lara doesn't even want to have a discussion about what you have proven. I commented on her post a couple of days ago on her blog. The worst thing I said was "Griz has proven your theory wrong" but my comment is nowhere to be found. I guess you are right Griz, as long as people want to continue stumbling around in the dark, it just means less competition....
@Brendan:
Got so angry I didn't finish reading the rest of the comments! You're ignorant if you think there is even a comparsion between Problogger and TKA forums. For one you're not paying for the forums. Unless Darren is gonna get off his a$$ and give weekly webinars, one on one meetings, constant valuable help and first hand responses as well as new trial and error methods ... you can just STFU about the comparison.
*fume*
LOL - do you feel better now Alex. One startling difference you missed - Court teaches how to make money - Rowse teaches how to make a pretty blog and do it passionately!
Breath... :-)
Aaronk - she is hardly going to let anyone link to this site - her assertions are as stupid as anything I have read online and this blog is the proof that she hasn't got a clue. I was going to rank number 1 for "personal finance blog" just for fun but then she would just change the text to some other noob keyword and I don't have the time...
It is funny though - they can't come hear and tell me I'm full of shit... wonder why?
Sorry I didn't mean to spazz out Grizzy =( I just get so darned mad! That man (Darren Ra$$hole) costs people a lot of money and doesn't teach them anything useful!! It's just plain awful!
Eep.. breathe breathe!
Take the cat for a walk Alex - you'll feel better. And get a hold of LIN re; wedding stuff. ;-)
Grizzly
I am so thankful you are willing to teach people out of the generosity of your heart. Another blog like this is Garry Conn's. He writes teaser blogs to get you interested in buying material he charges for.
There's nothing like a good rant to start the day : ) It'll fill up - a little hint of scarcity and exclusivity (plus a massive readership) and it's done. Josh Spaulding did an article on the herd mentality - deja vu?
I am thinking of joining 1,200 suckers , ops! I mean bloggers, because even Kevin Muldoon of "Blogging Tips" has joined this paid forum a few days ago. Kevin Muldoon said he's really enjoying it and $1.95 a month is a bargain. He is surpised that it's so cheap!
Nothings funnier than a bunch of yups spending money to a forum that has nothing but worthless info and a bunch of but kissers on it. As far as the moderator for the forum goes she's had her head up Darrens ass way to long.
I also figured you put something up about this peice of trash forum. You made an excellent point in this post, it doesn't matter the platform it matters how the blogger uses it.
Great Post!
I'll admit it, I even bought Darren Rowse's book Problogger (ooh, "Secrets For Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income"! what noob could resist!) and thought it was *me* who kept missing something. I was missing what wasn't there, how to make money online! That was last year, B.G. (before Griz).
Troy said: "<..>she says that she is Darren's virtual assistant and that she answers comments for him<..>"
Hmm...didn't get answer to any of my questions, so I'm not sure she is answers comments neither Darren does..
I agree with you , Darren is just a blogger (or a scammer?) who trick the noobs for a long time so he has a great authority and people trust him. But if you visit his blog oftenly, then you might find out that he post the same time again and again. Problogger is SUCK!
did you guys see http://probloggerforum.net?
Rob - is that yours?
Grizzly: it not mine, just tried probloggerforum.com and it went to probloggerforum.net but at this moment forum is closed. looks like its free
Well I'm glad someone said it. There are so many great free community forums to. Still - fools and their money....
I made a comment in lara's post (Why Free Hosted Blogs Suck) and even made a link to this post for my proof (I made a rebuttal). You know what? she deleted it. Maybe she is ashamed people know she is lying.
BTYW, I just checked the SERP for "Make Money Online" and I found this site in second page... occupying the top spot is moneymakerinfo.blogspot.com ...
what happened? some of my sites are being knocked down too!
As always.....we salute you!
Hey Griz - I figured you remembered me because of my sweet southern accent ;).
Seriously, you have to use twitter and facebook and other social media if you want to build your website - right?
Great Post, but does a blog usually gain you better search engine rankings?
I injured my back and can't work anymore,so I'm joining the rest of the ranks of noobies trying to get some self esteem back, as my wife brings home the paycheck. I'm new, know just enough to be dangerous and can't seem to find the right track to get to making money. You hit straight from the shoulder and I like that. I'll be reading everything free I can get from your site. I have started with a WordPress site and am trying to bang out decent articles. I call it Car Insurance-Journal, as I do know something about insurance. I know you probaly don't have time to comment on this, but I'll be here everyday...slurping up knowledge as fast as I can.
Thanks..Broken Back
"...or you can just read this blog from back to front."
Griz, thank you for 34 months worth of quality enlightening posts. It must have taken me about 6 weeks but I read every single one of them - back to front and have been trying to take time between all my reading and learning and all my other commitments in life to start my own little empire Griz style.
The "Friends of Griz" page has been helping, everybody on there is great, all the backlinking sources you've discussed have helped - I've already gotten involved in five backlink friendly sites discussed in your archives and started a small network of support sites to compliment my flagship site (see link). Things are going well and it's all based on your methods. Thank you again.
Now I have to go and read some of the other blogs you've mentioned namely KA and others in your sidebar. Since I started using your methods I have seen an increase in income for sure already and can't wait to put in another six months of work to see where I go from here.
you said griz, way to expose Darren's BS pay to join forum. I remember seeing it, and was like this is sick. Janet's comments about blogger us BS also, I have a few blogger blogs that rank # 1 for keyword terms in google and they also rank well in yahoo.
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