As things begin to wind down, and we all begin to enjoy the holiday weekend, I am already thinking ahead to 2012, and where I hope that my business takes me.
This year, we've been through a rollercoaster ride with the search engines, have frantically tried to change things to regain our rankings, and finally settled upon our course of action. And, although the penalty is still sitting squarely on all of our sites, at least we have regained our own purpose instead of continually trying to change to regain something that could again be lost with the click of a mouse, or a simple change in code...
To be brief, we have returned to the fundamentals of our business. Why we created it. What we hope to attain. And, how we choose to operate that business.
Next week, we will go into a little more detail about our plans for 2012. In the meantime, give some thought over the next few days to your own plans. Are you where you want to be? Are you doing things the way you know they should be done? Or are you "selling out" and frantically trying to stay ahead of that mouse click, that change to the algorithm, or worse?
Merry Christmas!
Friday, December 23, 2011
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Get in shape with the Merit Fitness 725T Plus Treadmill!
A great choice for both walkers and recreational runners, the 725T offers a quiet, yet powerful 2.5 horsepower continuous-duty motor, with a walking or running speed range of 1 to 10 miles per hour and an incline (elevation) range of 0 to 10 percent... read the rest of this post at http://ping.fm/qmfEe
A great choice for both walkers and recreational runners, the 725T offers a quiet, yet powerful 2.5 horsepower continuous-duty motor, with a walking or running speed range of 1 to 10 miles per hour and an incline (elevation) range of 0 to 10 percent... read the rest of this post at http://ping.fm/qmfEe
Thinking about a Kindle Fire? Visit http://ping.fm/ve6d8 and see if it's the right tablet computer for you!
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
My New Strategy...
Over the past year, I have been dealing with what appears to be a penalty from the search engines...
At first, I tried taking down all my sites and then bringing them back online one by one. Then, I tried deleting all the blogroll links...but that didn't work either. I tried completely revamping each and every site. Again, that didn't work. My sites are still languishing on page 5 or 6...
Finally, after a great deal of thought, I decided that I could no longer keep trying different things, frantically trying to figure out how to get out of one search engine's "sandbox."
All that I was doing was continually changing everything...and if you think about that for a minute, you'll understand my new strategy.
You see, part of the reason that you patronize a particular store, be it online or off, is because it is familiar. You trust it. It always delivers the same service. And, it looks like the same place every time you go there. Now, if that particular store never looked the same, and you could never trust it to be open when it should be open, and further you never knew what to expect...how many times would you go back to that store before you found somewhere else that better met your expectations? Not long.
That's what I was doing to my online business...in my frantic changing, rearranging, and updating, I was sabotaging my own efforts. I am trying to create a stable, long term business...not some little fly by night sites that will make money, then that I must frantically change every single time a certain search engine updates it's algorithm. Further, if you think about that, do you honestly think that search engine will include or direct people to sites that cannot be trusted? Sites that change so rapidly? Sites that are there one minute and gone the next? I don't think so either.
So, I stopped changing everything. I am back to working on my sites, but I am following my original business plan, and I am building sites that will not change every five minutes. In other words, I am in it for the long haul. And, yes, even though I am still languishing on page 5 or 6 for most keywords, the slow growth that I am experiencing now should be sustainable growth...and not a flash in the pan that's gone before you know it.
At first, I tried taking down all my sites and then bringing them back online one by one. Then, I tried deleting all the blogroll links...but that didn't work either. I tried completely revamping each and every site. Again, that didn't work. My sites are still languishing on page 5 or 6...
Finally, after a great deal of thought, I decided that I could no longer keep trying different things, frantically trying to figure out how to get out of one search engine's "sandbox."
All that I was doing was continually changing everything...and if you think about that for a minute, you'll understand my new strategy.
You see, part of the reason that you patronize a particular store, be it online or off, is because it is familiar. You trust it. It always delivers the same service. And, it looks like the same place every time you go there. Now, if that particular store never looked the same, and you could never trust it to be open when it should be open, and further you never knew what to expect...how many times would you go back to that store before you found somewhere else that better met your expectations? Not long.
That's what I was doing to my online business...in my frantic changing, rearranging, and updating, I was sabotaging my own efforts. I am trying to create a stable, long term business...not some little fly by night sites that will make money, then that I must frantically change every single time a certain search engine updates it's algorithm. Further, if you think about that, do you honestly think that search engine will include or direct people to sites that cannot be trusted? Sites that change so rapidly? Sites that are there one minute and gone the next? I don't think so either.
So, I stopped changing everything. I am back to working on my sites, but I am following my original business plan, and I am building sites that will not change every five minutes. In other words, I am in it for the long haul. And, yes, even though I am still languishing on page 5 or 6 for most keywords, the slow growth that I am experiencing now should be sustainable growth...and not a flash in the pan that's gone before you know it.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Want to Succeed Online?
Today, I'm going to write directly to anyone who is interested in starting your own online business...and one of the biggest reasons why people don't succeed. That's right...this one is about why you might fail!
One of the first things that you must do when you start marketing online is to learn! You have to learn how to build a website, learn which products to promote...heck, you might even have to learn what online business really is! So, if you're like most people, you start visiting forums, buying ebooks and courses, and software, and plugins, and more. You try one, and when it doesn't work, you try another and then another and then another... And, then six months or a year later, you wonder why you aren't making money online!
And that's just it. You aren't making money online because you aren't working on your business! You're buying course after course, or visiting forum after forum, or worse...and you are wasting your time. That's right, you are wasting your time.
Let me give you an example from my own business: This year, Google has updated their algorithm several times. And, that update has really lit up the forums with threads about the updates, products designed to help you beat the updates, and more. So, what did I do? You guessed it...in trying to figure out the updates to the algorithms, I spent TOO MUCH TIME and TOO MUCH MONEY in the forums and on products to help me change the way I was building my business so that I could "stay on top of" Google's updates.
Well, guess what happened...my sites got hit, and I spent the entire year changing my personal business plan in the hopes of regaining what the updates took away. And, where am I now? Exactly where I started. The changes I made either had no effect or they were wiped away by subsequent updates...and it's cost me one year of potential growth. All because I spent too much time and money in the forums listening to other people's ideas about why sites lost ground and what products they had created or recommended to correct the problems created by the updates.
So, about a month ago, I took a long hard look at what I was doing...and I stopped buying ebooks, and software, and plugins, and such. I stopped reading the forums. Stopped listening to the "experts" and everyone else. And I went back to building my business my way. That's right. MY BUSINESS. MY WAY. That's something you need to read again and again. Because that's the important point. It's your business. Yes, learn what you need to in the forums, from ebooks, software, whatever. But then just QUIT listening to others and start doing. Take action. Don't analyze. Don't second guess. JUST DO IT.
That's the biggest thing I have learned, and it is the best advice I can give you. Stay away from the forums. Stay away from the miracle softwares and plugins. And, simply, just do the work.
One of the first things that you must do when you start marketing online is to learn! You have to learn how to build a website, learn which products to promote...heck, you might even have to learn what online business really is! So, if you're like most people, you start visiting forums, buying ebooks and courses, and software, and plugins, and more. You try one, and when it doesn't work, you try another and then another and then another... And, then six months or a year later, you wonder why you aren't making money online!
And that's just it. You aren't making money online because you aren't working on your business! You're buying course after course, or visiting forum after forum, or worse...and you are wasting your time. That's right, you are wasting your time.
Let me give you an example from my own business: This year, Google has updated their algorithm several times. And, that update has really lit up the forums with threads about the updates, products designed to help you beat the updates, and more. So, what did I do? You guessed it...in trying to figure out the updates to the algorithms, I spent TOO MUCH TIME and TOO MUCH MONEY in the forums and on products to help me change the way I was building my business so that I could "stay on top of" Google's updates.
Well, guess what happened...my sites got hit, and I spent the entire year changing my personal business plan in the hopes of regaining what the updates took away. And, where am I now? Exactly where I started. The changes I made either had no effect or they were wiped away by subsequent updates...and it's cost me one year of potential growth. All because I spent too much time and money in the forums listening to other people's ideas about why sites lost ground and what products they had created or recommended to correct the problems created by the updates.
So, about a month ago, I took a long hard look at what I was doing...and I stopped buying ebooks, and software, and plugins, and such. I stopped reading the forums. Stopped listening to the "experts" and everyone else. And I went back to building my business my way. That's right. MY BUSINESS. MY WAY. That's something you need to read again and again. Because that's the important point. It's your business. Yes, learn what you need to in the forums, from ebooks, software, whatever. But then just QUIT listening to others and start doing. Take action. Don't analyze. Don't second guess. JUST DO IT.
That's the biggest thing I have learned, and it is the best advice I can give you. Stay away from the forums. Stay away from the miracle softwares and plugins. And, simply, just do the work.
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Goodbye Comments
Over the past few weeks, I've been reviewing individual sites that I own, and deciding what updates to make. Unfortunately, after reviewing the sites, it has become painfully evident that there are very few legitimate "comments" on any of the sites...all of them are from robots or spammers hired by other individuals to make comments on blogs in hopes of gaining backlinks. Personally, I don't worry about backlinks to my websites anymore. The reason is fairly simple...building backlinks is a boring waste of time, and quite honestly, search engines are the only ones who care how many backlinks you have to a site. People don't. People are interested in the quality of the site, and the information that you provide, not who else is linking to your site.
So, after deleting hundreds of spam comments, I finally decided to just do away with all the comments on all of my sites. With the exception of the contact us form, and the questions/answers forums, on my sites, they will no longer be subjected to endless comments from foreign spammers...and unfortunately, real live people will have to work a little harder now to share their opinion on my sites.
Thanks, search engines...because you made backlinking such an important part of ranking, spammers discovered the comments section...and once again, ruined it for the actual human users.
So, after deleting hundreds of spam comments, I finally decided to just do away with all the comments on all of my sites. With the exception of the contact us form, and the questions/answers forums, on my sites, they will no longer be subjected to endless comments from foreign spammers...and unfortunately, real live people will have to work a little harder now to share their opinion on my sites.
Thanks, search engines...because you made backlinking such an important part of ranking, spammers discovered the comments section...and once again, ruined it for the actual human users.
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