The SEO Game: Can You Win?

Posted on May 2, 2012 by Hendry

So I’ve been doing IM for the past 3 years and 5 months full-time. I guess different marketer has different experience, but from what I’ve experienced so far, I could pretty much answer the above’s question with: No, you CAN’T.

I (and I’m sure a lot of other marketers as well) have realized this fact long ago. On September last year, I did said in my post “We live from Google while fighting it at the same time” which pretty much sum all the problems all marketers have with G today.

There are only simple 2 facts:

1. G wants to provide it’s user the best result. The job would normally be easier since all it has to do is counting (natural *cough* *cough*) links to a certain page for a particular keyword and it’be pretty much set.

2. We (the IMer generation from 2000′s) took a mission of utilizing this fact and build unnatural links (call it White/Grey/Black hat, it’s all the same for G) to make our pages pop on G first page.

G, who’re afraid of being left out by its user for providing trash content on its first page, start the campaign against us. Meanwhile, on the IMer side, people keep looking for new tricks to “fool” G. It leads to a long battle, but the winner is pretty much set.

We could try smart-ass tricks or using expensive software/services, but one thing that will never change is we play on their field and they’re the one who set the RULES. It’s pretty much game over for us SEOer. The one who keep making money from this are:

- The IM Gurus who are selling the illusion of SEO. They keep rambling about “G loves this” and “G loves that” or “SEO for the new age” or anything like that. Whenever new update comes up and sites got shot down, they always ready with the “brand new course” to save the day and empty your pocket.

- The SEO service providers: backlinker, blog network, article submitter, EDU/GOV link seller etc. There’s no end to them and I guess it’s because their “market” (us) is big and quite easy to be fooled.

I build my sites based on SEO as well. That means years of adding unique content around particular keywords and endless backlinking via various methods: blog network, article directories, profiles, comment, EDU/GOV, etc. My main site got around 600 UV/day, then after the Panda, it dropped to around 400 UV/day. Just now, after they shot down BMR, SEOLV Elite, and ALN (no, I don’t use any of them. My guess is they also shot down AMA, which I’ve been using for years), it dropped again to around 100 UV/day.

Well, for better or worse, I’ve seen this coming long ago so I didn’t really surprised when it happens. For that reason too, I’ve been experimenting with paid traffic (which I assume is more reliable) for a while now, but due to limited fund, I only able to test one at a time.

After my adwords account got closed on December, I’ve been looking for other way to generate traffic. My mission are:

1. Build an authority site.

I still have to learn a lot in this matter. The traffic will probably should come from YouTube, Facebook, forums, or other blogs. Guest posting has been pain-in-the-ass since it’s quite difficult to get a popular blog owners to agree for it. Some blogs even charge money if you want to guest post on their blog. I always look for blog under under 1million in Alexa (less will be even more difficult) and so far only manage to score 3 guest posts.

It’s a long term process I guess. I also need to build FB fan page, twitter page, etc.

2. Try other paid traffic

I’m currently experimenting on PPV to sell CPA offer. This kind of traffic can be used to build a list, but it’ll be hard to track which one really convert and not, so for the time being I’m focusing on CPA offer.

Having ran multiple offers for the past few months, I think I’ve found which affiliate and ppv network I could trust and decided to stick with them. I said this because (I think) I’ve experienced stealing by a ppv network. It was a campaign that I ran and generate quite good conversion rate (the LP even has about 40%) CTR. Then, suddenly I didn’t get much traffic anymore. Usually I spent $5-$10 easily (depend on my caps) and it burned down quickly (as it should be), but all of a sudden, the traffic is “capped” below 100/day and I spend “conveniently” around $1.4 per day. I add a bunch more keywords and nothing happened. I asked the PPV network and they told me to raise my bid. My bid were standard and if I raised it it’ll be overpriced, besides, there is no data of other bidder on the bid info. Nevertheless, I raise it anyway, and of course, nothing happen.

The only thing I can think is they capped my budget at $1.4/day instead of $10 that I set, then “sell” the rest of targeted traffic directly to the merchant. I just know that this could happen after reading a blog of an affiliate manager of a big PPV network.

Well, lesson learned. I’d just burn the rest of my fund (which will take a while since I only spend $1.4/day) and never use them again.

Posted in Work from home attempt | Leave a comment

How to Burn Sixteen Grand A Night – Do You Have What It Takes to Say “NO”?

Posted on March 27, 2012 by Hendry

Okay, the title is inspired from Tim Ferris’ “How to burn one million dollars a night” and even though 16 grand is nothing compared to 1 million dollars, it’s still mean a lot here. So, what the heck that I’m talking about and what does it has to do with these number? I’m talking about OPTION and how often it’s being forced at us as if we have nothing else aside from accepting it.

I’m in my 30s now and a bunch of my friends/relatives are start getting married (had 3, maybe more marriages this year) and while the party was nice with foods and songs and dancers and all, I just come with realization that they (the one who’s wedded) don’t have much option in this. And that’s where they have to burn 10-20 grand a night for the wedding party whether they want it or not.

“But who doesn’t want a wedding party? Don’t you want to have something to remember your wedding?” Of course, everybody does, but young people my age today has more practical reasoning before not-having-a-wedding-party thing.

Let’s look a few facts (in my country):
- the average salary for people worked for several years today is between 300-800 dollars a month
- decent house is priced between 60 to 150 grand. After the wedding, you have to pay 20% up front and then working your ass off to pay your mortgage for another 10-15 years.
- you’ll probably have kids later, which will make you have to work twice as hard as before

With this considered, a few friends I’ve talked to said they rather choose to use that 15 grand for something else. “Heck, if I have any saying in this, I’ll use that to buy a tour to Europe or other countries I never visited” said one of them. Those 16 grand probably can be used for front payment for bigger house or buying furniture and other house appliances. You probably can go to Italy for your honeymoon instead of booking a room in nearby beach and come back after a week. But NO, they don’t have any saying in this because the decision lay in their PARENTS.

This is one of the Chinese legacy that left with us and we the youngsters has to live with it:
- You MUST have a party for your wedding where your parents can invite every single relatives of theirs. Heck, you parents relatives perhaps consist of 60% or more of the guests.

- Your invitation MUST have another page written in Chinese on it. Lots of us youngsters who born in this country hardly speak Chinese at all and don’t see any point doing this, but NO, you HAVE TO, because your parents will be all freaked up if you don’t.

- Thinking of buffet and standing party? Two words: FORGET IT. You must calculate how many guests will come (with families, partner, or kids), then COUNT THE TABLES. Each table consist of 10 people and there will be 7 types of dishes served in timely manner. If you can get a deal, it’ll be around 120-150 dollars per table times 50-100 tables.

- Well, since you have to entertain the guests while waiting for the 7 dishes all served, it’s time to bring out the dancers, comedians, singers, and all. More extra expense.

- You found this cheap master of ceremony who can do his job just fine, but NO, your mom wants the MC to speak Chinese so he can welcome the guests in Chinese (regardless the fact that only a handful of the guests understand or actually listening to what he said) and speak “kanpaaii” when the time to toast has came. Oh by the way, this kind of MC is six times more expensive than the regular one.

With this in mind, I saw all of those in my recent wedding party. All of it:

- singer and band that nobody even aware that they exist

- comedian that do nothing but bullying his own employers and think that acting bizzare while crossdressing is actually funny (somebody really has to teach this guy the meaning of entertainment)

- a bunch of dancers with lame choreography and movements that I doubt they ever attend dancing school. Can’t even remember how many performances they did and how many costumes they changed into.

- Some boring games as an excuse to give doorprizes to the guests.

- Some mediocre photoshots and video editing that can be displayed to the guest while they’re eating. The whole thing is arranged and simply pretentious. I mean, the whole hugging and kissing is not in our culture, but at a wedding day they hired a scenario writer and MC that makes you kiss your father/mother in law and hugging each other. I can almost be sure that the wedding is the only time in their life where they’re hug and kiss their mother/father in law.

To put it simply, the whole thing reeks “we have to do it cause other do it too” and “we have to do it because it’s TRADITION”. The Event Organizer, the ballroom owner, the photographer and all simply catch this “MUST BE DONE” thing and overcharge everything. Seriously, I don’t think those dancers worth 300 bucks, or  those dresses and photographs worth 4500 dollars, or those balloons and decorations worth as much as they charged on . The whole thing is a rip-off and they take a really good money from it.

Seriously, I think it’s better for them (and for the guests) if they just have a buffet party that over within an hour instead of this party that takes almost 6 hours total. It exhaust everyone and doesn’t benefit any aside from the EO. Heck, even with 16 grand being thrown out that night, the one that I recall the most is the hot EO field agent in all-professional-black-blazers and a cute reception girl that got picked up by a tattooed guy after the party was over :D .

The whole thing didn’t need to happen if they simply have the courage to say NO and decide things on their own. It’s their life. It’s their hard-earned money. Sure things will get heated up for a while, but hard feeling passes and in a few years, no one will even remember about it again. The question is, do you have the courage to say NO and deal with the fire that follows it?

Posted in Life | 2 Comments

The Workout, the Japanese Course, and the XBox

Posted on January 16, 2012 by Hendry

The main purpose of my decision to move out is to create extra time so I can concentrate fully on my business. I addition, I can also spare more time to do things I like. The top in my list is joining Japanese class, buying a game console, and working out.

Well, the working-out part doesn’t work really well. I have had so much time for exercising, but I just skipped it (sedentary lifestyle IS hard to resist). I realize this can be one-way ticket to spend my 40s suffering various diseases (high blood pressure, back-pain, diabetes, and other typical disease of people who spend most of their life in un-healthy lifestyle). So I forced myself to went to the gym the other day. The trainers were good men; they realize I’m a beginner and devote themselves helping me with my workout. Well, they do it in “trainer” style: forcing me to the point that I can’t lift even a single rep anymore.

2 workout session, and I spent the next 3 days with my body and arms aching like hell. I can’t even concentrate when typing and spend most of the day just managing my contractors. I’ll start another session next week and hopefully I could get up earlier for my morning-jog-session.

The other goals went quite well though. I joined a Japanese class and incidentally, there are only 2 students in the class, including me, so it kinda like private lesson. The other student is sponsored by her company since the top management are all Japanese. Both she and the sensei looks intrigued by the motive I presented: “I just want to”. Haha. I guess it’s true that for most people language learning is annoying and they would not do it if they don’t have to. Well, not for me.

The last goal is having a game console and I chose the XBox since (cracked) PS3 is so complicated to use here. This has presented me with another challenge. Normally, I was a game addict. After 3 years in fasting, apparently it doesn’t change at all. I have several days already when I ended my work earlier and play for the rest of the day. Like I said, it was addictive and it still is.

Soon (after 60 hours+ adventuring in Cocoon-Gran Pulse), I realized this has to be stopped and controlled. It looks like I have to learn stricter self-control and discipline for this one.

Posted in Life | Leave a comment

AdWords and PPC Coach

Posted on December 14, 2011 by Hendry

So this is my second week trying to work this full time. It didn’t really worked as I hoped it since there were still distractions (minor) and sometimes it still struck me that I’ve done my daily task and there is still so much time. I try to work it out and fill it with productive activities instead of just fidgeting to fill out time.

My first project was altering my traffic source to PPC. This didn’t really work well though. My first attempt was several months ago when I tried to use Mark’s method (review page and targeting “product review” keyword”. I received warning from G because it violate their “Bridge page” policy. Your page will be marked as “bridge page” if only exist to drove traffic to other website (which pretty much the core of affiliate marketing). They said my page doesn’t offer value to the user and give example of a page comparing products, which – in their opinion – is giving value to the user.

So I tried to follow their advices. I made a huge comparison table and compare 10+ products head to head, then try to drove PPC traffic to that page. Again, G said the landing page violate their ToS. Didn’t bother to look for which ToS this time since they suspend my AdWords account permanently.

This is their email

Dear AdWords Advertiser,

It has come to our attention that your Google AdWords account does not comply with our Terms of Service and Advertising Policies.  As a result, your account and any related accounts have been suspended, and your ads will no longer run on Google.  Please be aware that you are prohibited from possessing or creating any other AdWords accounts, both now and in the future

In other words, if I want to try PPC again, I’ll have to use different name and different credit card. Nice. I think it’ll be hard for an affiliate marketer to advertise in AdWords anymore as long as the “bridge page” policy still exists.

Before I had my AdWords account banned, I also tried to look for PPC training for affiliate (since most PPC training is aimed toward business/product owner). PPC classroom is still ongoing and won’t open until God-know-when, so I opt in for PPC Coach despite the reviews on WarriorForum.

Consider this as my review for PPC Coach. First, the opening videos were quite outdated, it dated back in 2009 and he promoted his own affiliate network (a CPA based network which NO LONGER EXIST). Still, he didn’t bother to update the video and still use that network as an example.

He didn’t promote ClickBank. Instead, he suggest to be a member of a handful of CPA based networks which have quite complicated sign-up procedure. I finally got in at Ads4Dough. The affiliate manager interviewed me and approve my account. Quite an affiliate manager I would say, since he need 2 days to answer each of my question and he answer with another question. Great.

The training videos are all dated back in 2009 when G didn’t hate affiliate so much and you still could direct-linking and get away with it. The method (which he called ‘hot topic’ method) was quite shocking. You simply pick your niche based on news site, then post something, put an ad in it, and hoping your PPC traffic will click on that ad.

The example went like this:
1. He chose wrestling niche
2. Find a news about Hulk Hogan
3. Copy and paste the news with added opening and closing 2 sentences paragraph (how much quality score could you get with that method now?)
4. Put a banner that promote credit card or something like that
5. Bid on “hulk hogan” (no one bid on that keyword at that time which is a sign that it is not a profitable keyword).

That’s it. We’re expected to keep update the site and bid new keyword and put new ad for every post created. I was like “wow!”. Everyday I got hundreds of free traffic to my page, coming from a specific keyword with product promoted matched to that keyword and still the conversion is really low. What’ll happen if I send paid traffic there?

He still has some other methods and I’m still considering whether to keep learning or not (since the service is expensive at $50/month) when my AdWords account got banned. Well, that’s the signal for me to get out.

So now I still stuck with SEO as my traffic generation method. Currently I’m trying to build a new site and promote physical product instead. Hopefully this one’ll work .

Posted in Work from home attempt | Leave a comment

A Life Change

Posted on December 3, 2011 by Hendry

These past few months have been hectic enough that I can’t afford to spare time for posting, but basically the September and October earning were massive enough that I considered something more drastic – a life change. I weren’t able to actually do it for various reasons during the past few months, but eventually I did it this December: moving out.

It’s not a pleasant decision actually, but my options were quite limited: between the bad (moving out without certainty) or the worse (stay at home working on the dead-stagnant family business), finally I took the first choice. I moved to a bigger city about 100km from home, rent a room, and hoping that this business will work out somehow now that I devote all my time to work on it.

I KNOW this is the best course of action I could take and I took it, but it’s not preventing me from second-guessing myself from time to time and everytime I think about my fund running out before I could make this business can sustain me, it’s like a butterfly at the size of hedgedog running out in my stomach. But, hey, I tried to follow the advice “life’s simple: you make decisions, and you don’t look back“. If my $2.5/hour oDesk contractor could quit from his day job, there is no reason I couldn’t make this work right?

Posted in Life, Work from home attempt | 3 Comments