BizJournals.com Spamming Google

It is no secret that Forbes.com and many other major news sites publish advert / lead generation sections (get your meso help at Forbes), but a newer trend is that trusted publishers are creating these types of pages without even placing links or lead generation forms in them.

Check out this BizJournals page titled Apply For A Credit Card Online, complete with interesting backlinks and quality copywriting:

Not only can you comparison shop for credit card offers online, but you can also apply for a credit card online. This is rather convenient. In one fell swoop, you can tour through all kinds of credit cards, then apply for the one that best suits you.

How does that type of content end up published on that site?

Second Tier Search Engines & Clean Traffic Sources

WatchMojo recently posted about their experiences with GoClick:

Looking at Google Analytics, I saw that initially [GoClick's] traffic came from sources such as searchportal.information.com and landing.domainsponsor.com, but that progressively it included sites like myspace-junk.info. By the time you read this, myspace-junk.info is long gone into the annals of web history, which is fitting because these sites stink and the intermediaries that profit from them like GoClick - or their parent Marchex - are full of shit.

The problem when you leave the major ad networks is that monetization is so much less efficient that it is hard for them to have any legitimate CLEAN traffic partners other than media they own. Google bows down and caters to adult traffic sources. Why would any clean traffic sources be part of second tier networks if the top ad networks are willing to pay out nearly 100 percent?

As Spam Evolves...

Today my girlfriend checked her mail at the office and had an official notice / final notice piece of mail. She opened it up and inside it had a cheesy contest form. In the mailbox it is hard to tell the difference between information and spam. As the rules of the web change I think it will be even harder to know the difference between real websites and fake ones. AdSense Advisor said in a WebmasterWorld thread that

This decision was a long time in the making, and your thoughts and feedback are quite valuable to us.

Yet the policy change came without warning, and Google gave out no information as to what specifically changed. The one thing they did is cause many spammers to make their spam look more legitimate:

MFA2.0 is already underway. What seemed odd to me when I got banned was why they gave me until the end of the month - and not just cut me off in 48 hours. I could have stopped my Adwords campaign in under a few hours. Two weeks give you enough time to test out your new model get your ducks in a row and begin MFA2.0. The thing about lazy arbitragers is that they made money - enough money to hire people to do the hard work and still make dough. You can hire a freelance editor a good freelance content writer and a part time project manager for under 50K a year. If you can get back to making 50K a month clear it is worth while doing as you diversify your portfolio.

As the lines between real and spam blur it is going to be harder to have a stable income without adding extras to your website. So now I am going to start making my spam look more legitimate as well too, perhaps by doing the some or all of the following:

  • unique designs that look much more expensive than their price
  • author profile pages
  • better domain names
  • stock photography on many articles, and perhaps a few videos too
  • more socially oriented linkbait
  • more ad buys for anchor content articles
  • longer articles with more in content links
  • blogs, software / tools, or other community aspects

Get Paid in .edu Links to Post Help Wanted Ads

Joe Whyte offers tips on how to get free .edu links - just ask students to work for you on campus websites in the help wanted section.

Students = under-priced workers.
Free or cheap .edu links = under-priced links.
Nice

Starting From Scratch, on Under $100

SEOish offers 7 different views on how to become successful in the search game starting with next to nothing.

Information Architecture is the Most Underrated Component of Effective Search Marketing

Information architecture is probably the single most important and most under-rated aspect of the search marketing strategy for large websites.

A Recurring Error

I have been reviewing some client sites that could use work on the information architecture front. Some of them want to rank for keywords that they do not actively target. The key to ranking is to create meaningful navigation schemes that reinforce the goals of your site and your target keyword phrases. In addition, a site which is improperly categorized due to poor internal navigation does not flow PageRank properly through the site, which means your ranking data and market feedback will be irrelevant / broken and not show your true potential.

Conversion oriented structure is a type of content. It is one of the biggest advantages smaller players have over large players that operate in many fields, and adds to the bottom line of any site that takes it seriously.

Compare the following...

What Happenst to a Site With Bad Internal Navigation?

A piece meal site with hacked up internal navigation exhibits the following characteristics

  • navigation is inconsistent and confusing, thus it is hard for spiders to know what pages are important and it is hard for humans to work their way through the conversion process

  • if the spiders do not rank the correct pages odds are pretty good that the visitors will come into the site on the wrong page (and have a hard time working their way through the conversion process if they start out at the wrong spot)
  • hard to buy broad keywords using PPC because competing sites are better at funneling visitors through the conversion process
  • hard to buy category level keywords using PPC because it is hard to place people on meaningful content if it does not exist. category pages should be more than a link list or groups of irrelevant chunks of content
  • what should be category pages do not add context, build trust, and build credibility - they are essentially placeholders gluing together various unrelated content
  • if you do not have well defined and reinforced category pages the site is not structured to rank for the mid level category related keywords
  • much of the site's PageRank is wasted on unimportant pages such as photo galleries or other low content pages
  • since PageRank is distributed improperly, the market feedback is largely irrelevant
  • has many similar pages that duplicate each other, cleaning up the errors leads to broken links and other problems
  • the site is hard to grow or market because as your category gets more competitive and efficient you first have to restructure the site and undue the errors before you can compete

What Are the Benefits of Good Navigation?

A site with strong internal navigation exhibits the following characteristics

  • properly flows PageRank throughout the site

  • search engines are likely to rank the most relevant page
  • easier to convert
  • is easy for users to move around
  • builds user trust
  • more likely to be referenced in a positive light than a site with broken navigation (gets free editorial links)
  • converts better, so it can afford to pay a higher lead price for traffic (and thus maintain market leadership even as the market gets more competitive)
  • category pages add context and target different relevant word sets than lower level pages
  • folder and filenames are logical so they aid relevancy and clickthrough rate and the site is easy to build out / extend
  • if you ever make errors they are typically far easier to correct
  • easy to promote seasonal specials or currently hot items

Many website owners with unorganized websites think that they just need more of the same, but in a game of market efficiency sometimes less is more, especially if it is better organized.

Every Rich Jerk Sells Snake Oil

Shoemoney pointed out that the Rick Jerk website is for sale, alleging that the sale is required to avoid bankruptcy. Was the Rich Jerk just a marketing scheme?

I have been seeing numerous others claiming the selling of snake oil recently. Dr Garcia flamed a whole slew of honest SEOs because we incorrectly refer to semantics as latent semantic stuff or call tools that show word co-occurrence as LSI like:

In an effort to save face and avoid litigation from consumers, some of these purveyors of falsehood as other crooks and their friends play with words and call theirs "LSI-like", "LSI-based", "LSI-driven" technology or use similar snaky phrases.

Odds are most of the people using words like LSI-like probably mistakenly referred to co-occurrence stuff as though it was LSI. To an SEO it really doesn't matter if search engines use LSI or something that acts similar...we only need to understand roughly what it takes to rank.

And I am fairly certain Dr Garcia was flamed in the past in SEO forums....I think it was in Cre8asite forums a few years back by an SEO who has been a big name since 1999.

Today Michael Arrington referred to domainers in a negative light

This is actually one of the cleaner scams occurring in the extremely dirty domain name business.

On that same post Frank Schilling dropped by to offer a comment

I agree with a few others here Michael. You make yourself look foolish when you unfairly and inequitably malign an entire industry because of the actions of some.

A few short years ago you made your living in the dirty domain industry. While I understand that your employment tenure in the industry may have shown some unsavory facets and your exit from the Canadian company you worked for may not have been to your satisfaction, calling the entire industry ‘dirty’ makes you no friends and garners you no respect by those trying to shape it in a positive way.

I look at all the worthless bags of smoke that you pump on this forum, all the investors you sell down the river in these Web 2.0 jokes. Who’s dirty Michael?

I do think much of the conflict between various web personalities is ego and envy driven, but I also think it is just a reflection of the business world as a whole.

Today a friend of mine explained that he thought it was dirty that in a game of basketball that if a ball goes out of bounds that both players will point at each other even if they know it was out on them. Business (offline or online) is the same way. Everyone spins for distribution and authority. Just look at how spammy and full of false promises many of the headlines are in some mainstream media outlets. How are we going to drum up support, gain a fan base, and further our industries if we are not evangelical about them? How can we steal marketshare from Google if we don't promise to know what people are thinking?

What makes the web seem so dirty at times?

  • It is unfiltered by corporate communications policies.

  • Language without body language is not as clear as some would like to believe.
  • Messages spread so quickly.
  • Everyone has a platform to spread their message.

Nobody knows what the web will become, but everyone is vying for attention hoping to stay relevant for another day. Some are better positioned than others, but everyone is selling.

Arbitrage & Macro-Trends

As an entrepreneur the biggest advantage you have over big businesses is that you can spot trends early and invest in them before they have a chance to tamper with the market. I got on the web in 2003 and launched this blog about SEO before the end of that year. That was great timing both for the SEO market and for seeing the blogging trend. While Google is killing a lot of the made for AdSense spam, the next big trend trend is probably going to be web video. But you have to act quickly to lock in large gains. Within days of Google integrating video into their search results, many of BuyDomains.com's video related domains were gone. Overnight the price of some of those domains probably increased 10x. Lots of people are investing in everything social...I think that trend is over-hyped and already on the decline. Nearly daily PR firms send me emails promoting social content stuff from people who clearly are writing about a topic they have no real knowledge of. By the time people who don't care about a market are drawn to it you know it is time to look elsewhere.

But as big business jumps into a wide variety of markets, you look at the information pollution created and realize that many people will be unable to tell the difference between information and what may as well amount to machine generated content.

Search is over-hyped too, but Google is making the search results more interactive in an attempt to re-accelerate that growth. They are evolving search with the web. The fact that they are pushing video means that it wouldn't be a bad idea to do so too. But you probably are not going to make much of a dent in the market as a YouTube or MetaCafe clone. There are a ton of markets where the top ranked organic results are of low quality and will soon be replaced. I think the next big trend on the web is remarkable micro-brands and high quality original editorial channels...video and text.

Beautiful Political Marketing

Andy Hagans made a great post about how the Ron Paul brand is being built online. Robert Greenwald recently launched another new film at ImpeachGonzales.org, where the headline could not be better:

President Bush won't fire Attorney General Alberto Gonzales... but YOU can! Most lead generation forms are probably less than 10% as effective as the Impeach Gonzalez site is. The introductory email was amazing as well, starting with

The Gonzales hearings made plain for all to see that the highest law enforcement officer in the land is unwilling to tell the truth under oath.

and ending with

Don't just be angry, don't just be annoyed, don't yell at the ones you love. IMPEACH GONZALES.

Let's get to work! Watch the video and send it to everyone you know.

Democracy is a beautiful thing.

A domain with resonance, a relevant story, content in small easy to digest chunks, background links, a prominent call to action, viral elements, strong framing, and emotional appeal... everything you could want in a political marketing campaign designed to spread.

Whether you agree with the messages, both are already successful marketing campaigns given their budget.

Google Trends Adds Hot Keywords

Google Trends now shows the top 100 fastest growing keywords by date. Each keyword shows peak search time, search profile by hour, related keywords, top web results, news results, and blog results.

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