I am convinced that there is plenty of dust to settle...
- ryankettposted 13 years ago
0Firstly, let me apologise for not remaining the slightest bit calm a couple of days ago. Many of you deserve major credit for the composure that you have shown, there are too many people to list but the list would certainly include Nelle Hoxie and Sunforged amongst numerous others. At least I didn't resort to sounding the death knell or being overly critical of the platform, this is only the start of a whirlwind and nobody knows how it will end up. Yes it looks to have ripped the roof off, but a few hundred gold bullion bars could land in the garden before the wind stops blowing.
Secondly, don't reply with "I am sick of reading about Google", if you can't avoid clicking on a topic that you are not interested in reading then may I suggest an appointment with your local psychiatrist.
I have had a fair bit of time to reflect on the algorithm changes, and a few things strike me as suggesting that there are major tweaks to be made before Google dare roll this out across the globe. I am actually surprised that they chose to experiment in the United States, you would have thought that a smaller and subsequently much less lucrative region of the world would have been a good starting point. Ireland or New Zealand perhaps, with all due respect to natives of those countries (there are just far less people to upset, although I'm sure that Irish affiliate marketers could do without a loss of income right now).
I have been messing around a hell of a lot on Google, and whilst many of you have, I personally witnessed this:
- Irrelevant forum topics from 2002 or 1998 making the top page for long string searches ahead of content farms, blogs and even national newspapers.
- For numerous long string searches it was almost impossible to find anything dated 2011 on the first 10 pages of results, and in some cases even difficult when typing 2011 at the end of a search phrase. I doubt that Google wants to be seen to be serving up old news when it can easily be proven that 'new news' exists.
- eHow and Squidoo ranking very well for numerous search competitive search terms. Yes I know that Squidoo has been affected, but it seems that Google have been kinder to them as a result of their previous clean up efforts.
I am not necesarily saying that tweaks will improve Hubpages rankings, but I am convinced that major tweaks are necessary and will happen. I am also confident that eHow have survived for a logical reason, and I hope that the reason is one which will Google will share freely with other institutions. In fact, I hope that Google come out with some hard facts about just why eHow are ranking, that gives the site a clear basis from which to work.
As for the lady who claimed that Google were ranking her duplicate content above her Hubpages, I am frankly blown away by that, if true that really takes the biscuit. I would sincerely hope that Google are aware of this happening, with the number of PHD's that they have this should be the first thing rectified with the algorithm.
That's it, 24 hour ban just ended, a days worth of crap off of my chest
No, I have never expected this income to be "stable", I just wasn't ready for the slap. I had identified four months ago that I needed to diversify, but the slap came too soon. I don't actually desire a stable income, I love the buzz associated with self-employment, working for precisely the same hours each week earning precisely the same amount of money each week is a culture that bores me. Offline work is just as unstable and uncertain, my old firm ruled by fear and the creation of paranoia, the threat of job losses was a constant reminder - to be honest I feel more stable and secure as a free man.
There is absolutely no reason why somebody cannot make a living online (that applies to all of you), and offline I am actually in a great position for somebody of my age. For the past four months I made more money than I ever have in total honesty, and I will still make enough to pay the bills for the next few months.
Only I am now seeing this setback as the best thing that could have happened to me. For the first time the need to 'diversify' has jumped out of the textbooks and hit my firmly on the backside. They say that you can't beat practical experience Ultimately I have building off-site for 6 months, but will probably do more work in the next 4 weeks than was achieved in the last 24 weeks.
Yes this has been a tough lesson, but I look up to one or two people who have learnt this lesson on numerous occassions. The Nelle Hoxie story being the best example.
I have enough money to last me 6 months with zero earnings if I live a simple life. Do I get an offline job earning some middle aged man a nice fat annual bonus? Nah. That would be the easy way out. I will speculate and build, if it doesn't work out I will have learnt more. I am 25 years old, learning fast, I wouldn't want to stifle myself with the 9-5.
That would sound like a risk, but I treat life as a "game", like the Weakest Link to be precise. I am clever enough to 'bank' on the highs, I have built up a pension fund over the past few years, I will always be walking away with something
So definitely not down and out. Whilst the intention of this thread was not to talk about myself, instead about Hubpages as per the OP, I hope that there are others out there with the same make up and who are looking at this situation in an equally positive light. There are little people coming out of this change very well, all that was necessary in this instance was a diverse range of different websites in different formats and in varied niches.
We should all be looking to spread our eggs to be honest, I will soon have a news site which I hope to get into Google News, a few sales sites utilising my successful Hubpages keywords, 15 sites in fact. My next move is to end a reliance on content farms, but I may not neccessarily stop using them entirely - I have unaffected pages. I realise that this is a fast moving game, hence the reason I have just employed a team of writers on oDesk, I'm up for the challenge, but you are right in what you say - I need to be quicker and I need to diversify. That isn't a barrier to success, that is the key to success, having that reiterated is a huge positive.
This: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c … 2011-2.DTL
And glad to see you've leveled out. Hope you spent some quality time today with Coco and the new Mrs. Kett.Oh we did, we went to a fantastic small seaside town with the puglet today. It's around 23 miles away from my home and I would like to live there, so saving for the deposit begins now!!
- Nelle Hoxieposted 13 years ago0
It may not have been hit but to me it is still a content farm. They are building up as much content as possible in order to build advertising revenues. That is a content farm. It may be a higher quality content farm, but still a content farm nonetheless
I know that you are referring to Brighthub.
What you want is to build your own Alexa Top 10,000 website, with huge monthly revenues, so that one day you can sell it for $200k and invest in a bricks and mortar business. A small bar, for example. Stop building up huge businesses for other people in return for a couple of beers a time, and start the process of building up your own business, maybe even by paying people a couple of beers a time
I too have been working on new sites
10 long blog posts yesterday in a specific niche, a bit of SEO, I have got a few great writers on oDesk helping me with one or two projects so that I can pick up the pace a little.
I am not publishing any more hubs just yet either. In fact, I may trim my portfolio to 500 in the future and then work on improving the quality of all of those that remain.
In fact, I will lose anything which is never going to be profitable and anything which isn't evergreen. That will make me much more efficient.
I do believe that I can squeeze another half decent Xmas out of my portfolio even if the situation doesn't change, although I do believe that things will improve at least a little.Really, you don't want to work online forever? I can't see how any job can be better than working at home online.
You can move anywhere you want, be on a Hawaiian vacation and still be making money.
Working online has been a dream come true and I hope it's the only one I ever have again.
- Nelle Hoxieposted 13 years ago0
I have given my oDesk writers no SEO instructions, and I am using the entirely 'non-optimized' titles in their entirety
Thus, natural content, bingo!
In fact, I even told them to "write whatever they want, as long as it is on careers" although it wasn't careers, it was another broad topic
I am not pinning my hopes on those, that is a one site experiment, the keyword tool is still very much in use for my new sales sites.
- Nelle Hoxieposted 13 years ago0
True, but a few little hints to the owners of the businesses that they are potentially screwing wouldn't go amiss
- Nelle Hoxieposted 13 years ago0
I have to say even my own website pages are going crazy right now. Some of my best pages on my tourist site I can't even find.
Others are higher than before. So this is going to affect everyone for a week or two before it's all over.
I've seen it before. My best pages are just gone, not even on the 50th page. Then in two days they are back on the 1st page.
That is what is going on now, so we all need to just wait and see what it will all be like in a week.I agree Bill, it is a bit of a slay ride at this time, some up, some outta sight down. Time will heal all for non spammers.
Google are not silly, the cream will rise to the top whether on hubpages or not. Googles primary interest remains the same. Bring good content to the top of their search engine, that's it.
Ryan, I didn't know you had a ban. I'm certain whatever you decide to do will be successful. When I was reading your post, I looked up at a plaque hanging above my desk that I received as a teacher gift. I think it says it well. I
Innovation
The best way to predict the future is to create it.
I like your Gen Y determination and ability to succeed, don't ever let anyone take it away from you.
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