Introductions Thread

[Ryuzaki]

Welcome aboard.

I like that you put quotation marks around passive income because it's not a reality and anyone who thinks it is gets a rude awakening.

It's like the musician that goes to Nashville or New York to make it big, finds out there's 10 slots for the next generation of stars and there's a million other people clamoring for the spot. They all end up stuck, working as waitresses for low wages in a place with a higher cost of living and can't scrounge up enough cash to ever make it back home. "Starving Artist."

Imagine doing that but finding yourself stuck in some strange country with strange customs.

But yeah, things are insanely different since the 2009-2010 time period. Google favors older, bigger websites and throttles new ones for around a year. The EMD and keyword-in-domain bonus is still around but it's minuscule and gets outweighed by having proper branding signals fairly quickly. Google has gotten so lazy about spam that a 200 word worthless post with zero backlinks can outrank the most insightful and useful content with 100 links, just because of the sitewide domain metrics.

It's a different world but one that people are still making gobs of money in. Google is actively attacking affiliate sites right now too with their 'Fred' update, going after sites with a disproportionate amount of buying-intent content and keyword targeting, while changing the SERPs to include their comparison tables, review scraping, and product carousels.

2018 is going to be interesting, that's for sure. Times are as fun as ever, just different.

 

[zsaleem]

Hi guys, I heard a lot of old folks moved from WF to here. I'm zsaleem.

I was popularly famous there for offering Digg front page service, and I was the first one to bring premium backlinks into online marketing forums ( from sites 95+DA) .

Since then a lot has changed, I'm currently engaged in software development, I also write crypto articles, a power reddit user and of course I sometimes still sell some premium links.

It was refreshing to use old users like Ccarter posting here.

Looking forward to a WF 2.0.

Cheers!

 

[HustleMack]

I guess this is like an introduction type of thread, so I'll break down what's up with me real quick since I'd guess there are other people here in similar, if not necessarily exactly the same, types of situations. I was on WF for years before it went to shit a couple of years ago with the paywall bullshit, and I got referred here instead.

I'm in my early 30s right now. I've never really went after traditional modes of employment. Even when I was a teenager, I was always looking for more freedom than what "having a boss" would get me. I got out of college in my early 20s, did one thing for a while and made some decent money, and I eventually switched over and started developing myself as a writer.

As it stands right now, I make pretty decent money, and I have about as much job security as I could hope for. I know how to get clients if I need to, but I have a good group of strong clients in one particular industry that I've focused on and branded myself as an expert/consultant in.

In my mid-20s with everything I had going on in my personal life, it seemed like a great thing to go after. I have a lot more freedom than the vast majority of my peers, and I make more money than most of them too. The problem is that I'm going to end up doing this shit until my 60s if I don't switch something up here. The work isn't hard, and I'm very good at it, but it's not necessarily hands-off enough compared to what I've seen is possible.

I guess it's like the typical "happiness is temporary" thing. Once you get something you wanted, you've just got the inner need to move on to something else and do something bigger and better. As I'm getting older, I'm also becoming a little less introverted in the sense that I like getting more input from people and hearing what they have to say.

I basically want to do two things here. First, I want to have a running journal thread about putting my work in with my writing since I can tell I'm starting to get to the point where I'm going to slack off if I don't add some external motivators to the situation because I'm seeing it as less and less important at this point.

Second, I want to use the information and resources here to build up something in the self-help/meditation/productivity/whatever the fuck they're calling it these days space. I figure that shit is never going to go out of style since there's always some motherfucker looking for a magic pill, so there's always going to be an audience willing to pay for some shit, but I also know a lot about it from my own work on myself in terms of what's legitimate, etc., and I enjoy talking about it. It seems like a decent enough mix to see if I can make something work.

The bottom line is that writing in the type of situation I have right now until my 60s isn't that bad. It's much better than most people have it by far. I just want to transition to building something cool that might help some people and get me paid so that I don't have to do the writing shit until my 60s if I don't want to.

 

[Ryuzaki]

Welcome, thanks for the nice introduction.

The problem with "I'll be doing this till I'm 60" kind of thinking is that we're assuming anything will be then like it is now. Who knows what the internet landscape or even writing landscape will be like at that point. Will we even consume the written word at that point?

But regardless, you'll be able to pivot and hang on to clients. You may end up producing video content, but you'll still be in the game. We can all adapt like that.

I can tell you this... Definitely start that project in the evergreen self-improvement niche. I've screwed around with spam to a full time income and been wiped out. I've made 30+ mediocre websites to a full time income and been wiped out. I've sold authority sites for bulk cash and gave up cash flow and been back to zero there. I've done client work in between till I ramped back up. My journal here is the journey of me having ramped back up to a full time income with a new authority site.

It blows and is a lot of hard work to ride that rollercoaster of zero to full time over and over, but at least it builds confidence that we're capable. I feel this time that I'm finally not going to hit zero again. I wish I'd have started that process sooner (I did but sold the sites, they were too competitive to keep driving at them)>

Definitely start sooner than later. Even if you can't turn a ton of attention to it. Get a domain and hosting rolling and a theme installed and a solid 10 articles up, even if that's all you can do for the next year. The sooner you plant that seed the better, when it comes to search engine exposure.

Best of luck, looking forward to following along on your journey thread.

 

[fandbworld]

Hey everyone,

Been lurking on the forum for quite some time. I have learned quite a bit from all the threads here, such a great community. I have also used a couple of the guys from the marketplace (like Steve Brownlie) with awesome results. I come from the wickedfire forum.

Looking forward to posting more with everyone.

 

[BoxF]

Hey all.. BoxF here.

[~]whoami
SEO - Developer - Curious
​

For the past while I've been exploring the realms of SEO. Made my first dollar online in 2009 with a content-morphing download engine - started an SEO career in 2010. Worked in a plethora of Niches creating massive success for clients all around the world.

I've been a huge fan of cCarter over the years, and really enjoyed the company of fellow testers, exploring the horizon of SEO and not afraid to do whatever it takes to get their shit ranked. So here I've come, in hopes of finding my kin once again.

I can't stand the swine in our industry, these "SEO Bloggers" who just write about trends they read on a Google blog post and claim to know how it all works without taking the imitative to test it themselves and create their own findings.We are SEO's.
​

I hope to start a case study / follow along thread soon with some kind of interesting SEO experiment project and hope I can motivate others while I use staying on top of the thread updates as a way to motivate myself. SEO is not a tactic. SEO is a methodology.

Skill sets:
Technical SEO - Server Config - Networking - Local SEO - ELK - PHP - Java

Interests:
Affiliate Marketing - Continual learning - Thinking outside the box - SEO

TLDR; I like to learn.

Looking forward to growing with you all. Keep it up, and of course!

​

 

[Ryuzaki]

Welcome aboard. Do you have any of your own projects going or did you transition fully to client based work? Do you have any future ambitions in regards to new projects?

Nice to see you're a veteran. My earliest project was sometime around 2010 I think. I wish it was still live, even though it was goofy. Having some really old but maintainable properties would be fun and would generate some cash in one way or another.

 

[BoxF]

Welcome aboard.

I have a few projects from over the years, some have died.. others sold, and a few still going. I'm launching a couple more larger projects in 2018 which is 100% going to be documented in a case-study... We'll see I also work on some clients. My current stack is about 20 test sites for general serp fuckery and any small proof of concepts I want to test the viability of, about 30 clients and about 5 personal project money sites.​

​

Having some really old but maintainable properties would be fun and would generate some cash in one way or another.

Absolutely! Also having those properties and going through the first rounds of Penguin and Panda was stellar! Not to mention witnessing the constant evolution of on-page optimization as Google and other search engines become smarter and smarter over the years, more directly into semantic association.

Appreciate the reply and the welcome! Definitely seems like a great community so far, I'm hoping to stay for a while and have some inspiring conversations with some of the other veterans here.

Cheers.

 

[ppc-agent]

Hey Rob,

You've got quite the odyssey. Everyone feels the call to comfort, but it can be defeated. Each day you work your discipline, it gets stronger like a torn muscle.

And to crush procrastination/intimidation/uncertainty, Robert Ringer's "Iceball theory" came to mind. In however many billion years... nothing that happened on Earth will count for much... since the sun will destroy everything.

One has a finite amount of time. Therefore, it only makes sense to focus on your two or three impacts/experiences that you genuinely want to lead.

This is quite a tough pill to swallow, but it is one of the most freeing realizations I've ever come to.

Welcome. Hope this helps you and any lurkers

 

[IngvarXH]

Wanted to introduce myself as a new member. I've been lurking for a year or so and finally decided to register so I could participate in some of the discussions as well as DM sellers in the marketplace.

I have been in internet marketing for about a decade, mostly working as an in-house SEO and PPC manager at small companies. I've worked at an agency as well, but quit and have been freelancing to make my own living over the last few years.

Forums like BuSo is one of the places where I would ever participate actively. There are obvious business and marketing minds here alike who appreciate real internet marketing, and that makes me happy.

Looking forward to growing and helping other grows!

 

[Ryuzaki]

I had a chance to do PPC once that I wish I'd have taken. I've pitter pattered with it but I could have really learned on someone else's dime. They just needed someone who could handle the copywriting and the numbers and was tech-oriented. I didn't take it, but it was a job for McDonalds, a gym brand, and tons of smaller clients at an agency. Should have done it and busted through the learning curve using someone else's money.

Do you have any projects of your own that you're working on in between freelancing?

 

[IngvarXH]

I had a chance to do PPC once that I wish I'd have taken. I've pitter pattered with it but I could have really learned on someone else's dime. They just needed someone who could handle the copywriting and the numbers and was tech-oriented. I didn't take it, but it was a job for McDonalds, a gym brand, and tons of smaller clients at an agency. Should have done it and busted through the learning curve using someone else's money.

Do you have any projects of your own that you're working on in between freelancing?

To be honest, I hate PPC. It's an ROI-negative channel for most businesses and the Adwords platform is too convoluted. Most account managers at paid search management agencies use no more than 20% of the platform's capabilities. I could rant about how misused PPC is these days for hours so I'll spare ya

I'm running a high-end boutique agency that deals with branding, development, and marketing in a specific industry. Outside of that, I'm trying to get an ecommerce brand going that my wife will hopefully be able to run with minimal involvement from me.

 

[Seabiscuit]

Hello Buso, I'm new here. I've been reading through a ton of threads lately just consuming so much information. Figured it was time to introduce myself.

Beginnings
I've followed a generally conventional lifestyle: go to college, get a job, start a family. But I've always loved building things myself, both physically and digitally. In college I dabbled in websites and coding. Loved building websites from scratch and learning html and php. Too bad I didn't start a legit project back then and stick with it. I guess I was not aware of the potential or just didn't have the dedication.

Time for a Lifestyle Change
Not too long ago I started realizing that it is possible to make a go of owning a website and make a living off of it. I'm sure each one of you has your own personal journey of entering the internet marketing space. I would describe my entry into it as a slow burn. Like taking 5-6 years to really make a commitment. Some people are naturals at it and get started effortlessly. Some need a hard kick in the pants. The latter is most likely me or I wouldn't just now be posting on here.

Like a lot of people, I am practically broke. I enjoy my life for the most part, but that is just because I am optimistic about the future. I am finally getting my head wrapped around what needs to be done.

I know I'm not a natural entrepreneur. I haven't started any real businesses, on or offline. But I don't think that should prevent me from becoming one. Being broke is a good motivator and I like to work. I just haven't concentrated my efforts on the right goal in the past. And I haven't learned how to truly dedicate myself to a single project.

My Current Website
Lately I've been trying to double down on a website that I own. Its been online for nearly 4 years now with limited content so it wasn't really ranking for much.

I added some content several months ago and some more in October. Now it is ranking 10-20 keywords in the top ten so it is getting a dribble of traffic, about 10 a day. It ranks fairly fast when I post an article, so it seems like the fact that I've had it online for a little bit now is really an advantage.

It is in a hobby type niche, with good amazon affiliate potential. I've done a lot of keyword research and the few articles that I've made based on those keywords have had good results.

At the beginning of this year I got a sale through one of my affiliate links, but the big A did not approve my website because of "thin content". I couldn't argue with them - it was thin content. I just wasn't aware what the requirements were and I didn't expect to get a sale on anything. So I have been adding content now before I apply to their program again. I have about 15 articles now that are good original content made by myself. So I'm about to get back into the amazon stuff soon (or some type of affiliate program).

Long Term Goals:
I want to make this an authority site in this niche. My monetization plan includes:

• An email list I can market to
• Affiliate commissions
• Creating my own products (think "how to" pdfs - I do have skills in this niche and participate in it)
• Maybe consider ads if I can get the traffic up

Traffic strategy:
Right now I am mostly doing keyword targeting while I add content. I plan on using Pinterest soon because my niche is very popular there. I've read a bunch of threads here and just now started learning about traffic leaks. Good stuff. Just planning on going hard on the most effective sources.

I think my website has potential because it is in a very popular niche and there are some subsets of this niche that I can really target to start out.

I hope that you find this long rambling interesting - I'm new to forums in general and I hope I can contribute here when I gain some more skills. I want to give updates on my progress (and progress WILL happen - this is me pumping myself up). I'm not afraid to work. I just hope I can work on the things that make an actual difference. What are some things that you did when you were at 10-20 visits a day that ramped it up to 100-200?

 

[Ryuzaki]

Welcome to the club!

It ranks fairly fast when I post an article, so it seems like the fact that I've had it online for a little bit now is really an advantage.

How fast is "fast" in your case? It was the case for years on my powerful and old sites that I could publish a post, get it crawled, and rank top 10 within minutes of indexing. I'm noticing in the past month that Google seems to be randomly delaying the ranking ability of some posts, where they linger and don't "pop" for somewhere between 30-90 days.

They do have a rank randomization patent like this for on-page changes and link acquisition, so it wouldn't surprise me that they're using it at indexing now too. But that's just a theory right now, I've not been able to confidently identify any causal factors for why some posts rank immediately and some have to wait.

I have about 15 articles now that are good original content made by myself. So I'm about to get back into the amazon stuff soon (or some type of affiliate program).

If I had to give a guess, I wouldn't apply again until you double that at least. I'm from the old school where requirements weren't as strict, but I've been hearing a lot of moaning from newcomers saying Google is getting far more strict for Adsense and Amazon is as well. I wouldn't think about it in terms of strict numerical quantity, but how big and nice the site looks. If you have a ton of categories, I'd get them all fleshed out so nothing looks thin.

What are some things that you did when you were at 10-20 visits a day that ramped it up to 100-200?

You already have age knocked out for the domain itself. You need to get some age behind the content itself too on a page by page basis. There's nothing you can do to speed that up. Same with links, they also age. What I would focus on, in order, is probably:

• Double or triple my content so I don't look thin.
• Apply to Adsense & Amazon so I can get monetization in place.
• Split my time between content development and link building.
• Ultimately, possibly even a year or more later, turn nearly all of my attention to marketing.

You can have 1000 of the best posts on the planet and not be fulfilling a part of the needs of the ranking algorithms, which is social validation that the posts are worth ranking. You need links and more links. Social network profiles that you actively use, related forums, guest posts, blog comments where you can, and tons of other methods are out there that can quickly ramp up the number of referring domains to your site and get you enough "juice" to start earning from all of your hard work you put in on content. Just never spam or use PBN's if you want your site to last. Actively disavow spam that ends up coming your way, once a month is how I do it.

Make sure you read the Digital Strategy Crash Course if you haven't!

 

[Seabiscuit]

How fast is "fast" in your case?

I don't necessarily check it immediately but it seems to be within the same day as posted. These are articles based on keywords I found using the "KGR" method where you check the allintitle ratio - I initially used this to help find a lot of informational type subjects - and it seems to work a little bit actually. Usually 1k words for these, so nothing amazing.

I have made more in depth content based on more competitive keywords and these articles have not ranked nearly as fast, took a couple weeks to pick them up in the top 100.

If I had to give a guess, I wouldn't apply again until you double that at least.

Thanks for the heads up. I don't want my site to be thin, but it could probably be considered that right now.

Make sure you read the Digital Strategy Crash Course if you haven't!

Will do!

 

[Cash Builder]

What are some things that you did when you were at 10-20 visits a day that ramped it up to 100-200?

Once I had enough content on my site I started building links, mainly guest posts and link placements. Looking at my analytics, it took around 6 months of link building to get from 10-20 visits a day to a steady 200 a day.

Looking back, if I was to start another site I would definitely be focusing on more than just link building. Those traffic numbers can be achievable in a matter of weeks using social media, forums, Reddit, and other traffic sources.

 

[Joe]

How many hours of work did you do on this this week?

 

[Seabiscuit]

Once I had enough content on my site I started building link

What did you consider enough content? I'm thinking I need about 40-50k words to flesh out all the categories before I start actively driving traffic and building links.

How many hours of work did you do on this this week?

I haven't been keeping track of time worked, I just know I worked on it anytime I could. I also got off on the Digital Strategy course, so it wasn't all website. I may start tracking it to get a better idea of my efficiency and how to do more.

I'm also thinking about starting a journal thread to log the progress on my website.

 

[Cash Builder]

What did you consider enough content? I'm thinking I need about 40-50k words to flesh out all the categories before I start actively driving traffic and building links.

If I remember correctly, I had around 7 in-depth buying guides and 20-30 supporting pages. So my total word count must have been around the 60k mark before I started any proper marketing.

 

[Sisu]

I figured after all the time I've spent reading here it was time to say hello. I've been in the IM game for a few years now and have had some success with it; my main site was responsible for helping us pay off our house in a few years, and overall IM income has matched or beaten my day job for the last few years in a row. If I never made another dollar from IM, it would still have been life-changing for my family.

This year, though, my main site got whacked by the AA commission cut and has generally lost traffic throughout 2017, and I'm not sure why besides backlink erosion. At any rate, I started a new project that's gaining ground, and am hitting it like a beast right now. Looking forward to seeing where 2018 takes us all. Cheers and keep those spirits up!

 

[Ryuzaki]

Welcome. Yeah, I'd blame backlink erosion and overall changes to the SERPs in the past 6 months. There was one update specifically targeting sites that were overly monetized. Not sure if that's you, but there was also a series of updates that gave more weight to older sites and authorities again, it seems. That's how it looked in my vertical anyways.

I wouldn't abandon the older site though. I'd either keep it and add content and links, or I'd go ahead and sell it. Yeah, the Amazon Associates fee cut hurt me too. I was doing 8% and more depending on the month. I don't want to say my current rate and out myself, but I definitely took a hit. I replaced it fairly fast, but I'd be way further ahead if that was growth and not catching back up. Oh well, there will be more of those hits to come. We just have to choose niches with plenty of affiliate programs to be in so no single one can make or break us.

 

[Sisu]

Thanks Ryuzaki. I don't think it was Fred in particular, but all of it has just gradually pushed the site down. I'll also be the first to admit that when the site was bringing in lots of money, I eased up on it and dropped posting down to a few times a month, which might have eventually caught up with me.

But like you noted, it still has a lot of value, and is worth adding to. And yes, those cuts are going to keep coming, so staying flexible is going to be key in the future (not that it ever wasn't). Good on you for replacing income from it; I'm on my way but haven't gotten there yet. Got to keep pushing.

 

[Sensual]

Good {morning|day|afternoon|evening|night},

I am Sensual. Forgive me if this is the wrong area to post, but it seems as if it is the only option according to the giant green warning.

I was suggested to this place by a friend, who I have no idea his username on here. I never asked, lol.

After perusing the forum, it seems to be a decent crowd to mingle with, so here I am. Single and ready to mingle. (I’m married, but that’s a fun line, don’t judge.)

About me: I have been in and out of the internet marketing game since 2005, back when email still had physical mail as a rival. It wasn’t as primitive as the mid 90s, when people didn’t quite know how to say @ yet, but still difficult, as most shopping was done in normal stores still!

I’ll be honest, I only set up my first website because I wanted to build a stereo for my vehicle, but I didn’t want to pay full price. So I ended up creating a mildly successful mobile audio site to game the suppliers, for that sweet wholesale pricing.

It picked up out of nowhere, and it made me about $65k total, within three years of, “not another sale dang it!” Luckily it was drop shipping, but I was trying to party wildly at that time; not run a business!

I’ve since, dabbled in quite a bit of online journeys and sites. Now a days, I’ll sell them if they have crested past a $40k profit margin. Why? Because I bore easily. I have about a single year, tops in a project.

Looking forward to discussing and interacting with a new community!

Until next time,
Sensual

 

[Sensual]

Fast forward a few months and I was a bonafide road traveller and door to door seller. Attending meetings 60 miles (to and fro) from home once a week, spending all my earnings on retreats and trainings. I was doing product demonstrations in peoples homes, and collecting the names of their friends to go and do demonstrations to. I regularly sold products at these demonstrations and the money will go right to fuelling the car or food or bills. It was a hard time but the skills I gaines selling door to door I won't trade fore anything else.

Everyone in marketing should have to do this. If you can door to door, you can sell ice to an Eskimo!

 

[Ryuzaki]

Welcome to the club!

It picked up out of nowhere, and it made me about $65k total, within three years of, “not another sale dang it!” Luckily it was drop shipping, but I was trying to party wildly at that time; not run a business!

What a horrible position to be in! My first project ever was on a drag-and-drop WYSIWYG Geocities site that wasn't monetized, but my first 'real' project was like yours. I jumped straight into e-commerce with my own product, before I knew better about being scared or whatever. That led to me creating a forum on the topic, which also made some consistent Adsense money. Ultimately I ended up leaving the game for a few years before jumping back in. Touch and go early on like you're talking about.

Too bad we didn't keep some old projects around, or better yet had been working on them regularly this whole time.

Now a days, I’ll sell them if they have crested past a $40k profit margin. Why? Because I bore easily. I have about a single year, tops in a project.

Do you feel that this is the best move? It definitely offloads risk and gets you the future payouts into your hands immediately. But you also lose the possibility of all of the projects growing beyond that point and being great cash flow streams or even much larger liquidations.

I always want to eek out a bit more on the monthly profit because the multipliers increase the payout so drastically. Going from $1000 a month to $2000 a month isn't that hard, but it can mean a $30,000 difference when liquidated, for example.

Are you still working in drop shipping or did you move on to other models like content sites? I tend to work the authority content site model, myself.

Glad to have you around. Looking forward to future discussions around the forum.