Continuing with the survey results I started to share Monday. Here are several responses to the question “What do you like least?”. First of all, thank for the candid responses. Constructive criticism can be helpful. Second of all, I learned a long time ago that I’m never going to please everyone. It’s best to be myself and let the everything else fall into place.
Here are a some responses in no particular order with my comments:
Response: “Unfortunately you seem to be just another “how to make cash site” but you aren’t as bad as others IMO since you engage your viewers and offer them something in return”
Comment: Thank you, glad to know I’m not as bad as others.
Response: “It doesn’t seem to have a lot of info on social marketing”
Comment: Up to this point, I have not used much social marketing. I’m not an expert on everything and I don’t pretend to know everything. Since I don’t use social bookmarking sites and don’t get much traffic from them, I don’t see a reason to make a post about using them so I can sound smart. Lots of other people seem to use them and there is a lot of information on other sites and blogs. I’m not ignoring social bookmarking though, I’m looking at a few ways to build links and drive traffic with them.
In January I experimented with social bookmarking in a post titled “Top 3 Reasons New Year’s Resolutions are For Losers”. I got hundreds of visitors a day from Stumble Upon for a few weeks but it wasn’t quality traffic. They didn’t stay long and they didn’t sign up for my list.
I like to stick with what works: article marketing, blog carnival submissions, and building one-way links with the keyword as anchor text all work and especially when you use all three of them simultaneously.
Here’s exactly what I’m using to build rankings and traffic:
1) Blog Carnival Submissions
2) Article Marketing
3) One Way Links with Keyword as anchor text (3 Way Links & Linktator2)
Does these methods really work? Check out the G results for “internet business”. The results change frequently but it’s a very competitive search term. I’m usually on the first page of results.
Response: long posts about sports teams I have never heard of
Comment: I realize this is not a sports blog but it is part of my personality. I’m a recovering sportsaholic. In my youth, I watched way too much sports on TV…not so much anymore. But I do still pay attention to what’s going on and watch a few of my favorite teams. I’ve always tied some kind of marketing or success lesson into those types of posts and I don’t think I’ve made more than 5 of them in the past year.
This is the perfect example of how you can’t please everyone. Many people like the fact that I try to inject some of my personality into my posts and this is part of it…but some people don’t like those posts. I can’t please everyone all the time.
Look for more responses & comments in my next post.
Popularity: 68% [?]
9 Comments
Hi Robert
Just curious. I notice you use 3 way links. Don’t you think Google will eventually frown upon this way of linking and penalize your site. I am tempted to try it but I don’t want to be penalized.
Would appreciate your comments.
[David,
That's a good question but I don't know the answer. At this point I don't have many fears and I'm not so concerned about being penalized although I'm aware it could happen. Instead of worrying about what might happen, I'm more inclined to just give things a try and see what actually does happen.
The Mark Twain quote comes to mind here: "I've had a lot of worries in my life...most of which never happened." It seems like many people spend too much time worrying about things that might happen but never do.
I can tell you that my rankings improved for specific keywords when I started focusing on having the keyword as the anchor text for the link as opposed to just building links. And specifically that's when I started using 3WL and then Linktator2.
If you're concerned, then you could just try it out on a test site where you don't care if you get penalized. But I and several others who are ranking highly for very competitive search terms have publicly stated that we're using 3WL. On the other hand, 3WL is hardly the only way I'm building links. Most of my links are from article marketing and blog carnival submissions. I'll bet 3WL is only about 5% of my total links so it's not a huge number of links.
Good Luck,
Robert]
“but you aren’t as bad as others” … sounds a lot like “she’s got a good personality”!
Robert… one question I thought of, did you have questions on your survey asking if they had purchased a product and were a subscriber to your mailing list? It would be interesting to see a breakdown of how the answers to the other questions differed when grouped by subscribers and customers vs. overall.
Fred
[Fred,
I did not ask that so I can't differentiate the responses from subscribers & customers vs overall. Good point though. I imagine the responses might be different.
Robert]
well, I just stumbled this post, so you will get some more meaningless traffic. I have been playing with social media for a couple of sites that I support and the results are odd. Some days one site will get 700+ hits from SU, and no one goes on to a second page. More recently I have had better luck (maybe) by better choosing the category that I put posts in and the tags I associate.
Having said that, it may just be the pixie dust from my daughters magic wand.
If you do a book review, stumble it. If you stick something in the ‘business’ or ‘internet’ category, plan on 30 second to 1 minute visits of one page.
I’ll give linktator2 a try on a site with very few backlinks. Worth a try, right?
[Richard,
Thanks for stumbling this post. I'd say linktator2 is worth a try. If you're trying to improve your rankings, links will help...especially links with your keyword as the anchor text...and that's what linktator2 does.
Robert]
**WARNING**
–RANT AHEAD–
Not as bad as others? Maybe this clown can use that as his USP. It’s about as bright as his response is.
He disdains you for being a “how to make cash” site (that’s 7-year-old speak for “business opportunity”), yet he finds you engaging enough to read. Uh, WTF is he doing here? If he’s interested in your engagement, and said engagement is regarding business opportunities, yet he frowns upon you being another make money site … well, my view is that this is a very confused individual.
Imagine that … you actually want to sell something in exchange for all the information you give. The thousands of words per month you write for free might be a clue as to the value of your paid information, IF that occurs to people like your respondent.
Look, I’ve bought from you a few times. And I like the products. But if I didn’t I’d still buy *something* because I get value from your info, and have at least enough sense to know that you must make money for this blog to be worthwhile for you.
My business model is different, but I’ll be the first person to claim how much I appreciate guys like you, Ryan, and Terry.
Keep up the good work. And send out the clowns.
[Kevin,
Thanks for the comment. I agree with you...but I wanted to show the whole range of responses, not just the good ones. Criticism & skepticism comes with the territory and it's understandable considering the nature of the "business opportunity" market so I expect it. It would be nice if the critics could be more specific though. Constructive criticism can be a good thing but general comments like "you stink" without a reason why are worthless.
Robert]
Hey…your way better looking than the other guys and you “…got a good personality”…so no complaints, right? lol
3-way links works great. It’s not for high power or even medium power keywords. But it helps. I use it for aiming spelling errors toward my pages. Low competition there and tha spilling misstakes are not on my actual pages….but I get the traffic anyway.
[Chas,
That sounds like a good way to use 3 way links. If you need more than 250 links to rank in the top 10, you'll need to use other methods for link building. I think you get 250 links from 3WL.
Robert]
Hi Robert,
you’re currently sitting at 6th place for “internet business” according to the results I get, which is pretty impressive, imho.
Matt Garrett
[Matt,
Thanks...the key was focusing on links with the keyword as the anchor text. After that it didn't take long to reach the first page because I already had thousands of links through other link-building activities.
Robert]
I was the one who commented re sport stories. We don´t have the same sports over here and the characters and team names mean nothing to me. Yes, I know that´s not the point, its a metaphor for success in business.
I was just giving you an honest response.
You do have a good blog - keep up the good work!
[Peter,
No worries. I'm sure you're not the only one who doesn't like my posts about sports teams. Unfortunately, I don't know much about sports teams that aren't from the US.
Robert]
Thanks for your submission to the third edition of the Blog Carnival: Blogging. Your post has been accepted and its live: http://thatsblog.com/?p=50
-ThatsBlog.com
Hi Robert,
I just checked results on Google for Internet Business, and you’re #2! Congratulations and dare I mention that the bully of the Internet is at #19!!
LOL
Keep up the good work.
Karen
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