June 13, 2008
I Need to Diversify my Marketing Efforts! I wouldn’t by any means say that all my eggs are in one basket, but in light of the past couple weeks… I think it may be time to do a little extra something, that is far less likely to be affected by constantly moving bar set by search engines. I am going to deliver EXACTLY what they say they want!
I am going to Build a Website for Visitors!
But…but… Aren’t all of our sites built for visitors? The answer of course is YES, every website out there was done for visitors… but the difference in this new site, is that I am going to focus on building a highly unique, content and information rich web portal! I’m also going to do it using Build a Niche Store as just one small way of helping those visitors find things they may be looking for! The BIGGEST difference is that I am not going to develop it to make money as ”The Primary Objective”, even though that will naturally occur based on the quality of the content!
Focus on Quality instead of Quantity!
Instead of investing 5 hours each into 25 BANS sites, I have decided to invest all that time into one site, making that single site the kick-ass, be all end all, you gotta love it like chocolate, website!
I’ll be honest… this was such a hard and confusing time I have gone through over the past week or two. Having a site that provided exactly what potential visitors are looking for, dropped from the Google index has twisted my head! I have always considered myself a pretty good and clean player in the world of SEO. I avoid blackhat or even gray hat tactics, I have always taken the advice of those more skilled than myself and applied those skills and practices to every kind of website I have ever developed… Most importantly, I thought every website I have worked on WAS developed for the visitors already! In the modest words of a friend from the UK, “My head is Fooked”
What’s Going to Make the Site So Great for Visitors?
Up until now, we have searched out a niche market, reasearched the market for traffic & profitability, then we developed an affiliate site based on the fact that we can earn money from it! While this practice will still work very good… the goal on this new site is to forget about making money and build the site because we are actually interested in it!
How many niche sites have you built simply because they should pay well? I probably have 75-100 or more! The sites still perform well, but what happens on the day that G-Mighty decides they are not a good fit for its traffic and drops them from the search index? Believe me… they have the power to dictate whether we earn a penny or a dollar as they CONTROL the flow of visitors!
Mark - Are you Leaving Us? Are you Forgetting about BANS?
For the first time in 6 months, I actually went into my feedburner account and turned on the notification for unsubscribes today! I am curious to see exactly how many people unsubscribe!
The truth is… I LOVE making $50-$100 per site on 25 sites each month, but what if I could earn that same cumulative total, by focusing on one single website that I was actually knowledgable and very interested in? What if I didn’t have to spend 1 hour learning about a new niche each time I needed to do an update? What if I actually provided a site for visitors by sharing knowledge and passion for the subject!
Anyhow… stay tuned in on this because I’m not doing it alone! Next week, I will introduce both the outline and methods we will use to build this content website and the best part is that you are already there!
Mark
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14 Responses to “My Confession - I am going to Build a Website for Visitors!”
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Having spent the last 2 months working 80 plus hours per week on BANS I to am increasingly uneasy about Googles intentions. I have a few other non-bans sites but these only make a couple of dollars a month. I hope all this work isn’t going to come to nothing again.
Hi Mark,
I think you are absolutely right but IMHO it would be a mistake to use the BANS platform to do this. BANS is designed as an easy way to present eBay auctions to visitors, period. The concept of building a site primarily for visitors requires a different approach where publishing content is the key and a blog engine or simple CMS would seem more appropriate. But I am a little biassed ;)
Kev
@ Kev -
Aha… you are on the EXACT track I am on!
How about this…
Blog / Store / Product Reviews / Directory / FAQ / Contact / About
My intent is to make use of both FREE plugins for WP… as well as everything we already have from BANS.
BTW - I already have a site running now… in this exact structure.
BANS is nothing more than a directory on the site, which is focused on a niche and learning about that niche.
@ Mike -
Having a solid pool of BANS sites is GREAT! Surely you have a small percentage that you know alot about? Whether it is a hobby, a passion, or even a past job that taught skills to the niche.
What i am talking about here is taking a good performing store, or even a new store you know alot about, and turning it into an authority site you spend more time on!
Mark
Mark..
My head is fooked too! Hope your new approach will work in the long run.. It sounds like you are on the right track.. I just wonder which of your sites was dropped from Google index as it seems to me that you build your sites with integrity…
Dave
Hi Mark ~ I was so sorry to hear about the whole Google slap! I hate when bad things happen to good people … plain and simple! But I also believe everything happens for a reason so maybe this was the turning point for your reach for your true passion and it sounds like you have. I’m happy for you and can’t wait to see what you’ve come up with *hugs* Suzanne
Hi Mark,
I am eager for the details of this new approach. I have had some small success with BANS as is, but I am becoming overwhelmed with focusing on quantity and trying to add the appropriate amount of quality to each one then moving on. I have a tendency to never go back to add more content. I like the idea of concentrating on one at a time, becoming an expert on the subject, and building it out to the max.
I, for one, will not be unsubscribing.
Thank you for sharing all you do with us.
Sherrin
Hi Mark,
Yes, it shows how dependent we all are on the Mighty G! What will things be like in a couple more years, one wonders?
But their stated aim is to provide value to searchers so I guess only ‘authority’ sites will rank well - or survive. Your decision’s obviously a smart move in the right direction.
Keep up the good work - I’m looking forward to following your progress.
Thanks,
James
This is great! Not that you were dropped from the G for a well performing, kick-ass site, but the fact that you are looking to counter act with a plan of action…
I have only built BANs sites on things that I am knowledgeable about… Music, art, and media is my passion… and I have found success in regards to traffic and backlinks in a very short amount of time on my handful of BANs sites… I already have a site on its way to becoming an authority in it’s niche because I saw what was lacking and provided that information in depth, and for free…
I am really looking forward to this upcoming series of thoughts from you Mark, whenever you get on a tangent like this, genius usually follows…
You are that good.
I am so happy you are on the right track Mark, away from that sub-standard approach of niche store writer!
I had Google adsense with a good steady income on my two content websites http://www.ThirdEyeHealth.com and http://www.LifeSip.com but the very month I purchased BANS and added adsense to 30 of my BANS sites, I was slapped by Google by deactivating my adsense account as such!
Never mind, I went on with BANS and am having a much better income that adsense could ever provide me with.
In fact, I was already thinking of using the BANS templates for the ‘content based authority site building’ since the systems it provides us with are simply state of art!
In my opinion a content site on a BANS template is like having the best of both the worlds!
I am 100% with you on your decision to make a site of knowledge and passion on a BANS system.
I also congratulate you for your decision.
Hi Mark,
I too am thinking along the lines of producing a more useful information-rich site. The thing that worries me though is that I have read about several similar sites that have been popular and existed for many years, and whose main aim was not to make money, still being dropped down the SERPs recently by Big G. The thought of investing all of that time and effort and possibly at the end of the day still being out of favour with Big G puts me off somewhat.
Excuse me for being a bit behind but how do you find out if your site’s been de-listed from google?
Hi All -
I just want to thank everyone for the words of encouragement and the fact that I am not alone in the slapping!
While several of my sites have survived the slapping, the common denominator between all those deindexed, were bans and adsense.
The odd part is that I do still have a few sites with bans, adsense, AND a blog, that are just fine.
The only other common factor is that all this started after the post about using a content generation tool, with comparisons into duplicate content. Maybe I brought more attention to myself than I needed to?!?!
The new series of posts on building sites for visitors will be good and very adaptable to existing bans sites as well, so there is no worry about losing what you have done.
@ Trevor:
To check if a site is in the g-dex, just go to the search engine and type:
site: http://www.mysite. com
into the search box. Try variations with both the www and without. If you find even one page, you are OK… if you find none, it may have been deindexed.
Mark
Hi Mark,
I too am interested to hear about your new plan of action.
One question I had, though.
If you were going to create an online community centered around a passion you have are you sure BANS fits into that?
Here’s why I ask:
Pretend you met weekly at a local bar with your local group of NASCAR fans. You talk about what’s going on in the NASCAR world, what everybody thinks about that, etc.
Then, you give a short presentation where you give them free information about choosing the best this or that.
So far, so good.
Then, they ask you “Hey Mark, where would you go to get the best deal on stuff sold by reputable merchants?”
Without any idea who they may be buying from you say “Just look on eBay.”
To me, that’s dropping the ball a bit.
One of the things that visitors come to trust you for is not just WHAT to buy but WHERE to buy it.
That’s one of the reasons I like researching merchants and using their wares whenever possible.
I’m not saying you should drop BANS from the project but if you’re going to build a community-based site, you should consider at least having a rating system independent of eBay’s because eBay’s system really doesn’t mean a lot to non-sellers.
Maybe just a 5 area(clarity of offers, shipping terms, return policy, email responsiveness,quality of goods)5 point system.
Keep in mind, I totally understand the time it would take to do this for eBay merchants and that is the main reason why I would favor using a handful of merchants from another network.
I also understand the huge investment of time and money you have in BANS and eBay.
Thanks for always providing quality content.
Jeff
Mark,
Lately I too have decided not to put all of my eggs in one basket, so I’m really interested to see your thoughts on another type of site. I’m cutting back on my BANS stores, personally it’s just too much for me ot have more than 5 or 6 and be able to give them the attention they deserve. I did have about 20 stores, and they all suffered. Since I cut back, I’m making more money as I started focusing on my best performing stores. The others will ride out their domain life and I won’t renew them. But in light of what just happened to you, I think I’ll remove the adsense from my “terminal” stores.
Hope you get reindexed soon!