Noob Hand Wringing Over Latest Google Algorithm Change

Posted on February 27, 2011 by Milker

Google has again made major changes to their algorithm to try to weed out link farm sites. From what I can see …. Google Fail! My little harem of farm sites remain virtually untouched and my money sites including a couple of ‘supersites’ have even seen a slight boost in traffic over the past couple of days. So whatever Google was trying to do, I just don’t see it.

The place where I did see some change is Hubpages. There has been some real hand wringing by noobs around the world over their Hubs. TKA has several forum threads with noobs (and not so noobs) bemoaning the fact that their crappy (and not so crappy) Hubs have taken a nosedive. Discussions on the Hubpages forums reflect this too. All this business about seeing so many little blue arrows … I’m beginning to wonder if these people actually looked at their stats. The Hubpages stats are NOT accurate! I’ve never been able to figure out what they are basing those little arrows on anyway. The only thing that I can think of is that they are measuring traffic over a much smaller period of time than what I am. In the past, when I’ve seen those little blue arrows (or little red arrows,) I’ve gone to my Google Analytics and checked to see what is going on. In most cases the blip in the traffic stats is so minor that it will hardly show on a weekly averaged graph. In most cases, I’m convinced that those little red arrows (supposed to indicate an increase in traffic,) are nothing more than some students in some high school somewhere getting an assignment on … bench cushions or bar stools … or purple throw rugs. lol. You will see a little red arrow today as they all try to figure out what to write about and blue arrows tomorrow when the assignment is over. What I mean by all this is: the Hubpages arrow system is grossly inaccurate. Use your Google Analytics instead to have a true indication about what is going on with your Hubs.

Now about this latest algo change. My Hub earnings actually bounced up for about 4 days but have now settled back down to where they were. No change. When the algo change first hit, I noticed a couple of my money earners actually move up in the SERPS, in fact my main money hub moved into the 1st position in the SERPs for about 24 hours. Then they all settled back down to where they were. (That is where the blue arrows came from – they went up initially, then dropped … giving the little blue arrows.)

Looking at the graph:

  • Monday the 21st traffic was normal.
  • Tuesday, when the Algo change hit, my Hub traffic bounced up as a couple of my Hubs moved up in the SERPs.
  • Wednesday things were beginning to settle down.
  • By Thursday, everything was back to normal.

So, in short, from my perspective … the Google Algo change has not affected my Hubs at all. This begs the question … why were some peoples Hubs hit with major losses and others (me) not?

Quality? I don’t think it has anything to do with quality. I’m sure Google in their desire to rule the interwebs would love to say that they can pick a badly written/poor quality Hub out of a group of well written Hubs. They can’t. NOOBS – BELIEVE ME … THEY CANNOT TELL YOUR CRAPPY HUBS FROM YOUR WELL WRITTEN HUBS!!! The ONLY time when quality comes into play is when you get a human inspection. When the algo is looking at your pages – it cannot tell if this was your Masters Thesis or some spun piece of crap. Out of my approximately 300 hubs across 5 different user logins, some are really thin 200 word pieces of crap and others are beautiful well composed Hubs about my passion topics. They did not single out my crap Hubs and boost my good Hubs … so, as much as Google would like the world to believe they are increasing the quality of their search results, it ain’t true.

Backlinks? Where your backlinks come from should not have any impact on the PR of your site, but it can effect your position in the SERPs. If Google decides one day to kill the value of all the links in the BMR (Build My Rank) net farm, and all you used was BMR backlinks, your site will take a tumble in the SERPs. There have been several link selling schemes in the past that have been targeted by Google and had all their sites deindexed. When your backlinks get deindexed, your site will naturally fall in the SERPs. My Hubs are backlinked with everything from TKA Postrunner to Backlinks Philippines and everything in between. Some of my larger hubs have a lot of links coming from scraper sites too. Yet, with all my crappy backlinks – nothing changed. Now, it is possible that some Hub owners have been building backlinks from some site or sites that got deindexed in the latest change … it is possible, but knowing the habits of Hub owners at TKA anyway, I don’t think so. So, I don’t think backlinks have much to do with any losses in the latest algo change.

Length? Nope. I have long and I have short Hubs – nothing has changed.

Google Adsense or Analytics code? Possibly. Google has been known to target whole accounts based on the Adsense code. The only thing I would say on that, is if they were targeting Adsense or Analytics codes, then how would that help them in their effort to eliminate link farms? To me, that would seem more like a tool they would use to eliminate an account that is violating their TOS or someone using Black Hat (whatever that is these days) methods of creating or linking content. In this round of algo changes, I don’t think this is the case.

So what is it? Why have some Hub owners noticed major changes and other none?

Here is my theory … by User.

Somehow, someway Google has targeted specific users. I strongly suspect that Hubpages is working with Google and supplying them with user information. It seems that some users were hit hard across all their Hubs and others saw little or no change. The only difference from one users hub to the next hub is the User name … correct me if I’m wrong on this. So when Mary sees a 50% drop in traffic and John see’s a 0% change in his traffic … and the only difference between their Hubs is the User name, then Google (and Hubpages I suspect) are beginning to target Users.

Why one user and not the next? I have no clue … maybe age … maybe some other ‘social’ factor like how many followers a Hub User has, or author score … really, I have no clue.

Anyone else have any theories?

- What Google is saying about the Algo change.

- What Hubpages is saying about the Algo change.

- Check out Allyn at Blogger Illustrated pointing out to Google what a farce this whole algo update has been.

Posted in Google, Hubpages | 3 Comments

How to Become an Expert

Posted on January 3, 2011 by Milker

The internet today is all about ‘the expert.’ These are the people who others look to in a particular niche – those that are sort of the public spokespeople for a cause or a product … or whatever you are blogging about. Since the IM world seems to be changing (see my last post about Backlink Builders,) you need to think about how to be or become an expert about something … about anything! Unfortunately, most of ‘the experts’ on the ‘net today are not actually experts. I sort of equate them to movie stars who take up a cause. You know, like Bono or Richard Gere, who pick their projects and then spout and pontificate with emphatic, learned tones about said project as if they are an expert. Their swooning fans, sweat and lather up and everyone thinks they are sooooo smart … for the most part, its a lie – one big, real-life acting job … something they actually are experts at. On the internet, its the same thing – if you can pontificate and announce enough on your particular subject, then all your internet minions will declare you an ‘expert.’ This will result in calls from the NY TImes and Time, which will really validate you as an expert … big times! Yet, are you really an expert? Do you really know what you are talking about?

In the December 2010 Webinar over at The Keyword Accademy, Mark talked about experts. He went with the very basic definition that, if you know more than somebody else does about a topic, then compared to that person, you are an expert. This is what the internet if full of … IM’ers who have written 100K words about a particular topic for backlinks, who now think they are experts. Maybe they are, maybe they are not. Does being able to write a 300 word article on a topic in 10 minutes make you an expert on that topic … or does that simply make you an expert on writing a crappy 300 word fluff article on the topic? This is what I’m getting at – the IM world is full of people who can write fluff articles and who appear to know so much about a topic, but who have no vested interest in that topic. They have no real-life, where the rubber meets the road experience about the topic. I mean, how many of us can say we are an expert about ‘purple bathroom throw rugs?’ After writing your 80th article about ‘purple bathroom throw rugs‘ you might think you are an expert … and compared to me, you are – but in real life, you are still just a spammy IM’er.

How to become an expert on any given topic in 3 words: Just Do It. (Thanks Nike)

I don’t want to give away my niche too much, but in my world, I am an expert about where I live. I have chosen a life style that is different than 99% (or more) than the rest of the population of the world. I’ve lived in my unique place and circumstance for going on 5 yrs now. As such, I am a functioning expert in my niche … I do it everyday.

Let me give you a couple of real life examples: would you like to learn about breast cancer from a breast cancer survivor or from an IM’er who has written 100K words about breast cancer? Even if they both wrote the exact same thing, would you not give more weight and value to the real cancer survivor? How about your car – you’ve got a weird ping coming from the motor area of your 2002 Chev Impala – do you want ‘expert’ advice from an IM’er who is a prolific writer – or from a garage owner who have been fixing Chevy’s  since the age of 10? … IM expert vs real-life expert.

The difference between a theoretical expert and a real expert is experience. Most people want advice from the real expert. If you can show your readers (and have them believe you) that you are an expert because you have experience, then you will be able to send them whatever direction you want. Whether that is to funnel them into a product of some sort (a legit product – remember you are a trust agent now …. lol) or just to provide them with quality information and offer them Adsense or some other advertising, as a real life (just do it) expert, you will be way ahead of the typical IM’er and their MFA site.

… and apparently this is what Google is looking for.

So, what are you an expert at? What experience do you have that others do not? For some people this is an easy question – with several easy answers. For others, this is the million dollar question. I’m gonna go out on a limb here as say that everyone online has something that they’ve experienced that others want to know about. Here are some basic questions that you can ask yourself to try to discovour something that others might want to know about.

Where do you live? Do you live in Hawaii … or Orlando … or Venice Beach? Hey, people from around the world vacation there. If they are looking for information, do you think they want to get it from an IM’er, or from someone who lives there?

What do you do for a living? Sales? Can you tell me about reading people? Customer service? How do you diffuse an angry customer? Firefighter? How would YOU set up a personal fire escape plan for my house? See … you are an expert because you have experience.

Where have you been?
Where did you grow up?
What traumatic experience did you go through last year?
What car do you drive?
What did you fix/renovate last winter?
How did you lose weight?
When you were 16, what boy band did you obsess about?

You are an expert at something – I guarantee it.

Position yourself as an expert now, and you will be way ahead of the curve when the Google algo is actually able to weed out the IM experts from the real experts. It’s the way things are pointing now … are you ready?

Posted in Goals, Internet Marketing | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Backlink Builders Take a Left Turn?

Posted on January 2, 2011 by Milker

Hmmmm – is there something going on?  This past week has been deja-vu all over again … and over and over again.  It’s almost like there is some collusion going in with the ‘real’ IM’ers that I keep an eye on.  It seems like they all took a 90 deg turn at or around Christmas time.

Until now, they all pretty much said the same thing: find a quality (green) keyword.  Build a site … 15 or 20 pages.  Then build links to the site until it ranks … rake in the dough.

Then this past week or so – everyone at the same time dropped that system and is now teaching big broad sites and natural links.  In fact Griz (the uberKING of the backlink method) admits that he does not build links at all to his sites anymore. What the … is going on???

Here are a few quotes:
Griz – A Huge Tip for New Sites -

“Believe it or not – I haven’t built a single link anywhere for any of the three sites you mentioned. In fact, this may surprise most of you – I don’t link build anymore and haven’t in ages.” And, “My goal with every new site I build is to avoid penalties and gain trust. The easiest way to do this is not to do anything other than introduce optimized content – either slowly or rapidly – makes no difference, just don’t build links.” And finally, “More content = more long tail traffic. More traffic and surprise, surprise – real links will start to appear on their own or by legit means instigated by you and acceptable by G.”

Leo Dimilo – Why Big Sites Win and Little Sites Lose -

“Big sites win. They simply give you more ways to leverage what you have in place and less of a need to “game” anything.”

Mark Butler – You have to be a TKA member to get this one, but the latest Webinar (Dec 2010) is all about building big, social sites that build natural authority with Google through lots of natural links. The funny thing is, Mark’s Webinar came out about 4 hours after the Griz post …. (things that make you go hmmmm.)

RT Cunningham – Forget SEO and Concentrate on Branding — Content is King, but only if it gets seen – Although RT has been moving in this direction for some time, this quote says the same thing,

“You can write the most inspiring words in the world, but if no one sees those words, what good does it do? That’s where marketing yourself and your website come into play; you have to brand both your website and your name. Exactly how do you do that? Besides commenting on forums and other websites, you have to get established in social circles. Use what’s available. Facebook and Twitter are two good examples. If you look, you’ll find I use the same name on both: RT Cunningham. You’ll also find that both social sites are constantly publishing links to my content. Those links point to individual articles, but the profiles on both have links that point to my sites (as much as I’m allowed, of course). There’s also the community that forms around specific websites where other people are interested in the same things you are. “

Splork - What 2011 Brings to My Online Adventure – says,

“I have a feeling that 2011 is going to be challenging for little bullshit niche sites. It’s not that they will be de-indexed or anything in Google but they will be de-emphasized in lieu of big is better. Do I know this to be fact? Absolutely not. But I know from my own sites it takes a huge amount of effort to get a Google rank. I’m sick of the bullshit backlink game. Getting traffic via WordPress.com and other sites is a helluva lot easier.”

He then goes on to explain how he is building funnel sites rather than links to his money sites. This is mostly to keep his Adsense account clean, but is still a departure from the ‘build backlinks ad nausium’ mantra.

So what to think about all this? Either there is some sort of ‘super group’ that meets and discusses their plans of attack (kinda like the Bilderburgs … lol) or they have all come to the same conclusion based on what they are seeing with their sites. If I was a conspiracy guy, I would say that they are trying to get all us ‘backlink builders’ out of the backlink game so that they can have less competition. I’m not a conspiracy guy, plus that would kinda be like trying to put the cat back in the bag – there is no way of stopping that train now. So I’ve goto believe that this is the new way of internet marketing in its infancy. The methods that work have changed and the big boyz are shifting with the tide.

I for one am glad to see this change in the works. I’m sick and tired of building backlinks … wondering how much is enough only to have my competitor build 5 more links than I did and end up ahead of me in the SERPs. It’s tiring and I feel like I’m competing with an invisible enemy that plays by a different set of rules than I.   So, for 2011, I plan to rework my personal sites – the authority ones, and do more ‘link bait’ style writing.  I will get back into being the ‘expert’ in my niches – plus I will have more fun … because my authority sites are about topics that I actually like and have passion about.  It’s hard to be passionate about ‘pink bathroom rugs.’

And one final question … does this mean that Problogger was right all along? Is Griz really Problogger? 3rd Tribe, here we come! lol. (jk Griz …)

Posted in Goals, Guru's, Internet Marketing | Tagged , , , | 15 Comments

Noobs and COD4

Posted on November 21, 2010 by Milker

If you are a gamer – specifically Call of Duty, this post will make sense. Otherwise this will all seem a little weird and juvenile. lol.  If you are a COD4 gamer, I would love to hear your comments on these stages.

These are the seven stages that every COD4 player goes through to become Great or even Unstoppable.

UberNoob. Just opened the box — trying to figure out what is going on. Mostly walking around — spraying bullets at whatever moves i.e. teammates, pieces of paper, smoke shadows, etc. Sometimes stares at walls for long periods of time — completely oblivious to what is going on around him. Dead more than alive — clomping around uncrouched sounding like a herd of elephants. Everyone starts out this way — some are UberNoobs for half an hour, others for days, but we all were one once.

Noobie. Now you’ve discovered the Noob Tube (Grenade Launcher.) Wow — you are great! Look at you wipe that guy off the map! … until you get into a real firefight and discover that your Noob Tube is a piece of garbage. Other players will now be yelling at you and calling you names for doing your tube—die—tube—die routine over and over again. But you don’t care because you are really good now … careful, you are dangerously close to sliding down that road to being a SuperNoob.

SuperNoob. Noob Tube use continues but now you are yelling back at the players who are calling you a Noob Tuber saying things like, “It’s part of the game, man” and “STFU.” You are the greatest! Now, when someone owns you, you scream “hacker” ’cause you think you are too good be owned like that. A lot of players either get stuck in the SuperNoob category, never getting better because they refuse to put away the Tube or turn to Bot hacks to gain the upper hand. Not good enough to compete like a real man, and not man enough to realize that you suck — the hacks, like ‘roids, offer the easy way out. You take that path because your self—esteem can’t take the hit after hit that is required to become a good or even great player. You will never be more than a SuperNoob — kicked and banned from most legit servers, you have to resort to playing on non—P.B servers with the other hackers. Hackers killing each other with the UberNoobs who don’t know any better — still telling yourself how wonderful you are. Goodbye, Good Luck and Good Riddance!

Average. Now you are getting somewhere. You will learn and get better from now on because you’ve admitted to yourself that you still suck. This is a very important stage to go through — and you must go through it to get better. Now you’ve unlocked some good perks and are learning how and where to use them. You’ve discovered your knife and even though you still miss more than connect, you do occasionally get the joy of planting a blade in another players head. You play because you have some personal pride and you genuinely enjoy the challenge. You’ve now begun to understand how to use the UAV to your advantage and you even get the odd Air Strike. When you get owned, you will run right back to the scene of carnage to try to ‘get that F’er back.’ This is good — very cathartic — even though most times that player has moved on, the very act of revenge shows that you care and are growing. Now you begin to toss grenades into buildings hoping to soften up your opponents before entering — showing forethought and some good basic strategy. Good for you … you are coming right along now. You will die way more times than you kill and you still suck, but you are showing your potential.

Good Player. Ahhh Grasshopper. You’ve got some peach fuzz on that upper lip of yours now. Your voice is lowering and you don’t think girls are icky any more. You are becoming a man. You’ve got a nice array of weapons and perks at your disposal now and you are very quickly learning when, where and how to use them. You use your ears as much as your sight to know where your opponents are. You get the odd helicopter now and often use your knife instead of gun because … well, just because you can. You’ve discovered some glitches and are learning how to use them. Sometimes you even go to maps that are empty to practice your jumps and other skilz. You regularly ‘own’ Noobs and might even get asked how you did something. This makes you feel good, but careful … don’t let it go to your head. Just say ‘TY’ and get on with the game. Now you let your ‘nades age a bit before tossing them and you kill more with speed and precision than with blind luck. You’ve begun to develop friendships with a couple of regular players and clans start to look interesting to you. You might even make an enquiry or two about what skilz are necessary for recruitment. You are now completely addicted to the game and begin to show sings of withdrawal if you don’t get your daily fix. You are getting 25 or 30 kills a game but your you still die about the same amount. You are developing nicely.

Great Player. Ownage. You can now kill equally well with any weapon and get called a hacker all the time. You are so good at aiming that you regularly get 1 shot kills and head shots. Someone spec’ing you might even think you are using an Aim Bot but you are not — you are just that good. Many of your kills are done in a way that your opponent has no clue how they died or where you came from. This is demoralizing for them and they sometimes leave in frustration — pissed ’cause they are so owned by you. Every little kid with a clan is begging you to join — you get tired of all the chatter and often just ignore them. Glitches, jumps and hiding spots are a regular part of your arsenal, and you use them without even thinking about it anymore. Sometimes you will play whole games with just your knife ’cause using your gun is too easy … and frankly boring. You shoot through walls, age ‘nades before coming around corners and can ninja diffuse bombs at will. Admins spec’ing you can’t tell if you are hacking or not and will often spend hours watching you trying to figure out what you are using. You can play almost unconsciously now — chatting away on Vent or listening to music while racking up the kills. The game is easy now and killing Noobs is so boring that you often just run by them to try to get the one or two guys who are at least a bit of a challenge for you. You get 2 or 3 helicopters a game adding to your totals. Your kills to death ratio is often 5—1 — 50 kills to 10 or 12 deaths. You are an awesome killing machine.

Unstoppable — Neo. The Matrix and you are now one. You see the game, not as visuals like the rest of us puny humans, but in code — you are a part of the game as if you were written right into it. You are Unstoppable (thanks UT). You kill or let live at will. You actually don’t use all the skilz you have because they look exactly like a Bot in action. Admins and opponents hate you equally. Players switch teams to be on the guaranteed winning team. Kill streaks of 20 or more are easily achieved. Your kill to death ratio is 10—1 or better — 50 kills in a game with 4 or 5 deaths. Sometimes you even go whole games without dying. You are a ghost in the night, a silent killer that cannot be stopped — you are Neo.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Self-Appointed Internet Marketing Guru’s and Their Egos

Posted on November 14, 2010 by Milker

Internet marketing these days is all about the gurus. Everyone’s an expert. Every one of them makes loads of money … (ya, right!) And everyone who makes a couple of bucks online fancies themselves a guru. You do NOT want to get caught up in the toilet-bowl that is their little universe. It is a total time-sucker and you’ll be swimming with logs of crap.

Here are 10 Characteristics of the Self-Appointed IM Guru

1. Their opinion about something is always stated as fact and you dare not question it.

2. If you disagree with their opinion, they will attack you personally. See Brian Clark attack on Lissie.

3. The rove in packs – with often 2 or 3 ganging up on people that question them.

4. They have groupies. Mindless fans that fawn over their every word, often telling them how great and how wonderful they are. Guru’s and their Ego’s love this.

5. They tend to make smart comments when a noob asks a dumb question.

6. They can write reams of crap and not say anything remotely helpful. This makes the groupies fawn and sweat which in turn feeds the Guru’s ego. It’s a win-win thing.

7. They will steal news and ideas they hear and read elsewhere and pass it off as their own.

8. Nothing is ever free with them. It’s always just a $97 ebook, or $37 piece of software away.

9. Most, (but not all) are list-building spammers. Once they get a grip on your email address, they never let go.

10. They are vampires. They don’t care about you. As long as you have a bit of blood (money) in you, they will continue to suck. When you’re dry – they drop you and move on to the ‘next project’.

Thank goodness there are good Internet Marketing people out there! People who will reply to your email – who are not trying to sell you something and who genuinely love to help people.

Here are a few of my favorites.

Grizzly Brears
RT Cunningham
Leo Di Milo
Tracey Edwards
Allyn Hane

There are more I am sure, but these are ones that I know are not out to suck you dry.

Please comment if there are some that I’ve missed.
Posted in Guru's, Internet Marketing | Tagged , | 10 Comments

How Far Will You Go?

Posted on November 4, 2010 by Milker

RT over at Untwisted Vortex posts a very interesting IM question this week.

“How Far Will You Go?”

He asks this question in relation to how internet marketing seems to be so full of manipulation. Not overt, ‘I’m going to take you down’ type of manipulation, but the kind where you do what you have to do to get people to do something they weren’t really thinking about doing. (OK – that was a mouthful!)

Further, if you want to get any sort of traffic within 10 years you have to do some sort of Google manipulation – that is, building links.

So how does this make you feel? Is there an ethical dilemma here somewhere for you?

Here is where it is for me:

I have no problem working the Google manipulation. They set up the system that makes it virtually impossible to have any type of success without getting backlinks. If I’m writing about some obscure topic that has very few bloggers, there is no way of getting ‘natural’ links. So we manipulate Google … and feel good about it. They arbitrarily set up the system – we just work it.

I have no problem selling people something that they are looking for. Now, I don’t mean ripping them off with some IM junk … I mean really selling them a quality product. That could be a simple ebook or directing them to something on Amazon. That is the heart and soul of internet marketing … and I have no problem with it.

The problem, as I see it, is when we try to manipulate people into buying something they don’t need … or really want. Or worse yet, we sell them a dream instead of a real product. Oh, you might be hocking some great ‘this will change your life’ website building program. You might think that this is what people need and want. But it is not – it’s crap. You are selling them a dream – not a reality. The reality is, get a hosting account and install WordPress from your C-Panel and you’re done. The geewhiz ‘we do it all for you’ software is a scam.

NOOBS – beware the internet marketer that tells you that you NEED to buy his/her product. You probably don’t and your money is better off in your pocket than in theirs.

Anyway, internet marketing seems to be changing. There are more and more people out there like RT that are honest and just want to make a living helping people. The scammers are getting easier to spot – in fact, they all pretty much look the same.

Posted in Internet Marketing, Scams | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Super Noobs: What is Your Guru Really Up To?

Posted on March 12, 2010 by Milker

Liz over at Passive Income Online is at it again! She is one of the real people – one who has worked HARD to make a mark in the online Internet Marketing world. She did not go the route of the a-listers. She does not build lists and then spam the crap out of them. She does not sign up super noobs to promises of riches if only they will deposit $97.00 a month into her Paypal account. But she does build sites based on keywords that she knows (thanks TKA) are worth ranking for and then she does what the a-list bloggers do but don’t tell their students that they do … she gets backlinks. Piles of ‘em.

Liz is known for her blogging product and ‘make money online’ site ‘reviews.’ Actually, she kinda regularly outs the a-listers and the crap they are foisting off on unsuspecting super noobs. (How much can a noob be milked for anyway? lol) Her lastest review is a quality read and she really shows exactly where the product fails in what it is advertised to do. Read her Scribe SEO Review here. Don’t forget to read the comments….

So lets say that you are convinced (sucked in) by some bright, glamorous sales page for some wonderful, take over the blogging world product that promises you the moon (and more if you work hard) for only $97 a month (the price is going up in 2 days, so you better act now.) Lets say that you follow all the advice from this god-like guru – your new hero.

However (dark clouds on the horizon) … lets, just for arguments sake, say that you don’t end up ruling the internets … and let’s just pretend for a second that your bank account is actually slowly emptying (by $97 per month) rather than filling ‘faster than you thought possible.’ Would you begin to ask yourself, ‘what is my god Guru really saying to me?’ or would you continue to feed his bank account? The funny thing is, most super noobs won’t stop flushing money down the drain until they actually have no money left. Further they will defend their god Guru as if he were the 2nd coming of The One! This blind allegiance is a peculiarity found in chronic gamblers and internet marketing Noobs. Does any of this sound familiar to you? Are you a internet marketing super noob? If so, read on….

You need a dose of reality …

Read Liz’s review of the Scribe SEO Scam product. See how she actually tests it to see how it works – how easy or hard it is to use – to see if it really works at all? She then posts the results of her tests, with screenshots to support what she has discovered. So the product sucks – that’s reality man! But then you come to the comments … and there you find the ‘head noob milker‘ (Brian Clark) trying to defend his crappy product. He does not practice good customer service by saying, ‘wow, thanks for pointing that out to me. Let me fix those problems and then ask you to test it again …. ‘ No, he (Brian Clark) jumps into the comments trying to throw his weight around spouting all kinds of crap … even threatening to sue Liz for posting her thoughts of the crappy product he produces. This is your Guru – naked and exposed before you.

Now that you see your emperor without his clothes – are you still going to keep feeding his bank account with your money? Are you going to continue feeding his massive ego with your fawning adoration? Break free! Throw away your super noob blankie. Read real reviews. Read the comments from real internet marketers – Allyn, Griz, Liz, etc. Learn and understand what your Guru is really up to.

Posted in Scams | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Hey Monster – Who’s the Noob Now?

Posted on October 19, 2009 by Milker

Monster Energy Drink (aka Camel Piss – thanks __________ lol) decided in their infinite corporate wisdom to squash a small family run micro-brewery for daring to produce a big time beer and naming it Vermonster Beer.
I doubt that Monster Energy Drink lawyers really thought through this plan when they sent out their cease and disist order.  When you are a multi-billion dollar corporation, you get the idea that you are invincable – it becomes really hard to see the risk involved in taking on a puny little brewery.  The Monster lawyers look like a bunch of IM noobs!  lol.  I doubt that they ever envisioned an online revolution against their product seeing how different they acually are.  I mean Vermonster is make with a pile of hops, lots of alcohol and just a touch of Vermont, while Monster Energy Drink is made of 100% monster monkey ass.  Other than they are both liquids, they have nothing in common!
The power of the internet and internet marketers in particular is increasing.  The idea that single bloggers located all around the world could come together and take on a multi-billion dollar coroporation was unknown even 10 years ago.  It will be interesting to see where this takes us and we will watch this story as it develops.

Monster Energy Drink (aka Camel Piss – thanks RT – lol) decided in their infinite corporate wisdom to squash a small family run micro-brewery for daring to produce a big time beer and naming it Vermonster Beer.  On September 14, 2009 Rock Art Brewery received a cease and desist order from attorneys representing Hansen Natural Corp the owner of Camel Pis … I mean Monster Energy Drink.  It appears that Hanson/Camel/Monster want to expand into the alcoholic beverage industry and wants the name Vermonster for themselves … and for free no less.

I doubt that Monster Energy Drink lawyers really thought through this plan when they sent out their cease and desist order.  When you are a multi-billion dollar corporation, you get the idea that you are invincible - it becomes really hard to see the risk involved in taking on a puny little brewery.  The Monster lawyers look like a bunch of IM noobs!  lol.  I doubt that they ever envisioned an online revolution against their product seeing how different the products actually are.  I mean Vermonster is made with a pile of hops, lots of alcohol and just a touch of Vermont, while Monster Energy Drink is made of 100% monster monkey ass.  Other than they are both liquids, they have nothing in common!

I became aware of this story first from Griz on his Make Money Online blog but the original IM marketer that broke this story was Allyn Hane, vblogger extraordinaire at Blogger Illustrated.  The power of the internet and internet marketers in particular is increasing.  The idea that single bloggers located all around the world could come together and take on a multi-billion dollar corporation was unknown even 10 years ago.  It will be interesting to see where this takes us and we will watch this story as it develops.

Other Bloggers Talking about this story:

Monster Energy Drink vs Vermonster Beer – Griz

F You Monster Energy Drink – May You Go Bank-Fing-Rupt – Allyn

Monster Energy Drink Side Effects

Monster Energy Drink Sucks the Life Out of Small Business

ROCK ART BREWERY vs Corporate America – The Biggest Scam of All! – Liz

Monster Energy Drink – Corporate America Gone Bad

When is a Monster a Bully?

Monster Energy Drink Attacks Vermont Beer

Poll: Monster Energy vs Vermonster Beer

Posted in Corporate Rant | Tagged , , , | 11 Comments

Problogger.com Forums

Posted on October 5, 2009 by Milker

The genesis of this blog came about when Darren at Problogger.com decided to set up a new Noob forum for his legion of followers to give advice to each other.  Now, on the surface this might not be a bad idea, but really who needs another group of Noobs telling other Noobs how to do Noobie stuff?  Griz and other have pointed out the futility of the Problogger.com forum as it is based on the faulty assumption that social blogging can make you money.  (It can’t.)

Others have jumped into the fray, throwing in a few gratuitous kicks and punches.   One of the better posts was by SEO Ignitor.  His take on the whole sorted affair is titled Make Money Online Reading Forums and is a really funny read on how many people get sucked into reading forums thinking that they are going to make money by doing so.

For that matter, even great forums like the one at TKA have their share of readers for money – willing to read every word that is posted there, commenting often, but unable to demonstrate that they are able to make money online themselves.

I’m no psychologist, but I suspect that these people do self-defeating things like this because they are afraid of failure.  What if…  What happens when… What am I going to do?!?  That sort of inner dialog is really dangerous and hurts any chance you have of making money online.  I don’t know who said this (and I’m to lazy to Google it), but someone once said ‘better to have tried and failed than to never have tried at all’ or something like that.  The best way to conquer this fear is to just do something … anything (except read forums) to break out of this behaviour pattern.  Pick a simple strategy and run with it for a while.  Make 100 Hubs – that’s what I did and now those Hubs bring in several hundred dollars a month.  Do anything you can to silence the little voices  in your head.  Just do it!

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What Does “Milking Noobs” Mean?

Posted on October 3, 2009 by Milker

So I realize that the name of this blog is not exactly intuitive.  What does it mean?  I will here reprint, in very small part, a comment that was posted by Griz at his Internet Marketing Lessons blog.

Speaking about a new scheme that Darren over at Problogger.com was working on, Griz said,

Mike – I can’t wait to see what the price jumps up too – just how much can a noob be milked for anyway. Of course the forum might end up being free…

And that is what gave me the idea for the name.

Noobs, like so many moths to a light, are attracted to the idea of easy money. No matter how badly they get burned, they keep coming back for more and there is always someone out there ready to baffle them with B.S. while relieving them of their wallets.  Noobs are easy prey for bloggers and marketers offering them the promise of riches in exchange for a few dollars (but the price is going up soon, so you better buy today!)  Noobs, because they are beginners, and because they are blinded by carrot of easy money, will give up almost anything to get what they think will be the answer to all their problems.  They jump from blogger to blogger, from scheme to scheme, each time shelling out their hard earned money 0r worse yet, loading up their credit cards.  I’ve purchased a few of those ebooks in my time … I still have most of them in a file on my hard drive.  They were read once, and then, like the socks given by great aunt so-and-so to a 4 year old for Christmas, were discarded for the next bright bauble.  I still can’t believe I bought some of that crap!  Bugs me actually.

I’m hoping here to comment on some of the stuff I see people doing that is crazy – as well, point out the IM stuff that works … or, at least, is working for me.

My very 1st piece of advice is to not buy another thing until you’ve read Griz’s blog from start to finish.  I guarantee that if you put in the time to read it, what you will learn will serve you better than any crummy ebook being touted by some A-list blogger.  Read it with a notebook beside you, marking down what you find interesting AND where to find it again.  I still refer back to the notes I took during my 1st reading.

That should keep you busy for a while!

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