Sorry for the long delay in an update. May has been a crazy month because of a Google update. One of my niches went from 15,900,000 results for the main keyword down to 5,000,000 in one day, then came back up the next. Since that have been at #1 for a LONG time are now getting bumped. My sites are fluctuating all over the place and I’m hoping that they will settle into a good position. If not in this update, hopefully the next one. I have only been working on some of these sites in my ultra-competitive niche for about six months, so I’m not holding my breath for stellar results yet. Sure, I could black-hat the crap out of a site and watch it succeed for a week or two, but I want one that will be well positioned for a long time. Good long term positioning takes a long time.
One of the biggest challenges I’m facing right now in this industry is the ability to build an effective linking campaign. Sure, I could buy all the links I want but that’s got two problems; 1. it’s a short-sighted solution that is bound to get slammed sooner or later and 2. buying enough links in this category significantly compresses profits. It compresses profits so much that if you aren’t in a great position for an awesome keyword, you are just going to hemorrhage money.
I am still having a good time editing categories in DMOZ. It’s a lot of work though. So many people submit such crappy sites with such crappy descriptions that it takes quite a while to dig through them all. It’s still fun though and I’m hoping to add some more categories soon.
I’m off to go backpacking in the Cranberry Wilderness this memorial day weekend starting this Wednesday. The weather is supposed to be absolutely beautiful with high in the low to mid 70s. After I get back, I’m working for two days then we’re having a company lake day. After that I leave for SMX Advanced the following week. Wheew! Lots of traveling! Lots more traveling to come this summer too! Good times!
