On Guru Launches, Hubpages and One Week Marketing Updates
So, I subscribe to a ton of Internet Marketing newsletter rags just to keep up with what it going on in the online marketing world. You kind of know whenever something is abuzz because your email box goes from 30 emails a day to 100. I find it especially funny when I get 10 emails that are basically identical (note to self: never use prefab marketing material..lol). Marketing gurus are just like actors- You don’t hear about them unless they are trying to promote something….
Anyway, the newest couple launches have been Mike Filsaime’s launch tree and some new upcoming deal with stomper net in which Eban Pagan seems to be involved in and finally, some sort of crap that Michael Cheney is pushing in which he shows you how he made 1 million in 7 days (or something to that effect). I hardly ever never buy anything…I guess you could call me a window shopper…..but I do have a question…
Who the heck buys this crap? And more importantly…why???
Listen….there are only so many ways you can crack an egg. There are no “secrets”. If someone finds a work around and enough people use it, then it will be dead very quickly. Unless you are trying to learn something..ie. improve ad copy skills, learn SEO or some other computer related skill that is congruent to your marketing plan, learn how to test and track campaigns, ect., you are just throwing away your money. Rather than get rich, you are making someone else rich. Just my 2 cents.
One Week Marketing Update
Well, it has been a little over a week and a half since my One Week Marketing Experiment and over half of my lenses aren’t indexed yet. They are getting traffic though, thanks largely to the Ezine Articles that are pointing to it. In fact, the feed directories that I submitted to are indexed but the site that they are pointing to isn’t…go figure. You can check out my one week marketing review here which was basically a preliminary review.
To be fair, I did start a couple other lenses on pregnancy and they got indexed fairly quickly with just an ezine article.
As far as traffic is concerned, there just aren’t that much…just a smattering of visitors.
Overall, I have been less than impressed with PotPieGirl’s strategy (which I will talk about in a second) with regards to squidoo. That said, I do think that her product is decent still….
If you take away squidoo and add whatever is hot at the moment as deemed by google, then her strategy should work for someone who has very little money and wants to learn an easy to use marketing system.
You have to realize that most of these systems are highly reliant on what google is favoring. In other words, if squidoo is ranking well today, then you can build a system around it and should get some traffic. Same thing goes with article marketing or using any other web2.0 property. However, if/when google pulls the rug out from under something that you are using primarily, it is back to square one. It happens over and over and over again.
One Week Marketing Flaws
One of the one week marketing flaws is the belief that the more properties you have, the more money you make. It sounds right but it just doesn’t work that way. Sure, you should create a lot of properties but if you think that creating 50-100 properties and counting on each property to make a certain amount of money (say, $5-10 a week), I am going to call foul.
Don’t believe me? Well, if you use the past as a means to provide proof for the future, it wasn’t too long ago that someone was touting building 100 adsense sites on the premise that if you could make $1.00 a day from each site, then you would be making $100 bucks a day. It just doesn’t work that smoothly and if it did, I would have 1,000 adsense sites by now.
You should spread yourself out. But you are spreading yourself out to identify profitable niches. Frankly, most won’t make you much money. But if you happen to find one that is pulling in some dough, you then scale it. Anyway though…..
Another flaw in her system is what I call the three click conversion. I hope I can explain this….If Squidoo could rank well straight out of the box, then this would be okay. It doesn’t though. One of the things she suggests is to use article directories for backlinks. However, what I am finding is that my articles are garnering more traffic organically. So what happens is this:
- Someone arrives at my ezine article page which has a CTR of 25%. The article gets roughly 20 views per day….so my squidoo page gets 5 uniques a day from this article.
- The visitor clicks through and heads to my destination page…the squidoo page which is basically a more thorough rehash of the article. The click through rate for my squidoo page is a much lower 10% (which is still high but I have a strong call to action above the fold). So out of the 5 visitors a day, I average 1 click through every other day.
- Now the visitor has already had to jump through hoops- EZA page—>Squidoo page—>Sales page to what I am promoting. Now let’s suppose that the sales page is a converting giant converting visitors at 10%. Do you realize how many days it would take to make a sale??
I say this because a better way (and something that most article marketers don’t really talk about) is to knock it down to two clicks at most. Now you tell me, which would work better? The way described above or this way….
- Person arrives at your EZA via organic search.
- They click through and arrive at a sales page which converts at 3%……
OR
- Person arrives at your EZA via organic search
- They click through and arrive at your capture page to sign up for something (in which you sell them at a later date).
Do the math. I would make more money simply redirecting to the sales page by purchasing a top level domain than using one of the free methods which required the visitor to click 3 times before I made a sale. I would make more money even if the ctr was lower and the conversion rate was lower…..
….plus it would be a lot less work since I am not creating additional properties to make the sale.
Some people would argue that it typically takes someone to look at a sales page 3-4 times before they commit. If that is the case, then I guess having them jump through hoops/sites may be a good thing. It has never worked for me though. If you can find a sales page that converts well, then a domain redirect to the sales page works WAYYYYYY better.
Of course, this would be moot if squidoo was ranking well straight out of the box or with a little prodding here and there. You could grab several of the top 10 spots using all sorts of web 2.0 properties. Then again, you would have to put in the work to make it happen. I am sure that many will argue this point. But frankly, most people don’t have the money or time to do everything it takes to get something ranked that needs a little prodding.
Stick with what works well now…as you start to make more money, move to a more permanent plan.
Hubpages and the 100 Hub Challenge??
If you read Court’s blog or a countless number of other make money/internet marketing blogs, you have probably heard about the 100 hubs in 30 day challenge. If you haven’t here is the skinny….
Court was messing around creating hubs when he suddenly saw his adsense account spike a little. He suddenly saw hubpages as a possible way to make a little extra money so he started to create a few sites. Several of those who follow his blog quickly followed suit and suddenly Hubpages is endorsing a challenge (which I have no clue whether there is a prize or not).
Some of the social hubbers are not too happy about this. Some say that it creates subpar hubs.
SEOZombie isn’t sure of it either because of the risk you take by using someone else’s property to promote your stuff on it.
I tend to look at things a bit more differently. The real litmus to any web 2.0 property and whether it is worth the time and effort to place content on it is how well it does in organic search. If it does well with little or no prodding,then it is worth it in my book. Double bonus if I can use it as a traffic funnel.
Up to this point, I have had no love for hubpages. But just last week, I noticed that google indexed several of my hubpages within 4 hours. This tells me that the bots are hanging out in full force there. I am also getting organic traffic to the tune of roughly 50-100 visits per day spread out over 13 hubs. These 13 hubs are making me roughly $2.00 a day which isn’t bad considering I spent around 4 hours dropping content on them. It also shows me that you could theoretically use hubpages for an adsense model although once again, what happens if you build 300 hubs and watch google pull the rug out from under them?
For those of you who would like to see one of my personas on hubpages, you can check my Dr. Alex profile (I have several, each covers a niche or subsets of niches). In this case, I chronicle a lot of home remedies (which I have an authority site to pull information from).
As an aside, you could use PotPieGirl’s system on hubpages for now instead of squidoo. Then again, your hub score may take a hit. I don’t know how their rating system works, but I think it has to do with outbound links.
For those of you who want to study someone that optimizes her hubpages, Lissie is the place to check out (fyi- she is using hubpages to make a living…). Her sites are totally optimized for google.
That is pretty much it for this week. Have a great memorial weekend….
Hey you...yeah...YOU...you have stopped by a few times...why not drop me a comment and add to the conversation? I would love to know what you think...
11 Responses to “On Guru Launches, Hubpages and One Week Marketing Updates”
Comments
Read below or add a comment...
Hey Leo,
What’s that picture in upper right corner?
I think there are two types of people who buy Guru cr*p. New people who think there really is a magic system that doesn’t required any work and the other people who have been around for a while and don’t want to do any work. The fact is there is no free lunch. If you want a business you must do some work or in IM you must a whole h*ll of a lot of work.
Keep posting I really like your views.
Andy with online business opportunities’s last blog post..Make Money With Christian Online Business Opportunities
Hi Leo,
I love your 2 cents worth. It’s similar to mine.
I almost purchased One Week Marketing and am enjoying your review. I have a question though – when you say “redirecting to the sales page by purchasing a top level domain” can that be to a blog post? So I guess what I’m saying is – have your ezine article point to your blog post (review) and then to the affiliate link instead of Squidoo or Hub.
p.s. I checked out your Home Remedies Hub but did not see any advertising or links onlyadsese.
Luca’s last blog post..How To Fix Dead Links and Save Your Traffic
@ Luca- What I mean is rather than making a visitor go through 3 clicks ie. EZA–>blog post/parasite blog–>sales page–>sale it has been my experience that the less clicks they have to go to get to the end result is typically better. Of course, an EZA would help boost your own site with a link though. All in all it depends on your strategy. Personally, I like to build authority sites with tons of pages but that process is like a marathon and the results don’t happen overnight.
Playing around with other things helps me either build eventual funnels or discover new parts of the niche.
re:my hub(s)….I tend to let parasitic hosts like hubpages/squidoo simmer for a second to see where they fall in the SERPS. If they rank high and start to get traffic, then I will reevaluate them. It is slow but I have way more in my pot than these types of sites so I can afford to see how they fall.
The reason why I like these web 2.0 properties is that their ranking potential (at least ranking quickly) are greater than owning your own new property. If I see that a hub/lens/wp hosted blog is getting ranked, I will then re investigate it.
@ Andy- I was trying to figure out what picture you were talking about when I realized that you were talking about the stock photos that came with this theme, lol. Yeah…busted…what can I say? I am pretty lazy…
Hello Leo,
I wanted to hear your opinion about the best ranked web 2.0 properties right now. Are those squidoos, hubpages or ezine articles? I mean I know I still have to get links etc and do my keyword research but right from the scratch which one you think has the most power to be ranked in google.
Hi Leo =)
First off – GREAT blog!
Secondly, I want to thank you for your honest and transparent review of One Week Marketing. I’m sorry things didn’t work out for you the way I would have liked (and probably how YOU would’ve liked, too ).
Squidoo is a busy site. These days, it seems you have to do your keyword research AND then check Google via the site:squidoo.com parameter to make sure there is an opening on the site before you proceed. Heck, I guess that is true of most popular, free-to-use, user-generated content sites these days, isn’t it? =)
You hit a lot of points dead on. I agree completely with the “jumping thru hoops” concept you spoke of. That’s why, in OWM, I recommend forwarding a domain name via your affiliate link so you CAN get that url in your author box on EzineArticles.com One less step for the reader just might make the marketer one step CLOSER to a sale.
Thing is, I only recommend it as an option in OWM – I don’t require it because that technique costs money and I wanted the OWM action plan to remain cost-free. I started all this using free methods, and I want others to be able to learn how to do it, too =)
You made a lot of other fantastic points and I truly appreciate your insight and candor.
I am disappointed that your lenses were not indexed quickly. If I can help with that in any way, please do not hesitate to contact me (contact form on my blog goes straight to my email). I’m a little slow this weekend with email – my son is getting married and things are a little…. ok, a LOT chaotic ’round here! lol!
But I will be back in full force on Monday. If I can do anything for you, please let me know.
Great review! And no, I’m not one of those marketers who only appreciates glowing reviews, either. I just like ‘em to be honest. Trust is something that is very hard to earn online. I can tell your readers trust you – and I respect that immensely.
All the best!
Jennifer
~PotPieGirl
PotPieGirl’s last blog post..Stop Selling To Me!
Hi there Leo – got to admit I started with Squidoo at the same time as Hubpages – but I could never get any search traffic to lenses so I dropped it. For a long time I thought I got new hubs instantly indexed because of the automatic link from my PR4 profile. But I just started a new ID (for all those subpar hubs LOL) and they were indexed within 8hours – maybe sooner – I didn’t think to look! Google loves HP at the moment. That included the ones I hadn’t built any backlinks to as well. I’m currently using hubs as both backlinks to existing sites and to try out new niches – its the same price as blogger (free) and yet actually gets indexed – what’s not to like about that !
Just a bit of a a correction I don’t make a living off Hubpages – well maybe if I lived in rural India with free Internet access – but its still the majority of my Adsense income. Thanks for the link – I hadn’t realised who Dr Alex was when I fanned you on HP LOL
lissie’s last blog post..Passive Income Hub Challenge After 2 Weeks
@PotPieGirl- Thanks for stopping by…I figured it was only a matter of time. Don’t get me wrong. I read your report and actually liked it. I think that if you are a new marketer with little to no money, then your one week marketing plan could be a good fit. That is primarily why I haven’t poo-pooed it more.
The issue that I have had with Squidoo is that it is more of a pain to get quick indexing even if you do do the things (as I so illustrated in my case study). That said, there is absolutely nothing wrong with taking your strategy and applying it to other parasitic hosts that google IS favoring…like hubpages.
One of the harsh realities that people without capital have to face is that little money in usually results in little profit…in other words, if you start with $0 and make $100 in your first month, then you shouldn’t feel too disenchanted. Of course, you could spend $1,000 and lose $900 in a PPC campaign just as quickly.
As far as needing indexing help, thanks but I pretty much resorted to the chain of indexing strategies that I normally use to get quick indexing. I am curious how google responds to squidoo vs. hubpages. I am actually tempted to produce similar pages that are targeting the same keyword to see which host wins. Maybe I may do that in the future.
My comments about the indexing part of your strategy wasn’t that I couldn’t get indexed. It was that indexing wasn’t coming fast using your indexing methods displayed in the book. Of course, as you stated, there could be a number of reasons for this including how many other similar pages I am competing with on the host itself. I have reason to believe that google also treats different niches differently.
Potpiegirl, I do think you have a winner here. And I do think that your system will help many a beginner marketer get in the game. My only beef (if I have one) is that just like most reports and books out there, there really isn’t one coverall guaranteed strategy to making money online. While some will greatly benefit from your report, others may sit stewing in frustration just coming out of the gate.
Nonetheless, I do recommend it for new marketers who aren’t making money and wondering why. It is a decent read and the fact that you have included a separate book that is a conversation with Nick when you were mentoring will go a long way to helping folks figure some things out.
@lissie I have no idea where I thought you were making a living online with HP. Perhaps it was from the comments on the “weeds” hub…dunno, lol. I think you hit the nail on the head in regards to who google is favoring atm in the HP vs. Squidoo war though. Perhaps it has to do with how moderated (and frustrating) hubpages can be, right?
RE: Fanning me/dr.Alex persona lol…aliases, aliases, aliases, right? I figured I would show off one of my newer personas to the few who read this rag to show them that I actually do what I do (plus it doesn’t hurt indexing wise as well). Most of the parasitic blogs as well as EZA directories is designed to search and pinpoint potential niches before I scale. It saves me a buttload of time and energy to be able to test for volume and responsiveness first before I commit to a full fledged site.
@ Mike Sorry man…you fell through the cracks and into my spam filter for whatever reason. Anyway, I rank Squidoo low on the ranks of authority. The best advice I could give you is when you are doing a keyword relevancy test, if a parasitic host is ranking, then you will likely get a dual listing. If there are two listings already, you can outrank one of the listings by pounding it with links. In the event there is a hubpage listed, then it is likely you could get a EZA ranked as well (or articlebase, ect.) or visa-versa. In short, there really isn’t a “best” but you have a myriad of options. Hope that answers your question without being too vague.