This post is not an advice column. I think it’s a therapy session. I’ll be on the couch; you can be on the chair. Meet Site X. It’s an info blog in the outdoor travel niche. I purchased Site X and overhauled the UX about three years ago (you can
I haven’t published a new blog post in four months. Nor have I updated my incoming reports in almost a year, which means you’re missing the Michael Bay-drama of my site portfolio falling and rising since last fall. I wish I could tell you that over the last four months,
It’s long been accepted as a self-evident truth that your Home page is the most important page on your website. It’s your first impression, handshake, elevator pitch, morning makeup routine and “Hello world!” all rolled into one. But I think as the world becomes overly polished, a Home page risks
One of my niches is the RV and outdoor travel industry. I didn’t yank this niche out of a hat; I work in it. I know it, and I like it. I keep an Excel spreadsheet of other websites in my niche. A little Black Book, so to speak. One
I despise Eric Jones. Like medieval-level despisal. Like tar-and-feathering, branding-with-a-hot-iron, pouring-boiling-oil-off-the-castle-ramparts kind of despisal. Eric Jones – a pseudonym for a well-known SEO spambot – has sent me over 2,000 emails. Most of them come from a Gmail account, like eric.jones.z.mail@gmail.com or something like that. They promise lead magnets, SEO
Programmatic advertising is becoming the new status quo. But with auto ads comes the danger that the computer will place ads where you don’t want them! Because no one likes a webpage where Adsense just vomited all over the HTML. If you allow ads to overrun your blog, your Reader
A monkey put his hand into a jar of cookies. He grasped as many as he could possibly hold, but when he tried to pull out his hand, he was prevented from doing so by the neck of the cookie jar. Unwilling to lose the cookies, and yet unable to
Is a blog a purely passive investment? I say no. Before you burn me in effigy, let me be clear – I think a blog is a wonderful source of income. Unlike wages, it doesn’t trade time for dollars. If you do it right, a blog can multiply your return
Blogging has a list of deceased tactics longer than the French Revolution. Micro niche sites, autoblogging, affiliate sites, and keyword stuffing – they’re all blue and cold. Ours is a gelatinous industry. It’s constantly shape-shifting and oozing into new territory. It’s a short hike from the future to the past.
Google has betrayed me. I have a site in the Outdoor Travel niche (called “the Site”) which recently got the stuffing taken out of it. You can see the carnage yourself. This is a 14-day snapshot of the Site’s Google Search impressions and organic clicks. September 20th was my Black