My story and why the future looks bright after Penguin

Hi all!

Like a lot of other people, my websites have lost significant SERP rankings which lead to lower traffic volumes and ultimately less income. I have about 40-50 niche websites on topics such as apple products, laptops, monitors, cameras etc… Panda did nothing to my sites but I was hit by Penguin, HARD. My sites received about 13,000 unique visitors a day and now it’s down to 3,000-4,000. The revenue has gone down from $150-200 a day to $20-30. That’s crazy!

I started niche websites 4 years ago and I’ve been pretty successful. For the first 2 years I was also working as the online marketing manager for a major company making $65k. I quit my job in January 2011 and started my own corporation in June 2011 (for tax reasons). I hired 5 V.A. doing full time work which I trained (2 left now). 40-50 websites, each site has about 30-70 pages of content (Articles by V.A.’s are of moderate quality). For backlinks, I did use article directories quite a bit, a little bit of comment links, social media but nothing black hat and never used any automation. 20% of the sites were making 80% of the revenue and even the big authority sites have been hit by freaking Penguin. My biggest site has 1500 Facebook fans (only bought 300) and 1400 Twitter followers (800 bought). Yes I admit my sites are medium quality but until better sites come along, they deserve to be ranked in the top 3 for the targeted keywords. The winners in my industries are all major retail websites so they’ll be VERY HARD to overtake in the rankings. The small guys get smaller while the big guys get bigger.

I’ve really been unlucky. I say “luck” because I’ve seen deserving websites loses ranks and bad websites increase rank with no clear explanation. I’m sure Google is aware that Penguin has hit some good deserving websites and is working on a fix. Ultimately, the best website will be ranked first. That’s Google’s priority and mission statement. So your site has to best answer your targeted topic to be ranked #1 (in theory).

I was making $50k-80k per year, I bought a condo and a car (which I finished paying) and have $60k savings in the bank. I currently live in Melbourne, Australia and my girlfriend makes enough money for both of us (I still make $1000 a month), so I’m not freaking out yet. I know I’m lucky but I must use this opportunity to start something good for the long term. So what now? Do I just keep working on my 40-50 websites and improve them; better content and better link profiles? Do I start new websites from scratch? (My newer niche websites are actually doing much better!) Do I use my $60k to venture into another business? What now?

I’m sure you’ve heard about SpaceX which just launched a shuttle into space to meet up with the International Space Station. CEO of this company is Elon Musk (https://twitter.com/#!/elonmusk) and I love his story! Born in South Africa where he grew up, studied in Canada & USA, he founded PayPal which turned him into a billionaire and he used his money to launch SpaceX. He also founded Telsa and SolarCity. He’s an entrepreneur and genius engineer. Iron man’s character is based on Elon Musk and part of the movie was filmed in the SpaceX factory. Everything he touches turns into gold! That guy is amazing! Anyways, reading his story motivates me and makes me want to be part of something special! I need to find a new project. Now I just need the idea!

If I had a product to sell or something to promote (in which I truly believe), then I would like to invest myself into this new project! I’d really get involved and apply all my knowledge to the product’s commercial success. Instead of working on 40-50 websites, I’d only take care of one. It’s almost impossible to be #1 on 40-50 topics. Maybe I should consider flipping websites? I think I’ve heard of a website which helps entrepreneurs find partners to help their business grow? Must look into it!

If you’ve been hit by Penguin, Panda or other nasty animals of the sort, then that sucks but don’t give up! Think long and hard about your next steps and follow the path in which you are willing to totally devote yourself. You need to show your idea, project or website(s) some LOVE! Be passionate and devoted! Only then will you be able to differentiate yourself and dominate your industry. This could be a new opportunity opening up! When Pat Flynn got fired from his architect job, he launched the very successful smartpassiveincome.com. There are numerous other success stories such as Pat’s.

I’d like to be able to say, “Because of stupid Penguin, I started XYZ Inc. which has become a real success!” I’m a bit of a dreamer but dreaming is important to keep your morale strong! The world is so vast and the internet makes it even bigger! There’s definitely a cool project out there for you which has LOADS of potential. You need to think long term and micro niche websites isn’t a long term business model. Boy I would have liked to be part of the Instagram team who recently got bought by Facebook for $1 billion.

The world is changing and you must change with it not to get left behind. You are master of your own fate! Now MAKE IT HAPPEN! ;-)

 

Does anyone think PPC is a good business model to get into? It is how Google makes most of their money and they definitely favor paying advertisers!

Do you think it's hard to get positive ROI using PPC campaigns? Does it work for affiliate marketing?

Cheer!
Alex

 

Well, you story is interesting. but I'll suggest you to wait for google's next update before liquidating. I red a wise statement that more are better than single.. let say you start a single project and that fails?

right now you're having 50 projects. regardless they are down but still you've alternatives and you can make your living happy. Since there is an ocean of webmasters criticizing google so how can they let them go just shouting. Im sure they're busy in their techie science to make things betters.

Have you interlinked all of your sites? if yes then quickly break down your network and keep every single cut from other sites of your portfolio. try removing blogrolls if you have any. I think you should consult a high level seo professional. but at the end they will say the same. wait for next update before taking any big step.

 

Thanks for the reply! Most of my sites are down except the ones I started a couple months ago. I did not have time to do article directories, website directories etc... Maybe that's why they are still ranking.

I totally agree with you about Google planning to make things better! For some of my keywords, the current SERPs are offering stupid results which make no sense. If the best website deserves the first place then some of my "white hat" sites should be back in the top 5. Gotta be patient!

Google knows that content and usability is most important. If an awesome website did use black hat seo techniques, I still think this site deserves to be #1. Google should just devalue the spammy links and still rank that site #1 because it's best answers the topic.

No I have not interlinked my websites. I actually have 5 different hosts each with 10 sites. This has saved me a couple times because if anything bad happens (Evil Google, hacker etc..) then only a couple sites are affected.

Cheers!

 

Thank you for sharing your story. Stick with it and I am sure it will get better. I am glad you are still making some money, it sounds like others have been cleared out.

 

Like most major Google updates this one will only temporarily knock us down/ IF you keep working hard you should be able to make it past this. Good luck!

 

Interesting story. Same kind of thing is bothering many of us. But don't you worry about it.

 

After penguin update, my belief is it will ultimately lead the web in a fair fight. If you have good contents and you can work hard for your business, there is no reason to be heated with penguin. So, after penguin, hard working guys should have bright future.

 

That's why I hate Google. I'm trying to do something not depending on Google. Maybe you should try this too.

 

Google is very fickle, you need other traffic sources besides it so you're not only depending on that. But some people get lucky

 

When one door closes another one opens up.

I believe that life throws stuff at you but as long as you can roll with whatever it throws at you, you'll be fine in life.

Good story, very inspiring! Suck it up and keep on working!!!!

 

I used to complain about Google's updates but then I decided to take advantage of it. My article business did well after Panda and it is doing even better after Penguin. Like anything else, you just have to roll with the punches. The people that have good sites are only going to be knocked back a little. It's the sites that aren't so good that will be penalized the most.

 

Very Inspiring story.

The true key is to not give up! Change when the world changes!

 

Thanks for all for the kind words!

Having your own online business is an amazing experience! The best thing about it is the freedom from a fixed schedule. I can go on a trip at anytime, not stuck in traffic, I can help out my sister with her kids, go see a movie in the middle of the day etc... It's been like that for the last 1 1/2 years and I know I'd have difficultly going back to a 9 to 5 job. Just that is enough motivation to get me going! BTW, I'm passionate about my business so I work 10 hours a day on it, I don't go see movies in the middle of the day very often! ;-)

Cheers

 

Pretty awesome story. I'm also working on having my own online business, while finishing up my senior year at a University. You've been successful once, so I'm sure you can do it again.

I'd wait a bit before getting rid of all your projects. The Penguin update is still a bit new, so they might still be jumping around in the SERPs a bit. Once things settle out a little bit, then you can go from there what you want to do with them.

But onto your question, PPC with affiliate marketing can be rather profitable. It takes a budget and quite a bit of learning to get into. I don't have any experience myself for it. Paid traffic is much faster than SEO though, and can be scaled up in most cases.

 

Your story really made a nice & interesting read. Great lessons to take from it as well.

 

Nice story to read. We must not rely our hard work on Google.

 

Can't rely on Google especially with the NEW Penguin update coming!

Good luck to all!

 

What are you kidding me "Fair Fight After Penguin" Now it's wide open for negative SEO besides the one with the most money will always be able to buy the most links .

 

but, want to as about method "Press release" . It Still Work ?