Internet Marketing with Josh SpauldingMaking Money through Ethical Marketing.

5 comments

1. Stephen Cronin (33 comments.)
   30th October, 2007 at 7:39 am 

   Hi Josh, what banners? I can’t see them! Oh those banners - I guess I AM trained to ignore them (hope I didn’t scare you).

   I’ve had the HostGator affilliate thing on my to do list for a while now. I haven’t gotten into AM yet, but they are my proposed first step. I use HostGator and have been very happy with them and it seems like their affiliate plan is great.

   Do you know if you can earn money from referring other affiliates (ie me)? or is it only for referring customers?

   I’ve probably talked enough about PR in various places, but I think your blog should definitely be higher than PR3. There is so much which is wrong with PR at the moment.

2. Maurice (TheCaymanHost) (61 comments.)
   30th October, 2007 at 4:08 pm 

   Hey Josh,

   I didn’t realize there’d been a PR update!!!!

   Seriously, I’m in agreement - as Stephen says, there is much wrong with the whole visible PR thing and it’s not worth worrying about. As to what rank any site is worth, it’s a very subjective thing. You seem to be growing in all relevant and important areas like RSS subscriptions so why worry.

   Hostgator and their affiliate program are both good - it is very hard to sell them simply because of the huge number of people doing it, but if you’re going to promote a hosting company they are a reasonable choice - then again, plenty of people will tell you that they are no good at all - folks get riled up over hosting even more than most service industries it seems.

   Anyway, the 125 banners look neat on your theme and I think your emphasis on affiliating only with companies you trust is important.

3. Vern (33 comments.)
   30th October, 2007 at 4:22 pm 

   Hi Josh,

   Yet again its Vern

   I think just that Google made a PR update things have changed but not that much at all I guess.

   You’re still in the top 10 list on “make money online” keyword phrase. So, its a-O-k.

   The funny thing is (maybe I should write you a personal email instead)… the other blogs or websites
   are employing the “so-obvious” SEO techniques to get there. Maybe I can share them here and
   you can agree with me or debate.

   (I think I’ll put this up my blog when possible)

   1. The so called marketers “keyword stuff” their blogs to death with the Make Money Online keywords.
   Check on some of them and you’ll see “hidden” texts of the same phrase. The exact “color of the font made
   to blend with the background.

   Google spiders to know about this but doesn’t seem to detect it at all especially on blogs… wonder why..

   2. many other marketers there are using linkbait or link love… similar to what John Chow has done a few
   months back and totally bombed. I mean it worked but only awhile. This will probably work if there are enough
   so called bloggers linking back at your blog with an anchor text link on Make Money Online.

   3. Create a hyped title with the make money online tags all over the blog and… blah blah…

   well, I don’t want to point names but I consulted the marketer about some questions and he/she only gave
   1 word based answers.

   Hmmm, not willing to disclose more “secrets” probably.

   I don’t know if I will have ever “discovered the truth about how they got the rankings” but I guess its all hardwork.

   Moreover, what i DO know is this, I’ve written for Josh a pretty nice piece of article based on my rants here LOL!!

   Regards,
   Vern

4. Josh Spaulding
   30th October, 2007 at 7:04 pm 

   I just noticed YouTube is back up to an 8 or so, but they were showing a 3 for several days. Looks like they manually fixed that f*** up since it’s their own.

   @ Stephen

   It took me a minute to find them after I put them up as well lol

   HostGator is a great service and getting $50 checks for each referral (more if you refer more) is pretty nice. I’ve been with hostgator for about 2 years now and I think they’re great. As Maurice said (below) they are hard to sell though simply because sooooo many people promote their awesome affiliate program. As for their service, there are a few “book readers” who have no sense when it comes to hosting and shouldn’t be doing that job, but in those cases I just call back until i get someone that knows a thing or two about hosting. The admins that I’ve dealt with are top notch though.

   I just looked through their affiliate program and didn’t see any type of referral recruiting, or whatever thats called but they may.

   @ Maurice

   Yep, that’s why I haven’t said much about it. Of course I’d like to see a higher PR, just because of my male ego but for all logical reasons, it really doesn’t matter.

   I agree with you on the saturation of HostGator’s affiliate program. It’s still a good host in my opinion and I’ll continue to recommend it. I’m in the market for a managed, dedicated server though and was thinking about pinging you and Vlad at some point. I’m going to scan the market first and see what’s what. It looks like HostGator’s dedicated servers are pretty competitive. Somewhat pricey, but from what I’ve seen, what they offer for the price is actually pretty good.

   @ Vern

   Traffic wise, nothing has changed. The toolbar PR update is just visual candy for people who don’t know any better. Well, ok, it’s visual candy for everyone. Of course people want to see their sites gain a higher toolbar PR, but it really doesn’t matter unless you’re selling advertising and even then it shouldn’t matter, but it does.

   The so called marketers “keyword stuff” their
   blogs to death with the Make Money Online keywords.
   Check on some of them and you’ll see “hidden” texts
   of the same phrase. The exact “color of the font made
   to blend with the background.

   Google spiders to know about this but doesn’t seem to
   detect it at all especially on blogs… wonder why.

   Using a set keyword density is something of the past. With LSI it’s really not all that effective and if overdone it can hurt you. I don’t even think about keywords when writing. I do research keywords for articles etc. for the title, header and META tags, but that’s about it. Using hidden links or text is a major mistake. These site will eventually be penalized for it if they haven’t already.

   many other marketers there are using linkbait or
   link love… similar to what John Chow has done a few
   months back and totally bombed. I mean it worked but
   only awhile. This will probably work if there are enough
   so called bloggers linking back at your blog with an
   anchor text link on Make Money Online.

   What you’re speaking of is considered a “link scheme.” “link love” is just a term coined by bloggers that refers to linking to someone because they provided good info etc. and is not necessarily a bad thing. “link bait” is a phrase that means coming up with something that is so informative, cool, useful etc. that everyone wants to link to it. “link bait” is a good thing.

   Create a hyped title with the make money online tags
   all over the blog and… blah blah…

   well, I don’t want to point names but I consulted the
   marketer about some questions and he/she only gave
   1 word based answers.

   Hmmm, not willing to disclose more “secrets” probably.

   I don’t know if I will have ever “discovered the truth about
   how they got the rankings” but I guess its all hardwork.

   Moreover, what i DO know is this, I’ve written for Josh
   a pretty nice piece of article based on my rants here LOL!!

   It does indeed take hard work, but there really aren’t any secrets. Compose good, quality info that will invite “link love,” build links on your own using ethical, white-hat techniques and never give up. Hype does work, but only to certain crowds. You have to know your target audience in order to find out what works with them and what doesn’t.

5. Vern (33 comments.)
   31st October, 2007 at 6:52 am 

   Josh,

   once again. Thanks for your quick response.
   I guess residing my rants into your blog
   for now will be good enough for me.

   I’m going to have to setup my own blog soon
   and make a link to you.

   Have a great day ahead!
   Vern