Oh my heart aches for this person. I won’t put their name in here, or their websites, but I will share with you my reply to someone who went about things all right but it turned out all wrong.

Scenario: A retiree, looking to launch a work-at-home career, invests money in products and tools to learn online marketing. Learns the technical skills like you wouldn’t believe. A real go getter – implements advice, doesn’t just read about it.

By all accounts, you’d think this person should be making bank by now. But no. Sadly, this person was guided by the people who teach it all wrong:

• The ones who emphasize picking a profitable niche (over one you want to be in).
• The ones who have you buy a fancy keyword tool so you can spend hours researching the exact right phrase to write an article on.
• The ones who advocate scraping and spinning and minor editing of other people’s content.
• The ones who teach you to SEO the ever living hell out of your website – because obviously, you have to GAME the system to BEAT the system, right?
• The ones who NEVER even mention the word “leadership” or “personality” when teaching you – because it’s all about making sure you have an exact keyword density, right?
• The ones who conveniently sell readymade sites and personal coaching you have to take out a second mortgage for in order to succeed.

These are not good people. These are scumbags.

So this person spent time reading, learning, applying – and finally came to me lost and confused as to why, with their slick professional site (one even I was envious of as far as looks), they had ZERO traffic? With 800+ pages indexed in Google – why no traffic?

I asked for a few examples of their sites. They were all over the map. Various health niches and other stuff. They had one great site (partially) – a blog with one awesome blog post on it. The rest – stuff I would scrap.

So here was my advice to this person, below…with sites and names removed. (Please see if it might also resemble what you’re doing – because this is why I’ve shifted my entire approach here from “Internet Marketing” to “Leadership and Publishing.”)

Hi (name removed)!

Okay I can only give MY insight Take it or leave it.

The sites LOOK nice. Real professional. Google has all your sites indexed. But take (one of his health sites) for instance – Alexa has it non existent, even though Google has over 800 pages indexed.

To be honest, if I go looking for health information, I automatically head to Google and when MayoClinic shows up or WebMD or something, I click on it. If I landed on your site, I’d think it’s wayyyyy too ad heavy and I don’t know who the expert is, so I’d leave.

What I read in your initial email is that you want to make this online career thing work, you’re definitely learning the ropes with those sites, but the overall strategy isn’t right.

You’re not being a leader anywhere – you’re just putting up the exact type of sites Google’s trying to bury right now with their algorithm changes.

You say you’ve paid your dues. You have. And what I’m about to say isn’t going to feel right – not yet. Not until you keep failing and finally either quit or feel like you’ve got nothing else left to try. Ready?

Scrap all the advice you’ve been given

All the SEO crap. All the article marketing. All the spinning and scraping or keyword crap. Scrap it.

That link I gave you to tune in for a day? I realllllllllllllllllllllly want you to try that. Just ONE day. I beg you. But I do NOT want you to have your “SEO,” “Keyword,” “Adsense” hat on, please.

Adsense is like a little side gravy or something. I make like $186 a month on Adsense – it’s just something to trickle in.

The MOST impressive site to me you had is the one that looks LEAST professional. It’s the (site removed) site. Why does this appeal to me? Well, the home page anyway – It’s YOU! There’s a person behind it – and he has a SLANT (slant removed because it tells who this is)!

How many people I’ve seen who stumble through (this process), and here you are willing to share your ups and downs with it!

But there are mistakes here, too.

1. It’s riddled with ads. There’s adsense flying in my face. There are ads above, to the side and below everything.
2. The rest of your site has ZERO personality. Only that first blog post on the home page (which has a broken image fyi).
3. You’re blogging about stuff as IF you’re an expert but you’re not teaching what you KNOW.

On #3, take this page for instance: (link removed)

1. Ads to the right. Ads in the middle. Ads below. All ads.
2. ZERO personality in there. It’s a cold, personality-less article.
3. You have no traffic (by the way many people look a site up on Alexa and if they see you have none but are teaching it, it looks bad).

A better way to do it:

1. Clean up those ads. Maybe 1 adsense in the sidebar. Off to the side. Not interrupting the article.
2. Only 1 G+ prodding, please. Some of your articles had them all throughout. There are ones that scroll with the reader if you want that.
3. Don’t tell me about traffic like this if you have no traffic yourself. Instead, write a blog post about a Traffic Test you’re going to do. Then blog about that traffic test. Blog about how you researched a keyword and why you chose one and where you put the article and how you wrote the article and how the tracking is going for it, etc.

It’s that real personality that builds an audience – that’s ALL you’re missing – personality and originality. Forget about “article writing.” Just be YOU! Like that home page. That will endear people to you and help people build trust in you. Blog about your setbacks. I did! I blogged when I felt like an idiot, when I had a breakthrough, etc.

Let me tell you something too niche wise. You’re in your 60s and retired. Yet you have set up some GREAT looking blogs! Do you KNOW how many 50+ people email me who are PETRIFIED of setting up a blog, getting a domain, hosting, etc? You could LEAD that niche. Take them by the hand, make step by step videos. Put together a course, etc.

Get a picture of you up on that website. The money will come naturally. Don’t force it. Instead, make a good tutorial on how to set up your hosting account and tell why you use Hostgator and screen capture it (Camstudio is free) and put it up there and make a PDF download with step by step screen shots and put your affiliate link in there.

Give the course away FREE to build a list. And watch that affiliate commission come in. I got a $2,000 hostgator paycheck one month just because I mentioned hostgator with my link and showed people how to set their PLR packs up with it.

I hope this helps. I know it’s sickening to realize you’ve been trying so hard and doing it all wrong – especially when you PAID for the information. But that’s why this industry is so seedy. They want your cash – they made money on you. Then they can email you with a “stop the presses” email and tell you about Google’s latest algorithm and why you now need their NEW product.

You have GREAT potential, (name withheld). I can feel it.

((hugs))
tiff

Tiff again – that was the end of the reply I sent to him. I feel so heartbroken for him. I hear this DAILY and not just once – several times a day. Many of you reading it will remember the similar emails you sent me. MOST people don’t even get as far as (name withheld). They buy, they read, they get stuck.

He even implements and MAN he implements GOOD and still can’t see success. I emphasize personality and sharing because that’s what works for me here. You read this blog – you see my comments – you KNOW I have a damn good relationship with my people. Why? I’m ME – inject some personality into your blog and quit worrying about SEO or keywords or commissions.

Blog about what you’re truly using and sure, use an affiliate link – and commissions come naturally.

I want to do two things when I see emails like this. Literally hug the person, because I know it is horrible to hear such news. And strangle the idiots who sold and taught this crappy strategy.

Tiff

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