Introductions Thread

There's really only this forum left unless for real information you want to pay for something like Income School or Authority Hackers.
 
@Ryuzaki it's spooky, like leaving Detroit in her heyday then coming back.

@Darth yeah I never liked that guy, he always seemed sleazy.

@bernard interesting you mention Authority Hackers I was thinking of picking up either that course or The Lab if there's a black Friday deal.
 
EraticConquer said:
@bernard interesting you mention Authority Hackers I was thinking of picking up either that course or The Lab if there's a black Friday deal.
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Have you checked out the forum's Digital Strategy Crash Course yet? TBH I would start from there, and then search the forum or ask questions when you need specifics (e.g. keyword volumes accuracy, content templates, automation etc.).

Personally, the best thing I learned from Authority Hacker is how to mass "spam" outreach emails - emailing hundreds of people asking for links on autopilot. They market it as "shotgun skyscraper" and I don't know if it's part of the newbie course or not. But again, this kind of mass mail merge outreach is something that you can ask questions about on the forum here, and I'm sure you'll get all the info you need.

DO listen to authority hacker's podcast though, they've got some great episodes there. Finally, here's a Reddit post by an experienced marketer/SEO pointing out some negatives of AH's system that I think is worth reading (they also talk about Affiliate Lab in the comments).
 
AH's podcast is incredibly helpful. The guys appear to know what they're talking about more than most "guru" types I've come across, and while they obviously push their courses, they provide tons of useful information and insight.

I agree completely with Poplanu. Don't bother with their course, just stick with the DSCC here to get reoriented. However, AH's link building techniques should certainly be part of your arsenal, because they are quite efficient.

The "Shotgun Skyscraper" technique is the most interesting idea that AH presents and promotes. They sell some courses on it, but there's really no need to pay. Just listen to their podcasts and read their articles on it, and you'll get enough of the idea that you can implement it yourself. Once you start playing with it, you can tweak it as needed.

They suggest you not pay for links at all, but I don't think that's great advice. I get their position, but in my experience, about 75% of respondents ask for payment. And while you may be able to get around the fee by proposing a guest post, that also means you need to monitor and follow up with each site to ensure that they've published the post, that the links are correct, etc.

It's usually easier to pay a small fee and just get the link inserted.

Bottom line: read the DSCC and listen to AH podcast. Don't pay for courses, put your money into content and link building instead.
 
Noisegen said:
It's usually easier to pay a small fee and just get the link inserted.
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It's much easier, but also against Google's rules and in my experience, once sites begin charging for guest posts, it doesn't take long before they're defacto PBNs, unless they charge a large fee.
 
bernard said:
It's much easier, but also against Google's rules and in my experience, once sites begin charging for guest posts, it doesn't take long before they're defacto PBNs, unless they charge a large fee.
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You're right, it is technically against Google's rules, but the act of building links at all is technically against their rules. Google says guest posts should be nofollowed. And Shotgun Skyscraper links, even unpaid, probably should be nofollowed as well under the same logic.

Obviously you don't want to just take any link from any site that messages back. But I'm not certain how one could really distinguish between an unpaid link and a paid link on a decent site.
 
Poplanu said:
Have you checked out the forum's Digital Strategy Crash Course yet? TBH I would start from there, and then search the forum or ask questions when you need specifics (e.g. keyword volumes accuracy, content templates, automation etc.).

Personally, the best thing I learned from Authority Hacker is how to mass "spam" outreach emails - emailing hundreds of people asking for links on autopilot. They market it as "shotgun skyscraper" and I don't know if it's part of the newbie course or not. But again, this kind of mass mail merge outreach is something that you can ask questions about on the forum here, and I'm sure you'll get all the info you need.

DO listen to authority hacker's podcast though, they've got some great episodes there. Finally, here's a Reddit post by an experienced marketer/SEO pointing out some negatives of AH's system that I think is worth reading (they also talk about Affiliate Lab in the comments).
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FYI - the Reddit post is really not too nuanced, there are quite a few inaccuracies in it as well.
 
Welcome to the forum. A friend of mine has AHPro and I've had a look around the blueprints. What I'd say is that if you have some experience in SEO/Wordpress/link building then you'll probably not get much more out of it that you would by reading the crash course. It's essentially build money content, build info content to support it and then build links to the info content. Pretty much everything you'll learn through their blog (especially the posts by Perrin).

I was tempted by it but decieded to invest the money into my site and figure it all out as I go. Regardless of the course, unless you use an aged domain you're still spending time in the sandbox and building up trust so you might as well drop the course money on a domain and some links.

Also don't make my early mistake - build out structure and then focus on everything but SEO - Pinterest is killing it for me at the moment.
 
Kevin said:
FYI - the Reddit post is really not too nuanced, there are quite a few inaccuracies in it as well.
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The poster usually knows what he's talking about in online business / SEO / marketing, which is why I'm following him. But admittedly, he's got a rather negative attitude towards online marketing courses.

If you have a few minutes, maybe you could write up a quick reply to him on Reddit and point out the inaccuracies? Or some aspects that he's missing in his post? It would be interesting to hear your thoughts on this.
 
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Taking action is the first step. I think we all start out trying/buying every course out there. Eventually you learn what's worth your time and what actually works. But the key is at some point stop trying to learn everything and actually implement/test what you've learned. Experience and testing can be just as valuable as buying another course to learn even more. Congrats on making a plan and starting to take action. Good luck!
 
I'm turning 60...ready for my next life challenge.

I've been a business owner for quite a while. Never liked (or did well) working for someone else. I'm an entrepreneur at heart for sure.

I love starting businesses and watching them grow. So I'm ready for my next life challenge.

I've been a blogger for a while, but I never monetized my sites, other than selling my services. Since I love to build things, my next goal is to build niche/authority sites (that eventually I create my own products for).

I started watching Miles Beckler on Youtube a few months ago; he listed this forum (site) as one of his favorites for learning to build a solid foundation. So here I am.

Excited about this next chapter. And ready to go.

jdn1959
 
Hey welcome to the forum! You'll find a lot of very helpful people here taking time out of their days to offer guidance and advice, and not a lot of beating around the bush.

Are you planning to create physical products or digital ones once your sites are established?

I'm interested in following along, have you considered starting a journal on the forum here? The case studies/journal section is great.

Also, take a peek at the Digital Strategy Crash Course, it's a great place to start.
 
Welcome mate.

Do you have any ideas on what interests you in terms of niche?
 
You just turned 60? That's awesome, congratulations! Gives me hope that I won't lose interest in what I'm doing and to keep that energy going. I'm looking forward to see your progress, if you decide to share it here. Good luck my friend!
 
Well known about this forum for years but hadn't bothered to sign up and thought hell why not.

I'm a freelance programmer by trade primarily working in Go these days. I'm an Englishman living in Cambodia. Here for the sun and more importantly the sheer lack of any data protection laws or for that matter computer security laws. A refugee of GDPR so to speak.
Cambodia is great Cambodians are on the whole lovely. It's safer than London and there's an awesome young entrepreneural expat community here.

Setting up a business here by all accounts is a fucking nightmare but when you can hire senior local programmers for $350 -$500 a month the pain is worth it.

Working on a ton of personal projects at the mo but the one I'm most excited about is writing a digital management platform to dominate the US real estate market.
 
Poplanu said:
The poster usually knows what he's talking about in online business / SEO / marketing, which is why I'm following him. But admittedly, he's got a rather negative attitude towards online marketing courses.

If you have a few minutes, maybe you could write up a quick reply to him on Reddit and point out the inaccuracies? Or some aspects that he's missing in his post? It would be interesting to hear your thoughts on this.
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Rather not, it's not really a good use of time to try to educate someone who doesn't want to be :smile:
 
mackem said:
Welcome to the forum. A friend of mine has AHPro and I've had a look around the blueprints. What I'd say is that if you have some experience in SEO/Wordpress/link building then you'll probably not get much more out of it that you would by reading the crash course. It's essentially build money content, build info content to support it and then build links to the info content. Pretty much everything you'll learn through their blog (especially the posts by Perrin).

I was tempted by it but decieded to invest the money into my site and figure it all out as I go. Regardless of the course, unless you use an aged domain you're still spending time in the sandbox and building up trust so you might as well drop the course money on a domain and some links.

Also don't make my early mistake - build out structure and then focus on everything but SEO - Pinterest is killing it for me at the moment.
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I remember reading some posts from you a while ago when you were first starting out with Pinterest and it was slowly starting to generate a bit of traffic. What have you noticed that's amplified the Pinterest traffic influx the most?
 
Thanks for the best wishes. I'm just getting into groups now. One of these days, I will actually start marketing something and it may even be fun. So, I do think that you're on to something.
 
@Supermulti I'm like 85% Pinterest traffic at the moment and haven't really bothered with SEO yet. While obviously I can't prove anything I don't think I'd be at this income level if I'd just focused on SEO.

Anyway I've hijacked this thread enough so I'll post a more detailed update on my own thread later today.
 
I stumbled on this forum while reading an SEO blog recently, not sure how I've missed this gem til now. Glad to have found it.

I'm into affiliate marketing mostly, been at it on the side for a couple of years now. Currently trying to scale my sites up, and eventually flip and do it again with another batch. Currently have my amazon sites at a point where I could flip them for a decent 5 figure sum, which I think I might do soonish as the lump sum cash could really help me scale a new site more quickly.
 
Welcome, @Thomas96, glad you're joining us.

You say "sites" in the plural. Do you have one that's earning the bulk of the profit? If that's the case you could sell that one only, and then reinvest in the others if and only if they're showing potential. If not then I'd get rid of them too and try to only focus on ones that are showing promise.
 
Ryuzaki said:
Welcome, @Thomas96, glad you're joining us.

You say "sites" in the plural. Do you have one that's earning the bulk of the profit? If that's the case you could sell that one only, and then reinvest in the others if and only if they're showing potential. If not then I'd get rid of them too and try to only focus on ones that are showing promise.
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One is earning the bulk, and the other two are coming along slowly. Still a little new (~ 1 year) for google to show too much love it seems. Whether I ditch them or reinvest I'm not sure yet. I think my plan will be to invest most of the money from the sale into an auction domain. With an auction domain hopefully I can get the ball rolling more quickly right from the start. ALso the rest of the money I would use to try and find a good content writer. I want to make a massive authority site publishing shitloads of content regularly, and without a lump sum of cash or solid cash flow I've found content to be a limiting factor
 
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