Article Marketing and Xfactor method are not compatible!

[archkre]

If you are working with the method proposed by Mr John aka Xfactor forget about article directories, specially EZA,Goarticle and the 20 most important ones.

There are hundreds of 'people' browsing the last submission willing to snipe or steal your hard work.

The moment your submission is approved in EZA, it is very simple to look for the typical 3 word KW in your Bio boxes, take down your KW's and even improve all your stuff with more refined KW searches, elaborated themes, etc.

Once one of your sites is discovered, all the rest of your sites are discovered as well and you are finished.

Bye Bye EZA, GoArticles and the like!!

[djleon1]

Not sure if I agree. The Xfactor sites can be found doing basic keyword research - no need to scour ezines. And if you find a site what then - it is like any other site if it is in the top 10 of google. Just because it is a Xfactor site does not make it different from any othe competitor.

What is your concern with people finding your backlinks?

Regardless - niches are pretty easy to find and if someone want to compete with me (and the domain is available to them) then so be it.

[archkre]

Do what you want, but I am out of article submissions: I am not going to work hard to benefit pirats!
I am done with EZA, GA, etc

[Tina Golden]

Pirates come along and swipe content directly off your site so does it really matter?

Tina

[dreamer111]

we can not stop our work with kind of attitude, it is for sure to get the result of labor you put in..

[SladeK]

I have found countless x factor sites while doing my keyword research. It is easy to find an entire network of sites simply by analyzing back links.
I have even found links to x-factor sites in signatures here on WF.

Chill out, more times than not it is more difficult to put forth the effort in taking a piece of work and trying to personalize it than simply just writing fresh content.

[Kay King]

You've also seen a lot of those sites and not realized it - you see only the ones who followed the method exactly without adding their own spin to it.

It happens every time a good "how to" for an existing income method is published - some will follow the step by step with no attempt to personalize it for their own business. Then they will complain and look for something else to "try".

Others will take the advice and customize it - and do well. Their sites won't like like all the rest.

kay

[XFactor]

Originally Posted by archkre

If you are working with the method proposed by Mr John aka Xfactor forget about article directories, specially EZA,Goarticle and the 20 most important ones.

There are hundreds of 'people' browsing the last submission willing to snipe or steal your hard work.

The moment your submission is approved in EZA, it is very simple to look for the typical 3 word KW in your Bio boxes, take down your KW's and even improve all your stuff with more refined KW searches, elaborated themes, etc.

Once one of your sites is discovered, all the rest of your sites are discovered as well and you are finished.

Bye Bye EZA, GoArticles and the like!!

Interesting perspective, but no problems here with my sites at all.

Personally, even if someone found ALL of my websites, they would never be able to put the work needed into the backlinks and rankings I have with thousands of pages online.

Also, there are dozens, if not hundreds of directories out there to work with for quality backlinks from articles.

- John

[butters]

Originally Posted by alwiser

Hollywood should stop making movies too because people from south east asia bootleg them anyways. John travolta will lose his mansion.

How stupid is that reply... seriously, lets just for a moment compare the difference between a holy wood film and a 5 bucks a day niche site... 5 bucks a day with competition, that means, a lot less so maybe 2 bucks a day. Hollywood film, still made millions even with bootlegs and can make further money if they was to chase down people who pirated there films. Most of the films make a lot of their money in the first week at the cinema and probably first week of dvd release.

[butters]

Originally Posted by XFactor

Interesting perspective, but no problems here with my sites at all.

Personally, even if someone found ALL of my websites, they would never be able to put the work needed into the backlinks and rankings I have with thousands of pages online.

Also, there are dozens, if not hundreds of directories out there to work with for quality backlinks from articles.

- John

You invented the system, you know what your doing, your not the average person who is doing these sites. There are plenty of new people which could easily loose a niche just because they are new. I am yet to get your system but I look forward to it been alot of hype about it.

[XFactor]

Originally Posted by butters

You invented the system, you know what your doing, your not the average person who is doing these sites. There are plenty of new people which could easily loose a niche just because they are new. I am yet to get your system but I look forward to it been alot of hype about it.

Thanks for the credit, but this system was been in place long before I wrote my book.

It's basic article marketing and SEO 101.

I'm not trying to say that you have nothing to worry about, but if you do take my advice and build quality sites with plenty of unique content, all the while adding quality backlinks - then you'll will not have to worry about competition over the long-term.

- John

[sitefurnace]

Originally Posted by butters

How stupid is that reply... seriously, lets just for a moment compare the difference between a holy wood film and a 5 bucks a day niche site... 5 bucks a day with competition, that means, a lot less so maybe 2 bucks a day. Hollywood film, still made millions even with bootlegs and can make further money if they was to chase down people who pirated there films. Most of the films make a lot of their money in the first week at the cinema and probably first week of dvd release.

Do you not understand the SARCASAM in his statement. I think you are the who has made the stupid answer my friend! I think we should see if john travolta can tell us if he's worried about being homeless and see if we need to worry about our niche sites too.

[archkre]

Originally Posted by TMG Enterprises

Pirates come along and swipe content directly off your site so does it really matter?

Tina

Ok, But I am not going to serve them my hard work on a silver platter anymore!

[archkre]

Originally Posted by XFactor

Thanks for the credit, but this system was been in place long before I wrote my book.

It's basic article marketing and SEO 101.

I'm not trying to say that you have nothing to worry about, but if you do take my advice and build quality sites with plenty of unique content, all the while adding quality backlinks - then you'll will not have to worry about competition over the long-term.

- John

Please John, let's cut the crap about "plenty of unique content"!

There is not such thing for this kinds of sites: What kind of unique content are you going to write about "Parker 3/4" screws" or similar?

[Boris_yo]

Originally Posted by alwiser

John it seems that OP has a beef with you, I saw his post talking about the same dum thing in one of the other threads as well.

LOL, an old enemy perhaps?

What is OP?

[sitefurnace]

Opening poster

[djleon1]

You have not answered my question in comment #2 - which is what is your concern with people seeing your links in your articles? Did you have a bad experience or what? You have to build up links somewhere.

You can find these "Xfactor" type sites with almost no effort so why single out article marketing? Again - I have come across dozens of these sites and if I can compete with them or not depending on how I judge the competition.

You seem to think the method is full of crap yet there are many members here who have had success. Again you do not specify your reasons for discontent.

You seem angry about it but it would be nice if you could clarify why.

[hamburglar]

Here is my quick thoughts.

Competition exist no matter where you go. I have 35 total sites. Now other xfactor sites have popped up against mine.

The question is what do you DO when there is competition?

I changed my design, layout and content structure. I have a CTR of 50%. If I had not seen the competitors I would still be with John's theme with merely 15-20% ctr. I get more clicks coming from Ezine than anything. I guess the people who scope my niche are nice .

Competition is everywhere, no matter where you go. You can run to space and they will find you. The important thing is How will you BEAT your competitors?

I personally feel hiding from them isn't a good solution.

G'luck.

[sitefurnace]

hamburgular when you say I get more clicks coming from Ezine than anything do you mean that is where most of your traffic comes from or do you mean that your ezine traffic clicks the most? - are you writing articles relevant to your niche or just any old thing aa xfactor advises?

Thanks

[gtrplyr]

Originally Posted by archkre

Please John, let's cut the crap about "plenty of unique content"!

There is not such thing for this kinds of sites: What kind of unique content are you going to write about "Parker 3/4" screws" or similar?

Have you read the XFactor book?

If you can't pull unique content out of your ass, you're in the wrong business.

[archkre]

Originally Posted by gtrplyr

Have you read the XFactor book?

If you can't pull unique content out of your ass, you're in the wrong business.

No offense, but the above answer is quite silly!

[Biggy Fat]

Originally Posted by archkre

No offense, but the above answer is quite silly!

No offense, but your reply to that answer is just downright stupid.

Get out of the business and find another model. Obviously this isn't the one for you.

[DireStraits]

Originally Posted by archkre

No offense, but the above answer is quite silly!

If I'm honest it actually sounds like you're not looking for answers at all, but are merely trying to find ways of knocking and discrediting the "system".

The fact of the matter is, it works for XFactor and plenty of other people who follow his strategy and indeed who follow their own strategies.

Everything you do on the 'net in terms of building backlinks is traceable if you're determined to track someone.

Most people won't bother, and even if they did, they won't put in the time to outrank you if you're working hard enough on your business.

If you're concerned that someone can find your website and within hours or days have infiltrated your niches and outranked you - rendering your efforts wasted - then you're probably a lazy person who is doing the absolute bare minimum just to see some money roll in and doesn't keep on building on and pushing ones business forward.

If you don't like the strategy, use another one. But rest assured my friend, anyone who is determined enough to track and steal your niches will track and steal your niches. You can run and hide in fear of it and never make any money, or you can stand up with a strong will and determination and just get on with it.

Those who do will succeed, those who don't will not. Simple.

[carlos123]

Originally Posted by djleon1

...niches are pretty easy to find and if someone want to compete with me (and the domain is available to them) then so be it.

I completely disagree that niches are easy to find. Oh yeah...if you are using a software program to tell you what is good or what is not...yeah...I suppose you could say they are easy to find but such "ease" comes at a price. Namely every other internet marketer and their next door neighbor is using the same program, finding the same niches, and building a wee bit of Adsense to capture it.

I am talking about finding niches out of the beaten path using the KeyWord Tool by itself. It's not that easy. It takes a lot of time and going through a lot of keywords to find a really good niche.

The advantage to this approach is that once you find a good niche there's hardly any Adsense in site.

But it takes work. It's by no means easy.

Carlos

[carlos123]

Originally Posted by DireStraits

But rest assured my friend, anyone who is determined enough to track and steal your niches will track and steal your niches. You can run and hide in fear of it and never make any money, or you can stand up with a strong will and determination and just get on with it.

Alrighty then...let's all show some courage, not let concern about competition or stolen content stifle us or prevent us from doing what we must, and...well...reveal our top 5 Adsense site url's right here and right now to everyone reading this thread.

I mean we are all determined individuals here right? Since that is the case we can all track each other anyway so what difference will it make?

Come on now. I am all ears? Anybody?

Hmm...the silence is deafening.

Carlos

[DireStraits]

Originally Posted by carlos123

Alrighty then...let's all show some courage, not let concern about competition or stolen content stifle us or prevent us from doing what we must, and...well...reveal our top 5 Adsense site url's right here and right now to everyone reading this thread.

I mean we are all determined individuals here right? Since that is the case we can all track each other anyway so what difference will it make?

Come on now. I am all ears? Anybody?

Hmm...the silence is deafening.

Carlos

Of course we're not going to reveal our Adsense websites and/or niches here (or anywhere else) because that'd make it even easier and frankly would be a recipe for disaster what with click bombs and such.

You should be concerned if someone has it in for you and is determined to track down all your sites and cause havoc for you, but that is unlikely to happen. Just do the obvious things to keep your sites as safe and as separate as possible from other people (don't link them together, use an anonymous whois, use different author pen names for each site when submitting articles), etc.

If somenoe really wants to track down other peoples sites for the sake of stealing their niches or causing them havoc, they will usually find a way.

My point is merely that time is limited in life. More specificially in this case, you can either spend all your time making no progress with building your websites and increasing your income, and instead simply spend it worrying that things might "go to pot" and mess up... or you can just get on and do it whilst taking some basic precautions.

[John Hixson]

What evidence does the OP have that this is the case? Seems we are making a lot of assumptions about the original statement being correct but I have been using EZA and GA and not seen a problem - no more 'start up' niche sites then there were before... where my rankings have changed have been either upwards or from an existing site moving up a touch.

I see this as a lot of fear but no real proof right now.

[Ghalt]

It's the internet. People copy.

Fear of being copied will paralyze ANY internet marketing you would do, IMO.

Any body doing affiliate marketing will find other sites that are referring to the affiliate product...and could imitate or downright copy the work.

When I first got started in IM, I had an idea for my own product. I did what I could to protect it from being copied, which, frankly, isn't all that much...if someone really wants to take your work, they can. But I went ahead and made a bunch of money with it.

The difference was taking action vs. inaction due to fear about the downside. That, I believe, is the biggest difference between successful IMers and the ones who are still slogging away.

My guess is that MOST people who are doing the XFactor method will PASS on a niche with another XFactor member in it. Sure, there will be some that steal, but if they're that lazy, my guess is they don't have the stick-to-it-iveness to be successful, and I don't really feel they are a threat.

When I find another XFactor member for a particular keyword, I move on, because I figure that person is going to be doing ongoing work to build the rankings, backlinks, etc., so why should I spin my wheels going against another person, especially when they have a head start.

Like I said...if someone really wants to copy your work, they can do it in any IM venture, not just the niche/adsense sites.

FWIW.

[carlos123]

Originally Posted by DireStraits

Of course we're not going to reveal our Adsense websites and/or niches here (or anywhere else) because that'd make it even easier and frankly would be a recipe for disaster what with click bombs and such.

Thanks for clarifying what you meant DireStraits. All valid points and now that I understand what you are saying better it makes a lot more sense. Use caution...yes, but don't let it paralyze you.

Still...my point is that putting articles up at ezine is contradictory to "we're not going to reveal our Adsense and/or niches here (or anywhere else)".

You most certainly ARE revealing your Adsense sites and your niches by posting articles at ezine pointing to those very sites.

I just went on ezine this morning and found some sites to a well known respected author who is trying to sell a killer conversion WordPress theme for Adsense. Guess what?

His putting up articles on ezine makes that theme available for my leisurely viewing and scraping (if I was inclined to operate that way which I am NOT) without paying a penny to him.

It's interesting for me to note that he has not put up any additional ezine articles in quite some time. I wonder why not?

If I figure out someone's ezine author name I can most certainly subscribe to their article feed there and get wind (almost immediate) notification of their new Adsense sites, their niches, what have you. All courtesy of ezine!

Though I don't scrape or steal content I will certainly be looking at ezine article authors and what they write about and their Adsense sites to help me uncover valuable keyword niches that I have overlooked.

Me?

I will not be posting my articles at ezine anymore. I will be setting up my own article submission mini-site to showcase my own articles and those of another Adsense publisher that I know.

Sure it won't have the rank of ezine but...so what? I am after backlinks. Relevent backlinks. As a result of being able to now place text links within the body of my articles (not relegated to a resource box) I will be able to outrank ezine articles with respect to quality relevent anchor text a la natural inside the body of my articles.

And I can stipulate on my own site that no Adsense publisher can use my content (thus, legally at least prevent others from stealing my articles, bringing to bear excellent off page SEO, and outranking me with my own content!).

Sure...content will get stolen anyway. But under ezine's liberal syndication terms I have little legal recourse to prevent other Adsense publishers using my own content against me. Under my terms I can legally demand that Adsense publishers take down my content, threaten DCMA Google take down notices, even report their Adsense account to Google. I have legal muscle by posting articles on my own site for syndication under my syndication rules.

Like I said I wont' be using ezine anymore. I am thankful I saw the downside to ezine publishing before I got too far into article submission there.

Incidentally I am not talking hypotheticals here. An Adsense publisher (perhaps a member of this forum even) did indeed take an article I wrote and did indeed stick it into a site around the same keywords I was targeting. I am not an entire newbie at SEO so their site is nowhere to be found within the top 300 positions at Google (mine is at 26 and improving as I work on it's ranking more) which is comforting but anyone who applies more effort and/or is better at SEO than I am can outrank me with my very own content (newbie Adsense and SEO wannabe's who are great writers...beware). All fed to them nicely on a silver platter through ezine. Quite ridiculous.

Carlos

[carlos123]

Originally Posted by Ghalt

...I did what I could to protect it from being copied, which, frankly, isn't all that much...

Not true! For starters you can send Google a DCMA take down notice which they are legally obligated to respond to. They don't like it at all but they have no choice. If you send in a DCMA take down notice regarding violations of your copyright and if the offending party does not respond with a counter notice Google MUST take down the URL of the thief who is stealing your copyrighted content.

That's just for starters.

If the copier and thief is an Adsense publisher you can look for violations of Google's Adsense terms on their web site and then click through the "Ads by Google" link to report them.

Any Adsense content thieves want to put their entire Adsense account in jeapordy? LOL.

There are also things you can do with respect to reporting them as SPAMMERS. Depending on your definition of SPAM you can rightly report them as such to their ISP's, their web host, ezine itself (if they are an author there), you name it.

For better of for worse many such internet entities are super paranoid about SPAM. Under certain cases they can even be sued for allowing it. Many will close down sites that receive 3 or more spam complaints whatever the merits of the complaint.

You can make the life of a content thief a living hell (as the proverbial saying goes though the real hell is much, much worse).

Trust me...there's lots that you can do.

The hardest thing is not letting it tie up a bunch of time or otherwise distracting you from the goal of making a living through Adsense. You have to make sure you keep plugging away while at the same time policing the use of your content some.

Google is great for find your stolen content. Just search on phrases that are unique in your content once in a while. If it's being stolen...Google will find it.

My guess is that MOST people who are doing the XFactor method will PASS on a niche with another XFactor member in it. Sure, there will be some that steal, but if they're that lazy, my guess is they don't have the stick-to-it-iveness to be successful, and I don't really feel they are a threat.

As you said...that's just a guess. You are not taking into account the stick-to-itness of someone in a place like the Philippines who speaks excellent English and is desperate to make money to feed their family. Many persons in that predicament WILL stick to it. Even if they have to steal content continually.

I am not knocking their attempts to feed their family. That's commendable. What I most certainly am knocking is the way so many will do whatever they can throwing all sense of right and wrong out the window to chase after the almighty dollar.

A thief is a thief no matter what the reason.

Carlos

[Radix]

Crazy stuff in this thread.

1-anyone can steal your content at anytime and there's nothing you can do about it.
2-you would be amazed at the amount of unique content you can create about the most idiotic crap ever.
3-Protect your investment and buy the .com, .net or .org when possible.
4-Make your sites better than theirs as most slugs will never retouch a site
5-Don't worry about what other people are doing

[SandRat]

archkre, have you read Xfactor's material (thread or eBook)? Perhaps you missed the part about NOT writing articles in your micro-niche (i.e. "Parker 3/4" screws") but instead writing articles for article directory categories that others will pickup and publish on their sites. You'd go brain dead writing about such drivel as screws.

I've used article marketing in many different areas including for full-blown eCommerce stores. There will always be some thief that will take your content and change links, remove resource boxes, etc. But in the long run these don't account for squat and don't hinder your efforts to gain links to your sites. They are the minority.

Just food for thought.

[carlos123]

Originally Posted by SandRat

Perhaps you missed the part about NOT writing articles in your micro-niche (i.e. "Parker 3/4" screws") but instead writing articles for article directory categories that others will pickup and publish on their sites.

Hmm...interesting. I can see where writing articles for ezine MIGHT be worthwhile if one is writing in categories that have little of anything to do directly with the keyword focus of one's Adsense sites being pointed to. At least from the standpoint that it won't really matter if someone steals such articles since the possibility of using your content to compete against you in keyword phrases you aren't even targeting is remote.

I'll have to think about that some.

Thanks for pointing that out.

Carlos

[euhlir]

I think this whole argument has become long winded. To fix the issue just make seperate author names in your ezine profile and publish only a certain amount of articles to each author name.

Even if someone found my sites I could care less because there usually aren't any other EMD's available anyways. I also know how to SEO my sites correctly and could easily beat out another one even if they tried to compete with me. My sites aren't secret. If someone is researching niches then they probably will and have come across some of my sites. Clickbombing can easily be recognized by Google, and I have yet to see one person ever claim they lost an account due to clickbombing.

Either live in fear of action, or leave me more niches I can have and make money from.

[carlos123]

Originally Posted by euhlir

I think this whole argument has become long winded.

Perhaps but...regarding the statements you made below they are...well...a bit hard to swallow euhlier. Nothing personal.

Even if someone found my sites I could care less...

Please do tell in line with your statement. I would love to see some of your Adsense url's. I mean if you really don't care.

I also know how to SEO my sites correctly and could easily beat out another one...

Really? That's pretty impressive that you can easily beat out other sites as if it's no big deal. Most people I know have to work pretty hard at it not to mention that the more competition they have the harder it is to rank at the top or maintain a top rank.

I'd love to know your "secret" for -easily- beating the competition. Not even the SEO guru's I routinely read make it seem as easy as you make it out to be.

Clickbombing can easily be recognized by Google, and I have yet to see one person ever claim they lost an account due to clickbombing.

Gosh I never knew that we could just leave it in Google's good graces to keep track of any clickbomb attempts to destroy our Adsense accounts. Nice to know.

I guess people whose threads I have read where they talk about having had their Adsense accounts canceled by a clickbomb attack where they had to work hard to get back under Google's good graces were...well...making stuff up then?

I mean I just read of one around here somewhere where his daughter was trying to help him by clicking repeatedly on his ads and where his Adsense account was canceled as a result. Hmm...some people get pretty creative I guess in making this stuff up. I mean if we can all trust Google to know when we are being clickbombed or not.

Nice to know you don't care about people finding your Adsense sites out, that you can easily beat your competition, and that we can all sleep better knowing that Google is watching our backs with diligence. Must be nice.

I mean if that is all a reflection of what is really the case in the Adsense world.

Carlos

[euhlir]

Please do tell in line with your statement. I would love to see some of your Adsense url's. I mean if you really don't care.

First of all take a breather because you sound really angry for some reason. Obviously I'm not going to share my URL's, but if someone were to somehow track all my sites then it really wouldn't matter just like Xfactor stated above. I don't see you asking him to share his URL's with a cocky attitude.

Really? That's pretty impressive that you can easily beat out other sites as if it's no big deal. Most people I know have to work pretty hard at it not to mention that the more competition they have the harder it is to rank at the top or maintain a top rank.

I'd love to know your "secret" for -easily- beating the competition. Not even the SEO guru's I routinely read make it seem as easy as you make it out to be.

I didn't claim to be an SEO guru. I simply know how to optimize my sites very well and I also do intensive research finding the niches I persue. The micro niches I build sites around have little to no competition. I also do smart backlinking. If you've seen a lot of other Xfactor sites then you'd know that a lot of them aren't optimized as well as they should be or don't have many backlinks. If a competitor got lucky enough to have another EMD, which is almost never available to them I still have the added bonus of time and the backlinks I already have. It's not impossible for them to outrank me, but it's a lot more difficult especially without the EMD.

Clickbombing can easily be recognized by Google, and I have yet to see one person ever claim they lost an account due to clickbombing.

If you go into the adsense help section and report a problem with irregular clicking you'd know that Google states that they are always checking for fraudulent clicks to protect its business and its advertisers.

I mean I just read of one around here somewhere where his daughter was trying to help him by clicking repeatedly on his ads and where his Adsense account was canceled as a result. Hmm...some people get pretty creative I guess in making this stuff up. I mean if we can all trust Google to know when we are being clickbombed or not.

That's a pretty terrible example of clickbombing. The reason he got in trouble was because it was from his own ip address and obviously looked like he was clicking his own ads, which his daughter had been. Even then he got his account reinstated.

I'd love to be wrong though - not really. Show me a post of clickbombing by someone's competition that led to someone being permanently banned.

And once again please take a breather before posting. If you disagree with something then post it, don't make outlandish responses.

[carlos123]

Originally Posted by euhlir

And once again please take a breather before posting. If you disagree with something then post it, don't make outlandish responses.

I will take your advice and take a breather. I did not mean to personally offend you but did feel that a bit of sarcasm was called for in response to what I viewed as outlandish claims on your end.

By the way I am not angry as much as tired of all the B.S. I hear all over the place. About how nice niche keyword phrases lie around like gold on the ground, how it's easy to rank in the top ten in any niche that is worthwhile, how people don't care about their Adsense sites being found out (which is contrary to the secrecy in which they actually operate), how being concerned about competition is overblown worry, how we should just go for it (whatever the -it- is at any particular point in time) and all manner of other similar things.

I apologize if I personally offended you. That was not my intention.

Carlos

[euhlir]

I will take your advice and take a breather. I did not mean to personally offend you but did feel that a bit of sarcasm was called for in response to what I viewed as outlandish claims on your end.

I'll leave it at that.

Carlos

I guess my original post could have been taken like that depending on how you read it. No worries, no offense taken. I hope my responses cleared up any issues you had.

-Eric

[carlos123]

Originally Posted by euhlir

I guess my original post could have been taken like that depending on how you read it. No worries, no offense taken. I hope my responses cleared up any issues you had.

-Eric

Our responses got mixed in transit I think LOL.

I still think it's not as easy as you made it sound but your further explanation did at least make some of your statements seem more plausible. Thanks for the clarification.

I am certainly no expert. Though my Adsense sites continue to climb it's not as much or as fast as I would like. What is frustrating is that changes I make are not picked up by Google for about a week so it's tough to know sometimes which changes did the most good SEO wise.

Carlos

[euhlir]

Our responses got mixed in transit I think LOL.

lol. Hey it happens man.

I still think it's not as easy as you made it sound but your further explanation did at least make some of your statements seem more plausible. Thanks for the clarification.

I am certainly no expert. Though my Adsense sites continue to climb it's not as much or as fast as I would like. What is frustrating is that changes I make are not picked up by Google for about a week so it's tough to know sometimes which changes did the most good SEO wise.

It's definitely not easy, or everyone would be doing it. I think the thing that's helped me the most is taking the time to research the keywords. That way I can pretty much "know" if I'll be able to rank on the first page or not. If I need more backlinks then I outsource that work to trusted WF members and such.

To get your sites to move up fast you really need the high PR backlinks from profiles and such. I don't use Angela or Paul's packets, but I'm sure they could help you out. The article marketing route takes a while if that's all your doing for backlinks. I found after outsourcing 25-50 of those my site will move up significantly in about 7 days. Your site will Google dance for about 3-4 days and then suddenly you'll check one random afternoon and find your site on page 1-2 depending of course on your keywords and competition.

I've also noticed Google seems to be slower lately as well. My sites aren't getting indexed as fast when I'm used to it being 2-3 days it now takes 7-10 days.

[terryd]

I couldn't care less if people found my niche sites through the article directories, I still across that Xfactors template on a daily basis when doing keyword research.

The question is are they willing to work as hard as I do to get the rankings I do......probably not. That's cool if your not using the directories......more clicks for me..

[JamesM]

If you even halfway know what you're doing it's just as easy to find new micro niches rather than stealing others.

On another note it's *very* easy to find out what other sites someone runs on the same server once you've found one - article marketing has absolutely nothing to do with it!

[carlos123]

Originally Posted by JamesM

On another note it's *very* easy to find out what other sites someone runs on the same server once you've found one - article marketing has absolutely nothing to do with it!

Hi James. There are all kinds of statements floating around about what is and is not possible. I am curious as to how you would find all the sites someone runs from off the same server if you don't mind sharing a bit more.

I personally don't know a way to do that unless you hack into the server somehow which is certainly possible but also not easy or legal and certainly not something I would recommend anyone do.

Do you know of any technique that doesn't involve hacking?

Just curious.

Carlos

[Jacob Martus]

Originally Posted by Ghalt

My guess is that MOST people who are doing the XFactor method will PASS on a niche with another XFactor member in it. Sure, there will be some that steal, but if they're that lazy, my guess is they don't have the stick-to-it-iveness to be successful, and I don't really feel they are a threat.

When I find another XFactor member for a particular keyword, I move on, because I figure that person is going to be doing ongoing work to build the rankings, backlinks, etc., so why should I spin my wheels going against another person, especially when they have a head start.

I've been doing quite the contrary actually. If I find a niche with an xfactor site already ranking...that tells me everything I need to know almost. I'll go into the niche too...even if I have to sit below the other xfactor site. A lot of times I can rank right below them...and with a different website template I still get clicks. I think seeing an xfactor site is my call to action. Means that I can compete in the niche.

I make my own original content...just target the same keywords. There is no reason there can't be two adsense type sites for a keyword search. Different content, different ad placement...and both parties can benefit...in my opinion.

My two cents.

[carlos123]

Originally Posted by Jacob Martus

I've been doing quite the contrary actually. If I find a niche with an xfactor site already ranking...that tells me everything I need to know almost. I'll go into the niche too...even if I have to sit below the other xfactor site. A lot of times I can rank right below them...and with a different website template I still get clicks. I think seeing an xfactor site is my call to action. Means that I can compete in the niche.

I make my own original content...just target the same keywords. There is no reason there can't be two adsense type sites for a keyword search. Different content, different ad placement...and both parties can benefit...in my opinion.

My two cents.

That's interesting Jacob. An approach that I think I will start using myself with some modifications of my own. My Adsense sites are not XFactor style in appearance or content. So they will be different but I can certainly still target the same niche.

And the way I figure it I can probably beat most XFactor style newbies at on page SEO tweaks and off page SEO backlink building (most are probably not web developers like me and are simply following John's blueprint without adding their own knowledge and experience to the mix). I mean backlink building the slow, gradual way focusing on getting quality backlinks from all over and not just article directories.

I also use my own custom built CMS system which is much faster and more streamlined than WordPress and generates a static HTML site for me.

What I like about your approach is that in effect you are piggybacking on their keyword research and not having to do as much of it yourself (though I personally will double check against all metrics I use before plunging in to a niche).

Also my sites are geared more toward long term, stable Adsense income which does not involve focusing on specific products that are in demand today and not so much if at all tomorrow type of thing.

All in all knowing how to find XFactor styles sites and following them to niche riches sounds like a pretty good strategy . Definitely worth a try with a site or two to see how it goes.

Just curious...have you found any problems with your approach that you did not foresee? Also do you think there is any risk to your own Adsense account being cancelled if any XFactor type sites you are tailing get knocked out for being too thin or otherwise not up to Google policies? At risk I mean from a human reviewer seeing another Adsense site just below and taking a closer look at yours too.

Carlos

[Jacob Martus]

Originally Posted by carlos123

That's interesting Jacob. An approach that I think I will start using myself with some modifications of my own. My Adsense sites are not XFactor style in appearance or content. So they will be different but I can certainly still target the same niche.

And the way I figure it I can probably beat most XFactor style newbies at on page SEO tweaks and off page SEO backlink building (most are probably not web developers like me and are simply following John's blueprint without adding their own knowledge and experience to the mix). I mean backlink building the slow, gradual way focusing on getting quality backlinks from all over and not just article directories.

I also use my own custom built CMS system which is much faster and more streamlined than WordPress and generates a static HTML site for me.

What I like about your approach is that in effect you are piggybacking on their keyword research and not having to do as much of it yourself (though I personally will double check against all metrics I use before plunging in to a niche).

Also my sites are geared more toward long term, stable Adsense income which does not involve focusing on specific products that are in demand today and not so much if at all tomorrow type of thing.

All in all knowing how to find XFactor styles sites and following them to niche riches sounds like a pretty good strategy . Definitely worth a try with a site or two to see how it goes.

Just curious...have you found any problems with your approach that you did not foresee? Also do you think there is any risk to your own Adsense account being cancelled if any XFactor type sites you are tailing get knocked out for being too thin or otherwise not up to Google policies? At risk I mean from a human reviewer seeing another Adsense site just below and taking a closer look at yours too.

Carlos

I don't focus so much on xfactor style sites as I'd like. I guess they aren't really xfactor type sites. They are unique blog templates that just utilize the practice of having the main keyword as the domain... Besides that and having a few images of the product towards the top of the page...those are the only similarities with my site and an xfactor down to the t website.

I've got about 5 right now...and all of them are doing relatively decent. 1 of them has 4 other xfactor type sites right up there on the front page with me...and I STILL get clicks... at the very bottom of them all. I've spent all of 2 hours in my entire life on it. It's got 2 posts...privacy policy and about page...thats it. Earns me like $2 bucks a day. It's already paid for itself 3 or 4 times over...so it was worth it in my eyes....even if it disappeared right now. I slowly build backlinks to all of my micro niche sites but I don't really pay attention to where they rank. Just sort of playing around with them. One of them has been a big earner at Amazon this past week...making me almost $50 bucks in referral fees...in a niche that I thought was a mistake to get into at first. That is proving the opposite.

I try not to worry about getting my adsense account banned...but as one of my websites has clearly proven...amazon affiliate products are a good fall back. So if that would happen...oh well...but I've seen much worse sites running adsense than mine so I don't worry.

Well. My main focus is on amazon affiliate sites right now because I've got one that is performing pretty well for me at least...and I like how Amazon upsells and pretty much everything about their system. My main goal is to build several authority type amazon affiliate websites because I think they will in the end be much more stable than xfactor style sites. My goal is to have a bunch of big websites...50+ pages with good quality backlinks...and websites that will stay ranked in the long haul.

[carlos123]

Thanks so much for sharing more of your approach with us Jacob. If I may presume on your generosity in sharing to ask a few more questions (feel free to ignore them if you don't want to let out more of what you do)...

Originally Posted by Jacob Martus

I've got about 5 right now...and all of them are doing relatively decent. 1 of them has 4 other xfactor type sites right up there on the front page with me...and I STILL get clicks... at the very bottom of them all. I've spent all of 2 hours in my entire life on it. It's got 2 posts...privacy policy and about page...thats it. Earns me like $2 bucks a day.

Such ease of making Adsense income always...well...what can I say? Encourages me?

I mean I am the complete opposite. I have spent countless hours building my sites and haven't yet made a penny from them in Adsense income (of course a big part of that time was time spent building the CMS system I now use to build all my sites so that is not an entirely accurate statement).

I think the biggest reason is that I went too high in choosing niches which were more competitive than I should have gone with. Only one ranked right away in the top ten and that one turned out to be a total dud.

The rest I have had to improve in ranking a few changes at a time.

I slowly build backlinks to all of my micro niche sites but I don't really pay attention to where they rank.

While I am not glued to the rankings I definitely pay attention to them. It's the only way I can really tell whether my SEO efforts are working or not. I will make a few changes and leave a site alone for a couple of weeks while paying attention to the ranking (and working on other sites in the meantime). If it improves the ranking I keep the change and make more changes.

I know that this is a very slow approach but one of my desires apart from directly making Adsense income is to become an expert SEO so that I can rank highly whatever internet marketing angle I ultimately stick to.

My main goal is to build several authority type amazon affiliate websites because I think they will in the end be much more stable than xfactor style sites. My goal is to have a bunch of big websites...50+ pages with good quality backlinks...and websites that will stay ranked in the long haul.

If I may ask Jacob, what exactly is an Amazon affiliate site? Is it one through which you sell a particular book or product available at Amazon?

How do flesh out such a site to 50 pages?

Do you mean as in that you set up a site about...say...mini-recorders? And then flesh that out to 50 pages of info about mini-recorders? Is that what you do?

Do you find Amazon to be a better affiliate partner than Clickbank and the like? Why or why not?

Again, please feel free to ignore these pointed questions but if you care to share more...I am all ears.

Carlos

[Jacob Martus]

Originally Posted by carlos123

Thanks so much for sharing more of your approach with us Jacob. If I may presume on your generosity in sharing to ask a few more questions (feel free to ignore them if you don't want to let out more of what you do)...



Such ease of making Adsense income always...well...what can I say? Encourages me?

I mean I am the complete opposite. I have spent countless hours building my sites and haven't yet made a penny from them in Adsense income (of course a big part of that time was time spent building the CMS system I now use to build all my sites so that is not an entirely accurate statement).

I think the biggest reason is that I went too high in choosing niches which were more competitive than I should have gone with. Only one ranked right away in the top ten and that one turned out to be a total dud.

The rest I have had to improve in ranking a few changes at a time.



While I am not glued to the rankings I definitely pay attention to them. It's the only way I can really tell whether my SEO efforts are working or not. I will make a few changes and leave a site alone for a couple of weeks while paying attention to the ranking (and working on other sites in the meantime). If it improves the ranking I keep the change and make more changes.

I know that this is a very slow approach but one of my desires apart from directly making Adsense income is to become an expert SEO so that I can rank highly whatever internet marketing angle I ultimately stick to.



If I may ask Jacob, what exactly is an Amazon affiliate site? Is it one through which you sell a particular book or product available at Amazon?

How do flesh out such a site to 50 pages?

Do you mean as in that you set up a site about...say...mini-recorders? And then flesh that out to 50 pages of info about mini-recorders? Is that what you do?

Do you find Amazon to be a better affiliate partner than Clickbank and the like? Why or why not?

Again, please feel free to ignore these pointed questions but if you care to share more...I am all ears.

Carlos

I'll do my best to answer any questions that I can. I am by far nowhere near where I'd like to be but I have a solid plan of action and the right mindset I think.

In reference to my statement about not paying attention to rankings...I should have probably been more specific. What I meant was: In my first 5 gos at an xfactor type site...I've been extremely lucky to have all of my websites land on or above 11th in the rankings with just on page SEO. From this point...I don't pay attention much to whether it goes from 11 to 9 and then back to 11. I just build backlinks and check out webmaster tools once in awhile...because the ranking I see in webmaster tools is usually pretty close to where my page is being displayed to the MAJORITY of people searching for that term. I do find that my rankings differ vastly in different countries...usually better on Google based in different countries. But if I've got a site on page 1 or right about page 1...I don't constantly check it to see if its moved up 2 spots...or whether its moved down. I just check adsense earnings and webmaster tools.

My amazon authority type site idea is a little different than what you described. I pick a semi-general niche...for this example I will use digital cameras. Now, there are probably 30+ different brands of digital cameras and then 100's of different accessories for each of these brands of cameras. So if I make an authority type camera review site...or something along those lines I can review (dressed up sales pitch) each different make and model of camera...and also the accessories that go with them.

A good way to see what I'm talking about is just pick a product from Amazon...any product and run the exact product name through google keyword tool...and 9 times out of 10 the product name will get a decent amount of exact match searches. So if I have a 50 page digital camera review site...there are keywords to target for each specific brand and make of camera.

The hardest part about all of this is going to be building backlinks to hundreds of different pages. That's why I'm trying to do the gradual backlink thing...and hope that time will make the difference. My site will still be around in 2 years and if I've been building 1 backlink per day per page...I'm pretty sure my site will be ranking pretty high up on Google at that point. Because its been around and its been consistently getting more backlinks. At least I hope this is how it will work. I'm working on a very long term plan...I think but one that in the end will pay off the most....for me!

I haven't gotten into info products yet because I think that selling info products is a bit above my skill level and I find it pretty easy to rank for amazon product keywords. I don't get nearly as much commission from sales...but I get substantial sales...and occasionally someone buys $500 worth of stuff from Amazon after buying the 1 product I pitched them. So that $3 or $4 commission turns into $20 or $30.

If you're interested in how I do it...I got my start by following Daniel Brock. He wrote a pretty good thread about growing an Amazon business. Its here. Pretty good blueprint.

If you have anymore questions...just ask man. I wouldn't be anywhere without other peoples help so I definitely try to help as much as I can.

[carlos123]

Hmm...interesting Jacob. While Adsense income is my overall goal it has dawned on me that unless I am willing to keep shelling out more and more money to register domains (and see what sticks to the wall type of thing) that it will take a lot of work to start ranking well for a finite number Adsense sites.

In other words I either keep throwing money away on more and more domains (not an option for me) or I work on improving the ranking of those I have already registered (my focus at this point in time). But the latter way of Adsense success is a long term, peanut pay, way of doing it and I am beginning to think there might be other ways to succeed in internet marketing that do not involve such long turn around times between the effort one puts in and the money. Not to mention that Adsense is somewhat risky in that Google might have a burp and decide to cancel me for some reason.

What you say about Amazon affiliate sites sounds interesting Jacob.

Since you are doing this for the long haul and since your sites appear to be about current and searched for products how will you be able to sustain that approach if the products which are current and with good traffic end up, slowly over time, becoming less popular or outright outdated? Loosing the traffic which you are counting on.

Are you planning on continually having to update your sites to keep them product updated? That's a lot of work it seems to me (I am looking for ways to make an income online that does involve so much of my having to be glued to my computer all the time...not that I mind for now but eventually...it would be nice to have a life so to speak LOL).

Maybe we should start a new thread comparing Adsense with Amazon affiliate sites....don't know.

Carlos

[keyaziz]

Originally Posted by carlos123

Are you planning on continually having to update your sites to keep them product updated?

There are amazing plugins available so this is not such an issue. One example being reviewazon which lets you insert amazon products and refreshes every few hours I believe with the right information/price of the product.