Has The X Factor Craze gone too far?

[culvers]

I like to work on micro niche sites. When researching these niches, I constantly keep finding xfactor clone sites, sometimes 3 or 4 on exactly the same niche. I have started actually reading the sites, and can say that pretty much all of them are complete junk/gibberish/worthless articles. The writer just rambles on about how great it is owning a coffee grinder, and how its nice to drink coffee in the morning. Basically anything to get him 500 words of content.

I can't help but feel these sites are completely worthless, and sooner or later they will be de indexed from the SERPS.

Do you think this time is near? Or will these types of sites always rank well in the near future?

p.s im not saying there is anything wrong with micro niche sites, in fact i am working on them too. My point is that there are so many identical looking sites with complete garbage for articles on them. I mean, surely they could spend an hour or two just making the site a bit more informative, instead of writing random cr*p loosely related to the page title?

[Clyde]

The gibberish ones will probably ruin it for everybody else but content value is really subjective I think as long as it's readable it's good. Something like Google AdWords quality score would probably be in effect soon.

[JaySchmidt]

What are the chances that, in the near future, the mere presence of adsense itself becomes associated -- in the minds of average web users -- with junk websites?

Is it possible that "adsense aversion" goes viral somehow, and even people who are not technologically sophisticated will begin to click the "back" button as soon as they see a big block of adsense above the fold?

All it takes is some pop culture site to start making jokes about adsense...

[Goatboy]

Or, what if in the near future people who enter a site that follows the same familiar pattern will recognize it as useless and simply press the back button rather than clicking an ad? For myself, I am leery about clicking an ad on a page that is mostly gibberish.

[Wayfatwhitey]

Originally Posted by JaySchmidt

What are the chances that, in the near future, the mere presence of adsense itself becomes associated -- in the minds of average web users -- with junk websites?

Exactly. Thats already happening. The first thing you hear when a brick&mortar site is being professionally reviewed is "Why do you have adsense here? It makes you look unprofessional".

Go back just a year or two and big name websites had adsense on them, filling holes in their templates. Now you rarely see it. Yes they still have ads, but not adsense.

Back to the original poster. I think these sites may continue to rack up adsense pennies for a while. But you can just as easy build a micro niche site that also conveys trust to the user which will prompt them to click on a real product link on your site, and follow through and purchase it, and yield you REAL $. So you wont care about your competition's penny income.

[Clyde]

Solution: Make quality websites that provide value and good user experience, provide product reviews, youtube video and wiki sources.

Build websites like school-grants.org

[Gary Becks]

I have to agree with you here. With so many of these little green sites everywhere people have to be wondering what the hell is going on? I make it a point not to use that theme when making adsense sites anymore. I don't think that there is so much a problem with the Xfactor method of site publishing though, just the overuse of the same theme by every single person who makes these kinds of sites.

[Clyde]

What about the default blue WordPress theme? Surely there's hundreds of people using this by now?

[JaySchmidt]

A problem: most so-called "X-Factor" sites aren't.

XFactor says he builds his sites up to a minimum of 30+ pages of good content.

[Kay King]

are complete junk/gibberish/worthless articles

Sure you find those - by people who picked one method and did the least amount of work possible to follow that method.

What you aren't noticing are many sites built along the general lines of that particular method by marketers who don't do junk. Those sites are earning money - but sites just like them were earning money before John told people about his method. Adapting his tested advice to good sites can increase earnings.

MFA sites are MFA sites no matter where you put an image - and they've been around (floundering) for years. It's nothing new and certainly not the first adsense blueprint to be used without adding common sense.

kay

[jtooder]

I wonder what would convert better Adsense wise, Good or Bad content? I'm sure bad content makes a user want to leave and if the options are the back button or an Adsense Ad.

I wonder.
JT

[cucr3]

I think everyone is forgetting how large the Internet is..

The reason we are put off by these sites is because we know about them, know how they look and what purpose they serve. Everyday more and and more people log onto the Internet for the first time ever, they don't know have a clue about these sites. They think "oh, here we go i was looking for a red chair. Let me click this link and it will take me there." IMO, we have a long way to go before Adsense goes anywhere, if it ever does.. Because Google will lose 90% of it's income if Adsense goes bye-bye.

[Goatboy]

Adsense wouldn't have to go anywhere for Google to deindex these sites. And, the problem is that the method x-factor originally spoke of involved starting small and then building larger, using quality content.

Unfortunately, what I keep running across is a series of sites that are very small, generally 5 or fewer pages and all apparently using the same template. That makes a mighty big target for G.

I've always heard that G favors quality content, so I'm curious to see how this all settles out.

[Clyde]

Originally Posted by Kay King

Sure you find those - by people who picked one method and did the least amount of work possible to follow that method.

What you aren't noticing are many sites built along the general lines of that particular method by marketers who don't do junk. Those sites are earning money - but sites just like them were earning money before John told people about his method. Adapting his tested advice to good sites can increase earnings.

MFA sites are MFA sites no matter where you put an image - and they've been around (floundering) for years. It's nothing new and certainly not the first adsense blueprint to be used without adding common sense.

kay

I agree, I even gave an example: school-grants.org

[butters]

Originally Posted by JaySchmidt

What are the chances that, in the near future, the mere presence of adsense itself becomes associated -- in the minds of average web users -- with junk websites?

Absolutely zero, go ask the everyday person what is adsense.

[Tina Golden]

Exactly. Thats already happening. The first thing you hear when a brick&mortar site is being professionally reviewed is "Why do you have adsense here? It makes you look unprofessional".

I realize that you are promoting an alternative to Adsense but must you keep twisting facts to make Adsense look bad? People don't question Adsense ads on ordinary content sites.

The only reason that it looks unprofessional on a brick & mortar site is the same as putting it on a site where you're selling your own digital product - no one is going to think you are successful with your product line if you have to put Adsense up and because it takes clicks away from your sales links.

Adsense itself does not look unprofessional or make a site look unprofessional.

Tina

[Clyde]

Originally Posted by butters

Absolutely zero, go ask the everyday person what is adsense.

YouTube - Tiny Classified Ads

[liveurlyf]

Originally Posted by culvers

I like to work on micro niche sites. When researching these niches, I constantly keep finding xfactor clone sites, sometimes 3 or 4 on exactly the same niche. I have started actually reading the sites, and can say that pretty much all of them are complete junk/gibberish/worthless articles. The writer just rambles on about how great it is owning a coffee grinder, and how its nice to drink coffee in the morning. Basically anything to get him 500 words of content.

I can't help but feel these sites are completely worthless, and sooner or later they will be de indexed from the SERPS.

Do you think this time is near? Or will these types of sites always rank well in the near future?

p.s im not saying there is anything wrong with micro niche sites, in fact i am working on them too. My point is that there are so many identical looking sites with complete garbage for articles on them. I mean, surely they could spend an hour or two just making the site a bit more informative, instead of writing random cr*p loosely related to the page title?

I guess you should do ur thing and let the ones who are doing sumtin different be, ok if they are getting clicks and giving out a bit of info i believe that is fyne. I dont think those sites will be deindexed so stop yakkin.

[tjdaz]

Yeah it's pretty ridiculous now IMO.

[thebarksmeow]

Originally Posted by Embions

I have to agree with you here. With so many of these little green sites everywhere people have to be wondering what the hell is going on? I make it a point not to use that theme when making adsense sites anymore. I don't think that there is so much a problem with the Xfactor method of site publishing though, just the overuse of the same theme by every single person who makes these kinds of sites.

This answer is spot on. The actual method is not the problem. Everyone using the same theme is. So all these sites have the same "look". Users will start to say to themselves "I just seen 3 sites just like this yesterday".

As far as content is concerned... if it's readable and makes sense, google would have no reason to de-index the site and the sites will continue to rank.

[Clyde]

Build 1000's of them first then we can talk about risk.

[nettech]

From an overall generic perspective, these people are ruining it for everyone since what they are writing is complete rubbish. However, from an individual selfish point of view, if my site is ranking a position lower for example and it contains much better quality content then guess whose site is going to do better? For those that are complete newbies and think they can make a quick buck using the same template day in day out then they may struggle moving forward. The key is to build unique 'quality' sites that add value and also think a little out of the box in terms of template design.

Just my £0.05p

Zaheer

[Fraggler]

Originally Posted by unlimitedsubmissions

The gibberish ones will probably ruin it for everybody else but content value is really subjective I think as long as it's readable it's good. Something like Google AdWords quality score would probably be in effect soon.

Google already takes into account the conversion rate associated with different websites. This conversion rate is what kicks in 'smart pricing' - you get pennies for your ad space because it is nearly worthless to the advertiser. When it becomes worthless, Google bans the advertiser.

[Lee Wilson]

There's one measurement that Google use that none of these junk site creators take into consideration - bounce rate.

As Google evolve, they will get better and better at figuring out the junk sites. You can fool every robot but you can't fool the person looking at the crap content. Put Adsense on that site and Google can figure out even more about how bad the site is.

If you get thousands of page views with a high Adsense CTR and an average 'on page' time of just a few seconds, it's all Google need to know to ban your Adsense account and drop your site.

Sometimes they will get it wrong but these kind of indicators are a red flag for crap content. Automation doesn't discriminate, it flags everything that gives the signs it's looking for.

If you write crap content and earn good money, good luck while it lasts, but when you realise you are constantly losing the game - you have everything you deserve.

Lee

Edit: This rant isn't directed towards anybody in this thread.

[moneymakingwiz]

I think that the results google is showing now are mostly crap because all are affiliate sites, but something is changing, I started to notice that for some keywords I used to see like turkishedcarpets.com (just an example, i don't know if there is such a site) which are long tail sites full of 5 page crap. and lately I am seeing more and more the big sites being favored. Something is definitely changing with big G
maybe xfactor sites era is over.
It is like google sniper sites used to rank without links and now forget it.
almost no sites rank without off site SEO

[nettech]

Maybe its now time to build these into 'authority' sites with lots of useful content????

[Tom Goodwin]

Originally Posted by Goatboy

I've always heard that G favors quality content, so I'm curious to see how this all settles out.

I have never really seen evidence that google favors quality content at the end of the day.

Case in point: I have a 2 month old 1-post WP blog with non-original spun content sitting on page 2 right now in Google for the search: backlinks.

Absolute junk (on purpose), yet Google has no problem ranking it well.

[Tom Goodwin]

Originally Posted by unlimitedsubmissions

What about the default blue WordPress theme? Surely there's hundreds of people using this by now?

Hundreds? Maybe hundreds of thousands

I don't why people keep making the same template point re: Google. The same template is not going to get you into trouble with the big G.

[Clyde]

People that bring these redundant points up like to "talk" not "doing".

They try their best to find all the excuses in the world to NOT DO.

"Too risky" they say.

LMAO

[Fraggler]

Originally Posted by Tom Goodwin

I have never really seen evidence that google favors quality content at the end of the day.

Case in point: I have a 2 month old 1-post WP blog with non-original spun content sitting on page 2 right now in Google for the search: backlinks.

Absolute junk (on purpose), yet Google has no problem ranking it well.

Google can't measure a qualitative property. They can use other metrics which they feel represent it though. They can do this using things such as bounce rate, time on page, pages viewed, conversion rate, etc. All of these things are possible with an AdSense Ad Unit.

When Matt Cutts spins his quality content spiel I feel he is referring to quality content getting natural web exposure.

[tijay]

Originally Posted by culvers

Do you think this time is near? Or will these types of sites always rank well in the near future?

I think these sites will continue to rank well as long as their on page and off page SEO is good. Can't see google introducing "quality of content" as a ranking factor.

[bgmacaw]

Originally Posted by Fraggler

They can do this using things such as bounce rate, time on page, pages viewed, conversion rate, etc. All of these things are possible with an AdSense Ad Unit.

Bounce rate and time on page can't be tracked accurately by a third party, especially one that 30% or more of typical Internet users block. It also doesn't take into account user behavior when it comes to tabbed browsing and other user actions.

Chrome is probably the best option Google has for accurately tracking this stuff but given their overall cavalier attitude toward privacy when it comes to collecting data on users, I don't see them getting a huge level of market share any time soon, if ever.

[Fraggler]

They only have to track it accurately enough for them to provide a better ROI for their advertisers. They don't care about the users who block their ads because they are never going to be clicking them, obviously.

30% seems a bit extreme of users blocking ads and/or JavaScript. Firefox hasn't even reached that many people (internet users) yet.

[bgmacaw]

Originally Posted by Fraggler

30% seems a bit extreme of users blocking ads and/or JavaScript. Firefox hasn't even reached that many people (internet users) yet.

That's based on comparing stats from the web server itself vs. StatCounter vs. Google Analytics vs. Adsense impressions across a network of sites.

Certain niches have fewer blockers, usually around 10%, while others, mostly in tech niches, have in excess of 50% blockage. The average is around 30% blockage. Most of this, as best I can tell, comes from Firefox, IE8 and corporate firewalls.

[Clyde]

It's funny how people like to talk about Google as if it's a person,

Google is a corporation, Analytics, AdSense and Search are 3 different entities and they can't use data from one service for the other one unless you give them the permission to (i.e: linking your AdSense to Analytics).

There's no proof, or reason whatsoever that "average time on site" and "bounce rate" affect Google Search rankings.

You mislead people by quoting "Matt Cutts" there's no way Google would pay Matt to teach people how to game Google, where's the logic in that? You need to read between the lines "bruh".

I have 200+ xfactor sites with high bounce rate and low avg time on site (around 1-2+ minutes) all ranking Top 5 for its keywords for more than 3 months now.

As long as you don't be a fool and link your Analytics to AdSense google can't hold it/use it against you. Well, not legally at least.

[Clyde]

Originally Posted by Fraggler

They only have to track it accurately enough for them to provide a better ROI for their advertisers. They don't care about the users who block their ads because they are never going to be clicking them, obviously.

30% seems a bit extreme of users blocking ads and/or JavaScript. Firefox hasn't even reached that many people (internet users) yet.

Yes, a user search for "red shoes" go to a site, read a content for 1 minute and exit through a link (which he doesn't even realize is ads) and purchase from AdVertisers.

There's nothing wrong with micro niche adsense sites, some people are just jealous that some sites still do well with almost Garbage content. Google Webmaster takes care of this, though so let's not worry about who has the best content now shall we?

[Clyde]

Originally Posted by Tom Goodwin

I have never really seen evidence that google favors quality content at the end of the day.

Case in point: I have a 2 month old 1-post WP blog with non-original spun content sitting on page 2 right now in Google for the search: backlinks.

Absolute junk (on purpose), yet Google has no problem ranking it well.

Reason why auto-blogs still work if done right.

I'm not a fan, though.

[WareTime]

Originally Posted by Goatboy

Unfortunately, what I keep running across is a series of sites that are very small, generally 5 or fewer pages and all apparently using the same template. That makes a mighty big target for G.
.

Those sites are at risk in my opinion. Don't build that kind of site, use a different template and build a site of decent content with and adequate number of pages. Avoid being the baby when google throws out the bathwater by not being like the poorly done sites.

Think of it this way, sooner or later, google is going to reduce your competition for you. Thanks Sergey!

[Fraggler]

Originally Posted by unlimitedsubmissions

Yes, a user search for "red shoes" go to a site, read a content for 1 minute and exit through a link (which he doesn't even realize is ads) and purchase from AdVertisers.

There's nothing wrong with micro niche adsense sites, some people are just jealous that some sites still do well with almost Garbage content. Google Webmaster takes care of this, though so let's not worry about who has the best content now shall we?

If those visitors do not convert for the advertiser than Google will implement their smart pricing on the Ad Unit. Continually poor converting traffic will lead to a nice email saying how you are no value to their advertisers.

Google is a corporation, Analytics, AdSense and Search are 3 different entities and they can't use data from one service for the other one unless you give them the permission to (i.e: linking your AdSense to Analytics).

They don't need to link them together. AdSense can provide the exact same information as Analytics.

I never brought up SERPs. I am talking about AdSense.

[Clyde]

Originally Posted by Fraggler

If those visitors do not convert for the advertiser than Google will implement their smart pricing on the Ad Unit. Continually poor converting traffic will lead to a nice email saying how you are no value to their advertisers.



They don't need to link them together. AdSense can provide the exact same information as Analytics.

I never brought up SERPs. I am talking about AdSense.

Yes, and by deduction not only do Google not frown upon xfactor sites, they ENDORSE them!

People clicking an ads on "drillbits.com" would've arrived there searching for "drill bits".

What other free traffic source would produce a higher ROI than this?

Poor converting traffic come from untargetted traffic, which is not what xfactor is about. Even traffic that lands on a somewhat bad landing page will bring a high ROI to advertisers, as long as it's targetted.

[erazer]

The "average person" is not an IM hound who hangs out on WF. He knows next to nothing about Adsense and almost never runs into a "green xfactor" site. Even if he did, it would likely mean nothing to him, certainly not enough to make him go "hmmm" because he does not search for "niches" on Google like we do. To Joe Blow, "xfactor", "niche", "Adsense" mean zip.

That said, it is true that there are a lot of crappy xfactor sites out there. But then, there are a lot of crappy sites out there, period.

[TammieJJ]

The XFactor course itself is an excellent course in starting out in micro niche site building. It is extremely detailed, and provides a wealth of information, all gathered together in one course, in a step by step manner.

I purchased the course, and have about 25 or 30 micro niche sites, and throughout the course of a month, they all make money. That said, the one thing that people didn't seem to take away from the course is that putting your own spin on the sites makes your business unique, and as such, the sites can and do earn more than just the MFA sites that most people built.

My sites are monetized more than one way, and each is growing beyond the "micro niche" size as I add unique content on a regular basis. I also use a variety of templates, each customized with a different look and feel, which better suits my business model.

[XFactor]

Wow - where to begin.

I'm flattered by the entire "Xfactor Site" thing but then again my portfolio
is a mixture of small niche sites, authority site(s), hobby sites, etc.

No site of mine is less than 50 pages now, with my biggest at 2,000, so
growth is important.

As for building "thin" sites and keeping them that way, that is a personal
choice people are making.

I never said to make 1-5 pages and then stop. It is merely a starting
point.

- John

[FivestarHB]

Originally Posted by TammieJJ

The XFactor course itself is an excellent course in starting out in micro niche site building. It is extremely detailed, and provides a wealth of information, all gathered together in one course, in a step by step manner.

I purchased the course, and have about 25 or 30 micro niche sites, and throughout the course of a month, they all make money. That said, the one thing that people didn't seem to take away from the course is that putting your own spin on the sites makes your business unique, and as such, the sites can and do earn more than just the MFA sites that most people built.

My sites are monetized more than one way, and each is growing beyond the "micro niche" size as I add unique content on a regular basis. I also use a variety of templates, each customized with a different look and feel, which better suits my business model.

Fully agree, I am doing the same - some look like Xfactor sites (only to the IM community that need that label) to the average surfer it is just a site that has good information (good, not great - if it was great they would spend too much time there and not do what is required) Good and getting better, with more content being added. Instead of going for 100 sites, I will stick with 20 or 30 and build them out, just as John says in the post above.

[Clyde]

^^ At the end of the day it's just a matter of personal preference. You can have 1 page of 1000 words content or 5 pages of 300 word content, you choose. There's only so much that one can write about "cheap shiny boots" without being repetitive.

[liveurlyf]

Xfactor you have a lot of people who are mad at you for ur revelation on adsense but i think you did a fantastic job writing that book. you will have a lot of folks looking for guarantee's and others who will look to blame anyone and everyone except themselves for their errors.
I'll go write an adesnse course now since the market is really ripe.
this is my thank you noye for the MNAC.

[wolfmmiii]

I believe even the smaller sites can rank and do well. Why? Because some of mine are exactly that and they are doing very well.

[kidder]

We all know where the crap written content comes from, perhaps in the future Google and the other engines will be able to detect bad grammar and broken English and purge the index of this crap. If I can spot it at a glance then its not going to be hard to program into the algorithm so we can get past this stage of history. I buy content all the time but the fact is that 80% of it you have to send back because the "native English writer" has tried to pull a sneaky one on you...... build quality sites with decent footprints, add some real value and you will be fine.

[driller000]

plz can anyone tell me if the same template used in Xfactor's found for blogger platform?
thanx

[misterkailo]

Originally Posted by driller000

plz can anyone tell me if the same template used in Xfactor's found for blogger platform?
thanx

I use Blogger and I made my own template like that. It's just a little bit of minor coding of basic html.