Google Farmer Update Effect on Our Autoblogs - Traffic Screehsots

[BishopMartin]

I built an aggregator site months ago and have not done much with it since. It has been getting about 150-200 visits a day consistently for weeks. Two days ago my traffic started spiking and yesterday I had over 500 visits. This site has adsense on it but makes me almost no money as the CTR is less than 1%.

As its getting so much traffic now I was thinking of spending the weekend updating the layout and making some other adjustments. I want to change the ad position, and add share and like buttons, etc. etc. TZ, can you comment on if this was your site what CTR/income you might expect it to make? I am just looking for something to shoot for..

As to the AutoBlog argument in general -
This is my first and only autoblog.
I don't rewrite any content, its all straight dupe.
Almost all search traffic is super long tail..
I did build some links initially but stopped months ago..
This site now gets organic un-solicited links and tweets on a regular basis.
Each post links back to the originating source.
I have a form for people to submit their blog if they want their posts included in my site.

[TZ]

Originally Posted by BishopMartin

I built an aggregator site months ago and have not done much with it since. It has been getting about 150-200 visits a day consistently for weeks. Two days ago my traffic started spiking and yesterday I had over 500 visits. This site has adsense on it but makes me almost no money as the CTR is less than 1%.

As its getting so much traffic now I was thinking of spending the weekend updating the layout and making some other adjustments. I want to change the ad position, and add share and like buttons, etc. etc. TZ, can you comment on if this was your site what CTR/income you might expect it to make? I am just looking for something to shoot for..

As to the AutoBlog argument in general -
This is my first and only autoblog.
I don't rewrite any content, its all straight dupe.
Almost all search traffic is super long tail..
I did build some links initially but stopped months ago..
This site now gets organic un-solicited links and tweets on a regular basis.
Each post links back to the originating source.
I have a form for people to submit their blog if they want their posts included in my site.

CTR is dependant on the niche. If your topic is Paris Hilton you will have a really low CTR, but if your topic is product based it will be higher. All you can really do is make sure you have your advertsing right below the header (which is what I do on mine) and then test ad placement right below each post if you like. Just open up your single.php and drop your ad code below the the_content area.

Remember that visitors DO read the content and they take part in discussion too. They don't know it's an autoblog.

You also get other autobloggers linking to your autoblog trying to get a trackback from you. Akismet sees these links as spam, so you don't approve any of the trackbacks. You just keep getting hundreds of one way inbound links a month.

[BishopMartin]

Originally Posted by TZ

CTR is dependant on the niche. If your topic is Paris Hilton you will have a really low CTR, but if your topic is product based it will be higher.

This site is brand related fashion footwear..

Originally Posted by TZ

Remember that visitors DO read the content and they take part in discussion too. They don't know it's an autoblog.

You also get other autobloggers linking to your autoblog trying to get a trackback from you. Akismet sees these links as spam, so you don't approve any of the trackbacks. You just keep getting hundreds of one way inbound links a month.

I have comments and trackbacks closed, but will open them up on new posts and see what happens. Wish there was any easy way to open/close all post at once..

Thanks!

[sylarrr]

the google anti-farm update has made me think a lot about setting up a autoblog of my own

[GeorgR.]

Originally Posted by sylarrr

the google anti-farm update has made me think a lot about setting up a autoblog of my own

Me too, but my current ones (the ones which are not expired, that is)...suck. They are autoblogs from the first generation, simple putting ezine articles on it etc...unaltered.

They dont have PR or any alexa ranking.

If autoblog, then there must be more to it, either some fancy rewriting...or using content from different sources. Otherwise they wont go anywhere really.

[TZ]

Originally Posted by GeorgR.

Me too, but my current ones (the ones which are not expired, that is)...suck. They are autoblogs from the first generation, simple putting ezine articles on it etc...unaltered.

They dont have PR or any alexa ranking.

If autoblog, then there must be more to it, either some fancy rewriting...or using content from different sources. Otherwise they wont go anywhere really.

Yeah. I never had any good action until I was doing some good rewriting.

[WmStout]

Hmm.... Been reading a bunch about these, waiting to see how bad they get slapped. This thread may have just pushed me over the edge on starting one up to see what happens. Still curious to see if the upswing continues in a months time, after the crawlers have had a better look around....

[Sylonious]

Thank god for this thread. I just put up like 29 autoblogs (just finished last week) and I was scared to death after hearing about the farmer update.

[warrior rakib]

hi all,
i am having some problems with google algorithm...
i have a site and i have been creating backlins from site's being live. the problem is i can see some of my competitors are in higher position than me having a poor amount of backlins...i have compared my site's contents with theirs and i found nothing special with those contents (i judged neutrally). is there any solution to this problem or any guideline for me?...
thanks,
let the peace of almighty be upon you...

[MarketingTorch]

Hi Terry, not much to add, really, just wanted to say what an awesome thread this has been.

One person did comment on shared hosting versus dedicated, and my response to that is that I was originally on shared hosting but because I had a background in Linux and web programming, I jumped off the deep end and became my own ISP, doing the web hosting, ftp and email hosting myself. That's a learning curve about as steep as El Capitan compared to simply learning to use cPanel and using Fantastico to install Wordpress, like at the average shared hosting co. However, I have ultimate control over all the system factors, by building the server from the metal up.

For those who are thinking about autoblogging, I say go for it, but moderate your posts - look at them and personalize them before adding them to your drip system. That's the smartest way and it's what TZ is doing to make big bucks because it works!

[Sylonious]

I just noticed that someone copied my affiliate review page word for word. So if you think your content is unique you might want to copyscape it and make sure nobody is copying your sales page.

[gordonfong]

One of my site grow up, from 128 index to 588 index.. good news..LOL

[cellington]

Our SmartDistribution Platform mixes and matches content automatically. When a new article is ready for distribution, it is combined with other articles on the same topic.

Real, live, native English speaking humans, living and working in the United States, review every article before it is made available for distribution.

All poorly spun, unreadable, keyword stuffed, badly categorized, overly salesy, and spam laden articles are returned to the author for correction/deletion.

When that article is distributed, it doesn't land at every one of our partner sites at the same time. Instead, SmartFlow carefully modulates the article so that it is featured on the front page of a dozen or so tightly niched, highly relevant sites. Then it waits.

Once it is no longer featured on the front page of one of those dozen sites, it is then made available to another focused content site.

In this way, it rolls through the list of appropriate, relevant sites, providing each site with fresh content, and each author with fresh backlinks over time.

And here's where our SmartSpin technology is a boon. We will distribute exactly ONE version of a given article to a given site. That version is different (up to 80-90% unique) from the versions of that article distributed to each of the other sites.

We won't send multiple versions of the same article to a site.

Mixing it up is the only way to go.

[Chris215]

how are you guys monetizing for autoblogs? just through adsense and what earns you the most?

[scott g]

Great screen shots Terry!

What tracking software is that?!

I've been so damn busy... I've built 4 brand new damn sites in the last two weeks, FINALLY hit spots 1 & 2 for a bunch of search terms I've been targeting for two different sites (I guess 6-months is the magic age)!

You damn autobloggers... You just don't know how tedious and time consuming it really is to build a website from the ground up, create graphics and content, and always have the on-site seo factor in the back of your mind...! Then the fun off-site seo begins...

</RANT>

Now the purpose of my rant: I have too many sites to track and like the looks of whatever the hell it is you are using!! I want to simplify that part atleast!

CHEERS & CONGRATS ON HARDWORK PAYING OFF!

[Mike Grant]

Originally Posted by scott g

Great screen shots Terry!

What tracking software is that?!

I've been so damn busy... I've built 4 brand new damn sites in the last two weeks, FINALLY hit spots 1 & 2 for a bunch of search terms I've been targeting for two different sites (I guess 6-months is the magic age)!

You damn autobloggers... You just don't know how tedious and time consuming it really is to build a website from the ground up, create graphics and content, and always have the on-site seo factor in the back of your mind...! Then the fun off-site seo begins...

</RANT>

Now the purpose of my rant: I have too many sites to track and like the looks of whatever the hell it is you are using!! I want to simplify that part atleast!

CHEERS & CONGRATS ON HARDWORK PAYING OFF!

Outsource.

SEscout > OP.

[scott g]

Originally Posted by Mike Grant

Outsource.

SEscout > OP.

SEscout I'll have to check that out.

I'll outsource some backlinking and what not... But when it comes to the sites themselves and the content on them... I'm just too anal and everything has to be my way lol! My upside and downside.

[Cofresi]

Thanks TZ for all the info. Are you using HyperVRE anymore?

Some months ago, I blew my money on a high priced plugin that does not really provide you with a formula to make it work properly. So my total income at the moment has been 72 cents. So now i'm ready to find another one that does the job.
I really think this can work, it has too, I already spent the money and my refund time ran out, So i'm going to regroup wash out the regrets and come back again. Since I have a bunch of unused domains, there is definitely a use for them here.

[backlinkgurus]

Originally Posted by scott g

SEscout I'll have to check that out.

I'll outsource some backlinking and what not... But when it comes to the sites themselves and the content on them... I'm just too anal and everything has to be my way lol! My upside and downside.

We offer free accounts. Give us a spin. I'm sure you wont be disappointed.

Have to agree, Google is really going out on a limb with the "farmer update". They sort of took a strongarm approach and manually downplayed some of the bigger "farming" sites. I seriously have doubts that there is any sort of big algo. change going on here.

[SEG]

Originally Posted by TZ

Until I did the coding and PHP writing myself to make the autoblogs perform properly, it never really worked. Hell, not long ago I WAS TRASHING autoblogs too because I was so frustrated with all the crappy autoblog systems. I tried 4 different ones and they all sucked bad.

Anyway.....we all have choices to make.

Do you recommend the Zulit one in your sig? Will there be tweaking to the code to get it to work?
Edited to add
Oh, wait, it looks like you are the author of Zulit.

[John Hocking]

When creating an autoblog. They key is to correctly set up the structure and theme of the site.

Google loves sites that are tightly themed, often updated.

You need to add value to the incoming content and help make it most customized. The more it looks like a real site and not just an ad platform, the better you will do.

[dagaul101]

It's unfortunate for many, but Google has always wanted unique content that proivides value to their searches