Interesting side-effect after last Google algo change (good times for scrapers! Yes, seriously!)

[GeorgR.]

Content Farm == Non theme specific site (eg. article directory) which caters a WIDE range of subjects.

The interesting side-effect is that it LOOKS like that bogs which indeed scrape content from such "content farms" are NOT affected. Assuming that such blogs are tightly covering a specific niche.

While the distributing sites (article sites) are getting hit, the scraper sites experience a BOOST...using the content which Google actually deemed as "junk". <-- the irony

Proof:

Countless of reports by site owners who own autoblogs using scraped content, reporting a boost after the recent change.

So..the irony is that the recent change will support "crap" autoblogs as long as they stay close within a topic...and the big competition where the content ORIGINATED is conveniently moved down in rankings.

HILARIOUS!

[TZ]

Originally Posted by GeorgR.

Content Farm == Non theme specific site (eg. article directory) which caters a WIDE range of subjects.

The interesting side-effect is that it LOOKS like that bogs which indeed scrape content from such "content farms" are NOT affected. Assuming that such blogs are tightly covering a specific niche.

While the distributing sites (article sites) are getting hit, the scraper sites experience a BOOST...using the content which Google actually deemed as "junk". <-- the irony

Proof:

Countless of reports by site owners who own autoblogs using scraped content, reporting a boost after the recent change.

So..the irony is that the recent change will support "crap" autoblogs as long as they stay close within a topic...and the big competition where the content ORIGINATED is conveniently moved down in rankings.

HILARIOUS!

That's what we are seeing George, and this morning our autoblogs are having very high Monday stats for unique visitors. Encouraging, but I think that autoblogs that don't do enough phrase rewriting are going to get hurt bad.

[guitarjosh]

Originally Posted by TZ

That's what we are seeing George, and this morning our autoblogs are having very high Monday stats for unique visitors. Encouraging, but I think that autoblogs that don't do enough phrase rewriting are going to get hurt bad.

Not true here. I do 0 phrase rewriting.. exact copy... and I've been boosted significantly.

[TZ]

Originally Posted by guitarjosh

Not true here. I do 0 phrase rewriting.. exact copy... and I've been boosted significantly.

WOW! Really! Well that is a VERY interesting comment friend.

I think I am going to launch two more autoblogs today and do NO REWRITING to test this out. I coded a Wordpress Plugin to re-write all of the content, and it takes a little time to R&R a niche out properly.

I've recently been using subdomains so that I can save on domain names, so I will bang these suckers out real quick.

Thanks for that.

[thebitbotdotcom]

Interesting theories. Of course if correct, this would mean that Googless attempts even determine what is duplicate content is still lacking in some form or fashion...???

[guitarjosh]

Originally Posted by thebitbotdotcom

Interesting theories. Of course if correct, this would mean that Googless attempts even determine what is duplicate content is still lacking in some form or fashion...???

The thing about what I do is this... I look to scrape sites that have a lot of pages, but aren't hugely known (staying away from amazon, craigslist, ebay, etc...) and those that I know everyone and their brother is scraping. (Seriously, there are hundreds of thousands of people scraping these sites!) By doing this.. I have ... let's say.. 10,000 unique long tail keywords that I share only with the site I'm scraping from. So now.. "duplicate content" means nothing (though many will argue it means nothing anyway) because... if someone punches in my long tail keyword and it brings up only 2 results.. me and the site I'm scraping, I'm going to get some visitors to my site and it's just as simple as that.

To take this even further, my best site scrapes an overseas website and every time I test for keywords, my site beats theirs out and I get first. I don't know if this is because Google prefers US sites?? Regardless, I think most Googlers will not choose an overseas domain as their first choice so I'd probably win that war anyway.

[gearmonkey]

My autoblog has stayed steady or increased slightly. My message forum has increased. My high-quality blog with the best content has took a hit BIG TIME. I've been promoting my blog via, forum posting, article marketing, link directories, profile links, blog commenting, web2.0, bookmarking... you name it, I've done it. And I've lost 25-30%.

My forum and autoblog (which I never promoted) are doing great. I don't understand this. I am wondering if Google is penalizing low quality backlinks.

[GeorgR.]

you're using wp-robot on all of them? Sorry too lazy to look at your site now. But indeed, this is interesting and opens up A LOT of new possiblities...

Rewriting is not even an issue..there are plenty of ways to do this.

And yes...look at it that way:

Article site got a penalty, sinks down -25 in rankings. Does that mean i can take a 1:1 dupe and will now outrank the source which Google conveniently removed from the rankings?

If so...Google has some home work to do..they basically extinguished the fire with gasoline..so to speak

[mandark]

I wouldn't count on this trend sticking around.. in my opinion it is fairly likely that since Google has both their content duplication algorithm and their new content farm algorithm, that they will soon combine them so that the penalty for content farms propogates to the users of this content.

[guitarjosh]

Originally Posted by mandark

I wouldn't count on this trend sticking around.. in my opinion it is fairly likely that since Google has both their content duplication algorithm and their new content farm algorithm, that they will soon combine them so that the penalty for content farms propogates to the users of this content.

I've kind of had that same fear. I'll keep going until it breaks but granted.. wouldn't take much for them to decide to wipe all of these types of sites.

[Mike Anthony]

Originally Posted by GeorgR.

you're using wp-robot on all of them? Sorry too lazy to look at your site now. But indeed, this is interesting and opens up A LOT of new possiblities...

Like what? building an empire based on the content Google just slapped? Just waiting for this or the next algo change to take effect on you?

A) Algos take weeks to know what is going on. As the bots crawl through sites thats when they make the most changes. So you can simply be looking at the reality that your pages haven't been crawled enough yet so the algo hasn't taken affect.

B) Why would you take all that time to work new opportunities on an oversight by google when you KNOW they are not done and are on the prowl. thats like seeing the government shut down all the big liquor stores and saying I think I will open up a small store with the same liquor and make oodles because there are no big stores to compete against.

..........until the day the same people knock at your door.

Now if you already have sites that have all that junk content then fine. Be happy you were not affected . but anyone looking at this saying hey theres some new opportunities I can start up with this content google just slapped and I'm going to spend my time and money working it......

Sorry but you are nuts.

[S.]

Originally Posted by gearmonkey

My autoblog has stayed steady or increased slightly. My message forum has increased. My high-quality blog with the best content has took a hit BIG TIME. I've been promoting my blog via, forum posting, article marketing, link directories, profile links, blog commenting, web2.0, bookmarking... you name it, I've done it. And I've lost 25-30%.

My forum and autoblog (which I never promoted) are doing great. I don't understand this. I am wondering if Google is penalizing low quality backlinks.

That's the problem, you did unnatural linking. That's not what Google wants... they want real good content.

[TZ]

Originally Posted by Mike Anthony

Like what? building an empire based on the content Google just slapped? Just waiting for this or the next algo change to take effect on you?

A) Algos take weeks to know what is going on. As the bots crawl through sites thats when they make the most changes. So you can simply be looking at the reality that your pages haven't been crawled enough yet so the algo hasn't taken affect.

B) Why would you take all that time to work new opportunities on an oversight by google when you KNOW they are not done and are on the prowl. thats like seeing the government shut down all the big liquor stores and saying I think I will open up a small store with the same liquor and make oodles because there are no big stores to compete against.

..........until the day the same people knock at your door.

Now if you already have sites that have all that junk content then fine. Be happy you were not affected . but anyone looking at this saying hey theres some new opportunities I can start up with this content google just slapped and I'm going to spend my time and money working it......

Sorry but you are nuts.

What makes anyone on this forum think they know what "junk content" looks like?

I'll enjoy my rubber room

[GeorgR.]

Thats like seeing the government shut down all the big liquor stores and saying I think I will open up a small store with the same liquor and make oodles because there are no big stores to compete against.

That how i define a true and successful entrepreneur

[gearmonkey]

Originally Posted by S.

That's the problem, you did unnatural linking. That's not what Google wants... they want real good content.

So Googles' update also included an 'unnatural' linking slap?

Can anyone confirm this? I read they were shutting down content farms, nothing was mentioned to unnatural linking.

If this is true, I'm going to start building unnatural links to my competitors websites this week.

It'd be a lot easier to get my competitors slapped.

[GeorgR.]

If "unnatural" linking is so bad...how comes i can examine "mega niches" and see sites dominating #1 (ok, before the recent change)....very OBVIOUSLY solely based on "unnatural linking".

Sorry...you dont get a MFA "lose weight" adsense site to #1 using "natural" approaches, no way on earth.

[Steve Crooks]

Seriously Terry, I think you are confusing junk content with junk sites. You can steal or scrape content (as autobloggers like to call it) from the best resources around but that doesn't make your site valuable to the visitor.

The one thing that winds me up about autobloggers is that you try and pretend that what you are providing isn't junk. Just be straight up and honest and say that you are building autoblogs purely to make money (while you can) and stop all this nonsense about how you aren't junking up the web.

The other point I want to make is that I don't doubt that autoblogs will continue to bottom feed and earn a bit of an income while they remain in existence however hard Google updates it's algo. There is a far better option out there though that can generate huge income without the fear of having your sites axed, accounts lost and all the other sorry stories you read from people. It does take more effort but it is also hugely more enjoyable and rewarding.

Originally Posted by TZ

What makes anyone on this forum think they know what "junk content" looks like?

I'll enjoy my rubber room

[guitarjosh]

Originally Posted by Steve Crooks

Seriously Terry, I think you are confusing junk content with junk sites. You can steal or scrape content (as autobloggers like to call it) from the best resources around but that doesn't make your site valuable to the visitor.

The one thing that winds me up about autobloggers is that you try and pretend that what you are providing isn't junk. Just be straight up and honest and say that you are building autoblogs purely to make money (while you can) and stop all this nonsense about how you aren't junking up the web.

The other point I want to make is that I don't doubt that autoblogs will continue to bottom feed and earn a bit of an income while they remain in existence however hard Google updates it's algo. There is a far better option out there though that can generate huge income without the fear of having your sites axed, accounts lost and all the other sorry stories you read from people. It does take more effort but it is also hugely more enjoyable and rewarding.

I can tell you for a fact that nothing is more enjoyable than putting up a site... and never touching it again and profiting from it... and watching the profits grow as time goes on. If you enjoy article marketing (junk content), social networking and backlinking (which in itself is junking up the web when done solely for the purpose of promoting your own site), then keep it up.. and enjoy that. We do that 0 hours a week. I will bet any amount of money that I'll be making at least $1000 a month in AdSense in less than a year. For me.. that's much more rewarding than constant keyword researching, building micro-niche sites and adding content or building a blog just to try and get people to subscribe and listen to me. But hey.. I'm not all that social of a person so if you find that hugely more rewarding, keep it up.

[Chris Munch]

Originally Posted by gearmonkey

So Googles' update also included an 'unnatural' linking slap?

Can anyone confirm this? I read they were shutting down content farms, nothing was mentioned to unnatural linking.

Unfortunately Google did not tackle low quality links. Hopefully this is next on their agenda.

This is why autoblogs and scrapers are doing well right now. The update is complex, but form I can gather here's a simple low down...

1. The put all pages on domains on a level playing field. So it doesn't matter if your page is on an awesome massive site like eZinearticles, that one page will gave to stand on its own merits.

2. Sites with lots of pages that have no backlinks from unique content suffer massively (e.g eZinearticles)

3. Google removes a lot of the junk from content farms, but many autoblogs are now on a level playing field to compete with the original source. A few greyhat links (using link wheels and spun content for example) and the autoblogs now outrank the original source and pick up longtail traffic.

4. Sites with original content that has backlinks see their rankings jump up.

[Disclaimer: it is nowhere near as simple as the above from what I can see, but essentially that is the effect - just lots more variables at play which would take way too long to explain]

So this is good news for autoblogs for the time being, but I don't expect it to last. Autobloggers can enjoy it while it lasts.

[Steve Crooks]

At least you are being honest and not pretending that what you are doing isn't providing anything other than junk. Also, I have been in Internet marketing getting on for 10 years now and have tried just about every type of site building and promotion etc.. from black to yellow to white hat, I know the score.

I know it is possible to make money from splogs but it is a risk to your accounts, you have to keep moving and watching over your shoulder and it isn't providing anything of value. It is purely about making as much money as you can, while you can.. Agreed?

Originally Posted by guitarjosh

I can tell you for a fact that nothing is more enjoyable than putting up a site... and never touching it again and profiting from it... and watching the profits grow as time goes on. If you enjoy article marketing (junk content), social networking and backlinking (which in itself is junking up the web when done solely for the purpose of promoting your own site), then keep it up.. and enjoy that. We do that 0 hours a week. I will bet any amount of money that I'll be making at least $1000 a month in AdSense in less than a year. For me.. that's much more rewarding than constant keyword researching, building micro-niche sites and adding content or building a blog just to try and get people to subscribe and listen to me. But hey.. I'm not all that social of a person so if you find that hugely more rewarding, keep it up.

[guitarjosh]

Originally Posted by Steve Crooks

At least you are being honest and not pretending that what you are doing isn't providing anything other than junk. Also, I have been in Internet marketing getting on for 10 years now and have tried just about every type of site building and promotion etc.. from black to yellow to white hat, I know the score.

I know it is possible to make money from splogs but it is a risk to your accounts, you have to keep moving and watching over your shoulder and it isn't providing anything of value. It is purely about making as much money as you can, while you can.. Agreed?

First off... splogs are in no way a risk to your account. Play by the rules and Google actually ranks them well.

Many argue that splogs provide value because they give a home front to a particular niche. I can't say there isn't some truth to this. For example, if I am selling cameras and I pull data from ebay, amazon and 10 other sites to one main site, I have created one place that many may actually prefer to look first. Who's to say? If 5000 people come to this new site and 5 of them bookmark it because maybe they're photographers or they resell cameras... haven't I just provided value to them? Or is my number not high enough? Does it require that 300 people like my site for it to be valuable?

That's why auto bloggers argue it. Why wouldn't that be of value? If I'm looking for a particular model camera and find a site that will let me search all 10 sites at once and sort by price (as my sites do), I just don't think it can even be argued it was junk.

Having said that.. for me, it's all about making as much money as I can while I can... while spending minimal time online.

[gearmonkey]

Originally Posted by Chris Munch

Unfortunately Google did not tackle low quality links. Hopefully this is next on their agenda.

This is why autoblogs and scrapers are doing well right now. The update is complex, but form I can gather here's a simple low down...

1. The put all pages on domains on a level playing field. So it doesn't matter if your page is on an awesome massive site like eZinearticles, that one page will gave to stand on its own merits.

2. Sites with lots of pages that have no backlinks from unique content suffer massively (e.g eZinearticles)

3. Google removes a lot of the junk from content farms, but many autoblogs are now on a level playing field to compete with the original source. A few greyhat links (using link wheels and spun content for example) and the autoblogs now outrank the original source and pick up longtail traffic.

4. Sites with original content that has backlinks see their rankings jump up.

[Disclaimer: it is nowhere near as simple as the above from what I can see, but essentially that is the effect - just lots more variables at play which would take way too long to explain]

So this is good news for autoblogs for the time being, but I don't expect it to last. Autobloggers can enjoy it while it lasts.

Thanks, but unfortunately, #5 is the complete opposite for me. I'll gladly send you a PM with the keyword and page i'm trying to rank for along with the competitor that is at the top of Google with very few backlinks.

The competitors backlinks come from yahoo answers, askville.amazon, and a few low quality scraper sites.

[Mike Anthony]

Originally Posted by guitarjosh

I can tell you for a fact that nothing is more enjoyable than putting up a site... and never touching it again and profiting from it... and watching the profits grow as time goes on. If you enjoy article marketing (junk content), social networking and backlinking (which in itself is junking up the web when done solely for the purpose of promoting your own site), then keep it up.. and enjoy that. We do that 0 hours a week. I will bet any amount of money that I'll be making at least $1000 a month in AdSense in less than a year. .

Oh my so we are on here touting how great autoblogs are and we aren't in fact making any real money from them yet. And you call what rewarding some pennies?

Sorry guys you can't state anything as fact. If you aren't cracking any real money yet and/or your signature touts auto blogs I think its pretty easy to discount what you are saying. We all know full well that if tomorrow your sites tank and you are selling autoblog solutions you are not going to come in this thread with the whole truth and nothing but.

[guitarjosh]

Originally Posted by Mike Anthony

Oh my so we are on here touting how great autoblogs are and we aren't in fact making any real money from them yet. And you call what rewarding some pennies?

Sorry guys you can't state anything as fact. If you aren't cracking any real money yet and/or your signature touts auto blogs I think its pretty easy to discount what you are saying. We all know full well that if tomorrow your sites tank and you are selling autoblog solutions you are not going to come in this thread with the whole truth and nothing but.

I actually love it when people treat this market with this attitude. I'll gladly eat all the pie if you want to pass on your piece.

[GeorgR.]

Sorry guys you can't state anything as fact. If you aren't cracking any real money yet and/or your signature touts auto blogs I think its pretty easy to discount what you are saying.

You will laugh, i totally forgot i am actually offering something autoblog related in my signature - nevertheless, what you are saying there sounds pretty negative and i don't think you have a base to stand on when you say something like that.

If you see my OP, you can see i merely pointed something out, please dont make it sound like i (or other participators in the thread) state a (biased) opinion solely because they try to sell something related to the subject. Seriously ....

Also..i think the debate went a wrong turn since the question whether autoblogs are "legit" or a "good way to make money" was never on the table. Everyone can have their own opinion there, i personally don't care.
It's mainly about whether and if the recent changes in google do indeed come with that side-effect, which would be very ironic, in my opinion. My own personal stance in regards to autoblogs in this thread was "neutral", at best. (Regardless of my signature)

[aygabtu]

Originally Posted by guitarjosh

The thing about what I do is this... I look to scrape sites that have a lot of pages, but aren't hugely known (staying away from amazon, craigslist, ebay, etc...) and those that I know everyone and their brother is scraping. (Seriously, there are hundreds of thousands of people scraping these sites!) By doing this.. I have ... let's say.. 10,000 unique long tail keywords that I share only with the site I'm scraping from. So now.. "duplicate content" means nothing (though many will argue it means nothing anyway) because... if someone punches in my long tail keyword and it brings up only 2 results.. me and the site I'm scraping, I'm going to get some visitors to my site and it's just as simple as that.

To take this even further, my best site scrapes an overseas website and every time I test for keywords, my site beats theirs out and I get first. I don't know if this is because Google prefers US sites?? Regardless, I think most Googlers will not choose an overseas domain as their first choice so I'd probably win that war anyway.

Really? Is this what the internet has come down to? People copying others peoples content, repackaging it, and putting it out as their own, rinse, repeat, rinse, repeat. How lame is that???

[Steve Crooks]

It isn't so much the repackaging of content that grinds my gears with autoblogs. In fact, pulling in datafeeds of products, price comparisons etc.. are offering something of value. What gets me is that is all they do..

Lets take the camera example from a previous post, what are potential buyers looking for? They are looking for examples of pictures taken with that camera. They are looking for HONEST reviews from users of that camera. They are looking for price comparisons. The are looking for an honest unique editorial review from the website owner. They are looking for comparisons with other cameras, videos of the camera in action, a forum where they can discuss it with other potential buyers plus any other imaginative stuff..

Compare this with the autosplog approach of just pulling in data that may or may have something to do with the keyword that someone is searching with. There is just no value to the visitor and it just junks up the web. Add to this, more importantly.. Who is more likely to get the affiliate commission? The guy who offers value to the potential buyer of the camera or the guy who threw up the splog?

Autobloggers should wake up and realise that the money they are perhaps earning is nothing compared to what they can earn with some imagination, energy and human input.

Originally Posted by aygabtu

Really? Is this what the internet has come down to? People copying others peoples content, repackaging it, and putting it out as their own, rinse, repeat, rinse, repeat. How lame is that???

[4morereferrals]

wasnt there a thread on Oz's wp plugin that dealt with the Adsense TOS and scrape - non unique content - and NOT putting adsense on that?

[guitarjosh]

Originally Posted by aygabtu

Really? Is this what the internet has come down to? People copying others peoples content, repackaging it, and putting it out as their own, rinse, repeat, rinse, repeat. How lame is that???

This is always the ultimate (and unfortunate) ending to this conversation anywhere it seems to take place online. Somehow creating 1000 micro-niche websites and spending a couple hours a day creating article content and backlinking for complete crap sites that provide no value is acceptable. But auto blogging! "Hush your mouth! How dare you!"

It always just makes me smile. I have a question for you, aygabtu. What if your best friend created the first auto blogging plugin and guaranteed that if you put up 100 websites and never touched them again, you'd make at least $2000 a month? I know that's an extreme example but would you? Maybe you wouldn't... and that's cool. It's your choice. Maybe you're that morally upstanding and I commend you if so.

[Steve Crooks]

Putting Adsense on autoblogs is just plain stupid. For the one main reason that unless you have a penchant for trawling through a ton of crap, you have no idea what your content is about..

Originally Posted by 4morereferrals

wasnt there a thread on Oz's wp plugin that dealt with the Adsense TOS and scrape - non unique content - and NOT putting adsense on that?

[guitarjosh]

Originally Posted by Steve Crooks

It isn't so much the repackaging of content that grinds my gears with autoblogs. In fact, pulling in datafeeds of products, price comparisons etc.. are offering something of value. What gets me is that is all they do..

I think we're getting closer to the truth now.

[Steve Crooks]

Its not about morals.. Its just that your $2000 a month is going to be under threat the moment you might get there. $2000 a month from creating something of value to your visitors is going to stick and then you just grow from there.

Originally Posted by guitarjosh

This is always the ultimate (and unfortunate) ending to this conversation anywhere it seems to take place online. Somehow creating 1000 micro-niche websites and spending a couple hours a day creating article content and backlinking for complete crap sites that provide no value is acceptable. But auto blogging! "Hush your mouth! How dare you!"

It always just makes me smile. I have a question for you, aygabtu. What if your best friend created the first auto blogging plugin and guaranteed that if you put up 100 websites and never touched them again, you'd make at least $2000 a month? I know that's an extreme example but would you? Maybe you wouldn't... and that's cool. It's your choice. Maybe you're that morally upstanding and I commend you if so.

[Steve Crooks]

The truth is.. Do you know what content is on every page you create? What value are you giving people looking to buy cameras apart from some probably irrelevant scraped stuff for some extremely long tail keyword?

Originally Posted by guitarjosh

I think we're getting closer to the truth now.

[guitarjosh]

Originally Posted by Steve Crooks

Its not about morals.. Its just that your $2000 a month is going to be under threat the moment you might get there. $2000 a month from creating something of value to your visitors is going to stick and then you just grow from there.

So your issue with the whole thing is that I would simply be content making $2000 a month forever without having to do anything else? It's wrong because I wouldn't be consumed with making more money? I'm confused since you've already stated that sites could indeed provide value.

[guitarjosh]

Originally Posted by Steve Crooks

The truth is.. Do you know what content is on every page you create? What value are you giving people looking to buy cameras apart from some probably irrelevant scraped stuff for some extremely long tail keyword?

You're making this discussion difficult by not having a firm grasp on your position. You've just stated right before this "In fact, pulling in datafeeds of products, price comparisons etc.. are offering something of value."

Make up your mind, Steve. I enjoy a good debate but come on man.

[TZ]

Originally Posted by Steve Crooks

Seriously Terry, I think you are confusing junk content with junk sites. You can steal or scrape content (as autobloggers like to call it) from the best resources around but that doesn't make your site valuable to the visitor.

The one thing that winds me up about autobloggers is that you try and pretend that what you are providing isn't junk. Just be straight up and honest and say that you are building autoblogs purely to make money (while you can) and stop all this nonsense about how you aren't junking up the web.

The other point I want to make is that I don't doubt that autoblogs will continue to bottom feed and earn a bit of an income while they remain in existence however hard Google updates it's algo. There is a far better option out there though that can generate huge income without the fear of having your sites axed, accounts lost and all the other sorry stories you read from people. It does take more effort but it is also hugely more enjoyable and rewarding.

Hi Steve,

You are confusing the discussion here I think. OF COURSE a pure white hat blog with fantastic content is a better way to go, but try doing that on 12 domains or more, by yourself.

I started coding and creating a better autoblog because I want to make more money without having to write all the content myself. Simple and honest.

You are very aggressive in your attack on autoblogs, and perhaps I know why. Perhaps it's because you make money promoting a different kind of product. That is cool and fine too, or maybe you just "have something against" aggregation of content.

I suppose you think major sites like, The Huffington Post, The Drudge Report, etc. are total crap as well?? Am I wrong? ALL my autoblogs look better and navigate better than the Drudge report.

And by the looks of what is happening with the new Google update, our autoblogs will be earning over $2500 in March, so don't claim autoblogging can't pay.

You come across quite sure of yourself against autoblogs, but claiming you KNOW for a fact they make peanuts, when you apparently HAVE NOT coded your own scripts, and truly managed autoblogs, is flawed.

You want proof of my earnings.....I have screen shots all over the place on my IM blog.

And this hard line scream from everyone about NOT using Adsense on an autoblog - fine....don't. Use Chitika or don't - use aff links. Whatever. Monetization is up to each individual.

In the end my friend, we all have choices to make and we will earn or not earn based on those choices.

[Dumkist]

I hope your not monetizing your sites with adsense on these auto blogs...why ?..take a look >>>> AdSense Facts & Fiction Part V: Unoriginal content - Inside AdSense

[Steve Crooks]

No that is not what I am saying.. I am saying that autobloggers just seem content to bottom feed when with some imagination and effort they can create something their visitors actually like and as a result will stick and earn a lot more income. Surely you have to agree, that is the better approach.

Originally Posted by guitarjosh

So your issue with the whole thing is that I would simply be content making $2000 a month forever without having to do anything else? It's wrong because I wouldn't be consumed with making more money? I'm confused since you've already stated that sites could indeed provide value.

[TZ]

Originally Posted by Dumkist

I hope your not monetizing your sites with adsense on these auto blogs...why ?..take a look >>>> AdSense Facts & Fiction Part V: Unoriginal content - Inside AdSense

And yet more of the same meme.....yawnnnnnn.

You can use whatever you want to monetize an autoblog.

Stick funny pictures of your annoying mother-in-law in the header just for fun.

Whatever. I get a serious chuckle from people who keep "warning me" about my Adsense account.

I bet my autoblogs provide a better quality reading and navigating experience than allot of manual blogs. Why? Because the content is all well written and informative, and presented nicely.

My wife was doing some shopping the other day for some gifts for her sister, and she was 4 paragraphs down an article before she realized that she was on an autoblog I had started a year ago!

The naysayers here are NOT speaking from any position of authority, and I doubt they even know the first thing about writing PHP, ASP, or manipulating Mysql, or Apache.

[Steve Crooks]

Okay, maybe I am not making myself clear.. Chucking a bunch of keywords into your script and pulling in some possibly relevant, probably irrelevant datafeeds and calling that a site is completely different to using datafeeds responsibly.

Compare that to researching what your visitor is looking for and then giving it to them as valuable info (including pulling in perhaps some ebay ads or amazon products) but alongside that you provide a video of you using that product. You include some reviews from various users etc etc.. That is the difference.

Originally Posted by guitarjosh

You're making this discussion difficult by not having a firm grasp on your position. You've just stated right before this "In fact, pulling in datafeeds of products, price comparisons etc.. are offering something of value."

Make up your mind, Steve. I enjoy a good debate but come on man.

[gearmonkey]

My autoblog earns me a few bucks a day in adsense. Not a lot of money, but helps pay for the VPS server fee.

[TZ]

Originally Posted by Steve Crooks

Okay, maybe I am not making myself clear.. Chucking a bunch of keywords into your script and pulling in some possibly relevant, probably irrelevant datafeeds and calling that a site is completely different to using datafeeds responsibly.

Compare that to researching what your visitor is looking for and then giving it to them as valuable info (including pulling in perhaps some ebay ads or amazon products) but alongside that you provide a video of you using that product. You include some reviews from various users etc etc.. That is the difference.

Ok. Now you have proved you need to do a little more research Steve, and I say this with respect.

No autoblogging system worth it's salt EVER "chucks keywords in and scraps content", and no autoblogger who knows what he is doing ever pulls content randomly. We laser target our feeds to the hair point, and we use scripts to make sure the content is pulled cleanly, efficiently, and pretty.

You are talking about autoblog systems of yester-year, that are TOTAL CRAP, and then I agree with you big time. Those half banked scripts were written by coding monkeys and they do create total trash.

You can't get around the fact there are hundreds of HIGH ranked domains across the Internet that are simply good aggregators and content management systems that run efficiently.

When we use autoblogs we are simply setting up the same thing. The difference is we are not The Huff Po.

[Dumkist]

Originally Posted by TZ

And yet more of the same meme.....yawnnnnnn.

You can use whatever you want to monetize an autoblog.

Stick funny pictures of your annoying mother-in-law in the header just for fun.

Whatever. I get a serious chuckle from people who keep "warning me" about my Adsense account.

I bet my autoblogs provide a better quality reading and navigating experience than allot of manual blogs. Why? Because the content is all well written and informative, and presented nicely.

My wife was doing some shopping the other day for some gifts for her sister, and she was 4 paragraphs down an article before she realized that she was on an autoblog I had started a year ago!

The naysayers here are NOT speaking from any position of authority, and I doubt they even know the first thing about writing PHP, ASP, Mysql, or Apache.

Hi Terry,

Not trying to give you a hard time man..I just wanted to share this with you...man I would love to be able to do what your doing believe me..I did try auto blogs but never made much money..they would always start off with all the pages getting Indexed and then all the pages getting de-indexed...I wish I could do the same..I just worry about my account being banned.

So ..How many of these auto blogs do you have Terry ?..how much are you making per month ?

[guitarjosh]

Originally Posted by Steve Crooks

No that is not what I am saying.. I am saying that autobloggers just seem content to bottom feed when with some imagination and effort they can create something their visitors actually like and as a result will stick and earn a lot more income. Surely you have to agree, that is the better approach.

I think that bottom feeding is just a perception that you created about this for yourself. I don't consider it bottom feeding. That's not my perception.

I do understand your hesitation to give a nod of approval based on most auto blogs I've seen. I program... I have forever.. and I'm good at it. When I look at what I've created, I am proud. I worked so hard and I kept adding features and unique ideas. It was a thrill to see it coming to fruition. I'm still adding today with every new idea. Part of me wants to just send you a url and then I kind of feel that you would say "oh.. okay. I get it. That's different." (Maybe not though) Only because I don't just slop content all over a page. I personally feel that the php script I've created looks better than any auto blog I've ever seen online. I've even made it where the columns are able to be sorted by date, location or price. It's sleek and pretty! But I think that handing out urls is just bad business (as many will agree).

And contrary to what someone else said earlier, I don't sell an auto blogging solution. I have a unique script that I made and only I own and I probably won't ever sell it. I prefer the footprint to never be big. I initially just chimed in to encourage others to consider a pretty amazingly easy way to make money.

[TZ]

Originally Posted by guitarjosh

I think that bottom feeding is just a perception that you created about this for yourself. I don't consider it bottom feeding. That's not my perception.

I do understand your hesitation to give a nod of approval based on most auto blogs I've seen. I program... I have forever.. and I'm good at it. When I look at what I've created, I am proud. I worked so hard and I kept adding features and unique ideas. It was a thrill to see it coming to fruition. I'm still adding today with every new idea. Part of me wants to just send you a url and then I kind of feel that you would say "oh.. okay. I get it. That's different." (Maybe not though) Only because I don't just slop content all over a page. I personally feel that the php script I've created looks better than any auto blog I've ever seen online. I've even made it where the columns are able to be sorted by date, location or price. It's sleek and pretty! But I think that handing out urls is just bad business (as many will agree).

And contrary to what someone else said earlier, I don't sell an auto blogging solution. I have a unique script that I made and only I own and I probably won't ever sell it. I prefer the footprint to never be big. I initially just chimed in to encourage others to consider a pretty amazingly easy way to make money.

Cha-Ching

Don't be spitting your URLs out on this forum Josh. Never again!

Unless it's a domain you don't care about that much.

[Steve Crooks]

First of, why would you want to do that on 12 domains when you can concentrate on just a few great sites and grow them exponentially without fear?

I apologise if I appear aggressive, I don't mean to but there are a lot of new warriors here who have to make decisions on what path to take. Every day, there are posts on here about people losing their Adsense accounts because they have broken the TOS. I want to show these people that there is a better way that once it is up and running and growing can be as automatic as an autoblog and more lucrative in the long term, in fact it can potentially be income for life. I prefer to say I am passionate about this rather than aggressive.

I wouldn't call those examples of sites crap and if yours are better then I would be really interested in seeing an example. I am not asking you to reveal your money sites but you must have an example site that you can show. I assume zullit.com wasn't what you are talking about. I am not saying it is bad or anything but I wouldn't compare it with the huffington post or the other examples.

I didn't claim autoblogs don't earn.. Maybe you should read what I said again.

Your earnings are your business but I bet you could earn more if you matched your coding skills with some valuable, well researched, visitor oriented content. If you don't want to do it yourself, then you should discover the world of opportunities that investing your income in outsourcing can do to your bottom line. Computers and scripts are great but people still do a much better job and will do for a long time yet.

Originally Posted by TZ

Hi Steve,

You are confusing the discussion here I think. OF COURSE a pure white hat blog with fantastic content is a better way to go, but try doing that on 12 domains or more, by yourself.

I started coding and creating a better autoblog because I want to make more money without having to write all the content myself. Simple and honest.

You are very aggressive in your attack on autoblogs, and perhaps I know why. Perhaps it's because you make money promoting a different kind of product. That is cool and fine too, or maybe you just "have something against" aggregation of content.

I suppose you think major sites like, The Huffington Post, The Drudge Report, etc. are total crap as well?? Am I wrong? ALL my autoblogs look better and navigate better than the Drudge report.

And by the looks of what is happening with the new Google update, our autoblogs will be earning over $2500 in March, so don't claim autoblogging can't pay.

You come across quite sure of yourself against autoblogs, but claiming you KNOW for a fact they make peanuts, when you apparently HAVE NOT coded your own scripts, and truly managed autoblogs, is flawed.

You want proof of my earnings.....I have screen shots all over the place on my IM blog.

And this hard line scream from everyone about NOT using Adsense on an autoblog - fine....don't. Use Chitika or don't - use aff links. Whatever. Monetization is up to each individual.

In the end my friend, we all have choices to make and we will earn or not earn based on those choices.

[guitarjosh]

Originally Posted by TZ

Cha-Ching

Don't be spitting your URLs out on this forum Josh. Never again!

Unless it's a domain you don't care about that much.

LOL... you do realize I said that I wouldn't do this, right?! Doing that on this forum in particular just wouldn't be a smart business decision.

[TZ]

Originally Posted by guitarjosh

LOL... you do realize I said that I wouldn't do this, right?! Doing that on this forum in particular just wouldn't be a smart business decision.

Yeah. I get that. Just sounded like you were thinking about it. Are yours is ASP or PHP?

[Steve Crooks]

I have an open mind and both yourself TZ keep saying that your autoblogs are different.. Does either of you have an example to show. Not a money site or anything, I wouldn't ask for that but some example site that you can showcase your talents.

Originally Posted by guitarjosh

I think that bottom feeding is just a perception that you created about this for yourself. I don't consider it bottom feeding. That's not my perception.

I do understand your hesitation to give a nod of approval based on most auto blogs I've seen. I program... I have forever.. and I'm good at it. When I look at what I've created, I am proud. I worked so hard and I kept adding features and unique ideas. It was a thrill to see it coming to fruition. I'm still adding today with every new idea. Part of me wants to just send you a url and then I kind of feel that you would say "oh.. okay. I get it. That's different." (Maybe not though) Only because I don't just slop content all over a page. I personally feel that the php script I've created looks better than any auto blog I've ever seen online. I've even made it where the columns are able to be sorted by date, location or price. It's sleek and pretty! But I think that handing out urls is just bad business (as many will agree).

And contrary to what someone else said earlier, I don't sell an auto blogging solution. I have a unique script that I made and only I own and I probably won't ever sell it. I prefer the footprint to never be big. I initially just chimed in to encourage others to consider a pretty amazingly easy way to make money.

[guitarjosh]

Originally Posted by Steve Crooks

Your earnings are your business but I bet you could earn more if you matched your coding skills with some valuable, well researched, visitor oriented content. If you don't want to do it yourself, then you should discover the world of opportunities that investing your income in outsourcing can do to your bottom line. Computers and scripts are great but people still do a much better job and will do for a long time yet.

You're probably right on with this, Steve! Every time I ever thought about creating a site with content and interacting.. it just felt so .... "not me!" I don't even like to smile for a photo. Outsourcing would probably be a good solution.