Since Micro Niche is now dead where to go from here?

53 replies
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I wish I had got in on the Micro Niche space before it became mainstream and people were bragging about making millions off it...now Google has killed it, and are slapping and deindexing thousands of websites seemingly every week(the last being a few days ago which appears to really focus on hostgator hosted sites). They're also banning adsense accounts left and right, even for top marketers who've used them for years, made thousands and did nothing wrong....so since adsense is near death and micro niche is finished, where to go from here?(short of "lists" I hear that constantly, surely you guys have some other avenues?)

And please no "quality content" propaganda, if I hear those words anymore today I may just puke, google has been spoon feeding that slogan enough, having everyone in marketing community repeat it over and over like robots gets old. I may even try and filter out those words from my browser traffic. All the top Article sites are dead or near dead anyway...just check their ranking on alexa and their lack of placement in google...ezine articles etc...Thanks in advance.
#dead #micro #niche
  • Profile picture of the author socomplete
    How about just 1 - 3 sites that you rotate, with "quality content" your favorite word and build quality links? I always look at different search results, and from everything I've seen, the large websites that have been around for ages, seem to be doing just fine.
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    • Profile picture of the author cashtree
      Originally Posted by socomplete View Post

      How about just 1 - 3 sites that you rotate, with "quality content" your favorite word and build quality links? I always look at different search results, and from everything I've seen, the large websites that have been around for ages, seem to be doing just fine.
      Googles definition of quality is a site that's been around forever and or pays them to be ranked. Neither are useful for me or most marketers. I'm talking modern day ways of making money, preferably to cut google out the picture entirely.
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      • Profile picture of the author GodMode52
        All my MNS are up and strong like never before..
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    • Profile picture of the author SantiSantana
      The reason you are heareing "quality content" so much is simlpy that it is where this is going now. When Everyone spoke about Page Rank first it became all the rage and people started working on building links like crazy. If a ton of people were creating a ton of websites all with the same content the race was on to see who could rank higher ( form a marketers point of view).

      From the user perspective you could find that the top 10 results for a given keyword might have been exactly the same content ( perhaps with a few spun items form the same content), so as a user you were not getting value form the search.

      If you use a product for a long time and at some point you dont like what it does you tend to stop using it and look for an alternative.

      Google simply has taken notice of this and decided to shift the focus to fresh content so that user experience will be better.

      What that means for you and me ( and everyone else) is that content creation will be (again) the important thing. Now article writers will see increasing prices as the men are sorted from the boys. Great time to master article writing if you ask me.

      Hope this helps.

      PS: Besides, in micro niches where by definition there are less people competing, fresh content will be even more visible and should get you better results (but that is just my uninformed opinion I must say).

      PS2: Plan B is to do your marketing efforts not directed to getting high SERPS but extracting traffic directly from other sources to your site. The byproduct usually is that you also get linkjuice from that but that is just the icing on the cake.
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  • Profile picture of the author wAvision
    I would turn to quality content, and solid SEO practices that do not involve using automated mass submission practices.

    Seems to work fine for me.
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  • Profile picture of the author warriorkay
    Where to go from here - build the kind of sites that won't need
    Google to succeed.
    That's part of my plan for 2012!

    Yes, I am talking about real POWER sites that people absolutely
    love and keep coming back to, again and again... and keep referring
    other people to.

    We, with YEARS of experience in IM, more than everyone else,
    know how to create such sites and make them flourish. The problem
    is that we (myself included) have spent too much time on micro
    niche sites! At one time I had nearly 2,000 domain names and have
    spent over $40,000 just buying and renewing domain names, ouch,

    Imagine if I spent the whole time on just one or few sites?

    Kingsley

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    • Profile picture of the author cashtree
      Originally Posted by warriorkay View Post

      Where to go from here - build the kind of sites that won't need
      Google to succeed. That's part of my plan for 2012!

      Kingsley

      .
      Those take time and i'm trying to make money.
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      • Profile picture of the author myob
        You have perhaps suddenly discovered that the "old" micro niche concept is dead, but that's only true for those who can't or won't write quality content. It does not take massive effort to make a killing with or without Google - and never has.
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      • Profile picture of the author MidlandsMarketer
        Originally Posted by cashtree View Post

        Those take time and i'm trying to make money.
        Unfortunately it's difficult to make money without either spending time or money to get the results you desire.

        Frankly, Micro Niche Sites are not 'dead' at all. I have plenty that are ranking and doing well. A 'Micro Niche' is a small niche that doesn't get huge amounts of traffic but a significant enough portion to generate good profits. A MNS does not have to be a spammy site that would get banned.
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        • Profile picture of the author cashtree
          Originally Posted by MidlandsMarketer View Post

          Unfortunately it's difficult to make money without either spending time or money to get the results you desire.

          Frankly, Micro Niche Sites are not 'dead' at all. I have plenty that are ranking and doing well. A 'Micro Niche' is a small niche that doesn't get huge amounts of traffic but a significant enough portion to generate good profits. A MNS does not have to be a spammy site that would get banned.
          Are you making that killing off adsense? and people are getting banned for little to no reason. Just read some of these posts all over the net from top marketers and people on this very forum. Not everyones lieing or dillusional, if google hasn't hurt your site yet my guess is you've gotten lucky thus far. I was lucky too till yesterday, never had a spam or blackhat link to my site, and still don't, yet i've been wiped into nothing. When i was front page for many many keywords, now spam sites ironically ARE front page, and Webmaster tools no reason given. I know the reason it's my webhost that's how broken google is, and you all keep acting like nothing bigs happening...I don't know what's worse. Anyway I'm trying to make this thread so when you do get hit you have some ideas, but clearly this thread is mostly fail so far, "quality content", spam that's all it is.
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          • Profile picture of the author MidlandsMarketer
            Originally Posted by cashtree View Post

            Are you making that killing off adsense? and people are getting banned for little to no reason. Just read some of these posts all over the net from top marketers and people on this very forum. Not everyones lieing or dillusional, if google hasn't hurt your site yet my guess is you've gotten lucky thus far. I'm trying to make this thread so when you do get hit you have some ideas, but clearly this thread is mostly fail so far, "quality content", spam that's all it is.
            No. I have little to do with Adsense because the income generated is far poorer than other methods.

            I've bolded part of your response so I can use this to shout (not at you, but to anyone who may be reading this)...

            DO NOT RELY ON GOOGLE IN ANY WAY WHAT.SO.EVER!!!!

            I work damned hard to make sure that the vast majority of my traffic comes from sources other than Google. As you say, the risk is too much (though I've never been banned or slapped for no reason, and I doubt this is down to 'luck').
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            • Profile picture of the author cashtree
              Originally Posted by MidlandsMarketer View Post

              No. I have little to do with Adsense because the income generated is far poorer than other methods.

              I've bolded part of your response so I can use this to shout (not at you, but to anyone who may be reading this)...

              DO NOT RELY ON GOOGLE IN ANY WAY WHAT.SO.EVER!!!!

              I work damned hard to make sure that the vast majority of my traffic comes from sources other than Google. As you say, the risk is too much (though I've never been banned or slapped for no reason, and I doubt this is down to 'luck').
              It's luck, I assure you, many slapped did nothing wrong, so don't convince yourself that you doing nothing wrong is somehow better than others who didn't. Also you mind sharing how you managed to get majority of your traffic via non-google methods? And what you're using to monetize?
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              • Profile picture of the author MidlandsMarketer
                Originally Posted by cashtree View Post

                It's luck, I assure you, many slapped did nothing wrong, so don't convince yourself that you doing nothing wrong is somehow better than others who didn't. Also you mind sharing how you managed to get majority of your traffic via non-google methods? And what you're using to monetize?
                Will have to agree to disagree on the luck factor.

                With regards to non-G methods, I use blog commenting (the 'proper' way), guest blogging, article syndication, social media promotion, forum posting/relationship building and, where necessary, PPC advertising. (EDIT: I forgot to add that I occasionaly use video marketing as well. Not nearly as frequently but I'm looking to utilize it more. Also realised that you asked about monetization- usually affiliate promotions)

                I've also found (I may have mentioned in other posts, not sure) that a lot of these methods to bring in traffic from diverse sources actually helps my Google rankings, so make of that what you will.
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          • Profile picture of the author SantiSantana
            From an article I read last weekend somewhere ( can't recall where sadly) some people are "repurposing" their sites using a technique that didn't seem too orthodox but is definitely not illegal.

            It goes around the idea of changing your target keywords: the long tail of the longtail, so to speak.

            You would be looking at findin "longer tail" keywords for your Niche and directing your efforts at ranking for those. Creating a list of keywords (say10) then working on ranking 2 of them in a given period then moving to the next 2. Of course you can change that 2 a time parameter to whatever you like. The "hard" part about that is that you probably need some " you know what" to make that easier for you.

            Another alternative is also currently a buzzword too: Curation.

            The disadvantge to curation is that it is by no means an automated solution and needs a lot of human input. The good thing is that it can be outsourced and will probably give you authority status if handled well which will bring even more traffic.

            Adsense side of things the only thing I can tell you is that there ar emore networks. I work with adbrite myself and a quick search will likely get you some alternatives.

            Of course all of this assumes that you want to work on the white hat side of things. The other side I really cannot tell you much about as I stopped checking over what they were up to a couple of years ago and besides, if you are looking for a sustainable business model that doesn't really look like it, worrying about legal issues, hosting issues, legal issues, payment processor issues, legal issues... you get my drift.

            Hope this helps you even if only a little.

            Santi
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          • Profile picture of the author Richard Van
            Originally Posted by cashtree View Post

            I was lucky too till yesterday, never had a spam or blackhat link to my site, and still don't, yet i've been wiped into nothing. When i was front page for many many keywords, now spam sites ironically ARE front page, and Webmaster tools no reason given.
            Hi Cashtree,

            I'm very sorry to hear about what's happened to you and I've heard about some of the going ons as I've been quietly watching.

            I have a number of niche sites which are so far ok but I have been trying to 'tidy' them and I'm prepared to lose them if that's what is to happen. I can't control the big G. The one reason I'm not overly fussed is the main reason for those sites was to collect names and emails, the secondary function was to get sales. If the sites vanish, I still have an asset.

            Over the last year though I've been trying more and more to be less and less reliant on Google, using methods to get traffic I control today and in future. This does take time and hard work but you've done that before.

            I appreciate now you must be very p*ssed off and I don't blame you. I do think though that Myob, Kingsley and Midland marketer make some very good points. Build sites from now on you have full control over and even if they deindex you or shut your hosting or whatever, you have an asset, like a list, you can use to recover from.

            The web changes and evolves, we have to do the same. If I can help in any way or if you just want a chat on Skype to have a good rant, send me a PM, I'll be more than happy to do my best to help you out.
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  • Profile picture of the author travlinguy
    Try quality content. That's the direction everyone is going.
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    • Profile picture of the author cashtree
      Originally Posted by travlinguy View Post

      Try quality content. That's the direction everyone is going.
      Yes everyone's turning into a robot...let's all repeat the same non-sense. I kindly asked to not have that useless term spammed on me and just every response has it anyway...I miss the quality on this forum. So far no real ideas, nothing, just "quality content". Makes me wonder if anyone's really making any money, they can't be if that's their whole game plan, 100%.
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      • Profile picture of the author Billy Levin
        Originally Posted by cashtree View Post

        Yes everyone's turning into a robot...let's all repeat the same non-sense. I kindly asked to not have that useless term spammed on me and just every response has it anyway...I miss the quality on this forum. So far no real ideas, nothing, just "quality content". Makes me wonder if anyone's really making any money, they can't be if that's their whole game plan, 100%.
        Quality content is the first step on the game plan. You can't progress to further steps until you've completed the first. Please get that into your head.
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  • Profile picture of the author Billy Levin
    Looks like you're unwilling to provide quality content for your sites.

    Honestly, you're not going to get very far without it, friend.

    Perhaps if everyone is saying the same thing it might actually be the solution? Just a thought.
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    • Profile picture of the author socomplete
      If you want nothing to do with Google you can also build a giant email list in a niche that you know about, using paid traffic. Give your list great information, and after a while promote affiliate programs that pay re-occurring commissions. Just a thought.
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    • Profile picture of the author cashtree
      Originally Posted by manicmonkey View Post

      Looks like you're unwilling to provide quality content for your sites.

      Honestly, you're not going to get very far without it, friend.

      Perhaps if everyone is saying the same thing it might actually be the solution? Just a thought.
      It's not a solution, and that's a fact. Look around, many sites that have new "quality content" posts every single day are being wiped off the google index or slapped into nothing. I really hope someone with real ideas has some input here, this is getting quite sad.
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      • Profile picture of the author Billy Levin
        Originally Posted by cashtree View Post

        It's not a solution, and that's a fact. Look around, many sites that have new "quality content" posts every single day are being wiped off the google index or slapped into nothing. I really hope someone with real ideas has some input here, this is getting quite sad.
        You won't get anywhere until you realise good content is absolutely necessary to succeed. If you can't accept that, do something not related to blogs/sites that need content at all.
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    • Profile picture of the author Tevis Verrett
      Originally Posted by manicmonkey View Post

      Looks like you're unwilling to provide quality content for your sites.

      Honestly, you're not going to get very far without it, friend.

      Perhaps if everyone is saying the same thing it might actually be the solution? Just a thought.
      Booyah, out of the mouths of Babes. . . . .

      Thank you MM, my sentiments exactly!

      Also, I disagree about automated submissions. It just has to be done intelligently. Dripping versus blasting.

      Thats my .03,

      Tevis
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  • Profile picture of the author Robbie B
    Lucky for me, I like to write, so when I got shut out of Google it spurred me to go back to my writing service. I'll probably stay here for a while. It's actually the only way I reckon is sustainable at the moment.

    Providing a service.
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  • Profile picture of the author Sonny Am
    Some of the biggest dogs in the IM game have been building strong "niche" sites for years and don't seem to have been penalized by Google thus far.

    There seems to be a distinct difference between niche site and micro niche site, the latter being one that has 5 pages that are usually made for adsense with a long exact match domain. Essentially it seems that these sites were gaming the system, and did so successfully for quite a period of time, until now. Now it seems that the niche sites, the ones that were still centered around a narrow topic, but had more content and fostered greater engagement and involvement from users seem to be still here.

    It therefore seems that if it is a battle between

    10 niche sites built lovingly with lots of good content, vs 100 niche sitess built less lovingly with less content and a concentration on adsense revenue, the former would win and has done.

    There also seems to be a very large advantage of having fewer niche sites from many perspectives, you have less sites to manage, less domains to renew, can concentrate on quality more easily, and so on.

    Personally, I am quite surprised it has taken this long for Google to start penalising sites that are not helping users and growing the internet in the right way.

    It seems therefore that this isnt just a lesson about adsense and google, it is a life lesson.

    Which is that the best way to a sustainable business and long term riches is to always provide quality and serve users problems properly amongst everything else. If you make the users the priority and the revenue the afterthought you will be in a better position to make some serious money in the long term.

    Facebook wasnt built to support ads, facebook was built to serve a purpose and provide some serious value to people, the revenue and profit generation was its second purpose, and because it was helping so many people, in the process it became very very profitable.

    I hope this helps people, just writing it helped me realise things and put things in to perspective.
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  • Profile picture of the author Robbie B
    Cashtree, What is your situation. Has Google banned your adsense account and/or de-indexed your sites.

    From reading that last section...

    Just read some of these posts all over the net from top marketers and on this very forum. Not everyones lieing or dillusional, if google hasn't hurt your site yet my guess is you've gotten lucky thus far.
    It looks like your reading a lot of the stuff that's out to scaremonger folks. To me that's what top marketers do. Form a circle, bombard the net with fear marketing messages and then release a product to satisfy the needs of the people they've scared into believing there's a problem.

    If your sites aren't affected, then you won't have anything to worry about. I just see that your original post only refers to reading about this problem and you don't mention you have personally experienced it.
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  • Profile picture of the author Leiif
    Amazon and Authority sites are going to be my focus
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  • Profile picture of the author Aussie_Al
    I don't understand why everyone is telling you "quality content" when you definitely said "please don't tell me quality content" - ha ha

    What about offering a service OR work up some ecommerce sites - for now google still loves them and most of them just seem to have the manufacturers descriptions on them as far as content is concerned.

    Sam England (a warrior on the forum) has a great WSO on setting up and running E-Commerce sites - do a search for him
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  • Profile picture of the author EllesBelles
    You've picked apart both big methods.

    1 - Quality content. Yes, you don't want to hear it, but Google does. Post high quality content, and you'll do fine. Anyone who claims to be posting high quality content and gets hit by Google either doesn't know what high quality content is, or stole it from somewhere else.

    2 - Don't rely on Google. No high quality content, which should please you, but you'll need to drive your own traffic. What methods are you using at the moment? Do you have a big social media following?

    If you don't have time, effort or money, you don't have a business.
    Easy doesn't equal success. Ever. And when it does, its very short term, and you should use it to make money while focusing on something long term.
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  • Profile picture of the author Shane N
    1. Mobile Marketing
    2. Social Marketing (Especially Pinterest)
    3. Apps --> iPhone, Android, Etc.
    4. Niche sites that you can market on platforms that are not Google, such as via:
    A) Forum Marketing
    B) Solo Ads
    C) PPC/PPV
    D) JV Adswaps
    E) Paid Marketplaces (Like the WSO forum, but in other niches)
    F) Social Networks

    I could go on and on... However, what is your REAL goal? Nobody ever said that Micro Niche sites were the only way to generate an income online... So whether they're dead or not... if you never got in on the action, perhaps you should feel happy because now all your sites aren't getting slapped, your businesses aren't crashing into the ground so you can seize the NEW opportunities that are up and coming.

    Focus on the positive stuff that you can do TODAY, not yesterday. I feel bad for anyone who had quality content and was "slapped" by Google for no reason other than "luck" as you put it... But if you weren't one of those unfortunate people, why not take advantage of the stuff that you know IS available and that works?

    Best,
    Shane
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    • Profile picture of the author QuirkieGifts
      Originally Posted by Shane Natan View Post

      1. Mobile Marketing
      2. Social Marketing (Especially Pinterest)
      3. Apps --> iPhone, Android, Etc.
      4. Niche sites that you can market on platforms that are not Google, such as via:
      A) Forum Marketing
      B) Solo Ads
      C) PPC/PPV
      D) JV Adswaps
      E) Paid Marketplaces (Like the WSO forum, but in other niches)
      F) Social Networks
      Hi you PM me please or advise what each of this can do to a business? I run an online store and turning to the internet for marketing and brand awareness. I currently rely on twitter and google PPC only at the minute,
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  • Profile picture of the author nvs74191
    Micro niche is not dead. Stop believing this BS.

    I use sites with republished article content. They do well, and earn adsense money too.

    Test for yourself, instead of reading stuff and believing them.

    And, for heaven's sake, redefine quality content and get a clarity in your mind. What is quality? How is it measured? How does a software measure quality?

    It is all about relevance. Nothing else.
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  • Profile picture of the author Palusko
    There are plenty of quality blogs that no one can find, and there are plenty of thin blogs and general articles, that (still) dominate some searches.

    There is also a lot of quality content that can hardly get 1-2 comments or tweets, and a lot of content-about-nothing, that gets shared like crazy.

    Quality is only a part of the whole equation, and it's not even the most dominant one.

    After all, Google cannot really recognize quality from a total BS. If I post 5000 word article with ton of facts, dates, data and footnotes, it looks like a quality content.

    Except, I can have all those facts, dates and data made up, thus actually having a completely useless content. It would be completely obvious to any reader, but not to Google.

    Yet I can have a simple 500 word article, with the real facts and data that the reader can use right away, yet Google can consider it thin content.

    Quality is in the eye of the user, Google can only deal with relevancy that it offers for each search term.
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  • Profile picture of the author giseo
    Just do what you used to do with each site but under one domain. Treat each blog post as a different "site."
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  • Profile picture of the author Rukshan
    MNS are not dead. You need to add quality content to give a value for the visitor. I still earn with adsense.
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  • Profile picture of the author JeremiahSay
    Hi,

    There's certainly more than 1 way to make money online beside just "quality content" Well since you hate "quality content" and "google" (i guess) so much, why not start a site that doesn't rely on quality content and google..

    Like create a squeeze page and start building a list.. <-- you still need to provide your list w good quality content though, but not the kind of content that google will slap.

    Alternatively, you could also do a product launch? That's also another way to make money without having to rely on google.

    I know it's easier said than done.. But all of us in the business arena, so please don't expect it to be easy, every business requires hard work, determination, effort, time etc..

    Hope this help,
    Jeremiah

    P.S. When the going gets tough, only the tough gets going
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  • Profile picture of the author onSubie
    Hi

    How many of your micro niche sites were de-indexed?

    Mine are all still ranking very high. They are in low competition niches so what web site will Google put on top?

    They are also all EMD which is also supposed to be 'dead' but they are #1 for k1k2k3, but page 2 for k2k3k1. Clearly the EMD helps rank for the exact phrase.

    Mahlon
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  • Profile picture of the author KeNiQ
    My Micro Niche sites are doing well.. I keep them between 5-10 pages
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    • Profile picture of the author cashtree
      Originally Posted by KeNiQ View Post

      My Micro Niche sites are doing well.. I keep them between 5-10 pages
      Site in my link is in a very tiny niche and has over 80 posts and idk how many pages, 6-8 I think. It use to rank front page for many keywords, and while site: and links: show it still existing in google it's be completely removed for lot of keywords, as in I can't find it at all, on any pages, but then again I stopped at page 30'ish, tired of looking. Webmaster tools shows nothin wrong either, so now useless+spam sites regained top spots...used no shady backlinks, is mostly forums and social bookmark.
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  • Profile picture of the author serafina
    yeah it's getting more harder. The definition for quality content itself is now not rewrite good quality article from another source but something new, fenomenal, important, well research and well written.Many of rewrite article(well written) MFA adsense site can't stand google manual review.
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  • Profile picture of the author Ashera
    Micro Niche sites aren't dead. Crappy sites and poor link building is dead.
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    If you don't change direction, you'll end up where you're going.
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    • Profile picture of the author GodMode52
      Originally Posted by Ashera View Post

      Miche Niche sites aren't dead. Crappy sites and poor link building is dead.
      This. ^ People earned big money buying 150$ softwares and spamming all around. This era was doomed to failure. And honestly I think this will improve users experience and will penalize the excessive and spammy black hat methods. So everyone will be happy
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  • Profile picture of the author GodMode52
    Actually I was reading around and it seems that those banned guys had coupons sites with their adsense on. This could be the reason as google is banning many of this. The best advice is to keep those MNS separated, I mean if you have 50+ MNS keep 25 on one account and 25 on another. Also if adsense bans you that's not the end of world. You still get your traffic and there's many way to monetize it.
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    • Profile picture of the author onSubie
      Originally Posted by GodMode52 View Post

      Actually I was reading around and it seems that those banned guys had coupons sites with their adsense on.
      Hmmm, I just read a WSO that advised the 'coupon niche' is good for niche adsense sites because people looking for coupon deals will click on ads that promote other good deals.

      The WSO advocated using a coupon feed service for niche sites like 'bestshoecoupons' and 'discountsalescoupons'.

      No mention in the WSO that putting adsense on a coupon site could get your adsense account banned....

      Mahlon
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      • Profile picture of the author GodMode52
        Originally Posted by onSubie View Post

        Hmmm, I just read a WSO that advised the 'coupon niche' is good for niche adsense sites because people looking for coupon deals will click on ads that promote other good deals.

        The WSO advocated using a coupon feed service for niche sites like 'bestshoecoupons' and 'discountsalescoupons'.

        No mention in the WSO that putting adsense on a coupon site could get your adsense account banned....

        Mahlon


        Austin
        April 16, 2012 at 7:39 am
        First off, sorry to hear that Spencer. I feel your pain and your hurt! I have been following your blog for the past few months and I love your newsletters.
        This happened to me and my partner few months ago. We have been using adsense for 2 years and suddenly we got the typical letter like the one you got and it felt like the world came down on us. We had close to £3000 in the account. For the first few days I struggled to eat because that was our main income.
        I submitted an appeal and they rejected and sent back the generic appeal reply.
        The worst thing was that, not only did Google disabled the accounts, but they also penalized all the sites that was in the account. Our ranking after they disabled the account went from page one to page 6 for all keywords. These were sites that were generating 4-5 figure sum every month, we lost everything. Luckily for you, your ranking were not affected.
        The main reason I got banned I think was some coupons sites I had and I suspect the same thing happened to you because you said you had some oil change coupon sites and I had some of that as well.
        I feel Google doesn't like "Coupon sites" because most of them do not really offer the real coupons but instead just give info about where to get them. If you look in Flippa, you will see what I mean. Almost all the coupon sites being listed had their account disable. I know friends as well that had coupon sites and their accounts were disabled.
        I am not saying this is the reason Google disabled your account but could be one of the reasons.
        I have completely left adsense and I went back to affiilate marketing I was doing before adsense. Luckily for me, I found some good product keywords I was able to rank for and I am now making the same money like I did with adsense with rest of mind! The affiliate managers care about you and they specifically answer your question unlike adsense that just sent generic message to everyone!
        Other good alternative to Google adsense are infolinks and medianet which you said you have already applied. They are the top 2. Like you said you won't get close to what you were getting with adsense which is the downfall.
        The truth is Google only care about making money and they don't give a f. About their affiliate.
        I had my Google adword account suspended last week. I got in contact with them and I had this customer service assistant sending and replying to my e-mails every minute of the day. Within a few days, they reinstated my account. Why? Because they know you are spending money and they lose out if they close your account. Even after they reinstated my account she was still sending me e-mails to make sure I was happy. You will never get that with adsense!
        Good luck and I hope you come out of this stronger. Cheers


        I heard the same thing on other places too..
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        • Profile picture of the author Carl Brown
          Micro niche doesn't have to mean a micro-site. Others who were considered leaders in micro-niche sites said repeatedly that most of their micro-niche sites contained 100 pages or more of useful content.
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  • Profile picture of the author brettb
    Where's OP's proof? My Hostgator niche sites are doing OK.
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  • Profile picture of the author tpw
    Microniche sites are only dead if you rely exclusively on Google to drive traffic to your site.
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    Publish Coloring Books for Profit (WSOTD 7-30-2015)
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  • Profile picture of the author Rod Cortez
    Micro-niches are far from dead. With all the paid media and advertising sources out there trying to dump their inventory I would say there's never been a better time to get started!

    RoD
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    "Your personal philosophy is the greatest determining factor in how your life works out."
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  • Profile picture of the author jedediahd
    It is not that they are targeting micro-niche sites and wiping them out, the point you are missing is why things are being wiped out. Granted, I do not have all the answers, but the fact that sites both big and small have been hit should tell you something. I get the feeling that G has just had enough of the bull and is getting really serious about trying to clean up the serps, with some of the time the effects not making a ton of sense.

    Reasons why I think people are getting dinged:

    Crappy content that provides no real purpose - If Microsoft word can pick up on spelling, grammar and formatting of content, what makes you think G doesn't do the same. If your on site content is sub-par, there is not much you can do right. I know you don't want to hear it, but follow the trends, content is king now more so than ever.

    Sites using blog networks - We all know the blog networks got nailed, but what is the direct result? It is links being de-valued and de-indexed, and a 30-90 day trust penalty. Notice it is not a rank penalty, but a trust penalty, the fact that rankings dropped should be a good indicator of how much G values trust as a part of their algorithm. The other side of this is...you guessed it, crappy content. When crappy spun content is used, it is fairly easy for me to unravel an entire blog network or at least a good chunk of it, and I am no google engineer. A lot of people made claims that their sites took a nasty hit lately, but they didnt tell you that they took a sky is falling approach, removing links, making changes, and worst case scenario, responding to the un-natural links notice. None of these helped their case.

    Over optimization - I think that they are cracking down big time on this. As someone said earlier in the thread, PR was all the rage for a while and people started building links like crazy, G patches it and makes PR less of a weighted item in the algorithm. People go crazy with anchor text, and G is patching it, and those who were doing it are getting slapped bad.

    Commercial anchor text spam - This is similar to over optimization, but plays more to the type of words one is using for their anchor text. If it is a link with an anchor that is not natural to the content, and then is hammered with over optimization, big daddy g is going to slap you for it.

    There is more floating around in my pea brain, but I don't have time to explain it all. What I can tell you is that I have no issues with my niche sites or my adsense account. I had 3 sites pop into the top 5 this week and guess what? I, a native English speaker who knows how to do a little research wrote the content. Make it valuable, link to real resources etc. I am not doing anything crazy other than quality and diversity.

    As far as adsense getting banned, I think if you have 100 sites on one account, you are begging for a manual review, and if that review comes, and they see that your sites are MFA, then you are donezo, they will say invalid clicks is the issue, but that is just a "we don't have to explain anything" answer
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  • Profile picture of the author Steadyon
    Google may or may not be genuine in their desire to improve the search results.

    But the way they are going about it is shocking. Too many good sites are being harmed.

    They harp on about needing good content.

    Well, explain this:

    One of my 10 year old authority sites which has been on page 1 for years for its main phrase is now on page 2.

    Another site of mine which I intended building (an EMD) but never got round to doing it, now ranks on page 1 and there is ZERO (I mean ZERO) content on it. It only has the initial install screen after installing drupal and ZERO backlinks.

    How on God's earth can google rank a site with nothing on it higher than an established (white hat) rich content site that is full of unique content.

    Google = Hypocrital unethical profit mongers that say one thing and mean something else

    Sam
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  • Profile picture of the author im4noobs
    Micro niche sites will never die and get wiped out... You just need to do it the right way!!
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