The Undeniable Truth About Google ‘Slaps’ and How to Avoid Them

See the screenshot above? It’s from one of my best performing sites. It’s a .com that appears in the Google Top 3 for it’s keyword. This site brings in between $200-$400 a month without being touched. It relies completely on reposted RSS content that has been obtained with permission. The site went from 300-400 uniques per day to 15-40. Earnings have been slashed and I’m lucky if it brings in $80 this month. Luckily, this site is peanuts to me and doesn’t represent much income in the long run. It’s just there to pay for a few extras.

Why Am I Sharing This?

I’ve been building sites since 1998 and I’ve noticed definitive trends along the way. I know what works…and what doesn’t. As you surf the Warrior Forum, I want you to keep an eye out for anyone that promises a solution that is too easy. If it runs on “Autopilot”, and you build your lifestyle reliant on it’s earnings, your lifestyle could be slashed in half like my example above.

I don’t want new marketers to learn these lessons the hard way. Especially when your livelihood may hang in the balance.

“But I’ve Got My Eggs in Tons of Baskets, Dude!”

One last thing, many people will say “don’t put your eggs in one basket”, and they’re right…but sometimes the statement is misunderstood. Some people interpret that as “follow this auto-pilot technique on as many different URLS and C Class IP’s as possible”. That is not the correct interpretation. What marketers generally mean is to start multiple “reliable” streams of income. Don’t simply multiply one method over and over again (unless it’s built on solid proven principles).

Techniques that Fail with Google

Without any more delays, here is what will never work long-term on Google. They may bring in short-term results, but one day you’ll get slapped just like I did.

  • Imported RSS Feeds If you’re using WP-O-Matic to rehash content, one of 2 things will happen. You’ll either enter Google at a very low position and remain there for life. Or you’ll be propelled upwards only to get shot down with the next Google update. These types of sites become very useless very quickly and it seems like once you get slapped, there’s no coming back. I’ve tried replacing Imported RSS content with original content but it simple never gained favor with Google again.
  • Automatically Re-Written Articles I’m talking about WordPress plugins, subscriptions and desktop software that “automagically rewrites content” for you. I’ve looked at these and they all produce terrible results. Even the best ones produce a good paragraph followed by a cryptic sentence. Stay away from this crap. The only decent article rewriter I’ve found is Power Article Rewriter because you manually rewrite the articles and spin them yourself. Remember, at the core of your business are real human visitors that will attempt to read your article. You need to build trust quickly and these rewriters will send them running.
  • Made-for-Adsense Sites Google can tell when a site has nothing but rich keyword articles and adsense ads. These sites normally have zero outgoing links that are relevant and scream “adsense site”. Google will never give these sites decent ranking. Also, why do you want to earn $1.23 after 100 clicks when those same 100 clicks can earn you a $20-$80 affiliate sale?

So What’s the Secret?

Simple. High quality original content. Text makes the internet go ’round. If your text is original, you will always outrank the fools that use the techniques above.

How Do I Do That?

Write normally and naturally. Save your sales pitches for your Salesletters and Squeeze pages. Keep the content on your site “real”. Never use PLR without editing the hell out of it. If possible, open your PLR in a separate window and read a paragraph. Then go back to your writing window and rephrase it in your own words. Don’t just replace keywords, rewrite the whole bloody thing. If this technique isn’t fast enough for you, invest in Dragon Naturally Speaking 10, read your PLR and rephrase it outloud by speaking. This will let you jam out articles in 5-10 minutes.

What if I Can’t Write? Or Don’t Have Time to Research Niches?

Then you need PLR. If you really want to learn the right way to build sites and empires, you need to check out SimplyPLR by Matt Callen.

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