10 ms·

Daniel, it wasn't my intent to pick on you personally--sorry if it came across that way. It was just the juxtaposition that caught me off-guard. :)

DanielBMarkham 16y ago
I'm coming at this from the other side, so perhaps sometime we can compare notes. I'd like to learn. I'm a writer -- I love writing. I have a blog that I've been writing on for several years now. I think I'd write even if nobody wanted to read what I wrote. A year or so ago, it occurred to me that, instead of just writing whatever I feel like, perhaps I should try to write something that people want. So I use tools to see what people search for, and what kinds of content already exist. I've written some really corny sites, as you point out. But I hope that each site gets a little better, and I know from the emails and return traffic I get to some of my sites that people are getting value from them. Some -- probably not. That's okay because I'm learning. If I'm doing something wrong, please just let me know. I'm happy to change things. In this field we have the big companies, the scammers, and the folks somewhere in between. Most guys who make money off such sites probably aren't honest (stupid?) enough to blog about it. I know it's been very difficult for me to find guidelines on what works, what to do, and what not to do. So I've created my own guidelines for now: no rewrites, no link-spam, no tricking the user, no link-bait. Perhaps I need more. Don't know. That's all I have so far. Like I said, I'm not putting myself out there as an example of what to do or how to act. Beats me. This is a complicated problem and there are multiple valid points of view. Hey -- the first thing I install on my browser is AdBlock. I hate all forms of advertising, on any medium. I suggest others do the same. That doesn't mean I have to give up writing about stuff and providing content. And it doesn't mean I can't put ads on the content I provide. Not crazy about a lot of stuff I participate in. Head-spinning, perhaps. Sorry about that :)
- Maxious 16y ago
  > I've created my own guidelines for now: no rewrites, no link-spam, no tricking the user, no link-bait. Perhaps I need more. Don't know. That's all I have so far. Google Webmaster Guidelines: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35769 http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en... "We strongly encourage you to pay very close attention to the 'Quality Guidelines,' which outline some of the illicit practices that may lead to a site being removed entirely from the Google index or otherwise penalized. " http://www.whattofix.com/ http://www.whattofix.com/ looks a little dodgy through the eyes of a SEO link farm hunter when it links to http://www.hamburger-casserole-recipes.com/ http://www.hamburger-casserole-recipes.com/ and http://neuropathyinfeet.us/ http://neuropathyinfeet.us/ and http://paycheck-stub.com/ http://paycheck-stub.com/ and http://facebook-login-help.com/ http://facebook-login-help.com/ What sets it apart is obviously those sites really DO provide original information on those topics. But the layout of something like http://www.hamburger-casserole-recipes.com http://www.hamburger-casserole-recipes.com looks like http://www.spamrecipes.net/ http://www.spamrecipes.net/ which just copies other people's recipes and sticks a juicy ad block under them. It's hard to be honest in a world of scammers.
  - DanielBMarkham 16y ago
    Thank you. I'll give them a look. The http://www.hamburger-casserole-recipes.com/ http://www.hamburger-casserole-recipes.com/ site gets a lot of traffic, and a lot of it is return traffic. But, since recipes are fairly standard, it was very difficult not to in some way re-fashion what was already out there. When I was doing the research on the recipes site, I found a lot of what I consider spam -- sites full of recipes with the intention of tricking users into downloading spyware, buying SMS subscription services, and other such stuff. I felt like a simple, easy-to-read, targeted site based on just a few recipes people want might have value. It's not a general purpose recipe site, and the content is presented as simply and openly as possible. (And it was all entered by my wife) It's interesting that it would stand out as being dubious, as it seems to me to be the most straightforward trade of content for eyeballs of the sites I have. As an aside, it doesn't make much money, perhaps because nobody advertises about casseroles or cookbooks? Beats me. But I plan to keep it because of the positive response it gets, including people writing to ask for new recipes. I didn't have a problem listing my other sites on my blog, since, well, they are my other sites. It's not like I'm trying to keep them secret or anything. I appreciate the help.
andrewljohnson 16y ago
Please don't apologize. It's pretty clear hypocrisy. And please do something about the StackOverflow problem. This is clearly an issue with Google, which is highly visible to ALL programmers. I couldn't imagine a worse problem to have for a company that is interested in hiring the best engineers.
- Matt_Cutts 16y ago
  I did ping the right people about SO and added a new example that someone mentioned. The right team (and their manager) are actively discussing what steps are doable to improve these searches.
  - andrewljohnson 16y ago
    Awesome! THe efreedom stuff was really starting to bug me. I use StackOverflow a lot. Google is still hands down the best search engine.

DanielBMarkham 16y ago

I'm coming at this from the other side, so perhaps sometime we can compare notes. I'd like to learn. I'm a writer -- I love writing. I have a blog that I've been writing on for several years now. I think I'd write even if nobody wanted to read what I wrote. A year or so ago, it occurred to me that, instead of just writing whatever I feel like, perhaps I should try to write something that people want. So I use tools to see what people search for, and what kinds of content already exist. I've written some really corny sites, as you point out. But I hope that each site gets a little better, and I know from the emails and return traffic I get to some of my sites that people are getting value from them. Some -- probably not. That's okay because I'm learning. If I'm doing something wrong, please just let me know. I'm happy to change things. In this field we have the big companies, the scammers, and the folks somewhere in between. Most guys who make money off such sites probably aren't honest (stupid?) enough to blog about it. I know it's been very difficult for me to find guidelines on what works, what to do, and what not to do. So I've created my own guidelines for now: no rewrites, no link-spam, no tricking the user, no link-bait. Perhaps I need more. Don't know. That's all I have so far. Like I said, I'm not putting myself out there as an example of what to do or how to act. Beats me. This is a complicated problem and there are multiple valid points of view. Hey -- the first thing I install on my browser is AdBlock. I hate all forms of advertising, on any medium. I suggest others do the same. That doesn't mean I have to give up writing about stuff and providing content. And it doesn't mean I can't put ads on the content I provide. Not crazy about a lot of stuff I participate in. Head-spinning, perhaps. Sorry about that :)

Maxious 16y ago
> I've created my own guidelines for now: no rewrites, no link-spam, no tricking the user, no link-bait. Perhaps I need more. Don't know. That's all I have so far. Google Webmaster Guidelines: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35769 http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en... "We strongly encourage you to pay very close attention to the 'Quality Guidelines,' which outline some of the illicit practices that may lead to a site being removed entirely from the Google index or otherwise penalized. " http://www.whattofix.com/ http://www.whattofix.com/ looks a little dodgy through the eyes of a SEO link farm hunter when it links to http://www.hamburger-casserole-recipes.com/ http://www.hamburger-casserole-recipes.com/ and http://neuropathyinfeet.us/ http://neuropathyinfeet.us/ and http://paycheck-stub.com/ http://paycheck-stub.com/ and http://facebook-login-help.com/ http://facebook-login-help.com/ What sets it apart is obviously those sites really DO provide original information on those topics. But the layout of something like http://www.hamburger-casserole-recipes.com http://www.hamburger-casserole-recipes.com looks like http://www.spamrecipes.net/ http://www.spamrecipes.net/ which just copies other people's recipes and sticks a juicy ad block under them. It's hard to be honest in a world of scammers.
- DanielBMarkham 16y ago
  Thank you. I'll give them a look. The http://www.hamburger-casserole-recipes.com/ http://www.hamburger-casserole-recipes.com/ site gets a lot of traffic, and a lot of it is return traffic. But, since recipes are fairly standard, it was very difficult not to in some way re-fashion what was already out there. When I was doing the research on the recipes site, I found a lot of what I consider spam -- sites full of recipes with the intention of tricking users into downloading spyware, buying SMS subscription services, and other such stuff. I felt like a simple, easy-to-read, targeted site based on just a few recipes people want might have value. It's not a general purpose recipe site, and the content is presented as simply and openly as possible. (And it was all entered by my wife) It's interesting that it would stand out as being dubious, as it seems to me to be the most straightforward trade of content for eyeballs of the sites I have. As an aside, it doesn't make much money, perhaps because nobody advertises about casseroles or cookbooks? Beats me. But I plan to keep it because of the positive response it gets, including people writing to ask for new recipes. I didn't have a problem listing my other sites on my blog, since, well, they are my other sites. It's not like I'm trying to keep them secret or anything. I appreciate the help.

andrewljohnson 16y ago

Please don't apologize. It's pretty clear hypocrisy. And please do something about the StackOverflow problem. This is clearly an issue with Google, which is highly visible to ALL programmers. I couldn't imagine a worse problem to have for a company that is interested in hiring the best engineers.

Matt_Cutts 16y ago
I did ping the right people about SO and added a new example that someone mentioned. The right team (and their manager) are actively discussing what steps are doable to improve these searches.
- andrewljohnson 16y ago
  Awesome! THe efreedom stuff was really starting to bug me. I use StackOverflow a lot. Google is still hands down the best search engine.