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I had to get rid of a few tools (that I really liked), and change-up my link strategy, but everything is back on track… I just hate having to start rebuilding all over…

Prior to the 4/24 Penguin update, it was quite easy to get to the first page of google within a couple of weeks (except for highly competitive keywords)… but now, post Penguin, oh, it’s still easy to get to the first page of google… it just takes more work (and a couple extra weeks).

To Mr. Google… You are my friend again… Well, hmm, maybe it’s just I like to keep my enemies close. ;)

Google This

Google this term: “Make Money Online”. This phrase previously was so competitive that I would never even attempt. However, now when I search for it, look at what shows up as the 3rd result on page 1. (The top 3 results are sponsored) The 3rd organic result is for a site that is incomplete! Even in the description it clearly says “no posts”. (UPDATE 4/27: So many forums blasted examples like this all over the place so google has taken this site out of the serps, but there are tons of similar examples of crap sites getting page 1 rankings)

When you click on the page, you will see the site is not even finished. Yet this is what google now deems relevant for its users? Getting rid of thin affiliate sites is one thing, but clicking on a result and seeing the below site is ridiculous…

Google has really pissed off everyone… Not just the Black Hat SEO guys, Not just Internet Marketers, but everyone. Legit authority sites have been knocked out of page 1 results and replaced with sites that are not even relevant. Basically it looks as if Google has removed ANY site that has made any attempt at SEO, and replaced it with sites that are old and inactive. Why? well that’s easy: Because now all of those business’s that used to rank well, will now have to PAY GOOGLE TO BE A SPONSORED AD if they want any search engine traffic!

My Experience with the New Google Penalty

A few days ago, my EMD sites dropped in ranking. All of my EMD sites that were ranking at #1 now dropped a few positions, and many dropped down pages! I assumed the penalty was targeting EMD’s, However, today it hit my non-EMD sites: It hit my legit business sites, which are not affiliate sites, not thin sites, not EMDs, no banners, no ads, etc. These are real business sites such as my MCVESTS.com site and my Real Estate sites.

SEO as we know it.. has changed…

Taken from the Google webmasters blog:

We want people doing white hat search engine optimization (or even no search engine optimization at all) to be free to focus on creating amazing, compelling web sites

“No SEO optimization at all”… wow, so that explains why the BS sites are showing up on the first page for highly competitive keywords.

I have some pages with no on-page SEO now ranking on page one????? What the hell is Google doing? I have a ‘terms and conditions’ page now showing up on page 1; I have a customers’ 25 word testimonial post ranking on Page 1. Why? These pages are not optimized, most are not even relevant to the keyword that is searched. Google is now giving their users irrelevant results.

So Basically

Google has destroyed SEO. Most likely they are doing it to force us to go back to using PPC advertising (Google AdWords). It’s always about money. They are moving older inactive sites up in the ranks, and moving down any sites that were actively making an effort to rank.

So what will we do now?

(1) Well, Google just now released the penalty… Things have to settle, so maybe rankings will bounce back in a few weeks… or

(2) Users will complain about irrelevant search results and Google will have to make adjustments to the algorithm once again… or

(3) Google will realize the mistake and Revert back to the old algorithms. Because if they stay this route, than competitors can use xrumer blasts, or similar to bomb their competition with thousands of links from bad sources and thereby cause the competition to receive the google penalty and lose ranking… or

(4) We adapt, and change our methods, figure out new technics to increase our rankings.

We will know more in a couple of weeks… But I will tell you this… Google is not my best friend anymore. lol.

**UPDATE**
This is so widespread. People are starting to realize that their sites are no longer ranking and being replaced with irrelevant sites. So many people have lost income. Google’s objective was supposed to get rid of the thin affiliate sites so that users will experience better search results, however, They sent us back to 1995 and made the search results worse than seeing thin sites.

Why cloak your links?

Big G is slapping affiliate sites
Cloak your links mostly because Google is on a mission to slap affiliate sites and get them off the first page of the serps. All those sites that have a bunch of affiliate links, advertisements, & hotlinked images are being targeted. Minus google’s own AdSense of course (aww thanks big G). Sooo, do yourself a favor and cloak your external links! lol

SEO Value
Each link and image link that links to an external site is leaking your seo power to someone elses site. Cloak all of your external links AND external image links so that they become internal links and keep your own juice on your site.

Prevent Link Theft
Some people will hover over the affiliate link and then just re-type it in another window preventing you from receiving the commission for the sale. I never understood why they would do this… I mean they don’t save any money by doing this, and why prevent you from receiving commission when obviously your site is what led them to the buy? Its just low. but, again, Cloaking.. hint hint. lol

Prevent Link Hijacking
Hackers have spyware on a users browser so that when a user clicks on an affiliate link, the spyware will transparently replace your aff id with the hackers aff id, thus giving them the commission. aghh those little fockers. lol. so uh, cloak.. lol

What about php redirect and NoFollow tags?

Well, some say that php redirects won’t fool google anymore. I’m not sure I agree that one yet though. I’ll have to research that one a little more. But as far as NoFollow tags, they just keep your pagerank from leaking, but the bots still crawl the external link.

* You can also find a nice cloaking plugin that preloads cookies. This way if they read your content, but don’t click on your link, and go elsewhere… well, you can figure that out… (unless they hit another affiliate site).

I myself just started using cloak.fm plugin for wordpress but not sure how good it is yet, so I won’t put an affiliate link on here… basically, use at your own risk. lol.

Create a Social Buzz Around Your Money Site

…And Google will love you (well, they will at least give you a kiss). Most know that diverse backlinking strategies is key on ranking your money site (along with on-page SEO). Getting backlinks from Web 2.0 sites is one aspect of the backlinking strategy that you should definitely be using. It’s very important if you want google to think that there is a social buzz revolving around your site. This social buzz will help you move up in the SERPS (Search Engine Rank Position).

Here’s what you need to do

• Create a dedicated email account (use hotmail or gmx)
• Sign up with about 100+ web 2.0 sites using this email account (use the same exact password for each account)
• After you are finished creating the web 2.0 accounts, You will need to activate the registration via email. Log into your newly created email account and view the junk/spam folder; take all of those emails and put them into the inbox folder
• Now go through each email and click on the activation link within each email (which will activate your newly created web 2.0 accounts)

Now all of your accounts should be activated and ready for you to log in and post content containing a backlink to your money site. Most will not accept html (and therefore no anchor text) but don’t worry, the links alone are great for getting juice to your site.

If you feel like it’s a pain in the @$& (excuse my Qbert language) and too time consuming to manually create 100+ accounts (because it is), then never fear… underdog is here… I’ll do it for you for a small fee of course. I’ll create & register over 140+ web 2.0 accounts for $20. I’ll send you an excel sheet with all accounts and their logins. Even setup a few hubs for you (ping.fm, onlywire, hello.txt, etc). Just email me if you’re interested. You can pay me via paypal or authorize.net.

More Advice

The first post to the sites should be a non-spammy post so that they (the mods) think that you are legitimately using their site for social networking. I usually do a sports related post (with NO LINKS) because it’s just more realistic. For example, I would write a first post something like this: “Tim Tebow is now a NY Jet?… Oh God I can’t even watch their games this season now”. You see this type of post will help preserve your account so that the moderators think that you are not there just to spam their sites. If they only see spam then they will delete your account. The second post to these sites will be a post with a link back to your money site. *For the status update sites like twitter, make sure to put the link at the beginning of the first sentence.

After you post your second post (with the backlink in it), you can copy the url into an excel sheet. Because now you can set up a rss feed containing these urls and this will get them indexed faster (and get your backlinks recognized quicker also).

By the way, you can post more content to these accounts throughout the month. Just mix it up with non-spammy posts also (no links). And don’t waste time posting the same urls, Post urls to different pages of your money site. And when you are spamming these web 2.0 sites, at least try to make it look legit.. for example, if your money site is a site that sells NFL Jerseys, then create posts that are more realistic such as: “I Just bought a Eli Manning jersey at hxxp://nfl-jerseys.com for $49 bucks! Check them out”.

Ok, well you have work to do. lol

The reason: Most apps are using VNC. VNC (Virtual Network Computing) requires that you run a service on the host computer so that you can later remotely connect. If you just need to log on occassionally then this is good enough. However, if you plan to connect and try to get some serious work done, then this is just too slow. So instead, why not just use the faster RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) which was developed by Microsoft? Oh wait, I’ll tell you why… Because If you have Windows 7 Home edition, You can’t! Why not? Because Microsoft purposely took out the RDP protocol from the “home editions” so that you would have to pay for the Windows 7 upgrade in order to connect with RDP. Crazy, huh? Yeah thanks Microsoft.

* I have (and use) both of the apps that I recommend below.

Citrix GoToMyPC

Ok, the #1 remote desktop app is GoToMyPC by Citrix! I use this every time I’m away from home. Try It Free Here. If you need to do serious work remotely from an android tablet, then Citrix is your best friend, your spouse, your companion (minus the arguments – lol). They have their gotomypc app running great! Definitely the best remote desktop app out there. It’s also not limited to your tablet; you can connect using any web browser. I’ve been using GotoMyPC since 2006 (PC version). The GoToMyPC app is on point with speed, cursor control, and multi monitors (Yep it also supports multiple monitors). My home desktop has multiple monitors and it takes some time to get used to, but after a few minutes, you can pinch, swipe, and zoom your way around your desktops very quickly even though you’re using a 10″ tablet. Gotomypc has a free 30 day trial, so you will want to check that out. *It works with any version of Windows or Mac.

PocketCloud by Wyse

If you don’t need something as powerful as GoToMyPC, then take a look at PocketCloud by Wyse. Download the free lite version and take it for a spin. If you are using Windows 7 Home edition, then as I said before, you will be limited to using the VNC method. VNC is too slow and frustrating for serious users, but if you just need to connect occasionally then you will like this app. If you like it, then you should upgrade to the pro version. I think it was only $15 bucks or so. I bought the Pro version and it had some major improvements over the free trial. I just can’t recall what they were now (because I purchased it a few months back).

If you are using something other than Windows Home Edition, then you will definitely want to connect using the RDP method (It’s much more responsive). To use RDP, you must set up port forwarding on your router, and to use that properly you must assign a permanent local ip address to your home pc. Don’t panic, it’s not difficult. I’ll explain how:

Setup Your Local IP Address: The router assigns a new IP address each time your PC is powered on. You need to set this to be the same IP each time so that you can also set up port forwarding to that IP. First, use ipconfig to find what your current ip address is. Run cmd prompt; type IPCONFIG; copy down the ipv4 address. Then do the following:

• Control Panel | Network Status and Tasks | Change Adapter Settings
• Right Click ‘LOCAL’ and select ‘properties’
• Double Click ‘Internet Protocol Version 4
• enter your numbers like so:
• 192.168.1.5
• 255.255.255.0
• 192.168.1.1
• *DNS -> 192.168.1.1

Setup Your Port Forwarding:

• From a web browser on your home PC, enter your routers ip address (usually: http://192.168.1.1)
• Once you log into your router, navigate to the port forwarding section
• Create a new port forward
• Enter a custom ip (which will be the ip address of your home PC. (the ipv4 address that you previously copied down)
• Now set to ‘Custom Ports’ and select ‘both’ and enter port “3389″
• Apply or save

That’s it, Now go to your tablet, launch PocketCloud and add a connection. The host address is your routers IP (NOT the ipv4 IP). You can ask google “What is my IP” and it will tell you. Enter that IP into “Host Address”. Enter the Port number 3389, and your Home PC username and password to log in, and your finished.

I love the Giants.. what can I say!?