Changes Still Affecting Sites

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Google's major search engine results changes rolling out has changed the traffic being sent to PoemofQuotes quite a bit. Not only have many major keywords not been sending traffic but even minor keywords are down.

The devaluation of certain links have definitely taken a huge toll on PoemofQuotes. I do not trade links nor spam the links in questionable areas. However, a major part of link-building has been through EzineAricles, Squidoo, and other article directories.

The overall traffic sent to EzineArticles was said to be down the first couple weeks of the rollout but has since climbed back up to their norm.

So what is the true cause of PoemofQuotes's traffic failure?

It's a tough question to answer, but when looking at the major keywords on Google, I notice a few things right off the bat. The number one keyword for [funny quotes] is new, as are several of the other top 10 (including what I would call a spam site). Going past the top 10, I start to see a few blogs without comments but many posts.

Going back to the front page, I begin to notice a trend. Fresh content. If they aren't blogs, they still contain user generated content. If they don't contain either, they contain links to other websites, usually unrelated and the unrelated websites have links back.

Hmmm... I thought Google fixed this years ago?

So it's back. Unrelated link trades can generate huge gains in the SERPs, at least at the current moment. This may just be for non-money words. However, it seems to be working quite successfully.

Top Authors - I did it!

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It took almost a month (if not longer) to do it, but I did it! I am finally in the top authors category for my keyword. Hopefully this will give my articles more link-juice and in return give my own websites more link-juice and higher search engine rankings.

If you haven't been following along, I've been submitting articles to article directories recently to help bring more links to my websites. I haven't been actively searching links for a while now, so I figured it was time to do so. It's summer after-all.

What's summer got to do with it? Less overall traffic and less money. For the past 6 years I have been researching my own statistics, I have noticed a downturn of around 20-30% during the summer months. This is mostly due to schools being out, but it is also partly due to the nicer weather.

Since most of my traffic comes from the USA, this time of the year means more things to do outside for teens and young adults. Beaches, parties, and all-night movie watching is just about the only thing many of these guys like to do. Who wants to view an education website on their summer vacation anyway? Well, a few people I'm sure... I would. But then again, I'm a nerd.

Accepted, Will Submit More Soon!

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I was accepted and can now submit more articles. I will be doing this a lot in the coming couple weeks to get in the top authors section. Hopefully it won't take too long as I have some other things I need to add. But, it takes what it takes, right?

Waiting and More Waiting for Acceptance

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Now the count down begins! I've reached the limit on the amount of articles I can submit to a certain article directory website. So now I have to wait to see if I will be accepted or thrown to the pigs.

I severely hope that I get accepted; I've been looking forward to this for a long-time now. However, who knows what will come? I've done my best to follow the writer's guidelines; however, I know I've made mistakes in the past. Hopefully, they don't come back to bite me.

What mistakes have I made?
1) Adding strongs inside paragraphs and not simply headlines.
2) Placing links in the articles (they use to allow above the fold--not anymore)
3) Links pointing to a 404 in the about the author section.
4) Having anchor text longer than 3-keywords in the author section.

Yep! I've had all of those mistakes. Of course, this is over a 2 1/2 year period. Nonetheless, I hope they don't come back to bite me.

Wish me luck!

Still Submitting Articles

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I've been quiet again for a little while, so I thought I'd update you (well, more-so keep myself up to date on what is happening).

I discovered something, and I'm running with it. I'm still submitting articles to article directories, but I found that once I break a certain threshold the other articles will receive a huge boost as well any new articles. So, I need to keep chugging along.

The downside is, there isn't as much time for me to work on adding new content. I'm trying to alternate days, but sometimes I want to do one thing and not the other or vice-versa.

I've pretty much given up on Squidoo as of right now. I'm making a little bit of money and figure if I kept pushing out articles it would add up to something substantial within a year, but it is a ton of work. The community absolutely loves long pages and that's something that just takes a bit of time.

Actually, that'll be my next post.

Gaining Links: Article Submissions for Good Pie

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Mmmm... pie. I love it! Well, actually I don't eat much other than peanut butter pie and the once-a-year pumpkin pie. Anyway, this blog post is about article submissions!

Over the past year or so, I haven't worked all that hard on getting links to Poem of Quotes. I've mostly been working on other ventures, that seems to be a bit of a mistake.

Even though the website's traffic has doubled over the past year, the landing pages have shifted away from poetry towards quotes. I can't help but imagine the "what if" if I would have continued to work on the poetry side. Would it have tripled? Quadrupled? No one knows, but I sure as hell regret it... especially since the other ventures failed miserably.

You want to know what is sad, though? Over the past three years the website's traffic has more than quadrupled, but the income is almost exactly the same. That is how bad the economy is.

Anyway, I've started to write articles as the first step in gaining links. I'll probably write around 10 more, submit them, and move onto the next step.

Finally, I've Remembered

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I completely forgot about this site for well a while. Actually, it looks like it has been almost a year and a half. Life has gone a way which I didn't predict over that time. Sadness set in, moving became a big part, and then finally once I resettled (well, temporarily), I started to work more on the websites and didn't bother talking about it.

So here I am, I'm back!

So lets just skip to now. I almost all but given up on the previous blog I tried to do. I'll probably go back and change it once again, but I have no idea when. I have three domains which I'm currently just losing money on. Fantastic, right?

But, in the meantime, I have been working on the major player. I've written articles, worked a bit on another blog (and almost but all gave up on it as well), and started working on more seasonal content for the site. When there aren't holidays, I've been writing articles and working on other areas to improve the site.

The most recent articles I've written have been on Squidoo. Here they are:

Free advice on life (this was really meant more of a way to tell my story and help others. It may also later give some juice but who knows)

and

How to be a proper Atheist (this was suppose to be humor, but I suppose I have a very weird type. I blame my ancestors)

Neither is getting much attention, but that doesn't matter too much. Squidoo has quite a few ways to get link juice and I'll pass it back to the website in question. As of now, Squidoo has made me just a total of $2.81. Not good at all for the amount of work I've put in. Over 20 articles now, most within the past month however. Most of the articles have been written as a way to get authority, so the *plan* may come to fruition sooner or later.

EzineArticles Technique for Traffic

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While I'm on the topic of EzineArticles, I might as well share a simple technique people are using for the article publishing site.

Although this may seem weird to many, EzineArticles is instead being used as a way to gain direct traffic, instead of as an article publishing service.

This changes ones strategy immensely. Instead of writing articles fast and furious, one would take their time and write a well thought out, keyword driven article.

This is because EzineArticle's articles are now showing up higher than ever in search engines. The amount of ranking rival that of Squidoo and Hubpages.

A very interesting phenomenon, but alas, I will not be participating in EzineArticles for this purpose. Hubpages and Squidoo offer a much easier way to network and gain exposure throughout both their services.

Why waste time on an article distribution service when your goal is to not distribute the articles, but instead gain traffic from the mother site? Gaining links is one thing, but trying to create a hub of pages for direct traffic through keywords would be better served on other article publishing sites.

Maybe that is just me...

One, Two, Three, Four Blogs Published the Article

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About a week ago, I published an article from a newly found article publishing site. Actually, I used this website around 3 years ago and somehow lost it. I was even able to login to my old account, which is amazing that they keep accounts for that long without activity.

So I submitted two articles and each were finally accepted about a week later. It turns out, my account was now eligible for an upgrade with these two published.

What is amazing, is that this website already published my articles to four separate blogs. Amazing because EzineArticles works much slower and doesn't seem to have as wide of an audience as it once did.

I will definitely keep an eye on it, but early returns are great.

Two Days of Article Submissions Finished

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I just finished two days worth of article submissions. Alright, so it isn't as many articles as one would hope.

Squidoo is receiving make money online articles.

Hubpages is receiving SEO related articles (save one from several months ago).

Here are the articles:

Hubpages:

• The Best Search Engine List



• Three Way Link Exchanges - The What and How and the Never mind



• One Way Links - SEO training



• A Quick Beginner's Guide to Better Search Engine Rankings

Squidoo:

• How Kids Can Make Money



• Ways for Teens to Make Money

This is definitely nothing great, and there will be more articles joining each soon.

I have noticed slight changes with each services throughout my period with them. Squidoo seems much faster than before and offers more stats (at least, more than what I remember).

However, there have been many rumors about Squidoo pages being flagged with Google. Not in the sense that they aren't ranking, but in the sense that they aren't ranking as well. Hubpages seems to have taken a downward turn as well. Pages with nothing more than a title and short descriptions seem to be ranking higher than the actual pages.

Maybe this will change once more links pour in, but who knows. Well, hopefully we will after this case study has 'finished'.