The Death of [Insert Your Business Woe Here]
Recently, the Internet marketing world has been a-buzz with talk about the “The Death of Adsense” and the resulting, “Life After Adsense Report” by Scott Boulch. It’s no doubt, there’s 50 cents at stake for every person who signs up for the reports. ;-)
How many times have you heard someone say, “Adsense is dead” or “SEO is dead” or “Affiliate Marketing is dead”. This usually comes from people who found the method no longer working for them, usually because:
- It was the method they relied on solely for traffic/income, etc
- They aren’t patient enough to ride it out.
- They turn to the quick money-makers to make a bunch of money/traffic and when it dies they can’t figure it out.
Let’s take Scott, for example. He started out by mass-generating garbage websites to generate Adsense income. He was doing well and he made tons of cash with his 3000 crappy websites. Suddenly, his earning dropped to almost nothing. Therefore, Adsense was dead.
He has theories for the demise of Adsense and they are related to changes made to Google Adwords. However, he doesn’t let us know about how the decrease in traffic affected his income. Please, we know garbage sites don’t last forever.
When Scott decided Adsense died, I noticed a dip in my Adsense earnings. Some of this had to do with traffic and some of it had to do with how much I was being paid per click. That has pretty much stabilized in the last couple weeks and my earnings are back where they were. I admit, I was annoyed to lose that chunk of income for a short bit…but guess what, I had other things to fall back on…so I rode it out. I didn’t run off to seek another money-maker, but kept plugging along with my various income sources and traffic generation techniques.
So, here comes Scott’s new plan – something he has coined “click flipping”. If you want to read his reports and haven’t, search on Google for “death of adsense”. I’m sure you’ll find plenty of sites.
Now, I admit click flipping is an interesting advertising strategy…but that’s what it is, an advertising strategy. It also requires quite a bit of risk, cash flow and maintenance to keep up. That’s not a bad thing, but I think some people don’t realize what’s really involved. And realistically, it’s not a business in itself and is subject to the similar fluctuations as his previous business model.
His “Internet Marketing Food Chain” is baffling because he still seems to believe, after all his troubles with Adsense, that making money from paid advertising in some way is the only way to make money online (and no, I don’t mean paying for advertising and selling products – I mean directly profiting from advertising).
I do not fit into any of his food chain categories and I venture to say MOST companies doing business online, don’t fit in either. He says the higher you go up, the more risky it is, but the more money you’ll make. That’s why you don’t want to go too high up because you want to live a comfortable life with lots of free time.
I’m sorry but - making more money online doesn’t have to involve the risk he is talking about.
Please don’t get me wrong, this Scott guy is clearly a very intelligent person and has some skills to share. But don’t read his guide and think this IS the way for me to finally start making money online. It’s an advertising strategy (that carries risk and requires cashflow and maintenance) that can be PART of your Internet marketing arsenal.
How many times have you heard someone say, “Adsense is dead” or “SEO is dead” or “Affiliate Marketing is dead”. This usually comes from people who found the method no longer working for them, usually because:
- It was the method they relied on solely for traffic/income, etc
- They aren’t patient enough to ride it out.
- They turn to the quick money-makers to make a bunch of money/traffic and when it dies they can’t figure it out.
Let’s take Scott, for example. He started out by mass-generating garbage websites to generate Adsense income. He was doing well and he made tons of cash with his 3000 crappy websites. Suddenly, his earning dropped to almost nothing. Therefore, Adsense was dead.
He has theories for the demise of Adsense and they are related to changes made to Google Adwords. However, he doesn’t let us know about how the decrease in traffic affected his income. Please, we know garbage sites don’t last forever.
When Scott decided Adsense died, I noticed a dip in my Adsense earnings. Some of this had to do with traffic and some of it had to do with how much I was being paid per click. That has pretty much stabilized in the last couple weeks and my earnings are back where they were. I admit, I was annoyed to lose that chunk of income for a short bit…but guess what, I had other things to fall back on…so I rode it out. I didn’t run off to seek another money-maker, but kept plugging along with my various income sources and traffic generation techniques.
So, here comes Scott’s new plan – something he has coined “click flipping”. If you want to read his reports and haven’t, search on Google for “death of adsense”. I’m sure you’ll find plenty of sites.
Now, I admit click flipping is an interesting advertising strategy…but that’s what it is, an advertising strategy. It also requires quite a bit of risk, cash flow and maintenance to keep up. That’s not a bad thing, but I think some people don’t realize what’s really involved. And realistically, it’s not a business in itself and is subject to the similar fluctuations as his previous business model.
His “Internet Marketing Food Chain” is baffling because he still seems to believe, after all his troubles with Adsense, that making money from paid advertising in some way is the only way to make money online (and no, I don’t mean paying for advertising and selling products – I mean directly profiting from advertising).
I do not fit into any of his food chain categories and I venture to say MOST companies doing business online, don’t fit in either. He says the higher you go up, the more risky it is, but the more money you’ll make. That’s why you don’t want to go too high up because you want to live a comfortable life with lots of free time.
I’m sorry but - making more money online doesn’t have to involve the risk he is talking about.
Please don’t get me wrong, this Scott guy is clearly a very intelligent person and has some skills to share. But don’t read his guide and think this IS the way for me to finally start making money online. It’s an advertising strategy (that carries risk and requires cashflow and maintenance) that can be PART of your Internet marketing arsenal.
10 Comments:
Alice,
You are right on as usual.
It is so easy to try the latest fad and “flip” your business into a downward spiral.
I think it is important for all to us to have a business plan.
If you believe in your business plan it is easier to stay the course when things are not going as well.
Testing or adding new strategies like “Click Flipping” are fine as long as it fits into the general biz plan you are already working. No method is the be all and end all.
Mom always said “don't put all your eggs in one basket.”
Andrea
http://www.RVHelpDesk.com
Adsense isn't dead for website owners who use it in the correct way. Building websites soley for the purpose of gaining revenue from google was something that never appealed to me in any way and with the jagger update those websites have been cleaned up totally. I built my website to give information to my users and hey if I made a few dollars off adsense that was a bonus and this is how adsense should be used. Website quality content with a purpose and revenue gained as a result.
Hi Alice,
:) Great post as always. I love Adsense and as has already been noted - if used properly it absolutely CAN help website and blog owners make a decent income.
I'm not a big trend follower, and this might just be another trend that could, in fact, hurt some people who believe every word.
Take care,
Christina
My adsense is happily growing as it usually does this time of year :)
Someone ought to unearth that coffin and find out what is really buried in there - because adsense is alive and kicking on my websites.
Great post, I've been hearing a lot about this lately and I agree that the best thing to do is have several income models so we're not relying just on adsense. I'm not too worried about it and take issue with this mentality of always looking for the next "big" thing out there.
Snap, Crackle, and Pop.
"...it is a strategy." That was the game winner.
A strategy is not a business. It is a strategy. However, the people I deal with on a daily basis have little education in business and finance so they assume that a 'strategy' to make money means it is a biz.
Double fault, baby, cause it ain't.
Nicely written Ms. Seba.
-Jscott
gekkospeaks.com
Hi Alice
this is the first time I visited your blog, great post.
I dont think adsense is dead, but yes maybe on those adsense ready sites it may well be.
Im looking forward to reading your other posts, thanks sally
Joel Comm has issued a sensible response to Scott's claims. You can grab it at: Adsense is Alive.
Some very good points and worth reading.
Thanks for the blog, Alice. Actually, Scott's effective marketing campaign made great sense, and it also planted some ideas in my head that seem very realistic. The fact is that the majority of people are not going to be able to make a living at Adsense and that the changes made by Google have destroyed the chances for upstarts with Adsense templates. And, don't forget, Joel Comm is out there still majorly pushing Adsense templates that may or may not have any value whatsoever. I didn't find his rebuttal to be very impressive. In fact, it seemed like just so much cheerleading, rather than anything factual.
I am fortunate in that I have a website online for over 10 years, so it hasn't suffered much, although I didn't even figure out about Adsense until less than a year ago. But, I'm surprised by the reaction I see here - you all must be in the very small percentage who are actually making decent money at Adsense. You can be guaranteed that the others are not. That doesn't mean that Adsense is dead, but it's certainly not as attractive as it once was.
Hello anonymous and thanks for the feedback. I appreciate it.
Sure, Joel could have an ulterior motive, but I also believe he has a sincere desire to ensure people don't panic about things unnecessarily. His business had solid grounding before he started teaching people about Adsense.
Joel has done some things I thought were very odd recently (like selling his word links, etc), but his report is on solid ground (and no, I didn't use an affiliate link and I didn't really like how he packaged his Adsense templates last time). I've been around the block long enough to see if people are just trying to make a quick buck...as opposed to make a buck AND educate people at the same time. Joel's report does the latter.
He made 2 very good points in his report:
1. Adsense isn't going anywhere - in fact, Scott's new business needs Adsense to survive.
2. Most of the people claiming Adsense is dead are people who outright abused the system. Scott is no exception and he doesn't hide the fact that he created garbage.
Regardless, whether Adsense is a great money-maker or not is not the point of my blog entry and the reason for the "[Insert Your Business Woe]" here. People are quick to blame and to move onto new things, claiming everything else is dead.
You bet Scott's marketing of his reports is a great example of creating a buzz...but that's not what he's teaching people. He's just encouraging those who wanted a fast buck with Adsense to turn to another money-making idea which relies on Google and other lead-generation businesses to thrive.
Scott is teaching people an advertising technique. He is not teaching people a new way to do business. What he is teaching is not a business in itself.
Thanks everyone for the feedback...I always love hearing it.
Post a Comment
<< Home