It’s All About Pushing The Limit
When I made the decision to monetize John Chow dot Com nine months ago, I know that I would use the blog to push the limits of what was possible. The blog was to be used as a case study so others can learn from its success and failures.
Pushing the limits of blog monetization almost means pushing Google to the edge. There are many who will say that playing with Google is like playing with fire - sooner or later, you’re going to get burn. It seems that once again, I am in a Google penalty box. Not only am I no longer on page one for the search term, make money online, but I am no longer page one for my own name.
The number one theory for the penalty is I overdid the linkback promotion. Whatever the reason, it doesn’t really matter. The make money online search term was sending me about 150 visitors per day. As for the John Chow search term, the first ten pages of results all link to JohnChow.com, so the searcher will find me indirectly. That actually benefits bloggers who did a review of my blog.
Live By The Google, Die By The Google
This a good time to remind everyone that if you live by the Google, you’ll die by the Google. I do not depend on Google for my traffic and neither should you. Thousands of people have this blog bookmarked and nearly 6,000 read it by RSS. Way too many webmaster put too much time and effort into Google to try and gain a number one ranking. Google doesn’t stand still (they can’t afford to). They are always tweaking their search system so the chance of holding a number one spot forever is next to zero.
You should work on getting Google traffic for your blog, but you shouldn’t do it the exclusion of everything else. If all your traffic is coming from Google, then you need to work on getting other traffic sources. You are in a very scary situation. It’s like having all your blog income generated by AdSense. If that’s all I did, this blog would make only $1,000 a month instead of $10,000. Don’t put all your traffic eggs in one basket.
I am 100% positive that Google will eventually restore my number one ranking for my name. Right now, they look pretty stupid. Do a search for John Chow and you’ll get page after page of sites talking about JohnChow.com, but JohnChow.com isn’t the number one result.
Let’s see, I’ve been banned from Digg, banned from Technorati and now bitch slapped by Google. I’m doing pretty good! 
- Posted in Make Money Online, The Net
- 180 comments what's your take?
i am first.
Reply to this commentNot really first if you dont have a link back to your site, so kinda pointless.
Hey John, look out for Alexa and feedburner next, that would be a biatch…
BUt seriously your not banned from technorati, just disliked I guess.
Reply to this commentI was banned for a while. It was during that time when I pinged the hell out of out them.
Reply to this commentYou cant blame technorati …. their ass got burned with your evil ping’s!!! HAHAHA!
Reply to this commentwill you still publish the already submitted johnchow.com review batches?
Reply to this commentLive by Google florish by the people!
Cumulative visitors to any blog would naturally stick by your blog if the menu is nourishing enough.
There is no reason for any ingenious blogger to die by Google because, the multitude that had come by Google and stuck with you don’t need Google again to keep sticking with you.
You can’t minimize the impact of a serch engine that brings 80% of all your organic SE traffic.
Like John already said, the Google tweaking is only but temporary for a brief season.
You can’t do anything against the truth but for the truth!
Reply to this commentWhat would be the worst site you could be banned from?
Reply to this commenti thought so. thanks for letting us lot know.
when will google do the next pagerank update?
anyone?
Reply to this commentjohn, i just did a search on the term “john chow”, funnily enough, johnchow.net is ranked well above johnchow.com, and it’s simply wrong, but then again, you were gaming with google on and you get a slap on the wrist….
Reply to this commentI’ve never heard of anyone getting banned from Alexa. I imagine you’d really have to go way overboard to have them even notice you.
Reply to this commentJohnChow: The evil man who got banned from every search engine.
How’s that title John
?
Reply to this commentI was wondering when you’d post something about this
Did you call Google up to find out what happened, or did you just do some looking around and guess that the linkback promotion is what did it? I’m very curious to know.
James
Reply to this commentI doubt google can do anything …. its all an automated algorithm which i suppose very few people can edit. Larry and Page are also
Reply to this commentGoogle may be automated but they sure can drop a ranking in a hurry if they feel like it. There was a recent court case (which Google won) about their page ranks and displaying a URL ina search.
Reply to this commentthat’s what they say, but there’s plenty evidence that there are manual tweaks.
Reply to this commentThe best of robobts cannot out-perfom the capacity of the human brain, that is why there is always a need by Google for manual tweaking now and then.
Reply to this commentWhat’s often perceived as manual tweaks are much more likely to be specialized filters. They look like manual tweaks since they many either only affect one segment, or only one site or two across many segments.
They can’t manually tweak, it simply does not scale.
Reply to this commentWell then they better fix the algorithm, if this become more widespread people will stop using google.
By the way, Larry and Page are the same person.
Larry Page & Sergey Brin
Reply to this commentThis is just a minor blip. Besides even if it wasn’t, so long as most of the queries return good results, the masses won’t care that John’s not ranking for his name. This type of thing has happened before and will happen again. In the intervening period, they’re pulling in over a billion a quarter
Reply to this commenttest. did my comments show up.
Reply to this commentsorry guys, I was testing out something. I just notice that if I put my name as * m o n e y * word in it, it’s didn’t show up. I guess this is john comments spam filter working behind the scene.
Reply to this commentI have also tried other names and have come to the same conclusion.
Reply to this commentI told you it would eventually come back to bite you in the ass.
Reply to this commentjohn has always said don’t always rely on google, nobody really warned him he always knew this was a possible outcome.
Reply to this commentI’m pretty sure he meant the reciprocal linking review scheme, not relying on Google.
Reply to this commentWhat a coincident. I just noticed that yesterday.
Reply to this commentDon’t worry, you still have your loyal readers and you’ll still get traffic through all of us who recommend your site to others. You’ll probably get back the number one spot for your name soon too, since it is your domain too.
Reply to this commentGoogle will get screwed if they dont put the right site (JC Dot Com) in the first place for John Chow.
Dont worry, they are bound by their own rules
Reply to this commentUm, no they wont. When a site is trying to game them why would they be bound to return it as a result? Site’s get banned and penalized all the time. The best way for John to get back in their good graces would be to kill off all the review posts and submit a reinclusion request.
Reply to this commentI agree. I would stop the paid links as well, but that would depend on whether the money he makes from them is worth the rankings( assuming he gets them back).
Reply to this commentJust from the math you posted about earlier (the value of those make money online clicks) I would think it would be worth it to stop the paid links. Also, he wouldn’t have to stop completely, just keep it on the DL when doing it.
Reply to this commentI found JC through someone other site, not Google. Your traffic is definitely coming from all sorts of places, John.
Reply to this commentSo, does that mean you are going to stop those batches?
Reply to this commentNo, but it means another rule change is coming.
Reply to this commentHAHAHA!! YOU ARE SOO
JOHN …. KEEP GOING!!
Reply to this commentGood grief… you’ve got a whole mess of brown on your nose mate.
Reply to this commentSo what would that be?
Reply to this commentyes, please let us know asap.
Reply to this commentWhat happens to the entries that have been submitted thus far?
Reply to this commentJohn,
At this point it doesn’t really matter if you change your rules. Like you did (per my advise) when you started to mix your incoming link anchor text.
Your link back campaign became so popular that it got to Google ears, or someone (Michael Nivola?) reported you. The bottom line is that you are in their radar. They don’t like their rankings to be manipulated.
Being an old SEO dog, I’ve had many of my affiliate sites banned or dropped for key terms. That is why I did not participate in your link back promotion.
For those that are copying John’s strategy now is a good time to fold your flags.
Reply to this commentyup..it is sad to not have your own name appearing on google…
I think it will come back
Reply to this comment“Let’s see, I’ve been banned from Digg, banned from Technorati and now bitch slapped by Google. I’m doing pretty good! :twisted:”
And you still make $10,000 a month… amazing!
Reply to this commentAgloco is yet not added!!
Reply to this commentAgloco will be a one-time cash-out (unless John wants to hold on to stock). You earn shares of the company rather than money this time around.
Reply to this commentI don´t think its you in particular. I have a few sites that are number 1 on Google one day and then number 30 or 40 the next! Cann´t figure them out!
Reply to this commentSame thing to me, it drives me nuts when my sites don’t show up in first page.
Reply to this commentI noticed that Text Lind Ads dropped in the serps too. I was looking for them yesterday and if it weren’t for their paid listing they would not have been on page one.
It would be nice to know what your traffic numbers are after the drop from google.
Google is important but since we don’t have control over them we need to work on alternate traffic sources.
Reply to this commentYa … some evil source like
Pinging the hell out of feedburner,
Pinging the hell out of technorati,
Pinging the hell out of blogsearch,
Pinging the hell out of yahoosearch,
Total money > 20k
Hahaha
Reply to this commentI agree, your page not being ranked #1 for that is lame. I’m sure they’ll correct it soon!
Reply to this commentIt is lame but thats how Google seem to play the game to please….well whoever they need to please (eg. try to ask some Chinese residents about THEIR results of Google searches
)
Reply to this commentHAHA and your blog still makes more money than many other blogs that are in google, don’t have a technorati penalty and aren’t banned from digg…. not that those three sites alone will give any site success anyways…
Reply to this commentJohn has certainly planted his seeds all this time and now should just worry about reaping all the good stuff.
Reply to this commentThat sucks, but those people at Google sure do catch on quickly.
Reply to this commentThis could be an interesting case study about “Defensible traffic”.
For example: I often search your name but only as navigation. I am coming here regardless of your Google listing. I will simply change my method of navigation.
It would be cool if you were to show how traffic sources shift and the impact it has on overall traffic or not.
Reply to this commentBut like you said, you still have your nearly 6k daily readers. That’s an accomplishment in itself. Besides, if you are going to google john chow dot com, why not just type it into the web address?????
http://www.40hourstogo.com
Reply to this commentExactly. If you already know of John Chow why search for John Chow?
Reply to this commentDon’t care about Digg & Technorati coz I really love google
Reply to this commentYa …. google seems to be on our side … and microsoft on others ( for digg users )
Reply to this commentThat’s all perspective. Google is on Google’s side. That’s it. If you happen to line up next to them it may look like they’re on your side, but they can change any day. They are independent and while we share a symbiotic relationship with them, they owe us nothing.
Reply to this commentI need to be like one of your readers and quickly buy an adwords ad to put “where did John go?… well visit our blog” LoL I love it.
Reply to this commentSorry to hear about it, but your this post seems pretty lame and nothing more than a pissed boys grunting against the BIG GUYS.
Everybody knows, Google is the BEST & FASTEST way to garner traffic, that too for FREE. Without paying a dime to any eMarketing services.
Even you know it, if you look your graphs posted before, its evident from it.
I would advise you to STOP boasting about your 5K+ readers and bookmarks. Have you ever thought how those 5K+ people came to know about your website ?
I am sure a person like me living in INDIA would have never heard of your website (or even your name) - Chow ! if there have not been Google.
With Google you get geniune traffic as people searching for ‘Make Money Online’ would definitely love your tips & tricks. So they will eventually bookmark. So its not just bots & cheap traffic that you buy from some traffic providers. You get targets readers.
Yes, you GET IT. You dont have to even look out for them.
I get almost 300 - 500 new visitors everyday from backlinks & Google. Even you tried your best to optimize for Google (SEO plugin, Link back game, etc) .. but now it bombed and you think WE should not focus much on Google traffic.
Dear … it sounds like Sour Grapes…
It’s not just one time traffic th
Reply to this commentNo, I’m not pissed. Like I said, I only get an average of 150 visits a day for make money online. That’s not going to make or break anyone. I’m more upset about them removing my name from page 1 (even though it send me less traffic).
Reply to this comment150 came by “make money online”. that however could not have been the only search term throgh which visitors through Google came to your blog.
There are other search terms by which other visitors, through Google, came to your blog. Cumulatively, Google may have been bringing 600 organic visitors.
So, 150 less is not too much to make a decicive impact.
Reply to this commentJohn,
Believe me, I feel your pain. It is funny that you say you are not upset about losing #1 for “make money online”. Let’s do some simple math.
I checked Google Adwords and the #1 advertiser for that phrase is paying $3.20 per click. He probably only gets half the number of clicks you get. Organic results get a higher click through rate.
150 x 3.20 x 30 days = $14,000.00
That is more than you’ve ever made per month so far.
Reply to this commentYeah, that term only brought you 150 visitors but how many visits did Google bring you over all? I’m willing to bet it’s a hell of a lot more than you’re letting on.
A Google penalty hurts, I don’t care who you are.
Reply to this commentBahhhhh …. I am from India and no crap, google’s not the only website working here
Have you ever heard of other blogs … then they link to each other … then you can click the link … and then you can find john chow dot com!!
Instead of John, you appear more pissed off.
And heaven sake, cant John Enjoy writing what he wishes while the google guys are worried how come the proper site isint ranked for ‘John Chow’?
Reply to this commentI don’t think it matters where anyone is from. A website with great information will get their name out regardless of ranking high in Google.
Reply to this commentBasically, most of these “rules” apply to most of us, because we do depend on Google for traffic whether or not we admit it. But with John, he’s like in a league of his own (plus a few other blogs/sites that have definitely “made” it); he’s almost self-sufficient because he’s accomplished so much in such a short time.
Reply to this commentYep U R Right it is the fight of a little guy, John Chow has already made his own niche and following.
Vijay
Reply to this commentGoogle did it to me too on my site and through me 10 pages deep. The fix! I changed some of my meta name tags and put your local tech guy . com on my page description or title that shows up on my ie tabs in my browser. took 48 hrs and i was back in business . Google Bots had to crawl my site again. Well good luck.
Reply to this commentYou will be back john.. Btw read their TOS, and shoot back a mail.. and I am sure they would restore your position or alteast let you know what happened..
Reply to this commentYou’ve obviously never dealt with Google
The best John will get is an automated/canned response, even from his rep.
Reply to this commentMy rep deals with AdSense. He wouldn’t know the first thing about the SERP.
Reply to this commentWell, that’s what happen when you try to bite the hand that was feeding you. Trying to jack up your links with excessive link exchanges is a no in Google’s book (so with Technorati it seems)
You say “make money online” was only sending you 150 visitors a day. How about the other keywords? I estimate if you’re really removed from Google’s index, it will cost you at least 50K visitors a month.
You still have a chance, though. If you contact them and tell them you will be a nice boy from now on and be done with your “evil” ways, they may forgive and take you back!
Reply to this commentJohn, do you think it is weird that Text Link Ads has also disappeared on Google?
If you type “Text Link “or “text-link-ads” into Google they are gone…
Reply to this commentI don’t think it’s weird. I think it’s Google being Google. They like to keep people guessing.
Reply to this commentJohn,
Reply to this commentGoogle is tweaking “Again” their algorithm so I don’t think you are totally banned. In approx one week or less you will have your positions again (When Google finish their algorithm tweaking). How much I hate this really. The last pagerank update that google did (one month ago approx.) they lowered Googlelady.com from 7 to 6. That was a big ouchh!
This site has gone up and down Google SERPs more than the number of comments on this page probably. I’m sure John will find his name (at least) back in page one soon enough.
Reply to this commentI’m curious….on what batch number did you notice that you had got to number 1 on google and which batch number broke you?
I wonder if it was a manual penalty or an automated one.
Reply to this commentThis is retarded, your site has tons of good info on the topic and now with you missing the top 5 sites are all crap sites with no info.
Google needs to fix this and rethink their start.
Reply to this commentLets see, John sells links (against Google’s TOS) and does a ton of reciprocal linking (against Google’s TOS). Why again should Google reconsider?
When you don’t play by the rules, don’t expect to win.
Reply to this commentMaybe 900+ links for the same terms is over doing it a bit?
Reply to this commentI don’t think this is the problem. It effects if overdoing with keywords but not backlinks (You can’t control the backlinks from other sites). But also Google banned for “black hat SEO”.
Reply to this commentHey John,
Are you going to change the term for linking or what? Once again you’ll be top for all search terms man. Neither google nor technorati can stop people from visiting you blog or stop you from earn $10K+.
Good Luck Man.
Reply to this commentJohnChow is famous of been ban by those large website.
Reply to this commentInfamous as well!
Reply to this commentJohn Chow: What will happen if google ban your website? Will they ban your adsense as well?
Reply to this commentI doubt they will let away John Chow
Reply to this commentNo, AdSense and the search engine are completely separate.
Reply to this commentso, penalize a blog will not ban adsense account?
Reply to this commentwhat if a blog using black hat seo? curious only.
The only way to get banned from AdSense is by violating the AdSense TOS, which stats nothing about black hat SEO.
Reply to this commentJohn, they may be penalizing you for using paid text links - I noticed the other day while logged into google’s webmaster tools that it is now possible to “report paid links” and they are going to start discriminating against sites that buy or sell paid links, because it is a manipulation of page rank that they say violates their user guidlines… Your site may be in a “penalty box” in an attempt to get your attention and show you that you are in trouble for using paid links. You might want to look into this somewhat new turn of events as the cause for your problem. I don’t think your linkback promotion is to blame.
Reply to this commentI thought that it was only those who paid for links who got a penalty… not those who sold.
Reply to this commentLooks like you are right from when I last looked. It seems to be both buying and selling.
http://www.davidnaylor.co.uk/archives/2007/05/16/been-hit-in-the-last-14days-by-google-paidlinks-roll-out/
Reply to this commentMr. Chow,
I humbly submit my blog for your consideration. I have set a goal that at best could be considered extremely ambitious.
I have given myself 365 days to make a living via blogging and other internet sources. I would be pleased if you could check in from time to time and give me some wisdom.
I am armed with no knowledge about making a living on the internet. I am researching as I go and sharing it with my readers. Any help or advice you could give would surely be welcome.
Check out the blog at
Reply to this commenthttp://onemansgoal.blogspot.com
I was on Page 1 at Google SERPs for a certain keyword and I was receiving more than 900+ uniques per day from it, a couple of days ago I noticed they pulled my website and it no longer appears on Google SERPs at all!
Reply to this commentAwesome article, John. Very thought-provoking indeed. I too must admit that I focus too heavily on Google’s influence towards my traffic and I can honestly see that if Google were to drop me then I wouldn’t really have a backup plan.
Reply to this commentHi John,
I don’t think this is a case of you encouraging too many keyword rich reciprocal links. I believe this is a case of you selling links and Google giving you a “Hand Job” because you’re so open about it.
Maybe you should pull the offer you made where people can pay you to have the name in their comment followed and remove the “Featured Sites” in your sidebar, etc.
Reply to this commentSo many recip links can’t be helping either.
Reply to this commentstick it to the man!
Reply to this commentMan that’s gotta hurt, you aren’t even number one for “john chow make money online”
Reply to this commentTo do a search for johncho