"What's the purpose?"

That's a question I struggle with on a daily basis.  From what I hear others say, I have a feeling I'm not alone on this one.  Although niche marketing is one of those businesses you can start with next to no capital, most people invest a significant amount of time before they recognize any financial reward from their efforts.  And thanks to the problem of getting the search engines to take notice, many of those efforts may seem very futile.

I have been online for almost four years now.  I have learned during those four years that you can quickly become overwhelmed with the amount of work required to run a website.  For you parents out there, it's similar to bringing that firstborn son or daughter home from the hospital.  You realize that being a parent will be hard work, but it's impossible to comprehend just how much work - and how much blood, sweat and tears - will go into raising that little bundle of joy, until it actually happens.  [Read more →]

Court Tuttle is an internet marketer. His blog used to be in the number three spot on the front page of Google for the highly competitive keyword "internet marketing".

He had a following. He posted daily. Good, informative, original posts.

Then he abruptly stopped. His posting frequency became sporadic. Was it blogger burnout? A busy summer? Personal issues?

August 12, 2008. It all becomes clear, in his post entitled "Content Has Never Been the King", he tells his loyal readers that his sporadic posting was on purpose. That content was not king, after all. How did he know this? Despite his failure to update his blog regularly, he still had his much-coveted Google ranking for the keyword "internet marketing".

His post sparked a heated debate. I can't say with any certainty, but I think it ticked somebody off enough that they reported his site to Google. Poor Court's site did not fare well after the manual review. Poof! Gone from Google, just like that...

September 8, 2008. He posts a retraction. "As It Turns Out, Content Is King." A transparent attempt to regain favor with Google. Only time will tell if it works.

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