I have already been hearing the horror stories popping up everywhere of site ranks dropping dramatically off the grid that were once top 10.

My 2 cents: Don’t let your entire business rely on Google and its massive amounts of web changes whatever they may be called (Panda…Chuck Norris…whatever).

Build a business that uses Google as part of its overall strategy but not the end all be all to your success. Why would you want to leave your success in someone else’s hands anyways? You can still succeed with or without Google.

I won’t explain the whole update details here, but if you want to read more check out
Search Engine Land.

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Something like this is what people are receiving: “Google Webmaster Tools notice of detected unnatural links”

So what’s this all about anyways? Why is Google sending all these letters, even to white hat sites? Is Google going to shut down your site?

These are questions I’m seeing all over the web but the truth is, the sky is not falling, just pop the chill pill and chase it with this short but actionable list of what to do about it:

• Remove bad links – If you do have a bunch of bad links from private networks that got banned from Google (like BMR) or look shady, ask to have them removed. To do this go to your webmaster account, check the backlinks, and contact the sites that are sending your site links that look unnatural. If you bought backlinks, don’t remove all your backlinks in a fearful frenzy because that will just send up red flags to Google again anyways, get them removed gradually.
• Mix it up baby! – Mix up your backlinks more, especially using social media (Google is focusing a lot on social metrics, this should set off some flags for you).
• Content is still king – While content alone wont make you rank well (backlinks still matter more), its still king in my eyes for the simple reason of people don’t want to read garbage. Keep creating your content and adding it to your website at the pace you like.
• Chill Out – As mentioned before, take a chill pill and keep trucking

Do backlinks still matter more then content?

I’d say for now definitely yes. Don’t believe me? Just Google the words “Make money online”. The site in the #4 position currently is a blog with not 1 post.

So if Google cares so much about content why is this site ranking so high with such a competitive set of keywords? You guessed it, backlinks.

Most people who try and build an income with their own blogs don’t become successful for just three reasons:

Reason 1 – Bad Planning

The first pitfall that numerous bloggers get stuck in involves not enough preparing. In order to make money as a blogger, the true secret towards being successful is always to create a practical plan and stay with it.

This is huge because they just sort of try something for a little while and when it doesn’t make them rich by tomorrow they quit.

Even I use to do this all the time and had to train myself to stick to one thing until it worked.

Write out some goals you would like to achieve such as how many posts you’d like to make each week or how many videos you’d like to make for your blog in a month. The hardest part is not making the goals but sticking to them.

Reason 2 – Lack of Visitors

Typically, blog owners have goals of just how rapidly their very own audience will probably develop and just how much revenue they may produce, and once those goals aren’t realized they quit.

To ensure success with running a blog to make money, it is important that you have a huge audience. The bigger your website traffic, the more often you will make money from ads, and the more often big advertisers are going to approach you.

Having said that, you’ll want to grow your number of readers. As increasing numbers of personal blogs surface daily, creating a good plan as well as a amazing way of posting is not good enough to acquire recognition. You’ll want to be capable of advertising your blog successfully. Which brings us to our next reason…

Reason 3 – Lack of Advertising

Way too many blog owners dedicate all their energy producing blog posts and virtually no effort on marketing and advertising.

You can create the most bad ass posts of all time but if no one is there to read them then you wont make money.

Consider cutting down the amount of blog posts and increasing your effort to attract fresh website visitors. Some ideas are simply creating link swaps with other blog owners, creating YouTube videos, participating in blog communities, in addition to pursuing additional proven ways of gaining targeted traffic like banners and paid advertising.

Get Committed

Needless to say, even if you are a internet marketing pro or even have the coolest looking blog, being successful won’t come about over night. Building the sort of audience in which blogging to make money calls for needs time, and in all probability it will likely be around a few months well before you can be able to make a decent profit.

Stay commited to your business. Set solid goals how many times you will post and set goals for how many new visitors you want to get to your site, how you will get those visitors, and before you know it you’ll be making money online.

A recent project I have been a part of for a few months now with owner of BuyMafia.com, won Top Digital Goods Store in the recent, Shopify Build-A-Business contest.

The site owner, a friend of mine, wanted his site to be easy to use for his customers and simple to run for him. We explored many options but I recommended he go with Shopify as his ecommerce platform, since it would solve both his requirements. My part was to put everything together from the entire site layout and design to even the mailing list campaigns. With a combination of creativity, hard work, and luck the project was a success.

The website continues to grow and has also been featured on the popular blog by Tim Ferriss, FourHourWorkWeek.com.

Cheers to BuyMafia.com and its future success!

Never thought risking your life could be so much fun.