Google signed a death warrant for article directories recently. Niche sites are next on the hit list. Google has done this because people have been complaining over the past year about search results that are full of indifferent articles and tiny niche sites that have only been written for Adsense.
The Background
It was the same story a few years ago when Google’s algorithm showed hundreds of worthless directory sites at the top of any search results pages. The algorithm changed to remove these sites from search results.
This is going to hit many writers who have concentrated on articles. Experienced writers often go on to build niche sites. All of these are going to be hit hard. The problem is that they are so easy to build that even the shoeshine boy has some. When your shoeshine boy is into something it is time for you to get out and move on to something else.
How Can a Writer Earn Money Post 2010?
Searchers want better quality results. Google wants to stay on top, so it has to give searchers better results. Better quality sites normally have hundreds of pages that are intensively inter-linked, with images throughout the site. They use unique website designs and lot of people bookmark them and come back another day.
If these are the things people want then Google’s next algorithm change will emphasise them.
Writers need to build massive sites with lots of interlinking and really provide quality for readers. They need to focus on writing for people instead of for Adsense clicks. If people value a website highly then Google will, too.
How Does a Writer Build Maxi-Sites?
There are two ways:
- Do all the work and writing yourself
- Collaborate with other writers on a few different sites
If you spend eight hours a day on one site you are putting all your eggs into one basket. You can do it, and it might work, but if it does not take off all your invested time is wasted.
If you collaborate with other writers you can work on three or four sites each day, increasing your chances of at least one site making it big.
There is a third way. You can start your own maxi site to help other writers to earn which will eventually benefit you. Every writer should do this for at least one maxi site. It is possible to set up a site from scratch and recruit writers within three days. It will take time for a maxi site to start making money, so make a start today.
Starting Your Own Writers Collaboration Site
Choose a subject that people will want to write about and that has a large potential readership.
Start recruiting writers in any forum that you frequent. Make it clear that remuneration will be from affiliate links only at first. Limit links out to blogs to profile pages. Posts and Pages on the rest of your collaborative writing site should link only to authority sites. Eventually you may put Adsense on the site, with authors putting their own Adsense ID on their own work.
You can use WordPress (free) to build your site. Buy a .com domain name and hosting. If you already have a hosting package it will only cost you $10 for the domain name. Install WordPress and find a theme.
Build Privacy, Disclosure and Terms of Use pages. These will also be in Google’s next algorithm because they are signs of a quality site.
Install a few WordPress plugins. Exclude-Pages is extremely useful because you can stop Privacy, Terms etc. pages from being displayed in menus. You can put links to these pages in the footer very unobtrusively, like in this women’s issues website.
21CWoman.com cost $10 for the domain name and took three days to build including recruiting writers at InfoBarrel. This site is a good model. It aims to produce tons of content every day. The writers all work part-time on an affiliate link only basis. There are no ads on the site. The objective is to grow by word of mouth into a daily women’s magazine, at which point advertisers will ask to put their ads on the site.
If you have any ideas or questions on this subject please use the Comment Box to ask them. This is a new area for most writers and we all need to work together