*** Please note the title and small parts of this article were modified since its initial post. Apparently the bulk of humanity read questions and believe they are the author’s opinion. A question is a question, a doorway to open discussion, not an answer within itself. The Point of this article was to discuss the failure of improving the relevancy of results from Google’s Penguin update and not my personal opinion on Matt Cutts. I said before, I will say again, I like the guy. He’s done more for the net than I (and you) ever have ***

Matt Cutts is the most recognizable name from Google in the SEO industry but with the recent penguin update it seems like the entire point of having a webspam team needs a lot more work. Don’t get me wrong, I like Matt Cutts and think the guy provides great value, but the most recent Penguin update has a lot to show for any success against web spam. In fact, it’s caused more destruction and only opened up the doors for more spam.

The Penguin update was a complete failure in my opinion. Every website developer, online publisher, small business… anyone with a website … expects certain minor ranking changes with a Google update but this was like reverting to 1995.

Something needs to be changed.

In any business there are 2 types of customers – the tangible and intangible ones.

Tangible Clients can be measured strictly by how much revenue they bring in. In Google’s case this would be the Adwords customers.

Intangible Clients are those whose actions cannot be strictly measured monetarily but by the value of their contributions to a brand – which often exceed the monetary value of tangible clients. The number of intangible clients is usually much broader than tangible ones often outnumbering tangible clients by 10’s, 100’s or thousands.

Think of all the PR money it would cost to have millions of people loving and promoting your brand for free – this is the very value of intangible clients.

Examples of intangible clients are those who refer people, those who promote a company without being asked or compensated, those who provide value added pieces and those who invest their own money into innovation for products which compliment or add value to your product. In the world of search these intangible clients are small business, SEO firms, individual webmasters and more.

In fact, these intangible clients create the very foundation for which many companies exist, especially a search engine.

The Panda update was warranted but the Penguin update has been completely ridiculous. The entire online industry deserves more from a company who basically has a monopoly on search (sorry Bing –and Youwho or whatever that site with the Y which used to be relevant is called).

My last straw with this was noticing a domain registered 4 days ago ranking # 2 for a coveted term – not to mention wikipedia ranking #1 .. seriously, do we really need a definition of what we are searching for as the #1 result?

There is no excuse for gaps like this in a search engine after a update dedicated to remove stuff exactly like this. Of course, this happened after the penguin update but the search results for almost any major term are completely stuffed with this garbage right now. For example:

VIAGRA

Search for Viagra and Pfizer is nowhere to be seen but no less than 4 of the top 20 sites actually have a warning “this site might be compromised”. Well, if it is …

Why is it in your index???

Just remove the site manually. You know people love to click on stuff when you tell them not to.

PAYPAL FRANCE

As an American I understand we sometimes fund humor at the expense of the French but even this is ridiculous when someone’s Grandmother is trying to send them some PayPal money only to find Viagra sites everywhere on page 1 for the search “PayPal France”.

Maybe this will make Nana rethink her sex life but I’m not sure when she searched for this term she had the appropriate knickers on anyway.

INSURANCE PROVIDERS

Oh my. Established sites with hundreds of pages of relevant content now outranked by Wikipedia, the Yahoo Directory (hint – you are competing with them) and a pretty good photographer from Colorado – who probably should consider switching careers to an insurance agent for a little while.

MOBILE PHONES

Seriously, is this 1995? Do we really need Wikipedia at #1 here describing what a mobile phone is?

There are 100’s of other examples of leading terms that now have search results reminiscent of 1972 and it looks like it will be a banner year for spammers while people who have built solid websites with tons of relevant, original content are shown the back door.

Then there are long tail terms … which drive the bulk of most content. Somewhere Google has decided these also are to be replaced by ridiculous results for many of the key terms.

BLOOD IN THE STREETS

I don’t think Google realizes the extensive amount of damage they have done. Minor changes are all part of business but the key to providing a relevant search experience is educating and embracing the very community who provides such information. The answer is certainly not to replace them overnight with brands or Wikipedia articles.

IN THE REAL WORLD

Everything consists of some foundational structure. Whether you are building a house, starting a company or just being a citizen there are consistent, common factors that grow over time which collectively help form a foundation. Those who fail to comply or try to cheat the system are often met with penalties, fines, suspensions or even jail sometimes.

Building a search engine is no different. The foundation needs to stay stable with minor, logical changes introduced from time to time. Those webmasters who fail to comply or cheat the system should be penalized however those who do comply, and those willing to correct minor changes, should not be just thrown out the side door without a hearing or explanation. More often than not it’s one person who simply trusted the wrong “seo expert” or someone who really isn’t familiar with the whole structure needed for a website that gets penalized. However, the Penguin update has now made this nothing less than a horrific comedy show of standards.

BRANDS DO NOT PROVIDE CONTENT

I cannot underemphasize how important and relevant this is in today’s world. Do you know how long it would take to get a brand to publish 1,000 pages of relevant content? The answer is years.

Every article has to be approved by legal, edited by someone else etc. The reason for them not doing this is because it’s a logistical nightmare. Independent experienced professionals and knowledgeable writers can provide so much more relevancy to any search engine than any brand ever will.

In turn for the search results these companies hire people, innovate, invest and add so much economic value for the country and the world that their contribution (past and present) should never be turned off with the flip of a switch.

GOOD SEO PEOPLE BRING VALUE

Yes, they do. SEO is not bad.

There is bad SEO, but all SEO is not bad.

Many of the sites people use in everyday life, quoted in top publications, assist people in getting through life and more, are ranked high through years of efforts of SEO professionals who crafted a plan to create a relevant and useful experience for the visitor.

The time, money and energy spent is based on trusting Google in rewarding them for good content and good links. There is not a single white hat professional out there who expects any kind of everlasting bump on their website from a link on a Russian Viagra site. But when you do piece stuff together, work with other bloggers to publish quality content (with a link back), invest time in creating infographics and more … yes, you are doing exactly what you should be doing. The results are relevant and worthy of rankings.

In fact, its the exact same stuff big brands are doing except on a faster, more-efficient and often higher quality scale.

Adding a link on a blogroll may look spammy at times but in not all cases is that correct. You can’t create an automatic formula for just blacklisting or penalizing sites on limited cases of “bad links”. Within 30 seconds a good SEO expert can tell you what a bad link is but no automated system can do this.

Furthermore, can a Google human rater (who doesn’t understand how to develop a website) really tell the difference between a good and bad link?

Isn’t this like asking the Office Depot guy to say which pen is better when all he’s doing is looking at the package – no one asked him if he could even write.

The human element is only as good as the humans doing it, otherwise you might as well hire a monkey.

GOOD SEO COMPANIES MAKE MISTAKES

They do. They all do.

Not a single website developer has not ever made a mistake. I would say 100% of website developers have made some mistakes over the year. Non-technical site owners make even more mistakes. Now it seems like hiring the wrong seo company can have your business practically shut down overnight. Note to Google here …. most non-technical site owners don’t even know what webmaster tools is or what SEO stands for, nor do they care.

Even big brands are not immune to this. Almost all big brands have sites which violate Google site guidelines. In fairness, almost every website in the world violates some portion of these guidelines since they are so vague. However, one can’t be the judge and jury for a product so critical to individuals, agencies and small business without some kind of logical and reliable avenue for recourse.

A reconsideration request with a “thanks but review our guidelines” email is not a reply. Almost worse than none at all, since it makes the good developers only want to buy a shotgun and scream WTF at the computer. Furthermore it destroys the Google brand credibility with small business.

People will help you build a better product but there has to be some communication and consistency.

WE ALL UNDERSTAND YOUR EMBARRASSMENT

I’m almost positive there was some flack internally (and from brands) when the autoinsurancequoteseasy.com article was published on SEOmoz.org. However, these are cases where sites should be removed, not an industry punished. I really mean an industry – There are thousands of people with families who invested in making better sites, more relevant content, unique articles and more. Any system has holes, the owner of this site just happened to be smarter than you. In fact, offer him a job – that’s what the CIA does for hackers.

WE DO NOT RELY ON GOOGLE BUT YOU ARE PART OF ANY BUSINESS PLAN

Some will say you shouldn’t depend on Google for all your traffic and they are right. However, the reality is organic search is part of ANY business plan otherwise there would be barely any quality standards on the web at all.

Without people trying to fight for Google organic traffic you would see website designs return to the days of people using Hot Dog. Web Developers would charge tremendous fees for sup-par work, very little structure would ever be used in site design and every site would be doing whatever they feel like doing.

Minor changes in search actually help create better products and better results.

Drastic changes result in poorer quality results, cause chaos, confusion and disgust within the people who provide business owners the very tools to compete online.

There are thousands of people who got executed with this Penguin update due to the overnight and drastic measure of change. For math geeks the execution of those Penguin update was a complete failure. Not only has it led spam rise to the top (which some argue may be one reason) but it’s also provided absolutely no logical pattern for building a sustainable website.

PEOPLE WANT TO TRUST YOU

This is a pretty big thing. Imagine being that person who everybody wants to trust. It’s quite the compliment to even have that status in life. However, the Penguin update is almost like you beating the very people who do trust you over the head with a stick instead of showing even an ounce of respect for their valued contribution to the SERP’s which are the foundation of any quality search engine.

Let’s put it this way …. if Google was a girl (and the hottest girl on my Facebook right now) I still probably would not even be interested in pressing the poke button today.

THE COLLEGE OF LIFE IS HARD

No one doubts that. Business is not fair, life is hard and there is no college for this stuff. People learn on the fly, small business trust “experts”, big business trusts experts. People listen to you, follow guidelines, and make corrections, grow, hire, expand, innovate and make more corrections. However, when junk (complete junk) outranks you and we go back to the days of Wikipedia ranking everywhere isn’t your goal of relevancy falling behind.

For the record, I’m not a sore loser here. We had winners and losers like everybody else but the industry can not continue to grow, invest or innovate under changes like this. The SEO industry is full of brilliant people and when the bulk of this industry can only create theories about how this update is beneficial (which individually sound smart but collectively sound like no one knows what the hell is really going on) then we are moving years back instead of taking the single step forward we need to.

Where do we go from here?

Who Knows.

©2012 Newfound Names LLC. All Rights Reserved.

This is vastly different than prior years since if these names ever get sold again they will be sold based on a business value and not just a typical domain valuation.

While many domainers were spending time trying to cherry pick dropped names or pay $50k for some name hoping only to find a willing buyer who will pay 200k many brokers, developers and investors were targeting the very cream of the crop on the aftermarket and have succeeded in making 2010 the year of some of the most valuable domain purchases ever. Take for example just a sample of the names sold in 2010 – note that almost all of these were private transactions and not on dropped lists or even showcase auctions:

Legal Domains

• DivorceLawyers.com – a private sale currently in Escrow.com
• PersonalInjuryLawyers.com – UK law firm

Travel Domains

• LasVegasHotels.com – private purchase by Swiftrank PTE Ltd.
• BostonHotels.com – private purchase by Swiftrank PTE Ltd.

Holiday Domains

• BlackFridaySales.com – the rumcake dude

Insurance (ok – some way out of the budget for many domainers)

• AutoInsurance.com – private deal (unconfirmed)
• CarInsurance.com – Quinstreet
• Insurance.com – Quinstreet
• Insure.com – Quinstreet
• HealthInsuranceQuotes.com
• CarInsuranceComparison.com
• HomeOwnersInsurance.com

Health / Weight Loss

• WeightTraining.com
• HowtoLoseWeightFast.com

Gambling

• Slots.com
• Poker.org

Games

• CookingGames.com
• Boardgames.com

Cell Phones

• Ringtones.com

Even sex.com was sold but odds are that domain will be another dud imo and belongs to some group who will just change the DNS every 3 months looking for a better rev share from PPC.

I could go on and on about the wealth of premier domain names that have been scooped up by people who understand development and then ask why anyone is buying 95% of any of the junk sales reported every week but this is what makes a fascinating industry. Domainers every day watch trends and try to chase patterns but when in fact most of the money made by development is in lead generation.

From finance to shopping to games – the internet mainly revolves around 15 or 20 key lead generation verticals and when you understand that then you will NEVER have to chase any pattern.

Most developers know the good names by heart while many domainers still only understand whats catchy at the moment. How many times have you heard somebody say insurance is hot in the last 6 months?

Well… duh … insurance has been hot since 1999. So are credit cards, weight loss, mortgages, hotels, holiday names and other categories in the top list.

Frank Schilling said it best a couple years – only about 2% of all names registered mean anything so let me give you a couple life lessons for 2011

• If you can’t name the top 2% then consider ignoring all drop lists for a couple weeks and go back to domain name 101 school and learn what makes a good domain.
• Stop following trends – you should know the core names almost off the top of your head and while trends have a place how can you really pick a good name from a new batch if you don’t understand the ones already around?
• Ignore weekly sales reports. They are fun but no one has been able to find logic in them since 1941 and no one ever will.
• Spend money on good names. Do not spend money on 100 mediocre ones. Buy 1 good one.

There is also life outside of America. I have heard many comments about people looking at some domain buys and then doing a Google search saying well hey – this name gets no traffic since it doesn’t show up in Google. Oh my ….

Names with international appeal like SydneyHotels.com do not need Google USA Page 1 to be successful. While a Google US search may not show SydneyHotels.com favorably yet it’s already on page 1 of Google.com from almost all locations outside the US.

Names like LasVegasHotels.com have been (by far) some of the best acquisitions EVER with thousands of direct type in traffic every month. The new owners have a site that is continuously being upgraded and now in its 3rd version.  If you compare this site’s look, feel and functionality now versus the way it looked pre-acquisition earlier in the year using the history tool on Archive.org I think everyone will agree development like this undoubtedly makes a more valuable asset having undergone professional development.

I could go on and on but the fact is some of the best domains in the world are finally getting developed by people who can develop. Not mini-sites or these mass development services but people with actual development budgets and link building skills.

Finally… the future has begun -)

©2012 Newfound Names LLC. All Rights Reserved.

However what if Google changed local results one day and stopped displaying ALL organic results. Well, it seems like Google is testing this as reported by Coverseon here:

http://blog.converseon.com/2010/08/13/google-removes-organic-results-in-local-tests/

This is why learning SEO and development is more important each and every day as if you bank your portfolio on things remaining the same – well, you just might need a life belt after all

Have to love this business

©2012 Newfound Names LLC. All Rights Reserved.

You see – that’s the power of the internet and a good domain name.

Sure, you could buy a domain for $200 and flip it for $2,000 the next week but the success is short lived and generally only fuels your fire to keep flipping domains.

However when can you start avoiding the idiosyncrasies of this industry and gamblers high from selling domain names to graduate to the point of this entire industry?

Some old school domainers will blog about traffic names but its sooo short sighted and only defines why the amount of information you can actually extract from some of these people is so limited.

Domain names are sort of like your piece of real estate in this world however very few domain names will ever bring in seven figures for a sale and I can guarantee 99% of people reading this do not own one. What you do own is a pipe dream with your triple hyphen .info.

What’s the $2 million sale?

Well, it’s not a pipe dream.

Very few people know me but those that do understand I have sold more names than probably anyone reading this blog (excluding Mike Mann of course) and have had my fair share of development success and even entered this business as an end user in the mortgage origination industry generating in excess of $100 million in mortgage loans. Granted, I also have a couple failed companies so its not always rosy but I do have the qualifications to give a teaspoon of advice in this industry.

Over the last year I have noticed more and more white noise across the domaining blogs and it’s become quite comical at best. You see – for the newbies – most people who comment on blogs really only have a couple sales, no development to speak of and little real knowledge of the domain industry. These facts are obvious by the blither of commentary across many of the popular blogs. Furthermore, some of the “popular” blogs are written by people as new as you – which sort of negates the whole “professional” viewpoint you need right?

(Obviously there are some great people who comment across the blogs like the Castello Brothers but the ratio seems to be about 100 to 1 for every qualified comment)

I’m not going to criticize anyone specifically as people enjoy one blog or another for reasons which are their own so all I want to do on this USA holiday weekend is simply show you what a $2 million sale looks like.

$750 a day.

Yep – that’s it.

You get a site up and running and enough content where traffic and net income is consistent within a $750 a day range and most likely you have $2 million in your pocket.

Why?

$750 a day income is equivalent to $273,750 in ANNUAL profit.

It’s easy to find a buyer for 7-10 years x income of almost any website generating consistent and verifiable revenue.

7 years revenue at $750 a day is $1,916,250.

Does $750 a day sound like a lot … sure and it is hard work however how about $375 a day – then you got a $1 million site.

$375 is 7 good mortgage leads a day
$375 is 7 good weight loss leads a day.
$375 is 15 good car insurance clicks a day.

You see … it’s not anything that’s impossible to reach. In fact, it’s easier to do than studying for your MCAT.

My advice – and probably my only post this summer is …

If you really want to make money in this industry long term do the following things:

First and Foremost

Filter out the white noise – stop subscribing to half the junk about domain names online and learn about what makes a good one. Do not try to find reasons why ALL domains sell for as much as they do because you only need ONE and almost EVERY domainer has a different theory on every sale. Many times, no theory at all since a large portion of sales only make sense to the buyer.

Secondly

Look at the authors qualifications. Many (not all but close) domain bloggers have never developed anything more than a mini-site. Some have simply paid other people to develop a site and still don’t have a clue about development so head over to the SEO and affiliate blogs once you secure your domain name. Hell, even start in the SEO and affiliate forums to learn what makes a good domain – many of those guys know more about domains than domainers …. Why, because they use them!!!!

Thirdly

Keep your small daily goal alive. The $300 or $500 a day is all you need to bank your million in a couple years.  Sometimes thinking about a million dollars seems unimaginable and will beat you down before you ever get started.

A daily goal will make it seem easier and reachable for many of you.

And Finally…

Live life to the fullest – take calculated risks and only take advice from people you trust … not just because they have a fancy blog online. Life is too short – I have had a particular bad year with losing loved ones and having accidents or health problems happen to those very unexpectedly – do not think you will always have the time to do what you want to do so live your dream now. I know it sounds like a cliché but one day I promise you will heed the same advice to people.

Happy July 4th to the Americans but remember Europeans get a months holiday every year, paid maternity leave, free medical insurance, thinner women, better wine, stronger currency, real cappuccino (in a small cup NOT a bowl), secondary languages that are usually mandatory, cool clothes and more – so have your fireworks but when Tuesday comes you’re all back to work

©2012 Newfound Names LLC. All Rights Reserved.

The latest change to the Google search results for mortgage related terms such as “mortgage rates”, “mortgage calculator”, “mortgage loan” and more show Google comparison ads in the #1 spot. From the dozen or terms I searched for Google is # 1 across the board.

Not only does this Google self serving ad bump out 1 of the 3 available positions usually available above the organic search results (btw where can I can get a radio button and 4 lines of text for a Google ad!) but it really kills lead generation in the mortgage industry unless you are a company willing to provide rates, a good faith estimate, APR information and more (see results below)

Most lead companies generate leads through forms and usually come with a small disclosure reagrding APR and fees should it be required however posting this information online with what seems to be a required phone number also (if these ads are in fact available through the adwords platform at all) then its much more transparency than most people want to share. In fact, when requesting multiple quotes this is not information you can provide becuase a lead generator is matching clients to providers – not usually offering or publishing offered rates. Of course, the battle for the # 2 ad spot (really # 3) still exists however having Google take over enough space for both the first and second ad this should really bring down many CTR’s for mortgage related terms.

The New York Times wrote about this back in September involving a lawsuit file by LendingTree with regards to the technology Google is using behind the mortgage comparison service.

For domainers this doesn’t mean much since many have not purchased a single PPC ad however for developers who built out PPC campaigns based on historical click thru and conversation rates it may be time to start modifying your business plan … again.

©2012 Newfound Names LLC. All Rights Reserved.

The million dollar home page was the original money maker and one that has tried to be repeated many times over (with no such luck) however with the advances in social media since the early days more and more people are selling their souls for the right price

I have to give this guy lots of credit though – iwearyourshirt.com

From his site the system works like this

“In this up and down economy I’m outsourcing my wardrobe (namely shirts) to corporate america and you! I’m going to wear a different shirt for 365 days straight in 2009, take multiple pictures throughout my day and blog about it. Days are sold at “face value” so January 1 is $1 and December 31 is $365″

Doing the math that is $66,795 a year just for his shirt.

Lose your job and start a business wearing a T-shirt to work – sounds like a dream job to me!

FANTASTIC use of the web, viral media and a good hearted way to embrace your humor since I’m pretty sure some of these shirts have to be funny.

Bruce Marler had a great post about discussing ways to grow the domain aftermarket to end users so I highly suggest you read the article and 50+ comments here since if this guy can sell 365 shirts a year to corporate America then maybe we should all really think our approach to end users instead of complaining about it.

PS.  Next year there are 2 guys with 2 shirts !! No information yet if he will sell ads on his boxers for the ladies but I highly expect a premium package to be added should this idea continue to work lol

©2012 Newfound Names LLC. All Rights Reserved.

# 2 sponsored link was …

I will not even link to this site since it does not deserve a link and will never understand how anyone would drop even a $1 for SEO services from someone that has (a) Google in their domain name and (b) a website that many 10 year olds could design better before they brush their teeth in the morning.

Granted – they may be SEO wizards but highly, highly doubtful in my book so be careful, if you’re looking for SEO services. Please do not fall in the trap of hiring somebody who from the very start has shown disrespect for the TM laws of domain names. Odds are there are some black hat SEO tricks in their wizardry which will only come back to bite you in the ass.

Find a reputable firm like SEO.com, listen to Bruce Clay, read SEOmoz.org and many others, your lessons will be a lot less expensive in the long run.

©2012 Newfound Names LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Unfortunately, I don’t have time at the moment to do a list of my favs but would love to read about your finds – whether its traffic, creative use of a brandable name or just incredible design.

Post below !

©2012 Newfound Names LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Its not very often domains sell and re-appear with sites which look as good as this. Rick must be proud today – I would imagine this is what he always envisioned (along with that big old check lol)

Visit Candy.com – check it out!

©2012 Newfound Names LLC. All Rights Reserved.

This domain is clearly one of the larger mortgage domains and although the mortgage and real estate business is what led me to having great success online the ultimate plan (you know – the dream we all have) had shifted away from the mortgage business since we had wrapped the completion of sales for quite a few real estate / finance sites and cashed out quite nicely (still patting myself on the back for not taking an offer from geosign – those future payments would have been worth as much as a coffee cup, probably less).

We still had quite a few of the big finance names and auctions were pretty hot back then so risking a $59 reserve we threw it up to let the market decide. We got a fair price but for a few months I kept wondering what the new owner was going to do with the domain. As a parked domain it really did not get much traffic but 99.8% of domains never do – even with top keywords like this – so I knew the raw power of the domain would be in development.

Was the buyer going to waste a great domain by plastering Adsense ads all over it?

I waited … I waited.

Finally, he launched a pretty basic site but I knew it was almost SEO perfect with a whole set of mortgage calculators however he stopped there.

Nothing really more.

No ads.

No articles on how to improve your credit or get approved for a home loan.

Just some calculators and a free script for webmasters with … again .. No ads or even branding for mortgagecalculator.net

Like some kind of addict every few weeks I would look up the site and see if anything changed. Nothing – just the numbers kept going up.

Today the website is # 6 in Google with over 20,000 people a month

I am not privilege to his development plan but I truly believe that part of the success was that no Adsense ads are plastered around the site.  In fact, the content is precise. Targeted to the keyword, the domain name and limited to what is relevant… but not limited enough so there is no content.

How does he make money?

Who cares – It’s about the long term.

One day I’m sure he will but he built it first and they came. Now he can think about making a few bucks instead of how to get traffic.

Now, if he can only surpass mortgagecalculator.org …. (168,000 visitors)

As for the .com

Much less traffic … and much more Adsense.

Build First – Monetize Later is the key to success on the web, just like it is offline.

Great job.

©2012 Newfound Names LLC. All Rights Reserved.