Another Refugee

Digital Matrix Cafe Introduce Yourself
1

Hi Guys,

Just thought I would say HI,

I am another Refugee from "You Know Where"

When things went crazy with Google Last September I didn't have much time to assess and work out if "You Know Where" was still the right place for me, so I signed up for another year just to be comfortable, but in that year things went from bad to impossible on my website.

And "You know where" have no answers and no response at all other than just carry on as usual, only AI as well

It's just a joke really with just vague responses such as "Increase Your Bing Traffic!" and "AI"

I kind of get it, the HCU has destroyed the "You Know Where" Method and they don't really have an answer, and it's not like anywhere else does, so being honest with the members is basically saying, "yeah your F%*$k£d" Not great for business, but I can't stay a part of what is now a Scam IMO, so when my year ran out I jumped ship...going it alone in the scary world of SEO

TBH It's not like I have anything to lose, 40,000 monthly visitors have dropped to <1000 and most of them are probably bots and AI scrapers

I have a few new ventures in the pipeline, and my YouTube Channel is still growing...painfully slowly, but growing,

I have discovered I am an Excellent Barman though so I can always make money getting other people drunk

So Yeah....HI

Steve

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Welcome here, good luck:)

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Hi Steve, welcome to the world of refugees lol!

I have unsubscribed on WA and probably will never go back, although I still peak on in on classes, because I had payed in advance untill next year. And as you say, it is getting worse, they just don't know, do they?
Focussing on Bing traffic, well, if that works, it is not because of them, but because of things changing in the AI world. As ChatGPT, for example, is connected to Bing, lol. I am already getting some traffic from ChatGPT search, not that much still from actually Bing.
Although I have 'slightly' recovered on Google, I will never have that level of traffic back from before september 2023.
My traffic and income is slowly rising again, but most of my income comes from Journey adds instead of actual affiliate income, go figure lol!

If it wasn't by coincidence that I saw on Twitter that Mediavine now has Journey for people with 10k+ traffic per month, I would have been left with almost nothing.

Also, since I started focussing on socials and writing about whatever I want actually, without doing keyword research on "Jaaxy" , I'm back at 24K visits a month, where before all of this happened, I had almost 30k per month. (after the HCU update, it was down to just over 10K visits, so I could JUST join Journey, and so glad I did!)

All of this, they don't tell you about it on WA, and even put people at risk with their Amazon account by claiming that you can just use their pictures straight up, UGH!

And there are so many other things that they should talk about, now that they are 'pivoting' to socials (only now they come with this, wow, what a LATE mess). Like Jay who gave 2 small classes about Facebook. What was that all about? He doesn't go into depth at all, there is sooooo much more to it! (like be VERY CAREFUL WITH FACEBOOK AND AT LEAST USE 2 STEP VERIFICATION) . Just doing what Jay says won't make those people money, at all. And people not familiar with Facebook, could lose their account in no time. We have to beware that we can lose everything from every channel we heavily promote, either it be Google, or bing, Facebook or others. The only secure thing are newsletters.

And their AI writer is horrible, to say the least. Whenever I checked out other people's websites: how do they think they'll make money with those articles in the first place?

I could go on, but again, welcome hahaha!

Lizzy

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Hello Steve

Welcome to the forum

I'm from WA and just renewed my membership for another year. I don't believe it is a scam. I have been there for years. I never made money before but recently I made my first 3 affiliate sales thanks to the knowledge I gained there.

I have barely any traffic from Google but I'm getting some from Bing which I think is what made my first three affiliate sales. SEO is definitely not dead and now that I have made my first 3 affiliate sales I know the WA training still works.

Sorry to hear it didn't work out for you. I wish you good luck with your business and with all your future online adventures. All the best to your success.


Regards

Timothy

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Welcome Steve ... you have a supportive community here :-)

[quote data-userid="2132" data-postid="2002266"]

the HCU has destroyed the "You Know Where" Method

[/quote]

WA becomes more like a cult with every day that passes. The only constant is change and WA have yet to admit that.

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Hmm not sure what this WA you all keep mentioning is, I have no idea what you are talking about, I am just a Refugee from "You Know Where"...I couldn't possibly be talking about anywhere specific...that would be Libelous!

Bing is just the perfect example of how they are bluffing, I was told on multiple occasions to focus on getting more Bing Traffic, they are even running some training on it, but there is no way to do this, it's all automatic, same as Google, you just put the content up and their crawlers do the rest.

SEO for Bing is the same as SEO for Google, the only thing you can do is submit any content for crawling but at best that speeds things up, but probably makes no effin difference. Question them and it's just tumbleweeds.

I do understand why they refuse to admit it, basically, they don't have an answer...but who does? What can we do...that's easier to accept as I have no choice, they are carrying on as if it's all ok, basically to keep the new members rolling in when there is almost no chance of real success

Take a look at the current success stories...more tumbleweeds there...

Google literally took aim at EXACTLY their customer's throats and systematically executed them, but it was just business as usual their end.

and @timothyballa It's not that it didn't work out...I was at "You Know Where" for 8 YEARS!

I made just shy $2million in Affiliate Sales and built a thriving and popular Travel Site in a horrifically competitive Niche, allowing me to travel the world and live a scarcely believable life, it most definitely "worked out"

It's just last September Google pulled the plug, destroyed my site, and "you know who's " answer was just to keep doing the same, but focus on Bing, and use our crappy AI writer, all is fine...there is no recipe for success there, not anymore, at least not for now until they get their heads out their A$$@$

That's before we mention their seriously flawed Hosting, moving away from that has been a real eye-opener, I honestly didn't know how bad it was until I saw my site running on WPX...Huge long-standing bugs that "You Know Who" refused to accept were their fault simply vanished overnight...poof

Honestly, I wish them the best and hope they find a way out of this, but I think their days are numbered... without the myriad of Success Stories who is going to believe them that their system works??? .. whoever "they" are...

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[quote data-userid=“94” data-postid=“2002279”]

Hello Steve

Welcome to the forum

I'm from WA and just renewed my membership for another year. I don't believe it is a scam. I have been there for years. I never made money before but recently I made my first 3 affiliate sales thanks to the knowledge I gained there.

I have barely any traffic from Google but I'm getting some from Bing which I think is what made my first three affiliate sales. SEO is definitely not dead and now that I have made my first 3 affiliate sales I know the WA training still works.

Sorry to hear it didn't work out for you. I wish you good luck with your business and with all your future online adventures. All the best to your success.

Regards

Timothy

[/quote]

I don't mean to be rude, but I am going to ask this: you were on WA for years, without ever earning anything. How does that work in your mind then that their training is 'good'?
It wasn't untill I didn't 'listen' to them anymore, that I started to gain money. Mostly thanks to Partha, Diane, and Andy here. Ohw, and Vitaly to , he was the only one telling me that I should probably pivot to socials a lot more then just focussing on blogging for my niche.

Lizzy

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[quote data-userid="2132" data-postid="2002289"]

Hmm not sure what this WA you all keep mentioning is, I have no idea what you are talking about, I am just a Refugee from "You Know Where"...I couldn't possibly be talking about anywhere specific...that would be Libelous!

[/quote]

Here, let me help you out ... it's Wealthy Affiliate and all I'm offering is my opinion. That's not libelous.

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@rohanm

Don't worry, just my version of humor 😉

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@sgreg sorry Steve ... didn't mean to snap at you!

Thank you for posting your story above. That's an impressive affiliate income. It must hurt getting slapped in the face that hard by Google.

There is a way forward though ... Parasite SEO ;-)

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I thought all was closed here, haven´t got a post in weeks :) Great to see it is still working here this sit

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@rohanm Don't worry all good,

To be clear that's Affiliate sales, not commission, still, I got a good % of that so it is still pretty painful and what's worse is it's slammed the door on our awesome jet-set life where we traveled the world seeing some awsome places and doing some incredible things, now stuck in Rainy old England doing bar work to make the mortgage payments!

I am still on the edge about parasite SEO, I know it can work but it's just so black hat, and doomed to fail in the longer term, I have other plans, centered around a more traditional online business, powered by YouTube, and absolutely focussing on authenticity and actually BEING in the places we promote, AI is never going to do that and that is always going to be the biggest threat to the blogging world

But travel has such an advantage there as AI can't travel and people will want authentic opinions not regurgitated garbage, and Video PROVES authenticity (at least for the next decade...)

But god-damn video is time-consuming, it takes me 3-4 times longer to make a basic 10-minute video on a subject as it would to write a far better more detailed blog on the same matter...still, got to get back to travelling!

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[quote data-userid=“2132” data-postid=“2002292”]

@rohanm

Don't worry, just my version of humor 😉

[/quote]

I don't recognize your writing style, were you active 'on the other side' hahahahaha. Or were you silence banned as well lol?

Lizzy

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@sgreg If you would travel around all the time, then yes a travel vlog could really work, but if you're like me and only can go once or twice (I want to go more to Africa next year), it won't go anywhere. I only created a Youtube channel for my Africa site, as another good backlink

The other day, I read a few tips for vlogging, to get views and comments and such (did you know it is not always about the quality of your videos, so you don't need expensive equipment): try saying something wrong, hahahahaha.
Like "this waterfall is that high", and then give a wrong number. People want to correct you, engagement hahahahaha! People always want to say that someone on the internet is wrong hahahaha.

Or I had a very low quality verticle short video on Youtube, about a time we crossed the border to Lesotho, and the roads were that bad, that we needed to turn back with our rental 2x4 wheel drive. Just showed briefly the road and commented how bad it was.

Then this guy got all mad "these fucking tourists, she didn't cross the border, there is no one around there in the video, I sometimes have to wait in line for hours to cross the border". I didn't mention WHERE we crossed the border, it wasn't the main border at all lol. People get defensive about their country, which means engagement hahaha! Just a tip lol

Lizzy

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@ohnoo_not_her Hello Lizzy

I first joined WA in 2019 after almost a year wasting time following YouTube videos from fake gurus that got me nowhere.

Back then I had no idea what I was doing or how making money online really works. One day I came across WA and joined. That's where i learned everything I know about websites, affiliate marketing and making money online.

Now to answer your question. The reason I haven't earned anything sooner is my fault. I was never consistent enough and I gave up twice over the years and quit for months on two occasions. The second time I quit for a year and didn't do anything online.

I was expecting results fast but kept loosing hope and giving up because I wasn't making money. Fast forward to the present I have physical and mental health problems and I'm still not consistent with my content so it's my fault that I'm where I want to be.

If I had stayed consistent and didn't give up I could be a lot more successful by now. SEO is not as good as it used to be but social media seems to be working out better for me.

I hope this answers your question and makes sense. I wish you all the best going forward with your business. All the best to your success.


Regards

Timothy

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@timothyballa I understand now, sorry for the assumption. I wish you well!

Lizzy

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@ohnoo_not_her

I was fairly active (Sgregcrx), but only posted on occasion really, I spent more time working on my Website! I had a few Sucess Stories on there and posted when I was disgruntled about something lol But never really posted enough to get silenced, got pretty close at some points though, but have a clever way of phrasing things as questions (that have no good answers) so it doesn't sound as much like criticism!

My YouTube vlog is not really an Idea, it's a thing with 200+ videos and plenty of fancy equipment, and exciting travel destinations already documented. We like to travel AT LEAST 2 times a year, last year we spent a month in Hawaii, we have a lot of experience knowledge, and content created around our travels, it's just getting the content out to people.

It's doing quite well but I have always struggled for subscribers to get paid, I get loads of traffic and view time, 8000 hours last year and 500+ views a day, which is still small...tiny really, but growing all the time, the subscribers stay stubbornly under the 1000 threshold though...

The new idea is not just a Vlog, it's integrating that vlog (and a new Blog) into a more, but modernized, Travel Agency style of business. We do the things on YouTube and then help others plan and execute their trips. We work with some pretty advanced Booking platforms so we can offer some really nice travel discounts and perks. For example, our next trip is to visit New York on an unreasonably low budget, as we get these great travel perks, and then book similar trips for others, and back this with Travel Groups on Facebook, content on the Blog, and the huge catalog of travel guides we created for our original HCU hit blog

Honestly, it's an amazing idea...but I have no idea if it will ever see any REAL traffic, but it's what Google wants, a real business and brand,

My best-performing videos are my flight reviews, and as you say, they create a load of "opinion" and that drives good and bad comments, but all comments are good for the channel, right?

PS are we allowed to post links in here???

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@ohnoo_not_her

Cool, was just going to link to my YouTube channel, just wanted to check that was ok here! Just to help flesh out what I was saying, I am not expecting much in the way of results from posting a link here, This isn't an elaborate Forum Spam Scheme lol

https://www.youtube.com/@Yourusacityguide

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@ohnoo_not_her Hello Lizzy

No problem I'm glad you understand now. All the best to your success to.

Regards

Timothy