@rohanm Yes, minus one page that said access forbbiden 403. The rest were 404s. 
Google being so google. But ill do what lizzy doing and just diversify.
@keydah_keys where would you start diversifying? If it is on Pinterest (what niche do you have?), I would certainly recommend blogtopin.com and save you a lot of time and energy! So far, I haven't seen any other AI platforms that are as affordable and working well.
Ai platforms that write Ă nd blog post, Ă nd AI images made,and Ă©verything is AI, without humanising the heck out of things, are way to expensive, and in my humble opinion, not working. And I've seen so many people on Twitter now saying that they lost their Mediavine account because of this 'excessive ' use of AI.
So just beware of that if you're looking for gains through ads. (it's my biggest money source right now).
Long story short: wherever you can , still use real pictures.
Facebook is also dumping fluff-AI pages. Guru's say: nah won't happen to me, but Facebook has time and has to go through millions of pages.
Granted, I am having quite some AI written pages on my Africa site and might never get to Journey either with that one, lol, but now I know this, I will be going over a number of posts on my mini site, cause I don't want to lose that ads account.
And I still don't have enough traffic to join Raptive or so, aarggghh hahaha
About Google: yep, partially recovered, but remind you that this is only a fraction of what I used to have , and 2 years later, while still having worked on that site, people should remind themselves that this traffic would have been higher then it was in 2023, so we've lost even more then we think we have.
[attach]1255[/attach]What's tricky also is that GSC has now set the 'clicks' graphs above the 'view' graphs. That is soooo deceiving, isn't it?
Also, you can see in the last days, that the 2 lines are growing appart, if you know what I mean.
Which means that people don't click through to your site any longer, but stay on Google, to just search AGAIN, because they haven't found what they are looking for.
Seen it myself so many times, personally I use ChatGPT now, my husband the European version, instead of Google. If it wasnt for my site, I wouldnt use Google any longer either.
yesterday, I saw an article where I read that people only click on sites from the AI overview for about 1%. I'm surprised it is still that 'high' lol
if I'm continuing to gain traffic from Google, I think in my case, it is purely traffic from keywords that CAN NOT APPEAR in the AI overview, because of my tutorials and questions that AI has no answer to yet. (the day that the AI overview can write out perfectly how to 'create DIY dollhouse furniture with step by step pictures', I might just aswell close down everything lol.
Not to be negative, but I think in lots of niches, there will be in a near future, a no-more-click-internet anyway. We'll just point our phone camera's on an object, and an Ai voice will figur it all out for you.
That's why I intend to continu working on my Etsy store (with the help of Diane ) and probably will have an ecommerce store on my site too. (been saying this forever, really got to get to it lol)
So, (no affiliate links), if you're going for Pinterest; try blogtopin.com , or want to grow a facebook page with ads: check out this course: https://www.introverted-entrepreneur.com/facebook-for-niche-sites
And if you are still on WA: save your money and leave, seriously (nah, no regrets, only regret was that I stayed too long)
Lizzy
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this traffic would have been higher then it was in 2023, so we've lost even more then we think we have.
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That's a really good point Lizzy!
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personally I use ChatGPT now, my husband the European version, instead of Google
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Me too! I only use Google for a quick bit of keyword research really. GPT gives me the answers I need and is correct 99% of the time :-)
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huge gamechanger for me, is that now, there's a new section in GSC where it mentions the particular for of 'search appearance', which includes forum discussions
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Am I missing something about the forums? Is it related to something about Parasite SEO Partha was talking about? (Just noticed he added his course on that)
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And if you are still on WA: save your money and leave, seriously (nah, no regrets, only regret was that I stayed too long)
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Curious, what exactly makes you regret about WA?
Also, where do you host your websites now?
I barely check WA these days, just occasionally check Jay's or Vitaliy's videos on Pinterest, but staying there for hosting really.
@zarina Most of us host our sites through WPX now - I had an issue with WA's hosting with my main site, and since they weren't going to do anything to fix it, I moved, and left WA completely.
There is a forum thread here somewhere I can hunt down next week where a lot of us give our gripes about WA, but in a nutshell for me, it was just that they seemed to deny all the 2023 Google Algo updates and just kept encouraging people to post their 'quality' AI generated content and hope for the best.
I don't know where they've gone now or what they're preaching, but like Partha pointed out a year or two ago, how many people that had joined in the last couple of years had actually built something that was substantial? In one of their last Vegas retreats, there were only like 5 guys who made it - That was the year that Kyle taught a class on PPC, and no one who took that class made it to Vegas.
Also, just remember that WA is the only one telling you that their hosting is 'the best in the world' - I've gotten way more done while on WPX than when I was with WA (WPX support alone is worth paying for, since they're answer you within 30 seconds or less, and most of my problems have been taken care of within 5 minutes of contacting them).
Again, as I've said elsewhere on this forum, I'm not trying to paint WA in a negative light, but, from a 'success' point of view (in terms of their hosting, what they recommend, and how many members actually achieve financial freedom), they're dropping the ball quite a few times.
I'd also be curious to see what Jay and Vitaly are saying about Pinterest (not that I don't think they know what they're talking about, I'd just be curious). As I said in the email we sent out today, I hope to share in the next couple of days what going on our most recent site we've built out. Let's just say that We should hit 1K sessions in less than ~35 days of starting it. So definitely excited to share that with you all when I have time later next week!
@andy Thank you for sharing, Andy!
I hear about all of these points, and I'm aware and agree with your points.
I don't even know what they are preaching about these days, but I do know a lot of videos/tutorials now on Facebook and Pinterest for an additional traffic, which = less pressure than Google SEO.
Thank you for sharing about WPX! I'll consider moving.
Bc I missed my yearly subscription of finances, now I'm paying monthly, so I could make the switch sooner than later, I'll see. Did you choose professional or business pricing?
And if you intend to share about Pinterest, then guess I'll def have no reasons to keep staying there. Do you plan to just document stats, or share tips and tricks?
@zarina I went with WPX's Elite plan, due to the volume of traffic two of my larger sites was getting. I had to go check, but I'm currently hosting 12 sites - 5, my team and I work out pretty regularly, 4 are ones I'm not sure what I'm doing with (lol), and 3 I host for other people. Depending on how many sites you have, Professional should be fine (and it's super easy to roll your plan up into a Business plan if you need to).
Right now, most of what I'll share is stats and what we've been doing, and then try to answer any questions as specifically as I can.
If we got this forum growing well enough, I'd be happy to share everything I know - Pinterest traffic is obviously the first step (and what I would start sharing with), but then there is how to collect emails ( and also how to create free lead magnets), how to convert those emails to paying customers (which would also then mean talking about finding something to sell or creating something to sell), and then scaling all of that (which would include finding VAs/creating a team environment). And I guess also even how to create content with AI, since a lot of people need that class, lol.
@andy Sounds excellent! Would be happy to hear about it all haha.
Emails is my the weakest suit, and sometimes I wonder if I wanna do it, but sometimes I understand that it's important to do it. Ugh lol.
But even if with Pinterest I get my traffic and income up, at least to $3K/month stable, then I'd be happy.
I'm curious (if you don't mind sharing your numbers), the traffic income, how much does it make you? Do you get paid in ads or thanks to affiliate links?
(Can answer in a future post, instead of here, again, only if you are comfortable sharing đ)
@zarina Yeah, I can definitely share income traffic at some point in the near future. We need some success posts here are some point, right? lol
Talk about some success, Google has doubled my traffic since the last update. Far from my former traffic, but I'll take it! (for now lol)
The side-effect for me is that I'm getting 'free' products thrown at me for 'free reviews', either on my blog or my Youtube channel. And these brands think that they can just throw 'free products' at me, that I would make a full review video or blog post, put all my time and effort in it, without extra compensation. I don't think so, not anymore lol! I've learned my darn lesson hahahaha
If they want me to review a DIY house kit or book nook, they might as well pay me 300 bucks for it, at the least, which they don't, and then all get quiet hahahahaha.
I'm only doing this for 'free' now, if they have an affiliate program worthwhile or a sturdy backlink from a big brand.
But my main source is still Pinterest, some newsletter traffic, some bing, but to my surprise about 10k plus per month from Google. Have reached together 44k clicks per month now. So yeah @zarina ; learning about Pinterest/Facebook in some cases, is definitely the way to go forward!
@zarina personally, I get the most income from ads, always have. I felt like that wasnât talked about enough at all on WA. On the contrary, remember when we could place comments on eachothers websites? I got so many pmâs back then on WA about me having ads, that it drove me mad. I was like: 'do you want to make money or not? Your personal taste doesnât matter, the biggest sites out there make tons of money with ads alone. For example this one : https://www.iflscience.com/
Still, the members on WA were all over me for placing ads on my site, ugh.
Yet, they didnât realise (and i didnât either at first), that it was actually their TERRIBLE HOSTING which made it impossible for my site to load fast enough.
And then : BAM, they made it impossible to use WP Rocket, which made it even worse!
By using WPX, I have NONE of these issues, whatsoever. And like Andy said, their support (if ever needed), is super fast!
Okay, it looks like I start rambling again about WA hahahahaaha, wasnât my intent lol
Lizzy
@ohnoo_not_her occasionally I did get frustrated with hosting, and seems like SS is not regular these days (can take up to 24 hrs).
You guys are making me seriously consider leaving haha
(It's been on my mind for a while since I barely use/read anything now, but I just feel stuck there with the whole under 1 roof, the idea which I like.)
Guess I'm not a huge fan of changes in some areas of life hahah
Anyone still interested in my Google stats? lol
So, a new core update has been rolled out, I think for about a week now, and my stats went slightly up again, but VERY volatile!
Today I noticed this:
I know, it's in Dutch, lol
But what's important to see here is that a good keyword ( DIY miniature kits-, has gone down almost 100% in the rankings for my WEBSITE, but google is picking up posts from my FORUM . Mostly talking about the same stuff, UGH!
Moral of the story: get a forum on your site hahahaha (and Shopify/woocommerce, if possible ). The latter will get important for Google's AI-mode, what we talked about before.
Lizzy
@ohnoo_not_her Thanks for the update Lizzy. Always interested 
Google definitely seems to be favouring forums.
Iâm pretty sure Partha mentioned this back in the day. If you can convince Google that your forum has real people on there offering unique, original advice and youâre having healthy conversations going on, then the need for a high DA seems to be way less important for achieving page 1 rankings.
Same with real âbricks and mortarâ businesses.
@rohanm Well, it was actually me who said that, because I read it on Twitter lol, hence why I got a forum in the first place hahaha. (Partha knew a lot and helped a lot for free, but in some cases, I just don't know about him anymore, sorry. There, I said it, almost a year after he disappeared from the internet lol). Is he really? I think he still reads everything here, just incognito hahaha, just like WA members and owners.
Also, a blog combined with an e-commerce store, if you can, seems to be still doing well. My only competitors left on Google, are blogs that have an e-commerce store as well or do dropshipping simultaneously. I don't need all those fancy SEO tools to see this. (Partha depended a lot on those, in my opinion, they are not worth the price)
Lots of top posts on GSC have forum posts.
The thing is: my forum has never been active from different people, 2 real people have been active on it so far, and this includes Diana here hahahaha
The only person being very active on it, is myself, and I've invited people through my newsletters to join. So these forum posts are 'seen', but nobody joins any discussions at all. Google just decided: 'let's rank forums, it doesn't matter what or who they are', but let's not reward good sites any longer, shall we?
First I was thinking about BUYING comments, or even have AI comments automated, but again, I don't want to lose Mediavines Journey, they are way to good for ad income and it has been mentioned several times that people get banned for using excessive AI.
(Mediavine is influenced by 'mom-bloggers',who went on a crusade against AI-bloggers lol). I do NOT want to go back to Ezoic -trash or irritating Google Adsense, so I'm staying put lol. But they still rank my forum posts.
And Pinterest is kind of stuck for me at the same monthly amount, so I need to get back on Facebook , after I was banned last year, I hate it. But if I want to keep growing, I'll have to, ugh hahahaaha.
The moment I'm writing this, my GSC stats are very volatile again, going down at the moment , darned hahahaha.
I'm away to South Africa at the end of the month, and when I get back, on my to-do list: have WooCommerce or Shopify on my site, and get back on FB, aaaaaaarrrgggh to the latter lol! Keeping busy and I hope all goes well there for you!
Lizzy
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Well, it was actually me who said that, because I read it on Twitter lol,
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{blue}:laugh:
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Google just decided: 'let's rank forums, it doesn't matter what or who they are', but let's not reward good sites any longer, shall we?
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Yeah I think the reasoning is forums are more likely to have real user experience. Reddit gets extra special attention!
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I need to get back on Facebook , after I was banned last year, I hate it. But if I want to keep growing, I'll have to, ugh hahahaaha.
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Ha ha ha ... I hate Facebook too!
Enjoy South Africa Lizzy :-)
@rohanm I will thanks!