The Errors of Conventional Wisdom
A friend of mine and I recently chatted about a few examples of conventional wisdom being wrong. If you find new markets or marketing methods left untapped by people chasing saturated markets using techniques created by misguided group think you are in for making a boatload of cash. If you want to.
For a long time I had a few client sites and this one, but I felt I was perhaps starting to grow a bit inauthentic in my advice, relying too heavily on my brand, what friends told me, and what I read in forums without doing enough testing across a wide array of sites.
I recently bought a few more sites that I can use to test things on. I also partnered up as co-owner on a few sites. Fascinating what you can learn by doing things like tweaking internal link profiles and being aggressive on sites you can afford to lose, and seeing how quickly you can get to profitability in many different markets.
I am doing another major rewrite of my book. Hoping to send out an update notification sometime tomorrow or Monday. Sorry if I have been slow to replying to emails...trying to get the rewrite done.
Comments
Aaron,
I completely agree with your thoughts about the value of contrarian thinking.
I recently wrote a post about it with a few examples from the world of sports.
I hope you and your readers enjoy it.
http://www.marketingmonger.com/2006/01/zig_dont_zag_unconvential_strateg...
Take care,
Eric Mattson - Marketingmonger.com
I agree. This is why I advocate all SEO companies spending time researching in the Black Hat world. When you test the borders of the SEO world on expendable sites, you can tease out the pieces of the algorithm that could never be discerned using traditional, white-hat methods.
Except the algorithm isn't a fixed never-changing entity. The search engines pull the rug out from under those who teeter on the borders on a regular basis, and this is fine on an expendable site—as soon as you start applying the techniques (and indeed many of the idiosyncrasies that you've picked up from the investigation) to a site that actually matters, you're bound to get bitten sooner or later.
True, but SEO is a game of margins and risk analysis. Having a few throw away sites is a great call, IMHO.
If you are cautious the test sites will be your canary in the coal mine of sorts.
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