I got another lesson in SEO today, It wasn't meant to be, it was a rejection of sorts, I think that it was more of a lesson in webolitics.
My main site for my business is a paid site, but I had been writing a lot of stuff on landscaping, lawn and garden, things of that nature quite frankly, because I get a lot of questions and that provided the topics. It is something akin to an online form letter or FAQ. How do I do this? "Well, Mary, you first need to..."
I bought some extra domains, that I had forwarded to my main site, and thought since I get free ad supported hosting, I can just put the articles on some of those pages, dress them up the same, and link to them by a series of buttons: Lawn, Garden, IPM, Landscape, etc. My Main site space is limited, so it seemed like a good Idea.
Today I got a message from a guy, who said that he wouldn't list my business site on his "link lodge"(my term) because it was X0 XXXXY ad supported, and it was a link farm. I found that to be pretty ironic!
Now, this dosesn't really affect my business. That is the main thing. It did however bother me, and I spent the rest of the evening thinking about why it did.
As I was browsing the net using some of my keywords to see what condition my condition was in, I ran across a lot of pages with my main URL featured prominently, and snooped around a bit.
I was mildly surprised to find that many of the links were to either articles I had written on a variety of subjects, quotations directly from some of my hobby sites, (which are ad supported), and sections from one or the other of my blogs, almost all being used on pages with pretty high page rank, full of ads, using my content, and the content of others to sell ad space. This is how business is done on the internet, and it is beneficial to all of us. I get a little name recognition and some links to my home page from people who are interested in what I do and write about, because it helps them sell ads or products, they get to target ads related to what I have to say, the customer gets information for free, and a chance to browse products from advertisers, that suit their area of interest, and everyone is happy! The arrangement is good for all.
In the course of doing this, I discovered the source of my irritation.
I write the content that helps my customers, and others, to know how to plant a tree, or prune a tree, or save money on fertilizer, or anything else, publish it on an ad supported site, free of charge, and it is looked down upon by many internet purist snobs because of the ad support, while someone else can take the material that I have written, build a page around it, and fill it up with ads, for their reasonable, personal gain, and that is considered ok. Isn't it actually the same thing?
It was my sense of fair play that was insulted.
There may have been a hint of something else within the guys email. He chose to mention my registrar and host pretty prominently in his letter. As I read it, I could almost see the sneer on his face as he typed in my registrars name. If, as I suspect, some sites are down graded, because of a companies dislike for another, that would seem to be unfair to the site owner. I personally love the way my host does business, they offer a lot of free stuff, which makes it possible for some people, who's valid thoughts might otherwise be left out of the mix, to have a voice!
dotcomrevolt.com
