The crazy World of SEO

"I flip websites for a living." At least that is what I tell people sometimes. When I am in the mood for an intellectual conversation (or need some ego massage. Don’t judge. There is plenty to judge on this article, it’s way too soon).

So, in that nice conversation (in my mind it's happening at a table at a vegan bakery and we are smiling and having a great fake time) people usually ask what flipping websites consist and I tell a fairytale story about web design and SEO tools and forums full of amazing and smart people (while drinking my chamomile tea on a fancy white tea-cup with my little finger up- I have a great imagination). I proceed to explain how I love to do keyword research and the excitement I feel when I see my “ new baby” ranking on Google.

What I usually don’t say is that what I really do is felling despair and frustration all day long with small sparkles of excitement when something actually works. Those quick and random moments of serotonin feed the rest of the day and keep me going. It’s a 1% of “OH MY GOD I AM A GENIUS” against 99% of me trying to focus and ignore the voice in my head asking: “what the hell are you doing with your life?”.

People always lied about how well they were doing, but social media and the internet made it worse. Like…seriously… we are all pretending and watching others pretending. SEO forums are full of gurus that make a ton of money (right...) and want to teach you how to do the same. They sell courses and tools and crazy backlink packages. Do you have any idea how much a link can cost? Or a backlink package? It cost thousands of dollars per link or per month just so you (or your client) can have some hope of seeing some SERPs movement.

Are there people making money with SEO and website flipping? Hell yeah! Go check Flippa or Empireflippers. They have websites being sold for millions. But…BUT (it is a big but) what we don’t see are the millions of people that try to build a website around a niche and profit from it. Most of them fail miserably. I don’t think they ever have those sparkle moments I have sometimes (lucky me…). People spend a lot of money and time- like months and years without any profit. They also spend so much money I feel sorry for them (I feel sorry for me too, I also spend a lot of money). They buy a lot of stuff- not only the usual things like the domain and hosting, a WordPress theme, and some premium plugins- but they also buy those crazy fancy backlinks packages that cost $1000 per month (just to get penalized by Google a month later... ) Happened to me and happens every day to a lot of people. Why? We are not stupid (most of us), we know it’s a risk. So why do we invest in, what is called, “black hat” SEO techniques? Because it is the wild wild west out there! There are sooo many people trying to rank their websites. The internet is like a Universe of people all screaming for attention at the same time. Google knows this, of course. They know people follow their algorithm rules very closely just so they can learn how to fool it. You see, Google is all about white SEO techniques and they post cute videos of Matt Cutts (Google SEO specialist) saying that what matters is the content. Those videos are so calm and relaxing and make everything looks easy and simple. IT'S NOT! If we only rely on the great content we write we are screwed! Because there is always someone else writing better content who also happens to have a cousin that is an editor on the New York Times Newspaper and easily gets links that the Ordinary mortals can only dream of! So we proceed with the delusional role of buying tools for scrapping and cloaking (don’t know what that is? Good for you) and backlinks.

So, why write about it? Well… (this is the stupid part of the post where I shoot myself in the foot). I was looking for a really nice website where I could talk about handpans and maybe earn a link to my website thehandpandrum.com because I am trying to rank it (Good for me for being so honest). I am building an affiliate website about handpans and need backlinks. I guess I am just sick and tired of doing that. I want to do better. I am going to interview handpan musicians and manufacturers and post it for people to enjoy, because I actually like the instrument and the handpan community is the best. It's still an affiliate website but with useful affiliate links (I still gotta eat and pay bills) about good quality instruments and music. I really want to build quality.

Google, I will try your cute approach of great content and happiness and rainbows without looking for keywords with low competition and those expensive backlinks. If I crash and burn at least I will be in a relaxing mood and maybe I buy an handpan to help me get that serene atmosphere during the process.

(there is some satire and exaggeration on this article for your entertainment :)