20 Comments
User's avatar
Kristi's avatar

The website seller...I know who you're referring to and her posts are so bogus. She also says she builds TikTok accounts to several thousand followers in a week.

I've flipped a few top level domains in my day - for VERY good money - but selling sites? I tried to sell a website with 10 YEARS worth of content and the first thing ALL potential buyers want to know is how much revenue the site brings in.

She's full of shit.

Expand full comment
Linda Caroll's avatar

I haven't seen the TikTok ones, but then I don't follow her. The website post was a topic match, but the whole thing made no sense to me. I could think of a dozen easier ways to make $100 because that's a LOT of work. I half expected the comments to be full of people saying wow, that's a lot of work for so little. But no. That was the weird part.

Expand full comment
Kristi's avatar

I subscribed to her substack for a minute. It's just as useless. She gives very vague information and then tries to get paid subscribers for the inside scoop.

And you're right, you cannot set up a worthwhile site with content in one hour and then flip it. It makes zero sense. But for unsuspecting people who don't know that, it sounds like a cash cow side hustle.

Expand full comment
Linda Caroll's avatar

Did you ever watch 3rd Rock? Sometimes I feel like that's how I navigate life. lol

Expand full comment
Kristi's avatar

Nah I never got into that show lol

Expand full comment
Linda Caroll's avatar

lol. They're aliens in human bodies and have no freaking clue how the world works. Sometimes that's how I feel.

Expand full comment
Denise Shelton's avatar

I think it’s new writers engaging with whatever they can to attract followers, especially now when they have to reach 100 before they can make any money.

Expand full comment
Linda Caroll's avatar

LMAO. Omg, Denise, you might have just explained the whole thing in one sentence. Maybe that IS what's happening. God, what a weird world we live in

Expand full comment
Jeff Wild's avatar

Not familiar with that author, but the concept of Web Site build outs is viable, if done correctly. Purchase a domain name from NameCheap, have a reseller hosting account., create content through Jasper.ai, or write it yourself and you can have a Wordpress Site up in a few hours. Selling it is another issue, but it can be done. A better use of her time would be to build out affiliate Sites for herself, using the Site as a referral point for YouTube videos about the product. These are tough times for many people and even a few bucks a day can help. Often, as I'm staring at the ceiling at 4AM, wondering how I'm going to pay the mortgage after my SEO agency inevitably dies, while firmly acknowledging I'll never support myself as a writer, I calm myself by remembering this business model-and pray to the ancient Egyptian God Thoth that my life never reaches that point.

Expand full comment
Linda Caroll's avatar

I find it ironic that the Egyptian god of writing and learning is portrayed as a bird brain. Maybe they were smarter than I gave them credit for. Building affiliate sites would mean she'd need to actually drive traffic to them and pay mind to conversion. Didn't mean that to be sarcastic even if it sounded like it. lol.

Why do you think it's inevitable for your SEO agency to die? Can it adapt, instead?

Expand full comment
Jeff Wild's avatar

That's why I mentioned Youtube videos to drive the traffic to the affiliate Site..

As for my SEO agency, I've been swimming in this pond for twenty eight years and I'm burnt out (sorry for the mixed metaphor). Until recently (needing an additional 15k for unexpected dental work and another $5k+ for my home) I've rejected new clients and haven't updated my own Site in nearly a decade.

I don't like SEO. Don't like having to genuflect before the arcane algorithmic whims of a single company and have no interest in the new technical side of things necessary to learn, to satisfy the latest core update requirements. I'm far from a control freak, but I would like some control, to know that what I'm doing is effective, not having to wait six months to see tangible results

All I want to do with my remaining years, is to write, shoot photos, videos, read sf, and watch classic movies, not pitch my services, keep up with constant changes, and battle imposter syndrome in an area, despite any lengthy history, we are all imposters.

I manage half a dozen Sites now and any more would cause me to jump into a pond of alligators. Any fewer would force me to return to panhandling like I did in the early 70s, when I was young, skinny, cute and looked like Jesus- or building out affiliate Sites.

Expand full comment
Linda Caroll's avatar

Most seo agencies have their heads up their butts and actually believe all that algorithmic crap is important. The algorithms exist to try to find a certain kind of site, and if they have the kind of site the algorithm is looking for, the tricks don't matter. I can only say that because of your comment about algo whims.

3rd paragraph -- I get that. I've been doing websites and marketing for over 20 years and I don't get why people build such useless websites. Have they never shopped on the internet? Much the same, I'd like to read, write and shoot photos, which I'm actually pretty decent at. But the bills don't pay themselves.

Like you, I manage 5 sites and any more would cause me to jump into that same pool of alligators. It's nuts most days.

I'm actually doing decently well with affiliate programs. Not on affiliate sites, though. Don't need more sites to build and manage. Seems to me there's food for thought there - build a list, promote affiliate stuff. Not in a skeevy way, but a helpful way. That seems to make all the difference. At least for me. :)

Expand full comment
Jeff Wild's avatar

All of the Sites i manage are in super highly competitive niches and are directed at local audiences. No tricks, but with competition as high as it is, every technical i must be dotted and t properly crossed. Every one of the three hundred other Sites in the area offers the exact same service. Keeping my clients in the snack pack is like trying to hit a piñata while blindfolded in a moving vehicle. Some of the problems revealed in deep Site audits, are in a technical language I do not understand and do not want to learn. Aside from the frustration of lack of direction and timely feedback from the BIG G, the work is mostly not creative. I'm fortunate in that, where I live, every pond has alligators.

Expand full comment
Tony Marsilio's avatar

I think you're on the right track. I write, and I play guitar. Once I found the lessons available online for both of those activities I read, or watched everything I could get my hands on. To get right to the point, I felt so good about all the "learning" except when the light build went on. I never made any real progress. Now my strategy is different. I find one or two resources and focus only on those two. I also read and watch less and write or play more.

Still not making money, but I am making progress.

Expand full comment
Linda Caroll's avatar

That's the rub, hey? Sometimes we dive so deep into "learning" we forget that the best learning comes from doing. Those that can help us get "doing" are the ones offering best help.

Expand full comment
Sara K.'s avatar

As someone who has paid more attention to Kpop in the past half-year than I want to admit... this is clearly a large part of the appeal of Kpop, especially among hardcore fans. Many fans like to imagine themselves as going through the brutal trainee system, debuting, and then belonging to a top Kpop group.

Furthermore, fans can directly participate in the success of their favored groups (who many see as avatars of themselves). The ones with disposable income can buy multiple albums to put their favorite group to the top of the music charts and help them win music shows (album sales are a large part of the criteria for winning music shows in South Korea). Fans without disposable money but time and an internet connection (which includes a lot of tweens) can constantly stream their favorite groups' MVs on YouTube, which also counts towards music show wins (though not as much as album sales). If their favorite group wins a music show, they can pat themselves on the pat and tell themselves that they are successful... just because they constantly streamed a YouTube video. Low-hanging fruit.

And because these Kpop fans constantly stream these YouTube videos, they rank high on YouTube's algorithms, which means that YouTube shows them to more people, creating new Kpop fans...

People conflate the success of their favorite pop music group with their own personal success.

Expand full comment
Linda Caroll's avatar

That last sentence -- you're right -- that's big . Reminds me of armchair sports. Untold fans sitting in their armchair with a beer shrieking "WE WON" when they weren't anywhere near the playing field. But when their team loses, they're the first to shriek what idiots "they" are, and the "we" suddenly disappears. God, we humans are weird.

Expand full comment
Sara K.'s avatar

Kpop fans are different. They (usually) won't say their faves are 'idiots' because they failed to win a music show (or other marker of success). Instead, they'll say that the system is unfair and their faves are the victims.

It's true that the Kpop industry is unfair, and sometimes Kpop idols are victims of the system. (I also suspect some powerful people in the Kpop industry manufacture some of that unfairness to manipulate fans). However, sometimes fans just refuse to believe that maybe some other group deserved the music show win (or something else) more than their faves.

Expand full comment
Linda Caroll's avatar

That's a really interesting distinction. God, human behavior is fascinating.

Expand full comment
Jenine Baines's avatar

I agree with Denise!

Expand full comment