Off the Top of My Head

Transcripts with My Protege - 13 Days of Laughter

In a previous post, I was approached by someone who wanted me to help them out. Normally I would politely refuse as I don’t have a whole lot of time for one on one advice. In this case though, I liked the kids approach so I figured I would give it a try. What followed is below (along with a few notes of my own). Some details have been removed and the name of my “protege” has been changed. Not sure why I chose Sven but it was the first thing that came to my mind.
Day 1

Sven: how are you?

whats your real name anyway??
say
what about our retarded kid project ?
Me: its jason, you would know that if you were reading my blog retarded one
Sven: lol !
can you teach me??? ohh great one?
Me: Teach you what? You can ask specific questions if you like but I can’t give you a step by step guide from the beggining
Sven: well o.k
but would you like to help me overall?
Me: Well, what kind of areas do you need help in (be specific)?
Sven: well for example
i have this site that related to *removed*
its *url removed* i need to promote it to make some rev
its get high cpc from adsense
about a $ per click
problem is, i dont know how to get traffic in to it
Me: I will help you best I can…Of course as you probably already know I don’t do any work on the weekend (which starts in 5 minutes) so we shall wait until Monday my retarded friend
Sven: are you Jewish ??
if so.. me too

It took me a while to figure out why he assumed I was Jewish then it came to me that it must be because I don’t work on Saturday/Sunday. It has nothing to do with religion though, I just like sitting around and relaxing.

Day 2

Sven: how are you?
Me: Good, By the way, Im not Jewish not that has anything to do with anything. Tell me a bit more about your site like who you are targeting, what the main source of revenue is, etc, etc

Day 3

Sven: hi jason
whats up?
im sick i got the flu
somwhare around 39 dgree Celsius
its killing me.
ammm
the site is about
(its gonna be hard cause i know nothing about that)
url:

the mai reason i boughr that site is
1.totaly unique contnt
2.high cpc ?(abou a dolladr a click)
the site is pr3
all i wanna do actually is to get a samll amount of visitors and adsense rev
so i would be able to sell it
Me: Well, since you aren’t actually selling any product, its an info site. So basically you need more info (content). You can either write your own or go somewhere like www.goarticles.com and search for the term *removed*

With that type of site, you need visitors entering on every page, then funnel them towards the high paying pages.
Sven: thnkas man!!
that is the best piece of advice i got so far!

but wouldnt using free articles be bad?
you know , cause they are not unique?
Me: No, you have to be smart and surround them with unique content (to your site, not the page) such as navigation, random quotes, etc etc

It won’t hurt your site at all as the worst thing that can happen is you may have an issue with getting that individual page indexed.

You can also hire people to write unique articles at $3 - $5 per article which are always better then free articles

Day 4

Sven: hi buddy,
please talk to me when you can,
thank you
Me: Im here now
Sven: man am i sick, are you busy?
got a couple of qustions
Me: Go ahead
Sven: thanks man,
well
you said that i should add more content to my site
and then you said i can use www.goarticles.com
o.k so far so good!!!the thing is, my site is written in php and i dont know how to integrate it and seo it.
is there any chance youul be willing to help me with that?

thanks anyway
best regards
retarded one
Me: I can set you up with a really good php person as I don’t really code for other people
Sven: thnkas, but i realy dont have the money to pat him for that
see im an Israeli soldier and things got bad at home (money wise) so the
army gave some time off
Me: Well, maybe you can exchange a template page for some links on the
site…Would you like me to ask?
(You could then cut and paste the article, rename the file, and upload it via ftp)
Sven: sorry didnt get you there
what do you mean?
Me: If you give him links on your site to his site, he may take that as
payment for his work. You can also use something like wordpress.org to add articles
Sven: what do you mean?
(sorry to task tll this stupid qustions)
Me: Have you used wordpress before?
Sven: no ,never!
im new in this buisness all i know is from books ive read
and from dp

man am i glad ive meet you!
if you need anything from israel just give me a call!!

Me: I can install it for you if you like…its really easy to use once installed

Sven: what is it anyway?
will you check with that guy about me paying him with links
(the site is pr 4)

what do you say will switch to msn?

Me: I use it for my blog but it can also be adapted to be used as a CMS (Content Management System)

It is at this point that I get his ftp details and take care of it although things seem to go back off topic again

I set him up with Stephen from Weirfire Web Design, in iorder for both of them to get some benefit. Apparently he decided to ask Stephen to click on his ads which prompted me to feel pretty stupid for setting that up (I can’t stand AdSense cheaters). Stephen had to block him on his messenger after that because he wouldn’t stop asking. I meant to confront the kid on this but I think I forgot about it.
Day 5

Sven: say
do you think i can get a decent price for it?
or is it gone for me

im getting the feeling that i wont sell it for more then 35
Me: A PR4 will get you at least $100…It has a little bit of content so that may add $20 (Provided its unique)

If you have any traffic or income that may also grow it a bit
Sven: wow!!
i bought for it for $ 40
i knew i could sell it for more.

but i realy meant to ask you abou that one
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php
jusy forgot to put the url

sorry

say is there anything i can do for you?
i’m feeling bad that your so kind
and ive got nothing to offer
Me: There isn’t a whole lot of content but it is a nice attractive site. It may not go for a whole lot because Shaw isn’t that well known.

You may want to explain who Shaw is in that thread as non - UK people wouldn’t know her

Cheers
Sven: i realy dont want to bother you,
so if you could tell me when your free
will talk then

thank you!!!!!!!
im realy happy that i got the chance of meeting you

best regards
Me: No Problem

It’s funny he mentions how much he likes Stephen

Day 6

Sven: hi buddy
please talk to me when you can
b.t.w
ive taled to stephen
his hilarious, he knows a bit hebrew
he cracked me up - saying a few things in hebrew

This is where things go from worse to bad…He starts having an idea a second which makes it very hard to give advice. He keeps abondoning ideas.

Day 7

Sven: hey there

i’m thinking of buying that.
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php

what do you say?
see any potential in it?

During this time I went on vacation which I clearly posted in my blog. It was my first vacation in a long time so I completely ignored all my PM’s and email

Day 8

Sven: hey
are we not talking or something?
Me: lol…I am just doing a bit of work for a couple of hours…Hadn’t got to your two older mails yet
Sven: o.k
could you please talk to me today when youll get the chance?
Me: You can ask specific questions if you like and I can try to answer them when I get a chance
Sven: well
what about that wordpress ?
how can i add more value/traffic to that site?
if i were to sell it right now, hou much will i get?

thanks man

Day 9

Sven: hey jason
whats up?
how is everything going?

i got this great idea that i want you to hear

say something when you can

Day 10

Sven: are we not talking agin?
come on man.. i realy need you,
please replay
Me: Do you read my blog? I was on vacation (Still kind of am)
Sven: i thought i lost you!!!!
thank god
see, i thought you dont want to talk to me from reason.

i have a new project im mind
and a wanted to counsolte you before i do domething

He seemed to always catch me at the end of the day. Here I told him I had 15 minutes and it took him 20 to actually get to the point. I also say something about different time zones but I was only kidding (We are only 2 hours difference), but that seemed to get lost on him

Day 11

Sven: hey man,
when are comming back
i miss you!!
lol
Me: Im here for a couple of hours then I am off for the weekend
Sven: are you around?
Me: for about 15 minutes
Sven: do you have a mic so we could talk?
Me: Nope
Sven: well
if you are busy, we can talk later on
i dont want to disturb you in any way
Me: No go ahead, I have just a few minutes though
Sven: well
i have this new project

see i buoght a gambling forum
www.**removed**.com
its pr3 3 but its not getting any traffic
and i dont know whats the best way to promote it?

can i take your advic for it?
Me: With gambling, you have to get a LOT of recip links with other gambling sites, not to mention the SEO used is quite different then traditional SEO. It has a lot to do with the fact that people view gambling sites as non-family freindly.
Sven: o.k thanks
when is the next time we can chat?
Me: monday morning…we seem to be on different time zones

im at
gmt +2
when are you free (at a spesific gmt) on monday?

Day 12

Sven: hey buddy
how is it going?

Another day..another unresearched idea. For someone who can’t part with a couple of quid to get his original site making money, he seems to buy a lot of sites
Day 13

Sven: hey idol,
how is it going?
talk to me man,, i need you (i sounds like my x damnnn)
Me: I am here now
Sven: great!!!

i got this new idea
i want to get into the gambling affilate buissnes
do you think i stand a chance?
Me: Is that your whole idea, or do you have an idea on how it is you are going to break in (Its ultra competitive)
Sven: well
i bought a forum about gambling
but its quite dead, and i dont think ill promote it
ill probbley sell it
anyway its www.**removed**.com

so i thought ill make a new website
buy some content
do some seo
buy some links
and hope for the batter

think that its possiblle?
Me: Its possible but when you sell a gambling site, its value depends on unique visitors and revenue. Since most directories and sites won’t link to a gambling site, how will you get it ranked in Search Engines?
Sven: good point!
i dont know
how are the rest doing that?
Me: A lot of interlinking between sites (some people own hundreds of gambling sites) Also - they do a lot of forum and comment spam, etc. You can do some conventional SEO like on site stuff but it won’t be near enough in such a competitive field. There are SEO forums dedicated to non family friendly sites though.
Sven: so
im i better off finding some thing else in your opnion?
Me: Can you rephrase that?
Sven: can we go over to msn please..
Me: I don’t use MSN
Sven: icq maybe?
Sven: Or AIM?
Me: If you are looking for quick money, why not create informational sites
with well placed AdSense on static pages
Sven: is it any good?
is it hard to find a niche?

b.t.w
i wanna read some seo books
do you got any?
you know i got some money issues, so i can afford buying some
Me: I wrote these:
(Link to an FAQ I wrote removed because I don’t want to promote it…I naively gave up the rights on it and it was rebranded by the site I wrote it for)
Its a good start (Don’t actually use the forum though as it is pretty
bad for the last year)
Sven: great thanks
any chance you got
ww.seobook.com book ? please
i really cant afford it right now

b.t.w
is it you in that you picture?
Me: No, I wasn’t a Mod when I wrote that so he had to post it for me.
I don’t have SEOBook or anything like it
Sven: o.k
do you know anything about hilltop algorithm ?
Me: Yes, but you don’t really need to understand it unless at the stage you are at. You are better off with the basics at first. You have to really get up to speed on what is proven to work and easy to implement. Then you can move on from there
Sven: well ive read some articales about it, it dosnt seem to be that complex

but i have to find some comprehensive deep info about seo

the problem is : i dont have the monet to buy it

man!! been poor sure is sucks!!
Sven: is there a chance
we could build a small site togther??
it would meam the world to me!
we could fine some niche
get some good content writer
and optimiaze it for adsense…

you could realy help me if youll agree
as you know i admire you
and it will be a great honor to me to work with you
Me: Unfortunately I just don’t have the time to build any more sites right
now….If I did, I would probably build a couple more for myself
Sven: well
do you think i can make some money
using basic seo technics on a nice site?

p.s
how can i get ads with high cpc?

And that was it…Haven’t heard from him since

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 14th, 2006 at 10:33 am and is filed under Zany / Off Topic. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.