Here’s How to Stop Worrying About Google Once and for All

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Boy, people don’t seem very happy with Google lately, huh?

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Never mind the future implications of a world controlled by Massive G. Webmasters and bloggers are making more and more noise about the pervasive power Google has over their online businesses right now. Selling links is the newest hot point, and it looks like some people have been made an example of to put the FUD in the rest of us.

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Believe it or not, my strategy since the beginning of Copyblogger has been to pretty much forget search engines exist. Don’t get me wrong… I’m not doing anything to annoy them, and I certainly don’t turn away visitors from search engines. I just don’t depend on them for traffic.

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While people work hard to attract links to rank better in search engines, you’ve got to realize that some of the highest quality traffic comes directly from the links. Pretend like search engines are not even a traffic option, and instead focus on repeat traffic and referral sources that no one can take away.

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It all boils down to the three “S” strategy:

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Subscribers

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I’ve said it from the very beginning here at Copyblogger—the most important thing to focus on is not page views or search traffic. Focus instead on subscribers.

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Getting someone to voluntarily pay attention to you over time is the greatest gift you can get as an on the web publisher. Do everything you can to get more subscribers, and quit trying to please Google.

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Social Media

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There’s been some great advice lately about posting less, and focusing more on quality so you can concentrate on attracting social media traffic from other bloggers, StumbleUpon, Delicious, Digg, Sphinn, etc. That’s been my traffic strategy for Copyblogger all along, which allows me to forget about search engine hiccups.

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Last month, this blog did 1.35 million page views with only 16 posts, thanks in overwhelming part to social media traffic. Even when I first started Copyblogger, I wrote only two high quality posts a week so that people would link to and recommend my stuff.

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Read this great article that provides an in-depth look at how to get more from social media, and you’ll worry less about Google. And stop posting so much. Try to make every post you write unique and high value to your target audience, and you’ll achieve more with less.

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Selling

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Let’s face it—most of the wailing about Google has to do with the fact that people are fascinated by the prospect of sucking in traffic from Google Search and swiftly sending it away for cash via AdSense. Even in the relatively rare instances where that model results in livable amounts of cash, I thought the goal was to work for yourself, not Google.

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When you focus on attracting traffic via social media referrals and converting as many of those people as possible into subscribers, you build trust with your audience. And when you have trust, you can make money from selling stuff, whether by affiliate marketing, joint ventures, or your own products and services.

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Oh yeah. And when you have something to sell, you can put other people to work getting traffic for you.

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In case you missed it…

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If you missed my selling ebooks post, at the end I revealed that I’ll be issuing a free report next week about developing premium content that not only sells, but also results in recurring customer relationships. The report will contain strategies you can use to monetize your blog, or simply stop blogging all together.

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Stay tuned.

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Sponsored By: Add Copyblogger to your Technorati Favorites today!

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