Changes at Wireless Phone Reviews.

[Shawn]

Don't know if anyone has seen the site recently, but there are some changes that have taken place. Firstly, Tribal Fusion banners have been added onto all pages of the site. The first few days the ads have been there, the CPM was about $4. Now the CPM is about $1.30 -- not very good at all.

Tons more content added. Still not getting thousands of visitors a day, but I really don't know what else to do to make that happen. I have tons of text, optimized for search engines, yet since Google decided to ban 1/2 my site from their engine -- I'm not going anywhere soon.

I'm really at a pause right now. I don't know where to go from here. I can't decide if I should keep going with Wireless Phone Reviews and make it into something larger, or try my luck with another site. WPR is generating some good cash, but not enough to pay all my bills (the new ones that I am about to acquire).

Chris, I've valued all your ideas so far. I'm looking for some sort of guidance from you now, as well. Anyone else, please feel free to shoot out comments/opinions.

[chromate]

Google banned half your site? What bits?

Have you worked out how many of your visitors are repeat visitors? If you're not getting a lot of repeat visitors, you could do one of two things:

- Play on the fact that people aren't returning to your site anyway and conclude that running pop-unders wouldn't hurt. You'd do better than $1.30 CPM.

OR

- Try and get some repeat visitors by possibly thinking about building some sort of community. In my experience people love to talk about their phones. It would also mean that people looking to buy a new one could ask questions to the people that already have them.

You could also do some sort of "spin-off" site from WPR with a new "wireless" type site like wi-fi, WAP, bluetooth, pda's etc. I think the competition's pretty hot though. But you may be able to find some sort of niche.

Or... Simply start another content site based on adsense. You done well with Mesothelioma Guide. Once it gets settled in the search engines you should make some decent money with it. Maybe even pay off your "new" set of bills ;)

[Chris]

Google may simply be taking its time, I doubt they banned half your site.

[Shawn]

They didn't ban half my site, the simply banned my site for appearing with certain popular keywords. These include:

wireless phones
wireless phone companies
prepaid wireless
preapid wireless phones
free wireless phones

You know, just a good 1/2 dozen terms that I was leading in. It was the majority of my traffic when the site first started.

[Chris]

Thats just an algorithm change, not a ban.

[chromate]

Crap isn't it. You provide good quality content, that people searching for those terms would want to find and yet they dump you for it.

[Shawn]

To ban something would mean to prohibit something. This new algorithm is prohibiting my site from appearing in the SERPs.

I could launch an e-commerce venture and dropship merchandice, I have a friend who does it and makes good money off of it. Or, I could expand Wireless Phone Reviews. Or, I could just try to launch another site all together.

Oh the decisions we must make.

[chromate]

e-commerce would be good if you could afford it. I'd be interested in seeing how it would go if you did.

[Mike]

I really don't know how you got banned for "wireless phones" (which you targetted for http://www.wirelessphonereviews.com/wireless_phones/ I presume?).

Is it because on every page you link using the same anchor text do you think? Hope google aren't doing that, as my new site won't look too clever in the SERPS otherwise.

[MarkB]

You come up first for 'wireless phone reviews' though...

Do you target the term 'mobile phones' as well? Or is that not a term used in the US? (I don't know anyone who refers to them as wireless phones... only mobile or 'cell' phones.)

[Shawn]

I wanted to target cell phone reviews, but I think the top positions are held pretty tightly. As a matter of fact, a spammer holds the top position -- thanks Google. If I were to hold a position in the top 3 results for "cell phone reviews," I'd be set, though. About 1,500 people search for that term on a daily basis.

I'll optimize my front page for it and see where I can get. I'll give you an update in a few days. I can't imagine my pages will be blocked for those set of keywords, since I don't have the term "cell" even in my entire site.

We'll see how it goes.

[Shawn]

Oh, and see for yourself. #1 for "cell phone reviews."

http://216.239.39.104/search?q=cache:z29m3CtH-usJ:www.ratings.net/communications.cfm+cell+phone+reviews&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

[GCT13]

(I think your logo should say "Wireless Phone Reviews" somewhere.)

Shawn your site will be sitting pretty long-term if you keep adding articles. Google's gotta improve their algorithm and update someday! (don't they?)

[Shawn]

Dan, I think so too. I'm trying, but limited room to work with.

[DaveM]

This happened to my site too. http://www.cellphonereviews.net

About 4 weeks ago it dissapeared from a lot of the keywords I had good ranks for but then a week later it came back and has been since. I just hope it doesn't happen again. It was the first time google really deepcrawled it when it happened so maybe that had something to do with it.

Dave

[DaveM]

Grrr I just saw the bit on the spammer holding the #1 term for that keyword...

I'm #8 for that keyword but to be honest with you it doesn't bring in a majority of my traffic maybe 20% but nonetheless it would be nice to be one spot ahead.

[Shawn]

Well, being #8 wouldn't. With almost 1,500 searches a day for it, I'm sure it'd be great if you were 1-3.

Do you think this ad placement will be more successful?

http://www.wirelessphonereviews.com

[Mike]

Can't believe about that spammer, hope you've submitted a complaint in:)

What are you going to try to get your site back in the SERPS with those keywords then Shawn?

[Shawn]

I already did like 3 days ago. The SERPs should update my pages any minute -- once they do, lets hope I'm there for some.

[DaveM]

Hmmm seems google is shaking things up for my site. Seems I am now #6. Can anyone verify for me?

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=cell+phone+reviews

[Chris]

Looks like it to me.

[Shawn]

It's nice optimizing for new keywords and going from only several hundred visitors daily to several thousand. Sweet.

[DaveM]

How many you getting on wirelessphonereviews now?

[Shawn]

Not enough, I'll say that much.