SEO Scoop

Posted by DazzlinDonna on November 14th, 2006 in SEO Tips

I’m frugal. No, that’s putting it too nicely. I’m a cheapskate. So that means I’m not much of a gambler. The few times I’ve gone to a casino, I’ve allocated $20-$40 as the most I was willing to lose. I’d play that money until it was all gone and go home. If I didn’t want to leave too early, I’d play the nickel slots so that it would last a while.

So, here I am in Vegas. Today’s PubCon sessions are over, I’m back at my hotel, and it was time to try my hand at gambling. I was also hungry, so the plan was to play a bit, and then hit the mexican restaurant here. First thing I did was find the restaurant. Just across from it was a $1 slot machine…you know, the kind that has Wild Cherries on it. For whatever reason, that’s usually the one I like to play. I have no idea why. Must be some sort mental fruit thing.

Anyway, I sauntered up to the machine, took a $20 bill out of my wallet and slipped it into the Wild Cherry slot machine. Being the cautious sort, I chose the Play 1 Coin button, and pressed the Spin button (I miss the old handles that you used to have to pull). Pressed the button again. Then, I got a bit of gambling fever, and pressed the Play 2 Coins button. And pressed it again. Then, I looked down at the total and saw that I now had $44. Wow, in a matter of about 30 seconds or so, I’d more than doubled my money.

So what did I do next? I pressed the Cashout button, dumped my 44 coins into a bucket, poured them into the cashout coin machine, and received two $20 bills and 4 $1 bills in return. I then took my free money into the mexican restaurant and ate for free.

For a cheapskate like me, THAT’S the way to gamble. Cut and run, baby.

So, what in the heck has this to do with SEO? Actually, search engine optimization can be thought of as a gamble in many ways. In fact, several of the sessions I attended at PubCon today involved the topic of SEO gambling (in a between the lines sort of way).

For example, in one session about links, Sugarrae was discussing the process of training someone to do link building. One point she brought up was that the trainee should first be assigned to obtain links for a site that “doesn’t pay your mortgage”. This is an excellent point. Don’t gamble with your main money-making site. You should only place safe bets on that site, or you could lose your shirt.

I have quite a few sites that I’ve neglected over the years. Most were sites that I had an interest in initially, but I either got bored with them, or had other sites that needed more attention, and so I just tended to forget about the others. I’ve sold a couple of them from time to time, but most of them are still around. I continue to pay for the domain names and the hosting, even though I rarely even look at them. Heck, sometimes I have to pull out my notes just to remember what the domain names are.

In some cases, I keep them around because I assume I’ll eventually take interest in them later (I’m kidding myself when I say that). But in most cases, they are there for test purposes. These are sites that don’t make money. Or if they do, it’s pennies per day. So, if anything terrible happened to them, I wouldn’t care in the least. These are the perfect sites to use for testing purposes. Got an idea for a new link strategy? Try it out on one of these sites first. Think that you’ve come up with some nifty new on-page idea that could make a big difference? Try it there first.

As I mentioned in the first paragraph of this post, when I gamble, I first determine how much I am willing to lose. Trying out new SEO strategies is the same for me. First, I determine which sites I’m willing to lose, and then I try those strategies on those sites. And if the strategy works, I cash out. In other words, I take that idea to the bank, and use it elsewhere. If it doesn’t work, I haven’t lost my shirt.

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One Response to “DazzlinDonna’s Guide to Gambling”

1. earlpearl Says:
   November 21st, 2006 at 5:17 pm

   Nice advice DD and congrats on the big big win that night!

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