Strange discussion of the GSA SER

Codov

Hi all! By some fate, I have been doing SEO for over five years.

I am a website developer and mostly did SEO optimization and bought expensive links.

I've always wondered how other people publish so many links to their sites on various sites that aren't pretty? 

I didn't believe in the "automatic" methodology

So for two weeks now, I've been sleeping 5 hours a night and trying to catch up. I learned what GSA SER is.

But that's not the point now.

It would seem that we live in 2021 and are surrounded by a lot of useful available information that you could only imagine, but... Unfortunately, helpful information is a lot harder to get than it used to be.

I found so much video content on this forum from enthusiasts who were just there to help newbies or record explanations and solutions that help EVERYWHERE.

Where are all these people? Why don't the authors of the videos that used to be posted on this forum continue their activity? On all channels, the last video was over eight years ago. 

Explain to me what happened, why the community does not develop? I understand that it's better for us that fewer people know about such methods, but why? Do these methods no longer work? Have people stopped wanting to promote their sites? 

I decided to discuss it here. Thank you for your attention.

Sven

Well SER is almost 10 years old by now. There are a lot tutorials and videos out but you are right, maybe not so much up to date. I haven't really had a look if there was something better out there. We at GSA never did our own videos for the program. Thats because we invest the time we have to code on it and improve things. We leave the advertising to the customers/affiliates (is that clever? I don't know).

Anyway, if you have found better videos or tutorials, let me know and I put them on our tutorial page.

sickseo

My excuse for not making videos is that I don't want to share lol

I've been down this road before with senuke many years ago and I put up my entire SEO strategy on you tube and on my website for everyone to see. The videos are still there lol Plus the strategies from many years ago still work very well even today. Only thing that's changed is my choice of software.

I used to help a lot of newbies on their forum, until we all started talking about GSA SER and then senuke decided to add censorship to their forum which made the words "gsa ser" change to "senuke" lol Eventually they banned me as I didn't heed their warnings about not talking about competing products on their forum. They also deleted all my content on their forum which was hundreds of pages of SEO Q&A and strategy discussion. It was the type of underground SEO content that you won't find anywhere online. It was literally an encyclopedia of SEO.

From my perspective and after that experience, I've literally no interest in sharing anymore. Keeping the strategies to myself allows me to grow my buisness with less fear of what Google might do. Also means that I have less competitors operating within my niche.

In my experience, when you start to share you get those lazy people who copy your strategies and then make their own youtube videos or build their own websites copying my strategies and claiming them for their own. Some newbies have even copied my business models, and signed up with the same advertisers and started competing with me in my own niche lol Have you ever tried competing against yourself utilising these same SEO strategies?

So from my experience, there is absolutley no benefit in sharing such content. It benefits everyone else except me.

I do from time to time do one-on-coaching with newbies, or even answer a lot of questions via PM. But beyond that, I'm not willing to share such strategies. Instead, I take on clients and charge them to do the SEO work for them. I prefer this to simply sharing for free as it actually puts money in my pocket.

For me it's a good thing, as all these bad experiences have toughened me up as a business owner and made me less responsive to people asking for help. I no longer work for free lol If someone needs help, now I charge them for my time, which for me seems perfectly fair.

Codov

Thank you so much for the answers!

I am by no means asking to do everything for free! That's not what I was writing about at all.

I was wondering where the spirit of adventurism had gone

sickseo

I know you weren't saying that lol

Atleast you've taken the time to go through the resources and training material. Not many users do that.

One day, if I'm feeling nice, I may create a suite of training videos and share some of my templates. I don't do quick 5 minute videos either. My videos actually teach people what they need to know. But that won't be happenning for several months as I'm simply too over worked at the moment with too many projects. I'm running a factory line of servers at the moment. lol

Codov

sickseo said:

I know you weren't saying that lol

Atleast you've taken the time to go through the resources and training material. Not many users do that.

One day, if I'm feeling nice, I may create a suite of training videos and share some of my templates. I don't do quick 5 minute videos either. My videos actually teach people what they need to know. But that won't be happenning for several months as I'm simply too over worked at the moment with too many projects. I'm running a factory line of servers at the moment. lol

Here's what you wrote above: people are paying you for your time and explaining it to them. But I think you will agree with me that there are many people now who say they know something, but in fact, they take the money and retell the publicly available information.

There is a lot of info business these days and a lot of deception. So it's hard to find a perfect mentor.

I think people who sit on this forum know a lot of information, but people in Facebook groups, etc... I think you know what I mean.

Codov

I have never withheld information that I know.

If a person wants something, he will find any information, no matter how much I don't want it.

I often prompt people in my field (web development) and often explain how to do certain things to my clients. Although I could charge them every time, I don't think it's fair.

All the times I've shared information with someone has helped me more than hurt me. The more professional people around, the easier it is to solve problems together and share experiences unselfishly.

sickseo

I totally agree with what you've said. Certainly with regards to deceptive people. Seems some will do anything to make a quick buck for themselves.

I actually experienced that with one client that is a playboy model (Kayleigh Wanless) a few years back, where we actually partnered up to share revenue from the joint ventures and in the end she paid me nothing. It initially started as me doing a favour for a close friend of mine and he referred the client to me.

I did about £20,000 worth of web design work and off page seo on multiple businesses over 2 years. Sites were ranked and revenue was generated and she still paid me nothing lol

Before I walked away from the projects she tried to get me to train someone in SEO with the intention of him being our resource to use on our businesses. But it turned out that she was secretly planning on setting up her own SEO agency without me lol 

A lot of lessons learned on that venture.

1. Never work with models as they're always broke lol 
2. Get the money first before starting any work!
3. If your client is named Kayleigh Wanless, don't take the work! Run!
4. Don't mix business with friendships

It's situations such as this that have made me change. 

But I hear what you're saying, sharing of information by professionals with skills will grow the community and only encourage more sharing. Someone only has to plant the seed first for it to grow.

Codov

sickseo said:

I totally agree with what you've said. Certainly with regards to deceptive people. Seems some will do anything to make a quick buck for themselves.

I actually experienced that with one client that is a playboy model (Kayleigh Wanless) a few years back, where we actually partnered up to share revenue from the joint ventures and in the end she paid me nothing. It initially started as me doing a favour for a close friend of mine and he referred the client to me.

I did about £20,000 worth of web design work and off page seo on multiple businesses over 2 years. Sites were ranked and revenue was generated and she still paid me nothing lol

Before I walked away from the projects she tried to get me to train someone in SEO with the intention of him being our resource to use on our businesses. But it turned out that she was secretly planning on setting up her own SEO agency without me lol 

A lot of lessons learned on that venture.

1. Never work with models as they're always broke lol 
2. Get the money first before starting any work!
3. If your client is named Kayleigh Wanless, don't take the work! Run!
4. Don't mix business with friendships

It's situations such as this that have made me change. 

But I hear what you're saying, sharing of information by professionals with skills will grow the community and only encourage more sharing. Someone only has to plant the seed first for it to grow.

I'm sorry to hear about your situation. It's a terrible thing.

But thank you for the personal experience. I always try to work on prepayment, and I've learned from my mistakes not to work for free

bolaplay

@sickseo, I'm totally agree with what happen on your experience, its the risk every SEOers take, I don't know if other SEOers have similar experience, but I'm for sure have that with my old company I worked for, after its rank top 5 (nations/country level), they don't need SEO anymore and more likely to burn money on FB ads and similar ads because its more faster to get conversion needed. But for long term strategy, burn money like that is bad options.

But the game have change now since FB ads also more strictly with so many banned account, and Mr. G giving hard time. Here come the times SEO are needed more than before, but for who just start for SEO there will be hard to rank now since indexing more difficult than before, and rank slowdown more than before. So keeping an existing SEO assets and skillful human resource is a must more than ever, the good business owner know this best will success more. The golden ages for easy rank ended on mid 2020 after May 2020 core update.
So the mindset of SEO became mid/long term strategy rather than short term strategy, can't expect result for 3-4 month, its more like 6-9 month, what ever method you use generally. If the business owner fail to understand this, they will out of the game for sure.

Deeeeeeee

sickseo said:

Get the money first before starting any work!

I learned this doing graphic design a while back, before even starting with SEO. People may seem enthused, but without a contract you're just wasting your time!  Now I spend exactly ZERO minutes doing "work" for a "client"who hasn't paid!

sickseo said:

Don't mix business with friendships

I learned this when a friend became really annoying and started getting other people to call me asking me about the work being done. His girlfriend had also been one of my good friends, so she used to call on his behalf. A LOT. The friendship with both suffered, but eventually it was all good again.

codov said:

I think people who sit on this forum know a lot of information, but people in Facebook groups, etc... I think you know what I mean.

The GSA forum absolutely has always been on a totally different level. 

Even BHW wasn't even close. There were a few good posters there, and some good info, but also a ton of crap.  Like Kindergarten compared to Doctorate Program, BHW to GSA forums compare...

I only regret the many months I missed the latest posts on here and was generally tuned out. Not to mention, missing Sven and his many dedicated users! But that's how life went. Coming back to it all now, it seems okay that I took a break. But it's great to be back. This is a fun business and the serious ppl have always been among the kindest and most helpful I've encountered ANYwhere in life. Truly a cool scene...I guess the community activity waxes and wanes...

Codov

Thank you so much for your interesting story and valuable experience.

I'm happy there are people here with whom you can discuss any topic!

It's awesome

TheGypsy

I'm a bit saddened by the fact that people aren't as active as they were a couple of years back too. But a lot has changed since and lot hasn't.

If you can get the basics of SEO right then everything is the same as it was about 10 years ago when Sven released SER. Sure you need to tinker a bit with things and spend a bit of money here and there but the framework hasn't changed.
I'd suggest check the posts from the early days and pay special attention to ozz, ron, leeg, gooner beside others who shared their immense knowledge.
Unfortunately many of the images are broken from back then but you'll get the gist. Here is collection of golden threads for you: https://forum.gsa-online.de/discussion/3204/my-compiled-list-of-tips-notes-threads-resources-for-using-ser/p1

Codov

TheGypsy said:

I'm a bit saddened by the fact that people aren't as active as they were a couple of years back too. But a lot has changed since and lot hasn't.

If you can get the basics of SEO right then everything is the same as it was about 10 years ago when Sven released SER. Sure you need to tinker a bit with things and spend a bit of money here and there but the framework hasn't changed.
I'd suggest check the posts from the early days and pay special attention to ozz, ron, leeg, gooner beside others who shared their immense knowledge.
Unfortunately many of the images are broken from back then but you'll get the gist. Here is collection of golden threads for you: https://forum.gsa-online.de/discussion/3204/my-compiled-list-of-tips-notes-threads-resources-for-using-ser/p1

Thank you so much! 

I will look into this information!