20 Lessons of Web Master Life

Here at SEOrefugee we have a tradition of marking milestone posts by putting in a little bit extra effort. That’s all well and good, but today, one of our members, Big Doug of Branson Critic (bransoncritic.org), went above and beyond and created a fantastic list of the 20 Lessons he’s learned being a Webmaster and SEOrefugee member.

Here’s his list:

Lesson one: That is not true. Constantly revamping a site (changing its headings/structure/url) keeps SE’s in distrust.

Lesson two: 301-redirect can kill a good thing. Branson Critic is proof of that. I should have listened to TG and sold it when it was hot. After 6 months (301), still 75 percent of all pages are not included. PR went from 6 to 0 and has remained for 6 months. Traffic is down 70 percent and has remained steadily low.

Lesson Three: Constant changes to a site removes a sense of comfort and security of the user. People have enough change in their life, and they don’t need more. Every time I would change color and style of my site, the hate mail pored in. That’s why with the knowledge I have now, I would put a lot of thought into building a site before it was launched and it would remain the same. Don’t change a site. If you don’t like it, build another site and leave it alone.

Lesson four: I have submitted over 5 sites to Dmoz over the last 3 years and none have been accepted. And for some reason the editors don’t find the sites on their-own (hahahah). I’m so glad that most people have never heard of Dmoz. Pops needs to make a cartoon depicting its evil.

Lesson five: Google and PayPal hold all the cards.

Lesson six: Creating a unique site that could poke its head up amongst millions of new sites without major money is becoming a fallacy.

Lesson seven: I fell in love with the newfound freedom of the Internet. It was a new frontier that could be experienced by young men and women who did not live in America’s glory days. I always felt I was born in the wrong generation.

The Internet was the unknown and money could be made in the new economy. Now like everything else, corporations threaten its nuance and innocence. If Google decides who wins and looses in the organic market, what’s left. We are back to spending huge dollars to be visible for small business. Soon, only what the SE’s choose will be seen.

Lesson eight: Never host a new site with major scripts on a new server scheduled to migrate soon. You will hate life.

Lesson nine: Free speech is in jeopardy. Free Internet and content is following suit. Be careful what type of site you start. You may need deep pockets to keep your liberty.

Lesson ten: What the hell is SEO nowadays? Link Bait supersedes quality pages and information. Its like you got to know somebody to find good stuff nowadays.

Lesson eleven: Viruses are started by the anti-virus companies. What a business!

Lesson twelve: Neuter, not nurture those who flame.

Lesson thirteen: Spend less than 12 hours a day working on sites if you want to stay married.

Lesson fourteen: Do not drink while writing source code.

Lesson fifteen: Domain Squatting no longer pays.

Lesson sixteen: MSN live is asleep. I quit asking about ASK. And Yahoo is still below poo in G ratings. So whom do Webmasters optimize for? Don’t hear that question anymore, do ya?

Lesson seventeen: Now I understand why Webmasters build a one-page site that is a mile long. No sense spreading that pr to other pages.

Lesson eighteen: Don’t build a site for ads only. Have something to sell. Remember G will just steel your money anyway.

Lesson nineteen: Webmaster tools did not help my sites at all. However, at least Google has a clear understanding of my…………………………….EVERYTHING!

Lesson twenty: Do not loose your mind when your site disappears from the Organic Serps. Life is too short. And remember, its just Google conditioning you on the things to come. Look at it as……………………………………………….four monkeys trying to have sex with a football!

Doug, all I can say is thanks for sharing…