Matt Jones has a pretty good definition of the mysterious Google Sandbox, or at least what I’ve noticed of it.

From my experience Google gives sites a ‘trial run’ where upon first indexing the blog is given unnaturally high rankings for a few weeks and if it doesn’t gain enough links/content during that trial period it is de-indexed (sandboxed). Or if it gains some links/content it is given given lower rankings which have to be built up from scratch the old fashioned way.

That’s what I’ve observed, too. There must be some magic number you have to hit in those first few weeks to avoid the sandbox. It’s a very strange idea, and I’ve never understood the purpose of the strange boost they give you at first. What is that? Why not just make it hard for all new sites until they prove they’re not just parked domains someone’s leaving to sit? It’s that boost that ensures black hat spam sites will always be near the top of the search results for at least a few weeks (and at the rate spammers build sites, there’s always a new one out).

I’ve never understood the logic, but I guess if you figure out how to avoid the sandbox, you can really launch new sites fast right out the gate.

WP e-Commerce, WordPress Plugin

The lite version of this plugin allows you to sell products via PayPal only. Whilst it’s called ‘lite’ it’s not that simple as such. You can have your products in categories, there’s a shopping basket and it uses the PayPal IPN for instant notification. I’ve not gone through the whole process but I would assume that if you’re selling a digital product it will also then provide a download link to the buyer to download the product, as I’ve had the option to set how many times the product can be downloaded by the buyer.

This sounds like a really interesting method for selling stuff from your website. Sarah gives several interesting details (click over) and then the developer comes along in the comments to say they’re adding even more awesome stuff.

This is worth bookmarking: The 500 Dollar Per Month Comment Thread

Mark threw open a discussion where people making over $500/month profit on websites could advise people making less than that. If you’re making less, you’re welcome to discuss your strategy and get feedback, or just ask questions.

There are a lot of ideas and inspirations in there. There’s one or two bullshit posts where someone says, “Oh, anyone with a sixth grade education can just throw up a website and learn SEO and make that much” which is just not, I assure you, true. Some people will get lucky and make that much. Most of us? No. For one thing, which SEO theories do you follow? Which ones work in which niche? Which niches are going to be hot? Which ones are going to fizzle and burn before you can cash in?

When Meta Matters - How I Wrecked My Search Listing

Courtney Tuttle rewrote his meta descriptions and found out very quickly that didn’t go over well with the SE’s. It’s interesting how this works, because if you leave meta descriptions entirely off a blog, the major SE’s will pull the first few lines of the article, which is usually an awesome description for searchers/potential visitors (especially if you write them with that in mind, which is a good copyrighting practice, anyway).

But for sites other than blogs, it doesn’t seem to work the same way.

Are Friends More Influential Than “Influencers”?

Grokdotcom analyzes a recent study revealing that people trust the recommendations of friends and family over bloggers and social networkers they see online. The opening line of the article is just right: “This may not come as a shock…” Indeed.

There’s value in networking online, but I think you find yourself doing it all wrong when you imagine you’re going to become some trusted voice in people’s lives. You’re not. Your goal is to make some actual pals online - people who count you in their trusted circle - and from that hub, you have an extended “family” formed by the various trusted circles of all the people who trust you. Your recommendations will radiate out indefinitely if you can motivate a handful of people to each tell another handful, and so on.

If you’ve ever wondered why this site sometimes goes several days without an update, the answer has two parts.

1. I get busy sometimes with other sites.
2. All you people write about is Google. OMGGoogleGoogleGoogleWTFBBQOMGGoogle.

Seriously, folks. I refuse to talk about Google. What are you, on their payroll? You’re just providing free publicity every time you talk about their latest remarks and activities. When you do this - and you know who you are - I can’t find valuable articles to link to.

Which reminds me: if you have a blog that talks about internet marketing, PPC, SEO etc. and not every post on it is Google this and Google that, let me know in the comments. If you’re any good, I’ll add you to my comments.

For future reference, here is all you need to know about Google. Once you understand the following, everything they say and do makes sense.

• They’re a big business operating like a big business, but delude themselves that they’re a Mom & Pop shop. I call this disease Corporatus Appleitus.
• They do favors for people who make them money, and don’t do favors for those who don’t.
• They skirt right on the edge of breaking US monopoly and fair trade laws, but so far they haven’t gone over so you’re stuck with it.
• And they use you to generate more free publicity and perceived value for their product than they could hope to buy.
• If you don’t get it, you’re a sucker.

The good news is: once you start to tune out Google and all related news, the web is a really beautiful place.