Sometime ago, I was a groupie for Jeff. Jeff used to have a Online Gambling website and a online gambling blog. He asked for 10 groupies to post comments on his website. In exchange, he would visit his groupies' sites and post comments. I was a groupie, and then Jeff just disappeared, along with his sites.
So, I took his idea one step further. I started the Buy-a-Groupie site, where bloggers can buy services ranging from $1.00 to $100.00. They are designed to help bloggers to promote their sites and gain traffic. It has been a few months since I started the Buy-a-Groupie site, and I have made some observations.
IT IS A COOL IDEA
I receive a lot of emails and comments about how the idea is very cool and unique. At the same time, the people who tell me my ideas are cool do not buy my services. I have no idea what they are waiting for. If the same people who tell me it's a cool idea would buy my services, I would be doing QUITE well.
I DO A LOT OF WORK FOR $1.00 A MONTH!
The worst service I have is the $1.00 a month groupie service. I write four articles to promote the client's site, I post comments on every single one of the clients' postings, and I have a link to the client's site. So, for $1.00, I do all of the above. It started okay, because I only had one customer. Then, people started to sign up, and I was writing articles on a regular basis. An article usually takes me about 10 minutes to write and 20 minutes to research. By research, I mean going to the client's website and find something to write about. I am not sure if this is the best way to earn a buck.
THE SERVICE WITH THE BEST RESULT
The service that truly builds traffic is where the clients buy comments. No argument here. My Buy-a-Groupie site is new, and I don't have a lot of traffic, so advertising on my site is probably only worth $1.00 a month. However, when I post comments for say the Rob In China site, there is definitely an increase in traffic. I was happy to see that Rob's 0-2 comments a day increased to 4-10 comments a day since he purchased my service. He was also my first customer.
SOME PEOPLE HATE ME
I realized that I cannot post a comment on a blogger's site and mention my business. Okay, I was not spamming.....far from it! Usually, a blogger will have an article about building site traffic, and I comment on all the ways of doing so, including the premise of my Buy-a-Groupie site. Although what I post is relevant to the author's content, they are usually very angry at me and scream "spam!". Now, I am very careful and basically don't comment under Buy-a-Groupie at all. I do it under "Alana" instead. I am often surprised by how some people don't bother to visit my Groupie site and just automatically consider it a "spam" type of service.
IMPOSTER (RIGHT OR WRONG?)
So far, no one has brought this up, but for some of my services, a lot of bloggers are led to believe that I am the client. How does this happen? Well, I post what I think, I am vague about my sex and my location. Most of what I post for the clients do not include anything personal. They are simply my opinions on their articles. So, when the bloggers click on my clients' site, they actually have no idea that I have posted for the clients. Is this wrong? I figure I am adding value to bloggers' site by posting genuinely thoughtful comments. Is it wrong that I do the work and someone else gain the traffic?
