Google is killing off affiliate promotional sites month by month, and now they are attacking templated blogs, what is next. If you have been involved in SEO for more than a few years, you will see that all the Press Releases sites which were hot are almost never showing up in organic search results, and now the latest is to attack blogs and sites like Craigslist are no longer showing up in search results.
I had top three position in Google for over a year for my keywords, and Penquin hit and I had to start all over when I was knocked off top of Google. It took me weeks to recover my position, and when all is said and done, any similar or copied text seems to be the trigger to lose position as I had learned. This is why hundreds of thousands of blog posts have vanished, duplicate text. So lesson one, do not use duplicate content on any of your sites. All these guru's selling these templated sites to hundreds of thousands is a total waste of money now. Lesson two, don't waste your money on any of these guru offers for they are selling so called secrets because they no longer work like the once may have.
As we saw Empower Network Blogs banned, you have to wonder what is next on Google's hit list. I believe Google is going to wipe out millions of sites which are primarily used for affiliate marketing, so be prepared. I have wasted tons of time trying to counter the Google attack, but it is a losing battle as I see it. With so much competition in market, and as we have seen, declining profits at Google, makes you wonder what the future of PPC really is. I know I don't use it anymore, and I have not clicked on any PPC ads in years on Google, so once again, we are seeing a shift in marketing on the internet. Google favors Youtube for good reason, they own it, and now Google + as I think they are trying to push users to what they control and make money on, and looking at their financials, it makes sense.
Success to all,