Anyone with experience in MLM, Network Marketing, or Direct Sales knows what a Google slap is.  If you don’t, take a moment and google “Google slap” and get up to speed before proceeding here.

“I’ve been Google slapped again” became an altogether too familiar scream around my house lately.

Now, the point of this blog post is not to argue the validity of the latest Google slap on affiliate marketers and “make money” opportunities, but to point out that good things comes from even the darkest clouds.

Here’s my story….

I fell in love with Google Adwords.  I started advertising on Google over a year ago, and the leads came in at breakneck speed.  Costly?  Sure, but I received extensive training from some very well respected Google authorities.   So I knew what I was doing, paid a reasonable cost, and was a very happy camper.

Then I got slapped, and slapped again, and again.  Every time I made changes in my campaigns to adjust to the latest slap, I would no sooner get traffic back up and leads coming in then…. BAM! I would get slapped again.

It was difficult, but the upside was so damn high.  So I kept adjusting and moving forward.

I was hooked!

At least I was until the latest slap a few weeks ago, when Google decided to make Affiliate Marketers lives a living hell.  My impressions went to ZERO overnight, and I received that dreaded “You are suspended from Google” email.

Now what? I mean, if Google was against my entire community, what hope was there, right?

WRONG!

Hope rose anew from the fact that the Google suspension has forced me to “back to my roots”, back to the methods of marketing that I had abandoned, things like social media, article marketing, press releases, blogging…. all basically forgotten and left for dead as I discovered what I now call…

The Crack Cocaine of Internet Marketing... Google Adwords

I got caught with my pants down.  I got so enamored with the instant gratification of Google that I left everything else behind.  I had forgotten all the free and low cost leads I used to get before I became addicted to Google.    Even though I consider myself an experienced marketer, I broke the Golden Rule — never put all your marketing eggs in one basket.

Fast forward a few weeks.  Still feeling the sting of less lead flow, but I am now detoxed from Google and life continues on.  I’ve found that I have a renewed passion for writing good solid articles that deliver something valuable to people.  I have returned to blogging with a similar passion.  Videos are in the making, and the leads are coming back.

Yes, I have moved over to Yahoo and MSN (Bing) like most others who’ve been slapped, but I’ve done so with the full understanding that I need to diversify my marketing. So now, instead of focusing 95% of my marketing efforts on PPC advertising, I am adding in a mixture of articles, press releases, blogging, Squidoo, Hubpages, and video marketing.

And oh yeah… I have officially started Twittering (or whatever a person who uses Twitter is called)!

Follow me!

My take home message folks?

Marketing on the Internet is just like Investing —>

Never put all your efforts in one place… diversify, diversify, diversify!

Til next time,

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