This is the transcript continuation for Episode 099. Mark provides a detailed update on the Corn Sheller niche site's Google manual action for thin content, walks through his five-step recovery plan, and introduces a new weekly segment: Late Night Traffic Tips, starting with blog commenting.
Corn Sheller Site: The Thin Content Manual Action
Mark's niche site at Cornsheller.net — originally built as a demonstration of the Keyword Canine keyword research tool — received a Google manual site action for thin content. The site had been generating $30 to $40 per month for years with occasional spikes over $100, all with essentially no ongoing effort.
The site consisted mostly of pages that pulled eBay listings of antique corn shellers for sale, with only a handful of original content pages about corn sheller history. Google's position was straightforward: there was no reason to rank Mark's repackaged eBay content when they could send users directly to eBay.
Mark's Five-Step Recovery Plan
- Add 10 pages of original content about corn shellers. The challenge is finding enough material to write about — corn shellers are a narrow topic. Mark plans to hire a writer and target searched keyword terms.
- Reduce thin sales pages to the top 3-5 most searched. The site had 10-15 pages of repackaged eBay content. Mark will keep only the most valuable ones — likely generic corn shellers, John Deere corn shellers, and antique corn shellers — and remove the rest.
- Add 500-800 words of unique content to remaining sales pages. Each product page will have substantial original text above the product listings, providing context and information that eBay does not offer.
- Optimize on-page SEO for every page. A site:cornsheller.net search revealed 56 indexed pages, with disclaimers, disclosures, and contact pages ranking above actual content. Every page needs proper titles, descriptions, and SEO optimization.
- Suppress category, tag, and archive pages from Google's index. Using the Yoast SEO plugin, Mark will no-index all duplicate content that WordPress generates automatically. He also notes the importance of checking that PrettyLinks-cloaked affiliate links are marked no-index and no-follow.
Late Night Traffic Tip: Blog Commenting
Mark introduces a new segment with a free traffic strategy: blog commenting. Despite being one of the oldest tactics, Mark argues it still has value for two reasons.
First, Google looks for natural behavior. Being an active, engaged member of your niche community — leaving thoughtful, helpful comments on relevant blogs — creates signals that your website is legitimate and your authorship is credible. This is not about keyword-stuffed spam comments. It is about genuine engagement.
Second, readers of those comments will occasionally click through to your website. One comment on one blog may not matter, but a couple of comments per day across relevant blogs for a year creates hundreds of natural backlinks and a meaningful base of referral traffic.
What's Changed Since This Episode
Google's Helpful Content system replaced manual actions for many thin content cases. While manual actions still exist, Google's algorithmic systems now automatically suppress thin, unhelpful content without requiring manual review. The recovery steps Mark outlines — adding original content, removing thin pages, optimizing on-page SEO — are now standard site maintenance rather than penalty recovery.
Blog commenting's SEO value has diminished further. Most blog comments are now no-follow by default, and Google has become better at discounting comment links. However, Mark's secondary point — that commenting builds genuine relationships and drives referral traffic — remains valid as a community-building strategy.
The “building on rented land” lesson is timeless. Mark's observation that relying entirely on Google traffic is a business risk applies equally to any single traffic source. Diversification across organic search, email, social, and direct traffic remains essential.
Resources Mentioned
- Yoast SEO Plugin — for managing no-index settings
- Google Webmaster Guidelines
Listen and Subscribe
Listen to Late Night Internet Marketing on Apple Podcasts or subscribe at latenightim.com/internet-marketing-podcast/. Have a question for Mark? Call the digital recorder at 214-444-8655 or drop a comment below.
