Don’t you hate it when a new Google core update hits, and suddenly your site gets Thanos snapped off SERP? But most of us know how to rescue these sites, requiring a few minor adjustments. Sometimes it needs a bit more work. But that didn’t work for this Fiverr client.
But 500+ E-E-A-T blogs, and 150+ updates couldn’t do jack shit for this Fiverr client’s website I was writing for. Sucks when no matter what you do, the site still fails.
But I had to get to the bottom of this, and when I did, I realized their situational awareness was 50 feet below.
And soon the project stalled, and shut down. What could have been a grandiose experience for enthusiasts is now awaiting a domain overhaul.
Because the client believes Google hates it, literally! And the only way forward was to hire Nigerian writers.
Here’s a little case study on JohnDude, the site that coulda been the next pj*orndude had it not been their direction to copy as is.
Who’s The Fiverr Client I Worked For?
I don’t know really! The middleman who passed on the tasks to me never mentioned the name of this Fiverr client. I’d really wanna know how he bagged this dude, because I wrote for nearly 18 months for this guy, and the work just kept coming!
I don’t roam Fiverr, and have my reasons for it.
Turns out, the guy landed a hefty client, and needed someone to write the saucy stuff, all about adult entertainment, and escorts. The rates were low, but I wasn’t gonna say no to this chance!
I never directly spoke to the Fiverr client, the middleman passed on messages as screenshots.
But I did figure a few things out seeing the messages.
- The client knew basic SEO
- He had a good understanding of what he was doing
- He helped me understand the niche through guidance
- Called me a “SEO boy scout” because I suggested some fixes
- Gleefully ignored my warnings about the dip.
- Loves Nigerian writers for their vocab.
Either all, it wasn’t in my best interest to get in touch with him, since the middleman kept me happy with weekly payment.
A Little Briefing on the Project
Since I am a writer, I was obviously writing blogs for JohnDude, and two other sites. So, the project required me to write reviews for escort sites around the world, from the perspective of someone who’s been there, and tested it himself.
My first task was to write content for the country and category pages. While I wrote some straight from the head, the middleman made a bunch using AI, and just asked me to proofread them for less than half. Surely wanted to pocket some for himself. This would be a ticking time bomb for the site.
Once the country pages were done, I was asked to start writing the site reviews. This took me several tries to get right, and the client was patient enough to bear with me.
In the end, we settled on a format, and the work began.
It was oddly satisfying making up stories, especially Dave, poor guy! I used an engaging and casual approach laying it all out like the bro. I went deep into the site using whois, studied local laws, tracked down events, researched on tourism in cities and all that there’s to know.
Once I got into the flow, I could literally write one blog (roughly 850 words) in 20 minutes. This was after the research obviously. No GPT there, just Google.
I started with 1 a day, then 2 a day, and towards Jan 2025, it had gone up to 8 Blogs a day. The thing flowed real nice! Until it wasn’t.
The Google Core Update That Ruined JounDude
The December 2024 Google Core and Spam Update didn’t hit JohnDude straight up. In fact, the site enjoyed a flowing traffic until the end of January 2025. This is when the middleman’s attempt at pocketing a larger share ($2.2) actually blew up in his face.
Upon closer inspection, I noticed how he had casually added AI generated snippets to the already AI generated country pages, violating the Core Update. Weird it took a while to catch on.
From there on, the writing continued, but it was back to 1 per day.
“Lower the volume,” he said. “Maybe Uncle Google is mad about super fast uploads.
And I went on! 1 a day. I even updated the format, adding more snippets of expertise and trust, better flow for readers, and a slightly higher word count.
2 months went by, still nothing!
“We are deranked,” the middleman said. “Google hates us and our niche.”
The work continued, but the lack of feedback irked me to suggest solutions.
My Response to Fix JohnDude
This was getting to me, and I had to do something. Didn’t want all that writing to go to waste, especially when I put all my juice into it!
That’s when I stopped being the writer, and started doing deep analysis. I was asking him to update the country pages for ages! His boss probably didn’t want it, until I said I’d do it for free. I even suggested interlinking, including notes for developers to link blogs across the website. But the interlinking move would come back to bite me in the ass later.
That’s around 150 pages to update, with 52 pages requiring overall overhaul. Wanted really bad to save this site. Took me almost a month, and I completed it.
I wrote the whole thing, and updated it through wordpress, since they let me have access.
Twas a dark time and no income flowed in, but the resolve to prove myself kept me going! My only solace going forward with this was knowing that my efforts would be appreciated, and the site would be back to its glory days!
The Result of All That Hard Work
Once I was done, I knew the changes wouldn’t hit right on. After all, Google’s gotta crawl all these freshly updated blogs, now with interlinking and all the E-E-A-T shizzle drizzle.
While waiting, another tremendous update went live, the Google Core Update of June 2025.
This is where all that half-assed effort to create internal linking fell apart because of the site structure.
While I was trying to create links between blogs, each page contained about a thousand links, with the homepage having 50,000 links, most of which hadn’t been replaced by blog links, which were yet to be written.
On top of that, each category and review page contained over 1000 links from the navigational sidebar, and the footer. This doesn’t include the main body, which already had other links.
In total, the site had over 380,000 internal links. And how does this relate to the fateful Core Update?
Well, for the most part, this was an attempt at link farming, using paid backlink strategies for a niche in YMYL (Your Money Your Life). And surely, a site with so many links was a viable target.
And remember all those link positions I left for the dev? They were never implemented. I had asked several times, but it never really came about. I created the only links on the category pages. But that was dwarfed by the number of other links.
So the website was both a link farm, and a ton of high-authority content lying in an unsorted pile.
As a result, my hard work didn’t really pay off. In fact, this was more of a strategic issue now.
What Happened After The Big Disappointment?
Despite the second hit, the work continued into March 2026, when they decided to migrate the entire site to a different domain. Another attempt to save it.
During this time, I was writing for two other campaigns for the middleman. One was a crypto review site, with similar layout, go check out AceofCrypto. It looks like a scam site right now, with a fictitious crypto guru having no digital footprint or real identity.
The other was a softer, more professional and formal take on escort site reviews. And when I continued, I was shut down entirely.
Now, About Nigerian Writers
What’s the deal with the mention of Nigerian writers pushing thousands of words for less than a dollar?
While my watered down and professional escort site review for the other project contained a ton of helpful information about the site, country, processes within the establishment, and even deeper breakdown into the services, it didn’t contain profanity.
Where’s the exciting language?
The readers will feel bored of this.
Did you use AI?
This is what I read in the screenshots that included AI generated content checks to back up their claim. To add to that, the client included a very interesting line.
My best writers were Nigerians, who write so much better. This is because they’re uneducated horny bastards. They’ll use words that will make them look horny. This is what appeals to the American audience.
Agreed, but that’s what you warned me about when we started. I remember the statement clearly talking about how Google “deranks” these words.
Sure, I get it, it’s a dirty industry, but do you know how to nail this right? Maybe Nigerian writers can, and I have full faith in them.
What’s the Grand Takeaway From All This?
If you’ve read through this entire case study of a failed campaign, congrats. I ain’t letting you leave empty handed. If you’re a Nigerian, I commend you on your writing, and wish you a bright future with clients needing adult niche blogs.
As for other writers and enthusiasts, content alone isn’t gonna get you anywhere. The website needs to keep up as well.
You can do stuff like
- Citing and linking sources
- Create internal linking
- Create topic clustering
- Add all the E-E-A-T you want
But a faulty website UI will drown all that. But this isn’t even about the technical stuff. This was the case of a Fiverr gig hunter onboarding a client he couldn’t really serve, and outsourcing the technical bits to those who could.
The problem was, everyone did their job, but no one to connect, strategize and think.
And when I tried to do that, I was called SEO Boy Scout, still proud of it. From this failed project I made a strategist open his eyes, as was needed.
So yeah, keep writing, keep pushing, and keep thinking. Never capitulate to AI, and double check Fiverr clients if you really wanna grow in this field.
