Google’s Love / Hate Relationship With Affiliate Marketers
Filed under: Affiliate Marketing, Affiliate Programs, Google, Internet Marketing, seo
This fantastic infographic provided by SEOBook, shows how Google’s attitude towards affiliates has changed over the years. First, they loved you because you bought PPC traffic, then when that traffic began to get noticed by big companies, they started a slow but steady campaign to oust most affiliates from their PPC network; even going as far as to ban many affiliates.
At first you would think that it may be the affiliates problem right? They should have known that their ads would get banned. Not so fast…whenever you delete or pause a PPC ad in Google, no matter how old it is, it still remains in your account. Many affiliates were banned because these old, outdated ads, which may have been deleted or paused, were at the time completely within Google’s terms and conditions; however, because they currently don’t adhere to the rules, they were banned, some for life.
Essentially, Google had them by the throat. They ran completely legitimate ads in Google say in 2005, decided that they didn’t want to run that ad anymore for whatever reason, deleted it, (although still contained within the account, thus, not truly deleted), and then had their account banned because it didn’t adhere with Google’s current terms and conditions.
Can you see the problem here?
Over the years, affiliates have been taking some pretty big hits by Google; either getting their sites pushed down in the search results, or whatever the case may be.
Ironically, during this short amount of time, Google has opened up their own affiliate network. Which leads one to wonder if these same sites were to promote products from Google’s affiliate network, would it make a difference in rankings? I haven’t tested this but would sure be curious to hear of anyone who has.
So, all this rant out of the way, here’s the infographic I was telling you about…
Internet Marketing Infographics by SEO Book
Wealthy Affiliate, Affiloblueprint, Affilorama, or AffiloJetPack?
Filed under: Affiliate Marketing, Affiliate Marketing Products, Affiliate Programs
There are many great programs online that teach you how to become a very successful affiliate marketer. Some of the most notable and talked about are Wealthy Affiliate, Affiloblueprint, Affilorama, and Affilojetpack.
Now, Affiloblueprint, Affilorama, and Affilojetpack are all owned by the same company; thus, the similar names. But while they all have similar names, they are indeed different products.
So let’s take a look at what all of these are, how they’re different, and what people like and dislike about them because when it comes to comparing which “classes” to take online regarding affiliate marketing, these four are the most commonly discussed.
Affilorama was started in 2006 by super affiliate Mark Ling. It offers comprehensive step-by-step videos that can teach anyone how to become a successful affiliate. The company is headquartered out of New Zealand and employs 22 people. It has also received numerous awards.
Affilorama itself offers both a free and a paid membership. As a matter of fact, there are numerous free videos you can watch right now if you want to.
Affilorama Premium offers a monthly magazine, in-depth tips, lots of tools that you can use, and monthly PLR articles.
Offered by the same company who owns Affilorama, Affiloblueprint is exactly how it sounds. Mark takes you through a 12-week course specifically designed to get you up and running as an affiliate. It starts with choosing your niche, to creating your site, to detailing exactly what to do in step-by-step videos. It’s quite literally a “rinse and repeat” product. Start with one niche, when you’re done, move on to another.
You receive the AffiloBlueprint WordPress theme, a teleseminar that contains 10 profitable niches you can use, a super-affiliate webinar where Mark reveals some of his lesser-known tactics, and an exclusive private members forum.
Click here to visit Affiloblueprint
This product, also offered by the owners of Affilorama gives you pre-written emails that fit into a year-long sequence. You also receive a website of your own, hosting for one year, and 20 pre-written articles. Additionally you receive Mark’s own high-converting traffic strategies, and plenty of bonuses to go along with it. You can purchase 5 niche packs or 11 niche packs; your choice.
Click here to visit AffiloJetPack
Wealthy Affiliate is similar to Affilorama Premium. They offer video training for the beginner, intermediate or advanced learner, web hosting, lots of tools to use at your disposal and something that Affilorama does not offer, which is one on one training.
Click here to visit Wealthy Affiliate
Who or What to Choose?
All of the above products have their pros and cons and in all actuality, it really depends upon where your skill level currently is with affiliate marketing.
If you’re looking for a step-by-step, “do this today”, “do this tomorrow” program then I suggest AffiloBlueprint.
If you just want to get your feet wet and check out this whole “affiliate marketing business” then I suggest Affilorama – at least begin with the free lessons and then move on to the premium area if you find it’s for you.
If you’re an analytical kind of person and want to know all of the details of affiliate marketing, then Wealthy Affiliate is for you.
Perhaps the most commentary I read on Wealthy Affiliate was that there is a lot of information to get your head around and it’s more for the intermediate to advanced affiliate marketer whereas Affiloblueprint for example, is a step-by-step process.
I have found that it was incredibly rare to find a negative word about either program. Perhaps the biggest lesson that I learned when listening to others or reading their own reviews was that it really depends upon your learning style. Some people are very comfortable having all the knowledge at hand and making their own decisions (which Wealthy Affiliate offers) while others need more of a hold-your-hand approach like Affiloblueprint.
Perhaps the biggest difference that I could find is that when you register a site through Wealthy Affiliate, and you later decide to cancel your account, you also lose access to your site. Something to keep in mind and granted, this may have changed since I’ve written this so you’ll want to check it out for yourself.
New Amazon Widget
Filed under: Affiliate Marketing, Affiliate Marketing Products, Affiliate Programs, Marketing Strategies, Neat Stuff, Web Sites
Amazon has just released their “Page Recommender Widget” which will display links to other pages on your website and also link to Amazon products.
If you’re currently signed up as an Amazon Associate/Affiliate, you can simply plug this widget into your page and be off and running.
Here’s an example of what the widget looks like:
Since it’s new, I’m giving it a test run here on the blog but will then add it to SlingBrain.com to see how it pans out there as well.
To use this widget on your pages, you first have to be an associate/affiliate of Amazon. You can sign up here: http://affiliate-program.amazon.com/gp/associates/join
Once you’re signed in, click on the “Build Links/Widgets” within the left hand navigation menu. Then look for “The Page Recommender Widget”.
Click “Add to Your Web Page”, choose the size you want to display, click the “Add to my web page” button below the widget, copy the code and then paste it on your web page or blog.
- Kristine
