Google Slaps Affiliate Marketers for Product Review Sites

Considering that I was just writing about the “Affiliate Marketing Mistakes, Misconceptions & Pitfalls” that many affiliate marketers make on an ongoing basis I felt that the information below was quite timely in nature:

——————————————————————————–

News Flash from Dr. Glenn Livingston of RocketClicks:

I got word from several affiliate marketers that Google dropped the hammer today on affiliate review pages.   Many pages went from quality scores of 10 —> 1 overnight.

And these were NOT skinny sites, rather well build out, consistently updated blogs with good navigation above the fold, xml site maps, high click through, hyper-relevant keyword mapping, low bounce rates, long average time on page  … everything else Google loves.

When we analyzed which pages survived, and we take it in combination with other information, it seems pretty clear they’ve added code which screens for affiliate links on the landing pages.

At the moment it seems cloaking and PHP redirects are untouched, … but I can’t imagine these are far behind.  (I’m guessing they’re just avoiding this in order to decrease their server burden … takes some CPU cycles to visit every link on the page and evaluate for affiliate code)

I’d say it’s safe to conclude Google’s on the war path against affiliate review sites, and we should be advising clients towards a different business model… at minimum it seems necessary to avoid placing affiliate links on landing pages, but ideally, I think people need to move towards a deeper list building/relationship building strategy and/or a strong e-commerce model.

Time to stop “building on sand”.

Glenn

——————————————————————————–

As I talked discussed in my article “Affiliate Marketing Mistakes, Misconceptions & Pitfalls” there are a large number of affiliate marketers that take shortcuts in hopes of making big dollars fast. The problem is that while you may be able to get away with it for a short period of time, they are typically experiencing short term success.

Many affiliates do not own the products they are marketing and are simply in the game to make a quick dollar. All too often these affiliates are creating their marketing centered on product review sites. The one saving grace is that most internet surfers are now savvy enough to recognize these sites for what they are. However, there are still a large number of affiliate marketers trying to make the big dollars quickly via shortcuts and no real substance.

As a result, Google is now on a quest to stop the many affiliate marketers on the web that have no substance to their web presence.

The end result is that quality sites with professional affiliate marketers are going to benefit in a big way. If you have taken the time to build your brand, are providing quality (fresh) content to your site visitors and have take the time to build a solid reputation, you are in great shape.

If this statement does not describe your current status, I would highly recommend that you get busy changing that and changing it fast. As I have said time and time again there are no get rich quick schemes. Yes, there is the occasional person that for whatever reason gets catapulted to what seems to be overnight success, but often times there is more to the story than what the general public knows.

What you are more likely to find with anything related to a get rich quick scheme is that you may make good money for a short time only to lose all of your income without notice. I guess if you like roller coaster rides that involve your income that might just be alright, but personally, I like a little bit more stability in my cash flow.

For those who are willing to put in the time, effort and energy required, affiliate marketing has tremendous potential. Keep in mind that Google, along with your site visitors all appreciate and expect good quality content. Build your brand supported by a content rich website, good quality follow up (personal & autoresponders) and you are likely to reap the rewards of substantial passive income for years to come.

For more incredible information for online marketing solutions from Dr. Glenn Livingston I would highly recommend checking out his site:
RocketClicks

If you happen to be looking for an incredible affiliate program checkout what he has to offer:
RocketClicks Affiliate Program

To Your Success!

Be sure to pass this along to anyone you know trying to make it in affiliate marketing.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Diamond Marketing and Selling the Experience (kylelacy.com)
• Search & Authenticity Are Key to Corporate Blogging (kylelacy.com)
• Is Affiliate Marketing Best Home Based Internet Business? (ronmedlin.com)
• Thinking About Affiliate Marketing? Avoid These Mistakes. (affiliatestartingline.com)

Tagged as: Add new tag, affiliate marketers, affiliate marketing, glenn livingston, Google, google slap, Landing page, marketing, product review sites, social media, twitter, Web Design and Development