Affiliate Marketing Standards are Rapidly Changing; Are you keeping up?
Franklin Banker
August 28, 2006
Recent changes to the Google Adwords system has sent many super affiliates scrambling to upgrade the content of their sales pages. They run PPC ad campaigns for merchants and many of their affiliate marketing page presentations were found wanting for quality content by Google, so their PPC prices went up, way way up! Google is targeting affiliate content in a wide variety of ways, including sales pages used by affiliates.
Informational pages used by affiliates to market their merchant partner's goods and services are being examined by Google spam raters. If the pages are shallow sales pages with very little content, they are gone. The spam raters are deleting them from the index, and the shallow affiliate content with them. Affiliates must provide some measure of value, originality and content in order for their informational gateway pages to remain in the Google index.
More and more affiliate program managers are closely examining their affiliates to be sure they are in compliance with their respective affiliate agreements, which are more complex than in the past. Many more rejection letters are being sent out than ever before due to more scrutiny of each new affiliate application. Affiliates must learn to read the fine print, no matter how inconvenient. Affiliates must learn to comply with the agreements, or their membership in a program may be terminated.
Everything in the Affiliate Marketing industry is changing, and affiliates must change with it or be left out in the cold. Some top producing affiliates are having difficulty, but it is especially hard for newcomers to the business to understand all the standards as they unfold. The truth is that affiliate marketing is developing into a more complicated business, similar to many other business opportunities out there.
Affiliate marketing is certainly still a low cost home business opportunity, but new affiliates must research the vast landscape of the online affiliate world in order to be successful. Just like any home business, this one takes some knowledge to understand, operate and be successful with. It's not a walk in the park, and if you see ads that say it is easy, don't send them any money.
Newcomers to the affiliate marketing industry must get an education before launching into the fray with both feet. There are more eyes viewing affiliate productions now, and unfortunately for many, the eyes are very critical indeed. New affiliates cannot believe they will make big money fast. It takes time and patience, testing and proving before success is realized.
New affiliates must take the time to become competent in many areas, such as SEO (search engine optimization), website design, advertising methods and the terminology and restrictions in specific agreements. They must become better writers, and they must watch out not to infringe on the intellectual property of others. The online world is slowly changing to resemble the world of business on the outside, and the standards for online business are being upgraded daily.
Everywhere I look I see new rules, new standards and a higher level of expectations for affiliate marketers. This can only benefit our industry in the long run, and the "fast money" spammers (in the affiliate world) will have to find another venue, or go out of existence.
In order to find success in affiliate marketing we all must strive to be better at what we do, and to keep up with all the changes. This will keep us on board, and insure our success in the long run. Affiliates must embrace the new higher standards or be left behind. No one wants to be in that position. Let's keep making money online and contribute to the success of affiliate marketing as an industry which will generate in the area of 6 to 7 billion dollars this year
Informational pages used by affiliates to market their merchant partner's goods and services are being examined by Google spam raters. If the pages are shallow sales pages with very little content, they are gone. The spam raters are deleting them from the index, and the shallow affiliate content with them. Affiliates must provide some measure of value, originality and content in order for their informational gateway pages to remain in the Google index.
More and more affiliate program managers are closely examining their affiliates to be sure they are in compliance with their respective affiliate agreements, which are more complex than in the past. Many more rejection letters are being sent out than ever before due to more scrutiny of each new affiliate application. Affiliates must learn to read the fine print, no matter how inconvenient. Affiliates must learn to comply with the agreements, or their membership in a program may be terminated.
Everything in the Affiliate Marketing industry is changing, and affiliates must change with it or be left out in the cold. Some top producing affiliates are having difficulty, but it is especially hard for newcomers to the business to understand all the standards as they unfold. The truth is that affiliate marketing is developing into a more complicated business, similar to many other business opportunities out there.
Affiliate marketing is certainly still a low cost home business opportunity, but new affiliates must research the vast landscape of the online affiliate world in order to be successful. Just like any home business, this one takes some knowledge to understand, operate and be successful with. It's not a walk in the park, and if you see ads that say it is easy, don't send them any money.
Newcomers to the affiliate marketing industry must get an education before launching into the fray with both feet. There are more eyes viewing affiliate productions now, and unfortunately for many, the eyes are very critical indeed. New affiliates cannot believe they will make big money fast. It takes time and patience, testing and proving before success is realized.
New affiliates must take the time to become competent in many areas, such as SEO (search engine optimization), website design, advertising methods and the terminology and restrictions in specific agreements. They must become better writers, and they must watch out not to infringe on the intellectual property of others. The online world is slowly changing to resemble the world of business on the outside, and the standards for online business are being upgraded daily.
Everywhere I look I see new rules, new standards and a higher level of expectations for affiliate marketers. This can only benefit our industry in the long run, and the "fast money" spammers (in the affiliate world) will have to find another venue, or go out of existence.
In order to find success in affiliate marketing we all must strive to be better at what we do, and to keep up with all the changes. This will keep us on board, and insure our success in the long run. Affiliates must embrace the new higher standards or be left behind. No one wants to be in that position. Let's keep making money online and contribute to the success of affiliate marketing as an industry which will generate in the area of 6 to 7 billion dollars this year