You may have already experienced the wrath of Google lately. They’ve been on a damn bloody rampage, slapping people left and right, and even banning LOTS of accounts.
Here’s a video where I share my thoughts on how to make Big G happy and avoid having your affiliate income disappear overnight.
Please comment and tell me your thoughts on.
Really?
I mean, why the hell would I want to go through all this effort for Google? It’s ridiculous. It’s just no longer worth dealing with them anymore.
I’ve come to the point where I’ve accepted that if I’m going to lose $150,000 a month by not dealing with Google then I’m going to lose $150,000 a month.
Google is a bitch and I’m going to deny her my money. I get less headaches and I no longer have to deal with their bullshit slaps.
One thing Google doesn’t understand is that they are a data collection organization, not a marketing organization. This whole “10-15 pages on site” plus this and that and this and that is just unnecessarily cluttering up the internet.
Goodbye Google. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
What other traffic sources are you using now? Media Buys?
None of these tricks are going to get you past a manual review, which will eventually hit you. So what’s the point?
Exactly. There’s assholes online who are trying to convince you that you can “beat the Google slap” by doing this or that to fool the Gbots.
It looks like Google has decided to let their arrogant PhD idiots who delight in banning accounts.
Google Adwords is dead in the Affiliate arena as far as I’m concerned. It might still be useful for brick and mortar and unique online businesses.
I’ve been doing those sorts of things and my quality scores are still the same (mostly 8-10). With all these people leaving adwords, it only means less competition for affiliates like me.
Sean
Amit,
This might have worked before 2009 but today it’s not enough. I had more than this and still got the slap from a manual review.
Its not worth it anymore, going to find other sources of traffic. Make $$ until you get slapped, but don’t rely on the google traffic one day it will get turned off with no explanation.
I would be grateful if you’d include the transcript for your videos; it takes a lot of time to watch them and, unfortunately, it is impossible to print them, what I used to do with your blog.
that’s actually a great idea.
This really isn’t the answer anymore.
I have managed over 60+ quality accounts for a huge range of companies. Some with thin sites, some over 8 years old with hundreds of quality pages – titans in their industry and still, they get slapped.
Google needs to understand they are simply a data collection company, not marketers. Marketing is an art, and selling/conversions are not based on some keyword density score, 500+ page bs site, whether are not I am an affiliate of the product I’m selling, etc. In fact, a lot of the crap affiliates try to build to get around their “guidelines” just end up creating more garbage online that we all have to wade through.
As a google customer, I want an ad for my search that directs me to a page that will sell me the product. It’s that simple. Quit wasting my time. When’s the last time you turned on the TV and thought, “I’m not buying Pepsi… they didn’t offer enough quality information on the carbonated sugar water industry so I could make an educated decision.” Simply ridiculous.
Very well put, Robert.
I really hope Google loses their market share. They need to be reminded that they’re a data collection organization as opposed to a marketing firm.
For those of you who have stopped using Google and ae still making money, where do you market at..Yahoo and MSN?
Seems if you get a manual review and have even one affiliate link on your LP, you’re slapped regardless of how much unique content & how many articles and pages your site has.
Besides Yahoo & MSN, I have used Fair Ads Network (FAN). Not a ton of traffic yet, but enough to get some conversions at low bid cost.
http://fairadsnetwork.com/
Yep, the days of the affiliate are numbered in Google.
I have recently just avoided a banning for various products and this is with high authority sites and not doing anything dodgy at all.
I have worked with my Google rep on this issue for a few weeks and its getting nowhere. You should see what he recommends me to do, just to stay alive in Google. Basically I have to turn my page into a complete load of crap. Forget about conversions.
Those of you that think you are safe as an affiliate or can avoid the slap, well good luck, because that’s all you are running on. And that is no way to run a business.
Amit,
The information in your video is very outdated. What you’re saying was helpful back in 2006-2007 perhaps but far from the case anymore.
Like others have said here before me; Google is no longer a place for affiliates, and I hope and think that Google one day will wake up and realize they lost out to their competition – because they were too narrow-minded and high on their own horse to see the damage they have done with ludicrous guidelines and constants slaps/bans for legit advertisers.
Sooner or later it will come to and end for Google, but by then it might be too late. All larger, serious affiliates that I know, myself included – are running as far away from Google as we can. There are many other traffic sources out there. Places that have REASONABLE terms and guidelines, and where you can get even more traffic than the so-called “big G”.
If you’re an affiliate: Stay away from Google!