There’s one key skill that you absolutely must possess if you want to succeed, long term, at affiliate marketing.
Do you know what that is?
If there’s just one skill you needed in the next 5 years, or even 10 years, to succeed, what would it be?
It’s the ability to adopt to change.
Think back to how different ppc affiliate marketing was just few short years ago:
- No Google Slaps
- 0.05 min bids on ALL keywords regardless of how poorly your adgroups were structured or how untargetted your ads were.
- Keywords were only dissabled if your CTR was below 0.5%
- No one url rule. 10 different affiliates could direct link to the same offer on the same keywords and ALL show up!
Some of you veterans remember those days! Many sees those days as the glory days of ppc affiliate marketing. Lots of affiliates were making obscene amounts of money back then.
Look at things today, it’s a totally different world : periodic Google slaps, increasing bid prices, Google aggressively cracking down on thin affiliate sites, one url rule, etc…
All these changes happened in just a few years! The smart affiliates adopted to the changes, and shifted their strategy. These affiliate continue to make boat loads of money.
Sadly, many affiliate did not adopt and are either making a fraction of what they did in the old days or had their businesses totally wiped out.
Now in light of all the change to ppc affiliate world in the past couple years, I want you to step back and imagine how different the game will be 5 years from now!
My guess is very different.
Will you be ready?
Here’s a better question to ask yourself : What’s the best way to be ready?
I would have to say the best way to be ready is to anticipate the changes coming to ppc affiliate marketing. That is, you need to start building your business in such a way that you won’t be hit with future Google slaps, that you’ll be ready for increasing competition from more savvy advertisers and affiliates.
I have a highly refined system to building and launching affiliate campaigns, it’s a system that I’m continually looking for ways of improving. That incremental improvement will keep me one step ahead of the competition, as competition gets more fierce.
I’m anticipating change.
As far as creating value added sites that Google wants, my team goes WAY overboard.
Why?
Because again we’re anticipating change.
Do you have a system in place to continually adopt, grow, and improve your affiliate marketing methods and strategies? If not you’re at best falling behind, or at worst you’re dead in the water.
adopting to change super affiliate mindset
Yeah I get your point and maybe Google will take over yahoo and msn…
I wonder how google will pan out with their new phone to compete against the Iphone?
You adopt kids…you adapt change.
Amit not sure how your sites look? Last I looked at a saturated niche such as credit score/reports, sites on top (and have been on top for a long time) don’t have much content to offer other than few testimonials and service offered.
Are you expected to build pointless content sites all the time? I don’t think so.
Yous still need to direct your users to PPC landing page or else added content/articles is just going have a negative affect on your conversions.
This is just one reason why I think when someone starts off in this industry they should start off by not doing PPC, build “quality” affiliate sites that give you a solid foundation to work from, then go into the heavier aspects of affiliate marketing to make what I like to call “The Hummer Money”
Hey Amit,
love your blog. It’s good to find a “real super affiliate” talking bidness
I do have a few points about this whole Google saga and was hoping you could throw some light on it.
I get the fact of what Google wants in terms of landing pages and doesn’t like thin aff sites etc.
Here’s what I have a problem with. What Google wants does NOT coincide with what marketers want! Or rather we both want the same..as in good ROIs…but what G believes to be a good landing page is NOT the most effective landing page in terms of ROI.
Let me explain – I am on board with building “full” sites..as in it’s got good content, privacy, disclaimer, blah blah…all the stuff one needs to show a proper site that means serious business.
Sure I’m ok with that. BUT..and it’s a big ol’ BUT…the “actual” landing page for PPC that Google likes is basically the same as an “organic” style content page.
From a marketers point of view…I find this ridiculous.
Here’s why…and I talk from experience…it is a proven fact that a good quality…with excellent copy, “squeeze” page, is without a doubt the most effective way to get a measurable action. But by it’s nature a squeeze page will just have a headline and bullets and optin – box.
As in it’ll be a page with barely any content. Now I’m all on board with the “whole” site having good info and lots of content pages…but the landing page for PPC having an article type of content needs to be created ONLY to please Google and no one else.
I have had squeeze pages with 45% optin..which has lead to SATISFIED subscribers…which has lead to SATISFIED customers..and of course I’ve made happy profits.
Now if I create a landing page with good article type content, and then have the option to optin…the results are half!
This concept that people are always looking for great info upfront and that’s why Google’s forcing us…no “dictating” us on how to get customers, which are clearly less effective is what pisses me of.
I feel it’s nonsense to treat every traffic source the same.
When you need a plumber..and look in the yellow pages do you get pissed off seeing only ads for services? Do you start complaining and say “oh..I was wanting to see a free article or report on how to get the best deals on plumbers?” Of course NOT…because when we see ads..we EXPECT to be exposed to an “offer”…not a whole bunch of free info.
That’s what the organic side is there for. So it IS ridiculous and unfair on Google’s part to expect the same “delivery format” for info both for the left organic side aswell as the paid side.
However, obviously complaining won’t help change anything…so would you be kind enough to:
1. Give your opinion on what I said above..and
2. How do you personally “please” Google with the content style landing page…yet maintain a high and effective level for your “direct response agenda” i.e. high optins etc
Muchos gracias
Abhik
Wow – great comment Abhik. I had trouble with this myself.
From what I can tell, what you have to do to please the big G is create a content site that is between 10 and 20 pages. In addition to this, for PPC purposes, you create landing pages that only point to the offer, and have all the extra content removed, like the top navigation. However, somewhere on the landing page, you link to the main site (so the page isn’t orphaned from the rest of the site). You can put this link in the footer really small. You don’t really want the site visitor to click the link – it’s just there for Google’s sake.
This way, both you and Google get what you want. Google gets their content site, and you get to utilize your to-the-point landing pages without getting slapped. I am pretty sure Google grades the site as a whole rather than the individual pages. To better your chances even further, you could add dynamic elements to your landing pages to include keywords from your ads to help with quality score.
Anyways, this seems to work for me. Hope it helps you.
Alex
Hey Alex,
I agree with your comment but still have gripes about Google and there never ending idiotic demands
Check this out…
First of all what you said does work to some extent, however if the actual landing page has little content it still gets some “points deducted”…so it’s still not ideal.
However…here’s my point…I’ll prove it with an example:
Lets say I decide to sell a report which shows people how to talk to car dealerships and get a car for far less than advertised..ie. save a bunch of money.
Now lets say I choose a very relevant keyword to advertise on – “local car dealership”. Someone would type this in when looking to buy a car…so a very targeted keyphrase for this report.
Now to please Google..it is advisable (and they bloody want this crap)..I would include the keyphrase “local car dealership” in the headline, H1 tags, Title tags, meta and in the body copy too.
However as a marketer I may find the following results from two headlines:
Headline 1 – “How to save up to $500 on the next car you buy from your local car dealership” – optin rate – 10%
Headline 2 – ” Discover the secret question you can ask the ‘slick car salesman’, and save up to $500 on your next shiny four wheeler” optin rate _20%
Now…the above is a silly hypothetical example I just made up to prove a point.
And the point being…when you “handcuff” a direct marketer into the words he can use to create attention…or write persuasive copy…and force him to use words just for the sake an “algorithmic relevance” you have a negative effective on your ROI.
So my point stands…to say that we DON’T have the freedom we should be allowed to serve people better, getting more prospects, get more profits, which makes more profits for Google too.
Look Google is great..and is truly doing some amazing stuff for the advancement of search and the internet..I respect admire and am in awe of them…
…however, I am completely against them passing judgement on a subject of “advertisers” when they clearly don’t have a clue.
If you have a restaurant…and have ads for it across town…do you think it makes any sense for the friggin mayor of the town to come around and say “mmm dude I don’t like your ad..take if off”??
Of course NOT, cause it ain’t his business to pass comments on how I advertise my business. I pay the council taxes for the town..I don’t break laws, don’t sell illegal food…so get outta my face!
I can understand Google doing stuff to organic sites…cause they’re essentially providing the webmaster a free service by ranking them so they get free visitors.
But PAID…dude…you take my money…and then you tell me how to write my ads??? That’s insane.
LOL. End of my rant – You’d think I’d just been “slapped”…that’s not why I’m writing this…this is more a general and legit gripe.
Your thoughts please. Oh and does amit get time to respond to comments on his blog? It’d be cool and useful to hear from a senior player in this “game”.
Abhik