Quadrille - 8:55 am on Sep 1, 2007 (gmt 0)

It's a very common affiliate problem.

think about it; if there are 5000 affiliates, their sites will be much the same - except for the affiliation main site, which has all the advantages, and wins all the duplicate content battles too. And that, of course is how they like it - and many do a lot to maintain the position (can you blame them?).

The trick is to make your site as unique as possible; you are competing with all 5000, though you compare yourself with #1, and really think out of the box on keywords.

Additionally, go for extra content to improve your chances with non generic phrases that others will not have the content to catch.