Forum Moderators: skibum
Been lurking for a grand total of two days. I read that long post where rfung discusses his trials and tribulations, as well as a few other helpful ones, and soon enough I was totally hooked!
My first question relates to the future of online AM as you guys see it. Why I ask is this: I am under the impression (although I could be mistaken) that Amazon, for instance, have lower commission rates than they did at some time in the past. Now it is 7-10%, while before it was 15% or so? Please correct me if I am wrong.
As a useful comparison, I play a lot of online poker. There is still tons of money to be made, but at the same time I can't help thinking, "I wish I'd started playing one year earlier than I did!" The golden age of online poker/casino MAY well be behind us now. Do you guys think online AM is similar in that respect? That is, still lots of money to be made, but the best is past?
Affiliate Marketing - Lots of money to be made, not going anywhere, but as time goes on gets a little harder for people just starting out mainly due to the sheer amount of competition, especially in the SERPS, only so much room on page 1. The affiliates that will survive will be the ones who have built something good and are not making SE dependent sites, those that learn other means of traffic generation.
But, to give another example, after the most recent Google update, loads of AM people on this board reported drastic decreases in traffic levels. Would you say this is just a case of a changed algo requiring different optimization (and that this happens every single time)? Or is this literally Google making it harder and harder for datafeed-type affiliate marketers to succeed? [FYI, I am initially going to be producing content-heavy sites anyway, but still...]
A tip I've given in the past that remains true: Register your domain(s) yesterday and get some *basic* content up today. Get the clock started. Google wants to see some "history" on a site. If you delay in putting something live until you've got your content all ready for a big launch, your big wonderful site will sit in Google purgatory for a good length of time. Any day you delay is a day later that you'll start making money.
It's just a case of SE's doing what they do. You could be on top before you go to bed making lots of money and wake up with your traffic and income dried up. Free SE traffic is not a base, nothing to get comfortable with. It's nice but like i said, good affiliates learn other means of traffic generation. It's good to have it coming from lots of different sources. As far as different optimization, i just stick with the basics. Every update you see people scrambling, changing things up. Usually they don't have a clue of the new algo, but they change things up anyway since they're "pretty sure" Then the next update comes and the cycle continues. Chasing the algo. Sometimes it's best just to stay put and let the algo come back around. Stick to the basics of SEO has worked well for me.
"Or is this literally Google making it harder and harder for datafeed-type affiliate marketers to succeed? [FYI, I am initially going to be producing content-heavy sites anyway, but still...] "
Affiliates with datafeeds are a dime a dozen, nothing special about them. A few know how to use them the right way, most are just replicating merchant catalogs. There was a time when you did a product search that you would see page after page with that product in the Title. It's relevant but SE's want relevant with variety. You can also see that with what Adwords did earlier this year. If someone searches for Brand X shoes, SE's don't want page after page of 1 merchants affilaite's datafeed pages. They want some variety. You're seeing that a little bit now. But with the SE's quest for that variety, the most relevant pages don't always wind up on page one. They do the best they can, but it doesn't always work out. Also keep in mind that for any product search, the merchant is more relevant. So yes it's harder for the feed affiliate due to the SE's wanting some variety, due to they're not the most relevant, the merchant is and due to the sheer amount of other affiliates, merchants and big affiliates that do products better.
