New Affiliates Policy

Early Results

[graywolf]

So after two weeks with the new policy how is it affecting you?

I've had to pull 3 different ads where I was spending between $2k and $3k a month.

While I know Q4 of 2004 is supposed to be up (news [cbs.marketwatch.com]) I wonder if many others are in the same boat as I am, and if it will have an effect or not on 2005 earnings.

[Frequent]

One of my accounts was hit hard and I have basically shut it down since ROI disappeared with the implementation of the higher bids needed to beat out the competition. I am in the process of switching over to landing pages.

Other accounts were boosted a bit since they weren't direct to merchant.

[Widestrides]

I dreaded switching from direct to merchant AdWords clicks back to my "useful content landing pages." I dreaded going from 100% CTR back to about 60% CTR.

The results have been pleasantly surprising.

Yes, my CTR fell to 60%, but traffic increased dramatically, I assume due to the drop off in competition from direct to merchant affiliates.

So my earnings per (Google AdWord) click have gone done 28%, but the significant increase in traffic has resulted in an 80% increase in revenue!

And I dreaded the change. As long as my "useful content landing pages" continue to meet Google's approval, I will be happy. Now I just have to work on increasing my CTR from my landing pages to my merchant. Any suggestions?

[poster_boy]

I'm still seeing a significant number of direct to merchant affiliates running with bogus display URLs.

Is anybody else?