Is the affiliate business model a SEO no go?

[petermeadit]

It is a long time game, some gains take a while. Not for the faint of hart, dig in. Once you get things setup right and you are getting some rankings, then you may only need to spend an hour a day or less.

But you have to give yourself the best chance, by best practices.
Learn up, read the Moz Guide to SEO http://static.seomoz.org/files/SEOmoz-The-Beginners-Guide-To-SEO-2012.pdf

You need to understand what happens when you create a link. You might want to remove some links too.
Links that look flaky or disproportional etc. could be hurting you.
Don't link from your own sites, unless you know what you are doing, this could be hurting too. There are heaps from opshop. Needless to say that wont be helping.

Lean, learn, learn, read, stay up-to-date with the alogo changes, keep your finger on the pulse...

Use tools to measure your progress, GWT and Analytics at the least.

A lot of things can go wrong with offsite SEO if done wrong.
A lot of things can go write with onsite SEO if done well.

So get the onsite stuff working first.

HTH

 

[James]

Some possible options here for how you can treat excess affiliate links, yet this is a bit grey hat - http://www.jacobking.com/affiliate-link-cloaking

Overall I do not think this is a big issue for your site, it is probably a combination of other factors.

 

[Alex]

Hi Peter,

Have read and continue to read -> Moz Guide to SEO http://static.seomoz.org/files/SEOmo...o-SEO-2012.pdf <--- Will read again and again and again...

Yes, have some bad links am not making anymore / removing the bad ones. <--- I have a contractor who is suppose to be doing this, but am finding it easier just to do the work myself.

The op shop links were from way way way back (like 3 websites agao), but yes am removing those.

I regularly use GWT and Analytics.

Am fixing off site SEO. With a little luck the feature I am trying to get published should help a lot!!!

Last night before bed added heading tags to my #1 ranking blog post. It did move up a little. Am gonna keep watching it.

Hi James... Can you explain why you feel the affiliate links are not a big issue with the site?

Thank you very much everyone!

 

[James]

I think it is more the design of the site as well, just looking at some pages it is all ebay links, you could be "smarter" with the way you present content.

I do not know what the strategy is, drive traffic to landing pages from paid ads? Increase organic traffic.

Plenty of sites run with heavy affiliate offers and do well they just provide more value for the users, more content ect. The site at the moment seems like one big ebay syndicate.

 

[CyberClick]

I haven't been paying as much attention as I used to and I have no data to back this up but in the last 6 months or so I believe Google has started to 'punish' (or reward less depending where you stand) websites carrying affiliate links.

Cutting out the middle man is a logical progression of Google and it's relatively easy for them to identify affiliate websites.

If you want your affiliate site to do well, then I'd suggest it's more important than ever to get as much relevant, custom content online as possible and keep adding every week or so.

 

[Ashman]

I haven't been paying as much attention as I used to and I have no data to back this up but in the last 6 months or so I believe Google has started to 'punish' (or reward less depending where you stand) websites carrying affiliate links.

Cutting out the middle man is a logical progression of Google and it's relatively easy for them to identify affiliate websites.

If you want your affiliate site to do well, then I'd suggest it's more important than ever to get as much relevant, custom content online as possible and keep adding every week or so.

Yep I agree with this. I think it's more important to create a business that directly provides a product or service or a blog with unique content.

A couple of affiliate links would be OK but a site built on affiliate marketing doesn't provide any value to the internet.

 

[helloworld]

You have a premium domain which you need to capitalise on now more than ever. That could all change in a few years (how's emo.com doing?). Go the publisher route. Make every 3rd or 4th post a affiliate link. Do reviews etc. you will get natural links and shares. Shit you could sell the odd item yourself.

I think if you're going to stay as is then look at Adwords and bing ads that really has been the affiliate market model for years at least in your sites case OP.

No follow tags are not your issue

 

[James]

I haven't been paying as much attention as I used to and I have no data to back this up but in the last 6 months or so I believe Google has started to 'punish' (or reward less depending where you stand) websites carrying affiliate links.

Cutting out the middle man is a logical progression of Google and it's relatively easy for them to identify affiliate websites.

If you want your affiliate site to do well, then I'd suggest it's more important than ever to get as much relevant, custom content online as possible and keep adding every week or so.

The update is called "top heavy update," any site with too many affiliate and ads above the fold was hit. Sites that were not hit were more content heavy and wise with ads and affiliate placement.

 

[petermeadit]

Agree helloworld.
Also Adwords is another avenue, however I think the Quality Score might hurt a bit for this site.
But it would be worth a try, with a bit of a low budget. Just try some text ads or well targeted display ads.
Also I recommend bid on your own brand terms as that helps to bring down the CPC.

Agree with all the suggestions to mix up the content a bit. Do reviews etc. Try to feature some Hipster people.

Cant hurt to try a variety of monetization methods.

You have a premium domain which you need to capitalise on now more than ever. That could all change in a few years (how's emo.com doing?). Go the publisher route. Make every 3rd or 4th post a affiliate link. Do reviews etc. you will get natural links and shares. Shit you could sell the odd item yourself.

I think if you're going to stay as is then look at Adwords and bing ads that really has been the affiliate market model for years at least in your sites case OP.

No follow tags are not your issue

 

[helloworld]

True story. My introduction to affiliate marketing was through a friend who had "retired" as he called it, from a well paid position at a bank. Though of course, he really hadn't retired just his job had changed. He had an almost identical set up to OP except he only spent on PPC. His niche was stick on tattoos > affiliate site and golf clubs site > eBay feed. He did spend a good $ on ppc mostly through yahoo ads.... I don't know how it all worked out for him. He should have built the sites up as imagine where they'd be now! He works for a bank again last I heard but he did do well through ppc for a while

 

[Alex]

Thank you for the info everyone... I think I have figured out a few things. Just gonna take longer and be more work than I had hoped.

 

[CyberClick]

The update is called "top heavy update ...

That is a better name than 'push them to adwords'