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It's June, and Thinking About Adding Value
June 01, 2006
At the risk of stating the obvious - well, okay, yes, I AM stating the obvious - it's June already.
I'm looking at my May, and wondering where on earth did it all go? I've got one site out of the 50 I want to get up by the end of September, and am still kneedeep in research for the remaining 49, although I am short only about nine niches now.
After much thinking about the whole CJ Javascript links thing, I've decided to still use a CJ merchant if I can also find other merchants from other networks or independent affiliate programs offering similar items. On these sites, I won't write the CJ links into my content - I'll use a "recommended" box that shows via a php include, in which I'll put links to all the relevant merchants.
At least that way, when a change is necessary, whether it's to delete the CJ link or replace it with another merchant, I can do it by changing just the one file.
Then there's the brainstorming I've been doing over Google's threat of de-indexing affiliate sites that don't add value. The whole question is, what exactly is meant by "value-added"?
I mean, when I want to buy something online, and I have no idea where to go to get it, I'll Google it. And if an affiliate site pops up that gives me a convenient little link to a merchant who carries this product, I'm a happy camper. So how much value did that affiliate website add to my browsing experience? From my perspective, I was able to find what I wanted, easily and quickly. That's pretty valuable, I'd think.
Putting that aside for now (it's something that has been pointed out frequently by affiliates but Google doesn't seem to agree), the question again is, what is "value-added"?
So far, I've come up with a few things. Telling my visitors what I think about the product. What I think about the merchant (and I guess something like "buy from them because I'll make some money" doesn't cut it). Comparing products. Comparing prices (only I'm not tech savvy enough to run a site like that). Some other things that I'm playing around with that might or might not be viewed as adding value.
It will be interesting to see how this all works out. In the meantime, in the interests of getting traffic, PPC definitely beckons. And newsletter marketing, too.
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Posted by BJ at 03:32 PM in 50 Affiliate Sites Challenge, Affiliate Marketing , SEO | Permalink
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Comments
I just did a post on this - unique content and what Google means by it. Nothing really new - I think sometimes people just overlook the obvious. Good luck! :)
Posted by: Rae | Jun 4, 2006 5:49:39 PM
