Serious question for the top affiliates!

**opensesame** · 19-01-12

Hi,

I got a serious question, which will tell me if im wasting my time or not.

Currently im scrapping about in Google keyword tool and 123-reg to see if high traffic keywords are free as a EMD, basically anything above 10,000 searchs a month are gone, mostly by a domain broker buying them up.

If I see one of these I Just move on and it seems I spend more time doing this then anything else.

Question: This basically seems a waste of time, and im starting to think the bigger affiliates dont do this, but just go straight in with a bid for an EMD they want from a broker.

Am I looking at raising enough money from crappy affiliate sites I run to be able to buy a decent EMD of say £1000 setting this up making money out of it and repeating the process, is this how the 100k kind of affiliates do things?

Cheers

**bu06nne** · 19-01-12

The power of EMD is diminishing....

My guess is that the top affiliates would look at building a brand using a memorable domain name, which doesn't always have to be an exact match.

**allthediscounts** · 19-01-12

I'd back bu06nne's quote.

Proper businesses don't let Google dictate their brand identity.

Soon enough the concept of EMD's will be long gone, then what will you be left with? Think about it logically and you'll realise that a domain name should actually count for nothing when it comes to SEO as its no guarantee whatsoever to what the site actually provides.

I'm sure when Google allowed EMD's to be included in their algorithms they had one hell of an off day, and just opened the door to more hackers/poor quality search results. Unfortunately many legit site operators also found this worked and jumped on the bandwagon too.

I agree with you totally regarding the domain brokers tho. I have a legit UK Ltd Co, but my domain names are owned by a broker in Switzerland asking for £1000 and a man who's name I can't spell from HongKong.

**pustema** · 19-01-12

Forget EMDs as said above build a brand.

**aotagain** · 19-01-12

The EMD's or similar work to spread your risk while you're working on the big one though.

I don't agree that Google has made any sort of error ranking EMD's, because what's the problem with an EMD with good content ?
Having said that, some are ranking with naff all content, or just spewed out datafeed stuff, so that's not right.

Or put it another way...
If you had a business called sportsshoes.co.uk, you wouldn't expect it to get trashed in an update if it had good content would you ? ie. relative to 10 other shops that were not EMD with the same content.

It wouldn't make any sense for Google to trash EMD's, unless they're carp in the first place.

**pustema** · 19-01-12

Originally Posted by aotagain

unless they're carp in the first place.

Sounds fishy, but seriously if there are 10 million crap EMDs then a descent one is just collateral damage if they pull them.

**allthediscounts** · 19-01-12

Originally Posted by aotagain

The EMD's or similar work to spread your risk while you're working on the big one though.

I don't agree that Google has made any sort of error ranking EMD's, because what's the problem with an EMD with good content ?
Having said that, some are ranking with naff all content, or just spewed out datafeed stuff, so that's not right.

Or put it another way...
If you had a business called sportsshoes.co.uk, you wouldn't expect it to get trashed in an update if it had good content would you ? ie. relative to 10 other shops that were not EMD with the same content.

It wouldn't make any sense for Google to trash EMD's, unless they're carp in the first place.

I think the crux is don't rely soley on an EMD.

**aotagain** · 19-01-12

I think before I didn't do any EMD's I'd want to see the evidence for their demise, compared to the demise of other affiliate sites.

Boring I know, but this business is full of supposition and lack of real evidence or studies.
I'd suggest doing some searches randomly across EMD keywords and see what sort of sites show up.

If Google deliberately takes an axe to EMD's then someone had better warn the top affiliates:
eg, carrentals co uk, myvouchercodes co uk etc. etc.

To be fair, something like greenbeanbags isn't likely aimed at developing a serious site for customers, but something like gardenpagodas is.

An EMD shouldn't rank well if the content is rubbish, but there's no reason for it to rank lower just because its an EMD, that would be absurd.

From personal experience, EMD's can teach you a hell of a lot and if you get one up and consistently ranking well, you can extend it.

Perhaps EMD is a misnomer, because you actually build in longer tail keywords than the EMD - or you should anyway.

**opensesame** · 19-01-12

Thanks for the responses guys.

I think im going to go for the brand approach on the next project - this post makes me a little more confident in this (this is a great blog I will also say) - How I Ranked for 66,000 Visitors Worth of Keywords

**aotagain** · 19-01-12

Try the same approach to rank for "best buy mobile phones" with a site that is obviously monetising it and see if your guest posts appear at all.

Anything "consultancy-ish" can be written about on other people's blogs, if you've got some decent knowledge. I'd be very interested to see it work with products.

**aero_mansoor** · 20-01-12

Not really a top affiliate but here goes:-

1) Forget about domains and EMD's. Do you have what it takes to rank a small ****ty site?
2) If you do and can make money from it then are you in the position to spend money in expanding your buisness.
3) If you are thinking having an EMD will be the be all and end all not so. I rather spend 1K on content and adequate syndication. BUT NOT domain name ONLY.
4) EMDs are powerful for now, but building something future proof will take time and expertise... do you have those?

Mansoor

**opensesame** · 20-01-12

Yeah I have those.

**accelerator** · 20-01-12

EMD is a "nice to have", but if you are just starting out, I wouldn't spend much on domain names, I would just get a decent free to reg name, perfect the marketing techniques, and try and reach profitability as quickly as possible. Then start a war chest to get some decent domain names, and buy them when you have the marketing budget to get the most from them.

Rgds

**lauriebred** · 20-01-12

Some of the prices these cybersquatters are asking for EMDs are just ludicrous, you would never make a profit on them in a month of Sundays. I'm amazed at Nominet that they seem perfectly happy to let squatters in Turkey buy up whole piles of .co.uk domains and just sit on them until some mug can be found to buy them. It brings the whole system into disrepute.

Yep, at the moment EMDs are seen as a booster in the SERPs but I have some crazy situations with sub-pages on domains I bought years ago now ranking highly for competitive terms that have absolutely zilch to do with what the domain was originally bought for whilst the .co.uk and .com EMDs are nowhere. So, for an uncompetitive term they could make a difference (provided that no-one was seriously concentrating on that term) but for competitive ones the beneficial effect is, at best, minor.

**accelerator** · 20-01-12

I would just like to point out that if it is a generic business term, then it is impossible to "cybersquat" a domain. That's because no-one in particular has a right to a generic business term. That's why trading domains is possible. My description of the term "cybersquatting" would be where someone has bought a domain for a term for which they can claim no valid rights, e.g. a trademarked term, and is something I disapprove of.

Rgds