Toolbars - Short Term v Long Term Gains

**Qui Gon Jinn** · 06-03-05

If you were offered a nominal commission to distribute a toolbar by a major search engine for a small nominal commission...less than a quid. It could be anything from Google to Yahoo to MSN as three hyperthetical examples.

Would you promote it?

Before answering, think about the long term & short term gains of distributing this?

How would this actually affect you?

What could be done to mitigate the affects these have on you?

**EyeOfTheTiger** · 06-03-05

no i wouldnt - i have a site search engine for my own sites - once i get the traffic i intend to keep it for as long as possible. Why do you ask? Are you thinking or launching an affiliate program of your own search engine or is one of these big cheese willing to pay you.

Tiger

**Qui Gon Jinn** · 06-03-05

No & Yes...sort of.....the former could be a further debate on affiliate marketing protecting it's space rather than most peoples reliance of existing search engines...what you must ask is do these major search engines really want affiliate & networks in this space...short & long answer is no..so what can be done to remedy this....as for the latter yes we have been approached but for obvious reasoning this would be unwise to promote.

Hence a thread in another section, asking about how to detect if someone is viewing your site with another toolbar.

In essence we need to protect our space & encroach further.

My stance is fairly cemented & plans already in motion on possible solutions.

The purpose of the thread is not about my thoughts but those of other forum members, and the trade off between long & short term gains.

**Mogga** · 06-03-05

There are already toolbars out there which earn people an income.
Google's moves on autolinks seems to be horrid to webmasters so I suspect we'll see more of that shortsightedness from companies.

I wouldn't actively promote one -but I do have some short reviews of toolbars on one site though.