From Thin To Fat - Plans To Beat The Latest AdWords Squeeze

DioBach · 09-03-08

Having a bit of an active Sunday morning here, catching up with the reading following last weeks buzz around the forum caused by Google's latest 'Affiliate Apocalypse.'

So far there's been a lot of fairly negative criticism and concern around what's been done, which is all understandable, but rather than focus on what's happened, I thought it would be a good idea to talk about what to do in response, as in adapt and survive. I think there are two general ways forward, both of which are worthy of discussion. First up - Find new ways to game AdWords and get around the quality score slap down. Secondly - Add value and become a destination for users, and thus tick all the boxes of quality that Google demand.

I'll sum up a couple of ideas that other members have already mentioned in both fields, and throw the discussion open to those who'd like to add positive thoughts and ideas in how to improve the earning potential of their sites by using either method.

OK - Some bullet points on ideas for beating or gaming the QS slapdown

Appear to be a genuine merchant - fake a shopping cart and redirect all links through https
Churn and burn - fast (automated) turnover of sites and expect them to be dropped after a very short period
Consolidate - find a small but respected merchant site and offer to rent pages off them, or buy up existing respected / authoritative properties to abuse.
Find new and undetectable ways of cloaking all affiliate links

And now some bullet point ideas for becoming a fat site

Offer a service and relevant (and regular) original content.
Add value and ways for users to interact (and return) to your site (forums, profiles, reviews,etc)
Consolidate - join with other AMs who are looking for a more long term project and develop a joint destination site
Do something completely different and innovate - think million dollar homepage (rather than Facebook) or Plenty Of Fish

So the question is two fold, can you:

A. Think of other methods that fit into the two above categories
B. Discuss what you'd method (game or fatten), and if you're going thin to fat, what you plan to do to achieve it.

This is not for discussing the merits of the slap down and arguing the toss, this is for being pro-active and finding ways to add value to the SERPs and your chances of paying 2p a click in AdWords.

tbp · 09-03-08

This all really pisses me off - not because I`m against having to do some work on the site, but because I can't really see what more to do.

I have as much info as I can (more than the merchants) about the product, plus additional photos. I have a contact us and privacy page, and I have related products. Having to make more up is not going to add value, its just more for the users to trawl though, and actually dilutes the quality of the site.

My links were cloaked, not to be deceitfull or try and hide them, but because it offers me extra info about what the users are clicking on beyond what the networks can give.

Quote:

Appear to be a genuine merchant - fake a shopping cart and redirect all links through https

This really annoys me - not your suggestion, but the fact that you need to start doing things like this.

I know a lot of "black hat" tricks, which would probably make quite a bit of money, and would fill up the net with more crap. But I`ve made a deliberate choice not to go down this route, and to offer up good legitimate content that is actually helpful to the users, rather than just go for masses of crappy content that some people are going to click on anyway.

If I`m going to be forced by google into black hat stuff anyway, then why bother creating decent sites?

Creating fake checkout sites isn't going to help the users, but looks like it could be the only choice, and I can see lots of people going down this route.

Hows that going to make the net a better place? Google bots are likely to fall for it, and they are going to be serving up worse sites to their users.

As it is, with the google slap, if you look at a lot of results, all the highly relevant ad's for what the users are searching for have gone, and been replaced with largely irrelevant ad's, purely because there are hardly any relevant ones left.

I believe that users want price comparison sites etc, why wouldn't they - everyone wants to save money, and a list of the best prices and merchant reviews are a bonus. It also makes the merchants raise their game, in terms or good prices and service.

I`m not sure what googles motives are for this latest "update", but it can only be working towards their own self serving purposes - they can't hide behind their excuse of saying it makes the web and search results better for their users, because quite frankly - it doesn't!

tonyr · 10-03-08

Don't get angry tbp, just carry on doing what you already do well - creating good websites.

You could use adwords as a short term test to see if a product sells and what keywords convert. Then develop your content around that for SEO.

It's obvious that Google wants to keep adwords for big spenders. Today I have seen this site, this site and this site on Adwords for the search term "broadband".

These are just arbitrage sites, pages full of ads. Where's the "quality", the "unique content" , the good "user experience".

They must be spending a fortune. It's all about the money. The adwords opportunity for small affiliates has passed in my opinion.

DioBach · 10-03-08

Personally, the gaming methods don't appeal to me. If anything I'm using this as the spur I need to stop spending my money at Adwords. Once my current PrePay is finished, I won't be spending any more money with AdWords. Faking carts will work for a while I reckon, but it won't take them long to figure that out either.

Personally I'm going to concentrate on content now, rather than thin stuff. I have a few sites that have always been about that and continue to make good money, but the AdWords side of it was a nice little extra. Now I can spend more money on this side of it if I'm not spending it on AdWords.

tbp · 10-03-08

Yes, I understand Diobach.

I`m just in a difficult situation now, being number 1 in google (never thought id complain about that lol).

But it means that I can't say as adwords has gone, i`ll work on my seo and get more traffic that way. I`m already at the top, so can't go any higher, and unfortunately there seems to be quite a big difference between being top for Adwords and being top in the natural search.

My new account is still working, but I wonder how long for...

chrisuk · 10-03-08

I think faking the shopping cart is fantastic, made me snigger - only a affiliate would think off that! Isn't that what AM is all about sometimes, back to the wall guns blazing, giving Google the big birdy and driving traffic faster and harder than all those poncy agencies ever will.

That said when your traffic really does turn to dust you do have to be creative, to affiliates who do this full time (and I am one) this isn't a game, if its a choice between providing for your family and gaming Google then its an easy choice to make. Affiliates are some of the smartest people on the planet at driving traffic and sales, they will always be one step ahead of the search agencies and corporate types. There is no job better done than one you do yourself!

On the fake shopping cart idea - well why not run a real cart, sell some real crap linked to Paypal cart and then you are technically a merchant. Then if you just happen to have your affiliate products on the same page... evil wink

ian-d · 10-03-08

To help us in our quest to beat google, here is the response i've got from second time around after the automated reply:

Quote:

I understand that you are concerned that majority of your campaigns have
been changed to £5.00 minimum bid, or there abouts.

The email that you received last time, is in fact correct. There is no
technical issue affecting your account, it is to do with your Landing Page
Quality. Please note that is affecting some of your campaigns, not all of
them.

Google allows affiliates to advertise with AdWords. However, to provide
the best possible experience for our users and advertisers, Google does
not permit ads for bridge pages that are solely intended to direct the
user to the parent company's website. We have found that pages with
multiple ads leading to the same site provide less relevant results and a
lower quality experience for our users.

As noted in our advertising terms and conditions, Google may refuse any
ads or terminate any of your ad campaigns at any time, for any reason. To
view our Terms and Conditions, please visit
https://adwords.google.co.uk/select/tsandcsfinder.

To comply with our policies, please choose one of the options below:

Option 1: Refine your web page so that it contains a substantial amount of
original content. This content should be related to your ad text and
should stand independent of the affiliate links on your page. In addition,
the site should have an overall unique look and feel.

Examples of original content include:
- Tips and information for consumers considering the product or service.
- Competitor pricing and feature comparisons.
- Unique and informative reviews and customer feedback.
- Links to relevant articles.

This content should not be derived directly from the parent company site.
Instead, the user should find material on your page that is not available
on the parent company site.

Option 2: Redesign your web page to offer multiple, competing offers from
different companies for related services. For example, a webpage promoting
a specific book could have links to four online bookshops from which one
could purchase the book.

Option 3: Link directly to the parent company site, using the appropriate
Display URL.

You may wish to contact your affiliate parent company directly to ensure
that any changes to your page align with your affiliate agreement.

Sites that do not include useful content, products and/or services for
Internet users are often difficult to advertise efficiently and
effectively. The campaign that is for {example site of mine they used}
is a prime example of no original content, and all links take you to the
{example site of mine they used} website.

Based on user feedback, we have found that low quality sites lead to a
poor user experience. Furthermore, unhappy users are less likely to click
on AdWords ads. In addition, advertisers with quality sites have higher
advertising costs when they are forced to compete with ads for poor
quality sites. AdWords provides the best results when both users and
advertisers have a positive advertising experience.

What annoys me is that the example site of mine they used affected by this has tons of original content, all wrote by me, as it was a faq section that no one has tackled for this specific area before! It was conclusive, thousands of words, nothing copied, yet thats not "original content".

Sorry that its wrote in affi style, i've taken it off my email!

tbp · 10-03-08

Well you did better than me, I`ve never had a reply!

Quote:

Link directly to the parent company site, using the appropriate
Display URL.

Yeah, thats going to be great for affiliates lol

DioBach · 10-03-08

Quote:

Originally Posted by tbp

Yes, I understand Diobach.

I`m just in a difficult situation now, being number 1 in google (never thought id complain about that lol).

But it means that I can't say as adwords has gone, i`ll work on my seo and get more traffic that way. I`m already at the top, so can't go any higher, and unfortunately there seems to be quite a big difference between being top for Adwords and being top in the natural search.

My new account is still working, but I wonder how long for...

Talking about being #1 in Google, is that on a pretty generic or broad keyword? Personally, I find the search terms and pages that convert for me are more longtail. So whilst I don't get traffic on the broad term (Bluewidgets), I get a lot of good rankings on the longtail terms (bluewidgets trial, free bluewidgets, recommended bluewidgets, etc)

If you could start scooping up on the longtail as well as the traffic that comes in for being #1 then would that help bridge the gap? This is of course assuming you're not getting so much traffic on the longtail. If you're not getting that sort of traffic, then it represents a good area to target now AdWords has gone.

tonyr · 10-03-08

Quote:

"Google does not permit ads for bridge pages that are solely intended to direct the user to the parent company's website".

Really? Well, I still see them up there (although not as many as before).

I don't think that it is worth trying to game the system with shopping carts. Although having a real shopping cart and actually selling something along with affiliate offers could be worth a try. I think that some merchants have affiliate links on their sites for stuff that they don't sell.

Here is a question for anyone who has had a site with original content slapped: Was the site linked to one merchant or several merchants?