• Home
  • About Us
  • Advertising opportunities
  • Contact Us

Associate Programs

  • Articles16 Yrs of Expert Advice
    • Advanced Articles
      • Branding
      • Business Partnerships
      • Conversion Rates
      • Datafeeds
      • Employees
      • Geo-Targeting
      • Interactive Websites
      • List Building
      • Membership Sites
      • Outsourcing
      • Super Affiliates
      • Visitor Created Content
      • Web Video
      • Your Own Program
        • Affiliate Program Management
        • Recruiting Affiliates
    • Affiliate Resources
      • Affiliate Blogs
      • Affiliate Networks
      • Affiliate Tools
      • Affiliate Training
      • Books And Courses
      • FREE Marketing Courses
      • Free Software
      • Merchant Resources
      • Recommended Newsletters
      • Research Competitors
      • Residual Commissions
      • Tracking
    • Beginners Articles
      • Affiliate Marketing Success Stories
      • Affiliate Training
      • Building A Website
        • Web Content
        • WordPress Plugins
      • Business Training
      • Getting Started
        • Business Ideas
      • Getting Traffic
        • Link Building
        • PPC Advertising
        • Search Engine Tips
        • Social Media
      • Goal Setting
      • Monetizing A Site
      • Motivation
      • Time Management
      • Writing Tips
    • Intermediate Articles
      • Blogs
      • Buying Advertising
      • Ebook Publishing
      • Ezine Publishing
      • Getting Publicity
      • Improving Sales
      • RSS
      • Squeeze Pages
      • Video
    • News
    • Product Reviews
      • AdSense
      • Affiliate Manuals
      • Autobiographies
      • Blogging
      • Content Packages
      • Keyword Research
      • Link building
      • PPC
      • Product Creation
      • Search Engine Optimization
      • Site Building
      • Traffic generation
      • Useful Newsletters
      • Useful Tools
    • Newsletter Archive
      • 1998 Newsletters
      • 1999 Newsletters
      • 2000 Newsletters
      • 2001 Newsletters
      • 2002 Newsletters
      • 2003 Newsletters
      • 2004 Newsletters
      • 2005 Newsletters
      • 2006 Newsletters
      • 2007 Newsletters
      • 2008 Newsletters
      • 2009 Newsletters
      • 2010 Newsletters
      • 2011 Newsletters
      • 2012 Newsletters
      • 2013 Newsletters
      • 2014 Newsletters
  • Recommended ResourcesThe Actual Tools and Resources I Use
  • Affiliate Program DirectoryFind Affiliate Programs to Promote
Home Thin affiliates

Thin affiliates

Associate Programs Newsletter #263

Are you a “thin affiliate”?

If so, Google doesn't like you – and that's putting it mildly.

A journalist has discovered the facts in a confidential Google report.

.
CONTENTS:

1. “Thin affiliates” are offensive, Google says
2. Video clips from Yanik's seminar
3. Thought for today: The secret of life

========================================
1. “Thin affiliates” are offensive, Google says
========================================

Journalist Henk van Ess has caused a flurry of excitement on blogs and forums.

In his blog he revealed that Google uses teams of humans all over the world to evaluate the accuracy of Google's search results.

These “international agents”, who are paid $10 to $20 an hour, were recruited mainly through universities. They're paid to check search results at Google every day.

Here's one forum where you can read about it:

https://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?threadid=6028

Don't be distracted by the debate over whether Google should be doing this.

Of course it should. It's just a form of quality control.

Google can use the evaluators' findings to tweak its algorithms and reduce search engine spam.

What affiliates need to pay careful attention to is Google's “Spam Recognition Guide for Raters”, which Henk revealed.

If you're a “thin affiliate”, beware.

Although the report is a year old, about 80% of its contents are still being used by Google's evaluators, Henk says.

The confidential document gives us an unvarnished look at Google's attitude to affiliates.

If you're using any of the “manipulative techniques” Google describes, this report will probabaly encourage you to take a hard look at your website.

I hope you're not silly enough to be using hidden links or hidden text. Not surprisingly, Google teaches its “raters” how to detect them.

Are you creating pages without much content with the aim of collecting pay-per-click (PPC) revenue? Google's raters are taught to mark such pages as “Offensive”, and gives examples.

Google secret guidelines spend some time discussing different ways in which some affiliates display results from pay-per-click search engines, so if you're doing that, you'll definitely want to study this report carefully.

Are you displaying ads disguised as search engine results? Google finds them offensive.

Are you adding a dmoz.org feed to your site with the aim of earning PPC revenue? That's “offensive”, too.

Google says:

“We differentiate between affiliates that produce extra service, value, or content, and those that simply are duplicates of other sites, set up to boost traffic to other sites and earn a commission for it. The former ones are not Offensive and should be rated on the merits to the query. The latter ones are Offensive…

“Thin affiliate doorways are sites that usher people to a number of Affiliate programs, earning a commission for doing so, while providing little or no value-added content or service to the user. A site certainly has the right to try to earn income; we're attempting to identify sites that do nothing but act as a commission-earning middleman.”

To Google, affiliate links such as qksrv.net, bfast.com and myaffiliateprogram.com – on the page or in redirects – “strongly suggest” that the site is a thin affiliate.

Are you using an affiliate datafeed? To Google, that's another warning sign.

However, if you offer a comparison of prices between different online merchants, you're OK, you're not a thin affiliate.

Google provides an incredibly tough guideline, which hundreds of thousands of affiliate sites fail to meet.

Google says:

“Do not call a page affiliate spam when an affiliation is only incidental to the message and purpose of a website. To determine whether participation in affiliate programs is central or incidental to the site's existence, ask yourself this question: Would this site remain a coherent whole if the pages leading to the affiliate (merchant) were taken away?”

That probably counts out most affiliate sites.

In summary, if you want to be friends with Google, make sure you provide extra value or content.

I've quoted only parts of the report. Any serious affiliate will want to study the whole thing carefully.

You can read the full report on Henk's blog here…

https://www.searchbistro.com/spamguide.doc

If the link doesn't work, go to https://www.searchbistro.com , find the June 5 entry and click on the “spam guide” link.

[UPDATE: It seems to have disappeared.]

Note: A Google employee broke a non-disclosure agreement by revealing this report. I don't know how long it will stay online. You may want to do what I did – put a copy of it on your hard drive.

Now we know what Google really thinks of affiliates. You've been warned.

========================================
2. Video clips from Yanik's seminar
========================================

If you missed out on Yanik Silver's much talked about, sold-out Underground Online Marketing Seminar, you'll want to grab this…

I don't know how he did it, but Yanik brought together a group of highly elusive, under-the-radar marketers, people who don't normally talk publicly about what they're doing.

The speakers combined bring in over $30 million selling everything from ebooks, advertising, real products, information, membership sites and affiliate products.

Seminar attendees paid up to $2,295 to listen to them. You won't see their secrets on the Internet because Yanik made each attendee sign a non-disclosure agreement.

For a limited time Yanik is allowing me to give away some uncensored video clips from the event.

In one video segment, you'll see Jeff Johnson.

“Jeff went from an absolute standstill to a CONSISTENT five figures a month on the Internet in less than 5 1/2 months after building his first site… just using free search engine traffic and only working every other day,” Yanik says.

“He's really mastered the hottest technology of RSS, blogs and datafeeds that had attendees falling all over themselves to find out what he's doing.”

Check this out before Yanik removes the video. Go there now:

[UPDATE: This offer sold out. Yanik now has a superb physical newsletter, Maverick Business Insider, which contains in-depth interviews with Maverick entrepreneurs. He launched it with a fantastic introductory offer – the first edition FREE. All you pay is postage and handling. Plus he's giving away his superb “34 Rules for Maverick Entreprenurs” book and other goodies. Here's my Maverick Business Insider review.]

========================================
3. Thought for today: The secret of life
========================================

” The whole secret of life is to be interested in one thing profoundly and in a thousand things well.” – Hugh Walpole.

 

All the best

Allan Gardyne

Jun 24, 2005Allan Gardyne
Spyware Secrets Exposed reviewGoogle Adwords ebook

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Allan Gardyne

Affiliate marketing veteran, entrepreneur. Founder of AssociatePrograms.

17 years ago 2005 Newsletters2005 Newsletters32
Recent Posts
  • When to Use Black Hat Marketing (Almost Never)
  • How Much Money Do You Need to Start an Online Business?
  • 3 Emails You Need to Send When You Have an Ecommerce Store
  • How to Start an Ecommerce Business 24 Hours
  • Drive Targeted Traffic using The $5 Facebook Ad Strategy
Latest Directory Listings
SG Health

Make money with multiple health affiliate programs and unique offers. This is a two-tier program paying residual commission of 30% on the first tier plus 5% on second tier sales. no minimum payout, unlimited cookies, get paid every 2 weeks. Sign ...

Exotic Nasal Spray

Exotic Nasal Spray is an advanced new technology uses a tried and tested unique blend of 9 herbal ingredients, which work together to help combat erectile dysfunction and premature ejaculation. Affiliates earn 50% commission on sales.

Never an Outbreak

Never an Outbreak offers a proven, all natural treatment to prevent cold sores and genital herpes outbreaks caused by HSV 1 and 2. With over 65,000 satisfied customers already, Never an Outbreak's protocol has shown itself to be effective in all...

Audio Book Fest

Thousands of audio book titles across various genres from well known publishers such as BBC, Simon & Schuster, Time Warner and Harper Collins. Instant download after purchase. MP3 format available. Free samples available. No monthly subscription f...

Moonshadow Rainmaker

The Moonshadow Rainmaker is a free book browser with tens of thousands of books. You can plug it in to your website or blog. The Rainmaker will generate referral fees for you by sending customers to Amazon and other vendors. Add a free Rainmaker t...

Other Pages
  • Create an Account
  • Directory Dashboard
    • How to submit an affiliate program
    • Add an Affiliate Program
  • Advertising Opportunities
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Disclosure & Other Legal Stuff
  • Privacy Policy
Proudly hosted by Cloudways

We wanted the fastest WordPress hosting, so after tons of research, we picked Cloudways and couldn’t be happier.

Copyright © 1998 - 2020 AssociatePrograms by Bedrock Co. All rights reserved. View our Privacy and Disclosure policies.
Cleantalk Pixel