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Posted: Fri Nov 14, 2003 8:11 pm
Post subject: I would like all your comments on this re: Sherpa notes...
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Hi everybody,
I'm sure many of you receive Sherpa's newsletters. In one of their recent newsletters after the affiliate summit they put out some of the notes. It's directed at companies who market through affiliates.
I'm posting the article (which usually stays open for free for a couple weeks. Then there's a $9.00 fee to read Sherpa articles). Great case studies!
I'm bring this up because of a the following comment in this article which caught my attention...
On the other hand, are you relying on affiliates to "take care of" search optimization (ie. organic listings) for you? Several experts advised that Google and other engines may disallow affiliate links in coming months because affiliates are "cluttering results."
I would like to hear all your comments on this.
Here is the link for the complete article
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/sample.cfm?contentID=2518
Enjoy
Phil
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Charlie
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Posted: Fri Nov 14, 2003 9:23 pm
Post subject: Re: I would like all your comments on this re: Sherpa notes.
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| Quote: | I'm bring this up because of a the following comment in this article which caught my attention...
On the other hand, are you relying on affiliates to "take care of" search optimization (ie. organic listings) for you? Several experts advised that Google and other engines may disallow affiliate links in coming months because affiliates are "cluttering results." |
Thanks that's very interesting. Taken at face value, it looks like Adsense might be the future for "affiliate" content sites after all.  
Seriously, I find it extremely hard to believe that Google is going to ban any site with affiliate links. If this isn't what they mean, what are they saying?
I wonder if those experts are happy with the context of that quotation?
I'd love to hear what anyone else makes of this, too.
Bye for now,
Charlie.
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Debs
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Posted: Fri Nov 14, 2003 10:00 pm
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I think they are talking about direct affilate links, like Adwords? Now you have to say "affiliate" in your advert unless you are the direct seller, and I know quite a few were complaining at WMW and SPF regarding the high number of affiliate ads that were showing in Adwords.
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Shawn Collins
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Posted: Fri Nov 14, 2003 10:45 pm
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Hi Phil -
The common concern among the affiliate managers at Affiliate Summit 2003 is that they see a need to add a policy to their affiliate agreements that addresses how their affiliates can promote them in the PPC search engines.
Basically, a lot of companies are moving towards prohibiting affiliates from bidding on their trademarked name(s) or any keywords that include the trademark(s).
Also, there is a concern from companies that they are in bidding wars with their own affiliates, so the talk is that many programs may demand that affiliates not outbid them on generic keywords.
If you belong to the Coldwater Creek affiliate program, you should have gotten an e-mail a couple of days ago that spelled out their new policy on the subject.
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Shawn Collins
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Guest
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Posted: Fri Nov 14, 2003 11:03 pm
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Hi Shawn,
Thank you very much for explaining and for sharing all the information in your post.
Sincerely,
Phil
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Guest
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Posted: Sat Nov 15, 2003 5:30 am
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| Quote: | | so the talk is that many programs may demand that affiliates not outbid them on generic keywords. |
Good luck on this one! If merchants are so interested in alienating their affiliates, why not just do away with their affiliate programs all together? |
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Charlie
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Posted: Sat Nov 15, 2003 2:38 pm
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| Quote: | | On the other hand, are you relying on affiliates to "take care of" search optimization (ie. organic listings) for you? Several experts advised that Google and other engines may disallow affiliate links in coming months because affiliates are "cluttering results." |
| Shawn Collins wrote: | | The common concern among the affiliate managers at Affiliate Summit 2003 is that they see a need to add a policy to their affiliate agreements that addresses how their affiliates can promote them in the PPC search engines. |
Shawn, this seems to be something very different altogether (from a different section of the article.)
Yes, OK, I wasn't there, but...
| Quote: | | are you relying on affiliates to "take care of" search optimization (ie. organic listings) for you? |
...doesn't sound like PPCs to me.
Either I'm suddenly and completely out of touch with SEO jargon, or these are two different things altogether. I'm still none the wiser.
Cheers,
Charlie.
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Shawn Collins
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Posted: Tue Nov 25, 2003 11:20 am
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Hi Charlie -
Here's the whole passage on SEs from MarketingSherpa:
| Quote: | Search -- Are you competing with your affiliates for the same terms? Is this driving up pricing? (Note: This is also rampant in the CPA ad market.)
On the other hand, are you relying on affiliates to "take care of" search optimization (ie. organic listings) for you? Several experts advised that Google and other engines may disallow affiliate links in coming months because affiliates are "cluttering results."
Also, some 35% of search queries contain three-or-more words. Your affiliates may be investing in optimization for the big, easy, obvious terms. If you rely on them alone for optimization, you're missing 35% or more of the traffic you could be getting. |
The talk really revolved around PPCs more than site optimization. Basically that PPCs are currently very popular with affiliates, and that site optimization will be a growing area for affiliates. Sorry for the confusion.
The MarketingSherpa article is still available at http://www.affiliatesummit.com/marketingsherpa.shtml
Also, you can see the keynote presentation by Kevin Lee about search engines and affiliate marketing at http://kevinlee.net/ppt/affiliate-forum.ppt
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Shawn Collins
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Charlie
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Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2003 12:07 pm
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Hello again, Shawn.
Thanks for getting back...
| Shawn Collins wrote: | | Here's the whole passage on SEs from MarketingSherpa: |
I've read that whole article several times now, and I think the problem is that they have just stuck together a bunch of out of context sentences - end to end.
You know what journalists are like!
Seriously, you were there and know what the overall view was, but that article still mixes PPC and free SE issues inapproriately for anyone who wasn't.
Just my view,
Charlie.
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Shawn Collins
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Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2003 1:29 pm
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Hi Charlie -
I agree that the article was a little confusing about the point, but the PPCs were really the central focus there.
With the recent update at Google, where many affiliates seemed to suffer a drop in their rankings, I think PPCs will continue to emerge as a hot button issue.
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Bobby
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Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2003 4:25 pm
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| Shawn Collins wrote: | | Basically, a lot of companies are moving towards prohibiting affiliates from bidding on their trademarked name(s) or any keywords that include the trademark(s). |
A couple of merchants I promote have sent out messages recently about this. Thing is, I still see affiliate links in AdWords ads for those merchants in direct violation of their stated policy. Some of those affiliate-purchased AdWords ads are showing up in AdSense on my sites.
Is it difficult for merchants to detect these?
On eBay, for example, people used to put links to websites in auction descriptions. eBay announced new policies against this (except in rare circumstances), but eBay simply can't police all these auctions. They rely on users to report each other.
How difficult is it for merchants to detect violations of their trademarked name in PPC ads?
Bobby |
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Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2003 4:27 pm
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| Bobby wrote: | | How difficult is it for merchants to detect violations of their trademarked name in PPC ads? |
I think it's a pretty manaul process of keeping an eye on what's out there, so I don't imagine there will be a lot of detecting. They just want to have the provisions in place, so they can use them when stumbling on somebody that is breaking their rules. |
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Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2003 12:58 am
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| Quote: | | Thing is, I still see affiliate links in AdWords ads for those merchants in direct violation of their stated policy. |
I may be misunderstanding what you mean, but, I don't think using the merchants address in the Adwords ad violates most merchant policies. For example, using the address www.ebay.com for an ad promoting auctions or whatever is okay. They just don't want you to BID on the word Ebay. If you have a merchant who is that restrictive, I would find another merchant. |
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Charlie
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Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2003 11:50 am
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| Bobby wrote: | | How difficult is it for merchants to detect violations of their trademarked name in PPC ads? |
I think it relies on other affiliates spotting what's going on and reporting back.
If I were a merchant trying to stop affiliates doing this, I'd email all affiliates regarding the policy and remind them that under the terms of the agreement, anyone caught doing this would forfeit all outstanding commissions (and maybe worse).
I would think one of the quickest ways to lose money would be to use the PPCs to advertise something you weren't getting anything out of.
If pointing that out didn't stop them, nothing would.
Cheers,
Charlie.
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Debs
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Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2003 2:51 pm
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Once a page is indexed in any of the SE's, I would think it would be fairly easy to use a tracking program to search on the trademarked term (in quotes) and see who to jump on next!
Debs
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Learn how to turn keyphrases into quality, well-targeted articles your visitors and SE's will love with Gary Antosh's new ebook "Web Content Made Easy!" |
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