How Does the Panda/Farmer Update Impact Affiliates?

On the 24th Feb did you notice a serious dip in traffic to your affiliate sites? Then you’re not alone, Google rolled out a new algorithm update designed to improve the relevancy of their search results by reducing the number of “content farms” or “low quality websites.”

The change however has had a catastrophic impact on a large number of websites (including affiliates) across the globe. I’ve personally seen some of my sites US Google traffic plummet by ~40% but seen an increase in others.

A lot of what we initially know is based on speculation using the limited data that we’ve seen, Matt Cutts & Vanessa Fox have give some details out but the best summary of what Google is looking for in terms of quality can be found in this SMX Summary

There’s a number of things that still don’t add up for me with this update:

Why weren’t a lot of the major content farms actually hit? eHow is a prime example here.If you have “low quality content” on your site Google treats your whole site as low quality. One would have thought Google would be able to assess quality on a page by page basis.I’ve seen a number of shopping sites hit badly like theFind, yet others such has Bizrate remain unaffected.

I’m very reluctant to say change something right away as Googlebot still appears to be very slow at reflecting new cache dates on pages, one can only assuming that Google are tweaking this algo for another re-ranking soon. This means that you have two options:

Wait it out – there’s a chance that the algo will become less agressive & you’ll emerge back to your original positions.

Or you can start making chances now to anticipate the next layer of the algorithm.

Google wants you to remove low quality content from your site, but we still have no idea what low quality looks like in the eyes of Google. I’ve start making some changes to sites which includes (but not limited to):

Adding noindex to thin pages (think tag pages, empty review pages etc)Fixing canonical or duplicate issues (www/non-www)Fixing up all reported issues in Webmaster ToolsRe-evaluate any content sources that you’re using that others might also be using (think uniqueness)If you believe you’ve been targeted wrongly I’d file a reconsideration requestImprove the content to ad ratio on your pagesReduce usage of boilerplate text across multiple pagesEnsure that the main content of your pages are greater than the sum of the header & footerGive Google feedback on the Panda Update in this Google Webmaster thread

I’m interested to know if you’ve had sites hit (especially affiliate sites):

How Badly did the Panda Update Impact you?

13 Smokin Tips to Increase Adwords CTR

I’m slightly obsessed when it comes to CTR with my campaigns, I’ll always try to push things as hard as I can to get the best bang for my buck. These strategies can be used for established campaigns or new campaigns to get some quick results.

As you know, CTR is linked to your ad quality & also the price you end up paying.

AdRank = CTR x Maximum Bid

From my observations quality score merely dictates your minimum entry into the bidding. If you have a high quality score you can eventually bring you bids down to sub 5c, however if you have a low quality score then you might have to bid $5 just to show.

Stuart is bidding on the same keyword & match type as Jenny. Jenny is bidding $10 with a CTR of 3.3%, Stuart’s maximum bid on the otherhand is $5 & his CTR is 10%. Who’s ad is showing the highest?

Jenny: $10 x 3.3 = AdRank of 33Stuart: $5 x 10 = AdRank of 50

In this situation Stuart is bidding half of what Jenny is but his ad is much more relevant therefore he’ll end up appearing higher. This is the power of really tuning & testing to increase your CTR.

Since we’ve already established that your maximum bid can have a huge effect on your positioning you can use this to you advantage. Simply increase your bid to position 1, watch your CTR build then slowly bring the bid back after a few days until your position starts to slide again. I’ve successfully used this method to stay in position 1 & ultimately pay much less than the person below me.

I always split test two ads at once, the reason behind this is if you test any more & 1 performs shockingly then it drags your overall performance down. There’s plenty of variations you can try, but simply start with 2 ads, then remove the underperforming one after a few days & rewrite it with your learnings from the previous test.

The headline is one of the most important parts of your ad, it’s probably what the user will see first. So try to make this as targeted as possible. i.e. if the user is searching for Health Affiliate Program then ideally that’s what you want as your title.

You can test with variations & also try adding calls to action in there like “Top Health Aff Program” (remember you can’t have more than 25 characters) etc. Quite often you can get away with abbreviations so don’t be afraid to try some.

Using official site in the headline also works well for increasing CTR:

Dell AU – Official Site
Latest Deals on Dell Computers
& Laptops. Buy Online Today!
www.dell.com/au

Once your headline has grabbed their attention you really need to sell them with the description. Try to include the things that separate you from your competitors. This may be price, free shipping, money back guarantee or certain product features. Here’s an example of an ad that makes good use of the body text:

1/2 Price Broadband Sale
6GB for $19.50 for 1st 6 Months on
3’s $39 Mobile Broadband Plan!
www.Three.com.au/MobileBroadband

You’ll notice that when you search for a keyword if it’s in your ad Google will highlight it. With the right positioning of keywords in your Headline, Description & Display URL it is possible to take advantage of this highlighting to create an arrow or pyramid that helps with drawing the users attention to it.

Instant Ringtones
Get Instant Ringtones
& Latest Rad Ringtones Online
www.Rebcell.com/Ringtones

When a user searches for Ringtones the ad above contains the keyword 4 times. Notice how when bolded the ad looks like a series of steps (or a pyramid), this is a proven method that subliminally attracts users towards your ad over all the others on the page.

The search network can have a positive or negative effect on your CTR, there’s really no way to tell how it will impact your overall campaign CTR. Make sure you test it on & off.

I generally won’t do this for every single keyword in a campaign but for the high traffic / top converting words this really allows you to tweak your ads to best suit the match type. For example the ad that works for an exact match on the word “free ringtones” might not be as effective when you start broad or phrase matching because you’ll be triggering on keywords like “free ringtone downloads” which you’re not targeting in the Headline or Description.

I try to stay away from keyword insertion on the most part but it’s useful when you’re trying to get a campaign up & running quickly. It’s great for CTR since it’ll substitute the keyword into your ad.

Be careful though because keyword insertion can backfire (check out this search for “buy kids online” for example):

Online Kids Buy
Find Over 10,000 Offers From Major
Retailers Online Today With Lasoo!
www.Lasoo.com.au

Whilst the content network doesn’t affect your overall search CTR it can confuse you when trying to evaluate your overall CTR for a campaign. I usually split them into two campaigns just so it’s easy to get an overview. I also find it easier to view & evaluate conversion data better by doing this.

People are curious creatures & you can play to this when writing your ad. This works incredibly well for product based searches. For this example lets use the term “arbitrage conspiracy”. Chances are that if you’re searching on this term you’re looking to buy the book.

Arbitrage Conspiracy Lie
Check Out This Shocking Truth About
The Flaw of Arbitrage Conspiracy!
ShockingReview.com/ArbitrageConspir

There’s a few ways of tweaking the Display URL, this can have a moderate to large effect on CTR:

earnersblog.comwww.earnersblog.comEarnersBlog.comwww.EarnersBlog.comKeyword.EarnersBlog.comEarnersBlog.com/Keywordwww.EarnersBlog.com/Keyword

I usually tend to go with option 6, but in some cases I’ve seen option 1 blow it out of the water. It pays to test the variations to get an idea of which display URL’s work best with your demographic.

I’ve seen scheduling used in some quite ingenious ways to build up history. For example initially only having your ads active for 1 hour during the day (around 8pm at night) to ease your way into a new market without your competitors spotting you & adjusting their bids up too quickly.

Scheduling for your industry may reveal that people are more click happy & night when at home or it may be the opposite, they may click less at home but more at work. You can use this to your advantage if you split test it.

Using trademark symbols for products can increase CTR by insane amounts, (something to do with people thinking that ad is the official site).

Just because an ad has a better CTR doesn’t mean it will convert better. I will always choose an ad that converts better or has a better ROI over one that has a better CTR.

So now you have 13 things that you can test, find the winning combination & take you Adwords Campaigns to the next level.

Ebay lays the Smackdown on the sale of Digital Items

If you’ve ever been on ebay you’ll no doubt have seen this:

or this:

Or the thousands of other Digital Products that are being sold every day.

Ebay has introduced new guidelines that from the 31st March 2008 ban the sale of any Digital Products from normal listings that can be downloaded right away, they must now be advertised under the Classified Ad format (which is useless imo).

Using the Classified Ads format, sellers receive a 30-day ad at a fixed price. This solution enables sellers to continue to market their digital goods on eBay; however, because Classified Ad listings are a lead generation tool and do not result in transactions that go through eBay, Feedback cannot be exchanged between buyer and seller.

This change will include anything that can be downloaded or transferred electronically, i.e.

eBooksMP3’sDigital VideosWebsitesDomain NamesGraphic Design ServicesPhoto ServicesAnd any other service that can be delivered electronically

This change is going to put a lot of people who depend on selling digital products on ebay for a solid income in serious trouble. Naturally there’s probably ways around this change, like physically shipping products, but that’s a pain if you’re used to everything being automated.

However I also think that the change is a good thing for Ebay. I’ve seen too many people get ripped off with Domain Names & Website packages just because they didn’t know any better.

No doubt we’re going to see a large influx of people into the Affiliate Marketing & CPA realm, there’s plenty of reading on this blog

How to Apply & get Accepted by Affiliate Networks

We’re currently working on the beta version of our Affiliate Network Reviews & as such I’m currently signing up to every network out there to really get an idea of how they operate.

I thought this would be a good opportunity to outlay some of the key things you should do before applying to a network:

NameEmailOther contact details (Daytime & Evening Phone)Current AddressBusiness NamePayment details (Paypal or DD)Tax Information / SS (Unless outside USA)Website details including UB’s & nicheHow you intend to send traffic (i.e. Email, PPC or SEO)If Email you may be asked for the IP address of your mail serverOther affiliate networks you’re working with

You’ll be asked to provide the domain that you’re using to carry out any activities. Make sure the domain is active & isn’t a holding page. Also make sure that this is a reputable domain that has potential to provide leads/sales to the network.

Avoid putting adwords.com or anything similar as your domain because this probably won’t get accepted (depending on the Network, most are fine with PPC only affiliates as long as you specify). If you’re just doing SEM I wouldn’t bother putting any website down.

I submitted Earners Blog as the domain for most of the networks since this is where I’m doing the reviews. Funnily enough I did get one application declined by CX Digital Media because they don’t accept sites hosted on free hosting. I don’t know if they’re retarded over there but it doesn’t take much intelligence to figure out that I’m not hosting on a free blog host.

This is a vital part of the equation. It’s best to provide an email address that corresponds with the domain name you’ve submitted above, this helps to cement the fact that you’re legitimate with the network you’re applying to. Try to avoid free email accounts like hotmail, gmail or yahoo.

Quite a large number of networks will now ask you to verify that you either own the website or ask you to call up & have a chat with them. This is a good opportunity to start up a conversation with an AM before you get accepted. This may give you some insights into how knowledgeable they are.

I was even asked by one network to put up a text link to one of their partner sites as verification. Um no.

Don’t lie about the website that you ownDon’t start trying to get a better payout on offers right away, wait until you start pushing volumeDon’t hassle the hell out of your AM, use them wiselyAvoid brand bidding, you’ll get booted fairly quickly for thisBe careful with incentivized traffic, some offers allow it but most don’t

Account Managers are a wealth of information at some Networks, the bottom line is that the better you do, the more money they make.

Ask the right questions, don’t bust balls:

Which offers are converting well currently?
Which landing pages are kicking ass? (most won’t tell you this but it doesn’t hurt to ask)

This should be all you need to really start rolling.

Looking for a Ruby/Python Developer

Hey guys, I’ve scoped out a new project & I’m looking to partner with a Designer/Developer to take things to the next level. My aim is create a team that is building a constant stream of affiliate sites that provide a useful purpose for people & share the profits.

The kind of person I’m looking to partner with:

Experience in building web applications with a focus on user experienceAt least 2 years experience with Ruby/PythonXHTML & CSS is a mustJQuery knowledgeData mining & MysqlExperience in designing user interfaces

So if you’re keen to potentially get involved get in touch. Please note, this will not be a full time paid position it’ll involve equity in the business.

Rather than taking your word for how good you are I’d like to put forward a quick test, I want you to create a quick skeleton site that performs the following:

Has a search box that allows a user to type in a url (i.e. www.earnersblog.com)When a user hits submit I want you to create a page around the URL in the format (http://www.yoursite.com/www.earnersblog.com)On that page I want you to pull a screenshot of my site, the meta description & show the last 5 posts below (not by parsing RSS).If you can style this & make it look pretty then that’ll earn brownie points also Once complete drop me a mail at stuart [at] earnersblog.com or leave a comment in this post.I’ll test the system with another URL to check it works.

If you can do the above in another language other than Ruby/Python give it a shot I’ll not rule out other coding languages.

Cheers guys & good luck!

Get your hands on Google’s Top Search Terms, Free!

Wordze is giving away a free downloadable excel spreadsheet featuring all of Google’s top traffic driving search terms since 8th Jan 08.

I use Wordze combined with Google’s Keyword Tool for a large bulk of my keyword research for PPC & Organic SEO so I definitely rate what they’re doing very highly.

I’m pretty sure that most of this data is pulled from Google Trends, which updates daily with the top terms.

Simply visit the Gtrends Section of the Site & enter your information to get the Excel Spreadsheet

Explode your PPC Campaigns in 6 easy Steps

Is your PPC campaign dull & lacking that oomph? Good, today is the day to take action & turn things around. Follow these simple steps & explode your PPC Campaign:

1. Try to avoid Phrases with less than 3 Words

There’s a huge difference between “affiliate marketing” & “affiliate marketing blog.” The more words contained within a keyphrase the more targeted your keyphrase is likely to be for that query. Put yourself in the shoes of the searcher, people looking for information will type “affiliate marketing” people who specifically want to read an affiliate marketing blog will type the latter.

The same works with all industries. Bidding on “doctor” is very different than bidding on “doctor in melbourne.” Start to think more about what phrases you’re bidding on rather than being lazy.

2. Don’t waste money – Lose the Broad Match

Whilst Broad Match generally generates more traffic you’ll often find that due to Adwords “Extended Broad Matching” that heaps of unrelated terms will sneak in. Unless your researching for more terms (by utilising the Search Query Report) you should not be throwing money away on keywords that you don’t pre-qualify. Don’t be lazy & do thorough keyword research before embarking on any Adwords campaign. My rule of thumb is always go phrase (with negatives) or exact. That way you know what you’re getting for your money.

3. Catch people in the late stages of the buying process

As I mentioned in point 1, there’s certain phrases that people will use when they’re in different stages of searching. Identifying these can mean the difference between paying $15/conversion or $5/conversion.

Helpful bidding ideas:

Bid on Brand Names of Products & ItemsBid on Company Names & ManufacturersUse buy, compare & purchase keywordsLeverage product reviews

4. Watch the Search & Content Networks

Check your Campaign Settings to see if the Search Network & Content Network are switched on. I always switch off both initially as I don’t trust where the traffic is coming from. Once I get the campaign to a solid CTR, Position & Return I’ll then test the Search Network to see if it adds or removes value.

If you want to run a Content Campaign, I suggest that you run it within its own campaign. Alone.

5. Create Highly Targeted Adgroups

Theme your adgroups around a particular keyword. If that keyword is affiliate marketing blog then the adgroup may contain:

“affiliate marketing blog”

“affiliate marketing blog”

[affiliate marketing blog]

[affiliate marketing blogs]

Doing this allows you to write a highly targeted creative which relates specifically to the keywords that you’re bidding on. Keeping things highly related like this will increase your CTR, reducing your cost in the long run.

6. Use Highly Targeted Creatives

As explained in the previous point you can now write highly targeted creatives based around a small group of keywords.

Using the above ad group example your creative might look like this:

Affiliate Marketing Blog
Become an Affiliate Marketing Gun
with Earners Blog Affiliate Marketing Blog
Earnersblog.com/AffiliateMarketingBlog