Wahms Helper

There is a lot of heavy “get rich with this program” promotion going on for what I call “cookie-cutter” affiliate websites. You sign up, pay a fee (often a down stroke and a monthly hosting/service price) and you get a pre-made website. You are told you can just sit back and watch the dollars flow in. Typically the only person that gets rich with this kind of a deal is the person running the website program in the first place. Even re-sellers of the program, if they have their own affiliate offering, seldom make any real money!

The biggest problem with these sites is that everyone’s is pretty much the same and they have not positioning in the important search engines. Here’s what Google says about them:

“Our Webmaster Guidelines advise you to create websites with original content that adds value for users. This is particularly important for sites that participate in affiliate programs.”

Google goes on to offer several important factors that you can apply to create a successful affiliate site. These include:

• Your affiliate content should make up only a small portion of the over all content of your website.
• When choosing your affiliate program, find product(s) that are appropriate for your intended audience. Targeting the product(s) to your site’s content will produce greater value and you will be more likely to rank better in search results.
• Build a community around your website and involve your users. Loyal, returning, readership provides more likelihood of conversion to sales.
• Update content regularly and be sure it is always relevant. Fresh, on-topic information increases website crawling by search engine spiders/bots.

This is all just one more reason why a blog is an excellent addition to an affiliate site as it allows easy addition of current, relevant material.