Affiliate from the start?

[billyrichards]

Hi all,

I'm in the throes of putting my 1st site together & an answer to the following would be greatly appreciated.

Am I ok to use an affiliate scheme from day 1, before promoting the site or getting any traffic for example? excuse the ignorance of this question if it's glaringly obvious, muchos info still being digested!

Thanks in advance,
Billy

 

[accelerator]

Provided you can get approved for the programme, then fine.

Another very useful technique is to use a link masking script (in PHP), because it "hides" the fact that you have aff links, makes the urls look nicer when user clicks, and makes managing all your links really easy because you have a centralised file. It's not essential, but it is really useful.

See the Affiliate Citizen script on this page, although resources may be a bit old now. If you look at the links on my mens shirts site, you'll see what I'm talking about.

Rgds

 

[billyrichards]

Thanks for the quick answer Accelerator and the additional reading material.

I might jeep journal of how this goes and post when complete.... Progress won't be lightening quick as I've got the regular job & family stuff to sort 1st.

Can't believe how much I've learnt in a few weeks which in turn makes you realise just how much more learning there is to do!

 

[Nick11380]

Just to emphasise the 'getting approved' part. It can take a week or two to get approved for many affiliate programs so I would avoid applying when your site is not ready. I would also avoid writing copy directly about the company who's affiliate scheme you are applying to before being accepted. Some programs may be auto approved though so go nuts with these

Also with the cloaking - there are added benefits here when it comes to SEO. Google comes down hard on affiliate sites that squeeze users through links or have thin content. By cloaking your links you hide any reference in the URL to an affiliate program.

There are also downsides to full on cloaking - take a look at this link http://www.ipadprojector.org/showwxplus (delete cookies after if you plan on buying from Amazon US ) the URL in the browser stays perfectly still no matter what page you navigate to. To a user this looks fishy, and it may also look as though I've duplicated an Amazon page in order to fish for CC details or something horrible! A lighter approach would be to set up redirects.

 

[Edwin]

If you're going to be documenting your progress, why not also jump in and join this little competition?
http://www.acorndomains.co.uk/competitions/91061-domain-development-competition-2011-a.html

 

[billyrichards]

Also with the cloaking - there are added benefits here when it comes to SEO. Google comes down hard on affiliate sites that squeeze users through links or have thin content. By cloaking your links you hide any reference in the URL to an affiliate program.

There are also downsides to full on cloaking - take a look at this link http://www.ipadprojector.org/showwxplus (delete cookies after if you plan on buying from Amazon US ) the URL in the browser stays perfectly still no matter what page you navigate to. To a user this looks fishy, and it may also look as though I've duplicated an Amazon page in order to fish for CC details or something horrible! A lighter approach would be to set up redirects.

Cheers Nick11380, I'm quite keen on keeping the content fresh, informative and original so hopefully won't get penalised..... Not gonna try to re-invent the wheel but I'll happily add content that only I can!

Had a look at the link and you're right, it does look fishy. I wouldn't be comfortable giving my details over if I'd landed there!

Billy

 

[billyrichards]

If you're going to be documenting your progress, why not also jump in and join this little competition?
http://www.acorndomains.co.uk/competitions/91061-domain-development-competition-2011-a.html

Hi Edwin,

I'll have a read and I might just do that. Thanks for the invite.

 

[cc976a]

I have always been wary of URL masks. Googlebot is a smart old bot and I can't believe it falls for the cloak

I've not heard anyone talking negatively, and is still recommended so that Google doesn't realise your sending your traffic on for money reasons - but surely this us black hat and another '...google will catch up with you eventually' scenarios??

 

[Nick11380]

I have always been wary of URL masks. Googlebot is a smart old bot and I can't believe it falls for the cloak

I've not heard anyone talking negatively, and is still recommended so that Google doesn't realise your sending your traffic on for money reasons - but surely this us black hat and another '...google will catch up with you eventually' scenarios??

Probably. If you want to future proof properly then forget the cloaks and just write excellent content. Unfortunately I think this is at least a year off and so the short term gains are far too attractive for far too many. (I don't cloak btw, just an example)