Comments on: Imprudent Decisions Could Cost You Dearly http://www.revenews.com/affiliate-marketing/imprudent-decisions-could-cost-you-dearly/ Discussion of Online Marketing, SEM, Social Media, Mobile and Video, Micro-Content, and Affiliate Marketing Thu, 09 Feb 2012 21:59:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Carsten Cumbrowski http://www.revenews.com/affiliate-marketing/imprudent-decisions-could-cost-you-dearly/#comment-2812 Carsten Cumbrowski Thu, 31 Aug 2006 21:02:06 +0000 http://revenews.contentrobot.com/?p=539#comment-2812 Hi Lee, Thanks for the comment. The Article is more concerned about organic search than PPC. What seems to be a relative straight forward issue their (what it is obviously not) becomes 10 times fold more complicated when it comes to organic search. While you can prohibit or restrict an affiliate in the use of PPC as method to promote your business, is it not as simple with organic search. High ranking sites don't necessarily utilize actively SEO Methods to get there, especially "black hat" SEO methods. Some sites do well, because they are actually useful, rich in content, recommended by a lot of people and are well designed without employing any cheesy tricks. Wait a moment, that is the original idea and prime goal of search engines, return good and relevant content. Now prohibiting your Affiliates to create well designed and good quality web sites or pages within their Website that promote your business exclusively (or primarily) and are doing it so well, that they even get returned within the top 10 spots of the SERPS for searches involving your brand name is ridiculous right? More Merchants add SEM related restrictions and limitations to their Terms of Service. No problem, unless you add something intentionally or by accident that prohibits affiliates to do what I just used as an example. Now the phrase "intentionally or by accident" adds a lot more complexity to the whole thing, because the range of things to consider is much broader than PPC ever could be. Its about time to start working on those things and hammer out the details :) Hi Lee,

Thanks for the comment. The Article is more concerned about organic search than PPC.

What seems to be a relative straight forward issue their (what it is obviously not) becomes 10 times fold more complicated when it comes to organic search.

While you can prohibit or restrict an affiliate in the use of PPC as method to promote your business, is it not as simple with organic search.

High ranking sites don't necessarily utilize actively SEO Methods to get there, especially "black hat" SEO methods.

Some sites do well, because they are actually useful, rich in content, recommended by a lot of people and are well designed without employing any cheesy tricks.

Wait a moment, that is the original idea and prime goal of search engines, return good and relevant content.

Now prohibiting your Affiliates to create well designed and good quality web sites or pages within their Website that promote your business exclusively (or primarily) and are doing it so well, that they even get returned within the top 10 spots of the SERPS for searches involving your brand name is ridiculous right?

More Merchants add SEM related restrictions and limitations to their Terms of Service.

No problem, unless you add something intentionally or by accident that prohibits affiliates to do what I just used as an example.

Now the phrase "intentionally or by accident" adds a lot more complexity to the whole thing, because the range of things to consider is much broader than PPC ever could be.

Its about time to start working on those things and hammer out the details :)

]]> By: Lee Gientke http://www.revenews.com/affiliate-marketing/imprudent-decisions-could-cost-you-dearly/#comment-2811 Lee Gientke Wed, 30 Aug 2006 17:28:29 +0000 http://revenews.contentrobot.com/?p=539#comment-2811 Great post Carsten. Tradmarks are always sticky. That said, I've always been all for trademark bidding because most of my PPC affiliates use the high conversions and sales from trademarks to subsidize less profitable keywords and ad buys. In the end, it comes down to AM's having open communications with their affiliates and the mindset that an affiliate is a partner and not some yahoo. That said, affiliates need to communicate with their AMs and uphold their end of the partnership. -Lee Great post Carsten. Tradmarks are always sticky. That said, I've always been all for trademark bidding because most of my PPC affiliates use the high conversions and sales from trademarks to subsidize less profitable keywords and ad buys. In the end, it comes down to AM's having open communications with their affiliates and the mindset that an affiliate is a partner and not some yahoo. That said, affiliates need to communicate with their AMs and uphold their end of the partnership.

-Lee

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