The majority of these clickbank landing pages (to me at least) seem pretty crappy with the highlighted bold words, cliche discounts and such, pps and pppps's, and very long scroll down pages. Does google punish these sites for looking this way and jack up CPCs for affiliates or do they accept them because its basically the norm? In other words, is it a strike against those who try to promote these products or should I not worry about that?
They might be crappy to you as you have come across thousands of such pages being an internet marketer yourself. You see you need to look at these from the point of view of a below average internet user who is just surfing the internet for information. This is the prime reason why these landing pages still convert like crazy. I would say it actually converts because of the strong call to action and bolded words most of these pages use.
i dont think google would punish these pages. pages like this convert well, thats why 95% of them have the same layout.
google (IMHO) prefers sites which come to the point, with a stated price, easy to navigate and a strong call to action. Most of those "sales pages" look like tabloids...but from G's point of view they are ok. Also...i assume that most marketers use those kinds of pages since it is proven they convert. Nothing speaks against making a real "review site" or a blog in addition also.
I've noticed this too however sometimes the difference between a crappy landing page and a high converting one is very minuscule.
Also many of these landing pages are designed to get you good cpc in adwords so people will market straight to them. useless text to you and i = good quality score to google.
Let me tell you something, the landing pages I make the most on look like absolute crap. I can't believe people buy from those pages.
I agree! Put your money into the actual product instead of the sales page and you'll keep your customers happy.