Hi Bob, and all - this actually brings up some things I've been thinking about today. With other affiliate ideas, the templates and product selections are much more open, leaving room for development along several different lines - SEO, of course, including selection of advertisers to work with based on what search/unique url ratios. But in this industry, within this program, essentially, as you pointed out, we are all carrying the same products - essentially, they are commodities. It seems, too, the opportunity for optimizing pages based on keywords is more limited than in other industries (with only my limited experience so far bringing this out). I certainly do not want to be mucking about in the product pages too much, for fear that I may be transgressing some carefully scripted (no pun intended) language re: Merck/PDR guidelines. Therefore, how to distinguish ourselves? Links only? I may be whispering something which is not really to be whispered, but this is an interested challenge to me, given the duplicative nature of the templates. Thanks, Paul
This is an interesting observation and question. I would agree that you probably can't or shouldn't change much of the content on the individual product pages. However you certainly can change the title and the meta tags for every page. But in the end what you really want found is your home page and here you can change the content as much as you want. In addition you can feature specials and coupons and reduced shipping etc. You also need to change the title and meta tags on the home page. What some of my affiliates have done is add a resource section where they publish medical related articles. On one of my sites I have a RSS feed from a Medical News source. So there are things that you can do to differentiate the site and attract the search engines.
As always, Bob, your experience is appreciated - learn something new with every post. So far, I have been loathe to put any reprinted material on my site for fear of a dup content penalty - a lot of work, but everything on my first site is original content, in some areas I am not altogether familiar with. And, though Berkeley gave me a decent workout, on my best day I'd be reticent to pronounce my pearls on "metastatic changes in loop of henle" (hey - I actually put that together - not bad, hmm? ). The coupons, etc., I would think, would help to build loyalty once there, but not as great as a traffic builder unless those features were pronounced and evident, say, in directories or article submissions...I have been thinking on how to differentiate so as to drive traffic in the first place. You're saying that no problem with reprint or feeds? Going back to the article you brought forth on recip links, I would guess this is along the same lines...interesting. Thanks. (BTW: You are the pioneer OL on my resources page. Let me know if it suits or not).
Just noticed someone flamed me with a red rep, indicating "stop bumping old threads" on post 102 of this thread - not sure why I got it. Generally, if we come on an older post for the first time, if any could advise - are we not to post something? At any rate, I have spent considerable time working on my site related to this thread. I have a question, at the risk of getting further flamed - some of these templates are JS/PHP based, and others XML. Bob, you have mentioned you have used the JS template for some time, with no problem - do you, or anyone else have any thoughts whether those with considerably less authority in GG's eyes will have some trouble with googlebot due to the JS script onboard?
This isn't an old thread, it is an ongoing discussion. There are some real assholes on this forum. Just ignore them and let's get on about our business.
I have joined as compar subaffiliate. Now I'm waiting for my hosting to set up the SSL certificate correctly. Hope we will have great business here Any suggestions about the prices, coupon discounts offered and shipping costs?
I covered this topic recently in an post to my affiliate mailing list. You can find a copy of my thoughts in the mailing list archives here http://lists.compar.com/pharmacy-affiliates/2005-December/000062.html
Hi Bob, Thanks for useful info in this thread. I'm thinking abt joining as Aff. However, considering the shortcomings in advertising a online pharm site, I'm bit reluctant. Well, pls clear my doubt: Can I place a banner/text link on my other sites that has Adsense on it or is it against the TOS/Policy of Adsense?
Certainly you can have banner or text link to your pharmacy from a page displaying AdSense. Look at my Digital Point signature. There is a pharmacy text link in it and every page in DP has AdSense displayed on it. Or go to any page in my InfoPool and every page has pharmacy text links or banners, sometimes both, and AdSense
Bob, Got the email, logged in & in the process of setting up the store now! Would mind to share which are best converting templates for you?
I have asked the same question of the Cartadmin sales and technical people and they say it is impossible to really tell. I would use one of the XML templates rather than the Javascript, but if you do you will need an SSL certificate on your server.
Sold my first item after 3 weeks, this was harder than I thought, and my commission check was only $15, oh well, it was worth a try.
Funnily enough, I just sold my first one today as well. Helluva lot less in take home due to some sloppy pricing analysis, but I could care less. There is great potential here, IMHO.