I've just started with affiliate marketing. In my first day I made over $100 with Commission Junction, and that number increases every day that goes by. I am getting this by "spamming" Craigslist. I use quotation marks because my posts link to genuine products or services. The person reading one of my posts will follow my affiliate link and be taken to exactly what they expected to find. As of right now I've got 30 posts up, and only 3 of them have been flagged down. One of them was "ghosted". However they are for the most part holding strong. This is because they deliver, and they don't look spammy. Now my problem is that Commission Junction explicitly bans this type of advertising. I've taken steps to improve the situation by building a custom landing page that has a %100 CTR. However this is still against CJ's "code of conduct". I may or may not get away with this. I've been researching other ways to advertise the landing page, and I had believed that Google Adwords was my best alternative. Except one thing: Google explicitly bans the use of "bridge pages" in their Adwords program. Now I'm starting to get pissed off because it seems like everywhere I turn I am barred from making any profit. It seems like the only way anyone is "allowed" to make money online is by becoming an SEO expert. I'm done venting now. My question is, are there any Affiliate Marketing Networks out there that allow you to advertise on websites you don't own, such as forums, craigslist, youtube, etc, and what good adwords alternatives are there? Anyone have experiences similar to what I'm going through? How did you overcome?
You don't need an Adwords alternative. Google's rules say that they don't allow bridge pages, but people use them all the time, including myself...Google is very strict about quality/content of Adwords landing pages, and yes, sometimes they'll bring down the hammer on "bridge pages". Ultimately, you've just got to fight the fight with Google. It is still possible to make a lot of money off of bridge pages, even in the long term.
when google says bridge pages they really mean the sort of pag4 you use just as a redirect... landing pages are fine cause if they werent affilaite marketing wouldnt exist at all!! but google will smack you with their titties if you just have a php redirect or metarefresh to some other page
Are you sure DreMiami? Thats exactly what I was thinking. You could only make money through natural search results which is retarted. I hope you are right as I would love to get involved with Adwords. What are the consequences of violating Adwords terms? They just stop your program right?
No, "bridge pages" are really just traditional landing pages. One page sites with a huge button/image on the page that's really only there to get people to click through.
Hmm well my landing page has about 2 paragraphs of text, and 5 or 6 other links on it. The most obvious choice for viewers is the button in the center that says "click here to sign up". Is this still the same thing?
Google can define that as a bridge page, yes. They probably won't, but they can. I've had pages like that in the past that they specifically said received a poor QS because they were bridge pages. MOST of the time, if you have enough content/links/pages, you won't get slapped for a "bridge page" - if you get slapped, it's probably because of something else. That's why I said earlier you've got to put up a fight.
You can add several pages such as About Us/Privacy Policy/Terms of Use/Contact Us and the like, and your site won't be one page any more.
It really amazes me that these companies want affiliates to makket their products but they restrict you to the point that it's very hard to get them the business or make any money for yourself. It's like they are doing you a favor by letting you maket their products. Especially google. For the fraction of pennies they give you that watch over you with a gun waiting to pull the trigger and keep what commissions you did earn if any. Search around you'll find something to make some money on without the hastles!
Hi Kevin, I'm not sure if this is "good" advice or not but it might be of some use to you. I use the quotations because I'm not certain that this method is totally whitehat. But how about continuing with your craigslist ads and instead of linking directly you could have people contact you by email if they are interested. That way you could send a quick personalized email with your affiliate link and possibly even increase your conversions. There are even ways to automate the process if needed.
Hmm, I'm still new to this but if you have a blog or write a little review than it would probably be flagged less. Atleast that's what I'm seeing with my posts. Good luck!