Everytime I turn around, I am seeing posts like "If you have an affiliate site, then dont signup for webmaster tools" as they go on to say that google knows that you are an affiliate, bla, bla, bla...Everytime I see such posts, then I just laugh... Do you think just because you dont use WMT then google is blind to your website? Google already knows your sites, webmaster tools just brings the numbers to the surface so you can see things more clearly. Google knows what your site is about before you even get out of bed the next day... What are your thoughts regarding WMT & Affiliate sites.
I agree, When affiliates get punished, i do not think it has anything to do with WMT, however, it does make sense when the affiliate site has nothing to offer, then it becomes clear to google that you do not have anything more then the better sites above you, then jumps in to punish the site...
To be honest I haven't think that way till I saw your first post. Now I'm getting nervous and thinking what to do and how to deal with Google. On the other hand so many sites use affiliate and got ranking without providing anything but review and encouraging people to buy stuff.
If you setup any type of razor thin affiliate site, then it does not matter if you use WMT, google knows what you are doing regardless if you use WMT or not, and I think this is when the "rumor" whores start putting out trash like "my affiliate got trashed because I was using WMT..." and the real story is that the site only had just junk content or thin pages that google did not find useful. I also hear these rumors "Sites are punished in order to force people to use adwords..." however, the sites that get punished always claim they were not doing anything wrong, then when you dig deeper, then you find out the site had spam links, bad content, in other words they were deceptive, and google saw though their deceptive deeds, and therefore google thought they deserved a penalty.... It is much easier for a spammer to make money in the short term, then it is for a legit site to make money in the long term, and google wants to get rid of the short term sites....
I am completely agree with you. Its really pointless to say that Google will only know your site if you have submitted your site in Webmasters tools. I am also using affiliate links in my blog and never face any problem with WHT or realize any drop in ranking. I think if you comply with Policies and terms and do not try to spam than you never had any problem.
You are absolutely right. Google already knows all about your websites. All you will accomplish by not installing WMT is to restrict yourself from useful information
I agree, that is why I'm paying for professional posts for users to help them choose if they want something but have dilemma . I have start one site recently and can't say anything about. Hope some results will come for about 2-3 months .