DOES ANYTHING NOT CONSTITUTE A BRIDGE PAGE TO GOOGLE?

[rvrabel2002]

I have been in a constant struggle with google over my adwords landing pages. Every site I try to advertise through there network seems to qualify as a bridge page. I just don't get it?!

By their definition, a bridge page is something that provides no real value to the user, and its sole purpose is to drive traffic to another site. How is it possible to earn as an affiliate by not driving traffic to an affiliate site?

Is it me, or does it feel like they want their users to jump through hoops to learn more about a product.

If I write a detailed review of a product, and tell people that this product works, why shouldnt I be able to link to said product?

Does anyone else find this odd?

[dburk]

Hi rvrabel2002,

There are new rues being enforced by the FTC regarding paid reviews. The FTC considers review pages, that earn a commission or are compensated in some way by recommending a product, to be deceptive practice and they are cracking down. Google is simply complying with this more intensive scrutiny. If you want to continue as an affiliate marketer you must adapt.

One alternative method is to develop your own product and sell or give away your product to build a customer list. You can then market affiliate products to your customer list.

Another approach is to fully disclose your affiliation and to offer a bonus when ordering from your affiliate link. The bottom line is you have got to tell people you are being paid for promoting the product and for the AdWords program you must give some added value. You may be surprised at how well some folks respond to this honest approach.

[rvrabel2002]

Originally Posted by dburk

Hi rvrabel2002,

There are new rues being enforced by the FTC regarding paid reviews. The FTC considers review pages, that earn a commission or are compensated in some way by recommending a product, to be deceptive practice and they are cracking down. Google is simply complying with this more intensive scrutiny. If you want to continue as an affiliate marketer you must adapt.

One alternative method is to develop your own product and sell or give away your product to build a customer list. You can then market affiliate products to your customer list.

Another approach is to fully disclose your affiliation and to offer a bonus when ordering from your affiliate link. The bottom line is you have got to tell people you are being paid for promoting the product and for the AdWords program you must give some added value. You may be surprised at how well some folks respond to this honest approach.

Good points, i do have a free ebook that i give away to build an email list, and that has given me some sales.

I do disclose at the bottom of every page that i am an affiliate marketer who is compensated with affiliate sales. It's way at the bottom, and buried in other text, but it's there.

I think I may take your advice and make it more transparent on my review page that I am an affiliate though. What sort of difference in conversion rates do you see when applying this approach?

Thanks again.

[Groovystar]

Glad to see the FTC cracking down on those scammers.

I was getting real tired of seeing those so-called review sites that really were cloaked advertisements.

[tryinhere]

Originally Posted by dburk

Hi rvrabel2002,
Another approach is to fully disclose your affiliation .

just a question no wrong or right here just asking is all.

As far as i am aware if an ad is placed on a site it does not need the disclosure as an ad is considered in effect that a person will make money from a sale / hence the ad.

So in this case if you page had no affiliate links in any of the text on the page, but only talked about a product and or a product type in general. and an add was placed above below or to the side as in the same way a adsense ad block or affiliate banner was placed then as such there would be no need for the disclosure

what may be needed is the sponsored link or advertisement tag ?

what the difference between those two titles is i am unsure ?


then again i may be at sea with this, but doubt it, because it is not required to ad a disclosure to an adwords ad and as such a adsense block could in fact be an affiliate link.

time for coffee

[crudenbay]

Can you describe what is happening to you with Google? Are they giving you poor quality scores for example?

I doubt the FTC is the issue - I still see tons of sites which do not mention they are affiliates and seem to be doing fine.

I create affiliate sites with unique content alongside the product and that seems to work.

[rvrabel2002]

crudenbay, just sent you a pm