Affiliate Marketing 101 ..why should I be doing this?

[LilBlackDress]

I guess I am missing something very basic here and I guess I should know this as I have been on these forums some time now. But I just dont get it.

So here goes....

Why should I be building back links to my ezine articles, squidoo, go articles etc. to push them to the top of google when that time could be spent back linking to my very own site.
I mean I can see adding articles there for more traffic but why push the traffic there instead of to my site?

So they have a higher rank than my site why not try to get my site ranked higher...isnt it sort of like pushing traffic to an artists Myspace instead of directly to their website where they can build and control their own music, ads etc?

Or is the goal here to dominate for the keywords with a variety of sites?

[RentItNow]

B R A N D I N G!

People trust and buy from an expert, not a link.

[LilBlackDress]

Are you saying that the Squidoo and GoArticles are branded and people are more likely to click on them because they are Known instead of clicking a link for my website? So that is the reason to backlink to them?

I am willing to bet tons of consumers have no clue what Squidoo is ...so why build their authority presence instead of backlinking to my own full website?

Or do you mean by linking to them I am helping to establish myself as an authority?

[Ryan Gabriel]

I see any benefit from branding that you get by going with a third party site hosting your content as a short term gain at best.

I've never liked the idea of building up an asset for someone else. In the end, you're throwing money away by not spending the effort to create your own assets; in this case, websites.

In two years, how much do you think you'll get for a Squidoo lens making $1200 a month versus a website making $1200 a month? Oh yeah, that's assuming Squidoo is still around in two years, and they haven't banned you/changed their linking policies/done something to offend Google/a million other things out of your control.

Build up your own business!

[geolt7]

For me, I build backlinks for both my sites as well as my articles in article directories. However, from what I observed so far, articles on sites like EZA tend to rank well and faster because google considers them as authority sites. I think u should build backlinks to ur site but promotion done on articles will get u targetted traffic very quickly so I do not think u should stop that.

[LilBlackDress]

Ok I understand writing for ezines etc. But to backlink to those articles? I just dont see why that time isnt better spent backlinking to my own personal website. Are you backlinking to your ezines Geolt?

[RentItNow]

Originally Posted by LilBlackDress

Are you saying that the Squidoo and GoArticles are branded and people are more likely to click on them because they are Known instead of clicking a link for my website? So that is the reason to backlink to them?

I am willing to bet tons of consumers have no clue what Squidoo is ...so why build their authority presence instead of backlinking to my own full website?

Or do you mean by linking to them I am helping to establish myself as an authority?

It's sort of like resistance in electronics. Electricity takes the path of least resistance. My point is, in the visitors mind, what is the path of least resistance to get their information, "A site they have no idea what it is" or a site that has 13 million visitors a month for authoritative content?

From my limited experience, I have gotten more BUYERS from e-zine, goarticles but not as much visitors. More visitors from building direct backlinks but NOT ONE BUYER. You decide which works.

[Carl Pruitt]

You should be doing both. I see two basic reasons for building backlinks to EZA, Squidoo, etc. sometimes rather than your own site.

The first is that, assuming you are promoting a relatively new site, fewer backlinks should be necessary to propel an article on a site which already has Google's "respect" higher in the rankings than would be necessary to push your own site up the rankings. Then your article will also become more valuable as a link to your site. In addition, seeing your expertise showcased (and ranked and commented upon) elsewhere can raise the authority readers see in the content on your site.

Second, having both articles, lenses, hubs or whatever, AND your site ranked gives you more opportunity to dominate the whole first page of results for your intended keywords.

[tandren544]

You want to backlink to your articles to boost article rankings on top of whatever rankings your site will be getting from your other backlinks.

Massive action = hundreds of links for your site, articles, squidoo lenses, twitter and any other marketing technique you might be using.

[geolt7]

Originally Posted by LilBlackDress

Ok I understand writing for ezines etc. But to backlink to those articles? I just dont see why that time isnt better spent backlinking to my own personal website. Are you backlinking to your ezines Geolt?

Yes I am doing backlinking to my articles, reason being majority of my marketing strategy revolves around article marketing which articles are my main source of traffic, the higher they rank, the more traffic i get. Having said that, it is always good to also do backlinks to your own site. This cannot be discounted, once the site gains ranking and more organic traffic then it is also self serving in the long run.

One other reason that I do backlinking for articles (promote them) is because it extends my reach of keywords that I can funnel to my site.

[MikeStrides]

When you link to your articles (on third party sites), those articles gain in authority in google's eyes. Consequently, the links from those articles back to your own site get greater weight, thus giving your site an extra boost. At least, that's the theory!

I do some social bookmarking to some of my articles. But the majority of link building is done to my own sites.

Best,
Mike

[Jeremy Morgan]

Originally Posted by RentItNow

It's sort of like resistance in electronics. Electricity takes the path of least resistance. My point is, in the visitors mind, what is the path of least resistance to get their information, "A site they have no idea what it is" or a site that has 13 million visitors a month for authoritative content?

From my limited experience, I have gotten more BUYERS from e-zine, goarticles but not as much visitors. More visitors from building direct backlinks but NOT ONE BUYER. You decide which works.

I agree with this, if you're first starting out, utilizing authoritative sites is the key to success. Build on branding your site later, but in the meantime, you must use other sites as a magnet to bring people to your own.