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On affiliate sites, is it better to create posts as you go or do several articles and THEN promote?

by thejfoster42
6 replies
So I've spent a lot of time researching a niche and preparing the website that I will be using to promote the products. Right now I'm planning to use Amazon's affiliate program for the site.

Technically I could start promoting and ranking my affiliate site now, but I only have 2 700-ish word articles that are written and ready to go (still in draft status on WP). I'm still working on writing more articles and editing them for on-page SEO and getting the off-page SEO plan in order.

So my question is this:

Would it be better to go ahead and publish what I have, and start ranking the site while I continue to write, or will I be better off spending some time building up a base of articles, then publish them at once and start to rank at that point since there will be more content for Google to see? Obviously I would continue to write more and more articles after kicking off the SEO side of things either way.

I can see it working either way in the long run, I'm just curious if one method has any advantages over the other, or if it really doesn't matter.

I searched around the forums for this, but didn't see anything really directly related to the question. Maybe I'm just a goof when it comes to using the search

Thanks in advance!
#affiliate #articles #content #create #posts #promote #sites
  • Profile picture of the author damondietz
    Great question as I was wondering the same myself. Looking forward to some responses!!
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  • Profile picture of the author AuthorityBuilder
    As someone who quite often creates niche adsense and amazon sites, I would say that you first create around 10 to 12 articles, publish them on site and then start the seo work of ranking the site. After you setlle with tbe seo part, again start publishing Content.

    WhyI say to publish cat least 10 to 12 articles is because if visitors come theu won't see a deserted site with just two promotional articles. This will create a negative impact.
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    • Profile picture of the author yragcom1
      Originally Posted by AuthorityBuilder View Post

      As someone who quite often creates niche adsense and amazon sites, I would say that you first create around 10 to 12 articles, publish them on site and then start the seo work of ranking the site. After you setlle with tbe seo part, again start publishing Content.

      WhyI say to publish cat least 10 to 12 articles is because if visitors come theu won't see a deserted site with just two promotional articles. This will create a negative impact.
      Agree with above. 10 to 12 articles on the site. Follow standard optimization rules.

      - Keyword in title, and in text 1-3 times
      - Contextual links in each article to homepage, page itself and authority site
      - Graphic or image with link back to home page
      - No affiliate links. Use a page with a meta-redirect, or use a link cloaker
      - Find like terms, LSI terms to write supplemental and relevant post copy as you go, and make sure to add posts on a regular, timely basis.

      I'm sure I'm forgetting some other things (like finding some GOOD links), but hopefully someone else will chime in.
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      • Profile picture of the author thejfoster42
        Originally Posted by yragcom1 View Post

        Agree with above. 10 to 12 articles on the site. Follow standard optimization rules.

        - Keyword in title, and in text 1-3 times
        - Contextual links in each article to homepage, page itself and authority site
        - Graphic or image with link back to home page
        - No affiliate links. Use a page with a meta-redirect, or use a link cloaker
        - Find like terms, LSI terms to write supplemental and relevant post copy as you go, and make sure to add posts on a regular, timely basis.

        I'm sure I'm forgetting some other things (like finding some GOOD links), but hopefully someone else will chime in.
        Thanks for your input! I'll definitely try using LSI terms and figuring out the link cloaking stuff, can't say I had heard of link cloaking but I will definitely look into it.

        Out of curiosity, why do you say not to use affiliate links at all? Or at least non-cloaked ones? I know Google doesn't give affiliate sites indexing priority, but does having direct affiliate links really hurt the page that much?

        Thank you!
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    • Profile picture of the author thejfoster42
      Originally Posted by AuthorityBuilder View Post

      As someone who quite often creates niche adsense and amazon sites, I would say that you first create around 10 to 12 articles, publish them on site and then start the seo work of ranking the site. After you setlle with tbe seo part, again start publishing Content.

      WhyI say to publish cat least 10 to 12 articles is because if visitors come theu won't see a deserted site with just two promotional articles. This will create a negative impact.
      Thank you! I was sort of leaning toward that option, but I figured I would need more articles than that, I'm glad to know I can safely get started with 10-12.

      I appreciate your insight
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  • Profile picture of the author Sid Hale
    Originally Posted by thejfoster42 View Post

    Would it be better to go ahead and publish what I have, and start ranking the site while I continue to write, or will I be better off spending some time building up a base of articles, then publish them at once and start to rank at that point since there will be more content for Google to see? Obviously I would continue to write more and more articles after kicking off the SEO side of things either way.

    I can see it working either way in the long run, I'm just curious if one method has any advantages over the other, or if it really doesn't matter.
    Yes. In the long run, either way will work as long as you follow through on your plan to add even more content over time.

    Google will reward consistent addition of fresh content, and will even adjust the frequency with which they send their bot to visit your site - thereby "discovering" new pages/posts to index and rank.

    The key word there is "consistent" - especially at first.

    The reason for collecting a number of posts before publishing any is simply to get ahead of the curve so that you can demonstrate fairly regular consistency in the frequency of your postings (i.e. twice per week, once per week?)

    If you plan to post every day, I would suggest stockpiling 5-7 days worth of unpublished posts, so that unplanned events don't interfere too much with your frequency of posting.

    If you only plan to publish once per week, you won't need to sandbag as many unpublished articles because you will have more leeway built into your publishing schedule.
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    Sid Hale
    Coming Soon... Rapid Action Profits (Pro)

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