The recent changes in the Google Affilite Network and Ebay Seller programs are no suprise. Big changes happen with lots of programs around the beginning of the 4th Quarter. And every year thousands of Affiliate Marketers are suprised.
Quit being suprised! It’s the 4th Quarter already! Everyone (and I mean everyone who’s SERIOUS about affiliate marketing) are working their butts off to get their sites, programs, offerings, etc. ready for when the real money is made. If your new, be forewarned. Next year it’ll happen again with one of the larger networks, channels, programs.
So when I first heard about the Google Affiliate Network (GAN) changing its structure, that GAN affiliates payments are being moved to Adsense and the Google Referral program being phased out I wasn’t suprised. Then Ebay announced changes to it’s Seller programs where the TSR (Top Rated Seller) progam and a quality requirement with the DSR (Detailed Seller Rating) scores. And I wasn’t suprised. Why wasn’t I suprised?
It’s the beginning of the 4th Quarter. Big programs make changes then. WalMart did it last year (albeit very late). But there’s more to it than a streamlining of accounting, shedding affiliates that a program deems “unprofitable”, etc. this year. A pattern is emerging. Here are large (like in huge) programs and they’re changing in very similar ways. What does this mean overall. Well, I think the “Magic 8 Ball of Marketing” is getting ready to come up with it’s answer.
If you step back and look at “big picture” and are thinking like Ebay and Google right now what kinds of affiliate sites are helped by these moves? And which ones are hurt?
The Magic 8-Ball of Marketing Says
That’s right… Ebay and Google are making judgements about what kinds of sites are Quality, and which ones are Crap. Read the guidelines for Adsense and Ebay and you’ll easily figure out that sites that are nothing but a datafeed reformatted are CRAP. That sites that have original content, are coded cleanly, offer real value for customers are considered to be Quality. Sites that take care of their customers, stay in contact with them, are successful are Quality.
But the devil is in the details as they say. And a fair amount of people with a Quality site are being burned by the change along with all the crappy sites that don’t add value. That’s not good. And it happens with any large program change. But that’s another blogpost. The thing we’re focusing on right now is what you can do, right now.
The future is quality and originality. Bringing your own uniqueness to the table, add in quality original content, and then monitize it. That’s the key to staying ahead of this curve. The Magic 8-Ball of Marketing isn’t fooling around. And neither are GAN and Ebay. And the countless others that are sure to follow.
Christmas is coming, your busy finding what’s hot, what’s not, and tuning your sites for Q4… Take that little extra bit of time to go back to your roots, find what makes you and your sites unique, and play them up. Rewrite your copy if you need to. Clean up your html code and php templates. Tweak your offerings and just simply do what you should be doing all the time. Being yourself. That’s what “the big boys” want. They’re picking winners and losers right now.
BE A WINNER!
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