Well it’s about time I wrote another post here, even though I still have limited time online these days. (Oh by the way, I had the baby – she is now 2 weeks old and very cute).
But lately many of my online friends have had their sites deindexed due to what Google has called Made For Adsense (MFA) sites or thin affiliate sites. Of course some of these are not thin at all, they just happened to be hosted on Blogger which if you didn’t know already is going through a major cleanup right now.
I still have all of my Blogger sites for now, but then I never really developed any of them substantially and most of them are just sites I played around with, so it would be no huge loss if I did lose them (although I’d rather they stayed as most of them are true blogs about my experiences of certain life experiences). I didn’t develop them to make money – which is probably why they haven’t been touched.
Now let’s get to the mini site issue. If you’ve been in IM for a while you’ve no doubt heard of the x-factor type micro site model where you build a site around a certain keyword, usually a physical product and then use an ugly theme and a big in your face Adsense block right at the top of your article to encourage people to click your ads so you earn money.
Now the problem for these types of sites is that Google has said enough is enough, and is deindexing them left, right and centre.
Why?
Well if you look at it from Google’s point of view, or rather the advertisers that are paying for ads on Google, then you’ll realise that these are probably not real customers but more likely just people trying to run away quickly from your ugly theme. You will earn money, but the advertiser is not likely getting a true customer. If they are unhappy then Google is unhappy. If Google is unhappy then they will kick your ass right out of its index, no questions asked.
You can read more about this at my favorite blogs:
Griz – Making Money Online in 2010
Ben – How not to make money online
So why is Amazon better?
So we have established why having Adsense can be risky, but does that mean all mini sites are useless? Well no. I have quite a few mini sites but they all have one main difference – they use Amazon on them.
Why should that make a difference?
Adsense is a pay per click program. You get paid when someone clicks an ad on your site whether they are a real customer or not.
Amazon however is a pay per sale program. The advertiser (Amazon) can’t lose out because the customer MUST make a purchase before you get paid. Therefore it’s less risky and Google won’t care about your mini site as much. (They still want to provide value to the searcher, but they won’t totally diss your site unless you blatantly do something wrong).
Any pay per sale program is going to be safer for your business and your website
Does that mean you should avoid Adsense altogether?
Of course not, I still have Adsense on many of my sites, but here’s the difference: most of these sites have good amounts of content that I personally wrote (so it’s original and written from my point of view in most cases), the topics are those that I know about, they are updated fairly frequently, all have different themes (I could never do the ugly theme thing as I’m too much of a girl and like things to look pretty) and I try and provide real value.
Now, I do need to go and ‘tone down’ the Adsense on some of these because I do use ‘above the fold’ big square Adsense blocks on them which I’m now quite nervous about, but these are definitely not crap sites.
So what do I recommend for you?
If you have been using the Adsense mini site model (less than 5 pages of real content, ugly theme, big in your face ad block) then I suggest you either add loads more content (and make it GOOD content) or swap Adsense for an affiliate program or pay per sale program like Amazon or eBay. Oh and change your theme too. Make sure it doesn’t look like every other site out there in terms of content, layout and colours.
Start to try new things and don’t follow the herd. The reason Griz and Ben are so successful is because they do their own thing, try things out. If you just follow the advice of the latest ebook then it’s likely not to work long term unless it’s built on a solid business model. If you do like a particular marketer’s strategy then add your own spin to it. Mix it up.
And the biggest lesson that I’ve learnt from Griz & Ben is that if you are in the MMO niche, then for goodness sakes, don’t stick your head out and become too popular (I’m thankful that only about 3 people online know who I am).
Gotta go and feed the baby now, catch ya next time.
t xx
Congrats on the new baby!
I don’t remember what bad things about Amazon were discussed but the recent issues in Colorado have me a bit nervous. I’m trying to build new sites that have more than one option for monetization just to be safe.
Hey Carrie,
I meant to reply to your comment ages ago but got distracted and well … sorry!
I really like your blog and noticed that you linked to me! Wow thanks. I’ll return the favour in my next blog post.
Anyway until then, here’s hoping for more hours in the day.
t
Hi, tracey….i think you are the experienced in making money from amazon…
But is it possible to earn money from amazon…with blogger.. i dont have any?
Good Tips Tracey. Amazon and Ebay are great alternatives to adsense — and, you can make them work great with mini sites, something I’ve been experimenting with.
Best and congratulations on your newborn!
Tracey-
Just found you from Carrie’s blog – congrats on the baby, definitely! We just had # something or other in January (technically, our 7th), he’s a beaut.
I wouldn’t be worried about the big adsense block, above the fold thing, personally – even G puts that on their heat map right from their own site. The advertisements need to get CTR so you land on their pages…but another question would be whether a free 2.0 site is the best format (all mine are hosted), and whether or not your content and keyword selection is good enough.
I like what you said about content, that’s key – and yeah, it doesn’t make sense about Ben’s network…other than thin sites, maybe? I dunno…Having sites on SEO tips and such and drawing a massive following is definitely something to be worried about, I s’pose.
In any event, I would also add that having an ugly template or not is I think moot – it’s content. I’ve seen auto-blogs with junk and swapped content…blech!
Not sure how long these junk sites will be tolerated, or link farms – these I think are genuine issues. I don’t have a problem with using a template, ugly or no – the more, the better: you have a smaller footprint if everyone’s using it, it seems.
Hope that makes sense. Congrats on your baby, and I’ll be glad to read more of your thoughts on this subject.
Hey JamestheJust,
You make some really good points, and yeah I’ve kept the the big adsense block because when I changed it for a week my CTR went downhill fast, so back to the big block again. I doubt many of my sites would be classified ‘thin’ anyway. (Well not the adsense ones at any rate).
I just can’t bring myself to choose an ugly theme though, it’s got nothing to do with whether I think it’s better for seo (I have heard that ugly sites convert better), must be the girl in me to want a somewhat pretty site.
7!! Wow, I’m impressed.
More blog posts coming soon
Take care,
Tracey
Um…yeah: not sure why my drop-down had “Jack D Rippa” on it — oh, wait..yeah. I was trying to be “anonymous” on another person’s blog…because I over-commented…
I usually go by “JamestheJust on Elance.” Anyhow. Creepy.
LOL –
This made me think of your post here:
http://www.askaditya.com/amazon-associates-affiliate-program-1707-in-2-months/comment-page-1/#comment-10
I’m going to try it and then report back on your blog here if I can remember to do so..!…and will make a post about the results (probably take a while).
In any event, not sure how you use Amazon, but this is definitely interesting.
I’ve heard the cookies on Amazon are brief, though – like 24 hours? That bugs. I’ve got cookies on other networks that are 120 days…and have made good sales on them, but in they don’t have the same leveraging power or consumer trust that Amazon does.
Oh, and thanks for validating my points – I wanted to say the same to you on your points, one way of monetizing sites is not the way to go. Definitely a mixed bag is best.
Don’t get hung up on the 1 day cookie, most people that go to Amazon purchase straight away. Amazon is definately my biggest earner (and I do also do Adsense, Clickbank and other affiliate programs). And it’s easier to get buyers too.
Big buying seasons like Christmas are great – you usually make quite a few thousand over those periods.
Hi Tracey,
I just came across your site, and I just want to say congrats on the new baby. I would love to have another one-they are so great, but I think our time has passed and I am in a house full of boys so I am good for right now. I will just wait until I can be a grandma!
I just did my first few Amazon sites, and I am just waiting to see how they pan out. I do have a couple of Adsen3e sites and I plan on making more, but I use a different theme and layout for each one of them and I intend to load 20 pages of Unique content.
@Carrie
I think that Amazon is using Colorado as a scapegoat for the local government. If this happens w/ all of the States their profit margin will plummet, and where will that leave them. In time I betcha things will work out and Colorado will be back on the map. I hope so anyway, last year we just moved from there and one day we might decide to go home!
Belated congrats on your new arrival. How do you find time to blog and write hubs, infobarrels etc. as well???
Anyway – nice post as always. Amazon is a very nice earner for me – it’s my number one thing for sure. The fact that so many people get hung up on the “low” commission and the one day cookie is great – more space for me to play.
One thing that I saw a well known marketer recommend was putting an Amazon banner or widget on your MFA sites. His theory was that if anyone from Google did come looking that then at least there would be another form of monetisation apart from Adsense and that it would be less likely to be tarred with the MFA brush.
Personally, I think that if you do it right then you will almost always make more from Amazon than Adsense – but you can see the logic.
@ Hamish
Hi Hamish, I don’t really have all that much time online these days, but I do try and get at least one article out a day, whether that’s for one of my sites or for hubpages, infobarrel or eza, etc. It helps that I really enjoy my ‘work’ online so I want to do it of an evening when I get the chance (Yeah I’m weird LOL)
Yes I love that many marketers seem to discount Amazon, I by far make my most money here. It is so much easier to sell a physical product than an ebook (or at least it is for me).
I’m not sure that placing an Amazon banner will ‘fool’ Google that it isnt’ a MFA site. I still think creating good original content and using a decent theme so it looks legit is better. I also try and add other things as well such as images and video’s so it looks more like a real site. I’ve been slowly building my Adsense sites, but it does seem to be taking a long time to see improved earnings.