1) Google is against you.

Take the direct quote of Google’s Frederick Vallaeys in response to the work of affiliate marketers: it is “…just an unnecessary step in the sales funnel.” Google has taken numerous steps to show their extreme favoritism to brands, and their very apparent efforts to bury affiliate marketing efforts in search results.

Starting in 2010, the search engine launched “extended brand results” listing actual brand names as links at the top of SERPs. The “Vince” update of 2009 tied two search queries (i.e., a user searching for “hdtv” and then searching for “sony” meant that Sony would receive a “vote” for the term “hdtv”), giving household-name brands — already established and known for a certain product category — another feather in their cap. Later that year, brands received an additional bonus in AdWords, where “sitelinks” would appear under an ad, pushing down the remainder of the page further.

Summer of 2011 showed the most definitive all-out attack against affiliate marketing, with the “Google Panda” update — a change that subsequently ended numerous small business owners’ careers overnight by removing their websites for certain keyword results from Google’s index entirely, and replacing those positions with big brands.

Later in 2011 was the inception of Google+ and “+1,” a social sharing tool that gives heavy bonuses and favoritism to big brands, who already have thousands (or hundreds of thousands) of followers who are able to +1 a new blog post by the droves within immediate time periods. Most recently, January 2012 saw an algorithm update to combat “excessive ads above the fold” on a website. Guess who runs ads above a fold? Hint: not brands.

If you thought you could simply go by the old adage “if you can’t beat em, join em,” think again — your affiliate storefront will NEVER achieve “brand” status. The brand signals that exist within Google’s algorithm know of the links pointing outward toward online storefronts that package and ship the products you’re promoting, identifying you as a “middleman” and therefore an “…unnecessary step in the sales funnel,” as Mr. Vallaeys puts it.

Although you probably don’t need more convincing about Google’s extreme bias against affiliate marketers and toward big brand name corporations, a simple glance at your flat-lined Google Analytics charts have probably clued you in at some point that your reliance on eBay Partner Network and Amazon Associate-driven websites are about as effective as attempting to make a new resurrection of the Million Dollar Homepage.

One more thing: when you lose a major keyword ranking, get dropped backward by several pages on Google and see that you’ve been replaced by big brands — don’t hold a shred of hope about re-gaining that page 1, position 1-3 position ever again. Sophisticated algorithmic signals have already given your ‘affiliate’ labeled site a brand new pair of cement shoes.

If you don’t want to believe me, check out this example of how Google torches affiliates.

2. Google is AdWords.

You might remember Google, it was a search engine that displayed organic results under a couple paid ads. Before it became completely filled with AdWords ads within the fold, it was possible to compete in search rankings for long-tail terms to get your affiliate sites some search attention.

However, a full computer screen’s worth of most Google page 1 SERPs is now entirely infested with AdWords, complete with a yellow box featured ad, subsequent ads and sidebar ads.

These days, the cost of appearing anywhere within an eyeball’s view for even a long term AdWords keyword is entirely unaffordable to the at-home internet marketer – give or take a few clicks per day. Google is now a place for the 1% to throw around their $2,000+/day budget to fight each other in an unreasonably expensive environment for the fight to remain on top. Perhaps you’ve taken your measly budget and used it for things more important, like lunch.

Besides…who on Earth would even spend a dollar on AdWords for an affiliate storefront? As anyone knows, it is *impossible* to track true conversions for an affiliate storefront, since you’ll never know how a thing about which clicks to your site led to sales on eBay or Amazon’s end. Spending money on AdWords for an affiliate storefront is like buying Pick 6 Lotto tickets every week and hoping for something to happen. It’s just AdWords 101.

3) Google’s “shopping results” in SERPs have ended your business.

If you’ve searched for a product and saw a SERP featuring a horizontal thumbnail image bar of products from different retailers with prices, you’ve probably noticed your imminent doom. Another nail in the coffin of any affiliate storefront: shopping results exhibit extreme favoritism to online retailers lucky enough to have muscled their way into Google Shopping, in a price comparison war against each other that takes place far above your current ranking.

The fact about these shopping price comparisons in SERPs is that they are nearly eliminating your chances of ever appearing for the keywords that trigger them. Due to the fact that the first 1/4 to 1/3 of a SERP is mostly AdWords, followed by one of these shopping results snippets that contain eye-enticing thumbnail images that break up an otherwise texty SERP, there’s barely any reason for the user to scroll down to get into organic results at all.

Since you’re nothing more than a middleman posting links to an actual supplier, you’ll never be able to appear on shopping results. Worse yet, the clutter of AdWords and product comparisons is enough to push organic results on to page 2 of results. This, above all else, is contributing to the extinction of the affiliate storefront.

So, What Now?

The changes I’ve seen, especially on Google, have really put an extreme perspective on my own personal business plans. It’s no longer worth investing time, money or energy in an affiliate storefront because they’re becoming extinct. In fact, affiliate marketing in general should be regarded as a past-time rather than a full-time job.

We’re embarking on a Google search engine experience that is entirely suited toward Big Business, where big AdWords spenders rule. If you won’t [cant] compete due to the extreme budget needed to join the existing fray, you’re left behind to hope for the best in organic, which is no longer a valid strategy in 2012.

As for Yahoo and Bing, the potential selling of Yahoo as rumored last year should be enough to make you realize that your measly Yahoo rankings are also not to be counted on — their days are numbered if anything should ever happen to the search engine.

Become A Brand

This truly is the only way to stay alive these days: brands, as defined by search engines, are most likely websites that have real shopping carts and checkout systems. They supply products themselves, instead of shilling affiliate links to real storefronts. They have real company names, not “exact keyword domains.” They have Facebook and Twitter accounts with real followers who actually interact with and care about the products being sold. They get real backlinks — not garbage links that their own webmaster scrounges for, since no affiliate storefront will ever have a successful, ongoing natural link portfolio.

Think about something you can sell or provide, and think fast. These days, you never know when the next iteration of Google Panda will re-appear and torch your remaining search rankings. Use your existing affiliate sites as 301-redirect fodder to give your new sites a boost in rankings, and start branding away!

1. Competitor keywords: At this point, it seems elementary to say that appearing for a keyword search of your competitor is a must these days. However, it’s ridiculously expensive as your quality score will always be low. A good way to refine it is to go for “better than Product XYZ” fashioned long-tail terms.People tend to already know brand names; what they really want to know is a good alternative that might make them change their mind about a purchasing decision. I’ve found that “review” keywords can be good, too…such as, “Product XYZ reviews” or “product ABC comparison.” (Just make sure you’re not infringing on anyone’s trademark – read your PPC program’s terms of service to make sure). Create a landing page with a review matrix or something to that effect that caters to those kinds of searches and you might be on to something.
2. Product Model Numbers: Many people (especially myself) will not bother to type in 46” Sony HDTV. We’ll just find the model number and search for deals on that…so, a search for “KDL-46XBR9” it is.Use that knowledge in affiliate marketing PPC: perhaps it makes more sense to gear your ads toward model numbers, product codes or anything else alpha-numerical beyond the actual product name?
3. “Call to action” queries: If you’ve ever dabbled with Google Keyword Tool or played with Google or Yahoo’s “auto-fill” feature within the search bar, you might have noticed that many people type in bizarre terms like “where to buy product XYZ” or “best price on product XYZ.” I don’t think I’ve ever typed such a thing, even during my first year of using the internet. Still, it’s a great long-tail term that might yield clicking customers who are on the verge of typing in their credit card info, if only you could present them with a helpful, BS-free landing page!
4. Seasonal or holiday-based keywords: It’s almost Memorial Day…are you advertising Memorial Day sales on your affiliate sites via AdWords? Consider it – many people search for deals online based on traditional holiday sales periods, mostly because the economy sucks, and they’ve been waiting all year to save $50 on a new refrigerator.Perhaps your lawn & garden store gets traffic spikes during early Spring: why not gear your PPC campaign toward an “early spring” push for gardening tools? Research “spring,” “4^th of July” and “Mother’s Day” keywords for your niches and see what you come up with.
5. Free shipping keywords: It’s one of the hottest topics for anyone who owns an online retail business. Perhaps your affiliate or dropshipping store is running a program that honors this: by all means, go for “product ABC free shipping” keywords and note it directly in your PPC ad itself!There were many times where I’ve bought an item from a store that charged slightly more for a product but gave free shipping, rather than one with a better price plus shipping fees. Customers will do the math and see what the more economical choice is, even if they have to wait longer for it to arrive. Be sure to lasso these customers.

Psychology is a part of PPC – if you know what people are typing as casual internet users rather than marketers, then you’ll be able to give them what they’re looking for. The rest of your newb-ish marketing competition will continue going for generic long-tail terms, and complaining about they spend more on advertising than they actually make ;)

Yes, SEM Can Be Outsourced…To A Box

I suppose the first taste of this came when my corporation hired a multimedia agency to redo our TV campaign and re-structure our in-house conversion management. One of the steps they recommended was to use systems like DART for Advertisers, and virtually make it so that there’s no need for me to sit here and babysit AdWords, Yahoo Search Marketing or MSN Ad Center anymore.

Aside from the whole outsourcing thing, have you noticed any trends with SEM platforms? AdWords alone has new features including Conversion Optimizer, which basically turns off your ability to set maximum CPCs for your keywords, and automates them based on an algorithm so that better ads are shown more often during better times of the day, where conversions are more likely to happen. Yes, it does work like a charm, too.

Let’s face it, SEM isn’t an 8 hour a day job. Unless you’re running a short term hyper-local campaign, you’re probably only doing major work once a month by checking up on keyword trends, pausing keywords that haven’t converted at all, or added new ones that have shown up on Google Keyword Tool or Google Insights for Search. Maybe you’ve thrown in a newly written ad or two. Beyond that, you were probably reading the news or playing Mafia Wars.

SEM Automation is Here To Stay

Even if you’re only slightly paranoid, you have probably seen this coming. SEM accounts by their very nature need little babysitting aside from keyword research. They set daily budget limits, so, it’s not like you have to be there to pause the account at 4:00 PM when you’ve spent enough money for the day. New conversion-based options and automated bidding tactics leave the grunt work up to the algorithms and settings, leaving you to be a totally replaceable employee.

The best resolve here is to build a case for your company’s need to ramp up social networking to build relationships, and mini-site building for the sake of getting more conversions. They’ll keep you busy, and nobody knows what the hell those things are besides you (it’s your chance to explain it and to raise some eyebrows in one of those upper management “yeah, we need this!” revelations).

Conclusively, a SEM/SEO/Social networker holds much more value than “the guy who runs those Google ads.” That task is quickly heading toward full automation – like it or not!

In other words, if you search for “tire rotation,” and AdWords ad might show up on the results page that lists an auto body franchise chain, with the center nearest you right under the ad. That’s an AdWords Local Extension.

If you’d like to set this feature up, simply go into your AdWords account, and select a campaign. Then, click the “Settings” tab, and look for the “Locations, Languages and Demographics” sub-section. Within it is a [+] dropdown link for “Show relevant addresses with your ads (advanced).” Click it, and choose “Business owners” if you have a Google Local Business account. Upon clicking “Edit” next to this option, AdWords will automatically sync with your Local Business account, and should start syncing all of the businesses from that account within 24-48 hours. Otherwise, choose “Non-business owners” if you’d like to input manual addresses.

(Above) Setting up AdWords Local Extensions

In essence, this won’t cost you any more than before, but it will definitely get you some more qualified clicks and hopefully reduce your bounce rate. Think of it this way, people are no longer clicking an ad not knowing how near or far a service is to their location; rather, they’re clicking a link after seeing exactly where it is.

Take a look at this AdWords ad that appeared on a search result page. The top ad was displayed while I was logged into my Google account, and the bottom one, when I had logged out and repeated the same search query:

The top ad is a typical AdWords unit, along with a trailing URL pointing to a landing page (top image), WITH an icon to SEMrush.com providing statistics on the link, and yet another icon pointing to Google Keyword Tool. My guess is that the additional link pointing to “../landing/gen_trial.htm” is a Google AdWords Site Link, although I could be wrong.

The puzzling part is why an icon for SEMrush and Google Keyword Tool appeared. The SEMrush icon looks up the landing page’s top 5 keyword rankings. The Keyword Tool icon simply takes you to the service’s home page. It’s not pre-loaded with a query string. Perhaps the new AdWords algorithm figured that I could look up the landing page’s keywords in SEMrush, then do my own keyword research in Google Keyword Tool.

Underneath it is the same ad that appears when I’m not logged into my Google account. It’s just a plain AdWords ad.

My question is if these icons appear because I am, in fact, a visitor of SEMrush. Had it noticed a cookie? If not, then why would it show these icons? If you’re not an internet marketer, SEMrush and Google Keyword Tool are of no value to you. On that note, I decided to delete the cookie for SEMrush, then re-load the page and see if that icon still appeared:

When re-loading the page, neither icon was there anymore. Perhaps it was working off cookies…or, it could just be that the ad only shows those icons X amount of times per day…who knows!

On the flip side to the icon debacle, it’s an annoyance to the advertiser. I sure don’t want anyone looking up the top 5 keywords that I rank for, on one of the pay-per-click ads I’m running!

In essence, it’s extortion: you have a heavily-hit search engine with its own advertising program, that allows anyone and everyone with some green stuff to bid on any keyword. Bid on your competitor – bid on their domain name, bid on their misspelling, you know the drill. Most importantly, bid on your own name so that nobody else beats you to the top position for these same things. Why on earth should anyone have to pay to appear on paid search for their own name, especially if it’s trademarked?

Trademark Protection in Google AdWords (Kinda)

Recently, Google began a new policy stating that AdWords users can successfully use trademarked brands within their ad text, regardless of if they own the trademark or not. So, feel free to throw in the actual brand name of that affiliate ad copy to your eBay store. It’s good for some, but murder for others. As for my company: a good $300/day is spent advertising just on our own company name, which is unique, and, of course, trademarked. If we ever stopped doing this, our bitter rival would take over their current 2nd spot as the 1st spot in all wild card search results for our company name.

Give or take, that’s a 6-figure expenditure per year, just to advertise for our own company name. Seriously. Morality has lost to money once again.

There actually is a measure you can take to “register” your registered trademark with Google Adwords, it’s perhaps the only way to protect your trademark in AdWords. By filling out a lengthy form and including your registered trademark serials, Google will block advertisers’ abilities to use your trademarked term in the title of an AdWords ad.

A good resolve would be to look at how Facebook tackles trademark infringement. If you’re a trademark owner, you’re entitled to own that trademarked name as a Facebook Page name (Facebook.com/whatever) – nobody else can have it. When it comes to Google search results, any search for your company’s registered trademark should yield a page with no PPC ads whatsoever. That’s in an ideal world, though.