Fat Affiliate or Thin Affiliate: Which One Are You?
Monday, November 13th, 2006 at 10:17 pm by Matt Van Atta
How much content does your affiliate Web site have? In the wake of Google’s “cleaning” of AdWords by changing its landing page algorithm, this question could have greater relevance for you.
As Anik stated in his blog posting of July 26, such “cleaning” has led to advertisers who have in the past spent tens of thousands of dollars a month on AdWords essentially being shown the door by Google. And it means that advertisers wishing to stick with AdWords will have to pony up more money to do so if their Web content is deemed insufficient.
How do you stay in Google’s good graces? According to Google, you become more of a “fat affiliate” as opposed to a “thin affiliate” – terms coined by Google, of course. What does this mean? Let’s start with the definitions:
- A fat affiliate is an affiliate site that provides sufficient high-quality content to provide a satisfying user experience.
- A thin affiliate is an affiliate site that contains no real content value and serves only to send Web traffic to a merchant site, to pages containing only affiliate links, or to pages designed primarily to obtain AdSense clicks.
In other words, content distinguishes fat affiliates from thin affiliates, in terms of both quantity and quality. And by content, I’m speaking not just of content that helps persuade your customers to buy your product or service. I’m also speaking of content that provides informational value to your customers regardless of whether or not they eventually buy your product.
If the content on your site is both informational and persuasive, enabling customers to derive benefit from the start, it will (hopefully) provide that layer of “fat” sought by Google and generate sales for you.
So how do you “fatten up” your site? Different types of content can provide the value that Google in essence is looking for. Examples include:
- Articles, including product descriptions, reviews, how-tos, advice, and news.
- Pictures and photos, including diagrams, drawings, charts, illustrations, graphs, and slide shows.
- Free downloads of digital items, such as reports, freeware, and the like.
- Links to related sites that include detailed descriptions of what each site has to offer your visitor.
You can never completely discount the thin affiliate approach, however. Many super affiliates have become super affiliates by leveraging sites that Google might consider “too thin” and driving traffic through paid search. And one can run the risk of including too much content, causing information overload and forcing the visitor to leave your site. In a sense, it’s like playing poker – being dealt pocket aces is always a good thing, but it’s what you do with the hand you are dealt that matters more than the hand itself.
Whether you are a fat affiliate or a thin affiliate, however, depends ultimately on the degree to which you want to rely on Google to drive your business. If reliance on Google makes good business sense for you, be sure you know Google’s rules of the game, and be sure to watch the weight of your Web site!
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Filed under: Affiliate Marketing, Affiliate Marketing Definitions
Of course you should “fatten” up your site if you hope to earn good money as an affiliate! Sites which contain only affiliate links are of little use to anyone in my opinion, and are becoming increasingly irritating for the ordinary web user. As the internet grows, people become aware of these tactics. For example, pop-up blockers and firewalls which kill banners are used by more and more people.
I think that if you genuinely want to make money from affiliate content, it should be placed in sites which offer unique content (e.g. articles, blogs etc) which is related to the products that will eventually be bought by those clicking the affiliate links. Visiting your site should be useful and enjoyable, not merely something which adds another step to finding a site that is.