Comments on: Every Brand Needs an Affiliate Program for Reputation Management http://www.firstpagefitness.com/blog/2007/07/05/every-brand-needs-an-affiliate-program-for-reputation-management/ Unbiased information about health and fitness products. Separate the gimmicks from the real deal. Thu, 16 Oct 2008 00:45:31 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 By: Search Engine Reputation Management http://www.firstpagefitness.com/blog/2007/07/05/every-brand-needs-an-affiliate-program-for-reputation-management/#comment-55044 Search Engine Reputation Management Wed, 28 Nov 2007 18:35:19 +0000 http://www.firstpagefitness.com/blog/2007/07/05/every-brand-needs-an-affiliate-program-for-reputation-management/#comment-55044 You raise a good point there. Affiliate programs are a double-edged sword though: The catch is that the people promoting your product could do so in unsavoury ways. Maybe they're just annoying folks with blinking popups, but maybe they're also using spyware and such. It's a tricky issue. One way to solve the problem is tight affiliate management. Aaron Wall's got some good material on it but I can't seem to find it at the moment. If they're screwing it up, don't let them hurt your brand, boot them from your program. The other problem is in terms of the organic SERPs. If they're ranking on your brand/product terms, you've got a problem. I wrote a guest-post at Brand-Curve oriented to helping people own the SERPs for their names, which could help. Beyond that, you still need to deal with non-brand keywords on the organic side (they won't bid on your brand terms if they're not making money anymore, unless they reaaally hate you) and AdWords. AdWords is beyond your control, but if they get really dirty, the legal team can perhaps send a C&D letter. For the organic side of stuff, you can work with your better-behaved affiliates to top the SERPs and push their junk down. Provide them some unique content you don't have on your domain for instance. Let them write something for yours with author links back... Plenty of ways to go about it. You raise a good point there. Affiliate programs are a double-edged sword though: The catch is that the people promoting your product could do so in unsavoury ways. Maybe they’re just annoying folks with blinking popups, but maybe they’re also using spyware and such. It’s a tricky issue.

One way to solve the problem is tight affiliate management. Aaron Wall’s got some good material on it but I can’t seem to find it at the moment. If they’re screwing it up, don’t let them hurt your brand, boot them from your program.

The other problem is in terms of the organic SERPs. If they’re ranking on your brand/product terms, you’ve got a problem. I wrote a guest-post at Brand-Curve oriented to helping people own the SERPs for their names, which could help.

Beyond that, you still need to deal with non-brand keywords on the organic side (they won’t bid on your brand terms if they’re not making money anymore, unless they reaaally hate you) and AdWords.

AdWords is beyond your control, but if they get really dirty, the legal team can perhaps send a C&D letter.

For the organic side of stuff, you can work with your better-behaved affiliates to top the SERPs and push their junk down. Provide them some unique content you don’t have on your domain for instance. Let them write something for yours with author links back… Plenty of ways to go about it.

]]> By: Will Critchlow http://www.firstpagefitness.com/blog/2007/07/05/every-brand-needs-an-affiliate-program-for-reputation-management/#comment-24991 Will Critchlow Sat, 14 Jul 2007 11:07:55 +0000 http://www.firstpagefitness.com/blog/2007/07/05/every-brand-needs-an-affiliate-program-for-reputation-management/#comment-24991 Thanks for an interesting take on this. I found your post through Stuntdubl's. It's great to get new and interesting ideas on this area. I write about reputation monitoring and management on our company blog but this is an angle I hadn't come across / thought of before. Thanks! Thanks for an interesting take on this. I found your post through Stuntdubl’s. It’s great to get new and interesting ideas on this area. I write about reputation monitoring and management on our company blog but this is an angle I hadn’t come across / thought of before.

Thanks!

]]> By: Friday Favorites 6/13/07 - Stuntdubl - SEO Consultant http://www.firstpagefitness.com/blog/2007/07/05/every-brand-needs-an-affiliate-program-for-reputation-management/#comment-24837 Friday Favorites 6/13/07 - Stuntdubl - SEO Consultant Fri, 13 Jul 2007 18:17:26 +0000 http://www.firstpagefitness.com/blog/2007/07/05/every-brand-needs-an-affiliate-program-for-reputation-management/#comment-24837 [...] Everett has some ideas ideas about using affiliate marketing for reputation management [...] [...] Everett has some ideas ideas about using affiliate marketing for reputation management [...]

]]> By: Brett Borders http://www.firstpagefitness.com/blog/2007/07/05/every-brand-needs-an-affiliate-program-for-reputation-management/#comment-24235 Brett Borders Wed, 11 Jul 2007 02:21:56 +0000 http://www.firstpagefitness.com/blog/2007/07/05/every-brand-needs-an-affiliate-program-for-reputation-management/#comment-24235 this is an excellent quality article, a potent signal worthy paying attention to in a sea of "me too" affiliate marketing info posts. this is an excellent quality article, a potent signal worthy paying attention to in a sea of “me too” affiliate marketing info posts.

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