Affiliate Rant!

Shawn over at Affiliate Program Tip Blog received the following note -

My goal is to make 25 to 30 different Web sites on different topics - each having 500 to 700 odd pages per Web site. Through these 25 Web sites, I want to gross US $60 to $80 per month promoting different category products, as well as having Google AdSense income on each Web site. That way I can gross US $2,000 to $2,500 per month. Is my plan worthwhile? is it possible?

That’s a pretty good plan so far… then Shawn notes the implication of such a grand plan -

It sounds like you’ve thought long and hard about how you can game the system. All of those sites and many hundreds of pages per site - either you’re planning to churn out a ton of automated, keyword rich gibberish, or you’ve got a big gang of Oompa Loompas locked away in your basement.

Obviously it would take years of part-time work to develop that many pages of content. This guy is likely planning to use articles to build out quickly but the problem with that is pages with syndicated articles leak. That bio box at the end of each article generally contains at least one if not more links to the authors website and wonder of wonders, the author’s website probably offers content at least as compelling as this guys, probably more so. I won’t deny that this is a viable strategy - with enough filler content on the page duplicate content penalties are not a problem and articles are a great way to build Adsense sites. The thing to consider is that everyone else is doing the same thing. This and the fact that Adsense simply doesn’t pay that well should be enough to make most people realize that there are better and easier ways to build content websites.

The BIG money is made by being recognized as an authority in your niche. If you create original content that is high value you will eventually receive recognition. And money follows recognition.

He would be hard pressed to build a strong mailing list from one of these article sites but if he was recognized as a leader in his niche people would fall over each other signing up to read his missives each week. More importantly, they would trust him and that makes marketing very, very easy. I would take a 100 page website and a mailing list of 1000 people that view me as a niche authority over a 1000 page Adsense site any day because I can market to that list over and over again while that Adsense site is going to deliver viewers worth, on average, a penny or two each, once.

(Quotes from: Affiliate Program Tip Blog: Ask Shawn Collins: The Potential Return on 15,000 Affiliate Pages Via Affiliate Program Tip Blog.)