clickbank links

I have a question I'd like to address regarding clickbank, links in the footer and SE's attitudes towards permanent links.

I've signed up with clickbank - which, depending on how my test goes (removal of ztmc links) goes, will become a permanent feature on my footer.

I've only added a couple for the moment, so I don't expect any huge crowd just yet. However, I'm informed that having rotating ads from ztmc has a drastic affect on SEO performance...

Once I've collected a good number of relevant products from clickbank, I intend to place them as rotating ads in my footer, much like ztmc was - but because they will be hand picked by me - they will clearly be specific and 100% relevent to the focus of my website.


So, my questions are:

Is it ok to have rotating (using internal rotation script) ads within my footer?
How will SEO be affected (if at all?) as these are internally held links and unlike ztmc, will be 100% related content / links?
Should I remove them from the footer and place them elsewhere (e.g. links directory - which may affect url / interfere with affiliation)?
Does anyone have any further advise I should consider?

Why just place them in the footer? If it's affiliate program products, you should promote them in more prominent positions.

You should be ok with affiliate programs. The only thing Google really does not like about them (to the best of my knowledge) is when the site is thin. In other words, the focus is on getting users to click the affiliate links, not on the actual content.

Years ago I did really good as a thin affiliate by simply getting a feed of product data, and then hooking up a "Buy Button" that would take them right to the *actual vendor* that sold the products. But as time went on Google started to get savvy as to what I was doing, and eventually my traffic and earnings dwindled away.

With a forum, it's hard to be classified as a thin affiliate site. Another reason for failure for these sites is that it is hard to get anyone to link to them. Why would they link to an affiliate site, when they can link to the vendor?

In your case, you should be fine. However, I would like clarification on why you plan to stick these links into the footer area. I don't think I'm a fan of that placement idea, but I would love to hear your strategy.

Check out some of the results on the topic of thin affiliate sites here:
thin affiliate sites google - Google Search

Hi Joe, my only reason for placing them in the footer is because they're not intrusive, yet visible and, due to the nature of the footer within vb, available on every page sitewide.

You can try it, but I think you'll need better placement if you want to do well with those programs.

The credit/loan links you have in the bottom now still worry me a lot.

Those are ztmc - which is being disabled from the 18th. I'd do it now, but they pay in advance to the 18th, so I figure I'd best keep it above board.

Originally Posted by karlm

Those are ztmc - which is being disabled from the 18th. I'd do it now, but they pay in advance to the 18th, so I figure I'd best keep it above board.

Ah - ok. Your under contract for 8 more days. Then get rid of them.

Yep.. I have addded to the same line -
vbseo - {ztmc x 4} - bidvertiser (similar to adsense)

then the next line is my clickbank -
Dads Rights Book - Feeling Fat? - Internet TV for men - Hair restoration - Child Custody Strategies

Which, if you check the content of my site - you'll see is very much pertinent.

I've wondered about putting the links into a specific category (where only admins can add links), and using a similar concept of the 'random links' module which is displayed on various forum pages. That would be a little more prominent than the footer.

I also think what I'll do, is add a condition to the links so it can identify the forumID and whether the member is male or female (already have a profile field for that) so as to display differing ads accordingly. Not sure how I'd impliment that just yet though...

I think your last thoughts on targeting your demographic based on the forum being accessed, and gender are a much better idea. You're moving in the right direction. However, I would really think about moving the ads up into a better location for best results.

Yes, sorry - in the above post (#8) I had intended to explain I was referring to the VBA links directory, which I use on other pages... and they're in the sidebar.