When it comes to being an online affiliate, sometimes it seems like we are all a bunch of tight arses. Everyone is striving to earn extra cash, stumble upon the next big thing and never give anything away. While I do agree that we should all be looking to do what is best for oursevles in the long run, we don’t have to be a tight arse to achieve that.
Yesterday we were discussing link exchanges and people taking them down. Whether they are intentional or not, it got me thinking about how tight everyone is. If we all were generous and easy goinh with things like dishing out links, we would all be better off for it.
I don’t think I have ever turned down a legitimate link exchange request from a solid site. In saying that, I have never really been a big exchanger because I never actively seek out links. I just go along with them when the opportunity arises.
Recently I have been trying to just link to sites that are worth of a link. Everyone is oh so scared that they will be wasting link juice, helping a competitor and the list goes on. I do understand to some degree why people are tight arses but I think people can and will do a 180 spin when they see things from my angle.
Why Should You Be a Generous Affiliate?
There are a number of reasons why in my opinion you are better off being generous. Firstly because noone likes a tight arse. I know I don’t. If someone tries to screw me on a link exchange my reaction is… pfft whatever man don’t worry about it. Or even if I do go ahead with it I will remember it in the future.
Next on the list is the opposite of the first reason. People like generous affiliates. When you need a link, help or anything people will WANT to help you. One way, unsolicited links go a long way towards helping people out. If they don’t link back, who cares? if their site is worth linking to, link to it. There is such a bad misconception in this industry that it’s a waste to link out. In fact, it has been proven that if you link to authority sites that it will actually help you.
So what should you take out of reading this? That I’m having some lovey dovey rant about links? No. There are plenty of tight arses around that will just keep taking. Seek out other affiliates that are in the same boat as you and want to HELP YOU to help themselves.
Believe it or not, we can all help each other more than we think.
Cool person of the day award: This goes to Kaus. She runs online slots is always helping me out whenever I ask and I haven’t really had much of a chance to help her in return. She helped me a lot with sorting out my Craps site and her slots site really just kick arse. Keep up the good work showing your visitors the best places to play slots online
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
LOL thank you Nick. I came here cause I seen your site in my stats and was thinking wow did he actually link to me I was only kidding but thank you anyway and I dont mind helping. …although you’ve saved me tons of time this week by bringing up that leech program. Ive tried others but I like that once I set the option to force me to stay on the program I’m stuck with it
As for “tight arses” I think the worst I had was someone who came to me asking for a link and to help promote something of theirs which I had no problem with. I explained that I don’t do three way links, I will not link to crummy sites etc..and he says’ no worries trust me. He asked his webmaster to get in contact with me and what do you know,….crappy spam site at the request of a homepage link because “my site didnt have the PR that they did”. Was so annoyed.
I dont stress over competitors anymore because at the end of the day, if the person leaves my site and goes to theirs..than I obv didnt do my job or have what they were looking for. There’s way to many players available to worry about that stuff.
Great article. It goes nicely together with http://onlinepokeraffiliate.org/avoid-one-sided-relationships/ (Avoid One Sided Relationships)
Interesting article.
I experienced the exact opposite, I have never seen another industry where people are helping each other and giving away information like in the gambling affiliate industry. Actually I was surprised to see all the help some newbies got on the forums.
Yes, there are exceptions. But the amount of helping people greatly outnumbers those who are tight-asses.
The forums yes but when it comes down to actually linking..not so much, especially for newbies. I dont know how many times I’ve had an affiliate demand a homepage link in return for a crappy link page. I think that is one of the biggest frustration for new affiliates. On top of that you have a large number of affiliates who choose not to link at all for whatever reason.
Sharing information is there…the linking in most cases is not
True, sorry, I didn’t think of linking especially
I never was that big link exchanger, I can count on 2 hands when I asked someone to exchange links. There are a lot of other methods that can give you great links without checking the link partners monthly (Social bookmarking, article directories, RSS feeds, etc…).
But yes, it can be a struggle for new affiliates.
Nice post, 100% agree with the sentiment.
Reason for the comment is actually to offer the friendly suggestion you could take the anti-semitic remark (‘ to jew me’) out… I’m sure nothing sinister was meant by it, but even unintentional racism is not something I’d want my business associated with – especially with some major operators based in Israel!
Anyway, keep up the greart blogging
Mark
Hey Mark,
Thanks for the suggestion. Was just something that I didn’t think twice about. Obviously had no intention of offending anyone.
Cheers mate,
Nick