There’ll be some smug grins out there reading this, I know. I’m hoping though, that there’ll also be some sympathetic types who have been exactly where I am right now with my bar stools affiliate site. Once more I find myself squarely in the midst of the affiliate marketing rollercoaster and quite frankly, it’s bloody hard work not to pack up and get off the ride!
My site has been nowhere to be found in the SERPs for about 3 weeks. About 2 weeks ago I started building links with High PR sites as the backbone – that is, registering on high PR forums, communities, news sites etc etc that allowed me to add ‘dofollow’ backlinks (either in profiles or on forums) to my site.
About a week after I started adding this type of link to my site (added about 20 in total), my site reappeared in the top page of the Google rankings for the search term ‘bar stools uk’ – which is the exact name of the domain (and site).
The success was extremely short lived and for one day only, I held these rankings. I sent about 25 clicks to my merchants on this one day (and made no sales), which was in contrast to the previous 6 weeks or so where I was hardly sending any clicks to my merchants (about 1 or 2 per day).
I blogged about the site’s return to rankings here and a few fellow affiliates actually took the time out to check the rankings themselves and verified that I was actually sitting on page 1 for these terms. We’re not just talking random poorly targeted searches here either, they were pretty relevant, end of buying cycle terms that would, if the rankings had stuck, converted pretty well for me (I think!). Here’s the list of keywords that hit my site that day:
bar stools uk
folding bar stool with back
bar stools
bella contemporary bar stool
bombo bar stool
bombo bar stool white
kitchen stools modern
red bar chair
retro stools
sam white leather bar stool
silver bar stools with black seats
stockists of bombo bar stools
tivoli bar stool
translucent bar stool
verona bar stool
verona folding bar stool
wooden kitchen stools
z stools
As you can see, they look like keywords that stand a good chance of turning into a sale for me…as it happens however, the rankings lasted one day only and I’m now back in limbo, nowhere to be found.
I know I shouldn’t be that upset but really, this is the second time this has happened to me now and I really wish my rankings would stick or that I could make some sense out of the ups and downs. All I can think of is that for some reason, there is something on my site that Google just doesn’t like.
I will, as I have done since the beginning of this project, stick to my guns and turn this site into a money making affiliate site but right now, the only remedy for my woes is to get stuck into a rum and coke link building and content generating campaign – again – and just keep going…
.
May 17th, 2010 at 2:58 am
Personally I would concentrate on other projects and build a handful of links to bar stools website per day, maybe add content once a week or so.
Sent you an email you might find interesting.
May 18th, 2010 at 6:56 am
Hi, enjoying your blog by the way!
I wouldnt worry about your issues with ranking, from my experience of launching sites sometimes google loves your site straight off other times it doesn’t. Suppose it keeps the system appearing more random and less simple to crack, at the end of the day you will always need content and links. Looking at your site I would say you need a lot more links. Also I would focus on setting up more sites, sites take time to grow in Google (there’s no by pass for that) so in the mean time set up more – spread your eggs.
May 18th, 2010 at 7:11 am
@Shane – thanks for the email! Will be a great help. I think you’re spot on with your suggestions and they echo several from other affiliates. Keep building links, keep adding content, but in the meantime, start a new site. I want to start a hotel affiliate site next but don’t know where to start!
@mikey_gee – thanks, man! It’s nice to know it’s enjoyable for at least a handful of people but what would really make it useful will be when the bar stools site starts earning money!!
You highlight two points made by most other people. Links + content + start a new site while you’re waiting. That’s exactly what I’m going to do. Thanks for the input!