Affiliate Marketing website design problems

When Google's Panda update to the search engine algorithm was released in February 2011 it reduced the income received by many Affiliate Marketers. Later in April 2011 when the Penguin update was released some websites went out of business as they no longer had any income because they could not be found on any Google search result page. No new visitors meant no commission. Before I carry on I better explain what is an Affiliate Marketer. Many big brand, including companies like Amazon, have affiliate programs. They pay people a small commission on each sale they are involved in. Many Affiliate websites are product review sites with a link to the main company's website where the visitor can purchase the item under review if they like what they have read. The code behind the link tells the main company that the sale came via an affiliate and therefore rewards them with a percentage of the sale cost.

After the Google Panda and penguin update Affiliate marketing income fell dramatically

Affiliate Marketing website design suffers from the problem of thin and duplicate content. They fail to comply with Google's Webmaster guidelines. Many Affiliate websites copy photographs of products and use the same product descriptions that are found on the main parent company website. The product description is sometimes just a few sentences. Google's algorithm regards these pages as of very poor quality and places them at the bottom of the search result listings page. I am not talking about the bottom of the first page. I am referring to the bottom of the twenty fifth page or worst. Most people who search Google do not go past the second page.

This is an example of a bad affiliate marketer's fashion review website design

An affiliate marketer came to me and wanted to know why her fashion review site was not getting any visitors. Have a look at the front page in the example above.There is no original content on this page and hardly any information about the clothing. Each photograph, when clicked, linked to a major fashion chain's website. This page should have been ten pages. Each concentrating on one item of clothing. The owner of this affiliate marketing website could then write 300-500 words about why she chose it for inclusion on her website, what it would go well with, how it could be accessorized, what time of the year it would be good for, sizing, availability, postage, returns policy, washing instructions etc...

People want a get rich quick scheme. Sorry to disappoint you but you need to do some hard work. You have to earn your commission by making a text rich site with lots of reviews and articles that add value to the visitors purchasing experience that they cannot obtain from the parent company's website. Never use product descriptions that are already on other websites. If you do your page will be marked down and appear lower in the search results page position than your competitors.