Shoemoney asked for responses via Twitter to the question “What is a Super Affiliate?” yesterday, and after bouncing the idea around in the office a little this morning we found, unsurprisingly, a thorough response wouldn’t fit in a Tweet. We concluded there is one important characteristic all super affiliates share, but before we talk about that let’s run down the three types of super affiliates we think are out there:

Authority portals
Large sites with a wealth of great editorial content on a single broad topic (or variety of closely related topics), which is used to push a range of Affiliate offers in the same space. Each and every page is probably optimised to give the affiliate several bites of the cherry in terms of monetizing their traffic, and as Dave pointed out the ultimate goal with this approach is to get web users to “visit your site first rather than the brand site”.

UK site www.moneysupermarket.com is a great example of this: it’s a comparison site but with a much narrower focus than the likes of Kelkoo, concentrating on financial products and the bills most people can’t avoid paying such as utilities and motor insurance. Well written and researched editorial, combined with a thriving user community offering each other advice, has made MoneySupermarket a big name in this space and impartiality (or at least the impression of it) has made it a very trusted brand.

Spammers and jammers
The guys who’ll use any means necessary to turn a buck. Characteristics of players in this arena are technical savvy, a willingness - some might say a drive - to experiment, and a certain disregard for playing by the rules. “Jammers” (to give them the less pejorative of the two titles) will use white, grey or black hat techniques as appropriate and they’re all about whatever works at the time. They’ll show little loyalty to any one network or merchant, or even to their own methods or site networks…it’s all about extracting the most possible money out of whatever is working at the time.

In the old days a huge amount of affiliate revenue was being paid to people on this side of the tracks. Today…well, a huge amount of money is still being paid to people on this side of the tracks. The only difference is the field has narrowed down some as search engines and affiliate networks have become more sophisticated at sniffing out those they see as bad apples. Gone are the days when you could launch a network of scraper sites and watch the money roll in. But if you’re constantly exploring possibilities and staying one step ahead there’s still gold in them thar hills.

High quality niche sites/networks
Similar to authority portals in that their site(s) are built on high quality unique content, but these affiliates have a much narrower focus that allows them to build closer relationships with their networks, merchants, and others in their space. Niche players will tend to have a better understanding of their audience, which in turn allows them to find and serve that audience better, be it through PPC, SEO or other forms of promotion.

Niche operators will usually have excellent relationships with the firms that are paying them because they send high quality, high converting traffic. They also tend to draw good quality natural links and word-of-mouth due to being seen as a leader in their area. They’ll also open up lots of opportunities to promote their site(s) in ways which just wouldn’t be possible for others, such as attending conferences and expos or appearing as an industry expert in the news media.

Niche players may operate a site or sites in a single space, or operate many distinct networks addressing different topics. It’s a hard way to make ten million a year but, done right, a good way to make a million and feel good about it.

The one thing all super affiliates have in common
The single thing that all of the above share? A willingness to work hard. Whether it’s crafting high quality content, networking like hell or fine-tuning their latest black hat technique the three types all work their bloody socks off. They’re constantly on the look out for new ways to extend their operations, and without fail they’ll enjoy what they do. Money is a way of keeping score, certainly, and I’m not going to say people in the above categories would do it for free, but they tend to generate wealth because they love what they do, not just because they love cash. Though come to think of it that’s a quality most super affiliates share too.

I have some high traffic sites in the UK and often get sent free stuff to play with, but at the end of the day it’s my choice to decide whether or not I blog about them. Now recently Graywolf raised the subject about a Guy being Guilty of Link Payola, but wait a minute am I …

People have sent me gifts and I have linked to them ( the only person i have linked to in this whole post hasn’t sent me any gift or asked for anything in return):

Microsoft adCenter, Microsoft Live, Google Adwords, Lenovo, Berocca, Sumolounge too name a few, what about Mel Carson or Matt Cutts I have had gifts from them too, Vanessa Fox took me home and I drank her wine one night oh my god !!

The fact that I have been taken to dinner and had drinks with so so many people, can I not talk about these things or link to them for fear that My blog will be penalised or worse their sites ( makes no difference because this post will never rank anyway) Should I NOFOLLOW everything because I know that a link is a vote of confidence in the eyes of a search engine, and it should if all things are equal influence the search engines, but for gods sake that’s what the search engines want isn’t it, isn’t Google a link based Search Engine?

Do you want the web to read something like, “Yes it is a great book you should read it, I would have linked to it but I don’t want the site that I purchased it from penalised although the site has a sale on and you can get it 20% cheap than Amazon, I also bought my wife a new car it’s awesome, I dare not link to the garage because it’s local to me and I would not want to hurt their search engine rankings, I went to London in august with my wife and kids I would tell you what a great places to visit with kids are, but I’m too scared to link just in case they get a penalty just like me !”

Now this is turning into a rant and that pisses me off, I TESTED AN OFF THE SHELF AUTOMATED SPAM TOOL AND THE SITE I TESTED IT ON RANKS TOP 10 .. but you guessed it I’m not going to link to that either I wouldn’t want them to get a penalty either, the fact that I’m a SEO means I can’t just link out any more and therefore maybe just maybe I shouldn’t blog either. btw the Sumo Lounge is friggin awesome and I’m going to get Dan Horton to blog about so that, and you know what I’m going to make him link to their site … and maybe even twice !!!

DaveN

Pre 9AM

The day starts. Dave helps get the kids ready for school with Becky whilst saying goodbye to NFFC who slept over at the Naylor residence. His mood lifts as he tries on a shirt from years back and finds they now fit him, his efforts to loose weight are now paying off. (over a stone)  Somewhat reassuring Dave thinks, especially after the overeating  escapade at the Old Deanery Ripon last night with Becky and NFFC.

I see Dave pass my place at about 8.35 and flash my lights to acknowledge his presence, oops best get a move on.

9AM

Dave sat at his desk is already taking a client call and discussing viral strategies. The call ends and Becky steps in, giving focus to the SEO tasks in hand and reminding Dave that preparation is needed for the site clinics in the next few weeks.

Our technical guy Ben sorts out an email problem with one of the servers.

10AM

Dave back on with clients and talks about how he operates as an SEO and what direction he could take the company in. Back in the office we discuss the latest news releases.

11AM

Heads down, SEO report time. Checking out client sites and prospective sites too, seeing how they match up to requirements.

2PM

The SEO team headed by Dave take a conference call for one of the latest SEO proposals. Dave and Becky outline the methods by which Bronco works and field questions on how a working relationship would develop if the client came onboard. The process takes roughly an hour and the client seems encouraged by just how honest Dave is about the proposal. There’s no smoke and mirrors here, people get a clear outline of what they can expect.

4PM

We talk on just how effective an SEO campaign can be, especially when using PPC data as a comparison.

5PM

Dave is constructing some posts with a glint in his eye….

  Google News has been a big topic of conversation in the office over the past few days, with last week’s United Airlines debacle leading to a wide ranging discussion on the nature of how we connected types get our news.

Between the run on United stock, the collapse of XL Airways and last month’s crash in Madrid it seemed to me the travel business is very much in the doldrums. Google News - my main gateway to non-specialist news - has done nothing to disabuse me of this notion recently: as I explained to the guys it seems like every time I visit there’s another headline spelling doom and gloom for the travel/leisure sector.

Dave pointed out I was guilty of the exact same sin we’d spent most of last week mocking the United stock dumpers for: taking Google News headlines on faith. If anyone had asked I’ve have told them with confidence the whole travel industry was going down the pan, but that would have been based on scanning a few headlines, not knowing all the facts. In fact I happened to be speaking to Nick Webb at Virgin Holiday Cruises and he told me the Cruise market is going great guns, as are many areas in the travel and holiday sector. The decline of air travel is making all the headlines, but people are still travelling to enjoy themselves…the difference is they’re doing it on cruise ships or trains or, god help us, in caravans.

The moral of the story? Don’t form your opinions based on headlines, particularly from aggregators like Google News. The web teaches you to be a scanner rather than a deep reader, and while that might be appropriate when scouting product information it’s only going to make you look a bit of a thickie when you’re discussing current affairs.

8AM 

Dave has a better start to the day but is anxious to see how the UK stock market opens, so hangs around at home until 8AM, thinks that AIG will go pop before the month is out.

9AM

Dave arrives at 9am. His first comment is that we are indeed heading for a depression not recession, surprised that this comes as a shock to many, especially as there as been so much focus about this from the media. More importantly though the DaveN blog is still not feeding out correctly, the indexed content is less than fresh. Will Google be kind to us ? Dave mentions friends within the industry who have had similar experiences with their blog and it has taken 3-4 weeks to get back in.

Google news is the topic of discussion in the office, more on that later.  Dave takes a call from a client to get up to speed with the direction they want to go in, as usual a flurry of ideas come from the DaveN corner.

11am

Dave now in a meeting with one of the original UK Seos and yes I’m earwigging you’d be surprised the amount of information you can learn in this office.

Meanwhile, the new Dan and myself are reviewing the latest in-house development project.

2PM

Dave is spending  the day with one of his oldest friends in the industry NFFC, he was an Administrator  at webmasterworld when Dave first Joined. Emails and few phone calls done in the interim,  he’s still miffed about Google News and the United Airlines so I he is tasking one of us to see how hard it is to get some quotes from companies in the travel sector..

3PM

Still talking SEO and how the industry has changed over the years. I reflect on this and wish I had been in the industry longer.  Talk focuses on major corporations on the net and their site SEO. I smile as  NFFC  works on an Apple Mac, I know just how much Dave dislikes them hehe.

5.40 PM

Dave is talking to a client about effective URLS and giving site advice. He stresses the importance of being descriptive on web pages about a product and getting the right call to action in. I know it’s going to be a long day/ night for him once again.