First, let me say I in NO WAY agree with how Google has handled the recent series of slaps and bans. Over 100,000 people had their AdWords accounts terminated since Sepetember.  Some didn’t even get a warning.

No reasons for the most part… just “low quality landing pages”. Some had content sites LOADED with content to the tune of hundreds, and in some cases, thousands of articles. It didn’t matter.

BTW here is an official reason for a ban (ARBITRAGE_AFFILIATE_BRIDGE) from a Google rep who sent this to a person who was actually banned when he asked for more info as to WHY. Affiliate Bridge… hmmmmmm.

My take? I think Google is really taking favor to merchants because they view affiliates as “duplicate content” servers. Think about it. No matter what site people click on, if people are all basically hitting the same merchant sites in the end, then the site is really a duplicate content server.

Example:

bestwidgets.com – 100 unique articles, aff links to allwidgets.com
topwidgets.com – 100 unique articles, aff links to allwidgets.com
widgethub.com – 100 unique articles, aff links to allwidgets.com

In the end, these are basically bridge pages to allwidgets.com.

The big question is, what can you do about it. I think the game has changed to where you need to have your own product, whether it be an ebook on widgets, a membership site on widgets, SOMETHING. Just don’t have blatant affiliate links.

Another reason is I believe Google will eventually become the world’s largest super affiliate. They now have their own affiliate network and are looking to draw merchants whom THEY will advertise.

I won’t go in depth, but it’s covered pretty well here.

My point is, if you want to continue on the AdWords gravy train, look to where Google is heading, and join them. That’s all you can do.

I hope 2010 brings you much prosperity, happiness and health and I look forward to continuing to provide you  even more insights!

Andrew Wee’s Friday Podcast With Peter Dunbar

It was really great to get a chance to talk to Andrew and to share some marketing insights with his network as well.

We talked about video marketing and also a little bit about business management. Hope you all enjoy it!

Even though I’ve been working like mad, I still realize I need to take some time for my family so we went to the local “Step Back Cafe” yesterday afternoon (my wife Renee and son Camden).

Often times you hear people say how you can work an hour a day and make millions. Well, truth be told, most projects I start require hard work and dedication. The whole key is to be working on the RIGHT things like project management etc versus medial tasks. That’s the whole secret folks. You need to try and WORK yourself out of a job.

Now with our new site it WILL be more of a hands on. We’ll be in the forum and also working on new killer content every month that can teach YOU how to build a long term scaleable business using a variety of traffic methods.

I can’t tell you how excited we all are, but make no mistake about it, it takes work no matter how you cut it. David once said that any successful marketer he has ever met has one thing in common. They all work REALLY hard. He was SO right. Those words were as truthful as I’ve ever heard indeed.

Now, don’t let that 4 letter word scare you because quite honestly, I LOVE what I do, and even 16 hours working in my business is better than ONE hour in my old factory jobs years ago..

Hope everyone has a great weekend and remember… stay focused, work hard, and LOVE what you do!!

Just click the link above “Traffic Secrets Giveaway” and follow the instructions in the video… don’t worry, I won’t ask you to break dance, stand on your head, or do anything generally strenuous

Many thanks to everyone who is in the running… I draw the name 7/15 sometime in the afternoon so you need to act fast!

Until next time…

Feel free to follow me on Twitter, and friend me on Facebook as well! Take care and stay tuned for some (hopefully) great content!