My last post has generated a lot of response and questions from people, so I wanted to discuss a couple of other points about the method that I outlined in Part 1.
First of all, there is the question of whether this method could get you banned from Google AdWords. I would consider this a gray-area technique. It’s not something that is an instant ban, but if you exploit it to a huge degree, then yes, it could lead to your account being terminated.
The reason that I posted this method is that it can be a great way to test out a campaign, but I can’t stress enough that you should be building landing pages for offers that have proven successful with the direct link method. It is very hard to build a long-term, sustainable business on the internet without creating a website.
Second, some people have questioned the ethics of using another site that doesn’t belong to you as the display URL. The easiest response there is, if you don’t feel comfortable doing it, then don’t do it. An alternative to using someone’s website is that you can use a domain that you own as the Display and Destination URL to get your ad approved, then switch the link to your affiliate link with Edit Keyword Settings like I suggested. This way you don’t have to spend the time to build out a full dedicated landing page, but you are still using your own domain so you won’t get any complaints from other webmasters or feel bad about doing it.
I would also like to stress that the tutorials that I publish on this blog are not meant to be the absolute blueprint to success with affiliate marketing. There is no such blueprint. The goal with this blog is to give you, the reader, some good tips & advice to get going with some campaigns and marketing methods, and then you can tweak them and customize them to find what works the best for you.
There is a lot of money to be made in this industry, and it’s not always going to be easy. It’s a lot easier than working 60 hours a week in a job that you hate to bring home just enough to keep the bill collectors at bay though… Anything with the kind of potential that you have as an affiliate marketer is going to take some time to become successful at, but the rewards are definitely worth the effort that you put in.
That being said, I will continue to offer more strategies and tutorials, and I will do my best to answer your questions & comments to steer you in the right direction. So keep reading, and keep the feedback coming!
I read your first article on this subject and just want to say thanks for posting this second one as it does point out that if you do use the process too many times then there is a chance your account could get closed – thanks again for being specific
Man I read booth post I am actually using sort of the same tactics to send people to my polls.
The only difference is my landing page is generated with rss feeds, but the keywords point directly to the poll.
Thanks for posting this post and the last post
Curious to know does this method still work in Google Adwords since they've revamped their interface for the AdWords web app? The screen shots are different, and I didn't notice any fields tho change a url after the campaign was saved, for individual keywords. Can you supply a new screen shot of it?
Nevermind my last comment — using Google's spreadsheet view will show you the destination url — got it and thanks! Screen shots still would be cool for all the others maybe?
Ok I tried this direct linking approach and unfortunately my adwrods keyword status for all the keywords I used this method on has been 'disapproved' with the reason being 'inaccurate keyword URL'. So the Big G is on to this technique. Any other ideas would be appreciated! – Thanks