Affiliate networks: what's best to maximize PR?

[sdadesky]

Hi there,

I'm putting some last touches on what I hope will be a state of the art hotel search engine, and intend to market this heavily to the travel agent community,
with a free affiliate program.

The question I have is: should I host these affiliate sites all on my server and just optimize the url's so the affiliates get their name in the subdomain?

Or should I offer them a php/mysql -based "finished" solution allowing them to host it on their own servers so that they can establish their own PageRank and don't all get painted with the same PR brush.

I did some preliminary research. Two other popular affiliate programs are travelNow and worldchoice hotels. Signing up for the first gives you and instant page rank of 4 !! While the second you start of at 0... Interesting, huh?

Your thoughts are appreciated.

[SlingBrain]

and hoping that I understood your question correctly, here is my 2 cents.

Personally, I prefer hosting on my own site(s). Simply because I've found that if you have a site hosted elsewhere it's difficult to make the necessary adjustments to your keywords and layout as you deem necessary.

If it's hosted elsewhere sometimes you're at the mercy of the company you're affiliated with.

Plus, as the person providing the affiliate program, you will receive incoming links to your site thus helping your overall PR.

Hope that helps!

- K

[Linda Buquet]

There are several issues that came up in this thread I want to clarify.

1) Most good affiliates already have their own site or want to build it their way.

2) If you give them site on your server you really have to worry about duplicate content problems.

3) If you let them host their own sites, then depending on the software or network you choose, affiliates may not pass you PR.

4) Easiest and best way to set up of you can afford to is by going with an affiliate network (typically). You don't get the PR but you get a ton of other benefits and can get off to a much stronger, faster start.

My 2 cents. ;-)

[StephenR.]

I definately prefer a hosted solution so I can tweak it to my requirements.

[sdadesky]

Hi Linda,

1) point well taken
2) I thought duplicate content applied no matter where the content is located, on same ip or not... In fact, it might be that there is a bigger issue if content is NOT coming from same ip range and same domain. I'm afraid Google will punish the same content appearing on different sites. Of course, as long as the affiliates modify sufficient areas of content - perhaps this is something I can simplify for them with self-publishing components - that may not apply.
3)As an interesting aside, I noticed that with travelnow affiliate program, any affiliate joining them automatically gets same pr as all other affiliates - in other words it is shared. Nobody has more than any body else. All of these are hosted on same server.

I'm not really so concerned with my PR - although it would be nice . I AM concerned that they can achieve good PR. If they succeed, in the long run, so will I.
4) Yes affiliate networks sound good to me to. I'll read up more on them in this thread.

Originally Posted by Linda Buquet

There are several issues that came up in this thread I want to clarify.

1) Most good affiliates already have their own site or want to build it their way.

2) If you give them site on your server you really have to worry about duplicate content problems.

3) If you let them host their own sites, then depending on the software or network you choose, affiliates may not pass you PR.

4) Easiest and best way to set up of you can afford to is by going with an affiliate network (typically). You don't get the PR but you get a ton of other benefits and can get off to a much stronger, faster start.

My 2 cents. ;-)