I received an email from the PR department of a new start-up called Ukritic. I thought I’d pass it along to you 3 or 4 readers. And of course I will have something to say about the enterprise…
Just wanted to connect about something your Lost Ball in High Weeds readers might find interesting…
It’s a startup called Ukritic.com. Essentially it’s a bit like Squidoo, except specifically for product reviews – and it’s purpose built for affiliate marketing.
For beginner affiliates it’s a good way to get their feet wet, reviewing a number of products and testing the waters in different markets before investing their time/energy into building a site of their own. And as you know, it often doesn’t take much traffic to see some results when they’re publishing quality reviews.
I spent some time going through the offering and frankly it looks pretty solid. Sites like this are ripe for spammy delight but it seems like they are firewalling against the blackhat forces of greed. Doesn’t seem like much opportunity for SEO shenanigans so it may actually serve a useful purpose. The “Rules” for playing are seemingly strict so if you aren’t up to the task of delivering quality then you probably shouldn’t waste your time.
Personally I am swamped with shit. I am trying to create product sites via Squidoo, building a couple of “curated” sites, figuring out Pinterest for monetary gain while it remains possible, working on Keyword Academy-type authority sites, as well as juggling a few funnels. I need another project like I need a Google slap.
But here’s the thing. Squidoo is perfect for what you can do with it: Create product mini sites. Google continues to tolerate Squidoo. You can’t do the same thing with Hubpages, Tumblr, Blogger, etc. Well, you sort of can, but it doesn’t perform as well. It doesn’t look right. You can build a self hosted mini site using WordPress but I try to avoid that hassle. It’s why I Squidoo.
But Ukritic might be a way to double your product review efforts. They aren’t keen on unoriginal shit but you could re-write your Squidoo lens and post the shit on Ukritic. I think if I am taking time to create good and useful content on Squidoo then there is no reason I couldn’t utilize the effort on another platform. Double the fun.
Anyway, have a look at Ukritic. It’s free. I suppose they make money by splashing Google ads on your site. Maybe one day they will rev share like Squidoo. Whatever. I’m more interested in being able to put more eyeballs on some piece of crap I am promoting. Ukritic might be worthwhile.
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Thanks for the recommendation Splork.
Ukritic looks like it could be useful.
How long before Google kills this type of site though as it really only exists for one purpose – aff links.
Will watch it’s progress with interest though.
Most every site on the web is made to make money. Google wouldn’t have anything to rank but .edu and .gov sites if they Panda’d every site. As long as the content is useful and unique then I can’t imagine why Google would have a problem.
Look at the ups and downs of Squidoo and Hubpages in Google. I’ve had lenses and hubs for 4 years with these sites. I never paid anything but time to create a webpage on them. At times Google penalized them and other times like now they love them. May as well give Ukritic a try while it’s still viable. If they get penalized at some point then Ukritic will have to adjust like Hubpages and Squidoo did. Otherwise folks will bail. And you will always be in the game with a few pages when the times are good.
What’s happend to LipSkip? It appears to have been turned into a vile splog.
@Narcis -Sold the domain. I got rid of a ton in a house cleaning. Simplify with Squidoo, Hubpages and others. Keeping a couple Keyword Academy type authority sites.
Hey Splork,
I know you’re now immune from G’s algo changes by floating in the country gentleman’s sewers of Squidoo and the like, but do you have an opinion on the latest carpet bomb G has placed on the searches?
@KC – Google really doesn’t have much use for you unless you are a player. We keep playing this game of ever stretched long tail keywords to rank for. 1-2 keywords are dead for affiliates. 3 word keywords are getting difficult. I target 4 word keywords these days. Crazy shit.
It’s getting difficult to play with standard thin affiliate sites. The only way I figure you can do it is 1) get it while you can with domain name affiliate sites 2) take a ride on Squidoo or Hubpages. I’ve let virtually every single one of my self-hosted affiliate sites go. To the point that I will be cancelling my hosting and using the free hosting I get for premium membership at Affilorama. Imagine that. I have gone from hundreds of self-hosted domains to less than 15. I have replaced them all on Squidoo/Hubpages making the best of a shitty situation.
Speaking of which, Squidoo isn’t playing around anymore. They are razing the fuck out of lenses with ANY dupe content. I built a Cinco de Mayo lens the other day, copying a few sentences out of a catalog listing that described the product. They locked that fucker. I had to delete it and do over.
I’ve read a hundred posts and threads about Penguin the past couple of days. I could have avoided all that by reading this.
Quote: Google really doesn’t have much use for you unless you are a player.
You need to post more.
@KC – Thanks
Hiya SplorK!
Any post for the Penguin update?! Most of my sites were wiped out from Google, fortunately, I’m still ranking highly with Bing and Yahoo so earnings didn’t went to zero.
Share us a word or a post wilya?!
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