Affiliate Marketing – The SMART Way

Hey guys,

Just a quick heads-up:

We are re-opening ActuallyRank early next week. Currently, our capacity is about 60% filled, so we can take on enough members to fill the other 40%.

However – and this is important – there’s been some changes to the way that ActuallyRank delivers DoFollow inventory, as well as how we handle PageRank. (I’ve copied a recent announcement that went out to our members a short while ago, below).

Also – immediately following this relaunch (within a few days), we will be raising membership prices for new incoming members. So if you want to make sure you get a spot, AND lock in the current monthly rates, you’ll need to join basically as soon as you can, when the order form is live next week.

(Remember that our order form was only live for about 24 hours when we launched initially – we’d filled to capacity in a single day. It wouldn’t surprise me if that happens again).

Stay tuned…

Cheers

~ Chris

P.S. Note that the ActuallyRank Website will be adjusted to reflect the new inventory quotas and service changes before we start taking new members – which is currently in progress as we speak.

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Here’s the Major Change announcement that members received recently:

Subject: A Major Change, re: ActuallyRank & PageRank

Hi {!name}

This is a very important email that directly affects what you receive as an ActuallyRank member.

I know it’s on the long side, but please read it carefully…

First – we sincerely apologize for the wait as we propagate everything over to our new server (and interface).

It’s taken a bit longer than expected, but rest assured we are scrambling and busting our asses in the background to get this back up and running (and keep in mind this is a one-time annoyance, we only have to do this one time)…

Second – and this is very important:
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For three unavoidable reasons (explained in detail below), we are shifting our focus away from PageRank (for the % of monthly inventory quotas) and focusing on metrics that actually matter.

For months we’ve been telling members not just to focus on their high PR URLs, and yet at the same time, it seems hypocritical since when we launched, the core focus was “you’ll get X amount of PR2+ inventory”.

The bottom line is that we’ve learned so, so much from the initial growing pains and harvesting/filtering literally millions of URLs (as well as watching hundreds of members interact with thousands of blogs), that what we NOW know about blog commenting, DF URLs, PageRank and a whole host of other things paints a much different picture from when we first launched this service a few months back.

Here are the 3 main reasons why PageRank will no longer be the standard of ActuallyRank..

1) PageRank = Age.

Since Google only updates the PR ratings 2-3 times annually (and lately it’s only been about ONCE per year), that means that EVERY URL with a PR of 1+ is usually a year old, or more.

Furthermore, the high-PR pages are usually SEVERAL years old.

To put it bluntly:

BARRING VERY RARE CASES, THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A NEW URL (LESS THAN A YEAR OLD) WITH HIGH PAGERANK.

This might not have any bearing on a link-buying campaign, but when it comes to blog commenting, it means that high-PR inventory actually represents the WORST use of your time, because those sources are LEAST FRESH.

Next…

2) PageRank Simply Doesn’t Line Up With Real Rankings Anymore…

Ever noticed how what ranks these days in Google is the NEWER content from ESTABLISHED sites?

Those are the pages Google views as important. And yes, normally the root domains of the source sites have a high PR rating, but much of what you see ranking strong these days is NEW content (with very active cache dates) and 0 PR.

In terms of blog commenting, the cache date is a far more useful metric. It means that your link will be “noticed” and weighted frequently, and originates from a powerful base domain.

(For this very reason, cache date is one of the biggest factors – along with Domain Backlinks – in the PageJuice score that we display along with each URL).

If you don’t believe me, here’s what SEOMoz and Aaron Wall from SEOBook have to say about PR:

* “Cache Date as the NEW PageRank”

SRC: http://www.seobook.com/archives/001985.shtml

* “PR is Just ONE of 200 Ranking Signals”

SRC: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-science-of-ranking-correlations

And there’s thousands of other experts/source who will all corroborate the same thing.

But the most pressing reason why we are replacing the PR quota is this…

3) We Cannot Promise a Number That Doesn’t Exist.

This is the big one – and it’s an issue that didn’t really rear it’s ugly head until yesterday when we finally had enough usable data (from when we started months ago until yesterday’s major export from our servers) to run some statistically reliable estimates…

You’ve all seen the “drama” of our first two months, as we scrambed to fix holes in the algorithm, etc.

What we now have is literally a DoFollow search engine scanning around 1.2MM URLs per day, of which anywhere from 7,000 – 9,000 will pass all of our filters as a legitimate, commentable DoFollow link (well under 1%).

This has provided us a very interesting perspective on just how “big” (and small) the web really is, as well as how things actually break down in terms of PageRank ratios.

We have found that approximately 4.5% of URLs originating from blogging platforms (WordPress, etc) have a PageRank of 2 or higher. This means that for every 100,000 DoFollow URLs we find, maybe 4,000 or a little more are PR2+

What this means is that if you want a list of 10,000 DF URLs, where 2,000 are PR2+, what you ACTUALLY need is about 50,000 DoFollow URLs.

And what THAT means, is that for every URL we can provide for our members we are tossing out FOUR perfectly valid, useable DoFollow URLs. Our “waste rate” is quite literally 5:1, or 500%.

Now, that might not be a problem at first glance.

Just generate a crap-load of inventory, right?

Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way.

You see, there is a limited number of blogs on the internet. Period.

We estimate roughly about 150 Million or so that use a commentable platform, perhaps a little more, and yes there are more added each day – but there’s attrition, too.

(For example, WordPress stated in 2010 that there were around 30 million sites using its platform.)

Now, given that estimated figure – and factoring in our own data on % of avg DF count from URLs in general, that means that there is likely somewhere in the range of 1 to 2 Million DoFollow URLs that would pass our filters and offer commenting, that exist in the world, period.

That means that at our current “throwaway” rate of 5:1, there are effectively only 200K – 400K URLs that we can possibly supply our members with, EVER, unless we padded “new” inventory with old data.

And guess what that means?

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

It means that unless we change the 20% quota from PR2+ to something that’s actually feasible -

August will be the last batch of URLs we deliver, even with just a few hundred members.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

To further corroborate this, what we’ve seen in recent weeks is that our massive harvesting system is returning less and less inventory after comparing the freshlists to our previously-delivered data.

So unless we change the quota – there simply aren’t enough DoFollow URLs that exist on the web to burn through.

And – this is important – we are effectively “ignoring” (but still displaying) PageRank values as of TODAY.

We can no longer afford to waste what we now realize is a limited resource (DoFollow URLs).

Funny how much you learn when you build your own search engine.

Obviously, we wish we knew this before. But it would’ve been impossible to predict (or even know) until we’d harvested and filtered millions of blogs.

So here we are.

So…

Where to from here?

The “New” ActuallyRank: Quotas & the Future…

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URL Quotas:
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At this stage, it’s obvious that PR can no longer be the defining factor, unless we only promise a 4% PR2+ quota, which just doesn’t make sense for multiple reasons.

Especially since PageRank – for all the reasons I stated above – really doesn’t mean much anyway.

So going forward, what we will do is set a precedent using the scoring system (which heavily relies on Cache Dating & Domain Backlinks), where each member block receives an even ratio of scored URLs compared to our master database (which feeds the member blocks).

This means that if, say, our master DF database contains 1,000,000 URLs with scores ranging from 0 – 100, where 20% are 40+ (or whatever), then each member block will mirror that average.

This way it’s sustainable, and we are no longer just throwing out perfectly good backlink sources over the “PR Scramble”.

The focus from now on will be TRUE RANKING FACTORS. Not just the “perceived value” of PR.

This way, we can feasibly support about 600 – 800 members, without hitting the critical mass wall, since we estimate that each month there are roughly enough newly-discoverable DF URLs to support that amount.

Share Rates:
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All member blocks will now be accessed by 15 members (14 other than you), across the board.

For members at the $69/mo level, this is already the case. For others, it will literally make zero difference, especially considering that mass-exports are now a thing of the past (and abuse will GREATLY drop).

Speaking of pricing…

CURRENT Members are Grandfathered, But…
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Whatever you pay right now will always be your rate, but as you can likely guess based on the very real limitation on what can be harvested in terms of Quality DF inventory…

…ActuallyRank will no longer be the entry-level service it once was.

We’re not entirely decided on what the new membership fees will be (for INCOMING members, NOT existing ones), but it will be quite a bit higher than it is currently.

The bottom line is ActuallyRank cannot support thousands long-term. Only a few hundred.

And let’s face it – given how hard it really is to find THOUSANDS of DF URLs… it’s a bargain at the current rates.

And finally…

More Than DoFollow:
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Soon – and in ADDITION to, NOT a part of – your regular monthly inventory of DoFollow URLs, we will ALSO be providing you with very choice backlink sources that aren’t explicitly DF.

In reality, and as many of you know good & well, the NoFollow tag only affects PageRank.

NOFOLLOW BACKLINKS GET CACHED, WEIGHTED, AND EFFECT YOUR SERP RANKINGS. IT’S BEEN PROVEN MANY, MANY TIMES.

There’s no sense hiding from that fact.

Especially these days, as Google is quickly adapting to social media, tweets, etc. (That’s where it’s all headed… like it or not).

Obviously, DF inventory will be the mainstay of ActuallyRank because it’s “zero risk” linkbuilding in terms of effect, but we can’t ignore the VALUE that we can provide by using the other half of our harvesting capabilities…

This way we can provide very large volumes of EXTREMELY High-Scoring URLs, in addition to your regular DF inventory.

We hope to have those modules in place by mid August (stay tuned).

Tracking Backlinks:
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Real quick:

This has been our most-requested feature-add (especially since the news about exporting), and rest assured that it’s being developed and tested. Soon you’ll be able to track your live backlinks after commenting from within the ActuallyRank panel.

BOTTOM-LINE:
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We now view ActuallyRank as an extremely valuable “vault” of DF inventory, which is continually being refreshed and re-filtered.

I have no doubts that, perhaps aside from massive marketing agencies or Google themselves, we have the single largest database of DoFollow backlink sources in the world.

I no longer view this inventory as some sort of intangible, endless resource. It’s not.

There is a FINITE amount, and we are only a few hundred thousand URLs away from what I believe is the international level of critical mass. (There will always be new URLs to bring in each month, but not *nearly* the 400K+ per month that we’d need if using the PR quotas…)

What does that mean?

1) What we have is extremely valuable, and can no longer be wasted for the sake of PR quotas. It also cannot be squandered by allowing mass-exporting.

2) We only have room for members who truly understand the value, and aren’t obsessed with PR or quantity-backlinking.

It’s pretty amazing to think, actually, that so far each month, our $299/mo. members have literally been receiving about 0.5% – 1% of the web’s ENTIRE dofollow inventory that exists, monthly.

If nothing else, this might just serve as a wake-up call for a few people who perhaps don’t appreciate what they have access to with ActuallyRank. (Just like it did for us. I don’t think any of us *truly* understood the value of what we’d built until we calculated just how rare DF URLs really are, as of yesterday)

Finally – and I want to make this very clear – this is one of those cases where I really wish life had a “rewind” function.

Ideally speaking, we wouldn’t have built an inventory-based service upon the assumption that the web was “big enough” to support a limitless potential volume.

But we did make assumptions. We had no idea there was literally only a couple million DF sources out there, at a growth rate of just 50 – 100K per month. (I don’t think anyone else did, either).

And for that, I truly apologize. It was a catch-22.

It’s been a learning experience to be sure – and I can only put forward my pledge that we will strive endlessly, as we have been from day one, to come through for our members and provide unprecedented value.

I’d like to thank everyone that has stuck with us so far.

I know that the road at the beginning was far from smooth.

But what you’ve seen the last couple months – and what you will continue to see – is a literal SEO treasure trove of linking sources.

And it will only get better as time goes on- as we add features, types of linking sources, and so on.

Thank you.

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Well folks…

That’s about it for today.

Keep an eye on the login page – it’s a matter of hours now until we’re back online with the new interface.

As you can imagine, I’ll have a lot more updates in regards to the new quota system, and particularly the new additions & features as they’re scaled out.

Talk very soon,

Chris Rempel &
The ActuallyRank Team
ActuallyRank.com

e: contact@actuallyrank.com

P.S. There’s probably going to be some cancellations today as a result of us replacing the PR quota. That’s totally OK with me, and here’s why:

1) That member is taking the spot of someone who will appreciate true ranking factors

2) They would’ve ceased to be a member come August anyway, since there wouldn’t be enough “PageRank” to go around.

3) It is what it is. I can’t “invent” more DoFollow inventory. If anything, I’m actually blown away at how much more valuable our service just became, considering that our members literally have a monopoly on the world’s entire DoFollow inventory. It’s incredible, and incredibly valuable.

So there’s no hard feelings or anything. If this isn’t the service for you… that’s okay. It makes room for others who can effectively utilize their inventory.

However, do keep in mind that subscription price points are going to be properly adjusted (for NEW members) to the value of the inventory.

(ie. It ain’t gonna be $69 for incoming members…)