Make Money Online Writing Product Reviews In Google Base
Unfortunately, this didn’t quite go as well as I initially thought it would but I still think that there is something that can be done here with Google Base. The object is to make money online by writing product reviews on Google Base.
For those who don’t know, Google Base is a section on Google where you can post your business, products and services and it will go into a massively huge database which in itself gets syndicated all over the place. Some of the popular categories in Google Base include housing, services, recipes, jobs and most importantly: Product Reviews.
My vision as I was half asleep last night was to start writing reviews for products sold in ClickBank. How amazing is that? The next day, I logged into ClickBank and found a few products, some I even own myself and then went to Google Base to check and see if there were any reviews written.
To my surprise I didn’t see much. I checked a few of ClickBanks more popular products such as Micro Niche Finder and a few others and there were only a handful of reviews written. At this point, I got goose bumps because I very well knew right then and there, I could easily sit here and invest maybe one hour per day and write reviews for products sold in ClickBank. I’d chip away at the more popular ones and eventually I’d have a few hundred written. For someone like me, writing 100 product reviews isn’t that difficult at all.
Unfortunately, I got trumped. Prior to moving forward on this idea I reviewed the Google Base TOS. Once I did that, I then realized that writing product reviews for affiliate based products was not going to work as I originally visioned.
Here is what Google has to say about writing reviews for affiliate products:
Posting is not permitted for the promotion of affiliate sites, products sold through a commission-based relationship, or sites that sell through cataloged third-party drop-shipping programs. This includes item pages that are made up primarily of advertisements, or pages where advertisements obstruct the view of the item.
With that said, here is a list of some of the items that you are not allowed to write about in Google Base:
- Adult Goods and Services
- Affiliates
- Anti and Violence
- Body Parts
- Borrowed Content
- Bulk Marketing Tools
- Cable Descramblers and Black Boxes
- Copyright Unlocking Devices
- Dialers
- Drug Test Circumvention Aids
- Drugs
- Download Mirrors
- Gambling
- Fake Government IDs
- Hacking and Cracking
- Illegal Goods and Services
- Keyword Stuffing
- MLM
- Miracle Cures
- Weapons
Basically in a nut shell, just about the only thing you can write about in Google Base is maybe a product review about your grandmother’s false teeth.
So anyway, the original idea was thwarted off by Google’s TOS; however, I still think that this concept is achievable for some publishers out there. Squidoo comes to mind. I personally don’t use Squidoo but I know that there are thousands of people who do.
So, I am thinking that you CAN escape through a slight loophole in the TOS by writing product reviews about products sold in ClickBank. However, rather than linking directly to the product using your affiliate link, you would then link directly to your Squidoo site instead.
Covering your bases, you really would need to make sure that your Squidoo site is top notch and totally dedicated to the product you are reviewing in Google Base.
In essence what you are doing is fairly simple. You would use Google Base to publish a mini product review. In this mini product review you would the link to your Squidoo page that has the full and more detailed / higher quality review.
The only question remains is this: Are you willing to invest the time into this? See here is one important element that I do NOT know. That element is traffic. I have never really used Google Base before so I do not know if product reviews would generate enough traffic to offset the time invested into not only writing mini product reviews but also creating Squidoo pages for these products as well.
If I were able to write product reviews and simply link directly to the product using my ClickBank referral link, then to me there is no question about it, it would be worth the time. But because it can’t be done that way, I would really question whether the time invested into this would pay off in the long run.
One of the great things about Google Base is the fact that you can keep a tally on Number of Impressions, Number of Clicks and Number of Page Views. So if any of this interests you at all, you could easily test the waters and create maybe just one Squidoo page coupled with a product review and observe the activity. If you get a lot of traffic and end up converting it into sales from your Squidoo page, then you might feel it is worth it.
This whole concept is popular in environments that are more lenient with their rules such as Yahoo Answers. I think there are plenty of other sites that you can find where you could easily write product reviews for and plug it with your referral link.
Anyway, maybe this post will trigger some ideas for you, maybe it won’t. Either way, drop me a comment and share your thoughts. What are some creative ways that you can promote affiliate products?
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21 comments
Wouldn’t you also be worried that that extra click through to squidoo would lose even more traffic. I find that when I use a landing page based on PPC I lose traffic, but again because of google I have to do that. I’d seriously wonder whether the attention span of a reader would stretch from one google review, to one squidoo review then to the site. What do you think?
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You know, aside from the extensive overview of using Google Base- GOOD REMINDER TO ALWAYS CHECK GOOGLE’S TOS. Seriously, I know I have come across tons of people starting out that have yet to read G’s TOS, and I have also had people tell me their stories of being “tossed” themselves because they failed to stick to the rules.
Now even though I have no intentions of writing about grandma’s false teeth, I will definitely check out Google Base. I agree with you though; that’s quite a bit of time to dedicate considering no direct affiliate links are allowed. Love the Squidoo loophole!
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I havent read any of google’s TOS. Just try to use common sense, but seeing as im trying to rank for them, I guess this is a good reminder to actually get around to reading it. Thanks Garry
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Hey Garry,
I can’t wait to read your review of your grandmother’s false teeth!! LOL
Hey, Garry. I think a review site would work well in this case. Why not write an article on how to shop for car insurance and then link back to you review site where you review three or four car insurance quote sites. These, of course, would all be affiliate links to your car insurance CPA offers. If you can use Google Base to promote your business, then make sure your business is a website where you review car insurance offers, er, quotes.
Check out Monty’s Mega Marketing’s last blog post..Amazon “Site Stripe”: Link to Any Page
[...] I think there could be some possibilities here. I recommend that you go read his post, then scroll down to my comment where I describe how one might get around the TOS [...]
It really amazes me how people are constantly thinking outside of the box. Just the fact that you posed this question is very interesting and I am sure that someone has a great answer…it just isn’t me. LOL!
I am intrigued by the Squidoo option because I have been hearing WordVixen talking about Squidoo and the endless possibilities, but I have not been there yet either.
Maybe some investigation is in order.
Check out Freddie’s last blog post..Blog Action Day 08: Poverty
ack… this was a scheduled post that I must have scheduled for today accidentally. Oh well, looks like you guys are getting this one two days early.
Ideally, it would be great to just BOOM and link direct to the product via the referral link. But that isn’t going to happen as we all now know. One positive thing that could come of this is the fact that if you design a really nice Squidoo page that perhaps offers a variety of products including the one mentioned in the Google Base product review, you very well may increase overall conversions simply for the fact that you are providing your traffic options to choose from.
I think too that perhaps we shouldn’t get too wrapped up in the affiliate aspect. Many people including Mark Mason, Mark Sierra, David Cooley and even myself have created our own products and services that can easily be accepted into Google Base.
So while there may be a challenge with promoting affiliate based programs and some creative solutions that we are all working on, one thing is for sure, if you do have your own product or your own eBook, writing a review for that seems to be ok. At least that is what it seems like to me???
Common sense tells me to put my referral link in as many places as possible, including the stall in the public bathroom. Unfortunately, it seems that many of the common TOS has been written because of me. lol!!!
But the question to ask is am I good enough to convince you to buy them.
so if I have an ebook I am selling on my white-hat, fully legitimate site, I could write a book review and send folks to my site that is loaded with content? (and the BUY NOW ebook button?)
Do you think that would fly?
AL
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I don’t know if I want to get involved with G Base if they won’t let me write about body parts. I mean, really? Is there any point to a site that doesn’t involve body parts?
And Freddie & Garry, if you’re interested in signing up for Squidoo- I’ve got an affiliate link in my first Squidtorial.
We each get $5 after you earn your first $15 if you sign up through it. Not that I’m hinting. No, not at all…
Check out WordVixen’s last blog post..Blog Action Day
[...] was over at Garry Conn’s blog, and he brought up an interesting way to make ninja affiliate sales. It’s an interesting post, about an interesting idea, but that’s not what this post is [...]
OK- my bad. I’m sorry. Apparently they changed their referral thing, and now only the referrer gets the $5. I may have to have words with them about this. Giving a $5 bonus to the referee was a great way to encourage people to build.
Trigger hell, thanks to you AND your readers here, a friggin cannon just went off; thanks Gary!
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I agree that Google Base is an excellent way to get articles indexed quickly, plus most people do not know about it!
Check out Kurt Henninger’s last blog post..What is holding you back in Network Marketing?
I think the best option is to create multi-product review site as Monty’s Mega suggested, and then promote the site by all means possible – Google base, Squidoo, HubPages and ….
Garry, thanks for your cool tip.
It’s really a good idea to promote article on Google Base!
Does it really help to get indexed quickly?
hello
I had saw the add of make money by posting links on googel,
so i bought the package to start this posting links,& it was costing $2.00
when i order it buy credit card, it charged me, when i recever my bill,
it was $60.00 & i also did not get any packager form googel,
i am not able to track,let me know if anyone can help me.
or pls befor buying anything form googel pls double cheak.
Regards
Amit Darne
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