Just Ask Matt - Answers

Do Link Exchanges Still Work?

QUESTION: (Gerald) I have a number of people asking me to exchange links. I have read that this is good, but can’t find anywhere how to do it. Any suggestions, or is there an article you have that would help me. Appreciate it.

Good question, Gerald, because we really don’t hear as much about link exchanges as we did in the past.  I think the big reason for it is it’s effectiveness (or lack thereof).  Search engine spiders are much smarter than they were 2 or 3 years agos.  And most will recognize a “link exchange” rather easily.

For those who don’t know what a link exchange is, it is when you approach another website (usually with similar content to yours) and ask them to place a nice, keyword-rich anchor text link back to your website.  In exchange, you will do the same for them.  Remember that an important part of SEO is backlinks (i.e., receiving links from other websites pointing back to you).  A few years ago, a lot of this “linking power” was represented by a Page Rank.  Getting high Page Rank websites to point back to you effectively will increase your own page rank.

Personally, I think Page Rank is a bit of a farce these days (at least the public one).  I do think the major search engines (like Google) have there own ranking system based on popularity, but it would not be public.  Still, getting links from “authority sites” with relevance (to your niche) is always key. 

Now getting back to the question…I think link exchanges (or “reciprocal linking”) is really not going to help or hurt you.  Any backlink (in most cases) usually will help you.  But if there is a reciprocal link, the spiders will usually recognize this and probably not give you proper popularity for it. 

Again, like everything SEO, this is speculation, but I know there has been a lot of abuse of link exchanges over the years (like link farms, paid text links, etc.) to draw a lot of attention to it.  I used to do it quite a bit.  I don’t really do it any more (unless I am quite friendly with the website and we exchange primarily for the traffic, not the SEO).  I think your efforts would be better suited to article writing/submission, press releases, even directory submissions. 

You can also consider n-way link exchanges.  For a 3-way link exchange example: Site A links to Site B, Site B links to Site C, and Site C links to Site A.  You can do this rather deeply, too.  But still, the search engine spiders are smart and may start recognizing the linking footprints.  The larger the “n”, the better off you are…but of course, this is a hell of a lot more work and requires some skillful coordination.

Personally, I have become somewhat of an a-hole about link exchange requests.  I don’t get as many as I used to, but when I do I usually ignore them. 

cheers…matt

P.S. If you want to know more about Getting Backlinks, check out SEOExciter.com.  (There are 10 free videos over there that shows you how!)

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Matthew BredelMy name is Matthew Bredel and as of March, 2007, I am a full-time, work-at-home internet marketer. For close to 10 years, I worked for a defense company which was an OK job, but I was so uninspired in life and frankly, I needed some more money. That is when I first discovered internet marketing! Now I admit that I didn't start making thousands in my first couple of months (in fact, I lost my shirt!), but I finally saw the "internet light"...

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Definitions: CPA, EPC, eEPC, PPC, CPL and more

December 6th, 2008 . by Matthew Bredel . Tweet This!
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One of the important things to know before you start promoting another person’s product (or looking for people to promote your product) is to understand the lingo used in affiliate marketing and CPA Networks.  Below is a list of the most common terms associated with the CPA industry…
Advertiser - Can also be called a merchant, [...]

One of the important things to know before you start promoting another person’s product (or looking for people to promote your product) is to understand the lingo used in affiliate marketing and CPA Networks.  Below is a list of the most common terms associated with the CPA industry…

Advertiser - Can also be called a merchant, retailer, e-retailer, online retailer, etc.  This is the website that SELLS the product or service. They will also process the payment and fulfill the order.

Publisher - Can also be called the affiliate, partner, associate, or reseller.  This is the third party who PROMOTES the product or service in exchange for a commission or other type of compensation.

Pay-Per-Lead - The commission structure where the affiliate is paid a flat fee for each qualified lead (this is usually achieved by a visitor entering their personal information on an advertiser’s website).

Cost-Per-Lead (CPL) - The amount of money paid per qualified lead.

Pay-Per-Sale - This commission structure can be either a flat fee or a percentage of the revenue generated on the advertiser’s site which was referred by a publisher.

Cost-Per-Sale (CPS) - The amount or percentage paid per each sale.

Pay-Per-Click (PPC) - The amount or percentage paid for each click that is made on a link, banner or product on an publisher’s website.  Many people use search engine pay-per-click, such as Google Adwords, are called PPC Advertisers.  When you use Google Adsense on your website to generate revenue, you are PPC Publisher.

Cost-Per-Click (CPC) - The amount or percentage paid for each click.

Impression - Occurs when a banner, link or product is viewed on a website. The visitor does NOT need to take action (i.e. click the link or banner) for an impression to be registered.

Click-Through-Rate (CTR) - The percentage of clicks made for each impression.

    Formula:  CTR = 100% x (Clicks/Impressions)

Lead - When a visitor registers, signs up or downloads something from an advertiser’s site.  This is usually accomplished by a visitor filling out a form on the advertiser’s website.

Cost-Per-Action (CPA) - This is the rate/fee that is set for every action that is taken by on visitor which is promoted by an affiliate.  This usually refers to, by not limited to, Pay-Per-Lead and Pay-Per-Sale transactions.  CPA, as Cost-Per-Action usually corresponds to Pay-Per-Lead while CPA, as Cost-Per-Acquisition usually corresponds to Pay-Per-Sale.

Cost-Per-Thousand-Impressions (CPM) -  This can also be called “Pay-Per-Impression”.  Here, the advertisers pay based on the impressions their link, banner or product is displayed per 1000 views on the publisher’s website.  The “M” refers to the Roman Numeral for 1000.  Old Google Adwords Site Targeting used to be based on CPM metrics.

Earnings-Per-Click (EPC) - This is a metric to measure the effectiveness of being able to turn a click into commissions.

    Formula: EPC = (Clicks/$Commissions Earned)

* Note, come companies, like Commission Junction (CJ’s) change the definition slightly.  In CJ’s case, EPC refers to earning per 100 clicks.

Formula: Commission Junction EPC = (1/100)*(Clicks/$Commissions Earned) 

Effective Earnings-Per-Click (eEPC) - This is very similar to the EPC definition but in this case, if it referring to the effectiveness of being about to turn 1000 clicks into commissions.  (Where CJ is 100 clicks/$, eEPC is 1000 clicks/$)

Formula: eEPC = (1/1000)*(Clicks/$Commissions Earned)

As you can see, EPC is an important figure of merit which can predict the effectiveness of selling a certain product but its definition varies by the network.  Be sure to read your network’s definitions to understand this further.

******************************

This is a just a start to some of the important figures and lingo associated with CPA networks (and online marketing, in general).

Do you have a term that I don’t discuss here or would like further description and details of???  Let me know in the comments…I’ll be sure to add it!

cheers…matt

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17 Responses to “Definitions: CPA, EPC, eEPC, PPC, CPL and more”

  1. talk of BIG money! How can these type of Vegas conferences, to say at $10,000.00 per person work when the economy is at an all time margin line low at this point of time?

    Posted by: donald
    December 6th, 2008 at 8:01 pm

  2. So how much is this “course” going to cost ?

    Posted by: Chris
    December 7th, 2008 at 9:14 am

  3. 1) The product will be launched in a few days (that is when the price will be released…

    2) Yes, the economy is at a low, but online sales is actually up (9%) these days (check out this article: http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/stories/2008/12/08/daily4.html)

    Posted by: Matthew Bredel
    December 8th, 2008 at 9:56 am

  4. [...] Definitions: CPA, EPC, eEPC, PPC, CPL and more [...]

    Posted by:   Arbitrage Conspiracy Review (Part 1) by Inside the Internet Marketing Mind
    December 8th, 2008 at 10:37 am

  5. Hello,
    My main purpose was to provide good information and had no idea. You could use to monetize your blog.

    Posted by: Saif Seo Service Company
    December 9th, 2008 at 3:18 am

  6. Hey, thanks a lot for the information post . I have wondering if you make money from pay per post too? I heard that is not bad for a good page rank blog.

    Posted by: Fanny Dixie Get Cash
    December 9th, 2008 at 3:20 am

  7. I personally do not participate in pay-per-post, because frankly it is not worth my time. In fact, I hire people to do postings for me. (And this is one way how I can increase page rank on my own blog).

    Posted by: Matt Bredel
    December 9th, 2008 at 8:00 am

  8. [...] Definitions: CPA, EPC, eEPC, PPC, CPL and more [...]

    Posted by:   Arbitrage Conspiracy Review (Part 2) - CPA Networks by Inside the Internet Marketing Mind
    December 10th, 2008 at 8:44 am

  9. Nice site! I am loving it!! Will come back again - taking you feeds also, Thanks.

    Posted by: Guadalupe
    March 25th, 2009 at 5:23 pm

  10. i was hoping to find an explanation to the term “pixel” as it refers to affiliate marketing. All i know is that my CPA manager asked for a “pixel” when i questioned him about tracking my campaigns through google analytics….

    thanks

    naji

    Posted by: Naji
    May 11th, 2009 at 2:16 pm

  11. Hey Naji,

    A “Pixel” is usually either a 1×1 pixel image or iframe that is placed on a conversion page. Whenever someone lands on this “conversion” page, this 1×1 pixel is fired (usually on a remote, tracking host) to account for the conversion. For example, when I work with CPA networks to have them promote one of my products, they will usually give me this pixel to place on my conversion (usually Thank You) page. It is a little different than Google Analytics. cheers…matt

    Posted by: Matthew Bredel
    May 11th, 2009 at 2:30 pm

  12. [...] Re: does any buddy know about PPC or EPC different No, you have wrong definition of PPC. Because PPC stands for pay-per-click while EPC stands for earnings-per click. PPC which means you need to pay someone if they click your website while EPC you can earn money if someone clicks on your website that is their different but much related. Definitions: CPA, EPC, eEPC, PPC, CPL and more [...]

    Posted by: does any buddy know about PPC or EPC different
    June 3rd, 2009 at 9:47 pm

  13. Interesting post, keep the good stuff coming, good content appreciated!

    Posted by: Andrew
    June 10th, 2009 at 2:47 am

  14. Interesting piece of information you have on here…..interesting.

    Posted by: Daine ms
    May 23rd, 2010 at 1:19 am

  15. quite interesting

    Posted by: Daine ms
    May 23rd, 2010 at 1:28 am

  16. I have frequented your site before. The more I read, the more I keep coming back! ;-P

    Posted by: Entrepreneur Valley
    June 24th, 2010 at 5:32 pm

  17. Wow!!!
    Finally excelent definitions!!!
    It is quite difficult to find definitions even on wikipedia.

    Posted by: israel
    August 18th, 2010 at 12:14 pm

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