FFA postings and the impact on Search Engines

From topic:
http://cashflowpc-marketing.blogspot.com/2005/12/nature-of-affiliate-links-affect-your.html

In this article Peter brings up some basic differences in FFA sites:

Quote:
...I'm NOT referring to submitting your links to ffa farms and doing nothing else. I'm talking about intelligently putting up a good link with anchor text and submitting to those high traffic classifieds and ffa sites, not those doubtful "standalone" personal ffa pages that are mostly owned by the newbies to internet marketing...

With the FFA and Classified boards there are actually a number of types and variables in the industry. Basically they are divided into these catagories:

• 1. Sites which are linked to huge Networks like WorldWidePromoter
• 2. Sites which are part of an Individual Network like Traffic Wave, FREEFFA, and Link2U to name just a few.
• 3. Sites which are simple stand alone sites linked to nothing. The owners obtained scripts or memberships into a farm usually and set up the board to perhaps service an existing business or, as Peter mentioned, is new and wanting to provide some kind of free venue as a means of recruiting members to their list. In other words, some people use FFA sites as a means of building a list.

Bridging 1 and 2 above are mega submitters like Blastomatic and other venues who link their program and submitter to the major Networks and then as many of the Individual Networks as possible. With 1 and 2 everytime you post your link free using one of the Blasters/submitters you are then posting to and linking with these Networks - meaning usually millions of boards. This is activity many Search Engines recognize and pick up on.

With 3 you are posting your links to a single, isolated board. While this may be meaningful in context to that board or that program, it has no meaning for the Search Engines. There are also some some Networks which really hook up to nothing. Some of these are known as 'farms' and exist only within themselves and serve themselves and their own interests.

Again, as in a solo board these isolated Farms - while perhaps having meaning within their own network - make little or no impact on the Search Engines. Your best bet is to obtain FFA blasters and go from there for putting your links up on FFA and Classified sites. Those associated with the blasters are numerous enough to make your time, effort (and sometimes) money worth your while. Your membership with Cashflowpc provides you with several blasters in the upcoming Marketing Resource Center.

You can always obtain a paid membership within a specific Network of sites however usually your membership is only valid for that one Network. My personal feelings are: if you are going to pay for something pay for that which gives you the farthest REACH. (Go for the Blaster as opposed to a membership in a single network or farm.)

I do want to make a note that there are those who detract from the entire FFA posting scenerio. Usually these detractors are those trying to sell you some other form of marketing. For example, there are those who try to tell you that the Search Engines DO NOT recognise FFA posts or penalize you for making them. This is a lie. Some SEs don't put a lot of VALUE in them as they focus on other aspects while others:

Quote:
MSN really likes the ffa networks and recognise their postings. Many of those sites have high PR, and so a link to them is considered a one way link and is regarded highly..even higher in importance than a reciprocal link! - Peter Lim

So it is adviseable to take much of what is said against FFA marketing with a couple grains of salt and forget calling the Doctor in the morning. Not that the FFA arena is without flaws - there are some. Plus, abuse is constant. Individuals spam, they harvest emails, the do all sorts of things outside the constraints of the FFA sites. However, in the Search Engine race for better ranking FFA postings continue to be a major player - as long as you (as Peter puts it) market intelligently.