No links in hub, too greedy?

1. 73

   Bill Manningposted 14 years ago

   If you write hubs or articles for your own site for money, you try to balance what you write between being helpful while also trying to have them click on an ad.
   
   Let's say your writing about Disney's special Christmas party event. You know that the hub will have adsense ads in it saying to "click here for Disney tickets" or whatever.
   
   That's what you want them to do. HOWEVER, it seems to me that if you write a whole long hub about that, it's almost mean to not have a link to the Disney page you can buy the tickets from.
   
   People reading it will expect you to have a link to where you can buy the tickets. So ending it with just a "go to Disney and get your tickets now" blurb without any link seems,,,, mean, LOL!
   
   But you hope they click one of the ads that advertise those tickets. So, what do you think? Do you include a link to the ticket page in a hub like that, or not and hope they click an ad?

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      talfonsoposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      I write a lot of Walt Disney World-centric Hubs, don't get me wrong. But when linking to special events, i use official pages, not the ticket sites. I let the ads entice them to buy while I draw traffic to them.

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         Bill Manningposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks, so your saying you would give a link, even though it might cut down on your ad sales? Thanks for your point of view. If the article is on your own site it might even be more better to do so, as it offers the people more reason to come back to your site.
         
         But I hate loosing clicks,,,,,

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      Lily Roseposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      I say 'not and hope they click an ad' - if your hub's content has enticed them enough, they will likely click an ad to get more info or tickets.  Perhaps I am selfish, but I am here to make money and I would rather not send my readers elsewhere unless it's another hub or site that's mine!

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2. 68

   Mishaposted 14 years ago

   Become their affiliate

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      Bill Manningposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Actually, I am an affiliate of a Disney theme park ticket dealer and do that!
      
      However the above example was not the actual event I was talking about. I don't want to give it away, and you can't be an affiliate for this event I have in mind.
      
      I actually have this problem often with so many events going on here in Orlando. Most of them they have no affiliate program to join. So, in that case, what do you do?

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         Mishaposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         They can't just sell tickets all by themselves. Likely somebody else is selling them, too - and you can become an affiliate. Other than that, you either place a generic link, or you don't. I can't really think of anything else.

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            Bill Manningposted 14 years agoin reply to this

            I understand what your saying, but trust me you can't. Big theme parks have lots of rules you have to follow. Many of the special events are only sold through the main theme park site.
            
            Plus, even though I am an affiliate and sell Disney, Sea World and Universal Studios tickets, it takes a ton of them to make a sale.
            
            So far I've sent over 2,000 hits and seen only one sale,,,,for 6 bucks.

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               Mishaposted 14 years agoin reply to this

               Sorry Bill, at that point I am out of ideas

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                  Bill Manningposted 14 years agoin reply to this

                  I understand. My whole question was not how to make money off a link in the hub. My question was, is it too greedy and wrong to not have a link to the place to buy the tickets?
                  
                  That is, should I make a link anyways just to be fair and offer the surfer some value in the article, besides giving info about it?

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                     Mishaposted 14 years agoin reply to this

                     That's a judgment call Bill. I can easily see myself adding a link today and removing it tomorrow, or vice versa

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                        Fiction Tellerposted 14 years agoin reply to this

                        And Misha put it far more concisely.

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                  kimberlyslyricsposted 14 years agoin reply to this

                  ok Misha here's an ida for a good link.
                  
                  hi btw
                  
                  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIiMa2Fe-ZQ

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3. 59

   Fiction Tellerposted 14 years ago

   It depends.  I've frequently seen the "squeeze page" type of withholding of links have a negative effect on rankings and earnings, but rarely have I seen carefully placed providing-value-for-reader type of links harm earnings.
   
   It's psychologically counterintuitive, until you realize that Google rewards sites that users want to visit, and users want to visit sites that help where others don't.  And Google "penalizes" pages that users don't like, and users don't like...well...would you ever visit or recommend an establishment where there were only ads, no products, no back door, and the only exit led you to another such "store?"
   
   Why not test it yourself? Note your current earnings.  If you put the links in and your traffic and earnings decline over the course of a few months, take them out and see what happens.  Be sure to control for seasonality, though.

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4. 73

   Bill Manningposted 14 years ago

   Yeah I see your point. I guess I'm going to go ahead and put the link in. If it bothered me enough to ask here it must be bad.
   
   Since it's on my own site I want to keep it very user friendly, which means giving them useful info. Thanks.

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