Ok, it is pretty easy to say I'm not right without proving why.
So let me throw some other things out for you experts to think about. Remember SERPs change often so what you see might not be exactly the same. But there are still many things that will be.
Search on Google for Adult Friend Finders. Ok, you see one really good Affiliate on top at #1. Now lets look at other results. 2 Friend Finders. Who most likely has a powerful network of sites and can hold their rank. Sometimes you may see other sites if there has been a shift in the SERPs.
Results 3-10 these results are often newer pages, or pages not high quality. (Newbie?s built them). I mean you can tell banners everywhere. Site doesn't look very nice, probably not getting much click through traffic from these sites to the affiliate system. But they are ranked.
Here is an example of one:
http://www.geocities.com/sinergy_us/adult.html Ranked on page one of Google for "Adult Friend Finders".
Scroll down that page and click through the "SEO Friendly Affiliate Link"
This affiliate link passed no PR. The value of this affiliates page ranked higher then the landing page.
So this is what is going on. A little over a year ago Google changed. Since then and before then, Affiliate Systems were changing.
Everyone comes screaming on GFY how much Google sucks. Can you believe all these low PR sites that are ranking on the front page? Man this is fucking bullshit.
Why did all these quality sites stop ranking? Well if you were watching, if you had links out there like that, you could see.
The "Good Old Boys" that had the best sites were now competing with each other instead of just the newbie?s. More, why?
Dupe Filter + SEO Friendly Links = FUCKED. There can be only one Good Old Boy.
Example. Say Sleazy and Thumbzilla are both linking to Adult Friend Finders with the same Anchor text. Also they both have powerful sites to link from. So they both transfer PR over to AFF's landing page. But since the landing page is exactly the SAME. Only one can rank.
So Sleazy and Thumbzilla both go back and forth as #1. They disappear and then reappear. Newbie affiliates get nice spots on the front page easily.
Now if one of them change the way they link to that affiliate site or if that affiliate site made the landing page more UNIQUE so a filter wouldn't hide dupes, then they would both be back on top.
Personally, I would rather have the "Good Old Boys" getting the traffic and knowing they can convert it. Then to get 1 of them and 9 so-so affiliates that are sure how their PR2-3 site is ranking.
Another twist. What if AFF is buying these text links from both Sleazy and Thumbzilla? How effective is their linking methods? I know they want to track how each site converts and how each keyword converts. So they use separate links. Could they use one to increase their ROI? Or should they customize these landing pages so they are not the same?
I say not the same. Why? 2 unique pages not being filtered. 2 unique pages that now will rank on Page 1. Now they have control over where the traffic lands with their Paid Text Ads they bought. Instead of leaving it to a brand new affiliate that is still learning and not as effective in marketing "their" product.
But then again, I could have not watched this happen. I wasn't apart of it. Anyone that knows me knows I have never ranked for shit. Visa rules have never changed, globill has never closed their doors, and Shemp is not sexy.
But really if you are so sure I'm wrong, show me why because I will evaluated everything I have seen and tested over the last 18 months.