What's the best way to set-up an income producing "blogging resources" page?

• I'm looking to create a "blogging resources" type of page, which would list all the services, themes, plugins, etc. being used and recommended by the site owner. It seems like a fairly common type of page for many sites.

  My question is, If I include the proper disclaimer at the top and bottom of the page, and set each link to nofollow, is it okay to have affiliate links for each product, service, or program all on the same page?

  I seem to recall a recommendation to minimize the number of affiliate links on a single page. But, in this case, the purpose of the page is to recommend a variety of tools. So I need to know, is this okay to do, or does it risk a ranking penalty?

Answer:

Google rewards high quality, unique content with higher rankings. But unfortunately, such "resource pages" are very common and are usually low quality — the opposite of what Google likes.

Even worse, many such pages contain links just for the sake of the affiliate program payout they provide. Often times the blogger doesn't even use the resources being linked to.

For example the hosting service, Bluehost, has an incredibly popular affiliate program. As such, food bloggers in general tend to recommend Bluehost on these "blogger resources" pages when they themselves don't even use the service.

One of our SEO-guys has moved at least a dozen or so of these bloggers off of Bluehost, yet they haven't updated their pages because the affiliate program is making them money.

The point is, you can do these pages. But we'd urge you to focus on recommending products, services, and programs that you personally vouch for or use yourself.

This approach will present you in a better light. As for the number of affiliate links, there is no stated limit. But if you want the page to actually rank well, you should invest in filling in some quality content like a mini review of what each resource does and why you're using it. And you should make a point of showing that your site is, in fact, currently using these resources.

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