Affiliates vs Links

Talk with others about anything shrine-related, be it presentation, content or something else.
Larissa
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Re: Affiliates vs Links

Post by Larissa »

I have affiliate sections for most of my fansites, but since the majority of my sites are for things that don't show up a lot in the fansite realm, I don't actually have any affiliates for most of them. So I try to make sure I have a decent links section, if there's anything out there to link to, and leave it at that. I'd like to get some affiliates for my FF sites at some point, since that's the one fandom with a decent amount of fansites around, but other than that, it really doesn't matter much to me. I am picky with linking in that I only link to fansites I like, rather than every single site out there. Quality over quantity and all that.

I don't bother with affiliation at my domain anymore, because it used to be that somehow I'd end up affiliating with people I didn't know that well and it just felt weird to me calling a stranger or casual acquaintance an affiliate, implying (to me) a connection that ran deeper than it really did. I'd rather just exchange links and leave it at that.
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Aku
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Re: Affiliates vs Links

Post by Aku »

dubiousdisc wrote:I think that affiliates used to be more like an alliance. Used to mean a lot more. Well, with search engines being at a baby stage, a major site linking to you meant lots of eyes looking at you - it's obvious that it was more important. I'm glad it has since changed though, the whole system was so cliquey and everyone had a giant page of affiliation requirements (I was guilty of that too) and honestly, thinking about it now, why did I even care... I'm glad things are more chill now.
Alliance is a good term! That's totally how I used to feel about some (like Todd said, Final Fantasy in particular) shrines. XD I don't think anyone was being intentionally clique-y... I think shrines for particular things were just more popular at the time, so some people had large groups of friends willing to work together to create a little circle of shrines for a series.

Now that we're all having this conversation, maybe I should go make an effort to actually affiliate with some people... :sob:
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Re: Affiliates vs Links

Post by Mikari »

I was more into the Dragon Ball Z community back then since I didn't get into Final Fantasy until Advent Children came out, then started tracking down all the GBA remakes for the older ones. XD The community didn't seem to cliquey, to me at least. Fanworks were a big part of it since archive like Fanfiction.net weren't what they are today, so sending stuff in for sites to put up was welcomed. Some sites used fanfics to attract more visitors with the next chapters and I sent a few of my own for which they linked back to my site... Although looking back on it, those fics were really terrible. XD
dubiousdisc
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Re: Affiliates vs Links

Post by dubiousdisc »

Aku wrote:Alliance is a good term! That's totally how I used to feel about some (like Todd said, Final Fantasy in particular) shrines. XD I don't think anyone was being intentionally clique-y... I think shrines for particular things were just more popular at the time, so some people had large groups of friends willing to work together to create a little circle of shrines for a series.
Yeah, I don't think it was anything that was consciously happening, just an attitude that seemed more prevalent in the past.
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Re: Affiliates vs Links

Post by Chibi »

I think I prefer affiliating rather than link exchanging overall. To be honest, I don't really get the difference between the two when it comes to domains. I think they're pretty much the same thing and it's just easier to be affiliates, imo. I just like affiliating better, it creates a sense of community.

For fansites, it's a bit different. I would affiliate only with other shrines from the same series/mangaka/author and link exchange with websites that relate to the subject of my shrine, but are not full-fledged shrines (i.e. fanlistings, etc.). But I guess it really depends on what I'm shrining and on who wants to affiliate. I don't have any finished shrine up at the moment, so no one has asked me for affiliation and so I might change opinion in the future. XD

I remember back in 2000 or so, sites would affiliate with (mostly) same-subject sites or sites that were really popular and link exchange with other sites that didn't relate to the subject at all, or that didn't get a lot of hits. For example, I used to visit a Beyblade fansite and they affiliated mostly with other Beyblade sites, or with sites that were popular and got 50-100 hits every day; then they would link exchange with tons of other sites, even ones for Final Fantasy, Pokémon, etc. - it seems to me like it didn't matter much, all that mattered was a sense of "community" between the webmasters (at least I'm talking about the Italian ones here). They also had "sister sites" which were sites made by their dearest friends, or sometimes just links to the webmaster's collective (I know I did this sometimes). But I guess it really depends on the type of site you had and on the webmaster. For example, I had a graphic site back in 2005 and I affiliates with any type of site, whether it was a graphic site like mine or a site to an anime/manga; my friends had a Tokyo Mew Mew site and they affiliated with all kinds of other sites too (including my graphic site). I think this happened because, back then, sites dedicated to one character or one series were rare and most sites were about either a whole animanga series or about a whole bunch of them, and often they would include a graphic section in their site too, so they covered a lot of things, so to speak, therefore it didn't really matter what kind of site wanted to affiliate with them, they were just happy to get any kind of affiliate. I think it's also because that's when websites started to get less updates and to die a little bit, because all the webmasters were growing up and didn't have time to dedicate to them, so people weren't picky anymore about affiliates. But maybe I'm reading too much into this. XD I don't know how the situation was in the English-speaking part of the internet, I'm just talking about Italian websites and webmasters here.
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Camy
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Re: Affiliates vs Links

Post by Camy »

I affiliate with anyone for my fansites that was related to the series. All I care about is that the site is organized and not confusing. I had to deny only one so far and did give them that reason. In fact, affiliates and link exchanges are merged for my fansites since, well... That's what we're doing, exchanging links AND we are affiliated by the series.

It has a different meaning though for my domain. I affiliate with people I feel close to (and sometimes don't ask others since I don't know if they view us as friends so I just wait for them to ask |D I know, so confusing.). Link exchanges are more for...well, exchanging links with other domain owners (blogs included).
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Re: Affiliates vs Links

Post by Destinie »

It has taken me a while to figure out what to write here because this question actually provoked some deep contemplation within me. Why DO I ask for affiliates?

I agree with a lot of people here that it's partially residue from another time. (@DD I remember the affiliation requirements you are talking about! Some sites were really ridiculous about it like "You must get 100+ pageviews a day. You must have at least x amount of pages. You must you must...") I also think it stems from when people linked whatever sites but affiliates were sites that were more closely related to your topic. (Example: I had a Digimon site but had friends with Harry Potter sites that wanted to link exchange. So affiliates would just be more Digimon sites.)

Currently, I think I have affiliation on most sites to call out other sites that I really like. It's like I'm saying, "These sites are by people I know, they're really well done, and I want to give them some more attention." Which is why I *usually* try to link affiliates on the homepage. And then my links page is usually where I search the web (and the community) to find other sites on the same topic in attempts to make a massive links page.

For me, there's still some differences between the two. I kind of hope they don't die out because when I visit a site and see affiliates, I feel like they are basically site recommendations. "If you liked my site, you might like these..."
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Re: Affiliates vs Links

Post by Robin »

I used to see a lot more difference between "affiliates" and "link-exchanges", and admittedly I used to get offended if someone with a site about the same series wouldn't affiliate with me, but would only link-exchange with me. I ended up feeling like "What, am I not good enough for you to put my site on your sidebar, like I did for yours?"

These days, I look at "affiliates" as friends whose sites I'd like to promote on every page of my site, and "link-exchanges" are people whom I don't know quite as well but whose sites are still awesome--thus, they have their own page. (And there's definite room for "promotion" from a link-exchange to an affiliate within my world!)
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