👋 Ezoic Drops Affiliates, Google Faces Suits, INP > FID 📈

Welcome to the Niche Site Digest!

In today’s email:

• Ezoic is closing down its affiliate program (say goodbye to those lifetime commissions)

• INP replacing FID in 2024 (Core Web Vitals update)

• Google is being sued (and how that affects you)

• And much more…

Let’s dive in!

Yikes.

Starting last week, Ezoic’s affiliate program is no longer operational (effective August 14th, 2023).

Ezoic told everyone that the program didn't really work out as planned. It pulled in less than 1% of their sites, and it even hiked up the costs to keep the program running.

Considering their pretty generous 3% lifetime commission for every referral, it's not hard to see why they weren't too thrilled about it.

To be fair, Ezoic said they were going to continue to work with higher-quality affiliates, but we have no idea what that means at the moment.

What it means: Unless you’re an Ezoic affiliate, this news shouldn’t directly affect you. However, it is always a good reminder not to depend on any single affiliate program since it can be shut down overnight.

INP (Interaction to Next Paint) is a soon-to-be-introduced way to measure how quickly a webpage responds to user actions. It'll replace the old method, First Input Delay (FID), in 2024.

What’s the difference?

FID only checks the first interaction. INP considers all interactions.

This provides a more reliable measure of the page's overall responsiveness.

What you need to know: To score well in INP, your page must display visual feedback to interactions quickly, ideally in 200 milliseconds or less. You can check your INP score in the Core Web Vitals section of your Search Console.

This didn’t take long. There is now a class action lawsuit against Google for stealing the personal data of millions of Americans in order to train its AI model.

It’s the latest in the long line of lawsuits against AI companies (OpenAI faced a similar suit not too long ago - by the same law firm as well). Even Meta is being sued by Sarah Silverman, saying they used her copyrighted materials without her permission.

Why should you care: Well, it’s quite simple - we are all using AI in our content and campaigns. If that data has been obtained illegally, that opens a lot of options for copyright infringement lawsuits. Chances of that are slim, though - most likely, Google and other companies will get a slap on the wrist and continue business as usual.

• Facebook pages: how to make $2,486 per month with a page with only 7,000 followers.

• 6-figure affiliate site flip: There’s a lot of uncertainty about niche sites at the moment. However, this YouTube video from Authority Hacker shows it’s still possible to build, grow, and flip a site for a life-changing amount of money.

• Bard July update: 40 languages, new locations (including Europe), and a bunch more.

• A Canadian news site? You might be in trouble. Google threatens to end news access in Canada after a bill that requires them to pay the publishers might come through.

• Order bumps: if you sell courses: these are by far the simplest way to increase your revenue.

• How to use QueryHunter: a great thread by Kasra Dash on how to maximize the use of this tool.

• Case study: How David Thomas Tao grew BarBend to millions of visitors (and sold it for a handsome profit).

• Interview: Thomas Smith breaks down how to make $8k/month as an Amazon influencer.

• Should you use stock images on your site: the jury is out on this one, but it could be a negative ranking signal.

That’s it for today - see you next week!