Question about multiple affiliate websites

[Grant29]

Hi,

I noticed many people here have multiple websites. A couple questions came to mind that I wonder if any can answer:

1. Many people set up multiple sites with scripts like the mrrat amazon script. Is there any indication that Google or the other search engines recognize that many sites out there are clones of each other and de-rank those? When so many sites are similar, how do the search engines rank one versus the other, especialy when the sites have similar PR and backlinks?

2. Shared webhosting is so cheap, a lot of people do it. If a person were to setup a single dedicated server which hosted several similar affiliate linking sites, would the search engines treat each site fairly with the rest of the world? I'm wondering that if Google found multiple similar sites with the same IP address that it might treat the sites as a group instead of individual sites.

Does anyone have any input on this?

Thanks,
Grant

[petertdavis]

A lot of people do it, but very few make money on it. I've built a few affiliate sites, and had modest success. I think the philosophy behind what you're describing is by throwing quantity at the search engines somehow you'll eventually get some traffic, and some sales. Sometimes it works.