Improving Affiliate Program
Performance (continued, part 2)
2- Describe the banner/link to
your visitors
Perhaps the simplest way to
improve the performance of affiliate program banners and links is to add brief
descriptions of what your visitors will find on the other end. Advertising has become so
common on the Internet that many web surfers completely ignore it. If you simply display a
banner, or a link, they very likely will not feel compelled to click on it. However,
describing the vendor or their products can be a simple, and effective way to increase the
link's performance. A simple blurb such as 'Interested in widgets? XYZ offers the widest
selection of widgets, at the best prices!' can easily enhance the link's overall
effectiveness.
3- Provide valuable information to your visitors
Most affiliate programs now make
it very easy for you to begin. Within minutes you can join and have a banner ad or link
from your site. This is good, and very convenient, and surely beats Amazon's old system of
being forced to individually link books. However, it has unfortunately also made some
sites lazy. Instead of providing valuable content that funnels visitors to products they
can purchase through affiliate programs, many have simply added a boring button to their
page.
To increase the odds that your
visitors will utilize the affiliate programs you host, it is important to provide that way
to funnel visitors to the program. Perhaps the most obvious example of this is the
personal bookstores that Amazon recommends, where you provide reviews of various titles
that may interest your visitors. Other examples would be adding direct links to products
or services into articles you write for your site (or even newsletter), daily updates to
your site, or other interactive content.
4- Create links throughout your site
One of the keys to improving your
probability for success is to make sure that all of your visitors have easy access to your
programs. All too often a simple link is added on one page in a site. But what if only 10%
of your visitors make it to that particular page? Even if it is the homepage, they may
have clicked on to another area of the site before noticing it... By making the program
more accessible, you will improve the chances that a visitor notices, and decides to click
on it. And as is common in other areas of marketing, it is often necessary for people to
see something several times before they take notice or become interested.
Continue
|
