| The
Top 5 Myths About Affiliate Programs (continued,
part 3)
This
point actually leads back to the previous myth about banner ads.
If you are adding an affiliate program to your site in a matter
of minutes, you are most likely relying on simple banner ads,
or perhaps other graphics.
Instead,
you may be better off taking a few extra minutes to create an
effective strategy for capturing your visitors' interest. Placement
of links for an affiliate program are of utmost importance. Is
the link highly visible? Is it in a logical location? Does the
link include something that will convince your visitors to take
the time to click? Taking the time to anticipate your visitors
actions and movement through your site, and how you can relate
affiliate program links to them, can pay great dividends in the
future.
5-Free
Domains are Cost-Free
Many
webmasters new to affiliate programs begin their sites using a
free domain service such as Tripod or Geocities. For many, myself
included when I started this way, the idea is that you can start
for free, make some money, and then eventually set up your own
web site using the profits. Net cost in this scenario appears
to be zero.
However,
if you are serious about earning a decent income from the web,
using a free web service brings a tremendous invisible cost. Free
web sites not only have long, difficult names that are almost
impossible to remember or type in, but they also lend a serious
sense of amateurism that prevents your visitors from taking your
site seriously.
Even
if the content you provide is top notch, it will be VERY difficult
to raise your site's traffic to the level at which affiliate programs
can become highly profitable. A whole article could be devoted
to this topic, but quite simply, free domain names and affiliate
programs do not a successful entrepreneur make.
Hopefully
dispelling a few of these myths will help in making affiliate
programs a more profitable venture. It is possible for you to
earn revenues in the hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars per
month, but the saying 'Build it and they will come' rarely holds
true on the Internet. Affiliate programs do, and will take effort
if you are planning to earn a substantial income.
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