If so, you need to do everything possible to increase the amount of traffic, the click-through response rate to your affiliate page links, and the relevance of your content to the product(s) you're promoting.
Typically, affiliates slap up a web page, add a few links, some cut-and-paste content, and forget about the site for a few weeks or months waiting for it to get spidered and included in the search engines.
There is a better way to accomplish affiliate sales. If you pay close attention to the details of your site, like you would if you were selling your own direct marketing product, your affiliate sales can soar.
Here are a few suggestions on how to pump up your affiliate marketing without spending a lot of money buying targeted traffic or spending a lot of computer time fiddling with complicated linking strategies:
1. Research the "most searched" key words that apply to your affiliate sales product. The best place I know to do that is at WordTracker. It's very important to understand the exact terms and phrases that surfers are currently using to find the affiliate product you're promoting.
2. Develop a specific theme for your affiliate web page, one that naturally and seamlessly leads surfers to clicking on your affiliate links.
There are several web site models for doing this:
- "how to" sites that give information on the product use,
- review type sites that present an "objective" evaluation of the product,
- content sites that compile lots of articles about the use and features/benefits of the product, and
- recommendation sites that directly point to the product site as the recommended alternative for the solution to the viewer's wants.
3. Give the viewer a "takeaway" or reminder that he can save and come back to later. Make sure the web page contains printable links to your affiliate product so that the page can be saved as a "favorites" link or as a printed page that can reviewed at a later time.
4. Lead your reader down the buying "funnel." Leave no doubt in his mind as to the steps you want him to take, in the order you specify, resulting in his final action of clicking through to the affiliate product. Leave nothing to chance. Be specific and don't hesitate to ask for the order (click-through).
5. Be very thorough in your explanations of the five "Ws": what, why, when, who, and where. In other words, leave no questions unanswered and anticipate with preciseness what issues, concerns, or objections the reader may have in mind about what he is looking for and where he is being referred to.
6. Offer incentives as a way to get your readers to your site and to click through to the referral site. Make the incentives relevant to the affiliate product if possible. The idea is to add interest and value to the product you're promoting and you can do that by giving additional information or other insights to the products usefulness.
7. Create a directory site for specific related products. You will draw a lot more traffic to your affiliate site if you broaden the focus to many related products within a specified niche. This strategy will label you as an authority in the subject and your site as a comprehensive "index" that is "objective" (even if your links are not!) of solutions.
8. Don't let your site become stale. Continue to add content, new links, and information that will cause the spiders to review and evaluate your site often.
Pay close attention to the little details of your site. Check all the links regularly. Check your navigation and site usability. Keep your content current and you will be paid nicely for your effort!
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