By Cynthia Arko
SUBJECT: Make $10K/without getting out of bed . . .
I don't think so. If you thought that all you needed to make money online is to merely launch a site, your hopes will quickly be squashed. Making money with affiliate programs requires much hard work and continued attention to developing and retaining visitor traffic.
To retain visitors, you must create stickiness. Content creates stickiness.
Be sure to provide detailed information that is relevant to your site's core focus and visitor interests. For starters, which link do you think will get a higher clickthrough rate?
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Example A |
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Buy Wilson Jumbo Tennis Balls |
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Example B |
Available for only $24.99!
Not only is the Wilson Jumbo Tennis ball rapidly becoming a circuit
favorite with players and fans; it is my top choice. Sold for
years exclusively at the U.S. Open™, Wilson is now offering
a Jumbo tennis ball for retail sale. Click here to order
yours today. |
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Example C |
Link "C" provides more information and a personal recommendation to purchase the tennis balls. I can guarantee that your clickthrough rates will soar if you spend some extra time developing relevant content designed to encourage a purchase.
Another technique may be to suggest an alternate product selection:
Customers who purchased Wilson Jumbo Tennis Balls also bought the Gamma Ball Hopper Risette Tennis Ball Basket.
Amazon.com has developed a nice system of recommending additional items of interest to other customers. Dig deep to find additional products that may be of interest to your visitors and feature them on your site. These ancillary purchases will start to add up over time.
Editorial or Product Reviews further enhance the content on your site and provide your visitors with additional information on a particular product. Let your words do the selling. A quick review of your featured item provides the visitor with additional information needed to make a purchasing decision.
For more information about affiliate programs, check out these other articles from Cynthia Arko's ongoing weekly series:
Getting Started in Affiliate Marketing
Revenue Sharing 101
In this first in a series of weekly articles, Cynthia Arko, Product Director for internet.com's Refer-it.com affiliate directory, presents a no-nonsense approach to generating revenue from your Web site.
How to Indentify Quality Affiliate Programs
With literally thousands of affiliate programs available on the Internet, it could be difficult to determine which ones are high quality. However, the process could be made easier when using some basic criteria.
Understanding Affiliate Commission Structures
If you want to get paid, you need to understand affiliate commission payments and the many different commission structures that exist.
Content Sells
Making money with affiliate programs requires much hard work and continued attention to developing and retaining visitor traffic.
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Providing articles is another great way to maintain a balance between banner ads and content. A recent article about the health risks of tennis elbow can provide affiliate links to tennis elbow supports and straps, a video on how to treat your own tennis elbow and a book providing a doctor's opinion on tennis elbow.
The linking possibilities are endless if you put your mind to it.
Syndicated Content and Dynamic News are quick and easy ways to get fresh content without having to manually update HTML or source code on a daily basis. Syndicated content sites provide Webmasters with a wide selection of headline news, sports scores, stock quotes, e-mail, calendars, chat games, horoscopes, comics, movie reviews, weather reports and more.
YourBabyToday provides free health information, baby development guides, expert Q&A, and interactive tools for pregnant women and new mothers. Content is updated daily and hosted by nationally known experts. Other excellent sources of generic syndicated content and dynamic news include
iSyndicate,
Moreover.com, Excite and
LifeMinders.
Although, this syndicated content should not replace the personal feel of your own content, it does provide professional up-to-date information that integrates easily with your site.
I love tests! I'm not suggesting that you remove all banner ads from your site since some creative banners actually continue to bring in serious affiliate revenue. But try replacing some of your images or banner ads with text links and enhanced content. Monitor the clickthrough rates for a month or so and feature the one that is bringing in the most affiliate revenue. Soon you will get a feel for the balance of banner ads-to-content on your affiliate site.
Not only does content create stickiness; it may just help your ranking in the search engines. Search engines frequently sift through millions of pages to find relevant information for indexing of a particular topic. A page full of flashy banners will get poor results while a site rich with articles, product descriptions, news and information will have a good chance of ranking high in the search engine. Although, no search engine uses the same search mentality, it's likely that your content rich site will be more attractive to the vast majority.
Stay tuned as next week I'll explore more ways to profit from Search Engine positioning.
Cynthia A. Arko is the Product Director for internet.com's Refer-it.com (Refer-it.com) affiliate directory. She coordinates advertising, site development, and conference planning. Cynthia helped grow Refer-it.com from a small directory of Affiliate Programs to the Web's leading resource for information about affiliate programs. She also currently maintains KidsTown Direct, a shopping portal for parents and young families. Cynthia can be reached at carko@internet.com.
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