|
10
Ways Affiliates Can Help Improve Performance
Simply placing a link
on your page whether it’s a text link, a banner or a product
feed isn’t enough to maximise your conversion rates. Extra
effort is needed to improve your pages and make a big difference
to your bank account.
Here are a list of 10 things you can do
today to help improve the presentation of your web pages and the
affiliate links within them;
1. Do Your
Links Work?
Obvious, simple, no-brainer, 101, call it
what you want, but when was the last time you checked EVERY
affiliate link on your site? Do they all work? Are all those
merchants still in business? Have they changed any landing
pages? In an ideal world you should be able to rely on your
merchants to inform you of any changes, redirect dead pages and
inform you if a program was shutting down…….but if this was
an ideal world I’d be picking up Halle Berry tonight in my
1971 Lamborghini Miura SV ;)
2. Are All
Your Links Affiliate Tracking Links?
No-Brainer Number Two. You have a
beautiful product page, detailing everything anyone would want
to know and a link at the bottom saying ‘Click Here to Buy”,
but wait a minute….there’s a link at the top of the page
which ISN’T an affiliate link. It’s the brand’s logo and
it’s a non-affiliate link to the home page!!! If you’re
linking to Merchant XX, then EVERY link to that merchant’s
website HAS to be an affiliate link. Just one, normal, straight,
non-affiliate link is leakage that gains you nothing.
3. Focus and
Duplicate.
Don’t let your webpages become all
things for all shoppers. Your pages will just end up being a
confused mess of links and images that don’t do anyone any
service. One page for one product is ideal – not only does
this help you focus the whole page to sell this product, but it
also helps this page rank well in the search engines too.
Once you’ve created a page for Product A
then you can basically duplicate this page for Similar Product B
and Similar Product C, just change the names, slightly alter
some content and specific product details – you now have 3
highly targetted pages. Now imagine where you could be after a
year of doing that once a day?
This will mean you will have a lot more
pages on your site so remember that a good navigational system
is important to allow the visitors to find their way around.
Good page and site design goes along way.
4. Display
Pricing & Shipping.
We all hate surprises, especially when
we’re shopping. Don’t hide the price and don’t hide the
shipping cost. Some merchants may do this on their sites, but it
doesn’t mean you have to. Infact, if you clearly state the
price when a merchant isn’t, then you’re doing the potential
customer a service. If you can state on your page that Product A
costs $50, tax is an extra $5 and Shipping is $10 then the
potential customer can dance merrily through the shopping cart
without being stopped in their tracks by extra costs. If a
customer knows from the very beginning that to get Product A
delivered to their door is going to cost $65 then their brains
and credit card are prepared for the dreaded process of the
shopping cart and parting with their money.
Also, remember people in other countries.
If Product A is only shipped in the USA and Canada then state it
early on. You’re not going to lose a customer as they can’t
receive Product A anyway, but you do gain the trust and respect
of that person as you’ve saved them the hassle of going
through the whole shopping cart process only to find at the last
page, in the small print, that they don’t ship to the
UK...it’s frustrating, believe me.
5.
Recommend/Suggest Alternative Products.
Shoppers have a tendency to research and
shop around for the best deals. Don’t fight this compulsion,
embrace it. Instead of ramming it down the visitors throat that
Product A is the best and they must buy it, why not say –
"Here’s Product A, but here’s links to Product B,
Product C and Product D too so you can decide what’s best for
you."
Open these links in new windows too so
people don’t lose track of your website and start again using
someone elses.
It doesn’t matter what one they buy
because you get commission on all of them. The merchants care
because it’s their products you’re selling, but you as the
affiliate shouldn’t care as you’re just after a commission
on any sale.
Here’s another idea to gain friends
around the world, Merchant A may not ship to the UK and Europe,
but Merchant B and Merchant D do. Offer this as an alternative
option for foreign visitors.
Allow your visitors to do all their
research on YOUR webpages and not go back to the search engines
and to find other online stores. ‘Be the customer’ and
pretend you’re looking to buy Product XX and then do research
online to buy it. All the online stores you come across that
sell Product XX AND have an affiliate program – Join them,
then list them on your web page.
6. Test and
Compare Merchants.
Leading on from the above point, you may
highlight Product A as the main product on your page and then
recommend/suggest others, but you should examine your stats and
see which one actually converts the best.
Product A may convert 1 in 87 visitors,
but that little link at the bottom of the page for Product G may
convert 1 in 5. Why? Maybe Product G has free shipping, deliver
globally, include a free add-on, a gift certificate, merchant
has a better variety of other products too, etc, etc.
If Product G is better at converting then
change your page so Product G is the main product listed. Your
webpages are NEVER static, there is a constant cycle of
experimenting and changing. Always check your stats regularly as
things can change due to many factors and don’t rely on other
people to tell you what’s the best, as what may work on their
site may not be the best for your site, and vice versa.
A merchants commission rate can also be a
little deceiving. Merchant A may reward 30% whilst Merchant B
may reward 10%, but the key is conversion rate. 30% of zero is
still zero, so don’t go flogging a dead donkey because a
commission rate is higher, it’s all about conversion.
7.
Test and Compare Page Design & Text.
Once you have found your best merchant for
a particular product, then you need to find the best way to
present that merchant on a page. Do you have an image, paragraph
then link? Multiple images? Detailed text? Do you use bold text?
Do you focus on the price or features?
As in skinning cats, there are multiple
ways of doing things. This doesn’t have to turn into an
intense exercise that bores you to tears, just simple changes to
a page once a week or month can tell you a great deal of
information. Statistics are an affiliates best friend. See how
your page is currently performing – then make a change (eg.
the price in bold text and a slightly bigger font) – then wait
a week or month and see if there has been any improvement.
Now, to complicate things, any
improvements or failures through your testing could be
influenced by other factors such as seasonal, world events, etc,
so you should look closely at the click-through rates. Number of
visits to your page can be down to all sorts of things, but of
those visitors, what percentage of them clicked on your link to
a merchant? That’s the figure that your page presentation
experiments can affect.
8. Hardcore,
Greasy Car Salesmen Approach.
Not recommended. Does the text on your
webpages inform, persuade or drill it into their thick skulls
that this is the best product? You Must Buy Zis Produkt!!
The text on your webpages supporting the
product should inform the visitor of the product, offer related
options and entice them to click on your links. Feel free to add
personal experience or opinion too. Be friendly, be approachable
and be knowledgable.
Don’t drone on and on and on and on
about how it’ll miraculously change their lives, and don’t
lie or deceive the visitor into clicking a link. If you state
that Product A is only $10 but then the customer clicks through
the shopping cart to see a bill for $65, then you’ve only
succeeded in wasting your bandwidth and the time it took you to
write the page.
9. Direct
Linking
Link directly to the product you are
promoting. In the past I have seen something I liked, clicked on
the link, been taken to the merchant’s home page and then
couldn’t find the product I was after! Very frustrating.
Yes, it takes time to specially tailor
your links to go directly to the product pages but it’s well
worth it. Some affiliate programs may not have the facility to
do this, if so, get in contact with the merchant and let them
know that you want to link directly to products and if they
don’t offer it soon then you’ll go to another merchant who
does.
You’re an Affiliate – Merchants are
there to serve YOU.
10. Assumption
Is The Mother Of All...
...mistakes. Once you design your pages
and put them online don’t assume it’s perfect and that if
anyone can’t use it then it’s their problem, not yours. If
someone can’t use it then you’re missing out on revenue.
Carry out some user testing on your web
pages and get a better idea of how people use your page and
navigate around. ‘User Testing’ may sound like a massive
expense that only huge corporations do, and in its purest form
it probably is, but all I’m talking about is getting a few
people of different ages and different internet experience to
use your site whilst you look over their shoulder and see how
successful they are in using your site.
Do the pages load quick enough for your
young nephew? Can your gran read the text OK? Does your Dad
understand what you’re selling? Can your friend easily
navigate your pages? Make a note of the questions people ask
you, but don’t help them out (If your great-grandmother asks
why the typewriter is attached to the microwave, then move on to
someone else ;) ).
Also, take this opportunity to ask them to
find Product A online. Do they go to a search engine first? If
so, which one? What phrase do they search for? How do they look
at the results page? Is No.1 the best, or do they carefully read
the descriptions and titles? Do they look at sponsored links? Do
they even know about sponsored links? Ask them why they chose a
particular site, what did they like about it?
Being on the internet all day, everyday
can easily blind you to how ‘ordinary people’ use it.
Advanced computer and internet users operate differently from
others. The masses that use the internet to shop online are
important because they are the ones that will generate the bulk
of your revenue in most cases.
Summary.
Affiliate marketing can work for the
affiliate and earn them a full-time wage…and then some. If
it’s not working for you then YOU are not doing something, or
are doing something wrong. Being a successful affiliate takes a
lot of work, simply placing lots of links on a page is not
enough.
Every page should be handcrafted and
regularly examined with a magnifying glass to analyse
performance. Look at your web stats and affiliate stats at least
monthly (preferably weekly or even daily) and experiment. Even
the smallest, most simplest change can make a big difference.
Lastly, always be adding new pages and/or
new merchants to your site. Every website can find and fit in a
new merchant somewhere. Think outside the box with regards to
what your visitors want and then find a merchant that offers
that product or service.
|
