After looking at many affiliate programs, sites and products I would like to pinpoint some of the major mistakes that affiliates make when promoting other people’s products.If the stats are true we can estimate that possibly a max of 5% are making the majority of the profits to be had from this method of internet business. We know that it is very popular and a lot of money is paid out to affiliates each day. So why do the majority either make nothing or very little as affiliates?
Many who are new to internet marketing and want to possibly start a home business are told that one of the easiest methods is to become an affiliate by promoting other people’s products. This is seemingly the easiest, fastest and least costly way of starting out and getting your feet wet! They then start to read the hyped sales letters and vast riches that some of the super affiliates have made and want a piece of the action. By this time they are in a dangerous mindset of believing that not only is it easy and fast to start promoting but also there is little to stop them joining the bandwagon and making truckloads of cash with the minimum effort.
From this process of promotion and belief based on what the big boys have achieved, the newbie feels that if they get their links and ads up and running the sales will follow on auto pilot! Many expect the visitor to click on a banner or a link and BUY giving them instant commissions for the minimum effort. Stuff a page or site with the maximum number of products and links and you cannot fail!! Having understood this process and how so many buy into a false impression that has been created, we can move on to looking at the resultant mistakes that are made by so many affiliates and understand why so few have a good share in the fortunes that can be made as an affiliate marketer.
You need a professional, clear and well-designed website.
Many are told they do not need a website. If you are serious and want a unique landing page and design giving you the chance of using SEO for organic listings and a way of building your own list, then there is no substitute for having your own site.
The first big mistake many affiliates make is building an amateurish or ugly website. There are design principles that you must follow when you build your website to achieve success in affiliate marketing. There really is no excuse as there are many plug in sites, templates and plenty of tools to help you create a professional looking site.
When a visitor arrives at your site, you have only seconds to create interest and build credibility and rapport. First impressions are crucial and will determine of your visitor stays longer and opts in or buys something! Your banner must be clear, visually appealing, simple and to the point. The name of your website and what you say in your banner must tell the visitor exactly what your website is about.
Keep your site simple, easy to read, clean and uncluttered. That means having margins, easy to read fonts, and easy on the eye colors. White backgrounds with black type are best. Eliminate all the gaudy colors, multi-graphics, and blinking lights. Use blue for live links, red for the most important text or yellow highlights or simply bold. Be consistent and use the same font and text size except for headings or titles.
You should be trying to create credibility, reliability, and consistency with your visitor. Other ways to create credibility and rapport is to put a photo of yourself near the top of your page. Be sure to display your email address and contact details prominently.
Just below your banner should be your headline in large type as this is the most important part of your webpage. It must be interesting and bold and draw the visitor into your site. Your headline should address the needs of your visitor or provide a solution to your visitor’s problem and they should feel that the site caters to their initial interests and reasons for arriving there in the first place.
Finally, do not overwhelm your customer with choices. Design your navigation clearly and place it in the same location on each page. There should not be too many links to choose from. You do not want to confuse your potential customer as a confused mind simply won’t make a purchase. A confused visitor will be likely to exit your website in search of an easier and clearer solution to their need or problem.
Importance of getting subscribers and building a LIST
It is surprising how many affiliates fail to capture their visitor’s name and email address by either not even having an OPT IN/subscribe box or putting it in the wrong place. When you consider the importance of PRE SELLING and preparing the visitor for the sales page and eventual purchase, it is vital to capture the visitor’s contact details before they navigate away! A very small per cent of visitors will BUY directly from a sales page as most visit 6-7 times before buying. Also stats tell us that warming them up with a pre sales or squeeze page means conversion rates will be much higher once they are taken to the sales page! It’s amazing how many websites just try to sell products in the belief that visitors will magically click on a buy button as first time visitors!
Getting visitors to your site takes time and money, and often only 1 – 2% will buy your product. This is why it is vital to have the maximum chance of getting the emails of the majority of visitors by having a well positioned opt in/subscribe box. Get their name and email address. Then continue to market to them through your auto-responder emails system. Many will end up buying as a result of this process and once they get to know and trust you, they will buy from you again and again. Your customer list is the most important asset in your business. You will make more money on the back end than you will on the front end of your affiliate marketing business. One good practice is to put an opt-in form on every page of your website.
As more and more marketers realize the importance of building a list and capturing the details of those first time visitors, we see ever-increasing enticements for visitors to leave their details. It used to be a Newsletter with tips and advice would be sufficient but now you also need an array of free gifts usually in the form of an ebook(s). If you can relate the free gift to the content of your site or product all the better.
DO NOT SELL but prepare your customers by PRE SELLING
Another big mistake affiliate marketers make is selling to their customers. Your job as an affiliate is not to sell, it’s to PRE-sell. It’s the merchant's job to write killer copy to convert the visitors you have sent them into paying customers.
Many affiliates use parts of a merchant’s sales page with the result that their webpage resembles a sales letter. This turns your visitors off. People don’t want to be sold to, and don’t like reading advertising.
Pre-selling is all about sharing your personal experience with a product and by using it or reading about it you are able to write a convincing and personalized REVIEW. You should relate your own feelings about the product and what it has done for you. Explain why you like it. Instead of hyping a product the way sales letter pages do, you should describe to your visitor the product’s benefits. Make a list of benefits and how you have used the product successfully. Personalize your recommendation. Then casually offer the link to the product. Do not try to sell the product!
Finally in the pre selling process, you need to think about the best ways to prepare your customers for the merchant’s site and sales page. Many use a unique SQUEEZE or LANDING page to act as a pre sell method where the potential customer clicks on an ad or link and lands on your squeeze page. Most of these pages should be selling ONE product but some can also be used to sell a group of various products or ebooks on the same topic.
Normally you will want the squeeze page to act as a good method to capture their details by having the OPT IN form as the main feature. So even if the minimum exciting text used does not entice them to continue on to the SALES PAGE/merchant’s site, you will at least get their email before they exit!
The page should thus be very clear with minimum text and a prominent OPT IN section featuring the benefits like free gifts etc. The main point of the text is to get them excited enough about the features, benefits and advantages of the product to continue on to the main sales page. If they did not leave their email there should be another OPT IN BOX at the top of the sales page so you have a 2nd chance to at least build your list.
This also depends on what emphasis and importance you attach to the visitor buying a product versus adding them to your mail list! If you afre able to get BOTH then you will fast become one of the top affiliate marketers! Many affiliates do not realize the VALUE of building their list and mistakenly feel that if a visitor does not BUY they have failed! The crucial thing here is to also understand HOW to make the maximum sales from your list and how to build up that relationship with your list that can lead to many future sales. That is another subject for a future article.
I hope as an AFFILIATE or a newbie to the world of INTERNET MARKETING you found this article to be a good AFFILIATE RESOURCE that helped you to better understand how to succeed in this field. My AFFILIATE RESOURCES section of the a2zebookshop has many more reviews and tips with the bst affiliate products for you to promote.
David Fowler
Ebooks that can make a difference to your life!
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