Affiliate Marketing Starts With the First Impression
First impressions are huge because they set the tone for a visitor’s entire experience
through your website, including any possible transactions that may take place now, or in
the future.
What is the first impression that you get when you go to a site and it’s splattered with
advertisements, for example? What does a site like that say to a first time visitor?
“Hi, nice to meet you – click here so I can earn a buck?”
It’s like if you met someone for the first time and the first thing they ask you is if
you’re interested in buying something from them. It reminds me of those guys who sell
jewelry from inside their trench coats. Maybe you’d buy a “folex” (fake-rolex) from them
once, but you’d never do any kind of business with that person beyond that.
I’d much rather get to know somebody first, trust them, and then have them tell me what
they might have to offer. Or better yet, be genuinely interested in what they’re doing, and
ask them about it myself. This is the kind of philosophy that I use when promoting other
people’s products.
What do you see when you land on my homepage?
2. Only Promote Products That You Have Used.
As I mentioned in a previous post, the way I earn money with affiliate links in ALL of my
online businesses is by promoting only products that I have used, and only what I would
recommend to my friends who want to achieve similar results. I feel that anyone with an
audience has a responsibility to do the same thing.
There’s something fishy about someone promoting Apple Computers who only uses a PC.
3. Always Describe The Product That You’re Promoting.
If you have an affiliate link that’s just a banner ad, or a link at the bottom of a post
with no real description – it’s a waste. If you’re actively promoting a product (that
you’ve used), you obviously know something about it. Share your knowledge with your
audience, and they’ll be intrigued and more likely to click through to learn more.
4. Content First, Affiliate Link Second.
Although I just said you should always describe the products you promote, the content that
you write should drive the affiliate links that you offer, not the other way around. Don’t
write posts just for the sake of placing an affiliate link within.
5. Share Your Experience With the Product.
When describing whatever it is your promoting, share your experience! If you can throw in
some data or graphs to go along with it, even better. Back when I was more actively writing
about eHow, I promoted an eBook that I read which helped quadruple my earnings per article.
I created a graph that showed how much I earned before I read the book versus how much I
earned after. To this date, that eBook has been one of the most successful affiliate
promotions I’ve done on this blog.
6. Only Promote One or Two of the Same Type of Products.
There are a number of reasons why you should never promote more than two of the same type
of products:
7. Starve the Horses and Feed the Stallions
This is a fancy way of saying that you should only promote the products that you know make
you the most money, and forget about the ones that don’t. You will only know this after
trial and error, so see what works, and get rid of the rest.
For a while, I had a number of banner ads on this blog that were not generating any type of
income for me. There’s no point in wasting valuable ad space with banners that don’t pay
out.
Test, test, test.
8. Utilize a Resources or Tools Page
A resource or tools page is a page that consists of helpful links to websites, products and
services related to your niche. This is a perfect spot for affiliate links, so take
advantage of this if you haven’t already.
It takes the “books I’m reading” area you often see in blogs (within Amazon affiliate
links) to a whole new level. not only is this great for you, but it’s extremely helpful for
your readers who may be looking for additional resources related to your niche. Plus, they
may come across products or services they weren’t originally looking for while on your
resources page.
Everybody wins.
First impressions are huge because they set the tone for a visitor’s entire experience
through your website, including any possible transactions that may take place now, or in
the future.
What is the first impression that you get when you go to a site and it’s splattered with
advertisements, for example? What does a site like that say to a first time visitor?
“Hi, nice to meet you – click here so I can earn a buck?”
It’s like if you met someone for the first time and the first thing they ask you is if
you’re interested in buying something from them. It reminds me of those guys who sell
jewelry from inside their trench coats. Maybe you’d buy a “folex” (fake-rolex) from them
once, but you’d never do any kind of business with that person beyond that.
I’d much rather get to know somebody first, trust them, and then have them tell me what
they might have to offer. Or better yet, be genuinely interested in what they’re doing, and
ask them about it myself. This is the kind of philosophy that I use when promoting other
people’s products.
What do you see when you land on my homepage?
2. Only Promote Products That You Have Used.
As I mentioned in a previous post, the way I earn money with affiliate links in ALL of my
online businesses is by promoting only products that I have used, and only what I would
recommend to my friends who want to achieve similar results. I feel that anyone with an
audience has a responsibility to do the same thing.
There’s something fishy about someone promoting Apple Computers who only uses a PC.
3. Always Describe The Product That You’re Promoting.
If you have an affiliate link that’s just a banner ad, or a link at the bottom of a post
with no real description – it’s a waste. If you’re actively promoting a product (that
you’ve used), you obviously know something about it. Share your knowledge with your
audience, and they’ll be intrigued and more likely to click through to learn more.
4. Content First, Affiliate Link Second.
Although I just said you should always describe the products you promote, the content that
you write should drive the affiliate links that you offer, not the other way around. Don’t
write posts just for the sake of placing an affiliate link within.
5. Share Your Experience With the Product.
When describing whatever it is your promoting, share your experience! If you can throw in
some data or graphs to go along with it, even better. Back when I was more actively writing
about eHow, I promoted an eBook that I read which helped quadruple my earnings per article.
I created a graph that showed how much I earned before I read the book versus how much I
earned after. To this date, that eBook has been one of the most successful affiliate
promotions I’ve done on this blog.
6. Only Promote One or Two of the Same Type of Products.
There are a number of reasons why you should never promote more than two of the same type
of products:
7. Starve the Horses and Feed the Stallions
This is a fancy way of saying that you should only promote the products that you know make
you the most money, and forget about the ones that don’t. You will only know this after
trial and error, so see what works, and get rid of the rest.
For a while, I had a number of banner ads on this blog that were not generating any type of
income for me. There’s no point in wasting valuable ad space with banners that don’t pay
out.
Test, test, test.
8. Utilize a Resources or Tools Page
A resource or tools page is a page that consists of helpful links to websites, products and
services related to your niche. This is a perfect spot for affiliate links, so take
advantage of this if you haven’t already.
It takes the “books I’m reading” area you often see in blogs (within Amazon affiliate
links) to a whole new level. not only is this great for you, but it’s extremely helpful for
your readers who may be looking for additional resources related to your niche. Plus, they
may come across products or services they weren’t originally looking for while on your
resources page.
Everybody wins.