The following article is one in a series of articles focusing on affiliate marketing, articles, and the Internet. All articles are based on real experiences and research carried out over twenty years as a personal and business coach. They are also written in response to questions I have been asked and address common challenges people have with affiliate marketing, article marketing, internet marketing, or running an online business in general. I sincerely hope you find the following information valuable. An idea, a piece of advice, a clue can make all the difference.
Affiliate Marketing: How To Increase Your Affiliate Marketing Profitability Part 1
It is important for all of us involved with affiliate and internet marketing to keep up with the techniques that are proving very successful. Hopefully some of you have benefited from incorporating audio on your site. Now the focus seems to be on the use of video, either owned or ‘borrowed’ from sources like Google and YouTube.
These are great techniques as long as they add value to what is already a welcoming and easy-to-use website. No amount of audio, video, flash intros, or any other marketing trend that may come your way will get you the results you’re looking for unless you get the basics right.
Get the basics right, then you can look at different ways to supplement a site that’s already working for you.
So what are these basics?
1. Give your visitors what they are looking for
Visitors have come to your site because they have a need and they are waiting for you to provide the solution to that need. Let them know that they have found what they are looking for. Your home page should include clear and concise information that explains what your site is about. Content will always be king, but don’t ramble.
Engage your visitors with value-added content and convince them within seconds that they have come to the right place. Whatever means you’ve used to drive these visitors to your site, it’s crazy not to want to keep them there.
As soon as they feel like you might be the answer to what they’re looking for, you’ll have ample opportunity to guide them through your site and any call-to-actions you want them to take.
2. Make sure your site loads as fast as possible
You may be the best copywriter on this planet, but that won’t be worth a hundred if your visitors have left due to the frustration of waiting for your site to load.
I know, flash intros, animated images, nifty affiliate program banners may look great, but they all take time to download. Less of a problem than it used to be, of course, but even the latest technology has its bad days. Look at it from your own experience of surfing the net and then trying to access a slow loading website – how long is your timeout before continuing? Mine is no more than a few seconds.
All that hard work you’ve put into convincing your visitors that your site has the solution to meet their needs is pointless if they’re not going to wait for the page to load.
3. Keep your website simple
I recently received some feedback on one of my sites which basically said that the site was technically brilliant but confusing for the user.
Sit back and critically look at the pages you have created. Does the flow make sense? Do you risk frustrating your visitors because they don’t understand what to do next? Do you really have to guess what some of your links are for?
Once again, think about it from their perspective. You are a customer, making purchase decisions or looking to get even more information. So how easy do you want it to be? Now make it just as easy for your potential customers.
4. Make sure all your links and navigation are crisp
It’s all part of the same theme, making it easy for your visitor. Imagine how successful a large shopping center would be if visitors (especially first-time visitors) couldn’t find what they’re looking for.
Make it easy for your visitors to a) find the links and b) move around your site – minimize the number of clicks they have to make to get to the information they want.
Navigation bars and text links can usually be found vertically on the left side of the page or horizontally across the top. Another suggestion I have is to include the most important links as well, like going back to the home page at the bottom of the page instead of making the user scroll up and down looking for a link.
Making it as easy as possible for your visitors will encourage them to stay a while.
Thank you for reading. Find 3 more ways to increase your affiliate marketing profitability in part 2.
If you’re still not sure you have what it takes to run a successful affiliate marketing business, don’t worry. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain by visiting us at the following link.
