Tag: affiliate marketing programs

Landing Pages: Essential to Affiliate Marketing


Landing pages

Put a landing page in your marketing toolbox – As an affiliate marketer, you will need to perform certain tasks and you’ll need a set of marketing tools to assist you in the performance of those tasks. However, what you don’t need to be concerned with is the development or creation of the products and/or services (‘products’) you are going to market, because they are all ready to go whenever you are. Consider the following scenario.

You have already signed up with the Google Adsense program or with other affiliate marketing programs, and you have already prepared the ad you want to post on your affiliate’s site. Your mind is now set on being the next most successful online businessman; but is there something else you might have forgotten to prepare? Maybe nothing! However, have you thought to prepare landing pages? Are they all set for your business?

Landing pages are simply web pages where visitors are directed to when they click a search engine results page link or an ad on the Web. For affiliate marketers, landing pages are utilized to entice website visitors to spend more time browsing their pages; and for merchants they are used to direct potential customers to particular product pages on their websites. Keep in mind that most product links on an affiliate’s website would lead to unique landing pages created by the merchants.

Landing pages are, at most times, not really different from other web pages in a particular website, especially if the website referred to is an e-commerce site. Some online business persons would even use the homepage of their websites as the landing page for their ads. Are these business persons making a big mistake? Or should you follow their method in creating landing pages for your ads?

Well, you can always follow what most online retailers do: direct their potential customers to the homepages of their websites. But if you want to achieve something more from your online business, and if you want to earn a lot of profit, you’d be better off creating a special landing page for your web ads. Why? There are a few reasons why you need to use landing pages for your web ads. And take note that it would be much better if you create a great landing page as oppose to a so-so one.

Pay-per-click

It is the only way affiliate marketers get conversions – There are a variety of affiliate marketing programs today, but most of these programs let the merchant pay the affiliate in a pay per click (PPP) basis. Basically, all you have to do is sign up with the program and submit your ad. The program owner would then distribute your ad to various affiliates who would then place your ad on their websites. Whenever your ad is clicked, a visitor would be directed to your landing page and you would have to pay the affiliate for his/her service.

As a merchant, you earn money through conversions —that result when a visitor is directed to your site and actually buys a product before leaving. Without these conversions, you actually earn nothing from the program. Also, the more visitors your affiliates have directed to your site, the larger would your expense wpould be. And the only way you can recover from these expenses is through conversions.

Of course you probably won’t get any conversion if you post an ad on your affiliate’s site without an actual landing page for the potential customer to be redirected into. It’s just like advertising a product without actually having a store from which to sell your product. Your advertisement may be enticing enough to encourage people to purchase a product, but without the landing page, how will they know where and how to purchase that product?

It is therefore important to have landing pages for your ads because it is the only way for you to earn some money in an affiliate program. Without landing pages, all you do is spend money paying your affiliates without actually getting anything in return.

The home page

Other web pages may just not be enough – Many affiliates make the mistake of making their website’s homepage as the landing page for their ads. The same is true for those who make use of other pages like a “contact us” page or a product page. Homepages are often designed to serve multiple users and contain a lot of links to other pages or to other websites.

The same is true for the other two pages mentioned. If you want to be successful in an affiliate program, it is best not to have your landing page to cater to the needs of various people, most of which may not be really interested in your product.

When choosing a landing page, you must always have the customer directed into that page you intended. Therefore your landing page must be relevant to the keywords and content you placed in your ad. It is also important that the landing page induce your visitor to take action by clicking on one of your product links or at least provide leads for potential customers.

A primary business tool on hold

Final Word

You probably entered into an affiliate marketing program with these things in mind: to save on advertising expenses and to gain more profit. But if you get into an affiliate marketing program without actually having a landing page, you’ll end up paying too much without getting anything in return. So if you still don’t have a landing page for your ads, you better start creating one now; and don’t get wrong idea; it isn’t enough for you to have just a landing page…it should be a great landing page. Good luck!

Being an Affiliate Marketer: Profitable?!


Affiliate marketing has become one of the most effective ways to advertise online, and is considered one of the easiest ways for any individual with a website to make money online. Affiliate Marketing is essentially an agreement between a product owner/service provider (merchant) and a website owner or publisher (affiliate), pursuant to which the website owner/affiliate allows the use of his/her site for the promotion of a merchant’s products/services (‘products’) via links that lead to the merchant’s website.

In exchange for such promotion and direct linking the merchant will make payment in the form of a commission to a particular affiliate for each purchase made to customers referred as a result of such promotion and direct linking. Every time someone clicks on a link on the affiliate website and proceeds to make a purchase, the affiliate gets paid a commission; but the merchant will pay an affiliate only when a customer clicks on the product link and makes a purchase.

Affiliate marketing programs are seen as win-win situations for both the merchant and affiliate marketer because of a pay-for-performance methodology that is understood, agreed to and utlilized by both parties who, as a result, enjoy immense benefits from this affiliate marketing structure. Affiliate marketing provides many benefits to the merchant’s side in the sense that it gives the merchant a wider market in which to advertise his/her product or service.

This marketing method provides a product or service the maximum exposure which it may not get with other traditional advertising techniques. The more affiliate sites a merchant can attract to promote his/her products, the more exposure of, and traffic to, product pages s/he can expect to achieve and convert to sales. Affiliate marketing is the equivalent of having an army of sales people who will advertise and promote products while only getting paid if the activity results in purchase(s).

Meanwhile, since a win-win situation is beneficial to both parties, the affiliate also enjoys many benefits. Foremost among such benefits is that affiliate marketing provides an easy way to earn money online via a method that is twofold. First and most important, an affiliate must have the ability to attract visitors to his/her website by providing interesting (if not compelling) and relevant content.

Second, that affiliate must be able to balance promotional links and banners in as proportionate a manner to the other site content as s/he can, in a manner that encourages those visitors to become readers who are interested in that affiliate’s viewpoints and, therefore in any products s/he may be recommending via those links and banners and lead directly to the merchant’s website. Once those readers have been converted to (prospective customers) through the affiliate’s efforts, they will hopefully click through and proceed to make a purchase.

As soon as the customer clicks on the ad on the affiliate’s site, is redirected to the merchant’s website and goes on to buy that particular product, the affiliate earns a commission. The more referrals there are the more profit for the affiliate. Affiliate marketing is an ideal way to earn money from home since there are virtually no production costs and the product is already developed and proven by the merchant; all you have to do as an affiliate marketer to find as many prospects as you can that will bring in the profit for both the merchant and you, the affiliate.

Affiliate programs are usually free to join so affiliates do not have to worry about start-up costs. And there are thousands of products and services you can choose from, because there are probably affiliate programs for every product under the sun. With this in mind website owners who are interested in earning money from their websites might be pleased to know that there is likely a product or service out there that is relevant to their website.

In addition, there is absolutely no sales experience necessary since most affiliate programs offer excellent support when it comes to providing marketing material; and the simplicity of affiliate marketing allows an individual to be an affiliate marketer at the least cost and the most comfort. So if affiliate marketing interests you, not only would it represent some extra money in your pockets, you may even be able to build a successful affiliate marketing business right in the convenience of your own home.

In affiliate marketing, the marketer’s responsibility is simply to find prospects for one or more merchants without having to worry about inventory, order processing, product shipping, or any other of those administration responsibilities that accompany product ownership. These, along with customer service support are the duties of the merchant.

Because of the global reach enjoyed by Internet participants, an affiliate marketer can easily find thousands of prospects and while intensify his/her advertising campaign by exploiting more aggressive and productive strategies such as viral marketing; and by attracting more prospects, the marketer can also maximize his/her potential to earn. Another benefit of an affiliate marketer is the minimal risk involved, in the sense that if the product s/he advertising is not making money, then s/he can dump it and choose another. There are no long-term binding contracts tying an affiliate marketer to products that are not making enough money.

A primary business tool on hold

All the same, putting yourself in the place of an affiliate marketer, benefits you will derive are the opportunity to increase your income and making a substantial profit, even if affiliate marketing is only a sideline business. With your own affiliate business you can easily earn extra income, although you do have to exert effort and use your imagination to maximize your earning potential. Indeed, affiliate marketing has been, and still is, one of the simplest and most effective business opportunities on the Web.