A few avoidable errors when promoting your affiliate program
In this article, I have listed a quick and easy bulleted list of
does and do no's when trying to promote your affiliate program.
* Many affiliate marketers make a huge mistake of posting their
ads on forums. Forums can be used to promote your affiliate
programs and your website but in a proper manner. Posting
banners is very similar to spamming and may easily upset forum
administrators.
* Always do your research before promoting your affiliate
program to a potential customer. Do not offer affiliate programs
to visitors who are not at all interested in the products
associated with the program. This is a futile endeavour.
* If you promote affiliate programs offered by other merchants,
ensure that you develop your own advertising copy. Many websites
commit a common mistake of using the same advertising copy as
used by the merchant themselves.
* Avoid Copyright infringement in all cases. Always use original
content or ask permission to use graphic images or text found on
other websites.
* Do not submit your programs to free websites. These may be
free but your programs would hardly ever be noticed, especially
by Search Engines. Moreover, your own ranking would get lowered
if you submit your affiliate programs to such websites.
* Avoid using caps on your web page or email ad. Using caps is
symbolic to shouting, which never goes well with potential
customers. A few words may be written in capital text to give
them additional emphasis. However, such practice should be
limited.
* Always respond to all queries sent by visitors as soon as
possible. A slight delay in your response could easily result in
loss of a potential client.
* Do not use pop-up ads along with your webpage. Most surfers
are likely to close their browser if they come across pop-ups.
* Do not host your website on a free server or use free email
accounts. This gives a negative impression to visitors. Using
free hosts and email accounts looks cheesy and loses sales.
* Many websites do not have an opt-in list. Create an opt-in and
opt-out list for your visitors. Without these, there is no way
of tracking potential customers. Visitors should be allowed to
opt-in at any time as well as opt-out at any time.
* Most sites have a poor tracking mechanism. It is essential
that you track all business activities. Accurate record keeping
is crucial. There are many software tools, discussed earlier in
this chapter, than can automate your record keeping process with
minimal error.
* A 'mall' site is best used as a central hub to send visitors
to your other domains. As a main or only site, unfocused mall
sites don't get traffic from the engines, and they don't convert
well to sales. Highly focused theme sites attract traffic and
sales.
* Offline advertising may not be effective. A lot of money and
effort should not be wasted on offline advertising. Most people
rarely check websites that are advertised in local magazines or
newspapers.
* Avoid focus on animated banner ads. These simply use up
bandwidth, thus making web pages load slower.
* While advertising do not degrade other competitors. It is
recommended that you highlight your products' uniqueness and
superiority but never mortify other products.
* Banners or text links that expire are guaranteed to eventually
send your visitor to a broken link or show a broken graphic on
your page. Time sensitive advertising is best used only in email
advertising campaigns.
* Never put affiliate links on your homepage. This is similar to
asking your visitors to leave immediately. Give them a chance to
browse, sign up for your newsletter and decide that they'd like
to come back to your place before introducing them to your
affiliates.
* Technology changes with amazing speed. To keep up with this
rapidly evolving industry, you must invest time and money in
research. The investment is a tax write-off, and will pay you
back many times over in additional revenue.
Hopefully this list has proven helpful to you and has shown you
some red flags to avoid when it comes time to promote your own
affiliate site.