Hi Everyone,
I am about to share with you today some really important tactics that you need to be using on your affiliate marketing sites.
I have noticed recently, from emails people have been sending me, that a lot of people are leaving money on the table with their affiliate marketing sites, by not monetizing their pages properly.
This is a real shame, because you can work so hard to get traffic, however that can all be wasted if your pages are not laid out correctly. So that’s what I am going to talk about in this post.
Affiliate Links
We all know that an affiliate marketing site needs to have affiliate links on the page, that’s a no brainer (I hope). However what I like to do with my links is make them VERY obvious, and lay them out in such a way that they draw the attention of the visitor.
There are a few simple but effective ways to do this. The first thing is to use BOLD font for you links, and also include arrows surrounding them in some cases. Below is an example:
==>Click HERE To Get Your FREE Acne Cream Trial<==
That would work well for a CPA offer where the customer gets a free trial of the product. Notice how I always tell the visitor what to do in the link and reinforce the benefit of clicking here.
I will usually have 2 or 3 of these links inside my article, spread out, and have them placed directly after a very strong benefit that I have mentioned in the body of the article.
Ideally if you set up your affiliate marketing sites so that the web pages are all targeting BUYER keywords, then really you want to get them to click those links as fast as you can, and shuffle them over to the merchant and let them take care of closing the sale.
Affiliate Banner Ads
Make sure that you check the affiliate resources section of the merchant that you are marketing for, and see what kind of advertising they have for you. A good merchant will have a range of image ads, all different shapes and sizes that you can use on your affiliate marketing sites.
There are a couple of places that I like to place ads on my affiliate sites, and I think this will be best described using a diagram, as you can see below.
Now this is just one way to lay out an article page to increase conversions, however it does work really well on a number of my affiliate marketing sites.
You will notice that in the top left I have a product shot, and this usually only done when I am writing a review of a product. Make sure though that the product shot image is still an affiliate link that can be clicked!!
Above The Fold
The above image may not have really illustrated this next point that clearly, however what I also make sure I do is have as many obvious image ads and text links above the fold of the page, without making the page look silly of course. I don’t want visitors to my sites to have to scroll down before they see the ads and links. Doing this can increase you click through rate to the merchant and henceforth sales!
Headlines
If you are going to to use headlines on your affiliate pages, then try and make them have some form of a benefit to catch the readers attention.
This next point is more aimed at sales letters, however it is a good trick to know nonetheless, and that is to make sure that your headlines tell a story in themselves.
What I mean by this is, if the visitor scans you page quickly and only reads the headlines, then make sure they tell a story that flows, on there own. So they either skim the headlines and are convinced to take action, or at least keep reading the rest of the copy.
Apart from these tips, what I always say is remember not to try and sell too hard in your copy, and instead opt for a more balanced but still convincing approach, as I have found that helps my conversions also on my affiliate marketing sites.
Matt Carter
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thanx for the ideas i will take you up on some.
Valerie
Matt, once again you have provided a valuable post. I am glad you mentioned the above the fold since it really was not clear in the picture. I also love the hint about making the headlines read alone as well. What a great concept.
Thanks for sharing.
Kim
Matt Carter Reply:
February 18th, 2010 at 11:38 am
Hi Kim,
Great to hear from you and glad you got something out of this post
take care
Matt
Hello Matt, Thanks for the great illustration. Also thanks for all of those wonderful Free videos that are so nicely and professionally done. I consider you one of the top trainers in the affliate marketing Industry. Always willing to help us newbies.
J L Caldwell
Pa. USA
Matt Carter Reply:
February 18th, 2010 at 11:40 am
Hi John,
Its a pleasure to have you on my list, and
I hope you go well with affiliate marketing.
regards
Matt
Hey Matt,
I am very enjoy your articles. Thank you for all the hard work you have done so far!
Keep it up ..
Do you know thunder from down under? 😀 I think you could work for them lol 🙂
Kaila
Matt Carter Reply:
February 18th, 2010 at 11:41 am
Kaila,
Nice to hear from you also, and happy to hear you
have got some value from my posts
Cheers
Matt
Thanks for all the great info. You always give sound advice and make it clear in your videos that internet marketing is hard work. There are no shortcuts, but the rewards are great if you succeed. Thanks again, Christine
Matt Carter Reply:
February 18th, 2010 at 11:52 am
Hi Christine,
You are very welcome and thanks for the feedback
Cheers
Matt
Thanks Matt
I really appreciate all the things you have done, teaching us through the series of videos. I know there is a lot to learn, apply, tweek, adjust, and so forth.
Thank you again
Matt Carter Reply:
February 18th, 2010 at 11:53 am
Hi Eric,
yeah there is a lot to learn but it all starts to come together after a while
Keep up the good work
Matt
Okay Matt:
This advice is very timely since I’m in the process of joining
affiliate programs and placing links and ads on my pages.
Now all I need is more traffic so folks will click on them and buy some stuff.
Joan
Matt Carter Reply:
February 18th, 2010 at 1:39 pm
Hi Joan,
Sounds like you are on the right path to me!
Keep up the good work
Cheers
Matt
Hi Matt, from not so sunny at the moment…..Queensland..
Great post and as usual I always open your emails immediately on receipt.
I’m still learning and it’s good to see a fellow Aussie up there among the best tutors on the net.
Keep up the great work.
Cheers
sean
Matt Carter Reply:
February 18th, 2010 at 1:40 pm
Hey Sean,
great to hear from, it has been a bit cooler
down in NSW lately too!! Nice for a change
Glad you are learning some stuff from the
blog posts
Cheers
Matt
thanks for the tips. i am a newbe and i use all the i can get
Matt Carter Reply:
February 18th, 2010 at 1:40 pm
Hi James,
Welcome to the community, good to see you
getting into online marketing,
All the best
Matt
Thanks Matt for the material.
Will change some of my affiliate pages and look forward to see the changes.
Ken
Matt Carter Reply:
February 18th, 2010 at 1:41 pm
Hi Ken,
yeah I found that layout works for me, but
remember to test things out, and try different
images if they are not getting clicked, you can
ad tracking code to your links to know which
ones are getting clicks
Thanks
Matt
Hey Matt,
Thanks for the timely info.
I’m just about to setup a new site and I will be incorporating these tips into my pages.
Thanks
Paul
Matt Carter Reply:
February 18th, 2010 at 1:42 pm
Hey Paul,
No problem, and I hope you new site goes well
Matt
Nice… I can see how this is going to boost my online income. The layout and information will help me make more affiliate money with my websites. Thanks for sharing I will be putting this affiliate information to work real soon.
Rod
Matt Carter Reply:
February 18th, 2010 at 7:08 pm
Hi Rod,
Nice to hear from you!
Thanks for commenting
Matt
Great post Matt. Thanks for the timely and helpful tips.
I am new to this and have been going back and forth between post layout vs. page layout and utilization of space.
Your help is greatly appreciated.
Jim
Matt Carter Reply:
February 18th, 2010 at 7:09 pm
Hi Jim,
Great to hear from you also, and keep at it and you
will find it starts to come together
Cheers
Matt
Hello Matt
Thankyou soooooo much for your excellent training videos and many useful articles on your blog. Oh!! how I wish I had made contact with you many, many months ago. You are so easy to understand as you give such clear instructions.
Again many thanks & please keep it up.
Val (N.Z.)
Matt Carter Reply:
February 18th, 2010 at 7:10 pm
Hi Val,
You are more than welcome, hope my advice helps
you success online
Matt
Many thanks for sharing this tip. I have book marked you page for later visits. I have watched the videos and your content has been very good. I just wanted to thank you for that…
Matt Carter Reply:
February 18th, 2010 at 7:11 pm
HI there
Glad you liked the post
Cheers
Matt
Hi Matt
The beauty of your posts is their simplicity – elegant simplicity. Really appreciate the time taken to share this. Regarding this specific post, I am assuming that the layout your propose is specific for a product review type affiliate page. Any thoughts on an optimised layout for a more discrete article page (as part of an affiliate site). Am developing my own at http://leanbodyignition.com (still very much under development – have created a few article pages, but not started on the product review pages yet). Appreciate your insights.
Thanks
Dave G
Matt Carter Reply:
February 19th, 2010 at 10:08 am
Hey Dave
Man your site looks great! Well done
I think you can apply the same layout to a certain degree your articles,
but just keep in mind that the links need to obvious, and the two text
links you have one article I looked at were not that obvious and if
I was skimming I might not have seen them.
I think you could use a horizontal banner mid text also.
try these things out and see what places get the most clicks
Cheers
Matt
It is kind of you to share valueable tips to people who are new to affiliate marketing. BTW, do you think it’s okay to cloak our affiliate link? I’ve came across suggestions that people can steal our links if not cloaked. I’ve also came across remarks search engines are against cloaking. What’s your opinion?
Matt Carter Reply:
February 19th, 2010 at 10:14 am
Hi Jimi,
I use a redirect script, so that my affiliate links are redirected
through a php page that I have loaded onto the domain.
Like this:
< ?php header('Location: http://youraffiliatelinkhere'); ?>
and you then save that page as whatever you
want, such as: jimi.php and put that page’s url on your
affiliate web pages instead of your links, and they redirect through
the php page.
This is a simple way to do it but works fine for me
I think Google can be a bit funny with Aff links, so I do this
just in case.
Thanks
Matt
As usual Matt thanks for the tips.
Matt Carter Reply:
February 19th, 2010 at 10:15 am
Hi Lich,
No problem at all!
Thanks
Matt
Hi Matt
Thanks for the post it’s really helpful, I look forward hearing from you.
Thanks
Matt Carter Reply:
February 19th, 2010 at 10:15 am
Hi Gideon,
Nice to hear from you also
Matt
Hello Matt,
Thank you for the layout information and your help. .
Matt Carter Reply:
February 19th, 2010 at 10:16 am
Hey Janice
That’s ok, glad you liked it
Chat soon
Matt
Matt,
Your posts have been invaluable and I appreciate the high quality content that you continually deliver. I would also like to comment on the great webinar and course by Lisa Parmley.
Keep it up and thanks again!
Dave
Matt Carter Reply:
February 19th, 2010 at 10:16 am
Hey Dave,
Thanks for the feedback!!
Yeah that was a great webinar with Lisa
Thanks
Matt
Thanks for all the useful info Matt. I really appreciate your honest and straightforward approach to affiliate links. So many marketers recommend all kinds of sneaky tricks that do not “feel” right.
Thanks for the layout/design tips too. It seems so simple and non-tricky… but effective. I’m getting excited about setting up some sites using the stuff I’ve learned from your blog and videos.
One question: I want to get started making little niche sites that can start bringing in money in the coming months. However, I also want to devote some time to some day having an “authority” site or blog that can take a year or two to build, but can have a large audience and bring in the bigger dollars. Or should I just start with the niche sites and try to see if I can make one of those an authority site some day?
What is your recommendation on building an authority site? Is there a specific course you recommend?
Thanks,
Mark
Matt Carter Reply:
February 19th, 2010 at 10:21 am
Hi Mark,
I think you should start with little sites to get experienced
before taking on a authority site to be honest.
Why don’t you build a simple wordpress blog that you host
on your own domain, grab a nice free wordpress template
and then create 6-10 posts each one targeting a unique
keyword phrase that is not too competitive and then
do some SEO to get it ranking in Google
My free video course teaching SEO also
If you want a more authority course then Lisa Parmley;s
is great: http://www.innlineseobonus.com that page
is my bonus page
Cheers
Matt
Appreciate the valuable tips and will continue to see what other valuable clues you will leave for us. Enjoy viewing your blog and the great content to review and learn from. http://www.travelbusinessaffiliates.com
Matt Carter Reply:
February 19th, 2010 at 10:22 am
Hi Lani
Nice to hear from you again
Matt
Hi Matt
Thanks heaps for the videos which I have saved.
I will go through them all again within the next couple of weeks.
I am a newbie in SA and trying hard to get started.
I’m heading to Perth next week for the World Internet Summit.
You certainly have an honest, respectful gaining and giving way of teaching.
Thanks again
Regards Colin
More gold, Matt. Thanks
Matt Carter Reply:
February 20th, 2010 at 11:53 am
Hi Graeme,
Nice to hear from you again!
Thanks for your feedback, glad it was
useful.
Matt
Hi Matt,
Once again great information. Thanks for laying all out. I’ve been a little confused about placement of links for my sites and now I have a much more clearer picture.
Thanks
Matt Carter Reply:
February 20th, 2010 at 11:54 am
Hey Mike,
Thanks for your comment, and hope
these layout tips help you.
Cheers
Matt
Hi Matt,
Some fantastic tips there.
It’s really important that you make your links obvious to your visitors, if they can’t see them within the first few seconds of visiting the page then you are more likely to loose them as a non-converter. This is what I’ve found anyway.
Cheers
Ben
Matt Carter Reply:
February 20th, 2010 at 11:55 am
Hi Ben,
Yes I totally agree with you, got to
make those links obvious
Matt
Hi Matt
After 6 months of ‘solid’ researching, and I mean hours and hours a day – maybe getting 3-4 hours sleep a day (average!) I finally ‘stumbled’ (no not the website…lol) upon your blog. ‘IF ONLY’ I had of found your site half a year ago I probably wouldnt feel sooooo burnt out!!! and my overall health would be alot better too 🙂
From what ive gathered through your blogs and video content you have confirmed a lot of things (information overload) buzzing around in my head & I think that I am on the right track, its just taken me a long time to get here.
It has not been easy but I have learned sooo many things in sooo many areas over the past 6 months and reflecting back on it I wouldnt change a thing, but I have bookmarked your blog and I know I will be ‘informed’ by your future posts and I will be tweeting you no doubt……so in closing a big “THANK YOU MATT!!!!” and keep doing what your doing 🙂
Matt Carter Reply:
February 27th, 2010 at 1:17 pm
Hi Mark
Great to hear from you and glad
you are enjoying the blog and free
videos
All I ask is that you tell people about
my blog and video course
Have a great day
Matt
hi matt
over the last month ive been watching your videos and trying to put some of your coaching into practise. thanks for all your advice mate ive set up my 1st web site which is really a practise run to try and get over the learning curve do you think i should carry on with this site as the commission is only 50% of $19.95 or focus on a different product
much appreciated
Matt Carter Reply:
February 27th, 2010 at 1:18 pm
Hey Paul
Great to see you have your first site
up, awesome stuff!!
Keep up the good work
Matt
I just read your 8th video on offpage SEO and appreciate the information very much. Thanks!
Matt Carter Reply:
March 7th, 2010 at 7:36 pm
Hey Mary
You are welcome!
Cheers
Matt
Hi Matt,
I just started watching your video training course, and have learned quite a bit in the first two videos, which I plan to implement straight away on my site. My site is a blog, in which I have the posts categorized into one of three segments I focus on in my blog, and I have a product page. I usually list the product link at the bottom of the post, with a phrase like, click here for more info, or to buy click here.
Do you think I should have the links more prominently laid out in my post without going overboard?
Thanks.
Hi Matt, I never thought of the arrows pointing to your link. Eye catching and looks like you’re missing out on something valuable. This post has so much good info. Thanks!
This is crazy goood for me excellent post Matt, whats the best affiliate network for you Matt Clickbank or a CPA network, what i mean is from wich affiliate network have you made the most money out of,,
Cheers
Guillermo
Matt Carter Reply:
December 19th, 2010 at 9:06 am
Hey Guillerno,
I don’t like to give out all my secerets, for free anyway, but all i say is it is not clickbank, i do best in physical products networks.
Thanks,
Matt
Matt,
How many affiliate sites do you have in total and how long odes a site start to make money from the initial setup?
And also are your sites holding there positions or have you seen some ranking changes lately?
I do like your style mate.
Matt
Matt Carter Reply:
February 4th, 2011 at 7:57 am
Hi Wow Alchemy Guide
I have about 25 sites and they take me about a month or so to start making money. I have seen a few newer ones bouncing around in the search engine recently actually.
Matt