Any good affiliate program worth your time and effort will have some advertising tools to help you promote their product.
But, with all of the options available, how do you know which ones to choose? In this article, I'll give you a quick overview of some of the more popular Affiliate Marketing advertising tools.
Pop ups, Pop unders, Fly ins, Drop downs...
You've seen them, and probably dislike them as much as I do.
Supposedly they have a high conversion rate.
I personally find them incredibly annoying, close them immediately, and if they come up again, I try to remember to never visit that site again! Banners Most programs will have several pre-made banners for you to download and place on your site.
They will likely be in a variety of sizes, styles and colors.
You may even be able to customize them to better match the color scheme and style of your own website.
Some of these will be plain and simple, and some will be complex using flash, java or some other type of scripting to provide animation.
I would be careful choosing these.
Although they may be very eye-catching, they also take a lot of time to download -- something you can't afford if you want to keep the visitors to your website happy! And, a happy visitor is one that will stay around long enough to (hopefully) click on your affiliate link and actually buy the product! I would go with something eye-catching but not overwhelming, that downloads quickly and is set to open up in a new browser tab or window.
That way, your reader won't have trouble getting back to their site after they've looked at or purchased the affiliate offer.
Text Links This is one of my personal favorites.
They are subtle, they don't slow down your page, and you can place then just about anywhere on your page.
Be sure to keep these short.
A text link should basically be a teaser that entices your reader to see what the product is about, not provide a full-blown sales pitch.
These are particularly useful in informational and/or review articles.
Again, make sure these open up in a new window or tab so your readers can easily find their way back to you.
Email Advertising I know you've heard it: "The money is in the list".
If you are building a double opt-in email list and using an auto-responder on your website, then you can also advertise your affiliate products to your list.
Just don't make every email a sales letter.
You'll lose your subscribers fast! Make sure you always provide lots of useful, free information to your subscribers, then they won't mind the occasional sales pitch.
Just make sure the products that you are pitching are ones that you honestly believe in or, again, you'll lose subscribers.
They'll only have to get burned once to decide to unsubscribe.
I usually steer clear of the first two, and concentrate on the last two.
I think, in the long run, you'll find you get better results with the more subtle forms of advertising.
They're based more on relationship marketing, which is very important in Affiliate Marketing.
After all, don't you feel more comfortable buying something from something you know a little bit about? Needless to say, I couldn't really go in-depth on any of these marketing techniques in a short article.
If you want more information about how to market your affiliate products, be sure to click on the links below.
Questions? I respond to every sincere comment and email I receive.