Maximizing earnings from affiliate programs is all about engaging readers and offering unique propositions. Unlike traditional types of setups, affiliates are paid only when a specific action by a customer is performed, so at the end of the day, you as the affiliate must use a combination of ads and strong calls to action to compel customers to act.
Unfortunately, many affiliates throw ads and content into the universe without any real thought over how well they’ll engage both new and old clients. Don’t fall into this trap. Instead, follow these 5 powerful ways to maximize earnings and increase affiliate marketing traffic to your site.
Develop an acute understanding of your audience
To really gain good traffic, know your audience better than they know themselves. Are they practical, frugal, prone to buy only after lots of convincing? Write all these traits down so you can have a clear, extremely accurate picture of who your buyers and potential buyers – are, and you’ll have the tools to deliver exactly what they need.
Test your outside content on a near-constant basis
Once you’ve developed your audience, it’s time to use ads, videos, email marketing services and social networking tools to drive targeted traffic back to your site. Getting maximum bang for your buck, however, requires you to test, test and test your affiliate ads and other content on a regular basis.
Change your ads around, use different graphics or text, and find what’s most effective on your audience. If you’re nervous that this adds another layer to your already stacked promotional duties, relax knowing that through testing, you’ll most likely find several things that really work, and you can rely on those until they are no long effective.
Ditch the gimmicks – build trust instead
Build a relationship and establish trust with your readers based on straightforward, honest content and you’ll drive more traffic to your site, landing page or social networking hub. If you’re honest-yet-upbeat about the product you’re selling, your repeat visitors will drive traffic, provide link-backs, and recommend your site to others.
With so much information on the Internet at net surfers’ fingertips, it’s only natural that your audience consists of cautious, skeptical people. If you use honesty and disclosure with your audience, they’ll be far more prone to visiting your site and making a purchase.
Keep up on the latest program features and affiliate trends
Stay up to date on the latest program features on offer, as well as what’s hot in the affiliate marketing world. Quite often, new ad units and tools are continuously being added to programs to improve usability and enhance visual appeal, and these items often get a “yay” or “nay” in forums from other affiliate marketers.
If a new tool, ad set or feature gets high marks from other affiliates, test it out on your own campaigns to see how it does. By choosing tools that are well-liked by your peers, you’re almost certain to get a bump in traffic to your site.
Use social networking product reviews
Product reviews from from Amazon.com, blogs and even Twitter and Facebook are a great way to bulk up your outside, traffic-driving content. Set up RSS feeds with the name of the product you’re selling, and go through them every day for nuggets of info you can use on your landing pages and other places to persuade readers to visit your site.
Make sure you identify where these words of praise come from to add legitimacy, but feel free to use excerpts from review sites, social networks and blogs to funnel buyers all the way back to your site.
Unlike many types of online selling, affiliate marketing is more like a marathon than a dash. By knowing your audience and trying out new techniques and tools, you’ll add to your customer list exponentially.