I've made some money with adsense but I could never make any money with affiliate programs. My reason for this is because I've always concentrated on any traffic which always works, to some degree, with adsense. Unfortunately for an affiliate program to work, the user can't just "click" an ad and you make money. They need to also perform an action, or spend some money. (not talking lead gen stuff here, but product sales) I've failed with affiliate marketing because I've never targeted spending traffic with my websites, or web surfers who are surfing to actually buy something! So. How do you attract spending traffic? My guess would be to use "buy" keywords in your keyword copy, such as discount, free shipping, buy, etc... however, if so, what are all those keywords? And how else do you attract spending traffic to your affilaite pages? Preferably without paying for it. I'm all ears for your suggestions or opinions.
This is always a hotly-debated question it seems: How do I as an affiliate attract people interested in my affiliate product enough to buy it? You are right - using "buy", "purchase", etc words can help here and there, depending on the market, but in general, I've found a good bet to be specifics - long tail PPC keywords, and such. For instance, there's a huge difference between: "download ringtones" vs. "download Eminem (songname) ringtone" Another good bet is thinking of terms people would likely only use further along in the "sales funnel" of product purchase. For example, someone doing basic research might be looking for "dog training info", whereas someone further along, ready to pull out their credit card and buy could be looking for something more specific, like "how to train a dog to roll over". Many newer advertisers sink 10's and 100's of dollars into advertising for high rates on very broad keywords, where people are looking for freebie info, or are just doing basic research - and have no intention of buying a product. Put yourself in the consumer's shoes. Say you were interested in a Canon EOS 400D digital camera, but just wanted a 2nd opinion on it before you went to purchase it. Would you type in "digital camera review" on Google? Or maybe "Canon digital camera review?.. chances are, the more you know about a product you want to buy, the less vague you'll be about it. In this case, you'd probably go for exactly what you want: "Canon EOS 400D review", or "Compare Canon EOS 400D". Very specific, because you're closer to a purchasing decision than someone just surfing for info. Ultimately, It's the difference between someone who's just surfing the web for information, and someone who's ready to buy a product and just needs to pull out their wallet & pay. -T
Thanks for the lengthy response telmari, So to grab an action item (I'll start with one) out of that the next time I sit down to write content might be: apply the "buy" keywords to long tail phrases in my niche. Is there a list anywhere of "buy" keywords? I can keep a notebook every time I shop online or enter a store, however a list would be nice.