Well most other webmasters i know make very obvious sales pages and web sites where they have a sales page and hype up or (pseudo-review) some product, say from clickbank. This CAN work if the sales-letter and "review" is good, but it can also turn off customers. Believe it or not, many site visitors are really looking for value and good information - and NOT just another hyped sales page because there are MANY. The customer is not stupid. What i do, my typical "clickbank sales" web site is wordpress based and i put unique and helpful articles on them. The front page has usually an article regarding the subject, maybe a simple link to the clickbank product. But it is NOT hype and IT DOES NOT TRY TO SELL <--- many, many visitors can simply "look through" when you are trying too hard to sell whatever product! BUT: I use ONE big, prominent 600x100 banner for the product on my page. I hardcode them into the template so the banner shows on each page and article on the site. Most of the time i actually custom design the banners since most vendor banners are very crappy! This has several advantages: * You have your articles indexed in Google, and no matter where the site visitor arrives on your site he will see the banner. ( If you only have one static sales page and articles on your site, say the article ranks in Google and the visitor comes to your site to the ARTICLE - he will not even see your sales page! ) * I dont need to hype up my articles or try to sell because the banner does this. So i can provide good information. --> The banners are always related to the niche/problem with a strong call to action and irresistable wording, like "Try XYZ 100% risk free or your money back, Guaranteed!" <-- etc.. since with clickbank whatever product you sell there is 60 day guarantee. This way you can actually advertise any product like its a "risk free trial" "try it for 60 days" etc..etc... (Say you have an acne treatment site, you have acne articles on there and then a a BIG bold banner about the best acne treatment ever from clickbank...you get the idea) I am not making millions but those kinds of sites are always making me constant sales daily and i am getting good replies that people like my sites.
I like this approach a lot. Many people (me included) are getting allergic to the typical sales page copy. I know I close any window that comes up with a sales page almost immediately. This will continue to happen as more people get wise to the copy tricks and techniques. So your strategy, though much more low key, is in my opinion the way of the future.
It would be interesting to test out your approach compared to a more "aggressive" sales website. Bounce rate / clickthroughs / conversions I think (in part) the success of one style of website over the other might have to do with the demographics you are targeting.
+rep George. I'll second this, soft selling is HOT right now. The markets are getting more and more used to sales approaches, and the honest affiliate wins this season in my book as well. You can still be aggressive in other areas re scarcity, playing on senses/emotions, building a shoot from the hip personality with readers so they eat up your copy, and yes valuable views/details will always win over smoke and mirrors. I think for the most part people jumping into IM do the monkey see monkey do thing so they just follow the behehesheeple.... .... . . and you see: THIS IS THE BESTEST SHIT EVER SO BUY IT AND I"LL THROW IN X JUST CLICK NOW AND BUY vs. this product lacks x, but has great xx, and is very different from y because they have added lot's of z, if you use z here's a tip... Softsell your prospects but UP the other sense tingling areas to push them through your hop.
Very good point. I'm going to split test using my current "hard" selling review style website (which does pretty good btw), and try a soft selling wordpress blog. Thanks for the tip.
Nice work, really agree with this method and I used to do something very similar to this myself. Totally agree on the soft sell / informational / article based approach. I think the affiliate's "job" is to pre-sell rather than do the hard sell anyway - to give benefits, personal experiences with the product, add a little excitement, make a recommendation, even add a little hype, then pass the visitor to the vendor for the real "hard sell". I don't know much about acne, and would be naive to think I could write a better sales page than a vendor anyway (that's hoping / assuming they have spent a few months making the product and writing the sales page and tested / improved it's conversions...), so I just would give a bit of info, show the benefits, some testimonials, pictures and make sure there are plenty of chances to jump to the vendor and get my cookie.
It's a good strategy but I have to disagree a bit, and would think you are probably leaving some money on the table. Text links in content will usually get more clicks then banners. Even well designed banners don't get a great CTR because users are becoming banner blind. I reckon you should do both!
you can try different strategy like using text link ....just find which one get more clicks...like adsense strategy ..
I actually use this style of promoting as well. I use text links much more than banners, though. My CTR on any given day is generally %60+ using this kind of promotion. It's highly effective and it has been very profitable for me. But, as mentioned already, I would highly recommend using text links along with images. They get clicked a ton.
Ohh yeah I forgot to ask, what banner placement has worked well for you mate? I've always used 120x600 or 160x600 banners in the top right of the sidebar. Also - With your custom banner ads, did adding the money back guarantee increase ctr/conversions?
Thanks GeorgRe!! I have a review site for a single and my article pages are rather bland..I a going to try this..... Where is the bloody thank you button?
My banner is always a 600 / 100(120) ish BIG across right under menu bar. I now added text links, i used "easy adsense" plugin and custom made ads which look like Google Ads. I am assuming that the Google Ads format is "proven" in some way that's why i use that format. So...in addition to that banner i now have ONE such add in each article, looking like Do you want XYZ? You can get it right now Try it 100% without Risk! (EXAMPLE) and its really cool to do this with the easy adsense plugin. I did not do split testing, but its common sense to add such wordings. Yesterday i run monthly stats, eg. site visitors, HOPS, sales....and i actually get about 27% of my visitors checking out the offers...and i think those are good stats. Mind you i am really "soft selling", so i think 27% is a pretty good number.