Post Your Top Affiliate Conversion Tip Here

[accelerator]

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I thought I'd start a thread for conversion tips, just post your top one here, I'll start:

- Use a bright colour to accent only the (relatively few) things you want the visitor to click on, against a relatively dull page background, so that their eye is drawn to the clickable item.

Please post your contribution.

Many thanks

Accelerator

[accelerator]

Come on guys, somebody must have one!!!

[aaclapham]

Mine is: Don't post your Top Affiliate Conversion Tip on a forum as someone will pinch your idea

[accelerator]

OK, in an effort to get more people to contribute, here's another:

Use heatmaps and eye tracking studies to work out what the most important areas of your page are and make sure you have your key affiliate links there.

Next suggestion please!

Rgds

Accelerator

[Keith]

Have a call to action on your page, something to guide your visitors what to do!!

If all else fails Click Here may just work.

[KirstyM]

Heatmaps etc aside, it's important to actually make sure that the contents of your page turn out to be what your visitors are looking for.

Analyse your weblogs to see what most of your visitors searched on when they arrived, and use Google analytics to see how visitors are responding to yer page.

In short... Keep It Relevant!

[philhancox]

If all else fails Click Here may just work.

Nah, I saw the URL in the bottom of the window and it didn't interest me

Call-to-actions are important though, particularly colours. The most prominent action (buy now) should be the brightest and in your primary colour. Less prominent actions (e.g. continue shopping, more products in this category etc) should be in your secondary or third colour, which should be less prominent.

Also, an important factor is the little tweaks to your site. For example, on one of my sites I have a call-to-action in a white font on a black gradient background. Of course, the background is an image so if it hasn't loaded, the user couldn't actually see the call-to-action! A CSS tweak soon solved that problem, but it's the little things that matter!

[HarveyC]

_blank _blank _blank _blank

(and yes I did write that several times to get up to the 13 characters). Also, hate to say it but discount vouchers)

[sgpratley]

Green call-to-action buttons, not red ones.

Your turn

If you want landing page conversion stuff, best things I've read are as follows:
Future Now's GrokDotCom / Marketing Optimization Blog
includes the tip above...
Large Red Buttons? Oh My!
(sign up to their email list, you won't regret it)

[SherpaStore]
Landing page handbook - pricey, but if your living depends on it, buy it, act on it

Call to action - by Bryan Eisenberg (Author), Jeffrey Eisenberg (Author)
Amazon.co.uk: Call to Action: Secret Formulas to Improve Online Results: Books: Bryan Eisenberg,Jeffrey Eisenberg,Lisa T. Davis

<plug>And my very own blog post - aimed at conversion to email sign-ups
The Online Marketing Blog | Building your email marketing list
</plug>

[accelerator]

Keep link colour blue as that is what users are expecting.

Next contribution please.

[hpops]

Breadcrumb menus provide a valuable sense of place and help users quickly understand heirarchy. Provide multiple opportunities to interact per page, but ensure the transaction is the main action

[Geno_AMNavigator]

Long-tail and target.

[Affiliates that perform best in the programs we manage have carefully targetted landing pages, and are extremely "long-tail" in their SEO and PPC]

[tbp]

My tip(s) would be:

Don't be scared to try things that you don't like the look of, and would put you off - such as big bright buttons in clashing colours that I think look awful, but the general public seem to love

Keep experimenting with different formats of landing page, and keep detailed notes as to what works and what doesn't. Over time you can put the best bits together, and come up with landing pages that offer excellent conversions!

Make your site useful, don't just put up the description from a product feed. Give extra info on the product, that makes your page genuinely useful. Don't rely on the merchant to sell the product, sell it on YOUR site. Make going to the merchants site just a formality to buy the product.

[findlite]

Dont listen to Joel Comm..... He makes money by getting people to buy a book, not making money on the internet.

Oh Oh......... look at big name websites in your field of work. They spend millions on how to market to people so learn from them.

[Andrew Starr]

Make sure the product(s) you are promoting is actually in stock with the retailer