Banners
In the last year I’ve tested sixty different banners on a half-dozen websites. The top ten banners, in terms of percentage of people that clicked on them, are posted in the Affiliate Program.
Relevance
While some banners grab people more than others, the single most important thing that gets them to click is the relevance of the page you post them on. If you put a Home Study Program banner on a tennis shoe review page you’re not going to get many clicks. Put the same banner on a page that talks about Dr. Ann Wigmore, or a page that talks about the difference between raw foods and living foods, and my click-through rates are as high as 24%.
Marketing Methods
There are two types of banners. Direct banners take your readers directly to the Home Study Program sales page. Indirect banners take them to the “dispelling the myths of raw living foods,” where they can also get a free copy of Dr. Ann Wigmore’s classic book, “Why Suffer.” This also puts them onto my mailing list, where I’ll help you continue their raw living foods education. You’ll get two to three times more click-throughs per visitor on the indirect banners.
I suggest using both types.
I know that some of the banners are corny, but, strangely enough, the simple banners with corny phrases WAY outperformed in slick, glossy professional banners consistently over the last year.
Making the Sale
The important part of this to you is: Cookies Don’t Expire. Once somebody has clicked on your affiliate link I generate a friendly cookie that associates their computer with you. When they do make the “buy” decision the commission will post to your account, even if it’s six months (or three years) from now.
Keeping the Visitor
In most banner generators like 1shoppingcart, the banner jumps your visitor to the affiliated website, taking them off your page. I think it’s SO much better if I can open links for them in a new tab or new browser window. That way they don’t lose their place on your website.
If you’re using a content management system like Joomla you can specify that the banner category opens in a new tab or browser window.
But what if you don’t have a website that will do that? Here’s what I do:
- After I copy in the banner code to my webpage I look for all places in the link that say
<a href=”http://website.com/whatever?aff_id=222whatever”>. - I then add this code to the end of the line: target=”_blank”
- Thus, the link now reads:
<a href=”http://website.com/whatever?aff_id=222whatever” target=”_blank”>
You can test this for yourself to see how it works on the chiDiet Home Study Program banners and text links at http://grassyroots.com.
Test, Test, Test
Any time you add or change a text, banner or other ad, verify the clicks by logging in to your affiliate account. The info updates in real time. More sales are lost through bad links than any other fault.
Work Your Links
Check your affiliate account often, and keep an eye on your statistics. They’ll show you which banners, links, emails, etc., are working for you, and you can then adjust your website and other marketing methods.
Don’t hesitate to create your own text links and banners, and tie them to the text version of your affiliate link. If your website or blog has a particular look and feel to it, or a specialized demographic, this often works extremely well.
Jim
