5 Tips for Adding Affiliate Links without Trashing Your Site
February 3, 2010 by
Matthew
Filed under
Adsense and Affiliates
Whether you’re considering adding affiliate links to your site or are already reaping the benefits, it’s important to do it right. Affiliate marketing programs offer an opportunity to add additional streams of revenue to your website, and can even become a significant income source when implemented properly. In fact there are plenty of people who have made a business just out of becoming affiliate marketers. Affiliate programs are also ideal for newer sites with limited traffic. An advertiser might not yet be willing to pay for placing an ad on your site, but many companies are willing to pay you based on sales and/or traffic you send their way.
There is a potential downside though. We’ve all seen sites that look unprofessional, crowded and trashy, with ads and links scattered everywhere. Not only are they trashing their sites, they’re probably not seeing the results they had hoped for from their affiliate programs. When implementing an affiliate marketing strategy, keep these tips in mind to balance affiliate opportunities with your site’s integrity:
1. Keep it relevant. Your affiliate ads should enhance, not detract from your site. This means picking affiliate programs that are complimentary to the products and services you offer. Obviously you don’t want to display ads for competing companies, but there are almost certainly companies that offer complimentary products and services to your own, without detracting from your business. For example, If you are a business coach, you might post an affiliate ad linking to a page on Amazon.com that lists your personal reading recommendations.
If you’re not retailing books on your site, this won’t compete with your services and will add value for your clients. Plus, you’ll earn a commission anytime someone you refer makes a purchase on that page, as well as any other page on the affiliate’s site. On the other hand, an ad for a dating site, while it might pay a higher commission, will cause your site visitors to question what your business is all about.
2. Play favorites. We all have our favorite retailers, services and resources. Many of these offer affiliate programs, allowing you to capitalize on a recommendation you would make anyway. The advantage to this is that you’re referring people to businesses you’re familiar with and with which you already have a relationship. If your favorite office supply store is Staples, for instance, you can become a Staples.com affiliate and get paid when your site visitors buy from their site. Staples is happy, you’re happy, and you know you’re referring your visitors to a company you trust. It’s the very definition of a win-win-win!
3. Consider your audience. You know who’s visiting your site, right? And hopefully you have a good idea of their wants, needs, and buying habits. (If not, that’s a blog for another day.) One way to avoid trying to be everything to everyone – which never works out well – is to fill some of your visitors’ needs by sending them to sites with which you have an affiliate relationship. Again, relevance is important. Just make sure that the sites you’re referring people to are relevant to what you offer and to what your visitors expect from you.
4. Less is more. Website visitors prefer clean, uncluttered sites that are easy to navigate. If your site is packed with ads and affiliate links, it will turn off your customers. That doesn’t mean you have to limit your affiliate relationships though. Ad management software, like that offered by AdButler.com makes it possible for you to rotate ads, even tracking visitors so they don’t see the same ad over and over. This way you can limit the amount of space dedicated to ads on your site without limiting your opportunities.
5. Play the Numbers. It should be no surprise that all affiliate programs are not created equal. Some offer a percentage of sales, some offer a flat fee per sale, and still others offer a small commission just for qualified leads. For example, the popular jobs site, Beyond.com’s affiliate program pays out $.60 just for a referred visitor signing up for a free account. Now, sixty cents obviously isn’t much, but if you have a site that is likely to drive a lot of traffic their way, it can add up to a nice little extra check every month. Whatever affiliate partners you choose, be sure to check their program’s performance. Without going into details about click through rates (CTR), and earnings-per-one-hundred-clicks (EPC), just know that it’s important to evaluate each affiliate partner the same as you would consider any business decision.
Go Make it Happen
If you haven’t yet delved into the world of affiliate programs, hopefully now you’ll be able to do so with confidence, knowing you don’t have to compromise the look, feel and integrity of your site while adding some extra income to your business. And if you’re already an affiliate marketer, hopefully you’ve picked up some information to optimize your efforts. Either way, be sure to share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
If you’re thirsty for more information about affiliate opportunities, Commission Junction is a great place to start. As the world’s leader in affiliate marketing, their online learning tools (CJU) are second to none, and surprisingly unbiased. They also offer thousands of affiliate programs in every conceivable category, so you’ll find plenty of opportunities to maximize your affiliate efforts.
Do you have additional thoughts, suggestions, or advice for would-be affiliate marketers? Please share your comments below.
I only show affiliate links when users have Adblock installed- so it almost never trashes my websites
One PHP tutorial website I run is a different story. I have it setup to have a custom image showcase a book- really simple and nice. Conversions are great at about 3%. (I’m sure you can do better though- I’m new to aff. marketing)
So true..I think it’s important not to overload your page with affiliate marketers because you don’t want it to be too crazy. And you’re right, choosing only certain offers that actually apply to your readership is important because you don’t want to spam your readers with things that your website isn’t even about…Great post!
the biggest problem about affiliate marketing today, is that it became such a hype that nearly every internet user, even the average ones, know about it. and affiliate links tend to drive people away from purchasing the products. because just knowing that the web site will make money of it, you can not honestly trust their reviews or recommendations.
affiliate networks today has the technology to create direct link tracking campaigns, i dont know why no software or network has done this yet. it is the biggest enhancement the industry needs
I think it is funny when I see sites that are about remodeling have affiliates for losing weight, completely unrelated!
Also, making your site look like the fender of a race car is the fastest way to the bottom of the pile.
So many bloggers forget that actual “humans” are the ones they are targeting….
The only role that really matters here is relevancy. If you give your visitors what they need and want then there is no difference in posting one or xyz links. But if you give them something they weren’t looking for you can post miracle links and you wont have any results.
Ok I have a question after reading the bottom section covering Commission Junction. Would I be able to use Commission Junction to help sell a service, or only specific products?
If I have affiliate banners on my website can I place my banner links on another site that is not mine to draw more traffic to my affiliate programs. If so how do you do this and what type of site do I place the banner links on?
@ HotBlogTips: I totally agree! I see those all the time if not of different sorts… It’s really annoying because it just seems like they don’t know how to organize their affiliate links or choose ones that are content worthy of their site.
If done right, affiliate links are a great way to monetize a site. For most sites, you can earn much more money through affiliate ads compared to a CPC program like Google AdSense. You definitely have to ensure you don’t overwhelm your visitors with irrelevant ads or too many ads. Keep in mind that your site should still look visually appealing and trustworthy.
By the way, CJ.com is indeed a great place to find affiliate programs. The great thing about CJ is that they list average network earnings for each program and each individual banner or text link. So you can really get a feel for different programs before deciding which ones to promote. There are many other smaller affiliate networks. So don’t automatically limit yourself to only what’s on CJ. Try other ones like linkshare and clickbank.
If you need ideas for affiliate programs to promote, check out all of your competitors. Some of them are bound to have some type of affiliate ads.
I’ve found that another good way to get some links (if you are doing the affiliate blogging thing) is to find another website on the same topic and offer to write some articles for them. When they say ‘Yes please’, Tell them that you need to have an author bio and then put your keyword specific deep links in there.
There are plenty of content style websites around that have a ‘Would you like to write for us?’ page on them.
Till then,
Jean
I totally agree with referring your visitors to companies that you trust. I always tell my readers to recommend products that they have tried and truly know that it is a great product.
Many people dont realize this things and so do i. I think your post make me wake up from the stupidity
affiliate networks today has the technology to create direct link tracking campaigns, i dont know why no software or network has done this yet. it is the biggest enhancement the industry needs
Hey Matthew. Will Google rank my site low if I use affiliates?
yaa..
I’ve made my blog like a trash
@resimler actually some affiliates do not have a good rank and are considered bad in Google eyes and if one gets the affiliate from such a site, he actually gets a link from this site and if the site which is giving link is not a good site, your google rank might go down. This is what I would think of and I have observed as well.
@Cash Genie thank you for your answer. But how can i know if an affiliate is bad in Google eyes? Is there any way to know it?
To tell you the truth I can’t find anything on it and I have no idea how ClickBank feels about affiliate links within ebooks at all.
The best way is to learn how to position your links in front of those seeking what you have to offer. One of the greatest ways is to build a related website with valuable content that will attract natural traffic from the search engines.
@web designing tips thank you for your advices.
Promoting affiliate links is an art. If you aren’t subtle, it won’t work. Less is definitely more. The ratio is - 7/10 of your posts should be good solid content. 3/10 of your posts can be selling something.
First sign up for cj account if you do not have one.Then go to your account page,Find view links,then choose and apply by filling out short form.When approved log on,go to link page then view links code for text or banner adds,They will supply html codes witch you then copy and paste into html box you insert from site builder tool bar to your webpage to area you would like for them to appear.
Hope this helps.
This will be helpful for me in the near future when I start to apply affiliate ads onto my site. I think the Ad Butler will be of use so I’ll take a look at it. Great post!!
Relevance of products and choosing the one which your visitors might be interested in is the key to gain profits.I use the same method all the time and it has shown me better results.
Hey Justin,
Nice bunch of tips there. As you surf around on the net there are a lot of people that over do it with the affiliate links. If they saw these pointers they will sure to have more success.
I think #1 is the most important. Relevance means the difference between conversions or just littering your site with ads. If its something the end user needs or wants they will most likely end up buying.
I have a different story ‘though. When I cluttered my Adsense ads on top of the fold, I get a higher ctr and my earnings increased. I am not that successful anyway with my affiliates…