Affiliates : Making your website attractive, interesting, engaging and interactive

Whew, I never knew I could use so many adjectives in a row… :-D

Be it a content website or blog or just a product site there are few things you should remember about building sites.

1. Build it for speed: These days almost every one have cable connections and the internet speed is fast. But still you should build websites for people who have 56 kbps phone connection. If you just get rid of heavy images (turn them info gif guys), not use streaming animation/video/audio (at least set them they don’t play on visitors arrival).

I am not fan of High end design websites. May be because I have been affiliate marketer /blogger from start. If Content is your strategy, you want your best content and best foot forward. You’ll not be wasting any time.

Similarly I am not fan of image advertising on blogs/websites.

2. Pin point your Target Market:

One of common mistakes that I have seen (and did it myself) is not targeting my market properly. Be it your site’s motto (USP) or the way it is presented you have to think about your market.

3. Focussed Website : Another mistake is you are trying to do too many things at a time.Make certain your web site is focused on the goal, selling your product or service. A site offering many unrelated products is not necessarily unfocused, but this is often the case. If your business does offer many products, dedicate a unique page for each instead of trying to sell them all from one page.

Top Affiliate Mistake : I’ve seen new affiliates losing the focus of the website. This is one of the main reason why they start out with really bad results (If anyone remembers my story my first check was of $6.17 in 3 months)

You know when you are starting out you tend to overdo in enthusiasm. You sign up bunch of merchants and end up with links to product all over the place.

When you are starting out, chose 1 good merchant and then only promote him. In fact I prefer to promote only 1 merchant per blog as a affiliate.

4 Simple Navigation: I can’t believe how many times I have been to some sites and got confused over navigation. In fact I consider myself a techie guy. Navigation is all about 2 things.

Where you are now….

Where to go next…

If you want to make a sale, you have to remember this. I learnt the importance of navigation by James Martell (I know, I know I might touch a few sour points but his method helped my affiliate sales a LOT).

Understanding how navigation works will increase your sales. These have several purposes

  • To allow users to move about within the site
  • To tell users what information is available at the link
  • To work with location indicators to orientate users

If you remember Old Martell sites, they have great navigation system.

5. Consistency is the key – Make sure the site is consistent in look, feel and design. Nothing is more jarring and disturbing to a customer than feeling as if they have just gone to another site. Keep colors and themes constant throughout the site.

These days you can find really quality designed templates (web 2.0 styled) for cheap that its crazy.

6. Interaction and Web 2.0 : Make your website interactive. Add feedback forms as well as email forms that allow your prospective customers to ask you any questions they might have pertaining to a product.

Allowing your visitors to interact with you, other visitors will help you build towards a great 2.0 websites. That’s why blogs are such a rage…

7. Multiple Touch Points : You have to be able to touch your visitors in many ways. That can be Text, Audio, Video and other methods. You should be able to touch your visitors in many time frames too (multiple contacts with them). That’s why Subscriptions are great idea.

You can use Feed burner to create subscription on your blog. Getresponse and aweber for a website. It’s like my friend(who is great a networking), “If you knock on their doors, they’ll knock on yours”. This was his comment on how to meet people and network not for selling though (if you knock enough doors, few will open)

8. Becoming/Creating an evangelist : Guy Kiyosaki talks about creating an evangelist for your company. Evangelist isn’t a Job title or gathering people. It’s a way of life. The best way is to become a one and then create a one…

According to Guy. It means that the evangelist totally loves the product and sees it as a way to bring the “good news.” I’ve always thought of myself as an evangelist for Martial arts (Specially Taekwon-Do) as it has changed my life.

9. Monitoring and tracking : Understanding what your visitors do on your site is crucial information, not to mention interesting. Start out with google analytics or hittails.com. Install other tracking features like outgoing link tracking. You should have answers to at least these questions.

  • Where are they from?
  • How are visitors finding your site?
  • What traffic is coming from search engines, links from other sites, and other sources?
  • What keyword search phrases are they using to find your site?
  • What pages are frequented the most – what information are visitors most interested in?
  • How do visitors navigate within your web site?

All of this will help you create content, products that are helpful to your market.

10 Building Credibility :

Finally, make sure that you build trust and credibility for your business. We discussed earlier the importance of credibility. Credibility is a key ingredient for any successful business venture. Building and enhancing the credibility of the products and services you offer is an ongoing and full-time effort.

If you just think of how many people will just buy anything that John Reese or Mark Joyner or Brad Callen puts out in the market. All of that because of the credibility they have built.

It’s not one time effort. It’s not overnight. Its something you have to work towards it. Online its more effort. If you screw up, everyone will know about it in a flash. Remember When sony tried to create word of mouth advertising, they took lot of flak for that.

I hope this list helps you create a great website.

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About the Author

Varun Pratap is working in online business as a pro blogger from 2004. His blog on Imbasics (Internet marketing Basics) is all about making money online ethically without resorting to tricks, techniques and gimmicks.

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By Varun Pratap | Filed Under Online Advertising 

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