Product Specific Landing Page Tips

I previously wrote two posts on “Quick Tips to Improve Your Landing Page“, but what if you want to target towards specific products or services. Are you going to send traffic from your ad campaigns to your home page and hope for the best, or should you setup individual landing pages and campaigns for each product? Below I have included a few tips for you to use when building your product specific landing pages and campaigns.

1.) Don’t Sending Traffic to Your Home Page
Everyone loves to send and receive traffic to their home page. Unfortunately, when paying for search marketing, this is usually not the best scenario. When you send traffic to your home page, you are usually giving your users too many options and most will get frustrated and immediately leave. Instead of sending potential customers to your home page and offering several products, create multiple landing pages and ad groups based on different products. Not only will you provide your customers with what they are looking for, but you should also see a dramatic increase in conversions.

2.) Tell Your Customer What they Want to Hear
How many times have you gone shopping and asked a salesperson a direct question about a product, then they go on to tell you everything else about it and not what you wanted? If you are going to create landing pages to promote individual products and services, make sure you make it quick and easy for the customer to find what they need. Always provide a title, picture, description, specs, dollar amount and an easy to fund “Add to Cart” or “Buy Now” button. These are the most obvious fields everyone is looking for. If you have more in-depth information to offer, you may want to add additional pages or provide it below the actual listing.

3.) Repeat the Search Term on Your Landing Page
Sending your targeted traffic to a landing page which points them to a product or service they are searching for is excellent. Being able to further monetize that page is even better. If possible, try and incorporate the “search term” that was used in your advertisement, and have it re-appear on your landing page. Additional methods for increasing conversions and order sizes, are to include related products.

Quick Case Study:
I went to Google and did a search for “buy flip camera“. The first listing was for Amazon.com, who are one of the best (if not the best) in landing pages and converting sales. Before setting up your landing pages for product specific items, take a look at some of the big retail sites like Amazon.com, Buy.com or WalmArt.com. All of these sites are very clean and to the point, providing the buyer with the basic information they need, then more specs and user reviews when you scroll down. The call to action on all of these landing pages it to buy the product.

Amazon.com Success: Title, Product Name & Picture, Price and Add to Cart

Once you have created your product specific landing pages, continue to test and compare what’s working and what could possibly increase your conversion. Remember, if you are currently converting 3% of your customers to a buyer and can increase that 4%… you are looking at a 25% increase in sales. Your landing pages and testing are key to your success.

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Affiliate Network Rewards Programs

With so many affiliate networks out there, they all have to work really hard to get your business. To show their appreciation, a lot of network have their own rewards programs. Let’s take a look at a few programs and how they are rewarding their Top Affiliates.

Market Leverage REWARDS PROGRAM
In addition to a whole new site design, a new rewards program was recently added to Market Leverage. The network now boasts that they have “The Highest Paying Cash Rewards Program in the Industry“. With the Market Leverage rewards program, you would receive an American Express Cash Gift Card worth 1% of the amount you earned in that monthly reporting period. The minimum commission to each an American Express gift card is $1,000, which is much lower than many other networks.
Minimum Commission to Receive Reward: $1,000
Commission to Reward Ratio: 1%

- Join Market Leverage Affiliate Network

CX Digital Media REWARDS PROGRAM
Taking their rewards program to another level, CX Media Digital has a pyramid format and rewards in actual prizes and gift cards. To reach the first level of rewards point, you will first need to earn $15,000 in commission with the network. Rewards available on level 1 are in the range of $100.Once you’ve earned over $300,000 with the network, you can receive rewards such as a Panasonic TH-50PX60U 50″ Plasma HDTV valued at $2799.99.
Minimum Commission to Receive Reward: $15,000
Commission to Reward Ratio: Less than 1%

- Join CX Digital Affiliate Network

Rocket Profit REWARDS PROGRAM
Every month you earn over $5,000 with Rocket Profit, you can receive at least a $25 gift card, or all the way up to a $500 gift card. Rocket Profit offers a wide selection of gift card to choose from, whether it be Barnes and Noble, Home Depot or clothes from the Gap.
Minimum Commission to Receive Reward: $5,000
Commission to Reward Ratio: Less than 1%

- Join RocketProfit Affiliate Network

Copeac REWARDS PROGRAM
Increase you monthly earnings with Copeac by earning a gift card each month based on your performance. With a rather high minimum, an affiliate must generate $25,000 to earn a $50 gift card. If you are pushing some nice volume through the company and surpass $100,000 in commissions, you’ll walk away with an additional $500 gift card.
Minimum Commission to Receive Reward: $5,000
Commission to Reward Ratio: Less than 1%

- Join Copeac Affiliate Network

AFFILIATE NETWORKS REWARDS BREAK DOWN

From the chart shown above you can see a break down of each affiliate network rewards program based on the minimum commission you must make to receive a Level 1 reward and the Level 1 reward amount. The last % Ratio column is a break down of how much each rewards program actually “rewards” you, based on your earnings. For example, for every $100 you earn in commissions with Market Leverages, you would receive $1 in rewards value, or 1%. Taking that same example and applying it to COPEAC network, you would earn .20 for every $100 in commissions earned (.20%), towards a reward.

Which Affiliate Program rewards program works best for you, and have you received any rewards lately?

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Click2Sell Merchant & Affiliate Network

Lately I’ve been writing posts on how you can make money in niche marketing, along with methods for selecting which niche market is best for you. In keeping with the topic of niche marketing, I want to high an up and coming network called Click2Sell.EU. Unlike most other large affiliate networks, Click2Sell.EU is setup with a ClickBank feel. As an affiliate you can log into the system and find a various amount of niche products, services and ebooks to sell. Unlike most other networks, you can also login to Click2Sell as a merchant and easily manage your campaigns or setup a new program. Here is a run through of the network and how you can benefit as either an affiliate or merchant.

Navigation & Ease of Network
Once you signup and are logged into the network, you will see an admin area like below. When you are logged in you are sent directly to the “Reports” page, but with the easy navigation toolbar on top you can easily move around the site. The “For Merchants” tab is for setting up your own Affiliate Program and adding products, while the “For Affiliate” tab is for grabbing affiliate offers and existing campaigns. All other menu tabs are pretty self explanatory.

An Overview of Your Network Stats is Your Main Login Page

The MarketPlace
The main area and purpose of Click2Sell is their “MarketPlace”, where you can search and find all existing offers on the network. Right now they have 558 offers available, spread over 11 different categories. One of the features I like about the marketplace is that you can search on several different methods, such as Rank, Earning % and Conversions. The stats are really nice to have and it’s very easy to understand. Even with over 500 offers on the network, I wasn’t too thrilled with the conversion on most of these offers. Most of the offers are listed at converting 1% or below.

Top 5 Ranked Offers on Click2Sell Network

Selection of Affiliate Offers
Almost all of the offers listed on Click2Sell are ebook/information based, and have long sales pages. If you are currently doing well in the ebook promotion niche, you can probably find a few offers to promote and might find success. I was searching the network for a few niche terms from “comics” or “basketball“, but no search results came out. In my previous post, “Picking the Right Niche Market“, I wrote about focusing on basketball terms and “increasing your vertical leap“. Oddly enough, I did come across an ebook which focused on helping to improve your jumping and sports skills. There are some offers/ebooks on the network that could make money when targeted to correctly, you just have to search around for them.

Your Selected Campaigns will be listed in your “My Campaigns” Affiliate tab.

Promotion of Offers
Once you select an offer from the marketplace, it will then be listed in your “For Affiliate” tab where you can grab links and marketing creative. Unfortunately, I found that most of the products on the network did not have any marketing material and simply provide you with just a link. I know most affiliate marketers want a few banners and at least some email creative or ideas for writing content, so this would be a turn off to most affiliates. On the other hand, with a network full of offers with no marketing creative, those affiliates who take the time to create their own marketing material and landing pages could benefit that much more. If you put the time in to create a mini site based around of these ebooks/campaigns, you could have a winner. I can only imagine 90% of affiliates are turned off when they don’t see any marketing creative available.

Affiliate Marketers Want Marketing Creative, It Shouldn’t be a Mission.

Range of Commissions
The network offers on Click2Sell heavily vary. You will find products that cost $7.00 per sale, then pay 95% commission… while others cost $22.97 and pay only 5% commission. In addition the huge difference in commissions per program, the targeting and products of each offer varies as well. If you are going to promote an offer on the network, take the time to compare and make sure you are running the best offer.

Form of Payment
Click2Sell does not send out affiliate payments through checks, you must have either a Paypal account or a MoneyBookers account. When setting up your account, you will select your preferred method of payment and can check off what type of advertisers you want to work with, based on their payment method. Merchants on Click2Sell can pay in Euro and US dollars.

Using Click2Sell as a Merchant
I already covered most of the points to use Click2Sell as an affiliate, but using the network as a Merchant is also just as important. The first of the three screenshots below (click for full view), shows what your general stats look like from all of your affiliates and their sales. The second screenshot is a listing of all affiliates within your program and the last screenshot is a breakdown of your affiliate stats. The merchant setup looks like it would work really well for any sites looking to bill customers on a monthly basis as well. If you are unsure of what network or tracking system to use, you can always join Click2Sell as a merchant and recruit your own affiliates.

The Backend of a Merchant Account is Very Detailed, Yet Easy to Manage

Merchant Fee Structure
I think the best selling point for Click2Sell, is the very low cost for merchants to sell a push their products through the system. While most other affiliate networks charge a signup fee, then take 20-35% of each transaction (payment to an affiliate), Click2Sell has a very simple fee structure. No matter how expensive your product is, the most you will pay per lead acquired, is $3 (in addition to any cc/merchant processing charges if applies). If you sell a product that costs $50, you only have to pay a $3 fee to Click2Sell each time an affiliate makes a sale… on most other networks you would have to pay 30%, which comes out to $15 per lead acquired.

Final Review
I would like to see what Click2Sell becomes with time and how they will improve their network. ClickBank has been an amazing success for people over the years and Click2Sell, being based off that same idea could make a lot of people money as well. For now I think Click2Sell needs to focus on a selling point or something to break them apart from other networks to make them stand out. I would rather see a network with less offers and focus only on the higher quality campaigns. I do not want to go through 500+ campaigns and hope to find one that works, especially when most of them only have direct linking with no creative.

Though I have broken down the network and pointed out a few of the pros and cons, I still think it might be worth your time to join the network and see what type of offers are available. There might be something that already targets to your niche market, or a competitor that is doing something better.

Join Click2Sell Network

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What Makes an Awesome Affiliate Network?

With so many affiliate networks out there, how are you supposed to choose and what makes you work with one more than others. Here are just a few factors that come into play when I’m deciding what affiliate networks to work with.

A Personable Relationship
Probably my number one factor when working with a network is to have an established relationship with the company. Being able to contact my affiliate manager on AIM through out the day is a big plus. With most of the networks I am working with, I find that my affiliate manager has become a good friend, rather than just another business associate. I feel comfortable holding a regular conversation with many of account manager and am open with them on ideas on how to better increase campaigns and landing pages. I want to work with an affiliate manager that is fun and not always pushing offers down my throat.

Premium Rates & Exclusive Offers
Getting paid the top tier rates and receiving “premium” or “exclusive” offers is awesome. Going back to my “Personable Relationship” point, I would gladly stay with a company I have been working with for a while than jump to a new offer if they have an offer for a few percentage points more. A network that goes out of their way to bring you high rates, premium offers and tries to keep me happy will always get my business.

     
It’s Not Hard to Point Out Networks that Take the Extra Step!

These were just a couple of my BIG points that I look for when running with an affiliate network. If you are making money online, you are probably make some of your revenue (if not all) through an affiliate network… so what are you looking for when you join an affiliate network, or what do you love about your current revenue generating network?

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Picking the Right Niche Market

Everyone is always talking about niche marketing and how you can make good money if you dedicate yourself and target the right niche. So how are you supposed to know what niche market to target, without wasting your time and ad dollars. Here are a few quick questions and ideas to ask yourself when trying to find and target a new niche market.

1.) Make a Short List of Your Passions
It may sound cheesy or cliché, but it’s going to matter. For example, if you really enjoy watching or playing basketball, then creating a site based on basketball or selling basketball sports supplies, you will probably be that much more dedicated toward working on your site and getting it to work. Not only will you have an interest in your new niche area, but if it’s one of your passions, then you should know a lot about the topic and what you are talking about. Write a short list down of 5-10 passions of yours and see what you can come up with.

2.) Is this a Profitable Niche?
Once you have a few ideas and passions written down, take a look at them and see if there is a high demand or big money being spent in these markets. A very simple way to see if there is a lot of money to be made, is to do a simple Google search, then look at the advertisers on the right hand column. If you are seeing a lot of advertisers, there is usually a high demand for the product or service. Another obvious method for calculating is retail pricing. Will it be better for you to target a less competitive niche market (basketball skills training guides) and sell 100 items and make $10 or each, or try and target an over saturated market (sports tickets) and making $50-$100 per sale?

3.) Is there a Demand for this Niche?
Nearly just as important as how much people are willing to spend on your niche product or service, is how many people actually want it. Using the Google Traffic Estimator, you can get an idea on how often people are searching for a specific niche area or product. Not only will you be given estimates on daily search term traffic, but you can also use this tool as another resource to find how much others are paying to market in this niche, by looking at the average cpc cost.

Just using some simple “basketball” related terms, you can see there are multiple niche markets. You have less cost and traffic for targeting toward people that want to “increase vertical leap“, so it would be easier for you to take advantage of a larger portion of this niche market. On the opposite side, you could sell basketball tickets and memorabilia, where the average advertising is paying more money, with more traffic. Map out your passions and niche markets and see which opportunities make the most sense.

4.) Target Towards Yourself
Once again, going back to basing your new niche market on your passion… as a customer, learn to target towards yourself. If you are going to create a web site based on “increasing your vertical leap“, you should have prior / existing relation to the topic. If you were doing a search on Google for the same topic, what type of information would you want to find on the sites you are visiting. Since you are now the marketer and the potential buyer, you should be able to relate to your customers better than most. Create your new site and niche market to cater as much to your users as possible.

5.) Stay in It to Win It
If you are going to target to a niche market and find you are doing well with it, I would recommend focusing on this niche area for the long haul. Depending on what you are targeting it may be extremely difficult, or quite possible for you to become one of the main and prominent sites in this area. If you are going to target towards people looking to increase their basketball jumping ability vs. selling sports tickets, you will probably have a lot more success with the prior. Not only will you have less competition from heavily funded companies in search marketing, but if you provide a quality site and/or product in a small niche area, you can get a ton of exposure and sales from word of mouth. Before selecting your new niche market, ask yourself… “Can I become one of the top 5% marketers/sites in this area?”

These are just a few questions and tips to consider when starting in a new niche area. Niche marketing can be very fun and profitable, or very frustrating and a waste of time and money. Before jumping into a new niche market, make sure that you take the time and effort to map out your business plan.

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