Why
are you sending your site visitors away?
©2005 by Linda Stacy
It
happened again today… someone with a brand new website asked for a critique and
some of the first things to catch my attention on her home page are several invitations
for me to visit other websites. The website owner would probably
have been paid and few cents if I had visited some of the sites, and if I purchased
from another, she would likely have received a few dollars. But
is it worth it? The invitations to the other sites came in
the form of contextual ads and an affiliate banner. More and more website owners
are adding such links to make sure they make money from their site. There’s nothing
wrong with these types of revenue generating programs, but if you are selling
your own product or service, you should be promoting yourself first. Just
in case you aren’t familiar with the term, contextual ads are those short text
ads in the right margins or tucked among the informational content of many of
the websites you visit. The delivery system determines which ads to display based
on the keywords on the page, so that the ads should be for products and services
that might be of interest to someone who would be reading that page. Additionally,
ads distributed by a search engine company may also be delivered on search results
pages based on the keywords entered for the search. Webmasters
place a bit of code on their site where they’d like the advertisements displayed
and are paid for each click on the ads. The amount paid to the “publisher” for
each click is determined by the amount the advertiser pays to the ad company. For
informational sites or membership sites contextual ads can provide an excellent
source of income. And there may even be a place for them on your sales site, but
you need to make sure they aren’t whisking away your visitors before they even
have a chance to find out what you’re selling. Remember, the
contextual ads are served based on the keywords on your page. So assuming your
most valued keywords are present on your home page, you’ll be serving ads for
products and services that directly compete with your own. While some programs
such as Google AdSense allow you to exclude competing sites by URL, you’d have
to spend a great deal of time monitoring the ads and making exclusions to keep
from promoting competitors. An affiliate program pays a commission
to a website owner for sales generated through a special link placed on the their
website. Because you have complete control over which affiliate links you display,
you can select complimentary instead of competitive companies. Still, you want
to be careful not to make your affiliate promotions more enticing than your own. Tips
to help you strike a balance between selling your own products and promoting others1
– Don’t place contextual ads and affiliate links above your home page introduction
and mailing list subscription invitation. You want to capture your visitors’ attention
and contact information before they click off to another site. 2
– Don’t place ads on your product catalog pages. Keep the focus entirely on selling
your products. 3 – Use affiliate links as recommendations after
someone has purchased from you. You can make recommendations for other products
and services on your thank you page or in the confirmation email. (Check the guidelines
for contextual ads – some companies don’t allow the ads to be placed on thank
you pages.) 4 – Use contextual ads and affiliate links in articles
and on your blog. 5 - Write product reviews and recommendations
and place your affiliate links and contextual ads in the content. Most
importantly…..decide on the purpose of your website and stick to it. If you
build a site to sell your own products and services, make sure that’s your focus
and what grabs your visitors’ attention on your home page and all of your sales
pages. It’s certainly worthwhile to include additional income sources like contextual
ads and affiliate links, but if you aren’t making money selling your own products,
you should fix that problem first. Take care of your primary goal and make the
other income sources secondary.
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This article is available for reprint as long as the entire resource box is included
and all the additional terms and conditions listed to the left on this page are
met.
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About the author: Linda Stacy owns and manages
a unique service connecting network marketing business owners with potential team
members through instant online chats. Visit iRepNetwork.com for tips and tools to help you generate
leads and build your team.
http://www.irepnetwork.com Reprinted
with permission from http://www.adayspecialties.com
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