im soo confused! ahhhhhh!

ssandifer22 · Joined: 22 Oct 2007 Posts: 1

I recently purchased the Super Affiliate Handbook and am extremely anxious to get started on my own website! Very Happy

I have a few different ideas in mind on what I can base my website about. I have also been to different affiliate websites to see what types of items i can promote. Theres only one problem...I have no clue how the website is suppose to be. I know that you have to have the link on your page to take your traffic to the actual page, but say I wanted to promote protection for computers. Thats only one link. Am I just suppose to describe the product and put the link on my page? If so, that would make my page look bare. I thought I understood the concept of affiliate marketing but I think I need clarification on how an affiliates page is suppose to look and what I can do if I only have one product. Do I find more products like the spyware to promote? And if I do that am I suppose to compare them? Please help me before I loose my mind!! Confused

Jim Hutchinson · Posted: Fri Oct 26, 2007 3:18 pm Post subject:

Doing a comparison with similar products can help your visitors decide which one to choose. You will be doing them a good service by offering competing products, listing the benefits of each. Then link to their respective affiliate sites.

If you will just list one product, you can get more information from the sales page and change the wording around to make it unique.

Hope that helps.

Jim Hutchinson

CliveAnderson · Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2007 7:30 pm Post subject:

Hi,

I agree with Jim really, but just adding to that.

If you think about it the majority of websites online only promote one product at a time. Rosalind's Affiliate Handbook being a prime example. This is far easier from a marketing perspective to promote because not only are you mentioning to potential customers one URL in your ads but you can even mention the product itself.

If you host multiple products on your website you have to spread yourself more thinly in order to give them each a reasonable amount of promotion.

I realise that sometimes it can be a lot of writing etc for a single product, but that is wholly dependent on it's quality. Even a single product website should only again really be creating a bigger interest and/or the curiosity approach.

I created the many product site and not once either and I'm seriously considering tearing the whole thing down and just creating a lead capture page as my domain and advertise offering online marketing tips, strategies etc. At least that way I get to mention whatever I wish to in the marketing material and then instead of creating websites all I'd have to do is write some good promotional emails for the autoresponder.

My signature file contains one of the programs that I have used, but more importantly I created a multiple product site out of it. As I did with my domain.

This might give you some idea what a multiple site can end up looking like. Plus it can also ad to confusion when a visitor comes to the site. Most of my prime targets for my promotions are multiple, except for a handful such as The Super Affiliate Handbook even though it is still mentioned on my multiple ones.

Anyway I hope this information was of some value and has not now added even more confusion to the issue.

Kind Regards

Clive Anderson

Jim Hutchinson · Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2007 7:48 pm Post subject:

Thanks for that Clive. It was well said. I agree that if you focus on a single product then the potential customer has an easier choice to make.

However, think of the possibilities of having multiple products side by side, each showing their strengths and weaknesses. Granted, the Super Affiliate Handbook stands on its own, but there are others offering similar or related advice.

Every visitor to your site has different goals and ideas on how to reach those goals. Not every product will fulfill their need. While one product will have features and benefits to suit one customer, it may not be exactly what the next customer needs.

Having 2 or more choices with all the benefits and shortcomings of each product listed, your customers can have a choice that will best suit them.

Think about YOUR goals. Do you want to target a specific audience for a specific product? Or would you rather offer choices to serve them better?

Both ways can be good in their own areas, depending on the product or service you are offering. Obviously if you are promoting your own product or service, you may not want to mention the competing names, but you can still show the differences while leaving them generic, such as "Our Product/Their Product" listings.

When listing multiple items like that and showing the differences, I find that some people will order one, while others order the alternate product, depending on their needs and how I present both products. Being truthful and complete in the comparisons is key here.

Showing only one product allows you to be more specific and have a longer description, such as a special page for SAH. I have one like that and once people get there, see what they are getting, they continue to the order page.

In the end, it is all about choices. Focus on one product, or spread your potential across multiple products, while promoting just one page.

Jim Hutchinson

CliveAnderson · Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2007 8:56 pm Post subject:

Absolutely Jim,

Of course what you are saying there my friend is so right and yet I feel it really depends on (A) What the products are and as long as they compliment one another.

For Example:

If you had golf clubs for sale on your site you wouldn't want to also be selling weight-loss pills. It should be related to golf in some way.

Remember, potential customers will be very interested to learn what brand of golf clubs a golf expert would recommend, but these same customers are going to become confused and even irritated if you start promoting weight-loss products to them.

Plus with multiples less is really more, every site you add becomes more confusing to a visitor who in the end because they don't know which to go for may leave empty handed.

Between 1% and 20% of the people who visit your web site will click through your affiliate link. (The range is wide because it all depends on how targeted your traffic is and how good the affiliate link, banner ad, text link, or other promotional tool you're using is.)

Out of every 200 people who actually click through your affiliate link (not just visit your site, but actually click on your affiliate link), only 1 to 2 will buy.

What does this mean? The bottom line is that in order to make one affiliate sale, you'll need to attract at least 500 people to your web site. With multiple offers this number could be a lot more.

I belong to a promotional program (you may have heard of it) called LinkReferral. One of the ways there that people can gain additional visitors to their listed site is to visit and write reviews of other people's websites.

The website in my signature file is the one I have listed there, now while I do quite well out of that site it is mainly due to the large numbers I manage to send to it each day. However from LinkReferral I get a lot of people that submit a review who state that they are confused by the whole site and while they were looking for an opportunity they didn't know which one to choose from. Therefore I lose potential custome.

On the traffic generation side of the site it is easy as the majority are free systems and easy to operate.

So while I'm torn by what you say Jim as making an awful lot of sense, my experiences tell me "Hang on a minute Clive you've been down this road yourself."

Plus I can appreciate what you are saying about Rosalind's SAH standing out on it's own and you are also very right to say that there are others offering similar or related advise, but on the whole I've found that Most (at least affiliate websites) offer a single product and generally it's some kind of secret or ebook that will rock the world.

So in essence where does this leave us? I think the young lady is going to have to have a re-think and go down whichever road she feels she can not only deal with but also feels comfortable with.

But I am keen to again hear your thougts and feelings on this Jim...

Kind Regards

Clive Anderson

Jim Hutchinson · Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2007 9:38 pm Post subject:

I think maybe you missed my whole point Clive. I am not offering different products on the same page like you mentioned weight loss and golf clubs.

Instead, I offer 2 nearly identical products and compare them. Take for example a page I have for video marketing. It has 2 services, both offering similar features, but with clearly different ways of achieving the end result, along with different pricing.

While the comparisons are not side-by-side, which would be difficult in this situation, each is described and an order link to both are on the page.

The page I am referring to is in the Video Marketing section of the site in my signature.

Once you read through it, you will see that the one with a higher cost could be a better fit for those who want to create a video without a webcam. The other will work just as well for those who have a webcam.

That is the type of comparison I was referring to and I have received some positive feedback about the page being bold enough to do such an in-depth comparison of the two services.

How does that fit in with your strategies?

Jim

CliveAnderson · Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2007 6:01 pm Post subject:

Sorry Jim,

Foot in the mouth job for me. I must confess I only fluttered over your post and jumped in with both feet.

To be perfectly honest I would say that your site is a great comparison to use in this thread. After all it really is a case of having something very similar to your site which obviously works well or you'd have changed by now and also Rosalind's SAH site as this reflects how to display, feature and market a single product.

After that it is really just a question of deciding on the product or them. But as we both conclude. If it is a them then they really must be similar and preferably with some form of comparison for viewers to use as a decider.

Kind Regards

Clive Anderson

dereklittle · Joined: 22 Nov 2007 Posts: 1

"People don't care what you know, till they know that you care."

Rosalind Gardner · Posted: Wed Nov 28, 2007 3:42 pm Post subject:

Hi Jim,

Thought I'd chip in my 2 cents.

I would move the 'Getting Started with Video' section higher on that page and break the points that you've made into a bullet point side-by-side comparison and follow up with links to full reviews of both products.

BTW, and I'm being anal here.. I think there's a spelling mistake in the first line of the 'Getting Started with Video' section.. "Ad video marketing services expand". Should that be "As video" or "As ad video"?? Smile

Cheers,
Ros

Jim Hutchinson · Posted: Thu Nov 29, 2007 3:59 pm Post subject:

Hi Ros

Thanks for the feedback. The spelling error is corrected, "As video ...". I have been planning on redesigning that comparison page and it is taking me longer that I had hoped. Traveling will do that and I am once again on the road.

Jim

Rosalind Gardner · Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2007 1:08 am Post subject:

Travelling is always good... even if it slows down the business a little. Smile

See what I mean.. http://roamsters.com/