Affiliate Success

1. Use relevant banners and links. The affiliate links should relate to the content of your site. Think of creative ways to blend your affiliate banner or link into the theme of a page, using proper placement and text. Do not mix make-up and shoes on a page for how to write a business plan.
   
   
2. Recommend specific products. If you recommend a specific product it adds a sense of personalization. Your visitors will be more inclined to click on the link.
   
   
3. Keep plenty of open space. Minimizing the clutter on your site will allow visitors to distinguish between different items on your site pages. If text and pictures crowd the page, your visitors may miss important information.
   
   
4. Link Right. With CSS styles and fancy linking, affiliate links can be lost. Make sure links are visible with underlines and a different color.
   
   
5. Provide pertinent and helpful information. If you offer valuable information for free, your site builds credibility and generates more traffic, which will make your affiliate links more successful.
   
   
6. Make your page design unique. You should strive to keep your design simple and easy to use, yet creative and unique at the same time. At the beginning stages, test various layouts, shapes, fonts and colors so that your site stands out.
   
   
7. Update the content often. If you want people to keep returning to your site, you need to update it with fresh text, different pictures and new options.
   
   
8. Avoid using large graphics. Large graphics take a long time to load. If your site takes more than 30 seconds to appear, visitors will leave your site. If larges images are necessary cut them up into smaller chunks.
   
   
9. Place a contact e-mail link within your site. Visitors to your site can give you fresh ideas and suggestions for your Web site. Make it easy for them to do so by supplying a contact e-mail address.
   
   
10. Create product reviews. A personal testimonial about a company or product will encourage visitors to purchase products or services through your links.
    
    
11. Position links strategically. You should place merchant links either close to the content the link relates to or in the top right corner of your Web site. Making the link relevant to the content that surrounds it or clearly visible to visitors will increase the click-through rate.
    
    
12. Change links frequently. Provide your visitors with something new and interesting. It is far easier to sell a new item to a visitor who has purchased through your site before than it is to sell an existing item to a first-time visitor.
    
    
13. Add additional features. You can bolster the success of your site by fine tuning it, submitting it to major search engines and monitoring your server's performance.