As an affiliate marketer, your MAIN goal is to get potential customers to the merchant’s sales page, where you earn your commissions. If you’ve chosen the right affiliate program, their sales pages have already been optimized to have the best conversion rates possible, so really you want to get as many people there as possible.

Of course getting people to click on your links can be tricky. Chances are they are not simply going to click on your links AND buy your affiliates’ products simply because you tell them! You need to warm them up to the idea of buying these products, and lead them in the right direction. Here are some great tips to increase your chances of getting affiliate clickthroughs.

1. Call to Action

Sometimes, if you can offer people something for free, like a free registry error scan for example, this will entice them to click. Because who doesn’t like free stuff right?

2. Involvement Device - Interactivity

Ask your visitors to participate in something. People like interactivity and you can use this to your advantage. For example, you could create a quiz asking people what their most pressing problem is in a certain field (your niche), and then base a recommendation on this answer.

If you answer to people directly like this, the chances that they will check out your recommendation (affiliate product) are far greater.

3. Offer a Bonus

This works the best when you are writing specifically about a product. If people are looking for reviews or information, and they find that they can get a free bonus just by ordering through your link, they will be more inclined to buy.

And what’s better is that people who are already ready to buy will definitely enjoy even more value that you can provide them!

4. Don’t Plaster Links Everywhere - Affiliate Link Variety

Don’t bombard your readers with a mountain of product links and services, claiming that they are all must haves. This is extremely intimidating, and will completely turn off your potential buyers.

Instead, focus on only promoting 1 affiliate product that relates the most to the page subject. Solve one problem at a time here. Chances are they are looking for a solution, and have found your site. Give them that solution, not a bunch of other crap.

5. Place Promos Above the Fold

“The Fold” is the area in a typical web browser shown when the first page is loaded. Everything you have to scroll down to see is considered below the fold.

This is something you should test, but showing people your affiliate link (a solution to a problem, or a valuable resource) right away could keep the reader’s attention. You only have 3-5 seconds to make a first impression, capture their attention right away.

6. Don’t Hard Sell

This is a serious mistake. People don’t need to see 2 sales pitches (one from you AND your affiliate program’s sales page). You are not meant to sell the product, they are. You will not be nearly effective at doing this. If you want to hard sell, create your own product.

So instead of doing this, pre-sell your potential referrals. Warm them up to the idea of buying this product, tell them that it will solve their problems or make their lives easier (only if it’s the truth though). Get them to investigate your recommendation by clicking on the affiliate links, then let the sales page do its job.

7. Be Personable and Genuine

I believe people will always be more responsive to a “friendly” recommendation. “Act” as if you have their best interests at heart, and become the helpful resource they have been looking for. I say Act in quotations because truly, you should believe in these products and recommend them to people who “need” them.

Also, I generally would advise not selling an affiliate product unless you yourself have tried and used it. This isn’t a hard fast rule though, for example, you could know by general word of mouth that a product is good, and know what it’s useful for, but just never have had to use it yourself.

Bottom line is, don’t try and rip people off. Chances are they will see right through you.

8. Test, Test, Test…

Finally, just remember, to achieve optimum results, you should test, test, and test some more. That is the only way you can find what works the BEST, and in turn, increase your revenue to its full potential. You can use a split testing script, or Google Analytics can help too.

I hope this helps increase your affiliate link CTR, leave a comment with some of your favorite methods as well!

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