Advantages of Landing Page for Aff Mktg? Isn't it just another hop on the way to the purchase?

[loybond]

If I'm using article marketing to drive traffic, would I see better income from

a) my sig box link going to a *.info redirecting to my affiliate link or

b) going through some sort of landing page?

I've been told be some that B is a good option. I'd like to know why, and if possible, see some examples since I've never made one before. I have made effective sales pages though.

[Daniel_Pereira]

In my opinion, the article should always be your presell. If someone read your article and you shared with them 5 huge tips to losing weight, and in the about the author box you told them that all they had to do was "click here" to discover the #1 way to losing weight that has helped x amount of people, then that in my opinion is a pretty qualified visitor.

In other words, if I create articles, I try to presell them through the article.

I think most will agree with me on this: The article reader that clicks through to your site is going to be more presold than from someone who clicked on a PPC ad, and that is why it works better in a lot of cases to presell people on your landing page when you are doing PPC marketing. But, article marketing, blogging, and social media traffic a lot of the time will already be presold.

[TLTheLiberator]

But you're not building a list which would be a very, very valuable asset to any online business.

I say if you must, test both funnels and see which one is most effective for you.

You could put a splitter on the page you send folks to from the article.

Building a list conversion rates are normally much higher than straight to the sales page from article method. ( around 4-7% vs. 1-2% of total prospects )

But you should run the test and see.

All The Best!!

TL

Ps. The perfect affiliate process...

1: targeted traffic
2: squeeze page
3: thanks for subscribing page ( now please go and confirm, right now or no free gift )
4: thanks for confirming ( here's your gift ) also link to presell page for your affiliate offer
4: presell page


presell page options:

- article
- headline & bullet points
- review
- comparison
- story

Link from/on presell page to...

5: Merchant's sales page

All pages of the sequence should have tell-a-friend & exit page software for your prospects that opens in another window.

[madison_avenue]

It depends on the message within the article. If the article has made a good job of informing and preselling the product and the merchant has a superb sales page it might be best for the prospect to go straight to the page. The prospect is now motivated frame of mind to buy.

At times another click to a presell page, which is amateurishly put together and an obvious sales pitch, with blurry stock photos and a faux "review" interrupts this (people have limited time to read sales pitches) enough to kill the motivation to buy and the prospect just clicks away from the presell page.

Of course if you have an excellent presell page it's worth it to send the prospect there but getting it really good takes time. Sometimes the merchant, who has probably spent a lot of money to get the landing page right is a better reseller than us.

Although the one advantage of a presell page is the ability to get an opt in. Testing the two options would be useful.

[TLTheLiberator]

Sooner or later you should be working on building your lists.

TL

[Steven Wagenheim]

Test and see what works better for you.

There is no right or wrong or better or worse here. There are way too many
factors to say which one will be more effective.

1. How good your article is.
2. How good the sales page.
3. How good your review of the product is, if you go the landing page route.
4. Who your target market is.
5. How critical info is to the purchase.

Let me touch on number 5 because this is SO important.

A person looking for a treatment for cancer is going to need a lot more info
to make a purchase than somebody who is looking for an online course to
learn how to play guitar.

You have to look at how critical your niche is. How serious is the problem?

The more serious the problem, the more info you will need to give.

Also, niches that are very technical, such as software, will require more
info than say a book on how to get a nice growing garden.

That's why nobody here can say which is better, not even the argument
about building lists.

Why?

Because for some niches, building a list is pointless. You have nothing
else to sell them if they buy the product you're promoting and the amount
of info you can give them is so little that building a list for that purpose is
pointless as well. Get them to the sales page or review page and be done
with it.

And again, whether you send them to one or the other will depend on how
critical the niche is.

Having said that, you will find that the more critical niches, such as cancer
treatment, have more info you can share, and thus building a list for the
purpose of sending a newsletter might not be a bad idea.

But then...you have to make sure you balance the amount of info you
give them. Give too much and you risk them not making the purchase.

Trust me, it's a real balancing act.

Bottom line: Nobody can answer your question definitively because there
are just too many variables involved as I have just pointed out.

Test.

[wildstar]

Originally Posted by Steven Wagenheim

Because for some niches, building a list is pointless. You have nothing
else to sell them if they buy the product you're promoting and the amount
of info you can give them is so little that building a list for that purpose is
pointless as well. Get them to the sales page or review page and be done
with it.

Thanks for this posting. I see that everyone is so intent on building a list, but I have a particular affiliate product that I promote and I just can't see a reason for trying to collect a leads info first before I direct them to the affiliate site.

I've been looking for someone to tell me it's Ok to send them directly to the affiliate site without collecting a name and email first.

This is as close as I came. LOL