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Internal link vs affiliate link?

by squeebo
6 replies
I have a blog post that draws traffic but is on a sub-topic that is early on in the buying cycle, or more informational, and doesn't convert well. But I get relatively a lot of organic traffic to it, so I'm trying to handle it.

How do you decide between funneling such visitors to your high converting affiliate marketing page vs. trying to warm them up on the landing page itself and funneling them into an affiliate link on the first click?

I'd like to send them to an affiliate link right away instead of having them bounce around and lose them, but I also don't want to ruin the popularity of my landing page by going for the hard sell.

I gather it's also good to collect emails from those guys so I can sell to them when they're more ready, but I'm getting a horribly low opt in rate so far.
#affiliate #internal #link
  • Profile picture of the author afam4eva
    For the long term, i think the landing page will do the traffic as long as it is enticing enough to the visitors.
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  • Profile picture of the author Michael Meaney
    Here's the end result of sending them to an affiliate offer without adding them to your list first...

    You send that customer directly to marketer X... your competition.. the customer buys their stuff, gets added to their list, a relationship is built, the customer buys more stuff, trusts them and tells their friends about marketer X.

    And they won't even remember clicking the link they found on your website, let alone anything about you.

    But if you add them to your list first, then you can still get commission for the affiliate sale, and you can sell to them over and over, as often as you like, for years.

    Don't build someone else's business for them, for a tiny slice of what's really on offer.
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    • Profile picture of the author squeebo
      Originally Posted by Michael Meaney View Post

      Here's the end result of sending them to an affiliate offer without adding them to your list first...

      You send that customer directly to marketer X... your competition.. the customer buys their stuff, gets added to their list, a relationship is built, the customer buys more stuff, trusts them and tells their friends about marketer X.

      And they won't even remember clicking the link they found on your website, let alone anything about you.

      But if you add them to your list first, then you can still get commission for the affiliate sale, and you can sell to them over and over, as often as you like, for years.

      Don't build someone else's business for them, for a tiny slice of what's really on offer.
      When you put it that way, I guess it does make sense to focus on opt ins!

      I guess the thing to do is advertise a sale but only give the link when they sign up to the list?

      Of course some of my advertisers don't allow direct or email links, so I'd have to send them back to my site again to click another link. Along with the double opt in, this sure does seem like a lot of hoops to ask people to jump through.

      On that note, when you're trying to interest landing page visitors in your sorta related (but not directly related) offer, do you have more luck in sending people to a squeeze page or going for it quicker with a short blurb and capture on the landing page?
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  • Profile picture of the author dayus444
    I think you should find a way to 'naturally' include a link and a call to action that directs them to a review of an affiliate product that relates to the article.
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    • Profile picture of the author squeebo
      I'm hesitant about asking for an email at all from a visitor who could be ready to buy right now and odds are isn't going to feel like it later when I send him an offer. And I advertise a lot of different subcategories of products in the niche, so the offer probably won't be one he's interested in.

      Or I guess I could create email captures for lots of different types of things, but it would require more a lot more upkeep to set each one up compared to an affiliate link. Other than my contextual links, the banner ads on my site are affiliate links with banners supplied by advertisers, and I'd have to create whole new ads without making it obvious who the advertisers or brands are until I capture their email, which would be weird and not very enticing because the brand names themselves are well known enough to be triggers.

      So maybe I should only try to capture emails when it's a landing page like the one in the OP where the visitor is not hot on buying, and on other pages where there's a buying intent I should be hitting him with affiliate links?
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  • Profile picture of the author squeebo
    One problem is I'm having a hard time crafting an opt-in offer. I have lots of articles that are product comparisons and shopping tips. But I kind of depend on those for organic traffic. For articles without much traffic I'm still hoping I'll start getting more traffic to them if I keep sharing them everywhere I can. And they're all specialized, not that good for more than one segment of the audience if I were to try to take them away and turn them into opt in content.
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