Landing Pages

I've never had much luck using landing pages. The few times I did try them, Google was not very helpful in spidering my actual sales pages, probably because of the lack of content and outbound url's on the landing page. But that's just my experience. I know a lot of people use them, though, so maybe they know something I don't.

I build minisites - I dont use "landing pages". I find people are less inclined to be "suspicious" of websites that look more like traditional sites, rather than one big sales pitch (ie squeeze pages, landing pages)

I direct people to a page on my site where I presell whatever I'm attempting to get them to buy. I think directing them right to the sale is too "in your face" sales, and landing pages have never worked for me personally.

With regards to CPA it is all about the merchant requirements. Some allow direct linking and others don't. Yeah you can still do it if they don't allow it but it's hardly worth the risk of not getting paid for your leads.

Test your funnel to the affiliate offer with and without the landing page, get some
stats on both, then make your decision after you have some hard data.

Don't just take another warrior's word for it as Gospel.

You won't know what YOUR results will be until you run some traffic to the offer
both ways. (with and without a landing page)

Since you are using articles to get this traffic, having a landing page as an extra
step can be an opportunity for you to build your list. You don't have to build a list
with that landing page. You can also use it to presell them more on the offer you
want them to see. Or you can do both.

And yes, some people will be put off by having to take an extra step and your
conversions may suffer...

... BUT your conversions on the affiliate offer itself will be much higher because
the people went through the extra hoop just to get to the offer page and they
will be more inclined to take the desired action you get paid for.

Commitment and consistency is a beautiful thing when initiated properly.

Good Luck

And please share your results with the rest of us.

Thanks,
Jason