Put the code on your website
The simplest on most obvious tip (in case you have a website) is to put your affiliate code somewhere on your website. You can do this by going to your affiliate control panel (Login & Stats), selecting "Create Your Links", copying the HTML code of the banner of your choice and pasting it into the HTML code of your website.
Where to put the code on your website
You will definetly want to put your affiliate code somewhere where it will get maximum exposure. The most obvious place would be the top of your index.html or front page. But you might not want to start off your page with a banner to another page. Besides, it might already be taken by another banner. Thus another place to consider would be the bottom of your front page. You can also choose to show a smaller banner at the end of your site navigation menu to the left or right of your page, provided you have such a menu. And last but not least - you can put your affiliate code, either as a banner or a text link into the "Useful Sites" or "Links" section of your site. But remember - the more prominent the place, the more likely you'll be reaping in those $10 commissions!
Update
Prominent placement is not the end of it though. Here's a study showing that unusual placement can make a lot of difference as well.
- Ads next to the right scroll bar (in the lower right-hand corner of your opening page) generate about a 200% higher click-through rate than ads at the top of the page. This shows that people rarely notice a banner at the top of the page.
- Ads placed 1/3 down page, as opposed to the top generate about a 75% higher click-through rate. Once again - if a surfer sees something similar to a banner at the top of the page, he will automatically skip forward to get to the content of the site. Which is why banners below the top and to the right are a lot more effective. But make sure the ad is visible in a 800 x 600 resolution without the need to scroll down to it, otherwise the click-through rate will fall through the ground instead of shooting through the roof.
How to make the banners load faster
Be sure to use the width="[pixels]" and height="[pixels]" paramatres somewhere within the <IMG> tag of each banner. This way the banners will be displayed WHILE they are being downloaded, additionally this will create the illusion of a fast loading page.
You'd have to know the right width and height in pixels of each banner for that though. But instead of firing up a graphics program or a special image size calculating tool, here's a surprisingly simple shortcut to finding out the dimensions of an image. In Internet Explorer right-click on the image and choose Properties - on the screen that opens the dimensions are where it reads... "Dimensions":) In Netscape right-click on the image and choose View Image - on the page that opens the dimensions can be seen in the title of the page.
If you don't want people to leave your site through your affiliate code
One of the drawbacks of putting up banners and links is that they are actually driving traffic AWAY from your site (unless of course the sites you link to also link back to you, which can even boost overall traffic). You've been through all that trouble of creating a webpage and attracting visitors to it, but now... everyone's leaving through all the links and banners on your page! What most other affiliate programs don't tell you is that you can put up banners and links, have people go through them AND retain them on your site at the same time with a very simple trick. All you have to do is replace your original affiliate code with this slightly modified version. Clicking on it will now launch a new window with the site you were linking to, while your own site still remains open beneath. And once the user is done checking out the new site and closes the window, your site will once again come out on top.
Here's how to do it. Open the Create Your Links tab in your affiliate control panel. This is an example of what your code might look like before you've modified it:
<a href="http://www.layguide.com/cgi-bin/affiliates/clickthru.cgi?id=yourname">
<img src="http://www.layguide.com/affiliates/banner.gif" border="0"></a>
And here's how to modify the code to have LayGuide launch in a new window from your site:
<a href="http://www.layguide.com/cgi-bin/affiliates/clickthru.cgi?id=yourname" target="_BLANK">
<img src="http://www.layguide.com/affiliates/banner.gif" border="0"></a>
| This is a working example of the above code (new window will be launched) - |
|
If you don't want people to see the bulky affiliate code on the status bar
Many people navigate the web by looking at the status bar of their browser for an exact URL while hovering the mouse cursor over a link that interests them. If they like what they see on the status bar - they click. If they don't like what they see - they don't click.
Here's the trick to make the status bar show a more civilized version of the URL. Once again, this is an example what your affiliate code might look like before you've modified it:
<a href="http://www.layguide.com/cgi-bin/affiliates/clickthru.cgi?id=yourname">
<img src="http://www.layguide.com/affiliates/banner.gif" border="0"></a>
And here's how to modify the code to have LayGuide launch in a new window from your site:
<a href="http://www.layguide.com/cgi-bin/affiliates/clickthru.cgi?id=yourname"
onmouseover="window.status='http://www.layguide.com'; return true" onmouseout="window.status=''">
<img src="http://www.layguide.com/affiliates/banner.gif" border="0"></a>
| This is a working example of the above code (notice URL on status bar) - |
|
For best results, change the banners from time to time
After you've been displaying a banner for LayGuide on your site for a while, you might notice from your affiliate control panel, that the number of visitors coming through your affiliate code is dropping. What's going on? Not to fear, this is actually normal. Studies have shown that for ad banners seen for the first time, the average click-through rate is 3.6% (that is 3.6% of all people that see the banner on your page will actually click on it). The next two impressions (or displays of the banner) generate click-throughs of roughly 2% and fall to below 1% thereafter. According to one source, a banner "dies" (meaning it no longer gets clicked on) in about two weeks. According to another, the click-through rate of any banner is halved every 5 days.
So what can you do to get that click-through rate up again? Easy - just swap the banner you're currently displaying for a different one from time to time. You can find different banners to choose from under the Create Your Links tab of your affiliate control panel. And you don't even need to copy and paste the whole new affiliate code - just look up the name of the banner you'd like to display instead and modify the existing code on your web site accordingly. It shouldn't be harder than just changing a few numbers or characters in your affiliate code. Now watch those click-through numbers climb up again!
To make it even easier for you to change banners from time to time, copy and paste all your affiliate codes for different banners into Notepad and save the file. Whenever you want to change the banner you're currently dispaying, just open up that file and copy/paste the necessary code into your HTML. Just don't forget to check back for new banners right here on LayGuide as well every now and then.
Additional tips to increase click-throughs for banners
First tip: make sure you use the ALT="[text]" tag somewhere within your <IMG> tag. This will display a line of text in place of the banner in case the banner is still loading or the user has disabled graphics altogether, giving the user a chance to "see" the banner even before it has loaded. You can use the same text found on the banner or write something yourself ("Do you know you could have ANY GIRL you want? CLICK HERE to find out how!" etc).
Second tip: use a text link right beneath the banner. This will immediately get the attention of all those who usually pay no attention to banners. In addition to that, you wouldn't believe how many people don't know they can actually click on a banner. But if they see a banner that intrigues them and then notice a text link right beneath it, they'll automatically know what to do next!
Third tip: use a blue border around the banner to indicate that it's clickable. By default, your affiliate banner code shows banners without borders. And although they look prettier this way, you might want to increase their click-through rate by adding a "clickable" feel to them. This can be done by setting the border="[pixels]" parametre within the <IMG> tag of your affiliate code to a width (in pixels) of your choice.
Here's an example of what your affiliate code might look like with the height="[pixels]", width="[pixels]", ALT="[text]" and border="[pixels]" tags and a separate text link beneath the banner applied (the E-Gold program affiliate code is being used in this example, modify accordingly if you signed up for the ClickBank program):
<a href="http://www.layguide.com/cgi-bin/affiliates/clickthru.cgi?id=yourname">
<img src="http://www.layguide.com/affiliates/banner.gif" BORDER="2"
ALT="CLICK HERE to start getting all the women you want!" WIDTH="468" HEIGHT="60"></a>
<br>
<a href="http://www.layguide.com/cgi-bin/affiliates/clickthru.cgi?id=yourname">
CLICK HERE to start getting all the women you want!
</a>
And this is what it looks like:
CLICK HERE to start getting all the women you want!
Try textlinks and recommendations instead of banners
Banners are absolutely everywhere. They are an impersonal part of almost every other site out there. There's in fact so much of them, user have long stopped paying any attention to them. Exactly - unless they REALLY catch the eye, they just plain don't get noticed. Of course, here at LayGuide we also try to provide you with the best possible banners to help you with your affiliate efforts, but if you really want to maximise your income from your affiliate code, you might want to check this new trend - text links with recommendations.
People hunt for information on the net. Rarely anyone want's to be bothered with advertising, but everyone is grateful for a tip or a recommendation. So here are a few examples you might want to use on your website to put people's thirst for opinions and tips to good use. Just copy the code examples below and paste them somewhere on your site. You can customize the width, background colour and text within the following cells easily. Don't forget to change the example affiliate code (in light gray colour) to your correct affiliate code.
From the webmaster... |
<table border="1" cellpadding="4"
cellspacing="0" width="170" bgcolor="#99BB7D">
<tr><td bgcolor="#99BB7D"><p align="center"><font
face="Arial"><strong><em><small>
From the webmaster...<BR></small></em></strong><br><small>While you're
here, be sure to check out <a
href="http://www.layguide.com/cgi-bin/affiliates/clickthru.cgi?id=yourname">this site</a>.
There's an amazing collection of SECRETS on how to seduce women!</small></font></td></tr></table>
A recommendation from the webmaster... Before I found
this site, |
<table border="1" cellpadding="4"
cellspacing="0" width="180" bgcolor="#D2C68C">
<tr><td bgcolor="#D2C68C"><p
align="center"><small><font face="Arial">A
recommendation from
the webmaster...</font></small></p><p
align="center"><small><font face="Arial">Before I found
<a href="http://www.layguide.com/cgi-bin/affiliates/clickthru.cgi?id=yourname"><B>this site</B></a>,<BR>
I was doing OK with the ladies. But if you want to start getting laid like crazy, <strong>check them out!</strong></font></small></td></tr></table>
Ask your friend the webmaster to host your link
If you have a friend who is a webmaster and he is willing to add a link to LayGuide with your affiliate code in it to some of his pages, or recommended links page or even the frontpage, you're in luck! Not many of us have friends who are webmasters though. And even those of us who do - who's to say they won't join LayGuide's affiliate program themselves and put THEIR affiliate code on their page instead of your's? Well if that happens - sure that's a bummer, but not entirely. See here's where to power of LayGuide Affiliate Program's multilevel commissions comes in. If your friend joins himself instead, then in essence he will have joined through your recommendation - when you asked him to put up your affiliate link, he clicked on it himself to find out what's it all about. And when he joins, he'll be added to your donwnline. You won't be making $10 for each 1 year subscription anymore, he will, but you'll still be making $1 for each $10 he makes, and $0.50 for each $10 made by those who joined already through his affiliate link.
...But why stop here?
Ask any webmaster to host your link or to join the program
You can use the scheme described above to add an infinite amount of webmasters to your downline, making $1 for each $10 sale they make and $0.50 for each $10 sale made by those who joined already through those webmasters. Just send the webmasters of your choice a letter offering them a rare opportunity to join in on recommending LayGuide - "a database of seduction secrets; no sheepish "romantic" advice but simple straightforward advice on how to seduce, and then either how to romance or how to get laid, depending on one's preference" etc. Some will definetly even subscribe themselves (you make a direct commission), other's join and add their affiliate links to their pages, while you can start cashing in with 2nd and 3rd level commissions from any sales they make.
Here's an example recommendation letter to a webmaster. You can modify it or use it "as is":
Hi [name of webmaster],
I saw your site [url] - I think its great!
It shows you've really put a lot of effort into it!
I think you should be compensated for it somehow. So I thought I'd let you
know about this affiliate program with up to 50% commissions, ability to
have money on your bank account within hours to days (nobody else offers
this) plus a lot of free marketing advice you can use even if you decide
to join later (its worth checking out even by itself).
The site itself is a subscription-based seduction advice site called
LayGuide, with killer tips on how to seduce absolutely any woman. The tips
are provided by pros, I mean real seducers and ladies-men from all over
the world, not some wannabe PhD "relationship experts". All you'd have to
do is to put a text-link or banner somewhere on your page - and start
getting "compensated":)
Just thought I'd let you know.
Oh yeah, here's the address -
http://www.layguide.com/cgi-bin/affiliates/clickthru.cgi?id=yourname
Check out the main page to see what the site is all about, a detailed
guide on how to start earning and the free marketing stuff is in the
Affiliates Center.
Take care!
[Your Name]
PS I also have my own page there - http://www.layguide.com/xxx/yourname
If that sounded too casual for your taste or you have reason to believe the webmaster you're contacting is a female, you can also use a more formal approach:
Dear [name of webmater],
I saw your site at [URL of website] and would like to inform you, that I
know of a way you can make a little extra with your site.
The LayGuide.com website is offering an affiliate program to its
subscription service with up to 50% commissions to affiliates and an
option to have money on your bank account almost instantly. This is
currently the absolutely best way for webmasters to make money on the
internet. But even if you're not interested in joining, an excellent
collection of free website marketing information in the Affiliates Center
of LayGuide.com is worth a look by itself.
Just click on Affiliates Center on the frontpage of:
http://layguide.com/cgi-bin/affiliates/clickthru.cgi?id=yourname
Respectfully
[your name]
How to direct webmasters directly to the affiliates page with your affiliate code
In order to have people added to your downline (so that you can start earning those 2nd and 3rd level commissions), you need to have people join the LayGuide Affiliates Program through your affiliate code. You can't just send them directly to http://www.layguide.com/affiliates for more information on the program, because that would circumvene your code and you would be missing out on all the commissions they would be making you. The previous example (recommending LayGuide's program to a webmaster) encouraged the recipient of the letter to "check out the main page" through a standard affiliate code, then "see Affiliates Corner for more information". "Click on this, click on that" etc, well people don't really like that too much. Here's an example link on how to give the recipients of your letters the ability to go DIRECTLY to the LayGuide Affiliates Program info page through your affiliate code.
http://layguide.com/cgi-bin/affiliates/clickthru.cgi?id=yourname&page=http://layguide.com/affiliates/index.html
In fact you can direct anyone to any page within LayGuide through your affiliate code like this. Just replace the latter part of the code with the URL of the page you want people to be redirected to.
The footer or signature of you e-mail
The footer or signature of your e-mail is a brilliant place to put your affiliate code - especially when you want to bring LayGuide to the attention of people in a mailing list or newsgroup you participate in. Nobody likes outright spamming (sending a "Hey people come check out this page!!!" message to tens of newsgroups, usually completely unrelated to the ongoing discussions there), but if you indeed participate in a discussion list or newsgroup, then nobody will object to a small ad at the end of whatever relevant e-mail you contribute. Here's an in-your-face example of an e-mail sig using the short version of LayGuide's affiliate code:
just my 2 cents...
Joe
-----------------------------------------------
How to seduce any woman or girl, no matter
what you look like or how much money you have???
FREE articles - http://www.layguide.com/xxx/joe
Discover the Sex and Love secrets
of the greatest seducers in the world.
-----------------------------------------------
Depending on your taste, you might want to use a more modest one, for example like the one below:
Joe http://www.layguide.com/xxx/joe - The How to Lay Girls GuideIf you create a custom sig for yourself with your LayGuide affiliate code in it, let me know so I can extend that 50% commission rate for you for another month if it gets added to this list of examples.
Profiting from banner exchange services
For this trick, you need to have a website of your own. Nevertheless, you'll be displaying your affiliate code/banners on other people's websites. If you don't know what banner exchanges are, here's a short summary. You display banners from a network of websites on your site. And that same network of websites will display YOUR banner on their sites in return. The ratio of displays is usually 1:2 (meaning one display of my banner on their sites for two displays of their banners on my site).
So how can you use banner exchange services to promote your affiliate code? Simple - don't give the network YOUR banner to display, give them your AFFILIATE banner with your affiliate code and have people come directly to LayGuide.
Of course, you could also give the banner exchange network a link to your site and have on your site a link to LayGuide. But with banner click-throughs being generally in the 2-3% range, that would mean about 3% of the people who see a banner to your site will actually click on it. And out of that 3%, only about 3% will then proceed to LayGuide. That means about 0.09% of all people who see your banner on the banner exchange network will actually end up visiting LayGuide. Not much room for commissions. Whereas you could have that 3% go directly to LayGuide, leaving a helluva lot more room for commissions:) Hence the recommendation to display your affiliate code directly and not a link to your site on the banner exchange programs.
LinkExchange - the biggest banner exchange service out there, now owned by Microsoft.
Classifieds
Some web-marketers claim classifieds advertising to be the biggest money-maker on the net today. But you have to keep in mind that the users of any system always claim their system to be the best. Then again, if a system is good enough for some to claim it be the best, it must at least be worth a try. Same goes for classifieds.
Where to advertise?
There are countless of classifieds sites on the net. So which classifieds site should you advertise on? Easy - if you have a favourite classifieds site, that's the way to go. If it happens to be a small classifieds site of only local importance, don't worry - this might even be a plus. By advertising in your local classifieds site you can be sure that you'll be the only one offering such a product, while you can never be sure with the likes of Yahoo classifieds. And if your local classifieds site is only a mirror of your local classifieds paper, all the better - your online entered ad can reach a lot of people who otherwise would not be browsing online classifieds but might be interested in your offering nevertheless.
If you don't have a favourite classifieds site, you might want to look up an online mirror of your local classifieds paper nevertheless. You have a chance of grabbing a whole market segment all to yourself - so why not do it before any competition arrives?
Now you must be thinking - "Why only grab my own local market segment? Why not grab local market segments all over the world? If the classified sites are online, I can get to them, right?" Right, but at least currently, the biggest problem is in finding and reaching them. There's just so darn many, literally thousands of classifieds sites - all a bit different from each other, some mirrors of offline papers, others mere online startups, many of them navigable only in languages other than the english language, although serving ads also to a an english-capable audience etc. If there were an automatic ad submission tool to all those sites, I wouldn't be writing this, I'd be hammering in ads, once a week (that's the shortest expiration cycle for one ad, but many online sites also have an expiration cycle of one month) and keeping all the profit to myself:) But if you know of such a tool, or decide to find and indeed do find one after reading this - you've hit GOLD! (I wouldn't mind knowing about it too then:)
How to advertise?
Classified sites are usually very strict about how many words or characters you can enter in one ad. You really have to be able to draw attention and awaken interest with only a couple of sentences and instructions on where and how to get more information. Just for starters, here are a couple of ads you might want to use or modify for your classifieds marketing purposes.
| How to seduce and get to have sex with any woman, only the best tips from around the world - http://www.layguide.com/xxx/yourname |
|
How to seduce ANY woman or girl, no matter what you look like or how much money you have??? FREE articles - http://www.layguide.com/cgi-bin/affiliates/clickthru.cgi?id=yourname. Discover the S E X & L O V E secrets of the greatest seducers in the world! |
|
Dating SECRETS - how to seduce any woman, no matter what you look like or how much money you have.
Only the best seduction tips and strategies from around the world. Click here for FREE advice - http://www.layguide.com/cgi-bin/affiliates/clickthru.cgi?id=yourname |
If you write your own ad - let me know so I can extend that 50% commission rate for you for another month if it gets added to this list of examples.
What categories to advertise in?
The best categories for advertising LayGuide would be the one's read by the highest number of romantically frustrated men. To be more exact - personals, and especially Women Seeking Men. Admittedly, trying to find a mate through personals can be a fun diversion for a some. But for the majority it is usually an extreme form of romantic frustration. When everything else fails, people turn to personals. And for them, LayGuide would be a beacon of hope, a ray of light at the end of the tunnel. All you'd have to do is just bring the existence of such a beacon to their attention; and BOOM - commission after commission is yours to take:)
Another possibility would be to direct your advertising towards webmasters in the hopes of adding some of them to your downline. The majority of related classifieds can be found in categories with the following keywords - online, business, opportunities, proposals, webmasters, MLM etc. Then again - LayGuide would be of interest to absolutely anyone interested in the opposite sex, so you could draw just as big a crowd by advertising absolutely anywhere where men can assumed to be reading - computers, cars, books, HIFI equipment etc. I will not however take a stance on the category relevance of such advertising - that's up to you to decide:)
Useful links
| Classifieds Top 10 | - | an old page, but will give you an approximation of the biggest names |
| Top 10 Free Classifieds | - | a more up to date page |
| Classified Links | - | a selection of links to classified ads sites |
| Top Ten Classifieds | - | another top 10, just for reference |
| Classified Club | - | commercial site ($30), claims to be the ultimate in the field |
FFA pages and replicated directories
FFA or Free For All links pages are pages, where anyone can add his or her link with a one line descriptions (see here for an example FFA page). There are usually about five or six categories, the newest link gets added to the top of its respective category. It moves down as newer links are added, eventually falling off the list altogether. Which is the time to submit the link once again.
Some consider the glory days of FFA pages to be over with the advent of automated FFA page creation and link submission systems. For example, FFANET houses one of the biggest collections of FFA pages on the net and is a prime example of this. Anyone can get a free FFA page with them and anyone can post their links for free to their collection of FFA pages with a click of a button. For some, this means that the efficiency of the medium is dead. However, what used to be a killer tactic just a short while ago, might nevertheless still be viable enough today. And you can always try something else if you're not satisfied with the results (remember, you can track exactly how many hits your affiliate codes in different places on the net generate through your affiliate control panel's Top 100 Referrers tab).
Replicated directories are somewhat similar to FFA pages - everyone can create his or her personal "directory" of links and everyone can submit his or her link to the thousands of nearly identical directories with one click. But instead of a constant battle and a need to resubmit your link, you only need to submit once and the link stays in the directory forever. The downside - your link will be added to the bottom of a list of links in any given category.
How to submit?
One thing to keep in mind is to NEVER EVER supply any of those services with your primary e-mail address - you'll drown in spam if you do. You will however need a working address where you can check your mail, because you can't submit unless you supply a confirmation code sent to you in e-mail (so better get one of those freebie web-mail accounts).
On FFA pages you can use only about 80 characters to describe your link. And with a screenful of links stomping each other for attention, you need something that stands out. Here's are a few examples:
- = H o w - t o - s e d u c e - A N Y - w o m a n - or - g i r l ??? = -
- = D i s c o v e r - t h e - b e s t - S E X - & - L O V E - s e c r e t s ! = -
You get the drift. As always, you can also advertise becoming a member of the LayGuide Affiliates Program (to start making 2nd and 3rd tier commissions) as opposed to only advertising a subscription to LayGuide itself. And don't forget to insert your correct affiliate code as the URL.
If you're wondering about the coloured links - that's usually the FFA pages hoster's pay option. Naturally they'll try to convince you that their pay option is the best thing since sliced bread - I've never tried it so I can't make a comment. But if it indeed turns out to be - well then you've hit GOLD again with the LayGuide Affiliates Program:)
Which categories to submit under?
The Business category of FFA pages is the first and most active - you'll be noticed there the most, but you'll also fall off the list the fastest. The Personal category is more fitting and you'll stay there longer, but its also the last and a lot less people are likely to scroll to the bottom of the page. Corresponding Recreation/Dating categories can be found in the directories. But feel free to explore other options as well, especially if you decide to target webmasters to add to your downline (hint: advertising in business, webmasters, money etc categories).
Useful links
| FFA sites links | - | a selection of links to FFA sites |
| FFANET | - | a gigantic collection of FFA pages, most of them replicated though |
| Example FFA page | - | LayGuide's Free For All links page at FFANET |
| Links2U | - | a replicated directories network |
Any feedback on the usefulness of the above resources is most welcomed!
Newsgroups and mailing lists
It is best to use newsgroups and mailing lists as an advertising ground only as outlined in the section dealing with using your e-mail signature to promote your affiliate code. The exception to this rule are newsgroups and mailing lists SPECIFICALLY geared towards and welcoming announcements and advertising. Here's a sample list of related newsgroups to get you started, you can probably find more on your news server:
alt.ad alt.biz.misc alt.business alt.business.home alt.business.home.pc alt.business.misc alt.business.multi-level alt.commerce.misc-ads alt.internet.commerce alt.make.money alt.make.money.fast alt.misc aol.commerce.misc-ads aol.commerce.mlm.announce biz.comp.misc biz.general biz.marketplace biz.misc biz.mlm biz.newgroup biz.next.newprod misc.business misc.enterpreneursObviously these are best suited for recruiting web-masters to your downline. But you never know - your ads are welcomed so you might always generate direct sales as well!
Update
I strongly encourage you NOT to use your primary e-mail account or exposing your real e-mail address on newsgroups. Just get any freebie web-mail account to do the job, because whatever e-mail address you use on newsgrouops, it will get harvested by spammers no matter what. So better let that be a seconday address - if and when you get spammed, it won't interfere with your day-to-day internet activities through your main e-mail account.