Affiliates Blog Tour: Don’t Go Overboard with Affiliate Graphics
Welcome to stop number two on the Affiliates Blog Tour! If you’ve missed our first stopover on Kristen Arnold’s blog, you can check it out here: The topic is What is Affiliate Marketing?
By the way, we want to thank Val Selby for hosting this stop on our tour!
This tour is designed to turn moms onto the idea of Affiliate Marketing and show them how simple it is to implement on their blogs and other web projects.
One of the reasons that affiliate marketing can be so easy to start is that the affiliate program owners and managers have taken a lot of time to create promotional tools for their affiliates to use. (Good programs do anyways!)
Quality programs provide affiliates with graphics, articles, ad text, email promos, etc. Some even provide you with sample chapters and special reports that give your readers a big taste of what they have to offer. Over the next few stops on our tour, we’re going to share more about these tools.
The more familiar you are with affiliate tools, the better chances are that you’ll use them!
In this segment, we are going to take a look at using affiliate graphics to promote products.
If you’re placing affiliate buttons on your site thinking that sales will start rolling in. They won’t.
People are visual and a graphic will catch their eye quicker than text. That’s where using affiliate graphics comes in handy. However, many new affiliate marketers use affiliate banners and buttons the wrong way. They grab the images and paste them all over their website thinking that they’re providing their visitors with so many choices that they’ll surely go for something.
The problem is that they’re overwhelming their readers. With so much to look at, they won’t know where to look! When it comes to displaying buttons and banners on your site, the first rule should be ‘Less is More’.
If you really want to display a banner or button to highlight a favorite affiliate product, I recommend that you choose one product to feature for a period of time. Pick the most appropriate graphic for your website and give it the best virtual real estate that you can. Let it enjoy the attention of your visitors without a lot of competing ads.
But don’t stop there.
If you want your web visitors to act on an affiliate offer you need to tell them why they should – that means you will want to write up some sort of a personal recommendation. Once that is written, you can certainly use affiliate graphics to illustrate your offer. If it’s a digital information product like an ebook or audio, an e-cover graphic really helps to represent the product.
What if the affiliate program doesn’t provide graphics?
They should! If they don’t, write and ask them to create some for you. Give them some ideas of what you’d like to use. “I have a feature spot that calls for a 300×250 pixel graphic, if you could provide one that would be great!” If they don’t respond to your request favorably, I’d wonder about their commitment to running an affiliate program.
As you get more familiar with different programs, you’ll start to favor some programs over others on the basis of the tools they provide along with some other important concerns. Don’t be afraid to express your needs and be selective.
I challenge you to find and use an affiliate graphic before the week is over. If you’re not sure where to start, of course we recommend checking out the Mom’s Talk Affiliates program!
See you on the next stop on our tour when we’ll share best practices for using affiliate articles.
Tishia Lee, Affiliate Manager for Mom’s Talk Affiliates and Kelly McCausey, owner of Mom’s Talk Network are touring the work at home web with great tips on affiliate marketing, check out the full tour schedule here.
I’m excited to be a stop on the blog tour and bring my readers more information and another point of view. Thank you Tishia and Kelly for adding great content to my blog.
Thanks for hosting us Val!
This is something I’m still working on/testing. I have some success with one particular affiliate program, but not with others. Not going overboard IS very important! Thanks for this Kelly, Tishia and Val!
That’s very true that just placing the affiliate graphics at the sidebar won’t get any effect. Thanks for highlighting this point for us and I believe many will benefit from this blog tour.
Hello Val. Thanks for this info. I’ve found, when a site is too full, I become overwhelmed and only read snippets rather than the whole article OR I just navigate away. I like the less is best approach.
I also read your Article on selling digital photographs. Good info there.
Thanks for being a stop on the blog tour.
Thanks for stopping by Christine. I agree, my eyes get overwhelmed and it’s very difficult to read the posts if there are too many graphics and pictures going on. Especially if there are a lot of flashing banners.
Welcome Mary and Moon
Tks for the great tip kelly… too many buttons makes the website too messsy .. i love your blog tour!!
Sadly, been there done that. You are so right.
Most of the time I read blogs through a feed reader anyways. If the graphic is not in the post I don’t usually see it.
I remember well my early days of affiliate marketing and wondering why I wasn’t making any sales after posting all those affiliate banners all over my site. I really like banners with great text that gives visitors a reason or desire to click. Some banners look pretty but you really have no idea what the company is offering before you click.
Excellent tip, kelly, thank you.
And, Jendi – also a great reminder that sometimes it’s a good idea to write a post about your affiliate product, and not to just use graphics, for those individuals who subscribe to your blog through a feed.
Great tips ladies! Loving the tour so far
Hi Val, Tishia here. Just stopping by to say thanks so much for being a part of the blog tour! We appreciate it.
Totally my pleasure. Thank you for putting putting it together and including me.
Great point! As I put up affiliate links I’ll remember give ‘em one graphic at a time to look at. And tell my readers why they should take the offer. Thanks ladies!
There are many ways to earn money online. Its not easy but it is not impossible. Joining affiliate programs and being a freelance works for me.. Thanks for sharing this tip regarding affiliate graphic, I’ll keep this in mind..
Great point on graphics.
I also like to work a graphic into my posts as part of an overall review or if I’m writing a post and then making a recommendation for a product within the post. Similar to the way you worked the Moms Talk Network Affiliate Blog tour graphic into this post (love that graphic btw).
I agree with the graphic for affiliate programs. There should always be graphics available and if not we have asked them for one or created myself. Also agree that you don’t want to fill your site with affiliate programs. I think some are okay but never want to overdue it – when I see a site like that I just want to close the site so I don’t have to see the ads anymore.
Thanks for the great information.
Thanks for commenting Staci