Guiding Your Visitors to Action - By Ken Lochridge

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

One facet of effective design that I often see people ignore is guiding the visitor. If you don’t effectively help your visitor find, see, read and click what you want them to on your site, you are missing out on revenue.

When a visitor hits your page, you have a few seconds to convey the message that you have what they want, and they can easily get it.

Doing this while encouraging and enticing them to act on your site can mean the difference between an average site and conversion-churner. This strategy may be more effective on some sites or topics than others, but I believe it can improve any site, no matter the topic or purpose.

If a page’s major elements, such as navigation, logos, headings and images are equally dominant and sporadically placed, the visitor must figure out what to do or read next.

Contrast that with a site that has strategically placed elements, with color and contrast variations that are easy to follow. Here, the visitor will travel the path of least resistance and generally follow your direction. Your site will be more successful when you don’t make the user think. Make it easy by using a bread crumb trail of tasty bits for the eye to follow.

Once your visitor arrives, your page needs to turn into a funnel. Every template or page should have a purpose, a desired action from the user. Whether it’s to drill down, believe and trust you, make a purchase, click on an ad or whatever, you should have a goal for the user at every point in your online presence.

You may have a structure that leads the visitor from basic home page information, drilling down to specific products or services, and sales pages for each. Or, you may have a store that showcases items on every page. Regardless, each page has a purpose and you should help your visitor engage that purpose.

One way of implementing this is the blur test. To perform this test, sit back from your monitor, maybe a foot or two more than usual. Defocus your eyes - start to cross your eyes, but don’t actually let them cross. Your page should be blurry, and the major elements should stand out.

Start at the upper left corner of the page and let your eye lazily fall downwards and to the right, and allow it to stop at the first thing that stands out on your page. Then follow on to the next item, and so on.

With practice, you can simulate what your visitors’ eyes are attracted to, and how they flow through your page.

You will be able to identify elements that are fighting each other for dominance, which direction the flow moves on your page and then make adjustments and corrections to encourage the behavior you want. You can learn a feel for this, and guiding your visitor can become as natural as ad blending.

Ken Lochridge, of DrasticTactics.com, is a ten year veteran of affiliate marketing.

Download the entire FeedFront issue 3 here - http://feedfront.com/feedfront-issue3.pdf
FeedFront issue 3 articles can be found here as well: http://feedfront.com/archives/category/issue-3/

Uh-fil-ee-it Marketing- A Rookie’s Journey to Affiliate Summit East - By Zach Winterton

The date was April 1st 2008. In an office building in downtown Walla Walla, WA, I officially stepped into my new role as the Affiliate Coordinator for QualitySmith, an internet based lead-gen company that connects homeowners with contractors nationwide.

Fast-forward five months and I am crawling out of bed at 5 AM to catch my flight to Boston for my very first Affiliate Summit. Upon arriving at the Seaport, I immediately realized this was going to be an amazing experience.

After it was all said and done I learned a ton, met some amazing people, and had a great time. For all of the affiliate newbies out there, here are some tips I’ve learned to help with your first time at Affiliate Summit.

Leading Up to Your First Affiliate Summit

Networking – Get involved. There are tons of ways to connect with others in the affiliate marketing space. Affiliate Summit has a networking site (network.affiliatesummit.com), and there a lot of affiliate marketers on Facebook also.

Make a point to meet with companies that could be a good fit for you to work with. It helps to set an appointment with them if you can also.

Business Cards – You’ll need them, and lots of them. Try thinking outside of the box with these. Rounded edges, odd sizes, and clever design will help your cards stand out.

Affiliate Summit Mentor Program – Sign up for this. You’ll be paired up with an affiliate marketing veteran. They will be a great resource, and maybe even your first friend at the Summit. I was lucky enough to have Shawn Collins as my mentor.

Travel – Pack lightly. Chances are you’ll have a bag full of goodies to take home with you. Comfortable dress shoes also came in handy.

During the Conference

Networking – Seems to be a common theme. Networking is one of the most beneficial things you can do for both your time at Affiliate Summit, and your career. You never know who you are going to meet, or where. Be friendly, say hello first to people you see.

Attend Parties –These are great opportunities to meet more people in the industry. A tip from Brian Hawkins of Pingo.com is affiliates usually stick together. I was able to meet ten affiliates in one sitting by approaching one when he was by himself.

Stay Organized – You will meet tons of people, and have tons of business cards. Spend some night before bed each night organizing and making notes about the cards you have collected.

Have Fun – There are plenty of opportunities to have a great time at Affiliate Summit.

After the Summit

Follow up – Make a list of the contacts you made that could most benefit you or your business, and start reaching out to them one by one.

Affiliate marketing is a fascinating industry full of brilliant, motivated people. Whether you take these tips to heart, or not, you’re destined to have a great time at Affiliate Summit.

Zach Winterton is a dedicated Affiliate Manager for QualitySmith & Glass.net. www.qualitysmith.com, www.glass.net

Download the entire FeedFront issue 3 here - http://feedfront.com/feedfront-issue3.pdf
FeedFront issue 3 articles can be found here as well: http://feedfront.com/archives/category/issue-3/

Widgets and Your Affiliate Marketing Mix - By Amy Ely

One of the highlights of Affiliate Summit is the constant stream of new ideas. Affiliate marketers are called Internet pioneers for good reason – they are passionate about finding new business models and innovative ways to use the Internet.

As expected, hot topics in Boston included ways to incorporate video, mobile and social media into affiliate marketing programs, and how networks and advertisers can support these efforts.

But one topic associated with social media deserves more attention: widgets. Have you considered how widgets might fit into your affiliate strategy?

Why Should I Consider Widgets?

In short, they’re capturing a lot of attention on the Internet. In the U.S., more than 77% of the internet audience has viewed a widget; in Canada, 80% have; and worldwide the figure is 62%. Also, research shows that widgets demonstrate greater reach than video, according to comScore’s April Widget Metrix and Video Metrix. So, if you’re looking for a way to share ideas and programs with the global online community, widgets can definitely help.

What are Widgets?

Widgets are light-weight single-purpose applications that run on a desktop or website. They serve a variety of purposes, from news feeds and calendars to entertainment, self-expression, photo and video sharing.

Using Advertiser Widgets

The benefit of advertiser widgets is that advertisers take care of most of the development work and you reap the benefits.

Advertiser widgets can add content to your site that can improve traffic and engagement. Some examples include:

CBSSports.com Scoreboard: http://tinyurl.com/cbssports

National Geographic: http://tinyurl.com/natgeographic

Yahoo! Weather: http://tinyurl.com/yahooweather

Also, widgets can help you earn additional revenue when users interact with the widget to make a sale or fill out a lead form.

For example, buy.at’s Ticketmaster EventEngine widget enables affiliates to earn revenue for each sale driven by the widget, even if it’s several download-generations away from the affiliate’s site.

Creating Your Own Widgets

You can create your own widget to drive traffic, increase page views and share ideas. If your widget gains traction, consider selling advertising within your widgets to generate new revenue opportunities. A few general ideas include:

• Share content – share tips, ideas, and content in your widget, keeping your brand and site top of mind when users see your widget on the Web.

• Leverage viral marketing – encourage users to share your widget with friends as a way to expand your reach.

• Update regularly – updates automatically appear wherever your widget is embedded, creating a dynamic dialogue with users.

How Do I Build and Distribute My Own Widget?

Work with a syndication partner. They provide the components necessary for your widget to be picked up on blogs, social networks and personal pages. Established syndicators include YourMinis from Goowy Media, Clearspring Technologies and Interpolls.

Showcase your widgets on your site, and you can also work with a widget ad network, such as Widgnet, or place your widgets in galleries such as Yahoo’s Widgets, Facebook, the Mac Dashboard or Widgetbox.

The opportunities with widgets are endless, how do you plan to use them?

Amy Ely is the U.S. Marketing Manager for buy.at, Platform-A’s affiliate network. Joel Fisher, Director of New Product Development and head of Widgnet, Platform-A’s social networking application and Web widget ad network, also contributed to this article.

Download the entire FeedFront issue 3 here - http://feedfront.com/feedfront-issue3.pdf
FeedFront issue 3 articles can be found here as well: http://feedfront.com/archives/category/issue-3/