The Five Most Common Missing Pieces to Affiliate Sites – By Matt McWilliams

Today it seems everyone has a website. You’re not everyone though; your site is your business. Your website should be professional and encourage your visitors to buy.

Shoppers today are cynical and have more choices than ever.

I’ve found that many affiliates are missing or misusing these five critical pieces on their websites. Are you?

1. Informational Content
Conventional wisdom tells us to get to the point and eliminate clutter on our site, but you need informational content to help convert the skeptics and less knowledgeable visitors.

Informational content serves two purposes. First, it’s a great service that customers won’t forget, converting confused customers into ready-to-buy machines. Second, a good article is chock-full of keyword-rich content that can vault you to the top of search engines and drive substantial traffic from links from other sites.

2. “Contact Us” Page
Often, the hardest obstacle to overcome is consumer trust. These people are about to give some serious information. You must do everything possible to earn their trust.

In Geno Prussakov’s book, “Online Shopping Through Consumers’ Eyes,” 83% of web users say a physical address gives them more confidence than a P.O. Box. Almost all say that no address is a major deterrent. Geno also notes that by a 4-to-1 margin, users prefer an actual email to a “contact form.”
Give them every way possible to contact you, it clearly pays off.

3. Privacy Policy
Is my information protected? What data are you collecting? Will I get spammed?

These are all questions that visitors ask themselves. Not having a clearly written privacy policy that answers important questions can cost you their business. In their eyes, you’re hiding something and must be a scam.
A good privacy policy lets customers know about things like cookies, your anti-spam policy, form encryption, etc. Every page on your website should like to your Privacy Policy page.

4. Customer Testimonials
You may not get emails often thanking you for your service, but when you do get a thank you, do you make use of it?

The first thing you should do is to thank your customers and show genuine happiness that you helped them. Then ask permission to use their testimonial. About 50% of people will let you. Testimonials are priceless trust builders, so make sure you take advantage of them. Place them throughout your site and create a prominent “Testimonials Page.” If you don’t have any testimonials, ask your affiliate manager if you can use the merchant’s.

5. FAQ Page
Most people will never view this page, but the ones who do want answers; and they want them fast! Anytime someone asks something, add it to the FAQ. Ask your friends to look at your site and think of FAQs. It will lead to more sales, guaranteed.

Any one of these missing components can cost you conversions and ultimately money. Check your site and make sure that you have all of these important pieces. If you have them, make sure they are thorough and up-to-date.

Matt McWilliams of Legacy Learning Systems is the 2010 Pinnacle Awards Affiliate Manager of the Year – www.learnandmaster.com/affiliates.

Download the entire FeedFront issue 7 here – http://www.scribd.com/doc/17376069/FeedFront-Magazine-Issue-7
FeedFront issue 7 articles can be found here as well: http://feedfront.com/archives/article00date/2009/08

Tagged as: affiliate website, Geno Prussakov, learn and master learning program, matt mcwilliams, privacy policy