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/

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/

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/

The result is that for years now the standard sales tool for Internet marketers has been the long-form sales letter. These can go on for thousands of words, offer testimonial after testimonial, sub-heading after sub-heading and postscript after postscript.

They’re enormous, often repetitive and it’s unlikely that anybody has ever read one all the way through to the end. So why do marketers still use them?

The answer is simple: they work.

In one test conducted by the Marketing Experiments Journal in 2004, long-form sales letters consistently outperformed short copy, sometimes by as much as 400 percent.

In my own experience, I’ve seen up-sells and one-time offers produce conversion rates as high as 70 percent. That doesn’t happen often – but I’ve never had it happen with any other sales technique.
The reason they work is that a well-written, long-form sales letter will do two things.

First, it will push every sales point and answer every objection from every member of the audience. That’s something that’s always going to take up a great deal of space. But it’s also why marketers don’t expect the audience to read all of the copy.

The sub-headings are meant to provide easy entry and exit points for readers. Different readers will have different objections and they’ll be persuaded to buy because of different benefits. As readers scan a sales letter, the format of the page will naturally help them to notice the points and arguments that are most likely to persuade them.

Of course, they’ll also miss a lot but that’s important too. The Internet is the ultimate comparison shopping tool. More information about a product and more products that do the same thing are never more than a click or two away.

By providing readers with an overdose of information, marketers keep truly interested buyers on the page. If they can’t even finish reading the information in front of them, they’re less likely to feel a need to look for more information elsewhere.

It’s why a common reaction to a long-form sales letter is “Okay, I get it. How much is it already?”
When you can make a lead ask that question, you really should be able to turn them into a buyer.
Long-form sales letters need top quality copy. They need careful testing and tweaking. But when the information and the words are right, they’re also surprisingly effective.

Joel Comm has been building profitable sites since 1995. Visit his blog at www.JoelComm.com.

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/

Untapped Opportunity in Affiliate Marketing
It’s a fairly typical story; a consumer clicks on an affiliate link to an online retailer, browses the website, and decides to go into the store to make the purchase.

In fact, the story is far more typical than most affiliates may know. Recent research suggests that 89% of consumers browse online before making a purchase (BIG Research 2007), but < 7% of retail sales actually take place online (Forrester, “The State of Retailing Online” 2007).

Another important data point is that online advertising drives $6 of in-store revenue for every $1 online (Yahoo! & comScore, “Research Online, Buy Offline” 2007). Commissions have traditionally only been earned on online revenue. Imagine what kinds of commissions could be earned by promoting in-store purchases.

What Does This Mean for Affiliates?
For most affiliates, this means that valuable time and money spent promoting a multi-channel merchant can often lead to under-compensation for affiliate marketing efforts that result in an in-store purchase.

This also means that there is a broader opportunity for affiliates to promote new categories of advertisers with in-store purchases, such as manufacturers and restaurants.

In-Store Affiliate Marketing
The inability to track online advertisements to in-store purchases has also impacted merchants, who have a need to understand the impact of online advertising on in-store sales.

Having an affiliate marketing solution would provide the transparency and tracking solution desired by most large advertisers to bridge the gap between online and in-store.

Affiliate Marketing 2.0
As online affiliate marketing continues to grow and merchants begin to break down silos between in-store and online marketing teams, we are entering Version 2.0 of affiliate marketing.

Version 2.0 means expanding from e-commerce to the 93% of retail sales that take place in-store. Version 2.0 also means expanding the affiliate community to include mobile and print affiliates.
The next generation of affiliate marketers will be developing new technology to connect online ads to in-store purchases. We should all be incredibly excited for the possibilities that this will provide for both affiliates and advertisers.

The authors are co-founders at RevTrax, a leading in-store affiliate network, and can be reached at Seth@RevTrax.com or Jonathan@RevTrax.com

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/

The next issue of FeedFront will be coming out in January 2009 to coincide with the Affiliate Summit West 2009 conference.

The deadline for articles for issue 4 of FeedFront is November 7, 2008.

If you are interested in writing an article, go to the FeedFront contact form to submit a one sentence summary on what you’d like to cover.

Articles are a maximum of 500 words - no exceptions. Anything longer will not be considered.

Do not send a complete article - just a one sentence summary.

The Golden Link Awards Ceremony which celebrates extraordinary achievements in performance marketing, made by LinkShare merchants and affiliates was held at the Plaza Hotel.

There was no shortage of glitterati (myself included), tuxedos and happy faces taking in the fabulous faire and networking opportunities. The crowd was all abuzz with their predictions as to who was going to go home with the coveted Golden Link Awards.

The information delay between the evening’s attendees and the folks that wished they could have been there was limited to mere seconds, when I Twittered each of the winners as they were announced.

Congratulations to all of the finalists and winners listed below.

(Winners are indicated in bold)
Innovative Publisher of the Year
Buzzillions.com
Delivery Agent, Inc. – SeenON.com
ToldYa

Innovative Advertiser of the Year
Beatport
Office Depot
Walmart.com

Best New Publisher
Clever Parties, Inc.
RedPlum.com
StylePointer

Best New Advertiser
Estee Lauder Companies
Petite Sophisticate
Webroot

Advertiser’s Choice Award
FabulousSavings.com
Shopping-Bargains.com
SurfMyAds.com – Coupon Winner

Publisher’s Choice Award
GSI Commerce
ICE.com
Park Seed Company

International Advertiser of the Year
Avon
Blue Nile
NET-A-PORTER UK

Best Performance-Based Search Strategy
Frederick’s of Hollywood
McAfee*
Vertive, Inc.*
*Tie

Best Integrated Lead Generation Campaign
Chase
Insurance.com
TigerDirect.com

MVP – Most Valuable Publisher for Lead Generation
1ShopMall
Belcaro Group
TuitionChart.com

Best Integrated Multi-Channel Marketing
Allegiance Marketing Resources
American Express
Dell Canada / Airmilesshops.ca

Technology Genius Award
Factor LLC
SpashAds
StyleFeeder

Best Overall Online Distribution Strategy
Bare Necessities
Eastbay
ZIRH

Performance Marketing’s Most Vocal Advocate
InternetGeekGirl
Revenue Magazine
Scott Jangro

The LinkShare Symposium was held the next morning at Chelsea Piers. The day was packed with three terrific speakers including James Surowiecki, author of The Wisdom of Crowds; Patti Freeman Evans, Research Director for Jupiter Research and E. Kinney Zalense, co-author of Microtrends.

I especially liked the “Dealmaker” event, which was filled with incredible networking opportunities and lots of great giveaways.

Kudos to LinkShare for pulling off another great event.

Missy Ward is the Co-Founder of Affiliate Summit, the premier conference for the Affiliate Marketing Industry and Co-Editor-in-Chief of FeedFront Magazine. She is also an active affiliate.

Download issue 2 of FeedFront at http://feedfront.com/feedfront-issue2.pdf
Articles from issue 2 of FeedFront will also be posted at http://feedfront.com/archives/category/issue-2/

His new book, “101 Wines Guaranteed to Inspire, Delight, and Bring Thunder to Your World”, puts all of his energy and passion for wine into print. Gary will also be the keynote speaker for Affiliate Summit 2009 in Las Vegas.

Shawn: What do you think is the most important social media site?

Gary: I would say it’s neck and neck between Twitter and Facebook, depending on how you use things. I think Facebook has a lot more power and could really go after Twitter and take them out by creating a Facebook mobile thing that looks a lot like it.

But Twitter or something like Twitter. If Twitter is unable to scale, whether it is FriendFeed or Pownce or something we don’t know about right now, will be the future, because mobile is the future.

Shawn: What do you think of FriendFeed?

Gary: I have not dabbled into it enough to answer, but I know a lot of people are enjoying the threaded conversations there. FriendFeed has a very legitimate chance to grab the market. I think they’ll be one of the places.

People realize that Twitter has scalability issues and FriendFeed is probably working on trying to compete with them as we speak.

Shawn: Why do you use Viddler to embed on Wine Library TV, instead of the Revision3 version?

Gary: Viddler has been good to me. We’ve had a two year relationship. When my company started using it two years ago, instead of YouTube, that was a risky move, because there was a lot more to gain, in theory, with YouTube.

But they have been great to me, they’ve had great service, and I believe in the guys over there, so I want to support them.

Shawn: Do you have any good stories you can share from your book tour?

Gary: I signed a dude’s chest the other day. It would have been cool if it was a chick, but you take what you can get. Nothing so crazy other than it’s so humbling to see a hundred people show up to your book signing in Seattle and Maryland and Portland.

Shawn: I saw the episode of Wine Library TV when you were in Boston. Was it tough working with a Patriots bucket?

Gary: That’s why I didn’t spit it in. So I had to drink the wine. That’s what made it tough. It was a really fun time.

Shawn: Since you talk about the importance of building a personal brand, which player from the New York Sack Exchange (defensive line for the New York Jets in the early 80s) do you think created the best personal brand?

Gary: Bar none Mark Gastineau. When you’d go outside of New York, a lot of people knew Gastineau. Of course, I loved the subtleties of a hard-nosed player like Klecko, but the fact of the matter is that Gastineau was able to create the biggest personal brand.

Shawn: Do you have any advice for people who are trying to build a personal brand through social media?

Gary: Authenticity, baby. Be a RAT. Be Real, Authentic, and Transparent. And know what you’re talking about. That means going as niche as you have to.

So, if you think you know a lot about basketball, but you realize you know more about the Houston Rockets, then do that. And if you know more about Hakeem Olajuwon than the Houston Rockets, then you can do Hakeem Olajuwon TV or the Hakeem Olajuwon blog.

I think people need to be champion of their sub-domain, and I think people need to go to their lowest common denominator to achieve that.

Shawn: One last thing… what do you see in your future after the wine life is over?

Gary: Then it will be the Jets life. I want to buy the Jets. That’s where I want to go. There will probably be one stop in between. I just don’t know what that is, yet, but I don’t know that the wine life can achieve the $2 billion I need to buy the Jets, but that is where I am going.

Shawn: In the meantime, are you going to get a box at the stadium?

Gary: Yeah, maybe. I don’t know. I am so focused on not wasting any funds along the way, so I feel like that couple hundred thousand could cost me.

Watch Gary at http://tv.winelibrary.com/ and http://garyvaynerchuk.com/.

Shawn Collins is a Co-founder of Affiliate Summit and Co-Editor-in-Chief of FeedFront Magazine.

Download issue 2 of FeedFront at http://feedfront.com/feedfront-issue2.pdf
Articles from issue 2 of FeedFront will also be posted at http://feedfront.com/archives/category/issue-2/

Issue three will also be distributed at Affiliate Summit Social Media 2008 on October 5 in NYC.

The cover features Cory Booker, who delivered the keynote address at Affiliate Summit East 2008, and the issue includes a transcript of his speech.

There are also articles on widgets, the effectiveness of long-form sales letters, a profile of Melissa Salas of Buy.com, time management, and more.

Plus, this issue features the program for Affiliate Summit Social Media 2008.

Issue 1 and Issue 2 of FeedFront Magazine can be downloaded as a pdf file or you can read the articles online at feedfront.com.

Get the FeedFront RSS if you’d like to get all of the articles as they are published to the feed.

If you haven’t subscribed, you can get the magazine for free at http://feedfront.com/free-subscription/.

The foundation of any good relationship is communication, enforcing the need to be available across multiple channels for your affiliates to get in touch with you.

Making yourself available for your affiliates will increase your effectiveness as an affiliate manager, assist you in preventing fraud, and help to create a lasting bond with your affiliates.

People are all different, and so are their preferences in communications. Broad availability is your best bet. Make yourself available across more than one medium. In your communications to your affiliates, make sure they have multiple ways to contact you at their fingertips.

Your e-mail address, phone number, and physical address should append all messages and correspondence you send to the affiliate so they know immediately how to reach you.

When calling and leaving a message, remember to always leave your phone number - never assume they already have it. If affiliates know how to contact you easily, they will be more likely to get a hold of you before making any wrong moves.

This will help you to keep your affiliates on the straight and narrow with immediate feedback on their promotions ideas.

Communication is dynamic, and in this day and age the number of communication venues is increasing exponentially. Try to stay on that trendy wave and add new ways for affiliates to connect with you as the tide changes.

Create accounts across the popular Instant Messenger channels (AIM, Yahoo, MSN) and across the various microblogging ventures like Twitter, Plurk, and Pownce.

This quick way to get someone’s attention is incredibly easy to monitor with the right desktop applications, and provides affiliates with a way to instantly ping you if they need help. That kind of instant access to you will win over their business.

Social Networks are also a great way to connect with people and interact on a level that’s more human than corporate.

Networks like Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn allow you to connect with your affiliates and share your interests and other ideas. A secure personal relationship with your affiliates will benefit both parties.

As the affiliate manager, your insight into the affiliates’ hobbies will help you to understand how they run their business, and might just give you some unique ideas that you can pass on to them to help you both grow their promotions of your program.

Their insight into your interests will also allow them to make a personal connection and extend some trust to you when you do make those hair-brained suggestions after learning they collect 1970’s McDonalds Happy Meal toys.

Keeping channels open for your myriad of affiliates to contact you will make you an affiliate manager to be trusted, and reckoned with!

Trisha Lyn Fawver is the Marketing Manager for PsPrint.com.

Download issue 2 of FeedFront at http://feedfront.com/feedfront-issue2.pdf
Articles from issue 2 of FeedFront will also be posted at http://feedfront.com/archives/category/issue-2/