Converting leads to buyers is obviously one of the main tasks of every affiliate marketer online. The only thing that’s actually more important is driving online traffic.
Anyway, as it turns out, there are many reasons why affiliates struggle to convert their visitors and convince them to take advantage of various affiliate offers. Here, we try to answer why.
1. Bad Traffic
As we’ve mentioned a minute ago, traffic is the most important success factor for affiliates. However, not all kinds of traffic will turn out to be profitable especially if you have to invest money to get this traffic.
Try experimenting with different sources of traffic, different types of keywords and different methods of promotion. While doing so, gather every piece of data you can to better identify the kind of traffic that converts best.
2. Bad Product
Not all products are created equal; it’s as simple as this. When picking products to promote, it’s good to do the same kind of research you’d do when searching for a product to buy. For example, look for reviews, read opinions on forums, check out the support platform, compare the product against its competitors and so on.
In short, the size of affiliate commission is not the only important factor when picking the products.
3. Old-Fashioned Design
As much as some gurus want you to believe that design doesn’t matter that much, it does…at least in 2013.
Quite simply, if your site uses a standard, off-the-shelf design that looks outdated compared to the new stuff being released by major theme stores like StudioPress or ThemeFuse, then you won’t be able to portray yourself as a serious business.
4. No Clear Calls To Action
Call to action is the conversion point of your sales/promotion page. If it’s not visible enough, no one will click it. Period.
The absolute simplest way of making sure that it stands out is to use a completely exclusive color for buttons and affiliate links.
This is something you can achieve by getting a plugin like Shortcodes Ultimate. Among other features, it allows you to create great looking buttons with a simple shortcode.
5. No Trust
Depending on your niche, building trust might be a difficult task when branding your website especially if you’re in the weight loss, making money or relationship niches. In short, the problem is that people won’t buy anything from you if they don’t see you as a trustworthy source.
To change this, start by guest posting on respected sites and then using the logos of these sites inside your “as seen on” block. Honest and simple.
6. Poor Copy
There’s a reason why good copy costs $1 per word. Essentially, convincing someone to convert is like playing a mind game. And if you want to win, you have to be willing to either invest or learn the art of copywriting yourself.
When it comes to education, Copyblogger is a good resource to start with.
7. Too Complicated Conversion Process
Simply speaking, every click counts. For example, if your visitors have to go through six different pages before they even get a chance to convert, in most cases, they won’t do it.
Here are some of the common mistakes:
- Forcing people to sign up for an account on your site.
- Forced email newsletter subscription.
- Additional advertisement in the middle of the conversion funnel.
- Too complicated affiliate link tracking sequence.
- Transitional page between the link and the conversion page.
Finally, we have one bonus thing:
Tip #8. Track, track, track, improve and then track some more.