As an affiliate I use affiliate links at various places throughout my web site, in emails and in other online promotions. These affiliate links are usually long and have a number or word to define who the affiliate is.
As well as using these 'direct' affiliate links I have alsoused redirect pages (or what I might call 'indirect'affiliate links) on my web site as well. These are blank webpages whose sole purpose is to redirect the visitor to theaffiliate page.
I recently did a comparison between direct affiliate links andredirect pages and the results were astounding!
The redirect pages outperformed direct affiliate links about2 to 1 when placed in the same position on my web site. Thismeant twice as many people were clicking the indirect affiliatelink as were clicking the direct affiliate link. Why?
I have no idea about the logic behind this but it appears thatvisitors are less inclined to click a link when they know it isan affiliate link. They would rather have the thought in theirmind "I want to buy direct".
I must admit I do not think like this because I have boughtmany times through affiliate links but I guess I'm an affiliateso perhaps I think differently to people who are not affiliates.
So if redirect pages work so well, how do you create one?
It's really simpler than you might think.
First, create a new web page on your site. Just leave it as ablank page.
Then just put the following piece of code between the headertags:
<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0;url=http://www.myaffiliatelink.com">
You will need to replace the URL "myaffiliatelink.com" withyour own affiliate program link.
If you are in 5 different affiliate programs you will need toset up 5 separate pages for each affiliate link.
Now you can use each redirect page link in your promotionsinstead of the affiliate link.
When someone clicks on your redirect page link the following 2things happen:
1. They get taken to your redirect page which is a blank page.This lasts a few seconds.
2. The command in your header tag then forwards the visitordirectly to the affiliate site.
The best thing about redirect pages is they do not look likeaffiliate links. They just look like normal pages. For thosepeople that DO have a problem buying through affiliate links,they are unaware that the redirect page is actually anaffiliate link.
Try using redirect pages for your affiliate links. I thinkyou'll be pleasantly surprised by the results.
Resource BoxDavid McKenzie is the author of a new e-book titled "The FactsYou Should Know About Affiliate Programs"Get a Free 5 Day Email Coursehttp://www.1sthomebasedbusiness.com
