As an affiliate you customarily have many options for displaying the “click point” that your visitors use as a launch point to a merchant or advertiser site. Most affiliates will begin with adding one of the banners provided by a merchant in an affiliate network. They’re easy, can’t be altered and present the branding of your chosen merchant. They also look like the ads that they are. What should you use links and when should you use banners?

Say an individual visits your site because it is the expert site for migrating birds, and they read up on Purple Martin houses. If, at the end of an article on building a house, you placed a link entitled “products” or “bird houses”, you’d probably get a reasonable number of clicks. But if you displayed a banner for a company that clearly sold purple martin houses, you’d be likely to get more because you’re being more specific. But if in the text of the article you have links for bird house lumber and purple martin nesting materials, why would anyone go anywhere else? Consider the following:

Banners clearly brand and spell out what they’re selling, and getting to the point of sale doesn’t require the site user to do any reading of lengthy text; they just click a box. Sometimes this is what people want, and you need to poll visitors and observe their habits. Links are great in the context of the provision of information. This means in an article or product review. Sites with listings of links, even those arranged in categories, are a turn-off to most people who either know what they want and need the quickest path there, or want product solutions in the context of information.

Karen Kari's articles and more information on the affiliate business can be found at:

http://www.affiliatebandit.com
http://www.advertisingcellar.com
http://www.billionfreeads.com

• Affiliate Marketing With Freebies


• Ezines Can Turn Affiliates Into Experts


• Affiliate Sites Can Excel When They Answer Questions


• Educating Consumers Can Translate Into Affiliate Success


• Why Every Affiliate Site Needs A Frequently Asked Questions Section


• Affiliate Merchant Ad Placement


• Affiliates and Pay Per Click (PPC) Services Including Google Ad Words


• Affiliate Revenue-Part 4


• Affiliate Business 101


• Making Your Affiliate Site Attractive to Merchants