Using banners or.... using text ads

[SEOidiot]

Well I just wanted to share my method for most affiliate sites i do..

I have to say i am not a great fan of the majority of creatives that you get with affiliate schemes nowadays - they look like they were designed by the marketing dept and the conversion rate sucks in most cases.

So what i tend to do is create Adsense style text links that go to the same affiliate url - and i find that this dramatically increases conversions for me

I have created a simple example for you here: -

Heres a live pic...



And heres the code

Code:

<style type="text/css">
<!--
.style1 {
font-family: Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
font-size: 9px;
}
td {
font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
font-size: 12px;
color: #666666;
line-height: 16px;
padding-top: 9px;
padding-bottom: 9px;
border-top: 1px solid #333333;
border-right: 1px solid #333333;
border-bottom: none #333333;
border-left: 1px solid #333333;
}
.style2 {font-size: 9px}
.adsnip {
color: #666666;
text-decoration: none;
}
.adlink {
color: #6464FF;
text-decoration: none;
font-size: 9px;
font-weight: bold;
}
.bottomtd {
border-top: 1px solid #333333;
border-right: 1px none #333333;
border-bottom: 1px none #333333;
border-left: 1px none #333333;
}

div.menu a:link {
color: #ffffff;
background: #eoeoeo;
}

div.menu a:active {
color: #ffffff;
background: #e0e0e0;
}

div.menu a:visited {
color: #e0e0e0;
background: #e0e0e0;
}

-->
</style>
<br>
<br>
<br>

<table width="160"  border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6">
  <tr>
     <Td onmouseover="this.style.backgroundColor='#FBFBFB';" onmouseout="this.style.backgroundColor='#FFFFFF';"><a href="n"><strong>Links here</strong></a><br>
        <a href="v" class="adsnip">Some text about the adverts</a><br>
        <a href="b" class="adlink"> </a></td>

  </tr>
  <tr>
 <td onmouseover="this.style.backgroundColor='#FBFBFB';" onmouseout="this.style.backgroundColor='#FFFFFF';"><a href="n"><strong>Links here</strong></a><br>
        <a href="v" class="adsnip">Some text about the adverts</a><br>
        <a href="b" class="adlink"> </a></td>
  </tr>
  <tr>

<td onmouseover="this.style.backgroundColor='#FBFBFB';" onmouseout="this.style.backgroundColor='#FFFFFF';"><a href="n"><strong>Links here</strong></a><br>
        <a href="v" class="adsnip">Some text about the adverts</a><br>
        <a href="b" class="adlink"> </a></td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
 <td onmouseover="this.style.backgroundColor='#FBFBFB';" onmouseout="this.style.backgroundColor='#FFFFFF';"><a href="n"><strong>Links here</strong></a><br>
        <a href="v" class="adsnip">Some text about the adverts</a><br>

        <a href="b" class="adlink"> </a></td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td class="bottomtd"><div align="right" class="style1">Ads by an Idioooot </div></td>
  </tr>
</table>

[KHAAAAN!]

..exactly what I was looking for, thx!

curious, do you scrape google sponsored search for good-converting ad text to use for these ads?

[SEOidiot]

i dont scrape em no - i just use my experience....

[nop_90]

I am a total newbie when it comes to marketing on the net and shit.
Anyway here is what I do I think up a word.
"chairs" then i like find all keywords that are related.
Then i generate a site using these words, ussually small site 1000-3000 pages.
I then throw back links against it.
The traffic going to the site is small ussually 200 exposures a week.
From that I get a CTR of ussually 10%, so like 20 clicks, but i pick good words that pay like 0.20+ a click.
I am putting up like 10+ of these sites week.

The part the user see when he go these is just adsense text ads.

On a few sites i put up, I put 3 CJ banners above the adsense ads.
On the CJ banner i get less then 1% CTR which indicates banners do not work.
I tried and picked affiliate that match keywords, in this example chair affiliates .

For affiliate object is to get people to buy shit.
As opposed to adsense object is to get monkey to click on crap.
Why not just redirect the user to the site ?
If the site is no good then people will not buy the stuff ?

So i do not understand why i gotta go thru this text ad stuff if doing affiliate.
Thanx

[SEOidiot]

In my opinion you should consider it for two main reasons: -

• The conversion is better than sending them direct off to the landing page (They feel more involved in the sales process imo)
• It allows you to have multiple affilaite links on the same page and then split test them... lots of that yet to come

[nop_90]

I am not saying you are wrong, just minor problems

i dont scrape em no - i just use my experience....

Basically that is saying I use a hunch, or a subconscious process would be a better term.

I need to rip off you head and attach to my computer so it can generate stuff .

[SEOidiot]

LMAO i think that would be a verrrry verrrry bad idea.... your computer would just suddenly go slow and make farting noises...

All I meant was that I do look at the ads on the term as a guide to what other people are trying to convey but in most cases i write my fake ad like i was doing a new google adwords ad

Except im a little more blunt than google would allow: -

you know

Want to Lose Weight &
Feel Better? Get 100 Tips for
a Healthy Lifestyle & Start Today!
 

type of thing

being a fake adsense style ad you can even say things that you cant in adwords normally

CLICK MY AD!!! You FAT git
You too fat, everyone laughing
Lose weight in days!
 

as an example lol

[nop_90]

Looking at your example,
Adsense pays out 0.20+ for diet terms,

Do you have like just "MFA" pages (except with your look a like ad ) ?
What sort of CTR do you have ? (% of people that follow link thru but not nessarily buy).

With adsense you get $$$ right away, but if you get 0.20 theoretically the click is worth much more like 0.40.

If i have a diet affiliate that pays $20 per buy (example).
If for for every 100 clicks i got a sale i would be making as much as adsense.
Hmmmm.

[SEOidiot]

As you cant discuss CTR on adsense i cant say that 18% would be on the low side....

I would also expect a sales at approx 2% for that type of area... from the people who clicked through

So if you have a small batch of sites as MFA's in theory you could expect around 2500 uniques a month which means 9 sales at $20 a mangoce so $180 a month

Life isnt quite like that though is it

[Bompa]

I think these adsense-look-alike ads are great, especially if/when switching
from MFA to affiliates.

However, the reason for using adsense ads is to give the visitor a way off the
site that is more inviting than just the back button back to more SERPs
where they came from. 

If they use their Back button, that means they've made no progress with their
shopping task.  Most ppl do not want to go back to the SERPs.  They were
just there and they came to your site and now they want whatever they were
promised by the SERP snippet.

They are ready to buy.  However, MFA sites have nothing to sell and add no usefull
information to their shopping endeavor.  So, the dissappointed shopper does the next
best thing; clicks on an ad they think might get them closer to their desired product.


But, if our site is not MFA, but rather has something to sell, the process is different,
because the visitor is ready to buy.

Here's how I see it:

They enter what they want into the SE box.

They look over the results; lots and lots of choices there.

They choose YOUR site of all the choices.

BANG!  This is no time to hem and haw offering them more and more and more choices. 

GET THEIR ASS ON A LANDING PAGE THAT WILL CLOSE THE SALE.

That's my opinion.  To verify this concept, read any sales book or sales e-book.
Read 'how to close a sale' in any market.  It's always the same procedure and
you gotta know when to close the sale.

just my opinion,
Bompa

[SEOidiot]

Bomps - I agree in part yes

Just to declare an interest here - in real life i was a professional face to face salesman for 15 years and i have a passion for when and how sales should be closed..

In my system the adsense is around to cover the overhead costs of the site then i swap out when adlogger tells me that i am sending people to a site that has an affiliate program, so it is a progression of the site rather than a site made to sell in many cases.

I also have very little faith in most affiliate merchants to offer good landing pages and in many cases will throw them at another site of mine where i have an optimised landing page.

I tend to use the adsense like ads to test which offer works well before i then try to redirect right in and close... once i know what they are coming for in detail i can then mirror their need back and offer a solution that helps them and therefore close the sale...

seems like hard work but in my opinion proper sales is always harder work than throwing shit at a wall...

just my opinion too..

see we did get into a debate!
btw do i seem more mature over here than i do at syndk8 ? i havent gay'd up a thread here at all yet!

[dink]

i havent gay'd up a thread here at all yet!

'Till now.

Well there are ways and ways.  Some merchants have better landing pages that others do.  Some are so crappy that only the most dedicated shopper will buy.

Bompa has some valid points as well.  I try to let the merchant close the sale for me.  I like to give a little pre-sale warmup then tell them where to click.

If I can determine exactly what the shopper wants, I'll send them to that exact page.  Datafeeds come in real handy here.  If it isn't clear about the exact item, I'll try to send them to the correct category page.

So, in case one, the shopper wants 'mink trimmed pink thongs'...I send them to the exact page that has that item. 

Case two, the shopper is looking for thongs...they get sent to the thongs category page where they can select what they want.

I don't mix adsense with my merchant links. 
If i've done my job, then the merchant link is what the shopper wants.  I don't want them clicking on some other link, just to go to some wanker site then click their pay link.

Dink

[Auctionman]

The key is providing enough information on your pages to create the perfect jumping off point for the reader and this is where the link/aff/adsense should be placed to maintain the surfing flow..

[SEOidiot]

for surfing flow - i would say sales process....

[nop_90]

see we did get into a debate!
btw do i seem more mature over here than i do at syndk8 ? i havent gay'd up a thread here at all yet!

Nothing wrong with debate. If it is real debate. On the other hand calling u gay, and then u saying I am gay lol
Sorry about the talking about CTR. I did not know it was against TOS.