Encouraging Clicks

Legal?

[zulufox]

I know I cant encourage clicks for adsense... however on my site site I only use cj.com and befree.

I was wondering if I could have a line like:

"Click and purchase from your favoriate merchants... widget.com recieves a portion of the sale!"

Is that against the TOS anywhere?

[percentages]

It depends upon the merchant. Most merchant agreements say you MUST use the links provided, unaltered, without framing, without opening new windows, not as pop-unders/overs....blah, blah, blah restrictions, restrictions....blah, blah.

But, if you contact the merchant and tell them what you would like to do to do to drive more traffic a large number of sale/lead commission based merchants will say "Go for it, drive the traffic!".

Those merchants that are CPC based have different feelings of course as they want the best qualified traffic only.

If you're dealing with sales/lead commissions email or call the merchant and consult with them, they are usually very receptive to folks that want to drive lots of traffic.

[mfishy]

Encouraging clicks is the name of the game. Go for it - heck, they only pay you if someone buys anyway...

[Catalyst]

zulufox,

You need to give the surfer a reason to click that benefits THEM, not you. Encouraging the click is fine, but they really don't care if you get paid. When pre-selling affiliate products always remember the WIIFM! People buy based on "What's In It For ME!" So say click here to save (time or money), or to look better, feel better, whatever the product benefit is. Also using customer testimonials of the product is a great way to build credibility and encourage a sale. Get testimonials form the merchant site or if they don't have any... check BizRate or Epinions and pull some from there.

I write creative text links for most of the programs I manage that incorporate the benefit in the link. Like "travel 1st class with Luggage from XYZ luggage and save up to 70%." Paints the image of traveling in style, yet saving money. If your merchant has plain boring text links like "Clicks here and save on luggage." You can edit the text to be more compelling and the links will still track.

Linda

[iblaine]

Getting someone to click on your link is what affiliate marketing is. Just make sure you are not doing anything that would be considered incentizing the consumer (like offering them a free DVD). Many lead based programs do not allow this. In CJ if you are doing incentives (i.e. like an eBates), then you need to flag yoruself as such, or risk having commissions reversed.

[jomaxx]

Great advice Catalyst.

IMO calls to "support my site" are useless and may even be worse than saying nothing.