Affiliate selling method

Reviews or promoting only one affiliate?

[fourchette]

Hi,

I'm starting an ppc campaign to sell "widgets' online. I have realized that in the niche i'm in, there is one really big program that is really better than the others.

At the beginning I was thinking of doing a review page of 4 different competitors in the same niche, but the more I look at it, the more I think that there is only one that' s worth the trouble. Also I'm afraid of losing some clicks to the good aff if I go ahead and post review aboutthe other programs as well.

Is it better for me to promote only the one good affiliate or is it still better to make some review, and then to push the good aff in the conclusions?

Thanks

[eljefe3]

I'd suggest running trials using both methods. Can't hurt and will give you a lot of insite as to what is best for this particular widget.

[eyeinthesky]

People like to comparison shop but don't want to do the dog work. So give it to them on a plater.

At the same time, don't confuse them with too many choices, so 4 widget reviews is the max you should go for.

Don't worry about losing clicks. The first rated widget always outpull the rest by a wide margin.

In the event that they decide to buy the other products, isn't it a good way to diversify your risks? You never know what can go wrong with your first choice merchant ;)

[onlineleben]

A page with comparisons of the different products is probably more helpful than just a simple review.
What I would do is do the comparison (either feature by feature or in a review style) and add full product reviews for each product on a separate page.
Advantage: the visitor sees that he landed on an experts website. People want to gather information and compare on the web, so give them, what they want.
Good luck!

[fourchette]

hey all,

thanks for the great feedback, at least I feel that I'm on the right way...

I have another question for you guys, what kind of Internal Clickthrough should I expect? By internal clickthrough I mean the percentage of the people that are on the page that will actually click on a merchant's link. Is it genrally more than 50%

Thanks

[onlineleben]

fourchette,
I just send you a stickymail.

[edited by: eljefe3 at 6:14 am (utc) on Oct. 5, 2005]

[DangerousX]

wow, this thread really helps.

i have been wondering similar things. i do some design work and have been experiementing with many different hosts. i have found that the sites that make side-by-side charts comparing and then have a synapsis at the end plus some reviews has helped me the most.

now i have wanted to post similar info on my site reviewing the companies that i have personally experienced.

now it seems pretty obvious that whatever helped me most in finding them in the first place would help those who stumble upon my site.

thanks.

experimenting with different methods as well seems to work best.

i get stuck spending most of the time registering for each affilikate program and pasting the links, very tedious and boring, even using CJ, performincs, etc.

i wish they would make a page for me of all of my affiliate banner code that i could put inside a table of apply css to and post of my site!

cheers

DX

[hunderdown]

If you get 50% click-through to the merchant you will be doing phenomenally well.

In your planning, you'd do better to assume a 5% clickthrough (a lot of people will just read the information you provide and move on), and then no more than a 10% conversion (actually making the purchase once on the merchant's site). You can probably do better with both if you pre-sell effectivly, but it's best to be conservative starting out.

[fourchette]

Hey hunderdown,

Thanks for the reply!

I've heard about that pre-selling stuff, but how can you make sure you have the pre-selling right?

What are the best tips you could give to succeed with a good pre sell pitch?

Is it better to keep it short? Or is it better to have a full blown article?

Is there any graphic or design issues that are important to pre-sell?

Thanks

[hunderdown]

fourchette, my experience is with books, so you should probably experiment. I find that a long review--the equivalent of a typed page of manuscript--sells better than a short review, which in turn sells better than a plain link in a list of recommended books.

But that might not be true for your audience. You've got to experiment, get feedback, and find out what works for YOUR site.