Design Web Site Around Affiliate Programs

When starting a Web business, most people choose a topic
for their Web site and then look for products and
affiliate programs related to that topic. In this article,
I suggest searching for a group of related affiliate
programs first, then designing your Web site around those
programs.

There are many affiliate directories and affiliate network
Web sites where you can search for the best programs. For
this example, I use Commission Junction http://www.jc.com
This affiliate network site provides a vast amount of
searchable information on over 1200 affiliate programs.

On Commission Junction's front page, click on the link
"Search all advertisers". This will take you to a page
with a drop down list where you can select a category. In
order to search the information on Commission Junction,
you must be a member, but membership is free. After you
login to Commission Junction, go to the bottom of the page
to "Find Advertisers & links". Here you can get a list of
all advertisers, search advertisers by keyword, or browse
for advertisers.

Click on "Browse for advertisers". This takes to to a
table where you can arrange the affiliate programs based
upon "EPC" or "Network Earnings". EPC is the average
earnings per 100 clicks. It reflects the affiliate
programs ability to convert clicks into commissions.
Network Earnings is a rank, on a scale of one to five, of
an affiliate program based on the amount of commissions
paid. In the head of the table, click on the name of the
parameter you are interested in. This rearranges the
entries based upon that parameter.

After you arrange the entries, you have to page past all
the "New" programs. I guess Commission Junction puts the
new programs at the top of the list to help promote them.
As you analyze the data you will discover that the
programs that pay the highest earnings per click do not
necessarily provide the highest total earnings.

Some important points:

- Commission Junction is not the best affiliate network.
Their fees to advertisers are too high. Search Google for
other affiliate networks and affiliate programs.

- Join several good programs. You don't want to build your
Web site around one program that may be discontinued.

- Don't join too many programs. It takes time and work to
promote each program.

- Don't be in a rush to join affiliate programs. Take your
time and select a profitable category and high quality
programs.

Most people get an idea for a Web site, and then look for
related affiliate products to sell. Why not research
affiliate programs first? Then you can learn what
categories of affiliate products and services are going
you earn you the most money. You can then design the topic
of your Web site around the most profitable product
categories and affiliate programs.

Bad Web Design: Advertising Mistakes

Okay, we know we all need to pay the bills. I know that many of us want to
get traffic to our web sites. And some of us just want to make enough money
to pay for our costs so that this thing we love to do is free.

But, come on, that doesn't mean you should plaster a hundred ads or a dozen
banners on every page of your web site. A banner here and there, a small
button or a few text links is fine, but I've seen some web sites that have
dozens and a few that have hundreds of ads on each page! Now this is just
tacky and is virtually guaranteed to get your visitors to hit that handy
back button fast.

One of the worst kinds of web sites, in my opinion, are those that are just
huge advertisements. Especially those that are advertisements for dozens or
even hundreds of other services. People do not surf the web looking for
banners, text links and other advertisements to click on. In fact,
statistically, most people are surfing because they are looking for (a)
information, (b) entertainment, or (c) someone to talk to. Most web surfers
are not looking for something to purchase.

A good web site offers excellent content (which can be graphics, text or
interactive features). Even those sites which sell something also offer
content which is of interest to their visitors. Go take a look at any really
good shopping site and you will see what I mean. Look at Amazon.Com or
Barnes And Noble and you will understand - these sites offer tons of
content. Reviews of their products, consumer comments and large amounts of
data about the items being sold. This is what people want - information.
Some common things on web site that you should never do.

Banner exchanges - It's real simple - these do not work. Oh, you will get a
click or two, but banner exchanges tend to look tacky, take up valuable
space on your web pages and increase your load time. To make it even worse,
many times you will lose far more traffic than you will gain. Don't even
bother putting even one of these on your entire web site.

Notices saying "please, pretty please, keep my site free and click on
something". This just makes you look like a rank amateur. In my humble
opinion, it's very tacky to expect people to click on links just so you can
"keep your site free". Come up with or find a good product or service, and
sell it if you must. Advertising is not in of itself of value - only
products or services have value.

Pornographic ads (unless your site is a pornographic site) - You want to
chase away your visitors fast, then include pornographic ads. Yeah, you
might get a few dollars from them, but you will lose visitors and your site
will not be "family safe", which can be important.

Gambling ads - I understand that these advertisements may be the only things
(besides pornography) that people will click on nowadays, but quite a few
people do not want to be exposed to these things. I believe that these kinds
of advertisements will cause you to loose a large amount of traffic.

Web sites that are just advertisements - I suppose there is a place for
brochures or full site advertisements, but I personally hit the back key as
soon as I run into one of these. I want content. If I wanted this many
advertisements I'd buy a magazine or look in the classified section of the
newspaper.

Any large graphic advertisements. Remember one of the very important things
in web design is load time. Your site must load fast. If you include large
graphic ads you are increase your load times.

Sites which are just lists of pay-surf, MLM or other money making schemes.
There is nothing wrong with include some pay-surf or MLM ads here and there
on your site. Including a section on these programs is also fine. But come
on, please put some real content there also. Otherwise people will hit the
back key fast and never come back.

Brochures - I've seen a large number of web sites in my days, and one of the
ones that I click out of the fastest is one that looks like a brochure. It
feels just like someone took the company brochure and converted it to web
format. What on earth makes companies think these are of value to anyone?

Popup Windows - If you do a survey of web surfers, you will find that these
are among the most hated "features" that exist. No one likes pop up windows,
and if your site has too many of them you will loose visitors fast. Oh, you
may get a few more clicks or signups for your newsletter, but the amount of
time your visitors remain on your site will be limited and of less quality.

900 Numbers - Sites which advertise 900 numbers (a) don't work, and (b)
clutter up the web needlessly. My advice is to find something better to do.

Integrating Advertising into Your Web Design

If you are going to be placing ads on your website, you'll want to put some thought into how you'll integrate them. Poor integration of ads into your website will cause visitors to click away fast. Successful integration of ads into your site can be highly profitable. Before I show you where to position ads, I want to mention a few important points about ads.

1. Ratio of ads to content

How many ads should you place on your website? There is an optimum ratio of ads to content. If your website has too high a proportion of advertising relative to content, the traffic on your website will suffer and you will lose money. If your website has too low a portion of advertising relative to content, the sales on your website will suffer and you will lose money.

What is the optimum ratio of ads to content? I can't point to any studies, but I feel the optimum ratio is somewhere around 20 to 25 percent ads relative to content. Go much above that ratio and, despite more ads, the revenue from your site goes down. But, there are ways to exceed that ratio and still make more money.

Ads as a service

Advertisements can provide useful information, as well as content. In that case, the ads become content. Here's an example. Rather than post ads that pay you the highest commission, post ads that provide the best value to the visitors to your website. These are ads where the value is so good you might respond to the ad yourself. This type of ad is more of a service than an advertisement.

Another example is ads for gifts around the holidays. People expect and are not turned off by an increase in ads around the holidays. Finding gifts for everyone on your list is difficult work, and people appreciate gift ideas. Again, this type of ad is more of a service than an advertisement.

You can safely exceed the normal ratio of ads to content if you hide the ads in the content. An example of this is product "reviews". For example, computer magazines are almost 100 percent advertising posing as product reviews.

2. Repetition of ads and ad management

I have seen websites that display the exact same banner on every page. If I didn't respond to the banner on the first page, what makes them think I will repond to it on the second, third ... hundredth page?

Displaying the same banner on every page of your website is annoying to your website's visitors, and a money losing propostion for you. Keep your ads fresh. Ads are boring enough without repeating the same ad over and over. Display a variety of ads, and use an ad management system. An example of an ad management system is a banner rotator.

3. Ad type relative to response rate

I have heard claims that text ads receive the highest reponse. I'm sure these results are not related to whether the ad is text or graphics, but more likely related to the fact that text ads are usually placed in the more responsive areas of a webpage. All thing being equal, a graphic ad will always get better response than a text ad.

A graphic ad will get higher response than a text ad, and an animated graphic ad will get higher response than a static graphic ad. But animation can be taken to an extreme. Some types of animation are annoying and not only does the ad get a low response, but it also causes visitors to click away from your website.

Examples of annoying animated ads are banners that flash or jiggle or do something else that distracts the visitor so they can't read the webpage content. Those visitors that don't click away will scroll the webpage so this type of ad goes off screen while they try to read the webpage.

A secret few advertising designers know is that the graphic that will get the most attention is a picture of a human face. People are genetically predisposed to look at a human face in their view area. Try it yourself while you're browsing the web. If a webpage has a human face on it, that's the first thing you will look at.

Where to position ads on your webpage

To discuss where to place ads on a webpage, we need to divide a page into five sections as listed below.

1. Header
   

2. Footer
   

3. Left Margin
   

4. Right Margin
   

5. Center column
   

Note: There is a sixth area of the webpage which is the popup window. There are many forms of popup windows; pop-over, pop-under, delayed, and exit. The polite way to use popup windows is the self-closing popup window. Because of popup window blockers, popup windows are much less effective today, and, from my own experience, when I tried using popup windows, the page views on my website dropped by 50 percent.

The most common position to place advertising banners is in the header section of a webpage. Web users have programmed themselves to ignore banners in this position. The response rate of banners in the header section of webpages has dropped to something like .0001 percent. The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) has tried to overcome this problem by defining giant (what I call "battleship size") banners. I don't know of any studies that show this works.

Using banners in the head section of your webpage is a waste of processor time, but most webpages still use them. Making a sale this way is a long shot. Banners in the footer section of a webpage are even less responsive.

Actually Web users have programmed themselves to ignore all advertising on the web. However, from my own experience, you can get some response from ads in the left and right margins of a webpage. Most websites are designed with the menu in the left margin and possibly ads in the right margin. This means if the user has a low resolution display, depending upon the width of the webpage, the advertising may be off the screen.

Place your menu in the right margin and use the left margin for advertising. This places the user with a low resolution display in the positon of having to scroll to view the menu. Too bad. They should get a bigger display. Website revenue comes first.

The most responsive position to put your ads is in the center column of the webpage along with the content. As visitors are reading the article on the webpage, they come upon the ad. It's unavoidable.

If you imagine the center column of your webpage divided into three parts; top, middle, and bottom, the most responsive position for your ad will be right in the middle. As the visitors are reading the article on the webpage, they are forced to look at the ad as they continue to the lower part of the article. This might be a little annoying to the reader, but let's hope your content is worth that slight annoyance.

I would recommend placing your ad at the bottom of the center column. As visitors read the article on the webpage, they end up looking at your ad. This is almost as effective as placing the ad in the middle of the column, and a lot less annoying to the reader.

As you can see, how you integrate advertising into your webpages has a major impact on your ability to produce revenue from your website. Poor ad integration will cause visitors to click away. Proper integration can make your website highly profitable. But, ad positon is not the only determining factor, don't forget the ratio of ads to content, ad management, and ad type relative to response rate.

Graphic Design Using Color

Color is everywhere and conveys a message even if we don't realize it. While this message can vary by culture it pays to know what colors "say" in your own corner of the universe, and even what color means to your target market.

If you don't think that color speaks just complete this sentence, "red means ---- and green means ?" even a child will know what red means stop and green means go. If such simple ideas work for all of a given culture or market what could it mean to the graphic design of your website, brochure, or product if you know some of this information.

First let's start with the basics. The color wheel. We've all seen it. The color wheel shows the basic colors, each wheel is different in how many shades of each color is shown, but they are essentially the same.

Color harmony, colors that go together well. These will be colors that are next door to each other on the color wheel. Such as blue and green. In reference to clothes these colors match each other. Instinctively most of us know which colors go together when we dress ourselves every morning.

Color complements, colors that set each other off, they complement each other. These are colors that are opposite on the color wheel. Such as blue and orange.

Color depth, colors can recede or jump forward. Remember that some colors seem to fall back such as blue, black, dark green, and brown. Other colors will seem to step forward such as white, yellow, red, and orange. This is why if you have a bright orange background it may seem to fight with any text or images that you place on it. The orange will always seem to move forward.

Now you have the basics so let's go further. Just because to colors go together or complement each other doesn't mean that yo necessarily want to use them on your project. I opened this article with the meaning of colors now here is an example, keep in mind this is one example from western culture.

Color Survey: what respondents said colors mean to them.

Happy = Yellow Inexpensive = Brown

Pure = White Powerful = Red (tomato)

Good Luck = green Dependable = Blue

Good tasting = Red (tomato) High Quality = Black

Dignity = Purple Nausea = Green

Technology = Silver Deity = White

Sexiness = Red (tomato) Bad Luck = Black

Mourning = Black Favorite color = Blue

Expensive = Gold Least favorite color = Orange

So in designing your project it's important to know what colors mean. You can now see why a black back ground with green type would be bad, beyond being nearly impossible to read, if your target market thinks that black represents mourning and green makes them sick. There are exceptions to every rule of course.

So you may want to include some research in what colors mean to your target market. Colors that would get the attention of a teen would probably annoy an older person and the colors that appeal to the older person wouldn't get a second look from a young person.

Color may be one of the most overlooked aspects of design.