The Best Kind of Affiliate Link

Written by The Shops at 24Seven on Wednesday, April 23, 2008

As an affiliate, what is the best kind of link to use?

What a question. If more affiliates would listen to the answer of this question, they would make much more in commissions. I have nothing to back this claim up, but I would guarantee that hundreds of millions of affiliate commissions go unearned every year because the wrong kind of links are used.

The Answer
I did an analysis on our two sites (MyWeddingFavors.com, CornerStorkBabyGifts.com) and here were the conclusions I discovered. All of these conclusions are based on year-to-date.

MyWeddingFavors.com

  • For MyWeddingFavors.com, 7 of the top 10 performing links(EPC) were text links.
  • The top 3 links were all text links, and they were all coupon code (free shipping, 10% off, 5% off) related!
  • In addition, the conversion rates of these 3 links were over triple what the others came in at.

Join our Wedding Affiliate Program

CornerStorkBabyGifts.com

  • Of the top 10 converting links for the year, 9 of them were text links!
  • The top converting link and most lucrative was a coupon related text link.
  • All but two of the top 10 links were either coupon related or were discount related (gifts under $50, affordable baby gifts, etc…) in some way.

In case you missed the point. The best converting affiliate links you can use are text links that offer a coupon code or mention some sort of discount. Here’s what I’ve discovered. Internet shoppers are looking for a deal. Anything that’s “in your face” such as large banners, they don’t believe. It screams obnoxious, scammer, etc… Text links they do believe. Subtle sells. A text link comes across as a recommendation. A text link mentioning a coupon code or discount turns your recommendation into a timely treasured secret.

Think about a time when you walked into Best Buy. If an employee walked up to you right when you walked in and said, “Hey, don’t tell anyone but if you buy a DVD today and tell the cashier SAVE10 when you checkout, she’ll give you 10% off.” Guess what, if that happened to me, I’m making a beeline to the movies.

- Jason Forthofer

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  1. 4 comments: Responses to “ The Best Kind of Affiliate Link ”

  2. By Anonymous on September 13, 2008 at 12:52 AM

    Thanks for that advice, it's counter-intuitive but I'll give it a go

  3. By Live Streaming Soccer on January 18, 2009 at 1:31 AM

    Hi, this is an important discovery for me. This is the day that I'm gonna start a blog finally.

    For a long time, I was wondering how to do affiliate marketing blog - and you have given me with a sample. So, Thank you.

    Just wondering if you could also kindly show me how does the coupon link mentioned here, works? Do the publishers offer the actual coupon??

    Perhaps a sample URL? Sorry, noob here.

    Thanks in advance
    Dave

  4. By The Shops at 24Seven on January 19, 2009 at 6:27 AM

    David - Coupons codes are given to you after you signup as an affiliate. They are posted within the affiliate network.

    Basically, you would post them on your site and then the user would type them in our promotion code box when they checkout.

  5. By Live Streaming Soccer on January 22, 2009 at 8:45 AM

    Hi, thank you for your enlightenment. Much appreciate it!

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