IMPROVE YOUR CONVERSIONS WITH BRIDGE LINKS

In this article, I want to talk a bit about a strategy I call a bridge link that also can effectively improve the conversion rates (the ratio of visitors that actually go on to make a purchase) you see for the programs you promote. It works best with programs that allow you to link directly to individual products, but can also be effective even if the program only allows a link to the vendor's home page.

What is a bridge link?

A bridge link is a special page on your web site that contains more detail about an affiliate program, or a specific product, that your visitor sees before being sent to the vendor's site. This page creates a 'bridge' between your site and the affiliate program site, providing you with a variety of benefits that can greatly improve the number of purchases you refer.

To start, I will use an example to illustrate how a bridge link works. Let's say you have an article on your web site that describes how to improve your golf game. In the article, you describe the benefits of an oversized driver, and include a link to your favorite driver, sold by your affiliate partner Chip Shot Golf.

Using a normal linking method, your visitor is reading your article, and decides he wants to take a look at the driver you highlight. He clicks the link. What happens? He is unceremoniously transferred to the Chip Shot Golf web page for this driver, which lists a price, a few details, and an 'Add to Cart' button. Unless he was specifically searching for a new driver to buy, he probably will click back to your site (or go to another!) before the Chip Shot Golf page even finishes loading.

However, lets look at what happens if you use a bridge link. A visitor to your site is reading the same article and sees the link to your favorite driver. She clicks on the link and is brought to a bridge page that has a picture of the driver, a description of how it is 100% titanium, lightweight and easy to swing, and a personal testimonial of how you improved your average drive by 10 yards , and how the driver gained you 2 strokes per round. Strategically built right into this page, singing all of the benefits of the driver, is the link to Chip Shot Golf.

Now, even if she didn't intend to make a golf club purchase today, she might be significantly impressed to start considering replacing her existing driver with the one you just so eloquently suggested. If she was looking actively for a new club to purchase, she may very likely be convinced by the extra information you gave, and click-through to make the purchase.

As you see from this example, the bridge page gives you the ability to improve the likelihood that someone reading your article will make a purchase, without destroying the flow of your site or article with too much marketing hype. Instead, your visitor sees the bridge link as a natural extension of your site, as an information resource, and will appreciate your effort to share your experiences.

In summary the bridge link gives you the ability to:

-Add personal testimonials or product marketing to improve your visitors' regards for the product

-Prevent your visitors from being suddenly transported to an affiliate vendor's site they are unfamiliar with

-Keep visitors that weren't interested in making a given purchase at your site, allowing you to perhaps sell them something else during their visit

-Provide additional value to your visitors by acting as their information resource (They trust your opinions! Why else would they be taking the time to read your web site?)

-Better control the flow of your web site and articles

Although it could be argued that adding a bridge link will decrease the number of visitors that click-through to the vendor site, the only visitors that won't click-through beyond the bridge link are those that had no interest in purchasing in the first place. The bridge link gives YOU an extra opportunity to sell YOUR visitors even further on the product before sending them off to the affiliate web site.

Take a few moments now to look though areas of your site and see where you could replace standard text links or graphical ads with bridge links and give it a try. Although the bridge linking method will require you to be more creative, and does take more work and time, it will often drastically improve results compared to direct links to a vendor's web site.

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