As a home business owner online who’s decided to take the affiliate program route to making a living there’s one important lesson you should learn early. That lesson is you should never openly use your affiliate url when promoting your products. Instead you should create a link to your blog or your home business website which leads to the affiliate sales page.
There are several reasons why you shouldn’t link directly to the affiliate program with the most important motivation being with the original url visible there always exists the possibility that someone could remove the affiliate identification suffix and add their own to receive credit for the sale and therefore collect your commission. Even if they didn’t add their own affiliate ID they could simply remove yours so you don’t receive recognition for the transaction.
Secondly, by using a link page whether it’s your blog or home business website you can add further information about the product. For example you can place satisfied customer testimonials on the page, you can add a summary of the benefits offered by the item including any problems it can solve for your potential customers, or perhaps include a special limited time discount or free offer to entice your visitor to purchase immediately.
Third, you can place other links to some of your other offers on this page just in case your guest isn’t interested in the primary product being offered. This way you may turn what would be a refusal into a completed transaction and a new paying customer.
Also by directing people to your blog or home business site first you can try to capture their information by adding a squeeze page offering a freebie in return for their contact information. If they were directed to the affiliate page first you would never be able to follow up with them because you would never know who they are unless they buy. Even when they make a purchase you don’t always find out who they are because the affiliate program doesn’t always release this information.
Finally, you can further increase your search engine rankings by submitting your blog or home business site to the major search engines online. This will also increase traffic and help increase the potential for more sales.
As you can see there are many compelling arguments for not linking directly to an affiliate program’s website and many reasons why you should first link to your blog or home business website. The final decision is yours to make.