basschick
05-02-2009, 12:40 PM
pretty much everyone you talk to will agree that you should test a tour before you launch it for your affiliates. the funny thing is how few actually do that. some don't test because they don't actually generate any of their own traffic, but many want to use their affilaites' traffic to test the tour. and in fact, many i've talked to are lazy and hope the tour will be so great that they won't need to do any tweaking.
the thing is that in real life, tours almost always do need tweaking. no matter how purty, how long they were considered, how expensive the designer who made your tour, chances are your tour WILL need some adjustment. and if you have your own traffic, you can test them without affecting your affiliates' conversions. make only ONE change at a time so if things get better - or especially if a change you do makes conversions worse - you'll know WHICH change you made affected things.
what things might need tweaking? here's a list of some common things you may need to change to make your new tour sell:
the descriptions. text can make a huge difference in sales. bad descriptions can lower your sales as much as 25%, so you may think your entire new tour sucks, but in reality your descriptions may not resonate with your surfers - or just may not go with the main tour text. for that matter, the font/size of text may not work with your tour and the descriptions might be fine.
the join page - usually the hardest page to make, but also probably the most important page. there's nothing as off-putting as a beautifully designed tour with a join page that looks like it was just thrown together in a couple minutes. spend some time on this, really think about it, check other join pages. see what successful sites' join pages have in common, and what they don't have in common.
the pics from each episode on the tour. a lot of times i see pics on tours that are definitely not the best pics to make sales. lack of variety, not enough closeups, too many closeups, boring pics, pics that don't go with the text you have with the pics.
fonts. lots of people i know have a beautiful graphically designed tour, then for one reason or another use thin, blah fonts for their descriptions and join pages. the fonts stand out in a graphical tour, and not in a good way.
i'd say the above are some of the most common things that need tweaking, and it's hard for site owners to really see them, either because they love their site or because they've been working on it so long that they're frustrated. and often site owners have never worked as affiliates, so they haven't got experience with what sells for them. remember, even if you're frustrated don't give up, don't overwrite your old tour till after your testing (and always keep a copy anyway), and even though your anxious to get through testing, DO ONLY ONE CHANGE AT A TIME.
there are other things that can affect sales, too. colors of text, colors of the tour, pics in the header, too plain a header, join links that are hard to find or use words for join that aren't obvious, a page layout that doesn't make it obvious how to get to the join page or the next tour page, page flow that's counter-intuitive.
the thing is that in real life, tours almost always do need tweaking. no matter how purty, how long they were considered, how expensive the designer who made your tour, chances are your tour WILL need some adjustment. and if you have your own traffic, you can test them without affecting your affiliates' conversions. make only ONE change at a time so if things get better - or especially if a change you do makes conversions worse - you'll know WHICH change you made affected things.
what things might need tweaking? here's a list of some common things you may need to change to make your new tour sell:
the descriptions. text can make a huge difference in sales. bad descriptions can lower your sales as much as 25%, so you may think your entire new tour sucks, but in reality your descriptions may not resonate with your surfers - or just may not go with the main tour text. for that matter, the font/size of text may not work with your tour and the descriptions might be fine.
the join page - usually the hardest page to make, but also probably the most important page. there's nothing as off-putting as a beautifully designed tour with a join page that looks like it was just thrown together in a couple minutes. spend some time on this, really think about it, check other join pages. see what successful sites' join pages have in common, and what they don't have in common.
the pics from each episode on the tour. a lot of times i see pics on tours that are definitely not the best pics to make sales. lack of variety, not enough closeups, too many closeups, boring pics, pics that don't go with the text you have with the pics.
fonts. lots of people i know have a beautiful graphically designed tour, then for one reason or another use thin, blah fonts for their descriptions and join pages. the fonts stand out in a graphical tour, and not in a good way.
i'd say the above are some of the most common things that need tweaking, and it's hard for site owners to really see them, either because they love their site or because they've been working on it so long that they're frustrated. and often site owners have never worked as affiliates, so they haven't got experience with what sells for them. remember, even if you're frustrated don't give up, don't overwrite your old tour till after your testing (and always keep a copy anyway), and even though your anxious to get through testing, DO ONLY ONE CHANGE AT A TIME.
there are other things that can affect sales, too. colors of text, colors of the tour, pics in the header, too plain a header, join links that are hard to find or use words for join that aren't obvious, a page layout that doesn't make it obvious how to get to the join page or the next tour page, page flow that's counter-intuitive.