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This post is in response to Dezzy who posted on the Ask me a Question Part 2 post.
Content sites vs. Landing pages... that is the question! Which one should you use?
It seems like the answer to this question is a simple, "Yes!"
What you do NOT want to do is create a content site without FIRST knowing that the campaign is profitable. After you know this, all other factors can be tweaked. If you can find a campaign you're making a good amount of money on, why wouldn't you create a content site based on that niche?
So what I do is make a simple landing page to test my campaigns. If it turns out to be a highly profitable campaign or has a high traffic volume potential, I work on creating a site based on content.
The advantage here is that we know that with a landing page we can make money. If the content page does not allow for a profit, you can work on tweaking it to be more "click" driven.
A simple tip that *sometimes* works is putting your "content" below your standard "highly graphical" landing page. This only works if your landing page is a small, mostly graphic based page designed to get your visitor to the affiliate landing page as quick as possible.
For example, most people have seen a ringtone landing page. If you have not seen a highly graphical ringtone landing page, you can view one here.
(I've watermarked this image to prevent people from copying this dude's page. I grabbed a random one from a google search)
With something like this, you could simply add content below what is displayed in the image.
So in short: Test with a landing page, expand with a content site designed to convert!
If you're looking for offers to run, check out my recommended money makers on my about me page.
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Good idea. No point throwing yourself into a project which will not provide a return.
Why bother creating a content site? Is that for SEO, creating trust with visitors (quality info)… why not stick with landing pages that convert instead of risking them clicking on links to content and not finally clicking to the merchants site? thnks
hi jonathan, I just created my first affiliate site, I use amazon program. Usually I generate income from adsense, but I don’t like the idea of getting income from 1 vendor only.
I don’t know where to start, so I just keep building on my blog content first.
Any comment ?
@ mitub: Congratz and good luck. Surelly you will get good targeted traffic with your original content. Cheers
[...] Content Sites Vs. Landing Pages [...]
content pages in terms of natural search after finding a profitable niche can be good. turning your PPC landing page into a content site though will have pluses and minuses.
in google’s eyes, they’ll like the added and original content and reward you for it with better QS’s. but from a conversion standpoint, extra content (articles, links, etc) are not good as this gives the users too many choices, which will lower conversions.
Therefore I will often “hide” content to get the best of both worlds. Not exactly white hat, but it works. This can be done easily with CSS and PHP.
I recently wrote a tutorial on this here:
http://masterlesssamurai.com/ppc/content-stuffing-your-landing-pages-for-a-little-extra-google-loving/