Unfortunately, simply driving traffic to your site won’t automatically guarantee sales. Once visitors arrive at your site, you will have to take steps in order to convince them to buy your product. If they are going to click through to separate page owned by a manufacturer, you may have to do a little bit of extra work in order to achieve your goal. When it comes to affiliate marketing, you may need to do a bit of extra selling on your own page in order to overcome pitfalls on the actual sale site.

1) Compelling Content

When people are looking for information, they may not always be interested in buying something. On the other side of the coin, if you do not create text based content for your site, it will not rank well in the search engine. Overall, each post should include valuable information as well as a viable sales pitch. As a general rule of thumb, you should never be afraid to create different types of posts until you find a formula that works.

2) Product Links

Oddly enough, many blog owners do not include product links in the posts. Unfortunately, if you simply leave a link in one of the sidebars, there is no guarantee that the reader will click on it. That said, if the person is looking for more information, they may be willing to click on the link. Depending on the page you are sending them to, it may or may not convince them to actually buy a product. When you make your sales pitch, you should also make sure that readers understand they are being taken to a page where they can make a purchase. This can help set up a mental framework that will increase the chance of them actually buying the product.

3) Relevant Images

Many people feel that a blog is not complete without images. Ideally, you should have at least one for every published post. It is also very important to use relevant images. Consider a situation where you are writing a blog about children’s toys. While you may love pictures of sunsets and gardens, they are not relevant to your blog topic. Typically, you will be well served by using an image that shows the actual products that you are talking about. Some guidelines for choosing images include:

* Clip art should be relevant and edited with tasteful colors.

* Photographs should show people enjoying or using the product.

* Get written permission to use images of people on your site.

* Cartoons should depict the problem solved by the product in a humorous way.

* Always look for images that are relevant and appeal to a large audience.

4) Request for Contact Information.

Even though you may have a newsletter sign up form, it should not simply sit in a sidebar without any link to your posts. At the very least, you should invite people to sign up for newsletters, free mini-courses, or other products that will ensure you can get a hold of a valid email address. If you do not obtain this information, you may lose as much as 50% of your possible sales. At the very least, if the person is interested in a specific blog post, getting them to sign up for a newsletter or mailing list may help you garner a sale later on.

If you want to sell products with a blog, then you will need to make sure that viewers have a good reason to buy the product. Unfortunately, once they leave your website, you will lose a premier chance to make a thorough sales pitch. This is just one of many reasons why you should put links to products right in each post, as well as explain why they should buy the product. Once you add good quality images, interesting text, and a way to gain contact information, you will have a better chance of making money with blog.

Author Bio: Learn how to make money blogging today. Visit Brian’s website, http://www.HomebasedBlogging.com and learn how you can make money online from blogging using social media, affiliate marketing, podcasting, article marketing, and many other money-making topics from blogging professionals.

Category: Writing
Keywords: blogging, work at home, make money online, freelance writing, social media, blogger