The traffic had been hectic, parking as per usual was a nightmare and you are almost late, the plane will land in less than 5 minutes as you rush through the front entrance. You spot the brightly lit up board with arrival times and soon you are fighting your way through the mass of lingering body's to get close enough to see. You have risked a lot and spent a fortune to get to here.



Eventually you get a good view as the six foot guy in front of you decides to move on after you had been zigzagging behind him for about a minute, which felt more like an hour.

Your eyes scan the details from the incoming fifty planes, but you don't see the flight anywhere. It must be there, you think, the date and time is correct. You scamper over to the information desk as quickly as possible, and with a dazed look on your face a kind lady tells you that the plane will not be landing here, it is going to land in a place you barely know.

A cold chill runs down your spine when you suddenly realize that now you will never meet, speak or exchange names. All the effort and money you put in has been for someone else. Where that plane now lands they will meet with open arms and they will get to know each other. All you end up with is maybe a little thank you note, later on.

Yes, it is bad isn't it?

So, why are you doing it to yourself, every day?

Most affiliate marketers are doing this every day without even noticing it. You are paying for all the tickets, but the passengers you paid for are all landing at a totally different airport. They are eagerly welcomed by someone else who will get to know them and gain from them.

So what exactly am I going on about here.

It is called landing pages, if you are an affiliate marketer and you are not using landing pages you are losing out, big time.

As an affiliate marketer you are marketing someone else's products, which is a good thing, as it gives you time to market and not spend ages creating new products. Affiliate marketing has worked well for a lot of people over a long period of time and it will continue to work. You, as an affiliate, should ensure that you receive your fair share of the profits. Remember, when you buy on the internet you always give your details. Be it to receive updates or to get to the download page. As a result you are then placed on their list. They can mail you at any time with a new product or service they are offering, and in most cases if you as an affiliate sent the customer there for the first sale, you will not see anything from consecutive sales made. Whether this is fair or not, does not matter, what matters is what you do to get the advantage back.

Have your own landing pages!

First of all, successful marketers have a list, that is a list containing the details of people that are interested, or have shown interest, in the products or services they are marketing. Many of those lists make recurring sales over and over again. Make sure you create your own.

Your landing page has two distinct functions, first to pre-sell the product you are promoting and secondly to capture the email address of a potential customer.

What exactly is a landing page?

A landing page is exactly what it says, it is your landing strip for all the tickets you are paying. Creating this page will take some time and effort from you, but trust me it is worth every second you spend. You are the person paying for people to click on PPC links, emails, banners and so on, get full value for your money.

A landing page is not difficult to create. It is simply a single web page or blog which belongs to you. People who click on your advertising links are sent here before they go to your affiliate product page.

The page should be setup very simply and must be quick to download. You do not need fancy graphics or big sales talk, this is personally between you and the prospective buyer. All you need to do is give him or her quality information about the affiliate product you are marketing and the benefits they will receive from buying the product.

You have to write this yourself, or have someone write it for you. It is easier if you own and use the product. You are able to add your own personal testimonial to the page and tell people how it has helped you. Do not use the same information that the customer will find on the sales page when they click through, it will make you look lazy and disinterested in the product. So why should they then buy it?

There should only be one link on your landing page, and that is to your affiliate product. Any other links on the page are going to divert your customer elsewhere, and unless that is your main purpose of the page, you will be wasting your time and losing sales.

This brings us to the second reason for the landing page which is to get the potential customers details and build your list. To capture the email address you could have a form that they complete on the page, or you could have a pop up asking to send details. Personally I prefer the latter because it does not deviate the customer from the main pitch in the landing page, but see which method works best for you.

In exchange for their email you can can give an incentive like a free report, ebook or subscription to ezine. As long as it adds value and is within the theme of the product you are promoting, they will gladly comply.

You want to get to know your customers, otherwise they will be lost forever. If they buy the affiliate product and like it you are automatically gaining a huge amount of trust, and the next time you send an email promoting a new product they will be more responsive to purchase.

Keep you page simple but effective and get to know the passengers whose tickets you are paying. Don't get caught alone in the airport.

Happy Marketing!