Tip#27 – Run your own affiliate program

If your website sells products or services targeted to a very specific audience, it really might be worth your while to manage your own affiliate program with a select group of niche publishers. There is nobody better than you to know what websites your target audience typically visits, and reaching out to these webmasters has several advantages

First, it is generally beneficial to establish a good working relationship with these sites. If your products really are a good match for their users, it will be in their interest to come up with creative ways to present them to their audience. Your passion and knowledge of your products will far outweigh that of a conventional affiliate marketing company, so both you and the publisher can really work together to promote sales. Furthermore, affiliate networks are generally great tools to reach a broader audience but they need to find an adequate mix of volume and conversion to make your program worth their while. So, by focusing on the 8 or 10 publishers that generate an overwhelming proportion of your leads, your affiliate marketing investment might well be optimized.

Tip#26 – Design for ease, not for coolness

When it comes to designing a website where users are ultimately expected to register or purchase a product or service, I strongly recommend that you use technology and programming skills as a means to that end and not as an end in itself.

Great user experiences are simple, and simple is defined by users being able to understand and use your service with little difficulty. Stay out of people’s way, and don’t set obstacles or interrupt the user experience with bells and whistles that do not have a clear purpose. Don’t be creative for creativity’s sake, make sure that every element on your website moves you closer to your goals.

Tip#25 – Users are typically not mentalists

I’m not sure if I’m just paying more attention lately, but it seems that too often I get some type of error message after filling in and submitting an online registration form. The registration forms are simple enough: Username, e-mail address, password and password verification fields. However, after submitting the required information, I am told that the password is invalid as it must contain at least X characters, and/or a combination of uppercase and lowercase characters and/or a combination of letters and numbers. I kid you not, this has happened to me at least twice already this week and it seems to be an increasingly popular trend. Please, don’t do this to your users. I seriously doubt that you should be telling your users how to create their passwords. In the best of cases, it will make it more difficult for them to remember and in the worst of cases they will simply ignore you and go elsewhere. However, if you do feel that it is your mission to dictate how users must construct their passwords, please let them know beforehand and not after filling in the form. We are not mentalists.

Tip#24 – Add to cart button

The “Add to Cart” button is without a doubt the most important call to action prompt on an e-commerce website. At the end of the day, everything else you do should be geared towards improving overall conversion ratios and this button is a critical aspect of performance. 

There are essentially two different types of people that create these buttons: the programmer (who if left alone will typically implement something functional and simple) and the web designer (who if left alone will tend to favour a more flashy design that stands out from other “add to cart” buttons found online). What you really need is something in between. First, the button should clearly be designed to look like a button; the ultimate goal is usability, and therefore users must clearly understand the purpose of that button. Prettier buttons do not necessarily generate more conversions and they might actually decrease it. Second, make sure that the button is really easy to find. You might want to start placing it as close as possible to the price, so that users don’t have to look all over the page to find it, but also try a different position such as the top-right corner of the page and see what works best for your site. A/B testing is critical here in order to find the best possible placement for your “add to cart” button. Check out this page for 80 inspiring examples of “add to cart” buttons.