Im often hearing from people on ICQ who tell me that their sponsors sites are converting well enough for them (ive had two people already today) however, when i go to check out their sites, they almost always seem to be doing things right except for one important factor, they dont pre-sell the surfer before sending them to a sponsors paysite, let me explain some more..

As affiliates, the only thing we cant control is how well any specific tour sells however, we CAN choose which tour or site to send our surfers to, this is, in effect, the first stage in selling a surfer, making sure that WE do our part to choose a tour that not only 'looks' good but, converts well.

Step two in making a sale is all about the pre-sell, and, despite what you may think, we can ALL pre-sell it just takes a little bit of practice. We have ALL been pre-sold at some point in our lives for example..

As a child while we were watching the Saturday morning cartoons a commercial for a new candy comes on TV, you see this commercial every 15 minutes, over and over and over again well, the chances are, most kids are going to to go straight to the candy isle and pick up that candy. Nestle and Hersheys, there are other candy makers thathave similar products to those and, some are just as good but, those two brands are the top two, why? Simple, marketing.

Christmas comes around and you see the commercial featuring a white polar bear drinking his favorite soda, whats the sodas name? How did you know that? Simple, marketing.

Never underestimate the power of pre-selling your surfers, its a fantastic tool and a necessity in the industry today, with so many places surfers can go to get all types of hardcore porn, for free, you need to have an edge with your marketing that no one else has. Pre-selling your surfer can turn your ratios around from 0/3000 to 1:300 - seriously!

So what is pre-selling? Simple, its making sure you interact with the surfer, im not talking about using promo tools such as chat rooms, message boards etc etc, rather making sure the surfer knows that the person who built the site they are currently on is human and, knows what they [the surfer] wants.

A long time ago someone used to tell me this, 'Make them horny, make them laugh, let them know what a deal they are getting, make them realize how badly they want to join your sponsors site.' Compare the price of a membership if you have to, let the surfer know that joining a site for $2.95 is cheaper than buying a Starbucks Latte, that joining a site featuring hundreds of streaming movies is cheaper than buying the latest big studio's release, just make sure you let them know and, you sell them.

Some of the largest sources of traffic in the industry is pure crap, TGPs, Toplists, Banner Exchanges, Brokered Traffic, why? Because there is no pre-sell, no marketing.

Here's another example, you walk in to Walmart, hundreds of choices of chips to choose from, chances are more than not, you'll pick up Lays chips, thats marketing. Other brands may well be just as good but, it doesnt matter.

What about the checkouts? Most of us are never going to need a battery powered hand held fan or a mini travelling first aid kit that fits in our pocket but, they sell, kids see the candy on display at eye level and it sells, why? Marketing.

Getting traffic to our sites is only the start of the game, making sure we sell that traffic is the end. Last and not least, never forget this, even though you like to think of yourself as a 'webmaster' the reality of it is you are a marketer, we're not here to get the surfer off for free, we're here to sell products and sites to them - Thats what marketers do.

Article written by Lee.

http://www.gaywidewebmasters.com