The 4 C's is a simple breakdown of affiliate marketing for beginners, but there are some good resources, even for pros, in the links.
1) Content - Compelling content is what attracts targeted visitors and keeps them coming back. It also provides spider food to help consumers searching for what you have find you. Learn all you can about copywriting for the web, as it's part art and part science.
CopyBlogger is a great resource for all things copywriting related.
Plus read this as well.
How to Write Copy for Higher Conversion Rates
2) Call to Action - A good call to action helps get the click. Mix it up - try with price and without, try different offers, wording, colors and placement. Remember to put multiple calls to action on the page. Be sure to test your calls to action to optimize results.
Here is a great post that goes over Call to Action colors to use, wording and placements, complete with screen shots.
How To Call To Action
3) Click-through - The call to action directly leads to the all important click-through. Such a simple action - one little click, means the difference between a potential sale and a washout. A high Click Through Rate (CTR) probably means you've done 1 and 2 well, plus are marketing in a way that gets you good targeted traffic. Want a better CTR? Just work on your copy and calls to action.
Writing for People (and Search Engines): How to improve click-through rates for organic listings
4) Conversion - The final goal of the 4 Cs is to end in a conversion, which is usually a sale or could be an action you want the user to take, such as filling out a form. For affiliates most of the factors that influence conversion rates are ultimately in the hands of the merchant: price point, merchant's site design, merchant's call to action, shopping cart - these are all things that are out of the affiliate's control.
However the affiliate has a lot of control in the presell they use in their copy and the type of calls to action they use. So improving number 1 and 2 above leads to better click-throughs and ultimately higher conversion rates.
There are a ton of good resources on increasing conversions, but one of the best is offered by the conversion rate optimization specialists over at Future Now. The
GrokDotCom blog is filled with great tips and case studies that can give you practical advice and guidance about sales funnels, landing pages and improving conversion rates.
The Four Critical Cs of Affiliate Marketing
