Affiliate Marketing Tips - Top Mistakes To Avoid In Your Website Design

These are the general guidelines one should take note of for a basic website. Whether for affiliate marketing purposes or not, these tips are worth following. If you have a website already, review it again and see whether you are making any of the mistakes!

1) Fonts

Your choice of fonts for writing should be one that most people are familiar with. Think: Times New Roman, Arial, Verdana. These standard fonts are most likely installed in most computers, so when your visitor visits your website, your text will appear as intended and not look like gibberish stuff. If you really want to use unusual fonts, do keep them to the minimum. And do not use multiple fonts in a single page. It can get quite irritating to see more than two or three fonts appearing on the same article too.

The font size should also be large enough for most visitors. Imagine grannies who might have to squint to see what you are writing? Don't forget that every visitor is a potential customer, so avoid this kind of unnecessary mistake.

2) Color Scheme

Depending on your niche product, you might wish to select a color scheme that is suitable for it. A gardening niche might suit earthy colors like green or brown, while a baby product niche might suit pastel colors. Also think the reverse way. If you have a mortgage niche website in red, would it scare your visitors away instead?

Remember to complement your background color scheme with your font color as well. If they are close shades of each color, it may be difficult to read the text. If you have a black background with a bright font, the reader may also find it tiring after some time. The safest bet is to choose a light background with black or dark color text for most niches.

3) Pictures and audio add-ons

Pages with pictures or videos usually use up more bandwidth and take longer to download. Avoid those that take really long to load up as visitors usually have short attention spans and they would click away before your page appears! In some parts of the world, people also do not have cable or broadband, so imagine the frustration at having to wait to see your website. They would most likely give up instead.

4) Links and pop-ups

In affiliate marketing, links are usually incorporated into the content of the website. It's important to distinguish your links from the usual text. Usually, links which have not been clicked appear in blue and when you hover on them, they appear red. Clicked links appear in purple. Always use the standard colors to avoid confusing your visitors. You can customize link fonts and colors at the CSS (cascading style sheets) section of your website.

Sometimes, affiliate websites use pop-ups to capture the visitor's attention once the page loads. It is a must click to clear the pop-up away before you can see the rest of the page, so sometimes visitors might find it a pain whenever they reload the page. Personally, I dislike seeing pop-ups as I find it a hassle to click it away and I think most readers feel the same too.

5) Page layout and display

Always design your website to appear in the most standard display sizes. Most screen resolutions are 1024 by 768 pixels, but some people might still be using 800 x 600 resolution. Design for this category of people at the minimum so that most visitors to your website can see your information displayed correctly.

When designing your website, take note of the white space that surrounds the text and pictures on a single page. Is there adequate open space between your design elements? It would look visually more appealing to readers when the page is not cluttered to the extent that there are too many words to read or too many ads in a block.

Are you making any of the mistakes above? If you have just started the website building process, it may be easier for you to review your mistakes now and make changes fast. Getting most of it right early is important so that when your website grows, you can avoid having to rework the changes again and again. Time can be better spent promoting your affiliate products instead!

Authored By:
Angela Tay