Banners fly and flash and get forgotten by some surfers. People are far more patient and porn searchers actually do read texts on your page because they know that banners are ads. They know that clicking that banner will take them to some other place that will make them pay. They have conditioned themselves to give a blind eye to banners.
Every once in a while a banner will get a user to click on it. I would venture to say that 85 per cent of those who click on a sponsor banner don't do it for the image, they do it because of the words on that image.
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"I would venture to say that 85 per cent of those who click on a sponsor banner don't do it for the image, they do it because of the words on that image." |
One graphic or even a small slide show banner can be terribly effective but they are not informative. Everyone wants to know what they are getting. Let's face it, people have to be told what to do. It's very difficult to navigate a web site without knowing how to read. When surfer first visit your site, they look for words to tell them where to go. Words have power and many adult webmasters will tell you the text link is mightier that the banner.
Bandwidth is expensive and banners eat bandwidth. Text loads instantly. A banner-filled page is off-putting to the visitor. People want to believe they came up with the idea to spend money from their own decisions. Text links are more soft sell, more subtle.
Text links allow innovation and creativity. One of the most successful text links out there is "Don't click here"! Text links can give a sales pitch that no banner can. Text can get to the meat of the sponsor your are trying to market.
Marketers and those that pretend they know what they're talking about have even introduced a pseudo-condition named Banner Blindness. They said that text links have a CTR or click thru ratio of three to four times higher that of graphical ads. They claim that surfers have learned to shut out the banner image as mentioned above in their field of vision/attention.
In 2000, The Poynter Institute released findings on a study of the eye tracking habits of web surfers. The study claims that of users' first three eye-fixations on a page, only 22% were on graphics; 78% were on text.
While visual stimulation can encourage brand recognition and can result in sales, the simple text link has a more immediate return in applicable sales through click thru programs and sign-ups.
Sure, you will find the arrogant top list or TGP webmaster that just loves to see their cute animated button flying all over listed pages. There are the sponsors that simply do not offer text links worth considering. Even, every once in a while a banner comes along that is so clickable, no text link can beat it. On the whole for bandwidth costs, load time and clickability, the text link is the link that pulls.
So, can you just throw up any old mix of promises and sell your products fairly? No. You can't lie in your text. Sponsors won't pay and surfers won't come back and you could be sued. Can you use any old text link to sell your affiliate program? No. Before you use text links to sell a sponsors product, read their terms of service to make sure text links are okay and that you are allowed to make up your own.
You will find there are some sponsors that will allow the blind link or rather, a link that does not name the site your are directing your surfer to go to. Regardless of blind or not, if your are allowed, you can use any creative language you want.
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To help you on your way, I found a good list of words that advertisers like to use in their sales copy. These are words that draw the eye and entice the clicking finger. Use these words on your text links. The cool part is, you are selling sex, so you get to add the dirty words, which are advertising's TRUE buzzwords:
Free
sale
new
professional
guaranteed
special
tested
improved
immediately
limited
enormous
powerful
big
popular
exclusive
valuable
how to
endorsed
unlimited
discount
approved
under priced
suddenly
urgent
launching
skill
revealing
better
These are just some of a long list of special words and phrases that Madison Avenue types swear by. When mixed with the nasty terminology of this business, some magical copy can be composed.
"See virgin sluts!" can be made even better with "See virgin sluts immediately!" "Chat live now!" is nice but "Revealing chat live now!" is just so much yummier. The simple "Hardcore fucking!" sounds so plain compared to "Unlimited hardcore fucking!"
If you want to know more about how porn surfers horny eyes give your page the once-over, I recommend you read the Poynter Study. I also suggest you read an editorial on it by Dr. Jacob Nielsen.
Save your space, load time and bandwidth and get a return on your frugality with the powerful text link.