Adult Webmastering 101: Text Links Are Your Friend
 

This tutorial is part of a series of tutorials I have done with the new adult webmaster in mind. This and all of the other tutorials and additional tips can be found in my Adult Webmastering 101 blog which is located in the resource section of the Max Cash affiliate area

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Pictures may very well say a thousand words but when it comes to promoting adult sites it isn't always true that banners bring in more sales than text links. Yet, it would appear that a lot of new adult webmasters are either reluctant or slightly scared of giving up a banner spot on their pages for a text link.

In my role as affiliate support for Max Cash, I will often get a new webmaster signup and contact me straight away looking for banners. That is certainly understandable but when I talk to them about also trying out text links they don't appear to be convinced that the text links can work just as well and often better than the banners. Yet, if I can get them to take a risk and mix in well placed text links with their banners it is almost always the case that their sales go up.

There are various reasons why text links can be your friends when it comes to bringing in the hits and sales.

Firstly, surfers are so used to seeing banners that often they just blank them out. Think about your own internet surfing. What was the last banner you really noticed? And from there which is the last banner that you noticed that you actually clicked? Banners certainly have their place but it is usually a mistake to rely only on banners.

If you are creative enough with your text links and how you present them on your pages they can really catch the eye and, almost more importantly, the imagination of your surfers. Experiment with combinations of text sizes and colors and see what works best for you.

Which brings me to a second reason why text links can be your friends. Banners once made are what they are. They sell one aspect of the site from one perspective. If there is one thing that my Adult Webmastering 101 tutorials have been trying to show is that sales happen when you start to look around and see what angles your competitors *aren't* covering. With text links you aren't stuck to whatever the banner is saying. You can talk the language of your audience and sell them on the aspects of the site you know will interest them.

This can be particularly useful if you are trying to cover micro-niches bases. I have written in previous tutorials about looking at a niche site with micro-niche glasses and breaking the pictures on the tour down so you can use them to bring in the micro-niche traffic. With text links you can speak the language of the micro-niche and bring traffic to those sites without the need for banners.

This also ties in with last week's tutorial when I talked about knowing the names of the models on the sites you are promoting. Don't see a banner that features that model? Just put up a text link and tell rather than show your surfers that she is there.

The importance of language leads to a third reason that text links are helpful. Anything that adds text to your page is going to be good for you. If you use those text links properly they will not only be able to drive good traffic to your sponsors but they can also help you boost the relevancy of your pages. All text is an opportunity if done with care.

Finally for today, another way that I have found text links to be effective is in explaining the nature of the product you are trying to sell. For example, with Max Cash we offer Free Lifetime Memberships. Without exception, my affiliates that put up text and text links on their pages to stress the free memberships convert at better ratios than those that just lead the surfers to the sites and let them discover the free memberships themselves. With so much in this game it comes to filtering and prequalifying your traffic. If the surfer clicks a link knowing he is going to a Free Lifetime Membership site he has already shown he is somewhat interested or at least curious about that sort of site.

So, banners certainly have their place but the flexibility of text links really makes them invaluable to any adult webmaster.

I skipped adding banners to galleries lately, textlinks way better clickthrus

Yup and I think the more blogs I run the less banners I use. Partially due to them fitting the layouts but also due to them just converting better.

Very true. Thanks for the advice.

I haven't used a banner in years... Surfers stopped clicking those at least 5 years ago, they've been trained to avoid advertisements.

How many 468x80 banners do you click when browsing websites?

what's a banner?:winkwink:
nice writeup :thumbsup

welcome indeed :)

Nice post and so very true. The tag for the text link will also be picked up by google

The bit about new webmasters being afraid of using text links is very true. A lot of our publishers don't think they will work until I convince them to try them out, most of them keep doing them. It's all about having good placements, text links are certainly a good way to break up content. Good advise Sarah! :)

Thanks for the information and advice. I have been doing a combination of text and banners as a test for the past month and what you say bares fruit: My text ads, while slightly smaller in clicks, yield much better conversion. I also like the idea that I can tweak the text to try A/B testing.
Can't wait to read the blog if there are more gems like this. Thanks Sarah!

nice post sarah:)

agreed completely, i never use banners.

however, running mostly webcam blogs... i typically write up a post, and include a bunch a text links, and then always post a pic of the girl i am writing about and also link to that. surfers will definitely click the images, and the conversion is ok from that....

but banners, i cant remember the last time i have clicked on a banner on another site

Same thing here...once they do it they keep doing it because they see results but it can be a chore getting them to trust that not everything is about an image. One of the hardest thing with new webmasters is teaching them that text in whatever form is good for your picture sites.

Thank you...I hope you do check it out.

Back to the top :) On one site all my galleries I hand make are all images with text... yes it took me almost 5 years to learn what you just said, but hey... I got it now!

thank you :)

i just klicked the one in your sig

thanks very much for helpful infos

Uh-oh...

Secret's outta the bag now :winkwink:

We go with both - textlinks under the banners.

Yeah, I am not trying to get people to totally dump banners because they can and do work but more just to get the new guys to try out text links too so they can see that they work too.

Trust me I am always learning things that should have been a 'duh' years ago.

That's me ..blowing all the huge secrets :1orglaugh

Banners suck IMHO. Yet that is all webmasters ask for.

I make all my affiliate money from text links. I'll toss a banner up to go along with some text, but I hardly ever use stand alone banners. Can't think of the last time I did.

For those of you who cry that your conversions suck ass, perhaps you need to look no further than how you are promoting the site in question.

Nice write up Sarah.

Great thread, interesting read.

Thanks. I do think they have their places but when I do use banners I rarely use a standard size. That is probably mostly from blogging so much and having to use odd shapes but they do work better for me than normal banners. Though text is best for me overall.