If you are a beginner in SEO and have nearly no idea how it works, then this article is for you. Now, if you think you are picking up SEO bad habits since your conversion page becomes ineffective, this could be a nice refresher course too. First off, a landing page can make or break your SEO strategy because it is a decisive step in the conversion funnel.

Let’s discuss some top tips on designing an effective landing page.

1. Convert Prospects Into Paying Customers

It is imperative to have a specific call to action. Keep in mind that your goal here is to get new customers, thus driving prospects to your landing page is just an intervening step to realize this end goal.

• Design your landing pages to get a prospective customer to take action. You must present a tasty offer to close a sale.
• Make the landing page special by setting the offer copy and related call to action with the rest of the page.
• Catch your prospective customer’s attention by using lines above and below, contrast and/or a box around the content you want them to focus on.
• Lastly, spell out exactly what can the visitor get from filling out the form or clicking on the link. Make a relevant and interesting offer.

2. Keep On-Page Content and Call to Action with Your Off-Page Proposal Aligned

Visitors may have gotten to your landing page from various sources, take for example your pay-per-click ad, a comparison-shopping engine or probably an article or blog post written by a third-party. With this in mind, take note that visitors may already set an expectation in mind before they would even land on your page. Do you legwork to identify your visitors’ intent and expectations.

3. Minimize distractions! Reduce Text and Simply Your Design.

Avoid using different font colors, font styles and sizes on your page. If possible, refrain from using interactive rich-media content, even images. You may use any of it only when it can significantly convey pertinent information and can directly shore up your conversion goal.

Did you know that plain landing pages are often the most effective conversion drivers? Many studies have shown that landing pages with less content often get higher conversion rates. Make your landing page readable by using simple headlines and brief bullet lists. Avoid long self-promoting marketing talk because oftentimes people won’t read it anyway. Instead, provide a link to supporting pages for the in depth information.

4. Use Images with Caution

Using images is a great idea to provide some visual candy but make sure the image is not too large and not too complex. In other words, keep it neat and simple. Use a caption.

5. Promote recognition by showing Brand Validation

Of course, people always feel more comfortable and secure if they sense an affinity for your product. Use logos of trusted and prominent client brands and/or include badges of media sources that covered your company. Show positive testimonials from your existing clients. Reduce anxiety for your prospective customers by using money-back guarantee seals, acceptable payment methods, safe shopping seals, and more.

6. Test various elements of your landing page.

Remember, the key to continuous improvement is through repetitive testing and tweaking.

It should be very clear that traditional or old affiliate marketing is dead. In fact, according to Google , pure affiliate sites that are made up of content that appears in many other sites are very likely to have poor performance in Google search results along with other search engines.

It is common sense that you cannot create a sustainable search based business in the long term by using out-dated strategies. As a matter of fact, these strategies will more likely cause negative effects that can also eat away at your profit margin. So, what is the solution to this problem? Here are some tips on how to transition away from affiliate marketing:

Don’t Be an Affiliate
If you’re already an affiliate, you need to stop now. Start thinking out of the box and turn your passion into an income-generating machine. You need to create something. Think big. For example, if you have an affiliate marketing site that sells paper, you can easily cut the middle man out by finding a paper drop shipping partner. There are literally hundreds or even thousands of suppliers from all over the world that can offer lower prices for a big profit margin. Sky is the limit when you start thinking big.

The Best Part of Not Being an Affiliate
The best part is it is creating your own database. When you are running affiliate marketing sites, you are left with almost nothing at the end of the day. On the other hand, if you create a real business with your very own website, you’re way ahead of the black hat spammers right from the start. Lazy people won’t bother but this is the reason why nothing will happen to them. It is quite simple really, if you put in the hard work, you will be rewarded greatly. Once you’re already successful in transitioning away from being an affiliate, you can proceed with remarketing your database of customers.

Passion is the Key
On top of everything, passion is the most important thing that can ensure success. Forget the figures and the money. The best part is that you are always excited about what you’re doing. This is the secret of the happiest people in the world, doing something that they love actually doesn’t feel like work. Think about what you love doing the most and create a business based on this.

One last piece of advice for old affiliate marketers is to pick only one think and stick to it. It is impossible to successfully create a sustainable business by creating hundreds or even thousands of mini-sites today. In the past, this might have worked to some extent but today everything is completely different.

Since Mark Zuckerberg invented Facebook in 2004, it has grown from being simply a website to bring friends together to a website which can be the platform for some serious business. Facebook has a world wide reach and is increasingly becoming more and more popular amongst the younger generations and also amongst the other age groups. Facebook is closely associated with Microsoft which has a 1.3% share in Facebook and hence most of the revenue that is generated from the banner ads are supplied by Microsoft. The bulk of Facebook’s profits are due to their Flyers application and the Credits application. Moreover Facebook provides a huge platform for independent entrepreneurship and other developers So it stands to reason that the potential of Facebook can be tapped for serious marketing.

Before we go into suggestions, let’s look at some statistics about Facebook which can help one to decide.

People on Facebook : More than 400 million active users. Every user has an average of 140 friends.
Activities: Over 160 million objects such as pages, groups and events.
Global impact:  Facbook is available in 70 different languages across the world.
Platform: More than 1 million developers and programmers are associated with Facebook and around 70% of users interact with platform applications.
Mobile: 100 million active users presently using Facebook through their mobile phones.

Most people must be wondering how is it possible then to market products on Facebook. Simply get associated with Microsoft’s advertisement program and you can see your company’s ads on Facebook. Recently Facebook has been nominated as the site with most amount of videos and pictures uploaded, over Flickr and even YouTube. So, with permission, a company may even launch their video ads or new image based ads on Facebook. With its large user base it will be very easy and effective for companies to market their products online.

But this is simply the tip of the iceberg. Association with Facebook would also mean that you can also tap into the mobile phone market. There are some advertisements which are targeted specifically for mobile users. With the advent of Zynga, we have all come to know the power of online games and applications. Associating with these or even launching a new online product can be achieved through collaboration with Facebook. Maintaining a company profile in Facebook is a very common thing nowadays and it helps in keeping track of business prospectives, employee tracking and even getting a heads up about upcoming competition.

For the individuals who think that their small scale business cannot be helped, here’s some good news. You can also share your blog online amongst your friends or create groups and increase the traffic into your website and thus generate more revenue. Facebook has truly become a use for all ages and purposes.