About Direct Linking, Landing Sites and Landing Pages

The Differences Between Direct Linking, Landing Pages and Landing Sites

What is Direct Linking?

Direct Linking is when an advertiser or affiliate marketer, creates a link that is directly connected to an advertisers landing page.
The most common example is that as an advertiser, especially as an affiliate, you can create an ad that has your affiliate information coded into it, and if a person clicks on that link, they are then directed to the product or information landing page.   Your affiliate coded cookie is supposed to be set, and if the person  purchases the product you get credit for the sale and make a profit.
Another way is to have a domain name that is redirected or points directly to the specific landing page.   Of course, if you are an affiliate make sure your information is coded into the redirect or you won't receive the credit.

Pros: Direct Linking

1. For a minimum cost you can quickly test an offer to see how well it converts before putting in the time and energy to build a website around the offer.   If the advertiser already has a great landing page that converts well, just use it and then move on to another project.
2. You don't need to buy a domain or web hosting service.   You don't need to have any coding know-how.   It's very easy to get setup and use this technique to start making money.
3. By investing in your own domain name, you can eventually decide to build a site or have your own keyword rich landing page around the offer if it is working for you.

Cons: Direct Linking

1. Its very hard, if not impossible to get organic traffic.   You have to use Google adwords or a similar pay for advertising plan.   Even if you do purchase a domain name that has good keyword traffic, Google won't give you a good quality score, hence, one less reason to send organic traffic your way.
2. You will be unable to build a mailing list.   And any decent internet marketer knows that having a qualified mailing list is worth its weight in gold.

About Landing Sites

A landing site not only focuses on your landing page it also has multiple pages, many articles, and useful resources for your potential customers.  In other words you are not just building a sales site, but a site that is richly filled with content.   Many internet marketers build entire blogs around a main offer and include related offers, called the upsell, as well.

Pros to Landing Sites:

1. Search engines and Google in particular, just loves these sites. T hey want their customers to get the best info possible.

2. If put together well, you can easily get a good quality score if you use adwords, meaning your keyword buys will be cheaper.   Also you can make your site keyword rich and attract better paying ads for adsense.

3. Your Landing Page will become supercharged.   Having good, quality content will definitely enhance your organic search rankings.

4. You can offer free products to collect email addresses and set up private campaigns for relate products and future offers.

Cons to  Landing Sites:

1. You have to gradually build a quality website or blog.  If you build links too fast, or use copied materials, Google may penalize your site.
2. They have to be continually updated to remain fresh and keep the search engines interested.

About Landing Pages

These are also know as a Squeeze Page or Opt-in Page.

Basically you purchase a domain name that suits your product, put together a one page site and maybe have couple of articles that contain links to your offer page.  This is far and away the most common affiliate way to market  an offer.

Pros to Landing Pages:
1. Very easy to get set up and started selling, compared to setting up a complete Landing Site.
2. Great for seasonal offers.
3. You can collect email addresses
4. Landing Pages are what is working right now, and done right, they have been proven to  work quite well at  converting offers.

Cons to Landing Pages:
1. You need really good copywriting skills, or hire someone who has them.
2. Takes more time and money to set up then Direct Linking, and still offers no conversion guarantees.
3. Its becoming tougher to get a good quality score when using Google Adwords
4. Its a certainty that Google is leaning more and more towards quality Landing Sites

Which way should you go?
Here's a potential strategy.
If you are unsure about a certain product or niche, would like to do some quick testing, and possibly make some quick money, use direct linking. Direct Linking can work quite well for some short term income.
If the niche shows itself to have some potential, then build a Landing Page, and tweak it until it converts really well.
If your Landing Page is working, convert it into a full blown Landing Site by adding a blog filled with solid article content.

Be Fearless
Billy Ojai