It's important to tailor fresh content to users’ interests. The role of using content to boost an affiliate site’s profitability can’t be underestimated.

Hopefully these 10 suggestions will help engage yourusers and guide them toward making more transactions on your website.

1. Know Your Customers

You won’t be able to make your content useful without first being aware of who your customers are and what kind of things they look for online. Is your site aimed at families or couples? Are they looking for leisure or business information? Why do they visit your site?

Knowing exactly how they operate and what topics really grab their attention will enable you to take a creative and tailored approach to content, which will ultimately pay off. Once you have an established customer base you can also run quick online surveys to help you learn more about them and their views on your site.

2. Make Content Useful

Google's Panda search algorithm means that those sites which produce original, useful content rank more highly than "thin" sites, where content is either lacking in substance or duplicated from another source. It can be all too easy to get carried away when producing content for a site, but if it isn’t interesting or helpful then your potential customers won’t get anything out of it.

Your content must have a specific use for the customer and it should be geared toward an action. For example, in the travel industry, that means creating collateral that helps your customer make a booking, but depending on what products or services you offer, this purpose will vary.

3. Include a Call to Action

Once your audience is engaged with the content, make sure it helps users make a decision on what to buy or promotes an action. So, for instance, if your customer base consists primarily of families traveling for leisure purposes and you want to write about New York City, write about hotels that are family friendly, activities that are good for all ages and ensure the suggestions link to the booking options available from your site.

Quality content isn’t just for increasing traffic and links. It’s also great for increasing conversion.

4. Be Seen as an Authority

If you treat your site as a way to showcase your knowledge on a particular niche then you could become known within a community as an expert in that field. This approach gives credibility to your site, ultimately leading to better content, more engaged users, and ensuring customers feel reassured when making a purchase on your site. Not to mention it is great for branding purposes.

5. Keep it Focused and Structured

The visual appearance of the web page is key to generating sales from content. Use clear SEO-friendly headings, images, and videos to keep the user’s attention. Walls of text are very off-putting, so make sure these are broken down into bullet points.

6. Plan Ahead

There may well be key events, conferences, themed days and other occasions which could be good hooks for persuading users to look at your content and buy from your site. If you have the time to plan for these rather than rushing through content creation the day before, you can add interesting visuals, videos, or infographics which could help your site to go viral when the event hits. A content calendar is a useful tool for making sure you hit these key events with all the ammunition that will help you get noticed.

7. Encourage Interaction

As well as producing your own compelling information, collateral from your customers is key to converting sales. Make sure you have a visible opportunity for customers to write reviews or offer comment on your articles.

Send an email reminding customers to write a review after they’ve received your product. Encourage them to take photos and upload them as well.

You can also boost visibility of interesting discussions/reviews through engaging in social media channels. Shares and links from these channels will promote more visits and better rankings.

8. Think Visually

A picture speaks a thousand words. Don’t underestimate the impact that photographs, illustrations, infographics and videos can have on your bottom line.

A great example of video content that swept the web is the video on the homepage of dollarshaveclub.com, which has been shared thousands of times on Twitter, Facebook, and other social channels within just one month. Not every company has the resources to build videos like that, but it does show how engaging, unique, and bold ideas can lead to big results.

9. Take Advantage of Analytics

If you already have a site up and running, the analytics will show you which pages are receiving the most organic traffic. If you’re generating lots of organic traffic to an article, this is a good indicator that you’ve got the right content for your audience. Think about what factors are on those pages which are making them most successful and apply this when working on further content.

10. Don’t Forget the Power of Keywords

The more quality content you have the more keywords you can rank for. Dedicating landing pages for certain topics such as cities, neighborhoods, hotels, etc., gives you a chance to rank for related keywords.

Summary

Once you’ve mastered the art of revenue-generating content creation, you’ll be in a strong position to rise above your competitors, who may still be working from thin content sites, and see your traffic from organic sources and revenue increase.

Source: Searchenginewatch.com