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by Melody Augustson

So you've joined an affiliate program in the hope of earning a little revenue from your web site. But things haven't been going as you thought they might. What to do? Why not learn how to effectively merchandise your web site . . . to get a higher turnover on clicks, impressions and sales.

What does Merchandising my site involve?

Take our site BusyCooks.com, as an example. We've joined some affiliate programs through Nexchange.com and DirectLeads.com. This allows us to choose shops or programs whose merchandise matches the theme of our site. Then we pick the products that seem best to feature on our site.

Now for the design and placement. Not only do we place the shops in a central location, to make it easier for our viewers to navigate, but we go through the site and pick out keywords that we then link to specific products.

These days, most viewers tend to ignore banner ads, which clogs cyberspace. Text links, however, tend to fare much higher in sales turnovers. The reason: the visitors are now involved in the process of seeking more information. You've gotten them interested in what you're selling. The natural result is for them to click on the text link , where they will get more information or make a purchase!

At first you may find it difficult to find a relationship from your site copy and your product links. Keep with it though; in time it will become second nature. You will begin to see words in your site that you can link to various programs you've joined or products you're selling.

These tips will help you go a long way toward success, but only if your site is useable and understandable. You need to have good design and clear copy on your site. If you find it hard to come up with the right words, seek out copywriters on the Net such as Judy Vorfeld of Office Support Services and Jennifer Stewart of Write101 - they can quickly help you to come up with effective copy.

Ready? Then go out there and figure how to get just the right products to match your site's theme. For more ideas on how to offer products around themes, go to http://www.busycooks.com - it's working for us . . . it can work for you!