Designing Your Splash Page for TEs
Knowing how to effectively design a Splash Page for use on Traffic Exchanges will result in more traffic!
In an earlier article, I explained a number of techniques for successfully using Traffic Exchanges (TEs) to promote your product and service websites. Among the most important of those techniques was the use of Splash Pages in the Traffic Exchange surf rotation rather than the actual site. The reason is simple, but requires an understanding of the how Traffic Exchanges function.
In most cases, your main sales site contains a great deal of information. This would include the products/services you offer, information about you and/or your company, contact information, and so on. For your promotion efforts outside of Traffic Exchanges, you do of course want to present as much information as possible. However, using your main site in a traffic exchange doesn't often result in a high conversion rate. The reason: the typical traffic exchange only shows the site for 10-20 seconds in the surfframe (rotator) before the TE user is allowed to "click" an icon to go to the next page. Since most people are surfing the TE in order to obtain credits for displaying their own site(s), they will very rarely take the time to read all the information that is contained on a primary sales site. That's just the nature of surfing a traffic exchange. If you currently surf traffic exchanges, ask yourself this question: do YOU read all that stuff that comes up in rotation? No one does.
To utilize a traffic exchange to it's full extent, you want to get your message out quickly. Your goal should be to catch their attention about your particular product or service without overwhelming them with details. That may sound counterintuitive, but think about a billboard along a highway or those 15-second TV spots. That's where splash pages come in.
As with billboard ads or short TV/Radio ads, the object is threefold: 1) get your potential customers attention, 2) provide a branding mechanism for your product/service, and 3) reinforce the message through repetition. A well-designed splash page, along with their proper use in a TE, will accomplish those objectives. That will result in higher coversion rates.
But, not all splash pages are created equally. The key is to understand how to design them effectively.
GET THEIR ATTENTION An effective splash page will get a potential customers attention, and do it quiclky. Consequently, your splash page should be attractive and pleasing to the eye. The best way to do this is by using graphics or images. You want something that will stand out from the rest of the crowd as your page enters the surf rotation. You have most likely seen such pages with nice homes, fancy cars, and images of money. While you may think these are overdone, or even tacky in some cases, the reality is they do work. Adding a short audio clip will also aid in drawing attention to your ad.
BRAND YOURSELF Whether or not you use graphics or images as described above, the one thing you absolutely MUST include is your branding. If you have a company logo, USE IT. If you don't have a graphics logo, then come up with a text version using an easily readable font. And don't be afraid to make it large. Just as important to branding as your logo is having slogan that you use on all your ads. Think about Nike with their "Just Do It" slogan. When you hear that slogan you immediately know the company and their product. Those Nike ads don't beat you over the head with information about all the different shoes they offer. Rather, they present an image to convey their brand. That is what effective marketing is all about.
REPETITION, REPETITION, REPETITION! It is highly unlikely that someone will click-through to your site the first time they see your splash page. Again, that's just the nature of the beast. You want people to see your splash page ads over and over again. Eventually, sheer curiosity about your product/service will compel people to visit your site. To accomplish that, you MUST rotate your ad in as many places and as often as possible. I know people who put very well-designed splash pages in only a few traffic exchanges, or who only assign 10-25 credits. That just won't work. To garner interest for your product/service, you should use as many TEs as you can, and assign a large number of credits to those pages. Remember, you want potential customers to see your ad over and over again until they eventually make the decision to click on it to find out more information. If you don't have the time to surf TEs to obtain the credits you need, then buy the credits. It takes money to make money. Don't waste a good splash page by being frugal.
REMEMBER THE TIMER I mentioned in an earlier paragraphic the importance of having an attractive, eye-catching splash page. But don't overdo it. Remember that the pages in rotation on a traffic exchange are on a timer. You don't want your page so burdened by graphics and images that it doesn't complete loading by the time the viewer has the option to click to the next page. After all, there are still people who are on dialup. Your killer splash page does you no good if the person never sees it because it takes too long to load. If you are going to use Flash as part of your presentation, keep it small and simple. Try to keep your overall page size to below 100K, with 50K-60K being even better.
KEEP IT SIMPLE I realize it is human nature to want to put as much information on a page as possible to let people know all the things you offer. But again, you have to keep in mind how traffic exchanges are used. No matter how attractive the page, if it contains reams of text, people are unlikely to read that during a TE surf session. Some of the best, and most effective, splash pages I have seen contain just a graphic or two and nothing more than a company name/logo, along with a slogan. A simple page with a slogan such as "Do You Want to Make Money from Home?" is much more effective than putting all the benefits of the particular program on the page. Get their attention, get them interested, and get them to your main site. That's what effective splash pages are meant to do.
In addition, to be most effective your splash page should completely fit within the surf frame of most traffic exchanges. You don't want to force a potential customer to use the vertical scrollbar to see all the information. Design your splash page so that it is no more than 600-700 pixels horizontally, and no more than 400-460 pixels vertically.
HAVE A QUICK SIGNUP LIST A highly effective technique is to have a splash page with very basic information about your product/service and a quick one or two line signup list. All you really need is their email address. If your page is well-designed, and simple, provide the potential customer with the option of providing their email address with the caption "Sign up for our mailing list for further information". It takes but a few seconds for someone to enter their email address. They can do that within the confines of the surf timer parameters. Once you have captured their email, you can then send them additional information.
OUTSOURCE WHEN NECESSARY Studies and ad tracking have demonstrated over and over again that splash pages are the most effective method for successful marketing with Traffic Exchanges. I have provided a few simple tips and techniques for designing your splash page in this article. But lets face it, not all of us have the artistic or graphic skills to design a visually attractive page. If that is the case with you, then by all means consider outsourcing the work to someone with those requisite skills. In many cases, you can find someone to design professional splash pages for you for as little as $25. It is money well spent. Just ask people in the marketing forums you belong to if they know someone who does this kind of work, or do a Google search.
CONCLUSION If you aren't currently using splash pages for your traffic exchange ads, you really need to consider them. They are much more effective than pointing your target links to your main site(s). Well-designed splash pages will increase your sales conversions, and isn't that what you want after all?
About the Author
Ray has over 30 years of experience in the Information Technology and Business fields. He has been a Systems Analyst, Database and Network Administrator, Website Developer and Project Manager, IT Architect and Director of IT. Ray has owned a number of successful online businesses, including several current ones. He is also the author of several books and numerous magazine articles.
Tell others about
this page:
Comments? Questions? Email Here