An uninitiated affiliate may expect to make sales simply by placing a referral link on his website, or by distributing link in an email. On other hand, a seasoned affiliate seller knows that a unique marketing twist of one sort or another must be built into campaign for a satisfying profit to be realized.

One tested and proven method is to develop a unique landing webpage for each and every affiliate campaign engaged.

A landing page is nothing more than a proprietary webpage owned by affiliate seller, hosted on his website, and and located at a URL within that domain. A well developed landing page will not only contain actual affiliate referral link, but will also serve as an introduction to product or service being offered, and will warm customer prior to directing her to main sales page.

Here we present three types of affiliate landing pages that have been proven effective in promoting a broad range of products and services.

However, reader should note that no particular order of effectivenes is presented here. Determining best type of landing page for a particular affiliate campaign will be a matter of careful consideration and diligent testing.

Landing Page #1 - The Product Review

This style of page takes form of a factual and objective report, and should be completely free of any wording that attempts to sell. Direct experience with product is a must, as writer will be providing her or his own first hand observations regarding benefits and problems that arise while actually putting product or service to use.

Typically, a single product is reviewed for sake of simplicity. Yet some successful landing pages do feature reviews of multiple products within a given category. In this case, each individual product should be rated by means of an easy to understand system, ie. one to five "stars."

But pay-per-click marketing is also one of quickest ways to lose money, if it isn't done right. At surface level, process appears to be as simple as writing an advertisement, bidding for keywords, and waiting for traffic and sales to come rolling in. Nothing could be farther from truth, particularly with today's heated degree of competition for top keywords.

So, for a few minutes, let us play role of devil's advocate, as we explore some of common downfalls encountered by hopeful but inexperienced pay-per-click advertisers.

1. - Making Advertising Decisions Based on Emotion

The excitement of tapping into a new market, and much anticipated thrill of watching click counters working overtime, can and often does lead to a hasty decision making process. Add to this a pressing need for a cash infusion, plus a bit of gambler spirit, and a framework for failure will emerge.

2. - Overly Generalized Keyword Selection

Keywords that are too broad in scope can inevitably lead to an excess of non-profitable clicks, driving an otherwise profitable campaign into red.

For example, a website selling athletic shoes should omit simple term "shoes" from keyword list. That term alone may generate a massive number of click-throughs. However, a good portion of resulting traffic will likely be looking for sandals, dress shoes, or some type of shoe other than athletic designs.

3. - Poorly Worded Advertisements

Pay-per-click ads are notorious for restrictions on allowed word count. While headline and ad body should contain as many prime keywords as possible, every single word in ad should be weighed and measured for effect. A vague or loosely related advertisement may pull throngs of curious visitors, but ultimate value of each of those visitors must also be considered. The point of a great ad is to attract only those who have a purchase already in mind.

4. - Failure to Calculate True Bid Value

An untested ad leaves much of this process to theory, but even a theoretical profit model is better than none at all.Otherwise, urge to bid simply for top positioning may ultimately spell an overall loss of profit.

Three critical points to consider are:

- product pricing - an acceptable profit margin per sale - a realistic clicks to sales ratio (CSR)