Open in a new window?

[Kutaone]

Hi all!

Please advise...

Often when creating an affiliate link I have the option for that link to open in a new window. Do you find it is better to "open in a new window" or not?

The benefit of opening in a new window is you still have your site up on their computer. The obvious draw back is many people have pop up blockers and the page you are directing them to is also the page where you make money. So it's no bueno if the page doesn't open.

Please let me know your thoughts...


Thanks in advance-

Kutaone

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hi Kutaone,

Well you covered the obvious pro and con. I think it's a toss up. I don't know what the current thinking is on this. You used to see it discussed and argued a lot but I have not seen anything lately. My guess is more people lean toward NOT opening in a new window and giving the user that choice but I'm not positive. I still open in new window sometimes, but not always.

Best thing is to test if you can, try it each way and see if your click through is impacted at all.

 

[Kutaone]

Hi Linda-

Thanks for the quick response.

Right now the rule I live by is if I get money on the other end of the link I have decided to NOT open in a new window. I decided that's what they are paying me for is traffic/sales so why risk the end user not being able to get to the goal line. If I don't get any $$ on the other end then I open in a new window.

I'm glad to hear there used to be a lot of debate about it b/c I felt like there was an obvious answer that I just wasn't "getting."

I used to try and generate leads for a software company so we ALWAYS opened in a new window for anything that wasn't on OUR site. I see how affiliate marketing might be a little different.

On a completely different note... Is Google Adwords considered affiliate marketing?

 

[Linda Buquet]

"Is Google Adwords considered affiliate marketing?"

No not really in and of itself. But many affiliate use Adwords as a way to drive traffic to their affiliate offers or their own web sites.

 

[Kutaone]

I'm sorry Linda I meant AdSense. Is AdSense considered Affiliate Marketing?

 

[Linda Buquet]

Not exactly but it's closely related. You don't get paid per sale, but get paid per click. You also don't join merchants, pick products or write copy. All you do is place the code and everything else is generated contextually based on your content. So it's easier, but done right affiliate marketing can earn more.
That said many affiliates do both.

 

[djbaxter]

Often when creating an affiliate link I have the option for that link to open in a new window. Do you find it is better to "open in a new window" or not?

The benefit of opening in a new window is you still have your site up on their computer. The obvious draw back is many people have pop up blockers and the page you are directing them to is also the page where you make money. So it's no bueno if the page doesn't open.

Opening a link in a new window is different from a popup. I don't think that popup blockers will block a link using target="_blank" or target="_new"...

The only time I do NOT use a new window is if it's another one of my own sites. I don't want people going away and not cominbg back because they forget where they started.