Links are what get clicks and drive commissions. Image: ThinkStock

Once you have signed up for an Adworkz affiliate account, you can start making money by including affiliate links and affiliate banners. These links and banners can be included anywhere from your own website to articles that you write for other websites. Be sure to carefully read the terms and conditions of the website where you intend to post your offer (if it isn’t your own website). Once you are certain that you are allowed to post your offer, it’s time to get to work.

Posting text links

Text links are the links that appear underlined or in a different color in line with the rest of the text in an ad, article or page. Usually text links are used to give a reader more information or elicit an immediate response. While you are writing a piece of text, including a link, it takes just one line of HTML code.

1. First, go into your affiliate marketing dashboard (if you are signed up with Adworkz, it is at network.adworkz.com). Find the “tracking link” or “affiliate link” for the offer you would like to promote. Keep that screen open.
2. Highlight and copy this code, and paste it into the text where you would like to include your affiliate link. Make sure the field you are typing in accepts HTML, and is not in a “visual” editing mode.
   

   <a title=”TITLE HERE” href=”URL HERE”>TEXT HERE</a>

3. Go back to your affiliate dashboard. Find the tracking or affiliate link, highlight it, and copy the entire thing.
4. In your text editor, highlight URL HERE — without the quotation marks — and paste the URL you just copied from your affiliate dashboard.
5. Replace TITLE HERE with the “anchor title text” for your link. This is the text that appears when a reader hovers over your link and the text that search engines consider when “reading” your link. Your anchor title should include a keyword that relates to the offer. For example, a link to a credit report offer might have anchor text like “Get your free credit report today”
6. Finally, replace TEXT HERE with the anchor text that will appear for readers and become the link. For example, in this sentence, these words are linked to the Adworkz Blog front page. The code for that link looks like this:
   

   <a href=”http://www.adworkz.com/blog” title=”Affiliate marketing blog”>these words</a>

And there you go! You have a text link. Text links are especially useful if you are writing a blog post in which you discuss an offer or if you are writing comments on other websites. Make sure you follow the applicable laws and regulations on affiliate relationship disclosure for article marketing.

Posting image links

Posting an image link or advertising banner is very similar to creating a text link. You use the same tag, but rather than including “anchor text” to link to the page, you include an image instead. One thing to keep in mind is that when you see an image referred to with numbers like “250×250″, it is referring to the size of the image. Images on the internet are measured in pixels. A 250×250 image is a 250 pixel wide and 250 pixel tall square, while a 120×60 image is 120 pixels wide and 60 pixels tall. If you are planning to put in an image link, make sure the size of the image matches the space you have available. Before you go through the whole process for creating an image link, check to see if your affiliate manager provides the code for you. If, like Adworkz, its does, you should only need to copy and paste the entire chunk of code into the space you want the image link to appear.

To insert an image link manually:

1. First, go into your affiliate marketing dashboard (if you are signed up with Adworkz, it is at network.adworkz.com). Find the “tracking link” or “affiliate link” for the offer you would like to promote. Keep that screen open.
2. Highlight and copy this code, and paste it into the text where you would like to include your affiliate link. Make sure the place you are typing accepts HTML, and is not in a “visual” editing mode.
   

   <a href=”URL HERE” title=”TITLE HERE”><img alt=”ALT TEXT” src=”SOURCE HERE” /></a>

3. Go back to your affiliate dashboard. Find the tracking or affiliate link, highlight it, and copy the entire thing.
4. In your text editor, highlight URL HERE – without the quotation marks – and paste the URL you just copied from your affiliate dashboard.
5. Replace TITLE HERE and ALT TEXT with the “anchor title text” for your link and image. This is the text that appears when a reader hovers over your image, and the text that search engines consider when “reading” your image link. Your image alternative text should describe the image — it is what shows up if your image fails to load.
6. Finally, replace IMAGE SOURCE with the URL where your image is stored. This is a link that will usually end in .jpg, .png, or .gif. Try right-clicking an image and selecting “copy image location” if you are not sure what the URL is. You can also right click and select “properties” to find the image URL as well.
7. For example, the image below is linked to the Adworkz front page. The code for it looks like this:
   

   <a href=”http://www.adworkz.com/” title=”Adworkz Affiliate Network”><img alt=”Adworkz Affiliate Network” src=”http://www.adworkz.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/logo.png” /></a>

   

Once you have the basics of inserting text and image links down, you are ready to get started in affiliate marketing. These links are what will drive traffic to your offers and help build your commissions.