Listing Hosted Free Sites?

[graphicdude]

We have had about 50 Hosted Free Sites for a few months.
These are getting good sales and we are about to build another group.... So I would love to get some input from everyone!

1. Recommendations for better conversions or click thru rate?
2. Would anything make them more attractive to link list sites?
3. Clean vs Recip issues?
3. See anything that would keep you from listing them?

http://www.howigotrich.com/hosted_freesites.htm

comments?

[Cleo]

I pretty much list just about anything that is halfway decent if it has my affiliate code in all the ads.

I see money bars on those sites going to many different sites. How would that work with affiliates? Would their affiliate code be on all of the links?

[Surfn]

They look too similar to me. I could only list a couple.

[graphicdude]

Originally posted by Cleo
I pretty much list just about anything that is halfway decent if it has my affiliate code in all the ads.

I see money bars on those sites going to many different sites. How would that work with affiliates? Would their affiliate code be on all of the links?

Hi Cleo!

The Hosted Free Sites do indeed have your affiliate code on every ad and link to every site.

The sites in the money bar are all in the HowIgotRich.com program and your affiliate code is on every link. Once the surfer gets to one of the sites, you are paid on all links to every other site in the program.

You get paid on all sales to any of the sites.

Hook us up

[MadMax]

If I'm going to promote a program with hosted free sites, the free sites have to comply with the standards for submissions (which are fairly uniform across most sites); one of which is "Don't submit sites with the same name as the sponsor they promote" AND "Site title in the browser bar must match the title on the page." This is my big pet peeve with sponsor hosted free sites, even though I love the concept. These two things are often right out the window.

Also, if I'm going to promote a program I want to list the pay sites under "pay sites" and the sponsor's free sites under "free sites." I can't do this if they have the same names/graphics/etc. This especially goes for the giant graphic headers promoting the pay site. I understand the desire of sponsors to achieve maximum branding on their site names...I just don't think that the titles of hosted free sites are the best place to do that. That's what the 3 banner spots/sponsor links are for.

Multiple free sites promoting the same sponsor should always have different page layouts, colors, etc and very different page header graphics, etc.

You've got 40 pics on each of those sites, and IMO for free site conversions "less is more," meaning most LLs require 20 pics on a free site and many consider 40 to be a bit much. More "tease", less "please."

A lot of those sites 404d when I clicked on them, which would scare the hell out of me from the standpoint of putting them on my list. Might just be a temporary issue, but you might want to look into it.

All this is just my opinion. I love the concept of sponsor hosted free sites for LL owners; my issue with them is that they're rarely built to comply with the same rules most require of sumbitted sites.

Best wishes on your programs, and these sites are just a bit of tweaking away from me being willing to join up and list them.

[Greenguy]

Oddly enough, you guys have some of the better HFS I've seen

[graphicdude]

Originally posted by Greenguy
Oddly enough, you guys have some of the better HFS I've seen

Greenguy,

Thanks for the kind words and the listings!

[graphicdude]

MadMax,

Thanks for the input!

Good points except for branding...
All sponsors build promotional items to brand and sell our sites.
That's what we do.

I agree with your points about the page title matching the free site name (header) and keeping the paysite name out of the titles.

I wasn't able to find any 404's on any of the pages.
They have been QA'd and all are getting traffic from various sources. That would definately qualify as a reason not to get listed - lol Let me know if you see anything like that and I will investigate ASAP.



Any other suggestions?
We begin building more HFS on Monday

[RawAlex]

Site names should never be the same as the pay site you are promoting. It should always be related, but never be the same. The site names should each be different, and they shouldn't be "denise from MY PAYSITE", that gets dull really quick. Your ENTER link to the inside of the FHS should either just be ENTER or ENTER plus the name of the free site (as appeared in the title and on the page).

You need at least 5 (and probably more) general layouts, which you can then vary with color, text, etc. It is especially important that the layout of your index.html pages are different, so that they don't get dull fast. You current sites are pretty nice, but they are all fairly similar in nature, which if the were being submitted to me would get the person declined for using the same template too much.

You might also want to include descriptions, and a section for all your FHS together, in a comma delimited text file. Makes it easier to import to most link sites.

I agree with greenguy, these are pretty darn nice FHS... nice enough that I might have to sign up! Funny that I was going through show stuff today and found your business card and funny money bill :-)

Alex

[Fonz]

Originally posted by RawAlex
You might also want to include descriptions, and a section for all your FHS together, in a comma delimited text file. Makes it easier to import to most link sites.

Adding descriptions would be a great thing indeed. Sometimes my mind gets cloudy and I just can't come up with good ones myself