"How To Profit From Custom Error Pages!"
by Azam Corry In a moment I'm going to show you how you can not only make your
error pages far more useful, but also how you can even use them
to make money! Before we get to that though, let's recap a bit. Previously we
saw that the simplest option for your custom error page is to
either redirect errors to your site's main index file/ site map,
or make the error page a copy of it. (Read the first article about how to make custom error pages ). To make them more helpful, you can also embed some simple SSI
commands into the HTML of your error pages that will display
information relating to the error. For example, this one will
print the name of the file they were trying to reach: <p>The page "(<!--#echo var="REQUEST_URI" -->)" could not be
found.</p> Here's how you might use it: "We are sorry. The page you requested, "xyz.html" could not be
found. It may have been moved, renamed or deleted. Please select
from the other options below, or Click Here for our homepage." Learn more about SSI and the numerous commands you can use.
Automatically Redirect 404 "Page Not Found Errors" A great way to manange 404 errors is by using a custom error page
together with an automatic redirect script, like the excellent
and free Master 404 Every time a 404 error is encountered, the CGI program is
activated. It notes the URL and checks to see if it's in its
database of previous bad links and if you've assigned the correct
URL to redirect to. If you have, the script redirects the visitor to the web page you
specified. Otherwise, it sends them to your custom error page,
simultaneously adding the URL to its database for your attention
(unless it's already been added on a previous occassion). All you do is visit the admin page once a week and simply paste
the correct redirect URL into a box displayed next to each new
broken link recorded. Perfect! Turning Error Page Losses To Instant Profits Even when you provide a surfer with alternative options, there's
still a good chance they will simply leave if they can't quickly
locate the page they wanted. That being the case, you might want to consider making some kind
of profit right off the error page itself. For example, you can:
Put Banners On The Page. These could be for an affilate program that either either pays
you for each click on the banner, or a commissions on sales.
Alternativley, you can display banners from an exchange that will
earn earn you credits to display your ads on another site. Advertise Ezines Your Visitors Will Be Interested In. Make an agreement with several other publishers with similar
amounts of traffic to display brief details about your ezines
with a sign up box on each other's error pages. Alternatively, you could join an ezine co-registration service to
earn commissions on new subscribers you refer, or credits on page
views for advertising your own publication. Put Affiliate Product Links On The Page. Instead of simply sticking a couple of banners on a page, you
could put together a related series of affiliate text links
covering several topics. Do this tastfully and it can work very
well. The key is to select products and services that complement
your website theme so that they are likely to appeal to your
visitors. The CBPlugin offers an excellent, hassle-free way to do this, and
enables you to offer the best selling ClickBank products in your
category of choice simply by adding one line of code to your
page. The products displayed are automatically updated - you just
paste the code into your page and forget about it! See it here. Add Pay-Per-Click Links From A PPC Search Engine. Several pay-per-click search engines provide ways for you to add
their advertiser links to your site, so that you can earn a
commission on each clickthrough generated. With just a few lines of code, this site will even add a
full PPC search engine to your error page, together with popular
category listings - and you share in the profits from every
click! You can take this concept further by having your error page show
pre-defined search results for a keyword phrase that's highly
relevant to your website. This can dramatically increase
clickthrought rates and your commissions. Put One Of Your Product Sales Letter's On The Page. This works best if you have quite a highly focussed site, and
especially a minisite promoting a single product. In this case,
you might not want to even bother making a special page, but
simply redirect all errors to whatever is your best converting
sales page. Send Lost Visitors Directly To An Affilate Program. This one is so easy and potentially powerful that I thought twice
about including it. With this method you can use a product sales
letter as your error page even if you don't have your own
product! All you do is go back to your .htaccess file, and instead of
specifying "404.html" or whatever in ErrorDocument 404, put your
full affilate link there! TIP: If you can knock together a bit of HTML, you're better off
creating an error page that uses a Meta Refresh redirect to the
affilate link, and including code for a javascript pop-up. This
way you can also capture the lost visitor's email address before
they leave! Here are several free pop-up window codes you can use.
© 2003 Azam Corry "Do it Better. Do it Faster. Do it Right!"
Online since 1998, Azam Corry Helps Newbies Develop a Winning
Web Marketing Strategy with Great Free Guides, Tools and Resources.
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