Affiliate Marketing - Take Advantage of Your 404 Error Page

One aspect of affiliate marketing that some affiliate marketers forget to take advantage of is the 404 error page. If you have your own website, you could be losing money not having a customized 404 error page.

How many times have you gone to a website only to find a generic "404 - Page Not Found" page? What do you do when you come across this generic 404 error page? Me, I simply close my browser, hit the back button, or go right back to the search engine to look for another site that might have what I am looking for. If you are an affiliate marketer, you could be losing sales. However, by creating a custom 404 page, you could take advantage by creating a custom 404 page.
The advantage of a custom 404 page is two-fold depending on how you create it. The first advantage is that is you can offer alternatives for the browser such as links to different pages, different topics and so on. The other advantage is that you can use the 404 page as a sales letter.
Creating a 404 error page is easy. Simply create a simple html or php page as you would any other page on your website. The next step is to use the .htaccess file and add this line of code:

ErrorDocument 404 http://websitename.com/404.html

When you create your custom 404 error page, you want to give the page the flavor of your site. Just by adding a bunch of links might not be affective because people don't want to see a bunch of links. I know I don't and will leave the site without a second glance. Make sure you have your logo and think about what you would do as a potential customer. Always think from the customer's perspective. Additionally, if you want to put ads on your 404 error page, remember to look at the terms of agreement for the ads. Some advertisers do not allow you to put ads on 404 error pages.

While a custom 404 error page may not be the bread and butter of your affiliate marketing campaign, it will help decrease the amount of lost potential income due to the generic 404 error page if done right.