Considering the iPad in Affiliate Marketing

Now that the iPad has been released, it’s selling like crazy and affiliate marketers are wondering what this means to them.  If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, there really isn’t that much to worry about.  If you haven’t, here are some things you will want to be aware of.

The iPad is Pretty Much the iPhone

If you’ve already figured out the issues of what your page looks like on the iPhone, you’re ahead of the game.  The iPad takes a departure from the Mac OS and pretty much follows the same design as the iPhone, and you can only use Apple approved products on it.  Open-source and Microsoft products are dead out.

This means that not only are the users limited in what they can install and use on the iPad but also that you are limited in what you can use on your website and traffic strategies – that is, if you want to draw iPad users to your list and products.  Now here’s the big question: What limitations are there?

Accommodating the Users’ Web Browsers

A major consideration in your web page design is how it looks in different web browsers.  In the case of iPad users, they can only use Safari as their web browser.  Naturally, this browser would be the one to use for accommodating the iPad users.

The chief issue with Safari is that there aren’t any scroll bars for text fields.  Scrolling down a longer page with Safari can be done with some practice but until all these excited new users learn how to do it, it’s best for you to adjust.  Make your web page fit on the screen.

You can do this by having Safari installed on your computer and your phone, or you can use some screen shot apps that are out there.  Testiphone (www.testiphone.com) and Browsershots (http://browsershots.org) are the two major ones to use.  It depends mainly on what your phone’s capabilities are.

Get Rid of Your Flash Elements

Using Flash on your website has been a matter of debate in terms of search engine optimization.  Some people have completely discouraged the use of it, while others say that it’s okay but only in moderation.  Now, with the iPad explosion out there, it’s pretty safe to say that you shouldn’t use it at all.

iPad users don’t get to see Flash — at all.  If you have Flash videos embedded on your site, the half a million iPad users won’t see them.  They do get to see YouTube videos if they get the appropriate app, so if you’re using YouTube to drive traffic to your site, you can keep on truckin’ there.

In short, if you’ve been around in affiliate marketing for a while, you have nothing to worry about.  You would most likely have done this already.  If you just keep your web page small and simple, you’re a-ok for the iPad users.