One of the biggest recurring problems I see so many people struggle with when it comes to blogging and content creation is conversion.
How do you convert your visitors to take action? How do you get them to buy what it is your selling? Why do so many people arrive at your blog and NOT click through…to your opt in forms, your affiliate offers, or even your own products, services or promotions.
The simple truth is that regardless of how many times you hear people say it…….content is NOT king.
Conversion is.
I mean…sure, it’s super easy to say. It sounds smart. It rolls off the tongue nicely and It has that double assinense thing going:
Content……..
and King.
But it’s really not 100% true. I love content and strive to create lots and lots of it myself.
But in the end…….as many people invariably find out, you can create copious amounts of content and still not sell enough stuff to buy 4 Taco Bell Gorditas and a side of cheesy fiesta potatoes…..which if you haven’t tried for a low calorie Mexican treat that’s easy on your stomach AND your wallet, I highly recommend you do.
- I’m also a big advocate of using blogs to sell stuff…..and I truly believe it is where the future of traditional direct response sales will go.
- Blogs are transparent.
- Blogs are more personal.
- Blogs allow for interactivity, with fosters community and a sense of connection.
- Blogs, as I truly believe Sandra Bullock MEANT to say in her Oscar award winning speech last night, remind us that we’re all human, in this together, and can learn from each other while laughing….and having fun.
While they’re not gone just yet….I do believe the days of big "bulky" business hiding behind stealthy, static brochure style sites are long in the rear view mirror...and the more honest, engaging and entertaining you can be with your core audience, the more money you will make, the more meaningful you will become and the ultimately, the more what you DO do will matter.
Here is an example of blogging – transparency and honesty:
I slept today until 11. And I didn’t take a shower this morning. I cut my own hair on Saturday night with a 3 dollar scissors I bought at CVS…..right before a date with a girl I met earlier in the day on Match.com. Both ended badly. (the haircut and the date) I have no office. I’m typing this whole post at a public library a block from the beach in Boca Raton, Florida where I’m wearing an old baseball cap to cover bed head and a bad haircut to boot.
The simple truth is that when you have a blog, often these little windows into your life can translate into tons of rabid fans. (even though mine never seem to catch on)
Anyway, social media certainly is a huge piece of this….and to me, especially to those of us a bit lower down the food chain than traditional "big business", a blog can be an amazing bullhorn to market a message……..or sell just about anything from clickbank affiliate products using a "pen name" to high end, more meaningful services that you truly believe in, or define your entrepreneurial existence through and through.
The problem is…..especially if you are working as an affiliate, (which most of my readers are) blogs often have super shitty conversion percentages.
People don’t often take "action" on the offers they see on MOST blogs out there today………and stuffing a whole myriad of affiliate links, banners and the like in your blog sidebar gonna win you many friends or influence people.
(even though – someone on some forum at some frozen moment in time must have suggested it…..because it still seems like everyone believes those cute little 125 X125 ads are gonna make you rich if you cram enough of them in that corner real estate you’ve got empty….and available)
Ultimately, the best way to increase your conversion percentage is to make your content more compelling to your visitors.
Or – to "tighten" up your message…..to market, match. (the more relevant you are to the reason they’ve come, the more likely it is that they’ll "do" what you really want them to do)
But the truth is…it’s NOT enough.
And as people who have visited this blog for any appreciable length of time can attest…..I’ve changed up so many variables on here over time from templates/theme, to what’s in the sidebar, to the offers on top, to the beer bottle in my hand in that charming picture in the about me section.
(I really prefer Amstel Light – but changing it to a Yingling seemed to make me look more cultured, trustworthy and successful, so I’m keeping it for now) I know what works best here……and simultaneously, most other places I publish as well.
The bottom line?
I’ve managed to modify my own stuff, mostly on affiliate blogs, data feed sites, article submissions, landing pages, wordpress template tweaks and otherwise to get, what I do believe are conversion percentages, and dramatic improvements in the MWA (most wanted action) that anyone can emulate with ease. I have a nice "list" of about 20 things I refer to when I need a "bump" in sales…….especially on a blog style landing pages which often convert at levels less optimal for my goals, and many of these have worked wonderfully well for some of my most recent clients and consultations as well.
I want to share SOME of them with you…..for free, and I truly believe that if you are serious about your business, you’ll find at least one of these ideas new, different, unique, innovative or simply that little "push" you needed to pump up your own stuff beyond what it’s been doing thus far.
Let’s take a look at the first way you can improve your conversion percentage….especially on "free trial" offers, and common CPA style stuff that has often have great looking landing pages…..but terribly designed and call to action actual "Ad Copy" for affiliates.
The BEST conversions, I have gotten, bar none on CPA style offers especially, is to take SCREENSHOTS of the most compelling parts of the vendors landing page and edit to fit the style, aesthetic or layout of your blog.
So….if you are planning on setting up a thesis style affiliate blog for example (my favorite wordpress template for affiliate sites and conversions by far) for a free trial style offer…..RATHER than using the creatives, or ads that the affiliate networks gives you for that merchant, you simply go to the merchants landing page yourself, use a tool like Snagit, from techsmith (which has a free trial……other similar stuff is free) and capture the CALL TO ACTION the vendor uses on it’s own traffic.
(usually MUCH superior to the copy they give us)
So…you may want to use their "order form" graphic or get your free trial now button, alongside the pretty pictures they use on the page…..resize it to fit the area you want to place it, and you’ve got a very "pretty", very professionally designed ads on your page that WILL outperform the graphics that they give you out of the box for sure.
(plus it gives you something "different" than the average affiliate…….so your visitors is seeing something new and fresh, AND, once they click through from YOUR side to the vendors side, there is "creative consistency" between what they see THERE…..and what they just clicked on YOUR side of the street as well. (something that should theoretically help translate into better conversions on the vendor side of the street as well)
Again…this is DEAD simple to do, and I’ve found it outperforms the general ads that the networks give affiliates by 2 or 3 times to one…especially because you are leveraging (and "borrowing") the creatives that THEY are testing on their own pages…… which for high traffic programs you’ll see on some of the larger CPA networks, you know are always being tweaked, refined and re calibrated for optimum conversion percentage. (and less so on the static ads they give out by default – which are the last, often times to be updated…..IF at all)
Please note – please check to make sure this is "kosher" with the affiliate campaigns and networks YOU run…..as obviously the vendors would probably prefer you used their boilerplate ads……but, as long as you are making them (and yourself) money, and not doing anything otherwise untoward, I’ve never had a problem with this approach. (although it’s not a bad idea to have the affiliate manager look at your landing page if you are concerned, or just getting started)
Using this approach with using the Thesis Framework in particular has been very effective for me……..which I will be discussing in some future posts – but if you already HAVE Thesis, you can use the default "hooks" built into the blog template, in conjunction with multiple screen shots of varying sizes both below, above and within the templates, for some amazingly high click through percentages you’ve got to see to believe. (the FREE OPENHOOK plugin, designed to simplify using hooks for Thesis, makes this super simple if you are worried about getting your hands dirty with php or code…..even if you are a tech idiot like myself..:-)
(If you are thinking about buying thesis you can do so here……if you use my link, simply contact me, and as long as I’m credited with the transaction, I’ll give you one day inside my coaching club – where we can set up an IM session and I’ll share with you some more advanced permutations of the above that work amazingly well….and not 1 in 100 affiliates I’ve spoken to has ever even tried..:-)
I’ve got lots more of these little powerful permutations planned, and If you’re on my list…..keep your eyes peeled for them, as they can be "stacked" on top of another, as even small, incremental improvements in your conversion with individual "tricks" can turn into explosive, transformational techniques when combined, or used in unison. (which they are certainly designed to do!)
I will also be sending out a regular Newsletter (separate from my ordinary "list" emails) every Friday….starting this month. (March of 2010) Look for an email announcing that…..as well, and as long as you are interested, engaged and into it……I have that planned to continue throughout the year. (if you are reading this after March of 2010…..not to worry, you will be automatically subscribed when you join my main list)
Lastly…..my coaching services will resume this month, with a private board, live chat, phone calls and a "build your own" coaching suite of services that I truly believe will be a big help to many of you who have inquired – inquire here if you want to know more. (new clients only, please)
Hope you found this helpful and enjoyed the above, and utilize this simple but super effective tip to make more money as an affiliate in 2010…and beyond!
Fantastic Idea Ian, Thanks so much for sharing your great information. You are very inspiring.
Thank you Ian, very helpful and informative as always!
ian
great post, thanx. thesis looks pretty powerful and i have yet to put together a real blog.
Hi Ian,
As always, enjoy any advice you have to offer.
I recently have started article marketing beginning with Articlesbase. I hit the first page of Google for many of those articles, but got a modest amount of views and few sales. I’m thinking that maybe my keyword choices weren’t the best.
Anyway, about a week ago, I submitted some articles to Ezinearticles. Got on the first page for one and the CTR seemed okay, but no sales. I think though, that most of those clicks were from EZA members-checking out the article. So, I’m kind of lost on all this. I think I’ve made some decent improvements, but the return is still minimal.
Ian, do you think I might be better off trying a blog? I would like to get one thing right though, before moving to the next, but so far, the effort has far outweighed the return for the article writing.
Really appreciate any ideas you may have. Thank you.
Don
Thanks, Jye, Stephen and Courtney!
Don – I would definitely start a blog – yes – and it’s really a *complimentary* strategy to the article marketing – not a competing one – or something that needs to be mastered as a secondary consideration to the first.
As an example – as as an absolute minimum – you could be re-purposing the articles you submit, on your blog – which gives you more search engine coverage at the very least. I’d change the titles a wee bit – post them on the blog FIRST – and then re-purpose with slight modifications to the other directories in a sliding scale or totem pole of priority. (with EZA being the top of the pole, articlesbase being second, etc)
In general though – UNLESS you are simply trying to make easy cash using re-directs (which will eventually tire you out and is not really *marketing* per se anyway) I would always use the articles to build a list when posted on the directories – and use the articles on your OWN blog for natural search traffic first. (i.e. – if you get 1000 views on EZA and get 20% CTR – you are getting 200 visitors from those articles….BUT if you get even 30% of the views on your OWN blog via the search engines – you are already 50% better off on traffic than you would be submitting them to the directories, with a top position via the “page rank piggyback” sort of concept that is so popular with bum marketing…and that I’ve written about here.
So….in the event the above makes as little sense to you as it does to me now that I’m re-reading it – YES to starting a blog – and YES to focusing on building your OWN high ranking, high traffic blog or website as the priortity and central piece of the puzzle – look at your OWN content as an asset – and think of re-purposing to the directories as a supplemental strategy to get traffic. (otherwise you WILL be disappointed….or burned out)
Thanks for another interesting post, Ian. I do need to leverage my
wordpress blog for the right audience, so i’m all ears when it comes to
these posts. I’m looking forward to your newsletter as well. I often
wonder about duplicate content, however, and whether this is
detrimental to my efforts.
Ian – Great post. I have about 15 blogs I created in a variety of niches that I am now working at getting ranked in the search engines by using writing articles in the style you recommend.
Amazing, just writing 5 or 6 articles and submitting to goarticles and EZA, my rankings have improved greatly in just the past week.
I like goarticles because I can place a call to action link right into the body of the article (same with articlesbase). However, it’s way too early to tell at the moment if I’m going to get views and conversions from goarticles. Some people say they love goarticles, others say they hate it. I’ll know in a month or two how I feel about it.
Keep up the great work and continue writing. I would have never figured out how to correctly write articles if I didn’t find this blog last week.
I’ve also found an author on EZA that is getting anywhere from 2k-10k views per article just within the last month. Freaken crazy and yes, his titles are just like you what write about. Here’s to hoping I can replicate his success!
Thank you, Jeff – I appreciate it!
And I’m not a big fan of Goarticles – and ironically was just speaking to someone a few minutes ago who *tracks* views on all the directories for our submissions – Goarticles is usually amongst the worst – and I almost hate paying someone to post them…:-) But then in some random niche…….they will have this huge amount of views out of left field, so you just never know.
(plus it’s a good idea to use all of hte major directories at least once per “niche” in my opinion – just for the reason you stated above – more links does equate to more authority – and more authority does equate to more traffic!)
Lastly – thank you for the nice email you sent last week – I meant to respond – but just have been swamped with stuff – I’m glad these strategies are giving you hope and enthusiasm, and I hope they work well for you, too!
Hi Ian,
Thank you for your reply. It’s sincerely appreciated. I might try going the blogging route, which as you say, is more personal than article marketing.
Before I do though, I think I will give it one more shot. I’ve finally noticed that most of the articles in the market I was promoting, don’t really seem to get overloaded with views, so I’m wondering if I should try a more popular market.
I was able to rank pretty well in Google for the product I was promoting, but it didn’t translate into many sales. I’m a little slow on all of this and must confess that I’m old enough to have owned a typewriter- remember those?
Anyway, I’ll plug away awhile longer and see if good things start to happen.
Thanks again. Always look forward to receiving your valuable information.
Don
No problem Ian, but you definitely have helped me out a lot! Like a lot of people, I’ve just been hopping from product to product when I finally realized that I’m going to continue seeing $0 in my stats report until I just sit down and do some work.
I’ll admit that I don’t enjoy writing at all and it’s an extreme rarity to see me pump out 5 articles in 1 day for ezine. Well, I just started my new article marketing campaign with your strategies so that’s not saying much yet lol.
What I seem to notice on ezine from the most view articles is that they are sitting in the 400-450 word amount and they have great titles. So this is how I’m structuring my new articles.
My other goal is to stop trying so hard to make sales. I’ve been trying “so hard” since last summer and it’s really got me no where. I need to focus on providing quality for the internet and the people that are in seek of the information I’m writing about. I think internet marketers get too caught up in the “omg gotta make sales!!!” mindset and it’s done nothing good for me (but it has made “gurus” rich lol).