|
|
|
5 Affiliate Marketing Facts of Life
Affiliate Marketing (AM) is fast becoming a major trend in online business. With the internet still in its adolescent years, it has already established itself as an extremely viable career opportunity, bridging the advertising gap for companies,...
Affiliate Assets
Affiliate Assets Copyright 2004 Jeremy M. Hoover http://hoovermarketing.info Your affiliate marketing business is just that … a business. To be successful, you need to treat your business like a business and focus on growth. Your affiliate links...
If Only There Was Some Forum For The Exchange of Ideas
For those of you over the age of 15 you have a reasonable memory of a time when there was no Internet. I’m just old enough to still be amazed at the ease of obtaining and pure volume of information available online. Not to mention the breadth of...
You are only as good as your PR!!
You are only as good as your PR!! Imagine a situation where you have started a great site with exceptional design and high quality content. Your pagerank of course is zero and you alexa traffic rank is somewhere in the 18th lack or perhaps more....
Your Total, Effective Online Marketing Plan
Everyone is looking for that magic formula that will propel his or her web site to phenomenal success. Sooner or later, most people give up their search for this mythical online marketing secret and accept a mediocre level of online business...
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Forget SEO – It’s All About Conversion!
Which SEO hat do you wear? Is it white or black? Or perhaps it’s a subtle shade of gray. Well, wherever you are on this spectrum, if you are like 99% of the SEO-fixated webmasters out there, you are doing all you can to get visitors to your site. Where you used to optimize your keywords meta tags, you now worry about anchor text and XML site maps.
So, you finesse your site, schmooze the algorithm du jour and begin to climb the slippery search engine rankings pole. But this is where you have to leave your SEO tricks behind and start thinking conversion.
Whoa there! Conversion? That’s all about making sales on shopping sites. My site’s a forum! I don’t sell anything. What has conversion got to do with me?
Everything, my friend. Everything….
SERP Conversion
You want visitors to come your site, right? That’s why you climb greasy SERP pole, after all. (And why you lay awake at night wondering when the next Florida, Hilltop or Bourbon algorithm earthquake is going to hit.) But what does it matter if you reach the peak, but no one clicks through to your site anyway?
The fact is that you have to convert prospective visitors even before they arrive. You have to pique their interest, tweak their curiosity and make sure they click your link and not the other guy’s. And all you have to use are words. No technical tricks will help you now – your only tools are plain ol’ words.
The SERPs will show words from two of three places. Two of these you can control and one you can’t:
1.Your title tag.
2.Your meta description tag.
3.A directory description.
(For example, Google is known to use DMOZ descriptions in their SERPs, and Yahoo uses their directory descriptions in theirs.)
Now, there’s not much you can do about how Yahoo or DMOZ editors describe your site, so don’t worry about number 3. But do what you can do: Place your value propositions clearly in 1 and 2, and use them to lure searchers into your website.
So you have to convert people before they even get to your site. But that’s not all…. You want them to stay, right?
Flash Conversion
No, this has nothing to do with being blinded by bright lights on the road to Damascus. Nor am I telling you to go and make a 100% animated website.
This “flash” is that split second, that tiny window of opportunity that opens up when a searcher arrives at your site and decides whether they have actually found what they are looking for… or not.
Typically, you’ll have a couple of seconds to persuade the new visitor to stay and hang out. That’s all you get. It’s the ultimate in speed-dating. So, how do you wow your “date”? Do you show him a page of scraped “content” interspersed with Adsense ads? Not if you want this to be a lasting relationship.
Follow these tips and be sure to impress your “date”:
1. Have a clear theme
Ranking high for “blue widgets”? Then be sure your visible title, copy and images are clearly focused on them.
2. Have a clean design
Imagine you are taking a first date to a movie. Do you pick her up wearing your pajamas in a dirty, trash-filled car? Or do you clean the car, wash your face and dress to impress? Of course you want to impress her, so you make sure you look (and smell) good.
It’s the same with your site: Clean design, a nice text size and pages that don’t scroll from here to eternity are going to float your first-time visitor-date’s boat.
3. Write clearly and focus on your “date”
Waffle on about yourself and your date will get bored. She wants you to be interested in her. And in terms of your site, that means giving her what she wants to know as quickly and succinctly as possible. This comes down to your ability to write and communicate. So, if you are like Steve Martin in “Roxanne”, make sure you get a someone else (a copywriter) to compose the lines to wow your “date” for
you.
OK, so let’s say you have successfully wooed your first-time visitor date. He’s here and he has decided to stick around. You’re going steady, getting to know each other a little more. That’s all you want, isn’t it?
No, it isn’t! You want to pop the question, of course!
Getting hitched
You’ve made all this effort and spent money on getting your “date” this far, so you want to get the most out of your investment, right? You want to hear those sweet words, “I do”:
I do… want to click your Adsense ads. I do… want to become a forum member. I do… want to buy that cool digital thingy.
So how do you turn a whirlwind romance into a successful proposal? Try these ideas for size:
Have clear navigation
You want to make your date dizzy with excitement, not frustration! Make sure you have clear, consistent, well-labeled navigation and make your visitor-date’s time with you a pleasure, and not a reason to reach for the Advil.
Have a clear proposition
What do you want your visitor to do? Buy something? Sign up for something? Join something? Whatever the point of your site is, it does have a point, right? So don’t beat about the bush, and don’t hold back waiting for the right moment: Make your “proposal”, and make it clear and direct.
Happily Ever After…
You thought that was the end of the story? Wait a minute, it’s not over yet! I thought you were in this for a long-term relationship, not a one night stand?
I know, you were thinking that having made all that effort while you were dating, you could ease off now that you’re “married”. But don’t you know that the real rewards start here?
So what are the secrets of a long, blissful relationship with your visitors?
1. Feed them!
You convinced him to come visit once. But how often will he come back if all you give him are the same old leftovers? Cook him up something juicy and delicious, and have him salivating for more:
Enliven your content with new, relevant pages and, not only will you set the search engine robots drooling, but you will also find you have a hoard of visitors coming back for seconds. And in this age of fast-(visitor)-food creation tools called blogs, there’s really no excuse anymore.
2. Shower them with gifts
Everyone likes a gift - and not just on birthdays, anniversaries and at Christmas:
Money talks, and if you are selling anything through your site, then discounts and other offers to previous visitors and customers will draw them back like magnets. Throw in tempting freebies as well and you will have a potent marketing mix.
3. Send them “love” letters
Anyone who has been in a long-distance relationship (like my wife and I were for a year and a half), knows that if you can’t be together, the next best thing is a letter or email. For your website, this means an interesting ezine that is light on sales pitch and rich in information.
4. Start a family!
Not literally! But you can create a “family” atmosphere by adding a forum where your visitors can interact with each other – not just with you and your site. People are social animals, so use a forum to keep them coming back.
OK, so perhaps I overstated it a little in my title. SEO is not dead, so don’t forget about it quite yet. Just remember that it will only get you so far: If you want to actually achieve anything with your site, then you need to focus on conversion like a laser.
About the Author
About the Author
Stephen Munday lives in Japan. His most recent project is a Japanese name translation website where you can get your name in beautiful Japanese calligraphy. This article is © Stephen Munday 2005. Permission is given to reproduce this article in whole with the URLs correctly hyperlinked.
|
|
|
|
|
| Gentoo Forums :: Index |
| Discussion forums for topics around the distribution, Linux applications, installation, administration, portage, frequently asked questions. |
| forums.gentoo.org |
|
| Readers' Opinions - New York Times |
| Books Reading Group. Readers are discussing “All Aunt Hagar’s Children,” Edward P. Jones’s new short story collection. More Books Forums ... |
| www.nytimes.com |
|
| Ubuntu Forums |
| This is a discussion help and support forum for Ubuntu Linux. |
| ubuntuforums.org |
|
| Joomla! Community Forum - Index |
| Joomla! Forum - The Joomla Community. Support, discussion and interaction with the Core Team. |
| forum.joomla.org |
|
| Internet forum - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
| A typical Internet forum discussion, with common elements such as emoticons, ... Like other forms of online communication, Internet forums are home to many ... |
| en.wikipedia.org |
|
| Java Technology Forums |
| Online discussion forums offering help for users in solving issues. Includes FAQs, and links to other Sun technical databases. |
| supportforum.sun.com |
|
| Adobe - Forums |
| Share questions, suggestions, and information about Adobe graphics products. |
| www.adobe.com |
|
| WoW Forums -> Forum Index |
| Read our Introduction to the Forums. This includes information about getting ... blizzard provides the World of Warcraft community forums for its players to ... |
| forums.worldofwarcraft.com |
|
| MySQL AB :: MySQL Forums |
| Forum to discuss the sample database included with MySQL ... The main discussion forum for MySQL. Please use specialized forums for specific topics. ... |
| forums.mysql.com |
|
| SitePoint Forums: Resources, Design, HTML, CSS, PHP, ASP, MySQL ... |
| Webmaster Forums for Design, CSS, XHTML, PHP, Ruby, JavaScript, Affiliate Marketing, ASP.NET, Promotion. |
| www.sitepoint.com |
|
| Delphi Forums |
| Offers free and paid forum hosting. The paid offer is ad-free. |
| www.delphiforums.com |
|
| Home - MozillaZine Forums |
| Search the forums for others who may be having the same issues you are. You can also browse the sticky'd posts at the top of the forum for the product ... |
| forums.mozillazine.org |
|
| Web Hosting, Free Web Hosting and Web Tools from Bravenet.com. |
| Maintain a direct mailing list. Message Forum Host your own online discussions. Vote Caster Perform a multi-question poll. Web Poll Perform a quick poll. ... |
| www.bravenet.com |
|
| Forums | NewsTalk |
| The Detroit News Online does not tolerate offensive language in its forums. The News will kill offensive posts. Participants can and will be denied access ... |
| info.detnews.com |
|
| osCommerce Community Support Forums |
| Official community support forums for the osCommerce project. |
| forums.oscommerce.com |
|
| The GardenWeb Forums - GardenWeb |
| The GardenWeb Forums comprise the largest community of gardeners on the Internet. ... If this is your first visit to the forums, you might want to visit our ... |
| forums.gardenweb.com |
|
| AnandTech |
| Is server configuration a pain? DSL or Cable Modem giving you fits? Get your questions answered and your topics discussed in the AnandTech Networking Forum. ... |
| forums.anandtech.com |
|
| Chronicle Forums - Index |
| Chronicle Forums - Index. ... Talk online about graduate-school life in our new forum. ... Forum Stats, 220919 Posts in 17109 Topics by 3306 Members. ... |
| chronicle.com |
|
| Forums | drupal.org |
| Try searching the forums first or a specific project's bug reports. Pre installation questions. Is Drupal a viable solution for my website? ... |
| drupal.org |
|
| Dev Shed Forums - Open Source web development |
| Dev Shed Forums - over 195246 members on our Dev Shed forums. |
| forums.devshed.com |
|
|