Archive for August, 2008
3 Landing Page Conversion Tips… or What’s the Point?
Posted by Kathy Jackson in Affiliate Marketing, Design, Upkeep Sunday, 31 August 2008 11:03 2 Comments
If you’ve ever visited a website and muttered to yourself “what’s the point,” remember that your visitors will ask YOU the same question when they visit your landing pages.
A website can exceed all Quality Score guidelines, employ stunning design, and be oozing with quality content… but if it doesn’t convert, what’s the point?
If your conversions aren’t what you hoped for, these tips will help you revamp your landing pages:
TIP #1 – Think like a visitor, not like YOU. Your likes, dislikes, tastes, and hot buttons don’t matter – only your visitors’. If you’re not sure what will grab their immediate attention, research the top sites for your keywords in both natural search and first-page PPC placements. Study those landing pages carefully and take notes.
TIP #2 – Remove obstacles. Getting out of your visitor’s way is one of the easiest ways to improve a landing page. Try this exercise: load a copy of the page into your favorite html editor, then start cutting. Ruthlessly slash away anything that distracts from the main purpose. You must keep everything that contributes to a quality user experience, such as links to relevant content pages. But it’s worth seeing just how much stuff you can cut — and it often results in a much more “to the point” landing page.
TIP #3 – Put the Most Desired Action (MDA) front and center. Every landing page should have ONE goal in mind – and that’s the most desired action you want the visitor to take. Whether it’s joining your opt-in list, clicking the “Learn More” or “Buy Now” buttons, or making good on the promise of your PPC ad, that’s what should hit your visitor right between the eyes.
Finally, confused about your MDA? If you’re not sure what your Most Desired Action really should be, ask yourself these questions:
- What’s the “in your face” message of this landing page? Is it the answer to the visitor’s problem, question, or need? Is it the best price on the product they’ve searched for? Is it a coupon or free shipping deal? Is it five key comparisons between product X and product Y? Whatever it is, it needs to be the most prominent thing on the landing page.
- What do you want EVERY visitor to do? In a perfect world, what would do you want from every single visitor to your page? Of course they ALL won’t do it, but thinking about the ideal result often helps you eliminate static and clutter. It also helps you get clear on the next point…
- What’s the ONE RESULT you desire the most? Give your visitors too many options, and you’re asking them to make decisions. And if they can’t decide immediately, they’re likely to bail out — which will kill conversions. The key here is choosing ONE goal for the page and making that the most obvious choice for your visitor. Don’t make them think — make them ACT.
- What are your competitors doing, and doing well? Don’t reinvent the mousetrap, just build a better one. Scope out your competitors’ pages and ask yourself, what’s their strongest message? What’s the one in-your-face item that hits you immediately? Is there one obvious action, or are you being asked to bounce around and make decisions? And most importantly: If you were in the market for this product, would YOU do what this page asks you to do?
Landing pages don’t have to be slick or pretty to generate sales. But they do need to have ONE crystal clear purpose that get the response you want. So find that purpose. That’s the real point of your landing pages.
How Is AffSphere Doing?
Posted by Anik Singal in Affiliate Classroom Events and Products, Affiliate Marketing, Article Marketing Wednesday, 27 August 2008 13:43 2 Comments
In one short word…GREAT!
We’ve been blown away by the response from AffSphere and are literally working around the clock to keep up with the demand. The report that we launch has been a major success – we’ve been getting tremendous feedback (much of which we’ll release very soon).
We officially launched on August 12th and are still officially in BETA so yes, we have a LONG way to go and it’s a learning process for all of us as well. However, we are very proud to say that our “alpha” period really well prepared us for this BETA period.
We’re quickly increasing our staffing to manage the demand and are seeing AffSphere grow on an HOURLY basis – new members, new great content and more and more indexing.
Shortly we’ll be releasing a “feedback” feature that will allow you to leave us feedback of how you feel we can improve AffSphere – we want to hear from you!
Yahoo.com Shows 57,600 Results!
I’ve actually seen it get as high as 88,000, but you know how search engines are! In just less than 2 weeks, the viral aspect of AffSphere is really proving itself!
Over 57,000 sites, blogs and forums have had nothing but raving reviews for AffSphere. Our authors are already reporting TRAFFIC and even commissions from the traffic and we’re literally JUST getting started!
If you want to discuss your experience on your blog or to your newsletter, remember, you can grab your promotional link right from inside of AffSphere.
If you don’t have your FREE account yet, click here to register right away…
Over 20 New Features Coming!
I recently just had an 8 hour+ meeting with our development team and we have over 20 new features that are in plan to launch over the next 3-5 months. You’ll start seeing some of them very soon!
Like I said before, we’re going to grow fast (but cautiously).
You might get a BETA invitation…
Make sure to start submitting right away because our most active authors are going to get a PRIVATE invite to be the FIRST to test and implement some of our new features that launch over the coming weeks…
AffSphere is NOT just going to be an article directory but much more than that in the coming weeks – we’re doing everything we can around the clock to help YOU get the most traffic we can.
Give us a few days and we’ll start releasing some more fun “contests” and features that can really help you expand your article marketing.
Happy writing!
If you don’t have your FREE account yet, click here to register right away…
Top 3 Reasons Affsphere Articles Are Getting Rejected…
Posted by Anik Singal in Affiliate Classroom Events and Products, Affiliate Marketing, Article Marketing Wednesday, 27 August 2008 13:28 No Comments
AffSphere Authors,
First of all thanks for such a great job on your submissions! We’re literally working around the clock to get them approved as fast as possible. It’s both a learning process for you and our team, but we’re improving the process on a daily basis!
We’re seeing a few things pop up over and over and thought we’d address it. Other than a few articles which are out right bad quality, most of the ones we are rejecting are for reasons that are very easily fixable!
Top 3 Reaons Articles Are Being Rejected:
1. No Resource Box
We really appreciate the content, but we want to make sure YOU get credit for it! Because of that we are waiting for a full resource box before we accept articles.
I’ve actually been surprised by how many have come in with no resource box. To help this, we’re making sure that the process is smoother when you submit articles right up-front.
2. Dead Links In The Resource Box Or Article
We do click and review every link in your article AND your resource box for quality on the landing page. If any of the links are leading to a “dead” page or a website that does not show up, we are forced to not accept the article.
Please make sure to confirm that your links are all working.
3. Formatting Issues
We are also seeing a few articles that are being added that have too many spaces or are just one big paragraph. This is not very user-friendly for the eventual readers, so we do ask that you pay attention to the format and the way the article displays as well.
We are currently having to reject about 15% of articles for various reasons so we are keeping a very high quality control to award those authors that are doing an excellent job (which is most of you)!
Keep your great content coming! If we can help, let us know.
The Week’s Top Affiliate Marketing News Stories (August 25, 2008)
Posted by Sarah Holland, AC Staff Writer in Affiliate Marketing, Best Business Practices, Blog Marketing, Web 2.0 Marketing, Weekly eNewsletter Tuesday, 26 August 2008 15:24 No Comments
Google Will Offer Services for Bloggers at the Conventions – Google helped equip bloggers with an 8,000 square foot space last night at the Democratic National Convention, and will again next week at the Republication National Convention. By offering access to the internet and even a public kiosk where anyone can post videos on YouTube – new media gains a greater influence in politics.
Hey Marketers – Are You Ready for Web 3.0? – Is Web 3.0 on it’s way, are you ready? Find out what Web 3.0 means, and what it means for you.
Google To Remove Inactive Status on all Adwords Ads – If you’ve heard about the new changes to Google Adwords and aren’t quite sure what to make of them, head over to Kirsty’s post at Affiliate Stuff where she explains the changes in a nutshell.
How to Profit From Testimonials… Even With No Testimonials! – This long list of tips offers a ton of really great ways to give your product or site the positive image of testimonials without the work of collecting them. Read on to check out a few.
The Real Reasons You’re Not a Super Affiliate Yet… – If you’re in need of a little pep talk pick-me-up, this honest and up front list of reasons why you haven’t become a super affiliate from Amit Mehta will kick you into gear!
Google is my Article Marketing Muse
Posted by Sarah Holland, AC Staff Writer in Affiliate Marketing, Article Marketing Tuesday, 26 August 2008 14:38 4 Comments
I admit that coming up with brand new exciting ways to write an article in a niche you’ve already written about dozens of times is hard – that’s why I don’t do it.
That doesn’t make any sense of course, so what on earth do I mean?
I just mean that in popular niches, and in less popular ones too, you are going to be hard pressed to find NEW unused ideas to write about. Everything has been said before.
And even if every single little idea hasn’t been used already, if you are waiting around for these new unique brilliant ideas to appear, you are just wasting a lot of time.
When it comes to acne, which I myself write about, there isn’t much that hasn’t been said. It’s like the cover of Cosmo Magazine and sex tips. Every month in the grocery checkout line the cover makes some bold ridiculous claim about NEW sex tips that you’ve NEVER HEARD BEFORE.
These tips are of course not new! They have just been mixed up, rewritten, and recreated into content that is only mildly recognizable as something that’s been said before.
This is exactly the same tactic that I use for article marketing in the acne niche, and you too can use it in your own niche. Here’s how you do it:
Look for things that have already been said. They don’t have to be groundbreaking ideas, and they don’t even have to be your own ideas.
Try doing a Google search for your topic, or a quick search in Ezine Articles. Pick out some articles you like but think could use some work when it comes to writing or explanation and spruce them up yourself.
You could also pick out a few articles that you think are awful, and write your own counter articles disagreeing with what has already been said.
You could even choose a few articles that you like and think are well written, but add a few important details that you think have been left out.
If you can make each of these tactics work a few times each, you’ve got yourself 10, maybe even 15 new articles! I use the term “new” loosely here of course 
