Hello, I'm not sure whether this is the correct section to post my query in but hopefully it is. I run a website based on the dating and seduction niche, my main product on the website is a ebook which I have wrote and sell on the website. I recently converted my site from a HTML/CSS based website into a Drupal content managed website because I wanted more control over modifications and changes to the layout, appetence and general content, however since I made the switch the conversion rate on my website has stopped! Since switching to Drupal which is strange because the website is way more attractive visually than before and the content and sales pitch is the same, I used to get about 4-5 sales per month at about $5 per sale back in my HTML/CSS days before the switch. I'm sure that there isn’t a technical fault with my website as far as payment processing goes, I'm using Ubercart which is supposed to be recommended for online distribution. So assuming their isnt a technical fault why has my conversion of sales stopped? My website typically gets around 80-150 unique visits per day and has remained pretty consistent so I am confused why knowbody is buying my ebook. As far as SEO goes I am number 1 one Google, Bing and Yahoo under the search criterion of "Superior Confidence". I mostly drive traffic from social media outlets like Yahoo Buzz, Stumble Upon, YouTube just to name a few. So to summarise, traffic isn’t my issue as i was getting sales with the same amount of traffic, my issue its converting visitors into sales, is there a technical issue with my payment processor or is my websites layout, theme or sales letter putting buyers off. I would appreciate if you guys could give me your honest opinion, the URL is http://www.SuperiorConfidence.com
A few thoughts: 1) That "as seen on TV" graphic is the stupidest thing I've seen in a while. Don't lie about having been on TV, it doesn't work anyway. 2) - Umm yeah, that isn't exactly very professional. 3) With 80-100 visitors a day (assuming they are decently targeted), you should be earning more than $20 per month (4-5 sales at $5 per). I would look at promoting a Clickbank product instead (there are many in that niche) that will pay you $20+ per sale. And I don't know why your product is priced at $1 right now...that seems too cheap...like it's a crappy product. If your product is actually useful, people will be willing to pay $20-$30 if you sell it correctly.
Thanks I appreciate the feedback, I normally price the ebook at about $5 but since the sales have dried up I was trying a shock tactic to see if people bite unfortunately no buyers even at $1 which is shocking. Again with the "as seen on TV" this isn’t a normal fixture I was just experimenting to see if it added credibility and hence bring sales, it didn’t. I normally have a registration field on my website which I typically get about 4-5 people signing up per day, but not buying! - I decided to turn off the registration field box in the hope that conversion would be better. When I put together my business plan I wanted to stay away from click bank because I do not feel comfortable making somebody else rich, so I decided to make my own product. I want to focus on the seduction market because I genuinely know about that topic, the ebook which I'm selling is one that I have created myself, its a ongoing ebook so customers will get access to the latest revision whenever they log-in. I might up the price of my ebook to $20-30 as you suggested, maybe customers are a bit put off by the price ($5 back when I was getting sales). Also do you have any more ideas to make my site more professional and convert viewers into sales. The funny thing is with an average of about 150 visits per day you'd think that 1/10 unique visits would convert into sales? which should be about 15 sales per day.
Out of that 80-150 unique visits per day, what is your average bounce rate? Have you looked at your traffic sources to see where your getting your lowest bounce rate? What kind of sites are you advertising on, and what is the bounce rate for that traffic? The more targeted the traffic, the more likely you are to make sales. With that in mind, I suggest you take a good look at your overall traffic, sources, bounce rate.
I use Good Analytics to track my traffic. My average visits per day is 99 visits total, bounce rate is 67.%, the average time on site is 1:20mins, average unique vists are 93.55%, average returning visits is 6.45%, average page views is 2.26. My traffic sources are 57.67% direct traffic, 18.72% refferrals and 23.61% from search engines. The search engine traffic equate to an average of 17-30 of my daily unique visit coming from non paid Google keywords.
You realize that you can sell your own product through Clickbank and make 100% of the sales amount (after fees), right? The good news is that Clickbank ALSO allows you to promote your products through affiliates, where you can make a few dollars from each sale without doing any promotional work at all.
67% aint "that" bad - it could be a lot better and it could be a lot worse. Its good that your using Google Analytics to track your traffic. Using that tool you should be able to sort through your traffic sources, and sort by bounce rate. Take a look at the sites that give you to most targeted traffic and work out a way to reach a larger audience.
The idea of having other people sell my ebook for me is appealing but there is a catch with Clickbank, I probably have to put up a bunch of money upfront just to get accepted on Clickbank and there is no guarantee that anyone will bother to promote my ebook in particular, I'm only a small dog in the seduction game, most affiliates would rather opt for selling a ebook by a well known celebrity like David DeAngelo or Neil Strauss.
It costs $50 to get your account approved on CB. That's not really "a bunch of money" when you consider that successful vendors are making thousands of dollars per day. If you're selling your e-book at $1 or even $5, you'll never make a significant income.
well, it is 49.95 once clickbank approves it. Once you get into the money and have a decent size list, you should use clickbank - here is why. When you make sales from your list - then your product rank in clickbank gets higher. There are so many people going to clickbank and marketing their ebooks its crazy. You have to think - many of these people that would go to clickbank and market those ebooks have AT LEAST 10-20,000 subscribers on their list. So what do you think will happen if a couple of those guys with a big list grabs your product and promote it? Not only them -but the actaul buyers can promote your product too, and it goes on and on. So in the long-term - clickbank can be great. I am not sure what happened with your sales. So - the sales just shut off right when you changed over or was the sales decrease gradual? Did your salespage change dramatically? Are you still using the same payment processor? I hope you are using a very secure one - you know people can hijack your download page and disperse it all over the place. You download link should be set to change within a set period of time.
The idea was to sell my ebooks for cheap at $5, then gradually build up to a point where I can sell my ebook for upto $50-100 once the brand has been established, $5 was never a long term price. $50 for click bank isn't a lot of money, I've got the money but I do not want to fall into the trap of spending more than I'm making, you only have to read a few posts on this forum where people are saying that they've spent $1000s on adword and have bought products from so called "gurus" which are rehashed. I've got a my ebooks on Amazon's "Digital Text Platform" and Lulu but have yet to receive a sale also from these market places I'm dubious that clickback's market place would be better and at $50 its something I'm not willing to risk I am prepared to take. I think my best bet is to focus on my independent website for selling my product and build a strong brand which will eventually also get me some lulu and Amazon sales, once the brand has been establish I might branch out to Clickbank. The sales stopped immediately after switching from HTML/CSS to Drupal despite the traffic staying consistent. Back when I was using HTML/CSS I was using a basic PayPal script. I initially used the same PayPal script on my Drupal site which is when profits halted. Now I'm using Ubercart which allows the user to pay via credit card or PayPal and gives a more professional feel as the customer has a shopping basket and get a automatic invoice sent, it also ads simplicity for me as I get reports generated, The payment is secure and access to the eBook is stored in a encrypted directory within the site.
You gotta track more variables brother. Your checkout sequence is incredibly long (3 separate pages). My guess is something as simple is...you know... making it easier for folks to buy will send your conversions north. However, that's just a guess. You gotta test and track to see where you're actually losing your visitors. Pointing fingers at your traffic would only make sense if you changed your source, but you didn't. When you switched to Drupal what actually changed? Your answer is there, not in the copy and not in the traffic. By the by, your copy is weak as a wet napkin. I would highly suggest either hiring a copywriter or learning the craft yourself. A .16% conversion rate is abysmal. Happy hunting.
Could just be coincidence when you made the change and your ebook could have been copied and leaked out? Was it protected?
LOL, yeah, this is such a popular product I'm sure everyone is searching the internet for a leaked copy If you want to start a serious marketing business, you'll need to spend a little bit of money to get it going. No one is advising you to buy expensive products or spend $1000 on Adwords, but if you wont even spend $50 to get your product listed on CB, I don't like your chances of being successful.
I would appreciate it if you was less sarcastic and more focused on trying to help. You are under the impression that I never spend money, I have spent money on directories, online adverts and Adwords in the past, I can not keep throwing money at my problems. I am already subscribed to Lulu and Amazon's Digital Text market place, so that is three outlooks that customers can potentially buy from including my own site. I already expressed that Clickbank is a avenue I want to go down in the distant future but for the moment I'm focused on selling my eBooks independently on my very own website. Could we focus our attention to my website and increase the conversion rate. I already took some of your advice and changed the opening title to something less vulgar and offensive and I removed the as seen on TV image, surely there is more that I can do?
Well, check out this website of a similar product (which is hugely popular) and see how it goes about convincing users to buy: http://www.magicofmakingup.com/
You have a ton of usability issues that are costing you business and leaving money on the table. One of the most important items is mentioned by John Galt. You may have written this for males, from a male perspective, but that doesn't mean it should be written for a 6th grade reading level. Your first sentence is actually 3 sentences run together. The first word of the second sentence (below) isn't even capitalized. There is no such thing as "most strongest partner". It should just be "strongest partner" without the "most". Bad English and grammar drives people away in a flash. Spend a few bucks on a copywriter. You don't have a big job there and it should easily pay for itself. When you say, "award winning eBook" and then don't say what the award is, or give any proof, the reaction is "yeah, right". They just hit the back button. This is called an Unsubstantiated Claim and is killing your conversion. If you say "30 day money back guarantee" and there is absolutely no information about who you are, and no telephone number, you get another "yeah, right". Another trip to the back button. Kills your conversion. The site that dlm is trying to tell you about has video, the author's name and address, good English and professional graphics. You do not have any of these and the results you are getting are completely logical. You have not extended yourself to instill confidence in your audience. You have not done the minimum to establish your credibility. Whether you have spent money on it or not, your site LOOKS like one you have not invested in. It looks like the site of someone who just sat down at the computer and said, "Man, I know a great way to make money"! People see way to much of this these days. And guess what . . . the back button is just a click away.
Here's another thought. The first sentence at the top of your site says, "Pimps and players discover the secret . . . " So if I'm not a pimp or a player, I'm just a person, I guess that means this site, and whatever it is selling, isn't for me. There goes a big chunk of your audience. People make decisions like that in a nanosecond. More money left on the table.
What have I said about your sarcastic comments? That is a good point, I might very well change the opening sentence, that is a very useful observation Edit: I have changed the colour of my theme from pink to grey and I have changed the title to "Seduce HOT girls without saying a single word" and with a 90% success rate!" which implies anyone can do it, not just pimps and players. Because my average visitor time on the site is 1min 16 seconds I have added a script to the homepage which redirects the user to the shopping basket after 60 seconds. I will test these changes out for a few days and see if there is any improvement in conversion. If you guys have any more suggestions feel free to comment.