Always get a lot of questions from clients about conversions and continually see the same questions asked here. Just want to post some points down. Whilst not exhaustive, it may make a good starting point for people to check off when analysing their conversion rates. Affiliate marketing is one of the easiest ways to make money online – surely you’ve heard that over and over again. If this is so, why is it so hard to finally quit your day job and live on that income? If your affiliate marketing campaign stinks and makes no money, it is probably because you lack one of two things – the dedication to make it work and perseverance to see it through. It’s All About Dedication If you wanted to start something totally new, a brand new skill that you’ve never done before, and turn this skill into your career and means of support, how dedicated would you be? Now, affiliate marketing really isn’t brain surgery, and it’s not going to take you 10,000 hours to learn. But it will take dedication and work. What most people do is buy one “make money online†training program, and in a few weeks when the excitement fades and they’re still not making it big, they give up. It’s much rarer to find people who follow a marketing system to the dot, and tweak the system over a period of time to perfect it. Or, they may develop their own system based on the program. However they do it, these people who work hard and stick with it are the ones who see results. Time Management - How many hours did you spend researching to find your niche? - How many niche sites did you create? - How many articles did you write and submit to directories? - How many backlinks were you building per week? Most people will then tell me that they don’t have the time. After all there are only 24 hours in a day and you can’t make more. But studies show that the typical American watches over 4 hours of television each night! Can you imagine how quickly you could build a successful online business if you turned the TV off once in a while? The good news is that you don’t need 10,000 hours and a decade of study to become a successful affiliate marketer. Just make the time, pick some affiliate marketing strategies that you can stick with. If you’re really serious about doing this, ask yourself if you’ve been doing everything you could to make your dream come true. If the answer is “no,†then it’s time to start. Conversion Tips 1. What does your sales flow look like? - After your landing page, do you try to send people straigh to the product or to checkout? Is this working? - Do you have a squeeze page (lead capture page) within the flow? Where is it situated in the flow? As a pop-up on the landing page or why not try placing it between the landing page and checkout? Main point. Experiment and test! 2. Boost your Seasonal/Event conversions by 10.2% with a simple JavaScript trick - Creating a sense of urgency for your users to act usually increases conversions. - 2 variations of this headline: one that just states the days, and another that states the days, hours, minutes, and seconds and counts down in real time. The test: Here’s the day countdown: 10 days til Christmas. Here’s the realtime seconds countdown, +10.2% in conversion rate: 9 days, 10:16:15 til Christmas. Why does this work? It emphasizes the urgency. If you'd like to use this on your site, just customize the following code snippet. Here's the HTML that will display the countdown: <span id="xmascounter"></span> Code (markup): until Christmas. Here's the JavaScript that will keep it ticking: function calculateXmasCounter() { //calculate var now = new Date(); var xmas = new Date(2011, 11, 25, 0, 0, 0, 0); //Xmas 2011 (be careful: 11 is December) var hoursleft = 23 - now.getHours(); var minutesleft = 59 - now.getMinutes(); var secondsleft = 59 - now.getSeconds(); var daysleft = Math.floor((xmas - now) / (1000*60*60*24)); //format 0 prefixes if (minutesleft < 10) minutesleft = "0" + minutesleft; if (secondsleft < 10) secondsleft = "0" + secondsleft; //display document.getElementById('xmascounter').innerHTML = daysleft + " days, " + hoursleft + ":" +minutesleft + ":" + secondsleft; } calculateXmasCounter(); setInterval(calculateXmasCounter, 1000); Code (markup): 3. Landing Page Inspiration Eg. Auto Loan Websites Alright, you’ve gotten someone on your website. They like what they’re seeing. They want a loan. They take a look at your online application and — that’s it. They think “Wow. That looks like a ton of work. I wonder what’s up on Facebook?†And away they go. Whether you realize it or not, there is a rhythm internet users get into when filling out form fields. It goes something like this: first name, last name, email, address, city… and so on. When the fields are in a single column, the information just flows out. The users keep going until they’re done. You never want to interrupt this rhythm. But when there are multiple columns, it disrupts their flow. They have to stop, scroll up, think about what to do (ugh!), and start again. So keep it simple, keep it vertical, and don’t make them work anymore than they have to. Tests have consistently shown that having a single column of form fields on a longer form increases conversion rates, even without any other changes (when compared to a multi-column newspaper style layout). This makes sense when you think about it, because a multi-column format is confusing. 4. More Landing Page Inspiration - You haven’t made a sale yet! A big problem with most form pages is that people forget to keep selling their product or service to the customer. Many users will get to a form page and say “ah-yeesh, guhhhhh, see-ya, wouldn’t wanna be ya!†and bounce. You can help prevent this by continuing your sales pitch from your landing page. The form page is a great place to use customer testimonials and well-known trust logos such as McAfee, as well as what’ll THEY will get (Benefits). Use the copy on the form page to remind your customer of the benefits that your product or service will give them. The last thing you want is to have a customer back out of a sale because they have lost interest due to a lack of information or having not been fully convinced. At the top of this form, there is a “1-2-3″ graphic. Not very motivating. If you gotta have a “1-2-3 step†form (I would debate heavily that you do NOT need to), at least put a little extra subtext that conveys: This form will be worth your time. - Freebies = More Conversions Anytime you can offer something special (that they would want) to your visitors as a reward for taking an action, that is pretty sure to help. Discounts, free “insider†information, tips and tricks, etc. are always nice bonuses that help people feel they’ll get a little extra for taking action on your site. Takeaways: What Works “Marketers must understand that an aesthetically appealing page does not necessarily convert better than an aesthetically unappealing page. Optimization strategy will almost always trump style when it comes to visitor response. This does not mean that aesthetic design has no place in optimization. Branding, images and the like can help conversion when used appropriately, but there is often a disproportionate emphasis placed on the style of design. Marketers would be better off initially focusing on strategy and then focusing on style.†Website Optimization: The Five Most Common Pitfalls of Homepage Design Takeaways: Trying to achieve too many objections – “Homepages must be designed to weigh multiple objectives by priority. This requires a clearly sequenced eye-path.†Failing to start a conversation – “Homepages should engage a conversation at 3 basic levels. They should meet, connect, and direct each visitor.†Over-reliance on multimedia to communicate value – “Multimedia can accent and support your ideas, but during those critical seconds with your visitor, it may be best to use text and deliver a more direct message.†Analyzing Test Results: How to Further Improve Performance and Find Your Next Test Takeaways: “Optimization is a learning process, and marketers should learn from every test. Whether their results go up or down, well-designed experiments always yield insight.†The three questions to always ask when analyzing test results – Question 1: What does this test say about my visitors? Question 2: Where else might these insights apply? Question 3: What do these results imply we should test next? Please add any additional thoughts or experiences here. [MASKED LINKS REMOVED BY MOD]
Thanks. Glad you found it useful. Just trying to give back to the community. Hope it provides some marketing ideas for others here. Good luck!
Certainly puts it down in a straight forward order and it doesnt sound difficult but I suppose the human element comes into it and can muck it up and make it more difficult. A great post to look at and make sure you are actually doing everything. My downfall I thought was my website and whether it appealed and then ppc could make it expensive and not get enough results for the money.
Awesome post. At the end of the day it's human perseverance. Without it, you'd be still in your day job
Thanks. Glad many of you found it useful. Just trying to give back to the community.The motivation for posting this was to provide food for thought or maybe some pointers for others. I think the issue that many come across when marketing, is that grey and obscure area between effort and results. So measuring and experimentation is key. We want to get to a stage where we can automate these processes and cherry pick the most effective techniques.If anyone would like to share their internet marketing conversion tips, then please post here for others.Finally, if anyone needs advice on marketing, SEO, or sales conversions tips, then please get in touch. Would be happy to help.
Great read. I would add that for some reason they start off with the wrong expectations and don't consider it a real business and treat it as such.You most certainly CAN make money being an affiliate if you approach it with everything stated above and take action. The best part is once you finally do get a sales funnel set up and going, that's it. You make sales but the other company handles all the customer service.
Thanks for sharing mate, you hit the nail on the head with the dedication bit. It takes a lot of dedication to succeed in any business, especially online! Nice tips on landing page optimization too!
Nice one Richard. I totally agree. Expectations should be managed realistically, and must not go into this as some get rich money scheme. Nice and steady and building gradually, then finding what works, and rinse and repeat.
You're welcome Timby. Hope you found it helpful. Anything to eradicate vague areas, such as landing pages. Streamlining the sales flow is what we should aim for. Good luck and keep in touch!
Great article.. Thanks dude...Question.. There's a script I saw on one page and never saw again but I know it works.. Have a specific number of copies left and then make the number change at random points.. Almost like a countdown but with only 1 number... Can it be made from the script you provided? I was looking at the page and saw that number fall and said "I have to have this one day".. To at least try it out.. thanks dude
Hi, DennisKnows, Yes the script can be altered. However, not 100% sure about your requirements, I am guessing that you are tracking your digital stock levels and altering the display. Yes? If you want to clarify and elaborate, then I could write one for you if you want. Best of luck with your business!
Some nice information there.I think the main hindrance for newbies starting out in internet marketing is the lack of immediate reward. It can take a while tweaking, changing, and sometimes even totally scrapping a campaign before you make any money, which can be very demoralising as it essentially means working for nothing, which no one likes to do, especially if you're balancing it with a day job and doing it in your supposed spare time. I know there were definitely a few times in the early days where I came close to jacking it in, glad I didn't tho.