I recieve the newsletter from grokdotcom.com, which I find useful in increasing coversion rates. They are having a great special on their new book about increasing conversions. Its $13 and change for 3 copies of the book, plus free shipping. I ordered it, as I figured at this price I couldn't go wrong, and thought others may be interested. BTW, not affiliated with them at all.
Let us know what you think about the book. The problem I come accross is that the conversion reports and information are specific to a type of site. For example if I was promoting a forum or a services website most of the reports I have seen are not good models to follow although there are a few common sense tips that can be implimented
My experience is the same as sadcox's. So much of it is directly related to the business one is in. We've had great success with some B&M conversion subscriptions, but most of our conversion increases have come by paying attention to "the big boys" (ala Amazon) and seeing how they handle various elements on the pages, and by doing so many A/B tests one's head would spin. For our market, we've seen 30-70% increases in conversions over our competitors by doing all this -- our clients couldn't be happier. That being said, I'm never one to turn down a good deal, and Grok's stuff is pretty decent so I went on and ordered the book as well -- thanks for the head's up
I dont think book can help that much, sometimes you should back to the basics, Choose a product that youre interested in. Drive a tons and tons of traffic to the site. * Dont rely on the book instead think how you can generate more traffic. * Cheers!
Think about it a moment. The book is about is about conversions Say I am converting 1% in 100 uniques to my site and after the book/study I convert 5% of my traffic just by changing the layout/colors . Now isn't this a smarter way to make more money from the same site. If the traffic then doubles the income will be 5% x 2 = 10% If I do not utilize conversion techniques my income would be 1% x2 = 2% See lovethecoasts' post about her 30-70% increase in conversion. But like I mentioned above the scenerios in the book may not apply to your site but it will give you enough ammunition to try different things out and one of them may just work well. I ordered the book as well.
Problem with books is that the information is a little too general to put to good use. I've gotten an eye tracking study done for one of my sites from eyetools (www.eyetools.com). This is direct input from people actually staring at your site; they analyze the results and suggest some changes that may help conversion rates. After the first test, I had a 48% improvement in conversions after I made some of the changes. I'm doing a second study now; trying to figure out which of a few different second changes I should do this time around and see if there are other suggestions.
It's funny that you mention grokdotcom.com, as I just went to a WebTrends 7 conference thingy in Garden Grove, CA and everyone got a copy of their (FutureNow guys) new "Call to Action" book. I skimmed over the book and read the first couple pages and it looks like it will be a good read. Conversions are definitely where it is at. If you can squeeze more conversions from your existing traffic now then you gain more $$ now and more $$ later when you increase your traffic. Very important. ps. WebTrends 7 looks pretty sweet. I just wish it was more affordable for smaller people.
I havent rec'd the book yet, but I should be here within the next day or two. It was supposed to ship on the 8th. Up until now, I was focussed 99% on SEO. Now having SEO'd my site to death and getting some good rankings, I realize that increasing my conversion rate with SEO should have been my goal from the beginning. I guess its a more holistic approach. However, when I get the book I will post a review.
Books are nice, you do not have to search for the information. Someone has already put it all together for you. But I doubt they cover anything new that can't already be found online. At the sametime how someone says something is very important. grokdotcom.com seems to write very well. If the changes help you to make the money for the book back and a little more then the book would be worth it.
I have found the Grokdotcom articles and newsletters very useful, but will not be getting the book at the moment as reviews I have read seem to imply that the content is aimed at larger corporate-type websites. On the other hand, what I have learned for free in just a few weeks has resulted in dramatic increase in my conversion rate, such that my sales for this month period are already twice last months with no real change in quality traffic - and this sales period is only 2/3 over.... Since there is little else I can see to do in terms of SEO except wait to get out of the sandbox, what better than to make use of the vistiors I am already getting to my site. On a slightly different but connected point, I found that changing just the color of a small fraction of the text on my product description pages had an effect like turning a faucet on and off in terms of sales. It just showed me what a dramatic effect optimizing for conversion can have. (I just stumbled across the text color issue - I didn't read about that one anywhere.)
This is exactly the kind of think I trying to discover on my site. What kind of research did you do to discover this.
I have not received it yet. I hope it gets here before the weekend so I can read it. I will be happy to brainstorm and exchange notes with you if you want.
This looks like an interesting book. Thinking of picking it up. Does anyone know if the second edition will be any different? Or will it just cost more? The site says it will cost 25.95. I wonder if it will be different from the current version on Amazon...
it looks just like any other sales ebook being sold today. let us know if it's worth the few bucks...
Except it's not an ebook. And just for a heads up, I emailed them and Bryan, the author(!), replied saying the only difference with the second edition is the price.
I recieved the book over the weekend, well worth the money! I must say that if my conversion increases even incremetally, it will literally be worth is weight in gold (well almost). Since I got in early, and recieved 3 copies of the book, I have 2 copies laying around unused. Since this forum has been very good to me, I will send 2 people a FREE copy via Media Mail in the US, at no cost, not even shipping. Just PM me with your address and its yours.