Category: Tips

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Solving the Conversion Problem

Darren at CopyBlogger has it right when it comes to solving the conversion problem look at your own website to make sure that you address each of these issues:

Trustworthiness, transparency, credible authority, lots of high-value content, and just plain old decency are your best weapons.

Everything on your site needs to show that you can be trusted. Real contact information. Showing your photograph. Displaying seals for anti-hacker technology and the Better Business Bureau on your shopping cart. FAQs that actually answer questions. Clear, reassuring calls to action.

My personal combination for success is transparency. On my own business website, we post our pricing, service details and options without fear of competition stealing our thunder. There is no hidden agenda. You will get from us exactly what we spell out on our website and more.

So if you are having trouble with conversions on your own website now’s the time to take a careful look. Have you put a human face on your business? So many people are shy about posting their photograph, but not everyone looks like a movie star! Have you tried to answer questions and objections in a forthright way that you have heard over and over from customers? Do you post your prices?

If you are having moving clients into the final purchase, now’s the time to review and make changes with these specifics in mind.

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June e-Newsletter Published

I’ve just posted my e-newsletter for June. You can grab it here.

Topics for June are:

TweetLater – A Twitter Auto Responder Reviewed

HootSuite Reviewed

Our New Twitter Executive Program

If you like the content, you may want to consider subscribing to our monthly e-newsletter.  You’ll get more in-depth content than on our blog and we typically review applications, introduce our newest white papers, and announce services and tips there before we even post any information on our website.

We always email the newsletter on the first of the month and that’s it, no spamming, no marketing, no catches. If you’re into Twitter or just toying with social networking, you’ll want to check out this newsletter to get more applications that will help make your life easier.

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Are You Using Affiliate Programs?

If you are not using Affiliate Programs, you should. What I am specifically speaking about is talking about other products and services and then linking to the site. If the client buys the service by clicking your links, you get a commission. I don’t make a huge amount of money doing this, but I do make some. In all cases if I am making a commission from a link click, I will state it to a customer either in writing or when I point them to the link.

For me, the link click is about equal to getting lunch from McDonalds paid by the sponsor, not a big deal, but can add up over time. I only recommend sites that I know are great resources for my clients. If I have not tried out your product, I will not write about it or recommend it.

When I like a product I will actively look on their website to see if they have an affiliate program that I can participate in. I really don’t like when a sponsor hooks up with Commission Junction. My reason is that if you do not generate monthly and quarterly commissions, Commission Junction chops your account which is very annoying. My affiliate business ebbs and flows and I don’t always have months where income is generated.

So if you have a website and you promote products and services, make sure to check to see if you should be getting a free lunch from your sponsor too. It just makes good business sense.

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Overriding NoFollow in Links and Comments

I had a commenter recently who brought attention to the fact that he would not comment on my blog again unless I removed the nofollow in comments and commenter links. He made a good point but created an interesting problem that I thought I would blog about today.

First, about a year ago or maybe even more, WordPress, Blogger, and Typepad inserted into their source code an automatic nofollow in the source code of all comments and links left on a blog. There was no setting in the control panels to override this option.

However I for one encourage comments and do not have problems with people linking to a legitimate site if they leave a legitimate comment on my blog. But, how to override this global setting without access to a control panel to do so. Lucia’s Linky Love WordPress plug-in takes care of this problem. You install the plugin and then configure how many times a user needs to comment to have Linky Love turn on a dofollow tag in the comments and enable dofollow in any links they post.

This is an excellent tool to encourage regular visitors to comment and for them to get something back in return for commenting as well as removing spam comments and posters.

I have enabled Lucia’s Linky Love on my blog, so I invite you to be a regular participant and receive link love as a reward!