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Thursday, December 27, 2007

Web Site Conversion

Do you even know if your web site converts? Well, believe it or not web site conversion is about taking analytics and the statistic or information from your files and programs, then using them to help your visitors find what they are looking for on your web site. It guides them to do certain things while they are on your site. Like a navigational system.

Things like buying your products or reading information you might have listed on your web site for instance. Or to get them to sign up for email newsletters the opportunities are endless obviously.

Internet web site conversion simply put, allows you to show your visitors all about your web site, what its about, products and information, then in turn asks them to give you information to send them special offers or newsletters via email or regular mail. In a big way, you find out exactly what it is your customers are looking for and what it is they would like to see on your web site. Products, information, sales, whatever the case might be.

By getting your site to convert and give reasonable style with measurable return on your investing in your website it's the best way you could possibly operate your business online.

By using website conversion nine out of ten web site clients see at least double digit growth using the conversion platform. This is definitely a good standard for the web site if it is just starting out and beginning to grow.

Web site conversion isn't difficult though you might not understand it, some people will use different companies on the Internet to help them with the web site conversion for a fee, which is perfectly normal. They often times explain how the web site conversion is going to work and how in the long term view of things benefit your web site as you start to see the growth and the generation of visitors to your web site. As well as returning visitors to your web site.

They encourage the probability of introducing new products or information on your web site for those returning visitors as well as the generated traffic that has never been to your web site. Either way both are an investment.

Web site conversion simplifies all the different areas you might not be familiar with starting out with a new web site and these companies can provide you with information or perhaps even help you on your web site conversion and all that pertains to getting that task accomplished.

However, for some people they are content with the generation of traffic they are already receiving through the use of Internet advertisements, and banners, but the web site conversion isn't really about this, its more on the selling power of your web site and the returning customers that will come back to your web site.

More web sites are doing the web site conversion with the help of different companies simply because of the turn out they see on other web sites. These web sites and affiliates know the program and how it operates, if you are unsure do a bit of research as well as talk to those who know about web site conversion.


About the Author: Mario Churchill is a freelance author and has written over 200 articles on various subjects. For more information on web site conversion checkout his recommended websites.

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

12 Simple Steps to Explode Your Site Traffic Using Online Social Media

Last year saw the arrival of online social media. If you operate a website or blog, you would be well advised to realign your site to exploit the popular social media sites for increased traffic.

You should also introduce social media components to your site because web users are experiencing these new forms of interaction on more and more sites and they will have an expectation of the same from your site too.

If you want to attract repeat visitors and want them to stay longer, your focus for the next few months should be on the social aspects of your site.

Social media uses technologies like RSS, blogging, podcasting, tagging, etc. and offers social networking (MySpace, Facebook), social video and picture sharing (YouTube, Flickr), and community-based content ranking (Digg, MiniClip) features.

The central theme of these sites is user generated content used for sharing amongst other users. The social aspects of these sites allow users to setup social communities, invite friends and share common interests.

You don't have to change your site immediately to take advantage of these new technologies. Introduce small changes incrementally and you will be well on your way to measure up to your visitors' new expectations.

Step 1. Declare who you are to the online community. People should be able to relate to you. Unless they know more about you, you will be just an unknown identity and most people don't like to deal with people they don't know. Create an About Me page to list your achievements, skills and aspirations.

Step 2. Create a MySpace page and link your biography in the Profile of your MySpace page. Also provide a link back from the MySpace page to your website. Spend an hour every week to develop your online social network in MySpace. Invite a few of your new friends to write blog articles at your site about your products or services.

Step 3. Install a free blog and start publishing at least one article in your blog every week. Provide an easy bookmarking feature to social bookmarking sites like del.icio.us. This is done by providing an action button for each article in your site. The action button takes users to the submission page of the bookmarking site.

Step 4. Provide an action button for direct posting of blog articles to Digg. Digg is a popular news ranking site. A well "dugg" article will bring thousands of visitors to you.

Step 5. Provide a forum at your site for users to discuss your products and services. Don't delete negative comments because they provide insights into the improvements needed to serve your visitors better. However, censor hate speeches and meaningless bantering. Register your forum at BoardTracker. BoardTracker is a forum search engine.

Step 6. If you are offering products, allow users to review and rate your products. This will help you in inventory management because you may want to discontinue low rated products.

Step 7. Provide RSS feeds for your new products, blogs, forum postings, etc. An RSS feed provides teasers of your content. Users will use RSS readers to scan your teasers and visit your site for more information if the teasers interest them.

Step 8. Publish all your feeds at Feedburner. Feedburner provides media distribution and audience engagement services for RSS feeds. They also provide an advertising network for your feeds. If you have quality content, you will be able to monetize your content using their services.

Step 9.
Create short how-to or new product videos and post these videos in social video sharing sites like YouTube and Google video. Provide a few start and end frames in these videos to introduce your site with your site URL. Post these videos using catchy titles, teaser descriptions, and appropriate tags to make them easy to discover.

Step 10.
Provide embedded links to your remotely hosted videos on your site. This will save your bandwidth and storage space because the videos reside on the video sharing sites rather than on your site's server.

Step 11.
As well as videos, use social photo sharing sites like Flickr and SmugMug to share pictures related to content on your site. Use the same title, description and tag techniques discussed earlier for social video sites.

Step 12.
Provide a "Send to Friend" feature for all the products and services you provide. This feature is a link that sends the article, product description, etc. to a recipient via e-mail.

Social media is not a fad. It is here to stay and brings a profound change to web surfers' experiences. Now is the right time to implement features that will make your site Social-Media-Friendly. Also, using marketing techniques that utilize popular social media sites, you will see a massive increase in traffic to your site.

About The Author

Dave Foster owns and operates the "Solo ProfĂ­ts" blog and podcast, guiding individual entrepreneurs and home-based business owners to online success using audio, video and multimedia techniques. Dave also explores the virgin territory of multimedia psychology and how to present your message effectively through these new communications channels. Want to discover more? Go To ==> SoloProfits.com
 

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Turning Internet Browsers Into Customers

Many marketing experts struggle with the concept of on-site conversion. After executing on a well developed marketing plan, and generating traffic to a landing page or website, the next step is to turn your prospects into customers.
Improving your online conversion rate can be accomplished in a number of ways.

Generate targeted traffic.
An important strategy for enhancing on site conversions begins even before you make changes to your website or webpage. Attracting the right people to your website is paramount for increasing conversions at a lower cost. Begin by evaluating your lead sources and determine the alignment of your prospects with your product.

One way to accumulate this information is with a survey that pops-up or pops-under as browsers leave your site. Often times, reducing or retargeting spend to the segments that perform the best can have a very positive impact on ROI.

You can also determine what traffic is best aligned with your market by carefully analyzing your Google Adwords campaigns. With the proper conversion tracking in place, it's easy to determine which keywords are generating sales, versus clicks alone. Focus on expanding your top converting keywords and driving truly interested prospects to your landing page.


Improving landing page performance

Once you've begun to attract the right prospects, you need to focus on converting them. The fastest way to improve conversion is through testing various landing pages. If you have the technology to rotate landing pages, testing multiple pages within a fixed amount of time, then you can learn quickly what page has the highest conversion rate. If you are limited to testing one page at a time, run each landing page for a week and measure the results. Your data won't be as accurate but can certainly send you down the right path.

Another method for improving on-site conversions is with the help of an automated touch program. With this technique, you can use an auto-responder that gives individuals an opportunity to reconnect with your business.

One example would be an abandoned shopping cart campaign. If users begin the purchase process (and have given you their email) but fail to complete the process, an auto-responder can be used to send and email message within minutes or hours, inviting them back to complete the purchase. You can use email best practices to enhance conversion, and touch individuals numerous times to move them through the purchase decision process.

In addition to targeting those who have started a purchase, you can also use an auto-responder for those who sign up for valuable information from your website. Perhaps they sign up for your newsletter, free lessons, or whitepaper. Once an individual has registered, the auto responder goes to work, sending appropriate emails at set intervals. The result is communication with a prospect that was previously unavailable to you. Work on improving conversion of your automated touch program by testing creative and timing of messages.

Using the techniques of better targeting, improving landing page conversion rates, and auto-responders can significantly enhance the performance of your online marketing campaigns. Plan your programs carefully and measure performance along the way, making appropriate enhancements. Over time, your results become automatic.


About the Author: Michael Fleischner is an Internet marketing expert who has been featured on The TODAY Show and Bloomberg Radio. Discover how to improve search engine rankings at http://www.webmastersbookofsecrets.com.