Interactive Improvements

Better Buttons Boost Sales!

Bob — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 22:09:39 +0000

Don’t miss my first article over at www.ReveNews.com!

You’ll learn how to optimize the buttons on your shopping cart and information forms to increase sales and leads. It’s all about giving your customer clear “hit them over the head” “don’t make them think” direction on what you want him or her to do next.

Don’t Forget to Optimize Your Live Chat Button!

Bob — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 03:38:14 +0000

Here’s one of those moments when I say “Dah! Why didn’t I think of that?”

I’ve been all about visitor optimization for years now and frequently dealt with online customer service chat buttons. Not once, until today, did I (more…)

Fill Your Brain and Your To-Do List at Affiliate Summit

Bob — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 01:39:41 +0000

You have direct access to some of the top movers and shakers in the industry. You get to hear from them first hand how they became successful. You also get to ask them questions. It was quite a treat to be able to get answers from wonderful people like: Joel Comm, Jay Berkowitz, and Jeremy Schoemaker to name just a few.

I find the most valuable learning is at lunches and breakfasts. That’s when we have a chance to talk about things we can’t seem to solve ourselves. This is invaluable to many affiliates. I can’t tell you how many times I heard “I need to do… Any idea how?” with another affiliate sharing an answer. Even among us Outsourced Affiliate Managers (OPMs) we freely share great tips on managing our clients and working with affiliates. It’s also wonderful when we introduce our top affiliates to other managers. It helps the manager and the affiliate. The networking is just another wonderful benefit of attending this conference.

Of course the seminars are well received. About third of the way into the conference “I have enough ideas and improvements to last me six months” was a common thing I heard.

New Friends and Networking at Affiliate Summit

Bob — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 00:52:06 +0000

The networking at Affiliate Summit is simply amazing. Here’s an overview of opportunities this past summit:

Friday Night: OPA! and Indigo
Unofficial party at Taverna Opa at South Beach for ABW-ers (members of aBestWeb.com community). The party was organized by South Beach Annie who runs a South Beach Guide website.

This was quite a fun place. Dancing on the tables is very popular (and encouraged). Ouzo shots shared with the wait staff is not uncommon either! The restaurant has a great mix of people dancing to a great DJ-ed beat and enjoying wonderful food. The fun is quite contagious. I can’t wait to return!

There was also an unofficial party at the Indo Bar at the hotel. With Brian Littleton at the piano playing anything you could think of, the party continued hours after the Indigo was supposed to close (Thanks Indigo!)

Saturday Night: Cameo Dance Club, South Beach
Though noisy (hey! it’s a dance club!), I still met some great people like Brian of Deluxe Banners. I met Graham too as he was trying to work the crowd. I kinda felt for him… obviously a newbie and trying to WORK really hard. He eventually put away his portable power point presentation about his cybersquating elimination service and got into the swing of the party. If you have fun, your other goals of attendance will fall into place naturally.

Sunday Night: The Sagamore, South Beach
It was “A night under the stars.” Poolside conversation and ocean breezes in the Sagamore’s video garden were wonderful. This was a real treat because the music was at a level that you could sustain excellent conversations. I met some really great folks including the fun loving mother-daughter team of HelpingMomsConnect.com.

The party was hosted by my two favorite organizations in this industry… ShareASale and aBestWeb. Brian Littleton (president and founder of ShareASale) and Haiko de Poel Jr (creator of aBestWeb) are two people with a LOT of influence who are shaping this industry for the better good. I can’t say enough good things about them.

Dinner was a must after the party. A bunch of us ate at Jerry’s Deli - a (very much like) NY/NJ diner. The food was a treat. If you’re from the Northeast and looking for a taste of home, you gotta go ta Jerry’s!

Monday Night: Mansion, South Beach
This was a “pass” for me and a lot of folks I had talked to. We’re just so used to sitting behind our computers all day (and night) most of us are just not used to partying every night. Our bodies were revolting by Monday afternoon saying “HEY What’s all this movement!!” One of the party’s sponsors was Moniker.com, a domain management/registrar company I have a lot of respect for.

Tuesday Evening: Poolside at the Intercontinental
Last minute connections and introductions. It was amazing as I gazed around, how many people I didn’t have a chance to meet! Maybe we’ll meet in Vegas!

Tuesday Evening: Dinner at Luna Café
One last round of meeting wonderful people. At the recommendation of South Beach Annie, about twenty of us went to a truly wonderful Italian restaurant. Everyone raved about the food and perfect wait staff. The best part of the meal was meeting four more new folks whom I’m sure I’ll work with in the coming months.

Networking Opportunities: Everywhere!
But it’s not all about the parties. Breakfast, lunch, breaks, loitering around the exhibit hall are all good times to say hello and meet a new colleague. Business cards are traded freely in this supportive environment. That was one of the things that stuck me at my first Summit… just how much a part of the culture it is of the show to trade cards. It’s not unusual to trade 150 to 300 business cards over 3 days (really!).

The synergies that happen at Affiliate Summit can be surprising. By random chance, there where four people sitting at two of the couches in the lobby (a very popular place to mingle). After introductions went around, it was discovered that there was a Graphic artist, a programmer, a super affiliate and an OPM (outsourced affiliate manager, like myself). Then someone said “hmmmm….” and the wheels started turning on how to capitalize on these connections. It’ll be interesting to see what develops between these four over the next few months!

You never know what’ll develop with the people you meet at the Affiliate Summit.

Affiliate Summit East 2007 Wrap Up

Bob — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 21:30:02 +0000

WOW! I just finished up another Affiliate Summit. These Summits just keep getting better and better. If you’ve never been to a Summit, there are essentially three components: learning (sessions and sharing with others), networking, and of course the parties. Ok, maybe two components… you could put the parties under the subset of networking.

I really really enjoy the networking* side of the conference. It’s my favorite part. (*networking is not the best word for what is really happening here. It’s really making new friends.) For months, most of us are locked away isolated in our offices with only forum postings, IM and email to keep our sanity. We sorely miss that human connection. Affiliate Summit provides that human connection - in spades! I love meeting new folks, putting faces and stories with the names I’ve met over the Internet and reinforcing old relationships. Overwhelmingly this is a very supportive and family-like group of people. OH!.. another really cool aspect of Affiliate Summit… you don’t have to EXPLAIN what you do. We all “get it” here. It’s a common bond. How many times have you said “I do affiliate marketing” to a friend and you get a blank look in return.

I’m bringing back a lot of great tips and techniques for me to become a better OPM (outsourced affiliate manager) and a whole lot more to share with my affiliates to help improve their conversions. There’s a LOT to learn at the summit. Quite often I hear folks saying “my brain is full”.

I can’t say enough good things about the Summit. This is my second and I wish I had started coming years ago!

What’s an Affiliate Network?

Bob — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 17:37:19 +0000

Affiliate networks bring together merchants and affiliates by providing a system to track clicks, leads and sales, report performance and pay commissions. The “Big Three” networks are: Commission Junction, LinkShare and ShareASale*. Promoting merchants that run their programs via these networks has some nice benefits.

Promoting networked merchants makes it easy for you.
When you sign up and join an affiliate program an account is created for you. That account is where you log in to get links and banners with your special tracking code, contact the merchant with questions and requests, and most importantly, where your reporting is… your clicks, sales and how much money you’re making! Your affiliate account is your connection with the merchant you’re promoting.

Now imagine promoting a dozen or more merchants on your website. If they were not in an affiliate network, that’d be twelve places you’d have to log in to check all that stuff! WOW… what a time killer! This is one of the biggest reasons affiliates like networks. With one account you have access to and can manage the promotion of thousands of merchants. The second biggest reason affiliates like networks is all about getting paid.

You get paid by the network (not the merchant).
Although time saving convenience is important, the two strongest reasons affiliate marketers like networks is:

1) You are reasonably sure you’ll get paid!
Unfortunately, there are some merchants who, for some reason, don’t pay their affiliates. Promoting merchants that run through (one of the big three) networks gives you a lot of protection in this area because it’s actually the NETWORK that is promising to pay you, not the merchant.

2) ONE BIG check to cash, rather than lots of small ones.
Since it’s the network that’s paying you and not the individual merchants, all your earnings are aggregated into one big check. Easier management. Less work.

Easy. Free. And there’s no obligation.
Setting up an account is fast, easy and best of all - free. There’s no obligation to promote any merchant. With a couple of clicks you can choose whom to promote or not. Being an affiliate is really a powerful position to be in. You could be making (more) money with your website in just a few minutes with affiliate marketing.

So why not?

*I have found that ShareASale is by far is the most trusted and respected of all the networks. Affiliates tell me that they feel SAS’s management is reputable and reporting the most reliable.

Traffic = Revenue… via Affiliate Marketing

Bob — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 17:43:32 +0000

You’ve build a great site with wonderful content that people love. It’s full of great information and receives lots of traffic. People are viewing you as a trusted expert. I know you’re doing it all for the love of it, but wouldn’t it be nice if it could also pay some bills? Maybe some mad money? Maybe even a second income! I’m not going to promise you that you are going to retire to a private island (though some affiliate marketers certainly have done that). What I am saying is that affiliate marketers can realistically make a few or even tens of thousands of dollars a year- just by doing what you are doing right now but adding just one more element to it - affiliate marketing ads and links for select merchants.

How does affiliate marketing work?

1) You place a text link or banner on your website which links to a merchant’s site. (The link contains a special code unique to you.)
2) One of your visitors clicks on the banner/link.
3) That visitor buys something from that site (at that moment or in the future).
4) This is the best part… you get a paid a commission - typically a percentage of the sale.

Where do I get banners? Links? My own code?
Go to a merchant’s website that you and your visitors would appreciate. Look around for a link to their affiliate program. If they have a program, an “Affiliate Program” link will often be at the bottom of the page which will take you to their sign up / join page. When you join their program, you’ll be signing up directly with the merchant or with an affiliate network that the merchant is running the program through. (Read this article to learn more about affiliate networks.) Signing up is free and you have no obligation to do any amount of promotion.

Sometimes you get lucky and receive an invitation from the merchant’s affiliate manager to join their program. This is probably one of the highest compliments someone can pay your web site. That manager has looked at your site and thinks it’s of high quality that’ll reflect well on the merchant. He or she also believes that YOUR VISITORS will truly appreciate the merchant’s products or services.

Once you sign up and join the program, you’ll be able to sign into your affiliate account. There you can choose from all the marketing materials (banners, links, promotions, etc) that merchant has for you to place on your website or in emails. This is also the same place you can check your statistics (hits, sales and ka-ching… commissions).

Expert Tip: Links are best.
Let’s face it, most of the time people ignore banners. That probably happens on your site too. Banners are easy to “throw” up on to your site and are certainly better than not promoting at all, but they produce the least results. One of the best things you can do is place text links (which include your affiliate code) to the merchant in relevant places in your copy throughout your web site. Or make a special recommendation that your visitor check out the merchant when shopping. How ever you weave them in, using links you’ll see much higher sales and commissions coming your way.

Don’t change what you love doing.
What’s most important is that you keep doing what you love. Whatever your website is, keep building and nurturing it. Because that’s what your visitors love. It’s that what makes you an expert. And what’s better than to make some money while doing what you love and helping others find great stuff?

Marketing Opportunity ALERT! YOU are Time’s Person of the Year!

Bob — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 14:45:34 +0000

That’s right. In Time Magazine’s December 25th edition, they’re naming YOU as the Person of the Year!

What Time is referring to is “Web 2.0″ and the social networking phenomenon that has occurred this year:

It’s a story about community and collaboration on a scale never seen before. It’s about the cosmic compendium of knowledge Wikipedia and the million-channel people’s network YouTube and the online metropolis MySpace. It’s about the many wresting power from the few and helping one another for nothing and how that will not only change the world, but also change the way the world changes.

I think this really gives our industry a nice shot in the arm. Gives us, and especially bloggers and social network sites, yet another stamp of legitimacy. I particularly like this encouraging quote:

We’re looking at an explosion of productivity and innovation, and it’s just getting started, as millions of minds that would otherwise have drowned in obscurity get backhauled into the global intellectual economy.

Check out the full article online here

So what are you doing to ride this wave - this buzz moment?
It’s a great story to spin to your benefit. Connect yourself with a major press event. Tell all your visitors that they are Time’s Person of the Year!

Increase Sales by Adding Some Personality to Your Personas

Bob — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 21:55:22 +0000

“Everybody’s different.” We all know that intuitively, so let’s take a closer look at how you can accommodate their differences and increase conversions.

When creating copy for your website personas, take into consideration personality. Generally speaking, people can be classified into four types: Spontaneous, Humanistic, Competitive, and Methodical. Each type of person has specific needs and goals when they go to your website. Each of the four types has a different way of looking at your website. They are primarily looking for the answers to their questions. Here are some ways to satiate their desires for knowledge and move them closer to The Sale.

Spontaneous
These are fun-loving people who tend to skim pages and jump around the website. Bolding key points on a page will help them gather information in a way that is natural for them. Notice that you can get the gist of my articles simply by reading the bolded parts. Another thing I do is give them lots of links to (umm) spontaneously jump around to. The jumping around should lead them to the answers they’re looking for. Done right, it would be like having your FAQs woven throughout your website.

Humanistic
Humanistic types will read a lot of your website. They feel that that by buying from you they’re putting their trust in you and that your product will perform as promised. They need reassurances from you and you have to prove to them that you have integrity. They’ll look for reassurances from others too, so testimonials are very important. Typical marketing hype and clichés are easily spotted and are a quick turn-off, so “just say no” to clichés and hype ;-). Three of the most important facets of humanistic folks are they are often buying, researching, and recommending for others. Make it easy for them to do that.

Competitive
Why should I buy from you and not from your competitor? What benefits do I get from you that they can’t provide? Those are the kind of questions at the top of a competitive person’s mind. So set the tone right away - establish your credentials and your unique selling proposition on your home page. Lead the Competitive type to a page that compares you against your less worthy competitors.

Methodical
These folks read everything. They have the most questions about your product or service. (I’m a Methodical. I often find myself in situations where I know a product or website better than the business owner!) Satisfy their needs for lots of data with structured copy, bullet points, and factual information. Start the copy on the page light and increase the level of detail as you progress down the page. This will satisfy the Methodical folks who want more info and won’t be a hurdle for the Spontaneous who won’t get to the end.

Now, go back to your personas and give each at least one personality type (some may be a mixture of two with one of the types being dominant) Then look at your website through their eyes. See holes? See places to make more sales? Hmmm… GOOD!

Three Steps to Spectacular Search Engine Optimization

Bob — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 17:23:25 +0000

I love SEO and have been doing it since 1995. It’s a blast when a site I’m working on goes from oblivion to a top-5 ranking! As I see it, there are three steps to truly effective Search Engine Optimization; the Fundamentals, Lots of Rich and Relevant Content, and a solid Link Building Strategy.

Step 1: THE FUNDAMENTALS
Discovery: Figure out who your customers are. What are their needs and goals? What methods and search phrases do they use to find you? If you have web analytics reports available, review them to learn your visitors’ navigation paths and look for things you didn’t know/assume about them that you can expand upon. (If you’re pursuing all three steps, this is when you’d also create personas of your typical customers.)

Basic Keyword Research: Once you generally know what search phrases your customers are using to find your website, take that information and research to find other related search phrases that are equally or more popular. Overture and Google Adwords keyword finding tools are a pretty good start.

Meta Tags - Page Title and Description hold a lot of weight with the major search engines. Make sure that every one of your pages has a unique Title and Meta Description. If they are all the same the search engine is just going to say “Hey, these are all the same, so I’m just going to index one”. If your pages are generated by a database, use the database fields to make sure all pages are unique. Here’s one of those things that doesn’t matter (hardly) anymore: Meta Keywords. The Meta keyword tag has been so abused that the major SE’s don’t even bother to read it anymore.

SPAM Check: Review your code to make sure there’s no search engine spam or blacklisting potential. Google does a nice job saying what it doesn’t like. Here are some things that used to be very popular in the old days that will surely get you in trouble today:

Cloaking: Displaying different content to search engines than you display to users
Keyword Stuffing: Saying a word or phrase an abnormal number of times anywhere on the page or in your code.
Hidden Links or Text: Making text or links the same color, or nearly the same color as the background. This is a big no-no and will get you penalized very quickly.

There are a 100 other things that can get you trouble too. Just create pages for users, not for search engines. If something exists only for the search engine and it’s no value to your visitors, don’t do it.

Copy Up Top: Text / Copy is the most important thing to the search engines. Make sure that they can read it by making sure it’s at the top most of your code. The most common mistake I see webmasters do is bury the copy below lines and lines of java script. Put that script below the text or even better, offload it to its own file and make a call to it.

Internal Linking: The most important thing to be sure of is that a search engine can access and index all of your public content. Search engines won’t fill out a form. They won’t perform a query for red sweaters. Get your content out there and findable using text links.

File Structure: What you name a page is not the most important thing that you do, but in highly competitive environments, it may give you that needed edge. As a rule of thumb, it’s good to have key words in the file name. Also, the less directories between the root and the page file the better.

Basic Linking: You gotta get at least a few inbound links from other websites. Read my Link Building article for more details.

Step 2: LOTS OF RICH CONTENT
To be truly successful in reaching top rankings you need rich content and lots of it. This is especially true in highly competitive markets such as online dating, mortgages, travel, etc. For a search engine to “recommend” your site, a search engine needs to know that your site, more than any other, has what the searcher is looking for. Having lots of copy describing your product is the only way a search engine will know how good and how unique your stuff is.

The other reason to have deep content is to give other website owners a reason to link to you (see Phase 3). You don’t get something for nothing and links are no different. At the least, what you have to “give” is great information to the people that other websites refer to you.

The wonderful thing about adding content is that not only will you gain rankings and links; you’ll have more sales per visitor by helping people decide what to buy. When I first performed Phase 2 to just a portion of the RegionalHelpWanted.com websites, sales instantly went up 35% and pre-sale question calls went down 50%.

Lean more about why content is so important.
Learn more about converting more visitors into customers.

Step 3: LINK BUILDING STRATAGY
Good content is only half the picture. In highly competitive markets, if you don’t have a bunch of “important” and relevant websites linking to your site the search engines will just ignore it. Heck, if no one else is “recommending” you, why should engines recommend you?

Learn more about the importance of a good linking strategy.

I could go on for another hundred pages - and that’s just for The Fundamentals! The goal of this article is to establish a foundation for future articles and, more importantly, to illustrate all the components it takes to get real optimization results. The fundamentals will get you top rankings in very non-competitive areas like “corn husking in Oshkosh.” but, if you’re in a competitive arena, you’ve got to do all three steps to pop to the top!