EzineArticles Help: How to Improve Click Through Rate? My Stats: 12,364 Article Views 343 URL Clicks

[Tristan Lee]

Hello, I've been writing articles for 6 months now. The advice here on Warrior Forum back then was "always write for human beings first".

So I've been doing my best to write in a way that helps them to the best of my ability. Sometimes I spend 2-4 hours on an article, other times I may spend up to 1 week to finish an article. I don't want other human beings to be disappointed in me.

Here is an example of one of my articles: Fear of Change

The thing is, I'm getting frustrated that I'm getting a low click-through rate. I think I'm doing an okay job of writing decent, quality articles for other people.

But from the stats of the URL clicks, there seems to be a problem.

Fear of Change
Article Views: 100
URL Clicks: 1
Click Through Rate: 1.0%

My Total Stats
Live Articles: 74 (not a lot I know).
Article views: 12,364
URL Clicks: 343
Click Through Rate: 2.8%

My wish is to just get a click through rate of at least 10%, that's all. But I don't know if this is possible...

Since there seems to be a lot of spun articles out there these days, I was inspired by many article writers here to give informative, quality content to the internet. I took this advice because I thought I would stand out from other average articles. But maybe my writing is just not good enough, and I need to write better for people to click through.

How can I improve? Any help is appreciated. Thank you.

[redrossero]

Your problem is word count. This article has 1002 words. It is too long so people click back or adsense. Try to write them 300, 400 words and see if your CTR improves. Also, I hope that you put them first into your blog and not on EZA.

[ScottTMc]

These are very long articles, proberbly double what they should be, its great though your trying to impress people with your articles, besides its the way they should be written.

All i think is maybe you should write them at about 400-500 words then see what happens. I have 8 articles up on Ezine (and you said 74 wasnt alot) but ive got 65 views and 27 click throughs, I like you want to provide good content but keep it short and to the point and under 500 words!

Hope this helps you and all the best in the future!

[parzlou]

I agree with the others ... you are losing your readers way before your resource box has a chance .. my best ctr articles are 300 to 400 words .. keep testing ..then go back and test again ...


peace

[affiliateph]

Yup. Keep the words down a little bit.

As for your resource box, you will have to do a lot of testing on this.

Tip: Make them curious. Ask a question and the only way to find the answer is if they will click your link. Why would the readers click your link? What's in it for them?

I don't really put conclusions in my articles because you don't really want to give out everything to the reader because you would want them to follow through your link.

Hope this helps

[Zeus66]

Length is part of it, as noted. But your resource box at the end is weak. You need a stronger call to action and you need to give them a better reason to click to your site. What you've got is vague and sort of "blah." Step back from it and read it again. Does that sentence get you excited to visit your blog? Me either. Spice it up. Include at least one major benefit the reader can expect when he/she visits your blog. Entice them. Be specific. You can definitely do better than 1 click-through per 100 readers.

John

[Tristan Lee]

Thank you guys. This really helped.

[Kevin Williams]

Originally Posted by Zeus66

Length is part of it, as noted. But your resource box at the end is weak. You need a stronger call to action and you need to give them a better reason to click to your site. What you've got is vague and sort of "blah." Step back from it and read it again. Does that sentence get you excited to visit your blog? Me either. Spice it up. Include at least one major benefit the reader can expect when he/she visits your blog. Entice them. Be specific. You can definitely do better than 1 click-through per 100 readers.

John

I agree, unless I want just some more boring tips - I'm not going to be clicking to your blog. Make them need to go to your blog and you'll see a dramatic increase.

And make them shorter - of course.

[Tristan Lee]

Yeah, I guess it is a little bit boring when you think about it.

[Kevin Williams]

Originally Posted by Tristan Lee

Yeah, I guess it is a little bit boring when you think about it.

Boring doesn't sell, but boring gets bought.

[TommyBussey]

Originally Posted by Zeus66

Length is part of it, as noted. But your resource box at the end is weak. You need a stronger call to action and you need to give them a better reason to click to your site.
John

Agreed, John.

Maybe consider offering something of huge value for free, and have that offer be the text for your link in the resource box

[Fun to Write]

I would say, work on your article titles.

Fear of Change: 3 Tips that Will Keep Paralyzing Fear Away

Fear of Change: 3 Ways to Conquer Your Fears and Achieve Your Goals

Secondly, I also think you should lessen the word count, BUT go ahead and shoot for a 500 word article. You are someone who can do this with no problem. Break the article into 2 sections. Secton 1 you explain the problem. Section 2 you give your list of tips.

Tip 1- do this

Tip 2 - do this

Tip 3 - do this

No conclusion needed. Go right into your signature line, which should provide the reader with a strong benefit for them.

Live the life of your dreams. Click here now:

A problem I saw when I clicked your link is that it leads to a page that says "tristan's blog has moved to bottom up". You have 2 links here: one for "tristan's blog" and one for "bottomup" which is really where your blog is.

Head's up, Tristan. Your reader doesn't CARE that your blog has moved. You are losing lots of steam at this point. Most people will be annoyed and not click further.

You should take readers directly to your blog. They get an immediate payoff for their time and effort of reading your article. It keeps the interest going.

[Tristan Lee]

Originally Posted by Kevin Williams

Boring doesn't sell, but boring gets bought.

Hi Kevin. Can you explain to me what this means?

[showpage]

To sum it up...

1. Write short articles (300 words will do the trick, and you'll triple your productivity)
2. Shoot for pure curiosity (no need to deliver solid info there)
3. Work on your headlines ("How To" is always a safe bet)
4. Work on your bio box (think of it as a classified ad)

Here are some ideas for headlines...

How To Cure The Fear Of Change
How To Conquer Fear That Keeps You From Achieving Your Goals
How to Stop Making Excuses and Start Making Changes

Some ideas for bio box...

Click here if you want to make changes in your life, but don't know where to start...

Click here and I'll show you 3 little-known ways how to conquer fear of change almost overnight

This was a big stretch for me. I no nothing about that market. I did some article marketing back in 2007, and actually made some sales directly from there. It was fun to look at the web stats and see that people rush to order page directly from ezine article without even reading the copy on my website.

Hope that helps a bit.

[WealthyBlogger]

I have 62 articles up on Ezine since about April 2009. Here are my stats at this minute:
Article Views: 9,084
Articles Published: 124
URL Clicks: 971

So I'm getting better than a 10% overall CTR. One article has over 25% CTR (which tells me I should be doing something with that particular topic in that niche) with 402 Views and 187 clicks. This article is 475 words long.

I am finding that between 350 and 550 words seems optimal. Really short ones don't seem to do as well, just as longer ones don't. On the advice of "experts," I tried shortening down my articles to just above the minimum of 250 words and making more than one article out of a 500 word article. I'm not seeing a great CTR on those ones.

[WealthyBlogger]

Another thing I noticed, Tristan, is that the link in your article clicks through to a page that says "This site has moved." You might want to edit the article and resubmit it with the correct link - you're probably losing some of the traffic that is clicking through.

[Sonomacats]

The biggest suggestion is: Offer something free in your resource box. Getting more information isn't enough. Say something like "to get a free guide to ___, visit our site at ____" Don't put anything in there about you because they could not care less. What's in it for them? If they want to know about you, they'll check out the "About me" page when they get to your site. But they'll only do that if they get good stuff that makes them keep on reading and if they get something for free.

And as someone else has mentioned, spice the article up a bit - put some personality into it. Make it more pithy - something!

[Joshua.E1]

You title is a bit boring, you should use "10 reasons why fear of change". The numbers in the title will actually pull people in to read more.

On the content, you may want to consider bold the relevant words and benefits or problems, this way you can rank well in SEO, and help the readers to find the main point in that paragraph.

The resource box, I agree that it is very weak, and you instead of getting them to your blog, you might want to bring them to a squeeze page, and get their name and email, so you can send them back to your blog over and over again. Please add a free bonus, state value and what they can do with it.

You may want use the resource box to rank for your blog, you can do a anchor text on top then your call to action to your squeeze page.

[Dennis-White]

Yea, break them down into smaller articles 400 max, is where I get the best results, and bump up the number of article submissions

[Tristan Lee]

Thanks for the advice guys.

[JonStein]

Tristan,

Aside from the suggestions already presented here, allow me to add a few which may help you increase your CTR.

Most readers on the internet are looking for quick painless and authoritative results to their problem. In addition, many readers will wade through several different articles, blogs, or websites before coming to the conclusion that they seek.

Therefore, your articles need to have the most powerful effect on your reader before they click away to the next site in search of their answers.

Three basic words to keep in mind when writing articles are:

Discovery - Let your reader discover something they may not know about their problem.

Conveyance - Convey to your reader that you understand their situation and are able to help them.

Resolution - Provide a result that helps your reader resolve their problem.

In addition, a polishing of your articles is necessary in order to
communicate to your reader that you are knowledgeable, authoritative and confident in what it is you are promoting to them.

In analyzing your article, your use of contractions (doesn't, it's, I've, etc) is improper for your particular niche. Contractions would be largely inappropriate as you want to convey to your reader a certain amount of expertise and professionalism. Try to eliminate all possible contractions and replace with whole words or a complete restructure: for example in your article

Well it's time to conquer our fears...
Is better stated as:

Now is the time to conquer your fears...

Not only are you removing an ineffective contractional statement you are personalizing the issue (using YOUR instead of OUR) and invoking an ACTION to your reader. Instead of begging them to do something, you are not commanding them to do something.

Secondly, Try to spend less effort on stating the obvious, and get directly to the point. Your first two paragraphs already state the obvious of what your reader is looking for anyway. In other words, a reader who already has a problem of fear of change, does not need to know about the problem. Remember, your reader is looking for a solution.

A guaranteed way to keep your reader from finishing your article is by stating something they already know in the opening paragraphs.

Consider giving your reader a reason to get to the bottom by posing a question or informing them of possible resolutions or an opportunity for them to see their problem in a different light.

The more you cause your reader to think, the greater chance their curiosity and intrigue will get them to the bottom to click your resource box.

In your article, start out by posing a question such as

Have you ever wanted to tell your spouse something, yet were afraid of their reaction? Maybe you wanted to ask your boss for a raise, but feared rejection. These situations can create stress in your life, however, did you know there are simple solutions to help you overcome the fear of change.

(you are helping them DISCOVER something)

In doing so, you are immediately CONVEYING to your reader that you recognize their problem and that you are going to provide them with the solution they seek.

Now give them a quick nondescript answer (RESOLUTION) to their problem and encourage them through curiosity to get more info by visiting your blog:

Conquering your fear of change is simply empowering your mind over the situation and turning those fears into victories. You can overcome, with a few simple techniques you will discover at our self-improvement blog <link>

Finally, keep your entire article about 6 paragraphs with 2-3 sentences per paragraph and generally around 300-400 words. Make sure that your Keyword phrase is in the opening paragraph, the middle, the closing paragraph and in your resource box.

Of course, this is only the tip of the iceberg when writing effective articles. Nevertheless, this will give you a guide point to start and if you need additional assistance, I am more than happy to help.

Good Luck,
Jon

[rockfuse]

300 or 400 words is the right advice, I think that goes for blog posts too. The whole idea is to get people to want to learn more after reading your article or post so they click on your advertising on link to get additional information. You just want to tease them , just give them enough that they are curious for more . Dont give away the bank

[Tristan Lee]

Originally Posted by JonStein

Tristan,

Aside from the suggestions already presented here, allow me to add a few which may help you increase your CTR.

Most readers on the internet are looking for quick painless and authoritative results to their problem. In addition, many readers will wade through several different articles, blogs, or websites before coming to the conclusion that they seek.

Therefore, your articles need to have the most powerful effect on your reader before they click away to the next site in search of their answers.

Three basic words to keep in mind when writing articles are:

Discovery - Let your reader discover something they may not know about their problem.

Conveyance - Convey to your reader that you understand their situation and are able to help them.

Resolution - Provide a result that helps your reader resolve their problem.

In addition, a polishing of your articles is necessary in order to
communicate to your reader that you are knowledgeable, authoritative and confident in what it is you are promoting to them.

In analyzing your article, your use of contractions (doesn't, it's, I've, etc) is improper for your particular niche. Contractions would be largely inappropriate as you want to convey to your reader a certain amount of expertise and professionalism. Try to eliminate all possible contractions and replace with whole words or a complete restructure: for example in your article

Well it's time to conquer our fears...
Is better stated as:

Now is the time to conquer your fears...

Not only are you removing an ineffective contractional statement you are personalizing the issue (using YOUR instead of OUR) and invoking an ACTION to your reader. Instead of begging them to do something, you are not commanding them to do something.

Secondly, Try to spend less effort on stating the obvious, and get directly to the point. Your first two paragraphs already state the obvious of what your reader is looking for anyway. In other words, a reader who already has a problem of fear of change, does not need to know about the problem. Remember, your reader is looking for a solution.

A guaranteed way to keep your reader from finishing your article is by stating something they already know in the opening paragraphs.

Consider giving your reader a reason to get to the bottom by posing a question or informing them of possible resolutions or an opportunity for them to see their problem in a different light.

The more you cause your reader to think, the greater chance their curiosity and intrigue will get them to the bottom to click your resource box.

In your article, start out by posing a question such as

Have you ever wanted to tell your spouse something, yet were afraid of their reaction? Maybe you wanted to ask your boss for a raise, but feared rejection. These situations can create stress in your life, however, did you know there are simple solutions to help you overcome the fear of change.

(you are helping them DISCOVER something)

In doing so, you are immediately CONVEYING to your reader that you recognize their problem and that you are going to provide them with the solution they seek.

Now give them a quick nondescript answer (RESOLUTION) to their problem and encourage them through curiosity to get more info by visiting your blog:

Conquering your fear of change is simply empowering your mind over the situation and turning those fears into victories. You can overcome, with a few simple techniques you will discover at our self-improvement blog <link>

Finally, keep your entire article about 6 paragraphs with 2-3 sentences per paragraph and generally around 300-400 words. Make sure that your Keyword phrase is in the opening paragraph, the middle, the closing paragraph and in your resource box.

Of course, this is only the tip of the iceberg when writing effective articles. Nevertheless, this will give you a guide point to start and if you need additional assistance, I am more than happy to help.

Good Luck,
Jon

Wow, thanks for this informative reply and also taking the time to read through my article. You've made some really good points about discovery, conveyance, and resolution. Thanks again!

[billaaa777]

Other than some of the excellent advice mentioned above, I would add the following.

Ask yourself a question, what is the purpose of your articles? Is the reason you are writing them to educate the readers on the subject or have them visit your website?

I would think the vast majority of people writing articles want the readers to visit there websites, because that is how they make money.

You need to write as a copywriter and not an educator. It other words, you should provide just enough information to entice the reader to want more. And by wanting more, they need to visit your site to get it.

Do a search on "Copywriting" and you will find a great deal of free information on the internet.

I have over 1,000 articles at Ezine and in some categories I average a CTR of 42%. My overall average is around 25% by following the above techniques.

[Adriana Copaceanu]

I suggest you change the title of the article. While your title is short, it's not connecting with your audience. It's really easy to edit the article.

How about:

Are You Afraid of Change? Learn How to Handle It

How to Handle Change When Fear Paralyzes you

How to Overcome Fear of Change

I think that just by changing your title, you'll increase the number of click throughs. And of course, as others mentioned, shorten your article, and even create a bullet point list of things to do to overcome change.

Here is an article on the same subject that has a lot of views: Fear of Change?- How to Easily Overome It and Increase Your Confidence

Study his title, and you'll see why: he appeals to the visitor's emotions, and basically promises a solution.

Here is one of my own articles that had a huge success, not only in views, but in click through: Great Gifts Under $5

This article has had over 7700 views, 1128 URL clicks, and used by ezine publishers 31 times.

Good luck with your article marketing.

[Tristan Lee]

Originally Posted by giftsolution

I suggest you change the title of the article. While your title is short, it's not connecting with your audience. It's really easy to edit the article.

How about:

Are You Afraid of Change? Learn How to Handle It

How to Handle Change When Fear Paralyzes you

How to Overcome Fear of Change

I think that just by changing your title, you'll increase the number of click throughs. And of course, as others mentioned, shorten your article, and even create a bullet point list of things to do to overcome change.

Here is an article on the same subject that has a lot of views: Fear of Change?- How to Easily Overome It and Increase Your Confidence

Study his title, and you'll see why: he appeals to the visitor's emotions, and basically promises a solution.

Here is one of my own articles that had a huge success, not only in views, but in click through: Great Gifts Under $5

This article has had over 7700 views, 1128 URL clicks, and used by ezine publishers 31 times.

Good luck with your article marketing.

Thank you so much for your help.

Also, nice job on this article. You definitely have more than a 10% click through rate here.

But I noticed you had 3 links in your resource box? I thought the maximum we can put in our article was 2 links for the resource box?

Please clarify that for me if you can. Thank you.

[ebizman87]

hey TRISTAN..

Are you doing keyword research? It's important!! There's no point writing tons of article but NOT GETTING any views. In another word, there should be demand for your articles. Do a simple keyword research and make sure you're writing SEO based articles. It'll help your articles to rank well in SE and thus bringing a lot of views and traffic..

Read this thread to learn some basic keyword research

How To Ramp Up Your Clickbank Commissions By Doing Proper keyword Research--> Step by Step

I also noticed that your resource box is poorly written..
You need a better strategy to write.Here's a nice tip that I've been using well

How I Got More Than 20% Clickthru For Ezinearticles

Here's another trick to GET more views and at the same time dominate EZA

EZA Tricks

I also noticed that your articles length is too long. You only need articles of 250 words to get approved by EZA my friend.Here's a tip to write short and simple SEO based articles

Lazy Man Way To Produce Article FAST!!

Good luck!!

[Tristan Lee]

Originally Posted by ebizman87

hey TRISTAN..

Are you doing keyword research? It's important!! There's no point writing tons of article but NOT GETTING any views. In another word, there should be demand for your articles. Do a simple keyword research and make sure you're writing SEO based articles. It'll help your articles to rank well in SE and thus bringing a lot of views and traffic..

Read this thread to learn some basic keyword research

How To Ramp Up Your Clickbank Commissions By Doing Proper keyword Research--> Step by Step

I also noticed that your resource box is poorly written..
You need a better strategy to write.Here's a nice tip that I've been using well

How I Got More Than 20% Clickthru For Ezinearticles

Here's another trick to GET more views and at the same time dominate EZA

EZA Tricks

I also noticed that your articles length is too long. You only need articles of 250 words to get approved by EZA my friend.Here's a tip to write short and simple SEO based articles

Lazy Man Way To Produce Article FAST!!

Good luck!!

Whoa, thanks for these visual resources. They're very helpful. I think I have a lot more to learn now. Thanks again!

[showpage]

In analyzing your article, your use of contractions (doesn't, it's, I've, etc) is improper for your particular niche.

I don't know about this... Personal style always has greater appeal than formal (at least for me). And it's a personal development... It kinda makes no sense to sound formal. Other than that, great advice there.

Here's one simple tip that will instantly improve your writing....

Ready?

Use a lot of you, your, yourself, you've, you're, etc. Make it about them.

Me, myself and I... Man... we are the sweetest melody. Talk about me and I'm all ears.

[Slin]

Wow! Good stuff here!

Yeah I would say stick to basics, a bit shorter and a good call to action.

You will be surprised how crazy your conversion will get if you offer something free!

[wiley1]

Hi Tristan,

Here are a few ideas that I have that might help you.

Your readers need to know that you really understand them and that you sincerely want to help them. Be personal. Tell them that when such and such happened to you, this is how you felt, so they know that you've experienced it (whatever it is) and they can trust you and the advice you're giving them to work through and solve the problem.

You could offer them a FREE report (4-5 pages) outlining the main points of your product. Put the free offer in the title to attract them. People love free "stuff". You can capture their name and email with an autoresponder and continue to send them more information. They'll get to know and trust you, and hopefully buy from you.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

Louise

[Tristan Lee]

Originally Posted by wiley1

Hi Tristan,

Here are a few ideas that I have that might help you.

Your readers need to know that you really understand them and that you sincerely want to help them. Be personal. Tell them that when such and such happened to you, this is how you felt, so they know that you've experienced it (whatever it is) and they can trust you and the advice you're giving them to work through and solve the problem.

You could offer them a FREE report (4-5 pages) outlining the main points of your product. Put the free offer in the title to attract them. People love free "stuff". You can capture their name and email with an autoresponder and continue to send them more information. They'll get to know and trust you, and hopefully buy from you.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

Louise

Thanks for this advice, Louise. And thanks for spending your first post helping me out. Welcome to the Warrior Forum.

[greff]

Tristan,

Have you tried Yahoo Answers yet? EZA is good (especially for link juice) but I've had a lot of conversions from Yahoo Answers.

[MissTerraK]

Tristan,
As I was reading through the thread you started, the one thing that kept going through my mind was...FEAR is nothing but False Evidence Appearing Real!
ooooh, I like that! Sorry, got all wrapped up in it LOL! Anyway, feel free to use it if you like, it's just one of my off the cuff things!

To much more success!
MissTerraK

[Adriana Copaceanu]

Originally Posted by Tristan Lee

But I noticed you had 3 links in your resource box? I thought the maximum we can put in our article was 2 links for the resource box?

Please clarify that for me if you can. Thank you.

Yes, it's an old article, and when I submitted that we were allowed 3 links. So, I just left it alone.

[lacraiger]

i recommend using a call to action with your links. these arent google ads so tell them to click away!

[Dennis-White]

Try creating some baaklinks from sites like digg, stumble, wordpress, blogger to your articles

[Global Citizen]

Thank you for the tips warriors.

do you know where i can get a comprehensive guide on writing great articles so that i can get high views and high CTR?

much help appreciated.

[dsmpublishing]

Hi guys

the biggest problem i see with ezinearticles is that too many people give too much away in the article and then they dont need to click through to the url as they already have enough information or that the sig isnt interesting enough and it doesnt give a call of action.

kind regards


sam
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