Site is 2 months old - PR 2 Already, Still Have Problem

[tess47]

I'm excited to say that my site is not quite 2 months old yet and I have today achieved a Page Rank 2, which I am very happy about.

My problem is, I get an average of 50 to 80 (depending what day it is) unique visitors per day, and about 1/2 of them hit my sales pages. On my stats, about 22% stay on my site longer than 5 minutes, with 7 to 8% staying longer than 20 minutes. Can some of you look at it and tell me if the products are just bad, the content on my site, or what the problem might be? I have made only 4 sales off of this site in this time. Is that average for a new site?

Just need some insight on whether I need different products, or what might help.

Thanks in advance!

[Adam Carn]

Hi Tess,

What's the website, the one in your sig?

Adam

[tess47]

Yes - Home Based Income Opportunity|Home Income Opportunities

[NeelsTheron]

Hi Tess,

One thing I'll suggest: In place of the newsletter subscription, get a solid free ebook to offer visitors, take them to a squeeze page, and throw in your newsletter as a bonus - then start building a relationship thru good content, etc, then send them to sales pages over time.

Also: I don't think it looks serious enough if you use a free autoresponder service (I assume that is what "Powered By: FreeFollowup.com" refers to?) - if you're in for the long term, rather go for aweber or something similar

Good luck!

[GarrieWilson]

IE 7 gives an error loading your site and AVG tells me your site wants to put a trojan on my PC.

Hijack.Iframe.os is the trojan.

Garrie

[tess47]

Ok, I run IE7 and it loads fine for me. But, how do I get rid of the trojan? I have no experience in that kind of thing.

Thanks for your help!

[Adam Carn]

The good thing about your site is that it is quite big and detailed. Well done on getting a PR 2 in such a short time. In my opinion four sales so far isn't too bad. I don't have much criticism for the site. You can add a logo on the top left of the page maybe.

Thanks
Adam

[Sami]

Hi Tess

Firstly, congratulations are in order. 4 Sales and that many visitors are great, as is PR2 though this is no longer as good a measure as it once was.

You've done very well in such a competitive subject - not even niche (see bleow)...

Below are just a few of many (simple little) improvements you need to make but also check this thread too where we discussed a similar request:

Why Doesn't My Site Convert Traffic To Buyers


My initial suggestions:

• Improve your meta tags
• Use a heading tag H1
• Make you headng at the top and your key phrase at the bottom links to your home page.
• Match your page heading with your title tag more closely
• Have strategic plan that guides the visitor to your "MWR" (most wanted response). AT present you offer too many directions to the visitors ... ebook page, free report, content to read, a busy menu, an optin form. Let's take some of those one at time...
• I'd suggest as Neels did, offer the free report or a book in return for an optin.
• Make your optin super-pesuasive and make it your "MWR". Once you get people into your list, you then have the time and plenty of opportunity to (gently) warm them up and covert browsers to buyers. Going straight for the sale is a tough propsition and results in low conversion rates and lost future opportunities.
• State clearly what the prospect gets as a result of the optin.
• Reassure you resopect their privacy and place a link to your privacy policy - it reassures further..
• Reassure you will not spam. ... Notice how you'd be build trust and warming up the visitor with the above simple little steps? Here's one more...
• Place logos of any trusted or respected associations on your home page. Eg Paypal Approved ... but be careful what you use doesn't shout "I want you to buy something from me". You could use any awards you've ever won and their logo near your picture (after you move it right to the top).
• Improve formatting of your pages and perhaps adopt IMHO the fresher cleaner styles (wrongly referred to as web2.0 styles).
• Remove clutter ... switch to top-down single col text. Menu on the left is ok, but...
• Enhance your menu look & feel. It looks busy and daunting. Research (by people much better than yours truly) has shown your preferral vision detects and reacts to 'contrast' much more than previously thought. Sectioning the menu with high contrast section headins will improve your menu CTR significantly.
• Brand yourself better. You seem to have pleasant disposition. Use it! Place a better/clearer picture top right. Place your name and very brief info BELOW the picture ... ever seen old newspapers ... they knew this stuff long before there ever was computer ... if you place captions ABOVE the picture people just skip past it, coz pictures attract the eye - opportunity lost, noff said.
• Add a reassuring and informative audio message - but not a cheesy "welcome to my site". Talk about the visitor's desires and not about you or your site.
• There is much more you can do... just keep going one little fix at a time. BUT...
• If you really want to be successful:

Do Not Stop Making The Fixes: Mediocrity is the enemy of success!

Those should keep you busy for a little while

If you'd like a more detailed interactive critique, feel free to come to my live training webinar. There is not one sales pitch and it is completely free to attend. Have your headset or mic ready so I ask you a few questions and we'll go through your site part way thru the session.

Bring friends too

Good luck
Sami

[tess47]

Thanks to all of you for your help - Now I have some ideas as to what needs changing, improving, etc.

Have a great weekend!