Good Average Time on Site, no sales?

[sailor4528]

Hi All

I'm a newbie, and I've had a look around the threads, not sure where to post this question, so forgive me if I'm off subject here.

I've got a couple of sites (info based, with some relevant affiliate stuff and adsense) where I'm getting average time on site of about 3 minutes. This seems pretty good to me, but I'm not getting any revenue at all. I've tried pure text links in the content (reviews and recommendations), text and image in the side panels and so on, but not a sniff of $.

I do have some marketing background, but it ain't working here!

I'm checking stuff like cursor-hover and so on, but guess I might be missing something obvious (or more likely a few small things which add up).

All suggestions welcome, thanks in advance.

Sailor4528

[Barry Unruh]

It sounds more like you're not giving them a compelling reason to click the links.

Three minutes means they are having time to read your review, but is there a compelling reason to click, or are they satisfied with just getting your information?

[Alexa Smith]

Originally Posted by sailor4528

All suggestions welcome, thanks in advance.

Interesting situation - but very difficult to comment without seeing the site. Any chance of a link? (You'll get far more opinions that way).

Over how many visitors was the 3-minute average measured?

[Neil Morgan]

I agree with Alexa - we'd really need to see the sites to comment constructively.

If they're hanging around your site and not clicking the links, it sounds like you're giving them what they need instead of telling them what they need then linking to the "real" information.

But that's just a guess based on the limited information provided so far.

Cheers,

Neil

[JayXtreme]

Linky?

Peace

Jay

[Bruce NewMedia]

Big question I would ask (among many others) is "Where is the traffic coming from"...are they targeted to your offer(s)? .....the quality of the traffic matters as much as anything.
_____
Bruce

[Ahmed-Salah]

i would suggest you to write your review but with a missing part that make people curios to know more about what you are offering in your review or affiliate website and click your affiliate link.

ahmed

[sailor4528]

Hi All

Thanks for advice - I didn't post links because not sure whether acceptable here. Anyway, main site is w w w footballpoolswizard it's a dot co dot uk, I can't post link as I'm a newbie sorry.

I have now made 1 sale of my unique product, but not picking up any stuff on affiliates. Ok it could be that the market isn't large enough (UK), but football is big here and there are about 700,000 football pools players.

Have run a few adwords campaigns, last 72 hrs 227K impr, 106 clicks, CTR 0.05%, avg pos 2.9.

I'm adding to mailing list at about one name every 2 days ($10/name), seems way way too expensive.

Also have some Ezinearticles bringing traffic.

Maybe I should be a bit more patient and wait for cash flow to go +ve, but at this rate it never will.

Thanks for your comments

[Alexa Smith]

Originally Posted by sailor4528

I didn't post links because not sure whether acceptable here. Anyway, main site is w w w footballpoolswizard it's a dot co dot uk, I can't post link as I'm a newbie sorry.

Understood ... no problem.

Well, let's make your link clickable for people who want to take a look with a view to advising you, anyway: football pools wizard home - footballpoolswizard

Originally Posted by sailor4528

Have run a few adwords campaigns, last 72 hrs 227K impr, 106 clicks, CTR 0.05%, avg pos 2.9.

I'm not qualified to comment on Adwords figures: someone else will be, though.

Originally Posted by sailor4528

I'm adding to mailing list at about one name every 2 days ($10/name), seems way way too expensive.

Yes, that certainly sounds dreadful.

The question is: may I comment on your website really openly and honestly without fear of offending you?

[JayXtreme]

Ok....

I'm gonna be a little brutal here, cool?

Your website looks really bad on the eye. It hurts to look at it for too long right away. If I was interested, I would probably stick around... but I really wouldn't want to look at anything other than the content being shared.

Your website doesn't seem to know what it's primary purpose is

Blog?.... squeeze page?... salespage?... content website?... info resource?...

There are so many leaks it makes it almost impossible for me to make a decision on what to do.

What do you want your visitors to do?

Most of your visitors will probably be leaving the page via:

Ads (all down the right hand side)

or

Links to other content (the BBC link right at the top of the page)

I'm probably being a little harsh here... but I think a little tough love can really help in these type of situations.

Make a decision on what you want to get from the site, and then design it so your visitors/traffic have no option but to perform your M.D.A (most desired action) or leave.

Stop your P.P.C traffic right away, until you have a site that is ready to perform under paid traffic conditions.

Just my opinion

Peace

Jay

[Don Schenk]

sailor,

When I get to the bottom of your page you put the "Click Here To find Out How" link and it immediately takes me to a page, at the top of which is a price "£20 Discount January Only."

My fist thought was, "He hasn't yet given me a reason to become a raving fan and make me want to buy his system, instead he tells me the discount. Yow! that means the price is more than £20." click away, click away.

Can you keep all money amounts to the end of the sales page while you build anticipation of the success readers will have once they "own" your system?

Also on the home page, in order to "Check the top right hand side to see my current draw strike rate!" I have to scroll back up and lose the place where I have been reading.

Can you get another link to your draw strike rate to also be given at the end of that paragraph?

And as Jay suggested, make the site do only one thing. Perhaps it should be a squeeze page to capture a list. Then you can repeately sell to that list.

Just some thoughts.

:-Don

[Neil Morgan]

Jay's nailed it, as you'd expect

You need to focus on the ONE thing you want your visitor to do and design every pixel to push visitors down that path. Jay called it the Most Desired Action. I call it the MWR - Most Wanted Response - and have done since Ken Evoy taught me the concept a decade ago in his Make Your Site Sell course.

Expanding a little on what Jay said, again from Ken's teachings, there is often also room for a secondary response - ONE thing that you want the visitor to do in case they don't do the MWR action - maybe grab their email address. Like a plan B.

But you've got to do that in a way that doesn't leave the visitor bemused.

So, focus on the MWR/MDA first so that you don't end up back where you started. Apart from anything else, it makes tracking the success of your site a whole lot easier if there's only one action to track.

You want to get to the point where a visitor arrives, and either takes the MWR/MDA or doesn't.

Remember that (as someone once said), every time you offer your visitors a choice, half of them won't bother and will vanish forever.

I hope this helps.

Cheers,

Neil

[Alexa Smith]

Originally Posted by Neil Morgan

Jay's nailed it, as you'd expect

Yes indeed ... I hardly need to reply again, now that Jay and Neil have commented for me.

But ...

My first thought on seeing the site was to be annoyed by the pop-up which links to a new page (not in a separate window?!) before I've had a chance to look at the front page. That has to go, for starters!

My second thoughts were all that Jay said above ... it's terribly confusing. (And I'm saying that as someone who's very familiar with football pools sites, by the way - it's not the subject-matter that confused me, it's the site design/layout/contents.) I'm a monkey on a website and I want to know "Where's the banana?" within 10 seconds of seeing the page, otherwise you lose me as a customer, even if I stay on the site 3 minutes. (I borrowed this metaphor from Seth Godin, who uses it in his excellent little books to make the point that this is what most site visitors are like!).

My "third"/last thought was: what on earth are you doing with Adsense on a sales site? Do you want people to stay on your site or click the Paddy Power Adsense link and leave it?

Originally Posted by JayXtreme

Stop your P.P.C traffic right away, until you have a site that is ready to perform under paid traffic conditions.

I'm afraid I agree.

My guess is that the people who stay 3 minutes are taking 3 minutes to try to work out what's going on here, what it's all about, and so on ... and eventually give up.

Now that we've all been so rude (actually Neil was totally polite!), may I make a positive, constructive suggestion as well? Go to Clickbank, look at the "marketplace" and type "football" in the search box (and try "soccer" and so on, as well). Click on all the links that come up, and have a look through the sales pages of your near-enough-competitors (same niche, anyway), and see what they're all doing so differently.

[sailor4528]

Thanks to all, no offense taken, it all makes sense and is constructive which is what I needed. I'll rework the flow and strip it down to the chassis.

sailor4528

[Neil Morgan]

Hey Sailor4528

I'm glad it's been helpful.

And, of course, Alexa's comment on AdSense is absolutely spot on.

With this site (and all others you create) before you add one pixel to your design, ask yourself why you're doing it. If it doesn't lead the visitor to your most wanted response, ditch it or change it so that it does.

I see a light bulb above your head now

Cheers,

Neil

[Christophe Young]

I agree! I got to your page, got confused and left. There needs to be a BIG fat headline telling people what to do right away. I don't know where my eye is supposed to go.

Hope that helps.

[Arbitrager]

The color really hurt my eyes. I found The site is kind of confusing as well. >.< At least change the color of your menu. Do something so that It appears buttonlike. Make people know that they can navigate your site using those button.

After you fix what ever it is on the page. Try to implement heat map.