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Making Better Use of Traffic

by George SuperBootCamps
15 replies
Hi there guys,

I've got a blog that I'm building (using Jon Legers products for my main source of SEO) and have one article in particular that gets lots of google traffic.

It's this one: Diet and Nutrition 101: Part 1 What IS Food? - SuperBootCampsBlog

My problem is that I don't seem to get many of my viewers reading anything else on the site (bounce rate of 84%! But average read time is 2min 21 sec), and I want them to.

My question, therefore, is this: What ideas do y'all have that might help me make more use of these highly valued viewers?

I have already tried to get them to add comments and put a banner at the top to ask them what their major question is about 'food'. None of this seemed to make any difference....

As a sweetner to everyone, I will send each respondent a pdf I created about the NLP process for setting goals (or more specifically, well formed outcomes).

Thanks in advance
George
#making #traffic
  • Profile picture of the author MarketingChad
    One thing I noticed is that your color scheme makes everything blend in, especially your opt-in list. Put a big red arrow or something to highlight that. It's also very low on the page and by the time they scroll to it they will likely be reading the article and won't see it.

    Same goes for your navigation menu, it kind of blends in and you might miss the links.

    You also don't have a lot of contextual links throughout your article (you have some but you can put even more in there). Link to other pages or articles this will lower you bounce rate significantly and get people reading other parts of your site. You can also link to affiliate programs here as well and possible get some extra cash.

    Finally, if you're into Adsense throw up some text ads in the content. If people are reading this page you're bound to get some clicks!

    Overall you have a good handle on this and it certainly only needs a little tweaking to be a killer page.
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    • Profile picture of the author George SuperBootCamps
      Originally Posted by MarketingChad View Post

      One thing I noticed is that your color scheme makes everything blend in, especially your opt-in list. Put a big red arrow or something to highlight that. It's also very low on the page and by the time they scroll to it they will likely be reading the article and won't see it.

      Same goes for your navigation menu, it kind of blends in and you might miss the links.

      You also don't have a lot of contextual links throughout your article (you have some but you can put even more in there). Link to other pages or articles this will lower you bounce rate significantly and get people reading other parts of your site. You can also link to affiliate programs here as well and possible get some extra cash.

      Finally, if you're into Adsense throw up some text ads in the content. If people are reading this page you're bound to get some clicks!

      Overall you have a good handle on this and it certainly only needs a little tweaking to be a killer page.
      Thanks for taking the time to look and reply.

      I'll see what i can do about making things a little more obvious. I think it's a fine line between making things look neat and clean, and making them grab someones attention. Perhaps I've erred too far toward caution.

      I hadn't really thought about the internal contextual links, I'll go back through the post and see what else I can add without losing fluency. I have a couple of affiliate products waiting to launch, perhaps this is the push I need!

      Up till now I have been avoiding adsense as I don't want it to look like one big advertisement. I'll check it out and see if I can embed some without spoiling the look.

      Plenty for me to work with there, thanks again.

      George
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    • Profile picture of the author jwmann2
      It's a very professional looking website. Well-written. First of all, that was written in August. You need a new article for the front page. And maybe instead of a photo of a face made of vegetables, use a photo of Ava Cowan...that will catch the attention of your readers!
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      • Profile picture of the author George SuperBootCamps
        Originally Posted by jwmann2 View Post

        It's a very professional looking website. Well-written. First of all, that was written in August. You need a new article for the front page. And maybe instead of a photo of a face made of vegetables, use a photo of Ava Cowan...that will catch the attention of your readers!
        Thanks for your feedback!

        The article was written in August, but the front page/home page changes with each new blog post. Is this what you meant?

        i have been aiming to stay away from 'pics of sexy women' as I realise that a proportion of my readers probably won't appreciate buffed and oiled women posing as they do. i try to keep my photos entertaining without leaning toward attracting or repelling one group or another. Not that this is the right thing to do, but there are enough blogs that just post images of hot women all the time, and I want mine to be a little different from that.

        Thanks again for the feedback

        George
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  • Profile picture of the author NicoleBeckett
    Adding my 2 cents in... the mention of your PS right in the beginning of the article is distracting. I was curious enough by your title, but then you told me to check out your PS, so I scrolled down to the bottom before I read any of your article. It seems like a backwards way to do things.

    Instead, I'd have the article without any mention of a PS or a call-to-action until the very end. That way, people get to digest this article before they start thinking about anything else.

    If I were you, I'd get rid of the PS and PPS altogether. Maybe it's just me, but it looks a little too much like a sales letter.

    Instead, at the end of the article, I would make it more conversational and make it flow better by saying something like, "But we're only scratching the surface. In my next post, I'll talk about scaling your food. In the meantime, if you want to learn how to cook a dinner tonight that will help you burn fat, check out this page. And, if you want to share your insight or ask a question, feel free to send me an email using the form below."

    That way, you're telling them to do a bunch of things that encourage them to stay on the site and interact with it - but it's AFTER they've read (and been impressed by) your article.
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    • Profile picture of the author George SuperBootCamps
      Originally Posted by NicoleBeckett View Post

      Adding my 2 cents in... the mention of your PS right in the beginning of the article is distracting. I was curious enough by your title, but then you told me to check out your PS, so I scrolled down to the bottom before I read any of your article. It seems like a backwards way to do things.

      Instead, I'd have the article without any mention of a PS or a call-to-action until the very end. That way, people get to digest this article before they start thinking about anything else.

      If I were you, I'd get rid of the PS and PPS altogether. Maybe it's just me, but it looks a little too much like a sales letter.

      Instead, at the end of the article, I would make it more conversational and make it flow better by saying something like, "But we're only scratching the surface. In my next post, I'll talk about scaling your food. In the meantime, if you want to learn how to cook a dinner tonight that will help you burn fat, check out this page. And, if you want to share your insight or ask a question, feel free to send me an email using the form below."

      That way, you're telling them to do a bunch of things that encourage them to stay on the site and interact with it - but it's AFTER they've read (and been impressed by) your article.
      Hi Nicole,

      Thanks for taking the time to reply.

      Of course the irony about the PS is that I put it in there to get people to interact with the post more!

      I'll remove both the PS's and pop in the more conversational tone. I like what you've written, in fact, i'll just copy that over, it works really well!!!

      Off to the blog engine now, let's see what happens...

      Thanks again,
      George
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  • Profile picture of the author jrlsage
    Im learning from this.

    Thanks for the thread and the tips.
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  • Profile picture of the author Osava
    I have the same problem on a blog, try to have more interaction with users, it can beto a survey or putting cases of nutrition. The important thing is that you have much interaction with users.
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  • Profile picture of the author platinumarticlewriter
    this is a common problem. anyway, it also has common solution. just try to make the topic more interesting, unique and enjoyable too. mix some word which adds extra flavor. i think it'll work. thank you for sharing with us.
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    • Profile picture of the author George SuperBootCamps
      Hello there everyone that's read this so far.

      I've made some of the changes suggested previously and had a nice degree of success.

      Changes made have been: made navigation text larger, changed widget text colour to make it stand out more. Changed the order of the widgets in my sidebar (this has allowed me to gain a few new people on my list) and slightly re-worded the post I originally posted this thread about.

      Thanks again to all involved. This whole IM thing is a process of evolution, learning and growth. I hope others have also found the info in here useful.

      On a side note, I have also been following the instruction of Rusty Blackbook (fitnessblogtraining.com) and have changed the navigation menu to help me get some more affiliate sales. If you have a quality fitness blog you really should check this fantastic resource out.

      Keep up the good work folks,
      George
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  • Profile picture of the author Real-TechGuy
    A simple way to get people to take action is to use a pop-up with a giveaway.

    Maybe it's a PDF with 10 tips, maybe it's a nutritional eating email series - you just have to make an offer and get them to take action on it.

    I like popup-domination - but you can use any pop-up script you have to get the job done.

    Another suggestion is to work the action you want them to take into the copy from the beginning - start selling early.

    Give them the desire - paint a picture - and then make your offer the answer to their "prayers."

    I'd take a step back from the Internet Marketing world for a minute and study some direct response marketing - that would be the best tip I could offer.
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    • Profile picture of the author George SuperBootCamps
      Thanks for the RTG.

      I have used a popup in the past, but got quite a degree of bad feedback about it, so decided to drop it. Shame really, as my list building has taken a dive since then!

      Rusty Moore has just done a review of a popup that he actually likes (he avoided them until now as they were too invasive. I'll have to check out what he says about it).

      You say take a step back and learn from direct response marketing, what's the difference between the two, in a nutshell?

      Cheers
      George
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    • Profile picture of the author shawoon98
      Originally Posted by Real-TechGuy View Post

      A simple way to get people to take action is to use a pop-up with a giveaway.

      Maybe it's a PDF with 10 tips, maybe it's a nutritional eating email series - you just have to make an offer and get them to take action on it.

      I like popup-domination - but you can use any pop-up script you have to get the job done.

      Another suggestion is to work the action you want them to take into the copy from the beginning - start selling early.

      Give them the desire - paint a picture - and then make your offer the answer to their "prayers."

      I'd take a step back from the Internet Marketing world for a minute and study some direct response marketing - that would be the best tip I could offer.
      Yes, I was going to tell the same. Although popups sometimes irritating. But it works. It works both ways. List building and reduced bounce rates. popup domination has to be bought. Optin popup is a free plugin that can be used free. You can download it from my signature link.
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  • Profile picture of the author AlexF
    Hi there and a great thread!

    One thing that seems missing is a "related posts" section.

    The links you have at the end of the article are good - but I would personally add a related posts section with 5 links to related posts.

    Hope that helps!

    Alex
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    • Profile picture of the author George SuperBootCamps
      Originally Posted by AlexF View Post

      Hi there and a great thread!

      One thing that seems missing is a "related posts" section.

      The links you have at the end of the article are good - but I would personally add a related posts section with 5 links to related posts.

      Hope that helps!

      Alex
      Thanks Alex, that' well worth a try. I'll check some out tomorrow and put a list up of the ones I think will be good.

      I suspect that this sort of tool will become more and more useful as the site grows. Especially as I am finalising a list of 'the top 100 tips and strategies for weight loss' that will start to go live next week.

      On the same line, one of the things I frequently find frustrating with blogs is the lack of obvious structure to a set posts. It makes searching and finding what you want or might find interesting difficult, just the sort of thing I want to make better for my readers.

      On a side note, the Guardian papar in the UK is running a series about building a blog, its very slow, but there is some interesting info coming out of it.

      This is the first article: How to build and monetise a blog | Money | The Guardian

      And the guy thats acting as the mentor has some pretty decent free plugins here:
      Wordpress Plugins

      Happy Interneting All,
      george
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