My Conversion Rate Is Low. Can Anyone Help?

[steveniam]

I have a blog (Best Weight Loss Programs Reviews - Choose A Weight Loss Program That's Right for You) with daily traffic ranging from 250 to almost 400 in the weight loss niche. The site already ranked on the first page of google for some of the main keywords - weight loss programs and best weight loss program(s).

There are 5 weight loss products listed from clickbank. However the conversion rate is extremely low. I am looking for any one who can give suggestions to make changes to the front page of the blog so that it will increase the conversion rate.

As a gesture for your help I will put your clickbank affiliate links on all the 5 products listed on the front page for 5 days. You will receive payments directly from clickbank from buyers who clickthrough the affiliate links during the 5 days period.

[preeeby]

You should put your picture or video promoting your self as an expert in that niche.I think if you advertise yourself as expert people and help them with free tips or some other valuable info they would ask you to sell them products without you ever offering them any.

[steveniam]

I have more than 400 articles on the blog on various topics of weight loss.

Originally Posted by preeeby

You should put your picture or video promoting your self as an expert in that niche.I think if you advertise yourself as expert people and help them with free tips or some other valuable info they would ask you to sell them products without you ever offering them any.

[alanchansg]

Originally Posted by steveniam

I have more than 400 articles on the blog on various topics of weight loss.

some ideas:-

1. products

i believe all your clickbank products are digital ebooks.

you might want to try out some physical products from cj, moreniche, etc.

2. your landing page is the product review site, is this all your visitors landed first? if yes, you might want to change it to load up your blog first. engage the reader and get the list and promote your product to them at later stage.

most people will not buy the products from your link while they are not able to associate with you.

building the list is one of the choice.

[igorhelpsyousucceed]

Personal Branding, relationship building.
You will have to build trust with your readers
in order to really make revenue.
I think promoting 4 products on one page
isn't that of a good idea, try the launch tree
principal.

Igor

[thesuccesscoach]

I think all the suggestions above are really useful

also think of putting google analytics on your site and check the bounce rate ie how long do people stay on the site.

Perhaps they visit the site see it looks like a "sales" site and then move on. Perhaps that's not what they are looking for. Maybe they are looking for more information?

You could use googles optimiser feature to serve up two different pages and test the results.

you've got the thing most people want - traffic - now test different pages to see what the user wants
Richard

[Terry Hatfield]

Is most of your traffic is coming from the search engines for best weight loss programs?

If that is the case, I would try and sell nutri system or jenny craig. That is what I think of when I hear program. It may not be an ebook that they are looking for.

Only way you going to find out what sells best for those words is to experiment. I would look and see what programs the people placing high for those terms are selling.

Hope this helps,
Terry Hatfield

[steveniam]

Good suggestion. I will see how can I incorporate physical products into the site.

At the suggestion of a copywriter who advise that having a blog will distract potential buyers from looking seriously into the offer, I have therefore removed the sidebars and the header from the frontpage. However it is still linked to my blog at the bottom of the page.

Originally Posted by alanchansg

some ideas:-

1. products

i believe all your clickbank products are digital ebooks.

you might want to try out some physical products from cj, moreniche, etc.


2. your landing page is the product review site, is this all your visitors landed first? if yes, you might want to change it to load up your blog first. engage the reader and get the list and promote your product to them at later stage.

most people will not buy the products from your link while they are not able to associate with you.

building the list is one of the choice.

[steveniam]

Thank you. By the way what is the "launch tree principle"?

Originally Posted by igorhelpsyousucceed

Personal Branding, relationship building.
You will have to build trust with your readers
in order to really make revenue.
I think promoting 4 products on one page
isn't that of a good idea, try the launch tree
principal.

Igor

[steveniam]

In fact my main purpose is to get them to the vendors sites. To a certain degree I have succeeded. I have clickthroughs from my site to the vendors sites ranging from 80+ to about 150 a day which include repeat visitors according to statistics from Clickbank.

My problem is how to convert these visitors to buyers

Originally Posted by thesuccesscoach

I think all the suggestions above are really useful

also think of putting google analytics on your site and check the bounce rate ie how long do people stay on the site.

Perhaps they visit the site see it looks like a "sales" site and then move on. Perhaps that's not what they are looking for. Maybe they are looking for more information?

You could use googles optimiser feature to serve up two different pages and test the results.

you've got the thing most people want - traffic - now test different pages to see what the user wants
Richard

[Loren Woirhaye]

Clunky Copy - layout and font-choices not up to the
standard for weight-loss products. People are used to
nice packaging in this niche.

Consider your pop-up copy:
"Believe It or Not - You Can Enjoy Regular Food And Still Lose Weight!

Free Report Reveals An Easy Step-By-Step Process That Enable You To Feel Good About Losing Weight Because Your Stomach Is Still Full!"

I think you could trim a lot of fat off this bloated headline. Don't try
to cram your whole story into headlines.

Also your report cover is ugly, doesn't show the result - skinny
body - and is hard to read because of your font choice.

The title is perceived as the nonsense clause :"Lose Weight Without" -
because "starving yourself" is illegible.

There is a lot top this. I tell you this: read-up on advertising and
buy some magazines like Cosmopolitan for headline ideas.

Lose the RSS thing. Distracting.

[steveniam]

Thank you for your suggestions. I have disable the pop-up temporarily and see what the result.

Could you elaborate what you do mean by nice-packaging in this niche? If possible can you let me know which site has met your criteria for a nice packaging site and I will see what I can do to meet buyers' expectation?

Originally Posted by Loren Woirhaye

Clunky Copy - layout and font-choices not up to the
standard for weight-loss products. People are used to
nice packaging in this niche.

Consider your pop-up copy:
"Believe It or Not - You Can Enjoy Regular Food And Still Lose Weight!

Free Report Reveals An Easy Step-By-Step Process That Enable You To Feel Good About Losing Weight Because Your Stomach Is Still Full!"

I think you could trim a lot of fat off this bloated headline. Don't try
to cram your whole story into headlines.

Also your report cover is ugly, doesn't show the result - skinny
body - and is hard to read because of your font choice.

The title is perceived as the nonsense clause :"Lose Weight Without" -
because "starving yourself" is illegible.

There is a lot top this. I tell you this: read-up on advertising and
buy some magazines like Cosmopolitan for headline ideas.

Lose the RSS thing. Distracting.

[Star Riley]

Find your competitions site that ranks high for the keyword your targeting and really examine whats working for them. Why waste all the money and time they spent, put it to good use helping you get ideas for your site.

[jasonl70]

Originally Posted by Star Riley

Find your competitions site that ranks high for the keyword your targeting and really examine whats working for them. Why waste all the money and time they spent, put it to good use helping you get ideas for your site.

the problem with this is that their ranking is no indication at all of their conversions.

Check out the people using ppc, and see who sticks around for at least a week. If they continue to spend money, their landing page/site should be converting.

[Marian Berghes]

heres my go

first of all cloak your clickbank links.

make the ecovers abit bigger, so they will be more readable.

try separating each product by a line or something to make it look nicer.

Instead of those links after each product, try using a nice web 2.0 style button, with a catching phrase instead of the products title.

Lose the RSS feed.

Give them the "magic button" as a headline...use words like "secret methods", "top notch" , "amazing" etc...

Try and find out if any of the products or authors have been featured in any relatively known newsletters, magazines, tv etc.... and then put the respective magazines logo under the product with a title like "featured in" or "as seen in"...DON'T put the links to the respective articles etc...cus then they might buy directly from the official website and you wont get a commission.

Try and come up with more benefits for every product.

there could be more to add but try these out and see how you do for now.

Thats about it, normally I would explain all of that in detail but I just don't have the time right now (preparing to leave home).

[Tyrus Antas]

Don't make them choose. Promote just one product. Choice introduces doubt and procrastination. That's a sales killer.

Tyrus

[kkchoon]

My Suggestion:

1. Find more testimonial, feedback from the vendor's site, put it there..
2. Identify each product pro and cons, list it out. The most important part, always "Benefit, benefit, benefit", put benefits on each of the product.
3. The review is too hype, and you didn't establish yourself as an authority.
4. Try to build list and community, let them know you and why they should hear from you...

[jasonl70]

I agree with the others - drop that rss stuff. It really has no business being in the sub-head position.

I know a lot of people seem to use these types of review sites, and apparently they are successfull with them. I haven't had much luck with them though.

In my case, I've had much more success reviewing only a single product, doing real and in depth reviews (which requires actually buying the products), dumping things like the stars/ratings, and then going after traffic that's already looking for info on that product.

[Allurre]

Hey bro.

I suggest you get someone to code you a new mini site template. It'll add more value to the visitors.

Your copywriting skills need to improve. Be more enthusiastic, but not borderign super-hyped.

[Jackbgd]

Here's my suggestion -

Your website looks like crap. It looks like a sales page - check your bounce rate - I doubt that anyone from those 250-400 people reads the entire page - the idea of the website is great, and if you rank well you should be making at least 1 sale per day - so what's the problem. Once again - your website looks like a sales page - and not like someone that's giving honest advice. Change the white color, put in some more natural colors that feel good to the eye and reorganize the sections - the text should be a lot wider, so they don't have to scroll much to get to the end of the page.

In the beginning of the page - just write something about yourself, say something like "I've tried everything, most things don't work - I don't want you to go through the same crap I did and waste a ton of money buying scam products - I've read countless books on losing weight and I know how you feel - here are the one's that work for most people, read - and find out which one is best for you. They're all good - but everyone has different goal bla bla bla".

Then you start with product 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Appear honest. Then on the top of the page put something like - "If you want to stay fat for the rest of your life then leave this website IMMEDIATELY" you have to keep people's attention, check out Copywriting Tips for Online Marketing Success From Copyblogger ? Copyblogger for better writing, and check your bounce rate every day - keep on working and experimenting on your website until you get the bounce rate and average time on site as good as possible - Your bounce rate should be 30-40% and a site this long - at least 5 minutes average time on site. Then at the end - say something like - Hey, I'm doing you a HUGE favor, instead of looking for tons of books and spending hundreds of dollars on scam products - I've done the work for you, and gave you the best there is out there bla bla, something like that.

In the beginning you also need to put in some reason you were motivated to create this website - since many people don't know that you actually make a comission - most people don't even know what internet marketing is. So at least tell them that you're fed up will all the scam products - that you have been scammed a bazillion times and it's time to put and end to all those SCAM weight loss programs out there - the more you tell them that other products are SCAMS - the more they'll be afraid - so they'll think "holy ****, this guy is serious, maybe I should check out the stuff he recommends - 'cause I sure as hell don't want to get scammed" a better safe then sorry kind of mentality.

Hope I helped,
Jack

[Jackbgd]

Another thing - some guy said you should promote only one product - no, promote more products - at least in my opinion, sorry I'm not some expert but it's just common sense - when people go to a store - if they came in an saw only one model of shoe - they would walk out, at least 99% of them. Because people have different tastes - I'm not saying you should promote 100 different products - but 5 is great.

All you have to do is make every product look GREAT but just s
slightly different - how? well, one product is for people that only want to lose weight, the other product is for women that want to lose weight and learn how to stay in shape later, the third product is great - but better for guys because they have harder exercises that can get them to not only lose weight but also bulk up later and so on - just think of something - so every product is great, just give them a slight difference at the end - and target an even smaller audience within the audience you already have.

So - when a woman comes to you're website - read's all the reviews - but on of them says - this one is better for women bla bla that want to stay fit afterwards ("oh, that's Meee" - she thinks) she'll buy that one, and again she feels good - because she knows that she bought 1 out of 5 great products. Also - make them feel like if they buy this product - they will never - ever have to buy another product again - never.

[David Raybould]

Okay it's about time someone mentioned
the elephant in the room...

Put your main affiliate link above the fold.
Get rid of the RSS link and replace it with
a link that says something like "Click here to
check out my #1 rated weight loss product"

And that's it.

Sure, there's a ton of other stuff you can do-
review pages that long are a struggle, you'll
be better off with all 3 (yes 3, not 5,) products
above the fold...

But as it is, I'll bet you see significant improve-
ment just by switching out that RSS link with
something more powerful.

Good luck.

-David Raybould

[steveniam]

Thank you. That's a good idea. I will be spying around my competitors for the next 7 days

Originally Posted by jasonl70

the problem with this is that their ranking is no indication at all of their conversions.

Check out the people using ppc, and see who sticks around for at least a week. If they continue to spend money, their landing page/site should be converting.

[steveniam]

It's written by a copywriter who promise me that I can get a conversion rate of between 3 to 6%. It was one of the WSO a few months ago.

However when the result show otherwise, he never reply to my email - he just disappear into the thin air.

Originally Posted by Allurre

Hey bro.

I suggest you get someone to code you a new mini site template. It'll add more value to the visitors.

Your copywriting skills need to improve. Be more enthusiastic, but not borderign super-hyped.

[steveniam]

Thank you for your suggestion. I will take into account when I update my frontpage in a week or two.

I have clickthroughs of between 90 to about 150 from my frontpage to the vendors site according to clickbank statistics.

From your experiences what does the above statistics shows - maybe you would like to share your thoughts

Originally Posted by Jackbgd

Here's my suggestion -

Your website looks like crap. It looks like a sales page - check your bounce rate - I doubt that anyone from those 250-400 people reads the entire page - the idea of the website is great, and if you rank well you should be making at least 1 sale per day - so what's the problem. Once again - your website looks like a sales page - and not like someone that's giving honest advice. Change the white color, put in some more natural colors that feel good to the eye and reorganize the sections - the text should be a lot wider, so they don't have to scroll much to get to the end of the page.

In the beginning of the page - just write something about yourself, say something like "I've tried everything, most things don't work - I don't want you to go through the same crap I did and waste a ton of money buying scam products - I've read countless books on losing weight and I know how you feel - here are the one's that work for most people, read - and find out which one is best for you. They're all good - but everyone has different goal bla bla bla".

Then you start with product 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Appear honest. Then on the top of the page put something like - "If you want to stay fat for the rest of your life then leave this website IMMEDIATELY" you have to keep people's attention, check out Copywriting Tips for Online Marketing Success From Copyblogger ? Copyblogger for better writing, and check your bounce rate every day - keep on working and experimenting on your website until you get the bounce rate and average time on site as good as possible - Your bounce rate should be 30-40% and a site this long - at least 5 minutes average time on site. Then at the end - say something like - Hey, I'm doing you a HUGE favor, instead of looking for tons of books and spending hundreds of dollars on scam products - I've done the work for you, and gave you the best there is out there bla bla, something like that.

In the beginning you also need to put in some reason you were motivated to create this website - since many people don't know that you actually make a comission - most people don't even know what internet marketing is. So at least tell them that you're fed up will all the scam products - that you have been scammed a bazillion times and it's time to put and end to all those SCAM weight loss programs out there - the more you tell them that other products are SCAMS - the more they'll be afraid - so they'll think "holy ****, this guy is serious, maybe I should check out the stuff he recommends - 'cause I sure as hell don't want to get scammed" a better safe then sorry kind of mentality.

Hope I helped,
Jack

[jeffchong]

Another way is to give your visitors a preview ebook to let them download for free...Ebook somehow is more presentable and you can make them more confident on your product..This is also where you can promote your product even better, by letting them know how are you going to solve their problem..Give them some general tips/suggestions, and lastly encourage them to buy it if they really look for more detail information... This is what I think may work...

[igorhelpsyousucceed]

Originally Posted by steveniam

Thank you. By the way what is the "launch tree principle"?

How to Make An Extra 456% - Launch Tree Blog


Watch the interviews.

[kelvin yeo]

Originally Posted by steveniam

Thank you for your suggestion. I will take into account when I update my frontpage in a week or two.

I have clickthroughs of between 90 to about 150 from my frontpage to the vendors site according to clickbank statistics.

From your experiences what does the above statistics shows - maybe you would like to share your thoughts

Steve:

Since no one's responded to this particular point, I thought I might try. From what I know, if a site is doing its job correctly, and if we're talking clickbank products, you should get a sale for every 50 to 100 hoplink clicks. At max, you should get 1 in 200. Anything "worse" than these numbers is not good news.

In any case, I see you've made quite a lot of changes to your main page. Is the site faring better now in terms of sales?

Cheers

[jon2009]

That's the trouble with the net. Promises are vapourware. Publicise his name and details. If he's not just a jerk he'll be glad to get back in touch. If he is a jerk you're doing us all a favour.

Originally Posted by steveniam

It's written by a copywriter who promise me that I can get a conversion rate of between 3 to 6%. It was one of the WSO a few months ago.

However when the result show otherwise, he never reply to my email - he just disappear into the thin air.

[steveniam]

The conversion rate does not improve much. I am 'spying' on some competitors who are using adwords and if they are still there after 2 to 3 weeks I will model my site on them.

Originally Posted by kelvin yeo

Steve:

Since no one's responded to this particular point, I thought I might try. From what I know, if a site is doing its job correctly, and if we're talking clickbank products, you should get a sale for every 50 to 100 hoplink clicks. At max, you should get 1 in 200. Anything "worse" than these numbers is not good news.

In any case, I see you've made quite a lot of changes to your main page. Is the site faring better now in terms of sales?

Cheers

[jon2009]

What about checking the costs of their keywords on Adwrods? Presumably the higher the cost the more effective they are.

[tommygadget]

Get rid of archives and meta in your sidebar. Move the blogroll up and call it My Faves or something that'll prompt people to click over there. Focus on the customer. Write a review that asks them what kind of person they are and match their profile to the appropriate weight loss program. Do this via links to the various one page, one product reviews.

TomG.

[Steve Faber]

I saw some stats somewhere on CB weight/fat loss products frmo a number of affiliates that sold some pretty high numbers. The conversion stats were not encouraging. Something like 1/200-300 or so. It seemed incredibly low to me, but that's about what I've seen from that niche on CB as well, so I tend to believe them. In other niches, I get conversions more like 1 - 4%. It seems like with some good pre-selling, you could do a bit better than .3%.

[kelvin yeo]

Originally Posted by steveniam

The conversion rate does not improve much. I am 'spying' on some competitors who are using adwords and if they are still there after 2 to 3 weeks I will model my site on them.

Are you using Adwords/PPC to drive traffic or SEO?

[toddilee]

First, congrats on getting such good rankings on high competition search terms! You will make a lot of money from this site!

Now, regarding conversion. The page reeks of being an advertisement and people don't like being sold to. Rather they are looking for an honest review of products that a real person has tried and tested and gotten results with.

Your review page needs to firstly start out by saying: I'm like you, I was overweight (or I am overweight) and I know how you feel. I have tried everything under the sun and nothing seemed to work, I was extremely frustrated and thought I would never lose the extra weight I am burdened with. But I persevered, then I found 3 different solutions that all helped me to lose weight. Then elaborate on each of the top 3 solutions you found (I have found that comparing the top 3 is far more believable than the top 5).

Your review of each product needs to be believable and credible and you should focus on the benefits that were achieved from each product (a before and after type comparison is always extremely powerful for sales - eg before I was XXXX pounds, now I am xxxx pounds).

Ideally you should actually get each product and do a proper review (in your case with the traffic you have I would contact each of the product owners and ask for a review copy, then do a proper product review of each. Always say what worked and also pick out at least 1 thing that you did not like about the product, this makes your review more believable and will align you with your prospects because no product is perfect).

Make the number one product in your review the product you expect to make the most sales and money from, because this is the choice that 80% of your buyers will make - when you get the review right, your prospects take your word as an authority on the subject and will go with your top recomendation.

I would also use a suitable plug in to split test two landing pages to continually improve your conversions over time by doing an a | b split test.

[jasonl70]

while spying on the ppc advertisers, take notice of the keywords they are targeting as well.

[steveniam]

Here is his WSO - http://www.warriorforum.com/warrior-...iter-read.html

Originally Posted by jon2009

That's the trouble with the net. Promises are vapourware. Publicise his name and details. If he's not just a jerk he'll be glad to get back in touch. If he is a jerk you're doing us all a favour.

[steveniam]

I am using SEO but maybe consider using PPC for more targetted traffic.

Originally Posted by kelvin yeo

Are you using Adwords/PPC to drive traffic or SEO?