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As my articles get better, my CTR goes down...

by brchap
9 replies
Like I said, it seems that the better I get at writing... the worse my click through rate gets.

Some of the first article I ever wrote was the most unorganized, non-concise, pieces of garbage I ever wrote. I was embarrassed of these articles. It was so ugly only a mother could love it.

But, it had a pretty good CTR. Hell, I wasn't even offering a free report in the resource box and I was getting a solid 26% to my website.

So, like anyone would do, I wrote more.

But, something interesting happened:

My second article got a 18% CTR.
My third got an 8%
Then, I got lucky and published on that got 10%
After that, I published an article that is currently sitting at 0%
The latest article I've published has gotten almost 50 views with a 2% CTR

WTF?

Apparently, people love clicking on links after they've just read a pile of dung that has been carefully shaped into several somewhat coherent sentences.

I hate to stoop to that level, but to be successful in article marketing it seems that I'll have to go back to unorganized, incomplete, personally embarrassing articles that leave the reader guessing what my point really is (and therefore they feel compelled to click on the link in order to find out what I was just rambling about in that 350 word block of text).

Okay, I know that this is just a rant... but, I felt I needed to let off some steam.

This is just my way of saying that I don't really care for the way the world works sometimes... but, I can deal with it.

Do you think that EZA would have a problem with me editing my articles into less coherent (just short of gibberish) articles and resubmitting them?
#articles #click through rate #ctr #eza #ezinearicles
  • Profile picture of the author Asher
    Keep writing articles. Don't focus on the CTR
    you get, focus on building a good relationship
    with the people who come through your articles.

    Also, leverage your articles to do more.

    Do a search on "article on ezinearticles or
    site first" and apply the strategies discussed
    there.

    After a while, article writing can be pretty
    much a numbers game.

    However, if you're still keen on the CTR,
    study what you did for the first article and
    see if you can replicate it.

    Even use the same resource box to see
    if that's the cause.

    Best of luck!

    Asher
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  • Profile picture of the author Zeus66
    I don't know if every article you wrote is in the same category, but I do know that you can't compare CTR from category to category. It varies quite a lot. You can get a high CTR with crappy articles in some niches, and get lousy CTR with the very best of articles in others. It's about the audience more than the articles to a certain extent.

    If you wrote them all for the same category, then that is a puzzler.

    John
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  • Profile picture of the author dt1968
    Perhaps in your more recent articles, they are written so well that you're giving away too much information and they feel no need to click through to your site to get more info? Just a thought. Give them just enough to make them curious.

    Also, make sure your resource box makes someone SO curious that they just have to click the link to see more...instead of the typical "John Doe has been an internet marketer for 6 years, please visit his site at johndoe. com for more information"
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    • Profile picture of the author Liam Hamer
      Originally Posted by Asher View Post

      Keep writing articles. Don't focus on the CTR
      you get, focus on building a good relationship
      with the people who come through your articles.
      Originally Posted by dt1968 View Post

      Perhaps in your more recent articles, they are written so well that you're giving away too much information and they feel no need to click through to your site to get more info? Just a thought. Give them just enough to make them curious.
      I agree with these two points wholeheartedly. Trust me, I know how frustrating it can be when your CTR's fluctuate. When I first started out, I'd write 600+ word articles that were designed to be extremely helpful, and I'd be disappointed when I only got one or two clicks.

      I then tried writing short articles without giving much away for a while - i.e articles designed almost completely for the 'click'. I got an incredibly good CTR from them but it didn't have a massive effect on how many sales I generated from those visitors.

      In the last few months, I've been writing mostly 400-500 word articles with a good title, helpful and interesting content, and a strong call to action. Things have definitely improved as a result. It was when I bought Tim Gorman's Article Marketing Lifeline WSO a couple of weeks ago, that my eyes were really opened though. I saw exactly what I had been doing wrong, and what I needed to do to get good CTR's of people interested in what I have to offer. See, it can be great if 20 people click through from your article, but if none of them are interested if what you offer, it might as well be none. If 2 click through and they lap up what you have to offer and opt in or buy from you - that is much better

      The way you write your articles should encourage your target market to visit your site, but should also dissuade those who aren't really interested. So whilst a high CTR can be great, it's more about the quality of those clicks, in my opinion.

      There are a few things you should always strive for of course, and those are:-

      A compelling title
      A summary that makes an instant connection with the reader
      Helpful and useful content that still leaves them wanting more
      A strong call to action - i.e a good reason for them to click through

      I have only seen one of your articles so far Brad, and in my opinion it was a pretty good one that did most of the things I mentioned above. It could be that you have to make your resource box just a little more inviting. Good luck and stick with it
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  • Profile picture of the author ToniMaltano
    Giving too much information away in your article will cause a lower CTR. At least
    this is what I experienced. My articles aren't that good since english isn't my first
    language. But whenever I tried to really give great information to people when
    writing my articles I experienced a lower CTR.

    So I just concentrated on writing articles that keep talking about the problem
    instead of giving aways solutions. If you give aways too much people may feel
    that they read enough and then leave. Make them curious and they will click
    on that link.

    Again, this is my personal experience. Maybe there are other marketers out
    there who have had other results.
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  • Profile picture of the author DrGUID
    CTR in different niches are incredible. I have 50x more CTR on one subject area compared to another.

    I am now concentrating on writing in the high CTR niches.

    To make money online you don't need to be a good writer, but you need to be a clever writer.
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  • Profile picture of the author Midas3 Consulting
    So many variables Bradley, very hard to offer advice.

    There's no doubt that if you "give away the farm" in the article, then there's often less CTR as a result.

    After all, you've already solved their problem.

    Shorter articles in my experience, often do seem to generate a better CTR, infact ones where they can actually see the sig at the bottom of the article whilst reading the first line almost always generate a ridiculous CTR.

    It's almost as if they can see the end game before they start so they are programmed to shoot through the content and click to "find out more."

    But ultimately this is about generating revenue.

    So you get a higher CTR but what's the dollar value of the visitor who clicked?

    Only testing can help you out there, good old fashioned testing.

    For sure, you might end up with more clicks but are they converting ?

    It could be you're getting more clicks but less revenue.

    Ultimately it's quite often true, certainly in my experience that long quality articles can generate less of a CTR.

    In fact I work with an author, he's a bit of a geek, a tech head, he writes phenomanal articles ,usually in the region of 3000+ words absolute mininum.

    They contain references, detailed science in his niche.

    They have a bloody awful, laughable low CTR, - depressingly so.

    However he gets a 1:11 conversion on the sale.

    You have to test and decide what's the most productive approach for you personally.

    There's no point somebody telling you to write shorter articles or long articles or anything else in between because the devil lies in the details.

    You won't know the details until you track.
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  • Profile picture of the author Allen Graves
    I'd concentrate more on sales conversions than CTR.

    But I am wondering if you have tried writing another crappy article to see if it gets a higher CTR - or if you are just assuming that better articles are getting lower CTRs.

    Just remember that crappy articles aren't going to get you many sales.

    Allen
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