How do you increase the CTR for your forum signature?

Hey Joshua, are you referring to your sig in this forum? Or just in general?

In general, it helps if you have good copy in your signature. Also posting in topics that are more relevant to your signature will help. Another way to get good signature exposure is to give away some free content or products, such as posting in the War Room.

RoD

My click through rates for my signatures are about 5-15%. I don't ave very high click through rates but for me that's ok. I find that about 30% of the people who click on my signature actually sign up to my site, so I consider that pretty good.

While this might be slightly off topic, I would at least link to a squeeze page, and build your list. After all, you're 1/2 way there already.

You can add some compelling copy like;

It really all comes down to having good copy and posting valuable information on the forum. No matter how good your signature copy is, people will NOT click on it if you do not post relevant and valuable information.

After talking with someone else, I've decided to try a different approach (building relationships with forum members rather than hoping for sig clicks).

Thanks for your feedback everyone.

This may seem blatantly obvious, but start threads providing people with a solution to their problems. If you know how to rank sites. Simply post a thread with some detailed info that helps and you will notice your CTR goes way up. It works very well : )

Is it a link you would hypothetically click on yourself provided you had no knowledge of it?

That's probably the most crucial factor right there. If you don't think you would click on it yourself, then why should anyone else?

Give good, actionable advice.

As others have said, be an authoritative resource. If you give sound. well structured and most importantly valid advice people will be much more inclined to click on your signature link.

Think of each post as your indirect pitch to tell people "this guy knows what he's on about and has a good attitude to IM, his site is worth visiting". I'd much rather click on the signature of someone who has went to the time to write a detailed response and help out another member than someone who has simply written "great post, thanks!".

As with most things online it's about building a reputation for yourself and earning the respect of others.

How do you track your forum sig clicks?

You got to tell people what to do.

It's an art of copywriting called a 'call to action' - you can also offer an incentive.

This doesn't just increase an incentive for a Sig, but also search engine results, ads, eBay titles, articles, sales funnels, everything.

Calls. To. Action!

yes.

across all my communities... even HBR and AMEX Entrepreneur Forum... i get about a 0.1% CTR...

people stop reading at the signature unless you say something that makes them curious about you... generally something controversial

Pay the $60 a year for an image in your sig. It's beyond worth it and I've made my investment back in a week.

Having relevant forums help otherwise no one would be interested in clicking on your link

In case you miss out, you should be participating in forum that is related to your niche before promoting your website through your signature. This is obvious because people will not be interested in your manicure blog if you are in a mens health forum (ok, at least not as effective). So make sure you not only participate in forums that are related to your niche but also word them appropriately.

You have a war room membership. Go to Search > Advanced Search, and look for posts in the War Room by Adie.

He gives over a list of forums for different niches (Even Make Money Online (Warrior Forum Included). Free Download. No Opt-in.

Gives you tips on how you should write your signature, and then his own stats for a months worth of posting.

I believe he had around 4,500 clicks from 75 referrers (20 or so of them being forums I think, maybe less).

The majority of those hits were from Warriorforum and Digitalpoint. Both delivering 900+ clicks each. He then had couple hundred clicks from ********** (edit* I guess I'm not allowed to mention this forum? ), v7n and sitepoint etc....

The 5 main forums he posted on delivered I think 3,000 of those clicks, so you can see how good this can be for list building if done properly, across different forums. You need to do a mix of informational posts and self-started threads.

He doesn't even post a huge amount per day. Just enough to help others and highlight his expertise. I think with an image banner, and more activity/help you could do even better then that.

I will say this though:

Don't post your opinion on something if you don't know anything about it by making up your own theories. If you want to reply to a thread because it's getting quite a bit of popularity or you think it will, do your research and make sure you understand the topic so that you can include something you may have read elsewhere in the topic, or so you can comment appropriately without sounding clueless.

If you start a thread, don't think about what question you can ask people to help you with just so you get exposure to your signature. Leave that for when you actually need something answered. Think about what you can post in your own thread that can help people. If you can't, don't force it. Do your research and one day you'll have the experience to.

That's it for tips :d

I don't use this forum for signature links but on other where I do, I really find that the CTR depends on the value of my posts and my reputation on the forum as opposed to a catch signature. That being said, I do find value in minimalism, like a one liner such as " (link) where I share the secrets behind my theory.

Like anything it depends on what people think of you and whether they find value in what you share, or at least are intrigued enough by your posts/profile to want to click.