I have been considering ways of adding as much value to this blog as I can, and it is difficult to ignore the rising prominence of “vlogging”. So with that in mind, I have decided to experiment with video content here on Leaving Work Behind.
Each and every Wednesday I plan to bring you a video post that focuses on one specific area of blogging, internet marketing, or freelance writing. I will provide you with actionable tips that you take away and work on immediately. No filler – just the best advice that I can give you on topics that I have experience in.
Increasing Conversion Rates
We are starting off with something that I have been working on quite a lot recently – conversion rates. More specifically, increasing the number of visitors to your blog that sign up to your email list. In the video below I recommend a whole host of tried and tested ideas that you can implement on your own blog. Enjoy!
I hope that you enjoyed my first ever video here on Leaving Work Behind!
As promised in the video, here is a recap of everything that I mentioned:
- Multiple opt-in forms – sidebar, post footer, blog footer, feature box
- Opt-in forms within your “About” and “Start Here” pages
- Light box – Popup Domination
- Opt-in checkbox and redirect in your comments section – Newsletter Sign-Up and Comment Redirect
- Hello Bar (costs from $0.02 per click) – ViperBar is a great free alternative
- Signup forms within your blog posts
- Split test – OptIn Skin
I Would Love Your Feedback!
If posts such as this prove to be popular I will be sure to do many more. With that in mind, I would love to get your feedback – constructive criticism is welcomed! Please let me know what you thought of the post in the comments section.
Tom I think people should realize that you do need a fair amount of traffic before you can accurately make a comparison when evaluating conversion rates. Five percent conversion on 1,000 visitors is 50. Increase that by 50% and you’ve gone from 50 to 75.
That’s just an increase of 25 visitors, which isn’t very much. Statistically it’s not relevant, though I know it’s tempting to read a lot more into it.
Just something people should keep in mind before anyone spends too much time on this.
Hi Stephen,
You certainly have a point in that a bigger sample pool is always better (and that a small sample pool can be misleading), but the majority of the tips are tried and tested and simply do work. For example, if you have no sign up form on your about page and then add one, you will get more subscribers.
Cheers,
Tom
Both of you have a point.
Furthermore, I would like to address that to make conversion rate beneficial to the business, it is important to keep cover the basic implementations needed in a blog such as a sign-up form.
Spatch Merlin
More Web Site Traffic Guide
Hi Tom,
Great first video! For someone doing that for the first time it was really good! The content was great! I hope everyone took the time to watch the vide, good stuff in there. I have been using Hello Bar for about a week, it has helped a lot with my conversion rate.
Hope you keep doing these Vlog posts,
Chris
Even though your environment is not perfect for video it was great advice! Im not sure I could stand there for a 10 minute video. Did you do this all in one take?
I have been using hellobar for a week now, really like it!
Cant wait to see more of these
Chris
Hey Chris,
Thanks for your kind words, I really appreciate it! Makes it worth the effort 🙂
It was done in one take – I wanted to stop prevaricating and just do it, so any efforts at editing or making it a bit more glossy went out of the window 😉
Cheers
Tom
Hi Tom, Thank you for your Tips. At the moment we are using a few tools to help our blog with conversion rates. Your tips will come in handy. Look forward to more posts from you.
I love to use multiple call to actions and see how they convert. Recently I’m using the optin skin and it seems to convert really well. And, sadly I got rid of Popup Domination before installing Optin Skin since PopDom was converting at 1%. Certainly the visitors of my blog are either popup blind or they don’t like it totally 🙂 Lesson learned!
Hey Jane,
That’s interesting – I’ve never heard of PopUp Domination converting at such a low rate!
Cheers,
Tom
Yup, I know. That’s some unheard stat 🙂
I have a subscription form above and below the post and it works pretty well, at least a lot better than when I had it in the sidebar. I’ve always thought they were well placed there as it hit them as they were reading the post as well as once they’d finished and what better time to get them to sign up than after reading a great post 😉
Yep, that is the right thinking. A sidebar signup form is good for two reasons:
this has been the GREATEST challenge of all. Sometimes, getting much traffic doesn’t mean much sales. The challenge has always been converting those traffics into sales or profits. And I thank you for sharing your knowledge. Not all people would share some valuable info like this.
No problem Mike 🙂
Hey Tom,
I just saw your video (I came here from your March income report) and I have to say, the video is great. Don’t worry about the room, it’s more than enough.
Also, congrats on how fast your business is growing.
Keep up the good work!
Cristina
Thank you Cristina, I appreciate that! 🙂 Hope everything is going well on your end…
Hi Tom
I’d love to know how Vlogging is going for you now?
Worth your time or not?
It’s been on my radar but I’m on the fence stil…
It’s not something I’ve done much of but like you it’s on my radar. I just invested in some lighting and a green screen so will be doing much more soon 🙂