Internet and Affiliate Marketing

I read once about a man who tripled his conversion rate by changing a single letter in his headline. While that kind of improvement is not common (not by a long stretch), you can quite probably double your conversion rate after testing 10 or 20 items on your page. With that said, there are many things to consider when getting started with split testing.

I can’t discuss every feature of every testing tool out there, but I can give you a major overview of the different kinds of split testing software.

One big distinction is between single variable and multiple variable (multivariate) testing.

With single variable testing you just pick one element on your page to test. Take your headline, for example. If your current headline says “Are you having trouble with tooth decay?”, you might want to see how “Do your kids have tooth decay?” works. In a single variable test, you just find a way to rotate each of those headlines on your page, and keep track of how many sales each generates.

Paul Hancox has a simple split testing tool. And Google has one that’s free, though it takes a bit to set up all your accounts to use Google’s tool. And the reporting is not real-time.

Single variable testing can be slow. How would you like to test 10 times as much with the same amount of traffic? Well, you can. You use a method called multi-variable, or multivariate testing. This allows you to test several elemens on your page simultaneously.

So there’s the main distinction between single variable testing and multivariate testing. But once you get into the realm of multivariate testing the options seem to multiply again. One difference among multivariate tools is between tools that are hosted on someone else’s server, and ones that you install on the same server as your webpages. Hosted solutions can be slower, and more expensive, but you don’t have to install any software.

The Split Test Accelerator is a good choice if you want to install the software on your server. Kaizentrack is another optoin. If you want a hosted solution, you can look at Sitespect and Vertster.

Taguchi testing is only one kind of multivariate testing. There are also “full factorial” tools, and random independent rotators. When you run a Taguchi test, you run only a small fraction of the possible combinations of your factor levels. You might, for instance, run only 18 pages to test 4374 combinations. This is made possible by orthongonal arrays. This allows you to find the best combination with out running through all of them. You do have to be careful about your factors interacting negatively with each other, but if you take care as you design your test, you can avoid the bulk of the problem with these. The Split Test Accelerator, Vertster, and Kaizentrack are Taguchi testing tools.

If you want to get around interaction effects you can with a full factorial tool. It will take more traffic to avoid the interactions — a lot more — but with a FFT, like Google’s Website Optimizer, you can just see how every combination plays out, and live with the interactions.

The Random independent rotators are a third option. These treat factors independently. So you can just plug in a new factor with as many options as you want at any time, and ignore the fact that other factors are being tested at the same time. This is the most flexible form of testing, but it is also plagued with the most interaction effects.

There are other distinctions and features worth noting. And each solution has a different mix of pros and cons. But this should get your oriented a bit before you make your decision.

Internet Marketing

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Far too many online business owners find their web copywriting difficult. They spend hours of their time tirelessly slaving over their content, only to find it has little or no effect on their ability to engage their customers or make a sale.

For professional writing services, web copywriting that interests, informs, persuades and has SEO value is child’s play. Creating effective web content is what they do, day in and day out. However, this is an ability that is not shared by everyone and balancing the various functions that each piece of copy must perform is a formidable feat.

At a basic level, web copywriting is a way to communicate information about you, your business, or your niche to your reader. Each piece of copy you create should be no more than one page (400 - 500 words) in length with each sentence making a contribution to meeting the needs of the reader. Ultimately, you should seek to interest, inform and inspire your reader to buy your product or use your service.

We could discuss at length the huge benefits that arise, in terms of targeted traffic, from ensuring your website is search engine optimized and this can not be ignored. However, to convert that traffic and generate sales, your web copywriting must strike a chord with the reader and provide them with the information they seek or they simply will not buy.

Exposing your traffic to boring web copywriting that is overloaded with keywords is a common, yet fatal error. It may meet your SEO objectives but it can not and will not meet the objectives of the reader. Your reader, or to put it more succinctly, your potential customer arrived at your website because they were searching for information and/or the product or service you offer. Put simply, they are not a blank canvas, they are real people with real needs and desires that they are looking to you to meet.

The key to avoiding the #1 Web Copywriting mistake is to create two different types of content, one to meet the needs of your customers and communicate directly with them and one for SEO purposes, which can be strategically placed within your website so that it is relatively inaccessible.

So in conclusion, to make your web copywriting tasks easier, assign each piece a single purpose to fulfil. Create different types of content for different purposes, ensuring that all the copy you create for your reader delivers quality information and the copy you create for SEO purposes is not occupying pride of place on your website.

Internet Marketing

article marketing, copywriting, Internet Marketing

Online businesses all pretty much run the same. Customers that purchase products are always going to be at the end of a long process. The basic idea behind succeeding with your online based business is leading your customers to your products. There are many different methods used, but unfortunately there is no formula that will magically give you immediate results. In order to change those visitors into regular customers you will need to convince them that the products you are selling are top quality. This is the main topic that will be discussed in this article.

First, let me stress the major difference between selling and preselling. Selling simply means “trying to get the sale”, while preselling is to make first contact with your prospective customers and then warm them up to the idea of buying your products and services. Preselling must supply your customers with the information they need, while putting them in the right frame of mind to ultimately make a purchase. Preselling does not mean urging your visitor to buy. It means gently presenting your products, along with the information they will want to know about your products. Preselling really means to lead them from just a visitor, to an interested potential customer.

Your web page must be loaded with content in order to effectively presell. Your potential customers will be swayed one way or another based on the quality and quantity of the information you provide. Remember, when you presell effectively, you sell effectively. Make sure the information your customer receives is quality and not misleading. It is always better to emphasize quality over quantity, and the more quality content you have, the better your chances are of leading to a sale. This establishes some level of credibility.

Since pre-selling is the first impression that you will give off to your customers, you want to make sure that it is as good as it can be. In order to understand how a customer will react to your pre-selling informative site you need to place yourself in the position of that customer and act like one. By pretending to be a customer you will get into a buying state of mind instead of a selling one. This will help you understand what a customer is really looking for when going through your site. Once you become familiar with that concept you will be off to a good start.

When preselling, you will end up establishing an “open to buy frame of mind”. In other words, you are giving them the power to choose whether they should buy this product or not. And this pondering will direct them to many more clicks within your web site. The more clicks you get, the larger ones earnings can be according to how you monetize your website.

Preselling won’t be tough if you really know your products or whatever you are promoting. If you realize and understand the difference between preselling and selling, if you’re excited with regards to your product, and if you’re prepared and very motivated to succeed, then you will make a lot of money from your presells. All these four factors will be your key to effective preselling.

Affiliate Marketing

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For nearly all website owners, the question of how successful their business is, and how successful it could be, has surely entered their minds. Are you giving the visitors to your website a reason to take a closer look at your site? Is it possible that you are losing business because you are not expressing what your business is about to the visitors that are there? This is why a Unique Value Proposition is so important.

Basically, a Unique Value Proposition is a small paragraph about why the visitors should choose to make their purchases from your business. You may only need to put a few short sentences on your web page about why your business is better than your competition and you could see a definite increase in your sales. It may even work to encourage visitors to continue to do business with you.

Let’s break down the words so you can completely understand each of their meanings. It will help you understand how crucial a Unique Value Proposition is to the successes of your business.

Unique - The Unique Value Proposition that you use should give all your visitors the reasons why your company is unique. What makes your company stand out from your competitors? As an example, if you have a business that sells peanut butter, how do you explain to your visitors how you are different from the peanut butter manufacturers? Maybe your peanut butter is made specifically for cooking or for baking. Are there other companies that sell peanut butter but that have a corner on this particular market like you do? If not, then you can rightfully claim that this is unique to your business.

Value - Is there something that makes your peanut butter more valuable to your customers? Let us say that there are several other companies that manufacture peanut butter for baking. What are the characteristics or benefits of your product that your customers think are valuable. An example would be this: “Our peanut butter has been made specifically for your cooking and baking needs and it is created with the best Bolivian peanuts and is completely free of sugar!” The added value is the high quality peanuts and the sugar free aspect of your product.

Proposition- A proposition is best described as a question that is asked, but in this case not in the literal sense. Your statement should ask the site visitor to browse your website and buy your peanut butter in a way that makes the user want to do it, but usually without actually posing a question. “No need to search further for the world’s best sugar free peanut butter that is made just for baking/candy making from the finest Bolivian peanuts”.

Now, take your company concept and create your own Unique Value Proposition. Use the Peanut Butter Company example as a launching point. Start off with stating what makes your product or service different or unique, then add value, then ask the customer to buy it. Simple, right? Well, maybe not as simple as it sounds, but there is no need to get it just right on the first try. Jot down your ideas, tweak them, and put them together. Then read it out loud to yourself and to a few other people to make sure it makes sense. When it integrates all of the key factors, and makes sense, you have yourself a Unique Value Proposition.

Just having a Unique Value Proposition will not be enough to take your business to the next level; visitors need to be made aware of it. It matters a great deal where and how you present it to your visitors. To begin with, you should definitely put it on the home page of your website so that all your visitors can get a chance to read it. Place it at the top of your web page and in the center since this is place that your visitors focus on first, when they come to your website. It needs to stand out and be unique as well. Color, borders and type size can be used to set it apart from the rest of the home page.

The importance of a Unique Value Proposition can never be over emphasized. You may have heard the often repeated grim statistic that a whopping 95 percent of all small businesses fail within the first five years. This number includes businesses on the web and off. What is more remarkable is that the majority of those that fail did not have a Unique Value Proposition in place. It is the Unique Value Proposition that communicates to your potential clients that you understand their need and would like to meet it in a different and better way than the competition.

Internet Marketing

conversion optimization, conversion rate optimization, copywriting, Internet Marketing, unique value proposition, website copywriting