Conversion

It's been a busy last few days at home base here in Devonport. The more work I layout for my niches the less time I have to do what needs to be done (obviously). This last week has just gone by so quickly. I've been adding to my niche blogs, writing other blogs, writing back to emails, putting together Squidoo lenses and trying to spend time with my family in amongst it all. I don't know how I'd cope if I had a regular 9 to 5 job on top of everything as well - it would take me ages to get anything done.

Day 23 of the challenge was about conversion. Conversion is when you convert a person who visits your page from just viewing your page, to clicking through to your affiliate (or your product) page - and a further conversion if they actually buy the product. The way to conversion is by producing really good content. The tips for creating really good content are, to write your article like a story - make it engaging and find an angle people can relate to, such as an expedition with the kids to the supermarket, and somehow work your niche in there if possible. If it's relevant to your niche then most people who read it will also have kids and therefore be able to relate if you post a funny story about how the kids got up to mischief, or something like that. You can always find something interesting to write about - especially if you look up news and blog articles about your niche through Bloglines for ideas. Ed says we should be brilliant without even trying and that's easy for him to say - I know a lot of people struggle with writing (I can definitely relate) and their confidence at producing good copy. If you are really bad at writing (not just in your own eyes) then maybe try making a video. You don't have to show yourself on camera, you can use slides to produce content and even to produce a product. Try looking up videos in your niche on Youtube and see what's being made out there. But it's safe to say in this day and age that when it comes to selling your product on the internet it's all about good copy.

Ed suggested a book to us that we should either buy or get in to our local library. It's called "Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die", by Chip and Dan Heath. Ed says it's THE book to read if you're interested in making money online but have trouble with writing good copy - or knowing what good copy is. I'll probably buy a copy as I tend to like to own things and not have to give them back. Chip and Dan have a process they call S.U.C.C.E.S (easy to remember, huh?) and it goes like this:

S - Simplicity: Keep your content simple and engaging
U - Unexpectedness: Capture people's attention. Add a surprise.
C - Concreteness: Add details/accuracy to help people trust/remember
C - Credibility: More details as to where/when things happened in your story
E - Emotional: Connect with your audience
S - Stories: Write content as a short story

Ed says if you can incorporate at least 2 of these aspects to your copy you are doing well. Obviously the more you can squeeze in the more chance you'll have of making a conversion.

I'm not sure if I have actually mentioned my second niche before (the first being best Wii games). It's actually about WiFi and my keywords are "What Is WiFi". I know I made it a bit difficult for myself having my keywords as a question, but that's what I saw as having potential in terms of searches per day and competing pages. It makes it difficult to incorporate into copy as regularly as I would like, certainly not as easy as "best Wii games". In the last week I've added to my cluster by creating a Squidoo lens on both tops. You can check out the best Wii games lens at www.squidoo.com/the-best-wii-games, and the WiFi lens you can get to by clicking here. Be sure to check them out and if you're a member of Squidoo perhaps you could give them some love by ranking them and Stumbling them (pretty please). There was a glitch in the WiFi lens that had it only showing up as Under Construction, but hopefully by the time you read this that problem will be solved. I managed to find a clickbank product that relates to my best Wii games niche so I have put a link on my Squidoo lens and will soon make a post about it on the blog. I have another review to write for it first, followed by a funny story of Wii safety that I was given by a fellow 30DCer.

I'm far more interested in my work with the best Wii games, as that is getting plenty of traffic - but I'm still trying to put plenty of good copy into the WiFi one. My WiFi blog isn't getting so much traffic and seems to be struggling to compete with other WiFi pages - but I've been going a lot slower with the social bookmarking on WiFi, to see if a more organic approach doesn't yield better results. I also noticed the other day that my best Wii games blog has disappeared from Google. Now the only part of the blog that appears in search rankings is my review of Harry Potter and The Order Of The Phoenix. I've been told by others that this can happen when Google tries to determine where to actually rank your page - so I'm being patient for now, and a little worried. If it has been "sandboxed" it could be gone for 3 to 6 months, but as long as the Harry Potter post is still up people should be able to find the rest of the blog. I'll start giving that some SB love and see how it goes.

So now I'm off to write another review for the best Wii games site, and write another blog for "What is WiFi". After that I'll be working on articles for both niches to submit to Ezinearticles.com - followed by looking into some new niche ideas.