Creating a new Conversion Website

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Hello readers

Today I want to announce my new upcoming website, ConversionWolf. In my website I plan to not only include the best conversion case studies, but also a tool that will make conversion testing much easier than it currently is.

There are already a few competitors to the idea that I have in mind. However, they are all very expensive to use and I’m 100% confident that I can make something much better.

Whether it fails or not, at least I will improve my skills tremendously. This is a very ambitious project and I hope to receive some feedback about it.

If you have any ideas for me, make sure to let me know. You can include them in this post through the comments/

What I Want ConversionWolf to Have

Suggestions. I want that as people start AB testing their websites, a wolf pops up with suggestions of how to best improve the conversion rate of their website.

A blog. I want to include the best tips and case studies related to conversion optimization.

Platform-Specific tools. I also plan to include several platform-specific tools that will help webmasters create AB tests. One platform that I have in mind is, of course, WordPress. However, I think that several other platforms could benefit from AB tests as well such as XenForo, vBulletin and Fork CMS. A stand alone AB split tester might also be a good idea.

A book. My end-goal is to acquire so much conversion data that I will eventually write my book that I will promote to my different lists. This is actually a distant objective, but an important one nonetheless.

That’s it. If you have any suggestions don’t hesitate to write them here.

Split Testing the Obvious – How I Increased my Opt-in Rate by 2.6%

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For the past few weeks, I’ve been split testing one of my squeeze pages very heavily. You can read my first test in this post.

I’m a huge split tester and I always try to get the highest conversion on all my landing pages. In this post I will talk about my latest experiment: split testing the obvious.

In one of my squeeze pages, I used to have several links to my homepage, the contact us page, the about us page and so on. In this experiment, I duplicated my original squeeze page and in the second version I removed all links to other places (including the link in the logo).

I was expecting a 1% or 2% increase in conversion rates. I was surprised that within three days (and about 200 conversions), the new squeeze outperformed the former squeeze page by 2.6% – from 19.460% to 22%.

This might not seem like much, but it means that from every 100 visitors I’m getting 2.6 more subscribers. This means an extra revenue of several thousand dollars per year – all for a very simple split test.

My Secret

Now instead of giving the user an “escape route” I simply open the squeeze page in a new page. This has several advantages:

  • Lower bounce rates
  • More user interaction (user goes back to site after closing squeeze page)
  • No escape route on the actual squeeze page

Go ahead and test this on your own site. You might like the results.

Squeeze Page Split Test Case Study #1

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I recently looked at the conversion rate of my highest earning website’s squeeze page and I came to the conclusion that being at 8.5%, I could easily improve it all the way to 30%.

If you haven’t read it already, read the article about how my online income exploded after I started split testing all the important pages throughout my web properties.

Squeeze Page Stats

Unique visitors to squeeze page per day: 100
Conversion rate: 8.5%
Percentage of users who visit squeeze page: 100 / 700, or about 14.2% (I could also improve this number)
3-month value of visitor that completes squeeze: $1.5

My Goals:

My original goal was to increase the conversion rate from 8.5% to 30%. Since the original experiment, I have also been trying to increase the number of unique visitors to the squeeze page from 100 to at least 250.

Anyway, that will be part of another experiment. For now, if I managed to increase the conversion rate from 8.5% to 30% I would be nearly quadrupling my income to around $180 per day (from around $50). This would a huge income increase and all it would take was a few weeks of a/b testing my main squeeze page.

Since a test must be statistical significant in order to have any meaning, I decided to wait until each test had around 50 conversions each. Obviously this took around 4-5 days per test, but you can increase the speed by buying PPC traffic for your own tests.

The Results

As of April 9, 2013 the squeeze page conversion rate hovers at around 24% with a similar increase in income.

What I Fixed so Far

First AB Test

I decided to only change a single item at a time. That way I would know exactly what was causing the conversion rates to increase or drop. The first thing I split test was the background. In my original squeeze page I had a bright background that was totally different from the rest of my site.

What I did was create a copy of my first squeeze page. Then I used the Split Tester Pro WordPress plugin to handle the whole test. I changed the background of the second squeeze page to match the background of my website. I also added the logo that I omitted in my original squeeze page.

Result: After about 600 visits the first squeeze page had a conversion rate of 8.7% while the new squeeze page had a conversion rate of 10.588%

After using this AB significance tool, I came to the conclusion that the test was indeed significant and therefore the result was conclusive.

Second AB Test

In the second AB test, I decided to test the headline.

How to Build Trust with your List of Subscribers

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One of the most common questions that I see at the Warrior Forum is how to build trust with your subscribers.

Building trust is easy for some and very difficult for others. Some marketers just have the ability to be trusted by others, while other marketers often struggle to create trust and generate sales.

In this post, I will explain some methods that will help you build trust with your subscribers.

Five Steps to Build Trust with your Subscribers

1. Set Expectations

If you want to have any kind of success at e-mail marketing, it’s very important that your subscribers know exactly what they’re getting into when they subscribe to your list. You must disclose how often you will be e-mailing them and what they will get in return for their e-mail address (this also helps increase conversions). In other words, you want to be as honest as possible. 

2. Create AWESOME Content

If you want to stand out from all the other internet marketers out there, you must put a lot of time and effort into creating the best e-mail messages that you can possibly create.

You must also send them free content.

3. Be Relevant

If people are unsubscribing from your lists faster than you can finish writing your next e-mail, it’s time to look at relevance as the likely culprit. In other words, if your subscribers opted in to your healthy eating list, only send them related offers and content.

I once read a post about a guy who sent Farmville promotions to his dating list. Not only did he lose a ton of subscribers, but his account was banned as well.

Conclusion

It really isn’t hard to build trust with your subscribers. Follow the three guidelines that I just talked about and you will start seeing improvements.

Required Internet Marketing Reading for the Month

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Since I’m on the verge of launching one of the biggest e-commerce stores in Mexico, I decided that I have to read more than I normally do. I usually read 2-3 books per month, but this month I have decided to read six different books.

Here are the six books that I’m reading:

- The Zappos Experience: 5 Principles to Inspire, Engage and WOW
- To Sell is Human
- The Icarus Deception
- The Adweek Copywriting Handbook
- Read Their Mind: How to Hear What the Marketplace Wants and Build a Huge Business

Some of the books above are free and you can download them instantly using an Amazon Kindle. By the way, today I finally received my new Kindle Paperwhite which is awesome. I truly recommend it.

So far the book that I have learned the most from is The Zappos Experience. It can get a little boring at times, but the concepts used by Zappos are something that all of us should at least know about.

All in all I’m very pleased with all the books that I have chosen and if you have the time you should try reading them as well.

Talk soon

 

Responsive, Adaptive or Regular Web Design?

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Recently there’s been a lot of buzz about responsive web design. However, are responsive designs the best approach to web development? Would creating a separate website for mobile devices be as effective? Can you get away with an old-fashioned design? These are some of the questions that I will cover in this article.

You might have seen dozens of different responsive designs without even being aware of it. The beauty of responsive designs is that they look good in every browser. For example, try resizing your browser’s window. You will see that as your window get smaller, so does the actual website. You may also notice that all the information remains ordered regardless of your window’s size.

Most web developers have recognized for more than a year that responsive web design is the way to go. However, a new technique has recently gained popularity: adaptive web design. 

The main difference between adaptive web design and responsive web design is that while a responsive website will load unnecessary images, videos and external files; an adaptive website will only load what is required for the device being used. This technique is accomplished via the clever use of server-side programming and browser-side requests.

The clear winner is adaptive web design. It has all the benefits of responsive design without its limitations. The only real downside of adaptive websites is that they are more expensive to make and will require a group of professionals to create the code.

Adaptive web design is still in its early infancy. Only few websites (out of the millions) actually employ adaptive web design techniques. In other words, if you want to get started with adaptive web design give this technique a try.

There is a very good book about adaptive web design by Aaron Gustafson (click here to learn more about it) which will teach you everything you need to know about this new technique.

Conclusion

While responsive web design might be getting all the buzz, the real way to make the web more usable is through adaptive web design.

Needless to say “old-fashioned” web design is out. You must either create a responsive, adaptive design; a completely separate website for mobile devices or you will be missing a ton of mobile traffic that will go to your competitors.

List or no List? Some Interesting Results

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I spent the six years of my internet marketing career totally oblivious of what a list of subscribers could do for my bottom line. About a year ago, I decided to give AWeber a shot. It was extremely interesting to see how bad at e-mail marketing I was at the beginning. Heck, I still think that I have a LOT to learn.

I decided to conduct a little experiment just for the sake of this website. In it, you will clearly see how effective list-building is and why you might be throwing away piles of money if you don’t start acquiring leads.

I decided to create two different campaigns at Stumble Upon. Each was filled with $100 – enough to get 1,000 clicks. In total I spent $200 for this experiment.

The product I was promoting was a Clickbank product that I purchased some time ago. I know that the product is very good and so is the landing page.

The first campaign, the one without the squeeze page, made the following:

Clicks: 1000
New subscribers: 0
Sales: 2
Sales amount: $68
Profit: -$32

The second campaign made the following:

Clicks: 1000
New subscribers: 245
Initial Sales: 2
Initial sales mount: $68
Sales within three days from the list: 2
Sales amount within three days: $68
Profit: $36 (and increasing)

Conclusion

As you can see, if you’re not building a list you’re potentially losing 2x or more money. It’s true that not everybody will see the actual offer – but those that do are not only more likely to buy, but will be reachable through their e-mail where you can send them even more offers.

How to Move a WordPress Blog to a New Host

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In the past couple of weeks, I have noticed that a lot of people are asking what the best way to move a WordPress blog from one host to another is. There are three different ways to move your blog to a new host, all with their respective advantages and disadvantages. Note: before you move your blog, make sure to read this article fully as there are some security considerations to keep in mind.

SCP via SSH

This is my preferred method to move anything from one server to the other. If you have a VPS or dedicated server, chances are that you have access to SSH. With SSH it’s es easy as zipping your public_html folder, using SCP to move the zipped file to the new server and unzipping the file.

Then all you have to do is make a backup of your MySQL file, upload it in your new server and edit your configuration file.

I have been literally able to move huge websites in less than ten minutes using this method.

Advantages: fast, easy, secure, keeps file permissions

Disadvantages: may not be apt for beginners, need SSH access.

FTP

The most common way to move websites is using FTP. This is the preferred method of most people because they don’t know about SCP or they don’t have access to SSH. If you use shared hosting, there are many terrific VPS out there which not only give you access to SSH, but are also more reliable and often cheaper than shared hosting. I always used either a VPS or a dedicated server to host all my sites.

To move your blog using FTP, all you have to do is download a FTP client for your operating system (I recommend Transmit for Macs) and enter your username/password. I know that some of this stuff is very basic, but bear with me. Then you should download all the files to your computer, update your configuration file and upload the files back to your new server.

The last step is to make a backup of your MySQL file and upload it to the new server.

WordPress Plugins

If you’re an absolute beginner, you should probably just get a WordPress plugin to do the work for you. However, certain WordPress plugins are notorious for their low security. You don’t want a hacker adding spammy links to your blog, do you?

Additionally WordPress plugins are slow and they often mess up your file permissions. This might not seem very important, but it is.

Conclusion

Moving your WordPress blog from one host to another shouldn’t be hard. If you’re having trouble, please leave a comment. There are also several people who are willing to move your blog for $5 at Fiverr.com. Note: Always change your password after anyone uses your server. Better yet, learn to do it yourself!