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It’s All About The Conversions

by Ethan Bloch on May 25, 2009
its-all-about-the-conversions

Traffic… Traffic… Traffic…

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It’s all people talk about once they launch a website

“How can I get more people to find me… how can I get more hits?”

How about more conversions? You know, those things that actually deliver results, make money, move the needle.

If you had a brick and mortar store with ridiculous foot traffic but you never sold a damn thing, you’re not going to be in business for very long.

It isn’t any different on the interwebs.

So I advise you to take a cold hard look at your website… right now. Stop reading this. Really…. just be sure to come back ;)

  1. How could you decrease the friction oozing from your website?
  2. What do you want people to do and why are you making it difficult for them to do it?
  3. How could you help people slip down the slope of conversion?
  4. Is that link to the form you want people to submit tucked away somewhere down and out?
  5. Within seven seconds of landing on your homepage is there an obvious reason to stay?
  6. Why do I care what you do and and how are you going to qualify me?

Call me crazy, but I’d put in a crap ton more effort making sure my website converts before ever worrying about increasing its traffic.

  • elaineshannon

    …the disconnect for most entrepreneurs is that they know their stuff about their business but don't know shit about building a website. We are like nomads wandering through the desert looking for anything that resembles a website. How do we know what is oozing or not sticking?
    We don't know what we don't know!
    I am looking forward to future blog posts on tangible ways that Business owners can identify the issues with their site and what they can do to fix them….
    Keep up the good work,
    Cheers

  • elaineshannon

    …the disconnect for most entrepreneurs is that they know their stuff about their business but don't know shit about building a website. We are like nomads wandering through the desert looking for anything that resembles a website. How do we know what is oozing or not sticking?
    We don't know what we don't know!
    I am looking forward to future blog posts on tangible ways that Business owners can identify the issues with their site and what they can do to fix them….
    Keep up the good work,
    Cheers

  • http://phantomcto.com/blog Vanessa, Phantom CTO

    Most first time online business owners don't know where the core processes is in actually getting revenue from their website. It's a big myth that traffic is the key to a website making money. But its only part of a key. Without someone in the know to share what you've written about it is as, if not more important, to make the most out of the existing traffic a website already gets.

    Once a website reaches a critical mass of traffic and has made sales and gives a baseline conversion rate, the business focus should be to increase the amount of sales from the same amount of traffic. Conversion is all about increasing the value of your existing traffic and too often overlooked. Nice list of steps website owners can take to dive into making stronger conversions on their site.

  • http://phantomcto.com/blog Vanessa, Phantom CTO

    Most first time online business owners don't know where the core processes is in actually getting revenue from their website. It's a big myth that traffic is the key to a website making money. But its only part of a key. Without someone in the know to share what you've written about it is as, if not more important, to make the most out of the existing traffic a website already gets.

    Once a website reaches a critical mass of traffic and has made sales and gives a baseline conversion rate, the business focus should be to increase the amount of sales from the same amount of traffic. Conversion is all about increasing the value of your existing traffic and too often overlooked. Nice list of steps website owners can take to dive into making stronger conversions on their site.

  • http://www.marketleveragetv.com/ MLDina

    Traffic is certainly helpful, but I completely agree- the conversions are what make the money. I think a lot of advertisers are used to the CPM/CPC model, so they naturally track the results based on their traffic. The focus is definitely shifting to a CPA model, and targeted, converting traffic is the goal.

  • http://www.marketleveragetv.com/ MLDina

    Traffic is certainly helpful, but I completely agree- the conversions are what make the money. I think a lot of advertisers are used to the CPM/CPC model, so they naturally track the results based on their traffic. The focus is definitely shifting to a CPA model, and targeted, converting traffic is the goal.

  • http://thedreaminaction.com/ ryangraves

    Hey guys, great work.

    I'd love to chat sometime & record a spotlight for my startup video blog http://actionstalk.com let me know if you're interested in chatting!

    Cheers,
    Ryan

  • http://ethanbloch.com ethan

    Hi Elaine,

    To start, the best approach is to see what is working for other people is similar businesses. Once you mimic their best practices it's all about tweaking and testing.

    We'll be sure to queue up some future blog posts elaborating on this.

    Cheers,

    Ethan

  • http://ethanbloch.com ethan

    Thanks Vanessa. You're totally on-point. And once you have a system that works you just turn up the traffic dial… monitoring quality and conversation rates of course :)

    Cheers,

    Ethan

  • http://thedreaminaction.com/ ryangraves

    Hey guys, great work.

    I'd love to chat sometime & record a spotlight for my startup video blog http://actionstalk.com let me know if you're interested in chatting!

    Cheers,
    Ryan

  • http://ethanbloch.com ethan

    Hi Elaine,

    To start, the best approach is to see what is working for other people is similar businesses. Once you mimic their best practices it's all about tweaking and testing.

    We'll be sure to queue up some future blog posts elaborating on this.

    Cheers,

    Ethan

  • http://ethanbloch.com ethan

    Thanks Vanessa. You're totally on-point. And once you have a system that works you just turn up the traffic dial… monitoring quality and conversation rates of course :)

    Cheers,

    Ethan

  • http://twitter.com/espreson Sarbartha

    curious about your offerings. hope soon to be launched…

  • http://www.espreson.com/ espreson

    curious about your offerings. hope soon to be launched…

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