Your Opinions on My Article campaigns

[sandra648]

Ok.. I have been writing article for a particular niche and it seems like my article are well optimized because I'm getting lots of hits pretty quickly and i am listed on the first page of google for many of them. I'm getting lots clicks but no sale. for example, i would get 500 views and 300 clicks. I have the articles link directly to my vendor page and they are quite popular and have a decent gravity. Am I doing something wrong or is it just the nature of the business. Should i just move along to my other niches because i don't have time to worrry about this too much. Your opinions count so please let me know.

Oh one more thing... is it better to direct an article to a blog then to a merchant or just straight to a merchant?

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hi Sandra,

1st of all congrats on the 1st page rankings and traffic!

There are so many variables it's hard to say. But in general I would say it sounds like your clickthrough rate is nice and high so there could be a problem with the conversion rates for this particular product, although I'm not sure 300 clicks is giving it enough of a chance.

Have you checked the merchant page for leaks? Like a 2nd form of payment that isn't tracked? A merchant opt in? Adsense links? 800#, etc?

In general it's better to link to your blog than directly to the merchant for a variety of reasons. By driving traffic you your own site 1st you get a chance for branding, bookmarking and repeat visits. You also get a chance to pre-sell the visitors to optimize the chance of a sale. Also I thought most article directories don't allow affiliate links, which would force you to link to your own domain 1st.

FYI, I'm moving this out of the newbie forum to our article marketing forum and you may find some answers there.

 

[lexdino]

Oh one more thing... is it better to direct an article to a blog then to a merchant or just straight to a merchant?

Straight to a merchant if you were able to explain all what you wish to explain about the product in the article.

 

[CoolAromas]

Ok... I'm getting lots clicks but no sale. for example, i would get 500 views and 300 clicks. I have the articles link directly to my vendor page and they are quite popular and have a decent gravity.

Oh one more thing... is it better to direct an article to a blog then to a merchant or just straight to a merchant?

Sandra,
You answered your own question.
If you are getting a 60% ctr from your visitors, that is HUGE!
People would kill for that.

What that tells me is that your articles read well, flow nicely, and your links are well placed and natural.

Your readers are captivated, and willing to follow your direction.

The problem has to be your landing page.

I direct mine to a Blogger page I set up as a blog on the intended topic with my picture. I think this is very important.

Then I redirect to the aff website.

Hope this helps.

Patrick

 

[CoolAromas]

Ok... I have the articles link directly to my vendor page and they are quite popular and have a decent gravity. Am I doing something wrong or is it just the nature of the business.

Oh one more thing... is it better to direct an article to a blog then to a merchant or just straight to a merchant?

I fogot to mention that if the vendor is giving away a FREE e-course or something else on your aff page, you are probably losing sales to them.

A customer is ready to buy, then sees a FREE something, clicks on that, opts in to an email list, and goes back to their email to see what free stuff they got.

Then you are left out of the loop.

Vendors will claim they keep cookies for 60 or 90 days, but maybe your computer is not set up to accept cookies, maybe the vendor is not being truthful, etc.

If your ctr is that high, I would recommend PMing Linda and showing her your vendor page, and seeing what she thinks.

Patrick

 

[mla16]

If you dont mind me asking, what is it that you are article writing about??? It seems like you are getting loads to your landing page and then nothing being converted may be the product???

 

[MrAnderson]

Yeah for sure sounds like a landing page problem to me too. I would focus there. Congrats on the CTR!

 

[David Jackson]

Is it better to direct an article to a blog then to a merchant or just straight to a merchant?

The answer to your question is it depends. If the merchants sales page has strong, compelling copy, then yes, link directly to the merchants page.

Unfortunately, most of the sales pages I've seen are just plain weak, and convert poorly. In those types of situations, I would set up a presell page where I presold the product first, before sending the prospect to the merchants sales page.

If you write an effective presell page, I guarantee you will dramatically increase your conversion ratio.

By the way, for those of you who don't know what preselling is, here's a great article that explains it: The Art of Preselling.

David Jackson

 

[Jack Wevers]

Hi Sandra,

Congrats with your website! I have success with directing my articles straight to the merchant and that's because my articles are more related to product reviews.

Good luck!