Author: Steve Tari

Make It Easy for Your Visitors to Complete Your Website Goals

What are your website goals? Do you have any? Presumably you want to make money, but how? Does each page on your site have a goal? If so, does the goal of the page also support your ultimate website goal?

 

Your website goals might include:

* To sell a product
* To sell a service
* To motivate an opt-in
* To inspire a visitor to click on an affiliate advertisement
* To provide information and receive ad exposure and PPC income

Any single website page may also have these same goals. They may also be designed to help you achieve other independent goals. For example, one web page may be designed to promote your opt-in offer. In addition to your call to action, there are other things you can do.

Taking a look at your website goals and independent page goals, consider these three points.

 

#1 Who are your visitors?

What content and tools will you need to help or convince them to accomplish your goals? For example, you want them to sign up for your opt-in form. What content and tools are you using to motivate that action? Are you providing them with a sample of the offer? Do you make it easy to opt-in or do they have to jump through hoops?

 

#2 How does your visitor travel on your site?
When someone visits your landing page, where do they go next? Is it where you want them to go? Does it support your goal? Use your website goals to help you create content and determine the path your visitor takes. Each piece of content on your site should influence an action that ultimately leads to your goal. Again, imagine you want to motivate an opt-in.

 

Each piece of content, form and promotion on your site should lead to that goal. Take a look at your flow of information and the path your visitors take when they’re at your site. Does their path support your goal? When adding or removing something on your site conflicts with your goals, don’t do it.

 

#3 Include a call to action with each website page. Articles, videos, forms –
everything needs to have a goal that supports your end goal. They need to have a call to action that supports your goal and purpose. Don’t expect your users to know what they’re supposed to do next. Tell them.

 

Finally, make sure to respect your user’s time. Dragging them through an endless process to achieve your goal isn’t going to win you any friends. If you want them to sign up for your opt-in list, make it as easy as possible. If you want them to buy a product, make it as easy.

 

Analyze each web page, new and old, and determine if it supports your goals or detracts from them. Help your visitors. Make it easy for them to achieve your website goals.

When Should You Start Taking on Direct Advertisers?

Bloggers who make their money from direct advertisers rather than through AdSense can make as much as 3-4 times higher CPMs. The direct ads market is a significant step up from monetizing via other methods. When should you take this step? Read on.

=> What Direct Advertisers Are Looking For

There are a few things that direct advertisers want in a site they’re advertising in.

Firstly, they’re looking for traffic. If your site doesn’t get enough traffic, they’re not even going to bother with negotiations.

Secondly, they tend to be very brand conscious. Specifically, they want their ads to be displayed on websites that complement their brand.

That’s why a “how to get rid of acne” page on WebMD can command so much higher CPMs than other sites built on the same topic. Advertisers want to be associated with a brand like WebMD.

Direct response advertisers sometimes do go for direct ad placements. However, by and large direct advertisers tend to be more brand conscious than response conscious.

If you want to shoot for the high CPM ad buyers, you’re usually aiming for brand-oriented ad buyers rather than purely response-oriented ad buyers.

=> When Should You Start Taking on Direct Advertisers?

A good sign that it’s time to start taking on direct advertisers is when people start approaching you to advertise on your site.

That means that people are already seeing your site as a reputable site in your space. They think you have traffic and are starting to believe in your brand.

Once you’ve made your first sale or two from people approaching you, you can start taking a more active role in soliciting future advertisers.

Apart from this rule of thumb, generally you’ll want to be getting at least half a million pageviews per month before seeking out direct advertisers. Your brand needs to be well recognized in your space and your home domain’s Page Rank should be at least 3 or 4.

=> Final Words on Dealing with Direct Advertisers

When you first take on direct advertisers, you’ll need to set up your own ad serving software. Generally, you’ll want to set up your site so that it displays direct ads first, then displays AdSense ads once your higher CPM ad buys run out.

You’ll also need to come up with your policy around text link buys. You’ll almost certainly be approached regarding buying text links. Though they can be a good source of revenue to start, selling links can damage your rankings in the future.

Finally, remember that direct advertisers are real human beings. Unlike dealing with AdSense code, you’ll now have to manage a real relationship. That means figuring out what’s important to your advertisers and making sure they’re continuing to get that by advertising with you.

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