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I would love to make the average EPC

tcoco_architect
Posts: 23
Joined: 13 Mar 12
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I would love to make the average EPC

Hello,
According to CJ the average EPC of my merchant is close to $36 per 100 clicks. My site has been bringing this merchant 3000 clicks per month so if I was making the average EPC I would be close to $1000 per month however i am averaging around $80 a month. My website is http://tenniselbowracquet.com

Thanks in advance for your suggestions
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Site Admin
aletta
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Joined: 09 Jul 06
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Heya Tom,

There are "clicks" and then there are "targeted clicks".

I have pages that send thousands upon thousands of visits to a merchant I'm promoting, and never make a sale. I also have pages where 1 in 10 clicks could convert. The difference is that the pages that convert are ones that are targeted at people who are close to buying already.

On your site I see a couple of factors that might give you a lot of clicks on your affiliate link, but not so many sales.

Firstly: At the top of each article you have a bunch of recommended products, with a bunch of affiliate links. As someone first visiting your page, I assumed that these would take me to pages on YOUR site, where you'd discuss the products and why they're good for this particular problem.

People are always looking for guidance and advice, and recommendations, but you're sending them directly to the merchant without first giving them any direction: "what you need", "why you need it", "what to look for", "what I recommend for X problem", "what I recommend for Y problem" ... etc.

I would reshuffle your articles so that it's something more like...

1) Introduce the problem. People will then think "yes, this guy knows what my problem is"

2) Discuss the solutions to the problem. Bulletpoints and sub headlines are important to help people read the content. You might also want to increase the font size of your articles if possible... some older tennis aficionados might appreciate that.

3) Discuss the products you recommend. If there are a few different options based on different variations of the problem, discuss these too. Talk about WHY you recommend them. Offer links to the products for people to check it out.

The key is to help people decide. People need help -- that's why they're there! Put your help first, and the recommendations afterwards. That way you're not asking for your visitor's hand in marriage before you've gone on your first date.

I also think you're squandering a killer opportunity in your reviews area by simply directing people to the merchant review page. Pages that target "review" keywords typically convert MUCH MUCH better than "general information" type keywords. My page that converts really highly is a "review" page, just based around a product name.

Again, people want an unbiased (but positive. Don't make them think!) opinion here, not a sales pitch. If you're familiar with these products, put together a review for each. You could also create reviews for the brand name (are they known as a quality brand?) or the racquet style ... whatever. Have a look in your keyword tool to see what sort of "review" keywords people are looking for around this topic.

Take home point: Remember that people here are looking for guidance. Make it as easy as possible for them to make a decision and zero in on something that is suitable for them -- don't just leave it up to the merchant.
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tcoco_architect
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Your point regarding my product reviews is well taken and i have heard it before. The problem is that i am not in position to have a product review that compares to the merchants who have many on staff paid professional reviewers with video content and excess to any tennis racquet they need at any time. I think if I could get visitors who have used or purchased these racquets to write there own reviews it would help. So far no one has written any reviews on my site. I am looking to see if there are any plugins that might make it easier to generate some visitor product reviews.
Update I had a review plugin all along but no visitor ever used it I think I can put my own review that is general to only the arm friendly aspect of the racquet hopefully that will encourage other users to start to participate
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tankctrlr
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Aletta gave a ton of great tips and doing reviews was just one of them, for me since you're getting sales already I really think that if you upgraded your theme/template to make your site look/feel more professional you could either get more sales or build more trust or both.

Like it or not people make the decision to stay on your site in a matter of seconds, and so when they see a theme/template that is out dated (as yours is) they will think that it has out dated info or has been abandoned, updating a theme/template is like doing a remodel on a "brick and mortar" store; if it looks old and run down not many people will want to go inside and shop.

I'm pretty sure you can upgrade your theme for FREE or for as little as $47 bucks.

That's where I would start, then apply what Aletta recommended and you'll be all set.
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Writing Services - www.needanarticle.com
 
tcoco_architect
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Can you tell me what you see about my theme that makes it outdated and what is typically included in the latest themes that I may be lacking?

Another question that I have is how is it possible to intice people to make reviews on my site rather than on the merchants site since they purchased from the merchant and not from me?

Also a question somewhat unrelated - I heard someone talking about putting other peoples you tube videos on their website and reviewing them - Can you put other peoples you tube videos on your own site without copyright infrigements?

Thank you in advance for any feedback!
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tcoco_architect
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Hello,
Any more feedback? I have not heard anything for 2 weeks.
Thank you and I really appreciate the help!!
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aletta
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I can't speak for Andrew when he said your theme looks "dated", but if I were to guess, I would say...

* Embossed tennis string background
* Header image
* Small font (in Arial) on entire site
* Gradients
* Lots of round corners
* Narrow width of content

None of these on their own are particularly "dated", but the combination might give that impression.

But to me this isn't as important as the content. There are plenty of "dated" looking sites around the web that do just fine... so long as the immediate first impression someone gets is "I can find what I'm looking for here, and I trust this opinion".

You're very focused around getting *other* people to write reviews for you. Your reason seems to be that you can't compete with the merchant site. You can, because you're not the merchant. People don't trust merchants! That's why they go looking for reviews on external sites!

If you don't know that much about the product you're reviewing -- either find out more (perhaps you could contact some tennis experts who might know and ask for their opinions?), or you can look at the other reviews that are out there and paraphrase them into your own review. Or provide a "summary/roundup" of opinions from around the web, without necessarily implying that you've used the product yourself.

Once you've got your own review, you could invite people to leave comments. Do they agree with your review or not? But in order for anyone to engage with your site in the first place, there needs to be something to engage with! Just like nobody is going to start chatting in a completely empty forum with tumbleweeds blowing across the screen, people are unlikely to just randomly leave a review on an otherwise empty website.

I've just had another peek at your site, and I'm seeing the exact same review on every review page. If I were looking for reviews, this sends your credibility through the floor, and I would be out of there like the place was on fire.
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tcoco_architect
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I am starting to individualize and add more to the reviews. I hope that helps and gets others to make their own reviews. I hope to increase sales and move to the next level I seem to be stuck betwwen $75-100 a month for more than 6 months
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This topic was started on Oct 30, 2013 and has been closed due to inactivity. If you want to discuss this topic further, please create a new forum topic.