Converting site visitors is not the easiest in the world. People need convincing all the time, even regulars. How can you do that? What elements of a site might be needed to improve site conversion. Remember, in order to draw people in, you must have something in place so they know what you want them to see, especially if you might even be selling a product.
Here are 6 valuable elements you might want to add to your own blog.
- Featured Content Slider
There are so many types of jquery image sliders and many more being introduced daily. However, in general, it if best for you to select the ones that fit your needs. While both of the following have premium versions, for WordPress users, the Easing Slider and Slidedeck are some of the nicest ones I have tested as plugins. They are very easy to use and can make your site look more interesting when added.While there are a lot of people who like built in sliders, some of them just fall short of having some pizazz. The ones listed above add that extra oomph. 🙂
- Featured Thumbnails in posts
Since WordPress has made it easier for people to have thumbnail images added to articles, this has appealed greatly to those who love sites that are more visual. Many themes out there do not have this capability, adding the code snippet for featured thumbnails is not difficult. - Featured Posts with Thumbnails in sidebar
Having articles featured will allow you to bring material out from the archive and into the eyes of your visitors. This element will give them something extra to look at and choose if they want to go deeper in your site. One plugin, conveniently named Featured Post with thumbnail is pretty nice about it. It does though take some tweaking to make it look as you want it to me. - Related Posts plugin
This is an older and simpler method. Some people choose related posts with thumbnails and that is great, but if your site is already a little heavy on the graphics, just a simple related post plugin like Yet Another Related Posts Plugin. This plugin can also be displayed as a widget too. - Method to automatically share posts on the social networks
Twitter Tools and Tweet Old Post are both great plugins. While one can pump out your current posts, the other brings up older posts. What an arsenal! While your site alone can only do so much, social networks are a huge source of traffic for some bloggers. - Good old fashion method of banners
Words can go a long way, but images can go even farther. As said above, if you want to convert people, you need to provide a way to lead them there. Banners have been a method used for many years. Your banners do not have to be traditional sizes. They can be enough to say what you need it to say.
Of course, there are other methods, but the above mentioned are not as obtrusive. RSS footer ads, jquery pop ups, and even old pop ups (including DHTML) can become annoying for regular visitors. They do not add much to a blog site, but they are great for sites selling products.
What kind of site conversion elements do you use on your site? Any special ones you suggest that are not annoying or in the way of a user’s overall site experience?
Hi Nile,
Thanks for sharing some great ways to make your blog more attractive and to keep people on it. I will be sure to use some of those tips on my blog.
Ted
I totally agree with your post. Basically, what you want in your blog is content that will appeal to the sense of sight of the readers. Seeing something that moves or is interactive can make a big difference.
I guess the featured posts, related posts and most popular posts on the sidebar are very effective. People should have all the three of them installed in their blogs.
I’m surely going to follow these tips for my blog. Thanks Nile for the post.
The blog was absolutely fantastic! Lots of great information and
inspiration, both of which we all need!b Keep ’em coming… you all do
such a great job at such Concepts… can’t tell you how much I, for
one appreciate all you do!
Thank you for the list Niles, My blog is still new though, I will be considering them when I have a lot of posts already.
P.S.
May I ask what is the name of this plugin
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-m6X7sCiZVlw/Ttc5FFHYYlI/AAAAAAAABhw/BTugCH4A_qk/s320/ss.png
Thanks
Herbert
I do not use thumbnail images in any of my blogs, but it sounds like it’s a good idea. I am in the insurance field and typically, I don’t use a lot of images.
But if it helps, I’ll try it.
I really feel like content sliders and all that stuff take AWAY from the site. I personally don’t see the value in them, as they take up too much space and get in the way of more important things.
It’s also a good idea to be careful with using banner images as some people might mistake them as advertisement banners.
I think the most important asset to a blogger is an email list. I always make sure to optimize my designs for gathering emails, as it’s a huge traffic generator.
Unfortunately, not everyone is an internet marketer. Most bloggers rely on RSS feed, social networking, and their site in general. Those that do newsletters are with integrating an RSS feed, giving out site updates or notations. Now, on internet marketing, that is a whole different game as a lot more comes into play, marketing product or affiliate marketing, RSS for recent posts, and notations.
I can see where there are some pretty bad uses of content sliders. Not everyone does graphics design for a living, so that is an issue. However, with proper implementation, it can work well. I do get a good conversion on mine according to Woopra’s heatmap and I do not do mine on featured posts. Mine are on featured areas on my site and carefully designed for that.
Hi Nile,
Thanks for very interesting tips.
I recommend using arrows. I think that arrows help to increase conversion and are not annoying.
Audience participation is a major way to convert gives them a sense of belonging and pride allowing them to upload pictures relevant to your site is one way of doing this.
For instance imagine a music concert by say Rihanna and she allows you to come on stage and sing along with her for the rest of your life that’s a moment you’ll cherish and others would love to be a part off.
Hi Nile,
You have given some great tips on how to make your site better. Love the graphics on you site. I can see that you have some skills. Will be trying out one of your tips and be back for more.
Hi Nile,
These are good tips. As stated in one of the comments, not everybody is an internet marketer – I am one of them who is not well versed in this field.
As I know the value of it, I do a self-study in my spare time. A few of the tips you shared I will try to do to my blog asap.
Thanks,
Roy
Hi nile,
Thanks for the tips, especially the related posts plugin, I never thought to look for that, I always do the related links in the sidebar manually so i’m going to look into that plugin to see if it will save me some time.
I did try featured content slider for a while, but it didn’t work out for me. Although it was a great plugin it had one huge problem i couldn’t fix, it used to hide my drop down menus behind the slider, it frustrated me for hours on end trying to fix it but i just never could. In the end i switched up for ‘WP content slide’ which has served me well so far.
Nile, let me add one very important no-no that every serious blog/site ought to implement: AVOID INFORMATION OVERLOAD. Same principle applies for the text content, as it applies to visual content (graphics and images).
The blog was absolutely great! Lots of great information and inspiration, both of which we all need
Thanks for the very good tutorial on how to change our username in WordPress. It’s nice to be able to watch exactly how it is done especially when you offer so much detail.
I have to agree with you banners are really eye catching that’s why some of my ads are only dedicated to banners. I have tried related post plugin and I’m happy to say that it lowers my bounce rate making my readers stay a bit longer on my blog. I’m going to try tweet old post. Thanks for this.
Thanks for the useful information..’
yeah banners are old method but it s best method for site conversion…attracting banners are really worth..people always expert the banner will expose what the blog need to say.
Hey Nile, great tips! I have stumbled across a lot of the same suggestions you mention and I agree with their effectiveness – I know it caught my attention when I first came to your site! I like those sliders too, been looking for a good one, thanks!
I will be releasing the one I use as it will need to be forked over as apparently the original developer will not be developing the premium plugin and it is GPL, so thank goodness for that and more so, good for everyone else as the plugin works great. The one the guy put the content slider/ jquery slider is a little too fancy for my tastes on the backend and does about the same.
Thanks for the tools. I am going to look at incorporating a couple of these in to what I am doing to track my audience. I’m looking at finding ways to get people more engaged on my website.
hi Nile, I agree, there is a thin line between ‘too much’ and ‘not enough’ and very often it just comes down to individual taste. For me the visual stuff is really important. My pet hates are a visual wall of text only and the much benighned ‘pop-ups’. Although said to be the mosteffective for creating opt-ins, I have to confess they drive me bonkers 🙂
Hi Nile,
Great information you posted. I am brand new to blogging and the Internet Marketing world. I just built my first blog this week. I look forward to implementing some of your recommendation.
ps. So great to meet someone for Southern Illinois like my self 🙂 . Please email me, I’m struggling trying to put my site together.
Hi, Nile!
Great tips. I think I’ll try the method to automatically share posts on the social networks on my blog. Maybe, it will help to promote better my blog in social networks.
Thanks for sharing.
Best regards,
Valery
Sliders are great. I love sliders with attractive images :”>