“Caption Contest: Win the ProBlogger Library of eBooks!” plus 2 more

Caption Contest: Win the ProBlogger Library of eBooks!
Traffic: Stop Thinking in Numbers, Start Thinking in Words
7 Ways to Make Testimonials Work Harder for You

Caption Contest: Win the ProBlogger Library of eBooks!

Posted: 08 Jun 2011 05:51 PM PDT

caption contest

Okay, time for a little light-hearted fun. Caption Contest!

This morning on Twitter (follow me @Problogger) we were sharing our most embarrassing moments as bloggers and I shared the above picture which appeared in newspapers across Australia.

When the article came out five years ago, it was one of my first. I was excited about the mainstream media mention and looked forward to showing family and friends to legitimize this crazy blogging business I was running. But the photo became the focus of the piece, and generated quite a few laughs.

When I shared it earlier today on Twitter the captions for it started coming in thick and fast, so I thought perhaps it’d be fun to open it up. What would you caption that picture?

I’ll choose my favorite submitted caption in 48 hours’ time, and send the winner a copy of the three existing ProBlogger ebooks, plus a copy of our new one, which will be released next week.

Enter up to five times to increase your chances of winning! To enter simply leave your caption in comments below.

PS: There was another version of the article with a different picture, featuring the same chair here.

Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger

Caption Contest: Win the ProBlogger Library of eBooks!

Traffic: Stop Thinking in Numbers, Start Thinking in Words

Posted: 08 Jun 2011 01:03 PM PDT

Recently I’ve been writing down the frequently asked questions from my SEO clients. Here’s a few you may recognize:

How much traffic do I need to make $10,000 a month in revenue?
How do I get people to click like on my Facebook page?
Why is no one following me on Twitter?
Are the only people online successful because they are famous?
How many links do I need to hit page one on Google?

These questions are asked on nearly every incoming call. Sure, the keywords and markets are different, but it’s my job to manage the clients’ expectations and to give them the facts. Most of the callers just want straight answers, but every once in a while, one of them will listen and start to understand what you really have to do to achieve good search rankings. I know that the community on ProBlogger is full of great listeners and learners, so here’s my advice from are three years of SEO knowledge.

Forget the numbers look at graph shapes

Okay, you can use numbers as a guide, but unless you’re starting a magazine or advertisement-driven website, why are you worried about figures? The difference in sales you’ll generate from 5,000 visitors a month or 10,000 per month is very small. Trust me—it is!

What you need to do is look at the graph shape for the past six months. Is it going up in the right direction?. If it’s not, see where your best source of traffic is, and look to add content to that source. For instance, if your Facebook page brings in 500 hits a month, add a couple of photographs a week, and maybe a video or two.

Look at integrating share buttons after a transaction

A fresh visitor doesn’t know you, but a buyer probably does. I read ProBlogger for two years before I gave Mr Rowse any cash, but when I purchased his audio book from iTunes I recommended the product afterwards on Twitter to 5,000 people.

I think that’s much more powerful, in terms of buying traffic, than quickly sharing a story. Have a chat to your web designer about this. integrating a share button after a transaction on your blog may take five minutes of coding and be cheaper than you thought!

Build your story

It’s surprising how many of the business owners I speak to are scared of the Internet. When I suggest they should have a photograph and a brief story about themselves on their sites, they shy away from the idea.

Look at every successful business out there, and you’ll quickly see a trend: there will be a face attached to the logo on the company’s website and other media. In most cases, a short story is included to make the owner more memorable. An example is GaryVaynerchuk—from his story, you quickly get to know he’s a family guy, wine expert and loves the New York Jets.

I always ask my clients to start slow and build up to that—maybe begin with name and photo, or even an illustration of their faces. Over time, as they become more comfortable, build up to mentioning their hobby or hero, for example. It’s a great exercise that will improve your whole website. I’m working on mine at the moment!

Imagine you’re the visitor

We’ve all seen thousands of websites. So these days when we visit a site, what goes through our minds? “Nice logo? Not interested.” (Well, maybe graphic designers are.) “Blog posts? Not that great.” Most bloggers aren’t that great at writing compelling posts, and good content on its own isn’t going to stop a visitor pressing the Back button.

My advice is to think of it like this: your mission is to keep a brand new website visitor on your site for two minutes. I’ve found that’s a pretty good incentive to get a client to make the changes I’ve mentioned here. Try that for yourself, and let us know how you go in the comments.

David Edwards is the founder of www.asittingduck.com and now working as a freelance consultant, finally!

Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger

Traffic: Stop Thinking in Numbers, Start Thinking in Words

7 Ways to Make Testimonials Work Harder for You

Posted: 08 Jun 2011 07:04 AM PDT

This post was written by the Web Marketing Ninja—a professional online marketer for a major web brand, who's sharing his tips undercover here at ProBlogger. Curious? So are we!

While some of us are true trailblazers, the rest of us a’re happy to walk a path previously traveled. Yes, our individual journeys will be unique, but the tracks were already there—we just chose our own route.

This is never more evident when we’re buying stuff. We look for validation, primarily from a trusted source or, if that’s not available, through the words of strangers.

That’s why testimonials can be a powerful addition to the converting power of your site—particularly pages where you’re attempting to persuade readers to do something, such as fill out a form or buy a product. As a case in point, Darren’s sales pages have comments from external sources plastered all over them.

So as a basic starting point, if you’re sales or conversion pages don’t have testimonials, add some! But that’s just the beginning…

As much as people need validation, and see safety in numbers, they’re also getting smarter online, realizing that testimonials are easy to manufacture. This means that the true credibility of a plain, old-style text testimonial is diminishing. We need to get smarter.

Here are seven ways to make your testimonials work harder for you.

1. Steal trust from the famous

Look at the reviews on Darren’s copywriting scorecard. Brian Clark, Leo Babauta, James Chartrand are just a few of the names that appear. The common thread is that these are individuals who have their own audiences. Darren's leveraging the trust a reader might have with those people, to give the words much more meaning. It’s what I’d call critical acclaim rather than a testimonial—and it works.

2. Show there’s safety in numbers

It’s sometimes easier to simply show your best three reviews, however you can wow your audience with an avalanche of testimonials—this product has over 21 pages of customer reviews! Not only are most of them glowing, they show that hundreds of customers have felt like they’ve got value for money. Amazon takes a similar approach with its review count.

3. Keep it real

We polish and polish our sales pages to perfection, but with testimonials, polishing can actually have the wrong effect. You want to ensure your testimonials are a down-to-Earth as possible. If your reviews contain the odd typo, it’s only going to serve to humanize the message.

4. Validate the authenticity

Reviews from even the average Joe can be given extra impact if you can show the reader that Joe’s a real person. It might be a link to his LinkedIn profile, Twitter page, or website—but if you can, facilitate a person-to-person connection. You want to avoid links to a generic website—that’s faceless and has a low impact. So if the CEO of a company provides you with a juicy quote, link to the About page where the CEO’s name and picture are on display. Amazon’s real name attribution is another approach to validating the authenticity of customers who make comments.

5. Take it off your site

People know you can control what’s on your own site, but they also know you can’t control what’s on others’ sites. If you can show that not only are your testimonials glowing on your own site, they’re glowing all over the Internet, the impact of those comments will go much further.

6. Show the bad and miss-aligned

When I suggest this, I normally get my head bitten off, but hear me out! People accept the fact that not everyone will be happy with your product, so if you don’t show the bad with the good, the reaction might be, “What are you hiding?” If you carefully pick the right negative comments to show, you’ll do more good than harm.

Say you’ve got a beginners’ ebook, and a more advanced reader is critical of the content. A bad review saying, “I felt like I wasted my money, the book wasn’t for me, it’s more for the beginner,” turns a negative comment into a positive for your target market.

7. Turn testimonials into advocates

You can take testimonials to a whole new level by turning your great reviewers into advocates. This might not work for low-priced products, but it’s great for premium products. Take your five best reviewers and ask them if they’d be happy to talk with potential customers. Providing that option to a potential buyer can be a deal-maker. Setting this up can be as simple as asking your best reviewers if they can stop by your forums or comment thread every so often to provide feedback.

Testimonials are a great way to lift conversion rates on your most important pages, but if you're not making them work hard for you, you might be leaving money on the table. Are you using testimonials to their best advantage on your site?

Stay tuned for more posts by the secretive Web Marketing Ninja — a professional online marketer for a major web brand, who's sharing his tips undercover here at ProBlogger.

Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger

7 Ways to Make Testimonials Work Harder for You