Lows and Highs and In Betweens & A Reminder to Check Your Links

Published: Tue, 09/27/11

I have had some very interesting emails today.  Some filled with great highs and some filled with frustration.  
 
I love both kinds.  
 
Why?  Because one is a sign that I've helped someone and they were excited enough to share their success with me.  The other because it's an opportunity for a corner to be turned. 
 
Those emails reinforce the message behind the Sales Rescue TwoFer that went up yesterday.  
 
Often, there's just a small tweak to your strategy standing between you and success.
 
Here are just a few examples:

Here
  • One woman had been built up a collection of Squidoo lenses but she'd put her heart and soul into one in particular in preparation for the holidays.  She'd done an excellent job and she was getting great traffic but no sales.  She'd even applied the strategies in Squidoo Niche Blaster but still no sales.  It didn't add up.  Until she discovered that her links to Amazon were not really affiliate links.  As soon as she fixed them...SALES!
  • Another woman had a beautiful site she'd put together that was also earning traffic for her keywords.  She was ranking well and had tons of content on her site but no sales.  Her "call to action" and the navigation of her site needed just some minor improvements.  When she made those changes she got...SALES!
  •  An email came to me from someone who has been working on her site for a long time. She's loaded it with hundreds of pages of content and is getting over a thousand visitors a day but not much in sales.  I can already tell why and I'm pretty sure she'll be able to fix the problem.  It's all to do with navigation of the site and helping the visitor find what they want more quickly.
  • A Warrior contacted me today through WF.  He was about to buy one of my products but wanted to ask a question first.  Seems he bought some sites from a site creation service and none of them were generating sales.  He wanted to know if any of them were salvageable.  (A site is almost always salvageable.)  The one he showed me had a common problem.  There was a single post per product for a product that is purchased based mostly on appearance.  Think lampshades.  You don't want to see one lampshade at a time.  You want to see a bunch of them lined up and then you can zero in on the one you like best.  A single post per lampshade just isn't a great way to sell lampshades.    
 
Small changes.  Changes in navigation, more obvious calls to action, and checking your links.  (Boy, have I learned that one the hard way myself!)  It all comes down to thinking like your customer - almost thinking FOR your customer and making it super easy for them to get the information they want.
 
I hope you find these kinds of stories motivating.  I hope they demonstrate that you might be sitting on a small pile of gold already if you've built sites that aren't performing.  Or, perhaps you'll realize that even if your first shot isn't immediately successful it doesn't mean you should throw in the towel.
 
And you want your energy HIGH right now!  Highly MOTIVATED because it's go time!  It's holiday time!  Those of you with Halloween lenses and sites are entering the pumpkin patch and those of us promoting - or hoping to promote - products that will see an increase in sales leading up to December are just creeping up on that time of year, too.  
 
The Christmas countdown clock tells me there are 88 days to Christmas.  88 days to prepare your sites with the strategies in Holiday Sales Hijacker.  Make sure you are adding new products, checking links on old products, building backlinks and checking up on any new holiday trends for your niche. 
 
Here's a tip for the day for any of you who are open to Amazon alternatives and are promoting products that are purchased based on their visual appearance - knick knacks, furniture, decor, toys, and baby items.  Go to Shareasale (an affiliate network) and register with them.
 
Once inside, click on the Merchant tab and search for merchants based on your niche (candles, clothing, jewelry, etc).  Search for merchants that pay more than 10% commission.  Visit their online store and see if any of their products will fit your site or your Squidoo lenses.  Apply - some are auto-approval!  Get links and plunk them into your site or lenses.
 
I LOVE Shareasale.  You have to watch some vendors as the smaller ones go offline every now and then but Shareasale is easy to use and I've never had a problem with them - EVER.  They're great for unique home decor items.  Lots of boutique-style online stores. 
 
Okay, that wraps it up for today.  Hope you all had a great start to your week and are eagerly busy updating your sites and adding new content!!  (Content, content, content - by the way, if you're short on time, make content a priority!  You can't catch fish without a hook or a net!)
 
Sincerely,
 
Erica
erica@extremereviewer.com