When you create a site online ~ any site, it doesn’t matter whether it’s a lens, a niche site or an authority site you are much more likely to make sales if you don’t come off like a salesman. Most people have been in the situation where they wanted something and had someone try to SELL it to them. That’s not a great feeling. SELLING can truly lead to diminished sales. People want to make their own decisions, they want to feel like they made the choice to buy something. They don’t want to feel like you pushed them, bullied them or guilted them into buying something (even if they wanted it). Being able to reach this fine balance is really important when it comes to your niche blog. Here are some things you can do to make your site sell without being a smarmy salesman.
Tone:
The tone you take comes from a lot of things. Your theme, your content, the amount of banners/stuff on your page. I try to be a “trusted friend” when I’m making a website. Someone who the reader can trust to receive quality information from, and will buy from because they trust me. Yes, this is what I try to do on any and every piece of content I put online.
Quick story:
A couple years ago my mom needed a new car. She wanted a Prius. She was ready to BUY the Prius, she just wanted to drive it and ask a couple questions. (This is where many buyers are. They just want to assuade their fears, and make themselves feel good that they are making a good purchasing decision). So we all jumped in the truck and headed to the Prius dealer. (I was thinking about getting a Prius too, so I wanted to go along).
We get there and the sales guy brings the Prius around (we pack the car seat in lol) and start rolling. The guy is really overbearing, interrupting, condescending and generally not very pleasant to be around. My mom asked her few questions and made some statements which the guy quickly rolled his eyes and then told her she was wrong. YIKES. Not a smart move with my mom.
I can see my mom up there getting really pissed. Her fists are clenched, she’s holding her breath, and the guy just keeps going on and on, not letting her get a word in edgewise. He’s SELLING her the car. Problem is she was already SOLD on the car and now he’s just UNSOLD her, with his bad attitude.
She gets back to the dealership and gets out of this Prius she’s been waiting so long to buy. Walks to the Nissan dealership and without even driving it buys a new Nissan.
That guy MESSED up. YOUR tone makes all the difference in the world. Watch how you are talking to people on your website. Every element of your website. Are you being a trusted friend/advisor or are you being the Prius dealer?
About page:
This goes along with being a trusted friend/advisor. People like to see that there is a real person behind a website. Put up an about page. Give people a way to contact you. If you don’t know much about the topic you’re writing about keep it simple, we’re here to give you the best information and resources on ____ fill in the blank. If you’re familiar with your topic ~ tell your story. The more you can be a real person on this site the better. Let people know you, and you will go farther.
Affiliate links:
Now this one’s more for google than your readers, but it’s still important. Yes, of course you’re going to link to affiliate products ~ that’s the benefit for you of making this site ~ making money. However, Google does not fall in love with affiliate sites easily. You want to make it easier for Google to fall in love with your site too. You can do this by cloaking your affiliate links. (This also makes it harder for people to steal your commissions). You’ve already installed the simple link cloaker plugin. This is a very simple plugin to use. You go get your affiliate link. (make sure it’s JUST the link ~ not any html with it. So it will be http://youraffilaitelink.com/?2944 (or whatever). Go to your dashboard and then to settings you’ll see simple link cloaker there. Click it.
From here you can create a link that will look like part of your site but will point to your affiliate product. You can create whatever name you want for the link. In the first box you create your link. Mine might look like this:
/buy/giantmountainbike
then in the second box I put my affiliate link ~ just paste it right in there.
Hit ok, and now whenever you want to link to that affiliate product you just put /buy/giantmountainbike in the pop up box that comes up when you click the anchor text icon. Your link when someone hovers over it will be:
www.mountainbikeforsale/buy/giantmountainbike
This will not look like an affiliate link to either your readers or google. Very nice little plugin. You also won’t have to keep track of all your affiliate links ~ they’ll be right there when you need them.
Linking out:
Have you ever seen a non affiliate site that DOESN’T link to other good stuff? This is the biggest giveaway to google that you are an affiliate site. This may sound counterintuitive, but I’m telling you to do it anyway.
Go to google. Put in your topic keyword. Look at the top sites in the results. Now go to your blogroll area and link to them. Don’t use YOUR main keyword but use something related, or the name of the product/service. When you’ve got 10 or 15 of these in your blogroll add your blogroll to your sidebar.
I know, I know, you’re yelling Jackie have you lost your mind??? I can’t link to the competition. I’ll lose my traffic! What about link leakage?
Google will love you for this ~ with no affiliate links, and links to other quality relevant sites google is going to be impressed with you, and will reward you with better rankings. Your site will be seen as a “real” quality site and not just a thinly veiled attempt to make sales. So yes, I definitely say do it!
Make it so your links out are at the bottom of your sidebar, so people won’t see them as easily. It wll be ok. Promise. The little traffic you may lose will be compensated by the better rankings and the more traffic you get from that.
Video:
Adding video can be a fun and easy way to provide more information to your readers and more content while looking even LESS like an affiliate site! How many affiliate sites do you know that add videos to their posts? It’s a great idea. I encourage you to look around youtube for some videos that will match your topics. If you have a good working knowledge of your topic you can even make your own video. This is a great way to build authority in your niche. When you’re grabbing the embed code from youtube, just tick the box that says something like turn off related videos. That way you won’t have links to other videos (off your page) at the end of the video.
Disclosure/Privacy Policy
If you’re going to be using adsense on your site you must have a privacy policy in place. You can create one here. Once it’s created just copy the code they give you. Go to your dashboard, click “add new” under the PAGE area (not the post area) and then click the html tab and paste the content in there. click save and you’re done.
Disclosure. With the new FTC regulations it’s important to have a disclosure policy as well. A disclosure policy simply tells people that you will make a commission if they purchase through your links. You can create one here. You may want to add your own verbage in addition to this outline, but this will get you started.
The disclosure policy is still so new I’m not sure what level of disclosure is truly necessary. Make sure at minimum you’ve got a sitewide disclosure policy on your site. You can put it on the same page as your privacy policy if you want.
Content:
This kind of goes along with tone, but it’s really the most important thing. Not only for getting rankings but for getting sales. If you can stop thinking about “making the sale” while you write your content and focus more on “solving a problem” for your reader your content is going to be a million times better. Stop thinking “how do I write copy that sells” and just start writing good stuff that helps people out. (while doing as much on page optimization as you can). There are no magic words you can say that will sell stuff to a reader ~ it comes from being believable, being trustworthy, being a REAL. Remember, no matter what your niche you’re targeting people. People who need something or have a problem are looking for some help. Cater to that need OVER your need to make a sale and you’ll be halfway there.
Stop thinking so much, stop worrying so much.
Start being yourself. Start being real. Start writing like you are answering your best friend’s question and you’ll be fine.
I’ve covered a lot in this post. Feel free to ask questions below and if we need more room for discussion we can always take it over to the fanpage.
Other Posts That Might Help:
To become original simply means being yourself. Expressing yourself through your blog and writing about what you are interested in is the key. One must not be afraid to go against popular opinion. Eventually, this will work out in your favor.
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