How To Convert Traffic Into Sales? (Part 1)

Image by efnnayr via Flickr

By now you probably realize that getting traffic is easy, but knowing how to convert traffic into sales is harder!

In today's blog, I'm going to share with you some practical tips on how to convert traffic into sales.

First, what sales are we referring to?

Are we talking about ad clicks, as in the case of Adsense click-through? Or we're referring to product sales, as in the case of affiliate sales or sales of your own products or services?

Since they require different techniques, I will discuss them differently.

How To Convert Traffic Into Ad Clicks

The "prerequisite" of any ad-clicks is targeted traffic. Whether you're getting traffic from search engines, PPC or other advertising channels, the traffic must be interested in the content on your webpage and hence the content of the ads. Without this prerequisite, nothing else can work.

With that prerequisite in mind, let's look at the strategies to convert traffic into sales (ad clicks in this case).

1) Place an ad above the fold

Don't worry about making your webpage ugly. Be focused. You want ad-clicks! Just get it.

One of your ads, such as an Adsense ad, should be above the fold (i.e. can be seen without scrolling) and located right in the middle of the webpage. Usually, a good place to put it is immediately below the title.

2) Place an ad near the action button or action link

If you are running a forum or any website where people tend to click on buttons or links to take some actions, place an ad near the most used button.

3) Place an ad at the end of the article

If the visitors happen to read the content on your webpage, you'll want to offer them something to do after reading. And that something is of course… an ad!

4) Don't frame the ad!

Don't frame the ad with borders. Remove any border.

In the offline world, retail shop owners are adopting an open concept, removing glass panels and walls because they realize that this will increase the traffic flow to their shops.

Same goes for the virtual world. Borders prevent people from clicking the contents in it. No borders please.

5) Build instant trust

Nowadays, people are more and more web savvy. You can forget about the old tricks of camouflaging your ad and misleading visitors into clicking your ad. (That is against Google's terms by the way). If your visitors ever click on your ad, that's because they want to get the info and they know you'll make money out of it.

Instead, what you should do is to build instant rapport with your visitors. Make them feel that your website is trustworthy, not a made-for-Adsense site.

No, I don't mean you have to start writing every article yourself and putting a personal touch in every article. That would be crazy, especially if you have hundreds of niches.

The trick I use is to place a 'personal' photo on my niche site, so that visitors can feel that what they are visiting is a little personal site of mine and I am the little expert in that niche.

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