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How Copy Above Product Grids Increases Ecommerce Conversions

How to Get Your Company to Add Copy to Category Pages

Good copy above your product grids can reduce costs, increase conversions and add to the user experience.  This is true even though that same copy sometimes pushes products below the fold.

So how do you have a conversation with branding, design, UX, paid search and operations to get them on board with adding copy above the product grid?  Simple, speak to them in their terms, not in yours as an SEO or content creator.

Below you’ll find three ways that I use with my agency to approach the design, finance, branding and marketing teams.  I use facts, data and examples that relate to their departments.  By relating to them I am speaking their language vs. talking like I would to my team.

Please note I use “collection” instead of “category” when referencing pages because I got feedback many of my readers are on shopping cart platforms that call categories collections.

We Will Save Money From Live Chat, Customer Support & Returns, or Warehousing

In this approach you’ll want to pick a specific category or two and look through live chat records.  You can also talk to the shipping and returns teams to verify the amount of specific products that get returned.

If live chat is regularly answering the same questions about a specific category of products and/or the warehouse is getting the same products back because the products in the category weren’t compatible or didn’t have a feature your customers need, you are in good shape to get copy added to the product grid.

The first thing to do is talk to finance and logistics about the costs associated with returns, warehouse logistics and shipping.  Now create your pitch to the marketing and branding teams about reducing costs and make sure the Finance is included on the email so you have their support.  Now create your pitch using the information you got from live chat and logistics and have some content examples in your presentation.  I’ll use t-shirts for this example.

“If you’re looking for blue t-shirts that are stain and wrinkle resistant for more than 100 washes, and that are designed to hide problem areas like a beer belly, our shirts are a “fit” for you.  Each of the blue t-shirts below is made form our patented fabric that is both machine washable and super comfortable.  Best of all they are stain and wrinkle resistant with a 2 year money back guarantee.”

By having the example copy you can now make a case that by including these details above the product grid you can reduce the need for as much Live Chat support answering questions about wrinkles and being dry clean only.  By adding copy above the product grid you are answering the questions you would normally pay live chat to handle which frees them up for more important tasks, answers questions customers that hate live chat have, and this can save you money.

Adding Copy Increases Your Conversion Rates

The most common feedback I get when I say I’d like to add copy above the products is “We don’t want to push products below the fold?” or “We don’t want our products going lower on the page”.  Oddly enough this is normally said by companies that have large hero images on the tops of their collection pages which also makes no sense.  But that is for a different post.

Having good copy above your product grids can and likely will increase your conversion rates.  But only if you write it for the end user.

In this situation the concern from your company is losing money by pushing products down and potentially decreasing the chance of getting the person to a PDP (product display page).  So instead of sharing non-tangible examples like above I use data to show that copy will increase the likelihood of reaching a PDP, not prevent it.

We’ll go with baby crib mattresses for this example.

Here are the estimated monthly search volumes for a few keywords.

  • baby crib mattress – 8,100
  • baby crib mattress size – 880
  • baby crib mattress pad – 320
  • baby cribs with mattress included – 260

You’ll see that in the phrases above roughly 1 in 10 people are looking for mattress sizes and 1 in 20 people are looking for pads.  There are also questions about safety and cleaning.  In total about 1 in 4 people have questions when shopping for baby crib mattresses and this is where you want to make your case.

Start by mapping out the keywords and their search volumes like I did above.  Next try to get some of the live chat conversations with time stamps to show these questions are real and are not just a trend question because of a recent or social event (i.e. a baby getting hurt on a mattress or a news article about a material being potentially toxic).  Now write sample copy for your pitch.

“Each baby crib mattress from XY brand is not only easy to clean, but is certified safe and non-toxic by AB organization.  If you’re looking for a baby crib mattress with a pad, sort by “with pad” using the filters on the left or look for the purple circle on the product images.  You’ll love the all-natural-odor resistant fabrics and stain-protecting materials.  Not to mention the peace of mind you’ll enjoy when baby has an accident because with your new crib mattress, clean up is a breeze thanks to our patented XYZ.

And best of all each mattress below fits all standard baby and toddler crib sizes.  If you already have your crib picked out, select the brand on the left to find each mattress that will fit perfectly with your style.  If you don’t have a crib picked out, click here to see our selection of baby cribs and save when you bundle the crib and mattress together.”.

Copy Does Not Take Away From the User Experience, Copy Adds to It

In the two examples above I shared how copy above a product grid adds to the user experience.  Good content on your collection pages not only reduces your companies expenses and increases sales, but it also adds to the user experience.  And to prove this I run some tests. [Read more…] about How Copy Above Product Grids Increases Ecommerce Conversions

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How to Make Money with Mother’s Day This Year

make money mother's day affiliate programs blogging

A quick note before reading: I was originally going to publish this on Wednesday. Unfortunately a well known and very loved person in the SEO space died of Covid-19.  Even though this post is not for my SEO readers or the SEO space, it would have been inappropriate to publish then. Thank you for understanding why I did not publish when I said I would. 

Mother’s Day is our next big shopping holiday, and this year is going to be a blowout spending wise!

But why am I talking about Mother’s Day now when there is Valentine’s Day, 4/20 and St. Patrick’s Day?

Because Mother’s Day is a gift giving holiday where people buy big money items.

Last year covid was still new so Mother’s Day content was about bringing a little bit of happy in a time of fear. This year we are being vaccinated and Mother’s Day will likely be the first time people will see and hug their moms and grandmas in over a year (assuming it is safe and we’re all vaccinated).  This is what makes Mother’s Day a massive opportunity for you as a publisher!

By creating unique content with original ideas (think about the first person that developed the candy shoot for trick-or-treating) you can build your audience, grow your subscribers and make money!

As you mention a product or service in your solution, incorporate your affiliate links to help your audience create the solution.  Your readers or viewers can find the tools implement your tip and you get a commission.  It’s a win-win.

Bonus tip – once Mother’s Day is over, remove the covid references to make it evergreen and turn it into a “How to surprise mom” themed post for evergreen traffic.

Note: Instead of giving marketing strategy, please read this post about gift guide SEO and marketing list style posts.  Your content won’t be a gift guide, but it is a list and the concepts are the same.

Here’s some ideas I came up with that you’re welcome to use as your own. And of course if you’re looking for affiliate programs to monetize your posts with, contact me and I’ll see if we have one that is a fit for your content.

Give a Standard Gift But Show Up In Person

This can work with anything from a flower of the month club to a single time bouquet purchase.  The goal is to create posts with ideas to surprise mom with a gift that distracts her eyes.

Flowers for example are bright and colorful so they attract her eyes away from the delivery person’s face and they also appeal to other senses like smell and taste (to an extent). The sensory overload between the colors and desire to smell the bouquet may get her to ignore the height and build of the delivery person.

Food gifts like a large basket that shows the fruits, meats and chocolates has the same effect but for different senses. Because her eyes are focused elsewhere the gift giver (your reader) can be [Read more…] about How to Make Money with Mother’s Day This Year

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How to Create a Gift Guide With SEO, Marketing & Monetization Tips.

gift guides

Ready to create a gift guide for your blog, YouTube channel or a newsletter?  Then I’m ready to help!

The post below is something I sent to the partners for some of the companies that hired me as their affiliate manager to help them grow their traffic and make money. Instead of keeping the strategies private for our partners, I wanted to share them with you because everyone can benefit.

But before we jump in I’d like to note that gift guides are not just for the holidays. People search year round for gift ideas and this type of content is the perfect way to get that traffic.

Below you will learn how to create high quality gift guides, discover themes you can use (with their current estimated monthly search volumes), and talking points for how to pick the right modifiers for SEO.

I’ve also included some bonus tips like in the “Christmas Gifts for Wife” where I share good examples of how modifiers can make a difference in both traffic and conversions and “Yoga Gifts” where I share a big hint as to how to find better themes for your gift guides.

The post has three sections:

  1. Marketing Tips and Strategies
  2. SEO Tips
  3. Gift Guide Examples & How to Build Them

Gift Guide Marketing Tips and Strategies

There’s a ton of competition out there so you need to stand out.  Here are some marketing tips to keep in mind while creating your gift guide.

Please remember I share some of the best gift guide marketing tips in the theme sections below, so make sure you reach through each.

  • Use an odd number in your title tag. Odd numbers normally stand out better than even numbers.
    • If everyone showing up in Google already uses a 7, 11 or 15, try 33 or something larger. The goal is to look unique and attract attention.
  • Change the wording for your H1 tag so that it is for a blog reader and not a search engine searcher.  Title tags and H1 tags serve different purposes.
    • Title tags show up in search engines and are designed to get someone to click to your website.
    • H1 tags are visible on the page itself and should be written to get the user to engage with the content below it.
  • Set the list to be reverse order (ascending). This entices your reader to scroll to find the number 1 gift because it may be assumed that number 1 will be the best.
  • Look at the top ten results in Google for the gift guide theme you are writing about. Next write down the adjectives and numbers being used in title tags and meta descriptions. Now come up with a better adjective and wording mix that is not being used and incorporate these words into your title tag, open graph, rich pins and meta descriptions.
  • Open your guide with unique copy about the benefits to the end user (not just about why you like the gifts). This lets the visitor know they have found a place that lists the gift ideas they are looking for.
    • Bonus tip – Remember, the gift guide is to help them find a gift for someone else, not about you and why you want or like something. The opening is about their needs, the product descriptions are for the person they are buying a gift for!
  • Define why you are the authority on this subject matter in the opening of your guide. This helps build trust with your visitor. Talk about your experience in a situation, any degrees or certifications you have, and other accolades.
  • The Big One!!!  In your copy, talk about how the recipient will enjoy the gift that your reader will purchase. Don’t focus why you personally like the gift. The goal is to get the person to shop for someone else. By helping your reader picture the moment the person receiving the gift opens it, you have pre-sold why the gifts you recommend are the right choice.

Gift Guide SEO Tips

But marketing alone isn’t enough. You need to get people to your gift guide.  SEO and social media optimizations are perfect for this.  Here are some ways to optimize your gift guides to get more traffic!

  • Use proper header tags (H1, H2, H3) for sections and subsections. Header tags tell search engines and users what each section is specifically about.
  • Use UL and OL tags to define that this is a list for the search engines.
  • Make sure all the items on the guide are set in LI tags.
  • Use proper schema on the page when necessary.
  • Add a “best of section” to the top of larger lists that has two links. This helps users quickly locate your top gift recommendations.
    • Make one link your affiliate link so the person can shop and the other an anchor link to read more about the gift idea.
  • Find topics with at least 1,000 estimated monthly searches for the topic. This helps make sure there are people searching for gift ideas in your niche. If there aren’t people searching then you have to build the audience for it which is much harder to do.
  • Use a proper advertising disclosure at the top of your guide and also use proper attributes like “sponsored” and “nofollow” on your links when needed.
  • Write a unique description for every product included in your gift guide. Do not copy and paste from the store’s website or from another website.
  • Create a featured image that is properly named for SEO and has a clear message about the gifts “The 25 best motorcycle gifts for Grandmas in 2020”.
  • Make sure to use proper meta data for the social networks and intent.
    • Facebook has people being entertained and blocks clickbait so creating something engaging that is worth interrupting their fun.
      • Facebook images are also landscape rectangles or squares so make sure to consider this and upload something unique.
    • Pinterest images are vertical and people are specifically looking for ideas and lists.  You’ll want to choose titles and wording that is relevant to these queries vs. being interruptive like on Facebook and use Pinterests ad platform to find high search volumes.
  • Big Bonus Tip – SEO modifiers for gift guides are not just prices, people and occasions.  Think about international delivery and shipping speeds. This is a perfect opportunity for you to stand out and get a conversion.
    • i.e. 25 Birthday Gifts for 5 Year Olds that Ship Free & Overnight.

Now that you have some gift guide marketing tips, lets jump into some example themes with their estimated keyword search volumes. [Read more…] about How to Create a Gift Guide With SEO, Marketing & Monetization Tips.

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How to Create Content That Makes Money for Fall 2020

make money fall 2020

To say 2020 has been a unique year is an understatement. That isn’t a political statement either. This is a marketing blog and I keep things on a marketing level.

This year we’re facing multiple groups of people that feel very strong about their opinions when it comes to fall holidays and shopping seasons. We have pro-mask and anti-mask mobs. This year is also an election cycle. The drama even extends into a child’s well-being with groups of people for opening in person classes and groups of people against it.

Nobody is going to be happy with everything you do, so for this year forget trying to make people happy. Instead try to provide them with sound advice and strategies to celebrate and just try to live their lives.

Nobody is going to be happy with everything you do, so for this year forget trying to make people happy. Instead try to provide them with sound advice and strategies to celebrate and just try to live their lives.

Below you’ll find three of the upcoming shopping seasons and holidays and how you can create value adding content that can be easily monetized, attract backlinks, and help grow your subscriber base.

  • Halloween (this is the longest section)
  • Back to School
  • PSL (Pumpkin Spice Latte Season (it’s bigger than you think!))

Halloween 2020

I’m starting with Halloween content ideas because I love Halloween. It makes me happy just like PSL season so I’m ending with that.

Halloween is going to be unique this year. Americans are split on how to handle the covid-19 pandemic.

Some parents will not want their kids to go to indoor community centers for trick-or-treating where everyone is in the same room and the virus can spread. Other parents will insist on it because it is safer than being around strangers outside and it is what their children are used to doing.

I personally think that some communities are going to go back to traditional trick-or-treating with kids running outside from house-to-house.

Going back to outdoor trick-or-treating will allow for more social distancing. Not to mention that Halloween in general supports mask wearing which science has proven reduces the chances of covid-19 spreading. Outside trick-or-treating also provides families with some much needed outdoor exercise and family bonding time.

So how can you monetize this and grow your subscriber base? Simple, provide solutions and make sure they are accurate by sourcing them like I just did above with the CDC website.

Provide solutions for quarantining candy.

One of the first topics you can help people with is how to sanitize or quarantine candy.

People like me that are germ freaks are likely concerned about all of the hands touching the candy bars, especially if hands have been in mouths and everyone is breathing heavy from running door-to-door.

You can provide solutions to store the candy so that your kids cannot access it until the time frame for Covid-19 to die off has passed. Or you can look for an alternative options to sanitize the candy in a safe and non-toxic way.

For example:

  1. Decide how much candy your kids are allowed to have each day after trick or treating.
  2. Now label a few bins or plastic bags with each day of the week on the label.
  3. Next safely open the candy without touching it and drop it into the marked containers.
  4. Once the virus is supposed to be dead, you’ll be out of daily bins and can release the mother load back to them.

[Read more…] about How to Create Content That Makes Money for Fall 2020

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10 Things To Make Landing Pages Convert

landing page optimization
By @Olivier26 / purchased from DepositPhotos.com

Landing pages are the most important thing to have optimized, once you have a source of quality traffic.  If the landing page isn’t made to convert, you are not using your ad spends as well as you can.  Below are 10 of the most important things you need to think about and try to use (if it fits within your business model) with your landing pages to help them turn more visitors into leads and sales.  [Read more…] about 10 Things To Make Landing Pages Convert

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Why Sponsored Posts are Not a Monetization Strategy

If you build links or recruit Affiliates, you’ve probably come across a ton of Bloggers that demand money for a sponsored post or ads.  This is a warning sign to me 9 out of 10 times that they have no traffic, do not know what they are doing, they probably use follow me follow you for their social media accounts like Twitter and Pinterest (or worse buy fans and followers), and they rely on uneducated PR firms to let their clients be ripped off.  That isn’t all of them, there are a few that have rightfully built a traffic and sales generator that can drive sales and are worth spending money on.  I did a presentation at Pubcon on how to tell the difference between a legit blog and a fake one the other week and will eventually post it on here or on a large SEO site I guest blog on.  Anyways, if you are a Blogger and you think sponsored posts are good, can help you and are a decent monetization strategy, you have a somewhat good start, but not the right strategy, plan or idea.  We’ll go over sponsored posts with a one time payment for a sponsored post and also signing up with networks that provide constant flows of advertisers with sponsored posts in this post.

Why sponsored posts are usually bad for Blogs and Bloggers

There are a ton of reasons why sponsored posts are bad for you if you are a Blogger. If you rely on them for money, it’s even worse. It is not a long term strategy and can do a lot more harm than it can good. At the same time, not all sponsored posts are bad and can be a nice boost in income and content, but you have to make sure they are the right ones to do. Here are some of the things to think about from a Blogger point of view and a Merchant, PR firm or SEO point of view if you are working with Bloggers.

Short term vs. Long term revenue

Some Bloggers believe that this is a great way to completely monetize their sites.  The problem is that they are doing it as a one off and not measuring any actual metrics.  If they are being smart, they will include adsense, affiliate links and other things within their sponsored posts.  By using multiple ways to monetize your site, if it does rank and build traffic over time, you now have multiple streams of revenue.  Taking a one time payment and “selling a backlink”, which most of them do and is 100% against google’s TOS, is not a revenue model and you will probably never make a lot of money online.  It can be a nice bonus, but is not a real or long term business strategy.

Short vs. Long term relationships and money with sponsored posts

One argument that some Bloggers will make with using Sponsored posts as a monetization strategy is that they sign up with networks and have constant flows of sponsors coming through.  This is also a very flawed strategy for many Bloggers because they do not know how to use this properly.  Here are three reasons why and a way to use this to make passive income for the long run with sponsored posts.

  1. If the Blogger isn’t measuring sales and actual metrics like click throughs per post over a week, month and year they cannot prove they added any value or any return on investment for the sponsored posts and advertisers.  Having this data will help you to approach similar companies and even get them to buy ad space or come to you directly removing the middleman and generating more money per sponsored post.  If you don’t collect this data, and the main reason is you don’t have real traffic or a following, eventually the brands and advertisers will pull and you will have nothing left except a ton of sponsored posts and a dying blog.
  2. If you sign on with these networks and get stuck working with specific brands for sponsored posts, the products might not be relevant for your readership.  Vacuums may seem great for a recipe site because you might assume your visitors are moms with families or houses, but people want recipes and are there for cooking.  What if they have a maid service, what if they don’t have families or what if the vacuum isn’t relevant to their income level.  Give them products from the sponsored posts that are useful and relevant to your blog.  Cookware and cooking products could be more relevant and something to use for sponsored posts.The product can be better for your audience and you can tie it in more easily because it can be used with what you would have been posting anyways.  This keeps people reading your blog and hopefully keeps your audience going.  Also remember that you don’t just write about the product, give a ton of ways to use it and how/why it  is better or worse than others.  Show a video of it being used and compare it to other products.  This adds value and shows why you have agreed to let product xyz do a sponsored post.  Also, if the product from the sponsored post ends up being worse, show it.  It’s not your fault their product sucks, you were honest with your readers and they still got the paid sponsored post that you agreed to.  If they take the money back, you still have a post written that can drive traffic and you can still make money with it.
  3. If you do fall into the “lets start reviewing because I can make money”, you could bore your audience and kill it off.  In the long run, it may be better to do the sponsored posts and instead of just taking the money, set up between 3 and 5 ways to monetize the sponsored post.  Then do your keyword research, write it for your audience and the search engines and use it to grow your site and also generate a long lifespan of traffic and revenue.

Sponsored posts are a once off thing.  However, if you do get paid or have the same advertiser coming back over and over again, you could make a little bit of money.  If you do your research and build in other ways to monetize your traffic, then you can turn this into a passive income post instead of a sponsored post and potentially make more money in the long run.  If you do not have real traffic that can or will not shop, or the products are not relevant for your readers if you do have a real audience, the advertisers will eventually pull, you will cause damage to your readership and all of the hard work you did will have been for nothing since you have to start from scratch.

Content quality for sponsored posts

One thing that is important is the quality and relevance of your content.  If you have a cooking blog, your sponsored posts need to be well researched keyword wise, include all of the important SEO features, internal links and multiple ways to relate to your audience.  The products don’t just have to be cooking products either for the sponsored posts.  Using a cleaning wipe or disinfectant can be good as well.

Have your family or friends make a recipe that is sloppy or eat messy food like fondue while you video tape it and the mess being made.  Show everyone having fun and making a mess.  Once the mess has had time to dry and get stuck to everything, shoot a second video and display the effectiveness of the product that paid for a sponsorship vs. the products you would normally use.  This lets your readers have a real life situation (especially during the holidays) and actually shows a real life example of if the products from the sponsored posts work and how well they actually work.  This is great for sponsored posts.  You can also monetize the videos and sell products using this tool including the products from the sponsored post and competing products as well.

You can add in other forms of monetization like CSE widgets, datafeed product links, etc…  Now you have a quality piece of content that may add value to your current readers, can index well in the search engines if you wrote it properly with them in mind and shows that your blog (including sponsored posts) has awesome content when new visitors find.  Your blog and sponsored posts are also working with you to make money multiple ways instead of a one time payment.

Charging for posts that are actually value adding content instead of being sponsored posts.

One thing many Bloggers forget is that if someone comes to you with quality and non promotional content, like the examples above, don’t try to pitch a sponsored post or request money for sponsored posts.  Make sure there is a difference in your mind and your media kit.  If the post they write is amazing, relevant for your readers and well written for the search engines, take it!

Not only does this create less work for you, but it gives you a post to keep in case you have writer’s block, are swamped and cannot update your site or just want to take a break and not have to write something that day.  Chasing away content that could rank well, add value and drive traffic is one of the dumbest things on earth and shocks me when I see it happen.  By saying you want them to pay for a sponsored post, you might make a little bit of money, but the content will not be as good, will be more promotional instead of value adding since they are spending money and it will hurt you more than help you because you just chased away amazing and well written content.  Think about long term revenue instead of the quick little amount you charge now.  The well written and properly SEO’d post could bring in revenue for years instead of a quick and small one time fee.  If I have to pay for a post, I usually walk away.  If it makes sense to pay for the post, I will not do keyword research and the article will be nowhere near as good or rank even closely as well as a properly written and pure value adding post would have.

Telling Google you are selling links is probably not a smart idea just like buying links because the post is listed as a sponsored post.

One last thing about the majority of blogs I see that sell sponsored posts is that they list you will get a backlink or link back to your site if you buy a sponsored post.  This is 100% not a good practice for Google.  Even if it is no follow.  No matter what, you should not sell backlinks, even as part of a sponsored post.  It is easy to take a screen shot of your site selling this and submit your site to the engines for selling links.  You can take the advertisers using you and report them to the Penguin reporting tool and show the bad SEO neighborhood they are using to rank their site in, which will in turn can hurt your site, your advertisers and your revenue.  It is bad for everyone involved and all stemmed because you thought you should do sponsored posts.

Using sponsored posts as a main way to monetize your site is not smart.  Not only do you set up a huge welcome mat for the search engines to come destroy you, but you can do real damage to your readership if you do not have the right kind or the right type of sponsored posts on your site.  Using sponsored posts as a boost every once in a while can be ok, but make sure you also keep the number of review or sponsored posts to a minimum, keep your sponsored posts relevant to your readers and also make sure you have multiple forms of monetization within the posts so that you can continue to make money in the long run.  The difference between the people who last for a long time and the rest of the 99% of the Bloggers is that they keep everything relevant, use multiple strategies to monetize their sites and don’t fall for the easy sponsored post route.