New Conversion Strategies for Think Traffic from Derek Halpern
We all have different skills, perspectives and priorities. That’s why it can be so crucial to get an opinion of your website from an outsider, whether that be a professional or a friend.
Derek Halpern is an up and coming expert at driving traffic to websites and turning that traffic into leads and sales. He’s been making the rounds lately, publicly critiquing sites for people like Chris Brogan and Pat Flynn.
I learned a lot of new conversion strategies from watching both of those videos, so when Derek offered to critique Think Traffic in the same way I said “hell yeah.”
In this video, you’ll learn about a number of ways Derek thinks I can improve the conversion rates for this site. Check it out:
(if you’re reading this in email or otherwise can’t see the video, click here)
Derek also knows that all of you who read Think Traffic might also benefit from reading his site Social Triggers, so Derek is opening up his free private email list for any Think Traffic reader who wants to join. Just head over to Social Triggers to join the private list.
What do you think of the critique? I haven’t had a chance to implement any of Derek’s advice yet, but definitely plan to get some resource pages up soon. What else should I work on? Do you think his ideas will drive a lot more conversions?
Update on Think Traffic’s Metrics
Also, I wanted to update you all on my last monthly report. I mentioned that I wanted to improve the bounce rate here and the average time spent on the site. Well, there’s a little kink in that plan now.
You see, I was comparing my numbers to Pat Flynn’s at the Smart Passive Income blog. On average people spend over 7 minutes at Pat’s site and his bounce rate is a very low 25%. The numbers for Think Traffic were 2 minutes 20 second and 72% respectively.
All is not what it seems, however. Pat uses a great traffic monitoring service called Clicky and I’ve been using Google Analytics. Both have different strengths and it turns out that both report numbers very differently.
After 24 hours on Clicky, here are the numbers for Think Traffic: 5 minutes 15 seconds average time on site (125% difference vs. Google Analytics) and the bounce rate that Clicky reports is 32% (vs 72% at GA).
So there you go. Not all analytics services are the same evidently. I’ll report more thoroughly on the services in a full post, but I wanted to share the initial results with you here.
One of the coolest features of Clicky is that I can share my analytics with you publicly. Head over to Clicky and check out Think Traffic’s full stats for the past few days if you’re interested.
Thanks again to Derek for doing the critique, I really appreciate it, and I’d love to hear what you think of the session with Derek. Don’t forget to check out Derek’s site Social Triggers. I think you’ll like what Derek has to say about traffic and conversions.
Published by
Corbett Barr
Corbett is cofounder of Fizzle, a place for creative entrepreneurs, writers, makers, coders and artists, all working to support themselves doing what they love independently on the Internet. Follow Corbett on on Twitter. View all posts by Corbett Barr
38 thoughts on “New Conversion Strategies for Think Traffic from Derek Halpern”
Hey Corbett,
Can’t watch the video my friend. For private viewing only.
DD
Sorry Dean, it’s all set now.
No problemo CB. I am just making a cup of coffee now and getting ready to watch it. Gracias amigo.
DD
This difference of stats between clicky and Google analytrics is important. I was not expecting that. I have not been able to look at the video. It was still locked after I clicked on the link bellow the video.
Hey Tikyd, the video is working now, so sorry for the issue this morning.
@Corbett – I think Clicky is a much better metric in my opinion as Pat and I discovered we can “spy” on whose coming to our site. (I’m not being serious by the way about spying so take this as joke…)
What I like about Clicky is it’s instant feedback and not having to wait for 12-24hours to get stats in from Google Analytics. (correct me if I’m wrong). I know Clicky tracks different and is immediate, so that’s already a plus why I prefer and recommend it too.
Just wanted to say thanks to you and Derek for sharing this video. These are great strategies that we can all apply to make our sites more usable and increase our conversions.
Cheers.
Thank you John. I’d love to see what you change to your site, after watching this.
Hey Derek,
I implemented your tips when you recommended them on Pat’s site and my subscribers daily opt-in increased by around 15%. So they do work and the about page was something that made sense to change. I had too much about me for a while and n ow it’s about them. Anyway I’d love to know what your thoughts are and if I need to add anything else I may have overlooked?
Thanks for the great tips again!
No problem man, thank you for watching, and I’m glad it helped.
That was even better than the one Derek did with SmartPassiveIncome โ I really get the idea behind resource pages for 4 or 5 topics that you blog about. Cool vid!
Glad you liked it Rob. I’m also glad you’ve watched both videos. It’s nice to see you over here, too. Corbett is a great, smart traffic guy.
What a gread video, Derek is a genius. This sort of content is so motivating, I love it!
Hi Corbett, thanks for mentioning us. I just wanted to point you to an explanation of why our bounce rate and time on site are different than Google’s or pretty much any other services. Check out this blog post here:
getclicky.com/blog/214/why-clickys-new-bounce-rate-is-the-best-in-the-biz
Always cool how another set of eyes can help so much when it comes to design. I think we all spend so much time staring at our own websites that it’s easy to lose perspective. I’m planning on asking some of my more savvy friends to do an informal critique of my site to see if I’m missing anything obvious.
I agree with Rob above, this video is awesome. I especially like the stuff about resource pages and linking to them from within individual posts.
Definitely makes sense to me. I spent the day working with some friends at Spring Metrics (a point and click alternative to Google Analytics) on the topic of resource pages.
…Tim
I loved the comment about the insane resources looking like ads. I know from my own behaviour, I just skip over ads so it would make sense that those who are new would probably think they are ads and not your own home grown content. Love the psychology behind that.
I think he mentioned this in the interview with Pat, but Copy Blogger does an excellent job organizing their resource pages…in the sub-nav bar.
www.copyblogger.com/
OK my friend…you gots some homework to do…get to it
Derek is right that blogs aren’t great at highlighting past content so the resource pages is a great idea. It’s a category or tag page done right.
You’re right, there. IT’s a category page / tag page done right. I actually developed this strategy back when I was running entertainment sites, where I turned category pages into resource pages. And it worked + ranked better.
Thanks so much to both of you for this video. I can apply a bunch of Derek’s suggestions to my own sites. Looking forward to seeing the results.
One thing I don’t quite get though is the no header test. I mean, I get what Derek’s saying: that people should be able to immediately know what a site is about even if the header is taken away. But they’ll never see the site without the header, right?
So why this test? Do people tend to ignore site headers these days?
Thanks again.
Look at it like this:
Most people have their header, and navigation links. While their header is descriptive, their navigation links are generalized (Home, About, Contact, etc.).
So what happens when the header doesn’t intrigue a random website visitor? They often read the title of the first article, and if that doesn’t grab their attention, they’re gone.
I suggest the Header Removal Test because it shows you additional ways to show visitors what your site is all about. Then, you’re no longer relying on just your header and headline… but instead a whole slew of other options that might intrigue readers.
Thanks for the reply, Derek. That makes a lot more sense to me now.
Cheers!
Hey Corbett and Derek, it was a pleasure watching this video!
I saw the one you did with Pat Flynn and this one was just as excellent and eye-opening and it’s always interesting to see real-life examples of what you’re explaining.
Best Wishes!
Vic
Derek’s a genius! He gives really good advice.
He mentioned About pages. And yes I do agree with him. In fact, I love reading “about” pages. I mean that’s really where I go first if I’m new to the website.
One idea I also learned from Derek is:
Using psychology will help for building traffic! It’s absolutely a great idea. Thanks Corbett for sharing this. Cheers!
And thanks to Derek too!
This is a great article, thank you very much! i will be back for more!
jim