How To Convert One Time Visitors to Subscribers
Instead of writing another boring “how to” post, instead, I am going to tell you how I did it-and, hopefully, that will answer some of the questions you might have regarding the subject.
When I started blogging, back in 2008, I had no clue about how to monetize my blog. The sole purpose of IgorHelpsYouSucceed was personal branding (and a tiny bit of SEO-because a friend of mine said that Wordpress is SEO friendly).
So, here I am-a total marketing newbie, hooked on internet marketing success stories, trying to make it big in the make money niche.
How big do you think my chances for success were? Low, to say the least!
Later I discovered Google Analytics and Webmaster tools and here’s what I noticed:
My bounce rates were sky high!
At first, I didn’t give it much attention-but after couple of weeks it hit me-high bounce rates=NOT GOOD!
I realized that most of my visitors were just “passing by” my blog. 80% of the people who visited my blog-left immediately.
This made blogging a painful experience.
Think about it-my contribution to the marketing community meant nothing. Why? Because no one was reading my stuff-which meant that no one was acknowledging it!
This is the #1 reason why most bloggers don’t make it-no one acknowledges them. People are just carelessly passing by…
How To Deal With It?
The solution here is to lower your bounce rates to a minimum.
What’s a minimum? Partially it depends on the niche you’re in, but generally-as close to 0.00% as possible!
Here’s a list of 6 things you can do to lower your blog’s bounce rates, increase readership and turn your visitors into frequent readers and subscribers:
1. Content Worth Linking To
Professional bloggers call this Link Bait. Link bait proved to be an untimed strategy that can lead to large number of backlinks pointing back to your site from other authoritative (and not so authoritative) websites.
Most bloggers perceive link bait as something funny, scary, unique, newsworthy or controversial …and for some it may be true, but if you’re blogging in a tuff niche (e.g.: make money online)-you have to be better than that!
More on link bait: Comprehensive Guide To Link Bait.
2. Popular Posts Plugin
Another great way to lower bounce rate and increase readership is to place a list of Most Popular Posts in your sidebar.
This can easily be done by installing the Popularity Contest plugin which will produce a widget with a list of most popular posts based on comments, views, links and time frame criteria.
Download the Popularity Contest here
3. Related Posts Plugin
One of the effortless ways to lower bounce rates is to install a Related Posts plugin which will provide a list of related posts and/or pages below every blog post.
It will drastically increase your blog’s Click Through Rates and Navigation by providing your readers with more of what they were searching for.
A great example of this is YouTube. When you’re watching a video on YouTube you immediately get a list of related videos on the right side of the page. Coincidence?
Get Yet Another Related Posts Plugin here
4. Top Commentators Plugin
Another great plugin to improve the relationship with your readers is the Top Commentators plugin.
This plugin allows you to allocate your top contributors and acknowledge them in many different ways to further improve your relationship with them.
More details here: Top Commentators plugin by Daily Blog Tips
5. Internal Linking
Internal linking is a great way to boost readership by linking to older, relevant content in your recent blog posts.
But don’t get carried away with this. Be logical. Be Relevant. Don’t “overlink”-this will only drive readers away.
6. Relevant SEO
The most frustrating experience a searcher can have is to click on a link that promises him something it doesn’t deliver.
Avoid this by optimizing your blog for relevant search terms. Narrow down your niche and get specific-works like a charm.
Read more about relevant SEO: How To Avoid Google Stupid Tax When Advertising With Google Adwords
To Sum Up
Gaining an audience isn’t an easy task-but it’s doable!
Best advice I can give you is to develop a voice. Be unique-don’t follow the herd. People are naturally attracted to leaders.
Be a leader and you’ll get a following guaranteed!
Related Posts:
- Coolerchoice a success story
- Blog Traffic Tip: One Simple Post, 200 Unique Visits Overnight
- Cruise Blog: High Quality in a Niche
- Keys To Better Blog Monetary Results
- How I Reached 30,000 Visits Per Month With Less Than 2 Posts Per Week
Hi thanks for this great Tipps. I had an high bounced rate and i change my theme. So on it degreased. But my earnings where so good till i take the small Adsense. It grow up over 50%.
Thanks for your work it helps me to be a Blogger on high level.
That’s great to know.
Enjoy Thomas, subscribe to my blog
and to MaxBlogPress to get more tips.
Igor
How does your blog stack up against your advice?
1) Content worth linking to.
Debatable.
2) Popular posts plugin.
You don’t seem to be using one.
3) Related posts plugin.
You have random posts!
4) Top commentators plugin.
I assume you meant commenters, but either way, no.
5) Internal linking.
There doesn’t seem to be any in this post.
6) SEO
The only thing I can see is that you could have neater permalinks.
Do I follow what you say or what you do?
I assume this post was written by somebody else who implement this tips on his/her blog. I found small text under the post title that makes thing clear. You can see this text “November 21st, 2009 by igorkheifets”.
I suggest you follow what you have read cos the post was written by Igor, who has implemented most of the suggestions above – http://www.igorhelpsyousucceed.com/
I also suggest the ComLuv plugin, pretty effective.
Personally I found the whole “Comment Luv” and “do follow” comments to be more bait for spammers wanting to drop links in my comments than anything else. after over two years fighting with “do follow” links in my comments section that pointed to “bad neighborhood” sites, I yanked it for good and have no plans to look back.
Hey Rich,
1. Content worth linking-let the reader decide.
My blog is currently PR3-so I guess there has to
be something worth linking to.
2. Popular posts plugin is on my left sidebar.
Just because it doesn’t say “popular posts plugin here” does
not mean it isn’t there.
3. Related posts plugin is in use right after each post:
it says: “Related posts:”…
4. I am not using it because I can’t find the right
place to put it in, but I am going to install it soon, when
I crack the footer code in Thesis.
5. This post is linking to my own blog, but on my blog
I am constatnly using internal linking.
6. SEO-permalinks aren’t SEO. it’s a tiny part of it. And you can’t
determine SEO just by watching the link structure.
Igor
To convert one time visitors to subscribers quite impossible to my blog. I just only less than 10 subscribers even playing the blogging for quarter of year.
Maybe I should look back what I’m doing to my blog and using your best reason and tips.
Thanks admin
Yes agreed that to convert from 1 time visitors to subscribers is possible for me. Unless you have something to offer…
Great post its just what I’ve been looking for, I noticed that same thing on my new personal development and conscious living site http://www.mpdspace.com/blog I’ve been getting good traffic, but I need to lower the bounce rate, I think the Related Posts Plug-in will make a big difference, Thanks
Just a hint Lloyd, I was getting a Trojan alert come up when opening your blog and pages within it, this may be a cause for the bounce rates?
Thanks for this post. Will look through my plugins, and im sure the top commentators is worth having.
Great post.
Will try the plugins in my blog. Great stuffs. Thanks
You’re all welcome guys, thanks for your wonderful feedback!
Igor
its’s seems to be i nice tips, i have done with popular post, related post, internal linking but there is just a few subscriber for my blog. what should i do for next step?
I believe you should develop a voice now, so people will
fall in love with your content.
Try reader menwithpens.ca blog.
Igor
nice share.
i’ll try…
i have use related post plugins
Great post! Thank you!
Super tips, I use many of the same on my blogs, one thing to always remember is the article has to be something a visitor will want to read. I found that adding a touch of humor, reduce the “copyright” look and make it interesting all plays a large roll in bounce rate and if the story that brought the visitor is interesting, they will be more likely to check out the related posts.
I appreciate the information. My bounce rate suck also! LOL guess I have to try some other tips!
Very nice report! Also got the problem with fast-leaving visitors..
Your tips were great..im your frequent reader here..do really need a good tips like this..
Thanks
Zaid
Love the post as well as the plugins!
Thanks for all,
Jason
lo
Thanks for all the great plug-ins. I am grateful for your very helpful advice. I’ve been blogging since Feb 09,http://www.metaphysicalteachers.com it is a whole other world than direct ecommerce.
I will be loading these plug-ins.
Cheers,
Nina
You got something here.
Keep it coming.
Just installed Yet Another Related Post Plugin. Easy to install and set-up in a minute. Now I have related post at the end of every post. Will start monitor to see it will help improving bounce rate?
Thanks for sharing.
Hi,
Thanks for the tips. I’m a newbie, started blogging in July 2009 using wordpress. I’m not sure how to install a plugin. After downloading, I have to save it, right? Save it in my computer documents directory?
Then how do I install it into my blog?
I tried a couple but they did not show up in my blog.
Thank you.
Peggy
Just google the term “install wordpress plugin”
and you will get to the official wordpress page
that explains how to install them.
Igor
That was a great idea to combine and get a good vsitor that can be convert as subscriber and some potential customer