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The DFN Weekly

Don't Just Look

By

Old Tom

OT Scripts

Okay, so you have yourself a web page. How do you know if it is a good web page? Don't just look at it! That won't tell you a thing.

Think about it. Do you have just one web page? No? Why is that? Can you make all the money you need with just one web page? Probably not.

Think about it. Why do you have more than one web page? Why do you have tens or hundreds of thousands of web pages?

So. When you're looking at this web page, think in terms of traffic flow. As you sit there and admire your newest web page, consider: Is your surfer going to sit there on top of this web page all day?

Probably not. Your surfer is going to surf to and through your page.

May we take one of my hub pages as a specific example? Why did I build it the way I did? The fpa leading into the hub page is here.

Do we really want to bother with a full page ad? I think so. I have one particular full page ad leading into a different hub. For month after month, regularly like clockwork, ARS paid me for 1-3 signups every week. One to three signups every week, from that one single page. The page itself isn't that great - no keyword/description meta tags, a bit graphics heavy. But it sure does make money!

Click past the full page ad. What about the hub itself? What makes a good hub? Again, think for yourself: What is your hub's purpose? What is its place in your traffic flow model?

How and why did your surfer get there? This is the critical point. How and why did your surfer get there? What did the link say on your toplist listing? What did your "click here for more of my sites" link actually say? That is, what expectation did you set?

You also know your surfer declined what you offered on that full page ad. So... send them around again! You need to do more filtering.

Do you know the nature of your own traffic? Is your hub mostly seeing AVS traffic? TGP traffic? What kinds of things sell best? Can you send different kinds of traffic through different full page ads into the same hub? Of course you can.

One thing you do know, is that your surfer had to continue clicking, to get to your hub. They continued past your site or whatever traffic source is feeding your hub. They continued past your full page ad. Your hub is a goldmine for them... encourage them to bookmark.

You want your hub to be extremely fast loading, so that they stick around long enough to see your best sales pitch. (Your best sales pitch is the one which catches that person's imagination and interest.)

Fast loading usually means no graphics. It also means no long-long tables. Don't bother with external style sheets, third-party counters, or any of that fluff which slows you down without gaining you money.

You'll notice I do have external counters on the example hub, and I have graphics. You see, this is not my only hub page. Far from it! I am experimenting, evaluating. I am learning for myself, what works for me.

Will I be sharing my conclusions? Yes, of course! They become part of the OT Scripts product designs.

Meanwhile, though, why are we here? At the hub, I mean. Our surfer is still looking (else he or she would not be here). We have not yet made a sale (else he or she would not be here!). It's time to get a better idea of what this person wants.

We don't know the person; how do we know what they want?

They tell us what they want, by where they click. That's the whole point of filtering. Don't give them random choices - give them very clear categories. Let each click tell you something. My hub has featured sites, in addition to Generalized; Specialized; Hard. If they're going for my featured sites, perhaps I can sell them an AVS membership.

But why do I have pictures at all, when I want the page to load quickly? That's part of my traffic generation strategy. I'm making the hub look appealing enough in its own right, that I can easily register with any number of toplists. I've chosen general and niche-specific toplists, all with differing reset times. My toplists are on an SSI page, so that I can mix and match until I find the right combination.

Now that I have my hub page, I don't just look. That doesn't tell me a thing. No, what I need to do, is to study the traffic flow. What works and what doesn't; what turns a profit and what does not.

I have a half dozen different hub pages, all following the same strategy. Same strategy, different niche. One month from now, three months from now, do I see any differences in search engine traffic?

Again, don't just look at the page. Is it pretty, or not. Who cares. Look at the traffic. Is the page fulfilling its purpose.

Don't just look.
Think.

Old Tom