Converting Blog Hits to Website Sales

[Blooming Felt]

Hiya

I get over 1000 hits a month on my blog and only 250ish on my website. If anyone can give me any tips as to how I can get people to visit my website via my blog I would really appreciate it. I quite frequently show items on my blog that are for sale on my website and provide the appropriate links, as well as having a permanent link to my website down the right hand side of the blog page, but very few people seem to visit the website from my blog.

I was really hoping that my blog would generate interest and therefore sales for my website, but it's just happening :mad:

[swirlyarts]

Hmmm - not sure!! Spookily enough I have just visited your blog - I'm impressed at how organised you are and how proactive you are at getting your stuff out there. I might have to take a leaf out of your book!

[Blooming Felt]

Thanks Swirly. I do try !!! :)

[swirlyarts]

Sorry I couldn't offer any proper advice - i would be very interested in the reply - although I only get a few hits to my blog at the moment.

[Blooming Felt]

No worries Swirly. Fingers crossed someone will come up with some amazing tip/piece of advice and we'll be off and running !! :)

[0103media]

What you are doing is right by the sound of it..

1000 visitors a month is pretty low but a great start to build from..

Have a blog and a sales sites is really good as many people will be far more interested in site that don't sell...


I'd suggest adding a clear area of the blog e.g. on the righ hand side to show visitors your items.. If the "adverts" are clear deffined like here (right,top and bottom) then people will come back for the content/info...

A major thing to do is to ask loads of people to blog role you.. (get as many people to link to you)

Hope that helps..

[colourart]

Its only a little bit of advice, but maybe put your favourite websites nearer the top of the blog. I had to scroll down to find your list of favourite websites, and I was looking for it. Also perhaps you could put My Website or My Shop - Picture it in Stitches, instead of just 'Picture it in stitches' and put it above Etsy if its more important to you.

I don't know if this will make a difference. Well done for getting 1000 hits per month, how do you do that?

[Blooming Felt]

Thanks guys ! Will definitely change the order of stuff down the right hand side to show the website link nearer the top of the page and also include more images of my stuff for sale down the right as well. Maybe using Flickr??

I know that I'm listed on a few other blogs as Google analytics is showing them as referring sites, but maybe I should be a bit more pro-active and ask people to include me on their blog role. Perhaps offer a competition asking people to include me (although I don't know how I would check that) and say they will be included in a free prize draw?

[Swarovski Chick]

Hi Sarah
My husband is a web designer so I asked him hope this helps..

Hi

Its easy to get disappointed with sales v hits until you actually understand what a hit really is.
Each time someone loads up your blog page it loads up:
a. your .asp page (the script to make the page work)
b. 40+ images on the page
c. 3x css files (these style your website and tell it what colour text should be and where to position text and images and layout)
d. 3x .js files (these are JavaScript files that control some of the functionality of your site and elements of navigation)

Each of these things constitutes a hit, so the 40+ images and the other file soon mount up to give you 50 or so hits every time someone loads up your page in their browser.

Your website page on the other hand has a lot less to load up so that's why there is a big difference in the figures.

Forget the hits. Its the unique visitors that you need to pay attention to...

Hope this helps Sarah I had no Idea so though he could explain.
Su

[lucykate crafts...]

have just had a quick look at your blog, and i would say, move everything to do with your shop, that includes your own web site plus etsy, to the top of your sidebar (see wee wonderfuls blog, the shop details are the first icon at the top with a punchy little button to press to get there, big letters and the word 'SHOP"!), so that when you blog loads up, the shop details are what is seen first.

at the moment, i can see your flickr link, an etsy link, but your own blooming felt site is way down, just in the list of favorite websites. i would put your own shop first, then etsy, then flickr etc...

if you plan on selling, the best way to blog is to use it as a marketing tool. have you done any giveaways or something like a freebie with the first sale of the week?, gimmicks like this always pull in the blogging crowd. in marketing terms they call it a 'loss leader', free promotional items to draw customers in.

have a root around other bloggers who also sell from their own site, sewing stars has a lovely site in addition to the blog and etsy, for ideas. hope that helps, : )

[wyattbean]

I agree, you have to search a little for your website link...... but I did have a good read thanks.
Sue

[Pelenna]

Hiya Sarah!

I agree with what others have said about making your website more obvious on your blog. A couple of questions though, as you seem to have good blog - do you link to it from your website? How do you get a blog seen by lots of people? I'm going to be setting one up soon, and just looking for some tips!

Thanks,
Sarah

[Blooming Felt]

Blimey - I'd forgotten all about this post. I posted it way back in August last year, but thank you Su for ressurecting it !!

I'll take all your comments on board about promoting my own website higher up the right hand side. Although, I have to say, that since I posted about this originally, there has been a complete turnaround and I'm now getting far more visitors to my website than my blog (due in no small part to the fact that I've got a new shiny website that is very well promoted !!). I do get a lot of referrals from the blog to my website and vice versa.

Pelenna - I only have a very small link to my blog on my website - in the about me page, but it seems to work !!

I have an awful lot of overseas visitors to the blog - no idea why, but they seem to be the ones who then go on to buy from the website, rather than UK visitors. The UK buyers seem to find me via Google.

I think in order to get a lot of blog visitors, you need to update your blog regularly (probably a couple of times a week) and I've found that the more relevant the content on your blog to your actual website, will obviously encourage people to then visit your website. I tend to heavily promote my website on the blog now, with direct links to new products etc.

I do know of a couple of bloggers who run regular giveaways and because of this have a massive following. Also, if you're encouraging people to come back they'll probably add you to their blog roll and other people will then click on your link when visiting, and hopefully add you to their own blog roll. Also, I've been very lucky in that when people have purchased from my own website, they then write about me on their blogs and put links to my blog and / or website, which is great as people tend to link through that way.

I also promote various books via Amazon on my blog (you get a referral fee if someone then goes on to purchase one of the books via your link), and I know of people who also use Google Adwords to generate a bit of income through their blog - I don't personally like the idea of giving people lots more links to other websites similar to my own and encouraging them to navigate away from my own blog, but each to their own !!

Oh - and don't forget to always include a link to your blog in your signatures too !

Gosh - sorry, I've just realised how long I've been rambling on !!

Anyways - hopefully it has been a bit helpful and not too long and boring ;)

[lucykate crafts...]

ah ha!, should have checked the date before posting ;)

i did think actually, when you quoted the figure for hits per month, you must be getting more hits than that!, but now i realise it's nearly 6 months out of date!

[gina rahman]

Some good advice here,

Especially that part about hits and visits being different, hits include each image on the page, so one visit will show as 20 hits if you have 20 images on that page.

Set up google anaylitics its a great way of seeing where you website traffic is coming from, then you can concentrate on changing different aspects every so often to see if it brings you more leads.

They can also track any email campagins you do bounce rate etc, that is when someone just deletes your email without opening or opens it and clicks your link.

Followers help rank your blog and reciprocal links help rank your website on search engines.

I have just sent out a few requests for reciprocal links (got my first acceptance today) so if you are interested let me know.

I will follow your blog too.

[onlyme]

I know I must be missing something, but I can't find your blog address? :confused:

[C Hupfield Ceramics]

I know I must be missing something, but I can't find your blog address? :confused:

Me neither! I started to get excited by reading how good your blog seems to be, and wanted to have a nose, but can't see a link?

[Endeva]

Took me a while to find the blog address, but found it purely by accident.
It's in the "About the designer" part of the website, right at the bottom.

[Phoenixjewellery]

What is the address of your blog please - I seem to be missing a link! (or two!!!!!!!!!!)

[gina rahman]

Took me a while to find the blog address, but found it purely by accident.
It's in the "About the designer" part of the website, right at the bottom.

I joined your blog and read your post about facebook advertising. I am interested in doing it too but a bit scared at cost etc thanks

[Endeva]

I joined your blog and read your post about facebook advertising. I am interested in doing it too but a bit scared at cost etc thanks

Hi Gina x

Thanks for joining my blog :)
I've just posted up a bit of info for you (and anyone else) on my blog.
Hope it makes some sense lol, feel free to ask questions if you have any :D

[gina rahman]

I have done it now, thanks for the info.

My ad starts to run tomorrow, like you have set a small budget, will see what traffic and response I get from it and tweek it a bit.

If anyone is interested in doing facebook advertising them read endeva's blog for how to set it up, nice and easy to understand.

Thanks once again

[Endeva]

I have done it now, thanks for the info.

My ad starts to run tomorrow, like you have set a small budget, will see what traffic and response I get from it and tweek it a bit.

That's great Gina, you'll have to let us know how it goes :)

[Blooming Felt]

What is the address of your blog please - I seem to be missing a link! (or two!!!!!!!!!!)

Sorry guys - it's www.pictureitinstitches.blogspot.com (http://www.pictureitinstitches.blogspot.com)

Look forward to your comments !!

[Craft-Biz]

Hi,
Had a look at the blog, you are a busy little pup for sure. Nice gear.
My 2 bits worth would be
1: Agree with post about unique visitors.
2: Check your stats to see what search terms people are entering to get to your blog. That is what they are expecting to see when they get there. This is the "Handle" that you have on your surfer. Present product or messages that reinforce their feeling that they are getting what they want.
3: I would increase the call to action to visit your website. The link on the left is in a great eye map spot that I believe is being under utilized.
4: The purple "Blooming Felt" image link looks more like a logo than a hyperlink to your site. I would add a button type image to it that says Click Here to see All Felt Products, as opposed to a text link "Shop at Blooming Felt" Shop comes across as spending money, whereas View all products or such is more informational and click friendly - I would think.
5: When you change the images or text as suggested, make sure you track them in your stats and run 3 different versions for a week each. Pick the best one and then refine 3 versions from that. This will slowly lead you to the absolute best performing link that you can have.
6: "My Photo" did not load on the top right. When anything appears broken on a website, they leave in droves. Trust in web commerce is always line edge and a simple broken image link can lose you many clicks.
7: I would personally leave the fav websites where they are. Even google adsense regards position 3-7 as better clickthrough on the right nav bar than higher at 1-3.

Hope you get something out of these humble ramblings :-)
Cheers
Marc

[Blooming Felt]

Hi Marc

Thanks for taking the time to check out my blog - all good comments you made and I'll take them on board and have a play around.

Blog visits have definitely increased recently - I think the fact that I joined the "subscribe to the blog above" thread on the crafts forum, has helped. Also, running the giveaway promotes interest and I've noticed that I'm getting lots of visitors from other blogs where people have put me on their blog rolls.

I have got a little bit lazy about updating the blog to be honest, purely because my website has been so busy (shouldn't complain !) but I'm trying to make more time for it !

Thanks again to everyone for your comments and for taking the time to check me out !!