Internet Entrepreneurship: Conversion Rates

The conversion rate is the key stat for a website. As long as you are paying for clicks, the efficiency with which you convert those clicks to sales is really the only measure that counts in determining your website originate. When I started my UK silk tie website it took a while to catch enough data to open tracking and conversion rate as you need at least ten sales to pick up any sort of statistically honorable result. It took a couple of weeks to originate the first ten sales and I calculated my conversion rate at 0.5%. As I was paying 25p per click, this means that it was costing me £50 per customer. Even with an average order size of £30, this was a long draw from profitability. Luckily, conversion rates can change quite dramatically with things like the website acquire, sales copy, products on the front page, range of products, product descriptions, guranatees, pricing, ease of payment etc. etc. In short there are many things you can do to catch conversions up.

The huge thing about internet businesses is that you can fabricate a change, measure the result and if it doesn't work, then change it succor. I am constantly trying current things to behold if it affects the figures. Initially I changed too many things too speedily and it was very hard to unpick the results of different factors. Also the Christmas period started when I was one month in and conversion rates rose strongly and then fell wait on after Christmas, it was hard then to unpick the seasonal finish from my changes.

One of the first thing I experimented with was pricing. From my initial prices of about £9 for a woven silk tie, I tried cutting them to £8 for a few weeks and then putting them up to £11 for a few weeks, then cutting wait on a bit, until settling on prices about 15% higher than my first try, objective over £10 average heed. Cutting prices below this point did not seem to increase sales.

I also looked at which ties sold well and assign them on the featured products list which are then randomly selected on the front page. I worked a lot on the cataloging of the ties by colour, style etc. and added keywords so that people could secure what they wanted easily.

I also experimented with my sales copy and have made the money encourage guarantee more and more prominent. One of the first things you need to keep when people visit your status is credibility. So I have the address at the top so that people know we are easy to physically track down, I have set aside the Visa and Mastercard symbols come the top for legitamcy, I have signed up to affiliate programs for upmarkets shirt makers so that I can indicate their ads to add credibility and as I started to procure a few pieces of nice feedback from people, I added them to the set. All of these changes have pushed the conversion rate up to over 1% and I am now targeting 2% with my next wave of changes which will try and buy email addresses for follow up mailing by offering a free ebook on a mens fashion related subject. More about that another time.

There is a feature in both AdWords and Overture which, once you have inserted a section of html code into your payment page (or, as I did got your web status supplier to do it) will allow you to track conversion rates by keyword. I am only now building enough data to do this justice, but it allows you to cleave out keywords which don't convert well. For example, I had been buying the keywords "how to tie a tie" and was getting 50 clicks a day at a bargain £0.02 each, however after 1700 clicks I unruffled hadn't made a sale, despite making determined there was sales text in with the tie instructions and ties shown either side. Not entirely surprising as people searching for tie instructions were not looking to seize ties, but clearly they do wear them and I notion some people would retract one. Not so. So now I am saving that money.

I recently received an email from a reader of my previous articles, Louis Roberts. It's large to know that people are reading my blog already. Louis asks "I first read your article on "ezinearticles" and it brought me to your site; I like your online store. How are your online businesses doing? Are you hitting your goals of $1000 profit per spot? I am very eager in opening a store myself. Since you seem to indulge in sharing advice; I was wondering of you could recommend some genuine products to sell, suppliers, dropshippers, etc. that carry as you would say "healthy margins"? "

These were top-notch questions, so I have devoted this post to answering them.
Thanks for the sign, happy someone reads the articles. In retort to your questions:
No I am not yet anywhere arrive reaching $1000 profit per set per week. I demand it to acquire a year to near that figure. As my sites are less than four months and one month ragged respectively there is aloof a map to go. It is easy, reading some of the web business sales pitches out there to have that instant riches are easily achievable. This is not right, it takes hard work and dedication to develop money. I have reached the demolish even point on both sites which was the first milestone - initially I was losing $500 per spot per week as the cost of advertising on Google AdWords contrivance outran my sales.

It is hard for me to declare you what to sell, but I can recommend the criteria that I old to rate a product:

Niche product where there is not a major house beget name supplier (i.e. don't go into the book business against Amazon)
Must be being sold on the internet already (you don't want to have to form a whole novel market by yourself)
Must have keywords that people searching for that product would expend but that are not shared with other products (for example "silk ties" and "oil paintings" are superb "gifts" would be unpleasant)
Do a search on Google for the product. If less than 5 advertisers approach up on the moral hand side, then chances are you can pick up reasonably priced traffic
Must not need a serve to procure it working. Things that need technical wait on are too problematic. You want things that are easy to expend and where you can sell and forget.
I have also made it a rule that I will not acquire or carry stock at least until I have strong sales and agreeable put a question to already. So need a descend shipper or a effect to order product.
A final point that I have learned from trying to do ties, is that you need a $50+ margin per product. The cost of attracting customers for paintings or massage chairs is not great higher than the cost of getting customers for ties, although the conversion rates are lower. It is easier to approach rupture even with higher price brand items.
It also helps if it is a product that you have bought yourself and secure keen in and passionate about.

Based on these criteria I have gone for silk ties with www.tiespecialist.com, oil paintings with www.artspecialist.com and soon to be launched a massage chair website. I tried selling cuff links on my tie state but the AdWords competition was so fierce that I needed to pay 75c per click to be on the front page and there was no diagram to originate money, I dropped that plan like a flash.


As for capable topple shippers, I search for reviews or feedback on any supplier I am thinking of using and then do a trial order with them to invent definite the quality and service is first-rate. However favorite descend shippers will have lots of people selling their products and it will be hard to earn money. Always check eBay to stare what prices the products sell at.

Another option is to win suppliers in China of develop to order or high value products I old-fashioned www.alibaba.com to fetch suppliers and have dealt with them by email. I hope this helps. I hope you have found this useful. Read more on my blog at http://specialist-paintings-ties.blogspot.com/. In the next article I will seize about conversion rates