Conversion rates and suggestions?

[Pokernut]

Hi, I have a general query about visitor conversion rates and conversion strategies in general.

What advice can you give a newbie regarding what to expect in terms of converting visitors into new sign-ups, for a site that has been up for say 3 months, 6 months, 1 year and beyond?

What is a realistic long-term conversion rate to aim for and what strategies have you used in the past or currently to improve conversion rates? (e.g. newsletters, email campaigns, incentives of some kind, etc)

As you can tell, I'm quite new to all this!

[gennario]

They say that we, as affiliates, should inform people about the site(s) - things like promotions, tournaments, unique features, etc.

And about the traffic, as we all know, the best comes from the search engines.

[Planet Mark]

Hey Pokernut,

Bit of a broad question to be honest... conversion rates are influenced by so many things that rather than asking what would make a 'good' rate it would be better to ask 'what are the key factors influencing conversion rates?' and work through them one by one.

Visitors who search for 'where is the best place to play online poker?' are going to convert better than someone who searches for 'how to play a rough 8 in the mid stages of a razz tournament' - to pick a silly example!

Then we get to your site and whether it offers readers what they are looking for, quality content and persuades them to click on links and all that good stuff.

This subject has come up a ton of times, so I'll leave you to search for more - just wanted to chime in with my 'it depends' for now to trigger some thoughts on what it might depend on!!

Mark

[Strider1973]

Its not that easy to find figures; I also started a thread once with no quantitative answers.

This discussion here is interesting:
'Strategy' websites

I think I once read about conversion rates for "strategy" and for "bonus" in this forum, but I didn't find the thread. I think it was something like 1:250 for strategy and 1:25 for bonus.

[Pokernut]

@ Mark -- thanks for that. I thought you'd say such things, and yes I guess it's my fault for asking such a broad question! @ Strider -- it makes sense what you say, and does support what Mark has mentioned, but hell if you're right with the figures then that is a 10-fold difference! Very interesting to see some figures at least!

[Dave]

I received an email newsletter from Mark Ling of "Affilorama" fame today that offers a free ebook and video on affiliate marketing.

Good stuff..... he talks about conversion rates and has excellent advice all around for affiliate marketing and email marketing in any niche.

Top 6 Affiliate Secrets Report | Affilorama

Enjoy,

Dave