Conversion Rate Failure

[addz123]

Hi all.

I have a feeling I know the kind of feeback i'm going to get from this thread, but I shall continue.

I remember someone saying that the conversion rate for players on strategy sites is usually in the ball park of 250:1

Whether or not this is an exact figure, I've found that after 4 months my site (see sig) still has no signups. I'm getting about 100 uniques per day and all based on long tail strategy queries.

I think the problem might be that the long tail hits arn't exactly the "converting" type. However that being said, the 250:1 ratio for strategy sites I presumed would take this into account?

As far as i'm aware the layout of the site etc is ok, so a few words of wisdom is all i'm after.

cheers everyone!
adam

[Planet Mark]

Hey Adam

Strategy searches are funny things... not sure that I'm the right person to be offering any words of wisdom to be honest, but maybe a couple of things to think about.

Firstly you really have to think about where a player is at in terms of poker knowledge for their search queries. I see you have 'MTT Strategy' in your sig so will take that as an example: A complete beginner would not know this acronym right? A complete beginner would be more likely to use the words 'poker tournament' rather than tourney, MTT, Multi et al which gets picked up from forums + interactions with other players etc - so already we can rule out the very basics for them... and probably give them credit for having read a few forum posts too, they want strategy tips to help them win for sure, but probably already feel they know which are the best sites... and might well already be rakeback aware.

Anyway, turning into a long story already - I'd think that someone searching for this term would be more likely to read an article with a headline of 'How To improve Your MTT Results - Fast!' or a succession of articles about moves / hand reading... selling them stuff is hard for sure - but at least you pitch your information at the right level to start with you'll get more interest. If you can now weave your message about how much more profitable tournaments are at site X (guarantees / satellites or any other offer can help), or hit them with some genuinely decent software tools or training sites you might have a better chance to make some $ from them.

Remember that good strategy articles have other benefits - they bring in links (which eventually help you rank for the non-strategy terms!) and they get visitors coming back to your site too. You can funnel people to your highest convering articles by thoughtful interlinking. Why not offer more via e-mail and capture addresses too?

So, probably not a very clear answer... but trying to figure where people searching for certain terms are 'at' in terms of poker knowledge / experience can definitely help you give them the information they want and pitch to the right level.... if there are multiple possible experience levels for one query then these dictate the choices you give on the landing pages. Don't forget those beginners either - this end of the market huge... and while the experts fight like dogs over the rakeback / intermediate players to sign-up you can be earning fat CPAs from all the average joes who just want a relaxing game of poker after a hard day in the office!

Mark

[Newjabber]

I would ad something like this to the main page, maybe where the FTP banner is on the right, or just in the intro text:

"an important part of poker strategies it to also take advantage of sign up poker bonuses and poker rakeback.
If you are not getting rakeback, you need to read this asap before you move on to our strategy section."

Maybe an eksample of what/how much they are missing out on, if they are not on rakeback.

Ohh your links are different color here if you havent noticed MTT Strategy | MTT Strategy | Sit N Go Strategy | Poker Tips and Tricks just wanna mention it.

After reading a few articles, i see that the are absolutely no calls to actions in the articles!
"try this strategy at... bla bla bla" etc.

Here is an example of an article i posted today. Check out the bottom of the article for eksample.
Im by no means an expert, this is just my 2 cents.
And dont mind the site that is under developement.
Playing Big Stack Poker | Gambling News

[addz123]

I've honestly never come across a pair of answers so succinct before!

Mark that's a fantastic insight into my traffic which i should have picked up upon weeks ago. Newjabber you've bascially given me a clear strategy i should be selling rakeback to these guys who're, as mark says, clearly more medium-advanced stretch of the market.

I'll make a few adjustments here n there in leu of this and see how i get on.

thanks!

[doovde]

A few ideas off the top of my head,

- Find a space on the homepage to advertise a particular MTT, I know PKR have a few guaranteed tournaments that are pretty soft. Review the tournament in question, tell your visitors it's a soft MTT with a nice grt send them through your affiliate link.

- Write an article about online tournaments with overlays or added value, I'm pretty sure there are some of these on Merge.

- Do something to cater for all kinds of tournament player, maybe three articles about the best online MTT's for low stakes, mid stakes, high stakes players.

- Use the big guaranteed tournaments on both Full Tilt and Pokerstars to your advantage, give them more coverage, reveiw them.

[Unknown Webmaster]

Below are a couple of links that I think will help you improve the conversion rate.
My Brutally Honest Site Reviews by Dave - Part 1

Copywriting 101: An Introduction to Effective Copy | Copyblogger

If it were my site, I would rewrite the front page, so it became more personal.

[addz123]

- Use the big guaranteed tournaments on both Full Tilt and Pokerstars to your advantage, give them more coverage, reveiw them.[/QUOTE]

This scares me because as said, a sect of experienced poker traffic will likely already have accounts at full tilt and pokerstars no? so there is a fine line between marketing proftiably and just marketing for usability.

would you really sell the "big rooms" given this situation personally? I'd be interested to hear.

[Newjabber]

This scares me because as said, a sect of experienced poker traffic will likely already have accounts at full tilt and pokerstars no?

Its true that most established players have accounts at these sites, but remember that people turn 18 every second, so there are always new players who dont have an account at these sites.
I had the same thoughts at some point, and thought it would be better to send the trafffic to a unknown site, but players dont stay at the small sites with little traffic, imo.
I would rather get one players at full tilt, than 5 players at .... hmmm better not mention any names here, but you should get my point :-)

[GregW]

I threw the 250:1 number out there, but I'd be cautious about using it as a measuring pole.

As Mark said you really need to tailor your advertising to the visitors of your site. If you gave me your site and I wanted to increase conversions, the first thing I would do is write a page selling the "top room for MTTs" and basically say that anyone who plays MTTs would be foolish to play elsewhere. Keep it honest and straight to the point as best as you can. Put a lot of effort in to this and treat it as your #1 opportunity to convert a browsing visitor in to a CPA.

I would then link to it from every page of the site, quite possibly from where your generic FT banner is in the top right corner. I would also create a very eye-catching custom image to get the visitor's attention (maybe something along the lines of "STOP... read this before playing your next MTT"). Split test it if you like, but I'm sure you'll agree that this would get 10x more clicks than a generic banner ever will.

Also, try streamlining your promotions and focus on one main room. It will make it more convincing. Having an assortment of banners for different sites makes your promotions look like a lucky dip of average rooms. Promoting 1 site will really intrigue your visitors and they will see your banners and stuff as more than just run of the mill advertisements.

With strategy visitors you have to do a lot of leg work to convince them to play at a certain room. Just putting up reviews and banners and hoping they decide to uproot and play at a new room isn't going to do the trick. Get creative and see what happens.

[addz123]

hey thanks greg i will definately make that my priority. May as well mention now that i've always admired your site pokerbank as a benchmark to aim for. So any advice you give me i will highly rate. (tried adding you on facebook btw but no response - adam grunwerg).

from all the the comments above i'm really seeing a future direction for this site now as opposed to just filling it with content and sticking lucky dip reviews in like greg said!

thanks all!

edit: Here a page i put up just now as recommended: Top Room for MTTs | MTT Strategy | Sit N Go Strategy | Poker Tips and Tricks