Help DruSam Increase His CTR and Stop Sucking So Damn Much.

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DruSam

DruSam

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Help me. I'm trying out Jon's KISS method as mentioned in his blog. I did a little bit of PPC on StumbleUpon and got a good bit of traffic. But my CTR is only 4%, so I lost money...

How can I increase it? I don't want want to suck at the interwebs anymore!
My site: Filtered Water Planet
 


Alright well the IE problem is fixed... Does anyone have suggestions on ad placement?
 
"I did a little bit of PPC on StumbleUpon and got a good bit of traffic. But my CTR is only 4%, so I lost money..." StumbleUpon is free, I don't understand how you lost money? That being said, your CTR with stumbleupon will suck, their traffic doesn't do very much clicking.


Here are my suggestions:

Font: Verdena, size 11px
Google link color: try #000684 instead, darker more contrast.
Google ad links: use horizontal adlinks, put it right under your header image.

You can also test some stuff with ad sizes, try box, standard or large.
 
Okay, I made alot of those suggestions Andrew (hey that's my name too!) except the horizontal links look really screwy. I'll have to fix those another time. Thanks for your help.
 
The horizontal links are good.
I also highly recommend putting ads inside your content. Even if it's only half banners or those little boxes (squares?).

I know they can looks spammy but the visitors they drive away will be worth the increse in CTR.

If you are going to do arbitrage then you should probably do something with high paying keywords or try to sell one product. If I were you I would be looking for a water filter affiliate program, or even try to form a paertnership with a site. Here is some stuff to check out:

http://www.crystalquest.com/affiliateprogram.htm
http://www.thewaterexchange.net/agreement.html

Also, I have been trying to looseley follow jons KISS method and have been posting about it in my blog. I recommend you check it out. Link in my siggy.

Ooops, it looks as though my blog was hacked by a harcore Turkish hacker. I'll see if I can retrieve the database...
 
Hey Drusam, here come my 2c. :2twocents:

watercoolers_changes.jpg


I am no big fan of the Blue tint at the right and left. (Marked red, for your convenience)
If you can, please reduce the "blueness" of the water she's drinking.
You want to sell clean, crystal clear water, not smurf pee.

On the left side, I just think it'd look better in very light tones.

The green areas could be very beneficial for ad placement (as in my eye-tracking article </shameless plug> ) But you might have to look out as to not surpass the 3ads MAX limit by google.

I think the very small, rectangular linkboxes by google would work good right below the header line "Why we need...". Yes, I would prefer the placement below the heading line.

You might want to get rid of / position differently the ad at the very bottom of the page.

You might think about placing them as vertical adspace in the text, maybe on the left side.

As I said, just my 2c.

Good luck,

::emp::
 
Ooops..some more...

You might also consider adding links to lead the visitor deeper into your site.
All I (as a poor, innocent victim^H^H^H^H^H have now is "previous" "next" and some featured articles.)
Add some links to the bottom of each article (yes, even editing old ones to include new content and vice versa).

I just noticed a "read more in part 2" without a link, that's why I am ranting here...<ahem>

::emp::
 
something else you might want to think about is the size of your header. I would not go over 100pxls and get a blended ad above the fold so your reader does not have to move the page to see an ad. just a thought
 
Not sure if you are currently making changes to the site but if you click on one of the article headings you lose the 'featured articles' navigation on the right and there are errors at the bottom of the page. Think it seems to be having problems with comments ( I take it the site is built using wordpress)
 
Wow, awesome responses guys, I really appreciate the help.
I agree that the header needs some work. I'll look in to making it smaller, and perhaps get rid of the girl drinking smurf pee.
Thanks

oh and you're right mrvolleyball, I am using wordpress. :)
 
DruSam said:
oh and you're right mrvolleyball, I am using wordpress. :)
Click to expand...

You may want to change your URLs (from the setting in WP) so they are more SEO friendly. This won't help people click on your ads but may bring you more search engine traffic.
 
mrvolleyball said:
You may want to change your URLs (from the setting in WP) so they are more SEO friendly. This won't help people click on your ads but may bring you more search engine traffic.
Click to expand...
Do you know how I can put my article names in my url instead of wordpress jibberish?
 
DruSam said:
Okay, thanks Entrep.
EDIT::: Hooray, I did it!
Click to expand...
Yeah! I just learned how today too! yumm!


Hey DruSam, how do I submit my site to stumpleupon.com? all i can find are ways to get a toolbar thingy
 
juniodude said:
Yeah! I just learned how today too! yumm!


Hey DruSam, how do I submit my site to stumpleupon.com? all i can find are ways to get a toolbar thingy
Click to expand...

When you download the toolbar, you can visit your site, then press "I like it" on the toolbar. Then it will put your site in the database after you review it and categorize it. Then people "stumble" on your site!

But be warned this is only effective for viral type sites. Boring sites about cheap retirement homes don't do to well. Only hip sites.
 
I get some visits from stumbleupon to my site, so it has to be, boooring ^^ like 2 hits a day from there, my peak was 11 one day, all days i looked at, maybe more some day ^^ Then decide yourself how "funny" my site is and how "funny" a site has to be to get a decent amount of visits from there. Btw. the site I'm talking about is xonium, in my sig.
 
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