Recently, Pirate Bay, a Peer to Peer Tracking site specializing in sharing music and film was ordered to be shut down. To do this, the Swedish court ordered their ISP (Internet Service Provider) to pull their plugs on hosting. That ISP, happened to be “Black Internet”.

Per an article on http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1530549/pirate-bay-pulled-internet..

Swedish authorities ordered that The Pirate Bay be disconnected from the Internet and the site’s bandwidth supplier Black Internet was threatened with a fine of $70,600 if it didn’t pull the plug.

However Black Internet’s shut down had hardly any effect on Pirate Bay. The site was completely offline for only a short while until another ISP was found. A Pirate Bay insider told TorrentFreak that it “got a new connection to the net” pretty quickly.

Our serendipity came in as our site is optimized for decent traffic from the search terms “Black Internet”.

Tips and Suggestions For Analytical Serendipity.

1.  Watch your stats.  As seen below, we have a site that lately, has not gotten a lot of traffic.  However, a major spike from a reputable Analytics program like Google Analytics  lets you know that traffic is real.  (normally, Google will rule out Spider and bot traffic).

In this case, traffic increased over 900% in one day.

Traffic Boost for "Black Internet"

2.  Determine traffic source:  In this case, we know from the search engine report what keywords were successful.  “Black Internet”.  But whatever the source of the referrer traffic needs to be investigated.  Sometimes, this may even be social sites, such as Myspace, Facebook etc.  In this case, it was search engine positioning.

3.  Go research the traffic source:  If the source was a blog or article, then investigate to understand what you think caused the traffic boost.

In this case, our traffic boost came from the search engines.  So our next step was to do a search for those terms.  When that happened, immediately, we saw the reason for the surge of traffic.

"Black Internet" Search Engine Ranking

Ideas to Monetize Traffic.

1.  Try different products that may cater to the story.  In this case, we are evidently catering to:

• those who like peer to peer file sharing.
• those who may like films and music
• those who may need web hosting
• build an email list for future marketing.

Therefore, we can always start with Google Adwords to offer contextual ads.  OR we could offer affiliate marketing/CPC offers that may resonate with this audience.

Short Term Traffic.

The buzz will soon bust.  So utilizing this time to your advantage is KEY!

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Online dating is a huge market online.  We straddle the fence between Match.com and BlackSingles.com.

For us, BlackSingles has a better reception as far as media conducive to our demographic and better yet, they take the time to keep their banners fresh and up to date.  Our experience shows that Match.com has a seemingly larger database of potential dates…. But what good is that if no one is getting to those landing pages?

Here is an example of the testing that you should clearly do to effectively monetize traffic via all of your affiliate programs.

Goal: To get as many site visitors into a conversion funnel to become a dating customer.

Traffic Sources: Mostly organic traffic on one of our test sites:  www.blackatlanta.com

Our ClickThrough Stats:

Dating Impressions and Click Throughs for Multiple Banners

Please note that Revenue can still be generated on this clickthroughs!   As with most affiliate programs, we are most concerned with:

• setting that all important cookie
• getting them to sign up for an email list for the affiliates to market and convert
• a direct conversion, (which did not happen yet on these clicks)
  

Banners:

Banner 2401

Banner 2408

Banner 2413

Results

So out of 253 banner impressions, the 3 different banners got varying degrees of rotation.

Per the results, Banner 2413 was the winner with 80 impressions and 4 clickthroughs (5% ).  This banner also received ALL clickthroughs!

Some Reflections

Now, some may say that should clearly promote a winner only after a solid test number of impressions given.  Sure, we could have waited for 100 impressions a piece for ALL banners, but sometimes, a HUNCH can help you in making money.  Just ask Warren Buffet.

So clearly, the last piece of this is that we immediately go into our ad server and deactivate the two losers!

Now, these results were click through summaries for that the Affiliate program has provided to us.  You can use your analytics program or vendor programs… JUST GET STARTED!!!!

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Update:  as of 2/10/09, Our study still stands… The Click through rate has decreased…. but with over 300 shows a piece, still has a better click through than the other two.

Click Through Is Still The Winner

DEFINITELY turning all traffic towards Banner 2413.

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SEO Traffic Sources

Analytics and determining all facets of what they mean are an integral part of improving web site experience and action conversions!  For non-commercial statistical packages, AWSTATS and Google Analytics are a regular and daily recipient of visits from me. 

I like AWSTATS, because it compiles its report based on server logs.  Google Analytics is a great swag also, even though it is estimated that 5-10% of site visits are not recorded accurately if site visitors have Javascript disabled.  Well, here or there, stats and analytics can vary across packages… even commercial!

At any rate, without getting too granular, the purpose of this post is to mention that you can do BASIC things such as Search Engine Optimization to increase organic positioning in Search Engines and thus, increase traffic! 

As you can see in the image above, the Blue Section Represents Search Engine Traffic to this blog.  I always try to optimize:

• Meta Keywords & Descriptions
• Title Tags
• Keyword Density

as any extra hits to the site, represents a possible new supporter or eventually customer…

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Some gurus for blogs, debate whether or not one should monetize before getting lots of anchor articles and content.  However, along the way, one must consider the fact that they still have a few bills to pay to break even.  With that consideration, we look to help people monetize their blogs and websites and show the following experiment. 

As can be seen in the following image, we customized our blog postings to show Google Adsense before and after blog posts. 

Pre and Post Blog Post Monetization

Adsense Click-Through Rate

• the Pre-article placement was important as we got no-click throughs for the Post-article placement.
• The high click through rate should still be compared to BOUNCE RATE… meaning that we want to monetize the click through, but also want our number of page views per visitor to be high. 

We will continue to look at this monetization.  We also believe that the second slot, after the article is an important placement, as blog readers, once they find a good article, read it to the end. 

What do you think about this strategy?  Have you used it and does it work for you?  Comment below

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I was telling a colleague the other day that one of our sites, brought in about 600K visitors from January – November 2008.  The site is well monetized… or at least coded for offers… but conversions are low.  We talked about Quality vs. Quantity of traffic in our post “What’s More Important:  Quality or Quantity?”

What does work is this:  Google Adsense… Why?

Organic/Relevant Search Engine Traffic

My hypothesis is that the contextual basis of Google’s algorithms deliver the most conducive content based on the organic traffic coming to the site.  (WELL… EVERYONE knows what Google Adsense does in delivery of the contextual ads based on the content –>  So, it’s really not a hypothesis.  More so a confirmation!)

As we see in the graphic, the results of the search engine search are very pertinent to the user’s interest… So we have the best opportunity to make that cash.

So for 2009… As a marketer, I am faced with a good problems to have….  Having lots of traffic, but with a need to segment and address it….. or  finding ways to get more qualified traffic for conversions.

2.1 Million Page views.

If I can convert 1% of these page views from January – November 2008, with a $5 offer… how sweet life will be for 2009!   1% is 21,000 of the page views… OR Perhaps doubling that and making $2.50 per page view … Can you do the math with me?

For 2009, in a recession-ridden economy, it is very important for your site to have the best opportunity to convert.  To do this, you must either:

• Feed your site’s ecommerce engine the best fuel (qualified traffic) OR
• Have ways in place to study, analyze, and segment the traffic that you have, in order to convert.

The all so famous sales funnel

That famous sales funnel is so correct… IN 2009, let’s all focus on increasing the leads, and as our friend Mwangi stated in his comment for increasing “…sales, sales, sales!”

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I was reviewing my stats for one of our sites:  BlackAtlanta.com.  That site received:

• 13 million hits from January to November 2008
• 3.1 Million page views
• 650K visits
• 501K unique visitors

But I have to admit.  Funneling that many visitors into a conversion path on my own products or even affiliate products was not done in the numbers that I wished and hoped for. 

So now, I must either:

• focus on better traffic or
• improve landing page experience for existing traffic or
• learn the site visitor and what they are looking for!

For 2009, I am focusing less on BIG HUGE unqualified numbers for traffic and more on focused traffic where we can funnel those users into a great conversion funnel. 

What are your website traffic goals for 2009?

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In our article Wu-Yi Tea Experiment Post 3, we aimed to get our experimental site WuYi.TV included in Google.  Seemingly, inclusion was slower than normal until we pulled out the big guns.  We linked to it from a few of our “secret” high PR sites yesterday.  Like clockwork, WuYi.TV has life in Google’s search engine.

WuYi.TV Indexed In Google.com

So, these sites that we linked from, are not really super secret.  They just happened to be well-respected web sites that we own, with high Google PR value.  We pick the one with the most relevant content to this landing page and strategically link to Wuyi.tv.

We suggest:

• One way Link: Meaning that reciprocal linking for SEO benefit may have little value in creating WUYI.tv as an Authority site.
• Linking in Context: Writing an article, and placing links within the content, is an effective way to link.  This prevents Google from pinging you as if you were buying links in Bad directories or link farms.

Our next phases of the experiment include optimizing our copy and Meta Tags.  Now we have to try to get ranked for coveted keywords.  WhiteNewJersey states that Dot TV domains don’t rank well.  We will see soon.

Stay tuned!

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In our article “Size Length and Size Matter? Home Page Testing on BlackAtlanta.com…”, we discuss landing page bounce rates.

High bounce rates normally means 1 of 2 things:

1. Marketing Deficiencies: You have lost the attention of the user based on how they got to your page (PPC or Organic Positioning) This happens because you have not properly matched landing page content to the reason the site visitor lands on your page. If using PPC, your landing page needs to cater to the content of the Ad!
2. Technical Glitches: Perhaps the page loads too slowly and the site visitor just … well, uh… BOUNCES off of our your page on to other surfing fun.

Now, if a page has a high bounce rate, you should use analytics to find out how they are coming to the page. At that time, you will be able to determine what you can improve. For example, if they are coming from Google search to your page for the keyword “cool pianos”, you need to cater that landing page to COOL PIANOS.

Now, here is the challenge: Because the page has a high bounce rate, once you improve the page, you need some immediate attention-grabbing content and/or features.

My suggestion is to install an analytics program such as Google Analytics. Learn which pages and section of your website are getting traffic and WHY. Then, even if you are getting high bounce rates, strategize on how to take advantage of that traffic coming to the page.

Catch the attention of your visitor ABOVE THE FOLD OF THE PAGE!!!

Lastly, if you are PAYING via PPC ads, SUSPEND and pause your campaigns until you figure out what you can do to decrease bounce rate while improving the completion of the desired action.

Read more on our experience with BOUNCE RATES at http://blackinternetmarketing.com/size-length-and-size-matter-home-page-testing-on-blackatlantacom/-/Black-Internet-Marketing/2008/11/10/

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BlackAtlanta.com currently runs on a popular flavor of a Content Management System.  Normally, as many of you may know, a CMS runs dynamically from a Database and generates the page content based on the structure of the page requested.  Modules, components, content, etc. are all placed into the page based on the specific page or channel requested.

Our test was to determine whether we could reduce bounce rates between:

• A short version of the page, where the whole page was above the fold.  Options in navigation and choice were limited.
• Or the regular version of the site.  A very LONG page with many options.  (Image shown to the right –>  very long so we really decreased the size )

Based on analytics, (Powered by Google), we were able to assess that “Black Atlanta Events” was a very high keyword searched regularly on the site.  As seen below, we thought that we would:

• “bait” users by placing the Events link in the top left hand hot zone of the page.
• We even thought that we would make the font larger to further entice…
• Reduce the number of options on the page by taking away navigation
• Steer users into a reduced number of channels through graphical content boxes.

We ran this test between November 5-7, 2008 and compared this mini-home page landing page against the regular landing page (home page) between October 29-31, 2008.

Hypothesis

We hypothesized that the limited option landing page would funnel users into more popular areas of the site immediately, and thus reduce the bounce rate.

Now, Google defines the bounce rate as:

The percentage of single-page visits or visits in which the person left your site from the entrance (landing) page. Use this metric to measure visit quality – a high bounce rate generally indicates that site entrance pages aren’t relevant to your visitors. The more compelling your landing pages, the more visitors will stay on your site and convert. You can minimize bounce rates by tailoring landing pages to each keyword and ad that you run. Landing pages should provide the information and services that were promised in the ad copy.

Now, all traffic was organically driven.  So keyword relevancy would be high based on Google’s strict algorithmic excellence   LOL!!!

Our findings.

We honestly pulled the plug early on this assessment.  We found an immediate reduction in the total number of page views, AFTER the click through.  In other words, those that stayed and beat our Bounce rate…. were only looking at a few pages and THEN bouncing.

Bounce Rate

Although we did see the Bounce Rate INCREASE by a little over 8% with the shortened page, we cannot fully call the test conclusive, as the number of page views sent to the shortened landing page was only 28% of what the normal long page received.

Time on Page

Strangely enough, the time spend on the page almost doubled with the shortened page.

Conclusions

As stated above, very few conclusions can be made without truly increasing the number of test page impressions, where the home page was the entry point.

I AM a betting man though.  So here are my conjectures:

1. The Increased bounce rate experienced on the landing page, could be improved with a simpler layout.
2. The bounce rate also had less “flair”, meaning that the bored user left the page.
3. Our other experiments on landing pages that are longer than the fold of the page, show that with the use of Clicktale, a large percentage of users actually scroll down the page past the fold and some even scroll back up, until they find where the click will be.  This is an interesting observation, that means that most users don’t mind scrolling if the content is appealing enough and if they feel the page has the content that attracted the click through.

We will continue to tweak our landing pages and improve hot zone studies.  For the time being though, we will allow this user demographic base to continue to get what we project they like…. Longer pages… More Content, More choices…and yes… more sizable length

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Back in a blog at http://blackinternetmarketing.com/sex-sells-or-does-it/-/Black-Internet-Marketing/2008/09/23/ entitled Sex Sells or Does It?, we ventured into the notion certain sexier images and banners may provoke more click throughs.  However, on our test site, www.BlackAtlanta.com, the opposite occurred.  The LESS sexy banners were clicked by almost 3-4% higher rates. 

We concluded that the demographic liked bikinis less in regards to a possible dating scenario. 

In order to conduct that study, we used an AD SERVER.  An ad server allows you to: 

• test multiple versions of banners, just as we did.
• advertise clients’ ads on your site
• give your code to your sites where you might be buying traffic to track and gauge the true results of a campaign
• Give your clients an online portal to test and see the number of impressions and click throughs that your site provided. 

OpenX is a great solution to this.  On our site, we used an older version called OPENAds.  We have since upgraded to OpenX and enjoy the robust and dependable code base.  We encourage you to do the same, even for your own banners on your own site.  Testing is key, and following trends will allow you to increase click throughs of your campaigns and offers… which ultimately leads to Increased revenue or visitor actions. 

Enjoy OpenX!

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