Hair Braiding Tests

We utilize Zac Johnson’s Landing Page template to see if we can get a domain name ranked, and start sending traffic to an Affiliate Program.

In our articles Hair Braiding: How Hair Braiding Videos Padded My Pockets and Zac Johnson: Comparison Landing Page Template | SlimChews.net , we went over:

• Hair braiding DVD’s as an affiliate revenue stream
• Landing page templates, of which a couple great ones are located over at Zac Johnson’s blog.

Today, we launch an experiment to:

1. get a DOT BIZ domain name ranked, and hopefully well for the terms “hair braiding” or “hair braids”.  www.hairbraids.biz
2. utilize landing page templates by Zac, which we have definitely used successfully for conversions.

We will eventually utilize Google Optimizer to do an A/B test against Zac’s product comparison landing page and the regular landing page template available at his site.

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Check out this article on SEGMENT Optimization….  http://searchengineland.com/a-completely-different-kind-of-landing-page-optimization-15201

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SlimChews.net… A Start for Conversions.  A Great Implementation of Zac’s Landing Page Template

As we discussed in our article “SlimChews.net: A Look at a Weight Loss Review Landing Page“, we discussed SlimChews.net.  In that article, we discuss the creation of landing pages in niche industries and subsequent matching with affiliate programs to take advantage of the market.

We are proud to report a 4.3% conversion rate. This means:

1. Once they click from my page to the landing page, a cookie is set.
2. Once a visitor is on that page, they 4.3% of the visitors to that page are signing up for the product.  That is a Great conversion rate!

We used Zac Johnson’s Freely available Comparison Shopping Landing Page template . . . Go to the site and download your own.

PS… here is a screen print of conversions.

4.3% Conversion

UPDATE: Since launching this post, you may find this article useful:  http://blackinternetmarketing.com/hair-braiding-revenue-generation-meets-zac-johnson-landing-page/-/Black-Internet-Marketing/2009/01/17/

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Slim Chews: Lose 20 Lbs in ony 6 Weeksl

In our post describing the importance of the landing page experience and good search engine optimization, we announced testing a review site based on weight loss.  Today, we show a screen shot of SEO excellence.

As our a world-renown blog and podcast guru, Mwangi at TheDisplacedAfrican.com, questioned the reason behind showing you publicly our experiments.  We remind our readers that we are not just another “make Moolah” with our tongues hanging out type blog or site, but a site that tries to add another level of value to our readers.

As a guy who has been in web development and strategy for almost 10 years, I am not the professed guru of internet marketing, nor do I show the $100K Google Checks.  So what we do work on though, is showing our clients and readers proof in our own way.

On to Proof… 

In our article on creating a landing page based on a niche affiliate product, we launched www.SlimChews.net.  Read that post in your spare time…

Two ways for Traffic…

As you know, we can always

1. PAY to send traffic to a site.  OR, if skilled enough and let’s face it… LUCKY enough,
2. We could gain traffic naturally through search engine optimization.

SEO Keywords Results for Our Experiment

For the affiliate product of “Slim Chews”, a weight loss that at some time or another must have been reviewed by Oprah and featured on TV, we wanted to be found for:

• Slim Chews
• SlimChews

Our target audience would be those who are familiar with the product or had heard of the it.

Results:  Since posting that blog post on October 21, 2008, we have gained a good share.  See below.

Keyword:  “SlimChews” position #2 (as of 11/18/08).

Please note: Through our SEO value, we “own” position 2,3,4,5 via our SEO. Although these are other sites, it funnels traffic back to our landing page.

SlimChews Search from 11/18/08

Keyword: “Slim Chews” position #1/551,000 Results! (as of 11/18/08).

"Slim Chews" Search from 11/18/08

Keep checking us out! And if you need to lose weight with a system reviewed on Oprah, click here!

Please let us know your thoughts below via our comments section!

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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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