In the next coming weeks and months I will be writing up an article series called

“How to Convert Web Traffic to Customers”.

The main theme of the article series will focus on how to change web traffic into customers. I have learned it's easy to get traffic, but it's a whole different ball game when it comes to converting the traffic into customers, readers and followers.

This article is the beginning of the “How to Convert Web Traffic to Customers” series, I plan to go over simple tips that make a big difference in converting traffic to customers. This will be a straight list and notes on why the tip matters when running a Website.

So in true “Howbits” fashion, time to get into the Simple Blogging & Website Tips:-

• When you want people to read your content, articles, sales text, information, etc. Color Contrast is very important.

Several times I have been to a website with what looks to have good information, but the problem is, I can't read it because the website looks like some color illiterate person made it. The text is black, the background is dark grey, or the text is bright yellow and the background is white.

If people can't read what you are trying to say they will leave. There are some websites that I have had to highlight the text I am trying to read so that I have a blue background and letters that change to white so I can read the information.

A simple way of telling if your contrast is hard to read is if your eyes hurt after looking at your website for a few minutes. Another test is to stand up walk a few feet back and if you can't read your website then the colors are too similar. A professional way of checking is to use the following website - Color Contrast Checker

• Blogging advice – Don't get "blogged" down if you are not getting readers, RSS followers, people commenting etc.
   

One of the worst mistakes / traps that a blogger can fall into is the analytical side of blogging. Every day I would go to Google Analytics and look at my traffic, then I would head over to Feedburner and check the subscriber statistics, then I would finally go to my Pay per click advertisers and see if I made any money for the day. This….. horrible… routine was a setup for failure, especially in the beginning when I was just starting out.

It is very easy to get discouraged when running a blog and desperately wanting to make revenue from it but not getting a cent from it. It is even more discouraging when you don't have anyone who is commenting on articles, subscribing to your RSS feed or digging your stories. It is one thing to know when people are not interacting with your website, it is another thing when you can see the "exact" analytical information about your traffic and realizing you have traffic but no one wants to talk to you or follow an ad so you can get some money for your time.

My recommendation, and this is hard to follow, is to focus on the enjoyment of blogging and realize it takes a certain type of visitor who wants to leave comments or interact with your website such as click links and ads. I find the ratio is about 1 out of 100 or so visitors who will interact with a website, the majority just want to surf in, look around, get the information they want and leave. This is the way of the internet, people are moving about the internet as if they are in a car going 80 miles per hour and your website is just a traffic sign along the side of the road. Sometimes you can stop one or two cars and get them to take a longer look at what you are offering, but it takes practice to get them to stop. (I will expand on ways to do this in later articles)

• Stay away from CAPS unless you are making a point and even then limit down the usage. 

People don't like looking at sentences that are in caps. It really indicates a person "mental" age on the Internet and shows a lot of immaturity when entire sentences are in nothing but caps. A good piece of advice is this – "A little bit of professionalism will go a long way, especially when you want people to listen to you."

People perceive caps as being yelled at and the majority of the population doesn't like being yelled at online or in reality. If you use caps, many will perceive you are talking loudly, or aggressively towards them. You may think you are using caps to make a point….when in fact people may think you are “yelling” at them and find it offensive.

• Learn how to lead people around your website and how to Layer your website correctly.

Too many websites have way too many items on the page that are begging for attention. Moving Ads, pictures, large text, bold text, underline text, massive color changes in a design, scrolling text, rotating banners, etc. all grab attention. If you have too many items vying for attention on your website all you are doing is confusing your visitors, often leading to visual stress and a high increase in the chance of them leaving in a few seconds through sheer overload.

It is very important to learn how to lead people to the areas you want them to go on your website, once you have them to the area you want them on a website your job is then to get everything out of the way and let them do what you want them to do. A good example of this is an e-commerce website. When a customer has just added a product to the cart and they click check out, do not bombard them with pop ups, massive over / cross selling, don't ask them lots of questions, just get your cart out of the way and let them check out. Customers will leave if they the check out process is too complicated.

I have often wondered how many customers Godaddy has lost because of their overly complicated checkout process, which is becoming more and more complicated by the day. Their new checkout system is horrendous.

For bloggers you want to lead people to your articles and allow them to read your information or watch your videos and then you want them to comment on your post, subscribe to your RSS, tweet your post, or socially share it on other websites. After they have done this you would like them to donate or click on an advertisers link that they might be interested in.

I am currently in the process of designing a new layout for howbits, but in the beginning I did not know how important it was to walk visitors through your website.

Over time I have simplified my logo, made titles a bit larger, but not too big, to get people’s attention, then slimmed down the side bar so it does not distract readers from the information, then I added related post at the bottom that visitors might also want to read. After that I use color and contrast to show the share and RSS information to draw attention to it, then I have the comment area come up and I find that the Disqus logo stands out just enough to draw attention.

On my blog post I put an ad at the top of the page, one ad on the side and one at the bottom. I prefer text ads because they are not intrusive and they don't annoy my readers and make them leave. I also make sure to not put ads or banner blocks in my articles, those are annoying to me and since i don't like them, I don't subject my readers to them.

I have made my website work in a logical order and as such I have a high amount of people who "stick" to blog post and don't leave until they have read the entire post. (Again, I will go in-detail on website layering in later articles)

• Don't be too neutral in what you are saying or posting on your website

Not everyone is going to like what you have to say, so don't try to target everyone. If you have something to say and you know it will anger some people, write the article and say it. You will get followers who will agree with you and respect what you have to say and continue coming back to read more. The people who get angry with you? Well they will be angry and typically move on after a few choice words or opinions. But because of writing what you wanted or needed to say, you will have followers who are dedicated to your blog and the things "you" say.

I do public speaking and what I have learned transfers over to blogs. The best advice I was given was to not lose my personal way of speaking and style, but to learn how to "own" my personal way of speaking and make it “my” style that people will learn to recognize, so when they hear me talking they know it's me talking and no one else.

Do you think successful bloggers became successful by being neutral and trying to not offend anyone? They became successful because they had things they needed and wanted to say, and they said it in their "own" way and they didn't care that not everyone would get or understand what they had said.

There is more than enough populace in this world to go around and you will find people who get you and want to hear what you have to say and the way you say it.

I will be expanding more on this in greater detail in the coming weeks.

So this is the end of my simple tips. I will continue working on this series for awhile, along with posting how to's and fixes for common issues and problems. 

I am toying with the idea of looking through websites for a 50 dollar fee where I give suggestions and ideas of changes to a website to improve website "stickiness", visual attraction and ergonomics, increase or improve people commenting on a website, increase revenue of the website either through ads or sales of items, or how to convert traffic to customers for ecommerce cart websites. If anyone is interested please send an email at info@howbits.com.

I will be offering this service in the future on the new website dejunkit.com, but I need to sit down and build the website with my business partner and my employees before it is available. Once it is available and in full swing, I will be charging more for the service. So this is in an advanced and cheaper “offering” for my readers on howbits.com to take advantage of this service in it's conceptual stage.

On a side note, if I can't help out on the website or the tips offered are of no use then I will refund or not charge in the first place. I believe there is already too much useless junk information on the internet and I don't want to add to the pile – just link your site and I will tell you if I believe it will be worth the 50 bucks!

If anyone wants to add to my list of tips and advice or has some questions or comments, please feel free to scroll down and do so….i am always happy to listen to others opinions, knowledge or information….after all…that’s what blogging and communication is all about.!

Use it and enjoy it.

DZ