I Still Haven't Made A Sale Yet....

[tomstark]

Hi Tom,

I agree, you've got a really nice looking site, very professional. You have obviously put a lot of work into it.

A few thoughts in addition to what has already been mentioned ~

Your opt in could be a little more compelling. To me it is rather lost in the header. I also think people are more inclined to sign up if they can enter their name & e-mail right then and there. Plus, an arrow highlighting the opt in adds more of an incentive to people to sign up (steers them in the right direction).

You don't have a strong message or call to action above the fold. What is the primary, one message that you want to say to your visitors when they land on your site?

You have a fair number of visitors, but without sales it seems as if they are content seekers, not buyers. I believe in using both content keywords and buy keywords. Have you researched the long tail buy keywords and created posts based on them? Each post or page should focus on one keyword phrase and give one message or call to action to your reader.

Motocross is a very competitive keyword phrase (19,800,000 competing pages). Have you drilled down to find the related, lower competition keyword phrases and worked at ranking for them?

This seems like it is a passion for you and you have put so much into this site. I think with some changes it could be very successful. Keep us posted & good luck!

Ok, I'll have my brother help me with the opt-in. Should I put that on the top of the sidebar, or what? I've researched keywords for almost all of my articles... I just need to add more backlinks to them to get higher rankings. Thanks!

[tomstark]

Was just about to make this same point.

Describe your site in one clear, simple and compelling sentence. Most visitors to most sites are first time visitors. Tell them immediately, right at the top, what's in it for them.

Maybe clean up some of the clutter at the top of page, and replace with your one sentence "elevator speech" summary?

Yeah, my "thesis statement" being very very important would make sense. I'll think on that. Might take a couple days, lol. Thanks. Maybe I can add my brother to this forum to see if he can help...

[Coronado Cookie]

The top of the sidebar Tom - that way it is above the fold and clearly seen by your visitors.

[tomstark]

Alright, I'll change that as soon as I can. Thanks!

[Engage]

Tom, here's an off the wall idea...

In addition to asking us, ask your visitors. Make a big deal out of asking your readers for help with your site. Run a contest, give a prize, shower praise upon respondents, etc.

Engage your readers in the story of you, your site, your success. Use the back and forth to create more content for your site. Show your fellow riders how to do what you are doing.

As you've seen, everybody LOVES to give advice. Make advice giving a popular new feature of your site.

That's my advice! :-)

[Val B]

The site looks great. Are the keywords that you are ranking for and/or trying to rank for "money" keywords? I mean would people searching for those terms be looking to buy something immediately? If not, then I would think conversion rates would be much lower. On your product review pages, I would have prominent links to Order or Buy Now.

Good luck!

[curtisswn]

When I went to your site it looked like an info site to me, not a shopping place. Maybe you need "shiny" product links, sounds crass but a good site needs some glitz that says "spend money here!"

Curtis

[tomstark]

Yeah, I do need to interact more with my readers. I have asked the subscribers to send me any suggestions they have or what I should change, but I hardly ever get any replies. I did have a poll on the sidebar with a few choices of what article they want to see on the site. I got quite a few responses on that, so once I get time I'll make that article/video that most of the people voted for. Anything you suggest I do to interact more? I have been considering doing prizes/contests because my brother did some on his site, but I'm still in school right now.

I'd say a little over half of my keywords are money keywords. I just need to get them ranked higher.

Mhm, I will "spiff" up the articles and affiliate links once I get some time, hopefully this week.

[christianwins]

Just read through all this, a lot of great suggestions here. Tom and myself have been working on our main sites together and trying all kinds of ideas to find what his readers want, and have so far had little success with MXHideout. We'll go back to the optin in the sidebar and try that with a different headline. The 2nd big area that I believe will help is like mentioned by many people here, is the big call-to-actions in the posts.

5 biggest things from all our efforts and suggestions right now:
Optin in sidebar
Bigger calls to action
Doing articles with buying intent
More link building
Something not yet mentioned, using good affiliates (a couple of his affiliates have received hundreds - thousand(s) of clicks since the site started without a resulting sale. So we'll make sure to use the ones that convert.

[tomstark]

Ok, I can do that. Should the video be of me?