Origins: Ken McCarthy’s System Intensive
For anyone who doesn’t know about Ken McCarthy, he’s the original Internet marketing guru. Ken has been teaching people how to do business and make money online since 1994, and as well as been incredibly knowledgeable he’s also the nicest guy you could ever hope to spend 2 days in a room with.
I was fortunate to present on "Web Design 2.0" at Ken’s System Intensive in 2008, but was not able to stay for both days. Lizzie and I both attended this year’s System Intensive, and it was mind-blowing! I don’t know if Ken will be running it in the UK next year, but if you get the chance to attend one of his System Seminars in the US – do it!
Just some of this year’s highlights:
- Surprise return visit by Drayton Bird – one of the finest copywriters on the planet, and a fascinating speaker.
- Meeting SEO genius Mark Attwood.
- On the Affiliate marketing front, presentations by Ben Moskel and Greg Davis really opened a world of possibility for many of us.
- See more on the Twitter feed…
Why You Need to Know CRO
But the major topic for the weekend had to be Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) – which is really the hottest thing in online marketing and web design right now. CRO is something you need to know about, so read on…
Basically, once your site is optimised for traffic (SEO), the next key phase is to optimise your conversion rate, to get as many visitors as possible fulfilling the action you want them to do on the site.
This is extremely timely, as I’m about to start serious work on a brand new book, scheduled for publication in 2010 with a major global publisher (who I can’t name yet).
Secret New Book Project!
When you read "Save the Pixel" (my best-selling ebook, subtitled "The Art of Simple Web Design") I’m sure you’ll see lots of ways to benefit from the art of simple web design in your own business. I believe strongly that simplifying your design will help people focus on your message and find what they want on your web site.
Now, if you’ve already read "Save the Pixel", you’ll have in mind several areas where you could improve your design or content. But if you only have a limited budget, what should you fix first? Do you change your headings, simplify the background graphics, or switch photos? How do you choose?
That’s exactly what my next book will tell you!
I’d like to tell you a little more about the project, and to give you an exclusive invitation to be part of the book.
I left the 2008 System Intensive in London with a mission – to prove that simple web design techniques produce more effective sites. Over the past 12 months, I’ve run numerous tests on our own sites, and many clients’ sites. There have been some fascinating results, but I’d like to take it further, and I’d like to involve you!
The goal of my new book (for publication next year with a major global publisher) is to **prove** which fixes for common web design & content issues will deliver the greatest impact.
Here are a few things I’ve learnt from some of the early tests, on text style:
- Increasing text contrast from grey to black increased time spent on page by 13%.
- Adding sufficient space between paragraphs can make an article 10% more readable.
- Larger heading size improved readability by 6%.
But this is just the start! I’m going to be testing a list of 50 content and design issues, each one running in several experiments, and on multiple web sites.
I’m convinced that by combining the effect of a few simple fixes, I can improve the conversion rates of most pages by at least 50% – and in some cases by a staggering 300% – or more!
What would doubling your site’s conversion rate be worth to you?
Whatever conversion means to you: Sales, Customer enquiries, Brochure orders… doubling it will deliver significant value to any site.
Even if you don’t know your conversion rate today, you probably know what your site is worth to you in a year. If you double your conversions, you can double that number.
I know the exact $ value of every visitor to all our web sites. If you don’t know yours, I recommend you find out. You may be surprised!
Did you know that, assuming your site has basic search optimisation, improving your conversion rate is almost certainly a far more valuable strategy than driving more traffic?
After all, why pour water into a leaky bucket?
Your site’s profit is a product of Traffic x Conversion
It’s difficult and costly to double the amount of traffic coming to your site. Doubling the converion rate of many sites is quite achievable – and delivers the same results!
In fact, it’s even better, because optimising your conversion rate delivers quick results that last! While buying pay-per-click ads can drive more traffic to your site, when you stop spending the clicks stop coming. And SEO needs to be done regularly to keep your site and links up to date.
Double your conversion rate today, and you’ll get the benefits tomorrow and every day, bringing in double the £££ with no further effort.
Can I double your conversion rate?
I’m looking a few web sites that could really benefit from increased conversion rate. Could your site be one of those?
What I will do is implement a series of multivariate tests on your home page (and possibly other pages) to test a range of design or content changes, with the goal of doubling conversion rate.
The benefits to you are:
- You end up with a site that performs significantly better, guaranteed!
- And your site features in my major new book, web site, and seminars, driving more traffic to your site.
How it works
I’ll run a series of experiments on your site for up to 6 months, over which time you’ll see a marked increase in conversions.
Did you figure out what a 100% improvement would be worth over a year?
If it’s more than £995 ($1585), you need to contact me straightaway, because that’s the fee for having me personally work on doubling your success. Just £995 – less than the cost of a typical home page redesign (which, incidentally, does not guarantee any improvement at all!).
Full information
Take advantage of this £995 optimisation offer now
I’m stricly limiting the number of sites that can be part of this book project, so if the possibility of doubling your revenue is an exciting prospect, please act now and contact me straightaway.
To be part of this project, improving your revenues and being part of a major design book that will be read by thousands, just email me at: optimise@scratchmedia.co.uk
Please don’t delay, as this offer is strictly limited!
Email me back today on optimise@scratchmedia.co.uk, and we’ll get to work on making your site work better!
I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Best,
Ben
