Self-Serving Near Top of Article?
Stephen writes, “I was wondering if there was a possibility of having our “self serving” links that go in the “author resource” box be moved to the beginning of the article instead of on the bottom? The reason I am asking is because most people don’t necessarily read through the whole article – they’re in a rush. But if the first few paragraphs capture their attention, they can see the links on top of the article and go there if so desired instead of scrolling down to the bottom (assuming that they are aware of the links down there). What do you think? I would think this could help with the click through rate and bring traffic up to our sites. For instance, in the one week since signing up with Ezine, I’ve had 1500 page views but only a handful have clicked through to my sites.”
First, the answer: Sorry, no. Second, congrats on getting 1500 PV’s in one week! That’s not typical. You must be doing something right. :-) Most authors experience a 1-3% CTR directly from us and then another wave of more traffic from their articles as they enter syndication…and this snowballs over time. Let me share a perspective as to why we don’t allow self-serving active links at the top of your article:
1) The purpose of your article is to share a sliver of yourself and by doing so, you begin the reciprocation cycle with the reader.
By asking for a link at the top of your article, it’s like asking to be paid before you’ve convinced the customer to buy what you have to sell.
2) This month alone we will conservatively deliver more than 100,000 visitors to our authors websites. Every day someone tells us that we are their top non-search engine referral partner. That’s what we like to hear and it is one of our goals (to be one of your top traffic referers).
3) Thanks for telling us this is important to you. We are built on member suggestions as many of our charter members will confirm.
One thing that I know for certain: If you want more qualified traffic from us, you’ll need to submit more than 10 articles. Recommend setting goals for 25-250 articles to start with and build your article inventory from there.
Lastly, I did review your 10 articles Stephen and you have 3 self serving links, 1 to a site you own and control and 2 to a blogger account. Are you able to view incoming traffic stats to your Blogger account? Just wanted to make sure you were evaluating how much traffic we are sending you properly by combining all of the referrals to all of the self-serving links.
Quote “One thing that I know for certain: If you want more qualified traffic from us, you’ll need to submit more than 10 articles. Recommend setting goals for 250-250 articles to start with and build your article inventory from there”
Wow, 250 articles sounds like a lot…I better get going here :)
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