Joshua Black writes:

Thank you again for giving us authors more tools in our on-line marketing arsenal. Your competitors don’t hold a candle to this service.

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Leanne Hoagland-Smith writes:

IF you cannot measure it, you cannot manage it. Great statistic and now I no longer have to do it myself. Thanks

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Christopher M. Knight writes:

Our viewpoint:

The more successful we help you become, the more you’ll continue to write & submit your best quality original articles. We both win.

December 7, 2009 at 10:06 AM

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Zack Lim writes:

Hi Chris,

I have realized since last week that this new component is implemented inside the stats portion.

This is definitely a good addition as I can now effectively know which kind of resource box is working.

Thank you for the continuous improvement :)

Zack

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Lee Simonson writes:

I’ve been hoping for a while that you would include this new CTR feature. And presto — there it is! A wonderful tool to gauge the marketing efficiency of the articles. It’s tremendously helpful. Thank you!

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Cheryl Hughes writes:

This is a fantastic new feature for all of us authors! Will be interesting to see the impact of different resource box styles to make sure they are effective. Thanks for adding this tool.

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Splitter Mike writes:

I know what anchor text link is but can you explain what a self serving link is? Also has the rule changed about a link in you bottom half of the article. Thanks in advance!

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Penny, Managing Editor writes:

Splitter Mike,

A self serving link is a link that you own or have a vested interest in.

You can include one self serving link in your article body so long as it is near the end.

December 7, 2009 at 10:47 AM

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Joanna Vaiou writes:

Thank you for your valuable add on your article directory site.

This tool Click through Rate is a definite great guide for our article’s performance and ultimately for our becoming better and better each time.

Top keywords reports are very useful as well.

Thank you!

Best Regards,
Joanna Vaiou

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Christina Sponias writes:

Thank you for the explanation, Chris!

However I was expecting to see an explanation about how the click rate is calculated. I mean, I know it reflects the percentage of clicks depending on the article’s views, but it doesn’t seem to be so simple.

For example, here are the CR of three of my articles:

Free Treatment For Life – You Only Have to Learn the Dream Language
74 views
16 clicks
21.62%

Eliminate Your Depression in Only 6 Months by Interpreting Your Own Dreams
73 views
18 clicks
24.66%

Neurosis Cure Through Dream Interpretation According to the Scientific Method
72 views
10 clicks
13.89%

Could you explain me how exactly the CR is calculated in these examples? There are minimum differences between them. Is the CR based only on a mathematical calculation?

I guess it doesn’t consider other factors like the competition, the keywords used, etc…

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Christopher M. Knight writes:

CTR = CLICKS / ARTICLE VIEWS.

No other factor matters.

16/74=21.62%
18/73=24.66%
10/72=13.89%

If anything, I’m going to ask our developers to remove the 2nd decimal place as one decimal is enough for this stat.

December 7, 2009 at 12:00 PM

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Mujiba Salaam Parker writes:

Your CTRs are great! Keep up the good work.

December 7, 2009 at 5:00 PM

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Sandra Dawson, MA writes:

Thank you very much for a very helpful article to improve my click through rates. I will let you know if any changes I make, improve my rates.
With much appreciation,
Sandra Dawson

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Jeff Herring writes:

Hi Chris and Team!

Nice addition to the stats – much appreciated!

And I’ll add two things to your list of tips:

1) This sounds so obvious but I see folks mess this up – make sure that whatever your links lead to are RELATED to your article – don’t write about gardening and then send me to your MLM offer…

2) If you really want to ramp things up, make sure whatever you send them to is a SAMPLE of one of your products so your prospect can get a “taste” of more of what you have to offer..

Thanks

Jeff

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Marc, Product Marketing Manager writes:

Jeff,

Thanks for the additional tips! You’re exactly right.

December 7, 2009 at 1:59 PM

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Jeff Herring writes:

Marc – Happy to help – you guys keep up the good work!

December 7, 2009 at 2:34 PM

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Mike writes:

Just an honest observation…This email/post was a refreshing change…so much so that I had to double check to see if you actually wrote it. I don’t mean that at as a criticism…but it’s a nice change from what recent “what not to do” posts/policy directives to actual suggestions on how to more powerfully leverage our articles. Bravo!

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G. Spencer writes:

My ctr is miserable. Only 1.5%. Any tips on how to fix whatever I’m doing wrong?

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Marc, Product Marketing Manager writes:

G.,

The best thing you can do is consistently follow the tips in this Blog post. Also, Jeff Herring offers a few good suggestions in his comment #10.

December 7, 2009 at 2:01 PM

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Kevin writes:

I love win-win situations. I know that this is one of them! Thanks!

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Christina Sponias writes:

It’s very simple, but sometimes it is quite funny. A very successful article always has low CTR. For example:

12,371 views
154 clicks
1.2%

Quite disappointing… the CTR is too low, for so many views…

But the article is very short and simple, and it got the attention of too many readers. In this case I think that the CTR is not so important…

And here is my very best one’s CTR:

56,404 views
1,658 clicks
2.9%

I spent the entire afternoon writing it… But I did it for a very good reason…

The CTR is encouraging only when we have very few views and many clicks. One of my best examples:

46 views
13 clicks
28.3%

This is a very simple article, recently written, and it has a very good CTR up to now. Let’s see what will happen with it in the future…

But I guess we need the opinion of an expert.

Where is my friend Lance? Now that I decided to come back here, I need help in order to continue the discussion…

It would be good if we could take more conclusions about this tool.

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Laya Bajpai writes:

Hi,
I do not know how to use links at all.I never use my resource box nor do I use anchor text. How can I best use my account? Can somebody help?

Thanks!
Laya

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Marc, Product Marketing Manager writes:

Laya,

The best advice I can give you is to use the training located here: http://ezinearticles.com/training/ and then search the Blog for information on topics that still may be unclear.

December 7, 2009 at 2:06 PM

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Ogidi Patrick writes:

That’s a good one by EzineArticles team.

Now, we don’t only write article but we are able to track the CTR and know if an article is doing well.

I think this is a welcome development!

Ogidi Patrick

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Leanne Hoagland-Smith writes:

Christina’s points only reinforce:

1. You must do additional work on your end as to how many sign ups (conversions) these articles are delivering to you.
2. Know the purpose of the article
3. Write for your target market
4. Watch what categories get more CTR
5. Invest time to monitor your results

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David Singhiser writes:

I am more and more impressed with EzineArticles.com. Thanks for all the great hints, posts, strategies you offer. And certainly more traffic to my websites from it.

Thanks again.

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Jay Jennings writes:

Great addition to the tools. Makes it much easier to see which resource boxes are working the best.

Can you clarify something for me?

Your guidelines say duplicate URLs in the resource box are not allowed, but in your suggestions posted here you say to use one link plain, and one with link text. That implies both links lead to the same place.

That makes sense to me, but your guidelines say otherwise — which means my Article Architect software flags duplicate URLs as a problem.

Is it a problem? Which is correct, the guidelines or your suggestion here?

Thanks!

Jay Jennings

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Penny, Managing Editor writes:

Jay,

Our guideline is in place to prevent authors from doing this:

http://your-company-name.com
http://your-company-name.com

… which looks weird. Chris’ recommendation is right and is a good one. You can use your URL twice, once in anchor text and once with a full URL.

December 7, 2009 at 2:07 PM

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Christopher M. Knight writes:

Jay,

The guidelines do state 2.f.xi. that we don’t allow duplicate URL’s, but we will allow duplicate URL’s if one is the anchored text link and one is a full http:// URL.

There are many many many times when the rules are only a preview to all of the rules or interpretation of the rules. At some point, we just can’t or won’t include all of the nuances of the guidelines because it’ll end up being 25+ pages long.

December 7, 2009 at 2:18 PM

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Pierre William Trudel writes:

Chris, great tool. Have been doing it manually for a long time.
This is the only stat that really gauges your ability to write great content. The more people read of your article, the more click through to my site.
Thanks!
Pierre William Trudel

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Jonathan (Yonatan) Dunsky writes:

Another great tool for us authors.

Thanks for this, Chris. It really shows you’re there for us.

Also, thanks for the webinar last Friday. I had a great time talking with you and Penny.

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William Kayser writes:

Many thanks for your continuing support and adding more to make things so much better for us all

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Anne Lyken-Garner writes:

This is a great addition. It’s really helpful. I do have one question though. In the article above I found this statement: “Putting the full URL somewhere in your article or resource box means that your readers will be able to find your website no matter what.”
I just tried to edit one of my articles to put my full url into it. I got a message saying that this was forbidden.
Did I misunderstand the message?

Thank you for all your help.
Anne

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Penny, Managing Editor writes:

Anne,

Perhaps the link in your article was on the RBL (http://blog.EzineArticles.com/2009/12/rbl-implemented.html) which prevented it from passing? Without knowing the specifics or the link, I can only assume that this is what happened.

Look for my private email to you.

December 8, 2009 at 1:50 PM

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Peter McLarty writes:

Thanks Chris
This is a great help, I can now tell that the articles have shown to have some real value. It will be interesting for authors to see what articles are more successful, I guess this will in time prove to be a tool that allows people to understand how to write better articles.

Great addition

Peter

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Mujiba Salaam Parker writes:

Chris,

Thank you very much for this tool. You guys provide such a wonderful service for authors.

Mujiba

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Magic Mike writes:

My highest single article CTR is 57.4% and my overall CTR is over 12%. I’m in the process of updating my older lower CTR articles with the strategy of my best performer.

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Jacqueline Green writes:

I appreciate this new service a lot! I can even more clearly which articles are complete stars, and which could use some work.

One question, what is an anchored text link? So far I’ve only used the full url for my website. Is there a way to put click here, and have here clickable?

Thanks a lot!

[Reply]

Marc, Product Marketing Manager writes:

Jacqueline,

Here’s an article by Chris Knight showing how to create an anchored text link: http://ezinearticles.com/?Essential-HTML-Skills-For-Article-Authors—7-Tips&id=7185

Notice that’s a full URL? I could also have done this: [Click Here] and used an anchored text link instead.

December 8, 2009 at 9:34 AM

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Shirley Bass writes:

Thank you for another great way to evaluate our articles. Marvelous!

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Baby Food Grinder writes:

Another useful post. This one has prompted me to review my resource box. Plus I’m now subscribed to the RSS of this blog. Wouldn’t want to miss any good advice!

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Geoff writes:

They do say knowledge is power, so the more information we have at our fingertips the more focussed we can become.

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sunyongtao writes:

I know it little, do not know what it is in the end can play a role in article

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Francisco Eudes Rocha writes:

Very good this new service ! I can more clearly which articles are complete stars, and which could use some work.

My question is, what is an anchored text link?

Thanks a lot!

[Reply]

Marc, Product Marketing Manager writes:

Francisco,

Here’s an article by Chris Knight explaining and showing how to create an anchored text link: http://ezinearticles.com/?Essential-HTML-Skills-For-Article-Authors—7-Tips&id=7185

December 9, 2009 at 7:55 AM

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Jacqueline Green writes:

Thanks so much Marc!

To paraphrase and make sure I understand, I should both put my full url (http://www.GreatParentingPractices.com/) and an anchored text link, in this case GreatParenting.

I was only putting my full url before, and so this is a great tip. I suspect this will be useful in a number of areas for my online work.

You guys are awesome. Thanks again for the help!

December 9, 2009 at 10:08 AM

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Marc, Product Marketing Manager writes:

Jacqueline,

You had the right idea, but the formatting wasn’t quite right – which will cause the links to not work properly. I updated your comment above to reflect the proper format of both links.

For full URLs, just copy/paste the URL from the field at the top of your browser. You need all of that information.

To view the format for your anchor text link, select the text of the GreatParenting link above, right click on it and then select “View Selection Source” from the menu. This will show you how to properly format the link.

You may want to investigate HTML techniques a little more in depth. There are a lot of articles available!

December 9, 2009 at 10:29 AM

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Ajang writes:

I just have a website, so no one knows my website, even great content is not yet able to be many people’s attention. let alone to increase the traffic to get dozens of visitors are also not able, for that I remain faithful to read the newsletter from EzineArticles.com
Thank you for the article that was always sent to me
Thanks

[Reply]

Leanne Hoagland-Smith writes:

When I first started submitting articles to this site I downloaded instructions from EzinesArticles.com specific to HTML and that included how to write the proper coding. From that very helpful document, I expanded my knowledge about HTML. I am truly grateful for that document and recognizing that you can teach an old dog new tricks.

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Steve Benedict writes:

I’ve published several of my articles and found this to be a real nice community. At first, I didn’t know ettiquete very well, and erred on the side of caution. Now I understand that it’s okay to toot your horn a little. Thanks for the article on stats. I wasn’t aware it was available.

Steve Benedict

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Richa Chugh writes:

Hi,

What is Important for increasing CTR. Article Title, Article Body or Article Resource content.

Thanks

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Penny, Managing Editor writes:

Richa,

It is all important :)

You can increase this by offering specifics in your title, delivering on the specifics in your article body, and following through with a site that relates and offers additional value.

Be sure to follow the tips on the resource box and links that Chris has provided as this will also help you.

December 14, 2009 at 10:34 AM

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Christina Sponias writes:

Everything is important, Richa.

However, first of all your title has to be very good, otherwise nobody will read your article. Your title has to have the right keywords in order to be found by the search engines, and by your readers, and it has to be very attractive.

Then you have to give good information, so your content must be special. (body)

And your resource box has to invite your readers to learn more at your site, giving them a gift: a free ebook for example, what means that they will be part of your email list too, and you’ll have the chance to send them more convincing articles in your email messages.

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Utibe writes:

Yes that is fantastic. Thank for the new feature added and i hope to make good use of link in my resource box.
I will start using both anchor text and link.
Thanks

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Jean writes:

EzineArticles keeps getting better and better. Thanks!

PS Thanks for the FAST review of my most recent submission!

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Ronald English writes:

Thank you for the excellent overview on CTR. Thanks for all the helps you provide to make our writing for EzineArticles more effective and appealing.

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Donna Patterson writes:

Give me an example of what you mean by using two self-serving links?

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Christopher M. Knight writes:

Donna,

You can use up to two self serving links in your article, preferably in the RESOURCE BOX.

Example: A link to your website or any website that you own an interest in is considered a self-serving link.

You might use your 2 self-serving links to link to your website and a deep link within your website..such as a relevant category deep URL within your website.

June 16, 2010 at 8:14 AM

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Leanne Hoagland-Smith writes:

From a writer’s perspective, self serving are those links that point directly back to your site. For example, I might say something coaching executive coaching with a hypertext link to a page on my website. Then I might have another link in the resource box to sign up for a free sales skills checklist. Self serving links are those that directly benefit you.

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Joe W. Bennett writes:

Hi Chris,

I’m a newcomer to EzineArticles and unclear about restrictions on the placement of self-serving links. It was my understanding that self-serving links could only be placed in my Resource Box, yet you state that you may place “the full URL somewhere in your article or resource box.” Also, in your reply to Donna’s comment, you say we may use up to 2 SSLs preferably in the Resource Box. My question: is it ever appropriate or advantageous to place a self-serving link in the Article Body?

Allow me to add my thanks for this new feature; knowing and improving your CTR is an essential component of successful article marketing. Thanks!

Joe

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Lordy Traveler writes:

Great Job Chris. I used to calculate CTR metrics for my Ads, but now I have learn to do it for my EzineArticles.
That’s very helpful to bringing valuable information for readers.

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ffl license writes:

Great and informative article that actually cleared up two points for me that i had been doing wrong in my articles.

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Brian Bijdeveldt writes:

Another terrific resource for authors. I didn’t realize what was a decent CTR until reading this article. I had better get busy improving this metric!

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John Murphy writes:

These are all really great tips. The statistics are being provided, so it is crucial that you use them to see what is working for you and what you need to do to improve.

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ayuan from article marketing tools writes:

I saw a video about how to check the ctr before, but your suggestions on how to improve CTR are great.
I will follow your tips.

[Reply]