LESSON LEARNED: Less is more
A couple of months ago, I read a massive article on ViperChill on the future of blogging. One thing he talked about was how the way articles were being written was going from being short, 'getting you thinking' kind of articles to full blown 'this is the last piece of information you'll ever need to read on a topic' size articles.
I decided to try it out and see what kind of an impact it would have on social shares, organic traffic, direct traffic, time on site, sales, bounce rate, etc...
My normal posts are between 700 and 1000 words resulting in an average of 4 mintues on site 4.5 pages per visit, a bounce rate of 7%, a 1% email subscription, and a 10% conversion rate from optin from sale.
I wrote a series of 4 posts over 2 weeks that were between 3000 and 6000 words. Instead of the usual articles that just reframed the problem and presented a new way of thinking about the solution. They were long, indepth articles that not only covered what was normally included in the shorted articles but also covered the full, step by step solution that guys can normally only find in the ebook that's for sale.
The difference was pretty amazing.
Social shares stayed the same, average time on site dropped to 3:20, pages per visit dropped to 3.6, front end conversions stayed around 1% but sales dropped to 2.5% of optin. That's a 75% decrease in sales for all those who're shit at maths.
After trialing this for two weeks, I saw just how pointless it was and took action. I removed the long posts from the blog and posted a series of 5 short, punchy articles.
I made 4 sales in the last 18 hours (I normally make 1 per day), and things look like they're back on track.
The big take away I got from this is that if you give people everything they want, they don't have any need to either return to your site or buy your products. But, if you just give them enough to show them that you have the answers they need but don't tell them what that answer is, then they're MUCH more likely to take the next step you want them to.
A couple of months ago, I read a massive article on ViperChill on the future of blogging. One thing he talked about was how the way articles were being written was going from being short, 'getting you thinking' kind of articles to full blown 'this is the last piece of information you'll ever need to read on a topic' size articles.
I decided to try it out and see what kind of an impact it would have on social shares, organic traffic, direct traffic, time on site, sales, bounce rate, etc...
My normal posts are between 700 and 1000 words resulting in an average of 4 mintues on site 4.5 pages per visit, a bounce rate of 7%, a 1% email subscription, and a 10% conversion rate from optin from sale.
I wrote a series of 4 posts over 2 weeks that were between 3000 and 6000 words. Instead of the usual articles that just reframed the problem and presented a new way of thinking about the solution. They were long, indepth articles that not only covered what was normally included in the shorted articles but also covered the full, step by step solution that guys can normally only find in the ebook that's for sale.
The difference was pretty amazing.
Social shares stayed the same, average time on site dropped to 3:20, pages per visit dropped to 3.6, front end conversions stayed around 1% but sales dropped to 2.5% of optin. That's a 75% decrease in sales for all those who're shit at maths.
After trialing this for two weeks, I saw just how pointless it was and took action. I removed the long posts from the blog and posted a series of 5 short, punchy articles.
I made 4 sales in the last 18 hours (I normally make 1 per day), and things look like they're back on track.
The big take away I got from this is that if you give people everything they want, they don't have any need to either return to your site or buy your products. But, if you just give them enough to show them that you have the answers they need but don't tell them what that answer is, then they're MUCH more likely to take the next step you want them to.
