I see this mistake all the time.
I figured it was time to say something about it.
You could be totally killing your blog post conversion and not even know it.
What is Blog Post Conversion?
Conversion is when a website visitor does what we want. Blog post conversion is when there’s something specific we want readers to do upon reading the post. It’s a business blogging thing. It’s one of those things that makes business blogging different from pro blogging.
In pro blogging, you want people to leave your blog post as fast as possible by clicking on an ad. But in business blogging, what we want readers to do is something connected to our business and marketing goals. Instead of driving readers to an ad, we’re driving them to sign up for something or to a sale. Sometimes what you really want are comments.
Too Much at Once
A mistake I see all the time is a blog post that tries to do too many things at once:
- Push an affiliate or product link
- Try to get an email list sign-up
- Get comments
- Visit a squeeze page
- All of the above!
Choice Blurring
If there are too many options, no one particular option stands out as the obvious choice. All the choices form a blur in the mind of the reader and since nothing stands out, nothing is what they do. I don’t know if there’s any generally accepted term for this phenomenon so I just call it choice blurring.
Analysis Paralysis
The flipside of choice blurring is too many choices which overwhelm readers. In other words, all the choices are viable so can’t decide anything. Analysis Paralysis is the the common term to describe this.
Killing Me Softly
Unless your post has one single conversion objective, chances are higher that conversion act won’t happen as much as you’d like.
It’s easy to believe: Well, if they don’t want to click on the important link maybe they’ll want to click on one of these other links. After all, that’s better than nothing. Except your alternative isn’t nothing.
It’s one thing.
Unless you have one conversion objective for your post, you’re killing your blog post conversion
And This is Just One Mistake You’re Making. There are More…
At least 10 more, in fact. And you’d be totally surprised, I know, to discover that I’ve compiled these mistakes into a report you can have in exchange for joining my email list. It’s called 10 Tragic Blogging Mistakes that Cause Your Solo Business to Fail Before You Even Start.
To get your copy, simply sign up below. If you can’t see the form in your reader or email (like, Feedburner-delivered email) head on over to the blog and get your report.
Image attribution by viZZZual.com
Yeh, yeh, yeh, I've done all that and more!
I'm getting better, but sometimes I just plain forget.
And I think that's the key. Even experienced bloggers (and I'm nudging towards 5 years now) need reminders and need to reconnect from time to time, just as a professional golfer needs to go back to the basics of his swing at regular intervals.
As such I may just print this off and nail it to one of the dogs so I don't forget next time.
The difference between a professional and an amateur is that an amateur
thinks he knows something and moves on, while a professional never stops
trying to master the fundamentals. Glad you found this one useful, Tim!
The mistake you laid out here can be applied to any conversion fail. Especially when too many choices are given (too many being more than one!)
I cringe when I see email opt in boxes with a mini-questionnaire I'm expected to tackle just to sign up: Email address (needed), first name (maybe), last name (prolly not), email format (no, user can specify later), country (huh?), interests, hobbies, name of first born kitten….aaaaaaahhhhhhh!
Lately I've even seen drop down menus “Do you want blog updates only?” …”Do you want updates and the free ebook?” …”Do you want spam, ebook, updates and the newsletter?”
No…I just want to take my ball and go home now. Screw your opt in.
Wow, that was an unexpected mini-rant.
Thanks for the post!
Actually, that's MY ball, thank you very much! You raise a good point about
opt-in forms for sure, but I'm really talking about the focus of a single
blog post–what do you want the reader to do?
People sometimes (sadly, not every time) manage to know what their main
point is in a blog post in the first place. Also knowing what that post's
conversion goal is supposed to be happens with even less frequency. That
email opt-in form back at the top right of the page? Ripping on that's a
different blog post altogether (maybe a guest spot for you, if you want
it?).
LOL, apparently I've something to say on the matter. I shall accept that
guest spot and thank you very much!
good post, I try to promote an affiliate link once in a while but you cant make posts with thousands of links to everywhere, it simple wont work
Michael,
You're article makes a lot of sense to me. I'm a financial sales person and the one thing you don't want to do when speaking to a client is confuse them and offer too many choices. Take them by the hand and lead them to where you want them to go. If they don't bite – wait and address their concerns with how option #1 will work for them – then if they don't bite, then you can come back with option two.
Yes, Angela the sales analogy is a good one, here! Thanks so much for
offering that. Great comment.
And there I was, thinking that the point of the blog posts was just to help people get to know me and give them some interesting stuff to read – have I been missing a trick!! Thank God I'm on your programme
Cathy, that other stuff still happens. I'd say it happens even more
powerfully when you have a goal for the reader. Inspiring people to take
action is the highest achievement we can have.
This post makes me rethink again. The word “Too much at once” made me think.
Push an affiliate or product link
Try to get an email list sign-up
Get comments
Visit a squeeze page
All of the above!
I just committed all those mistakes.
Woopsie! On the bright side, this means you don't run out of ideas because
you break up all those conversion goals into separate posts and voila,
there's your week.
[...] your reader warning signs, point out mistakes, and explain why certain things will never happen if they don’t change their [...]