WordCamp Grand Rapids 2013

"Making A Living Through A WordPress-Based Business"

Thanks for attending my presentation on Making A Living Through a WordPress-Based Business! Below are the slides as well as an outline which includes links to the resources mentioned in the presentation.

Making A Living Through A WordPress-Based Business from interactually

Outline

Part I

  • Three primary types of websites
    • Lead Generation
      • These sites can be for anything from a simple website for a local restaurant, to a multinational wind turbine company
      • A conversion may be a contact form, a download, a phone call or even an in-person visit
    • e-Commerce
    • Media – News/Blog/Entertainment
      • Monetization methods
        • Affiliate Marketing
          • How it works – You choose someone else’s product you would like to promote from an affiliate marketplace and simply generate a unique affiliate link. When people click on that link and ultimately end up purchasing the product, you get credit for sending them and receive a percentage of the sale, which can be anywhere from 20%-75%. You don’t have to spend time developing your own product and the product owner makes sales they probably wouldn’t have made without you.
          • ClickBank
          • Commission Junction
          • Amazon Associates
          • LinkShare
        • Ad Publisher
          • How it works – You sell ad space on your site directly to companies. You can sell based on CPM (cost per thousand), a flat-rate fee; however you want. You tell them which ad spaces you have available, agree on terms, load their ads to the ad server which generates a code, add that code to your site where you want their ads to display.
          • AdSpeed
          • AdJuggler
          • OpenX
          • ADTECH
        • Ad Network
          • How it works – Sign up, create ad units and adjust your settings, add the code they generate where you want ads to display based on the ad units you set up. Your site could display any ad from within their network.
          • AdSense
          • ValueClick
          • Casale Media
          • Burst Media
          • Adtegrity
        • Sell your own product
          • eBook
          • Theme
          • Plugin
          • Course
          • Membership
          • Physical item

Part II

  • How do I drive more sales and conversions?
    • A website is like a supermarket
    • Not JUST conversion rate optimization (CRO)
      • You can increase your conversion rate and make less money. Conversely, you can have a decrease in conversion rate and make much more money
  • Metrics that matter:
    • Conversion rate
      • How often are they clicking “Add to Cart,” “Contact,” calling or coming to your shop in person?
      • Prominent call-to-action – NEVER leave a user wondering what they should do next, because if you do they’ll do one thing – Hit the ‘Back’ button
      • Simple site structure & navigation
      • Short, easy forms – only collect the necessary information
      • Compelling (yet, carefully chosen) copy
      • Test, measure & refine
    • Total transactions
      • Are they coming back?
      • Coupon codes
      • Email lists
      • Leverage the Thank You page
    • Average order value
      • Are they adding more to their cart?
      • “Customers who viewed this also viewed” – Who does that best?
      • Cross selling
      • Up selling
      • Volume pricing
      • Free shipping
  • Google Analytics – How to install
    • Sign up for Google Analytics
    • Go to Admin to get the code (Note: If your site is ecommerce-based, be sure to check that it is an ecommerce site)
    • Add the code to your site
      • Many plugins have fields to add your Analytics code, such as WordPress SEO by Yoast
      • You can also just put it into header.php through the Editor
    • Set up goals
      • “Thank you” and confirmation pages, certain click events, page visits, visit duration, etc.
  • Additional Resources