3 truths about content-commerce every publisher needs to know@@

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Content marketing has become quite the buzzword throughout the Internet marketing industry, but despite the rapidly growing hype that surrounds it, it isn’t a new concept. In fact, pretty much any online experience revolves around some type of content, whether it’s checking your Facebook feed, watching YouTube videos, reading a blog post, or making a purchase. People are constantly coming in contact with various types content online and that’s why there’s been so much emphasis placed on creating, sharing, and marketing content well. Content enables publishers to answers questions, attract visitors, build trust, and more, and that’s why it’s essential that publishers develop great content marketing strategies

To help you do that, we’re going to take a look at VigLink’s latest “Content-Commerce Report” and share three facts that we think all publishers should know about content marketing. VigLink is a link optimization and site monetization tool for publishers and has a network of over 35,000 merchants, 300,000 active sites, and 10 billion monthly page views. Their recent Content-Commerce Report offers an in-depth look at the state of content-driven commerce as it was observed through their network in Q4’13.

1. Deal Sites & Forums Produce More Sales A lot of bloggers try to at least generate some sort of income if not make a living off of their sites, but according to this report, blogs and editorial sites drove the least amount of sales for VigLink publishers. If you want to generate more online ad revenue you may want to consider creating a forum page on your blog, or developing a deal site or an exclusive forum. Based on their findings, VigLink reports that coupon and deal sites had an average earning per click (EPC) of well over 300, with forums generating an EPC of 150, and blogs generating a measly EPC of 75. So if you’re a blogger or editorial site owner, it may wise to create a forum section for your audience.

2. Your Niche Determines Your Earnings
Not all verticals are created equal and the niche that your site is in will determine how much money you actually make. “The higher the margin a retailer has, the more they can afford to pay in commissions,” the report explains. And after taking a look at the statistics, its clear that there is quite a discrepancy between the EPCs of various niches. According to the report, “Housewares/House Furnishing” sites took home the highest EPC, hovering around 300, while publishers in the “Books/Music/Video” niche found themselves at the bottom of the totem pole with an EPC index of less than 50.

The takeaway here—try to figure out which niches have the highest margins and find a way to incorporate those types of products into your site. For example, if you write about books, try linking to a company that sells bookshelves for your readers who are collectors and need a place to store their old books. This will provide you with a great way to bring in some fresh new content and generate more money all at the same time.

3. Mobile Isn’t For Everybody, At Least Not Right Now We’ve heard it over and over again how everything is going mobile and if you want to be successful as a publisher, you have to start adopting these new technologies and new practices instantly. Well according to this report, that isn’t all true. Based on the statistics shown in the report, it looks like publishers who are in the fashion/retail space are doing well on mobile, but few others are enjoying the same success. For example, wayfair.com, shopbop.com, Nordstrom.com, and zappos.com are in the top ten for mobile EPCs. However, there is also a noticeable drop from the top mobile EPC (wayfair.com, 3,000) to the second best EPC (shopbop.com, roughly 1,800) which suggests that mobile is still an extremely challenging channel to harness. Plus, VigLink’s findings suggest that for every dollar earned from desktops and laptops, a click on mobile was worth only 53 cents. So if you’re feeling the pressure to adopt mobile right away, you can rest a bit easier knowing that it isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be; not yet, anyhow.

Author By:Andre Bourque @TECHNORATI MEDIA

The Case Of Simplifying Website Navigation@@

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In world of online shopping, a website should be thought of as part of your product or service. Derek Halpern of Social Triggers recently asked 15 participants to give feedback on a website which was purposely ill designed to study the effect that website design has on buying influence. 94% of the feedback focused on the design and layout; 6% was focused on the business. The most common complaints were things like complex layout and lack of navigation aids, and caused customers to trust the site less. Below are some common layout mistakes, and how to fix them.

                                                                                                                                                                        ThE Click Rule

Website navigation doesn’t need to be complicated; in fact, simpler navigation is often more effective. The Golden Rule of website navigation is the 3-Click Rule: all pages on your site should be accessible by three clicks or less. Customers aren’t the only ones who don’t have the patience to go past three pages; neither do search engine crawlers. Any content or information past three pages won’t be seen and might as well not exist.                                  Used Tags To Categorized                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

Organizing an index of products or services can be tricky; the content of a site is expected to be unique, but the navigation of a site is supposed to be as predictable as possible. Poor structure is likely to turn off users who are unable to find what they are looking for. The least complicated way to structure pages would be an A to Z index of all pages. Of course, this makes a couple of fatal assumptions: it implies that the user knows exactly what they’re searching for, and that they know the exact name under which to find it. Because these conditions are very rarely true, the best option to organize content neatly in the navigation bar is to start off with broad terms that gradually become more specific. Assigning pages to each category requires tags. In website navigation, there are three types: crucial, optional, and irrelevant. Crucial categories are categories that are important to all users, and have very little—if any—overlap. Examples of crucial tags for a clothing site would be “Men’s”, “Women’s”, and “Kids’”. Using only crucial tags, it should be possible for a user to find relevant information. Optional tags further refine the search results, but are not necessary for all users. Sticking with the clothing store example, an optional tag would be the brand. Only after a user has chosen gender (“Men’s”) and type of clothing (“Pants”) would they be presented with the option of selecting a brand. It is entirely possible that a user cannot select an optional tag, and simply browse all Men’s pants, but the option to further refine the search is available. Irrelevant categories, in short, are irrelevant to the users and are used for organizational purposes on the back-end of the site. These sorts of tags include word count and date added                             Go Home                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

On every page of the site, there should be the option to immediately return to the home page, whether it be a link that states “Click here to return to the home page” or by clicking the logo at the top of the screen. This gives users the option to restart their search and explore the site further.                                                                                                                 Create A Site Map                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Sitemaps serve multiple functions. They give users a complete overview of your site as well as assist search engine crawlers in navigating your site. In fact, failing to incorporate a sitemap can pose a serious threat to your search engine rankings. Best of all, a sitemap is painfully simple to make. Sites like www.xml-sitemaps.com/ will create a sitemap for you, then all you have to do is add it to the “public_html/” folder of your site.                                                                                  Conclusion                                                                   

What’s been detailed here is only the tip of a very complicated iceberg, but taking the time to properly categorize your site will make it easier for customers to find the information or products they are looking for. Customers can be surprisingly fickle when it comes to online experiences, and a poorly structured site could be costing you countless customers and killing your search engine rankings.