Life in the Blue

I decided to bite on the ABC’s of SEO sponsored by Enviseo for another post.

By now I am sure that someone like ALGS Nate has explained to you why milk is located in the far back corner of a grocery store. The reason for this is simple. The supermarket is trying to get as much money from each shopper as possible. They don’t want you to simply buy the milk you originally walked in there to get, they also want you to buy a few other ‘impulse’ items while you are there.

To get milk you have to walk thru all the other drinks, bread, and of course all kinds of tofu organic food that has the flavor of a piece of paper. There’s just nothing like an organic ham flown in with rice pellets on an organic airplane from China to brighten anyone’s case of the Monday’s.

The point is the store has already spent all kinds of advertising and fixed costs to get the person into the store. Now, what if they buy two items instead of just one? That’s pure profit and that’s how ALGS Nate and his excel files makes money honey. Since SEO Nate has $10,000 to throw away on TV with Rob Lowe, he will happily drop $20 for some freeze dried carrots wrapped in organic bread to go with the milk he bought for his local donkey.

While it is true that driving visitors on an easily navigated path thru your site is the best way to convert them, this doesn’t mean you have to throw out all sorts of other money making opportunities. Maybe you could recommend a similar item or gift certificate. If all else fails throw adsense in your site, as long as you can do so without making your site look spammy or hurt its rankings.

Monetizing visitors is difficult and there are always barriers like sending people to other crappy websites that are not optimized, tracking issues or having to actually converse with someone outside of your cubicle, but the extra profit you can gain makes it worth a try. M is for monetize, and that’s good enough for me.

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