It’s really important to make sure that you optimize your niche brand on a systematic level. Optimization takes place on two fronts: content / traffic and monetization. You have to take care of both. I use the following technique. I would divide whatever it is I’m trying to optimize into elements. Taking one element, I would start with the original version and make variations of that element.
I would then test it using traffic and see if this variation gets better results than the original. I would take the winner and then make variations of that. I will keep picking variations that get better results than the preceding version until I find a variation that doesn’t give me any further improvements. I then switch over to the next element and repeat the same process.
Optimizing Ads
The technique that I mentioned above works best with ads. It doesn’t matter whether you’re dealing with text ads or graphical ads, you can still use an elemental approach. With graphical ads, the elements are the pictures that you use, the colors, the text and the layout. Experiment with these, change them up, test them and pick the best combination in terms of conversions.
With text ads, you have fewer things to work with. You have the title and then the description and maybe a small graphic. Use the systematic elemental optimization approach that I mentioned above, so you can identify the winner.
Optimizing Your Traffic Based On Source
Track where you traffic is coming from and how it flows through your website. Generally, Google Analytics does a good job of this. There are also other products out on the market that you can use like StatCounter, which is free. As long as you can identify the traffic source and its general behavior on your site, you will have the information you need to optimize your source.
They key here is to find traffic sources that produce the most conversions. This is your job. Where are your conversions coming from? This is a very different question from asking where is my traffic coming from? We’re talking about conversions here. Once you are able to track these down, your job then becomes scaling up that traffic.
Forget all other traffic sources and focus on the ones that send converting traffic. You can use a little bit of the elemental approach above. But when it comes to the content that you’ll be sharing on those websites, use the element by element optimization that I taught you to quickly identify promotional content that gets the best results.
Optimize Your Monetization Among Different Types Of Ads
Run different types of ads on your website. I’m talking about text links, email submission forms, graphical banners, graphical ads that are made up only of text and native ads. Test all of these through your website and pick out the type of ad that gets the most conversions. Again, I’m not talking about getting the most clicks. I’m talking about sales or email submissions here.
These are actions that put money in your pocket. Pick the type of ads that produce the most conversions. Maybe these are text links. Maybe these are graphical banners. It really all depends on your website. But at the end of the day, you need to pick three of them. These are the top three money making ad types.
Optimize Your Monetization Among Ad Sponsors Or Products
Now that you had identified the type of ads that produce the most conversions, promote different sponsors using these types of ads. The key here is to identify the top three sponsors or monetization methods that convert the best.
By optimizing your website on a systematic basis, you pretty much guarantee your paycheck.