How to Increase Blog Conversion Rates

About a year ago, I sat down with Pat Flynn, the creator of Smart Passive Income, and walked him through how he can improve the conversion rates of his blog.

(I showed him how to use the traffic he was already getting to get more leads and sales).

In the video I shared a ton of valuable advice, and it’s 100% applicable today too.

So, first, you should watch the conversion site video, then I’ll share some helpful tutorials on how you can implement the advice I shared in Thesis specifically.

Here’s Why You Should Watch This Video…

While I can’t guarantee you’ll have the same results as Pat, that would be irresponsible, here’s what he had to say about this video in a podcast:

The blog had about 22 or 23 thousand subscribers, maybe 10k email subscribers, and you know I thought I was doing things pretty well. The systems I had in place to collect emails and get new subscribers was working for me, at a rate of about 35 to 50 email subscribers a day.

Then we did this critique together, I shared it on the blog, gave it some time so people could watch it, see what I had and then later see what I did to improve – based on Derek’s recommendations, and man…

After I implemented those changes, I was getting about 60-90 subscribers a day, sometimes cracking 100, and THAT really was proof that – not only that Derek’s strategies work

Cool? Now watch the video .

Here’s How You Implement This Advice In Thesis

Now, of course you need Thesis. If you don’t have it, you can pick up your copy here. (Pat Flynn uses it, as do many other top bloggers).

But for those of you who have it, here’s what you need to know.

1. For higher conversion rates, you need to have opt-in forms (and ads) in the right places.
2. You need to create resource pages because they’re great at ranking in search engines, and for conversions.
3. You need to optimize your about page because it’s one of the most visited pages on your site.
4. You’ve got to sprinkle some opt-in pages throughout your web design because landing pages convert MUCH better than content pages.
5. You MUST eliminate clutter. More on that in the video.

Now how do you implement that advice in Thesis? We’ve got your back:

1. Email signup forms in Thesis

4 High-Converting Places to add email sign-up forms (and how to add them into Thesis)

(And if you want custom email signup forms, we’ve got them for AWeber, Mailchimp, and Getresponse)

2. Create Insanely Great Resource Pages

Here’s how you can create insanely great resource pages. And if you want to make them into landing pages, here’s a tutorial for that too.

3. Create Opt-in Pages with Thesis

You’ve got to sprinkle some opt-in pages through your design. We just linked the landing page tutorial above, and that works for opt-in pages too. As an example of an opt-in page, look at this page for Nonverbal Website Intelligence.

4. Eliminate Sidebar Clutter with Thesis

One of the biggest conversion killers on the web is clutter. And much of that clutter is found in sidebars. Here’s how you create high-converting blog sidebars.

5. Finally Start Using a Feature Box

Even though Pat Flynn doesn’t use a Feature box on his site, I whole-heartedly believe you should. Not only has it helped DIYthemes greatly, it’s one of the highest-converting forms on Social Triggers too.

What do you think?

How did you like that video?

What do you plan on implementing in your Thesis design?

Note: If you loved that conversion video, and you want more advice on improving your Thesis design, you can watch 3 more videos right here.

About the Author: Derek Halpern runs marketing at DIYthemes, and founder of Social Triggers. To get more tips on list building, sign up to his list here. He also runs the web tv show Social Triggers TV where you can learn how to be confident, persuasive, and more.