When I read about split testing, most of the time I see that the best way to conclusively determine whether a page performs better than another is to measure conversions. The only problem though is that to get an accurate number, you need at least 100 conversions on a page. I don’t know about you, but since I’m selling products, it would take me forever to get a decent sampling size.

Even if you were marketing CPA offers, that’s still a LOT of traffic you would need to drive to get 100 conversions on a page, and if you are trying to start a new campaign, you could be losing a lot of money waiting for those “definitive” results.

I have found out a few different metrics you can use to speed up testing, and give you early projections on a landing page’s potential. The reason I like this is that while these methods aren’t perfect, they will still help make better landing pages until you have a successful campaign running where you can afford to wait for 100 conversions.

Click-Throughs

If you are an affiliate marketer, then this can actually be a very good way to split test regardless. Your merchant’s sales pages are out of your control, so it may actually be a good idea NOT to incorporate them into your own testing.

Let me give you an example, say you send 100 people to 2 variations of a landing page, each promoting the same product. Landing page A has a 10% CTR, and landing page B has a 5% CTR. It’s obvious that landing page A is better, so you start a new split test.

Once you have created a great landing page, for example’s sake, one that converts at 25% CTR, THEN you can start measuring conversions as a metric, and see what merchant has the best converting product.

Now, say you drive 100 visitors a day to your landing page. If you hadn’t started by split testing with CTR, and were using the 5% CTR landing page, it would take you 5 times longer to get to 100 conversions than with the 25% CTR landing page.

Time On Page

This is an interesting concept; by measuring the time a visitor spends on a page, you can roughly gauge their level of interest. This method wouldn’t work as well for squeeze pages or CPA offers, but if you have a longer page, even a sales page, then this could really help.

The only problem is that you need to look at this on an individual visitor basis, something I haven’t found a free solution yet, since averages can have skewed results (one person visiting for an hour ruins everything).

I originally got this idea from a product called Conversion Prophet (which I haven’t tried yet). They use a three level system that ranks a visitor’s interest level. They call the levels attraction, interest, and desire.

It’s quite funny, because this is taken from a well known acronym called AIDA, or Attention Interest Desire Action, which relates to the selling process. As you can see, Action (or, a conversion), is last on the process, so these preliminary indicators could foresee a landing page’s potential.

Heatmaps

If you have a highly graphical landing page, maybe this will help. Are people clicking where they should? Are they clicking non-linked images? Could you move your main button to a better area?

I haven’t experimented much with mainly graphics landing pages, which are surely more relevant in CPA marketing, but I do know that Crazy Egg is a great tool for heat maps, and you can try it free.

So these are just a few ideas to get creative about split testing, just remember that even though these methods are supposed to speed up testing, you still have to be patient to get the most accurate results.

Leave a comment with your favorite ways of testing and optimizing your landing pages!

Hexatrack is a service that incorporates two very important functions for running successful PPC campaigns; keyword spying and conversion tracking. I’ve been a member of their Pro program for over 2 months now, and while I was going to wait a little bit longer to review them, they have decided to soon shut their doors while they upgrade their systems, so your time to get in is limited.

Hexatrack Free Signups are now closed.
1$ for first month of PRO subscription promotion ends Thursday June 12th
Use Coupon Code: bestweekendever

Keyword Spying

The first major function of Hexatrack is the ability to spy on ad campaigns. You begin by entering in keywords with their keyword fetcher, or by creating a custom list of keywords. The idea here is to base these keywords around a core term. Once this is done, you start the project, and wait a few days to see some results.

What Hexatrack does is monitor all the Google ads that are running for each keyword, including their ad variations, ad placements, days running, and other keywords in the same ad groups. This allows you to find ad campaigns that are profitable, which you can in turn mimic. It can also help you figure out if a niche has earning potential.

The main way to determine if an ad is profitable is to check how long an ad has been running; if an ad runs consistently, and they are affiliate marketing (i.e. not huge companies with money to blow), they are most likely making money. You can then examine their ad placement & projected bids, as well as other keywords they are targeting, and the landing pages themselves, and see if you can do it better.

You could find weaknesses in their campaigns, and pounce! Essentially, you are finding where the money is, and going after it. That’s a whole lot better than taking semi random stabs in the dark, trying to find a winning niche!

With every keyword, they also bring back estimations for clicks per day, cpc for the top spot, number of advertisers, and a clever little “profitability score”, which they invented. While I’m not really sure how accurate it is, it gives you a ranking from 1 to 10 based on how profitable a keyword may be. It gets this from the amount of advertisers with consistent advertising patterns. The source data seems good, but I would always check keywords out in more detail myself before putting my money in.

Overall, the ad tracker works very well, I just have a small complaint. It can take a few minutes to fetch the ad tracker data, which is sort of annoying, and occasionally errors will occur making you retry. On the plus side, they have announced that they are implementing a way to update this data within the dashboard, so you can do other things while it loads.

They are constantly upgrading the systems with new features, including international ad tracking coming up soon, so I think this is a fantastic tool, and could really help anyone find opportunities online.

Conversion Tracker

I haven’t had as much time to experiment with this, but basically it’s a keyword conversion tracker. Now, if you talk to any successful affiliate marketer, they will tell you that tracking conversions on a keyword level is an absolute necessity; and I certainly agree. This tool takes it even further though, adding referral data, time stamp, ip address (to detect click fraud), and more.

You can also use this for any affiliate network, so long as they have a tracking id field, which pretty much every network does. You can also track your own personal website sales, and email campaigns.

The tracking links you create can be a bit strange, with javascript onclick redirects, but you can also use self hosted php redirects, which I like a whole lot better. There is also a direct linking option, so you don’t have to have your own landing page (of course, having one is always better :P)

It’s definitely not a bad tool, although I would like to see a few more things from it. Again though, they are frequently updating this system. Right now, I can see them working on a neat feature that will automatically build landing pages with your Hexatrack tracking codes built in. It’s not working yet, but it definitely sounds interesting.

Training

Hexatrack is trying to establish themselves at the complete PPC membership program. So they are also working to include lots of training for Pro members. While they haven’t released anything that major yet, spare their free Hexatrack Success Guide, they do have some big plans. I know very soon, probably right after they close their doors, they will release a new strategy called PPC 2.0; it should be very interesting.

Pricing / Pro Membership

Hexatrack Free Signups are now closed.
1$ for first month of PRO subscription promotion ends Thursday June 12th
Use Coupon Code: bestweekendever

This special offer allows you to pretty much get a free month, as well as the training they will release soon, and your price will be locked in at $147 a month forever. At $1, it’s a steal for the value they will provide for that one month.

Free signups are now closed; but at $1, there is no reason why you shouldn’t sign up to give it a shot. Even if you cancel, the content you will get in that one month will be more than worth it.

Pros:
- Ad Tracker is a fantastic tool
- Frequent Updates
- Good Conversion Tracker
- Training materials add even more value

Cons:
- May be too expensive for some (still worth it though)
- A bit slow fetching data, but they are working on it.
- Some uptime issues (down for an entire week once, but massive server upgrade should fix that)

The Yimto Verdict: In The GREEN!

Check out Hexatrack today before they close their doors to new members and upgrades!

Ever find a niche that you think could be profitable, only to abandon it because you feel as if you would have no idea how to approach marketing it? I know I’ve gotten overwhelmed at times when thinking up a big new project to sink my teeth into, but ideas are just ideas, and it can be quite difficult to put them into action without knowing the outcome.

What a lot of people forget though is that there may already be many others succeeding in these “mysterious” niches, so why not see how they are doing so! Your future competitors can give you a lot of inspiration, and you can not only get ideas from them on how to market products, but you may even think of ways to do it better!

Are Your Competitors Succeeding?

There are a few ways to measure the general performance of a website. First, if they are promoting a product using Clickbank, or any affiliate network which shows product sales performance, then this could give you a hint. If someone is promoting a product with good sales figures (gravity for Clickbank), then there is a chance they are getting a piece of that pie. Of course, if they are promoting something with super low performance, than that definitively shows that they aren’t selling much, or anything at all.

Have they been around for a while? Are they spending a lot of money promoting? Do they have a nice, frequently updated site? Does their site receive a lot of traffic? Do they rank for many competitive search terms? etc. etc.

Some of these questions are a little tougher to answer than others, and will vary by niche. One of the best ways to figure out if a site is succeeding is through the use of PPC spying. That’s because with PPC, it is almost guaranteed that if someone is paying for ads for any lengthy period of time, they must be making money. (Unless they are just throwing money away :P)

My favorite tool for spying on my competitors’ ad spending is Hexatrack, since it not only allows you to see how long ads are running, but also which keywords they are bidding on per ad group. I’ll be reviewing this service in detail in the next couple of days. Point is though, if they are spending money, they should be making money.

Marketing: How are they driving traffic?

Try and figure out what they are focusing on to drive traffic to their sites. Basically, it comes down to natural or paid traffic.

Natural Traffic: This is all about SEO, and getting ranked in the search engines. Chances are, if someone is concentrating more on getting natural traffic, then their sites will be highly optimized, and frequently updated. Successful sites like these will be seen as an authority, and will be very difficult to compete with. On the other hand, you can learn a lot from these guys, and while it can take a LOT more work to become an authority, it could be well worth it, but it is a long term investment.

Paid Traffic: You’ll probably only find sites focusing on this by looking through paid search results, since most of the time they consist of simpler landing and squeeze pages which will not rank well for any search terms. You have to make sure that they are making money though before seeing them as future competition you can learn from, as many people will run crap campaigns and bail out as soon as they lose money. Using Hexatrack as I mentionned above to keep track of which ads run consistently is the best way to gauge profitability.

Content: What/How do they sell?

Authority sites focusing on natural search traffic have a pretty simple goal: provide as much valuable web content as possible. Monetizing can be done in a lot of different ways here, but for affiliate marketing, using your authority to recommend products is the way to go. See how others do it in your niche, and test out variations of these methods.

Now, with a paid traffic site, you are dealing with single serve visitors. That means you get your visitors to ACT right away, but how? Well, see how your competitors are doing it!

There are a few basic “templates” for landing pages, see which are common among your competitors. Are review pages popular, and if so, what products are they promoting? Are squeeze pages the norm? A mix of both?

Seeing squeeze pages asking for a name and email is quite common, but you may be thinking, how could I make money building a list? Here’s a good idea, sign up to your competitors lists! Read their messages, see how often they are communicating, what their selling patterns are, what kind of content they provide, what tone they use, etc.

I’m definitely not saying to copy them in any of the above; I’m just saying see how they do it, and take notes. What do you like, what don’t you like? Shape your own strategy from this, and you could become the new top dog!

So remember, when starting out in a new niche, or even when working on an existing niche, watch what your competitors are up to. You can learn a lot from their successes, and from their mistakes.

One of the largest and most respected autoresponder service Aweber has made some huge changes over the past few days, some that I think many people will find very interesting. They have implemented a brand new email analytics system which could really change the way you look at email marketing.

I am getting ready to launch new email marketing campaigns, and some of these features really gave me some awesome ideas. You can see the full list of new features here, but I thought I’d mention a few that really caught my eye.

Sending broadcasts to specific leads

This is really cool; you can monitor which of your leads open your messages, but more importantly which ones click through, and even order your product! Just imagine the power of being able to send out separate messages to those who didn’t check out your offer, and those who did.

Aweber has a good quote: “Email marketing in 2008 is about relevance.” Think of the personal touch you’ll be able to have with your messages. No more blanket messages, your leads will feel as if you are talking directly to them.

Click Tracking with your domain

If you’ve ever been subscribed with Aweber, you’re probably aware of the ridiculous length of their old click tracking links. There were a lot of problems in the past where they were so long, they would cause a line break, which would break the link itself. Now, click tracking through your own domain will probably not only fix that problem, but add even more relevance to the links themselves. yourdomain.com looks a lot better than clicks.aweber.com

Group your leads

It’s common knowledge that anyone who buys something from you or your recommendation is more likely to buy from you again. Now, imagine if you could keep track of which leads are buying, and offer them bigger ticket items as they buy. You could continue to offer non-buyers cheap products, while moving buyers up the sales ladder to more and more expensive products, which will actually appeal to them more!

Email clicks + website tracking

Separately, this is a piece of cake. But now, you can track what your leads do AFTER they click through your message. This will help you learn what sort of website or content your leads respond to best, and use this data to improve future campaigns.

So, I definitely recommend you check out the full list of new features here. Unfortunately, there is one big problem with the new changes, one that is almost overshadowing this impressive update.

There has been a huge price increase to account for these new changes. Now, in all reality, for most marketers this will only change the price by no more than $10-$40, depending on the amount of leads in the account (full price structure here), but if you have a HUGE list, then this can be a big problem.

But at the same time, these kind of features could really pay for themselves. All existing customers can upgrade if they want, or keep the old plan without these new features for the old fairly flat rate of $20/mo.

If you want to hear an official response about this new pricing change, check out this thread at the Warrior Forum, and search for the first response by tkulzer (28th response). He does a great job explaining their stance.

So, if you’re looking into building a list, then I definitely recommend you check out Aweber. I actually “suspended” my account a few months ago (canceled with plans to resubscribe) since I wasn’t using it, but now I’ve got big plans for email marketing and I think I’ll be jumping back in.

Today, I am reviewing the affiliate program of a Search Marketing company called LoveClients, which offers a huge array of SEO/PPC/SEM services packaged into a monthly subscription. This is a fairly new affiliate program, and with some pretty big payouts, it may be a very interesting opportunity to jump aboard early.

Payouts

Let me start with the LoveClients affiliate program itself; the payouts start out at 50$/month for the life of a referred customer. There is a great performance incentive, where once you hit 50 signups, you will start earning $60/month, and once you hit 100, it becomes $75/month, always recurring for the life of the customer. You can also refer new affiliates for 20% commission on their sales!

These payouts are pretty huge, but as I’m sure you know, the search engine market is extremely competitive and may not be easy to break into, especially on smaller budgets, but read on and I’ll be talking about a few neat ideas you can use to market this program that won’t break the bank!

Affiliate Tools & Stats

The affiliate area is actually quite impressive. It is a privately run affiliate program, but has many of the features a network would provide. The sign up process is quick and painless, and they manually approve accounts within 24-48hrs. Once approved, you are given access to a variety of marketing materials, such as banners and page peel ads.

Now here’s where the LoveClients affiliate program really starts to shine. First of all, they have real time stats, which is a must for closely monitoring your traffic/conversion rates. In a competitive industry like this, where paid clicks range in dollars not cents, this is key. Another great feature is that you can send potential clients to any page on their site using their deep link generator. Now you can more effectively pre-sell your referrals and send them to the page that converts best for you.

They also have a couple of pretty cool features such as CommissionAlert and CommissionStats, which are Windows programs that can keep you up to date with your affiliate stats without having to constantly check their site.

Support

As far as their responsiveness, I have been in contact with them frequently in the past, and they are quick to respond. I am sure they will reply to any questions, comments, requests or concerns in a prompt and timely matter.

They are also taking requests for new marketing materials should you need them.

Marketing Ideas

Now as promised, I’ve got a couple of ideas on how you can market this program without having to outspend the big boys. First, if you yourself are interested in SEO, you could create a few pages to rise up the search engine rankings for some slightly long tail SEO terms. While these may be competitive, even a top 50 ranking could earn you some good credibility and referral power. Relate your skills to those provided by LoveClients, seen here.

My second (and better idea), is to take a more “offline” approach. Perhaps you can get some freelance jobs creating websites for local businesses, which later you can introduce them to the power of search engine marketing, and refer them to LoveClients. By taking a pro-active stance by meeting with many business owners in your town/city, you could not only make some commissions with LoveClients, but really you could be starting a website development business of your own!

These are just a couple of ideas really. With a high quality affiliate program having big payouts such as this, it’s definitely worth thinking creatively to find new ways of marketing it!

So in conclusion, while this is still a fairly new affiliate opportunity, it is growing rapidly and already has a very well run program set up and ready to go. I definitely suggest you sign up today, and give it an honest try. There is plenty of money to be made in this hot industry, and the LoveClients affiliate program gives you a great opportunity to do so.

Note: This is a paid review; however this has no bearing whatsoever on any of my opinions or conclusions.