Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Hi All,

My site, http://www.EngineersCanSell.com is getting a decent amount of traffic, but a terrible amount of people download the free paper (eBook) that I have there.

Only about 18% of the visitors make it to the download page, and ironically only 18% of those are actually downloading the paper.  I`m assuming these both are bad statistics?  My guess is that the second stat is pretty bad.

So my question is if you have any thoughts on how to improve that conversion.  I`m also happy to hear any comments (good or bad of course) on the site in general.  I haven`t marketed it yet, so this would be a good time to make improvements.

Thanks in advance!

For one thing, the picture of it in the right column looks like an advertisement. Web users are so accustomed to seeing ads on websites that for many, they may tend to block out certain areas of pages thinking that graphics are ads, and so they don`t tend to look at them. Maybe make something more textual, and make it more prominent, like above your main content. And, let users know why they should download it. What type of information are they getting? How will it benefit them? As it is, its just sitting there, not explaining or informing or selling itself.


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M Hall
Website Critique Community
International Society of Curmudgeons

Maybe you shouldn`t make it so difficult and confusing to download the free book.  First, your form asks for a validation code without explaining why.  (It baffles me).  Then the next step is to "Send Email".  That sounds odd - don`t you mean "Submit"?

Then, you *are* an engineer, aren`t you?



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Steve Mann
Internet Videographer
MannMade Digital Video
My Email

Also, on that download page where the form is, you need to also sell them on why they should download your free report. I noticed below the form, you had many of the benefits they`ll learn by signing up... that shouldn`t be at the bottom of the opt-in form, it should be above it. Just because it`s free doesn`t mean anyone will sign-up... you still gotta sell them on why they should leave their information (even if it`s free).

Also, the more information you ask for on the form, the more the response rate drops. Is it necessary that you have the zipcode? Could you get that later after establishing credibility? As mentioned before, the more information you want upfront, the less the response will be. But on the other hand, it could also mean the prospect is a little more "qualified".

Cartess



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Thanks to all who`ve replied.  Mike, I think you might have hit it best - perhaps I slipped my engineering hat on accidentally!