New free site format (version 1.5)

[Cleo]

Most of my sales come from the index page followed by the main page.

Enough said.

[Useless]

OBAMA '08 It's Time for Change (or something like that)

Most free site builders put ZERO effort in to SEO or effective sales text on any of their pages, so I'm not sure why they'd fight against losing one worthless page of a free site that isn't going to produce sales any better than, or even as good as, a single TGP gallery. The big difference being that TGPs have more traffic. I think people are clinging to a dead concept.

Those of you who have the ability to track sales per page, have you considered why your numbers are the way they are? Do you know that it's because we are going out of our way to make the content difficult to get to, or could it be merely the fact that you've been lucky enough to place a good ad block on the first page that the surfer sees (which you could still do with a different format)?

I hope this thread/debate/argument goes on for awhile. I love it.

[plateman]

it's funny, free site builders and harden LL owners are gonna be the first ones to go back to doing what they did before, cause they will not accept change or invent a different model

[ponygirl]

Well, I'm all for trying something new, more for sales than SE purposes, but whatever works. UW quoted DD a bit back, with 'sales are created by content'. While this seems at odds with most people saying their sales come from the index and main pages, I don't think so.

When you think about it, I'm sure most surfers have seen enough tours to know the general idea now. A lot of new tours all have great quality video samples, big huge pics, 3 or 4 pages etc. If I knew that, I might be inclined to click through to a tour as fast as I can if the first page I saw of the freesite was kinda crappy looking. Maybe that's why I've also been told from many people that ugly freesites sell

anyway, just a thought. I don't know if it would work out or not, but I'd give it a shot.

I really like Simon's idea of 4 links out, too

[plateman]

Originally Posted by ponygirl

Well, I'm all for trying something new, more for sales than SE purposes, but whatever works. UW quoted DD a bit back, with 'sales are created by content'. While this seems at odds with most people saying their sales come from the index and main pages, I don't think so.

When you think about it, I'm sure most surfers have seen enough tours to know the general idea now. A lot of new tours all have great quality video samples, big huge pics, 3 or 4 pages etc. If I knew that, I might be inclined to click through to a tour as fast as I can if the first page I saw of the freesite was kinda crappy looking. Maybe that's why I've also been told from many people that ugly freesites sell

anyway, just a thought. I don't know if it would work out or not, but I'd give it a shot.

I really like Simon's idea of 4 links out, too

the reason sales came from the index and main was that most good free site submitters could get the surfers to click before they see the content, and most newer tours had enough content to get sales from the tours

[ponygirl]

Originally Posted by plateman

the reason sales came from the index and main was that most good free site submitters could get the surfers to click before they see the content, and most newer tours had enough content to get sales from the tours

yes, I believe that too. That's why I always put more effort into those pages, which would naturally result in more sales from them (I keep hoping, anyway )

[LD]

Originally Posted by plateman

the reason sales came from the index and main was that most good free site submitters could get the surfers to click before they see the content, and most newer tours had enough content to get sales from the tours

Hey, I've got an idea...let's lose the galleries completely!

fs 2.0 baby!