Monetization shouldn’t be hard
Once you have traffic on your website monetization should be the easy part and really it’s not that hard. but so many people are doing it in a way that is completely ineffective so today we are looking at fishtanksetups.com this is actually one of our websites you can see my little picture right. Here IB diploma coursework help in UK described that in the blog that what we haven’t done much of yet is actually improving a lot of the old content and I want to show you something that so many bloggers are doing that is not working.
Bad monetization hurts organic traffic
The first one is traffic it doesn’t get as much traffic as it should for the amount of content that it has we’re going to dive into that in just a small amount. Because it ties into why the monetization is also not working very well but here’s the other thing this website is only earning right now 143 dollars from affiliate marketing. Now it actually does better than that with ads but affiliate marketing it’s definitely laying down on the job to illustrate that we’re going to roast this specific post this article is best aquarium filters reviews and buyer’s guide first of all.
When I see that title the first thing that comes to my mind is another product review blog post that’s probably full of a bunch of information about products that the writer has never touched or used now to be fair to the guy that created this website I actually think he’s probably used at least some of these products.
Because he clearly has experience with fish he clearly has experience with home aquariums and he talks about that a little bit. But as we go through this article we’re not going to find a very compelling reason to want to click through to the products that are recommended here nor do we have a very compelling reason to even read this article in the first place which part of the reason is why I don’t think this article does very well.
Case study
Let’s look at the article first and then we’re going to see how it fits in holistically with the website so here very first we have some content about what to look for in an aquarium filter size matters okay like the size of the filter or the amount it can filter that’s not actually that clear here. The types are the amount and types of fish the flow rate of the filter the filter brand there’s certain brands to use and certain brands not to use and then here we have a table with a list of the 10 best aquarium filters.
So at this point I have nothing helping me make a decision as to which one I want we’re told that the filter brand matters. We’re told a little bit of information here about flow rate but again not enough for me to be able to make my own decision so what do we have on here well look at this we have these nifty anchored links.
I click on it boom it takes me to that one I get this this looks like an ad. If I am scrolling through the blog post and I see that my eyes go right past it because on the website and you’re not seeing it. Now so much but on the live site you’ll often see there’s other ads provided on this website from azoik and this looks just like them and so my eyes are going to skip over.
I’m not going to see that’s part of it well that is the affiliate link so if I don’t click on this there’s no affiliate commission to be had I have to click on the button or somewhere up here within the content there’s no contextual link. I’m also given pros and cons as well as a bunch of neat information about the product but it’s barely better than a product description on amazon what I’m not given here is a strong decision making process that’s going to help me decide which of these 10 best filters I should buy so given the information.
I’m left to my own devices to figure out which one best fits my situation now to be fair here in some cases it talks about yeah some of these are you know rated for different sizes 30 gallons. But it also goes up to 200 gallons in this type or you know this one well pros and cons well this one’s really quiet but you have to buy add-on filters because the ones that come with it are low quality. So again I’m not given a clear process to make my own decision I think one of the biggest problems here though is that the only affiliate link is this one and people aren’t clicking on that because it looks like an ad all of the content here for the rest of the article is basically just descriptions of the different filters.
Now we have a little bit more information there’s mechanical filtration biological and chemical filtration but without knowing this beforehand before looking at the different products. I don’t even know which one I wanted and I don’t know which of those filters fall under each one these different types of filters again we made a whole bunch of assumptions that people understood what we were talking about the different types of filters when we gave them all this information but then we put the description of what those were at the bottom they needed to know that beforehand now we have a few frequently asked questions. I don’t have any problem with this section but I think that there’s a better way
Example: a better way to do affiliate marketing
let’s look at what could be done instead this is an article that was written based off of that previous article to replace it but as we go through it look at the way that it’s formatted we start by talking about the different types of filters for each one. We talk about what they are how they work what they should be used for and then we just make a recommendation of that type of filter that we think would be a good one for them to buy and we put the link right here in the text.
Number two you know canister filters it’s a different type of filter diatomic filter fluidized bed filter these are these five different types of filters or six or seven or eight there were only five talked about in the other article. But we talk about the different types of filters when you should use each one what the price range looks like for each one and then make a single recommendation for one that they should buy if that’s the type they decide to go with. Then we talk about biological chemical mechanical filtration this is basically the same and then we’re done with the article.
The differences that make it better
When somebody reads this there’s a few things that are different in their mind the first thing is that they’re the article is walking you through the different types of filtration and helping you understand the scenarios in which each that type of filtration would be best. so you can make a better decision but the second thing that we’re seeing when we look at this article that’s very different is the product recommendation itself the product recommendation is doesn’t look like an ad it’s a contextual link there are situations in which I think that a product image and even like something that’s visual a call out box that draws attention to it has a button to go check the price.
I think has a lot of value that’s why sites like the wire cutter have been doing it for a long time the wire cutter is now actually owned by New York times and I think the content is maybe not as good as it once was but the this is what a lot of people are going for and why they want those boxes here. When you come to the wire cutter what you find usually pretty early on you find a big box that draws your attention with our pick for the best product within this product review the difference is the wire cutter has set up a reputation. And they make it clear in every article that they’re still doing this where they actually test every single one of those products. I am given very little to no indication that any of the 10 filters listed in this article were actually tested by the author that said do I think we might benefit from having a nice call out box here that’s well formatted and draws a person’s attention.
I think maybe we want to make sure it doesn’t look like the rest of the ads that are served on our website and even then I would want to test it. I would probably publish the article as it is and then I would probably once the traffic kind of levels out. I would try it one way and then I would add those boxes and try it for a couple weeks and then switch it back from doing that we can start to see if there are any benefits for our specific audience in having a call out box like that in this case. Where I’m making a specific recommendation for each type of filter I might have that callout box at very least i would want to add a product image here in this section of the article to show them what the product looks like honestly. I’d love to have some sort of a diagram or photo under each one of these to show what that type of filter looks like but this is only part of the issue.
How poor Monetization destroys organic traffic
The article isn’t converting amazingly but the bigger problem is that the article isn’t getting seen nearly enough. I’m going to show you the Google analytics for this website I know a lot of people don’t like to show this this is the last 30 days as of the time of me recording this blog and I want you to notice these top 10 articles on the website the first one of these articles that’s really a product focused topic is number seven on the website and it gets less than half the traffic that the number one article does in the top ten there are only two articles that are on a product focused topic. And these topics aren’t even on generic products best aquarium filter is kind of a broad topic and it’s definitely very product focused however there are a lot of people that are going to search what are the best types of filters for small aquariums not necessarily.
Because they’re looking for a product recommendation per se but because they just need to understand how in their specific situation filtration might be different and when you keep that in mind you’ll see that the top articles on this website. like we’ve been seeing and saying for years tend to be those that answer specific questions that people have with helpful information and then where the product recommendation that’s made in the article. If there’s one at all is out of helpfulness not out of you know trying to make a sale when I see this article. I think huh they’re trying to make a sale and they honestly don’t care which of these 10 links.
I click on when I see this article I think they’re providing me helpful information and oh look they’re making a recommendation of a specific filter that is of the type that they’re talking about that’s not to say that this article is perfect yet. I’ve highlighted a couple things I would do differently this article still doesn’t really walk me through a decision-making process to help me know exactly which type of filter.
I should get so I do think that there’s still room for this article to improve to better convert for sales but also to become a more helpful resource to rank better in search you know like these other ones do you can see now just how many opportunities for affiliate links have been completely overlooked in the writing of the content of this site this website took a huge hit in traffic before we ever bought it. And I believe a big part of it is for that reason because there’s a fair amount of this product oriented content that just doesn’t give me enough information to make a good decision and doesn’t make me confident that you know.
