Get more clicks with home page auctions
Here is an easy, but great way to maximize the clicks on your phpBay sites. It’s something so easy and it should only take you one minute to implement, if you have not already done so.
Many sites built with phpBay Pro use the wise tactic of making Wordpress look like a website, not a blog. Part of this tactic includes making your home page not display posts, but display a static page (I’ll share a few ways to do this in later phpBay Tips).
Once you make your home page, it should have keyword rich content (at least 200 words) and some product images. But there’s one other thing your phpBay Pro site should have on it’s homepage: at least one ebay auction result.
This may seem obvious to some, but I can’t tell you how many phpBay sites I see that have phenomenal looking homepages, but don’t have any ebay auction results there.
Why do you need an eBay auction result on your homepage?
It’s simple. You want to entice the “bouncers” to click right away. The bouncers are the people who browse sites quickly and typically scan the homepage and leave (reflected in your home page’s “bounce rate” if you have Google analytics). But with a phpBay site, you never want anyone to leave without clicking on an ebay auction. You want to plant as many ebay cookies as possible.
Having an auction on your homepage entices the bouncers to click by showing them an amazing deal right away, so they don’t have to browse your pages to find it.
How to display ebay results naturally
Sometimes it’s hard to get ebay auction results on your home page in a natural way. The way I do it is I typically create a sub-head titled “featured items” and then display 2-3 ebay auction results in column view.
(To set the column view, change the 15th parameter to the number of columns you want to show. For example [phpbay]ipod, 3, 345345, case,,,,,,,,,,,3[phpbay] would display 3 ipod results side-by side, excluding the word “case”. Note that I made up the category number in field 3. This only works in phpBay 3.0).
Also, make sure you display your auction results above the fold, or as close to the fold as possible. The idea is that you really want to get people to click. So don’t burry it.
Other tips to increase homepage clicks
Another god way to entice people to click is to set the auctions on the home page to display lowest price items first. This is even more effective when you remove the “bids” from the template, so all the user sees is the price, and not the fact that it’s so low because it has zero bids. I’ll write a post on how to remove the bids in the next week.
To show lowest price items first put a “3” in the 13th parameter:
[phpbay]ipod, 2, 345345, case,,,,,,,,,3,,2[phpbay]
Lastly, if there are multiple models of your product, make sure you display the most popular model. It may take a few minutes of research, but if you know your niche, it should not be hard to find out this information.
Keep in mind that having phpBay auctions on your homepage will help you dynamically change your homepage content as new auctions display. this will have some SEO benefits.
Well, there you have it. A super easy way to increase your clicks on your phpBay sites.
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September 21st, 2008 at 1:40 am
Great tips. I have been struggling with getting a good ebay affiliate site up and running, lol. I don’t know how it has even made me any money with as bad as it looks now!