The Guest Post Mistake You Can’t Afford

Mistakes, mistakes.

You don’t like ‘em.

And it really bugs you how some serial entrepreneurs just worship them. They’re like, “I’m making more mistakes than you, and it’s awesome.” You feel like throwing your coffee cup at them. Shut up.

And you’re right too. Those guys are stupid.

But the dirty naked truth is, mistakes are necessary. If you’re trying to succeed, you’re going to make mistakes in the process. That’s sad and terrible, but it’s true.

Mistakes aren’t awesome – they’re outrageously evil. But they lead to something good. They teach you what doesn’t work, and that allows you to finally discover what does work.

Here’s the interesting part. The more successful someone is, the more mistakes they’ve made to get there. Mistakes = experience = success.

Look at Two Hour Blogger. It appears to be doing well, right? But behind the scenes I’m making gazillions of mistakes. So there’s a case in point.

Now, if I share my mistakes with you, you’ll learn and make different, more intelligent ones. In other words, you’ll move up the totem pole faster. So let’s look at a mistake I’ve learned while driving traffic to this blog.

I’ve learned that conversion rates are extremely sensitive.

People are fuzzy, touchy feely critters. They’re influenced by bright, shiny objects and good looks. They look at which iPhone you’ve got and decide whether or not they like you.

You take too long pulling out of the intersection and you’ve ruined their afternoon. You’ve justified their speeding 20 over and cutting somebody off. I mean, really. It’s that bad.

When it comes to blogging and copywriting, it’s even worse. When you do a guest post on a large blog and start getting traffic (200+ uniques per day) it’s crucial you have an over-the-top post at the top of your blog (big pun intended). For example, when I did a guest post on Problogger, the latest post at Two Hour Blogger was dynamite copy just begging to be read.

It had an absolute killer headline, graphic, and body copy. It was completely different and fresh from what readers were used to reading. The result? It converted like crazy. No, we’re not selling anything here yet, but it converted nearly 100 subscribers.

It was awesome.

Wind the clocks forward a few weeks. I do a guest post on Copyblogger. But this time, the latest post at Two Hour Blogger isn’t quite as good. The headline is okay, but not out of this world. Same for the graphic and body copy. (Those are the three crucial elements of a post.)

The net result was not quite as awesome.

What can you do about this?

When people visit your blog, they’re influenced by all sorts of indicators you don’t even think about. Are you proudly showing your 4 subscribers? Not good. Nobody wants to read a blog that nobody reads.

Don’t show social proof unless you’ve got some. If none of your blog posts get comments, don’t show the comment number. It absolutely kills conversation rates.

Your readers are influenced by how shiny your blog looks too. It’s worth buying a brand new theme for your blog once a year. They hate reading a blog that looks really old. Your theme was totally awesome in 2007 but it’s time to move on.

When it comes to your subscription widget, you’re dealing with the most crucial element of all. Don’t use the word “subscribe.” It makes them feel like they have to pay money. Call it “updates” or something. You might even throw “free” in there.

Ask for the subscription loudly. Put it at the top. Even if you’re trying to get them to buy affiliates or click adsense ads, the subscribe widget has priority. Capture their email address, and they’ll come back later with their wallets.

Whatever you do, don’t have more than one subscription widget/area. That’s like having two small Wal-Marts on either side of a street instead of one big one. It’s really dumb. I’m not sure why so many default themes are set up like this.

Warning: it gets deep from here on. Proceed with caution.

So, you’ve learned from my mistake that you want absolutely incredible content on your latest post when traffic comes. Maybe you’re thinking, “Wait! Aren’t you supposed to have incredible content on your blog at all times anyway?” Well, yes. But I’m making a difference between great content and awesomely incredibly over-the-top content. Let me explain.

Here’s something nobody tells you: for a professional painter, about one in seven paintings is a really good painting. That doesn’t mean some of them are bad. It just means the painter got “lucky” on the seventh one and made something extraordinary.

Even for a professional copywriter, some articles do better than others. That’s outside your control. Some subject matter and articles do better than others. Thomas Moran said the most mundane New England pastoral sold much quicker than his majestic Rockies scenes. That wasn’t because he didn’t paint them with equal excellence.

You might do an incredible job on two articles, but one clicks with readers better than another. And as you get experienced, you’ll know which ones are over-the-top and will do unusually well before you ever publish them.

You know that feeling when you’re writing something and you just know that it’s that one in seven? Save it for those traffic peaks. You’ll be so glad you did.

In conclusion, humans are strange people. Even when you do everything correctly, they can still not respond to your copy. Some people call Two Hour Blogger “just another blog blogging about blogging,” and go away fussing.

That’s the way it goes. Your blog isn’t for everyone. Don’t worry about that. Just do what you’re supposed to, and do it well. The Internet is vast. Your audience will come.

Okay, this post has dug into the deep waters of blogging. Hopefully you aren’t totally confused. Swing by and assure me this all makes sense. Special hat tip to The Traffic Blogger for making this April’s carnival topic.