Site Review Addiction Recovery Basics Monetization Ideas

Bill Urell is the owner of Addiction Recovery Basics and a member of Authority Site Center. His site is ranked on the first page of Google for "addiction" and many other terms. He's done a terrific job of creating a true Authority Site - but wanted to know how to increase the monetization and profits from the site.

Here were my comments (please note that unless you are reading this in early January - he's probably made some changes - but the ideas here are all good solid monetization strategies.

OK Bill -

1 - Good job on the construction, deployment and getting this site ranked so well - and for the traffic.

2 - I'm going to jump start you making some money on this thing - NOW.

- so here are my humble but accurate opinions - in fast form.

1. The header looks amateurish and is effectively a waste of space.

Who lands on this site? My guess is either addicted people - or people who have an addicted person in their life. This header is void of benefits and the image and happy blue sky don't make sense to me.

YOU NEED TO PUT A HEADLINE IN THE HEADER - you'd be better off to have a white backround image with a red 16 pt Verdana or Tahoma headline that says "You've found it! Today is the first day of the end of addiction…"

Or a shocking statistic about recovery - or a pain based statement - like - Do You Know The 7 Keys to Addiction Recovery that Lasts?

(as an entre` to your book -)

So the path would lead - headline - book - optin - download - email follow up by autoresponer with follow up messages that include links back to the site - along with "sponsored by" affiliate links in the emails.

2. You need to spend a few bucks on a template designer to customize your layout.

The style of template with all those boxes just kills the fluidity of the site - I don't want to even hover over them - they all look like ads - and the barrier to getting into the boxes is caused by these thick borders -

You don't see this kind of boxey look on any web 2.0 pro sites. You are even using a yellow background on the one monetization bit on the site - AdSense - which is way down the right hand border and just screams "don't click me - I'm an Ad!"

If you must have a box with borders (fine, it's called a "call out" in magazine layout and draws attention to a pull quote from the magazine article - to stop the page flipper and get them to read so it's something we are used to seeing) but in that box put either a call to action to optin - (benefit statement or bonus offer - click here! or your book).

3. You have a 100 page book, but only a wimpy "guide" mentioned in the prime real estate place on the site. YOU NEED AN EBOOK GRAPHIC that looks serious! My daughter will make you a screaming ebook cover for around $97.00 http://TheBannerQueen.com - and it WILL massively increase your conversions - Armand Morin found 300% increase in SALES by adding am image of the ebook vs text.

4. Get rid of the marriage banner on the right - it's off topic and immediately signals me to leave as Im just seeing ads - this site is about addiciton.

5. Separate them at birth: You could include a graphical bit at the top that has 2 boxes - sort of a red pill blue pill (no pun intended) "I am here seeking information on addiction for myself - "I am here seeking information on addiction for someone I care about"

This demonstrated empathy - and can get you to have them optin to the correct autoresponder. Many people, when offered with this choice will look at at BOTH so prepare for that -

6. Find out what your visitors want 1-2-3 tier - and start by meeting the needs of the top group - then 2nd then 3rd.

Survey them - (short 3 questions max)

7. David Bullock did an excellent bit at Vegas where you were - on using Google analytics to find out what people were clicking on to put your monetization prioroties in place - and then testing them.

8. Shift your priorities from working on the site and traffic to discovering every conceivable monetizaton method for your site - I don't care if it is getting synthetic Vicodin from Libya - find out what your audience wants - it is no mystery you aren't making any money on this site - there is nothing to buy - and only adsense - which should be between the Title and the body - medium rectangle on the post pages.

I clicked your main post on prescription meds from the home page and it didn't have a bold adsense link there - I don't care if you dont use adsense but at least but an affiliate banner there.

Hell, go look at the biggest sites in the world - I looked at the Huffington Post last night (what a bunch of morons there! but they are rotating banners ABOVE THE PAGE!

This is a clue - you have all this traffic - at least get paid per impression for a blockbuster banner!

9. Find some type of CPA offer - (lead gen) and cash in on that - there must be something in your field and these can pay several dollars for filling out a form.

10. Finally - you are the top of the heap in Google for your term - act like it! You need to just spend a bit of money on the professional look and feel - graphics of your site - to give people that "feel" when they land on it.

11. Have you looked at how LONG people stay once they arrive - and where they enter and exit?
This could tell you a lot.

12. Put a forum in your site - and at least put adsense in all the usual places - and install an adsense tracker to find out what they click on.

If you are getting top google traffic for this topic - a forum should be a total layup - you've got the Authority to get it crawled like crazy - "Checkout the #1 Discussion Forum for All Your Answers on Addiction Now"

This makes the site sticky and referral based - and will let your peeps create content - a natural for contextual advertising.

You've done the hard part - all this stuff I've put here is easy - just takes a smidgeon of time.

Please let me know what you think of these suggestions?

Good Luck!

Your friend,
Rick Butts