IMPLEMENTED: Make the Amazon modules attractive? The click through is

1. 77

   lobobrandonposted 12 years ago

   Hi Micki
   If you've noticed I've not written any hubs recently, I'm on my vacations from University and thought of doing a 30 hubs in 30 days challenge. Rather, I've gone for a 30 Wizzley articles in 30 days - for a good reason: Their amazon Capsules are way better formatted - users feel like clicking them and I love placing them on my articles.
   
   I'm surely returning back to HP as I love it and will never lose hope here. I reach payout every month on HP and that's good for the number of hubs I have - So, HP is really promising. If you'll could just get the amazon module to change, I'd love it and I'm sure many will agree with me.
   
   Please do reply as this is kinda important. My Wizzes already made more sales in a month than I made on HP totally, the reason being higher click through rates. Yes, my hubs aren't perfect here and there's lots of scope for improvement. But, once this is done I can re-do all my existing ones and create new and better hubs.
   
   The new layout changes are awesome and I even welcome the Profile Page changes, but this single change would bring many back to HP. If you want a link to it as to how I used them well let me know and I'll send in an email to the team. I don't want to give it out here. Don't just look at any capsules, I'm talking about a specific one on the site. So, let me know if the suggestion is considered and I'll show you what I mean.
   
   Regards
   Brandon

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      WryLiltposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Agreed.

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         lobobrandonposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks

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      relacheposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Squidoo's Amazon modules are a lot better than the capsules here too. (Squidoo's gonna get my new fall content because their retail is doing much better than here)

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2. 74

   MickiSposted 12 years ago

   Lobobrandon,
   
   Thank you for the very thoughtful suggestion. I'm sorry to hear that you are writing on Wizzley and not Hubpages.  Let's see what we can do here to help you out.
   
   What is it, specifically, in your experience, that is causing the Amazon capsule to get a higher click rate on Wizzley? The inclusion of the product description? The fact that they include a button to 'View on Amazon'? Layout options for integration into your article that we don't have? Any concrete suggestions would be helpful, and any data that you might be able to share would be welcome.
   
   Lastly, I apologize for taking so long to reply. I've been on vacation for the last 3 weeks.

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      lobobrandonposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Micki I write here too Not that I've quit HP. HP is doing really really well for me and it's the first place when it came to writing online - I'd never leave.  Just that I took a break from HP to spread out a bit that's what Simone and all the others used to say - never leave your eggs in a single basket when I was new
      
      The CTR on Wizzley from google visits to my articles is nearly 100% even though all don't convert to sales, the people do check it out. The reason is that there's an opportunity to add amazon capsules as seen here on HP, plus Gallery and many other formats.
      
      I prefer the gallery format as that way you could increase the size of the picture etc. Moreover, in gallery the description on Amazon doesn't come onto the article i.e. the title I mean - You can customize it, that's what increases the CTR. I've mailed the team a link to one of my articles out there, the subject is (Micki - Amazon Capsules). You can see what I mean.
      
      Thanks for the reply and hope you enjoyed your vacation

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         MickiSposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Can you send the link to me so that I can see it? I don't get the emails to team@hubpages. You can go to my profile > Fan Mail and click the email Micki link. Thanks.

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            lobobrandonposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Ok sure will do that
            
            Edit: I sent the message

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               MickiSposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               Got it. Thanks. Give me a couple of days to investigate this and figure out what we can do.

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                  lobobrandonposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  Sure no prob Thanks for considering it.

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   WriteAngledposted 12 years ago

   I hardly ever get Amazon clicks here. In more than 2 years, I have not even reached $40.
   
   One thing I really dislike about the Amazon capsules is that they put in a tiny, poor quality picture. It would be much better to have the opportunity to select a good large picture of the product, or even a couple of pictures if more than one is available on the Amazon site.
   
   Given the way in which we are constantly told by HP how important it is to overwhelm the reader with as many pictures as possible, it is strange that we cannot supply them with decent pictures of featured products, even when such pictures are already there on Amazon.

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      MickiSposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Great feedback, WriteAngled. You are right, we have stated the importance of big photos and have never gone back and put our thinking into updating the Amazon capsule. Stay tuned, I'm investigating.

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   Greekgeekposted 12 years ago

   For what it's worth, of the 190 Amazon Associates sales I made last quarter, 2 were from hubpages -- and that's 2 more than I can recall from any previous quarter when I've checked.
   
   Part of that is that I now use other sites for  sales-type pages more than HP, since I've almost never had any sales here, but part of it is that Hubpages has small print, tiny product images, and a very discreet "buy" button that doesn't tend to stand out.
   
   On sites where I can build my own Amazon Associate links using the text or image links (NOT widgets like the carousel, as most HP-like sites wisely don't allow iframes), this is the layout that tends to convert well for me:
   
   Full-width "featured item" for a one-special-product:
   LEFT half of column (or right): a product image that occupies most of that column, e.g. 230 pixels wide on a 250 wide column.
   RIGHT half of column: my description. I tend to use 12 pt not 10 pt like HP prefers, but I've got vision problems.
   Under the product image, if it's shorter, or the text, if it's shorter, I put a custom "Buy on Amazon" button I created as a Big Orange Button, for the not entirely logical reason that I've read Big Orange Buttons tend to convert well. (seriously, I've been amazed how many more clicks I get by slapping a large green or orange button on a page with a call to action like "click me." Human nature is funny.)
   
   That's for a page where I highlight one or a few items. If I'm doing a "Best Books on [topic]" list or "Top Ten Xs for Y" list, the ginormous photos are overkill. So then I do the same thing as above except that I make the product images about 180 wide (in a 200 pixel column) on the left, wider text area for discussion / comparison on the right, and a slightly smaller buy button under the product image. Again, human nature is funny: the right "list" type page gets steady traffic and sales (partly because people go straight to Amazon if they know what they want, whereas they Google for lists/comparisons/recommendations if they're earlier in the sales research process.)
   
   
   My "Buy on Amazon" buttons include the word Amazon in the Amazon logo style, because people respond better to something official-looking. I'm not 100% sure we can do that... I Assume so, since it helps drive sales:
   
   
   
   or
   
   
   I know my "BOB"s look a little cheesy, but they work. A first step might be to make Hubpages' "buy" link on its capsule a little more prominent.
   
   Sorry for the spammage. I hate marketing with great loathing, but somehow I've wound up poking about in the unseemly art of conversion optimization.

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   WryLiltposted 12 years ago

   I found the only way to get around the tiny image dismal CTR was with a gigantic image capsule of the item and the Amazon image below it.

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      lobobrandonposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Thats what I did on two of my hubs, it doesn't look that good and conversion is bad as when people click the image they get to the slideshow rather than Amazon - some potential sales lost.

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6. 74

   MickiSposted 12 years ago

   Happy day, my Hubber friends. In just about an hour or so, we will be rolling out an update to our Amazon Capsule to include an Amazon branded buy button. Each of your products will display a clear call to action to "Buy on Amazon" on a button that includes Amazon branding.
   
   In our research, this is the single biggest thing that increases clicks.
   
   No work needed on your side. The buttons will always appear with Amazon products on your Hubs.

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      galleryofgraceposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      As I mentioned in another thread not only did I get the buy now button but the product was changed to be more Halloween centered and I got a notice that my product didn't match my hub! I would never have put such a horrible product in my hub! Now I suppose I better get busy checking all my hubs. That should take all night,.

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   Horatio Plotposted 12 years ago

   Wow! It's all I can do not to click on them!
   Thanks MickiS.
   And lobobrandon and Greekgeek get mentioned in despatches.
   Well done all.

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8. 61

   Hollie Thomasposted 12 years ago

   One observation, the buttons are bigger than the product images. Why would you click on a button with a price if the image of the book/product was still tiny and you couldn't see the aesthetics that would draw you to the product in the first place? I'm not being negative, I think this is a step in the right direction, but images sell, too. The image of the product needs to be bigger.

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9. 77

   lobobrandonposted 12 years ago

   Hi Micki, this looks much better and thanks for getting it done , but it would be even better if the size of the image increased to make them look the size of a normal picture on a hub when you put it to the right.
   
   I don't know the pixel size, but something around that would be great - this would increase the CTR even more than the Amazon buy now button I guess.
   
   Also, if possible some time in the future if there was a way for us to customize the amazon product headings it would be nice. Some of the product names are really bad when it comes to aesthetics of the page and I bet they're not going to be good for SEO in some cases where the name is just repeated a few times.

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10. 77

    sunforgedposted 12 years ago

    Research, huh?
    
    Yes, A Call to Action is THE major conversion factor.
    
    Was any beta testing or a/b testing done with this design?
    
    Usually, one would try multiple designs over a period of time before settling on one.
    
    My experience/ gut says that's not an ideal button, whats with that weird arrow shape? and the proportions are disjointed in the entire product box.
    
    Try to work it out with an inverted golden triangle
    
    The price and the button need to switch positions within a full size capsule - yellows, oranges, bright pastels are a better color selection for a buy button - with the button as the logical end of the eyeflow
    
    This is'nt something that needs to be reinvented - use the base design and color of the existing amazon buttons, more research and testing probably went into that design and color choice then your annual operating budget.
    
    Its a good response to a request but its not there yet.
    
    Show your designers a Belcher Button and the Amazon button aesthetic and proportion and try to match that more closely

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    sunforgedposted 12 years ago

    hmm, that sounds abrasive!
    
    I meant to convey that its great that you responded to request and implemented that so quickly!
    
    But, its so far away from ideal and its a pretty easy design problem that has been tackled thousands of times, I think you guys tried to hard!

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    Dale Hydeposted 12 years ago

    I did not happen upon this until this morning after it was pointed out to me in the below thread:
    
    http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/103978#post2211521
    
    There are some issues with this new setup...please view the above thread.

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13. 83

    SimeyCposted 12 years ago

    One idea would be to create a NEW module for Amazon. The old one would still exist but could not be added to any new or existing hubs. A user could be allowed to manually change all their Hubs or have the process automated....
    
    ...users should then be told that the old Amazon module will be phased out in six months so all changes will automatically happen after six months...

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14. 77

    derek gulbransonposted 12 years ago

    Quick update on the status of this change. Dale pointed out that this change has caused layout issues on some Hubs so we made a small change to reduce the size of the pricing text for now which should help a bit. We'll likely need to look for an opt-in mechanism of some kind and probably try to incorporate that with the other changes that have been suggested like providing more image size options. Thanks again for all your viewpoints and suggestions.

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       andyozposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       Much better with the slight adjustment, thankyou.

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    Azure11posted 12 years ago

    I like this new button, hopefully it will get more sales. For sure there could be some tweaks but am impressed at how this has been implemented so quickly :-)

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