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Ask HN: Can you help me increase the conversion rate on my website?

13 points by zallarak ↗ HN
http://www.organicchemistrynotes.com/

I sell a 29 page organic chemistry study guide.

I get around 250 visitors a month, mainly from search engines. The price used to be $20, i just lowered it to $10. Usually just get around 1-2 sales a month.

Would appreciate your thoughts. It is my first ecommerce website.

18 comments

[ 4.3 ms ] story [ 52.6 ms ] thread
kingsidharth
I'd never buy from that site! You can improve everything but let's start with: 1)Tagline that triggers emotional response. Think "Master organic chemistry for College Dudes" v/s "Ace your College Chemistry" 2)You don't have enough proof to prove that you not fake. 1 Testimonial sounds so lame. 3)I hardly know what's in there. Provide a sample page? Include a video? 4)Sell benefits not features. 5)Get better graphics.

There is much more but you can get started with this.

ryanto
I'd show some more examples. Maybe a full page. That's only 3% of your total product so I think its ok giving that away for free.

Your payment page is a redirect nightmare. It uses some click tracker on your site, to some url shortener, to a site called 'payloadz', and then finally to paypal. I would build/brand your own payment page.

More testimonials with actual people and actual results. Think along the lines of:

I scored an XYZ on the MCAT because of this.

and

I was averaging a C and aced the final because of this.

zallarak
I am new to all of this.. do you have any suggestion for a service or guide on how I could create my own payment page? Thanks for the feedback.
jonafato
On the note of testimonials, this might be a good opportunity to leverage something like facebook or twitter. Testimonials can often look contrived. Linking a testimonial to a facebook account would tie it to a real person and make it more believable.
kyro
Hey, I've got MCATWriting.com and am working on a writing guide that I plan on selling. The site will be up soon. Maybe we could team up or do some cross promotion.
zallarak
Yeah that would be great. Let me know
ddemchuk
you're converting at a relatively normal rate, right around 1% (it can go up to 3% or more with this sort of product)...you need a hell of a lot more traffic. Lots of kids take O Chem, start promoting on Facebook or something. Maybe even do ppc ads on Facebook and target undergrads.

At the low of a traffic level, no amount of testing will collect enough data in a reasonable amount of time.

teyc
Your price is not an issue. You need to deliver more value. Try anchoring. E.g. cost of attending uni for an extra year because you failed chemistry, vs cost of notes.

Explain the virtue of having so few pages. 29 pages vs 400 pages on textbook.

You need to claim expertise. Why your notes are better than professors'. Perhaps it is because you tutor, and that keeps you in touch with what topics students have the most difficulty with. Maybe it is the way it is arranged for easy revision. You need to show it.

Email them a sample page. It'll be less risky.

pdelgallego
Unless you are selling more than double of your previous sales, go back to $19,95, and add more value.

Add a downloadable table contents

Add sample chapter/page.

Divide the book in two parts theory and workbook, and then sell it as a bundle.

Create a Facebook fan page, where you offer or announce free content.

Add a private forum where you can help people to specific or test questions. (You can buy support from many graduate -students in India)

Screencasts, where you record your self solving problems (e.g http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6h6Fi6AQiRM )

inkaudio
I agree with a lot of the things mentioned except going back to $19.95 and building a forum will take a considerable amount of time.

a.)because a lot of kindle books are sold at $9.99, if you use a familiar and low price students will think less about the price and more about the content.

b.)People will think 19,95 is too much for a 29 page book.

c.)adding a forum will add to the amount of time you'll spend answering questions. If the forum is not managed properly it will leave a very bad impression. Stay with FAQ section and prompt email reply until profits and time justify adding a forum.

zallarak
Thanks for the suggestions. I added a downloadable chapter and am working on a workbook and screencasts. Price is up to 19.95 as well.
joshklein
You can do some A/B testing to try different things and see what works. Try http://www.optimizely.com/ [YC].

But with 250 visitors/month converting to 1-2 sales/month, my advice would be to focus on acquisition instead of conversion. Increase the volume of visitors a bit, then focus on improving conversion.

zallarak
Thanks for the advice. Any tips on how to improve traffic efficiently?
DannyCooper
I can't tell if your main keyword is "Organic Chemistry Notes" or "organic chemistry study guide". Find out which gets the most traffic and optimize for SEO around that term.
tgrass
I was recently "retargeted" by Adroll by two different sites. http://www.adroll.com/retargeting

In terms of name recognition, it was very effective. I wasn't aware of the ad service and presumed the advertising site had a much greater revenue stream than it actually does in order to afford the omnipresent marketing campaign. Haven't seen much reference to this method here on HN.

(I am in no way affiliated with the AdRoll site)

james_ash
My advice would be the following: look at the common questions students have and give 2-3 specific examples (with screenshots) of how they'd use your product. For instance SN1/SN2/E1/E2, figuring out nomenclature, reactions of alkenes, etc. Show how your downloadable guide solves their specific problem.

BTW I'm basically in your exact same space: masterorganicchemistry.com