Eric Nagel hosted the Early Bird White boarding Session at Affiliate Summit each morning. He asked attendees to offer up their websites for critique during the morning sessions, so I took the liberty to offer up SharkTankBlog.
Suggestions included using a single navigation as opposed to the two navigation bar style found on SharkTankBlog when possible.
“Early Bird White Boarding” – Lightbox Popup
The site lacked the typical lightbox popup containing a signup form for list building, something that we had not pushed before the session. He did tell us that like most people, he hates them as a user, but loves the lightbox signup form as a marketer because it works extremely well.
The signup form done right is a minor inconvenience for users of websites, and it makes a huge difference in the monetization strategy of blogs and websites. Overall, it ends up being a win-win for users and online marketers.
Eric Nagel also suggested changing “Buy SharkTank Episodes,” to “Watch SharkTank Episodes” as the episodes are free to watch using Amazon Prime, the place our “Affiliate Link” targets, where members can watch numerous episodes for free.
SharkTank lands a strong following of fans, who are likely to contribute to forums, and yet we do not offer a forum on the SharkTankBlog site. Eric suggested we use VBulletin, a premium plugin for WordPress.
Keep in mind that Eric writes a considerable amount of his code to his sites, and for that reason, he is more technical than the typical online marketer. He commented that VBulletin is a premium product, but that the reliability and stability make the purchase price a small token for reliable and usable forum software.
Check out Eric Nagel’s sessions when you attend Affiliate Summit Conferences. They are seriously great opportunities to learn, without any fluff.
Bringing your business card with your website address on the card will likely get your card on the screen of his sessions and let other marketers connect with you, and you’re going to be implementing all the great ideas as soon as you return from Affiliate Summit.