Building an exit traffic strategy involves a lot more than simply pasting a snippet of JavaScript into your HTML pages. Exit traffic can be a substantial revenue source if you’re willing to invest the time it takes to build a solid plan.
You should start by examining your traffic statistics. How many unique users are you losing, and where are you losing them? Are they giving up on your front page? The second page of your tour? The join page? It’s probably safe to say that in each of these scenarios, the surfer is leaving for a different reason, and therefore you should have a different exit strategy for each. You want to determine why the person is choosing to leave your site empty handed, and figure out how you can still convert them.
If they are leaving from the front page, they’re probably not interested in the site. Chances are they are interested, however, in adult content, since they ended up at your site in the first place. So give them something else! Send them to another one of your pay sites, or to another affiliate program and see if they can convert them.
Using your exit traffic to promote other affiliate programs provides limitless opportunities for strategic alliances with other companies. Decide which site or sites you feel would be appropriate to your exit traffic and contact someone at that company and inquire about trading exit traffic. Most pay sites send traffic off to other affiliate programs in some form or another, so it might as well be yours.
If they click out from the tour, it would appear that you’ve initially captured their attention, but didn’t convince them to buy. This indicates that they are somewhat interested in the type of site you’re offering, but what you offered in the tour wasn’t compelling enough for them to continue or click that join button. At this point, you’d probably want to send them to a similar site, an alternate tour for the same site, or go straight to a trial or discounted join page.
You might try building an exit console, populated with banners and text links for various sites. You’ll definitely see a lower conversion ratio for each individual site, but for many, the overall results are satisfying. You’re giving the surfer the option of choosing from a variety of web sites and therefore increasing your chances of converting the sale.
When a surfer checks out on the join page, it’s usually due to one of three things: the didn’t think your content was worth the subscription price; they don’t have a credit card; or they don’t trust you enough to cough up the digits. From here, you can offer them a discounted price or a trial membership, exit to a site with similar content or give them an alternate billing solution such as checks or a dialer. If you’ve gotten them as far as the join pages, you don’t want to give up on them easily.
I’ve noticed that a lot of pay sites do not take advantage of exit traffic on their join pages. You’ve done all of the work to get the consumer to the final step and then you’re just going to let them go? They’re obviously considering whipping out their credit card, you just couldn’t quite close them at the end. Don’t give up! On many of our sites, we offer some sort of a promotion or discount at that point, and you’d be amazed at the conversions.
If your problem in converting a surfer is an issue of geography, dialers are and excellent way to monetize that traffic. Working with dialers can turn into a whole strategy in itself with all of the variables available to filter foreign traffic. Once you pick a dialer company to go with, make sure you study their documentation and learn how you can best implement this billing solution.
You also have the option of selling your exit traffic directly. Many paysite owners take advantage of this extra revenue sources by offering up this traffic source to their affiliates, other sponsor programs, search engines, etc. If you choose to take this route, do a little research to find out what programs similar to yours are charging. Keep in mind, this will add some work to your day, as you’ll have to deal with invoicing, campaign optimization, and tracking, not to mention the whole sales process.
There are a variety of other strategies you can use in your quest to monetize your exit traffic, such as selling products (i.e. penis pills, sex toys, DVDs, etc.), collecting email addresses or driving traffic to a feeder site. The important thing is to determine what your audience responds to and build your strategy accordingly. Quit wasting valuable traffic and start strategizing today!
