How to Create and Use Heatmaps Efficiently

create-heatmap

You are getting traffic to your website but the conversion rate isn’t what it could be. You’ve set up testing but you want to know where on your site visitors are clicking. Visual Website optimizer’s heatmaps tool allows you to do just that.

What are Heatmaps?

Heatmaps are a tool that let you see and measure how your visitors interact on your site during different test variations. The heatmaps show different colored images of where your visitor clicks, whether it is a link or just the headline, images or any other element. When you use a heat map, you can actually see where your visitors are clicking on what they think is a link. The tool lets you see the clicks from different areas of your page. This is shows you that if you had, for example, two sign-up buttons on your page in different locations, you can see which ones gets more clicks.

How Do Heatmaps Work

Heatmaps show up as different colors within your website. You are probably familiar with the heatmaps used in weather maps, where color is used to translate the value of the temperature or rainfall.

In the Visual Website Optimizer heatmap, areas that receive the most clicks or mouse movements will appear in red. The areas that are pretty much ignored appear in blue.

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Advantages of Heatmaps

There are many advantages for using a heat map on your site.

Heatmaps show what areas of your website your visitors don’t care about. Your visitors might be ignoring certain lines of text or certain links. Heat maps help you clear out unnecessary elements.

Heatmaps let you see the areas where visitors are drawn to. You can put your products or sign-up buttons in those areas so they get noticed from your visitors.

Heatmaps track where your visitor is clicking or hovering.  It shows which pages your visitors want to explore.

Heatmaps help you arrange your navigation by revealing your most clicked on pages and the best place for those pages is.

Tip: The top position in your navigation is the second link, the one directly after your home page link.

Heat maps let you study your headlines so you can see where and if you need to shorten it.

How to set up Heatmaps

Setting up a heat map test begins by clicking on the “heatmaps and clickmap” button under create a test tab in your Visual Website Optimizer dashboard.

Next you need to enter in your URL and then click on the Create test button.

Enter the details about the test in the About test section.

In the “Test Pages and Audience”, section choose which visitors you want to track and on what pages to track. For multiple pages, click on the “change” button and use the URLpattern button to add more pages.

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Click on the Change button on the side of the “Target test to Segment” area to pinpoint your visitors. Then you need to select your conditions for the test. In the “Other Settings” area, you can choose more than one domain to be used in the test and integrate your Google Analytics account as well.

Once you’re finished click on the “Create Your Test” to begin testing.

You can find you heatmap in the tab.

Tips for Sucesss

Use the information from your heatmap report to make your design and content the best it can be for visitor interaction.

You can get your reports several ways. Export as a PDF, send it to your email or export as and Excel spreadsheet.

Your heatmap will overlay on the test variation previews. The actual heatmap might be different from the preview. Click on the snapshot to see the actual one.

Common features available in the heatmap include the GoTo URL to get to a specific URL on your website. The Intensity feature lets you slide to increase or decrease the intensity of clicks that are visible. It also increases the opacity of the overlay.

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Use heatmaps with A/B testing for more effective analysis of the information you get from your tests.

Use heatmaps to determine if links need to be moved or text needs to be shortened.

Pay attention to how people read your page according to the heatmap information.

Test for banner, or the elements that look like advertisement banners, blindness among your readers.

Use heatmaps to see exactly where visitors are clicking and hovering on your website. With Visual Website Optimizer’s easy to use heatmap tool, you can see what areas need to change, what links are getting clicked on and even which pages get more mouse movement.

How to Sell on Amazon

how-to-sell-amazon

If you have extra items lying around the house, one great place to sell it is Amazon.com. You can sell any item that’s listed by Amazon on Amazon’s website. In other words, if you have a blender that Amazon sells, you can list your used blender on their site.

If Amazon doesn’t sell the item, you’re better off listing on eBay. On the other hand, if Amazon does have the item, you’re often better off on Amazon. For example, say you have a used book. While people seldom search for books on eBay, millions of people search for books on Amazon every week.

For items that are popular on Amazon, list your item on Amazon. All other items and especially items that aren’t listed on Amazon should be sold elsewhere.

How Much Does it Cost?

There are two different plans you can opt for: the Individual plan or the Professional plan.

With the individual plan, you pay $0.99 per item plus other fees. With the Professional plan, you don’t have to pay the $0.99 fee but you pay $39.99 a month to subscribe. In other words, if you plan on selling more than 40 items a month, it makes sense to become a professional seller. If not, then stick with the individual plan.

Apart from the per item fee, you have the Amazon referral fee and the variable closing fee. Each of these fees vary from item to item.

For example, with books the referral fee is 15% and the closing fee is $1.35. If you’re an individual seller and you sell a $10 book, you’re looking at:

$10 Base Price
– 15% ($1.50) for referral fee
– $1.35 for closing fee
– $0.99 per item fee

So your total take home amount will be $6.16.

Accountability Systems

Amazon has a seller review system that enables buyers to rate sellers on a scale of one to five. If people who buy from you are satisfied, you’ll have a high rating. If not, you’ll have a low rating. Before buying, people can see how previous buyers rated you.

Ratings are based on the aggregate of your previous 12 months. They’re expressed in percentage form – In other words, if nine out of ten of your customers are satisfied, you’ll have a 90% positive rating.

Here’s how to get started as a seller on Amazon.

Step 1: Click on “Sell on Amazon”

Scroll all the way to the bottom of the page. Click on “Sell on Amazon” in the footer.

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Step 2: Select Your Plan.

Select which plan you want to use to start selling. For the purposes of this guide, we’ll use the individual plan.

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Step 3: Enter Your Search

Enter your search for the item you want to sell. You can search by ISBN, UPC, ASIN or just by title or keyword.

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Step 4: Select the Item

Amazon will list all the items that matched your description. Select the specific item you want to sell.

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Step 5: Verify Your Product Matches

Amazon will ask you to make sure that your product is exactly the one you selected. Make sure the edition is correct and that you’re not selling a similar product, but the exact product listed.

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Step 6: Describe Condition

What condition is your product in? Make sure you describe any physical flaws in detail.

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Step 7: Price Your Book

Amazon will let you know what other sellers are pricing their books for. You can either price yours above this and let your book sit for a while before selling; or you can undercut the competition and get your book sold as quickly as possible.

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Step 8: Quantity

How many of these items are you looking to sell? Only sell multiple items in the same listing if they’re in the same condition. Otherwise, create a separate listing for each item of a different condition.

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Step 9: Shipping Charges

Choose which shipping option(s) you want to accept. Amazon will charge enough to cover your shipping costs. Amazon pays for the shipping for you; all you need to do is print out the shipping label from Amazon once you receive your order.

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Step 10: Sign In

Log into your Amazon account to continue the selling process.

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Step 11: Choose a Display Name

Select a display name that you want buyers to see. This allows you to protect your real name while still building a personal brand on Amazon.

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Step 12: Choose a Credit Card Number

Amazon needs to verify the credit card that you have on file. They’ll do that by charging and refunding $4.

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Step 13: Phone Verification

To verify that you own the phone number that you say you own, Amazon will call you and ask that you enter a PIN number that’s displayed on your screen. Make sure you have your phone handy before placing the call.

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Once you’ve verified your account with your credit card and your phone, Amazon will create your account.

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Step 14: Confirm Your Sale

Confirm all the details about the item that you want to sell. If everything looks good, click “Submit Your Listing.”

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Step 15: Complete!

Once you submit the listing, you’ll see the following screen:

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Your item is now up for sale. When someone places an order, Amazon will notify you and give you access to the shipping labels you’ll need to ship your item.

 

Tips for Selling Success on Amazon

  1. Protect your rating. Much like selling on eBay or any other platform, your rating is crucial to your long term success. Aim for a 100% positive rating at all times.
  2. Ship immediately whenever you get an order. The faster you can get your buyers their item, the more likely they are to leave you with a positive rating.
  3. Include a quick note in the package. It could be a printed note or a handwritten note, depending on how much effort you want to put into it. This personal touch just helps add a bit of connection to you and your customer’s relationship.

That’s how to sell on Amazon! If you have items like books, magazines or CDs, selling on Amazon is usually a better bet than selling on eBay.