This guest post was written by Alex of ToMakeALiving.
It's pretty well established that to grow your blog you need to write well, and you certainly wouldn't struggle to find a dozen or so posts which offer suggestions that mostly boil down to "learn to write good content." Well, duh…
But assuming you can write, there is plenty of other stuff you can do to improve your blog.
So rather than launch into yet another checklist about how to make a nice looking, effective blog post, I am going to share with you a more scientific method: conversion optimization.
What is conversion optimization?
Quite simply, conversion optimization is the process of using measurable behaviour data and testing small or large changes to see what effect they have on the page or site.
Basically, you can change absolutely anything on your site and actually test it to see what works best. So rather than spending hours umming and ahhing over exactly what shade of grey to use for your text, you can test a number of shades and get a precise result.
Why is it so awesome?
Well, as I hinted at above—and I'm sure you've all done this once or twice—most bloggers design their sites based on how they like them; this is totally missing the point, though. Assuming you want to grow your blog, it is your users that matter, not your own personal tastes.
Your personal preference on how to lay out your navigation might turn out to be less desirable than a layout that you would have rejected. Small things really can make a big difference, and I don't know about you, but I would rather pick the setup that gets and keeps the most readers.
How to get started
Like I said, we are going to do this scientifically, no guess work involved. So we are going to start by finding the right application. Google have a free Website Optimizer, which works just fine if you are on a budget.
If you can afford it though, I...
