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But needs are complicated. They don’t come in one-size-fits-all shapes. One way we can more deeply understand our future readers needs is by looking at a classic marketing funnel:
While your future site will likely have articles along the spectrum of this funnel, for the most part your site will target a certain segment– or range of segments– on this funnel. In theory, the closer your content is to the purchase end of that funnel, the higher your revenue per visitor will be. This is pretty obviously true on the surface: your content marketing site will make money by managing traffic. Traffic that is spending money immediately is worth more (to companies that want that money) than traffic that is just window-shopping.
In other words, the more your content is at the fat top of the funnel (awareness), the more traffic you will need to make an equivalent amount of money with readers at the bottom of the funnel.
Is the best money really at the bottom of the funnel for a content marketer? Or: why “lock-ins” matter.
If your website is used to sell a product, or a class, or a service, you only make money if you can send a customer through the meat grinder end of that funnel. And so, the notion that where the bulk of the content is (along this funnel) will affect average revenues per visitor seems obvious. Yet there is a wrinkle in affiliate marketing specifically that will impact it this truism. The wrinkle is “lock-in” cookies. To understand “lock-ins” let’s look at the basic flow of a content marketing site:
- You create content for your website. You write article x about keyword z.
- Article x ranks on a search engine for keyword z (or related keywords)
- Reader y comes from the search engine, reads article z and clicks a link in the article to one of your affiliates “just to learn a little more”.
- That click generates a cookie on reader y’s browser that credits you if/when reader y buys something in the next ?? days
- The number of days is determined by the contract you agreed to with the affiliate partner.
Now, imagine that reader y checks out your site today when he is reading an article targetted at the interest level of the funnel. He clicks the link to the affiliate partner and gets a cookie crediting you with thee ventual sale. Now (in our fictitious scenario) next week, reader x goes to another website, reads a purchase-oriented article (like a review of various competitors), and clicks through to make the purchase. An affiliate partner who has given you a lock-in cookie will give you the credit for the sale. The first site to send the prospect is the one who gets paid. Thus, where there are lock-in cookies, being higher– but not to high– up the funnel will pay you too. (Why do I say not to high up the funnel? Most cookies are time-limited– 5 days, two weeks, 3 months, etc.– If your cookie expires before the reader completes a purchase, you won’t get paid.)
I know it seems like this is bogging down in the minutia, but it is an important point. What it means is that the conventional wisdom (your money pages need to be at the bottom of the pyramid) is only sometimes true. My thinking right now is that I am going to focus my money site on the pyramid between interest and intent, and then I am going to use those pages to support evaluation pages that send people (hopefully!) along to purchase.
Clearly, there are plenty of money sites that are winning search battles every day with content entirely focused on the bottom of that funnel. Every “Top Pressure Cookers of 2020” website does that. But I am betting (and hopefully it is an ok bet) that the better Google’s algorithms get, the more meaningful content will be rewarded. Do I sometimes lie in bed thinking this is a mistake? Yep. Sometimes I think I should just throw up the most schlocky review site and see what happens. But, by the time morning comes around and it’s time to keep my project moving forward, I decide that I am going to go all-in on an authority site. Once I get it solily launched, as an experiment, I might try to do something at the big-money side of the funnel. And if I do, I’ll detail everything here on Crunchle.
A wonderful serenity has taken possession of my entire soul, like these sweet mornings of spring which I enjoy with my whole heart. I am alone, and feel the charm of existence in this spot, which was created for the bliss of souls like mine. I am so happy, my dear friend, so absorbed in the exquisite sense of mere tranquil existence, that I neglect my talents.
On her way she met a copy. The copy warned the Little Blind Text, that where it came from it would have been rewritten a thousand times and everything that was left from its origin would be the word “and” and the Little Blind Text should turn around and return to its own, safe country. But nothing the copy said could convince her and so it didn’t take long until a few insidious Copy Writers ambushed her, made her drunk with Longe and Parole and dragged her into their agency, where they abused her for their projects again and again. And if she hasn’t been rewritten, then they are still using her.
Far far away, behind the word mountains, far from the countries Vokalia and Consonantia, there live the blind texts. Separated they live in Bookmarksgrove right at the coast of the Semantics, a large language ocean. A small river named Duden flows by their place and supplies it with the necessary regelialia.
Here’s what people wearing on The Stage
A collection of textile samples lay spread out on the table – Samsa was a travelling salesman – and above it there hung a picture that he had recently cut out of an illustrated magazine and housed in a nice, gilded frame. It showed a lady fitted out with a fur hat and fur boa who sat upright, raising a heavy fur muff that covered the whole of her lower arm towards the viewer.
Gregor then turned to look out the window at the dull weather. Drops of rain could be heard hitting the pane, which made him feel quite sad. “How about if I sleep a little bit longer and forget all this nonsense”, he thought, but that was something he was unable to do because he was used to sleeping on his right, and in his present state couldn’t get into that position. However hard he threw himself onto his right, he always rolled back to where he was.
The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence.
One morning, when Gregor Samsa woke from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a horrible vermin. He lay on his armour-like back, and if he lifted his head a little he could see his brown belly, slightly domed and divided by arches into stiff sections.
A wonderful serenity has taken possession of my entire soul, like these sweet mornings of spring which I enjoy with my whole heart. Even the all-powerful Pointing has no control about the blind texts it is an almost unorthographic life One day however a small line of blind text by the name of Lorem Ipsum decided to leave for the far World of Grammar. The Big Oxmox advised her not to do so, because there were thousands of bad Commas, wild Question Marks and devious Semikoli, but the Little Blind Text didn’t listen.
His room, a proper human room although a little too small, lay peacefully between its four familiar walls. A collection of textile samples lay spread out on the table – Samsa was a travelling salesman – and above it there hung a picture that he had recently cut out of an illustrated magazine and housed in a nice, gilded frame.
It showed a lady fitted out with a fur hat and fur boa who sat upright, raising a heavy fur muff that covered the whole of her lower arm towards the viewer. Gregor then turned to look out the window at the dull weather. Drops of rain could be heard hitting the pane, which made him feel quite sad.
