6 Website HotSpots You May Have Missed

Building a dedicated readership is essential for any blog’s survival. Nowadays it isn’t enough to link your newsletter, social account pages or promotional messages in the header or sidebar and expect people to take the action you want.

You may have missed an upsell or “call to action” opportunity when:

After a User Makes a Comment or Sends an Email

“Thank you for your comment” is a nice way of thanking your visitor but how about convincing them to sign up for your newsletter as well? You already have their email address, just prefill the details to make it easy for the user to hit the “subscribe” button.

404 Pages

If a user hasn’t found what they are looking for, make it easier by providing a search box, most popular articles, recent articles and a link to the site map. You may want to take it a step further and provide a list of relative content.

After Articles and Before Comments

This area isn’t just for banners and author credit boxes. It is a great spot to solicit newsletter sign ups, link to relevant articles within your site to promote more page views and ask your users to join your social network page.

Homepage, Eye Level (or Above the Fold)

This seems obvious but homepage, eye level (about the top half of a page) is still the best location to promote sign ups, newsletters and even products. However, keep it to a reasonable size so it doesn’t overwhelm what the visitor is looking for.

Footer

Repeat links to important pages in the footer in addition to site credit information. Don’t make the user scroll back to the top before seeing this vital information. Most of the time, they don’t. Extended information, links to your network sites, even links to social profiles is highly visible in this area. Think of your website’s footer as a mini extension of the main site which can be used to reinforce and support important pages, contact and more.

After Account Sign Ups and User Welcome Emails

If the user has taken the time to sign up for an account, it is a good indicator they are ready to provide details in other mediums such as to your newsletter, joining a social page, etc.

Don’t leave new account welcome emails dry, either. If your site has many sign ups but little participation that is an indicator that users don’t know how to participate in your site. Utilize the welcome email to let the user know what else there is to do and how to connect with other users.

What Are Your Hotspots?

Have you tried any successful upselling locations not listed here? Let us know in the comments.