What Would Seth Godin Do Plugin: Easiest Way to Increase Conversions
Imagine a world where your website knew whether or not each page visitor had been there before. Would you treat them differently? Would you greet them or tell them special things?
One of the most important things you can do as a blogger is create a sense of community and connection. If everyone who stumbles upon your page is treated as a brand new, clueless reader, are you really treating your regular readers as well as you could be?
There's one simple way to make a dent in that without going all out and doing something big (although, hey, big isn't bad at all).
They're called cookies, and it's called the What Would Seth Godin Do Plugin.
It was created by Richard K Miller on this mere premise:
"One opportunity that's underused is the idea of using cookies to treat returning visitors differently than newbies. It's more work at first, but it can offer two experiences to two different sorts of people." (Source)
Fortunately, this plugin means it really isn't "more work at first," since it takes about 2 minutes to set up (including download time).
How does the What Would Seth Godin Do Plugin work?
Really, it's extremely simple. The plugin does the work so that you don't have to.
Here's what you see on your website after installing the What Would Seth Godin Do plugin:
The default settings show you a sample message to leave, which includes a link to add your RSS Feed to their feed reader. Since I'm more of an email list kind of gal, I opted to emphasize that instead.
As you can see in the picture, you can determine exactly where the message shows, how often it will appear before switching to the return visitor message, and you can even exclude specific posts and pages.
This kind of versatility is perfect. And you know what? You don't have to use this for conversions. Let's say you wanted to just shout out a welcome and hello to all of your readers. Well, that will do it! Although I recommend taking advantage of the prime real estate to connect with your new and old readers, you don't have to do anything I say.
Here's what your new readers will see on your posts and pages:
How does this affect conversions?
Really, the name of the game is conversions. If you're blogging and hope to gain even the slightest following and/or income, you're probably going to want or need to increase your conversions. This means that you want people to perform certain actions like follow your email updates, Like your Page on Facebook, Follow you on Twitter, and dance in a circle while wearing a sombrero on whichever newest social media program is out there.
You create a following by capturing information and creating a community through those digital connections. It's hard to do that, though. Simply adding your Facebook Page info on your sidebar will not get the job done. Instead, you need to find the right method for your website. For anyone, I recommend starting with the What Would Seth Godin Do plugin. Go install it already!