Yes that is not just a catchy subject line.
WhyDoWork gets about 1,000 new members a month (a little slower lately because our redesign has had some impacts on pages indexed) but its been fairly consistent to a point where were at around 27,000 members.
During peak times of the year, subscribers are at around 50 new members a day.
Quite a ways back in the infancy of WhyDoWork.com we were using a basic webstats application that told us little else other than the number of users per day visiting the site. Once we upgraded to Google Analytics, we were able to literally double our daily subscribers overnight by looking at one factor:
TOP EXIT POINTS
If you already have Google Analytics, you’ll see it after you click the “Content” menu. Then click “Top Content”. You should see something like this (click to view larger):

In the image above from right to left, we’re taking a look at a months worth of stats, what the top content for the month was, how long users spent on each page, the bounce rate, the exit rate, and the cleverly blurred out $ index of our goals.I’ve highlighted in pink the key areas to look at:
- What is your sites average Exit %?
- Out of your top content, which are the few that stand out as high exit points in the (% Exit column)?
The last step is to take action.
In our case, we strategically placed content inviting users to sign up, or register free prior to viewing in order to take advantage of high traffic but poor site stickiness.
On the days following the implementation of this idea, avg. daily subscribers rose from around 20 to over 40.
Give it a try. I’m fairly new to blogging and usually hesitant to give away secrets of the site, but this is too beneficial to be kept a secret
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great post, I had to open my analytics account and follow along as I read
although I want my visitors to leave on some of the pages, through affiliate links…
I can see that the posts where I get the most link love generally have the highest exit rate, people just checking it out and leaving, i reckon I should add extra emphasis on those pages to drive people deeper in the site, encourage sign ups, or some other call to action.
thanks for sharing.
Thanks!
Give some extra emphasis on those pages a try and let me know if it works out for you.
This offers some excellent ideas which I had not considered using in my blog strategies. Definitely time to go to Analytics and make this happen!
Great title as well as information! I’ve jumped right on it!
I recently began using Google Analytics and am also amazed at the information it provides at no charge. Along these lines, I have recently come across a new video business directory that is free. It is http://www.MeetMyBiz.tv
The site has just recently launched. I am among the first to join this directory. It seems to be fairly comprehensive for the everyday business owner. I am hoping it will be a good networking opportunity that will mesh connecting other business people and growing my business.
Excellent post, thanks for sharing! Amazing how some of the most beneficial tips/tricks are right under our noses…
Congrats on your fantastic success and here’s to much more!
That’s awesome!..thanks for sharing it on us..^^
nice tip – i’ll check into that on analytics.
I will definitely check this out, many thanks…
Great Post. I love Analytics. It’s helped my site immensely.
Great post
I’d be using Analytics with your guide indefinitely.
Nice Post, I will be sure to try this out
Thank you for the tip.
Thanks for a really good tip however in my analytics I have a lot of pages which have a small number of hits but 100% bounce rate – any ideas wot I can do?
@ Pete:
Number of hits doesn’t matter: whether it’s 1 or 1000 you still have a chance to capture the viewers interest. You can apply the techniques above to any page
Thanks for another good tip.
[...] about metrics. I am a huge fan of Google Analytics; partly because it is free, and partly because I’ve had some success in the past with using the data to improve subscriber rates. A question that comes up quite [...]
I love Google Analytics. It has sooo many diferent options
BTW, thx for a great tip.
TheMilliondollarplans last blog post..Why getting a job is a bad idea?
Hi,
I would I am a new blogger. I want to know if I use other adsense and not from google, like bidvertiser instead of google adsense, will my page ranking be affected?
Thanks
MetropolisMom
MetropolisMoms last blog post..Under The Sun
Really useful. I’ll give it a try, as my blog has some subscribing problems. I’ll see if the readers grow, and I’ll report back here to thank you
Chips last blog post..Are You Backing Up Your Blog?
Great post! I’m going to start using this and see what happens. Thanks!
Kim Sawyers last blog post..Just Another SEC Season
Come back and let me know if it helped!
I’m a little slow in finding this, but am I ever glad that I did! Being somewhat challenged in the technical department, I’ve had quite a learning curve. This information will help me, starting tonight as I’m going to my Analytics account to check this all out now.
Thx-a-lot!
Shirley
Shirleys last blog post..1
Will defintely be giving this a go, sounds interesting.
Goran Websites last blog post..1
I’ve been using google analytics for a while now and i have to say it is a most helpful tool. Gives you a lot of information on your visitors and even provides resources on how you can improve your traffic.
Thirdworldgeeks last blog post..1
[...] post some tips as I discover how to put this new tool to use. Remember when I was able to double subscribers overnight using just Analytics? Hopefully I can do the same for AdSense income. ShareThis Category: [...]
Great tip. Yes, analyzing statistics and taking action is the best way to improve your website traffic.
Shirleys last blog post..Why The Alexa Widget Is BAD For Your Website
Analyzing the bounce backs also can help a site a great deal. To start with re-looking at content of those pages and putting in some better offer or info. Hope this helps
Selbourne designers last blog post..ROR Sitemap for http://www.selbourne.com/
I use Google Analytics, but I didn’t think about using them to help increasing my subscriber’s rate. Awesome.
Franck.
Thanks for the post, right now I am using a simple stat counter to. I have hesitated about using Google Analytics.
Will have to rethink that.
Thanks
[...] the past i’ve given out some juicy nuggets on how I was able to double our subscriber rate in 24 hours. Google recently enabled the tracking of AdSense earnings in Analytics, and layering on some [...]
[...] the past i’ve given out some juicy nuggets on how I was able to double our subscriber rate in 24 hours. Google recently enabled the tracking of AdSense earnings in Analytics, and layering on some [...]
[...] the past i’ve given out some juicy nuggets on how I was able to double our subscriber rate in 24 hours. Google recently enabled the tracking of AdSense earnings in Analytics, and layering on some [...]
Thanks for the share, I’ll be back and see if I can add some value to what your up to.
I recently made by site only a wordpress blog and lost a ot of traffic. It was site sickness as you said, the traffic I am beginning to get now is better. A work in progress.
Google Analytics has seriously increased the amount of money I make online. I have a few blogs that I run and I was make very little, I found that most of my ads were on posts that were getting barely any traffic or from the wrong sources.
Once I saw were the traffic was, I changed the ad placement and tripled the income. So simple but I never would have found it without the analytics program.
Steve
Huggies Diaper Couponss last blog post..1
Great information you shared here. At my part, I have done several experiments on my top exit points, including some not so annoying pop-ups before exiting.
Healthy Recreations last blog post..Healthy Wedding Menu
My bounce and exit percentages are way higher, but that is largely because I have quite a bit of variance in my content, as I write about things I do, which might be pretty much anything
I got my bounce rate lower with related posts plugin on WordPress, but this post made me think about ways to lower the exit rate too. So I thank you for sharing the “secret”
Zemalfs last blog post..How To Join Your First Affiliate Program
Hm I never have a thought of looking into the most exit points on analytics before. Good point to identify posts that we need to modify to reduce this
Michael Aulias last blog post..Mozilla Firefox 3.5b99
Great post.. Inspiring me.. Thanks so much for sharing..
Hi,
I found your wesbsite from a free ebook. I have to admit that your posts are really good and helpful. I will go through all articles.
Thank you for the tip. Im using Google Analytics now but the problem is I dont get any visitors. Please help me. My site is http://manchestercity-news.com. Thank You.
I really like your topics. It made me open every page.
Thanks a lot for sharing this info. I am going to test it on my site. We do have high Bounce Rate and we are concerned about it. On top of that, we never paid attention to Exit percentage. I would definitely look into it now.
Hi,
This is what I will call the proper research about the tool that we use.
I haven’t gave that close attention to my analytics, my main emphasis has always been on the visitors and the convert rate. But checking out the average site exit, can really make a difference.
Thanks for this wonderful insight.
Awesome I have had Analytics for a while but never realy to adavantage of this.
Thats true, analyzing the traffic is a must for any webmaster. If you don’t then better do it. I don’t want my visitors to stick my site as i have nothing else then content to feed them so i want them to click the ads and go out. For me, i don’t care what is my exit point.
Hi Whydowork insider,
I think I like the best part of it to give such a secret out with enough illustration & significant success to share it with. I think it is indeed incredible. Bravo!
There are two simple steps required to start tracking a new website: the creation of a new website profile, and the addition of Analytics tracking code to all of the pages you wish to track.
The code contained in the text box on the Tracking Status page must be copied and pasted into all of the web pages you will be tracking. It should be added immediately before the tag, and can be added by hand or through the use of templates or includes, if available.
This is so great: it’s such a help to be able to see where you’re going wrong, and better still, what you’re doing right. Maximising the good points of your site is easily as important as fixing those things that are going wrong, if not more so!