So, by now you know what angle you’re going to go with, the characteristics of your market and who your character will be. It is now that you must choose a WordPress theme for our site. You can download a variety of free WordPress themes direct from their official site: http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/ or from within your WordPress site dashboard.
Now, your WordPress theme should reflect the overall `story’ behind your site. So, if you were targeting a problem keyword (e.g. how to lose weight fast) and you were using a story to presell, then you would have a simple blog-type theme.
Because you wouldn’t want a black, graphical, flashy website if you’re targeting mature women. Really, the keyword here is congruence. Your WordPress theme MUST be congruent with the rest of your site’s content.
Another example is if you were doing a concise review type site, you would want the theme to be simplistic and to look like an actual website, rather than a blog. If I were you I’d stay well away from any of the graphic, `work of art’ type themes because although it’s tempting to use them (trust me, some of them are GORGEOUS), for the markets.
And therefore your conversions will suffer as a result. Don’t forget that our aim is to convert the maximum number of visitors into buyers, NOT win design awards.
Now, an exception to this rule is if you’re creating the website for the online gamers (the World of Warcraft niche springs to mind Big Clickbank niche), graphic designers and similar audiences where they might associate a poor design with a poor quality website. For the vast majority of niches, it’s better to keep things as simple as possible.
In fact, do you know what theme I use most often? The default WordPress theme, truthfully. I’ll often spend upwards of 30 minutes looking for the perfect theme to compliment my site, only to land right back where I started.
It just seems to fit so well with such a variety of websites. If you’re creating a story site then nothing screams “I’m just a nice guy with some helpful friendly info” more than the plain blue WordPress theme, with a big portrait picture on the right-hand side.
Seriously, it works wonders , particularly for health and fitness-type websites. I don’t know why, my best guess is that it’s a balance between `natural looking’, personal and easy to use.
Finally, here are some key things to remember when choosing a theme:
Small header The above-the-fold section of your site (the area visible to the visitor without having to scroll down) is extremely valuable real estate. Don’t waste it with a gigantic graphical header. Clean, simple, and with a sidebar Don’t go for themes with fancy but unnecessary graphics.
And make sure it’s got a simple sidebar for links and the Who am I with your picture section. Professional looking for a review site. Personal looking for a story site The default WordPress theme really is great for this.
Some proven theme/story combinations for popular niches
Any smart marketer would have offered this as a bonus probably 🙂 But anyway, being the nice guy I am I’ve decided to give you some proven theme and story combinations for some of the most popular niches on the internet today.
I’ve had experience in all of these niches and what follows is what’s worked best for me personally. This is an absolute goldmine of information constrained to a single subchapter. And if you’re looking to get your feet wet, then just copying one of my proven combinations is a great way to start.
Ok then let’s get to it
Here are the most common markets you’ll be creating websites related to:
Lifestyle type products: weight loss, six-packs, muscle building, acne, panic attacks e.t.c.
Beginner money-making products: Products targeted at beginners with no experience of affiliate marketing e.t.c. Products promising Ferraris e.t.c.
Advanced money-making products: Products like this one (usually of much higher quality than the beginner type).
Now obviously, there are thousands of other markets out there, but these are the most prominent ones today. Note: a quick tip is that for most of the smaller markets you can use the lifestyle type products style to base your websites on.
Lifestyle products
As mentioned previously, the default WordPress theme works wonders. And it’s what I recommend you use if you’re creating a presell story or how to/ to presell story. In terms of your story, you want to come off as an average man/woman who’s relatively healthy and if applicable recently solved their health/psychological problem.
Your style of writing should vary depending on the product, but should always have points that the target audience will empathize.
Six pack/Muscle building
These are generally young, testosterone-fuelled males. Ideally, you’d want to appear as a 20 something guy, who used to be a ‘loser’ but is now a real ‘alpha male’. So make yourself be as close to that as possible.
This market’s interested in power (from having a better body), improving their confidence, attracting more females and pure results. So try to incorporate this into your writing. And as for the results, many of these guys will think in black and white so to speak, so they’ll want to see real results and they want them fast. They’ll also want proof, try a before and after picture if you can get hold of one. Try the sales page for the product.
Weight loss
A whole different approach (as well as a different character) is needed here. Your character would ideally be a woman between 30-50, who’s now a much more `well rounded’ person since losing weight.
Now, these women have excellent scam detection and will leave your site straight away if it appears to be selling them anything. It really is key here that you come off as a helpful individual. If you’re a man, then comes off as a very helpful review.
The weight loss market responds very well to emotional triggers such as empathy: “The passion in our relationship seemed to be at an all-time low, my husband just didn’t appreciate me anymore”. So make sure your story has points out that these women can identify with.
Beginner money-making products
These are products that promise Lamborghinis, millions of dollars etc working from home on the internet. These products are meant for people who have no idea what affiliate marketing is and they well rarely reveal what exactly their system entails in their sales copy. This is called a blind offer by the way.
A great example of this sort of product is the Rich jerks e-book. The first book I ever read about making money online actually. But note that these type of products don’t just teach affiliate marketing.
You can include all the so-called ‘Gambling systems’, Forex robots that target beginners and even all the pyramid type schemes available. Often these types of programs will be associated with the words get rich quick scam’. And scams they are.
Well, they don’t represent value for money at least. But here’s a quote of mine that summarises this target market perfectly: “Everyone loves a get rich quick scam”. And they do, the products convert at a phenomenal rate and are one of the biggest niches on the internet today. But here’s the key to preselling this market.
This was a very powerful realization for me, and this single point could make you thousands in the future… While this market is VERY responsive to copy promising the world, they want an opinion from a seemingly `honest’ source as well.
You do NOT want to hype up the product on your presell site. In this niche, your presell site will serve as a kind of proof, proof that all the promises made on the sales page really are attainable.
Essentially, you want to tell the story of how you really did make money with the system, from a personal non-salesman perspective. The demographics of the market don’t really matter because you’ll get such a variety of visitors it would be impossible to target one group. Just make sure that whatever your character is, that your story corresponds.
A favorite of mine is to just use my own picture (I’m quite young by the way) and tell the story of how I quit my removals to work from home.
Now, I wouldn’t be able to do that if I was a middle-aged guy because he wouldn’t work at Burger King in the first place No disrespect intended if someone reading this does in fact work at Burger King by the way…
For themes, I wouldn’t recommend the basic WordPress theme and instead go for something simple but slightly professional-looking. As if to come across that you know a bit about web design and therefore know quite a bit about the internet.
Internet Marketing Products
This applies to all products marketed to people who have a basic understanding of internet marketing. Whether it be a pay-per-click product, CPA product etc, it’s basically products that appeal to both veteran and beginner marketers.
First of all, this is definitely not the niche to start off in. Why? Because you’ll be expected to know quite a lot about internet marketing or there will be clear, visible `holes in your story. Also, more than the other niches, good copywriting is essential or your visitors will just get bored and leave or not trust you.
Now, the key to selling in this market is to be an authority, (that’s why I only recommend you try it after having actually made good money online).
You want to give honest, in-depth reviews that really get down to the brass tacks of how good something is (or isn’t, as the case may be). This is the only niche for which I don’t usually create a story (unless it’s my actual story) and instead provide useful how-to articles, then saying where I got the info from or `to find out more click this (affiliate) link’.
I tend to stay away from this niche for niche websites because there are so many excellent, free sources of information that it’s hard to compete and show them something they haven’t already seen.
What I do instead (almost exclusively in this marker, in fact) is target product keywords. This can be hugely profitable, particularly if you write a real review and offer bonuses. Offering bonuses is absolutely essential, or potential buyers will just read your review then go elsewhere so they can get bonuses along with the product Or even use their own affiliate link. As for themes,
I recommend that you use a professional (not too fancy though) looking theme. Once again I recommend the Divi Theme specifically.
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