Website Vs. Social Media: How To Maximize Your Online Income

28 Nov Website Vs. Social Media: How To Maximize Your Online Income

WordPress offers users a plethora of ways to generate income: affiliate reviews, paid ads, ecommerce, and so on all make for a diverse sales strategy.

But there is often debate about whether social media or your website is the best way to drive sales. Some people think social media is the way to go, but mostly it’s your website that matters (although social media should go hand-in-hand with your website).

With that in mind, read on to learn how to maximize your online income with a careful blend of website and social features.

Want to boost your WordPress earnings a little more? Check out these useful plugins

Make your homepage visually appealing

Your WordPress homepage is your website’s welcome mat. It’s what your visitors first see, and it’s also what they base their initial opinion of you on too.

Consequently, it’s important that you make your homepage look as visually appealing as possible. The key to this is a careful blend of simplicity and aesthetic.

Take your featured images, for instance. Instead of opting for several images, stick to just one or two high-quality photos and display them on your front page.

Similarly, don’t be afraid of negative space. Empty space on a website doesn’t need to be filled. Instead, use it to draw attention to specific elements. For example, you could use it to highlight certain bestsellers on your homepage, so customers are immediately drawn to the products you want to push.

While the rest of your website should also look on-point, your homepage should be particularly beautiful. It’s the hook that keeps customers onsite, so spend some time making it as attractive and engaging as possible.

Optimize your user interface

What really drives sales on a website for customers is ease of use. When your website is easy to use, customers stay on-site for longer. Optimizing your website for your customers means making it intuitive.

Start by creating a menu that is clearly navigable. Concise button names, contrasting colors to clearly distinguish buttons, not too many options — these all go towards making a menu that is easy to use, and consequently one that drives conversions.

Don’t overdo it with images either. Too many images will overload your visitors and repel them. Opt for one or two images per page, or use a carousel to let customers scroll images as they see fit.

Offer multiple ways to convert

If you want to increase your WordPress business’s income, you should give your prospective customers as many options as possible to convert.

Obviously, your WordPress should offer product purchases onsite. There are a number of plugins available to let you sell via WordPress (WooCommerce being the most popular), so it’s easy to set up.

Social channels should be your next port of call. Social media platforms have an array of features to drive conversions that work perfectly alongside your website. Instagram in particular, is a powerhouse for ecommerce. It offers a plethora of ways to drive sales, including Product Stickers on Stories and Shoppable posts.

But conversions don’t necessarily mean sales. Email signups, dedicated product landing pages, even competitions all offer users different ways to convert and hit your specific goals.

Provide social sharing buttons

Your website and social media channels should work in conjunction with each other.

Your website is full of great content that gets views and engagement. While sharing it across your own social channels is a good way to drive traffic, so too is letting your customers share it on their own social accounts.

Make it easy to share your website content on social. Include social share buttons on each piece of content you have on your WordPress, as well as your product pages. You could also include buttons for post-purchase sharing (Amazon are particularly hot on this)

Stay active on social media

I mentioned earlier that your WordPress site and your social presence should go hand-in-hand. While social share buttons drive website to social interaction, so too should you seek to turn social media engagement into website clicks too.

Maintaining a regular active presence on social media helps keep your brand in your customers’ minds. Your customers won’t see your website updates unless they visit your site regularly, but if they’re active on social, they’ll notice your updates there.

To that end, post frequently on your social channels. Make this easy by creating an editorial calendar and planning your posts for the month ahead. Use a social scheduling tool like Hootsuite to automate your posts too for ease and convenience.

When it comes to maximizing your online income on WordPress, your social media and website should work together. Follow the tips above and boost conversions with a combination strategy that works for you time and again.