In this video, Ben Hunt and myself dive into the topic of optimizing your homepage (and particularly your blog homepage). Discover the most typical mistakes made and some quick fixes and principles you can apply today, to make your homepage much more valuable to your business.
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Note About the "Victims" in this Video
In the video, we dissect the homepages of several blogs ad we're very critical of some of them. Please remember that none of this reflects badly on the businesses or people behind those websites.
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Links & Resources
Here are all the important links and resources from the video (in chronological order):
- ​Start With Why by Simon Sinek - a book about the importance of your core values.
- Usability Hub - get 5 second tests and other usability tests done on your website.
- Learn how to create a compelling USP (unique selling proposition).
- How to create an effective strapline - Ben's post, elaborating on the advice he gave in the video.
- How to Run A/B Tests on Your Site, for Free.
- Convert! - Ben's excellent book about website conversions. If you liked his insights i this video, you'll love this book.
Bonus Material
We've got two additional resources for you. First, Ben has made his "50 Web Design Secrets" available and you can unlock it here:​
Get the 50 Design Secrets PDF:
Click the button below to get instant access:
The original webinar ran on for longer than this video recording. If you want to listen in to some of the Q&A we did at the end, here's an audio recording for you:
Click here to download the MP3 file.
​We hope you enjoyed this and that you'll get a lot of value out of implementing some of our suggestions. If you have any questions about the topics discussed, please leave a comment below.
Hey Shane, thanks for posting this – I’m looking forward to watching it (hopefully later today). I actually tried to join the webinar itself when it was live, but I never got any kind of link to join the event. Granted, I did “register” right at the time it was starting, so perhaps that was the issue, but I thought I’d let you know in case it’s some kind of bug.
Thanks for all the great stuff you and TT continue to do!
Thanks for letting me know. It could be an issue that happened because of the time you joined, but ideally, you should still have received the email and link to join. I’ll try to fix this for next time.
Great content, clarity, congruity. So good to have detailed examples to look at, and I look forward to the ongoing experiments with Ben’s site.
Many thanks. You have set a high standard.
Thank you, Michael! I’m looking forward to our case study as well.
I can’t see the video on either my iPhone or iPad yet it loads on my laptop. Shane, is this a setting issue when embedding the video?
Hmm, this definitely shouldn’t happen, Steve. The video works on my mobile devices, but I don’t have any that start with an “i”. 🙂
I’ll have to ask the Wistia guys about this (that’s our video host).
I’m not sure if this is the “norm” and the last couple of times you’ve had a gated download, I’ve had trouble getting the gate “open” when I share. I know what tool you’re using and can’t get it to come up to the top of mind at the morning! In both recent instances I’ve tweeted and then liked and the option didn’t unlock. Thought ya might wanna know! I would have shared either way simply ‘cuz you’re you!
I’m sorry about this Jerilynne. We’ll have to fix whatever the issue is with that. I really want the lock to work properly, but it seems to fail for a small number of people. :-/
No worries Shane…figured you might want to know. Sh** happens when it comes to technology for sure.
Many blessings
MamaRed
Hey Shane, This happened to me too but only with the Tweet. So I tried the Facebook share and that worked. Also, Ben’s ebook is missing the graphics (the examples that he’s talking about) on a few of the pages. Anyhow, great webinar! Learned a lot. Thank you for all you give to help us with our websites.
Thanks for the reply, Marlene! This will help us fix the issue.
Oh geez and forgot to say “great webinar and I’m not an easy one to get to sit through a long webinar, well, any webinar for that matter. Yours are one of 3-4 I will watch. Appreciate all the goodies and examples.
Glad to know you enjoyed it! 🙂
Thanks Shane and Ben, I enjoyed the webinar. Funnily enough I am a Primal Blueprint Certified Expert (No. 19 in the World) so that part was particularly interesting. I’d been waiting for that particular product of Mark Sissons for months so was already a converted visitor. If you’re a new visitor to marksdailyapple.com, however, it won’t mean a thing like you pointed out. I’m working on my first product, a step by step guide to getting ‘six pack abs’ in the form of a classroom where I teach a simple formula to looking good and feeling good. It’s actually 2 years in the making!! I’ve been in the ‘immersion’ phase of The IM Impact system for most of this time so perfectionism and creation have been a major blocks for me. I plan to deliver it with Thrive Themes, Apprentice and Wistia next year, if I can get through immersion 🙂
Hi Clive,
Thanks for your reply! You seriously need to get something launched, Clive. I’m sure that after 2 years, you are more than immersed enough and at this point, you’re just depriving the world of your product.
Hi Shane and Ben
Just watched the replay and very good it was too. Huge thanks to you and Ben for a most informative and eye opening session.
You mentioned “behaviour” towards the end of the Q and A part. I’ve studied behaviour and have wondered what drives one behaviour over another.
For my penny’s worth, we can observe the structures which drive behaviour and they are everywhere. From the very basic physical structures which affect behaviour all the way up to our values which drive behaviour.
One thing I’ve noticed though is that it’s the underlying or core values which have a larger affect on behaviour and the way we think than most of us realise.
This is one very large/huge topic.
If you have the time, you may want to read “What Makes People Tick” by Chris Rose.
If you have the even the slightest interest in this topic, it will blow your mind.
All the best and thanks again.
steve
Thank you, Steve! Definitely a very deep topic, yes. Thank you for the book recommendation, too!
Hi Shane
It may be interesting to combine the ideas in Simon Senek’s “Start with Why” book with Chris Rose’s “What Makes People Tick.”
It will I think open up nuances in communication.
It will also challenge the ideas so loved by many people who’s offer is basically “make more money.”
We all perceive, interpret and experience the world differently which in itself creates niches within niches. The extra niche layer is based on core values.
The message and positioning will need to be different and is dependant on the core values of the people you wish to target.
regards
steve
Has the replay been taken down? I can’t see the video on this page
Ah – it’s showing on my desktop but NOT on iPad – maybe because it’s an flv file ??
Hi Sandra,
It’s supposed to switch between Flash and HTML5 video depending on the device, so I’m not sure why this wasn’t working for you. I’ll see if I can get some help from Wistia (video hosting guys) with this.
Ok I tweeted 50 design tips but I didn’t get the pdf.
Sorry about that, Anthony! I’ve sent you an email with the PDF.
Great webinar, I very much enjoyed it (as I have all the others you have provided)!
With regards to Ben’s site, I haven’t seen any discussion yet on improving his site. One thing that I noticed was I could never scroll down to see the footer, maybe eventually I would get there but I gave up. Is there a reason for this? Maybe using the Post Grid from Thrive Theme Content Builder would help?
Hi Gary,
We’re still working on that. We have a few tests running right now and since testing takes time, it might be several more weeks before we can come back with data to report. But there will be a follow up post right here on the blog, once we have some interesting results to share.
What you mention from the site is a feature called infinite scrolling. It’s available as an option in our Performag theme. With the feature enabled, new content is continually loaded as the visitor scrolls down the page. Since a site exit is more likely once a visitor reaches the end of the page, this method attempts to increase user engagement and keep readers on the site for longer.
Hi Shane,
Catching up on the webinars. Where is the download link for this webinar and the previous? Thanks!
Hello Harvey, All our webinar recordings can be found here:- https://thrivethemes.com/thrive-knowledge-base/?section_id=962
But where is the link to download the video? The first few webinars have a “download” button under the video but some do not.
Hi Shane,
Great webinar, indeed !
I just shared on Twitter, but didn’t receive any link to download the pdf. How can I download it ?
Thanks.
I’ll send you an email with the PDF.
Great webinar with you guys. I sent the tweet but did not receive Ben’s pdf. Thanks!
I get lost in your website..there is so much great information,I wish I had found it sooner! Thank you for all you do!
Has this webinar been removed? There is a big black screen where the video would be. I was looking forward to this training because my blog needs help!
Hi Kristen,
The webinar has not been removed. The video should be showing.
Does anyone now how to set the like FB button and then the PDF pops up for download.Brilliant idea to get FB likes but how do you do it?
Anyone? Anyone?
Hi Dan,
That would be done with a “share to unlock” plugin.
For the moment we use Social Locker
There is so many gold nuggets in this video it is insane. You could read FOR YEARS online about creating a website that makes money and you would not get the insights that this video provides. One of your best Shane!
P.S. Case studies are AWESOME!
Great ideas thanks guys! FYI- Ben’s site is out of date….
Broken content. Please check and fix.
Fixed