Are you trying to make money online? Well you better have your most wanted response ready then.
Did I just see a question mark above your head? You have no idea what that is? Then this is the post for you!
This post is 1.400+ words long. It contains some useful info you might want to come back to later. For easy reference here is the post in .pdf format, right click to download it from here.
What is a most wanted response?
In plain words it is “what you want people to do on your blog”.
Your most wanted response can be people clicking on your affiliate links and buying products, leaving their e-mails when they subscribe to your newsletter or hire you for a service you are offering.
Every post you write should have a most wanted response. If you don’t have one, your visitors will just leave the blog after reading the post. Or best case scenario, they will wonder around. But without MWR on any of your pages, they will eventually just leave.
Why should you have one?
If you are blogging for money (or hoping you will do it one day), most wanted response is what helps bring the money.
With a MWR “assigned” to everything you do, you will get to the money part faster.
Let me digress a bit here. I’ve read a lot of posts on how to get more comments. Don’t get me wrong, I love them and use those tips a lot. I love getting a lot of comments. But if you are building your blog to make money, comments alone won’t do that for you.
So, instead of making your most wanted response “getting more comments” you should have in mind another MWR – “make money”.
Now, although your main MWR for a blog should be “make money” you should have a more specific MWR for every post you write.
Also, this works the other way around too. If you have a MWR in plan, there is a certain kind of post you should write to get it.
How to know what is your most wanted response for different pages?
Different types of blogs offer different types of services so they need to adjust their posts accordingly. It will depend on how you monetize your blog as a whole or how you monetize specific parts of it.
- Why do you write a sales page? To sell. So what is your MWR there? You want people to click on “add to cart” button and buy your product.
- Why do you write a review page? You want to show people why they should spend money on the product/service you are reviewing. So your MWR will probably be for them to click your affiliate link and buy.
- You want more subscribers? You will create a sign-up page and tell people why should they give you their e-mails.
Is there a MWR for your front/home page? YES! You want people to dig deeper into your blog.
MWR doesn’t always have to be to make more money. You can even have a MWR where you will want visitors to go and see another blogger’s blog.
Always have in mind that everything you do, can and should have a most wanted response attached to it.
How can you make this work?
Set some goals to start with. Let’s say that you have a goal to get 100 new subscribers to your newsletter this week. That means that your main focus will be to get you visitors to give you their e-mail address.
The newsletter subscription box in your sidebar won’t do it. You will need to give your visitors many opportunities to sign up.
Some of the steps you could take are adding the sign up form below your post, which will remind them to enter the e-mail address. Then you should write a separate post about why should they sign up, what’s in it for them.
Do not put any other links in the post because you don’t want to distract them. All you want is for them to give you their e-mail. If there are any links in the post, make them all go to your sign up page.
Of course you should tweet the link to sign up form and do all the social sharing, but I am focusing on the MWR for a post here.
See how Aweber compares to Mailchimp as a list building tool.
What not to do?
What would be a completely wrong thing to do when it comes to a most wanted response. Distraction!
If you have a sales page where MWR is (of course) for your visitors to buy, you will never add a “Visit our Facebook fan page” to the top of your post. Why? Because it will take your visitors away from the page and away from the sale.
You don’t have most wanted response on your blog and don’t need one?
What if you don’t have a newsletter, you don’t have a product of your own, you don’t want to participate in any affiliate programs? All you want to have on your blog is Google Adsense so you don’t need MWR? Well, here is a big revelation for you. Your MWR there is for people to click on ads.
You can’t tell them to do it because it is against Adsense TOS but there are ways you can get people to click on ads. And you should focus on that. Again, we are at the beginning – focus on getting your MWR, getting people to do what you want them to do.
How to get people to click on your Adsense ads? You need to have ads that are exactly what they want.
Let’s say you blog about gardening. Your target audience will come to your blog after Googling “how to plant roses”. They will click on ads that offer services and advice on this. So how will you get those ads to show up? You are going to achieve this by doing some SEO on your posts. You will optimize your blog with gardening keywords so Google will deliver only relevant ads.
It is up to you do the the best you can to get the most wanted response from your visitors.
Call to action
All this is basically explaining that you need a call to action on your blog. That call will get your most wanted response.
You need to be clear about what you want people to do. If you are selling a product your call for action will be “add to cart” button. Add more than one of those. Give people the chance to do what you want them to do.
Steps to achieve your most wanted response
Basic steps would be:
- write a post and focus on what your most wanted response will be
- remove or reduce all distractions (links, banners, ads, everything non related to your MWR)
- tell people about all the advantages of what you are offering – persuade them that it is good for them to do what you want them to do
- connect with them
- Call for action – give them (more than one) opportunity to do what you want them to do
How will you know if you are doing it right?
You need to track your results and then analyze them. If you are not selling anything, your sales page is not working. Change it!
If you are getting some sales but think you can do better, do a test. Change the page and see if you get more sales. Tracking two or more different pages should give you enough data to analyze it and decide what works the best.
In case something is not really working there is only one thing to do – flush it down the toilet. Start over.
And just one note for the end – even if it is working good, try to improve it, because you can always do better!
What is my most wanted response for this post?
My MWR here is to help you, teach you something, so you would trust me and become a regular reader. If you subscribe to my newsletter or RSS it will be an added bonus.
Remember when Homer Simpson started his own website? It had dings, and bells, and spinning Jesus..and bunch other things…remember? (If not, search homerwebpage on google images)
I feel a LOT of websites are like that. Even my own site I feel like it follows a standard blog format (which is good in some regards) but that format does have a spinning Jesus…or to phrase it differently, doesnt have a laser focus towards MWR.
btw…is MWR your TLA? (TLA= Three Letter Acronym)
I like it..it captures all 1400+ words in 3 letters…amazing
Nope, not mine TLA.
Remove the spinning Homer and do something
Dino:
Can I have your spinning Jesus?
He better not give you one, cause I don’t think that would work well for tomorrow
Focusing on the purpose or goal is a common topic, but we often forget to break it down and use a goal for each sub-goal on our way to success. Thanks for a well-written, insightful post as a reminder. You got your MWR from me. I’m a regular reader after this great post.
Thanks Teresa,
and it just pushes me to try and be better.
I love having regular readers
Welcome to my blog, and if there is anything I can help with you are always welcome to contact me!
What a post, Brankica! Excellent.
Yes I have an MWR on my website, and my blog. The blog comments show that the MWR is working. The MWR on my website(s) isn’t working as well, it’s not ‘fleshed out’ as well as it needs to be.
Overall the MWR’s (and my pages) all need more eyes. Since the basic architecture is there but they are all still under construction in key areas, I can live with that short term.
It’s a big balancing act – Admin-Posting-Building-Studying. You’ve just made my life easier and sharpened one of the tools in my toolbag. I’m bookmarking this post.
Thanks Brankica.
Gibson, glad I could help!
Sometimes it is hard to define everything straight away but there are many (like this blog a few weeks back) that didn’t have a plan and a goal in mind.
Dollface!
Excellent post and this is my short term goal…to define every aspect of my blog and what I hope to attain from that.
Kudos Brankica
Lisa
You did a great job this week, I can see all that coming to you…
I have different desired responses based on the article I write, one that is informational or helpful a comment would be desired, on one where I am promoting a product or service an action to check out said product is desired.
That just confirms the point, we should have a MWR on every article. As you say, you want a comment on a certain one, that is pretty much like what I want here, I want people to become regular readers, which would eventually get a comment from them as well
I read your blog often and you can see that your posts have a purpose which is great cause it makes me think you are working on your stuff seriously.
This post is right on the money. Thanks for making me think about what I want people to do when they visit my blog. I also want to thank you for bringing to my attention to track results and don’t be scared to make changes.
Glad you liked it BJ, and welcome to my blog
Brankica,
Having a goal in mind for every post and page is a must. Now I am wondering if I have gotten a little side tracked a few times. I know the data and that it works. I use it in my emails, I only give one call to action.
Thanks for the reminder.
Sheila,
I guess you are getting more out of your business than others, since you know what are you doing
I receive some e-mail from subscriptions and I often see two calls for action (just links) in them. But I guess it always depends on what you are offering in the mail and what is the main goal of the newsletter.
Thanks for the comment!
Great points Brankica. I know people that have taken down their email opt-in forms because they said they didn’t have anything to trade, although they could offer special tips and such.
One thing with comments though – if you have a good amount of comments on your post, and use a single-post opt-in form placed above the comments, then the likelihood of a reader to see that call to action (or MWR as you call it) is greatly increased.
Robert, I think anyone who runs a blog can have a newsletter. I mean you can always offer a tip or two extra. Or just expand on something you already wrote about. And you only have to do it a few times a month.
I agree that a lot of comments help but if your MWR is more opt-ins, just having a lot of comments won’t do (in general).
I wish I had read this six months ago, when The Anti-Social Media was starting to pick up significant traffic. I could not figure out how I wanted people to respond besides laughter, and I couldn’t figure out how I wanted to monetize (if ever). Now that i know I want them to laugh, share it with their friends, and think deeply, I think I’m starting to get somewhere.
There are so many things I wish I read before. But the good thing is that I am a fast reader so I am picking up on some stuff pretty fast.
You know, better late than never, so maybe this is the best time for you to start thinking business
Wow, I’m halfway through your post (I will go back I promise) and I’ve already seen a bunch of cool ideas and content that you are using that I have not seen before…
Converting your post to a pdf plugin…pretty cool.
I love the use of the main keyword
Love your CTA / “MWR” Great way of looking at it…a mind shift puts the goal of your post at the forefront on a daily basis…
I “Liked” your page…looking forward to more
Nick, thank you so much for the nice words
Hope this post helped a bit either with some new ideas for you or just as a reminder that there needs to be a purpose for stuff we do
Thanks and hope to see you back again.
Excellent point Brancika, I try to make my CTA (call to action) as clear and concise on each and every post; so far so good!
Glad it is working, Dennis
Brankica,
This was an excellent post! I am definitely saving the PDF for future reference. I think it’s easy to get side-tracked when writing a post and you just reminded us where the focus should be. Thanks!
Alicia, welcome to my blog and I just wanna say that I am glad if I can help
Hi Brankica,
We often forget why we actually blog. Is it a business a hobby, normally the two combined.
You have laid out the basic principles very well. We seem to forget that not everyone will understand what we want them to do. It might be obvious to us but not to a visitor.
You have got me thinking now, time for an assessment.
Pete
Lol, Peter, I bet a bunch of us realize we are not so clear about what we want people to do after someone reminds us.
If we don’t make it clear they won’t know. And if there are too many things, they might get confused and just leave.
Thanks for the comment
I suck so hard at doing these things.
Normally I just want to create stuff, and I put off thinking about things like this that I consider to be “not fun”. Of course, it only hurts me in the end so I must get off my lazy butt and get it together.
Thanks for writing this one, I’m kind of fired up now to put some of this into action!
Hey, make sure to come back and share some results!
I love this!
There is nothing more important than a strong call action. I hate those site that I come across with banners, links, and pictures everywhere! I never know where to look first and usually just end up leaving.
Wow, I just LOVE the little mini logos you have next to your headlines. Would it be weird if I did that to my blog with a tiny chameleon head? LOL.
This was super great advice. It makes me want to go over to my blog and see how I can make more stronger calls of action.
Hey Elise,
I don’t like copying stuff but the logo is something I saw on Ana Hoffman’s blog. I love it cause I was trying to do something similar way back on my website but couldn’t get it right. I love it too.
If you decide to do it, shoot me a message, I will send you the code
Hi Brankica
Some excellent points that should motivate us all to go check out our own sites and take action…..NOW When I get people to my blog I would much rather them leave having learnt something than be impressed with how many comments I have! Visitors here should be pleased there is plenty to find here
Anyone reading this post should go away with something to action. I can smile a little cos with my new look site, and also my abhorrence for clutter both online on a blog and offline in my home; I like to have a clean site. My dear friend Rose did an excellent job of that I reckon. Will still be looking to improve in some areas. Having blogging buddies who challenge me and are looking to assist me with improving my blogging skills is a huge bonus.
When I go to a site I have a look around, see how easy it is to navigate and then decide if I’m staying. If it is full of ads and I have to search for the post then I am off. I love networking but not to go on a search once I land on a blog lol
You have covered this so well Brankica and for newbies especially, this is treasure. Of course I will be tweeting it several times (allowing for different time zones) cos I want those who are wondering about what all of this blogging business entails; need to be reading quality posts.
After nearly 7 months of blogging seriously I have come to the conclusion (for me anyway) that some blogs have taught me what I need to know but aren’t now giving me anything unique to bring me back.
Your site has a freshness with each post and long may it continue
BTW just be yourself and you may admire what others are doing but what will keep your readers returning and bringing their friends too, is your style. Sure we can learn from others; but if you become like someone else, then you lose that edge. Just my 2 cents. Well done Brankica.
Patricia Perth Australia
Patricia, thank you so much for taking the time to comment. I love your comments cause I always learn something from them.
I love being myself and I will try to stay that way. Of course, there are people I love learning from, “stealing” a tip or two, but I still love doing stuff myself, my way
I really hope people will keep coming back cause I think there is a thing or two I can help them with. Some basics are always good to be reminded of, especially when it comes to new bloggers, that wanna do it right from the start.
This is some great content! I’m bookmarking this particular post, especially, because my brand-new blog doesn’t have a MWR. I hadn’t really thought about it, other than just “getting regular visitors.”
I’m going to sit down tonight and completely revamp my entire vision for my blog. Thank you for the online kick in the keister!
Delena
Delena, welcome to my blog and thanks for the comment. I am glad I could help and I am sure when you put some ideas on the paper you will be surprised how fast you will reach the goals. Sometimes it is all we need to do – define and start doing it.
Hi Brankica,
I’ve been debating with myself: one call to action or several call to actions: now you’ve answered my question: what is my most wanted response (MWR). With the services I offer, people don’t make instant decision, they think and think and procrastinate. I want them to remember me and be able to get back to me once they decide, that’s why I need them to bookmark and connect with me, so they can find me again and not lose my details.
Ben Wan
p.s. Your pdf version of the post is ingenious… there I’ll go and do the same.
Hey Ben,
since you are offering the service, I guess your main most wanted response would be for people to hire you. So what I think you can do is write a post or two about your service and call for action – call for hiring you.
Another, more subtle way to do it, would be something like:
If you are offering to install a WP blog for someone as a paid service, you can write a post on how to do it. Yes, give the info away for free. But at the end of the post add “If this all scares you and looks intimidating, and you are not so keen on installing the WP yourself, you can hire me”. And link to the page where the offer is.
And about .pdf file, about a month and a half ago I saw Tristan do that on a long post, so I think this was the perfect opportunity for me to try it out, since this post is something everyone can get back to and read over and over again, to be reminded of things to do to make your blog succeed.
My blog isn’t designed to have a MWR other than the need that people should find something useful on their visit or to enjoy their time there.
You suggest to have a MWR on a blogs home page. Other than your header how would you suggest this be done as the home page changes with every new post.?
I do agree with you though on your basic theory and I actually do use that if I want to get a particular reaction from a reader when writing individual posts.
I’m not sure about having a subscription form on the end of each post, one because I find it annoying and two because I reckon if everyone does that we would become blind to it. Sort of like banner blindness.
Home page can be set up to be a static page that won’t change with every post. This post doesn’t apply only to WP blogs, but to websites as well, and their home pages are static.
Also, featured post widgets (carousel) serve the purpose of promoting your best posts so people would go and read them. Why do people put the on their home page? To get readers to read those posts…
Your post about MailChimp the other day (not sure if you had any affiliate links there) but the perfect MWR for it would be – for people to sign up for MailChimp using your affiliate link. The post was a great piece to read and if I hadn’t been a MailChimp user already, I sure would sign up for it reading what you wrote.
When it comes to subscription box at the end of every post, it all depends on the type of the blog/website, the purpose, MWR, etc. I am sure you ran into the plugin some bloggers are using that will open a subscribe box in the middle of your comment after you submit it? That is something similar, don’t you think so?
Not an affiliate link in that I make any money out of people joining, and that post did lead to people subscribing to my list.
I haven’t seen one that opens a subscribe box in the middle of a comment, but I have seen the ones that open a box whilst in the middle of reading a post. Worst thing every. I don’t even bother reading and just close it instantly. Actually I’m actually thinking of leaving the blog altogether, without reading the post, the next time that happens.
Lol, I know which pop-up you are talking about, I hate it too.
Well, there you have it, if you had the affiliate link you would be a “real money making blogger”
Ah, but I am a “real money making blogger”
My top priority is top rated SEO tips and only solid content for my readers community. no affiliate no banners and no paid and biased reviews. just solid content that thrives on reader appreciation
Hey, Rohan, I believe I saw your blog yesterday, and you really got something nice going on there
You obviously have a plan and sticking to it.
Thank you buddy
there are 2 new posts 
comments and feedbacks would help me to get a third person perspective…
Ok this is the first time i get to know about MWR..and made me think about it…thx
Brankica,
Thanks. I know I’m getting in on the tail end here, but…this is what I need. MWR causes me to have a specified focus. Specified goals. Thanks, and I am signing on!
Wow…
I saw this in your Twitter feed, and remembered when I first read this post of yours. It was the very first one of yours I’d ever read, come to think of it.
You are such a motivation and an inspiration for me, Brankica! This post is directly responsible for me getting over my completely irrational fear of creating an email subscription list with MailChimp and a newsletter, as well as getting serious and TREATING my blog seriously. Y’know, rather than just being tepid about it and not asking to be taken seriously as a mom blogger.
I think your posts have inspired me to the most action, big steps and not baby ones, for my blog.
You definitely rock. And have pretty awesome ideas that I can do! (And not have to wait until I have money to buy the recommended subscription, lol)
Delena
Delena, these word mean a lot to me. I am so glad me and my blog are helping you and you know you can always contact me when you need something! I am glad you are now taking your blog more serious, I mean since you already work on it, why not make it rock