Who is Thrive Learning Institute and What Does Thrive Learning Institute Do?

From time to time we get people asking, "What does Thrive Learning Institute Do?" we thought we would make a post so that people who find our blog can be more informed as to what exactly it is that we do.
Thrive Learning Institute empowers individuals, organizations and businesses to create, buy and sell merchandise online using the company's unique e-commerce services. Today, Thrive Learning Institute is a growing network of members who have unleashed their creativity to transform their time and ideas into new revenue streams. Powering individuals, independently-run businesses, as well as syndicated and corporate stores, we teach every aspect of doing business online. Including storefront development, online marketing, search engine optimization, and selling on eBay. Enabling anyone to open a website and market the site online.
Our Mission
Thrive Learning Institute is the leading provider of online training in the world. We provide executive-level training for individuals and businesses. By understanding our business and by becoming sensitive to our world, we position ourselves to help others become leaders in an ever-changing marketplace. There are a number of things we do to make sure this vision is a daily occurrence and not just a meaningless sentence in a strategic plan. Some of these are:

• Provide quality, accessible and innovative training
• Build strong international networks with consultants
• Base our products and services on proven principles

We are an innovative, fast moving company. We are also a virtual company. This means that we are able to identify emerging trends in the online training industry and act quickly. Our motivation is to help other people achieve the goals and the success they desire by assisting in online business ventures.

The customer is always right... When it comes to conversion.

A lot of times people will argue about what changes should be made to a site to help improve it's conversion rate. When it comes right down to it the only changes that you should be making to your site are those that the visitor likes. How do you know which changes the visitors like? The answer to that questions is simple, if visitors to your site like the changes that you have made, more are going to buy and they will become customers instead of just being visitors. It will be a bit of a guessing game but most of the time you will be able to see what changes need to be made just by looking at your stats.

What Should My Conversion Rate Be?

Now most of the time when conversion rates are talked about the number 2% is thrown out a lot.  Now even though 2% is the average conversion rate of online retailers there are some industries that are higher and some that are lower.  Thanks to a study done by  Fireclick Index we know what your conversion rate is based off the industry you are in:

Vertical	Conversion Rate (%)
Catalog	6.1
Specialty stores	3.9
Fashion/apparel	2.2
Travel	2.1
Home and furnishing	2.0
Sport/outdoors	1.4
Electronics	1.1
All verticals	2.3
Source: Fireclick Index

See what works for others...And Copy It

Copy what works for others (within limits). In particular, copy companies that appear at the top of the search results both in the organic results and pay per click results. You will learn different things by looking at each of these. Typically, sites that rank well have focused more on optimizing their sites for the search engines so look to them for ways to help your site rank better (i.e. keyword phrases they have focused on and where they placed them). Websites that are paying for their traffic on the otherhand are usually a lot more interested in testing their site for conversion because each one of their visitors is costing them money so you will want to look to them for better ways to increase your conversion rate (i.e. website hierarchy etc..) By paying attention to what the competition is doing you will be able to have a site that not only ranks well but converts well too.

Where to Look With Web Analytics

There are thousands of types of statistics that you can look at when it comes to tracking your website analytics. When your site is first starting out there are only a few that you will want to be sure to look at and those are:

• Where your visitors come from (Referrals)
  
• How long the visitors stay on your site (Duration)
  
• Where they go while they are on your site
• Which pages they land on (Entry Pages)
  
• What page they were on when they left your site (Exit Pages)

By just looking at these key stats you will be able to run an effective test market and then move onto a more in depth analysis of your site with other analytic information.

Conversion Rate Tip #1

Web analytics – The most important thing to keep in mind is that without web analytics there is no test market. Luckily you will have web analytics through the lightwave builder as well as in google analytics. There are numerous areas that you will want to pay attention to in your lightwave builder analytics including total number of visitors and their duration. Within Google analytics, the 'site overlay' feature tells you where people click, where they don't click and where they leave your site. Some people say "there are piles of gold waiting for you in your log files" and they are right. We definitely recommend spending some time watching your test market and web analytics videos.

Effective Test Markets

    After you have applied the link building techniques that we have discussed you should have a pretty good flow of traffic coming to your site.  If you are like most online retailers you will find that having a successful ecommerce website isn't just about getting traffic but successfully pointing that traffic in the right direction once they get to your site.  

    Once you have about 100-150 visitors a day coming to your site it will be time to run a test market.  Your test market will be the time during the first couple months after going live with your site that you will test new things on your site such as fonts, images, calls to action etc.. to help improve your conversion rate.  

    Test markets are used in every industry whether it's movies, video games and even chips.  The theory behind test markets is to try something new whether it's a product or website with a smaller group of people and making changes based off of their feedback before releasing it to the masses.  You will want to do the same thing with the test market on your website.   Over the next several posts we will cover the changes that you will want to pay attention to during your test market.