If you haven’t visited the homepage of www.okdork.com in a while, take a look. A clean, minimalist landing page, and a picture of my sexy Jewish fro.
The WordPress plugin behind the look has DOUBLED the sign-ups/conversions for the Okdork blog. Now for every 100 visitors to Okdork 14 sign up for my email list. It automagically creates a Welcome page template that you can setup in a few minutes.
Groupon, LivingSocial, AppSumo, Quora…what do these super-successful companies have in common?? A BIG EMAIL LIST.
Much of their traffic is directly from sending out emails.
All of them have budgets and teams focused exclusively on getting new email subscribers. So are emails important you ask? Frick YEA. Quite possibly the most important asset they have.
If you have a WordPress site and an email list, try it out. It’s available to download and use today*.
Andrew Chen invented it and Donnie Cooper created the plugin for your email collecting pleasure. There’s a 3 minute guide below to help you install and set it up on your own.
It’s free for the next couple of weeks. Try it out, tell your friends, and then let me know what kind of results you get.
Download It Here*.
*A new version is now available. It’s easier to install and works with more WP themes per Okdork readers’ feedback.
Here is the 12-step EMAIL-aholics anonymous ways to setup the plugin. (Be sure to pay attention to the final step.)
- Upload this plugin folder `twitter-welcome-page-template` to your `/wp-content/plugins/` directory and activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress.
- Name the page with your twitter handle… then type in your content, add your mailchimp snippet, use < blockquote > for quotes, etc.
- On the page you want to be your welcome page, select “Twitter Welcome Page Template” in the template drop down menu.
- Click “screen options” and check the “custom fields” box.
- In a custom field, type “twitter_pic” in the name field then in the value field paste the url of your twitter image (or any image).
- In another custom field, type “page_title” in the name field and then a 70 character title in the value field for Google.
- In another custom field, type “page_description” in the name field and then a 155 character description of the page in the value field for Google.
- Go to “Appearance” then “Widgets”.
- Drag “Custom Menu” to “menu-twitter-welcome-page” and select a menu that will show at the top of your welcome page. (you may need to create a menu first).
- Drag “Text” to “analytics-twitter-welcome-page” and paste in your google analytics snippet.
- Drag “Text” to “footer-twitter-welcome-page” and paste anything you want to show at the bottom of your welcome page.
- Tweet a thanks to @andrewchen, @inboundable
68 responses to “The WordPress Plugin that DOUBLED My Conversions”
I’m sorry but I’m not even closely getting it to look like Noah’s Welcome page… Can you help?
I swear I followed all the instructions, but this is what I get: http://www.sofieweltcom.tmp.mysmt.net/?page_id=38
Could this have to do with the fact that I’m testing it in a temp environment in WP?
As you can see, it doesn’t appear as a welcome page, but as just another regular page.
Also, I am missing the instructions to add an opt-in. I thought this was the whole purpose of this page? Why are we linking it to Twitter instead of Mailchimp or something?
Thank you,
Sofie
I agree, some basic themes would be useful (yes, I know this is free).
I don’t want to spend hours doing the css/html when I should be marketing.
Captains Log: Star date 8 July 2014. List subs 882 main list, 150 flow on subs.
Tried this with Thesis, can get the twitter template to show in the chooser.
Newbie wordpress question, but my blog is on wordpress.com. Do I need to go ahead and move to wordpress.org to start using these plug-ins?
Hi James, yes, you do.
You’re homepage is so pretty and simple. You took the fold and made it half the page. I’m still slightly mystified by opt-ins but I’m starting to get it.
Thanks so much, Noah!
I followed the instructions exactly. When I go to my website, however, it just shows the homepage it was already showing before I installed the plugin. Any idea why this is? I’m using Dynamik with Genesis.
Hey Guys, is there a plug-in for tumblr blogs as well?
Kindest regards from Germany,
Sascha Hojzakowa | Jack the Flipper
no sir, sorry
kindest regards from florida
donnie cooper | jack the ripper
Hi guys,
I feel ashamed of asking but still would like to get it. Can I use it with wordpress.com or just wordpress.org?
just wordpress.org
thanks. kindest regards from Poland
Hi Donnie, I’ll followed all the steps until step 9. When I go to Appearance > Widgets, I do not see “menu-twitter-welcome-page” or “analytics-twitter-welcome-page” or “footer-twitter-welcome-page”. Please help. Thanks!
Can you make a quick video (screenr.com) or some screen shots please? Also, what theme and/or framework (if any) are you using?
Here’s a screenshot of my widget page: http://alfredlua.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Screen-Shot-2014-02-12-at-10.49.04-1024×624.png
I am using the Twenty Twelve theme and I did not edit any of the code of the theme. I am not using an framework. Thanks.
Hi Noah…can you let us know the differences between this and “interrupt”.
Which generates more leads…is this for example meant for blogs and interrupt meant for products or something ?
Also why twitter is mentioned that much in this plugin…i really can’t get why ? At first i thought that it will be a welcome page for users that are coming to your site via twitter or something(that might be a nice feature by the way) but it seems that this is not the case…so why it is called twitter welcome page or why you use your twitter name and avatar?
Cheers,
Stelios
AppSumo.com fanatic 🙂
Awesome Noah. You’ve a very nice blog and i love your bloggins style as well.. Cheers.
Hello Noah, I like your new design of the home page.
Looks similar to the site of your friend/mentor Andrew Chen.
Do you think it has an negative effect on your SEO? Or isn’t it important to you?
Michael
PS: An off-topic question . . . What do you think about cold calling?
Thanks for your response. I’m sending you an email.
view your source code and look for the line with rel=”shortcut icon” in it.
@Donnie Whoops, I don’t see that line of code in your comment. Could you send it again?
Thanks for the tip about the main menu! For some reason, my theme only allows one menu, ha.
@Anthony try adding the following line of code above your analytics script in the analytics widget created by the plugin….
if this does not work, email me and i’ll help.
ps. add your main menu at the top of your homepage using the menu widget created by the plugin. this will help keep your rankings from dying 🙂
Noah, this is awesome! I already revamped my homepage and I love the minimalism.
One thing I noticed, however, was that I lose my favicon for the homepage. Yet all other pages still have it. Any suggestions?
Thanks!
@tim allowing for custom css would be easy with the addition of another widget or even using a custom field value… but i got your email with many other dev requests.. so unless others want this simple feature, i think you should hire a developer to custom build the page you are really looking for.
Suggestions!
Allow page css to be honoured. Mine is getting lost.
Use JS to get it to appear like your interrupt plugin? (This allows user to skip it, a) admin configurable period of time, or b) allow forever skip
(I’d pay for it with those features).
Cheers!
Tim
@kim the page layout isn’t setup to have a sidebar, but i could change it to give that option. drop me an email please.
for everyone who wants to set their homepage and blog page…..
1) create a page called home and select “twitter welcome page” as the template
2) create a page called “blog”
3) go to settings > reading and set these options for “front page” and “posts page” http://i.imgur.com/VXtNN6V.jpg
Thanks, Noah! It’s a great thing! I will certainly use it on my blog.
Hi Donnie,
I am using the Cleanr theme.
3 questions:
1) How do I set the url mywebsite.com to show the twitter welcome page?
2) How do I set the url mywebsite.com/blog to show the usual list of posts?
Right now, mywebsite.com shows the usual list of posts aka the index.php
3) Right now all my posts are using the widget menu-twitter-welcome-page as my sidebar. My original sidebar cannot be used. How do I maintain my own sidebar for everything else?
So I have downloaded the new version of the plugin and it is working great.
Thanks @Donnie @ Noah
@Donnie.
I use the Canvas WordPress theme. I installed the new version of the plug-in. Everything works. thank you
@Tangelia and @Kim …what them are you using? and have you downloaded the new version (1.1)?
Hi @Donnie,
I have emailed you. I got the same issue as Phil Morle at this comment. http://okdork.com/2013/11/13/wordpress-plugin-doubled-conversions/#comment-910936
Any news?
Thanks Noah. I’ll definitely try it when I get a bit more traffic on my blog!
Got the same error message as Ryan, @ Donnie help!
Thanks this is awesome, can you tell us if you used a plug in for your email pop-up window? Thanks!
A new version of the plugin has been added using the same links above. It works better with a variety of WP themes.
Hi Noah / Donnie
I have the same problem Ryan (November 14th, 2013 6:28).
I want to know what files to change for access. Do they need to be 777 or 755 or something else?
@Brian and anyone else who might be worried about the SEO impact… You can easily leave that page out of Googles index by adding a noindex-tag to your section (http://www.robotstxt.org/meta.html). Most WP SEO plugins can do that easily.
And if you don’t have any WP SEO plugin and would want one, go for Yoasts WordPress SEO-plugin.
Hey Noah
You rule
Do you suggest this or Interrupt (I am using the Mixergy one too)
@phil can you email me and i’ll help get it figured out donnie at inboundable. just making sure, did you activate the plugin through the plugin menu?
Hey Guys, I have installed the plugin but I am not seeing the template file when I create the new page. Any tips?
@Lilia yea this plugin is definitely not integrated with an email service… it’s just a layout with the ability to paste your subscribe button in (generated from whichever service you use).
I don’t see info in the post on where the email addresses get stored, did I miss it? Ideally, blog owners would have a module that integrates with whatever email provider they are already using. Otherwise, manual work of merging lists or handling separate lists takes away from the immediate benefit of quick setup.
This seems best for someone with no existing email list setup – gotta start collecting those emails and worry about list management later.
THANK YOU! 🙂
@Maarten the plugin creates a template file that you can then choose from in the template drop down section when editing a page.
@ryan your file permissions need to be changed for your theme files. at least temporarily to let the plugin create a theme file. send me an email if you want my help donnie at inboundable. http://codex.wordpress.org/Changing_File_Permissions
@brian as long as you put links at the top to your major site sections (home/blog/about/etc) you shouldn’t see much of a change if any. basically you’d make what you’re using as a homepage right now into the blog.
Noah,
Do you know how can I build an online store with simple steps?
You’re the man,
Thank you!
How does the interstitial page affect SEO/search stuff?
@Ryan: Can’t help but notice, but Ryan, I think you have uploaded the file into the Themes folder instead of the Plugins folder.
You need to upload plugins to your Plugins folder in WordPress. The plugins folder is located in the wp-content folder. Hope this helped.
It would be interesting to know if the number of visitors who leave/bounce before clicking “Go here” got higher considering the short attention span of people.
I actually really liked the style of the other welcome email plugin you put out a while back. The one that slid the page down. http://www.appsumo.com/interrupt/
Thanks man.
Yea, I have a cleaner version of this one coming out in a bit…
Activated the plugin and received this error message:
Warning: copy(/home/content/06/5549106/html/ryanwiley.com/wp-content/themes/Thesis/created-by-twitter-welcome-page-template-plugin.php) [function.copy]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/content/06/5549106/html/ryanwiley.com/wp-content/plugins/twitter-welcome-page-template/index.php on line 33
Asked Donnie to jump in and comment on this…
What makes this plugin unique? Not sure what it does
Dude.
First interrupt and now this!
So much excellence.
Thank you.
Thanks, Noah, I appreciate it!