Ok my Online Entrepreneurial Peeps! Confession time…
I can get a little obsessed with plugins, as in installing way too many of them. So many things to do and great uses for them right! But, I have to be careful about the plugins I choose as I have had some crazy things happen…like a random deer picture showing up on my site at one point. I know weird right!
When plugins cause havoc, you just have to let them go. No attachment. You want plugins that are going to be safe, useful, regularly updated, and help you grow your business. One that fits the bill for me is SumoMe via AppSumo.
I Hope you have noticed the hard work I have been putting into better organizing the home page, cleaning up the sidebar, etc. I’m not done, so patience is appreciated. And, if you have not noticed, I’m sad because I feel the need for validation here.
Why SumoMe?
SumoMe has helped with the decision-making process in what I have kept or given up. I took some things out and moved others up to a more glorious position. I will continue to test and see what works best for you.
Analyzing Content: The Content Analytics feature is a free tool that shows you how much of the content readers are viewing. From the screenshot below, you can see that Immensely Social starts with 100% of readers up by my subscribe box, but the readership goes down to 60% about halfway through the page. The bottom/footer? Only 21% remains. With these details, I have made sure that the most recent posts are towards the top for easy access. Although I would love for you to see my latest tweets, pins, and Instagram photos they are of a bit less importance and have been moved down. I removed the post slider, as I felt it was just too distracting to the content, allowing me to get more posts front and center.
Heat Map: The next tool I used to evaluate my homepage in the SumoMe Suite was the Heat Map. Though it kind of looks like my site has entered planetarium mode, there are some sweet details. You can see how many clicks are happening and where. For Immensely Social, the “Create” tab seems to be the most popular, with “Learn” next to follow. This allows me to know that once I get my content back categorized, those are the top two pages my readers are interested in and where my focus should be. The activity to the right, around my site description, also lets me know that, perhaps, I should move that side subscribe box up. We shall see…
SumoMe has other useful tools like their List Builder and Share. Not only do these options look great on your site, you get feedback and analytics to see how things are going and what you could possibly change. I am certainly no User Testing Expert, but SumoMe has made it easy for me to grab some analytics to improve.
The Image Sharer is also why you can share my images so easily on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. Another free feature I adore.
The List Builder is “Stupid Simple” compared to other plugins too! Just check this out:
The SumoMe Blog has some great “To Dos” to help you grow. Check Out: How to Get 2, 239 Email Subscribers From Scratch. I definitely need to make my way through that one.
If you have not yet installed SumoMe on your WordPress site, here’s a How-To in 51 seconds, impressive:
For more tutorials, you can subscribe to the APPSUMO YouTube Channel Here: APPSUMO
And don’t forget to subscribe to Immensely Social while you’re at it: ImmenselySocial
Remember that you can always access the Immensely Social TV playlist on the IS TV Tab!
Your Turn…
Have you joined the AppSumo Family? Let me hear your favorite features of SumoMe in the comments.
Kellie says
I keep getting notices to install SumoMe and have it on my list of things to do. I like that you explained all it can do and I have to say that the pop up to subscribe to your email list is at the right spot. I’m getting sick of having it show up before I’ve even read a word on someone’s blog.
I totally think the heat map is really neat.
I will do this soon and I’m coming back for the video.
lorihil says
Thanks so much for stopping by Kellie! I truly appreciate your comment and I’m happy you found the post helpful. Pop-ups can definitely be annoying, which is why I like SumoMe’s timing feature. It makes it a bit less intrusive. Hope the video helps.
Beth says
Unfortunately I made the mistake of choosing to have WordPress host my blog and can’t use plugins so I am moving to self-hosted in July and can’t wait to start using this! Thanks for sharing via Blogging On Your Own Terms #Sharefest
lorihil says
Best of luck with the transfer Beth! Self-hosted is the way to go. Enjoy and thanks for stopping by!
Kacy says
Very interesting! I don’t have a newsletter started yet, but keep meaning to work on it. This will be the perfect solution when I finally make it happen!
lorihil says
Hope it helps Kacy! The SumoMe plugins is one of my favorites for a variety of tasks!