You have incredible content on your blog. But even with all the irresistible information right at your readers fingertips, it should come as no surprise that most of your blog posts will get lost somewhere in the bottoms of your blog. Every article, every comment, every post, every message that you put out there has the usual wave of popularity, but then it dies down and gets lost in the shuffle.
Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a way to showcase your best message once more?
Maybe you have a pillar blog post that was once the talk of your blog, but it has long since been buried among all the other awesome posts you write.
What you need is a way to bring your best content out of the cave and into the light. A way to make them pop in front of your readers, but not pop at them.
In Comes the Solution for a Sweet Message
You may have noticed at the top of my blog, I have a new blue toolbar sitting there. That nifty little bar is called the Hello Bar.
What the Hello Bar does is add whatever message you want right along the top of your blog. In this case, I am drawing attention to an optin form for my newest eBook (it’s free by the way!) But you can use this attention grabbing “Hello Bar” for just about any message you want to communicate.
Do you have a great, new client offer you’re extending for a few days? What about a blog post that garnered a ton of attention but has since been forgotten?
Use this hello bar to show off these messages once more.
How Does the Hello Bar Work?
It’s really very easy. You create the message, your create the colors, you add the link. Even with all the customizations, it is still very easy to figure out.
Here’s a breakdown of what to do…
First, go the website and sign up for an account.
Then the fun starts. You can jump right in and create your hello bar. Here’s an example of what the creation page looks like.
I just set this up on Sweet Spot List Building Tuesday morning and here are the stats as of Tuesday afternoon…
Some things to consider with the plan you choose:
- I believe the free account has a limit of 30 clickthroughs per month. Not very many if you have an effective message
- The free account requires that you have the Hello Bar logo on it.
- If you want to do split testing, you have to upgrade to a Pro account. (You can manually do it, but who has the time?)
Some Pointers on Making the Hello Bar Effective
The Hello Bar is a great way to get your message out in front of your readers without actually using a popup. The key to making it an effective addition to your website is to first use a compelling message.
There’s only a limited number of characters that you can use for this message bar. Your short statement must compel a click. Otherwise, it’s useless.
Think about it this way – when you are looking at how effective something is you look at a few factors. But in this case, you have clickthroughs and the results of the message itself. If you send your readers to a blog post, then the results would lie in what they do after reading that post. If you send readers to an optin form, then the conversion rate of that offer must be taken into account too.
Final Thoughts
The Hello Bar is a great way to punch up your existing website. It’s not meant to replace an optin form or be a substitute for in-content linking, but it’s an attractive addition to your already compelling content.
Nice alternative to those irritating popup windows! And mobile-friendly, too. I’ve noticed a lot of sites with popups are impossible to close on mobile so I end up not subscribing downloading and not reading, either. Total lose-lose that’s unnecessary if someone had been paying attention!
I’ve seen this around but didn’t know what it was called or how to find it – thanks for the head up!
Carol Lynn recently posted..Small Business, Big Lessons: How To Learn The Hard Way And Live To Earn Another Day
Great idea Christine,
I can see how the HelloBar is a lot more discreet than a pop-up but yet it’s still fairly noticeable and people may be inclined to see what’s on offer.
I must look in to getting one of these myself. By the way, I’m diggin the new theme your running. Real nice and clean, good job!
Hi Noel,
Glad you enjoyed it – yes, I’m liking this bar so far. Since you’re a numbers person too, I’ll tell you I started to go into more detail in the post about the conversion numbers and how to gauge it’s effectiveness, but I deleted it. Figured it might be a bit much
Anyway, it’s converting pretty well right now – we’ll see how it goes once the “newness” wears off.
And thanks for the kind words about the site! It is a dream come true!
~Christine
Hey Christine,
Great idea,
Hello bar discreet more than a pop up. I have checked this, some of the pointers are very good. by this the hello bar looks with many good features.
thanks for sharring this tend to be
Bhushan recently posted..ERP Software Development Companies
Hi Bhushan,
Glad you enjoyed it!
I like the features too – it’s a great tool!
Thanks for stopping by!
~Christine
Hmm, I like the bar but I don’t know that it’s for my site. It kind of looks like a company thing. Maybe that’s just me.
Daisy @ Add Vodka recently posted..Why Babysitting is an Awesome Side Hustle
Hi Daisy,
What you could do, is use it to send readers to one of your best blog posts –
While I use it for this blog, a personal blog could use it to keep readers on the blog longer.
Thanks stopping by!
~Christine
Christine,
Thanks so much for sharing the Hello bar. Such a good way to engage without in my opinion pesky pop ups. Great to hear that it is converting so well for you too!
Enjoyed your content – thanks for sharing!
Roberta Eastman
Roberta Eastman recently posted..BROM – Part 2
Hi Roberta,
Glad you enjoyed it! Yes, it’s a pretty neat addition!
Thanks for stopping by!
~Christine
Hi Christine,
Yes, I also agree, a nicer alternative to distracting pop-ups and it looks easy to set up too.
I’ve also seen quite a few of these on other blogs so it must be effective as well.
It would be fun thinking up an interesting message that will compel a click.
Theresa Torres recently posted..9 Fun Ways to Teach Your Kids about Money This Summer
Hi Theresa,
Great point – changing up the messages every once in a while would be a great way to attract more attention!
Thanks for stopping by!
~Christine
Hi Christine,
From your post, you turned me to thinking about the Hello bar.
Yesterday, across my email came a similar tool which is a WP plugin called WP OptBox.
I had it installed in minutes, which was great. I will let you know how it progresses so you can do a comparison of the two tools.
Roberta Eastman recently posted..BROM – Part 2
Hi Roberta,
Sounds great! I would love to see how the conversion rates stack up!
Thanks for stopping by!
~Christine
Never heard of the hello bar before.
It actually doesn’t look too bad really, considering most things like this usually gets in your way and makes your overall experience of the site go down. Nice job.
Jamie Farrelly recently posted..Best WordPress Plugins
Hi Jamie,
I agree – I was a little hesitant at first, but it seems to be working out pretty good. I like the non-intrusiveness of it!
Thanks for stopping by!
~Christine