Would you like to increase the time that readers spend on your site? Well, there is an application that I use on my blog, that has improved the time readers spend on my site. The application is the Apture Bar.
I’ve noticed that whenever I incorporate the features within a post, that people tend to stay longer on the site. Now if I can get into the habit of using the features on a regular basis, I’ll be doing mighty fine.
I actually happened upon a site that had the Apture Bar installed. I thought is was so neat and cool how the blog owner had their brand right before my eyes. To this day, I have the logo embedded in my memory. I fell in love with what I saw and the rest is history.
What can Apture do for you?
Apture allows you to incorporate more context within your post. Thus allowing your readers to stay longer on your site.
Apture provides some awesome features that I think are quite amazing. Interested in adding Apture to your Word Press blog then you will need to install the Apture plugin.
Here are 3 ways you can keep readers on your site longer.
1. You can insert more information about a particular term that you used within a post giving your readers more context about a topic or term. They will not venture away to seek this information elsewhere, but remain on your site.
For example, let’s say that I am writing about fat. I can insert a link that will give my readers the definition of what a fat is. Your readers have the opportunity to learn even more about certain terms that you didn’t have to define.
2. You can insert a video that is related to your topic within the post. This is one of my favorite features. Because the video will pop out when the reader hoovers of the video icon and automatically begin playing. The reader will not be sent away to You Tube, but they will stay on your site viewing the video.
3. You can share what people are saying on Twitter about a certain term you used within your post. And the reader will see who is saying what and might even decide to follow that person. All without ever leaving your site.
I like this feature too, because I’ve read some hilarious things that people were saying about certain topics. Sometimes I just play with this feature to get a good laugh.
There are many other reasons why you should take a peep at Apture, but today I focused on how you can increase visit lengths on your page.
*** Here is an added bonus, that has nothing to do with keeping readers on your site longer. It’s about monetizing. Apture allows you to monetize through Amazon. You never have to leave your site and go to Amazon to retrieve the html code. Everything is done by simply using the Apture feature that you have installed.
Have you seen the Apture Bar on other sites and what did you think when you first saw it?
About Evelyn Parham
Apture is a wonderful tool. It really does help people stay on your site longer. I can’t tell you how suprised and impressed I am.
Seems to be a really cool and useful app who keeps readers on a site.
I’ve found that it helps to write a series of related articles and publish a related links list at the foot of the article.
I’ve noticed that CNN always inserts a related headline half way through their stories.
For example, on my church site, I have articles about specific stories from the Bible and how to teach a lesson. In the article there is a related printable project or craft. If I had some videos, it would be great too. Unfortunately, it takes a lot of time to create all that stuff.
thank you for share!!!
Truong recently posted..40 Useful jQuery Techniques and Plugins
I actually hate all kind of bars in sites. Especially ones in the bottom. So annoying! Good thing that at least this one is in the top. I have seen this bar in some sites and I have not used it. Probably because it is something new for me and even though it seems useful and faster I use my usual methods of new tabs and Google :). And other annoying thing is when I try to select some text it starts to select more than I want >:-(
Paul recently posted..Iomega eGo Desktop External Drives
I must be living under a rock – I’d never heard of this. Have you checked Google analytics to see if there’s benn any noticable increase on time spent on pages?
No, I have not used it on my site. I have seen it on other blogs.
Gaz,
I haven’t checked GA for this, but I will. Whenever I use the features within a post, I will be checking. Apture does provide weekly stats though.
Good questions.
Evelyn recently posted..Healthy Vegan Sweeteners
I think the best method to keep our readers stay longer on the page is to give them what they want, it depends on the type of our site, but usually updating the content constantly with rich context is a formula for all.
Wow, thanks for sharing this. Is there a plugin for a blogger account? I am really interested to use this.
Hi Evelyn, I’m not an Apture user although I can understand the benefits. Good point about increasing site time – that’s something I hadn’t considered. I have a lot of content linking, reader favorites, etc., which seems to work pretty well in that regard, but it’s always good to learn about other options.
Jean Sarauer recently posted..How to Get More Bang for Your Membership Buck
Hey Jean,
That’s great that the content linking and reader favorites are working. That’s what I usually look for on a blog. Appreciate you sharing that!
Take care!
-Evelyn
Evelyn recently posted..Weight Loss Tips that Celebrities Swear By
Hey Everyone,
I actually work for Apture and wanted to pop in and say hi. If love what Evelyn describes above but would prefer for it to not have a bar email me I can hook you up drew@apture.com with a special version.
Andrew
Andrew Machado recently posted..Announcing YouTube Channel Support
Hi Andrew,
Thanks for stopping by! Is there a charge for the special version? If so, how much does it cost?
Thanks again!
-Evelyn
Evelyn recently posted..Weight Loss Tips that Celebrities Swear By
Hey Evelyn,
Thank for referring this tool. I will have to play with it to see what it can do for my blog. I do like the fact that you can play videos without leaving the blog.
Plus, who doesn’t want a good laugh. I’m just going to install it just for that.
Chat with you later…
Josh
Josh Garcia recently posted..The Secret of Networking With Bloggers
Hi Josh,
Give a a test and see. If doesn’t suit your needs, you can always uninstall it.
I love to know what you think after you’ve played around with it.
Take care and thanks for chiming in!
-Evelyn
Evelyn recently posted..Weight Loss Tips that Celebrities Swear By
Twitter: dragonblogger
says:
Don’t use a subscriber bar on my sites, but I see many other bloggers that do. I may adjust in the future. I agree with Karen about lightboxes and to each their own. Everyone should be encouraged to try whatever they want and stick with what works for them.
Justin Germino recently posted..Create a Custom Twitter Newspaper
Hi Justin,
I totally agree! I once had Wibiya installed, but later uninstalled it.
Thanks for sharing and take care!
-Evelyn
Evelyn recently posted..Weight Loss Tips that Celebrities Swear By
I’m still using Wibiya Toolbar on my site but will have a look at Apture bar soon. Looks like Wibiya has more features though?
Any reason why you uninstalled Wibiya?
Hey Michael,
Yeah, Wibiya does have more features. I actually think it is pretty good.
I uninstalled it because my site was loading slow. I deactivated it and noticed that my page loaded faster so I decided to uninstall it.
Give it a look and let me now what you think!
Take care,
Evelyn
Evelyn recently posted..10 Killer Steps to a Better Blog- A Step by Step Guide to a Better Blog
Hi Evelyn,
Is Apture free? I like all points. Even though you can always embed YouTube videos directly into your site, too, which does increase time on site, if Apture provides an easy way of getting those videos, that would be worth it.
I’d have to say that, like Karen, I’m not 100% a fan of the bars, especially since (if I recall) you can’t completely minimize them. But since it’s possible (I’m guessing?) to use Apture features without the toolbar, I’d be up for giving it a try. It seems very useful.
My favorite feature is #3. That is very cool.
Tia Peterson recently posted..The Art of Embracing the Oops Moments
Hi Tia,
Apture is free! You can embed your own video, but I believe if you have a You Tube channel, then you can pull up your channel via Apture and get the video that way. But I don’t think it will standout as much as an embedded video. If I were adding my own video to a post, I don’t think I would use this, because I would not want the reader to overlook the video.
I don’t like bars either, Tia, but the Apture bar has a feature that allows it to be hidden. If that were not the case, I don’t know that I would even had installed it.
Thanks!
-Evelyn
Evelyn recently posted..Weight Loss Tips that Celebrities Swear By
I am a big fan of embedding video, both things I find interesting and also original content. You can get a fairly decent mini-camera that isn’t very expensive and looks better than most laptop webcams, which can make creating a decent quality video much easier.
It seems like people are a lot more responsive to video and it really is a great way to encourage them to interact with your site.
SteveH recently posted..Understanding the Effects of Arthritis and Alzheimers
Hey SteveH,
I am a big fan of video too. I have a Flip camera and it has done well. Embedding video on some of my posts has really gone over well for me. Now, I’m on a search for a better camera and editing software. Can’t wait until I find it, because I know I will have fun.
Thanks for sharing!
-Evelyn
Evelyn recently posted..Weight Loss Tips that Celebrities Swear By
Hi Evelyn,
While I’m a long-time fan of Apture and have been using it on my site almost from the beginning, I am not a fan of the bars. It’s very intrusive and drives me crazy when they appear suddenly. I really like when Apture plugin is installed so that you can link directly to videos, URLs, photos etc, but the bar has no use for me. Some people even have them showing up at the bottom and the top of their sites – takes up way too much real estate, in my opinion.
Some people can’t stand lightboxes and I have one my site that converts well. So, each to their own.
Karen recently posted..Just For Today Challenge – 31 Days To A Better You eBook Launch
Hi Karen,
I’m not a fan of bars either. Especially those that I can’t make go away. But one thing I’ve noticed with Apture is that the bar can be hidden.
You probably already know this, but there are 2 arrows on the far left side of the bar that one can click on to hide the Apture Bar. When I discovered this, I was like, okay, this is cool. I don’t think that I would have added it, if the bar could not be hidden.
I’ll have to visit your site and check out the light boxes. That’s new to me.
Thanks for sharing!
-Evelyn
Evelyn recently posted..Weight Loss Tips that Celebrities Swear By
I didn’t know the bar could be hidden like that, Evelyn. I learn something new every day :)
Jean Sarauer recently posted..How to Get More Bang for Your Membership Buck
I’m not to clear on where to find this bar on your site mainly because I don’t know what I’m looking for. Can you describe where I would view this so I can determine whether I should dedicate more time to learning about it, although it does sound pretty useful as described.
Thanks 4 your time & great website!
Sounds like a great suggestion, Evelyn.
I think I’ve seen it used on another site as well, but never took my time to check it out.
I’ve been using Wibiya bar, but it doesn’t come close to the Apture capabilities.
Thanks for the advice! Of course, making some change from Amazon doesn’t hurt either! :)
Ana recently posted..New Tweet Button- The Good- The Bad- The Ugly