Right Sidebar?

I imagine this is known but the right sidebar is completely missing for me atm.

- I am seeing the sidebar.  Are you still having an issue?

- Cory, it occurs to me that the sidebar is only visible on the main forum page and not on any of the subforum pages.  Should this be changed?

Cole,

It's likely that you minimized the sidebar by accident. Here's how you minimize it and restore it. In both cases, the box only shows on hover.

Coach,

what would be the primary benefit of this?

Thanks Cory, that was it. 

Having the sidebar on all pages would give more chance of seeing and responding to the promotional widgets.

Cole got it in one.  Being exposed to the products on a continual basis should improve sales.

-How would the sidebar enhance this more than an ad placed at the top like we had previously or an ad placed within the topic itself? My concern is the drastic reduction of screen devoted to the discussion itself. 

-I think it would be unwise to dispense with the promotional widgets altogether, but I'm also not convinced that this is effective advertising. Statistically, the amount of impressions versus clicks has been less than 1%. The amount of purchases from that are still minimal. Either we are doing advertising wrong, advertising in the wrong places (internally versus externally), or it is simply an inefficient means to profit. 

Cory Fair said:

-How would the sidebar enhance this more than an ad placed at the top like we had previously or an ad placed within the topic itself? My concern is the drastic reduction of screen devoted to the discussion itself. 

Just as good, maybe better IMO. I don't recall seeing such ads on the new forum.

Cory Fair said:

-I think it would be unwise to dispense with the promotional widgets altogether, but I'm also not convinced that this is effective advertising. Statistically, the amount of impressions versus clicks has been less than 1%. The amount of purchases from that are still minimal. Either we are doing advertising wrong, advertising in the wrong places (internally versus externally), or it is simply an inefficient means to profit. 

All good points. It's not always clear how to interpret the data. Would be interesting to know what route people have been taking to buy  GB products.

External advertising is an even more interesting avenue.

Of course, my concern is getting the seminars out there. I think since many members already have the course(s) the course widgets may just create a sense of loyalty. However with the seminars, a widget may be a call to action.

You may just be right, we don't' know how to advertise! I do know that the guys who are really into it, are constantly testing, making little tweaks here and there to see what works. Running A B comparisons etc. it's a full time job, but maybe we can begin the process of learning more. 

-To date, the most effective sales conversion tool has been Coach sending out newsletters/mass mailings. 

-Perhaps courses on the main index and seminars as a top horizontal ad on all internal pages.

As we all know DD uses a ton of mass email and hard mail both.

Across the top is also fine.  I simply noticed that the internal pages had no ad bars.

Cory Fair said:

-To date, the most effective sales conversion tool has been Coach sending out newsletters/mass mailings. 

- Well, lets get those mailings rolling then! Also shows it's important that Coach's hand be on the mailings in some form.

Cory Fair said:

-Perhaps courses on the main index and seminars as a top horizontal ad on all internal pages.

- I'm good with however you think works best.

- If you have a layout, you can send me a pixel size for seminar widgets and I'll generate one with some text if you like. We can email on this when it's time.

728x90 or 728x210