sledge81 - 2:54 pm on Apr 8, 2011 (gmt 0)

Hi Webmasters,

I'm hoping to get some feedback from the rest of you in regards to a rather amusing/interesting trend on my site.

My site has been enjoying a <20% bounce rate for a while now. Recently, I changed the website layout to sort of a 'Home Page' design instead of the regular magazine/blog kind of look.

This change immediately spiked up my bounce rates and went as high as 70%. I reverted back to the blog/magazine kind of layout and my present bounce rate is 14%..

My question is:

1) 14% bounce rate seems a bit abnormal to me, what are your thoughts?

2) My site deals with affiliate programs in a certain niche industry so often my content is related to tips, pointers, updates on managing a successful affiliate business. Is the low bounce rate due to my niche?

3) Despite the low bounce rate, high traffic I seldom get people to sign up to my newsletter. Recently I also started giving away a freebie for the most interactive visitor but that hasn't help as all.

Eagerly looking forward to other webmaster's thoughts on this