Noob w/Own Site - Looking for Help

[Wiggy]

Hey folks,

This is my first post here - hope this kind of post is Ok to put up here (I figure it *is* the noob forum...lol).

I was pointed to this thread from another forum (small business subsection of a martial arts forum), and was told everybody here is really sharp and really knows their stuff. So, here I am.

I'll try and make my story (relatively) short. Let me first say that I'm not an affiliate marketer (at least not yet - I'm open to anything). I've got my own site and my own products. (Will post the link if anybody wants me to.) The site is dedicated to workouts for fighters and regular joes.

I'm not making nearly as much moolah as I should be. I've had the site up a while, and have been able to do some good SEO on my own. I'm top 3-5 for 4 or 5 main keywords in google. This gets me roughly 500-750 unique visitors/day. I do have 90+ articles on my site, but it's my index page that ranks, so most (if not all) are getting to my sales page.

My conversion is for shit, but I think that is due to the layout of my site and my copy - both of which I'm working on. That, or the niche just isn't spending big money. Not sure which. Either way, I should be making at least $100/day, and I'm not.

I've spent the last couple years (off an on) trying to teach myself internet marketing - mainly from reading forums and articles online. I ended up on the warrior forum, and got what I thought was some great info from there, but I see that place isn't too popular here. LOL.

Here's the deal - my training knowledge is good. My IM knowledge sucks. And all this time I've spent trying to learn IM seems almost wasted, as my income sure as hell hasn't gone up commensurate to my (supposed) IM knowledge level. I think that much of what I "learned" was nothing but IM info, put out by other IMers, to create IM products, to sell to other IMers. I just don't see where somebody puts out IM info (free or paid for) and says "Here's this dude who has a site about (insert any non-IM activity here) and has made a bunch of $$$$." It's all about selling other IMers more IM info.

And that just hasn't done a damn thing for me.

So, after seeing the link to this place, I headed here. I've been lurking for a few weeks, trying to soak up as much info as I can.

Problem is twofold - #1, I don't know affiliate marketing that well. So, I'm spending as much time trying to figure out half of what I'm reading as I am understanding what I'm reading. Which leads into #2, since most of the info is affiliate marketing, I'm trying to figure out exactly what I should focus on learning more about here that I could apply to what I do.

Now, I'm not adverse to going affiliate marketing. Trust me, this isn't some sort of ego deal that I have to do it 'my way' or with 'my stuff'. I'll do whatever as long as it pays. (I've got a wife and kids to provide for and the economy BLOWS.) But, I figure it would be easier (and quicker) to get better at what I'm already doing as opposed to trying to jump into pretty much a whole new thing.

So, good people of the WF, what should I focus on? I'm not too into PPC right now, as I've already got good SEO. I'm still on the fence re article marketing, though the article marketing thread in the SEO subforum was really eye opening in a few ways.

(Just to give you an idea of my true noob status, I just learned of copyscape and Power Article Rewriter today through this forum.)

FWIW, I've just surveyed my list (roughly 950 on it, w/5-8 new signups/day), and am working on a new product to market to it. Product should be done in the next couple weeks. However, the target market for my niche will be different than what I currently rank for in google, so I'll be (kinda) starting from square one.

(The product would actually apply to what I rank for in google, but I want to go for a different target market - one that seems to actually have more disposable income.)

My thought process was to market to my list, then try to get JVs, then worry about SEO for new keywords.

What would you folks suggest?

If I'm completely on the wrong forum, and I should just be doing affiliate marketing, and this kind of thing doesn't belong here, feel free to tell me to piss off. LOL.

Thanks for your time.

 

[JesusIsLove]

I don't have any knowledge that can help you, but since it is such a good post and no one has replied yet, I thought that I would.

I think that you are in the right place. There are people here, I am sure, who can and will help you with good ideas.

That being said, there are a ton of jerkwads.

 

[PhilPaul]

went to uyour site i would put a few more links to the purchase page one being at the top as most people dont really read the whole page and they will remember the link at the top to go back to it. another thing is the seo your placing for does it have good traffic going to it use google adwords keyword tool to check for this and use alexa to find out what keywords are bringing you the most traffic. Also if this is an offer that belongs to you i would say broker it out to cpa networks and you can have a few hundred people promoting the offer. People who have say number 1 placement for huge keywords like fitness. Build your success on the shoulders of others

 

[pickledegg]

Hi Wiggy great first post Just wondering if you could try to find some more niches based around your main site with all the traffic, and try to use it as a platform to get some minisites to rank/bring traffic. You could sign up to a few CPA networks and see what offers were related, and try to pimp those.

I'd kill for that amount of visitors a day. Before Google ate my sites, I was getting $70 a day from around 50-70 visitors, so theres definitely potential to make monies with all your traffic. You've just got to find a clever way of harnessing it.

Best of luck, I'd be interested to hear the comments of some of the more experienced and successful members.

 

[madmagician]

I'm not making nearly as much moolah as I should be. I've had the site up a while, and have been able to do some good SEO on my own. I'm top 3-5 for 4 or 5 main keywords in google. This gets me roughly 500-750 unique visitors/day. I do have 90+ articles on my site, but it's my index page that ranks, so most (if not all) are getting to my sales page.

My conversion is for shit, but I think that is due to the layout of my site and my copy - both of which I'm working on. That, or the niche just isn't spending big money. Not sure which. Either way, I should be making at least $100/day, and I'm not.

With that many UV's per day, how much are you making ~day if not $100?

 

[Berto]

Wiggy,
This is time for me to come out of my shell as well. I've been lurking for a while too.

I have a price comparison site close to your field, and suffer from some of the same issues. For me, traffic comes my way because of my content, but not because people are buyers. That's okay because it's a start for me. I'm learning a ton here, but my top google terms are not yet the 'moneymakers'. Yours certainly can be.

I'll be brutally honest with you, which is bold because this is my first post here. Your web page has too many words. Our target demographic is, I'm bummed to say, not the smartest bunch of grapes. I consider myself a smart guy and when I hit your page, I'm like "holy shit I can't read this!".

Because of that, I'm guessing your bounce rate is a bit high and people aren't making it to your products. My eyes dart around the page and my brain doesn't even know what to do. You should watch some people surf your page for the first time. Study their behavior, their eyes, their confusion.

What is your elevator pitch? Can you break this down into sections? Can you provide more images and less text? Maybe some nice blocks with your affiliate links in some divs that stand out, but are WITHIN the content?

You have a picture of some dude (you?) lifting a weight. Why not a picture of some dude using this awesome product you sell, and have that image link to either your landing page for that product or even go directly to the product's purchase page, if it's a good enough page and needs no pre-selling? Why not have more images selling some stuff in this page?

I'm not the expert, but I think you need to keep active here and talk to the guys who are great at making landing pages that get great CTRs. My biggest concern is that if you change your site too much, you can lose your rankings. But with that kind of traffic, it's time to DO something with it!!

Good luck!

 

[Wiggy]

Thanks for all the replies, folks.

PhilPaul,

I know which keywords are bringing me traffic - that's not the problem. They're the keywords I've done my SEO for, so that's fine. I'm just not sure if the target market w/these keywords has the disposable income to spend on what I'm selling as compared to other target markets that would also buy my stuff.

Quick story - a few years ago, I did some KW research, and found that 'navy seal workout' got a lot of searches, yet there weren't that many results in google. I figured it would be good to go after. I did some SEO and got ranked pretty well for it pretty quickly. No sales. Finally figured out my problem - who is searching for 'navy seal workout'? 18 year old kids who are getting ready to enlist in the navy and go to BUD/s. Not exactly the demographic that has a ton of cash to spend.

Not sure how big of an issue that is with my current keywords.

pickledegg,

Thanks for the compliment - I appreciate it. You said:

Just wondering if you could try to find some more niches based around your main site with all the traffic, and try to use it as a platform to get some minisites to rank/bring traffic. You could sign up to a few CPA networks and see what offers were related, and try to pimp those.

Remember, I'm a noob, so it's time for a couple dumb questions. First - how would I use my site as a platform for other sites? Just have links to it from my index page? I do have a couple products I sell via affiliate that can be used with my info. One sells Ok, the other not at all.

Problem is that my index page is a sales page, rather than a landing page. It's not my actual purchase page, though it could be, and has been. (I have a separate purchase page simply for the purpose of adding on an upsell...which converts probably 6 out of 7 sales to it.)

I've been told I need to have less on my index page, as sales pages should be uncluttered as possible. Yet, when I take my menu, affiliate link, etc. down, I get fewer sales. I think maybe it helps people who find my index page feel that they're dealing with a real person who writes articles and has good info, rather than just somebody who is just trying to sell something. *shrug*

So, given all that, how would I drive traffic to other sites? Or would it be enough to have links/gifs/pics/etc. to CPA offers? (NOTE - haven't looked at any CPA networks yet, so not sure what I'd pick. This is a different topic altogether, but I'm assuming that offers that require less from the potential customer are 'easier' to convert? Like just getting somebody to sign up for a newsletter or something as opposed to somebody actually having to buy a product?)

Berto,

Thanks for the honest and candid feedback. I've been working on my copy and layout.

What's an "elevator pitch?"

Maybe some nice blocks with your affiliate links in some divs that stand out, but are WITHIN the content?

See, given that my index page is my sales page (and the purchase page is just for the upsell), I've always been of the mind - and been told - that the more...(for lack of a better term)...'busy' a page is, or the more 'other' stuff I have, the more it distracts the reader, and the less likely they are to buy.

Now, if this resulted in more money from affiliate sales, then that's fine. (Though I'd think that long-term, I'd be better going for my own sales.) But I kinda doubt that's likely. Maybe I'm wrong?

You have a picture of some dude (you?) lifting a weight. Why not a picture of some dude using this awesome product you sell, and have that image link to either your landing page for that product or even go directly to the product's purchase page, if it's a good enough page and needs no pre-selling? Why not have more images selling some stuff in this page?

See above. The pic is of me doing an exercise from the product, so that's kinda what it is already. And the purchase page wouldn't really be enough to get people to buy, as I'm just using it as an upsell page. If people are going there, it's b/c that's where they order. (If I didn't have the upsell, I'd have order buttons on the index page itself.)

Thanks for ideas, folks. I'm really trying to learn a lot, here.