I have been doing affiliate marketing for about 9 days now, still no sale, I advertise on google adwords, and i got approximately only 18 clicks in 9 days somethings wrong, I have not made a single sale yet, and I promote three products on www.moneyslippers.com HElp me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! starving Entrepenuer!!!!!!!!!
Whew, that's a big question, one that I'm not 100% sure I can answer. I don't know if this is exactly the thread where it should be answered as well, so Linda, if you want to move this somewhere a little more appropriate, go right ahead.
However, in the meantime, I'll take a stab. Just off the bat, I went to your site to see what you're trying to do and it basically looks like you've got one page with three affiliate links on it. The page is meant to be informational, not interactive (like a blog would be). I'm guessing that your intent is to have people search on Google for work at home businesses, find your page, and click to the merchants and buy.
The first thing I would do if I were you is to move the links to the top (or closer to the top) of the page. Currently, you have to scroll down to the middle before you get anything to click on.
Second, why should I listen to you? You say that you've scoured the web for work at home businesses, but that's all. Do you have any relevant stories regarding your own situation and experiences with working from home? Have you been wildly successful at it and now want to share your secrets? The more relevant you make your site, the more people will be apt to read it and (hopefully) take your recommendations.
Third, I would look for more products. Maybe find ten or fifiteen work from home business and rate each one. What you like and what you don't. This valuable info would be something that would make people read your content and click your links.
Finally, it's going to take time. Nine days is nothing. 30 days is a start. Make sure you're collecting data about who's visiting your page and how they got there. Then analyze that data and optimize your site to be better indexed by search engines and find new keywords. Participate in online discussions that deal with your products or your business. DON'T make a sales pitch in those discussions, just participate. Put your site in your signature and people will start to notice.
I hope that this gives you a little direction.
__________________ Jon Levine - Director of Affiliate Marketing TheNerds.net Highest Commissions in the Category | Daily Data Feed | 30-Day Cookie | Monthly Sales Contests | Phone Tracking JOIN TODAY!
Welcome to 5 Star. Jon gave you some very good advice.
(Thanks Jon)
Here's my 2 cents for starters...
I'm sorry I'm going to be a little brutal but my advice is meant to stop the bleeding and get you to re-think your strategy. Hopefully I can save you time, money and heart ache.
1) You picked the absolute hardest market to start with! A newbie trying to sell Interent marketing products is like a minnow trying to swim with all the sharks. Webmaster, biz opp type things are a dime a dozen and this is one of the most competitive markets out there.
2) Average conversion rates online for MERCHANTS that own their own products and are expert marketers is only around 2% (varies by industry). So as an affiliate, especailly a newbiew if you get 1% you are lucky.
So that means after 100 clicks you COULD get lucky and make a sale.
18 clicks is nothing.
3) However if you got those 18 clicks by paying Adwords for them then I realize thats a big deal because you have money going out the door.
You really should not be investing money in Adwords until you have a product you think you can sell and a site or landing page that is optimized for conversions.
Take some time to learn more about this business, save your money and start over with a good strategy. I'm not saying give up. I'm saying start over with a better foundation.
You'll be glad some day that I didn't sugar coat this advice.
__________________
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Linda Buquet :: Affiliate Program Advertising, Promotion & PR (Publisher Relations)
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Hi Dwight,
Welcome to the forum and I hope you find the information here helpful.
As Linda already mentioned, you've received some excellent advice, both from Jon and Linda.
After 9 days and only 18 clicks, your expectations are a little high. My question to you is (and this is not meant to be facetious), have you actually read any of the products you're looking to promote? If you have, write an honest review of the products.
Moving along, my observations will be broken up into three parts: design, page optimization, and sales copy.
Design
The overall design of the site - while it looks nice -may be adversely affecting your conversion rates.
The header image is not seamlessly tiled. Either use a header image that tiles well or use a single image as the header background.
The colors are harsh and distracting - especially for a sales letter. You may want to tone down the background color to something a bit more neutral and that allows the visitor to focus on the content.
The font is incredibly tiny (and I love tiny fonts). While this may cause some people to focus more on the content and read it, it's still incredibly difficult to read on screen. Possibly switching to a larger serif font (like Georgia or Times New Roman) with plenty of white space and reducing the font weight will do some good.
Use color carefully. The colors you choose for your headings, your content, your background, etc. all have an impact on the end visitor. You want to make sure they all work well together to achieve a common goal.
Page Optimization
While AdWords is good for a more experienced marketer (I wholeheartedly agree with Linda that you should probably hold off on that until you have a better understanding), you also want to make sure you're optimizing for the search engines too. Two birds, one stone philosophy.
In that vein, change your title from Page 1 to something more on point with your keywords. Also, be mindful of your headings - make sure to actually use them (i.e. h1, h2, h3, etc.) - and include your keywords where appropriate within them.
Taking a look under the hood, I see you're using a lot of unnecessary code for the design. Consider transitioning the page into HTML/CSS and removing the unnecessary code for the search engine spiders to wade through. Remove unnecessary scripts and add a meta description that is catchy - something that will make someone want to click if it comes up in the search engines.
The sales letter
Reading through the sales letter, the focus appears to be on you and what you want to sell; switch that focus to your readers. What problems will you be fixing for them and how?
Grammar is important, though it may not appear that way. If people spot a lot of grammatical/spelling errors, they are less inclined to trust what you're saying or consider you an authority. It appears you're too close to the sales letter so you should probably have someone else have a look over it for you and edit it for clarity/errors.
Final thoughts
After saying all of that, I'd recommend finding another niche, at least for the time being.
Jon is spot on - why should anyone listen to you? Especially when it comes to internet marketing/work from home products, there are a sea of gurus out there who have established credibility. That will be what sets you apart.
Possibly backing up and starting with a smaller niche, possibly one that you enjoy. Do you have any hobbies or interests? Have you considered monetizing those?
Dwayne, I usually make a decision on the viability of a program after about 500 clicks. 18 is not enough to have meaningfull data.
That being said, you should really read some guides on adwords BEFORE you start playing with real money. There is a lot to learn. I recently read "Adwords Miracle".It is expensive, but it has been the only information prduct that I have read in the last 6 months that I have been completely satisfied with. You should read it, understand it, re-read it, take it to work with you, read it on the train, read it when you wake up, then read it again.
There is also a great thread over at digtalpoint forums about an adwords challenge - it's very long, but you should read every post and then re-read it. When you get sick of reading it, then read it again. (Spotting a theme here?)
Once you have read everything you can get your hands on, then you will be able to attack it.
Don't just read these things. UNDERSTAND them. If you thought high school or college were a lot of ongoing study, then welcome to the affiliate marketing industry where your study efforts redouble.
1) You picked the absolute hardest market to start with! A newbie trying to sell Interent marketing products is like a minnow trying to swim with all the sharks. Webmaster, biz opp type things are a dime a dozen and this is one of the most competitive markets out there.
ABSOLUTELY. I think many of us may have started that way until we re-evaluated our marketing strategy. Excellent information from all here.
Just echoing what everyone else has said here, this is a tough niche. There are billions of sites out there just like yours so the competition is thick, plus it's hard to build credibility when you don't have the proof to show you are actually making money.
The best advice is to write about a topic you enjoy and build tons and tons of content on it (that makes Google happy) and then weave affiliate links that relate to your site's theme.
You can lose a lot of money with Adwords if you're not careful. Also keep in mind some of those clicks may be from competitors looking to see what your site is about. I would stay away from PPC advertising until you are making money or at least have tested enough ads to where you know you can return a profit.
As others have said, that is the wrong niche for a newbie. Take it from someone who has been there and bought the T-shirt.
You should always focus your attention to your readers and not yourself. Make them feel as if you wrote the page just for them and no one else. Emphisize why exactly it is they need your product and what you offer that the other guys dont. Finally others are correct trying to market IM products as a newbie to experienced marketers is very difficult since most already know all the tricks and hype.
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