What path should I go? Your advice appreciated!!

[AfteraDream]

Hi guys,

I've had a blog about gaining muscle for skinny guys for 3 months now. And I am failing a bit. Failing in the sense that I have made only like 9 bucks from AdSense and I it to generate a lot more and be independent from job. My plan for now is to write an ebook (system) and sell it. But I might be better off doing something different so I need your opinions on it! For now in 3 months my stats are 10000 visits, 2000 returning visitors (which is awesome since they seem to trust me), I've 60+ plus articles most of which are unique, guys don't leave too much comments on the blog but sometimes do write for me to ask questions.

Options:

1. Keep doing what I've done and slowly grow the blog and gain trust. Then write an ebook and sell it to readers.

2. Change the plan and make it a Membership site. I think I could leave the articles available now free and then take money for new articles posted in future. For example people would have to pay 5 bucks a month for access to it.

Now I now second option is riskier and some wont like the new direction of the blog.. What would you guys do?

Cheers

[Raiel Schwartz]

First of all, congratulations on your success thus far,

you may not think it's a lot but 2000 returning visitors can be quite a gold mine in the near future. If you are planning to build a membership site in the bodybuilding niche I'd imagine you would have to include workout plans, an area of your site where people can update goals, etc. I don't think you should turn your blog into the membership site, but perhaps you an use it to leverage your membership site if you ever decide to launch one.

You can definitely write up a guide on muscle gain and promote to your readers however - who knows, maybe even give them a "discount" compared to the general public.

[goalpower]

1) I would add some youtube videos - they'll drive traffic to the site like crazy.
2) Add a pop-up or exit pop subscription box - and get them free tips and blog alerts via email too. This way when you launch products you'll be able to send out emails.
3) If you're going to go with a paid membership site - check out Russell Brunsons - micro continuity program - it's perfect for what you're wanting to do.

Steve

[Astounding Writing Coach]

Congratulations on your success. I think you are on the right track.

Here are some suggestions from a professional copywriter, professional hypnotist and brain dialog researcher.

Most people are unaware that the brain contains the equivalent of 4 living computer software programs. In order to activate the buying part of the brain, you must speak the brain language (brain dialog) of your ideal prospect. And, you must work within the confines of how the neurology of the brain works.

So, the thing that jumps right out to me (after doing this work for 21+ years) is your excess use of the word "not" and "n't" contraction words. When you write copy that talks all about what NOT to do, you confuse the brain. This means your prospects and customers feel confused about what to do.

In your articles, reword them and eliminate using the word "NOT" and the "n't" contraction words (can't, won't, shouldn't, etc.) Instead, only speak about the optimistic results one can achieve by using your product.

Get to the POSITIVE point. Focus on the possibilities of success instead of talking about what NOT to do. This will start to help you in your copy and will begin to activate the buying part of the brain instead of the rejecting part of the brain. The part of the brain that rejects ideas is highly activated with NOT words and their derivatives (won't, can't, shouldn't, etc.) So, stop activating rejection and start activating acceptance.

Also, though your site is engaging, your copy could be more engaging than it is. That is too involved of a process to describe here. Still working on minimum posts so email me at yoursecretwishes at g mail dot com for more talk.

Lastly, whomever your visitors are, they may feel resistant to do business with you because the English on your site is a bit broken there and there. Sorry to say that but some people are mistrusting and prefer someone they think speaks English as their primary language.

So, whomever is doing your copy, ask them to proofread and edit so that your language is no longer broken English. If you are doing the writing and you need help with making your site more cohesive in your English sounding words and phrases, I can help you with that, Let me know if you'd be interested in my proofreading and editing services.

Hope these insights will be helpful to you.
Susan

[dsmpublishing]

I would keep going and build from it - create new posts that would interest the readers so that you can have even more return visitors and then start selling products via your blog whether it is new products you have made or affiliating others.

kind regards


sam
X

[ken_p]

I think the first option is better. Keep doing what you are doing, and drive more traffic into your site.

[Preben Frenning]

@goalpower - Great tips here!

Are you building a list? If not, get started with it immediately! If you have 2000 returning visitors,many of them would most likely have signed up to your list, as they seem to trust you already. I would recommend the "ultimate footer ad" opt-in form, as I think it converts really well on blogs. Then write a short report, or an actionable, quick training plan you give away for free.

And if you've only gotten $9 in adsense, what about monetizing in other ways? Writing honest reviews of related products, highlighting their advantages etc. And then put the ones you recommend in the sidebar, using the UAD block ad plugin. (Track clicks with gocodes too)

And btw, if you show off your stats, I'm sure you will be able to get review copies of many products if you just email the owner.

And another thing you could do, is having a plan built-in to your list, and using it as the signup prize. (Get an email with a training plan every second day for 2 weeks by simply writing down your name and email!)

- Preben

[Mike30]

Originally Posted by cool18

I suggest that you should Keep doing what you have done and slowly grow the blog and gain trust of peoples. Then write an ebook and sell it to readers......

I agree with you but one thing. Do the ebook and give it for free, so more people will read it and you will be creating more trust among your readers.

~Mike

[Preben Frenning]

@Mike30 - Yeah, and you could put affiliate links to great products in it too =) If you try to find some good ones, as well as recurring, you'll definitely have something going

[AfteraDream]

Originally Posted by Astounding Writing Coach

Congratulations on your success. I think you are on the right track.

Here are some suggestions from a professional copywriter, professional hypnotist and brain dialog researcher.

Most people are unaware that the brain contains the equivalent of 4 living computer software programs. In order to activate the buying part of the brain, you must speak the brain language (brain dialog) of your ideal prospect. And, you must work within the confines of how the neurology of the brain works.

So, the thing that jumps right out to me (after doing this work for 21+ years) is your excess use of the word "not" and "n't" contraction words. When you write copy that talks all about what NOT to do, you confuse the brain. This means your prospects and customers feel confused about what to do.

In your articles, reword them and eliminate using the word "NOT" and the "n't" contraction words (can't, won't, shouldn't, etc.) Instead, only speak about the optimistic results one can achieve by using your product.

Get to the POSITIVE point. Focus on the possibilities of success instead of talking about what NOT to do. This will start to help you in your copy and will begin to activate the buying part of the brain instead of the rejecting part of the brain. The part of the brain that rejects ideas is highly activated with NOT words and their derivatives (won't, can't, shouldn't, etc.) So, stop activating rejection and start activating acceptance.

Also, though your site is engaging, your copy could be more engaging than it is. That is too involved of a process to describe here. Still working on minimum posts so email me at yoursecretwishes at g mail dot com for more talk.

Lastly, whomever your visitors are, they may feel resistant to do business with you because the English on your site is a bit broken there and there. Sorry to say that but some people are mistrusting and prefer someone they think speaks English as their primary language.

So, whomever is doing your copy, ask them to proofread and edit so that your language is no longer broken English. If you are doing the writing and you need help with making your site more cohesive in your English sounding words and phrases, I can help you with that, Let me know if you'd be interested in my proofreading and editing services.

Hope these insights will be helpful to you.
Susan

Thanx a lot of good advice! I'll definitely try to keep negative words out of my posts from now on.

As for my english.. ups.. that sucks. I have no one to proof read them. So I will have to do it myself probably as I'd have no money to pay you or anyone else for doing it!

Cheers

[AfteraDream]

Originally Posted by Mike30

I agree with you but one thing. Do the ebook and give it for free, so more people will read it and you will be creating more trust among your readers.

~Mike

I've written a free guide and am giving it away for free already

[AfteraDream]

Originally Posted by Preben Frenning

@goalpower - Great tips here!

Are you building a list? If not, get started with it immediately! If you have 2000 returning visitors,many of them would most likely have signed up to your list, as they seem to trust you already. I would recommend the "ultimate footer ad" opt-in form, as I think it converts really well on blogs. Then write a short report, or an actionable, quick training plan you give away for free.

And if you've only gotten $9 in adsense, what about monetizing in other ways? Writing honest reviews of related products, highlighting their advantages etc. And then put the ones you recommend in the sidebar, using the UAD block ad plugin. (Track clicks with gocodes too)

And btw, if you show off your stats, I'm sure you will be able to get review copies of many products if you just email the owner.

And another thing you could do, is having a plan built-in to your list, and using it as the signup prize. (Get an email with a training plan every second day for 2 weeks by simply writing down your name and email!)

- Preben

List is coming in the future for sure! Found free mailing list creation site so I'm gonna use it.

As far as affiliate marketing.. I don't know.. not high on that. Just want my blog to be about my products mostly

Thanx!

[Preben Frenning]

Well, if you don't want to turn your site into a membership site, why not be an affiliate for someone else's membership and make a recurring comission with way less work?

As for the list, I would recommend you to get a paid one. Free ones usually come with ads, which can reduce the effectiveness of your list by a lot, distracting your readers from clicking YOUR links.

[AfteraDream]

Originally Posted by Preben Frenning

Well, if you don't want to turn your site into a membership site, why not be an affiliate for someone else's membership and make a recurring comission with way less work?

As for the list, I would recommend you to get a paid one. Free ones usually come with ads, which can reduce the effectiveness of your list by a lot, distracting your readers from clicking YOUR links.

Again I want my blog to be about my products not others' products!

And one guy just had a thread for newbies and he had two links for the free ones without ads!

[Sheila]

Congrats on being off to a good start!

Question, though . . . seems to me your comment about only selling your own products is inconsistent with what you're doing - if you only want to sell your own products, then why are you selling other people's products with Adsense?

And, if you're going to promote products other than your own - why not promote good products you've reviewed that have a higher payout?

Your readers trust you, so they'll value your opinion and purchase the affiliate products, and that'll give you additional income until you can create and sell more products of your own. That's just good business sense.

Time is money. You could earn a lot of cash during the time it would take you to create more of your own products. Who knows? By offering quality affiliate products, you might even earn enough to hire a proofreader or copywriter and sell more of your own products once you're ready!

[Preben Frenning]

@Sheila - Thanks! That's a great argument I missed!

[JoMo]

Go with option 1. Switching over to a paysite now would alienate your new "friends", and it will probably push most away from your site. The e-book is a great idea. Keep building the relationships by telling them that you are working on an e-book, and slowly giving previews of your work to get them hungry for it.


-joel

[AfteraDream]

Originally Posted by Sheila

Congrats on being off to a good start!

Question, though . . . seems to me your comment about only selling your own products is inconsistent with what you're doing - if you only want to sell your own products, then why are you selling other people's products with Adsense?

And, if you're going to promote products other than your own - why not promote good products you've reviewed that have a higher payout?

Your readers trust you, so they'll value your opinion and purchase the affiliate products, and that'll give you additional income until you can create and sell more products of your own. That's just good business sense.

Time is money. You could earn a lot of cash during the time it would take you to create more of your own products. Who knows? By offering quality affiliate products, you might even earn enough to hire a proofreader or copywriter and sell more of your own products once you're ready!

Thanx!

Hmm.. didn't think off it in that way... lol.. got me there...

Still AdSense is mostly advertising supplements not products like ebooks (mostly)..
I have tried to sell books I recommend with using Amazon widget but it doesn't work.. no sales made so I just forgot it completely and focus on my content! I might write a review in the future and see how that works though..

[Matt Maiden]

Hi AfteraDream,

Like the others, congrats on doing something and taking action.

First let's start with the Adsense. The most effective way to use Adsense is to drive people to your site and then NOT encourage them to stay.

You want them to get there and see a pretty boring site and rather than hit the back button, click the Adsense link.

Also, if you wanted to stick with Adsense you need a better placement of your ads.

The best ad placement is right after the post title and before the post. a 300 by 250 text block.

So, your page is too colorful and laid out in a way that peaks enough curiosity to look around but not enough copy to grab them and make them ACT.

I would suggest that you use your site to give a freebie and capture emails for your list then build a decent relationship with the list.

You can then find out what your list wants and create your ebook or product around what your list already wants. This will give you the highest conversions for action.

Back to Adsense, you have to play the search engines hot and heavy to get enough traffic that generates enough clickthroughs on the ads.

Please don't take this the wrong way, but I don't think you have the skills right now to profit from Adsense.

You do however, have the start to a great loyal fan base that after you build your list more can start a membership site as some here have suggested.

Glad to see someone doing something around here.

Matt

[4by8air]

As mentioned before, videos are a great source of traffic. To create terrific videos for free, go to animoto.com. You can make all sorts of videos for free (30 seconds) just by using a handful of photos. Highly recommended.

[AfteraDream]

Originally Posted by 4by8air

As mentioned before, videos are a great source of traffic. To create terrific videos for free, go to animoto.com. You can make all sorts of videos for free (30 seconds) just by using a handful of photos. Highly recommended.

Will check it out!

[AfteraDream]

Originally Posted by Matthew Maiden

Hi AfteraDream,

Like the others, congrats on doing something and taking action.

First let's start with the Adsense. The most effective way to use Adsense is to drive people to your site and then NOT encourage them to stay.

You want them to get there and see a pretty boring site and rather than hit the back button, click the Adsense link.

Also, if you wanted to stick with Adsense you need a better placement of your ads.

The best ad placement is right after the post title and before the post. a 300 by 250 text block.

So, your page is too colorful and laid out in a way that peaks enough curiosity to look around but not enough copy to grab them and make them ACT.

I would suggest that you use your site to give a freebie and capture emails for your list then build a decent relationship with the list.

You can then find out what your list wants and create your ebook or product around what your list already wants. This will give you the highest conversions for action.

Back to Adsense, you have to play the search engines hot and heavy to get enough traffic that generates enough clickthroughs on the ads.

Please don't take this the wrong way, but I don't think you have the skills right now to profit from Adsense.

You do however, have the start to a great loyal fan base that after you build your list more can start a membership site as some here have suggested.

Glad to see someone doing something around here.

Matt

Thanx for kind words! And I didn't take your words in wrong way.. I know I'm not a great marketer and definitely don't have the skills to monetize AdSense a lot but that's not my main goal. I've changed my AdSense placement a bit now though. Thanx for a great post!!

When you said:

So, your page is too colorful and laid out in a way that peaks enough curiosity to look around but not enough copy to grab them and make them ACT.

You meant to click AdSense as Acting or sticking ot the blog as acting? I think you meant AdSense...

[Matt Maiden]

Originally Posted by AfteraDream

When you said:

So, your page is too colorful and laid out in a way that peaks enough curiosity to look around but not enough copy to grab them and make them ACT.

You meant to click AdSense as Acting or sticking ot the blog as acting? I think you meant AdSense...

Don't direct them to Adsense. It's against Google's rules to ask people to click on the ads.

No I meant having them do what you want. What do you want them to do?
Your site is designed for reading, not action.

When people get to your site you want them to do something other than read the content. The content is there to bring them and to build a type of relationship so that they are more likely to take action when you tell them to.

If you want people to download a free ebook then you need to tell them right away that you have a free ebook for them and here is what they have to do to get it.

If you want them to subscribe to just the blog then you need to emphasize that it is important for them to subscribe to the blog.

If you replace the Adsense links with affiliate links like Clickbank then "pre-sell" the Clickbank product.

Let's say that you are an affiliate for a vitamin supplement product then when you write your post you should slant it towards the vitamins.

"When I work out I make sure that I always replenish my minerals before the day is over". "An excellent way to do this is with vitamin supplements and the best source that I found on the Internet is (your Clickbank affiliate link)."...

You are writing about your subject but you are also asking them to do something. And in business, that "something" is to take an action that makes you a profit.

As for Adsense, again, for it to work your visitor has to want MORE information than your providing. This is why your site should be boring and unattractive. It encourages them to click the big Adsense ad that they are staring at.

I personally think that you should dump Adsense and look for affiliate products to promote while building a list.

Matt

[AfteraDream]

Originally Posted by Matthew Maiden

Don't direct them to Adsense. It's against Google's rules to ask people to click on the ads.

No I meant having them do what you want. What do you want them to do?
Your site is designed for reading, not action.

When people get to your site you want them to do something other than read the content. The content is there to bring them and to build a type of relationship so that they are more likely to take action when you tell them to.

If you want people to download a free ebook then you need to tell them right away that you have a free ebook for them and here is what they have to do to get it.

If you want them to subscribe to just the blog then you need to emphasize that it is important for them to subscribe to the blog.

If you replace the Adsense links with affiliate links like Clickbank then "pre-sell" the Clickbank product.

Let's say that you are an affiliate for a vitamin supplement product then when you write your post you should slant it towards the vitamins.

"When I work out I make sure that I always replenish my minerals before the day is over". "An excellent way to do this is with vitamin supplements and the best source that I found on the Internet is (your Clickbank affiliate link)."...

You are writing about your subject but you are also asking them to do something. And in business, that "something" is to take an action that makes you a profit.

As for Adsense, again, for it to work your visitor has to want MORE information than your providing. This is why your site should be boring and unattractive. It encourages them to click the big Adsense ad that they are staring at.

I personally think that you should dump Adsense and look for affiliate products to promote while building a list.

Matt

Oh.. I see your point. Well, my goal is to keep them coming back and build trust with them not just to monetize... I will look into affiliating!

Thanx a lot

[Steven Carl Kelly]

Originally Posted by 4by8air

As mentioned before, videos are a great source of traffic. To create terrific videos for free, go to animoto.com. You can make all sorts of videos for free (30 seconds) just by using a handful of photos. Highly recommended.

Be advised: using free videos created with Animoto for commercial purposes is a VIOLATION of the Animoto TOS.

[Sheila]

Originally Posted by Steven Carl Kelly

Be advised: using free videos created with Animoto for commercial purposes is a VIOLATION of the Animoto TOS.

Another option: you can get a commercial account with animoto and then use the videos for commercial purposes - costs $99 for 3 months, or $297 (approx.) for a year.

As far as selling affiliate products goes, Amazon's payout is low. It might be a better idea to look for an appropriate product in Clickbank or paydotcom, write to the author, tell them about the size and responsiveness of your list, and ask if you can review a copy so you can write about it to your subscribers. The author wants to sell their product. You have a list that likes and trusts you in a buying niche. So it's a win-win situation.

If you like the product, write an honest review and send it to your list. You'll make money, and the author will make money. If you don't like the product, you haven't lost anything. In fact, it will be good research to help you know what you don't want to do when you develop your own product. Of course, it's best if you do like the product, because you'll be helping your subscribers and helping yourself at the same time.

[tedmauro]

This is a great thread. Thanks to everyone. I will be applying some of this information to my site.

[ezeey]

I would go with Option 1 for a bit, then write a mini demo ebook and include some affiliate links and all that and give it away for free or incentive on your site.

[Robertas]

Put a little opt-in box on the sidebar, offer something for free and make sure that the content and the language that you use is congruent with your market - it think this is really really important in this niche

Just sayin'

P.S. Don't have this limited mindset that "ohh **** I will only promote my own products, because if I'll promote John's book I'll be making him rich and I'll be losing my loyal readers"

With the stats that you've got you could easily get the "review" copies of the best selling fitness products that are availabla in the info market.

Also expand your thinking... Only think about it - there are literally hundreds if not thousands of companies who sell supplements, clothing, DVD's that are created by professional athletes... There's a lot of sh*t that you can sell in the fitness market ZINK!

[Mike30]

Originally Posted by Preben Frenning

@Mike30 - Yeah, and you could put affiliate links to great products in it too =) If you try to find some good ones, as well as recurring, you'll definitely have something going

correct! that's the complement for free ebooks. You give useful info for free and receive back links as a gratitude from your readers