I've Tried Everything I Know; Got Any Ideas?

If you've been doing IM for more than twenty years, you understand the critical importance of focusing your efforts on gaining an audience of people targeted to what you have to offer.

An extremely small list of interested and engaged followers in a small niche is infinitely better than all the traffic in the world made up of people not ready to buy anything and who are marketed to because someone had access to their email address.

Personally, I would not give any more effort to this source of traffic and spend your time on gathering an audience of niche buyers.

I'm sure this is not what you wanted to hear . . . but in all honesty, I wouldn't waste another minute on this activity. You've already proven the audience and their un-willingness to buy. Move on to something that has some potential.

Steve

First off the site design is nice !

Now for a suggestion
I went from your home page, to you store page, only to read click on the category to see pictures of what is for sale. You will loose customers because they have to jump thru to many hoopes. You may want to try a side bar with products for sale, which match with each topic.

Another thing, how do you sign up for your site for future updates or emails ? Their is nothing that stands out to join up for future updates.

Just added the Newsletter page link was not working when clicking on the link.

What keywords are your visitors using to find the site? That would give you some idea of their expectations.

I suspect that most people looking for a self-improvement course or business opportunity aren't typing the term "middle age" into a search engine, regardless of how old they are (or feel).

I'll bet your problem lies with your keyword...
"People find the page with traffic through the search term "middle age definition" or similar. "

Slim chance those people are looking to buy anything...

Hello my friend,

I just visited your site (middleage. org) and I like it.


You've already gotten some good advice, here on the forum, but so far no one's mentioned your page's copy.

As a direct response copywriter, the weakest issue I see going on here is your page copy. (I guess when all you own is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail )


Let me start by saying, I am your target market; 50 years old. Looking to extend my life. And more importantly, looking to maintain my health and well-being for a few more years.

I arrived on your page and saw the header picture, along with the tagline "make the rest of your life... The best of your life" - and I thought "this could be worth looking at."


So I scroll down a bit, and the first message I see says


And I instantly hit a credibility speed bump, because now I'm thinking "wow, you've got a step-by-step program that's going to do all of those things? Will it also regrow my hair and make me 6 inches taller?" (At this point my BS filter is beginning to engage)

I haven't clicked away yet, but now I'm looking for any excuse to completely disbelieve you, as just another site making hyped-up claims (while I'm still hoping I'll find a solution on this site, to make my life better). I'm assuming that's not the direction you want your visitors to go, right from the start?


I continue reading your homepage copy, and it starts to get a little better (not powerful at all, but at least a bit more sincere) so I'm still with you, for the moment (but now I'm cautiously optimistic, still leaning towards skeptical).


Then you start talking about how your program will cover all the aspects to make my life better. And you begin to tell me how you came about researching and developing your course. Unfortunately, you haven't yet told me who you are, and why I should believe you. (So we're really not getting over this "question of credibility" issue here)


By this point, you've probably already lost most of your sales. And I'm not even half way down the page yet.


On a side note; Your pictures are okay (I guess), but they're not really telling a story, on their own. So they should be treated as accessories, and not be more prominent than the sub headlines for each section of copy.


Now, as painful as it was, I finally made it all the way to the bottom of your page. And what do I find? The best part of your entire page is down at the bottom!

That last paragraph (the one that explains what your site is about, and what I'll find here) should be at the top of the page! Along with the pictures/links to all of your different offerings .

It's the best part of the entire page. It tells me what your website is about... why it might be of benefit to me... and it gives me access / portals to everything that might be of interest to me.


If I have any advice to give you, it would be this...

Get rid of that first "hyped up" paragraph, altogether. Move that last paragraph to the top. And follow it immediately with the "portals of interest" section that allows me to find what I'm interested in, right away.

Once you've done that... then, we can talk about the rest of your copy.

Hope this gives you something to think about.

All the best,
SAR

P.S. If you do make your page more credible / compelling, I may come back. Because I'm still in your target market. And I might be interested in what you're offering. (Unfortunately, right now your page is not selling me anything)

It's pretty simple. They're looking for a definition for the term "middle age".

They land on your page, find a header that takes half the screen, and immediately get hit with an ad for what appears to anyone with a brain as just another Get Rich Quick scheme.

If they have the patience to wade through your waffling, they find a definition so broad as to be totally useless. So they bounce.

Looked at the ads page. Those ads might work well in one of those pulp biz-opp magazines, but not as the first thing one sees on a page about improving the quality of life once someone reaches the ripe old age of...25?

I could go on, but it all adds up to this...

You went into this with the idea of extracting money rather than actually serving people. No one in their right mind will believe you are the source they've been looking for in a dozen different areas of life. From the sound of your copy, and your conception of what "middle age" means, I'd peg you as someone maybe in their mid-thirties (and that only because you say you've been doing this for 20 years, otherwise I'd have said early twenties).

Spend some time (days, not hours) on Quora or the AARP blogs and forums, and really listen to what middle-agers and up really think, not your current "infomercial before type", clumsy and clueless until they find the wonder widget.

That's a horrible website and those ads suck.

It's all random spam.

I agree, maybe try a different source of traffic?

Facebook, guest blog posts?

On design perpestive, You definitely need a new design with proper structured layout. Even if you are getting targetted audience, I am pretty sure they are getting confused after landing on your page.

Do you think anyone would buy a Gurranteed Life Channging Product from a website which is not built good ? If you are not perfect how would you make others life perfect ?

Select the products based on your traffic, otherwise you will not get expected sales. For example, if most of your traffic hate gardening and if your website is related to gardening tools, then you will not get sale.

Trust me, I understand the urge to monetize any page that gets traffic when times are tough.

But operating under the idea that "everybody buys something" without knowing more about who is actually visiting that page will lead only to frustration.

As for AARP, they open membership at age 50. The name may suggest that they are only for retired people, but it just isn't that exclusive. And having just celebrated the thirtieth anniversary of my twenty-ninth birthday, I can assure you that your notion that people just give up at age 55 is not accurate, at least not for enough people make a viable market.

You aren't looking for the people who have given up, and they won't be looking for you. They're busy watching The Wheel and Waltons reruns, and complaining about how biased the mainstream media is (except for Fox News )

I suggested the AARP forums because they tend to attract the rest of us codgers - people who are still alive and interested, involved and engaged. Heck most of us late Boomers have a hard time accepting what the calendar tells us is true - the odds are strong we're in the second half of the race.

Don't look for "leads" or traffic - look for the issues important to the people who are still engaged, how they talk about those issues, the language they use. That can be far more useful than anything you get from a keyword tool.

Where was I? Oh, yeah...

I think your best shot at monetizing that page is going to be some kind of very broad CPA offer, like an app download, game or such. Maybe a healthy cookbook with general recipes, a guide to ex-pat retirement destinations, anything of very general interest. And something they may not buy, but will fill out a zip code, email address, etc.

If you know this is what people want - and know you are highly qualified to give people what they want...why ask for advice from marketers here? I read a lot of your content - and I'm not impressed. Compelling web copy isn't about how smart you are - it's about whether you connect with your visitors. I'm Mensa qualified - but common sense has made more money online for me than a high IQ.

If you want that site to be profitable - it needs work. You graciously acknowledge those who offer advice - but seem to be rationalizing the critiques. It's your site - but if it's not selling...something needs to change.

I spent some time on the site and I found a wall of words (some of them quite repetitive), a lot of (very large) stock images, and loads of links to external sites and videos. Some of the text was repeated as if the text had been rearranged and not proofed after.

On a diet page you reference (a couple times) a 2009 study...this is 2017!!!

I would provide examples - but you seem to have disabled copy/paste and I'm not going to type it out. One example - you have TWELVE weight loss books for sale....pick one GOOD diet plan and promote it. The "buy these $5 ebooks" is reminiscent of 2003. This is not only a design issue - it's a content issue. Promoting a $5 ebook as a "this is one of the most valuable resources in the world when it comes to weight loss" - doesn't pass the hype test.

The graphics/design reminds me of sites from a dozen years ago - big photos - huge headers - too much rambling text - too little organization/streamlining of the copy - and far too many generic looking "products" being pushed.

You have a start of what could be a profitable site - but you need to bring the site into the present - do some surgical copywriting - and narrow down the products to a few good programs/books rather than a "buy this and this and this - because it's only $5".

Sorry - but you did ask.

After seeing that site there's no way you've been doing IM successfully for 20 years, not even remotely realistic.

I can't believe folks are going into detail on how to improve the site, it's noob pie in the sky spam.

People have been giving you feedback - don't think you are ready for it. It's not easy to be told your website is outdated - but won't help you for people to say "that's great" - when it isn't.

Something to consider:

Twenty one years ago there was no...

Paypal
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Google
Adsense
Wordpress - plugins/platforms/themes/etc
eBay had just launched as 'auction web'
...and Amazon was an online bookstore competing with Barnes and Noble

For Internet Marketing - 21 years is the equivalent of an industrial revolution.

To be successful in IM you have to copy the gurus. Most of them have made most of there money from building a sizeable email list to which they provide quality content or build up a good relationship. So you need to try that approach if you want to make good money online.