Lots of Traffic, No Sales

17 replies
First of all , kudos to the people that take their time and share their hard-earned expertise helping people on the forum.

Next, this is sort of a repost of a something I put up a while ago, and which I didn't do a good job of. I will be more clear.

Last year I purchased a domain which had been around for 18 years. The site was really out-dated, but it had one page that was getting decent traffic of around 2,000 visitors a month. It was also a good match for a site I was working on.

The page getting traffic is at https://middleage.org/definition/. If you search Google for "middle age definition", it is #5.

The demographics, according to Analytics are as follows:
18-24 - 27.5%
25-34 - 33.5%
35-44 - 15.5%
45-54 - 12.5%
55-64 - 5.5%
65+ - 5.5%

What is strange is that 76.5% of the visitors are not middle-aged. Why people 18-24 are searching for this term is beyond me. But I digress.

My average session duration is :56, pages per session: 2.76, and my bounce rate is 3.92%. 90.57% of the visitors are new.

I have been lead to believe that I dare not change the text on this page, as it could cause me to lose my position on the SERP, and I don't want that. The original page was just a block of text, and I have added some graphics, etc.

So that's the basics.

Now the issue. Since January, I have tried many offers to try to monetize this page and traffic. They include:
  1. 12 self-improvement courses with videos, audios & eBook for $19
  2. 12 self-improvement courses with videos, audios & eBook - $9.86/ea
  3. 50% off of any of 300 digital items in my online store, mostly self-improvement courses: health, weightloss, goal setting, etc.
  4. Internet marketing course with 48 videos for $27.
I never made one sale. I also put a 2-page survey on this page, trying to find out what people wanted, offering a $50 coupon in my store for a completed survey, didn't get one survey.

I am currently offering to give away one of the courses for free ($17 in my store), and then have an OTO to buy more for $9.86. It's been up for about 3 days and nobody has even grabbed one of the free courses.

At this point, I have pretty-much lost hope for this page, and am OK with that. I'll run my current special for maybe another week and then just use the page to perhaps direct people to the main site.

That having been said, does anyone have any suggestions on how I can monetize this page? I have had suggestions of using affiliate offers, but 1) I'm not sure who would buy anything at this point, and 2) if I can sell my own items for, say, $12, that's pure profit, not much different when compared to getting 10% commission on a $200 affiliate sale, which is much-less likely. I will, however, still consider this option if I see sense in it.

Please keep in mind that (AFAIK) I can't change the text on this page, but can play with the layout and graphics.

Also, please only give me suggestions for options. Comments like "Your page sucks, Dude" aren't much help. LOL!

Many thanks in advance for any suggestions.
#lots #sales #traffic
  • Profile picture of the author 1Bryan
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  • Profile picture of the author Frank Donovan
    Originally Posted by KnowOneKnows View Post

    What is strange is that 76.5% of the visitors are not middle-aged. Why people 18-24 are searching for this term is beyond me.
    And 100% of the visitors looking up a definition of Amphibian probably aren't frogs. What's so hard to understand?

    We've had all this before. All you have is a site offering a definition of the term Middle age. You are not attracting buying traffic.
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    • Profile picture of the author KnowOneKnows
      Thanks; I am aware of this, but it seems to make sense that some of the 2,000 people a month would have an interest in self-improvement, making money or whatever.
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  • Profile picture of the author adongmanila
    Lot of Traffic? It does not mean lot of sale. Because the traffic may false traffic. You must have targeted traffic. If you have enough targeted traffic, your sale will be increased. You may increase your site traffic by purchase, but it is not good at all. Thanks for your advance.
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  • Profile picture of the author Kay King
    I know I advised you to come back and ask for further advice here....I'll have to cry 'uncle' on that one.

    You don't have sales. People aren't participating by signing up to a list or being pulled into a funnel.

    ...but you are focused on explaining why you can't/won't make changes.

    I have been lead to believe that I dare not change the text on this page, as it could cause me to lose my position on the SERP, and I don't want that.
    Why? It makes no money, is not building a list - is ranking for a non-buying keyword. Of what value is that 'position'? The 2004 copy screams 'outdated'.

    I went back and reread the previous thread asking for help. Many of the same marketers giving advice - and the OP explaining why he doesn't agree or can't make changes. I think at this point dumping the project probably makes the most sense.
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  • Profile picture of the author KnowOneKnows
    Thanks for your response. The thing that nobody seems to get is that "people buy things". How many people see an ad on TV and decide to by that product? Enough to make it worth paying for the ad. So even if that page is not for a "buying" term, it still has traffic (people). The copy seems irrelevant because an ad at the top of the page is what could pull in buyers. That's what I see. Feel free to show me where I'm wrong.

    What intrigues me is that I specifically asked for suggestions on what would work and not just what's wrong, and yet nobody has given me any suggestion on what will work and everyone has told me what's wrong.

    Thanks again.
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    • Profile picture of the author Frank Donovan
      Originally Posted by KnowOneKnows View Post

      Thanks for your response. The thing that nobody seems to get is that "people buy things". How many people see an ad on TV and decide to by that product? Enough to make it worth paying for the ad. So even if that page is not for a "buying" term, it still has traffic (people).
      We get it. But what you seem to be missing is that you're not NBC. You have no inbuilt authority. What you have are 2,000 random visitors with disparate interests and no reason to trust your site or your offers - even if they were disposed to dip into their wallets. You just happen to come up on the first page of the SERPs for a specific term.

      I know it's frustrating to see all this traffic and not be able to sell them anything, but you'd be better off with fewer visitors and a more buyer-oriented keyword.
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    • Profile picture of the author 1Bryan
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      • Profile picture of the author KnowOneKnows
        Thanks a lot for your cogent response! ) The good news is that I really bought it for the domain name, as I was already working on that market, and I am quite pleased with my purchase. Thanks again!
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    • Profile picture of the author Gambino
      Originally Posted by KnowOneKnows View Post

      Thanks for your response. The thing that nobody seems to get is that "people buy things". How many people see an ad on TV and decide to by that product? Enough to make it worth paying for the ad. So even if that page is not for a "buying" term, it still has traffic (people). The copy seems irrelevant because an ad at the top of the page is what could pull in buyers. That's what I see. Feel free to show me where I'm wrong.

      What intrigues me is that I specifically asked for suggestions on what would work and not just what's wrong, and yet nobody has given me any suggestion on what will work and everyone has told me what's wrong.

      Thanks again.
      Thank you for the opportunity to show you where you're wrong.

      It's obvious that everything you've done is wrong, because the page is not converting. I don't remember if I commented in the previous thread you created but I recall thinking and reading other replies that told you trying to convert people looking for the definition of middle age into sales is likely a waste of time. You're not getting any conversions, so I guess those people are right and you're wrong.

      It is illogical to compare people looking up the definition of middle aged to people watching TV. Most commercials are run to increase brand awareness as part of the sales process. There's are major companies, not some unknown website.

      The bottom line is that the type of traffic you're attracting is not the type of traffic that is looking to buy. Sure, you may get random sales here or there but it will likely be impossible to build and scale a viable business with this type of traffic.

      I haven't looked at your site or the page. And I have no idea what type of problems middle age people have.

      My solution as to what would work would be to scrap this idea and build a viable business that starts with a need that you can provide a solution to. Then, target people who want and need your product.

      In my opinion, you're wasting time trying to get this to work.
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  • Profile picture of the author DIABL0
    Try generating leads that have mass appeal...will be of interest to a large general audience.

    Insurance, educations, debt, credit, loans, mortgage, assistance, discount offers, homeowner offers, etc...

    The upside is there is no credit card / purchase required to complete an offer. So conversion rates are typically much higher than offers that require a sale to be made. The downside is that 2000 visitors is pretty small when dealing with untargeted traffic.

    My 2 cents.
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  • Profile picture of the author Kay King
    I specifically asked for suggestions on what would work and not just what's wrong, and yet nobody has given me any suggestion on what will work
    "what will work" and "what is wrong" are not independent of each other.

    What you don't understand is that until you fix what is wrong - nothing will work. You can't get different results doing the same thing.

    Rationalizing that some will buy something if you have enough traffic - or that 'people buy stuff' - doesn't matter in the least if they are not buying from YOU.
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  • Profile picture of the author thestephiewung
    I'm sorry to hear about your experiences with your site. I understand that it can be frustrating to see traffic but not a single sale or even takers of your free offers. But please also understand that people here tell you about the "what's wrong" to help you fix the problem and identify a "what will work" way.
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  • Profile picture of the author ImRoment
    Hello my friend,

    I don't know if you gonna agree with me or not. But you can try a banner ad offering your product/service instead of the Text looking ad..Hope, if you use a banner ad you may see some results.

    Thank you
    Roment
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    • Profile picture of the author KnowOneKnows
      Thanks so much for taking your time to suggest a solution. )

      I have decided to try Google AdSense and let them deal with the issue. I have a main project that I am working on, and this was just a side deal that I wanted to either monetize or put to bed. Thanks again my friend!
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  • Profile picture of the author KnowOneKnows
    Thanks for taking the time to respond and give lots of information. )

    I've decided to try Google AdSense, but not worry much about it.

    I do have a real site that I am working on and which I believe will do well. This was just a little bonus I was trying to monetize.

    Thanks again.
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  • Profile picture of the author KnowOneKnows
    Thanks again, Diablo! )

    I'm not sure how to pixel my site. I know of tracking pixels, but after that, I'm lost. Any hints?

    Thanks again.
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