Why am I not making any money?

40 replies
Hello, I have a couple of sites and I have some really good affiliates. I've used everything from rich jerk to money mavericks, adwords, etc and a lot of other programs. I've gotten tips from all of them but I'm still not making any money and I'm thinking about giving it up because its costing me money to maintain these sites. I'm getting traffic but no buyers. Is it the people I'm trying to market it to? Is it the economy? Please take a look at them and tell what you think can make them better and more profitable. Please don't be a jerk about it, keep it professional and i will value your opinion. Thank you gurlztown.com luvthe90s.com mycoldsoreblog.com
#making #money
  • Profile picture of the author Sparhawke
    Gurlztown, bet you are getting a high bounce rate where people visit then just leave?

    Try making a friendlier colour than black, with purple text that people can actually read easily as well as trying not to spread it all the way down the page in zigzags so that each story can be followed without struggling...not really sure what kind of site you are trying to make with it all over the place. If I saw that maybe I would read some of it on occasion, but it would not especially entice me to read until it is cleaned up and it wouldn't really entice me to at least bookmark it for another visit later

    Your page 2 is also a direct copy of wiki, this is not good and will penalise you in the rankings most probably...not to be overly critical, but it just seems all over the place with far more emphasis on adverts that actual original content.

    ~~~

    It is the same for luvthe90s.com, it simply runs off the layout and halfway off the right hand side of the screen and the links on the left with dark navy blue background and black text...what were you thinking? :confused:

    Fansion and fads page, just way too cluttered, it needs to be nicely spaced out I think, something like this quote:

    1920s and 1960s inspired styles
    Retro styles inspired by the 1920s and 1960s were popular at the beginning of the 1990s. 1920s inspired styles included men's vests and clothing for older women. 1960s inspired styles included men's cardigan sweaters and colorless polo shirts for girls and women.
    This could've been expanded greatly to cover at least 2 page lengths with photos and maybe a video, not squashed into a couple of lines...

    ~~~

    You coldsore blog is far better, easy to read yet not much information there...the commandments page is brilliant, you really must make your site original, copying directly from another site is a big no no and I found it by taking a huge block of text and it wasn't even changed in any way:

    mycoldsoreblog[dot]com/Page_2_D5BW.html
    My niece suffers cold sore outbreaks. When she was young, we blamed them on the strawberries she loved to eat. She often comes to me for advice about her outbreaks, to chat about concerns with her self-image and of course to get my style fashion tips. She has inspired me to write the 10 Commandments of Cold Sore Outbreaks
    Found it on another page and though you did credit them with a backlink I would've changed it so it at least doesnt compete directly with them from google and give them a backlink with an actual message stating where you found it.
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    • Profile picture of the author Kay King
      You asked this same question not long ago - when people with experience building profitable sites offered their opinions you offered "reasons" for doing the site the way they were - then you stopped answering.

      Then you removed your initial post and called everyone "jerks"

      You had quite a bit of constructive criticism and many people took time out of their day to look at your sites - but you didn't like being criticized. Until you get beyond that, there's not much anyone can do.

      kay
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      • Profile picture of the author AnniePot
        Well said Kay. Couldn't agree with you more
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      • Profile picture of the author JCTunes
        Originally Posted by Kay King View Post

        You asked this same question not long ago - when people with experience building profitable sites offered their opinions you offered "reasons" for doing the site the way they were - then you stopped answering.

        Then you removed your initial post and called everyone "jerks"

        You had quite a bit of constructive criticism and many people took time out of their day to look at your sites - but you didn't like being criticized. Until you get beyond that, there's not much anyone can do.

        kay
        I thought I was seeing things, but indeed I remember posting my thoughts in the previous thread.

        Good points, Kay.
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      • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
        Banned
        [DELETED]
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        • Profile picture of the author Debster
          Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

          Deb, after the way you behaved last time people took the time and trouble to offer their opinions on your sites and explain why you're not making any money, you're really SO badly placed to be asking for help again by telling Warriors "please don't be a jerk" before anyone's even replied. Have you learned nothing?!



          Agreed.
          Yes, I've learned that if you ask people to be professional, most of them will answer with manners and you get clear responses that are'nt nearly as rude as the ones I got before. I and anyone with half a brain would be more willing to take that advice if its not put downs and insults.You obviously took the time to respond to my post so it it worked. If I feel the need to ask this question again then I will regardless of your rude response
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          • Profile picture of the author Jeremy Kelsall
            Originally Posted by Debster View Post

            If I feel the need to ask this question again then I will regardless of your rude response
            So, you will continue to ask the same questions only to disregard the suggestions you get?

            Sounds like a plan to me
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            • Profile picture of the author Debster
              Originally Posted by Jeremy Kelsall View Post

              So, you will continue to ask the same questions only to disregard the suggestions you get?

              Sounds like a plan to me
              This is my second post on this. I'm getting differant responses. Some are constructive to me some are'nt. Thats why we are all here on this forum. To get tips and answers.....is that ok with you
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              • Profile picture of the author Jill Carpenter
                Originally Posted by Debster View Post

                This is my second post on this. I'm getting differant responses. Some are constructive to me some are'nt. Thats why we are all here on this forum. To get tips and answers.....is that ok with you
                We are all happy to pitch in and give answers. But it was quite obvious going back to your original thread that you seemed to ignore some of the very valid advice that was given.

                That tends to leave a sour taste with those who offered that legit advise.

                By the way, it doesn't look like you've done any bookmarking to your sites.

                And my previous comment made on your old thread about almost being blinded by what I saw was my honest opinion.

                Sorry if I didn't "sugar coat" that for you.
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                • Profile picture of the author Kay King
                  Debster -

                  You are missing something very important. In both of your threads at least half the answers come from people who ARE making money with their websites.

                  You aren't.

                  You are emotionally invested in the first two sites - so treat them like hobby sites but don't expect them to be money makers. The third site has potential if you keep working on it and if you do what is necessary to promote it.

                  You can ask the same question again and again but eventually the only responses will be from those who are just as clueless as you are.

                  The only person affected by your attitude is you. No one can help you until you start looking at your sites as a business instead of trying to defend them. At this point it's up to you whether you fish or cut bait.

                  kay
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    • Profile picture of the author mojo100
      I visited gurlztown.com - and it came back with an error message

      The other site - luvthe90s.com - great site and lots of content - I can see why that must eat up yor time.
      I found it hard to see what if anything you where selling then I saw the donate button.

      THe other site is cleaner but again very hard to find what you where selling - then I found the link -
      My first thoughts where that it was an information site, try making clear that you have a product to sell.
      Good Luck
      Hope this helps
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  • Profile picture of the author hushy
    Have you started Back linking? What is your Niche? Who are you specifically targeting?? These questions you might need to answer before you will start making money.
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    • Profile picture of the author Barry Unruh
      Let's start on site #1 GurlzTown

      The site does not present me with a burning desire or problem, and tell me how to solve it. Your offers are weak, and not running with the context of any content. The layout is not good, it would be better in a WordPress Blog with some good structure and a good theme. Choose one product you are going to sell on this blog, and then work to make it all about this subject.

      Site #2 - Donate does not equal sales, it won't work. Again, far to general of a site. The layout is not good. You are not selling anything. I would throw this one away, personally.

      Site #3 - You are on the right track. The format is better. You are hitting the pain points. Your offer needs to move up to the top of the page. You need to fix a few minor formatting problems, as I view it in Chrome. You need to find more long tail keywords to target in posts, but please make sure they have traffic, and low competition first by doing keyword research. You can use articles, social bookmarking, Squidoo, Hubpages, and other sites to start driving more traffic to it. Your domain name matches the content of the page closely, a good benefit.

      I'm guessing though the phrase "cold sore" has a ton of competition.

      If it were me, the only one I'd consider continuing much work on is #3. I'd use your concepts from it to expand into other ideas and niches, making sure to do good research.

      Fair enough?
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      • Profile picture of the author DC Marketing
        Hello,

        I visited luvthe90s.com and not to be too critical but the site should be re done completely.
        There is way too much going on to even stay for a few minutes.
        Maybe catagorise better, Different template......
        Change what is NOT working.
        I see a huge potential for this site of yours but really could use
        some good ole revamping.
        The site also loads very slow.
        I am in no way beating you up, just offering the help you requested.
        I myself have learned so much at warrior, take the time to digest the input!

        Until next time,
        Douglas J Gregory
        "The Transformation Marketer"
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  • Profile picture of the author guide4everything
    Hi,i visited your sites and let me inform you that one of the above mentioned site mycoldsoreblog is really good but it needs to be improved a little bit.But gurlztown home page color is very bad,try to change it.
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  • Profile picture of the author Lisa Gergets
    There is way too much going on in each of those sites. You can't tell who you're trying to target.

    Also, I had to look around for things to buy...your ads are not obvious.

    You need to make the sites easier on the eyes and easier to navigate, and also lay them out in a way that makes more sense to the reader.

    Clean them up and think about who exactly it is you're targeting.

    What are your target keywords?
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    • Profile picture of the author Sparhawke
      Originally Posted by Lisa Gergets View Post

      Also, I had to look around for things to buy...your ads are not obvious.
      They were too obvious to me, they seemed to be everywhere yet had no relevance to what I had been reading five seconds previously.

      Originally Posted by KansasDragon View Post

      If it were me, the only one I'd consider continuing much work on is #3. I'd use your concepts from it to expand into other ideas and niches, making sure to do good research.

      Fair enough?
      I actually think gurlztown can be saved, but it will require much work to streamline it and give it a very real focus and purpose, right now I am not sure whether it is a random rant against the world, blog or information hub...I would also put a forum on it when complete, and when you have over 1000 visits each day, that way you will end up with a captive audience and can invite people to write articles for you.
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  • Profile picture of the author talfighel
    All I can tell you is to keep going and not to give up. Try different approaches and see what can work for you.

    That is all I can say.

    Tal
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  • Profile picture of the author rlharding
    My first observation would be that I didn't see any way in which I could interact with anyone on the 3 sites. I could watch movie clips, listen to music....but I couldn't find anywhere to post a comment.

    The lesbian site was a bit too disjointed for me..................scrolling up and down too much with large gasp in space. The 90s site was too busy for me. Lots of things to read but not much to 'do'. The cold sore blog was.....well. it is what it is, a blog about cold sores.

    I think you should keep at it........perhaps you could find a way to solicit feedback on the lesbian clips and music..............and the 90s isn't that far back....perhaps go back further to the 50s?

    .02c
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  • Profile picture of the author JayInOrlando
    WTF, is this a joke???

    Those site suck, plan and simple. You should give up and go work at McDonald's rather than posting the same "why me" crap over again. Why did you not listen to the advice the first time around?
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    • Profile picture of the author Heidi White
      Originally Posted by JayInOrlando View Post

      WTF, is this a joke???

      Those site suck, plan and simple. You should give up and go work at McDonald's rather than posting the same "why me" crap over again. Why did you not listen to the advice the first time around?
      Jay - play nice. Did you ever 'not listen to advice first time around?' This is the Warrior Forum, not the other WF forum. - why you have to be so wicked mean?
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    • Profile picture of the author Debster
      Originally Posted by JayInOrlando View Post

      WTF, is this a joke???

      Those site suck, plan and simple. You should give up and go work at McDonald's rather than posting the same "why me" crap over again. Why did you not listen to the advice the first time around?
      See, its jerks like you that try to discourage people from trying new things. Your opinion does'nt matter to me cause your an A**. Your a loser and misery loves company. You hate your life so you have nothing contructive to say but negativity. We see through you.
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      • Profile picture of the author Kim Standerline
        Debster

        You've had a heap of suggestions for your site and as far as I can see since you started this thread you haven't made the slightest attempt to put any of them into action so why ask for advice if you don't take it.

        You're not making sales because your sites are a mess. This is what people are taking their time out to tell you. Admittedly the poster you responded to with the below was a tad over the top, but I feel his impatience.

        You've had your advice, now take some action for heaven's sake and get those sites sorted. (It's what you need to do) and hopefully they will start to bring you in some cash.

        Good luck with them

        Kim

        Originally Posted by Debster View Post

        See, its jerks like you that try to discourage people from trying new things. Your opinion does'nt matter to me cause your an A**. Your a loser and misery loves company. You hate your life so you have nothing contructive to say but negativity. We see through you.
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  • Profile picture of the author aspire2000c
    Hey man it won't be wise for you to give up now you have invested alot into it. i would advice you to have a review of the possible steps you have taken i believe you must identify your mistake. keep the ball rolling don't give up. best of lucks....
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  • Profile picture of the author Jimian
    Originally Posted by Debster View Post

    Hello, I have a couple of sites and I have some really good affiliates. I've used everything from rich jerk to money mavericks, adwords, etc and a lot of other programs. I've gotten tips from all of them but I'm still not making any money and I'm thinking about giving it up because its costing me money to maintain these sites. I'm getting traffic but no buyers. Is it the people I'm trying to market it to? Is it the economy? Please take a look at them and tell what you think can make them better and more profitable. Please don't be a jerk about it, keep it professional and i will value your opinion. Thank you gurlztown.com luvthe90s.com mycoldsoreblog.com
    I would design it as a direct-response website. (I'm not sure what the heck you're even selling on gurlztown.com) But create a headline that states a specific problem... "Got Trouble Finding Your Special Kind of Girl? Discover How A Shy Male (or Female) Now Gets All The Babes (He or She) Wants....

    Check out how most of the sites are set up on clickbank.com Good Luck.
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  • Profile picture of the author JonMills
    Originally Posted by Debster View Post

    Hello, I have a couple of sites and I have some really good affiliates. I've used everything from rich jerk to money mavericks, adwords, etc and a lot of other programs. I've gotten tips from all of them but I'm still not making any money and I'm thinking about giving it up because its costing me money to maintain these sites. I'm getting traffic but no buyers. Is it the people I'm trying to market it to? Is it the economy? Please take a look at them and tell what you think can make them better and more profitable. Please don't be a jerk about it, keep it professional and i will value your opinion. Thank you gurlztown.com luvthe90s.com mycoldsoreblog.com

    Deb without sounding too harsh

    1st site.. holy cow colors ( im blinded).. most of content is way down the page, not above fold

    2nd site. Loading ( a big no no, making people wait ) plus links on left black on blue.. eek i can barely view it )

    3rd site.. created 11 jan 2010 - still early and needs some work on the site.

    Its not the economy.
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  • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
    Banned
    The only one that is close to be on the right track is the cold sore blog. Girls blog looks like a bad page out of Myspace. I'm on dialup so the 90s site never loaded at all. If you want to salvage the first two, or at least the one I could see, you need to put the content into a blog, rather than the crowded, poorly designed scattered mess that it is right now.

    On your cold sore blog, get rid of the visible counter. Webmasters don't use that. That's 80s stuff. Use statcounter to keep track of your traffic and use the invisible stats. Put some more content in it. The header could be better. The image of the skull and pills are not very relevant to cold sores.
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  • Profile picture of the author mine1718
    the sites need alot of work. WHat i would do is just completly start from scratch, find somehing your good at, and go from their.
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  • Profile picture of the author Melodican
    Your sites are OK and I'm inspired by the fact you took action to set these up.

    My question would be, how are you monetizing these sites ? If you are getting traffic, here's a tip....

    Put an opt-in box on your page (right hand column looks good), and give your visitors something free. Find out all of the questions people in your niche are looking for i.e. coldsore remedies, and create a product for them, something that shows you are there to help them. This could be new material or re-hashed from your own articles.

    Once you have a list of people in your niche, thats when you start opening the doors of opportunity into making significant money.
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  • Profile picture of the author LocoDice
    I agree with most of what I've seen here.

    I think if you really want to regroup and have another go at this you should focus on the following with one site:

    1. Focus on getting people to that site (forget about making money to start with)
    2. Once you have people going to the site, work on getting them to click on a call to action
    3. Once they they are clicking on the call to action, work on them converting.

    Just like oils aint oils.. traffic aint traffic. You said you're getting traffic, but how much?

    When I look at any of these sites there seems to be a 1,000,000 things going on. What is the business model?
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    • Profile picture of the author eclario
      Plain and simple - your not focusing on the niche properly and not spending your money in the right places. You need some training friend.

      Contact me via aol im at eclariosolutions and we can talk.
      (JayInOrlando, same thing).
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  • Profile picture of the author usearchme2
    Hmm I couldnt actaulyl get any of the sites to work all 3 of them were down, and the first one gave an error when the homepage loaded !

    Woc
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  • Profile picture of the author Terri LC
    Using WIX for a website is a mistake because it took about 7 seconds to load up the site and the 3 more to load the video.....the busy-nes on the site speaks for itself, annoying. The Cold Sore blog is your best bet.

    I don't think its the economy, and are you sure of who you are marketing to?

    At any rate, good luck to you.
    T
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  • Profile picture of the author applemedic
    To make money you have to be patient. You have to get your rankings up, I have noticed that all of your websites are still pagerank 0 and all are above 2 million in alexa ranking. So you have to do some SEO work. But make sure your affiliate links are related to the niche of your site. Because if it is not how are you suppose to target people to buy the product.
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  • Profile picture of the author sdentrepreneur
    I personally think affiliate marketing has seen its best days. Commissions are too small and too much work to make any real money. I know there are some people doing very well but for the beginner.....its a long road that is getting narrower for affiliate marketing.
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    • Profile picture of the author Debster
      Originally Posted by sdentrepreneur View Post

      I personally think affiliate marketing has seen its best days. Commissions are too small and too much work to make any real money. I know there are some people doing very well but for the beginner.....its a long road that is getting narrower for affiliate marketing.
      Thanx for the response Unfortunatly I think you maybe right but lets hope not I do like doing it but I think I'm going to cut back on the ones that are costing me.
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  • Profile picture of the author sylviad
    Your Trafficking ( Sorry, couldn't wait to use that one.)

    Your traffic might not be "buying" traffic. If whoever is sending it to you is not targeting the right people, you could have high traffic but no sales. If your affiliates are mass trafficking people over without any thought to their interests, it's pointless traffic.

    Your Site Design

    luvthe90s is very slow for me. It opens to a black page with some weird gray lines scanning across, then I get a notice to "maximize my screen" and finally, your content appears.

    The buttons on the left are unreadable, black on dark blue?
    The page runs way off to the right of my screen, which is set small, but still... even with the right size screen I'm not sure it would fit, but I don't know. I see others have commented on this though.

    Too cluttered - with paper in the background, huge graphic (which I see is actually a video - but not easy to tell that it is), bold print running across the dark gold and paper background is difficult to read.

    I wouldn't spend any time on this page. I wouldn't even have waited for it to load if you hadn't asked for an opinion.

    It's unclear why people would visit - what are you offering? A list of Super Bowl winners? Personal videos? Who cares?

    Sorry I don't have time to check your other sites, but that gives you an idea for one. But remember, people won't wait more than about 10 seconds for a page to load. It took all of that for me.

    Sylvia
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  • Profile picture of the author andr3w84
    From what I know, you would not hurt your sites at all by simplifying them. That doesn't mean reducing content or making them less fun, but just eliminating the distractions that potential buyers may have on their way to your sales links. Allen Says, founder of this forum, said in another thread "Funny thing about us humans, give us too many options and we will pick none".

    Another important point: readability. That may involve changing some background or font colours, particularly (1) the black background on your first site, as it is no longer favoured by webdesigners, and (2) the tabs at the top left of your second site.

    Also, try placing your sales links on the top end of the screen. Surely, you do have to appear informational and not sale-ish. For each product, a short review followed by a few testimonials and the sales link would suffice.

    All in all, try finding a few commercially very successful sites in your niche and model them. To start, we don't have to invent anything, just model what is already working.

    Best of success
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  • Profile picture of the author jhess56
    Not saying yours does or doesnt but just food for thought, all the traffic in the world doesnt do a darn bit of good if your sales copy sux.

    Ive made that mistake before,thinking to just drive more volume of traffic to the site,then realized that was insane, as it would just multiply failure.

    Did some research on copywriting with kern and joe vitales stuff, and boom,same traffic,more sales.
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