Help please, I'm at a x-roads!

12 replies
A bit of a chew-the-fat moment...

OK, I'm at a x-roads, embarking on (struggling with) the monetizing phase, and think it's the actual marketing side of the game that's prompted this post.

I have been working away at my niche sites (sig links), one for primarily list building from article subs, and the other one for non-list building. However, having learned so much about IM in the development of them, and everything it's taken to get it to a marketable (I hope) proposition, I have reached the point at which I probably know more about the mechanism I've used to get them to thus far; i.e. "IM" per se. What I would say, is that I seem to have 10 times more content about IM, than trading stocks, wandering around in my head.

Now, I know IM is the most swamped and competitive niche, but it also the one that seems to offer the most scope in terms of creating content.

Having gotten a small amount of material together to start an IM site; domain registered, and a ton of stuff in my head, and saved on my computer, I guess what I'm chasing - or hoping for - is an opinion about which way to jump, from where I'm at.

Thoughts, direction, and critique - are much appreciated...

Thanks
#xroads
  • Profile picture of the author Jeremy Kelsall
    I would not jump shit just yet....

    If you go to another niche and put the same work in, chances are good that you are going to be asking this same question again in a couple months.

    Your squeeze page looks good. Chances are, you just are not doing enough to drive traffic to it.

    Your "review" page...Is quite honestly one of the "ugliest" I have ever seen. That is not meant as an insult, it is just the truth from my point of view. Why not try to adapt the style of review site that has proven effective for a ton of other marketers?

    I did not see very many backlinks at all for either page which leads me to believe that unless you are doing PPC to get your traffic, it is obvious why you are asking this question.

    Start out on a week long "SEO BLITZ" and see what happens from there in the coming weeks.
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    • Profile picture of the author Ian Jackson
      Originally Posted by Jeremy Kelsall View Post

      I would not jump shit just yet....

      If you go to another niche and put the same work in, chances are good that you are going to be asking this same question again in a couple months.

      Your squeeze page looks good. Chances are, you just are not doing enough to drive traffic to it.

      Your "review" page...Is quite honestly one of the "ugliest" I have ever seen. That is not meant as an insult, it is just the truth from my point of view. Why not try to adapt the style of review site that has proven effective for a ton of other marketers?

      I did not see very many backlinks at all for either page which leads me to believe that unless you are doing PPC to get your traffic, it is obvious why you are asking this question.

      Start out on a week long "SEO BLITZ" and see what happens from there in the coming weeks.
      Thanks Jeremy, appreciate you comments, at least I have a focus now.

      The backlinks anayltics thing is something I'm yet to grasp - how/where did you observe them - or lack of them?

      The SEO blitz... have no budget, so Adsense, W2.0, blogs etc...?

      Thanks
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      • Profile picture of the author Jeremy Kelsall
        Originally Posted by Ian Jackson View Post

        Thanks Jeremy, appreciate you comments, at least I have a focus now.

        The backlinks anayltics thing is something I'm yet to grasp - how/where did you observe them - or lack of them?

        The SEO blitz... have no budget, so Adsense, W2.0, blogs etc...?

        Thanks
        As far as an SEO BLITZ goes, I would come up with a plan for the next 7 - 10 days to promote your site.

        1. Get a firm grasp of what keywords you are targeting
        2. Set aside a couple hours a day for promotion
        3. Start building backlinks to not only your front page, but also every page that is in your site. You can do this with the following:

        • link directory submissions
        • rss feed submissions
        • article marketing
        • mass article submission
        • video marketing
        • blog commenting
        • forum marketing
        Everything above should not cost you a dime, so budget is not an issue. Try to make it a goal to build at least 20 links a day to your site in one form or another. Remember to not only link to your front page, but also link deep into the internal pages as well.

        Regardless of the niche that you go into, promotion and traffic are going to be a must.

        As far as checking your links, I like to use Yahoo Explorer for that. just go to yahoo and type your site in like this: link:www.yoursite.com and it should show you all of the pages that are linking to your site. When I checked yours I did not see any
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        • Profile picture of the author Ian Jackson
          Thanks for the info Jeremy; time to build!
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  • Profile picture of the author Loren Woirhaye
    Build your trading list. Then offer a free report for opting
    in to receive IM information. Then you'll be able to get
    some idea about what portion just wants trading info and
    what portion just wants to make money.

    If you become a "friend" to your subscribers they'll follow
    you into other areas that meet their own self-interest.
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    • Profile picture of the author Ian Jackson
      I like the cut of your jib Loren
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  • Profile picture of the author lassitermarketing
    Loren is right. I was at a crossroads at the beginning of the year and I finally decided to do just what he recommended.

    I worked hard to add 3000 new subs to my list, developed a few new products to promote and a few select products of others.

    Started my blog and contributing content filled posts on niche forums, ramped up social networking via Twitter and Facebook and now am at that magical place where my monthly income from information marketing is more than I earn from the mortgage company I own. Plus, it's moe fun.
    Signature

    Susan Lassiter-Lyons
    http://www.LassiterMarketing.com
    Have fun. Create value.

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    • Profile picture of the author Ian Jackson
      Some good feedback all; thanks.

      So, with respect to a revamp of the review site, you'd all suggest running with both sites; review, and opt-in...?
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  • Profile picture of the author write-stuff
    Not a direct answer to your question, but a suggestion for a couple of tweaks that might help your first site, the one where you offer your ebook.

    In the headline, force a line break <br> after the elipsis, so that the "free" part fills its own line.

    And in your offer, instead of saying something about "learn the techniques in my ebook" I would have said "learn the techniques with my ebook".

    As always, just an opinion. Best of luck. - Russ
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    • Profile picture of the author Ian Jackson
      It's one of the more printable phrases used in my day job
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