My educational info site - what to do

by mkpoway

Posted: 14 years ago 19 replies

INTERNET MARKETING

Hi all, new to the forum. I have a site related to a particular standardized test that about 250,000 people take each year. I'm currently getting about 100 hits per day, about half from PPC and half from organic.

I have worked as a tutor for this exam for a long time, and my original business model was to sell online tutoring. However, nobody is buying my online tutoring services.

I then decided to create a DVD product and sell it through the website, however, nobody bought my DVD

I am making a paltry sum from adsense currently, and I'm looking for other ways to monetize the site. Any suggestions or ideas? I am pretty new to internet marketing, and I've spent 3 months building this single site.

#educational #info #site

ricky001 14 years ago

Do the SEO of your website. And use better keywords to get top rankings in google. The seo will increase its traffic, thus increasing your adsense revenue.
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helisell 14 years ago

At 100 visits per day, even with a 1% conversion you should see 1 sale per day. If you are seeing NO sales....then traffic isn't your problem.

Either, there is no market for what you are selling, or your website needs some work to get it converting better.

There are many smart people on this forum who will help you if you tell us what the site is.

.
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mkpoway 14 years ago

Hmm... is it advisable to post the link to my site in the forum? I thought people were protective of their domains.
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- helisell 14 years ago
  
  If you don't say what the site is then how can anyone help you.
  
  Not too many people will be flocking to jump on the bandwagon
  ....we are all very busy doing our own thing.
  
  OK let me ask you?
  
  Do you have a compelling, benefit laden, eye catching headline?
  
  Is your sales copy utterly absorbing for the visitor?
  
  Do you have a method to capture visitors' name and email so that you may engage with them?
  
  Do you have a valuable (but little or no cost to you) report, study, white paper, ebook, mini course...that you are willing to gift your visitors in return for their email address?
  
  Do you have a great set of bullet points?
  
  Does your copy have some logical flow to it?
  
  Do you have an amazingly good value offer and a very clear and focussed call to action?
  
  Hopefully there is enough there to help you.
  
  .
  
  Thanks
  
  1 reply
  
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  mkpoway 14 years ago
  
  Okay, point taken. I think I have almost none of those things, Helisell.
  
  Since I am new to the forum I can't post links yet, but if you google "thegmattutor" I am the first link, "The GMAT Tutor - Los Angeles GMAT Tutoring from UCLA MBA Graduate"
  
  Thanks.
  
  Thanks
  
  1 reply
  
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  helisell 14 years ago
  
  OK got it.
  
  First thing....don't panic. You're at least 'in the game' and for most folks
  that is still just a dream.
  
  That DVD at the top. You say nothing whatsoever about it other than the title....and you expect people to either buy it...or ask a question. My guess, they'll do neither.
  
  What is the single BIGGEST benefit to someone who may be a potential customer for that product.
  
  That's where you start from. Create a headline around THAT benefit and THAT BENEFIT ONLY.
  
  If you need help with the headline (after you've pinpointed the benefit) post another message.
  
  Once the headline is in place you can go through the other things I mentioned...one at a time.
  
  You'll get there......one step at a time
  
  .
  
  ,
  
  Thanks
  
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Samuel Baker 14 years ago

Could be useful to help other members gain a better understanding of why your sales and or products are not converting, because as Helisell stated, even with the 100 visitors or so per day I would also be expecting at least a 1% conversion rate on sales. It could possibly be a very minor thing to alter which will drastically change your sales % or it could in fact be the market or your product itself.

Goodluck.
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RuiGomes 14 years ago

You've started and that's one of the most important things you could have done.

Now, if you only have that product, I would suggest a couple of things:

1st: you should increase your organic traffic; to do this, you should improve your SEO. As you haven't told us the URL, there isn't much I can say, but all the major forum softwares have seo plugins.

2nd: if you aren't capable of selling any package, then your sales letter must not be very good. I've read some really good tips on this topic, so I think you should stick to them.

Sometimes even the slightest modification you do can increase your sales like crazy.

Good luck
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grimmace 14 years ago

Hi mkpoway
What I have learned over my short marketing career is not only what helisel has to say being that your page needs to be compelling to increase sales but you should also try to market this to the audience that would want it. This may increase your sales as well. If you don't know how to write a compelling web page then pay someone to do it. There a a lot of sites that will allow you to contract the work out at very very reasonable rate. I am sure someone on this site will be able to tell you where the best writers are hiding.
The other thing I mentioned was selling to those who want to buy. Have you thought about joining other forums that are spacific to your website. As online tutoring is your goal what about educational forums, or forums where you can get yourself in front of parents who are concerned about their kids education and performance. A few well thought out replies to some of the parents issues may result in things changing.
Hope this helps.
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Alfred Shelver 14 years ago

Have you thought of making your DVD in to different downloadable videos, with a PDF tutor guide or something. The instant gratification society might not want to wait for a dvd to arrive.
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- mkpoway 14 years ago
  
  Hello all,
  
  Thanks for the suggestions thus far - this forum has already been a big help to me. I will use your suggestions to make some improvements to the site.
  
  I'm not able to post the link to my site yet, but I'll try to be an active member of the forum until I have enough posts. I look forward to participating here.
  
  Again, my site is the first result for "thegmattutor".
  
  Thanks,
  
  Matt
  
  Thanks
  
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MichaelHiles 14 years ago

If I do a google search on 'gmat tutor', it returns a whole bunch of adsense ads and competitors... mostly testing centers, Kaplan, etc...

That keyword phrase doesn't exactly win awards in #'s of daily searches, but there's enough there. However, if you start to look at 'gmat prep' or 'gmat preparation', there are thousands of daily searches.

There are plenty of advertisers and searches, so I would make the general assumption that there's a paying market.

What I am not sure about is the fairly cluttered layout and message of your site. It's a bit confusing and needs work on the presentation side.

What you're offering and what you want your visitor to do isn't readily apparent. You've got Google ads way at the top (links that take people away from your site).

I don't really see an action path or a funnel. Just stuff hung on the page like random ornaments on a Christmas tree.

Here's an adwords advertiser that has something you might look at

http://www.30daygmatsuccess.com/
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- mkpoway 14 years ago
  
  Dear Michael,
  
  Thanks for the feedback. You are correct. I checked out the link that you included, and my site sucks in comparison
  
  For what it's worth, that guy is making completely overhyped, false claims about the exam - nobody who buys his product will achieve those results in less than one month. But I'm sure he is making sales.
  
  I will think about how to improve my site.
  
  Thanks.
  
  Thanks
  
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- Alexa Smith Banned 14 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by MichaelHiles
  
  What you're offering and what you want your visitor to do isn't readily apparent.
  
  ^^^ This.
  
  And that's more or less cardinal sin number one with a website.
  
  "No offense intended, but most people online are gorillas. When a gorilla walks into an experiment, what they say is 'What do I do now? Where's the banana?' " (Seth Godin). On your site, who knows where/what the banana is?
  
  Also, more specifically, you have a big red arrow across the top of the page that says "Join our mailing-list now" and what it's pointing to has nothing to do with joining your mailing-list.
  
  Most of your potential customers won't know that they have to click that arrow to open up the opt-in box.
  
  And in any case you need to incentivize the opt-in: "join our mailing-list" doesn't cut it.
  
  And you might want to take the AdSense off your site: it's a way for you to earn pennies by giving people a way to leave your site instead of staying there.
  
  Good luck - I think you have a little way to go in what ought to be a good and profitable "desperate buyers" sort of niche for you, for which you're obviously highly qualified!
  
  Thanks
  
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Scott Voss 14 years ago

You may want to start working offline. Go grass-roots at some local universities. Give the DVDs out to a handful of students or even professors. Get some buzz going that way.

I realize this wont help with your online conversions, but it might get you some cashflow from this outside source.

You know, when I was studying up for the GMAT I went to book stores and picked up the study guides there. If you want to go guerrilla here, you could print out business card type flyers that talk about the DVD, price and site.

Then go put these in those study guides at the book stores. WARNING: the bookstores will probably throw you out on your arse if they see you doing it. But hey, I just an idea guy. Good or bad, you have to choose.

Good luck,
Scott
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- mkpoway 14 years ago
  
  Hi Scott,
  
  Well, I do work offline as a GMAT tutor for $50 per hour. I've taught the same lesson to hundreds of students. The goal of setting up the website is to use my expertise and scale it to make passive income. But I've been struggling!
  
  Thanks
  
  1 reply
  
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  Alexandre Valois 14 years ago
  
  @mkpoway My advice would be to get a pro copywriter to work with asap. You mention your competitor hyping the copy and promising unrealistic results, combine that with your personal experience as a gmat tutor and you have a great USP for your product.
  
  Any copywriter who knows his stuff can deliver a salespage that converts. You already have 100 visits per day and could expect at least one sale out of that with a proper sales copy.
  
  Once you got that setup, scale things up by offering your dvd/course to people you meet instead of the private consultation, and then hit them with the consultation as an upsell - this would allow you to raise your price, and reduce your workload by a lot.
  
  Just sharing my thoughts and pointing what I would do in your situation. Hope this helps.
  
  Alex.
  
  Thanks
  
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Scott Voss 14 years ago

Great, but instead of trying to sell your in-person service through offline methods I am suggesting you try to sell your digital product through offline tactics, still striving for passive income.

Since you have been a tutor, I see you have some great testimonials but only for your in person training. See if you can approach your clients and get testimonials that are broader in nature about the training and not your class. Then it could be more readily applied to the DVD.

Another thing that came to mind was what about setting up an affiliate program for you product and jump the price up? Selling your service at $50 per hour, I think you could reasonable charge more than $10. My thought is that as a college student and someone who was actively studying with others who were planning on grad school, I might see a wonderful opportunity for beer money by recommending this awesome tool. Just a thought.

Also, you offer FREE sample tests on the page. Why not offer them for free with a sign up on your autoresponder? This could be a good incentive to get folks on your list and then start selling to them.

Good luck with this!!

-Scott
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TelZilla 14 years ago

I really don't see why you couldn't be selling that DVD for 39 to 49 bucks with multiple backend products leading up to your 450 dollar online tutoring course, which you could raise the price on. Knowledge is always worth more than you think it is.

Take a look at other sites in this niche to help you determine what you need to change to get the results you are looking for. If you don't have the funds to pay a professional copywriter, study multiple sites, determine what works, implement it, and test everything.

However, I will tell you this... This is a very lucrative market, and there is absolutely no reason why you shouldn't do well in it.
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My educational info site - what to do

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