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Anyone hit a ceiling?......

by hipeopo02
17 replies
hello,

long time lurker first time poster.

I have a blog that does pretty decent. My typical earnings look like this each day:

$127.32

$158.49

$130.02

$97.15

$117.33

(these are my earings from this past week actually)

Problem is I have been hitting these numbers for close to 2 years now and it took me almost 4 years to get here. Basically I can't seem to grow my income anymore. I have goals of $500 a day and then eventually $1000 a day but it really feels like I hit a ceiling. Anyone experience this? What can I do?
#ceiling #hit
  • Profile picture of the author Michael Oksa
    Congratualtions on this level of success.

    The first thought that popped into my head was to create 4 more blogs like the one you have now. You seem to be making enough to hire some outsourcers to do the bulk of the work for you.

    So, that leads to the question of how much you're re-investing in your business.

    I don't know how much traffic you receive, or how you have monetized your blog, but the more people you have on your site, the more money you should make.

    Finally, there may be mindset issues at play here that are limiting your earnings (such as being comfortable with ~$100/day and not having a big enough "why"). There's no way to tell what those may be, and you may not even be aware of them at this point. However, it's possible that a shift in mindset could cause you to smash through that glass ceiling.

    Either way, best of luck and...

    All the best,
    Michael
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    • Profile picture of the author hipeopo02
      Originally Posted by Michael Oksa View Post

      Congratualtions on this level of success.

      The first thought that popped into my head was to create 4 more blogs like the one you have now. You seem to be making enough to hire some outsourcers to do the bulk of the work for you.

      So, that leads to the question of how much you're re-investing in your business.

      I don't know how much traffic you receive, or how you have monetized your blog, but the more people you have on your site, the more money you should make.

      Finally, there may be mindset issues at play here that are limiting your earnings (such as being comfortable with ~$100/day and not having a big enough "why"). There's no way to tell what those may be, and you may not even be aware of them at this point. However, it's possible that a shift in mindset could cause you to smash through that glass ceiling.

      Either way, best of luck and...

      All the best,
      Michael
      Thanks for the reply. Actually, I tried creating multiple blogs (same niche, different niche) and none of them took off to the point that this one has. I have one other blog that does $20-$30 a month hahaha and the work I put into it hasnt really come back in earning yet.

      as far as traffic goes, my blog gets 2K-3K unique visitors a day ( an increase from last year) but earnings haven't really budged.

      I have tried outsourcing but its been pretty bad. I find if you want something done right then do it yourself so I write all content myself.

      I think you might be right about mindset. I have gotten a bit comfortable because of these earnings and I know I'm not as "hungry" as I used to be when I wasn't making squat. Maybe I just need a break an to come back harder than ever
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      • Profile picture of the author Henry White
        Welcome to the WF!

        Actually, you're not doing badly at all!

        What does your sales funnel look like? If you've only got one or two items, that might be what's holding you back. You know the sequence - the visitors into prospects into customers into repeat buyers and rabid fans.

        More importantly, how relevant are they to your targeted niche? I know in my niche if I had to depend solely on Clickbank products I'd probably still be waiting for my first sale. But I knew that going in and wanted the niche more than I wanted the ease and convenience, so I created my own products. BAM! It worked!

        You could outsource this, but I think you should create them yourself. I would also recommend thinking beyond PDFs - you might try a video just to measure the response (they are SO much faster and easier to produce).
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        • Profile picture of the author hipeopo02
          Originally Posted by hwhite View Post

          Welcome to the WF!

          Actually, you're not doing badly at all!

          What does your sale funnel look like? If you've only got one or two items, that might be what's holding you back. You know the sequence - the visitors into prospects into customers into repeat buyers and rabid fans.

          More importantly, how relevant are they to your targeted niche? I know in my niche if I had to depend solely on Clickbank products I'd probably still be waiting for my first sale. But I knew that going in and wanted the niche more than I wanted the ease and convenience, so I created my own products. BAM! It worked!

          You could outsource this, but I think you should create them yourself. I would also recommend thinking beyond PDFs - you might try a video just to measure the response (they are SO much faster and easier to produce).
          I have 3-4 products on my site at any one time. 2 of them are permanent (my bestsellers hands down). 1-2 of them are new products I try out every few months (so far none of them have performed that well)

          traffic is very targeted organic search traffic. I tried outsourcing but the workers rarely produce quality work. Probably lost a months earnings on outsourcing alone and currently Im unemployed so I have time to do the work myself

          I will admit that I never tried building a list but if I already have subcribers to my site do I still need an email opt-in box anyway?
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          • Profile picture of the author Yogini
            It sounds like it is going well, but maybe you can search for additional longtail phrases to both add to your existing pages as well as make for their own post or page. This would increase the traffic. Have you checked to see if you have some keywords organically that are on page 2 or three because you could work on moving them up higher in engines via article submissions and other ways of getting links back to your site such as blog posts. I do think a lot of people don't know how to subscribe to an rss feed and that a list is good to have. I have one blog that has an rss feed displayed prominently but I still get people that signup for the newsletter.

            Debbie
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          • Profile picture of the author Kevin Marshall
            Originally Posted by hipeopo02 View Post


            I will admit that I never tried building a list but if I already have subcribers to my site do I still need an email opt-in box anyway?

            There is your answer!

            With the traffic you are getting, you can easily build a list fast. Start building a list with your traffic, and as you post new blog posts, send emails to your list telling them about your new blog post. This will increase the traffic to your site, and some of those people coming back to your blog will click the adsense ads!

            There are endless other things you can sell with a list too. Amazon products, clickbank products, cpa offers, etc. I think you know where to go from here.

            Great job on your traffic! I'd venture to say 90% of the people in this forum would love to have a blog getting 2,000 to 3,000 visitors a day. You are already making more money than most people ever will.
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          • Profile picture of the author Michael Oksa
            Originally Posted by hipeopo02 View Post

            I will admit that I never tried building a list but if I already have subcribers to my site do I still need an email opt-in box anyway?
            YES!

            Think of it as a "money multiplier".

            YES!

            All the best,
            Michael
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            "Ich bin en fuego!"
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          • Profile picture of the author Henry White
            Originally Posted by hipeopo02 View Post

            ...

            I will admit that I never tried building a list but if I already have subcribers to my site do I still need an email opt-in box anyway?
            First and foremost, if you're getting these results directly from visitors clicking through AND converting, I have to say you're much, much better off than you imagine!

            But I can't get my head around having subscribers without a list. :confused:

            You'll have to "revise and expand" your statement.

            Without a list, how are your customers ever going to know about your other offers? To say nothing about the money you are leaving on the table!

            Are you saying you don't have an opt-in?

            How are visitors getting to your sales page?

            Please, don't make any changes to your website until we get this cleared up. I'm thinking this might be a matter of terminology, but either way it will be a quick fix if you don't complicate matters by tinkering with the wrong things. (If you can't control the urge, at least make a back-up copy of the original pages before you begin changing things.)
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            • Profile picture of the author hipeopo02
              Originally Posted by hwhite View Post


              Are you saying you don't have an opt-in?

              How are visitors getting to your sales page?
              I have a widget that lets people subscribe to my blog. Anytime a new post goes up they get an email about it.

              the site has 3 sections: the blog (home) which has close to 3000 posts at this point and 2 product sections (menu tabs) related to my site niche. I would say 30-40% of my daily traffic hits the product sections. Occasionally I will make a post on an update of a product or a new product.
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              • Profile picture of the author Henry White
                Originally Posted by hipeopo02 View Post

                I have a widget that lets people subscribe to my blog. Anytime a new post goes up they get an email about it.

                the site has 3 sections: the blog (home) which has close to 3000 posts at this point and 2 product sections (menu tabs) related to my site niche. I would say 30-40% of my daily traffic hits the product sections. Occasionally I will make a post on an update of a product or a new product.
                Well, at 30-40% they're either hungry buyers or idly curious.

                What you might want to do, though, is consider adding an e-mail list, automatically subscribing them when they buy a product from you.

                This is not a "discussion" list, it's one-way "distribution" from you. And
                you don't have to go crazy with pitch after pitch after pitch! In fact, you're better off if you include a substantial amount of non-sales material - doing broader, deeper than you would in your blog posts, links to older posts that might be relevant, "support" and generally building a long-term relationship with your audience.

                You need to be periodically offering them other products, new products, new formats of existing products, bundling several products into a package deal, and offers at various price points.

                Another thing I would look into is your sale copy. Again, no need to go crazy with hype and hysteria, just check it against the fundamental concepts and techniques - headlines, text, problem, solution, offer, call to action, etc. Improve your conversions, increase your income - it's that simple. One that was just posted (09-16-2011) by Raja Kamil is as good a place to start as any:

                http://www.warriorforum.com/make-mon...checklist.html

                Copywriting is more art than science, so it's often a no-brainer for outsourcing as soon as you can afford it.

                The Copywriting Forum
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  • Profile picture of the author MSC
    as far as traffic goes, my blog gets 2K-3K unique visitors a day ( an increase from last year) but earnings haven't really budged.
    It seems, that you already got steady flow of returning visitors, that means your earnings, if it's based per click - wont increase, try monetizing CPM.
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  • Profile picture of the author MatthewNeer
    You tried advertising yet?

    Hard to give good direction without knowing your niche or website.

    I might recommend building a Facebook Fan Page and tryin running some FB Ads to build a fan base over on FB. That could result in a massive jump in traffic and maybe a bigger bottom line for your bank account.

    Lemme know how it goes.
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  • Profile picture of the author Steve Wells
    Yes........ because I am 6 feet tall, and I just bought a RX8. The car is super sporty and low to the ground, and the fit is snug but comfortabe, with a low roof.

    I have a hat on 99.% of the time, so my head at times grazes the roof of the car, unless I adjust my sit properly.

    Other than that hitting a ceiling is all in how your perceive things mentally. It may "seem" physically to be a ceiling, but in all reality, nothing is perfect, and you can always improve....... but that's only for those who decide to have that type of attitude...
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  • Profile picture of the author xxxJamesxxx
    Yeah that happened to me and I was scratching my head for years. Then it hit me! Time to clone my success and move into another niche/market.

    James Scholes
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    • Profile picture of the author Rick Britton
      Originally Posted by xxxJamesxxx View Post

      Yeah that happened to me and I was scratching my head for years. Then it hit me! Time to clone my success and move into another niche/market.

      James Scholes
      although I havent hit a ceiling (I should be so lucky :p) I am aware that is happens so I am following multiple strategies simultaneously. I mean what if I spent 12 months working on just one thing and didnt make a success of it? Yup a wasted year

      So I am doing CPA, content rich blog, product creation, adsense micro-niche sites and am starting Amazon reviews right now.

      I have proven systems and methods to follow and work on something for each every day or so
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  • Profile picture of the author Jeff Williams
    Originally Posted by hipeopo02 View Post

    Problem is I have been hitting these numbers for close to 2 years now and it took me almost 4 years to get here. Basically I can't seem to grow my income anymore. I have goals of $500 a day and then eventually $1000 a day but it really feels like I hit a ceiling. Anyone experience this? What can I do?
    Congrats, sounds like you have a profitable blog!

    You're getting decent organic searches already, so how about expanding your reach beyond Google a bit. Have you tried becoming a guest contributor on other people's blogs? It could help grow your audience spectacularly. Here's an example if your blog niche helps improve people's lives in any way:

    1. Go to LifeHack and apply here

    2. They get over 1,000,000 unique visitors each month.

    3. They have over 80,000 active RSS subscribers.

    4. They accept non-exclusive content.

    This is just one example, of course. I'm sure you can find plenty of additional and more niche-related sources that would be more than happy to publish your content on a regular basis.

    Hope this helps!
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  • Profile picture of the author PPC-Coach
    I've hit a ton of ceilings, I call them my goals.

    I've broken through every one of them too.

    I just keep setting the "ceiling" higher.

    How?

    Multiple streams of income. NEVER put all your eggs in one basket. I"ve rebuilt my business twice now online and should have learned after the first time.

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