My HUGE & EXPENSIVE newbie mistake :(

[egaeb]

Thank you everyone for all your helpful feedback! It has been very much appreciated and your advice is being put to use.

[Andrew Maule]

Your mistake: Adbrite. Don't use them. I've seen similar results. It's 100% junk traffic, it's like a slot machine, just don't waste your money on it.

[egaeb]

Originally Posted by Andrew Maule

Your mistake: Adbrite. Don't use them. I've seen similar results. It's 100% junk traffic, it's like a slot machine, just don't waste your money on it.

Thank you for telling me this... I've suspended the campaign.

Do you think this is worth saving or should I scrap it and start over?

[Dan C. Rinnert]

FWIW, I've never had any success with AdBrite either. I have not tried it recently, but I have used it in the past, and, if I remember right, I don't think I ever generated a single sale from it. And, one of my ad campaigns was trying to increase the exposure of a site that was already making sales.

Maybe my ads weren't good enough, maybe I wasn't targeting the right audience, I don't know for sure. All I can tell you is that I had no luck with AdBrite.

[egaeb]

Originally Posted by Dan C. Rinnert

FWIW, I've never had any success with AdBrite either. I have not tried it recently, but I have used it in the past, and, if I remember right, I don't think I ever generated a single sale from it. And, one of my ad campaigns was trying to increase the exposure of a site that was already making sales.

Maybe my ads weren't good enough, maybe I wasn't targeting the right audience, I don't know for sure. All I can tell you is that I had no luck with AdBrite.

Yeah, I did notice that my ads were only being shown on torrent sites and such... can't imagine that being quality traffic....

Is my discouragement premature? Should I continue working with what I've done or scrap it?

[Tsnyder]

The first thing you should do is move those customers who
paid for something in advance to the front burner. Don't make
your problem their problem.

Next... it's far too soon to give up on your new idea. As others
have said, Adbrite isn't something I'd rest my future on... stick
with your idea but go to another source of traffic.

Tsnyder

[Andrew Maule]

Don't be discouraged, just switch advertisers.

Try Adwords. I know Adbrite seems good because of the pricing/usability but you might as well be burning your money...

[serrow]

If I may...

You ignored your paying customers?
ignored your University classes
ignored eating
ignored sleeping

of course there is going to be a failure somewhere in there. start doing all of that again and find a good balancing point

[Mike Hersh]

I'm not a big fan of adwords but in this case I'm sure you need to change from adbrite to adwords.

One smart man once said follow others success if you want to win the game, use adwords

[madison_avenue]

"I developed a (imho) QUALITY 40 page ebook with a 20 page workbook. HOWEVER, what niche do you think I decided to cater to? ?"

Did your site say they would get a workbook? If I was told I would get an ebook and a workbook with the ebook that would put me off, who wants a workbook?

How about: interactive course, Secret blueprint, step by step guide?

Perhaps you could give out one chapter free, build a list and sell them the rest as a newsletter bonus course, over six weeks.

Good luck with your efforts.

[Michael Oksa]

Hi egaeb,

You can find massive success in the IM niche. Sometimes people discourage things because they don't want the competition.

Of course, it is also an incredibly competitive niche, so you need to bring something worthwhile to the table.

To me it sounds like Adbrite sent you junk traffic (based only on what others have said), and that your marketing message could use some fine tuning.

As far as how to promote your site? You can certainly use AdWords, but if you just wrote a 40 page e-book and a 20 page workbook to go with it...

Then why not try article marketing, too? With an article, once it's written, it's virtually out there forever. The rticles don't have to be long, and they don't have to reveal all of your information either.

Plus, if you are on a tight budget, article marketing is free.

Again, there's no reason why you can't do both.

Finally, you may want to head over to the copywriting section of this forum and ask for some brutally honest feedback on your site.

All the best,
Michael

[GeorgR.]

where exactly did you spend the money on?

I see a WSO (?) listed which you bought as well as year of web hosting, but i dont see the big investment.
The autoresponder?

Secondly, i dont understand. You're newbie, there's nothing wrong with this, we all once were. But you started off creating a IM ebook teaching how to IM...while it doesn't work that well for yourself?

As for the IM course you bought ...doesnt the "comprehensive" IM course give a hint why what and why it didnt work what you did?

I mean...you obviously are clueless what went wrong...so the "IM course" cannot be that great?

Thirdly, you might want to post an URL for review of your site/product.

I would also be careful with jumping into AdWords. AdBrite certainly might be trash traffic, but this doesnt make AdWords easier, in fact AW needs pretty solid knowledge if you really want to work with it successfully.

Especially IM niche, Make Money Niche...VERY TOUGH <--- !

You should have a convincing sales/page and product and assume a worst case scenario like 100-150/clicks/sale. Bids in that niche are totally through the roof, so you would also need to do REALLY good keyword research also.

[LB]

Adbrite can be just fine...I've received plenty of viable traffic from them but it depends on the sites you choose obviously and your ad. They have a lot of teen/lifestyle sites that are crap though.

Secondly, there is no way to say this but to say it: what the hell are you doing teaching "IM" when you're asking questions like this and struggling?

[Andrei Rotariu]

Im with GeorgeR on this. I cant see too much of a monetary investment. All i see is someone who needs to learn time management skills. You need to learn how to plan your day and follow that plan.

You actually remind me of myself not to long ago. Jumping from one thing to the next. A good friend gave me a piece of advice "Come up with a goal, this i your target. Shoot your arrow for the target and dont stop till it hits dead center".

The target is your IM business. stop stuffing around with new ideas if you have one that is bringing in 750+ per sale. Unless of course your doing something dodgy, i wouldnt see the need to stop!

Also, please dont get into the IM niche. We all know how much i hate this...

Guys like you asking for help with IM... yet you yourself are still struggling in that industry. Its pathetic really. Do you guys not realize that this is an IM forum? Some of the people reading this forum could be some of the people on your site...

Its a little contradictory dont you think?

Anyway.

Like George said. Your a noob like a lot of us here. I have made some dumb ass mistakes in the past. And im grateful for all of them. The key here is to learn something.

[Aira Bongco]

Wow I was just like that before.

First, learn to relax. Running a business does not mean skipping meals and sleep.

Second, don't give up. Yes, the IM niche is hard to dominate but it is not impossible. The only thing that makes it harder is that the IM niche is wiser than an ordinary customer.

Third, don't invest too much until you tested the waters. Test the response first before you invest in PPC.

Now breathe, explore your skills and what you can do. Now focus on a goal and formulate just one path to get there. Master that path first before you go to another path. For example, before you venture into another niche, perfect your first business first.

[winebuddy]

Sounds like you have been very successfull so far!

As a great inventor once said when asked, "Don't you feel like you have failed after trying 10,000 different ways to get this light bulb to work?"

And he replied, "On the contrary! I have successfully discovered 10,000 things that don't work!"

The way you get things to work is work on them and try different tests and methods. Here's another great saying:

"NOTHING works all the time. BUT - Everything works some of the time...if you do."

I agree that you need to get back into Balance with work school, eating and sleeping. Try making a time schedule and then sticking to it - working say 4 hours on IM daily and then focus your attention on other matters in chunks of time. 2 hours here, 3 hours there, etc.

[igrowyourbiz]

its not what you do its HOW you do it.

You have a squeeze page great...but is it a GOOD one???

you have sales copy...great, but is it GOOD

you did adbrite (only spent $20) ...how did you set it up? what was the ad copy? adbrite like ALL other forms of advertising, has a methodology that will make or break it for you.

[johnysc430]

adbrite is funny, one day I spent 25cents and made 140$ I thought the next day I was going to be rich. I ramped up the campaign. Spent $300 and didn't make one sale.

[ZelimirGraf]

You haven`t said a word about your sales letter: is it any good? Now, if you`ve been receiving junk or untargeted traffic, it`s hard to say anything about your sales letter without seeing it. If you can generate some targeted traffic, and your sales turn out zero, there is one, and only one problem: copywriting (your sales letter).

IM niche is becoming increasingly hard to crack these days. Care to guess why? A lot of a**holes selling s***, that`s why. IM niche`s target market is becoming more skeptic about every IM product each time a new one arises. A lot of them are no good. People get burned in this niche. More than in any other.

So, if you plan to sell anything in this niche, you better find a good unique selling proposition (USP), position yourself to death, and get a damn good copywriter to write your sales letter, and a good marketer to plan out your sales process. There`s no other way around this.

In short, get some qualified traffic like from adwords, and see what happens (watch out for the keywords you pick, write damn good ads, and tweak and optimize your adwords campaigns). You`ll see where to go from there. I wouldn`t be worried if I was you, not before you do these few things.

Copywriting is of utmost importance in this niche (pretty much in all, but IM is so competitive, that highly effective copywriting has become crucial), because how you present your solution will decide whether you eventually succeed or fail. You have to display authority, relevance, address and fulfill on your market`s most pressing needs in your sales letter. And provide solution that`ll put asses in seats. There`s a lot more to this, but that` another story.

Of course, your product has to deliver on the promises you put in the copy. This is why you must have a good product to sell in the first place, if you want to have a reliable stream of income.

Best,
Zelimir

[IMChick]

Looks like you need some perspective. Here's what I read between the lines in your post.

• your unbalanced blitz type approach has done you more harm than good. get a schedule and stick to it to measure slow steady progress.
• in your rush do to it all in the shortest amount of time, you probably now need to go back and undo and re-do most of it. ask for help in the traffic generation, autoresponders, hosting, adwords, copywriting and web and programming sections of the forum.
• Get honest reviews from Warriors on your squeezepage, site, etc. Implement some of the recommendations. Remember that this type of work takes a loong time to do properly and stop rushing to the finish line.
• you haven't applied yourself in your main money making niche, why do you expect success in such a short period of time in this area? expand that first business into a real money maker. apply yourself and don't expect success in another business if you have ignored customers in this business. Get this business up and running with an eye to either stabilizing your finances or possibly selling it off to go into something that you think is more glitzy. The work itself is the same, it's just the subject that changes.
• your self-called "IMHO quality e book" probably needs some expert eyes, proofreading, copywriting and testimonials and re-working. The IM community is helpful, but don't think that 100 hours of new knowledge in a field will surpass everything out there, including solid experience learned from time in the trenches. Tell seekers why they should buy anything from someone without experience or proven results. If you can't answer this question, or implement your own ebook for results, go back to the drawing board.
• understand that while IM is saturated, competitive and cut-throat, that is precisely they type of niche with big money and spenders in it. It may be your ad campaign, as others have written above. Give up and move on? are you kidding? did you actually give this a fair chance and seek out the expertise and knowledge that you need to set it all up. I don't mean buying other courses here, I mean getting personal coaching to give a helping hand.
• Did you expect to have a barrel full of cash drop down on you from the IM faieries overnight because you spent so much time on it all? What does it say in your business plan about all of this. Ahah, no business plan? Well, get one. It will clarify your thinking and give you a solid roadmap with goals to work toward.
• No sales or opt-ins in your first time in IM? So what. Shift your perspective. There are many many things you can do with that e-book; split it into bonus reports for an opt-in page, sell $7 reports, use it for affiliate marketing bonuses, etc. Get your ideas from searching the WF.
• Remember that slow and steady wins the race. Let the WF guide you, and ask Warriors for input. Post again on your results and let us know of your successes.

[egaeb]

Hi! I want to thank all of you for of the feedback and advice. Some were a tad bit harsh but still helpful nonetheless and I appreciate it.

I've decided to take some of the advice offered here and this is what I will be doing (in case you care to know lol)

1. I'll be closing down my site
2. I'll expand my current business and stabilize it to a point where I can either sell it or fully automate it
3. once I have a bit more time, and more IM knowledge, I will re-launch either with the product I've already created (with updates of course) or with a product in another niche - I'm not "giving up", just postponing this to when I'm better able to handle it all.

In the meantime I will do a lot more IM studying so that once my main income stream is stable, and I've finished school (which will be quite soon), I can dedicate some more serious and consistent time to it without feeling like I'm spreading myself too thin. Plus I can implement a LOT of these strategies in my current business.

Again thank you everyone!

PS.
I received a PM from a helpful warrior but I am unable to reply due to my low post count - the system won't allow it.

[IMChick]

Originally Posted by egaeb

Hi! I want to thank all of you for of the feedback and advice. Some were a tad bit harsh but still helpful nonetheless and I appreciate it.

I've decided to take some of the advice offered here and this is what I will be doing (in case you care to know lol)

1. I'll be closing down my site
2. I'll expand my current business and stabilize it to a point where I can either sell it or fully automate it
3. once I have a bit more time, and more IM knowledge, I will re-launch either with the product I've already created (with updates of course) or with a product in another niche - I'm not "giving up", just postponing this to when I'm better able to handle it all.

In the meantime I will do a lot more IM studying so that once my main income stream is stable, and I've finished school (which will be quite soon), I can dedicate some more serious and consistent time to it without feeling like I'm spreading myself too thin. Plus I can implement a LOT of these strategies in my current business.

Again thank you everyone!

PS.
I received a PM from a helpful warrior but I am unable to reply due to my low post count - the system won't allow it.

I'm proud of you! Keep us posted.

[egaeb]

Thanks IMChick