What am I doing wrong

[Alexa Smith]

Originally Posted by Masterofdisaster

I completely agree alexa but how detailed should I be with the niche?

Which niche? You don't have "a niche" at the moment!

You need to select a niche (not "weight-loss" - that isn't a niche: it's a market and an absolutely huge one!), and then have a traffic-generating plan to attract potential customers in that niche. You also need to have a "free report" which fulfils all the criteria listed in the first part of this post, and it has to be in the same niche, and all the other content on the site has to be in the same niche too, and in order to monetize the site, you need to be promoting carefully targeted products also in that same niche. The opt-in needs to be prominently incentivized, and it needs to be on the landing page.

But you have to start, I think, by choosing a niche. And neither "health" nor "weight-loss" is a niche. They're two different markets.

"Indoor hydroponic gardening" is a niche. "Growing tomatoes" is a niche. "Brewing beer at home" is a niche. "Low-glycemic-index dessert recipes for people with diabetes" is a niche.

[Masterofdisaster]

Originally Posted by Alexa Smith

Which niche? You don't have "a niche" at the moment!

You need to select a niche (not "weight-loss" - that isn't a niche: it's a market and an absolutely huge one!), and then have a traffic-generating plan to attract potential customers in that niche. You also need to have a "free report" which fulfils all the criteria listed in the first part of this post, and it has to be in the same niche, and all the other content on the site has to be in the same niche too, and in order to monetize the site, you need to be promoting carefully targeted products also in that same niche. The opt-in needs to be prominently incentivized, and it needs to be on the landing page.

But you have to start, I think, by choosing a niche. And neither "health" nor "weight-loss" is a niche. They're two different markets.

"Indoor hydroponic gardening" is a niche. "Growing tomatoes" is a niche. "Brewing beer at home" is a niche. "Low-glycemic-index dessert recipes for people with diabetes" is a niche.

that's exactly what I wanted to know...i'm gonna need to really get super specific on this. Thanks Alexa this really helps me out...now i gotta find out what i really need to write about..and then i'll be making a proper incentive for my users to sign up on. Much appreciated.

[Masterofdisaster]

just one last question...despite the massive screw up of having this site extremely too general, is there anything I can still do with it? Can I possibly start posting articles that deal solely with competitive swimming on the same site...or should I just make a new site all together?

I fear google could have penalized me for copying content since I posted my articles on article directories that it may not even be worth continuing with this one

If not...can this site be of any kind of service to me or should I scrap it all together?

[higherluv]

Yes, I suggest/concur that:
- your "niche" is too general - and not a niche but a category.
- you may want to make better use of your articles other than just submitting to article directories; these produce a trickle of traffic these days
- focus your efforts on making quality content, not just "working hard" and making a slew of content just for SEO purposes
- do keep going even after 2 months! But do consider the advice people have given you and make the necessary changes suggested...

[MikeFriedman]

Originally Posted by Alexa Smith

"Brewing beer at home"

I love it when you talk dirty.

[Alexa Smith]

Originally Posted by Masterofdisaster

just one last question...despite the massive screw up of having this site extremely too general, is there anything I can still do with it?

I don't know ... but don't worry too much about the Google situation over having submitted to the article directories first, because that can be reversed in future anyway, if you accumulate enough future initial indexations for your own site.

I admit, though, that personally I wouldn't continue this site in its present form, anyway.

I would, however, strongly advise you, if planning that Google is going to be your major traffic-source, to stay away from all these niches (except possibly "competitive swimming" about which I know nothing at all!).

Originally Posted by Masterofdisaster

I fear google could have penalized me for copying content since I posted my articles on article directories

Google has definitely not penalized you for that.

I post all my articles to EZA anyway. That isn't the problem, here. (That's "syndicated content", not "duplicate content" - all explained on the previous page ). The problem is simply that for the articles you have already, you've failed to acquire the initial indexation for your own site. Unless there's some huge number of them, I wouldn't panic about that.

Originally Posted by Masterofdisaster

If not...can this site be of any kind of service to me

I suspect not, really, to be honest. Sorry.

May I offer you a subsidiary thought about "SEO traffic and affiliate marketing", here, because I do think it's something for you to be aware of (and it may even be relevant to your niche selection)? Personally, I'd advise you not to put too much of your time and effort into trying to attract SEO traffic, for two main reasons: first, it's very precarious and makes your business Google-dependent, and any business that's Google-dependent is no more than one algorithm-change away from a potential accident (or even a potential disaster), as so many Warriors have been finding out over the last year or two, some of them to their very great cost; secondly, for me, search engine traffic has been uniformly the worst-converting traffic out of everything I've ever tried - search engine visitors to all my websites typically stay the least time, view the fewest pages, opt in the least often and actually buy anything by far the least often. I admit I do get tons of search engine traffic to all my main sites (because high rankings for multiple keywords happen to be a minor side-benefit of the targeted traffic-generation method I use) but I'd hate to have to make a living just from that traffic.

[Broyde]

What are you doing wrong? In one instance, I think it might be kind of challenging wanting to buy from someone who refers to themselves as the master of disaster...but to each his own.

When I saw your title, I think that I may have had a flashback to what you may have been feeling. I found that when I tried to rely on article marketing that I went years (not 2 months) without benefiting from that kind of marketing. When I started doing other things, the situation improved.

Some people will sing article marketing's praises, but I can't.

[JackCronfield]

STOP doing article marketing it doesn't work ! There are lots of other ways to market yourself today. Offer valuable information and start building a community using facebook, twitter etc. Don't expect quick results.

[HorstStreit]

Success will come to adhere to the people.