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$5,300+ profit - where to go from here?

by Doug Pretorius
8 replies
I've been in the IM game pretty consistently (taken some breaks here and there) since January 2011. In that time I've made roughly $6,000 with about $700 in expenses. I can't complain because I know most people never make anything and many only lose. But at the same time this is FAR from the level I'd like to be at.

Most of my earnings have come from 1 site and 1 income stream (AdSense). I did make about $400 from a CPA offer on this site, but that offer died and I've never found a replacement that matches my traffic. I've tried a few other monetization methods but nothing has worked as well as adsense.

My main concern though is that I have not been able to figure out what I did with that site that worked traffic-wise, so I haven't been able to scale or duplicate it. It seems like I just happened to create some content back in the early part of 2011 that google liked and since then nothing else has clicked.

I need some ideas on where to put my time and energy going forward.
#300 #profit
  • Profile picture of the author nicholasb
    When I made $3,000 my first month online I took every penny of it and invested in Hosting an auto-responder a domain and paid traffic.

    I would make sure to try and reinvest some of that back into your business so you can keep doing what your doing and just scale it up some with the help of paid traffic
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  • Profile picture of the author Alex Blades
    Sorry I can't be more specific about what I need help with
    Then how do you expect to get answers to your problem. Hang in there I guess.
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  • Profile picture of the author Greedy
    From the little info you gave this is what I would suggest...

    I did make about $400 from a CPA offer on this site, but that offer died and I've never found a replacement that matches my traffic
    - Find a CPA offer to replace this ASAP. Check sites like oDigger and OfferVault, they let you search across all CPA Networks.

    - Consider making your own product. You've proven your traffic converts, and is stable from what you are saying.

    - Starting building a list on your website. This is a must!
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  • Profile picture of the author PioneeringProfits
    Originally Posted by Doug Pretorius View Post


    My main concern though is that I have not been able to figure out what I did with that site that worked traffic-wise, so I haven't been able to scale or duplicate it. It seems like I just happened to create some content back in the early part of 2011 that google liked and since then nothing else has clicked.

    I need some ideas on where to put my time and energy going forward.
    Do you have any analytics tool on your website like Google Analytics. This would help you determine atleast where your traffic is coming from.
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  • Profile picture of the author Willie Crawford
    Ideally, you would figure out what it was that worked back done and
    do more of that, and do less of what didn't/isn't working.

    The problem is that Google's algorithm is constantly changing, as
    is AdSense.

    I would probably look at my web logs from back when I made the
    most money, and today, looking at what keywords most people
    who are visiting my site, searched on.

    Next, I would find CPA or affiliate offers that match those searches,
    and position those offers in front of the people searching for them

    Willie
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  • Profile picture of the author Nino
    Doug, I know where you're coming from as I have a site that got 9k visitors in 1 month ( in it's best month-last year).

    You need to spot the overall strategy that got you to earn this 5k, not the exact steps! That's probably SEO (which is a replicable success), but I also understand that this niche is pretty weird or grey hat since you can find only one CPA and most of your money is from Adsense.

    I'd go to maximize the amount of money that this site currently makes from the same traffic (ideas: build a list, sell your own product, cross sell another product or service) and go and make another website... that's right! the only way you can prove yourself is by starting another one from scratch but with a better dirrection (a longterm plan). The money this website is bringing will help you get that off the ground and keep you on track. Most chances are this website/niche won't get you the financial freedom you want (right?) ...
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  • Profile picture of the author Doug Pretorius
    @Greedy & @Willie Crawford
    I can't find anything on those sites either. The problem isn't to much the niche, it's that the traffic is coming from Canada and the related CPAs just aren't available to that audience.

    The site has a list with about 500 people on it, growing at 30-40 a month (including unsubscribes). But again, nothing to sell to them except more adsense.

    @PioneeringProfits
    I do. 90% comes from Google search in Canada.

    @Nino
    You're right I don't think this site will ever get big enough and I've tried to build other sites up but can't seem to get anywhere with it. My strategy for this one was basically just create content every day and leave it to rank naturally. I've tried all kinds of SEO but it doesn't effect my rankings (on any site).
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  • Profile picture of the author RockNRolla
    Hi Doug,

    I would look at what you've done that has been successful in the past, and earnt you that money, then just do more of the same. Unfortunately every article you publish can't be a hit and drive mega traffic, but the more quality articles you produce, the more likely it is that you will produce winners amongst them.
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