18 {{ upvoteCount | shortNum }}
18 {{ upvoteCount | shortNum }}

Should I give up with this idea before I waste EVEN more money?

by saxguru
15 replies
Hi everyone,

Since November I have been perusing my first proper internet marketing project aside from previously selling items on ebay. I set up a website in November 2013 and developed it into an online Saxophone training course for beginners. Being a student, this is the area I feel I have the most knowledge in so I decided to try and make some money out of it.

I made my first sale fairly early on after releasing the product which gave me a great boost. Unfortunately this customer asked for a refund as my training course wasn't actually finished yet ( I was told by a few people to get things live anyway)

My sales page at this point was basic and I had never heard of the time copywriting at this point. I simply outlined the benefits of the course, added a video and some nice looking graphics and I was done. Then I decided it would probably be beneficial to have someone else write me a professional sales letter to significantly boost conversions. Unfortunately this plan backfired and sales dried up completely. It turned out my previous sales page which I had made myself with no opt in forms or anything (just buy buttons) converted better than anything other people had made for me.

At this point I decided to go back to basics but with a twist. I now have an opt in on the homepage of my website, giving customers a free lesson before they are able to simply upgrade to a full membership (no lengthy sales letter, just the option to upgrade).

Finally after around a month and a half of no sales I decided to stop my google adwords campaign as I was losing too much money without seeing any kind of reward.

I'm really at a loose end at this point as I don't know whether to try and continue with this project or just leave the website alone with no marketing (no point deleting it really)

I have put a lot of work into the website, mainly the video lessons and articles (over 25 video lessons) and I hate to see this all go to waste.

Any advice on what to do now is most welcome

thanks
#give #idea #money #waste
  • Profile picture of the author tekken2
    For me there is not enough about you to make me want to part with money.

    You need to increase your credentials, and make people believe its possible to play like you.

    Youtube might be your friend. Maybe you could play some popular hits and grow a youtube following.

    Make your self the brand. If you do this then you might be able to attract free traffic that wants to learn how to play like you.

    You could maybe offer tips on how to play the particular song etc in addition to taking things from scratch.

    Some basic on page SEO would also help drive some organic traffic. Take "Improve Timing on the Saxophone" - I don't know how many searches this has, but you need to have this title in your H1 Tags (it is), in the start and end paragraph, image alt tags and in the page meta data.

    Organic traffic will cut down on your Adsence costs.

    For me though the key would be getting a youtube following!
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8974594].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author AntonioSeegars1
    I say keep going, but build a comprehensive webpage, get it ranked in the search engines, and rely on free organic traffic to get you sales.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8974614].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author AffiliateWaves
      Hello Saxguru ,
      so you think this the end ,you must keep going on .What you are doing you love it but most of us are not so fortunate to work in field of their interest .

      Have you ever tried these

      Putting all your video course on Udemy and sell your lessons there

      Sharing 2 or 3 videos on video sharing websites like Youtube

      Sharing your lessons on Facebook and interact with all popular page of music.

      When you can talk music ,eat music and live music you must try each and every destination where you can show your talent .

      Best of luck

      Need help ,pm me ,if possible i will definitely help you my friend
      Signature

      Need high Quality Expired domains click here to see now

      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8974689].message }}
      • Profile picture of the author donhx
        I think you have a good site, a good offer, and "private lessons" like you are offering is excellent. Keep at it.

        The hard part is finding your place in the grand scheme of things. Are there other sites like yours? Are you giving them competition in terms of what you offer? I'll bet you are. Just make sure you have a full range of lessons available.

        Perhaps now is the time for you to look for a market within a market. Don't waste more money on Google Ads. If I were you. I'd start contacting band teachers at Middle Schools (for example) and let them know about your site. Their students are a prime user of your service. Hang out on music performance forums. Flood YouTube with a series of 2 minute lessons. Things like that will get buying customers.

        I think you can make serious money with your site.
        Signature
        Quality content to beat the competition. Personalized Author Services
        {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8974711].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author yakim1
    I have some experience being in the All State Band 3 years in a row and playing in the Indiana University Band while I was still in High School.

    The problem that I see is your audience is really diminished because they have to have access to some kind of saxophone before they could consider your lessons.

    Maybe you could also create a resource product that could explain where an interested party could rent a saxophone whether it be a tenor, alto or base. You could also include clarinets which would be cheaper to aquire than a saxophone.

    This way a beginner could find out if playing a single reed instrument is for them without a lot of cost.

    You should come up with a private lesson membership where they participate in a webinar so you can communicate and hear what they are doing so you can add intruction in real time.

    Other products that you could offer would be the lesson books with sheet music that they would purchase for each lesson level.

    Your could create a complete product funnel with your resource guide as the free offer.

    I hope these suggests are helpful,
    Steve Yakim
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8974861].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author AskMsD
    Hey Saxguru,

    I play the Sax so way to go there, it's a beautiful instrument just love it but I digress. Why don't you try your course over at Udemy because I believe you would have a better chance. Also what one of the other warrior's mention about YouTube, try SoundCloud also put some tunes up and get some followers but most of all never give up, just reroute. Cheers
    Signature

    Business loans for business owners of 5k - 2 Mill with no traditional personal guarantees or assets as collateral with highly competitive rates, visit: www.smallbizloans.us or Call Us! 1-(866) 304-2253

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8974901].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Stevie C
    On a totally unrelated note I would get rid of your Amazon Product Reviews Site that is listed in you signature. You are breaking Amazon's TOS big time here by using their name as your domain, if they find out they will close your account in a heartbeat.
    Signature

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8975133].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author ClickDale
      There were a lot a bands that were playing for years as unknowns before they got their big break. I can imagine they were making pennies for performances at the time. If they would have thrown in the towel quickly, we wouldn't have gotten to known many of the famous bands out there today.

      Stick with it. I like your sales page, but keep making tweaks and changes to make it even better. Put more marketing out there. I bet you only have a dozen or less links out there pointing back to your page. Create a dozen links a day and over time people will keep finding you on the web. Create other related products to where buyers would be willing to also buy your saxophone course. Like it was mentioned earlier, use youtube to come up with some innovative ways to attract attention.

      Best of luck to you!
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8975160].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author hustlinsmoke
    Have you tried to skin that cat every way possible. More ways than one to skin a cat as we say in Texas.

    Have you tried udemy and the others.
    Look at udemy, Start with a free course there just enough to get them started your other course would be paid of course and if they like you then they will pay for it.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8975143].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author saxguru
    Thanks for all the advice everyone. I will get started on Udemy and try and put all of my current content on there as well as being more proactive on youtube
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8975664].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Rok Solid
    Like others have suggested you can put your course up on Udemy and YouTube.

    For YouTube here are 2 options:

    1. Upload videos of yourself playing popular (current) tunes and then just redirect people to your site in the description box AND using annotations.
    2. Find other YT videos of people paying sax and ask the owner if they'd be interested in renting you a link to your site (expect to pay $10-$25 per month)

    Good luck
    Ricky
    Signature

    I don't send traffic traffic to opt in pages anymore. I Do This instead...

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8976642].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author winebuddy
    you have an optin form on your site... what are you sending your subscribers?

    I would think you would send them helpful hints and tips and how-to info. You could also send them info on where to get a sax for little or no money, the care and feeding of a saxophone, tricks that the pro-s use - stuff like that.

    Then do this: send them a $7 offer for "how to play _______" and pick a crazy popular song. Put together a course on how to play that one song and sell that.

    Anyone that buys that, set up an internal launch of your big course. Only send the "heads up" to people that bought the $7 thing. Then, only sell 100 copies or 50 or whatever.

    I'm pretty sure that if you do it like this, you will freak out at the sales you will get.

    Then? Automate the above process for all subscribers.

    :-)
    Signature
    "Knowledge is NOT power... ACTION on Knowledge is power"
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8976681].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author CpvTrafficPro
    If you add me on Skype "CpvTrafficPro" I'd be happy to talk to you about what targets you were using for Adwords and perhaps why they didn't convert and get a gameplan going for you. Social media is good for this niche as well
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8976732].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Geri Richmond
    Do you love what you do? If this is not your passion, people will realize it and think you're just a phony.

    You need to build relationships by blog commenting, forum marketing Et cetera. You could try selling your course on Udemy. There is a charge but, you'll have a lot of people looking at it.

    Good luck on your decision. :-)
    Geri
    Signature
    http://geririchmond.com/wf
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8976967].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Joeferlaino
    I suggest that you build a following from youtube, i guess that anyone that wanted to learn a thing or two would appear on youtube. Then as the following grows you could ad in your training course to the description, providing quality traffic.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8977022].message }}

Trending Topics