Part-time "project" to job replacement?

You could post your services in the Warrior for Hire section. There might be some warriors here that could benefit and you could also bring in some additional revenue.

My question would be this... YOU are using a blog strategy to sell the product. your AFFILIATES traffic is sent where? I would assume a landing page? or are they being sent to your blog as well?

You REALLY need a landing page that works 3% of the time... 10% of the time or more. it does not sound like you have that right now. THAT is what you need to focus on.

You have stated that you had a "Long Form" sales letter. have you tried a short form ( your new video and some text ) to get an email capture, and then run the prospects thru a funnel?

It overall sounds like you have the makings of some success here, just the execution of your sales funnel seems to be weak.

Just wanted to give an update to this thread.

I finally got my product producing a healthy, consistent profit over the last year and here’s how I did it:

#1) This may seem like an obvious move but I took the traffic that I was directing at my sales page and instead focused ALL of it onto a Squeeze page. Any and all of my traffic is now directed at that page.

#2) I’m using Adwords and split test ads until I got around an 8-10% CTR at around .40-.50 CPC for my main site keyword. You really need to optimize your page for your keyword to get these numbers and work on your quality score as well(I spent a few months jumping through hoops with the big G to finally get my page approved…that was a nightmare and could be a whole other post in itself. They actually approved my page then a few months later pulled it down because they updated their rules, so I had to go though the whole process with them again!).

And yes, you can use squeeze pages on Adwords, you just have to do them the right way. Putting up a spammy one sentence headline with an opt-in box and arrows all over it won’t get approved. And obviously you don’t have to use Adwords, there are plenty of other traffic sources but this is what I used because it is the fastest way of getting a ton of targeted traffic if you can afford it.

If you’re ever having trouble getting a page or ad approved by Google, make sure to talk to them on the phone and not through their support ticket system. I got a dedicated person who worked with me to get it approved and she even spilled a few beans about their approval process which was extremely helpful. It also helps to be friendly. Don’t go on a rant about how they aren’t approving your page. Whether you like it or not they’re in the drivers seat and you need them more than they need you. As long as they see that you’re willing to work with them to fix your page, they’re actually very helpful. Trust me, I’ve been through the approval maze many times.

#3) Once I had a pretty much unlimited traffic source (as long as I could afford the clicks) I split test my squeeze page to get the conversion rate up to about 32% which is not bad for cold PPC traffic. My first version was at about 9%, so that is a huge improvement!

One of the things I can tell you about squeeze pages is that you have to know your market..INTIMATELY! You really need to be able to put yourself in their shoes to find out what their deepest darkest fears and desires are. And you have to be SPECIFIC with your offer. You want your free offer tailored perfectly to your ideal prospect. I have sort of an avatar of my perfect customer. How old she was, if she has kids or not, what sort of job she might have, what her typical day is like, if she’s married, what sort of blogs she might read,… this is how specific you need to get. Any good copywriter worth their weight will always start with doing research on your target market before writing one word. Once you have dissected everything you can about you target prospect, it’s much easier to write an irresistible free offer. The research is the part that takes the time. I think a lot of people just put up a generic sounding non-specific headline that could apply to anyone, then wonder why it’s not converting.

#4) The next thing I did was to tweak my “thank you” page after the visitors submitted their email. They were sent to the thank you page on which I have a message that says something like:

“Thanks! Check your email in the next 10-15 minutes for your free information. In the meantime, If you like “my product niche here”, I have a really special presentation I want to share with you in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…” (I have a script that does the countdown and redirects)

Above that text I had a screenshot of my sales video with a play button, so if they clicked that it would go to my sales page.

If they didn’t click anything, after the countdown, the page automatically redirects to my sales page.

A large majority of the people who opt-in to your list will never even see your free report and possibly not even read your emails, even though they asked for it. That is why it is important to expose them to your sales page after they opt-in, especially if they haven’t seen it yet.

A lot of people don’t like doing this because they believe you need to build trust first before selling. I get that, BUT, this person has found you because they were searching for something specific, a solution to their problem. If your product gives them that, then sending them to your sales page is in their best interest…assuming you have a quality well made product and a nice non-spammy looking sales page. Don’t be afraid to sell.

I was actually surprised how well this works. Plus, they still get all your free content that they signed up for anyways so there is plenty of time to build that trust, assuming they open your emails. I can tell you that this does work, at least in my niche.

I prefer this method much more than sending traffic to a sales page and then trying to capture their emails with an exit popup, which I think is really annoying and I found to rarely work.

Another great thing about this technique has to do with the conversion theory of “micro-commitments” which basically means making people take several small steps towards a goal, one after the other as each commitment reinforces the next one. Because they were interested enough to commit to giving me their email, it is now easier for them to make an additional commitment of watching my sales video and then purchasing. Just make sure your opt-in freebie is directly related to your main product.

#5) Then I also have a follow up sequence of emails that is divided up into “lessons”. And each lesson is actually a page on my site. So they get a short email that says something like “Hey, lesson 1 is ready for you, check it out here” which sends them to the article on my site. Then when they are on my site reading the content, there is an ad for my product in the right column and also a link at the end to it as well. They can also click around and read other content I have on there…that all points back to my sales page. It really helps to expose people to your “web” of content instead of having your messages out of context in their email. Plus I found the shorter emails got more clicks. I noticed that most people coming from the emails that do buy will read 1-3 articles on my site before revisting the sales page and purchasing.

#6) I’ve also had more affiliates get onboard. I found that killing myself doing SEO work was not the best use of my time when affiliates will rank much quicker for your keywords because that is what they do and how they make money. Focus on your sales funnel and let your affiliates worry about SEO. If your funnel is solid, you CAN make money with PPC and other paid traffic sources. It’s all just a numbers game.

#7) I’ve also started experimenting with different PPC networks and advertising platforms. Nothing beats instant results like Adwords though. Their Display advertising network is HUGE.

A really helpful thing to learn is re-targeting. Basically, by adding some code to your sales page, you can have Google and even Facebook set a cookie on someones computer when they visit your page. Then, your ads will be shown to them on any site that shows Adwords ads or on Facebook. It’s really powerful.

I also really like the POF(plenty of fish) ad network. It’s like targeting on steroids!

Keep an eye out for how other people are advertising in your niche. What sort of images and ad copy are they using. If you see ads repeatedly, that is most likely because they are making money.

So that has been my strategy over the last year and I have seen a huge increase in conversions.

Now I am just keeping an eye on my numbers in the funnel from my ads all the way through to my sales confirmation page. Make sure you TRACK EVERYTHING! You need to make sure you are turning off the ads and keywords that aren’t working and putting more money into the ones that are.

You need to know exactly where ALL your sales are coming from and also what he bottlenecks are in your funnel if there are any.

Thanks for reading!

That was a good read, thanks for taking the time to write it out in detail. Hopefully it will shed some light to people looking for direction.

You've hit on a few of the most important points in the business -

Recreate and follow the industry leaders in your market
Track and test everything.

Following those three rules, with enough determination you can be profitable in any niche.