Started Wrong, Ready to Restart Right

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Hello, I started my affiliate marketing venture by purchasing a website from a fiverr website builder. The website builder was advertising that he would make an amazon affiliate marketing website. I also purchased traffic from a fiverr seller. By doing these two things, I managed to get a lot of traffic; 50,000+ to date. But, I received no affiliate link clicks and no sales. First, the site was totally affiliate products. A couple of days ago, I gave blog posting a try. I'm trying to decide if I need the scrap the whole site or if it's salvageable. <<<Link removed by moderator>>>
#ready #restart #started #wrong
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  • Profile picture of the author Mark Singletary
    Links aren't allowed in the discussion areas.

    A couple of thoughts:

    1. You didn't get 50,000 real visitors so it's no wonder you didn't get any clicks. The traffic you were sent was junk/automated. Even without knowing the details of what you bought, I stand by my statement.

    2. If you have a site and have just started blogging, don't scrap it now. You need experience-that's part of doing it the right way. We learn and grow by doing and then adjusting. Post more good stuff and learn more about what to write about and how.

    3. Search the forum for traffic ideas. There are literally thousands of posts here talking about traffic. There's more than enough information to get you started the right way.

    Good luck and welcome to the forum!

    Mark
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    • Profile picture of the author HeatherWJ
      Thank you for your advice. I reposted the question without the link before the post actually appeared. But this one posted. I'll delete this one.
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  • Profile picture of the author Monetize
    Everybody makes mistakes and if all of this were easy
    then everybody would be doing it. Unless you are really
    lucky, it's going to take some time. I would advise you to
    learn as much as you can by reading books (on passive
    income, side hustles, etc.) and decide on something you
    can do to generate income.

    I have been at this for 20+ years. I have tried darn near
    EVERYTHING. Some things work and others do not.
    When they work you keep working them and when they
    don't you have got to pivot, drive on and do something
    else. Sometimes you've just got to tweak a little.

    I am curious to know how much you spent on the site and
    the clicks. I am certain the site is nice but you got played
    on the traffic. Live and learn.
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    • Profile picture of the author HeatherWJ
      The site was $60. The traffic was about $30. Probably, too cheap for any real traffic. I'll read more on driving traffic here, as well as, conversion.
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      • Profile picture of the author Monetize
        Originally Posted by HeatherWJ View Post

        The site was $60. The traffic was about $30. Probably, too cheap for any real traffic. I'll read more on driving traffic here, as well as, conversion.

        Thank you for the info. Well, $100 (with Fiverr fees)
        that's not too bad, but it can be if it's your last money.

        I hired a Fiverr person last Sunday, the main project
        cost $200 and an additional project to make the main
        project work was $50, but he either didn't know what
        he was doing or got overwhelmed, dropped the ball
        and now everything is late. So I'm going to have to
        file a dispute to get refunded.

        I have purchased 100+ Fiverr gigs and thankfully this
        is a rare occurrence.

        And in the meanwhile, yesterday I hired another Fiverr
        person to get this same project done, spent another
        $250, and I'm going to do some of the work myself to
        ensure it is done correctly.

        The $500 tied up is not even the worst of it. I really
        needed all this completed on Tuesday, now I have
        wasted nearly a week dealing with this one project.

        And I have other projects going on.

        I just thank God I found somebody else that can help
        me with all of this since I don't know enough to get it
        done myself. It is easier for me to get a professional
        to guide me than to try to learn a whole new system
        from scratch right now.

        Anyway, live and learn.
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        • Profile picture of the author HeatherWJ
          Ditto, live and learn. Thanks for sharing your experience. It's nice to know, you have had positive experiences with fiverr and that this was just the exception.
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      • Profile picture of the author RoxanneA
        Hey Heather...Im relatively new myself at the affiliate thing, but i do understand traffic. I'm an Igor Kheifets Solo Ads Specialist and quality traffic is key to having any success.

        I had started my venture with several affiliate programs and various websites as well. I had great offers but no optins/sales and i was spending quite a bit of money on traffic. Then i did the math...the cost per click was so ridiculously cheap, that there was no possible way in my mind that the traffic could be real. Yep i was right!

        Quality traffic is an investment in your business, as it produces optins/sales and it builds your list. And as you've probably heard, the money is in the list!

        Hope this info helps!

        Roxxie (Roxanne) A.
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        • Profile picture of the author HeatherWJ
          Thank you for sharing your experience. I've been searching through the forum for ways to drive traffic to a website. I started with pinetrest, posting a few pins; need to do more. I, also, need to strategize quora, reddit, facebook, youtube and instagram campaigns. What do you plan on doing differently to get quality traffic?
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          • Originally Posted by HeatherWJ View Post

            Thank you for sharing your experience. I've been searching through the forum for ways to drive traffic to a website. I started with pinetrest, posting a few pins; need to do more. I, also, need to strategize quora, reddit, facebook, youtube and instagram campaigns. What do you plan on doing differently to get quality traffic?
            Quality is determined not by the traffic, but by what the traffic is seeing.

            Is traffic your problem? I'm not saying it isn't, but filling a clapped out banger with fuel (traffic) doesn't turn it into a sports car.

            What 'is" quality traffic anyway?

            How do you determine whether it is quality traffic or not? Besides the obvious bot traffic and prostitutes being pimped out by solo ad sellers - quality traffic is traffic "targeted" because the offer is something they want or need.

            Does Instagram have quality traffic? Surely there's just as much bad traffic on these sites as there is good traffic. So how do you determine what is quality and what is not?

            It all comes down to your targeting. The less specific it is, the less quality traffic you will get no matter what platform you advertise on. Besides, traffic always comes last in the process. So to think quality traffic is something outside the process, or something isolated as if it stands on its own merit, is just not true.

            You want quality traffic? Then make sure you have a quality product, quality marketing, and quality targeting, because those are what ultimately determine quality traffic.

            There are no isolated events. It's a system. Bad products and bad marketing and bad targeting turns quality traffic into bad traffic. So... quality is determined not by the traffic, but by what the traffic is seeing.
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  • Profile picture of the author TobiMDD
    Let's start with the positive after all you have tried something and have started.

    Now to the other. Ordering a website on fiverr is certainly not the most effective way to go. Most of the time these websites are junk in terms of quality and content and generally junk.



    Furthermore, I could imagine that your website is a collection of some more or less unrelated Amazon affiliate products and therefore offers little or no added value.



    You always have to consider if you were the customer yourself, would you visit your website and trust your website and then order anything or click on any links? Would you do that yourself that is the question you have to ask yourself seriously.

    Nowadays it doesn't work that you create a website and you just fill it up with affiliate links and products and then all of a sudden people visit your website and order something.

    People need a certain level of trust in a website before they place an order.

    Apart from that, fiverr traffic as previous speakers have already told you is mostly just bot traffic and therefore absolutely junk and useless if you want to get serious website traffic you need to learn basic traffic skills. You can learn and implement organic so called free methods or you can learn paid traffic.
    Good Luck!
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  • Profile picture of the author Jason Kanigan
    Originally Posted by HeatherWJ View Post

    Hello, I started my affiliate marketing venture by purchasing a website from a fiverr website builder. The website builder was advertising that he would make an amazon affiliate marketing website. I also purchased traffic from a fiverr seller. By doing these two things, I managed to get a lot of traffic; 50,000+ to date. But, I received no affiliate link clicks and no sales. First, the site was totally affiliate products. A couple of days ago, I gave blog posting a try. I'm trying to decide if I need the scrap the whole site or if it's salvageable. <<<Link removed by moderator>>>
    Every business needs a target market.

    Who was yours?

    If you thought "everybody", and outsourced your traffic to some fiverr gig, should it be surprising nothing happened?

    Let's start there.
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    • Profile picture of the author HeatherWJ
      No, I had a target. My site was full of diet and fitness products and I was "targeting" that audience. Before now, I didn't know about traffic bots. After, no results, I figured the traffic wasn't targeted enough. Or site wasn't compelling enough to have anyone stay or buy. My session duration was just 24 seconds. I read somewhere, it should be at least 2 to 3 minutes. On a positive note, after my blog posting, I was able to increase my session to 27 seconds and got 3 clicks on affiliate links to amazon. I'll keep up the blogging, improve and learn more while here. I was pass the "get rich quick" mindset a while ago. I'm ready to commit to a business for long-term success.
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      • Profile picture of the author Mark Singletary
        Your new affiliate clicks were probably me as I was looking at your site. You will get a visitor or two, literally like one or two but they are mostly bots of some kind until you learn how to build traffic. You can do that through social media, paid ads, blogging, etc. but it's going to take some time to get things going.

        Your site is like thousands of other sites just like it. It's not really special or compelling because you are just starting. All new sites start from zero. But you have something you can work from and having something up is a lot more than many people ever do. So that is a great first step.

        That may sound negative but it's not. It's the reality of most of the Amazon review type sites created today. They are just basically lists of products instead of providing something helpful and useful to the target audience.

        Ask yourself why anyone would choose to learn about weight loss powder or exercise equipment from you versus other sites. What do you offer that is unique, valuable, and can really help them lose weight, get in shape, etc.?

        What kind of site would you like to learn from and eventually buy from?

        Go and find some successful competitors and see what their blog posts look like. I would highly suggest you spend some time learning about how to write effective blog posts. What can you say in a blog post that leads the visitor to want to buy that powder or whatever? That builds trust in you as well as the products listed on your site.

        When I say successful competitors, I'm not talking about cookie cutter review sites. I'm talking about places such as fitness or weight loss magazines or successful blogs in this area. You don't have to have their quality or their photographs, but you can get some ideas that may can help you move forward. You can see how they do their blog posts, what their review page looks like, how they incorporate email or social media, etc.

        You have a great attitude that can help you succeed as you learn, grow, mess up, adjust, try again, and keep going.

        Mark


        Originally Posted by HeatherWJ View Post

        No, I had a target. My site was full of diet and fitness products and I was "targeting" that audience. Before now, I didn't know about traffic bots. After, no results, I figured the traffic wasn't targeted enough. Or site wasn't compelling enough to have anyone stay or buy. My session duration was just 24 seconds. I read somewhere, it should be at least 2 to 3 minutes. On a positive note, after my blog posting, I was able to increase my session to 27 seconds and got 3 clicks on affiliate links to amazon. I'll keep up the blogging, improve and learn more while here. I was pass the "get rich quick" mindset a while ago. I'm ready to commit to a business for long-term success.
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        • Profile picture of the author HeatherWJ
          Thanks for your honest advice. In a web full of gimmicky pitches and hard sells, it's nice to have a place for genuine discourse on how to start a business online.
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      • Profile picture of the author DABK
        Look into niching down.

        Your target is too big. You will get more sales if you narrow down.

        Originally Posted by HeatherWJ View Post

        No, I had a target. My site was full of diet and fitness products and I was "targeting" that audience. Before now, I didn't know about traffic bots. After, no results, I figured the traffic wasn't targeted enough. Or site wasn't compelling enough to have anyone stay or buy. My session duration was just 24 seconds. I read somewhere, it should be at least 2 to 3 minutes. On a positive note, after my blog posting, I was able to increase my session to 27 seconds and got 3 clicks on affiliate links to amazon. I'll keep up the blogging, improve and learn more while here. I was pass the "get rich quick" mindset a while ago. I'm ready to commit to a business for long-term success.
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  • Profile picture of the author Kay King
    I would suggest you read through this thread:


    https://www.warriorforum.com/warrior...m-nothing.html


    It will give you an idea of what is actually needed to get ahead online. It sounds easy when someone says 'get a site and put some links on it' but there is so much more to it. Also refers you to some other very helpful discussions here.



    Almost anyone can do it - but few take the time to learn and take care of the details needed to build a successful online site.
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  • Profile picture of the author Serene Carmen
    Hi Heather

    Welcome to the forum. There is no reason you couldn't salvage the site. You're obviously going to need to do much more than just one blog post. Do you have Google Analytics installed on your site so you can get an idea of the quality of the traffic?
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    • Profile picture of the author HeatherWJ
      Yes, I have google analytics installed.
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  • Profile picture of the author Ernest P Metts
    Hi HeatherWJ, the problem isn't that the fiverr guy did a terrible work, or that pay per click for a keyword is cheap, the problem is that you need the right traffic to convert visits to click and then sale. If you pay for google Ads, you can go for low competitive keywords around your niche, pay for the Ads and that will convert. However you have to know the visitors intent, meaning their intention for searching for a particular keyword. Make sure your site has affiliate offers that match the visitors intent, on the Ad section of your site, you can offer a free ebook, pdf or whatever to get emails of your visitors. You can also add another affiliate offer on the Ad on your website, that the visitors will need. It's all a numbers game. First ask yourself what is your goals for one month, what is the amount you earn per sale and divide it by 100. Go on Google Ad and check for low competition keyword that you can rank for, then you do the math and know if you risk is worth taking. Don't just pay someone on fiverr for traffic unless they person takes time to visit your site and know about your niche, that way he/she knows the kind of traffic for your site
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  • Profile picture of the author N1coleW
    Welcome to the forum)

    First of all, do not buy traffic on Fiverr and more, you will not get any clicks there. Try to build your blog, create HQ content, identify your audience and then you will get some ideas how to increase your traffic. Also, read this forum, I'm sure it will help you a lot with a new way of promotion
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  • Profile picture of the author hometutor
    Make separate pre-sale Pages for each product in a link back to the main index match that will help with your search engine ranking.

    Rick
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  • Profile picture of the author shuvoimtiaz
    You can, of course, restart at any time. However, please keep in mind that you should never buy traffic or backlinks from Fiverr or any other marketplace. If you can write good content and build some quality backlinks, you will get a lot of Google traffic and eventually sales from your affiliate products.
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    SEO content writer with a decade of experience. Learn more: shuvoimtiaz.com

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  • Hi Heather,

    I've had a looong relationship with affiliate marketing and I am really sorry you had a rough experience in your first venture.

    My learnings from my own and others' experiences:
    1. Must spend time on research and choose a low competition Niche
    2. Must solve someone's problem/teach or answer questions/add just about any value
    3. Must give high importance to UI and SEO (Organic traffic for the win)
    4. Must be cautious before ordering any gigs on Fiverr (not every seller there has real skills)
    5. MUST ALWAYS follow white-hat practices for driving traffic- as Google's penalties could be severe
    6. Must learn to use all channels for marketing as it can help your website in the long run
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  • Profile picture of the author FaraiMist
    Big NO. Affiliate business or any kind of websites are built to be a source of info for REAL human , they want to read first and then buy anything . If the site is all made of affiliate links then what's the value for the reader?
    You need to learn the website building process from scratch (Not hard) and then start writing content , giving value to your readers . It takes time to build such sites.
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