What path should I go? Your advice appreciated!!

First of all, congratulations on your success thus far,

you may not think it's a lot but 2000 returning visitors can be quite a gold mine in the near future. If you are planning to build a membership site in the bodybuilding niche I'd imagine you would have to include workout plans, an area of your site where people can update goals, etc. I don't think you should turn your blog into the membership site, but perhaps you an use it to leverage your membership site if you ever decide to launch one.

You can definitely write up a guide on muscle gain and promote to your readers however - who knows, maybe even give them a "discount" compared to the general public.

1) I would add some youtube videos - they'll drive traffic to the site like crazy.
2) Add a pop-up or exit pop subscription box - and get them free tips and blog alerts via email too. This way when you launch products you'll be able to send out emails.
3) If you're going to go with a paid membership site - check out Russell Brunsons - micro continuity program - it's perfect for what you're wanting to do.

Steve

Congratulations on your success. I think you are on the right track.

Here are some suggestions from a professional copywriter, professional hypnotist and brain dialog researcher.

Most people are unaware that the brain contains the equivalent of 4 living computer software programs. In order to activate the buying part of the brain, you must speak the brain language (brain dialog) of your ideal prospect. And, you must work within the confines of how the neurology of the brain works.

So, the thing that jumps right out to me (after doing this work for 21+ years) is your excess use of the word "not" and "n't" contraction words. When you write copy that talks all about what NOT to do, you confuse the brain. This means your prospects and customers feel confused about what to do.

In your articles, reword them and eliminate using the word "NOT" and the "n't" contraction words (can't, won't, shouldn't, etc.) Instead, only speak about the optimistic results one can achieve by using your product.

Get to the POSITIVE point. Focus on the possibilities of success instead of talking about what NOT to do. This will start to help you in your copy and will begin to activate the buying part of the brain instead of the rejecting part of the brain. The part of the brain that rejects ideas is highly activated with NOT words and their derivatives (won't, can't, shouldn't, etc.) So, stop activating rejection and start activating acceptance.

Also, though your site is engaging, your copy could be more engaging than it is. That is too involved of a process to describe here. Still working on minimum posts so email me at yoursecretwishes at g mail dot com for more talk.

Lastly, whomever your visitors are, they may feel resistant to do business with you because the English on your site is a bit broken there and there. Sorry to say that but some people are mistrusting and prefer someone they think speaks English as their primary language.

So, whomever is doing your copy, ask them to proofread and edit so that your language is no longer broken English. If you are doing the writing and you need help with making your site more cohesive in your English sounding words and phrases, I can help you with that, Let me know if you'd be interested in my proofreading and editing services.

Hope these insights will be helpful to you.
Susan

I would keep going and build from it - create new posts that would interest the readers so that you can have even more return visitors and then start selling products via your blog whether it is new products you have made or affiliating others.

kind regards


sam
X

I think the first option is better. Keep doing what you are doing, and drive more traffic into your site.

@goalpower - Great tips here!

Are you building a list? If not, get started with it immediately! If you have 2000 returning visitors,many of them would most likely have signed up to your list, as they seem to trust you already. I would recommend the "ultimate footer ad" opt-in form, as I think it converts really well on blogs. Then write a short report, or an actionable, quick training plan you give away for free.

And if you've only gotten $9 in adsense, what about monetizing in other ways? Writing honest reviews of related products, highlighting their advantages etc. And then put the ones you recommend in the sidebar, using the UAD block ad plugin. (Track clicks with gocodes too)

And btw, if you show off your stats, I'm sure you will be able to get review copies of many products if you just email the owner.

And another thing you could do, is having a plan built-in to your list, and using it as the signup prize. (Get an email with a training plan every second day for 2 weeks by simply writing down your name and email!)

- Preben

I agree with you but one thing. Do the ebook and give it for free, so more people will read it and you will be creating more trust among your readers.

~Mike

@Mike30 - Yeah, and you could put affiliate links to great products in it too =) If you try to find some good ones, as well as recurring, you'll definitely have something going

Well, if you don't want to turn your site into a membership site, why not be an affiliate for someone else's membership and make a recurring comission with way less work?

As for the list, I would recommend you to get a paid one. Free ones usually come with ads, which can reduce the effectiveness of your list by a lot, distracting your readers from clicking YOUR links.

Congrats on being off to a good start!

Question, though . . . seems to me your comment about only selling your own products is inconsistent with what you're doing - if you only want to sell your own products, then why are you selling other people's products with Adsense?

And, if you're going to promote products other than your own - why not promote good products you've reviewed that have a higher payout?

Your readers trust you, so they'll value your opinion and purchase the affiliate products, and that'll give you additional income until you can create and sell more products of your own. That's just good business sense.

Time is money. You could earn a lot of cash during the time it would take you to create more of your own products. Who knows? By offering quality affiliate products, you might even earn enough to hire a proofreader or copywriter and sell more of your own products once you're ready!

@Sheila - Thanks! That's a great argument I missed!

Go with option 1. Switching over to a paysite now would alienate your new "friends", and it will probably push most away from your site. The e-book is a great idea. Keep building the relationships by telling them that you are working on an e-book, and slowly giving previews of your work to get them hungry for it.


-joel

Hi AfteraDream,

Like the others, congrats on doing something and taking action.

First let's start with the Adsense. The most effective way to use Adsense is to drive people to your site and then NOT encourage them to stay.

You want them to get there and see a pretty boring site and rather than hit the back button, click the Adsense link.

Also, if you wanted to stick with Adsense you need a better placement of your ads.

The best ad placement is right after the post title and before the post. a 300 by 250 text block.

So, your page is too colorful and laid out in a way that peaks enough curiosity to look around but not enough copy to grab them and make them ACT.

I would suggest that you use your site to give a freebie and capture emails for your list then build a decent relationship with the list.

You can then find out what your list wants and create your ebook or product around what your list already wants. This will give you the highest conversions for action.

Back to Adsense, you have to play the search engines hot and heavy to get enough traffic that generates enough clickthroughs on the ads.

Please don't take this the wrong way, but I don't think you have the skills right now to profit from Adsense.

You do however, have the start to a great loyal fan base that after you build your list more can start a membership site as some here have suggested.

Glad to see someone doing something around here.

Matt

As mentioned before, videos are a great source of traffic. To create terrific videos for free, go to animoto.com. You can make all sorts of videos for free (30 seconds) just by using a handful of photos. Highly recommended.

This is a great thread. Thanks to everyone. I will be applying some of this information to my site.

I would go with Option 1 for a bit, then write a mini demo ebook and include some affiliate links and all that and give it away for free or incentive on your site.

Put a little opt-in box on the sidebar, offer something for free and make sure that the content and the language that you use is congruent with your market - it think this is really really important in this niche

Just sayin'

P.S. Don't have this limited mindset that "ohh shit I will only promote my own products, because if I'll promote John's book I'll be making him rich and I'll be losing my loyal readers"

With the stats that you've got you could easily get the "review" copies of the best selling fitness products that are availabla in the info market.

Also expand your thinking... Only think about it - there are literally hundreds if not thousands of companies who sell supplements, clothing, DVD's that are created by professional athletes... There's a lot of sh*t that you can sell in the fitness market ZINK!