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Having trouble capturing emails from organic traffic

by squeebo
19 replies
Here's my problem. I'm earning affiliate revenue, but 96% of it is coming from organic traffic. I'm doing a horrible job with email marketing. With 3000 subscribers, my value per list member is $.05/month, even with a 5% CTR. Pretty pathetic, right?

I've collected the emails entirely through the ecommerce side of the business, which is failing and I'm shutting down. I can't seem to create any effective lead gen on organic traffic. Nobody is interested.

It's hardly even worth crafting an email when I get fewer web views from it than a Friday afternoon's worth of organic traffic. I earn about $20 per email, not doing much more than paying my GetResponse fees. At this rate I feel like I shouldn't even bother until I have 20,000 subs.

I'm thinking of changing all my top organic landing pages to email captures if I can manage to interest visitors in anything. The problem is these pages have so many affiliate links that perform well. I'd be sacrificing immediate value for the lead gen, and I'm not sure if there's even a way to do it. For example, a page is a guide on cleaning and maintaining widgets, with Amazon links sprinkled throughout for tools and cleaners they'll need. What do I do with that? Remove all the Amazon links and do a lead gen for a content upgrade with all the links and a bit more info?

I've tried creating lead gens by offering a guide that has general appeal to newbies, and PDF versions of particular posts. I'm just so skeptical that destroying my top performing blog posts by turning them into lead gens will get me anything.

I've tried doing PPC on Google and FB, but I get no value from it and often 100% bounce rates, even with highly targeted traffic trickling in.

When I'm earning $.03 per sub per month, it'll take me 16 months of weekly emails to get what I was getting from just letting them click the affiliate link on the site (average $0.50/click) without collecting their email.

How the heck do people manage to do this?
#capturing #emails #organic #traffic #trouble
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  • Profile picture of the author Brent Stangel
    When I'm earning $.03 per sub per month, it'll take me 16 months of weekly emails to get what I was getting from just letting them click the affiliate link on the site (average $0.50/click) without collecting their email.
    "The money is in the list" is not always true.

    Brent
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    • Profile picture of the author squeebo
      That's what's confusing me!

      For one thing, I'm either doing a horrible job of creating enticing content upgrades or these niche visitors will not give out their email no matter what. The articles out there make it sound so easy to get people to sign up for any old thing. Just slap an email form on the page for them to download the PDF version of that very post and get a 10% signup rate, they say!

      Has anyone had such an abysmal value per subscriber? People on here talk about paying $1-2 per subscriber all day long and earning that back within a month or instantly.
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    • Profile picture of the author Mohammed K Sheikh
      correct, "the money is in the QUALITY or Relationship of the List"

      When it comes to marketing, the buyers have evolved.

      Affiliate links and sending emails doesnt work as they used to.

      Before you could just send traffic directly to aff link and you would be ok.

      But its all about content marketing, Content is KING and will always remain KING.

      If you focus on providing valuable content, in the beginning you will not see much results but over time you will only grow.

      Look at the great content marketers, their blogs, youtube, facebook accounts. They never sell their products, they just keep providing valuable content.

      Re-think your strategy and think longevitiy
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  • Profile picture of the author Bizopboost
    Maybe your follow up email series are not optimized to that audience.
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    • Profile picture of the author squeebo
      I don't have one. I have a new blog post each week I tell them briefly about and include a link.
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  • Profile picture of the author nickyz1
    You should try out sending different campaigns and test. some time people get tired of same content so you should research and make some changes.
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    • Profile picture of the author squeebo
      I have new content I send them each week. How would I do it differently? Send them old stuff instead?
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  • Profile picture of the author posinfo1
    [DELETED]
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    • Profile picture of the author Tony Marriott
      This is one of the reasons people fail when email marketing. Sending the wrong offers to your list.

      The Op says
      I've collected the emails entirely through the eCommerce side of the business
      So his email list are people interest in the physical products he is selling.

      In what world would they be interested in make money digital products?
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  • Profile picture of the author hardworker2013
    People feel that collecting emails is just it. You have to provide quality content to
    your list continually and not just spam them with affiliate offers.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mark-Dickenson
    I think you are doing things the hard way.

    A much easier way is to create a product in your niche, get affiliates to drive the traffic to you and build your list for you...a list of buyers, not freebie seekers...and those buyers will open your emails.

    You can use FB ads to promote your affiliate program once you have a product created. An army of affiliates can drive more traffic to your than you(or me) ever could.

    I would then learn email marketing. Ben Settle is a good person to learn from...and the Michael Cheney fella mentioned in the above post is a student of his.

    There is a world of difference between sending emails to a buyers list(people who have already bought from you) vs people that just optin for free.

    Ben Settle teaches to email every single day. It works if done right.
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  • Profile picture of the author Tony Marriott
    I've collected the emails entirely through the ecommerce side of the business, which is failing and I'm shutting down. I can't seem to create any effective lead gen on organic traffic. Nobody is interested.
    It may just be that your niche or product is not viable. If your sales are so bad that you are shutting down that pert of the business then it is likely that your email sign-ups are just as unlikely to buy your products.

    First question I would ask is what are you promising your subscribers when they sign up. Because that is what you need to deliver to them.

    I earn about $20 per email, not doing much more than paying my GetResponse fees.
    Mail every day. That's $600 a month. More than enough to cover you fees.

    Easy way to mail
    1. Original email with
    2 Same email to Unopens
    3 Same email with new Subject line
    4. Mail to unopens
    5. Same email with new subject line
    6 Mail To unopens

    Each subject line should target different types of people i.e. curiosity, how to, scarcity etc

    So no more work than one original email per week.

    Hard to give more detailed answer without knowing what you sell, what your capture page offers, what you actually email etc.

    But bottom line is:
    1. Targeted subscribers. i.e. what do you offer to get their email.
    2. Send offers that they are expecting/want
    3. mail regularly
    4. Generally offers need to have a fairly high value or commissions. Sending traffic to $0.50 clicks is rarely profitable.
    5. If your subscribers signed up for your free content. That is all they will want.
    6. If all you send is free content that is what they will expect.
    7. Each email is an opportunity to pitch (or pre-sell). Just sending them to an informational web page with affiliate links is unlikely to convert very highly.
    8. It is not the individual stuff that makes money i.e. landing page, capture email, write email, send emails, etc. It is the whole process that needs to work as one. Every part adding value to the next.
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    • Profile picture of the author squeebo
      Tony, I'd give you triple thanks if I could for this thoughtful reply.

      The niche is healthy for other merchants, with new ones popping up and getting attention. My model was drop-shipping, and so many are selling direct to cut me out. So I feel like there's potential, especially with my affiliate revenue slowly growing (just not from my email efforts).

      I got more unsubs before when I tried 2x/week. But I will try upping to 3 or 4x/week for a test segment of 500 list members and see what happens. One merchant of mine does up to 4x/week.

      For opt-ins when people place an ecommerce order I have a note by the checkbox about receiving new blog posts and specials weekly. In the emails I include a paragraph or two introducing a blog post, followed by a couple banners for merchant specials.

      The affiliate links are in context of the blog post. A couple high traffic posts are informational on widget maintenance, but others are specifically comparing different brands and models of widgets, with affiliate links in context, so it's all pretty buying oriented.
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      • Profile picture of the author Mike Anthony
        Originally Posted by squeebo View Post


        The niche is healthy for other merchants, with new ones popping up and getting attention. My model was drop-shipping, and so many are selling direct to cut me out. So I feel like there's potential, especially with my affiliate revenue slowly growing (just not from my email efforts).
        I hear you. A good amount of years ago something similar happen to me with Ebay. This is why I was never into dropshipping (or ANY non wholesale sources of products not my own) - the minute you are successful you can bank that someone with lower prices is going to eat your business off.

        Still I wouldn't walk away from that ecommerce market but widen my approach to making money from it. For example - You may have sold shoes and can't compete anymore but if you are attracting and have attracted shoe buyers they have other clothes, style and walking interests you can target.

        Every niche is related to hundreds of other niches. But yeah if theres is no connection to what you got the email addresses offering then of course the conversion is going to be pitiful and you are probably burning out the list with each email.
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  • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
    Here's a weird idea. Send an email asking people what they want.

    > Do they want more of the product comparison posts?
    > Do they want more posts like the one about widget maintenance?
    > Do they want something else? Details?

    Make it easy to respond by making each option a clickable link. All they have to do is click to respond. Encourage people to reply to the emails and tell you what they think.

    Here's another suggestion for capturing emails.

    Since these folks are interested in widgets, offer them a "complete guide to getting the most from widgets", with links back to individual posts as appropriate. Should be a relatively easy PDF to research and compile - most of the necessary info can be gleaned from manufacturer documentation and user reviews. As a bonus, they get updates as they are published (your new comparison posts). You could also set up Google alerts for any widget recalls and do a public service by announcing them, along with info on how to do returns/exchanges/fixes.

    In short, become a go-to resource for your subscribers.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mike Anthony
    Originally Posted by squeebo View Post


    I've tried creating lead gens by offering a guide that has general appeal to newbies, and PDF versions of particular posts. I'm just so skeptical that destroying my top performing blog posts by turning them into lead gens will get me anything.
    This is so old school it hurts and yet I see most marketers today STILL doing it. Less and less people want to view a PDf or some article not in their browsers. Very few progressive content centered sites do this anymore. Instead they put the content on the site and readers register and get access immediately to it. Signups will increase if people want to read special content (not everything is put behind a register wall) they already began reading and are interested in

    This does three things

    A) It allows you to interest the reader with the content (they usually get to read some part of it before having to register)

    B) you get to verify the email is used when they have to confirm for access

    C) it falls into line with what people are used to - signing up to FB, twitter, pinterest etc not giving out an email to get blasted -

    Very few talk about it but one of the main reasons there is so much churn and non responsiveness in some lists is because the email addresses themselves were never a reliable way of reaching the person. I have email addresses I don't monitor much at all just for when I get asked by marketers to provide an email address. I am not going to risk my main email account getting spammed to death because of some "content" I haven't even begun to read and know I would be interested in.
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    • Profile picture of the author squeebo
      I'm going to put the content as a hidden page as you suggest, makes sense. Easier to edit the content that way too. PDFs are so silly!
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    • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
      Originally Posted by Mike Anthony View Post

      This is so old school it hurts and yet I see most marketers today STILL doing it. Less and less people want to view a PDf or some article not in their browsers. Very few progressive content centered sites do this anymore. Instead they put the content on the site and readers register and get access immediately to it. Signups will increase if people want to read special content (not everything is put behind a register wall) they already began reading and are interested in
      Why not have the best of both worlds?

      Put the content on that hidden page, and finish with a download link so the content lives on somewhere on the viewer's hard drive or cloud storage?

      If you provide good, useful, actionable content, and give the PDF a good title, the right people will refer back to it. Every time they do, they are also reminded of your offer.
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  • Profile picture of the author Sas99
    I would recommend a book "Email Persuasion" by Ian Brodie. It tells how to captivate and engage the audience, build authority and generate more sales with email marketing. Though I see that some ideas are already mentioned in the list of responses
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    • Profile picture of the author squeebo
      I've added the book to my shopping list!
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