Hello,

Well I do like your niche, but to make money, you have to change and add lots of things

You have to add lead capture, on home page, and more, add store, with many products, and design , navigation or theme, could be changed, I know you know this, but, old people like simple themes, but make it simple and classy.

Then do major SEO, marketing, and videos,

Thanks Rob

Hi, KnowOneKnows.

I see lots of potential, but you have a lot of work on your hands. A single reply to your post would take up most of the day (literally), so I'll offer up a suggestion in regards fundamentals.

Audience.

Know this: you will always care more about MiddleAge.org than your audience. Furthermore, the very first instinct of Joe and Jane Consumer arriving at MA is to dislike it. No matter what you do - no matter how skilled you become - it will be you who holds MA in the highest regard.

That - is the first thing you need to understand and accept.

Your goal is to get people to like MA as much as they can be expected to like it. If the letter A is equal to Dislike and Z equates to Like, then all of the letters in between should be viewed as walls that you need to break down, therefore allowing for the flow of Joe and Janes to arrive at Like.

I mention the word "fundamental" above. If you adopt this A to Z mindset in regards Like and Dislike, you'll begin to more clearly perceive how to deal with all of the fundamental elements of MA: development, management, growth. These are primary and ongoing concerns for you.

You use the "I like" phrase in your post:

Remove "I like" from your lexicon. What you like is irrelevant. I like writing film screenplays, but since Hollywood isn't knocking down my door (utter gits that they are), I serve up media that, first and foremost, audiences like.

Audience comes first.

You come second.

Now just consider how that simple piece of knowledge - once we, as marketers, accept it - can impact, at a fundamental level, an entire online business.

1. We design our platforms for the audience.
2. We deliver media for the audience.
3. We monetize for the audience.
4. We syndicate our media for the audience.
5. We integrate audience collection for the audience.
6. We write for the audience.
7. We make images for the audience.
8. We make videos for the audience.
9. We use this phrase and that phrase for the audience.

Literally every element of MA - small to large - is for the audience.

Reverse-Engineer.

The best way I can help you (in a single forum post) is to encourage you to consider my words above about audience and then begin a process of reverse-engineering competitors in your market.

Shall I tell you why? (Would be a bit of a useless sodding post, Tom, if you didn't.)

Some of your competition will have been in the market for 10 years, for 15 years, for 20 years, perhaps longer. And what does that mean? Well, it means a great deal, but in this case we're talking about one thing: KNOWLEDGE.

Think about it.

In the MA market? You're a baby. You've been in the market for hardly any time at all. Consider, then, how much you'll know about that market after you've been alive and kicking in it for 10, 15, or 20 years. Imagine the difference between Current You and Future You.

Imagine further: imagine the business Future You will own.

That business will be finely tuned to operate in the market. It may even be a market leader. Literally every aspect of that Future You Business will be optimized for efficiency.

Everything from the turn of phrases used in article content to the very floor, walls, and ceiling of that business (design) will be expertly honed according to a simple philosophy.

This philosophy: Audience comes first and You come second.

So . . .

Those other markets? They entered the market years ago and their operations in the market should become your education. And you can learn everything you need to learn.

1. Look at the players in your market.
2. Note down common elements.
3. Use WF to learn about those elements.
4. Restructure MA accordingly.

MA does have a great deal of potential.

Trouble is, you've made the newbie mistake of taking action (which, in itself, is good) without first putting together a plan and an infrastructure that is going to work. The design alone, for instance, is killing you.

You'll hopefully get a lot of good advice in this thread. None of it, however, will beat the usefulness of education you receive from two things, falling under two headings:

Audience and Reverse-Engineer.

Don't get discouraged. Keep at it.

Cheers,

Tom

Create a lead capture section.

Offer something of value for FREE.

Looking at the site you should consider offering a guide of where to start.

Set up an email sequence that sends people to the various sections/videos/offers already on your site.

What do you have for sale on here (without me spending a long time looking for it)?

With all that content you just need to step back and look at the simple steps.

P.M. me if you want a quick (20 mins or so) free coaching session on where to go with this.

I think you are sitting on something with a lot of potential here. Well done.

Hi Brian,

You may have a lot of great content but the design and stock images let you down for a start.

There is something missing and that is the connection to the viewer of the site.

Each person is unique but may have common issues which you identify by your "sections"

Big problem is any prospect might have a specific or combination of problems and there is not a clear calling out to that prospect to start a relationship or journey with you.

At each stage of your prospect's journey you want light a clear path for them to take to progress through the stages of awareness and self identification of their problems through to solutions you might offer.

At each step you must provide a pathway to move that person along.

Although this article is on optimising content to match search criteria you may find it helpful when it comes to designing pathways for your prospects - Accelerate Your Customer Journey with intent based search optimisation -- Tenxcel

As you would appreciate older people do tend to believe they already have the answer for their problems or they already know where to look to obtain the answers they seek.

If someone is searching for answers to some of their older age problems it might help to have content that is highly targeted to a specific problem and then gently leads them towards trusting your solutions.

For example, you have a heading "financial abundance" but someone might be looking for advice about "reverse mortgages"

The possibility in this situation might be someone desires financial abundance but the reality is their assets are tied up in property and they are searching for sound advice and support surrounding releasing some of their assets so they can enjoy their retirement.

Rather than stock images of wealthy or happy couples etc you would talk about the cold hard facts surrounding how to enjoy your money in older life and protecting your assets for your family.

You could for example write a comparison piece where you compared reverse mortgage lenders. Articles like that become core material that generates traffic. They can also have downloadable content for reading offline.

You can also make the content in larger font sizes so older people can read easily. etc etc.

If someone browses a piece of content about finance or mortgages etc then you can provide a clear path related to that specific prospect's needs.

Likewise if you provided "Top ten exercises for 70 year olds" "80 year olds" "60 year olds" etc you have segmented your audience and you can then move them along a path.

Each of your sections is really a segment and some cross pollinate but you need to develop the pathway that ultimately moves someone towards becoming a paying customer.

Is there currently a "fitness guru" or "heathy age guru" out there?

Who are they?

Can you become that guru?

To do that you need to move people from "unaware" to "aware" to "prospect" to "subscriber" to "customer" to "member" to "advocate"

Sort out your funnels and how you want each segment to progress.

Partner up with people who have your ideal prospects.

Move your ideal prospects along the path.

I want to see an event where you gather those people.

Where they climb those walls and you celebrate together.

Best regards,

Ozi

Firstly, what an awesome idea/Website. : )

Just something I would consider is hiring someone to change your Website Design slightly ... All of the essential elements and content are there ...
However (not be "rude" or anything) the overall design elements look kind of "amateurish."

An awesome idea deserves and awesome Website ... So I hope you consider this advice.
: )

Jonathan

It's either 1 of 2 things.

The first Occam's razor answer is your content isn't good enough. If you have 300 products and have sold 6 I'd wager all the tea in china this is the problem.

The second answer is that you have no idea how to distribute it to your audience of middle aged people.

Luckily for you I'm going to help you figure this out for $200 in Fb ads.

If your content isn't the problem you should be able to hire a graphic artist for like $50 to put together a graphic of your best product. You'll use your FB business page (create one if you don't have it) to run an ad for $20 a day for 7 days. You can granularly target FB ad audiences to exact age and interest demographics if your audience exists you can get this ad in front of them on FB.

If after that 7 day test you didn't make at least 1 sale it's time to go back to the drawing board.

Hope that helps,

JL

Facebook ads is a great way, I use them too

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I am impressed that you are on the first page of Google for the term "Middle Age" as you have a page that provides a definition of this term. Also at least one or more of your photos appears on the first page of Google for this term. My keyword tools shows that there 18,100 persons searching per month for the term "middle age" but that CPC for the term is only .17 so adsense may not make sense.

Good work, I imagine you must be getting some traffic to your site.

The content might be great (i don't know, i haven't red it) but the site doesn't look professional, it looks amateurish. There is too much stuff in the home page and is a bit disorganized. The stock images are a big no for me. There is no design consistency and too many colors. I am going to be honest and say it looks like was designed 15 years ago.

I would suggest, if you are serious about this new venture you are starting to get the site done by a professional. A site like this won't cost you much.

Something to consider before you put effort or money into this site...

What really lacks is EMAIL MARKETING !

there must be a pop up with a giveaway in the home page, where you simply 'give away' one of your products and it could be better if it's a natural first step for your coaching program in the back end

Use a professional tool like LeadPages

Secondly, put some banner or interrupt section, or social locker for asking mail in return for more specific infos.

Then put a DIFFERENT pop up with DIFFERENT giveaways for the most of the pages, if not everyone, the user is visiting.
That's cause you can segment easily and there will be more engagement.

Therefore, you need a good autoresponder.

For your niche, and the different paths every customer could start, i suggest you go on ActiveCampaign or ConvertKit, which maybe suits better for your online digital site.

Then build also up a opt in page, which can u advertise separately and with all these things...


...START BUILDING YOUR LIST SERIOUSLY!

For doing this you need to put up different automations, for every giveaways and page and interests of your users.

You can also do quizzes and in exchange of results ask the mail.

So you can finally use your email list for 2 purpose:

Give more content via mail and finally market yours or affiliate products.

Here's what I'd do if I owned that awesome .org domain

1) Invest in a MODERN design

2) Post DEEP authority / mutli-category 2000+ articles

3) Invest in pro squeeze page design

4) Do EXTENSIVE outreach

You have a great concept

You already have a product

The problem is the WAY you are marketing

The platform you have looks DATED and you need to STEP IT UP so you can offer a BETTER PERCEIVED VALUE

Nice site - you've got a similar niche to one of my friends.

If you want to make money, focus on the relationships part of the site.

If you want more traffic, check your web stats and enhance your best 10 pages.

Finally maybe you could add a forum or more ways for people to interact.

Sorry to go against the general view of awesomeness, but I don't see how any factor has changed since the OP first posted about his site in April last year. Then, as I recall, the issue was with visitors arriving at the site looking for a definition of "middle age". Not a buying audience by any stretch. Now, almost a year later, there are still little or no sales to speak of in spite of all the work done on creating content.

In my view, it isn't about the site design, although that could be improved. It's about the concept.

I'm what's generally described as middle aged. Most of my friends are middle aged. According to the OP, we should be his prime target market. Yet I'm pretty sure the idea of searching for information or advice using any derivative of the term "middle age" has never once occurred to us. If I want to read about nutrition, I'll research experts on the topic. Likewise for fitness and health. Maybe then, when I've found something that resonates, I'll drill down to more age-related issues within that area. As regards self-improvement and motivation, I think we've got most of that covered at our age; certainly there ain't nothing new to show us there.

The point is, the brief is too wide and too shallow to be of anything other than passing interest. "Middle Age" isn't a niche.

The only way to attract buying prospects is to concentrate on one specific area and laser target. However, I suspect the OP is too far invested in the concept to take that on board.

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yeah..what Tom said. Use facebook ads to target your audience. I tired to sign up for the newsletter..didnt work..I tired to get a book...link didnt open after selecting the book.

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I'd try to increase your amount of clients through email marketing; you can build a trustworthy relationship before offering them a service/product.

Hey Brian!

First of all, congratulations on this journey, you have made it this far and still going. You have already accomplished more than most people with similar ideas.

I'm checking out your site right now and right away I see the things you need to improve in order to benefit from each visitor as much as possible and increase your conversion rates as much as possible.

Improve the UX (user-experience)

This is such an important factor that most new bloggers and website owners tend to ignore.

Your conversion rates will improve tremendously and with that search engines will start to rank your content higher as a result. This is the new way of SEO for organic traffic. (RankBrain)

Right now, your site has very low user-experience. Yes, you do have very helpful content, but that content is all over the place and the structure of your text is not pleasant to the eye.

So, no matter how much traffic you send to your site, it will do poorly.

Your content is too wide.

There is a reason why the most successful websites online have such a narrow structure. This is because studies have shown that when you make your content narrow on the screen it is a lot easier for the human eye to read and scan, resulting in a good user experience.

If your eyes have to go from left to right a lot (from end to end), you will not want to keep reading. This is simple human psychology. (maybe you don't mind but most people do)

Keep your content width from 600 to 800 pixels.

Also, make your content easy to read for the reader. One to two sentences per line, I'd recommend.

Remember; it is not about what you think looks good, it is about what actually works.

Less is more.

I suggest you learn about the Jam Study.This will give you a great insight into the human psychology of human behavior¶ when it comes to shopping.

To put it in simple words, the more options you give someone, the lower the chances of them making a decision.

Your audience targeting has to be super precise.

Here is the interesting fact; when you try to help everyone you help no one, but when you try to help someone you help everyone. Hope this makes sense to you.

Think about that one person you want to help and create your content thinking that one person only. Chances are, there are millions who are just like that one person.

In other words, become that guy who can help with just one to two problems and is a master in the subjects.

The more topics you want to teach, the fewer people you will reach.

Don't fall into this trap of wanting to teach on every topic.

Pay attention to the most successful people online - they are masters of a few topics, not all - in their field. This is another one of the "secrets" to success online.

We often think that if we offer as many products and touch on as many topics as possible, we will do much better - when in reality it is the opposite that helps you reach success.

Here is a profound quote from Bruce Lee;

I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.

Why do you think he said this?

This applies to everything in life. Including making money online with a website or blog site. Master on topic at a time, until you find success with it.

Let's review

Improve your user-experience of your site. This alone will put you in the right place to benefit from each one of your new visitors as much as possible.

Don't be too broad. Don't try to teach on too many topics at a time, you are not presenting yourself as a master in all of these topics doing this, instead, you are presenting yourself as just another guy from the bunch. You are not standing out. And you want to stand out.

I know you want to help others in every area of their life, and that is great, but in this online marketing game that is not the best way to go.

What do you do when you need help with a specific problem? You go to an expert, right.

And you much rather go to an expert who is a master solving than one problem than to someone who is trying to master solving all the problems. Who would you trust the most here?

Now, once you have you have improved your entire site following such advice, you need to know that you do not need to have so many products for sale in order to make good money, In fact, even just one really helpful ebook or video course is enough.

The next step would be to build your traffic and your subscribers list.

Here is a simple diagram to help you out.



Create a marketing plan that you can follow every single day. Work on your traffic consistently and always do your best to improve your conversion rates.

I think this is enough for you to get going on the right foot.

I wish you all of the best on this new journey and keep moving forward!


Best regards!

Hi Brian,

It seems there has been a lot of good advice in this thread. So I'll try not to repeat what has a ready been said. But happy to give you my opinion on a few things.

First off you do have a lot of potential with what you are trying to do. I'll qualify that.
1. You have a story to tell
2. You have yourself as proof/evidence.
3. You have (achieved) something that a lot of people want.
4. You have taken action to try and create a website/business around yourself.

Health, fitness, weight loss is a huge market.


Unfortunately you have made quite a few errors. I mean this as genuine constructive criticism. Also I don't think I can list/cover every angle here are it covers a wide range of subjects. So I'll stick to the basics.

1. If you want a business you need to figure out what you want to sell. Of course you should be selling yourself. You are very fit, trim, healthy and active for a person of your age. Exceptionally so. That is your hook/USP etc.
Hover that means you ned to sell something that achieves (or leads people to) what you have done. NOT PLR, not even other peoples products. Unless you used the to get to where you are! You offer yourself as an example, and expert and then sell PLR - not good. Devalues you and your brand.
You mention a 13 step program. Sounds good. Videos of you working out, eating right, doing whatever it is you say should be done. This sounds like your initial focus.
2. You also need a free product. Free could simply be a taster from your main course. You need a free product because you MUST build a list. Then you market to your list. Initially your 13 step program and then any other 'quality' affiliate products if you like.
3. You need a sales funnel. i.e. Email sign-up for the free offers and email promotions to paid offers. After your 13 step program you can create even higher ticket items or consider monthly memberships etc. i.e. Every month they get personal tips, guides and a plan from you (everyone gets the same .
4. Now you need sign-ups and sales. So lets move to your website. Sorry Brian but it's just not good. Is it a website? is it a blog? is it a sales page? It's really a bit of everything and so fails at being any one thing.
My first impression when I look at the site is chaotic. I don't know what to look at or where to look so I scan instead of reading. Nothing hold my focus.
Far to many images and they don't seem to match the story. Far to many links taking me everywhere. You have free ebooks (PLR????), sign up to my newsletter, a place to complain!!?????? Text /video version options. And I never found any link to your 13 step program.

Oh yes the text. I am middle aged and my eyesight is not as good as it used to be and I struggled to comfortably read the text. Just too small and in too big a blocks.

OK, so a few design issues but they are probably due to the fact that you don't have a clear idea of your objectives.

The front page probably wants to be more like a sales page. Focus on your 13 step program. Show off yourself, your credentials and credibility. Pitch a course that got you where you are. Make sure people can buy it from the front page.

To that end I would engage a copyrighter (or read some copywriting/sales page writing training ) and a sales page designer. I wouldn't go with your WP techie. Unless he is also a sales page expert. It's not the same thing at all.

Also have an exit-pop for free offer sign-up.

For free sign-ups from paid ads have as specific landing page. It should specifically promote your free offer. It may be a cut down/rehashed version of the sales page.

You can keep the blog/articles sections. That way you can bring traffic to the site via organic search BUT every post should be bringing your visitors to your opt-in or your sales page. No point in having visitors if they never see a sales pitch.

Throw away you ebook store/PLR stuff. You are better than that. Also it detracts from your main product (yours!). If you want a store on the back end what about supplements, proteins, treadmills, weights even gym clothing?


Your sections are really too long. Consider breaking them up into blog post size articles and linking to each other (AND your sales page/opt-in). It may simply be too much information and again detract from what you are trying to sell. I know it's a lot of content but it broadens your 'niche'. You need to be narrowing your niche initially.
So to summarize.

1. Decide on what you are selling/what your product is.
2. Target the front page of your site to that product. Get a pro to do that page for you.
3. Create a specific opt-in free offer page for PPC.
4. Get rid of all the ebook/PLR stuff. Add Supplements and physical products if you want a store.
5. Link all posts etc. to your sales page/opt-in page.
6. Use email list to promote your product and any up-sell products you can create. Or even high quality affiliate product (to anyone who doesn't buy into your products)


Good luck.

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I just went to the site. I would probably like you in person - but I can't see "you" anywhere on that website.

My first point of confusion is that it's Middle Age dot ORG - not .com. When I see a dotOrg, I'm looking for a non-profit, and when I don't see one, or even a club, I'm confused.

If you keep the site on that domain name, perhaps you could consider creating a virtual club for people who consider themselves middle aged.

Maybe give them weekly challenges, invite them to share their stories, help them feel like a community.

That could be a freemium model where some content is free and some is behind a membership paywall. If the offer is good enough, people might subscribe like they would a magazine, but everyone I know in that age group is very careful with their money, so they'd really need to get something from your site that they aren't getting from AARP.

When I think of what interests people in their 70's and above, I think about things like audio books (someone reading to them), story starters to share their creative writing, maybe a place to show off a craft they made by hand (sweaters, pillows, woodcarving, etc.), word searches, simple exercises, things like that.

I invite you to reimagine this as a new community with you as the host, since you mentioned wanting a tribe.

I'd get permission to use real peoples' photos. Interview people on a YouTube channel to tell their stories, and embed the videos in blog posts.

You have an opportunity to create something really special here. I'd give up on the ebooks unless you have rights to read them out loud, or reprint them in large type.

I'd choose a cleaner WordPress theme, too. There are so many out there that can streamline your content.

Get clear on your message, post an introductory video showing you talking and some of you with the exercise, and until you can get other people interacting, just start sharing good content.

P.S. You might try a companion Facebook group to start attracting attention to the new vibe of the site.

Keep me posted!

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happy to know that

have you done any adwords ? they are especially cheap on youtube.

Frist you open analytics account and check hit map (where your visitors leaves your website), user behavior is important thing in blogging or business. Steps of engagement is
1. Collect data
2. Produce quality products
3. Rearrange and fix errors
4. Give your researched products to your customers defiantly they buy.
If you have any other questions you can ask me anytime on pm

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