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My declining Magic of Making Up sales

by patey88
18 replies
I have a site that promotes The Magic of Making Up. (No mailing list, just a site promoted using article marketing, and a bit of adwords.) I made my first sales late last summer, and through January of this year I'd been getting 1 sale every 40 to 50 hops.

Starting in February, my sales have declined dramatically. The number of hops is still consistent with prior months, but sales are almost zero. So I contacted Clickbank, and got a reply today explaining that the get-ex-back niche experiences a jump in sales for the Nov/Dec holidays, and again for Valentine's day, after which sales fall off.

I can buy this, except I notice that gravity for the product has been rising. (I'm looking at the chart on cbanalytics.com.) This makes me think sales haven't fallen off at all, except for me.

Can anyone who has year-round experience with this product tell me your experience with seasonal sales? I'd like to know what to expect in coming months, and whether the explanation from my Clickbank contact matches other affiliates' experiences.

Meanwhile I'm changing my hoplinks to use a friend's Clickbank account, just to make sure there's not something wrong with mine.
#clickbank #declining #magic #making #sales
  • Profile picture of the author GeorgR.
    this sounds actually like a valid explanation by clickbank, but sales fluctuations with clickbank are really nothing new. The best thing is to promote more products and not depend on one?

    I also don't know whether you can simply take gravity and make an assumption that since gravity increased so must have overall sales. There might be other factors playing a role.

    Whats your sale/hop right now? This february for me was also rather bad in terms of clickbank sales.
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    • Profile picture of the author patey88
      Originally Posted by GeorgR. View Post

      I also don't know whether you can simply take gravity and make an assumption that since gravity increased so must have overall sales. There might be other factors playing a role.

      Whats your sale/hop right now? This february for me was also rather bad in terms of clickbank sales.
      February was 125 hops per sale. Right now it's been 240 hops since my last sale.

      Thanks for making me think straight about the gravity thing. When I think it through, I realize that rising gravity likely indicates more affiliates making sales, not more sales in total.

      The rest of what the gal at Clickbank said confused me. Quoting:

      "This volume typically begins to drop back to its previous average by Mid February, arriving back closer to pre-holiday averages shortly thereafter. The sales trend you are experiencing is anticipated each year as customers begin to revert back to their previous buying habits."

      ...I can't tell if this means sales will go back UP to "pre-holiday averages," e.g. Sep/Oct levels -- which I'd be fine with -- or that the crappy level of February is a typical pre-holiday average, and that's what I should expect until fall.
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  • Profile picture of the author Rob Howard
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    • Profile picture of the author patey88
      Thanks. It's good to see your numbers, and have something to aspire to.

      I've made half-hearted stabs at diversifying, but then I tell myself it's wiser to spend time making the product that already makes me some money, make me MORE money, rather than spending time on something new.

      I think I'll work on a mailing list first, although it's scary for me so I've been avoiding it. Then I'll go put some energy into another niche site.
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    • Profile picture of the author Richnana
      I also want to thank him for clear concise answers. Were you an accountant in a past life or mathematician. Great information
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  • Profile picture of the author Rob Howard
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    • Profile picture of the author Raygun
      Originally Posted by ccmusicman View Post

      Yup, that's what I recommend. Get in deep into the niche - and an email list is perfect to start with.

      There are tons of helpful guides and stuff here.

      Join the war room - 37 bucks and well worth it. And then study everything you can about email marketing. They have a ton of goodies over there.

      Rob

      Rob is spot on when he says join the War Room, you will learn more there than anywhere else.
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  • Profile picture of the author jaaproos
    How do give thanks to people I want to thank rob the musicman for his tips. I am working on the promotion of a similar product now here in Holland. As my keywords are quite relevant I know what to aspire for in this great niche.
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  • Profile picture of the author Rob Howard
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    • Profile picture of the author MarkFreeman
      Originally Posted by ccmusicman View Post

      1. Be their friend. Don't be some face behind a website, provide them with support. You can even outsource this if you like, but as long as someone is there to answer their emails and say "I understand how you feel"

      In fact, when you get to this point, you SHOULD outsource, because I can guarantee you you will get a flood of mail.

      ...

      2. Show empathy for their situation. Almost every single one of us has experienced heart break, let that show.
      How do you bridge the gap between being thier friend and giving information to actually trying to close the sale?

      I find with most of my mailing lists i get great responses and i am helpful but no one buys when i do put a gentle or a forceful call to action.
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  • Profile picture of the author jaaproos
    THis is real valuable information. This proves me that you should not try 20 or 30 niches at the same time but keep on drinking from the same well...

    Thanks
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  • Profile picture of the author Travis72802
    Hey Patey88,

    Thank you so much for your hard work.

    Sorry sales seem to be in a slump.

    May I offer a little of my experience?

    There ARE times when traffic slows for this niche, but
    conversions usually hold the same.

    A person that has just broken up in December is just as
    motivated as someone that breaks up in June or any other time of the year.

    Make sense?

    When I work one on one with folks...here's what I see happening a LOT, with MOMU
    AND other niches.

    MANY TIMES a ppc marketer doesn't track as closely as they should...and they don't really
    know where the sales are coming from...which keywords on search and which sites
    on content.

    Invariably...

    A brunt of the best conversions come from a handful of keywords or sites.

    Without close tracking, many affiliates (and other business owners) don't know which ones are their stars.

    Then...

    For one reason or another...Google decides to stop showing your ad on 'that' site or 'that' keyword phrase or just lowers your position...and those sales disappear. (Many times you lose these keywords and placement to the 'guys' that ARE tracking and know where the 'honey pot' is.)

    or...

    Google INCREASES your exposure on sites that do not convert well...

    Many times...BOTH HAPPENS...

    So that site that was only bringing in 100 visitors a week, BUT was converting at one in 10 you are no longer advertising on...

    You look at your traffic and don't notice a big drop (because it was only 100 visitors a week)...but you SURE AS HECK notice the missing 10 sales.

    So...

    If your not already....

    MAKE SURE YOU ARE TRACKING...okay?

    It is REALLY easy to do now that Clickbank includes integrated sales reporting. (YAY Clickbank!)

    Just log into your account.

    Go to 'account settings'
    Scroll down near the bottom and click "Integrated Sales Reporting"
    Then plug in your Adwords, Yahoo and Bing conversion tracking code...

    Then monitor your keywords and placements...You will be AMAZED. Your bank account will be happy too.

    (Google has a placement report you can run and see what sites you are on and which ones are converting....then you can EXCLUDE sites that suck up your ad spend without giving up the goods:-)

    Unfortunately...

    Trying to figure out what keywords or sites that you lost after the fact...is nearly impossible, but tracking will help ensure smooth sailing in the future.

    Hope this helps you a little?

    Thanks again for all your hard work!

    Travis

    PS This happens to Bum Marketers too. They'll get an article listed high on Google
    for a particular keyword phrase that converts really well...then it will drop in position
    or disappear completely.

    Because tracking is loose and the 'Bum' has 50 articles out there...he/she doesn't know which one was bringing in all the sales.
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    • Profile picture of the author patey88
      I like hearing that even if traffic slows, the conversion rate should remain steady. It makes the future look brighter, assuming I fix the slump I'm having now.

      I did figure out how to set up better tracking, so that I can see specifically which articles and ad keywords are bring folks to my site, and what path they take before they hop. It's exactly the information I need, but unfortunately I did it after I started having problems, so I don't have the same kind of data from back when things were working.

      But your advice did make me dig deeper, so at least I've narrowed it down to a subset of articles I put on EZA that were bringing me sales back then. Now I can investigate which ones aren't bringing traffic any more.

      EZA's frustrating, because I can't compete with the people who pay for "publish" clicks to boost themselves into most-published and most-viewed. I once got into those lists organically, and the traffic was great but I haven't been able to repeat that.

      I didn't know CB's integrated reporting was for affiliates. I thought it was only for vendors. I walked all the way through setting it up once, and then bailed out when I got to the part about making changes to the vendor site. So I take it most vendors have already done that part, for the benefit of their affiliates?

      Anyway, thanks for all your input. It helps.
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  • Profile picture of the author Rob Howard
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    • Profile picture of the author wordwizard
      Great advice, Rob! Thanks!

      I tend to fall into the trap of being too "helpful" and giving away too much
      information myself at times, so this will be good practice for me as well.

      Elisabeth
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  • Profile picture of the author TheRichJerksNet
    Have you thought about changing your offer during off months ? Expanding on things, changing the site around a bit, maybe even offer something of value if they purchase through your link ?

    Sometimes having a site stay the same constantly can hurt sales, it is good at times to update and add some different things and change things around. This is one main reason why you see many companies "decorate" their websites during holidays... Same concept applies here..

    James
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