Come on then folks... WHY is internet marketing so hard?

Great idea for a thread, Karl!

I am selling Riley mankini calendars.

I sold one to come guy called Chris Sutton but nothing after that. I thought it was a little strange when Chris purchased 30 calendars.

So here are my questions.

Do I need to give away one mankini photo to get people to sign up for my list?

How do I get traffic to my mankini site?

Should I do a list swap with other mankini marketers?

What price point should I be charging for the calendars?

Should I end the price with a 7 like we all see here?

Does Riley's hairy face scare people away?

Will Chris Sutton come out of the closet or is that were he is hiding the calendars so his wife doesn't see him?

I didn't answer because I don't necessarily feel like I'm struggling (and, this may actually be a hindrance to others responding to this thread). I know, sometimes pride actually keeps us from admitting that we 'struggle', but I KNOW there are tons of members out there who could definitely benefit from the offering in this thread....

That's a big one.

I've noticed that those who find success quickest are those who take credit for their successes as well as responsibility for things that don't go well.

Many people take credit for their successes but blame someone or something else for their failures. However, doing that gives away your power to succeed.

See, if you believe failure is something that "happens to you" rather than something you create, then you must also believe that you can never change those factors that created the failure. You believe the failure was caused by something out of your control.

If, however, one takes responsibility for their failures, then the failure becomes a lesson. And next time, they know how to do something a little better.


***

Anyway, I'll help out too in this thread if anyone needs it.

Cheers,
Becky

I'll bite! Hi, I got laid off a couple of months ago so I have 10-12 hours a day I'm willing to invest. I have 2 blogs on blogger and one WP with its own domain.

One deals with home brewed beer and barbque. The other is a review site that I'm pushing mafia war affiliate program.

I have big ears! And I'm very patient.

thanks.

To the folks who are replying now and looking for help, remember this:


Point is, you need to give details and you need to be specific. Ask a specific question, and you'll get a specific answer.

I really want to push my blog on making your backyard a paradise. I want to talk about gardening, beer making, creating a putt putt golf course, pretty much anything for the back yard. I figure I can use adsense(?) and also use my blogs as articles to get traffic. The mafia war idea was just a coin toss as I purchased a course on site flipping. I did manage to get ONE sale thru adwords.

Thanks JD

Okay...I need all the help I can get...

I have a resume writing page and I'm trying to add an ebook but keep running into technical difficulties. Once the ebook is in place I had planned to post articles with ezinearticles, etc. to try and get links back to the webpage. I know the general advice is to "build a list" but usually someone only needs a resume every few years and I don't have "back end" products to sell.

I also have a puppy blog I'm trying to get set up to sell amazon items and clickbank books. Again, I'm writing articles to post after I get the tech details worked out on the blog. I do plan to try and build a list on this since there are many related products.

I work full time and only have 1 - 3 hours a day during the week to work on this. More on the weekends.

I guess the question is: what would be the best use of those hours? Am I missing something I should be doing?

Rose

Question: Can a blog be used for income and if yes, how should I spend my time each day? Should I work content a majority of time or traffic or article writing? Is there a market plan hierarchy?

Should I create different pages on the blog?

I'm a webmaster but never make good money due to demanding and stingy customers. I have tried on internet marketing since 2008, but after 2 years of hard work, I'm still earning peanut from internet.

During these 2 years, I been went through a lot of internet strategy from Adsense, PPC, ebay, amazon affiliate, dropshipping and many others. I tried a lot of things as well from blog, website, minisite, auto generated site and etc but to no success.

I have learned up the skill of keyword research, SEO, article marketing, social bookmarking, link building but still think I am of amateur level.

Currently I have about 10 blogs running with paid domain name and hosting. Most are on niche blogs.

I work very hard for 10-12 hours everyday try to make thing works but thing always let me down.

I love internet a lot since I was in college and from then on I just can't live without a computer hook up to internet. I do love reading investment books and magazines during my free time and do some jogging for the health purpose. I seldom wasting my time on entertainment besides ocasionally go for watching movie.

My goal is achieve financial freedom in 5 years time, which I will not have to work from 9 to 5 but rather I can work by following my own schedule and plan. I do love to be a Soho working at home and planning for all my jobs time table instead of going to office and facing nasty boss.

Being in internet marketing for these 2 years, I only managed to earn little money. For adsense I do have some blogs which only generate less than 100 unique visitors and generate about $50 per month for adsense.

Now I have another gadget blogs which has my main keywords rank 3rd in google but the traffic is still less than 100 even I checked from google keyword tools as this particular keyword has 90K search per month. I put amazon as my main source of income for this gadget blog, now average I only making 1 sale per day for this.

All other blogs are almost not making any money at all and just laying there. I would like to know how can I make it as I really wish I can reach my goal of financial freedom in 5 years time.

Any good advice from you all are highly appreciated.

Cheers,
Warren

This is hopefully some helpful advice for Rose based on some direct experience in the niches she mentions.

Resume writing is one of those "trap" ebook niches I like to highlight and make people aware of. Here's what I mean.

Keyword research shows that resume writing has huge demand - lots of people search for it. So, it is common that someone will rush off and spend weeks or months writing an ebook in that field only to find out they don't sell well.

The reason?

Most people searching for resume writing help online are looking for two things...sample templates or resume writing services.

How would you know?

Take a look at existing info products - anything to do with resume writing ranks extremely low on CB if there are any at all at any given time. Sales rank on Amazon is not great, research websites and they tend to all promote resume writing services.
Any resume writing ebooks are typically given away or sold at extremely low prices as a lead-in to selling other services

So - in short, you've got to match your niche with what they want to buy. I would suggest you monetize your resume writing niche with affiliate programs for resume writing services, otherwise try an affiliate ebook before you spend time developing your own (a good technique to use for any market to get a "feel" for how well info products are selling before you develop your own)

I hope all of this doesn't come off as negative, there are many markets where there is huge opportunity for ebooks and there is nothing to prevent you from making big dollars as an affiliate in the resume writing niche - it's just a matter of knowing what people will or will not buy.

Thanks,

Jeff

Karl,

Unfortunately like anything in life, it's not for everyone to succeed. That would be great if life was like that, but it's not. Some people make better employees which is too bad. Then again, if we didn't have people working for us we would never grow. I am glad not everyone can or has the desire to to be their own boss.

I got one....

Alright, my typical method of driving traffic is article marketing, which I can do quite well.

My problem is my newest project requires traffic, but I can't wrap my head around a way to tie it to article marketing. It is a project using crowdfunding (in other words I drive traffic to my own link to collect funds to be used for my project), and well I know I could write articles on crowdfunding, I don't know if those who are looking up crowdfunding are the type who would contribute to it, if you understand what I mean.

Any ideas on ways to drive traffic, or even article topics that would work for it would be much appreciated. (Other methods I have tried includes twitter, facebook, placing the widget on my other sites, forum marketing) I don't know if maybe it's the offer that is not converting the traffic or if it is simply I am not driving the right type of traffic.

Sylvia

I had an ecommerce website that sold discount perfumes for over 5 years. Not successful enough to go fulltime, but did average about $1000 in profit per month.

Prior to that, I sold perfumes on eBay. But then eBay kept increasing their rates, customers got more obnoxious and a ton of new people began selling on Ebay, and the competition got too fierce to make a profit. Hence, the perfume website!

I sold the website in December for $12K, which I quickly blew through since I hadn't worked for awhile and was behind on my mortgage, bills, etc. Plus I had alot of backorders for products because Paypal put my account on hold.

I am working full time right now but not very happy at all with my job. The drive is a good 45 minutes each way and the new boss is not the nicest man I ever met.

I have 4 domain names registered, but only three have any content. One is sports related, but really doesn't have much content.

Another one is an affiliate marketing review site, but not alot is happening with that. Another one is a cake ideas blog which I have automated Amazon posts on it right now.

The last one, and my favorite, is a perfume store review site. I have trying to post on it as much as possible. I have the WP autoresponder plug in, which I am hoping to have people sign up for a newsletter that offers perfume coupons, special deals, etc.

The perfume store review website is already on the 1st page of Google for "perfume store reviews". Of course, I did submit a couple of articles to Searchwarp, EZA, and ArticlesBase.

I have also registered it with a couple of blog directories and some standard directories.

I have decided that its best to concentrate on one project at a time, which is why I have been trying to push the perfume store review site first.

I have gotten some generic traffic from search engines and the articles I posted, but it is only getting about 10-15 unique visitors a day. Of course, it's only about 2 weeks old, so I guess that's not too shabby.

I would appreciate any sort of information regarding the best way to really get some active users to post comments, sign up for the newsletter and (of course!) click on the affiliate links to make a little bit of money!

I only have a couple of hours during the week to work on this, and more time on the weekends....and a very limited budget.

Thanks for all the great ideas!

I do offer resume writing services as well on my page. The ebook is just going to be an add on. I plan to offer a coupon in the back for having a resume written if after reading the book they decide they'd prefer to have someone else do it for them.

I had also planned to offer a job hunting guide as a free report to draw traffic....and now, thanks to all your suggestions....to help build a list.

I'll check out the clickbank books as well.

Great suggestions!
rose

Awesome thread!

1) Tell us what you're doing, right now, to try and make a living online
Working with my dad, who does offline marketing for large companies. I am trying to get him to convert into Internet Marketing, which he is very interested in. He has an e-Book, which has been sitting around for months collecting dust in his hard-drive. It is a book on Marketing and double-digit sales growth in 90 days.

I've been working online for years now, I'm only 18 years. I mostly did freelance web design, and some programming. I am now fading away from that and really getting into the whole Internet Marketing scene. I figured me and my dad could make a great partnership, he's a great writer and he's passionate about Marketing.

First thing I did was re-design his sales page for his book, it was very old and boring. The new design looks great, just waiting for him so I can film him for about 30 seconds for a quick video on the home page.. then I can replace the whole site.

Next, I got him to e-mail me some Articles he has written, and his Free Report that he is going to be giving away. Perfect, now I have materials to start up a Squeeze Page, and a Blog.

He is a Marketing Coach as well, so I decided to set up his Marketing Coach website, which will promote his services and results he has done, as well as integrate a blog into it. Got that complete, so his informational site is designed as well as the Blog, with the 3 articles he gave me.

All that's left right now is the Squeeze Page, which I am going to get a designer to work on a cover for the course, so then I can get started.

To-Do:
1. Get a 30-second audio or video for the home page of the Sales Page for the e-Book.

2. Register the domain for the Squeeze Page.

3. Get a cover designed for the course.

4. Get the squeeze page up and running.

5. Purchase a-weber for our list we are building.

-----------------------------------------------------

Once those are complete, I have a pretty nice start. I have a great 163 Page e-Book, with a nice sales page designed. I have a blog set up for all his articles, which he will be writing - and also a site which promotes his Coaching services. And I have a squeeze page for the Free Report we will be promoting.

Quick Questions:
- I will be sending all my traffic to the Squeeze Page, to convert them into subscribers. I will never send any traffic to the actual sales page, correct? I will build a relationship first with my subscribers and then try to promote the book?

- How many FREE stuff do you usually give away? For example, this free report I will be giving away .. what happens if I decide to step it up and also give away a video series. Do I create a whole new domain and squeeze page for the separate offer? What about traffic? All the traffic is going to the old squeeze page for the report. How does that work?

- I will have 3 different sites. The e-Book Sales Page, Squeeze Page, and Blog. I understand that I send all my traffic to the Squeeze Page, but when do I ever promote the Blog? If I write Articles and submit them to Ezine, should I link back to the Blog so they can get more Articles and see who I actually am (or my dad in this case!), or just the Squeeze Page to make them a subscriber? In other words, how do I balance sending traffic to my Blog and sending them to the Squeeze Page?


2) Tell us how much time you're willing to commit, each day to a plan
I am willing to commit many many hours each day. I want to do this full-time, I am the one who posted that big thread about "College - Is it worth it?" and decided I want to take a year off, and see where I'm at, so I need to get going! This is my new passion, I love it.

3) Tell us your interests, passions and your goals
Working on new projects, Designing clean and professional sites/interfaces, Internet Marketing, Technology.

I would really like to start a family business with my dad and even my mom, who is actually trying to sell her retail store, and it would be cool to grab her on board, she is a certified CPA / Accountant, which could be a great addition.

4) Tell us the results you've had, what has worked and what hasn't worked
I haven't tried anything yet, everything is still in progress. I am excited, though a little nervous. Seems like I am on the right path, I am just anxious to see if I can get some great results.

One thing I've noticed in this thread and with newbies in general, is that those who struggle often don't follow instructions very well. Rather than following the exact instructions as they are given, they pick and choose which ones they want to follow. This decision not to follow instructions could be part of your struggles, perhaps a very big part.

Instructions are given for a reason. Following them tends to lead to results. People trying to help or teach aren't adding unnecessary steps just to make things harder. Each step has a purpose.

If you knew how to get the results you want you wouldn't need the instructions. Since you're not getting the results you want, don't presume you know better about which instructions to follow than the person who wrote them. In other words...

Follow the instructions!

I have been doing this for some time now. Right now i have about three to four sites , I am doing twitter to promote them but not much luck. I am doing better i have to say because even if i do get a click at least I got some change so I guess its better then nothing. Right now I am doing a face book thing so hopefully that will turn out. I put about 3 hours a day into them and looking for other ways to promote with out have to pay for my traffic. I am open to anyone willing to help and tell me if I am heading into the right direction with this. My goal is to do this for a living, ever since I started I just freaking love it. I also would like to see money come in I know this is not something where I am going to make thousands overnight but right now a good 10 bucks a week would give me a good feeling. I wanted to state to Denis when I first started i bought a lot of wso trying to see what this really was about, I must have done a lot of them step by step and at the end I just felt like I put my time and money into something and just didn't work out.:rolleyes:

I am just starting out... have 2 sites up and running, have pretty good posistion on google
first page for both of them. No sales yet but adding content and changing the look of the pages to see if that helps.

1) Finding a decent clickbank product, and running an adwords campaign that points straight to my affiliate link

2) Well I have A-Levels, but I reckon I could do 4-5 hours per-day, maybe 12 on the weekends.

3) Interests: Road Cycling, Photography, Guitar, Severe Weather(Tornadoes and Stuff). My Goals? £1600, so I can get myself a new bike, anything after that is just a bonus

4) Well I've tried setting up a blog, but even though I enjoy cycling, I can't stand writing articles, and I got barely any clickthroughs to the sales page, I'm hoping Adwords will give me a bit more success.

Hope that helps, maybe give someone a new idea or something

Well I have an online store that sells self defense products and I just recently created an info product to help business owners with their marketing. I just started promeroting it and people are signing up to my list, not massive amounts but you gotta start somewhere.


would be interesting to see if you guys could help me out

Promotional offers through ClickBank. I've registered a couple domains, installed WordPress, social bookmarked, and hoped for the best.

I have not invested a lot of time this past month - but ultimately, I am available for 1 hr / day. I've been a little discouraged; as I'm having a difficult time getting on page 1 of google. Social bookmarking, pinging, article submissions, etc...

My full time job is risk analysis; I'm very analytical in nature. I enjoy cards, math, video games, and reading. co workers find me scary and assertive... I'm not overly people friendly... but I'm blatantly honest.

I'd like to quit my job ... its very cut throat, abrasive, etc... and while that may be a good fit for myself, I'm not overly happy with who I am when I am there.

I currently have 2 sales. My FarmVille niche is working best for me - I noticed that ranking with google ultimately requires a lot of unique content. I don't really think that every niche should require multiple chapters of writing just to rank, but I'm not sure how else to do it.

I would also like a free solution for list building. I can't justify the investment since my writing skills are horrid and I'm not making much money now.

I'm going to ask some of my friends, who I know make a living off the internet to bookmark/subscribe to this thread, and we will try our utmost to help you out of a rut, change your beliefs and get you on track to making a success of internet marketing.

I want to thank everyone for their involvement so far, in what is turning out to be a very eye-opening thread. Thanks to those who are giving their free time to help others, and thanks also to those who have it in them to ask for help.

I've got to duck out today, but I'm going to be coming back over the next couple of days to help out as much as I can.

There is a big fog out there, for sure.

I don't make my money in IM. I do Adsense, SEO services and offline marketing.

I didn't read each and every post up there but I will say this. It's not so much what you offer in IM but how responsive your email list is. Having a good email list and working the autoresponder are, I think, essential to IM success. Far better than Article Marketing, Adsense and other techniques.

I use my blogs because I like to write and help people. I don't think of them as a way to mke Clickbank money. You can tell how well a blogger is doing by the number of comments. I'm guessing you need 100 visitors to get one comment.

Conclusion? Get going on building your list and communicating with your list members. I think all successful IM folks will agree.