[Edited] When should you call it quits?

First of all, congratulations on taking action and getting as far as you have. It's way further than most people come.

Now for the bad news. 20 optins out of 300 clicks is pretty poor. So your first job is to get that conversion rate up. A good squeeze page should be able to turn at least 50% of clicks into optins, so the fact that you have ~7% optin rate means we should be able to score some quick wins.

So first job. Remove distractions from your squeeze page. Those links at the top are just giving prospects something else to do which isn't what you want ... watching the video and opting in. That includes the "view my blog" link.

The video is OK but you dwell a lot on what the course isn't (scam, B/S etc) and it's quite distracting. Focus on telling them what you're going to do for them rather than worrying about what they are going to think of it. Also, your CTA graphic was awesome but the spoken content, "statistically more likely to lose weight if you opt in" sounds pretty poor to me.

I'd bet you'd have a better response from something like, "Take the first step to a thinner, healthier, more attractive you today. Just enter your name and email address and see how I can help you."

I'd also change up the headline. "Revealed: The top 3 reasons guys aren't losing weight". It's a bit middle of the road for me.

Either focus on the benefit entirely. "The top 3 things between you an a slammin' new bod".

Or push on their insecurity. "The top 3 reasons you're fat and can't change it"

Personally I'd go for the first but split test a bunch of these.

Finally. Don't just get them to opt in to receive a free video. Get them to optin to receive your 12 week weightloss ezine delivered straight to their inbox. And offer them the video as a bonus.

That way they feel like they are getting more and they are expecting to hear from you. This will massively boost your email open rates and gives you 12 instalments to sell them on buying the main course.

Hope some of that helps,

Andy

First off, women care more about their appearance than men. So men are going to be less inclined to buy your product. That does not mean that they will not buy, simply that they are less inclined.

Second, if your offer is generating no sales, there are likely one of three problems:

1. The ad is targeting the wrong audience;

2. The sales copy is under-performing; or

3. The price point is wrong.


300 visits is still a small sampling rate to test a product. It is enough people to know that one of the three above listed items are a problem, but it is not enough to determine that the product is a failure.

When you operate a business, you will meet challenges, and you will need to conquer those challenges or fold up your tent and go home.

Your challenge right now is making sure you are really targeting the right audience, making sure your copy is doing the job, and making sure your price point is the best it can be.


Since you have so far sold zero products, I assume you have no testimonials attached to your sales page. (I did not view your sales page.)

The social proof is very important to your ability to sell your product. If you have no testimonials now, tell people that you are willing to give the first ten people a reduce-price copy for $1 to get reviews.

By making them buy a copy, at any price, you are ensuring they are really targeted to your offer. And you are putting proven buyers into your sales funnel.

Later, increase to $5 per copy, then slowly increase the price until people balk at the price. That will help you better determine your best price point.

If you have people on your prospect list now, make these reduced price offers only to people in your mailing list, before making the offer to the public.

Test every variable until you have the equation right.

Wow, this is great feedback guys. Some excellent points for me to consider and act on.

Originally the whole thing was more like a sales letter - text and images - but later I changed this into video, which I thought would be more powerful. I think the 30 minute video is probably too long? Maybe I should split it up or something. In fact the initial 6 minute video probably is too...

Perhaps I should also not make opting in a "BARRIER" that's required to get to the purchase process? I know everyone talks about how important it is to build the list but does it not also make sense to get the product in front of them fast?

I think that when an expensive IM product is beig sold of course it is tougher for people to decide to invest in, versus a smaller (maybe even impulse buy) consumer level ebook... therefore maybe less of a protracted "relationship" is needed to be developed over time via emails for a purchase decision to be made?

One of the questions I found myself asking when it came to good targeting on this was, how do you target people who want to lose weight... people are very unlikely to put weight loss as an Interest on Facebook! So I ended up putting in stuff like Biggest Loser (the TV show) etc, but even that doesn't mean they would want to lose weight themselves.

The other tricky thing I thought about is that, while the LWGL brand might arouse attention/curiosity, the problem is that it may attract a lot of visits from those who are not overweight and will never convert. Looking at the people who cicked Like on Facebook, hardly any of them seem to be overweight! This, along with the idea that I could open up targeting to male and female, might lead me to take out the Get Laid / attraction element alotgether. This would be a shame though, as the name/brand kind of seems to be the USP in what is otherwise an ocean of weight loss noise. AGH, this will be the toughtest call to make. :S

The one prospect that was actually been in touch with me actually said he had a partner, LOL.

Anyway... lots to be thinking about. And you both answered my basic question which is that no, this is not something I should drop without further testing.

Realize that some people enjoy watching a video, while others enjoy text. If you have both versions, offer both versions.

Personally I don't watch many sales videos, and I certainly never finish consuming video products. But if you give me text, I will consume it in one sitting.

Videos do add to any results you might achieve, but I am not convinced that video is a nice substitute. I think video only adds to conversion and consumption, if it is an add-on, rather than a replacement.

I don't like forcing people to opt-in myself. I always give a choice, because I want people to get my mail because they want it, not because I am forcing them to play. And I will use that decision to split people into two lists: prospects and proven buyers.

I just had an idea that has made me so excited I want to cancel Christmas and just work.

Watch this space.

Sorry for my answer which will look like generic "persist and win, you can do it!" advice... but when I saw the title of the thread I simply had to write this.

The correct answer to the question "when should you call it quits" is NEVER.

Just look at my post history - I opened a thread about not being able to generate a penny over the Internet for months and living Hell on Earth.... some time after, I opened my thread celebrating my first $100 day, then a thread celebrating my first cheque, then a thread celebrating my $4000 month.

Since then, I made tens of thousands of dollars. If I had quit, I wouldn't have. I made that money simply because I DID NOT QUIT even after devoting hundreds of hours (3 months of frenzied working over IM) of work to IM hadn't brought me a single sale.

As said above, you might want to target the female demo.

The male demographic converts but takes a little more oomph, if you know what I mean.

"Lose Weight, Get Married" ?

Just a suggestion though, and with a few optimizations on your squeeze/copy you will be doing a lot better with opt-in rates.

Hey guys - the original post is a out of date - since the OP, as outlined in post 7, there's a lot of changes (i.e. no squeeze, female demographic, etc)...

While it is true that one should never give up on aspirations and goals in general, we must distinguish between giving up on something with potential versus blindly, stubbornly persisting with something that does not (or no longer) works...