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I'm *Stuck* at Earning This Income (Advise Please)

by UndeniableSpirit
27 replies
I have 2 sites (in different markets) that sell ebooks which I have marketed solely through Ezine Articles. Each website averages about 4 sales per day.

But here's the thing...

(to be clear, my first site will be called Site1 and my second will be called Site2)

When I take a couple days off from writing articles for Site1 to write for Site2, my Site1 sales completely stop!

I'll get 4 sales/day from Site1 when writing articles for it, then the sales will stop and I will get 4 sales/day from Site2 while writing for it.

Essentially, I am stuck at 4 sales/day for my products when there is potential to be making AT LEAST 8 sales/day from both of them combined

So in other words, I basically am *stuck* at my current income level. I have to be writing for those 2 websites day in and day out to keep the traffic alive.

Now something I know is shooting me in the foot is that I am writing so many articles (have about 200 live since launching these sites last month) and only some of them are written to get ranked in the search engines. To be honest, I just don't know how the hell to do proper KW research and proper backlinking practises.

My working capital is at about $100 as the rest of my profits has gone towards payment of bills and such. But I really want to spend that $100 learning how to really gain consistency with my traffic and therefore my two product sites.

Can anyone please offer me some advice on how I can get consistency with my traffic/sales so I can get out of this rut and actually begin working on expanding my income (rather than maintaining it)?
#advise #earning #money #stuck
  • Profile picture of the author hotlinkz
    If you whole marketing strategy is article marketing, you're limiting yourself.

    Do some on-site and off-site SEO.

    Start posting helpful snippets of your articles on blogs and forums, then point readers to the main article.

    Try some ads on high PR classified sites.

    Create a couple of videos and submit them.
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    • Profile picture of the author Hililuud
      Originally Posted by hotlinkz View Post

      If you whole marketing strategy is article marketing, you're limiting yourself.

      Do some on-site and off-site SEO.

      Start posting helpful snippets of your articles on blogs and forums, then point readers to the main article.

      Try some ads on high PR classified sites.

      Create a couple of videos and submit them.
      This guy hit the nail on the head!
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  • Profile picture of the author Buildingfutures
    Also try getting others to point to your blog. A few of my friends have paid to have high-end blog owners write a review and put it up for their subscribers to see and look at the product.

    Back-links! One way and permanent! You need to build the site a little bit better, and SEO optimize it like hotlinkz said.
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    • Profile picture of the author jmidas
      You didn't mention how much profit per sale you make on the ebooks. But, in addition to additing other SEO techniques you may want to look at outsourcing some of your article writing. If you can't keep up with the demand of the writing for both sites, get some help in that area - especially knowing that when you do X you make y everyday. That will tell you how much you can spend on writing help. Then, once you have those numbers figured out - create 20, 30, 100 more sites doing the exact same thing.
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      • Profile picture of the author UndeniableSpirit
        Originally Posted by jmidas View Post

        You didn't mention how much profit per sale you make on the ebooks.
        Yeah, sorry about that. My ebooks are priced at $10. So I am making only about $40/day.
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        • Profile picture of the author Johnathan
          Originally Posted by UndeniableSpirit View Post

          Yeah, sorry about that. My ebooks are priced at $10. So I am making only about $40/day.
          Easy solution. Double your price. You'll probably still get 4 sales/day.
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        • Profile picture of the author activetrader
          Originally Posted by UndeniableSpirit View Post

          Yeah, sorry about that. My ebooks are priced at $10. So I am making only about $40/day.
          ahhh, want to make more money? write articles to promote my ebooks instead

          you can make over $100 a day on just 4 sales
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  • Profile picture of the author UndeniableSpirit
    Hey guys, thank you very much for the reply (seriously - it means a lot)

    Here is a strategy I was thinking of...

    What if I set up a wordpress blog on a subdomain of my websites and simply posted all my articles to it as different blog posts. And then I would obviously have some links pointing to my sales letter within the posts or in the side column.

    Would traffic find these blog posts? I am guessing I would have to learn some RSSsubmission stuff but that won't be a problem.

    What do you think?
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  • Profile picture of the author UndeniableSpirit
    Originally Posted by ProductCreator View Post

    Yes you can post blog in a "/blog" directory.

    Or you can even just use standard html files.

    Have an "articles" link at the bottom of your sales page to allow the search engines to find you.

    What do you believe would be more effective? A WP blog, or html files?
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    • Profile picture of the author biggerdunk
      Originally Posted by UndeniableSpirit View Post

      What do you believe would be more effective? A WP blog, or html files?
      Sorry if any of this is repeated but here's my 2 cents:

      I would always go with mywebsite.com/blog/

      Even if you add one post a day to Site 1 & Site 2, Google likes you more for fresh daily content, and overall content bulk. Also, you can put a link from your blog post to the sales page. I would also put a 'share this' link at the bottom of each post to get backlinks from technorati/facebook ect.

      Also, if you put links at the bottom of the sales page (fairly discrete so people don't actually click away from your sales page!), to your blog posts (i.e. have a 'Related Articles' link bit at the bottom), Google should the sales page higher in searches too as you'll be linking to related content.

      Do you have a newsletter? If you can get opt-in subscribers from people who have already purchased, you can email them with new products.

      Oh, and maybe Adsense ads/Affiliate links on the blog posts...just means you get an alternative source of income as well as eBook sales.

      There's a hundred other ways to spread the word but these are just a few things I like to do.
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  • Profile picture of the author UndeniableSpirit
    Originally Posted by ProductCreator View Post

    Both are equally effective in my opinion. Some people might say blogs are more effective but the static html vs blog debate is a big one, big enough to deserve its own thread I saw yesterday.

    If I ignore my affiliate program, I have had the same problem as you - dwindling traffic from ezinearticles. So I started adding some basic ones to my sites:

    For example, I have a blog here:
    Ejaculation Supremacy Blog

    But I lack motivation to make it look good PLUS I have too many blogs already which are a major hassle to update and maintain. So I've started ignoring this blog and writing articles on static html e.g.

    Premature Ejaculation Articles - Ejaculation Supremacy

    Thanks a lot for the help man!

    Right now I think I am going to go with the blog since I will only have 2 to maintain at the moment.

    I took a quick scan of your blog posts and saw that some didn't seem to be KW optimized. What is your opinion on KW optimization for the articles/blog posts on your website?

    So far my experience has shown me that I will still get a little organic traffic from content without having it KW optimized (at least that is what's beginning to happen with my sales letters)
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  • Profile picture of the author TimG
    Based on what you wrote I'm not exactly sure how you have your sales system set up because your previously submitted articles should still generate sales even if you are working on promoting your other site.

    Here is how I would have your sales system set up if you haven't already implemented these measures:

    1 - You submit your article to EZA and it drives traffic back to your site
    2 - Traffic arrives on your site and it has 2 options (make a purchase/don't make a purchase).

    Lets explore both options focusing on make a purchase first:

    Those that make a purchase:
    1 - They place an order
    2 - They are taken to the payment page, make payment and then redirected back to an opt-in page for your autoresponder
    3 - They opt in for free future updates and are then sent to the download page
    4 - You can now send emails to them which include the following: An email that provides them the download page in case they weren't redirected, additional articles that cover the niche, unadvertised bonus items (ebooks, interviews, MP3s..etc), additional product promotions.

    Essentially you have a customer for life unless they opt-out from your list.

    Now lets cover those that arrive on your site and don't buy.

    Those That Don't Purchase
    1 - You need to bribe them to opt-in to your list. This can be done with a free ebook, report, MP3, interview, video..etc
    2 - Once they have signed up for your list you can redirect them to your product again but now you can provide a special members of your list price which is lower then they initially woudl have had to pay had they bought the first time.
    3 - Use an auto-responder sequence to feed them an ecourse over the course of 4-5 emails which promote your product. You can also send them articles on the niche and promotion products.
    4 - Once they purchase you can then move them to the purchased list where you continue to maintian them as a customer for life.

    So, with all of that said, any traffic your articles generate to your sites but who chose not to initially purchase the ebook should be captured.

    I realize this doesn't actually address your stated problem so for that I would offer this solution. Spend your time writing and submitting articles for just one of your niches (whichever generates the most income for you). Use your $100 to outsource the article writing for the other niche.

    As time goes on your income should increase and you can focus on spending more on your outsourced articles for your second niche with the intent to eventually outsource the article writing for both niches. Once you have achieved that you can then focus on dominating a third niche and so on...

    Respectfully,
    Tim
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    • Profile picture of the author UndeniableSpirit
      Originally Posted by TimG View Post

      Based on what you wrote I'm not exactly sure how you have your sales system set up because your previously submitted articles should still generate sales even if you are working on promoting your other site.

      Here is how I would have your sales system set up if you haven't already implemented these measures:

      1 - You submit your article to EZA and it drives traffic back to your site
      2 - Traffic arrives on your site and it has 2 options (make a purchase/don't make a purchase).

      Lets explore both options focusing on make a purchase first:

      Those that make a purchase:
      1 - They place an order
      2 - They are taken to the payment page, make payment and then redirected back to an opt-in page for your autoresponder
      3 - They opt in for free future updates and are then sent to the download page
      4 - You can now send emails to them which include the following: An email that provides them the download page in case they weren't redirected, additional articles that cover the niche, unadvertised bonus items (ebooks, interviews, MP3s..etc), additional product promotions.

      Essentially you have a customer for life unless they opt-out from your list.

      Now lets cover those that arrive on your site and don't buy.

      Those That Don't Purchase
      1 - You need to bribe them to opt-in to your list. This can be done with a free ebook, report, MP3, interview, video..etc
      2 - Once they have signed up for your list you can redirect them to your product again but now you can provide a special members of your list price which is lower then they initially woudl have had to pay had they bought the first time.
      3 - Use an auto-responder sequence to feed them an ecourse over the course of 4-5 emails which promote your product. You can also send them articles on the niche and promotion products.
      4 - Once they purchase you can then move them to the purchased list where you continue to maintian them as a customer for life.

      So, with all of that said, any traffic your articles generate to your sites but who chose not to initially purchase the ebook should be captured.

      I realize this doesn't actually address your stated problem so for that I would offer this solution. Spend your time writing and submitting articles for just one of your niches (whichever generates the most income for you). Use your $100 to outsource the article writing for the other niche.

      As time goes on your income should increase and you can focus on spending more on your outsourced articles for your second niche with the intent to eventually outsource the article writing for both niches. Once you have achieved that you can then focus on dominating a third niche and so on...

      Respectfully,
      Tim
      Wow. that was a really in-depth post. Thanks a lot for taking the time and help me out with writing that.

      That is a great sales funnel, and believe it or not, I do not have one. All I was doing was directing my traffic to my sales process (2 page sales letter) and then letting them either buy or not buy and leave.

      This will allow me to be a lot more thorough and maximize the current amount of traffic I am getting.

      And as far as getting consistent traffic - I think ProductCreator helped to solve that by directing me to that helpful video of how to do KW research

      Thanks a lot to both of you!
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  • Profile picture of the author UndeniableSpirit
    I just watched that video. Thanks a lot for sharing it! Yeah, I am definitely going to get started on working with getting this content on my site.
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  • Profile picture of the author UndeniableSpirit
    Originally Posted by ProductCreator View Post

    Yes you can post blog in a "/blog" directory.

    Or you can even just use standard html files.

    Have an "articles" link at the bottom of your sales page to allow the search engines to find you.

    btw what's your conversion rate? It sounds pretty good to me. Have you considered an affiliate program? e.g. via Clickbank, e-junkie.
    Hey man,

    I just realized that I didn't answer your question with regards to my conversion rate. It actually isn't as good as I want it (about 1%). I just write A LOT of articles.

    I realize once I increase my conversion rate, the sales will go up automatically with the same number of visitors.

    Are you really converting at 1:20?

    How do you do it?!
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    • Profile picture of the author UndeniableSpirit
      Originally Posted by ProductCreator View Post

      Yes I am. Bear in mind that the conversion is related to the quality of traffic you feed to the sales page. 1 in 20 (5%) is the performance of my best affiliate (I have a screenshot proof of this) so is a conversion rate I tell my affiliates to aim for.

      That ejac site is not 1 in 20, it's my tinnitus site that is (see them all here Top Affiliate Programs by CBUKMedia.com).

      How do I do it? Well I think I hit upon a good formula in terms of my copywriting structure and hitting all the emotional hooks. I've used it for my last 3 niche products and it seems to work well. That's it.

      I could improve it with split testing but out of the box I seem to be writing some good copy now and I stick to my formula.
      Thanks again for the help. I really like the layout of your sites and sales pages. Unfortunately I have zero knowledge of CSS so I just use a CSS template thats a white sales letter and grey background. This is something I should work on improving for sure.
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      • Profile picture of the author UndeniableSpirit
        I just wanted to thank everyone for their helpful comments. I'm literally overflowing with ideas on how I could both maximize my current traffic and get consistent traffic without having to constantly run on the wheel just to maintain the income.

        I'm going to get started on some of these right away!
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  • Profile picture of the author Johnathan
    Originally Posted by ProductCreator View Post

    Both are equally effective in my opinion. Some people might say blogs are more effective but the static html vs blog debate is a big one, big enough to deserve its own thread I saw yesterday.

    If I ignore my affiliate program, I have had the same problem as you - dwindling traffic from ezinearticles. So I started adding some basic ones to my sites:

    For example, I have a blog here:
    Ejaculation Supremacy Blog

    But I lack motivation to make it look good PLUS I have too many blogs already which are a major hassle to update and maintain. So I've started ignoring this blog and writing articles on static html e.g.

    Premature Ejaculation Articles - Ejaculation Supremacy
    lol...

    You know... I just read a post where you were talking about a 'voluptuous' babes site you were part of, and now this? your picture... you look like a stand up guy! you look like you should be selling books, not this stuff!
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    • Profile picture of the author Joel Chue
      I think there's several useful pointers mentioned by Tim... I briefly scanned so hopefully I don't repeat the same points.

      Since your description of the problem is still pretty vague... here's my suggestions.

      1. Pick up some speed writing skills so that you can write more articles to cover both sites.
      Here's a free resource to help you write faster.
      How To Write An Article In Under 10 Minutes

      2. Start collecting optins so that you can follow up with those who don't buy.

      3. If you're writing tons of articles everyday, then you better be leveraging on SEO to leverage on the link juice you're getting from the articles.

      Joel
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  • Profile picture of the author UndeniableSpirit
    Hey everyone,

    Thanks again for all the awesome help. It really means a lot. I just wanted to give you an update:

    I just set up WP blogs on both websites and am going to post an article a day to them each throughout the week (I have loads of articles to choose from so this is easy)

    I am also going to focus solely on writing articles based around KWs so that ALL of my efforts have a chance to be lasting rather than quick and short lived.

    As for my copy...it obviously needs improvement. This will allow me to properly maximize the current traffic I'm currently receiving for more sales.

    I checked my stats and my visitors are spending an average of 2 and a half minutes on one site and 3 minutes on the other site. What do you think about that?

    Does that tell me that my content is good, but my call to action should be stronger?
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  • Profile picture of the author cashcow
    I think you are on the right track by doing the keyword research. From your OP it sounds like your articles get views when they are fresh but die off after a day which seems to point to the fact that you need them to rank in the SE's to get more traffic.

    Keyword research is the first part of that, and the second part is getting links - to your articles and to your website. You can get my free report and handy spreadsheet that will show you how to get back links and even help you organize your linking efforts - download it here (no optin required just a free download):

    https://www.digitalproductdelivery.com/buy/2493

    And, of course, Tim's advice about the email list is pure gold!

    Lee
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  • Profile picture of the author Glenn Leader
    Originally Posted by labrie View Post

    This is one benefits of using blog on our site. To gather search engine traffic via keywords articles
    POO! This has nothing to do with it. The reasons that blogs do well with the
    big G is that on average, they're updated regularly. If you have a static html
    site with a good sitemap, and it's updated regularly, it will do well too.
    Adding RSS feeds etc. will make your site even more attractive.

    Glenn
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  • Profile picture of the author bingbong
    try other traffic method. social networking like digg and stumbleupon free and effective. exchange links and seo.
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