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This Is Such A Screwy Business

by Steven Wagenheim
9 replies
I stopped promoting my Diceology product. I wasn't getting anywhere with
ALL my efforts. I just chalked it up to a lost cause and moved on. I stopped
pimping for affiliates, contacting web sites, writing articles, updating my
Squidoo lenses, the whole thing. Just shut it all down.

The sales are starting to come in. I'm doing nothing and the sales are coming
in. Granted, I put in an enormous amount of work into this months ago, but
nothing in ages.

But there is the interesting thing I have noticed. ALL the sales are coming
from foreign countries like India, Brazil, France, and so on.

Could it be that this kind of product just doesn't appeal to English speaking
countries? I would have never thought it but the stats are mind boggling.
Not ONE US or United Kingdom or even Canadian sale. And India is the big
seller.

Just goes to show you what a screwy business this is. You never know
where your sales are going to come from or when you're going to get them.
#business #screwy
  • Profile picture of the author Frank Bruno
    Sounds like the SE's finally kicked in for you Steve.

    That's great good to hear! At least you'll finally feel like you've been compensated for the time and effort that you put into this project. Or at the least partially anyways. LOL

    Frank Bruno
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    • Profile picture of the author Frank Bruno
      It sounds like your Diceology may appeal to the more spiritual related to countries.

      Well now that you know your demographics better maybe you can hone in on that aspect?

      Frank Bruno
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      • Profile picture of the author SandyHall
        Hi Stephen,

        Have you researched if your sales are direct sales?
        Or maybe you're getting some foreign affiliates selling for you?

        Does your Diceology product have an affiliate program?
        If so, maybe that's where your sales are coming from.

        Sandy
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        • Profile picture of the author Steven Wagenheim
          Originally Posted by SandyHall View Post

          Hi Stephen,

          Have you researched if your sales are direct sales?
          Or maybe you're getting some foreign affiliates selling for you?

          Does your Diceology product have an affiliate program?
          If so, maybe that's where your sales are coming from.

          Sandy
          ====
          Sandy, some are affiliates and some are from direct traffic to my site. I
          have no idea if the affiliates are from foreign countries because Clickbank
          doesn't release that info.

          Oh yes, Clickbank is where I have the product selling from.
          Signature
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      • Profile picture of the author YiKeS
        G`day Steven,

        hard to give any sort of opinion when I have no idea what
        your product is or about ....... the sales from anywhere but
        USA/UK/Canada is an eyeopener though ... must be a reason
        for that whether it`s the product, the salespage or something
        not easily seen ... I`d be investigating that

        Christopher J.
        P.S. No Aussies buy it??
        Signature
        AUSSIE MADE
        WSO --> HOMEPAGER <--- WSO
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        • Profile picture of the author jjpmarketing
          Based on this one might think it wise... to hook up with some international students at Universities. Then you could create products in their native language. All for the price of a 12 pack of beer.
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          • Profile picture of the author JayXtreme
            That is EXACTLY why content makes me get all excited...

            An article/content you create today can be working for you forEVER .. years down the line...

            Great news Steve...

            Peace

            Jay
            Signature

            Bare Murkage.........

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            • Profile picture of the author mdunn123
              Out of curosity...

              How are your refund rates Steve with all your sales coming from those countries?
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              • Profile picture of the author Steven Wagenheim
                Originally Posted by mdunn123 View Post

                Out of curosity...

                How are your refund rates Steve with all your sales coming from those countries?
                It's a non IM niche so I don't expect many refunds at all. So far, I have had
                none. It's a great product but for a very select group of people so I knew
                going in that it wasn't going to be a big seller. It was just something I always
                wanted to do.

                Sometimes you do things NOT for the money.
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              • Profile picture of the author ibringjoy
                This is amazing, and curious, too!

                I don't have any guess at all about why you don't have a single US or Canada sale.

                But the fact that your sales are suddenly surging after all this time really says something. It makes me wonder if those sites I took down when they didn't seem to take off should have been left up for just such a scenario. I guess you just never know.

                I'm happy for you that your disappointing project is turning out well after all! Now all that work is finally paying off.

                Kathryn
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                • Profile picture of the author Steven Wagenheim
                  Originally Posted by ibringjoy View Post

                  This is amazing, and curious, too!

                  I don't have any guess at all about why you don't have a single US or Canada sale.

                  But the fact that your sales are suddenly surging after all this time really says something. It makes me wonder if those sites I took down when they didn't seem to take off should have been left up for just such a scenario. I guess you just never know.

                  I'm happy for you that your disappointing project is turning out well after all! Now all that work is finally paying off.

                  Kathryn
                  Not only that, but it's making me wonder if I should go back to doing all
                  those things I was doing. Maybe I gave up on it too soon. I don't know.
                  I'd hate to think that I did. That would really tick me off because I am not
                  a quitter, but this thing looked hopeless after 2 months of promotion and
                  not one sale...not even an opt in.

                  That's why I said, this is a screwy business.
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                  • Profile picture of the author Michael Oksa
                    Hi Steven,

                    I remember the disappointment over the lackluster results of your Diceology product.

                    Glad to hear it may be starting to grow some legs.

                    As far as why it is not selling domestically, this is the only thought I had. However, this is only a guess, because I am not that familiar with the daily lives of the people in the countries where people are buying from.

                    Perhaps, the concept of Diceology doesn't do well here because people associate dice with fun and games, read: toys. Whereas they may have less of that assocuation in other countries. Again, it's only a guess, and maybe a gross generalization, but wanted to share it anyway.

                    Congrats!
                    ~Michael
                    Signature

                    "Ich bin en fuego!"
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                    • Profile picture of the author Steven Wagenheim
                      Originally Posted by Michael Oksa View Post

                      Hi Steven,

                      I remember the disappointment over the lackluster results of your Diceology product.

                      Glad to hear it may be starting to grow some legs.

                      As far as why it is not selling domestically, this is the only thought I had. However, this is only a guess, because I am not that familiar with the daily lives of the people in the countries where people are buying from.

                      Perhaps, the concept of Diceology doesn't do well here because people associate dice with fun and games, read: toys. Whereas they may have less of that assocuation in other countries. Again, it's only a guess, and maybe a gross generalization, but wanted to share it anyway.

                      Congrats!
                      ~Michael

                      Michael, you may be more right than you know. I have thought about that
                      as well. Other countries have different views on things than those of us
                      in the states. I just have to figure out how I can use that to my advantage.
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                  • Profile picture of the author jjpmarketing
                    I'm starting to think back on what said about the search engine just taking effect. Maybe the international versions of Google take longer to show your site in its results.

                    That and their page ranking is a little weird. For the longest time my blog was a PR Zero after I moved it off of wordpress.com. Then all of a sudden it pops up as a PR2. I don't know why... because I post less on the blog now than I did when it was on wordpress.com.

                    As far as taking a site down... Why do that? It might not be making you money... but what if it got you 1 sale per year? Your cut might be $20. What if you had 50 sites like that? That is $1000 per year. May not sound like a lot, but every little bit counts.

                    Pennies make nickels make dimes make quarters make dollars make... and on and on.

                    It certainly doesn't hurt to leave it up. And those numbers were extremely conservative.
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