Just don't understand.....

Do you have a lot of affiliate links on your page or something that Google could have noticed? If you have that kind of traffic consistently for a year then all the sudden it drops by 80%, there might be something that you did somewhere.

Did it drop after a certain post or website update? Did it happen suddenly or over an extended amount of time?

There have been a lot of Google algorithm rumblings in the past week or so.

I think that's the answer. I don't know exactly how/why your traffic's dropped from 300-800 per day to under 100, but depending on Google for your primary traffic isn't a viable long-term traffic-generating plan. I think the long-term answer is somehow to come up with a traffic-generation method that doesn't depend on visitors from search engines, Brit.

I'm guessing that you're still getting "your share" of those, and that it's mostly the Google traffic that's declined so much, right?

That does tend to be "an IM problem".

I always liken it to a hurdle race, in which you've either "put in a clear round" or "not put in a clear round", but there isn't a way of knowing which hurdle you didn't clear, when someone (in this case your visitor-numbers) tells you that you didn't have a clear round. In reality, though, most of this problem, most of the time, for most people, revolves directly or indirectly around the issue of "being dependent on Google for your primary traffic". That isn't a solid business. Ultimately, you're just not in control, that way. Sorry - maybe not the most helpful of answers, but true nevertheless, I think.

Meanwhile, let's hope it's temporary - as these things sometimes can be ...

Brit,

Are you a member of this group?

https://www.facebook.com/Infertility...cidWay?fref=ts

If not, why?

It sounds like you have some incredibly valuable life experiences to share with a group like that.

Start looking for ways to gain traffic that don't involve search engines.

I love your blog and there are plenty more Facebook groups that revolve around infertility that you could join and contribute to.

You can even create one yourself.

Forget about the problem - focus on the solution.

Good luck!

Brendon

Sounds like a google slap... have a good look at your stats and see when the traffic tanked and then see if an update related to that date.... that may shed some light

Danny

Google changes its algorithm all the time. My site DanoSongs was once on page 1 for keyword "royalty free music" now I am on page 5.

You have to always be working on multiple sources of traffic, and not counting on Google. It is very fickle.

Have you tried PPC advertising yet? What paid methods are you using?

What's changed?

Better yet, when did it change, and how long has it been down?

Big difference to the suggestions we can give, until you answer those accurately.

You're obviously running some form of traffic analysis software to know that it's dropped. Are you running Google Analytics?

Look to see when it dropped, then check against any Google updates to see if it coincides.

Read this. (the updates may not apply, but the basic message does)

http://www.bringthedonuts.com/blog/s...ly-recover.php

If you know that you're not doing everything right, then why are you doing the wrong things? Or do you mean, you're just guessing at what to do?

How do you know?

There's your mistake, right there. No redundancy.

That's because you're obviously not tracking anything. You said previously that your traffic is very targeted, and yet you don't know where your sales or traffic is coming from. Seems contradictory to me.

You find out what the problem is.

Learn to track and measure properly. Until you do that, you'll be forever "guessing".

It sounds like you're not making any money because you can't afford paid ads. So I would question if you have a traffic problem or a conversion problem? Do you know your conversion rates? Even if you were getting up to 800 uniques a day if you were not making sales then you should consider re-working you sales process.

At quick glance I had no idea what to do on your site, but I'm also not your target market. Your sales letter could also use a big makeover too.

Hope that helps some,

Don

Ok you seem very confused about how to get traffic.

Why don't you pay for it? This way you will be able to know exactly what you're doing right and wrong.

Cheers,

Gary

This unfortunately is not always the case. With a lot of Google updates hitting us frequently, you can never really be sure of your traffic.

With just one site, you may have a problem with diagnosing what the true problem is. The most effective way (though it's still not 100%) to determine what's causing the trouble is if you split test.

Try to experiment with different factors and eventually you might be able to pinpoint your key to success.

Hey Brit, diversify your traffic sources. I would say start thinking about investing in media buys and ad traffic, you will find it will be worth it in the long run.

Yes, you can try PPC advertising, there may be a good effect.

Try some different traffic generating techniques.

http://www.warriorforum.com/adsense-...e-traffic.html

http://www.warriorforum.com/articles...e-website.html

Google traffic is usually quite unstable. You need to balance it out with other techniques.

That's actually a very good conversion, so it sounds to me like you need to build a back end, that's where the real money comes in.

Hmmm......

How must value is your website putting out? How long do they stay and how often do they return for updates? Google analytics are a good tool to tell you.

No updates = anyone else who does is more relevant to Google.

How about backlinks? How many relevant backlinks pr week has been done?

Any outside Google traffic that link back to your website does determ your Google search results.

How was the traffic part done? Low content or high content not spun articles/videos social media? The better the content the better it stays.

The back end would be upsells, one time offers, higher end products etc.

Hi Brit. I see you are wanting to get more traffic to your website by using only free traffic methods. I'm not sure it's still selling and I think it might be over at JVZOO.com but Jon Wedel had an excellent free traffic course last month. It was like 9 bucks or so. It was called traffic shockwave 2.0.

IM ignorance is temporary. Kudos to you for creating decent, helpful content - that's the big battle in all this. The folks that try and cheat that step don't do too well

This is why you test and track everything so you know what is happening with your website, where your traffic is coming from, how many visitors from each places, where sales are coming from, what the weak links are and so on.

How can you not know where the drop in traffic is? Check your stats in Google Analytics or whatever else you're using....assuming you are using something?

If your traffic was mostly Google chances are keywords you were ranking for have dropped in the results. Assuming you know what keywords were bringing you traffic then work out which have dropped.

Now would be a good time to start focusing on non Google traffic. I think it's wise in 2013 and beyond if 90% of your traffic is non search engine related.

You need to focus on your list too if you only have a few hundred subscribers. If people aren't opting in keep testing and tweaking the opt in process until they are. Again you need to test what works and what doesn't. If you just slap an opt in form on your page and expect people to sign it you'll probably be disappointed.

Because Google does things webmasters don't like sometimes. Rankings change. Better sites with better links come along. Google deems your site less relevant or doesn't like something you've done to the site. It happens.

This is why you shouldn't be relying on unpredictable search engine traffic.

I've always found it easier to get traffic WITHOUT search engines than with it.

What part seems difficult to you?

Then obviously your subs aren't making you any money? You need to work on that. Figure out ways to turn subscribers into $$$. Recommend products that you know will genuinely help them with whatever problem they have and make commissions on them.

There was a guy on here recently who was getting 15,000 sign ups a month and then deleting them before the end of each month so his autoresponder company didn't charge him for them.

Hi,
First of all. I was going to say since you can't invest in ppc to invest in solo ads, but since you're not in the internet marketing niche you might not have as much luck with solos. They're definitely a lot cheaper than ppc though if you ned some paid advertising and good quality subscribers.
Deleting subscribers isn't a good thing, you have an awesome list if you have 500 subscribers, try giving them content as well as just selling them offers. Tell them to go check out your blog posts, give them part of a free report, write them a short email. The point is, the list can't be bombarded with just plain offers, you need to nurture your list as well.
Also, you might wanna start investing your time in backlinking. If you can't invest money, you're going to invest time, and lots of it to get your business off the ground. You can't just rely on people to search your key words and hope people find you. Those backlinks with the signatures and even other blogs are going to help you get ranked and stay ranked a lot better than just relying on luck with google.

How much is your monthly auto responder bill if it goes over 500 subscribers?

Don't get so discouraged. The traffic to my websites increased with the Panda update, but dropped dramatically with the Penguin update. I tried to do many things, but in the end I was more busy with a special service I provide, and I couldn't care about my websites.

Two months later my websites started getting again the traffic they lost with the Penguin update and better rankings, even though I didn't manage to do anything to achieve this goal.

Now they were affected again with the EDM update. I saw the traffic dramatically dropping again.

I’m not really worried now that I saw that after the initial modifications, things go back to place after a certain period of time.

Besides Google Analytics, I use StatCounter to see where my traffic comes from. The second one is better because it gives me information about what is happening today and many other details, and it is free. You can use StatCounter too and learn a lot more about your visitors, what they are doing at your blog, etc.

You may also try creating lenses, even though this is not a fast way to make money and promote your work. It takes time, but you can do it bit by bit.

I created 82 Squidoo lenses to promote my websites and blog and they are helping me drive quality traffic to my pages. The creation of Squidoo lenses is free and you are even paid for creating them. You could create a few lenses about your story, fertility, etc, promoting your business, and also promoting Amazon products that are Squidoo’s favorite ones, along with eBay products, Cafepress, etc, and receive commissions.

Many people are making a lot of money with Squidoo.

You can create 25 lenses and become a Giant Squid if you will write original content. You will have the advantage to be able to post as many links as you may desire to your blog in every lens, while if you are just a lensmaster you only have the right to post 9 links to the same URL.

Squidoo helped me in many ways, but it takes time to start really working. Besides that, they keep changing their system, they have many irritating rules, and their support desk is terrible. So, it’s not a good idea to depend on Squidoo and try to make a lot of money with their system. Use your Squidoo lenses to drive traffic to your blog and make some money.

You can find information about how to create perfect Squidoo lenses for free if you will look it.

I'm going to hazard a guess that you have built a reliance on Google for your traffic.

That is what you are doing wrong if so.

This is INTERNET MARKETING, not Google Marketing - step outside of your comfort zone and find new traffic sources - they exist all over the web.

Even this forum is a traffic source for some!

It's a mistake to delete subscribers. Many people do that when they have big lists, but you never know when a subscriber will decide to purchase your products.

Read this thread to learn more about this matter:

http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...cked-link.html

Threads like this are the reason why I built my business around my LISTS. With lists, you aren't dependent on Google and search engines. Lists can be structured to be SELF-GENERATING traffic sources.

You have to do something to promote your business for free.

I create lenses only because I want to promote my websites, but I also make some money thanks to these lenses, and this money helps me pay a few expenses.

Click on the second link of my signature and scroll down. You will find a lens where I give detailed instructions about how to create perfect Squidoo lenses in a short period of time.

I think the issue most people have with Squidoo is that you have no control over it and they can take away your lenses at any time.

Yes, Squidoo is quite problematic in many ways. This is why I don't suggest the creation of many Squidoo lenses. You should just create 25 or so to become a Giant Squid and have some advantages, and use your lenses mainly to drive traffic to your own pages as a traffic generating method.

This sounds like you would have done something differently to make your traffic drop that dramatically. You might want to go back and look at certaing posts if you can and see if you notice anything that would cause traffic to drop...

YOu could also try some other free advertising sites and start getting more traffic and very targeted traffic at that...

Goodluck!

Not to exclude other Warriors and just because I'm familiar with the work of John Romaine, Alexa Smith and SurrealPSD, learn from their posts about article or content syndication for list building and your continuous relationship with your lists. And non-one-source-dependent marketing.

You could also create a YouTube channel and tell your story in video format and post on the other video outlets including Facebook. You could also interview others for their stories in video.

Kudos to you for trying so hard to have a baby and spend as much time as possible with your kids. After you're gone, they will likely be your most significant impact upon the world.

Dan

Look when it comes to Squidoo, all I'm saying is don't sit around for a month of Sundays building "lenses".

If you can hire someone to put them together for you, and they're actually working for you, and if you have the budget for it - then do it.

Otherwise, instead of posting all that content on Squidoo, put it on your own site.

I told you to create a few Squidoo lenses because this way you can promote your business for free and make some money. You can simply rewrite what you have already written in your blog in different words and create a few lenses to promote your blog, let’s say 25 lenses, since this way you will become a Giant Squid and have more advantages.

These 25 lenses will drive targeted traffic to your blog, and Squidoo will pay you a certain amount. So, you will have the $10 to pay for your auto-responder instead of deleting subscribers.

There are numerous ways to drive free traffic to your blog, but you will have to spend a lot of time with them, without knowing if you will really manage to drive enough traffic.

By creating Squidoo lenses, you will spend your time without knowing if you will really manage to drive the traffic you desire the same way, but at least you will make some money with this practice.

Google is changing constantly. even you are doing nothing wrong, things can change. Your traffic can change too.

As promised, here is how I track and measure traffic to my website.

Quit Mucking Around - Here's How To Effectively Track and Measure Traffic To Your Website

John,

My guess is that even the tire kickers on her list are human beings that are looking for a bonafide solution to a very serious issue.

So I will repeat - survey that list.

Even if the tire kickers never buy, you've hopefully helped them with their issue somehow, someway.

Stop treating your lists like dollar signs and start treating them like people.

And I will repeat, surveys suck.

I've done hundreds of them. More than I care to remember, and in almost every case, the tyre kickers are complete time wasters.

I don't know how many times I wasted money and effort putting stuff together for people that said "We want this and we're willing to pay for it", only to have them become totally evasive once it's ready.

I've learnt to focus on the buyers, because they're qualified. They've already purchased. They'll purchase again.

Look, all I'm saying is you have to be very careful doing surveys, because it's really easy to be led down a rabbit hole by people that have no intention of buying anything.

Survey your buyers.

as far as squidu I would think this person would have better luck getting gigs on fiverr or the like, at least so they can get the money to pay for their autoresponder. That way as others have said all that content you would have otherwise put on squidu you can put on your website and you don't have to share content.
Just my thoughts.

Hi Brit, let me start off by commending you on what you've achieved so far. IM is not an easy game at all, especially if you're not totally web savvy and have lots of time to dedicate to it.

It's about 3am here and I was about to go to bed, so I apologize if my recommendations are too vague. I'll drop back in the morning to check on the thread. Here are my honest recommendations:

1. Don't invest in paid traffic. I've already seen quite a few people suggesting you get into PPC or media buys and I couldn't disagree more. Don't do it. At least not yet. You absolutely need to have a sales funnel set up with a tracking system.

Once you get into paid advertising you need to be able to know which keywords convert into sales, which ads convert, which landing pages convert, ect... If you don't have any of that set up, you will be throwing your money away with paid ads. I'm not going to go into detail on how to do these things because I don't think your business it at that stage yet. There is a time for paid ads, but not yet. There's other things to do first.

2. Switch to GetResponse. It's $15 a month for up to 1,000 subs, which is already less than the $19 you're paying for Aweber's 500. I've used both and happen to like GetResponse better as well. I use it exclusively now.

3. Set up an autoresponder series. This is basically a series of emails that you set up once and they're delivered in sequence to your subscribers. You can do this with both Aweber and Getresponse. Mix in free tips, your blog articles and products you promote.

4. Stop depending on Google's traffic. This doesn't mean you can't get traffic for free; it just means you need to find other ways of generating it. Google is extremely volatile, and unless you have a very reputable site, chances are you're going to see your rankings move around all over the place. I learned this the hard way when my sites were Gslapped as well.

5. Start driving social traffic. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr, you name it. It's crucial that you get started on these platforms to start generating free traffic. Best of all they can all be integrated to make things a lot easier. For example, I have my Instagram linked to my Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr so every time I post a pic, it gets posted on the other places as well.

It's super easy to start generating a following of people once you get the hang of it. You have the advantage of being in a targeted niche that you are an expert in, and can actually help a lot of people. Use it to your advantage.

As far as tips go, this is a really long topic so I'lll try to stay brief. If you have any specific question I'll be happy to answer them when I get back on in the morning.

A clever thing you can do on Facebook is to "Like Lock" your content. Your ebook for example. Basically, you send people to a tab on their facebook page where they must "Like" your page in order to download your ebook. They get the book, you get a like. It's like a subscription. That's a great way of getting a lot of likes to your page. That and just find people that are looking for the advice you have to give and talk to them.

The apps I use for "Like Locking" my FB pages are MyTab and Woobox Custom Tab. Do a search for those and they should come up easily.

Also, join other forums related to your niche and talk to people. Make sure to put your site url in your sig/profile info and have a call to action. Blog comments have also worked well for me in the past. Become an authority in your field.

6. Youtube. This belongs with social media, but it can be so powerful that I left it by itself. Not only is Youtube a great place to build a following (and sell products), Utube videos also rank really well in Google - so traffic will be much easier to obtain.

Start making videos about topics related to your niche. Use Google keyword tool to get ideas for topics to talk about. Although since you're already an expert in your niche, you probably already know what other moms in need of your advice would be searching for.

And you don't need an expensive camera or fancy editing software. Just start making videos. Even if they're simple, pixelated and ugly, they can still work well. People are looking for information; they don't want to be sold anything. Just provide them with useful, genuinely helpful content and your traffic will grow.

Hope some of this information helps you. I don't normally write this much on here but I can tell you needed it.

All the best, and God bless.

Hi Brit. There are a lot of things you can do to get traffic from other sources besides Google. Have you tried guest blogging on other blogs in your niche? This is a great way to get your name out there in front of more people in your niche that you may not be reaching yet. You could also do some research and find out if there are any podcasts (or Blog Talk Radio shows) about infertility that you could ask to be a guest on - another great way to get your name. What about article marketing and submitting to a directory like Ezine Articles?

Have you thought about offering a service to your niche? Maybe you could do some coaching to other women going through the same thing you went through (just a suggestion, don't know whether coaching would do well in your niche or not).

As for deleting people off your list. Sometimes, people are really inactive for long periods of time and then suddenly purchase or start interacting with you in other ways. The goal is to always be building your list so you're going to have to pay the extra money to go above 500 people.

Are you totally hooked up to Google + ? Check that out and let me know.

Jan