What to do with my Guitar Site? It's all unique content

16 replies
Hi there,

I built a guitar site with the help of a pro in the music business who has 15 years experience teaching and playing the guitar in various bands and orchestras.

I have built the site up, added my own 9 week training course to it, top tips and all sorts of useful content and training videos.

(free rhythm guitar 9 week training course)

However, I have no idea how if at all possible I can turn this into something that makes money?

I do not have much time at the moment to keep adding content and managing it, as I am working 3 jobs currently to afford the bills (hard times, but that's just life)...so I am looking to try and cash in on any of my past projects just to help me out at the moment.

Any ideas how I can make anything from this site?

Cheers

Mike
#content #guitar #site #unique
  • Profile picture of the author WillR
    Mike,

    My best advice would be to go and do some research on the best guitar training sites online and see how they are monetizing their sites. Chances are they have done a lot of testing and tweaking to get their sites as profitable as possible so use that to your advantage.

    I have had some dealings in the music niche before and so I know some of the more popular guitar lesson sites are:

    http://www.guitarlessons.com
    http://www.justinguitar.com
    http://www.jamplay.com
    http://www.guitartricks.com

    Don't try and reinvent the wheel. Just look at what is already working for others and try and replicate that success. Once you have done that you can then start adding your own USP to things.
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  • Profile picture of the author micknal29
    Excellent Feedback, I will study the other sites and see what I can come up with, I think some affiliate marketing is the way forward.

    Cheers

    Mike
    Signature

    I am only interested in legitimate offers.

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    • Profile picture of the author WillR
      Originally Posted by micknal29 View Post

      Excellent Feedback, I will study the other sites and see what I can come up with, I think some affiliate marketing is the way forward.

      Cheers

      Mike
      Affiliate marketing is ok but i would always recommend you do a combination of the both. Your own products and affiliate products. You want to create your own buyers list because that is worth a lot of money to you. If you just send all your leads over to other people's products then you never get to build that buyers list for yourself.
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  • Profile picture of the author ahaley
    What you should do with your free guitar training is only offer to people that sign up to your newsletter.

    Create an opt-in form and capture their email addresses then you can always leverage sales for other offers from that.

    Basically create a list using your free training then later on down the line you can offer great deals that guitarist alike will want to purchase.

    Great site..
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  • Profile picture of the author curationsoft
    You can also add affiliate programs to monetize your site
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  • Profile picture of the author aizaku
    seems like you got your an asset, don't give up on it. check your competition and improve on them. best of luck!
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  • Profile picture of the author NewParadigm
    build opt in email list and start reviewing/recommending products doing an informative article on acoustic guitar care and sell them a planetwave humidipak
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    In a moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing. The worst thing you can do is nothing. ~ Theodore Roosevelt

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  • Profile picture of the author J Simon
    I started on a similar path to you a little over a year ago when I expanded from only an offline business into online.

    I invested time, energy, and money into building a membership site that I wasn't sure how to monetize other than advertising it to my local list.

    The good news is that I did figure out how to make recurring income with the site and I think you can do the same. I started off with a completely free trial and then converted about 10% into paying subscribers.

    Now 10% is actually very high, but I was marketing mostly to a list of people that already trusted me. If you build a list with a free offer you should then be able to convert a certain percentage into buyers.

    Now as I'm building new assets I have learned to test small first and see if there are buyers in a niche before investing a lot of time. That is definitely the smarter way to go.
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  • Profile picture of the author ChrisDouthit
    Have you considered making a youtube channel and putting your lessons for free on youtube and then activating adsense in your videos?
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  • Profile picture of the author jbsmith
    Another tip - stop trying to be "Everything You Need To Know About Acoustic Guitars" and start to be something more interesting - Ex How to master Country Acoustic Guitar in 30-days or less..., How to become an accomplished Bluegrass Acoustic Guitar player in 29-days or less..., etc...

    When people jump on the web looking for information, training, help... (which is what you are selling) - they have something very specific in mind, NOT to learn everything there is to know about acoustic guitar, but to learn something damned specific...

    I don't doubt you have something really powerful, redo your site to reflect the benefit people will get who visit your site and buy your membership

    Jeff
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  • Profile picture of the author KenThompson
    I remember a similar post well over a year ago, maybe two. Someone brought attention to a guy who created a YT channel with free guitar lessons/tips. Then he created a paid membership and charged close to 50 per month. He had a large number of members. I don't remember the exact number but it was healthy.

    You did not mention you played guitar. If you do, then you can try the same model with an appropriate price point. If you don't play, then maybe you and your friend can do this together and split the profits. He provides the lessons and you market/sell them.
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  • Profile picture of the author Alex Mensah
    Originally Posted by micknal29 View Post

    Hi there,

    I built a guitar site with the help of a pro in the music business who has 15 years experience teaching and playing the guitar in various bands and orchestras.

    I have built the site up, added my own 9 week training course to it, top tips and all sorts of useful content and training videos.

    (free rhythm guitar 9 week training course)

    However, I have no idea how if at all possible I can turn this into something that makes money?

    I do not have much time at the moment to keep adding content and managing it, as I am working 3 jobs currently to afford the bills (hard times, but that's just life)...so I am looking to try and cash in on any of my past projects just to help me out at the moment.

    Any ideas how I can make anything from this site?

    Cheers

    Mike
    you could polish it all up and sell it on clickbank there are quite a few really great guitar training sites out there and yours could be one of them. Setup an affiliate page so affiliates can promote it. You could also do an evergreen launch so that when people enter into a list of sorts there are emails sent day 1, day 2, day 3, and then day 4 you let them know that your training course is launching. So every subscriber that comes into the list goes through these sequences. first 3 emails are really helpful then the last 2 emails you let them know that you are going to be creating a course and if they enjoyed the first 3 emails then they will really enjoy the course just a little silent pitch then on day 4 allow them to purchase the guitar training. I have seen a guy do this exact thing with tremendous success the evergreen launch. You could use the optimize press theme to set this all up or have someone set it up for you so video 1,2,3 become available on their respective days.
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  • Profile picture of the author kencalhn
    to be honest there's so many millions of really great "how to play guitar" videos on youtube it would be hard to compete with that. If I were doing it, I'd look to jv with famous people and/or specific niches in a very creative way; personally I don't see a market for paid guitar tutorials beyond the already great sites out there, though good luck with it

    There's 9,540,000 youtube videos on how to play guitar:

    https://www.youtube.com/results?sear...be.FWwH1TrpMX8
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  • Profile picture of the author KenThompson
    Yes, there are tons of how to play guitar YT channels, etc. That's why it's a good idea to get more specific rather than merely how to play guitar.

    Maybe do some research and find a slice or two of the guitar playing market and target them?

    Then, join Krazy Kurt Melvin's Video Thunder forum and learn how to outrank all the others who likely know little about video/YT marketing.

    A healthy market with a lot of competition is no reason to avoid getting into it. Also, maybe let the personality come out a little more in some unique way for branding purposes. Make it more of an experience in some way. Find your marketing voice, so to speak, and stand out from the others.
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  • Profile picture of the author micknal29
    This is amazing feedback, I was thinking about burning this idea off, but after all this insight maybe I should develop it further and find a more targeted niche, I think building a list by offering my guitar course for free to those who sign up would be a good start. Ill have to sit down and plan the refurb and action points to take this to the next level.
    Thanks for all the imput so far guys...
    Cheers

    Mike
    Signature

    I am only interested in legitimate offers.

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