I'm Lost!

One thing you'll read on this page is if you started something, don't give up. The most profitable venture is if you remain dedicated to your ongoing project(s). The worst thing you can do is get that 'shiny object syndrome' everyone talks about on the forum, where you switch from one 'shiny object' venture for making money to the next. You have a beautiful website, very well designed.

Although I am no expert (as I often ask questions on WF), your best route of action right now would be to persevere. You may not be making money right now, but if you stick with it you can. Research into SEO and try and get your page rank high in google, build a list WITH your acne website (if you don't build a list you're making a huge mistake). Then you can provide quality content to your list of people actively trying to reduce their acne, and once you build a relationship maybe put out some decent content and affiliate offers (however, don't over do it).

Good luck!

why now review the products instead of selling products that might not work.

For me, there are 3 outright winners:

1. Sell your own stuff
2. Sell other people's stuff (aka Affiliate Marketing)
3. Sell advertising space

All three methods work for me.

So, first off, you picked a good model. My advice is to master it before moving on; it definitely works provided you have the right products and the right approach.

As for the right approach, there is a lot of very useful information here at WF, but that's where list-building comes in. Just bear in mind that list-building is only part of the formula, not the whole of it as some people might have you believe.

You still need to figure out how to approach the people on your list in the right way. It's not a bad idea to join a few lists and watch how other people are doing it. Make notes - what you like and don't like about how other people are doing it. Remember that about 95% of people are doing it wrong, but find a few who are doing it right and learn from them.

How do you know when someone is doing it right?

Trust your gut! Do you feel you are warming to them; do you look forward to their mails; do you feel their recommendations are worth checking out? ... That kind of stuff.

The biggest thing you need to do is to find a group of people you can genuinely help and start doing that; the money will follow.

Good luck.

Will

A blog is good and does a couple of things for you. First its a traffic strategy or should I say part of the SEO strategy. 2nd a blog builds you as an authority in your niche. By having a blog you need to post high quality content all 100% orginal material with no spun content or no software used to make it. Make sure to keep on page seo in mind when creating your post as well as perform a little natural backlinking to your post.

Tied right to your domain you should create a squeeze page as well as add an opt-in form on your blog. With this squeeze page that you build you can use different traffic strategies to it and then optimize it untill it generates you some money.

The whole idea behind this is leveraging your marketing efforts by building a list of prospects that are interested in a certain subject matter. You then build a relationship with this list of people by helping them with their questions and problems and you monitize it my offering good quality products that really help them out.

Build a list of 1,000 people and if you take really good care of these people so they open your emails and read your content you could earn 500 to 2,000 dollars per month. The best part is it doesn't stop. You can have 2,000 people, 10,000 people on your list. The question comes down to how fast do you want to do it.

There is no fast way at this game. Its all about traffic and conversions. Building your funnels and optimizing them to generate income. I wish it could happen on the first try but... I suppose the more experiance you get, the easier it becomes.

What do you mean 'wrong choice'? There isn't really a right or wrong. Do what you can. Build something and stick to it until it works or definitively doesn't. There is no right or wrong 'type' of marketing....

Having a blog and building a list is generally good, but whether or not you actually want to build a list in the niche really depends on the type of blog you're going for. If you plan to build a blog around a particular product, a list is usually not part of the equation since your visitors are looking for info on one product.

If you plan to build a larger, niche site with multiple products and such for the long-term, then having a list is great. This way, you will be able to promote products to them over and over again. I should also mention it's good to have expertise with the products you're promoting and/or do lots of research to help reduce refunds and what not.

I know several people that love them some of that Proactive medicine that you see on t.v. I think it's also something that people use on a recurring basis, so that means residual income. You can promote their stuff from Amazon or look for an affiliate program on another network. I'm sure they have one since it's so popular.

Good luck,
Joey

Hello,

It sounds cliche, but, after being in this space for a long time...
The money is in the list.

A lot of the big name IM gurus have said that email marketing is dead...
But they still make their millions with email marketing.

I say - build your own list...
Build you relationship with your list...
Then you can chart your own destiny.

Good luck.

Two different questions, here.

1. List-building - yes, this would be your best route. It will be very difficult to make much money as an affiliate in the acne niche without list-building, and you'd be putting yourself under a big disadvantage compared with your many competitors.

There are a few hundred threads in this forum with titles similar to "What's The One Thing You'd Do Differently If You Were Starting Again Tomorrow?". Take a look through a small sample of them, and you'll find that one of the things they all have in common is that they're full of replies from long-established, successful Warriors almost all of whom give the same answer: the thing they'd do differently, with what they know now but didn't know when they started, is "start to build a list on day 1". There are reasons for that, and they're very good and very valid reasons.

These posts/threads may help you ...

Is it a good idea to spend some time on building a mailing list ?
Without Building a List, How Consistent is Your Income from Affiliate Marketing

2. Squeeze pages - no, not necessarily. They're only one method of list-building, and quite often not the best way (and if going into the acne niche myself, I wouldn't dream of doing so with a squeeze page).

These posts/threads may help you ...

What are the essential things to know about list building?
Website or squeeze page

Thanks so much for your replies folks, I really like the help that is offered around here. I can hopefully help people out in the future as well!

THANK YOU WARRIORS!

Here's a post you might find useful.

You have a really nice looking site. I see no reason you won't make some good money off it. Concentrate on driving traffic to it. Don't spend too long agonizing over the best way to monetize it.

Pick one and start driving traffic and then you can adjust it as necessary.

Spend time on health forums that deal with acne. Set up a signature link and start answering people's questions about acne.

Clarity is a HUGE part of IM success. I hope this post brings some clarity. It's so simple when you know it -- and darn difficult when you don't! I owe my mentors a world of thanks for bringing this clarity.

IM is actually pretty simple: you can sell only one of two things:

1. Products
2. Services

That's it!

And selling products or services online happens in the same basic way for everyone, no matter what they're selling:

Traffic > Opt-in page > Autoresponder series (or e-zine) > Sales page

That's it! It's just that simple. (We IMers tend to overcomplicate things.)

But no matter what your niche is, or whether you're selling a product or a service, do you know what your business model is?

A business model is the framework or skeleton of your business. Essentially there are three types of online business models:

1. Membership-based model

A membership-based business model allows you to build a community of people (your members) who are as passionate about your subject as you are. Your membership fees can be monthly or annual, but either way, you're building recurring, passive income.

There are a lot of resources and information out there to help you build a membership-based business if you're interested in doing this.

2. Product-based model

Selling products allows you to maximize your time and effort by selling items over and over again. This can be hard goods or it can be information products. Information marketing is it's own business model under the product-based model. Information marketing allows you to take your brain to the bank by creating a product ONCE based on what you know and selling it over and over again.

Affiliate marketing falls under both models. You can choose to market either products or services as an affiliate.

3. Service-based model

Selling services can be great for 1) generating quick cash (as in the case of article writing or video producing) and 2) establishing your expertise and getting testimonials.

However, in the long run, your goal should be to offer services at a PREMIUM. The biggest advantage of IM is LEVERAGE. You're able to leverage your time, money and expertise exponentially online. We all have just 24 hours each day. Time to get ruthless about what you expect for those hours you spend in IM each day. Expect more of yourself and more from your business friends, clients, partners, etc.

What results are you getting for those hours you spend online each day? Ultimately, your services should be at the bottom of your funnel and cost the most since they involve your time and personal attention. (We all have a limited amount of time each day.)

The fun (and confusion) comes in with all of the endless mix-and-match possibilities of the above models. If you're just starting or still struggling to make money, keep it simple:

Pick just ONE!

1. Pick ONE niche. (Something you're interested in and know something about.)

2. Pick ONE target market for your product or service. (Who will buy what you're offering? The more specific you are, the more you narrow it down, the more successful you'll be.)

3. Pick ONE business model.

Now that you're clear about what business you're in, FOCUS! (And stop buying any info not related to your niche and target market, period!)

F -- Follow
O -- One
C -- Course
U -- Until
S -- Successful

And remember: build a list, Build a List, BUILD A LIST!

In IM, it's easy to put the cart before the horse. Take a deep breath, step back and consider what type of business you REALLY want. Don't worry about getting traffic or buying that expensive traffic product until you know 1) what your business model is, 2) what niche you're in and 3) WHO your target market is!

Successful business people will tell you that MARKETING is more than half the effort that's needed for success anyway. So pick a niche, target market and business model. Then spend most of your time and effort marketing it.

If you DON'T have a solid plan or system, THAT'S when it's hard. A good system will shave YEARS (and save you big $$$) off of your learning curve

That's why I recommend investing in at least one good, comprehensive IM course (or mentor who will give you such a system) instead of jumping from one $37 e-book to the next. A lot of people here complain about not being able to make any money. But neither are they willing to invest in their business. (Buying a random bunch of $37 e-books doesn't count.)

The best thing I ever did was invest in a comprehensive IM course aimed at REAL business owners, not just other IM wannabes. Yes it was $1500. (It's no longer available.) But it was truly some of the best A-Z IM info I ever bought. Everything else I've learned (from the $37 e-books) since has simply been plugged into this system.

Get a solid plan or system and then work the plan!

Hope this helps!

Michelle

I think this is a good domain name. It is important to choose the right keyword now to rank against Google. Choose low competition keywords to rank quickly. Good affiliate products can be achieved at clickbank.

First, of all you are doing just fine! A few sales, in past 8 months ...is not bad at all. I would recommend, that you build a squeezepage and offer something of value, in exchange for an email address.

Drive traffic, to that squeezepage via paid traffic...grow that list, build a relationship with them. When, your list grows and the relationships are there...then simply offer them products (for,which you are an affiliate) or sell them your own product.

This, is the formula most use..build squeezepage...offer freebie/something of value...drive traffic...build relationships...then...promote lightly with offers...

That depends on your level of technical knowledge and time available. Most people on this forum aren't interested in running large content websites or spending 12 hours a day at the computer. The list building model as defined by this forum has a much lower upside, but it does allow people to get something going on their own terms.

Thins that work 100% of the time:

Selling own products
Selling services
Selling websites
Selling advertising space on your websites


There are various different ways to do all of this, but these never fail.

Good advice. As far as list building is concerned, why not! Though I'd suggest you should lookout for other making money ops. Otherwise, it doesn't make much sense, if all you build is list and then worry about how to make money.

What is your business model? Free or Paid? You have to decide that first.

Free is easier to implement. Paid can be more profitable in the long-run and provide a steady source of income (membership sites).

With FREE you are relying on traffic and clicks on ads. If you affiliates products are decent and convert well, this is a good way to get started and build up an income.

In the long run though I think it's better to control your own income so you should consider create a product or a premium area to your site. Possibly even a paid private acne support group. If you need help with that, I can give you a few more tips if that's a direction you want to go in.

List building can benefit you in long term, better you consider it.

Advantages of having a list of subscribers are many fold:
a) Once you get someone into your list, you can stay in contact with them for as long as they are subscribed as opposed to someone who reads an article on your site and leaves.
b) You can promote your own products and others products for commission.
c) Over time, the list of subscribers becomes the asset to your business.
d) You can set up your email sequence once and then just concentrate on sending targeted people to your squeeze page to build your list. So your efforts are not wasted.

Hey Menacer,

If you did your market research and this is a good product to sell and you have the keywords then you will want to collect peoples information to market to them. You should have a opt-in box or squeeze page to collect their information and then they will be on your list to market to. Blogging is a type of marketing and is very good, I have several friends that are killing it with Blogs. What are you doing at time time to market?

In checking out your Blog I see that you definitely need an opt-in box above the fold with some type of free give-a-way that is worth more to the consumer than their email address and name. That way you will be abel to give them more value and market to them as well. You want to build a relationship with them and build trust then the money will come.

If you do your marketing what ever it may be social media, article, PPC etc, then you don't want to wast your time effort and money. You will want to get them on a list where you can give theim tips and information about acne then sprinkle in some affiliate products. I have made more than $1,500 in the last 2 weeks and have not done any work with it other than set up the Auto Responder letters. There are lots of good information and courses out there to help you in marketing, content creation, lead generation and more... Let me know if I can help.

I advice you target a group of people and market to them. Period. Here's how profitable companies are doing it.

• Amazon.com is all about shoppers
• Google.com is all about searchers
• Facebook.com is all about socializers
• Warriorforum.com is all about internet marketers

Nothing wrong with your choice of method, blogs work great, but I would definitely give some thought to another niche other than acne, (unless you have it yourself).

Although this is a huge market, it has been very much wrecked by spammers, from a webmaster's viewpoint, and it becomes a bigger problem when you have the word in your domain name, as soon as someone sees the word 'acne' the spam detectors start twitching.

For example, Squidoo don't allow sites about it specifically, Many perfectly good blog comments you make for backlinks will not be approved by site owners, The big G seems to rank only 'trusted' 'authority' sites for many of the best terms and many good long-tails, and I have noticed, older sites some of which are pretty crappy also popped up out nowhere after Penguin.

You may also struggle to both build, and make much money from a subscriber list too.

However, if you want to do it anyway and can get a lot of traffic, the Adsense clicks pay quite well in this niche.

Personally, if starting from scratch, I believe you would be better off choosing another subject that you have some interest in, and does not scream spam.

My $0.02 based on a 3- year old site I have control of, others may see it differently or have a different view.
Whatever you do, good luck

There's definitely a great list of things that are mentioned in this post.

So, I want to talk more about your website itself.
I really like the layout, it's stylish and easy to navigate.

However, I feel like your store (which I am assuming is where you're currently trying to make money) is jumbled and not focused.

There are 10+ Pages of acne products without a recommendation on top picks or your personal favorites. There's only a single category "Acne Care" which makes it hard to find products for a specific acne-related need.

You should start with some posts on recommendations and help the reader differentiate between the hundreds of products. You can also link to these recommended products directly from your post so that the reader can instantly see the product you're talking about.

Anyway, stick with it and good luck!

-Luke

my advice is to keep updating that site, find ways to attract targeted traffic and find some good products to promote or create your own. i may not be a veteran like most of these people giving you advice, but i am slowly making progress

keep on trucking .

I agree with other Warriors that you will want to start building your list. There are reasons why many people are building a list as the money is indeed in the list. If you look at most of the successful internet marketers, they have their own list of subscribers too. Just my2 cents

You have chosen the right thing, but results does not only depends on how much time you give it but it depends on the strategies involved to make it success.
And why you set up a blog 8 months later, list building is an important factor for affiliate marketing, if you build good list, you are making money.

Your niche on acne sounds interesting to me. I think it would be better if you write a blog. Your blog journey on acne problems and solutions. My 2 cents.

Yes, you definitely should be building a list. When you start to get traffic to your site, people usually don't buy right away.

If you are building a list then they may choose to opt in to your list. As you begin building a relationship with your list, you can then begin promoting affiliate offers or your own products if you decide to create them.

You don't want to wait to build an email list. I did and I wish I wouldn't have waited so long.

Actually your still on the right track because what you've done so far is the first step then you can still make a squeeze page then list building and also backlinking.

If your blog did not get much income, you must try another blog. Be creative, and you will success.

Do you follow Yaro Starak? He's a very successful pro-blogger who has recently started talking about something called Inevitability Thinking which would help you I think. It's where you pick a plan (like some of the incredibly useful advice you have been given above - and, knowing that it has worked for many other people before you, stick to it until it works for you. Also, he's interviewed a girl who has made it very big in the Acne market - you could do worse than to study what she did. Good luck (not that you'll need it if you stick at it - we make our own luck!)