Please, cheer me up :(

Munk,

Can you post some of your sites here so we can analyze them and give feedback?

Don't get discouraged! keep it up! 3 months is nothing compared to what some of us have been through

Just keep the faith and continue learning all that you can. Read everything everything everything on this forum.

Did I say read everything here? LOL

Much success...

MM, do get your signature set up, it helps a lot with backlinks.

I'm like you and very new, just keep working it, I'm starting now to see movement with having a presence. Which then equals traffic.

I know there are days when you wonder if you are doing the right things, I have them too, and all I do is write another article and get it posted.

Then build more and more backlinks.

Mark

this is my opt in page:
Start Living Right Here!
sales letter:
Living Right - Losing Weight
blog:
Living Right - Losing Weight

thank you

Im new to, but refuse to quit. There are just little pieces missing that will be added by some of these more expirienced marketers that will help you.

I don't think your problem is traffic, your problem is that you are trying to do too much and you are spreading yourself too thin.

It might also be that you are giving up too soon. For instance, a few failed PPC campaigns means nothing. You need to work out why they failed. That, more than anything else, is crucial to your success in PPC.

Try focusing on just one area of IM and learn everything you can about that topic. Then either stick with it and focus your business on it, or move on to something else.

You shouldn't be upset because it's only been 3 months. If you succeed in marketing in 3 months you are one of the really rare types. It's normal to have problems, just keep on going and do more of what gets you sales.

I'm pretty sure my product is very good, but it won't sell without traffic and/or affiliates...

First, let's take another look at your original post:

If you take a moment a re-read what you wrote, you'll realize how far you've come in 3 months. I've seen posts from people who have been lurking here for years and haven't done half that much - so keep your chin up.

Also, you mentioned that you think your problem is traffic? Welcome to Internet Marketing! Everyone on here (no matter how successful) wants more traffic!

Now a few thoughts about your current promotion:

First, weight loss is a very competitive market. Remember that you're competing with tons of people for the same buyer. I know some warriors who were/are in this niche and has taken them more time and effort and seen less sales than with their other niches. Dieting/Weight Loss seems to be a tough nut to crack.

On your opt-in page, I would have the opt in closer to the top of the page, not at the bottom - make it as easy as possible for someone to say yes. Don't make them read the whole page if they don't want to.

On your sales page, you need to have several opportunities for them to buy. As it stands, the customer has to go through the entire page first. You never know what someone will read that will cause them to want to buy, so make sure that when they do get the buying impulse, there's a way for them to act on it!

While reading your sales page, you mentioned your product as a "series" of ebooks - this made me wonder if it was a one time payment or a subscription. You may want to clarify this.

Finally, you may want to test several different sales pages to see which one converts better. Test some different backgrounds (personally the white-on-white didn't work for me), try different sales copy, fonts, colors, etc. There are plenty of people here who've forgotten more than I'll ever know about writing sales pages, so I'll leave that for the experts.

Hope this helps!

I think it takes alot of time and hard work, like anything that is going to be successful. 3 months is a very short time - many people are going for years before they get any real success!

Remember, you are trying to start a business. It will take a while. Even if you see some newbie made a sale in their first week, it may take them another 6 months to get another. Continue what you are doing and eventually you will make it. I have been discouraged sooo many times, but keep in mind you are in this for the long haul.

Check out my recent blog post for motivation--no links, just words of encouragement.

Good Luck!

David

Hey MunkMurray,

Dude 3 months is nothing... You just got to stay persistent. I'm sure there are warriors here that have been through almost a year with no sales or barely any sales. You got to look for the future like way down the line (6 months, a year, two years maybe?).

The most important thing is this: keep being persistent when you're creating an business, offline or online. I wrote an article on persistence on famous people; I don't know if I'm allowed to put the link to in this box... (are you allowed to put links in quick replies, anybody know?)

Anyway, these 5 people really inspired me:

1. Henry Heinz
2. Milton Hershey
3. Henry Ford
4. Walt Disney
5. Donald Trump

All these people went through massive failures before they saw any type of success. Most of them went through complete bankruptcy (Donald Trump over 900 million dollars in bankruptcy) before they were able to bounce back and become successful people. Because of them, now have Heinz Ketchup, Hershey Bar, Ford Carsetc.

If you're down because you haven't made a sale within 3 months, give me a break! You're not a million dollars in debt! You just don't know something that other people do. Research, discover, learn, but most importantly, stay persistent! You'll can do it! I hoped this man.

I looked at the front page of your site (livingrightlosingweight.com), and the first thing I see is this headline:

"Discover The Simple Secrets To Free Yourself From The Misconceptions Of Weight Loss"

My opinion is that the first thing you should do is rewrite that headline. Someone is going to land on your page, see that line and at first say, "huh?" Right now it looks to be a headline with several trigger words stuffed into it, but it's not immediately clear what the benefit is.

When the prospects re-read it, think about and realize what it means, their next thought might be, "Oh. Well, I don't care about any of that -- I just want to lose weight."

See what I mean? You need to get right into what your prospects want. And what your prospects want is to LOSE WEIGHT. Even if "freeing themselves of the misconceptions" of losing weight actually helps them lose weight, you're asking prospects to connect those dots.

Don't do it.

Instead, nail 'em right between the eyes with the BIGGEST benefit that your free report offers.

HTH.

Cheers,
Becky

Don't give up after 3 months, i took over a year of trying before things really took off.

wow,
thank you all so much,
I really am getting better just by reading your responses.
I working now on every little thing any of you said, I am really grateful for your help

MM

I second that.
I can say i have spent past 2years reading and procrastinating.
I love the optin page design. (I just like clean clutter free designs anyway)
I'm no marketing expert,but from what i've read red headlines work well. It kinda needs to be eye catching. Personally i'm not interested in weight loss,but it would be easy to skip over page.

best of luck. (Chin up..)

I agree,

3 months in nothing in the grand scheme of things.

I also agree the headline isn't very pithy.

I would strongly suggest you build your own content site that drives traffic to your sales and capture pages.

Being a newbie you need guidance to build a great quality content site related to your niche.

The other advantage to building your own site related to your niche (probably needs to be a broader category but related) is you can diversify your income streams to help fill the gaps until your primary business model really takes off.

Not to mention generating some income can come in handy to promote your primary business.

BTW, since you are a newbie, don't fall for the cheap up quick website hosting companies you will see all over the web. 99% of those fail.

You need a quality webhost which will provide you with the knowledge and resources to build a quality content site that generates free search engine traffic and tons of it.

Don't be discourage either, you can find the best one available for a mere $25 bucks a month. But actually they do require you to pay 1 year up front to force you to commit to success.

Keep pushing forward and set your mind on the long term success as that's the kind that lasts a lifetime.

Cheers,
Zac

I took a look at your first optin page
Start Living Right Here!

Your headline is week. Try with stronger headline,
something like:

WHO ELSE WANTS TO LOOSE 10 KG IN 45 DAYS
BY FOLLOWING SIMPLE DIET FORMULA FROM A PROVEN EXPERT?

People who are looking to lose weight are obsessed by numbers
like how much exactly can I loose, in how many days exactly, ...?

Next, instead of 'Consult With A Professional' you need to write something
like:
'Let The Professional Take You By The Hand And Make You Slim In No Time At All...'

People are lazy, they want others to do the homework for them, you need to
give them such formulations they are looking for, the illusion that you will make them slim.

You must promise them concrete results in your bullet points too.

Also use words like 'fast', 'effortlessly', etc.

Also picture their own dream image of themselves as slim and
attractive as a result of what you can do for them.

Hope this helps.

Hey, three months is nothing! First, we are all friends here. So just a couple things that hit me--and I mean this in a constructive way, not just to be critical--ok?

I looked at the opt-in page, and like Riley pointed out, there are some errors in composition that distract from your message.

In your header, "Regaining" should be "Regain".

There is also a problem in relation to the intro, "In this FREE report you'll learn..." and how that phrase relates to the items that follow. Most of the bulleted items are alright, but one says, "Don't waste your time with stuff you already know..." That's sort of a parallel construction problem. You could recast the phrase to read, "Not to waste your time..., or something like that.

There are also some misspellings. Ruines should be ruins. Commited should be committed. Especailly should be especially. Those things just draw away from your message. I know I'm being picky, but I'm just trying to help.

Also, I'd try to get some kind of cool cover graphic for your report. People are visual.

I'm trying to be helpful--please take it that way

--Mike

Hello

Have you tried CPA?
Do you have any skills, like writing..etc - May be you can sell your service

...
Shakul

Hey, I'm also in my 3rd month only, well my 4th actually. I was fortunate enough to make my first affiliate commission after a week but for the rest of the month it was nothing. The following months it was slowly uphill, in April I made $15 in ebay affiliate sales. Now be aware though that my strategy is different, I run a blog that integrates the affiliate links with the different niche products. I bet my area is less competive than yours. (Feel free to visit my url from my signature) Even though 15$ should be quite encouraging judging from others, I still feel down and unmotivated at times. I think it's natural since most of us want relative quick results. It's a hard lesson to learn that first seeds need to be sown on a fertile, cultivated ground and then we can have fruits grow, ripe and be harvested. You know that takes longer than a few months, right? Nature is so graciously patient in its success. Over and over again.

Now to your site. Weight loss, whew. Why did you take on such a big one as a newbie? (no pun intended) Seriously, it might be smarter to start with something more unique and less competitive. The question is: How passionate do you feel about weight loss? Because I reckon you will need a LOT of intense passion to succeed in this "niche". Do you have other subjects that you feel passionate about, maybe even more than weight loss? If so, I would suggest you focus more on that one and put it on the net as a second pillar. Because as you may know it's very hard and foolish to just rely on one basket. Now I know that as a newbie it's probably better to focus only on one product and learn, learn, learn but given your "niche" and motivational problems it might be a good idea to already branch out. You could split up your week 50/50 for each site. Personally, I've been planning on one or two more domains as well. Though I'm pretty confident I will have success with my affiliate blog my fingers are itching to also try a couple of other strategies.

A few more things I noticed.
a) On your sales letter the blue font displays very pixelated. Not sure if the font is supposed to look like that or if it's my browser or resolution settings. Either way it's a turn-off.
b) Just like some others here, I would suggest to use more images. Let's face it, a single photo can say more than 1000 words. A well illustrated article makes for a nice visual and reading experience. Hence more conversions.
c) I would integrate the blog with your front page. Hook it all together. Content!
d) You write "I'm bookmarking some blog posts". What about commenting on blog posts? Choose blogs that are related to health and weight loss and comment away - with value. That should do more in generating traffic and link juice. Try to focus on blogs that are dofollow and use plugins like commentluv.

Good luck!

MM, the important thing to do is not to become stagnent with your strategy. See things through but if you find yourself stuck in mud, change your strategy. Test and tweak.

Listen, to help you out I'll be happy to give you a free lifetime membership to my new one way link building network. It won't be live or ready for testing until about 3 - 4 weeks time, but if you drop me a pm with your email I'll hook you up and explain a little further. It may help your rankings tremendously.

Andy

Hey Munk,

Don't focus on the frustration, focus on what you're learning and the friends you are making. For most businesses it takes 2 to 5 years before they ever start seeing profits. Don't get discouraged, it makes you sound desperate. For us to trust anyone, they have to sound confident and undeterred. Would you really want to do business with anyone coming across as desperate and needy? In with the good, out with the good.

Aye! Just keep at it and you'll see results and follow advice in this thread. Typos are an instant turn off on a sales page IMHO

A couple quick thoughts...

You ran some PPC ads, how much traffic did you send? Because you stated that you made no sales with this...which may mean the problem is with your product/sales process and not your traffic.

Why worry about driving more traffic with article marketing until you know you have a product that actually sells? This is putting the cart before the horse.

You need to make your site convert before you worry about more traffic.

Your website copy lacks proof which is a huge requirement for the weight loss niche- before and after pictures are standard.

You won't find affiliates until you start converting visitors into sales.

Dig back into your sales copy and process and find your weak points, test some more and then once you're making sales you can worry about traffic.

Like others have said, you must be patient... It's not going to happen overnight... Being successful and all... Never give up my friend..

book mark your articles leading back to your sales page. How many visitors are you getting to your sales page a day. If you are not getting sales from your current sales page change it. Add a few good graphics testamonials and bullet points to help grab their attention better. Offer a bonus to your subscribers. Forinstance I always offer a 5-7 part ecourse depending on the niche I am in. This will grab their attention and make them want to be on your list.

Munk,

Don't give up.

There's a barrier to entry when starting your online business. And that's a good thing. Because your competitors and future competitors are up against the same thing. Once you become profitable, you'll have a huge edge on your competition.

So keep at it.

Here's the best advice i can give to you to start making money online:

step 1) get some cheap adware traffic.

signup for zango.com and bid on keywords and competitor urls. your ad will show up whenever one of your prospects goes to your competitor's sites. that's targeted traffic.

the traffic will likely not convert as well as adwords traffic but that doesn't matter. what matters is customer acauisition costs - and these will be much lower with zango traffic.

then...

step 2) optimize your keywords and competitor urls

many keywords and destination urls will not make money. that's ok and is expected. what you do now is pause all the keywords and urls that are not at least breaking even.

the goal here is to create a steady stream of traffic to your site while not losing money

then...

step 3 optimize your landing pages

now that you're breaking even on your traffic, you'll make incremental improvements to your conversion rate(s). split test your headlines, spit test audio, video, testimonials, trust marks, prices, guarantees

little by little, your zango campaign will become more and more profitable.

now you can go back and turn on some more of those keywords and urls that were not profitable previously because they'll likely now be profitable when you factor in the new conversion rate.

Good luck to you!!! : )

- WebGeek
Website Conversion Specialist

When things like this happen, you need to be calm. You have to analyze and brainstorm the possible things that could stop it from working. After making a list of problems, make a list of solutions that will help you get over them.

This is the best way I've found to handle and tweak a business plan to make it work.

Munk, whatever you do, DON'T GIVE UP!

The IM business can be a very frustrating one and the biggest reason why people don't make it is because they give up too early because they try something once or for a very short time only, and it doesn't work for them. Persistence is the key.

There are so many things to learn it can be extremely daunting at first. Focus on learning the basics first and then build on your skills.

Stick with it, never give up and you must succeed!

HI there..

First of all you must have some reasons (personal or commercial reasons) to enroll into IM right?
Just stay focused without giving up..

I'm a "NEWBIE" too who have failed 3 times and loss few hundreds of my own savings before I successfully launched my 1st product.I didn't give up man..I made my first sale after 4 months and it really improved my motivation.Just few days before I made my first sale I was thinking of changing my business model.But everything changed when I saw my first sale.It motivated me.I started to work harder on my business model..

Do you know something?The internet connection in my College sucks and it'll take forever to load a simple website.And the worse part is in order to get a fast wireless connection,you've to walk about 20 minutes.Please remember there's no proper transport at night in my college...

Now it's holiday time for me.I got 2 months to work on my IM business and as this is my first week at home, I'm spending most of my time resting (5 months I didn't go back home) and planning on my IM business.So far the plans are good and next week I'll be concentrating fully on implementing it.The best part is that I'm able to get quality fast Internet access..

You've come to the right place to learn about IM.There are hundreds of IM Marketers who are earning big in this forum.Read their threads and learn from them.

Here's a favourite quote that I've personally liked and use it to motivate me always..

"If you want to earn,first start to learn"..

Trial and errors are part of the learning process..Buddy..

-CheerZ-

Try one or two techniques and stick with them until you have mastered them. Don't quit. And keep posting in this forum and post one of your websites here.

The topic on traffic and conversions seem to be a common theme today... Anyways,
there is a great course for newbies on driving traffic to your offer... It's step
by step videos on youtube are 100% FREE...

Thirty Day Challenge

good luck...

jay