My Solo Build It site is coming up for
renewal and I haven't made much
money, what can I do?
Question - My Solo Build It site is
coming up on 12 months of age now, I've done a LOT of work, it's starting to get
traffic, but I haven't made enough even to pay for the next years $299 fee. What
do you suggest?
Answer - This is the
question I was asked again today (it doesn't happen often, but enough to warrant
this article), so I thought I'd post my answer here (with the market and
personal information removed) because my thoughts apply to everyone in this
coaching program...
In reply to this question, I wrote -
...You mentioned that you haven't been able to monetize your
site that well yet, so I had a look to see what you've been up to.
Boy you've done a LOT of work there, it would be a shame not to be able to make
it pay off - has it been nearly a year already?
I notice that you didn't seen to have a newsletter anywhere, which I think is
one of the main problems.
Yours is a VERY tough market and you need to maximize the value of every visitor
to generate a reasonable income from this niche.
Assuming we've got a little time left before your Solo Build It site expires, there's
still an opportunity to rescue all your work and turn this thing around.
Here's what I'd
suggest -
Go to Ebay and search for ebooks on dog related stuff that have
resale rights and buy several of them (they should only be a few bucks).
Or do a Google search for 'resale rights dog ebooks' and see
what you can find available.
NOTE - the books MUST
have resale rights so you can give them away or you'll get into
trouble.
Put all of these ebooks along with something your write yourself (it could even
be recycled content from your site, it doesn't matter - just give it a really
exciting title) into an irresistible package and offer it as an 'ethical bribe'
to people who join your mailing list.
Promote your list opportunity on each page of your site so joining it becomes
your site's Most Wanted Response.
Then start to build a relationship with these people over time with ongoing
articles and content (send them links to niche related videos from Google Video
and youtube.com as well as articles written by yourself and others along other
stuff like additional eBay ebooks) and make them offers of various products and
services in each issue as well.
In each newsletter, just send people a link to a page you've created on your
site especially for that issue which contains the article, maybe a free resource
of some kind, some Adsense ads and an affiliate product review or
recommendation.
This way your subscribers are being forced to look at your recommendations every
time they get a newsletter instead of the one time they come to your site and
then leave.
You
can multiply the income you get by
10
by simply doing this one thing...
When you have an effective subscriber page, do some Google
Adwords advertising and sent people to the opt-in page to get more people on
your list.
Building your list should be your main goal in your website life
from now on. You have enough content for now, just focus on the list.
Edit your article directory articles to send people to your
opt-in page as well instead of your home page to generate even more subscribers.
Every little bit helps.
As for Adsense, I've found it to be useless for your market
except for a few keywords like (niche) insurance and the occasional legal term
(you know, when somebody gets hurt and are looking for a lawyer).
Once people are on your list, I'd test more PRE-selling (re-read MYCPS for tips
on how to do this) of things like the various niche related videos and audio
products plus the other Clickbank products available to try to improve the
site's performance.
The key is repeated exposure to your offers which you cannot do without a
newsletter.
Something else I noticed is that you've chosen some very difficult to rank for
keywords and haven't optimized your pages correctly like I show you in the page
optimization lessons.
Plus you need to optimize your images as well like I show you
here -
www.rtwebs.com/optimizingimages.html
This is critical to ranking well. I have over 20 pictures on my site rank on the
first page of Google Images because they are optimized like I show you in the
video above.
For example, I get over 2000 visitors a month from my Siberian husky picture on
Google alone, plus many more from the other pictures and search engines.
That's how critical it is to optimize your images with Alt tags
and mouse-over text...
If you optimize your pages and images like I've shown you here, you should start
to see lots more traffic. It's just a numbers game. Then...
Get
them onto a newsletter list and start
building
a relationship with them...
That is the biggest downfall of your site I think. You're so
close to starting to get a return on your time and outlay, start a newsletter
and that could be what turns it all around.
You've done so much work, you're sitting on top of The
Hump that Ken Evoy often talks about. Once you pass the crest of that
hump, it starts getting easier, believe me.
And finally, if you REALLY don't want to continue on with your site and you are
going to let it lapse, PLEASE LET ME KNOW BEFORE THAT
HAPPENS!
I MAY have time to take it over and get it working (depending on when it happens
and my workload at that time), and if I do, I'll share any future profits the
site makes with you as a way of paying you back for the time and effort you've
put in so far.
It would be a real shame to see all that work just evaporate...
Sidebar
Important Note - This
offer is open everyone in this coaching program, so please let me
know if this is of interest to you.
I can't guarantee that I will be able to help with your site,
and I'm not going to be able to work in every niche market, but if you are
coming up to the end of your Solo Build It year and you are considering just walking away,
PLEASE LET ME KNOW BEFORE YOU DO THAT, there
may be a way I can help.
End Of Sidebar
The best option is to stick with it though. I'm not saying that
because I will get a renewal commission, that's just 60 bucks, it's nothing in
the grand scheme of things.
You've got the start of something really good there, it would be a shame to see
it wither and die.
Anyhow, that's my thoughts. I hope it helps.
Please let me know if you are going to cancel the site and I'll see what I can
do about helping to save it.
End Of Message
This reminds me of a great article in the Solo Build It Tips and
Techniques HQ. Check it out now and then come back here...
Building
your Brand-Of-One (You'll need your Solo Build It Login and Username details)
Until next time,
Cheers,
P.S. And remember, if you
are about to let your Solo Build It site lapse, please let me know before you do. There
may be a way we can work together to save it...You
can contact me here to discuss this if you want to.