Why Isn’t My Website Making Money?

May 10, 2011 By 20 Comments

"Why isn't my site isn't making money!"

Believe it or not this is a phrase I have heard several times or at least some variation of it. But, I have an easy 5 point plan to help. This will make you money if you focus and follow through on it.

#1. TRAFFIC (If you're getting decent traffic skip this step)

If you're not getting traffic your site won't make money. Period. End of story. You must get traffic. So if you're not getting traffic determine why. This is usually the first place people make a mistake at.

Are you link building?

Are your keywords for each page ranking in the search engines? Even low volume keywords will make you money if they are targeted.

If you're pages/posts aren't ranking in the search engines you need to work on link building and making sure your content is optimized (read this post is you need help understanding link building and optimization).

Consider adding a Facebook plugin to your site so people can share your message. I like using sexybookmarks and April's Facebook Like Button. Just type those into the “add new” under your plugins area of your blog and you'll find them. I'll cover how to get people to share this more in the next bullet point.

Traffic is vital – get some.  Post more articles, press releases, tweet it, post it to Facebook, comment on other blogs.  Do whatever it takes (ethically) to go get more links and traffic.

#2. Content. (If you have good informative content – skip this step).

If you have less than 200-250 words of content on a single page start there and get at least that. I use as much content on a page as needed to get my point across.

A). Avoid selling language. Don't try to persuade them and sell heavy to your reader. Suggest and recommend but back it up with reasons and facts. No one likes the pushy sales person – so don't be that person.

B). Does your writing make sense? I ask this question because many times people hire other people to write all their posts. The person just tosses the content up on their site but, something is wrong here. Many time cheap writers are just trying to make money and could care less if you make anything.

Make sure ANYTHING you put on your site relates to your user. Ask yourself; will this benefits my reader? If not, fix it. Giving people good advice will help get clicks on your ads, and land those sales at your site.

Imagine your dog has a rare skin disease and you need a solution to help him. Then you read a really informative post why Super Anti Doggy Skin Disease Shampoo will help Fluffy's skin from itching and burning constantly. Would you take a chance on something that someone who knew what they were talking about was suggesting? I would and I do all the time.

If you're giving good information and using Facebook and Twitter plugins people will share it as well. This will help increase your traffic and pump up your sales as well in the long haul.

#3. Ad positions.

Many times especially when we are new at blogging we just use whatever layout we are giving by our theme and that's that. However, position does matter especially with Adsense (read what I've learned here and use Google's heat map).

If your site is getting traffic but your ads aren't getting clicks and you're just not making money with your website try changing things up. Experiment with different layouts. If all else fails always remember we see the top left of the screen first as most of us read left to right.

#4. Wrong products?

It pains me to say this but I can't tell you how many times someone asked me why they weren't making money and I am shocked at some of the things I see.

Promoting Netflix banners on your site about weight loss will not get you any sales. Sure every now and then you might get that lucky sale but, never anything substantial.

Give your visitors ads that make sense to them. Give them products that make sense and your reward is a lot more money in your pocket. If you're an offender of this one – don't wait, go fix it now. If you're promoting weight loss give them weight loss ads. If you're promoting peanut butter give them things based off of peanut butter. Even desert ads would work on a peanut butter site but, Netflix or anything else that doesn't apply to peanut butter, just don't do it!

#5. You're doing all this and still not making any money?

Change your ads to Adsense or vice-versa. Test, test, test! I have never built a site that didn't make me money (unless it was clearly just a demo site).

Lastly, are you really doing it and are you really focused? I'[m not trying to be evil here but I've had some people tell me how hard they were working on traffic building only to find they weren't even building links to their site.

If you're not going to do anything and you're not going to try, you're not going to make money. It may sound harsh to say something like that but I'm not in this to make you feel warm and fuzzy all over I WANT YOU T MAKE MONEY and make a bunch of it.

Sorry for the caps there but I mean that, I want you to succeed. I want you to be as rich as possible and you won't get there with smoke and sunshine. You've got to do the things that will make you money and test, test, test and keep growing.

As summer approaches do not forget this post. Stay focused and stay at this and success is there waiting for you.

Filed Under: Affiliate Marketing, Increasing Traffic, Link Building, Website Building Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Why Review Sites Work (Think Big)

April 26, 2011 By 4 Comments

It wasn’t long ago I released The Review Formula to my Niche Blitzkrieg members only.  Then someone asked me a great question that I thought would make a wonderful post.

The question:  Should I build a large review style site or a bunch of small ones?

This question isn’t new.  It’s a question that I get a lot.  However, recently with the changes Google is touting is it time for a change and time to only build the bigger sites?

Yes & no.

I still like the small sites.  I still build them.  But, I also love the large review style sites that have 50-100 pages.  Sure, it’s more work to get them off the ground but it’s less work in the long run.  The key is to simply outline what you want to build the site around in the beginning and then just start building.  Over the period of a few years you can build an extremely profitable site and work on it as time goes by (high 5 or 6 figure money makers or more).  I’ve had people come into Niche Blitzkrieg that love building the simple 10 page sites because they not only make money doing that, they mark them up and sell them later for a nice profit.

I also have people come in and build 100+ pages sites that rank in some big bucks.  It’s all preference but let me give you a couple reasons to think big in the future.

#1.  Content.  I don’t care who argues with me on this but content will always be extremely important for search engines.  Search engines need words to read.  The more words you have the more analysis the search engines can do on your site.  The goal of the search engines is to give people what they search for and the more content the search engines find the more results they can give to us when we’re searching.

#2.  More pages/posts more chance for higher money.  Sure small sites still make money but imagine having a review site that reviews 50 different types of a certain product.  If you work at link building for each page/post and actively work to get the site ranking for the keywords you want it to the money should be MUCH larger than on a 10-15 page site.  Of course amount of payout always matters but the opportunity is much greater with the larger sites.

#3.  Easier to rank.  Sometimes the main keywords (primary keywords) for a site can be hard to rank for.  Let’s face it some companies have millions to toss into search engine rankings – we don’t.  So it’s easy to make a site where you can target individual long-tailed keywords.  This is still true for a 100 page website because each page/posts ranks by itself in the search engines.

#4.  Time.  Over time search engines recognize websites that have been around for years.  This can help build a very stable ranking for your website over time.  Websites that are aged 5 years have a HUGE advantage over websites that are only 6 months – 1 year old.  Since you can grow a site over time and continue to grow it, it’s value should continue to go up and the site should continue to make you more money.

#5.  Higher Sell off.  Not everyone wants to build a website and sell it off.  However, you may want to sell one of your sites at one point.  Do you think someone would rather buy a 15 page website or a 100 page website.  Most often it’d be the 100 page website (as long as the 15 page website isn’t ranking for something extremely difficult to rank for).

It’s unknown what the search engines will look for in the future.  But, the one thing we know is that words aren’t going anywhere.  Humans need to read them and so do the search engines.  Google seems to like the large, well aged sites as well in all of my testing.  Yes, the small ones still rank and can actually rank fast but, larger scale again typically means larger profits.

If you like building small sites over and over, there is nothing wrong with that at all.  I am starting to get to a point where I really enjoy building the larger sites because I can piece them together over time and I don’t have to keep installing wordpress over and over again as well.  Google tends to relate content to other content better than the other search engines as well.  What does that mean for you?  The more content on your site that can relate with other areas of your site the more likely Google is going to find you more relevant than some of the smaller very shallow websites.

One final thing.  If you do decide to only build small websites make sure your pages/posts have several hundreds words of content on them.  I’ve seen a lot of sites that are very shallow and only have 50 words or so.  This is a big mistake many people make.  Sure, Google will rank those type of sites sometimes but if you get any amount of competition guess who is generally going to win that one?

As always, these are just my findings from testing.  You are free to do as you like but always bear in mind that search engines are here to help people find stuff they are searching for.  Make it easier on yourself.

Filed Under: Affiliate Marketing, Internet marketing, Website Building Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Does Google Hate You?

April 6, 2011 By 15 Comments

 

Recently, Google updated their algorithms again. This caused many people to lose ranks in the search engines. I waited to make a post about this so I could monitor anything I noticed over the previous few months.

However, I didn’t experience any sliding at all. In fact, my sites increased in ranks in the search engines.

So if you’re using the Niche Blitzkrieg methods that I teach you’re safe.

Here is why I think many people lost their rankings outside of NBK.

I believe some people out there are using methods like link spamming, link farms, mass comment spamming and other frowned upon techniques. If you have no clue what those are… good. Stay away from them.

Here is what I use the most still to this day.

Articles (link building within the resource box).

1 Way Links (love this program for automation).

Press Releases.

Directories are still good too.

These are my favorite link building methods and the only reason is….

Because they work.

Link building isn’t going to go away.

Ranking in the search engines isn’t going to go away.

I am going to add a few tips here to help you even more as to what I would ultimately avoid.

#1. Keep building links.

#2. Do not build shallow affiliate sites – these are sites that have very little to no content, just a few pages and are loaded with affiliate links. Make sure you have good content (over 250 words on the page as well), the content should also be unique. Don’t use content that you do not own.  When in doubt add more pages/posts to your site. Hey more content can’t hurt. It can only make your site better and add more openings to get more traffic.

#3. Avoid link farms and link buying deals. Basically any sites that just have a ton of links on them (outside of directories) If someone tells you they will get 10000 links for $100 bucks run away.

Tools like 1 way links will help you automate your link building and are safe. They are safe because it’s a non-spammy way of link building. You actually have to do a small bit of writing to make it work but the rewards are high.

Remember, as I mentioned in several other posts.

On page optimization + link building = ranking in the search engines. I cover that in more detail here.

Not ranking where you want to be? Keep building links into your site and never forget that each page/post of your site ranks individually in the search engines.

So to sum it up.. Google doesn’t hate you.  Google wants to make sure it’s giving it’s users the best search results and not stuff that has millions of spam laced links driving it.  However, Google hates shady tactics for a good reason – so steer clear.

Filed Under: Affiliate Marketing, Increasing Traffic, Link Building

How to Start Making Money Online

January 14, 2011 By 1 Comment

You've probably heard by now that there are people making thousands of dollars online every single month. Well it's true – I'm one of them. I want you to read on because I am going to show you exactly how to get started. How do I know it'll work? Simple, because it's the same way I got started making money online.

Step #1 – Find a Niche

The first thing you'll want to do before you can start cashing in online is find a niche market you can make some money in. The easiest way to do this is think of your hobbies or things that you like doing. For instance, if you like to paint model planes, like to work out or simply just like cleaning your house. Any of those things can be great places to start.

When I first started I created a site about toys because I was always fascinated by them for some reason. It was easy for me to connect and have fun in that market. This same site went on to earn me over $18,000 in my very first year! Not bad for still working a full time job that I spent 60 or more at, eh?

Step #2 – Keyword Research

The next thing you'll want to do is keyword research. Keyword research will let you see how many people are searching for the words online that are related to your niche. There are free tools you can use to do this and it really is not all that difficult.   This will be one of the things you'll want to master as you learn.

Once you find out what keywords are relevant for your market it's time to analyze your competition. You'll want to see how competitive the market place is before you get into it.

Step #3 – Build Your Website

Don't get nervous, a website isn't hard to build. In fact, everything is point and click now. It's certainly not like the old days at all. But, to make money online you must have a website. Again, in my free course I'll show you how to do this step-by-step.

Your website should be as targeted as possible. This means that if you want to show people how to build model planes then that is what the entire site should be about. The more targeted the more money you'll make.

After the site is built you'll want to add things on the site you can make money with. This includes affiliate programs or pay per click ads like Adsense. So how do you make money with this? Simple. Let's say you're teaching someone how to build model planes. They'll need supplies to get started. Simply recommend the supplies they need to get started. So if you are showing them how to paint the plane you'll mention they can get their paints online and have them shipped fast. You'll insert a small link where they can click to get the product and when they buy you earn a commission. Sound easy enough?

This is all there is to getting started in making money online. 

Go grab my free course and I'll show you how to do it step-by-step http://www.unleashingyoursuccess.com and you can start making money right from your very own home. 

And Never forget…..

success starts within

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This isn't a get rich scheme and you will have to put in some effort to make money.  Always keep in mind there are no guarantees you'll make anything.  Numerous students of mine report to me telling me they are making good money, I make good money and you can as well but it's not a guarantee and nothing in this life is.

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Affiliate Marketing, General, Internet marketing, Website Building Tagged With: , ,
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