Your online business is a bridge from your life as you have it to your life as you see it.
In your new life, you might have the time and the money to do EXACTLY what you want when you want.
Or you no longer have to read the menu in a restaurant from right to left.
Or you no longer have to check the price tag before deciding if you have enough room on your credit card to buy something.
Or your assets will finally grow beyond the pizza coupons.
But that will be then.
For now, you are overwhelmed, underpaid, and just don’t get why your busy-ness in your business hasn’t gotten you any closer to the life you wish you had.
And you are not alone.
Popularity Doesn’t Translate into Cash
I was recently reminded in no uncertain terms that, despite Traffic Generation Café popularity, it barely makes enough money to pay for groceries.
Ouch.
Apparently, I should just join Empower Network and my financial goals will take care of themselves (these comments come from the post I just linked to).
In many ways, they are right.
With my kind of traffic, I should be able to live comfortably off the income, right?
And you’ve been in business long enough to make more than a couple of hundred dollars here and there.
And everyone else in your niche seems to be making money, so what’s wrong with you?
Truth is: we all have our own demons to conquer.
It’s just not always easy to figure out the WHYs, so that we can get down to the HOWs and fix them.
I’ll Tell You Mine; You Tell Me Yours
So, why isn’t Traffic Generation Café not making as much money as it should?
Let’s take a look at my income model for a second.
Affiliate Marketing
Over the last couple of years since I founded Traffic Generation Café, I’ve dabble in a few possible income streams, including:
- network marketing (yes, that’s how I started online);
- banner advertising;
- consulting;
- odds and ends like writing sponsored reviews, freelancing for other blogs, etc;
- and, of course, affiliate marketing.
The one thing that I’ve never tried to make money with is launching my own products.
However, the mere concept of spending hours, days, weeks putting together a product that might be outdated by the time it’s actually released or be a complete flop makes me cringe.
I know, I know - we can’t succeed if we don’t try.
But I don’t want to try.
If I am going to stay up all night working on my business, shouldn’t it be at least somewhat enjoyable?
So, launching my own products is off my income list, no matter how profitable it could be.
However, I LOVE to promote killer products that other marketers spend endless hours, and sweat, blood, and tears creating.
I LOVE affiliate marketing.
Food for thought: assuming that you can have your pick of how to make money with your business (and you DO, by the way - it’s YOUR business), what would be your top choice?
What Makes Affiliate Marketing Work?
Now that you and I know how we really want to make money with our businesses, it’s time to figure out what we need to do to make it work.
To be a successful affiliate marketer, I need:
- the right products to promote;
- the right people to promote them to;
- the reason people should buy those products from ME and not someone else.
I think that about covers it.
Food for thought: what are the right ingredients you need to start making money from your preferred income stream?
Why Isn’t It Working for Me?
Out of the three conditions of successful affiliate marketing I mentioned above, the lack of “the right products to promote” definitely stands out to me.
In the past two and a half years, I wrote only about 8 product reviews total.
Yes, I list all the tools I use and trust in my lil’ black book.
Yes, I mention products in my posts as I see appropriate.
But it’s not enough.
Why don’t I have more products to promote?
- I don’t promote anything I don’t test/use first.
- Testing takes time; a LOT of time.
- If I only have 3-4 hours per day to work on my business, and it takes me about 8 hours to write a blog post, and I publish 3 posts per week, plus do some guest blogging… you do the math. It just doesn’t add up.
- I really don’t believe we need that many tools to run a successful online business. Just a few core things I mention in my rolodex.
- There’s too much junk out there to sift through to find a few pearls.
So yes, I’ve got plenty of obstacles/excuses that keep me from finding and offering more worthy products that would make it much easier for my readers to run their business more successfully and efficiently.
Food for thought: what are the main things that you think keep you from making more money?
Working on All the Wrong Things
The only logical step here is this:
You/I need to decide whether you/I:
1. Continue running our businesses as hobbies, keeping ourselves “busy” doing things that have no direct impact on the eventual success of it?
OR
2. Do we figure out how to overcome whatever it is that’s keeping us from making money?
OR
3. We might as well quit now and forever hold our peace (and stop whining about it).
Now that it’s spelled out in black and white right in front of me, it seems to be laughable that I thought I had excuses for not making much money.
You Told Me Yours
Let’s step back for a second.
Why am I writing this post?
I know your reaction might be “Well, if SHE can’t make it with all this traffic and popularity, then how on earth would I?”
But see, the point is that the road gets bumpy for all of us.
It just does.
It’s what you do with those bumps will make or break you and your business.
By the way, I asked for your “not making money” stories on my Facebook page, and got a couple of links for you here:
- Lots of users but no money (Informly January stats report) - inform.ly
- Not Doing Too Good Lately… - ivinviljoen.net
- I’m Becoming very Lazy - topbloggingcoach.com
Again - not to discourage you.
It happens.
Let your readers pat you on the back.
Then move on.
So if you want to be in the loop or even be mentioned at TGC, make sure to give my FB page a like and follow my updates.
So What’s the Plan?
“You don’t need more time in your day. You need to decide.” ~ Seth Godin
If your problem is that you don’t really know how to make the best of the limited time you have to work on your business, I suggest starting there.
That’s what I did in December.
I stopped doing everything else, including writing/publishing posts, and focused on learning how to maximize my time.
If you are thinking “I don’t have the time to learn how to maximize my time!”, let me tell you: it’s not a choice. If you want to stop treading water that is.
I can’t say I am there, but I’ve learned a lot.
Food for thought: Do you feel like lack of time and too many things to do might be the core reason you feel overwhelmed and don’t get things done? If so, see what I’ve been doing about it.
The Tools
My two best resources of how to set up “systems” that take care of the “busy” things in my business and leave me to the core things that matter were the following two books:
“Getting Things Done” by David Allen
“Work the System: The Simple Mechanics of Making More and Woking Less” by Sam Carpenter
- Pick it up on Amazon
- Check out Sam’s site for more resources - you can actually pick up the book for free there.
Other tools I’ve been using:
- MindOnTrack mind mapping software - free; works on Mac and PC.
This one goes very well with David Allen’s way of organizing things and it’s free.
It’s even better, imho, than the leading $300+ MindJet.
That’s what I’ve been using to come up with my mind maps here and here, plus used as a basis for many videos like this one.
It’s all a part of my new content leverage system, which by the way, is increasing my search engine rankings and traffic.
I am not quite sure about this one just yet.
It seems like I can do all the same things in a folder on my Mac, but I am still giving it a shot.
Bottom Line
The bottom line is you/I don’t make enough money in our businesses because we don’t take time to.
Again, I can come up with all kind of excuses why that is, but it doesn’t matter.
Don’t make money because you have no traffic?
Then take your time to learn how to drive traffic.
Don’t make money because you haven’t developed authority and trust with your readers?
Then take your time to build an audience business.
Don’t make money because you don’t have a product?
Then stop doing everything else and create it.
Don’t make money because you have no idea how to?
I bet you there’s an app for that!
You see my point though: the only thing that stands between you and online income is YOU.
Random Thoughts
Some of you noticed that I stopped publishing my income reports and asked me why.
Truth?
I let the blood-thirsty EN folks bully me with all those “Who are you to run a blog; you can’t even make any money from it!” comments.
What I’ve come to realize since then is this: I am not the best at making money off my readers.
But I AM pretty darn good at driving traffic!
Thus I run TRAFFIC Generation Café.
It’s not “How to Make Loads of Money Online” Café.
It’s not “How to Convert 100% of your Visitors into Hot Leads” Café.
I know one thing and I know it very well: how to get loads of targeted website traffic to your blog - whatever the niche, the size, or the age.
That’s why you are here - learning how to use the knowledge I offer at this blog in your own business.
Here comes some tough love:
So if you like my content, like me (most of the times), why is it that Traffic Generation Café doesn’t make much money?
Are you buying, but not from me?
And be honest with me, I can handle it.
What am I doing wrong?
What am I doing right?
Hi, Anna!
I’m shocked. So much traffic and yet so little profit 🙁
Why don’t you want to create your own products? I’m sure you can easily package at least 2-3 from all the information you have here…
But that was than 6 months ago or so.. I hope that now the situation is better?
Have you tried CPA and content locking? With such ridiculous amount of traffic it should translate into good money.
Honestly, I’m in EN, and I know how you feel about it (one of my good friends, Patricia, linked to your review), but those comments were just insulting. I suppose cavemen like Aki don’t really have to have gentleman manners after all.
No wonder there are so much negative stuff about EN - if leaders are personally making comments like that, people will get angry.
Best wishes,
Aleks
If I actually tried to make money, I probably would do fine, Aleks; however, my blog would suffer. Since blogging is really where my passion is, money will have to wait.
EN: thanks for your support and I do hope you succeed there.
Hi, Oksana!
I see what you mean.. But I’m sure there is a way of combining money making with blogging, without sacrificing anything.
Maybe you could team up with some of your online friends and do paid weekly webinars for traffic generation strategies. This will not hurt your blog at all (perhaps even improve relationships with your readers). Just and idea 🙂
Best wishes,
Aleks
Thanks, Aleks!
Hi Ana,
There is one simple rule in life and it always works - 100%: You get what you focus on.
Do you or did you ever really focus on making 10k a month or 20k? Probably not.
Did you focus on building a high quality blog that provides tons of value and helps thousands of people? I’m pretty sure you did.
When something in life doesn’t work the way we would like it to work, then it is ALWAYS because we don’t focus on what we want or we focus on different things that cancel each other.
If you say: “Ok, I focus on making money… I do this and that… I study and learn about how to make money…”,
BUT at the same time there are conflicting thoughts like: It takes 16 hours of work to make a lot of money, being honest and providing value unfortunately doesn’t make much money, seems like the only easy way to make money is to scam people, making money online is very tough…
Then you won’t make money, because you are always saying: “let’s drive south for a minute and then lets drive north for a minute…” you will more or less stay where you are unless you cancel your conflicting thoughts and replace them with thoughts that correspond exactly with what you want:
Making money is easy, I can make 10k while working only 4-6 hours per day and make a lot of people happy at the same time, I master paid traffic and make 30k a month and at the same time I can help even more people with my fantastic products…
You can do all of that and even much more! But you first have to get to a state of being that allows you to believe what you want to achieve and that allows you to fully resonate with it without any conflicting thoughts.
Everything in life is a matter of Being and not of Doing. If you are constantly in the state of wealth and abundance, then your thoughts will change, you will have different ideas, you will start looking at things from a different angle… and you will take those actions that make you a lot of money. Your outside will reflect your inner state of being.
If you are in the state of “not making enough money” - no matter how much action you take, your income won’t change a lot - unless your inner state of being, your energy changes.
Remember the focus you had when you launched this blog - now focus for the next 6 months with the same passion, focus and intensity on making a lot of money while helping even more people.
To motivate yourself even more, tell yourself: “The more money I make, the more people I can help”
I hope you make a million over the next 6 months 🙂
Very well said, Robert, and glad to hear you are so financially successful online.
And you are right, I don’t focus on making money enough. Maybe because I don’t really need to make money off this blog; it’s just how success is measured in our culture.
Ana, I would be very happy if I would only be half as successful online as you are. My biggest challenges when it comes to financial succes are focus and various conflicting beliefs.
The principles I mentioned in my last comment work in other areas of my life and I’m convinced they can be used to achieve success and happiness in all areas of life, but it’s easiers said than done to keep ones focus and to change certain deep inner belief patterns…
Sorry, but I think I misinterpreted your blog post somewhat and you are absolutely right, it is not required to make a lot of money in order to be successful.
If someone loves what he/she is doing, the person is more successful than someone who makes a lot of money and is not happy. Being happy, feeling great and leading the life of ones dreams is the biggest success a person can achieve.
I know what you mean about making the same principals that work in our area of our lives/businesses work in others, Robert.
Success is definitely measured differently. When it comes down to business, the measure is usually money, and I happened to disagree on that one. For me, success is measured in value, and just value that I provide to others, but value that this business imparts to my life. Am I making sense?
Ana, that’s definitely one of the most interesting definitions of success I ever came across - something to reflect upon a bit deeper… and yes, it makes absolutely sense. Thanks a lot.
Completely new and tossing around doing a blog and stumbled on this on pininterest but wanted to point out that a quick link from this article to a drop down of other articles would be awesome . After reading it I wanted to see more of your site but navigating on a phone made it a pain. Thank you for the info.
Good point, Christina - will look into it.
Now that was severely attacking first I was shocked but now I think everyone should follow affiliate ethics..!
Now Ana the different is that you got an authority and you are a brand now we struggle for a hand full of viewers can I lease your traffic this summer if you don’t mind hehe anyway thanks for the post
Building authority first is definitely the way to go in my books, Noman.
You wrote this post a while back, meaning you might have gotten the answers to your plight, but let’s assume you haven’t…
Ana, thing is, you are really good when it comes to giving insightful information about traffic generation, but there is one thing called passion, and there is another called business - the dream of everyone is to merge the two.
Straight on Ana, You haven’t seen the ‘business’ angle of what you are doing, you know everything there is to know, but the ‘business’ part is missing. I was once a member of Chris Farrell like 2 years ago (I believe you know him, but if you don’t, Google is always a dear friend), I noticed the guy’s business acumen - very versed. That is how a business is run, and he’s making lots of money in the process.
In fact, what he is offering for his students are not better off what you are giving out here for FREE, but he presents them in quality videos with lots of humor. You don’t get to see articles on his site, enormous numbers of videos is what you’ll be presented.
Anyways, it’s late now and I’m a little tired of typing though I planned saying more, but there is nothing I’ll say that you don’t know, I believe you know what you want, but you’re a little frightened to get there (the reason why you needed to pour out your mind in the first place.)
Just know that at the end of the day, we all strive for our individual selves, nobody cares about you (I’m sorry to be rude), nobody cares if you are making money or not, all they want is if you can help them with their needs, and this you are doing for FREE, they are more than happy to come over the next time (myself inclusive).
It is you that’ll pay your bills, nobody will help you do that. What I’m saying is, you are responsible for yourself, and you’ll be the one to determine - to some degree - whether you go broke or not. Just brace yourself and stop making excuses (you’ve made a lot in the comments section already) and CREATE THAT PRODUCT! that has remained elusive (I think you are scared to death of doing that).
Don’t mind my language though.
You are very right, Yusuf, although I’d say being lazy is one of the deepest roots of it all. Sure I can stay up at night or rearrange my day better or write fewer posts and focus on paid products, but it sounds like too much work, thus I don’t make it my priority. That simple.
I appreciate you taking your time - that was a lot of typing. LOL
In all honesty. I am still new to your site.
However, I did buy Hybrid Connect because of the webinar you did with Shane Malaugh. The combination of information and a deal were hard to pass up.
I hear you on the money making front. I am still new to all that stuff. At the moment I am more worried about building traffic and audience. Once I have established that, I will focus my attention on money.
Like you mentioned earlier, it takes work.
Well, you’ve certainly managed to make a mark at Traffic Generation Café, Iain; I feel like I’ve know you for a while. Great job connecting and standing out!
Thank you.
You do an awesome job of connecting with people and interacting with your audience. Your blog is one of the most engaged in terms of reader to website owner.
High five 0/
I freaking love your blog posts Ana 🙂
I love your honesty and transparency and the determination to share something of value.
And the formatting! LOVE the formatting!
(blogger on blogger crush gush now over)
lol, Kelly; thanks for coming by.
Ana, I love your posts, but I am probably not the right person to give you advice or to put my point of view across, but I think that, being as good as you are, driving traffic to your blogs, why don’t you just join my company and make tons of money?? 🙂
I have products though, and with your expertise I think you would just become rich (if you are not already) overnight 😉
I mean, seriously making money as an affiliate it looks good as I am learning, but don’t you think that if you joined a company then started driving traffic to your website would be a lot more beneficial to you??…
You are doing everything right as far I am concerned, because you give a lot of good information(gold), but I think that you could do even better if you join a company.
Thanks for all your Blogs!!
🙂
No companies are good enough for my readers, Nilton. lol
I respect you taking the time to build a following and focus good content before rushing to create something just to sell. This is a long term strategy and I can relate as I have done the same thing for my blog. A large percentage of my income comes because of my blog and the opportunities it creates and not product sales or affiliates.
Why not work with some of your favorite products and have them sponsor a webinar or blog series that will generate you income without giving the hard sell. People trust your advice so you can provide resources and get paid this way. You can use my blog for ideas. I stink at selling products but I can write a white paper that is sponsored by a vendor for $7,000. I sell nothing on my blog and yet I have made six figures blogging for the last 2 years. It can happen.
Jessica
I do like doing webinars, Jessica - you made a good point.
A white paper sponsored by a vendor? I’d have very hard time imagining anyone willing to pay that much in my niche… Interesting idea though; worth exploring more.
Enjoyed browsing your site, by the way!
lol, Helene; completely understand.
Hi Ana! First of all who am I to give you advice since I’m nowhere near your stature. I am trying to make it online but so far don’t have much to brag about and my excuses are: laziness, procrastination, lack of direction and focus. One day I focus on building my list, the next day I’m trying to drive traffic, publish books on Amazon, create WSO’s, create videos, try offline business, etc. I don’t seem to stick to anything for too long. ADD’s my middle name 🙂
I recently watched a video recording of a presentation Pat Flynn from SmartPassiveIncome.com did a while ago. In the presentation, Pat talks about how to use FREE in your business to get more traffic, subscribers and customers. Here’s the link to that presentation:
http://www.smartpassiveincome.com/how-to-use-free-in-business
There really are some awesome tips on how to use FREE as an indirect way to make money. He gives some excellent examples of websites that follow this model to make money.
Pat’s website is also providing excellent value and makes money indirectly from affiliate marketing. He also provides monthly income stats for his online business and if you take a look, you might learn how to better monetize yours.
Now if I was a traffic generation specialist like you, I would gather my best traffic generation methods and create an ebook. You could just simply grab your best traffic generation blog posts and turn them into a book.
Then you simply let your readers know about it on your blog, send an email to your subscribers, sell it as a WSO, put it on Amazon. Even better, you could create a continuity traffic generation website and charge a monthly fee.
You are a prolific product creator and you have created awesome content whether you know it or not; all you have to do is package it and sell it.
With more money comes more headache but I’d rather have headache than no money. Which reminds me I need to get off my ass and do something about it 🙂
I am definitely a big fan of Pat’s, Ioan.
I think many bloggers were inspired by what he does, but it’s not easy to duplicate, to say the least.
Will keep toiling! 🙂
Ana. I would like to say thank you.
Thank you for being honest with us.
Thank you for sharing your struggles with us.
Thank you for showing us that the chant “The money is in the list” is wrong and should be “The money is in the right list”.
However, there seems to be one thing you haven’t done, unless I missed it (in which case I apologise ahead of time):
You didn’t ask us what we would be prepared to buy from you.
I wish you well in your endeavours
Good point, Phil; I’ve got market research at my finger tips.
Hi Ana. I would qualify as a complete newbie. I’ve been studying and researching IM for a few months but haven’t done any real work yet. Although I’m probably the least qualified person here to tell you how to increase your revenue, I am also unbiased and uncultured enough to have a clear “virgin” look at TGC. When I found your blog two months ago, I IMMEDIATELY knew I was in THE right place for learning and guidance. The way you write, what you write about and the amazing audience you have immediately conveys a sense of security and empathy. I guess that’s what you pros call engagement and authority. You MUST find a way to profit from that, and lead by example. Or else all we newbies arriving here with our dreams in our hands will be left empty handed - if Ana can’t do it, how can we?
Having said that, my humble suggestions.
1. you seem very good at writing and driving traffic - how about one on one lessons/coaching on blog/IM writing, SEO etc? That way you wouldn’t need to have a product right away but you’d still profit from your knowledge, at your own pace. I foresee lots of happy customers 🙂 Take Danny Iny’s “borrow my brain” as an example.
2. after a few lessons and clients, you will see a pattern of questions, needs, requests, and you will have many materials and resources already set up. From that to a full blown course/book/learning community it’s only a step up. A natural one. Just using the same approach you use to get ideas for future posts, but in a more structured manner. You could launch it with JV’s and affiliates to turn a great profit, as other people mentioned before. But hell, I think that even if you would just advertise it here at TGC would be more than enough money to make it worthwhile.
Let it come naturally and take advantage of what you already build on a daily basis. That’s what I do in my daytime job as a college and online teacher, and it works! Let your students tell you what they want, I guess isn’t much different to letting your audience/clients tell you what they need and are willing to pay for.
Keep doing what you do, we love you.
You mean I’ll have to actually work for it, Hugo? 🙂
I always welcome an objective analysis, and you hit all the right spots.
I did do SEO and traffic consulting in the past, but realized it wasn’t my cup of tea.
My real passion is in blogging itself. I’d be very happy to continue blogging without making a dime from it, but my mortgage company still wants to see a monthly payment - go figure…
I’ll pull it together; one way or another.
One thing you said that really resonated with me - “if Ana can’t make any money with her traffic and authority, how can we?”
I don’t want my readers to feel that way. That alone would motivate me enough.
Thanks for taking your time to comment.
Hi Ana, I know there are more experienced bloggers than I who will tell you that you need to do this or that but let me just offer an observation: who are you comparing yourself to and why? If you’re making x$ per month…who says that’s not good enough? I’m not saying you shouldn’t be ambitious. What I am saying is to run your own race. Building traffic, you’ve got down. Making money online is a new skill because it requires a different skill set. A lot of trial and error, testing, failing, testing, failing, until you hit that stride but it takes time.
As far as what you need to do…you already know. You said it. So why do you need us to tell you? When you are sick and tired of being sick and tired then you will do what you need to do. You can’t force it, wish it, hope it, blog it, whine it into being. When you have the necessary fire under your butt, you’ll do it and tell us afterwards because you’ll be too busy doing to blog about it until later.
Just my 2 cents.
Very good point indeed. A lot more people are making a lot less online, plus I am doing it at my own pace.
Did make it for a good post though. 🙂
It did 🙂 But I think more people are making less blogging but are making more overall because they have multiple streams of income. So just find your way. You can do it
I’ll lay this one out as straight as possible, you’ve not explored all money making options. I for one am somebody who would love to see you making more money from a well built, well maintained and well deserved reputation you’ve clearly worked so hard to nurture and grow.
So, you said you’re options are…
- network marketing (yes, that’s how I started online);
- banner advertising;
- consulting;
- odds and ends like writing sponsored reviews, freelancing for other blogs, etc;
- and, of course, affiliate marketing.
Let’s be fair, nobody cares for their main revenue stream to come from banner advertising. Whatever, it’s an “in the background” thing. All the other options are more than viable, and for whatever reason you’re not doing too well from any of them - again, whatever, no biggie.
How do you get around this without sidestepping your morals. I think, honesty, there’s a very simple option here. One of a few which quickly came to mind was…
Make your website subscription based! DONE.
Naturally, there are a thousand things to consider here, but they are for you to personally look into as the owner of the business. Is it the best thing to do? Will i lose a lot of subscribers? Will i piss everyone off? Etc. I’d say personally that you’ve reached such a respectable level now, that enough of your users will be more than happy to pay for your services - the service being teaching.
The idea came into my head SECONDS after reading you had 19,000 subscribers. I like to base everything i do on a “worst case scenario” type thing. Looking at some basic numbers…
- 19,000 subscribers
- $1 monthly subscription
Let’s do a little math here…
Based on a worst case scenario that just 1% of your fan base is actually loyal. In your first month, you’ll make $190. That will continue month-on-month making you $2,280 a year if you keep up the good work 😉 and will only continue to grow. More math…
Based on a slightly better outcome… 10% of your readers decide to subscribe. You’ve made $1,900 in your first month, and the number remains consistent month-on-month etc making you $22,800 a year. More math…
Based on a Yearly subscription of $10; 1% makes you $1,900 in your first month, 10% makes you $19,000 in your first month, which in theory keeps you going for a very long time… with it only continuing to grow.
Just image if half of your visitors decide they’d like to pay monthly/yearly? I wish i were you right now! I could go on for ages with this type of theory.
Anyway. There’s a lot to consider here, but i bet you’ll be surprised as to the loyalty of your readers. $10 a year, $1 a month… it’s nothing. People give more to the random homeless guy on the street.
Essentially, the biggest road block is “do i charge for my content” and i think the answer should be yes, of course. However, maybe consider the type of package. Continue to offer content for free, just simply make the really valuable-awesome-best-posts subscriptions only - after all, you do already have a backlog of content worthy of purchasing.
Anyway, let me know if that was at all helpful. Sometimes seeing the math right there in front of you opens up such simple awesome opportunities.
What I have hard time with is deciding what content I should charge for, Michael. As a result, I end up charging for none.
Well I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you this. But efficniency, and time management is often about making tough decisions. Once a decision is made, you can at least then go back and alter it if it’s not working out.
As i said above, lay out all teh different options (and there are many here). Then simply evaluate the worst case scenario for each. You’ll find with most that the worst case scenario is still probably not at all bad. In which case, get tough with yourself, make that choice, and see what happens.
I for one, would pay. Maybe do a survey? If your results are more or less positive, it’s a pretty safe sign to go ahead with… based on the math…
As you know, it’s all about testing. Go get testing 😀
It certainly makes sense, Michael.
Keep us all in the loop, I’d love to hear about your tests, what works, what hasn’t etc…
🙂 Good Luck!
When I first started blogging a few years back, it took me forever to learn how to get good traffic to make some money of the traffic that I spent countless hours figuring out how to. I learnt from many gurus, marketing experts on how to drive traffic. However, there is 1 thing I know for sure, without great content, visitors are just visits. Writing great content + driving good traffic are your strengths Ana. Just keep up the good work.
Great content I do have…
Hi Ana,
I read this blog post with great interest. At the beginning I was very surprised to read that your income was so low. As I finished reading the post and all the comments I can see why, just as many others are seeing it.
Interestingly enough, even before I read this post and learned about your financials something caught my attention as I read the very first post I came across a few days ago.
In that post you mentioned that your favorite keyword tool is Market Samuri. I believe that you mentioned it 2x. Yet not one time did you link to it. That actually surprised me. I already have the tool but others don’t and I feel that you missed an opportunity there. You may have it mentioned in your Rolodex but not everyone will check your resources.
As well Ana, I’d love to read your traffic strategies and would gladly pay for the PDF or a video course. But you do not seem to offer one. You mentioned that you fear that it will get outdated. Of course it will, everything does. But Kim Roach and Jason Fladlien still sell their outdated reports from before 2009. Jason mentioned he does not even know where some of his stuff is coming from.
Every newspaper article, every bit of scientific research that is published is already outdated by the time it is out. If everybody felt that their stuff will be outdated by the time it is published we would still be in dark ages.
I look forward to reading your posts and learning from you. I sincerely hope that you will turn your financials around and in a few short months you will be able to report that your income grew substantially.
Best wishes,
Dita
P.S. I was so glad when you mentioned that it took you 8 hours to write a post. All the know-it-alls boast 20 minutes or even as low as 7 minutes. I thought there was something wrong with me (lol).
Certainly makes sense, Dita.
And yes, I do take my writing seriously; that’s why I have the kind of readership that I have.
Hey Ana
I cannot believe what I have just read! Clearly, the person you see when you look in the mirror is not the same person that I see in my mind’s eye when I think “Ana Hoffman!”
I have been trawling the internet for two or three years looking for someone who could shine a light into my online ignorance and personal delusions without telling me the Holy Grail could be purchased for $797 or $979 (value $2,797,979.79) or whatever combinations of 7 and 9 they could dream up that day. You have an innate ability to communicate as if you in the here and now and as if you really care (which of course no one can if they don’t know the person at the other end). Think of yourself as an actor….let me explain . Meryl Strep is great but I can see the technique, Meryl trying to be great. When I watch the lesser applauded Kristin Scott Thomas I cannot see the technique. She simply….is. Similarly in your writing. Chris Brogan has great technique in his blog, but I can see the effort. With you it’s natural….I cannot see your technique. In fact it is so natural I am not sure you even have one!! This means that your cred is powerful and ever present. Hey, Danny Iny is a revelation and I am learning tons from his course, but if if anyone else had recommended him I doubt that I would have given him the time of day (which of course would have been MY loss). Do you see my point? I am convinced that whatever product you pin your flag to will bathe in the sunshine of your credibility. All you have to do is believe in yourself. I know that’s far harder than finding someone who believes in you, but I implore you to try; because if you do I am sure that the money you deserve shall flow in abundance
Wow, I should pin your comment to my computer screen, John (on second thought, should use tape instead of a pin 🙂 ).
THANK YOU.
A lot of what you said sounds similar to what I go through. Just a thought, but perhaps you are spreading yourself too thin with focus on too many different areas? That was/is definitely part of my issue.
I started blogging and creating niche sites about a year ago with help from you and others like Pat Flynn. I am not quite generating the income I had hoped, but I am definitely learning a ton about a lot of different things in the process.
I did a quick inventory recently and since 75% of my income has been in the form of affiliate sales, I’m going to focus my efforts there and do more of what has worked and spend less time on other things. I’m going to follow a set plan/process, follow it through to completion and hopefully can produce positive results and reproduce them.
I find that if I have all these great ideas swirling around in my head, I’ll start in on all of them at the same time, but have very little time to focus on any one item and all suffer. Since that hasn’t resulted in the success I’m shooting for, time to refocus.
Glad you found your bottle neck, Chris; going for too many things at the same time can definitely do it to you.
Not the problem in my case though.
Ana, your content is really good to a fault. I love your integrity that you’re not easily lured into a quick cash and your honest product reviews. For this alone, me and other audiences here would happily buy what you recommend 🙂
I’m not an expert marketer but here’s what pops up in my mind :
1. I think you can repackage the blog posts into a more condense version as a Kindle.
2. Make your own product that describes your case study. You can post it in CB, DigiResults, JVZoo
3. Or if you have already joined Warrior Forum you can post a WSO.
4. Build more mailing lists by solo ads to strengthen the audience base.
5. Make an interactive premium webinar.
One of a female IM’er with a rare strong integrity I know is Tiffany Dow who I followed for almost a year. And she’s doing really well in term of income. Maybe in some forms, you can emulate a bit of her method (she’s more on PLR though). But overall she keeps a great balance between giving and promoting. Maybe that’s the key, balance + integrity + honesty.
Ack. Just a humble rambling from a non-expert mind 🙂
Much appreciated, Ariadne; your advice is solid despite your claims of being a non-expert. 🙂
Never heard of Tiffany Dow; will check her out.
Hey Ana,
You know - I would gladly pay $100 bucks for a tool or condensed step by step “Do this, do that, in this order to get traffic book”. I think many people would as well.
I also believe the real money is in creating a product, launching the heck out of it and getting lots of affiliates. Seems like you would have an army here promoting something you put together. If you don’t want to ‘put it together’ - perhaps a JV with someone who will take your info and package it. Another partner who is a pro at launches and another who can gather momentum and affiliates. Boom.. that’s a lot of business. Also, what I’ve realized due to downloading and piracy, you need a back end like private members area, tool or another clincher for retention… Just a thought…
“Condensed” is the word, Mike. No one wants to spend money on another long-winded fluff-packed course - I know I don’t.
Love you ideas about JVs. If only they were easy to come by. 🙂
Am just starting out and your blog has been of tremendous help giving me the ability to believe in myself.
Want you to know that your name has the ability to draw JV partners. Since people know you as someone who is credible and has integrity.
Hey Anna I get you must have lost some of your confidence due to the response of Empower network.
But don’t let this get to you considering that you are have the capacity to drive traffic to any site you are told to handle.
Here comes my tip for driving money to your site.
1) Create a Hire Me Page: You can laise with Oni of YounPrePro . He has successfully used this method to generate over $5000 a month. He does this by writing article for companies that pay him about $150 per article
2) You can also liaise with Neil Patel He’s a good guy sure he has one or two tips to share since you can become an SEO CONSULTANT for several top site
Looking forward to your March Income Report
Thanks for the suggestions, Peter - too bad I am not a least bit interested in doing consulting/services of any kind.
Hey Ana. I totally love your blog, am a subscriber and have learned so much from you. Just the other day I bookmarked 4 pages to revisit. I am going to be buying some of the products you listed (the template one to be exact) and definitely coming back through your link to make sure you get the affiliate love.
Glad I can help, Nelson, and thank you.
I guess you are right about everyone has their own demons to conquer. I get very good at development but then I am totally useless when it comes to marketing. I do well in monetization but then as I am useless in marketing I don’t get enough traffic that could be monetized.
In short I think everyone has his or her pros and cons.
The way you are handling this blog by putting up good articles from bottom of your heart and giving replies to people who comment on your posts is a time consuming job. Maybe that is why your site gets great traffic and maybe you should continue doing what you are doing right now as it makes a person feel bit more close to your site when you add a personal touch to all the things.
BTW I loved those coffee cups in all your posts.
Thanks for coming by, Keral.
Hi Ana,
You made money off me from a consultation, which was awesome.
But beyond that you didn’t make money off of me because you didn’t have anything to sell. I didn’t want a tool, in fact, I knew about most of the ones you reviewed.
Last I looked you were going to do a monthly thing now, which is awesome, and I hope you put your best content in that newsletter instead of on the blog where people can access it for free. Because people will pay to get awesome info from you.
That’s how I feel as your reader. 🙂
You surely did, Susan; thank you!
And you are right; I need to save the best for the best. 🙂
Hi Ana,
First, I must say I’m surprise to read that you are not really making much money with this blog. Yes, it’s been sometime I visited this blog but when I saw your blog referenced on a friends blog with this topic, I just had to step over and read it.
Now, having read your post I must say that many bloggers are in this same spot. Working their hearts off but making nothing in return. Many in frustration gave up and their blogs have become some other statistics in failed blogs. I can see that despite this not too pleasant situation, you have remained committed which is a good thing.
However, I must say, from your post, that the problem you have here is a matter of the heart. It is apparent that business is not your area. You are a perfectionist who wouldn’t push out anything unless everything about it is in ‘perfect shape!’ Besides, it is clear that you take blogging to be social connection tool rather than a business and so your content flows in that direction.
Your frankness is very clear in the post but I must say if you are going to monetize this blog and make good returns from it, you re-evaluate WHY you are blogging. I did a post on this sometime in December with this question: Why are you here? Settle this question and then you will be able to really know what direction to focus on. If you are here to have fun, then you don’t have to listen to the types of comments you referenced in the post. But if you really want to have fun and also make money, then you will once again have to learn what it takes to run a blog like a business.
Truth is whatever route you take, you are the architect of your life no one has the right to tell you what you must do!
I just like to blog and hope that the money part would just magically fall into place, Chadrack. 🙂
Hasn’t happened yet, but you never know! And thanks for coming by; pleasure to see you back.
Hi Ana
I did wonder why you cannot make loads of money with this blog. Here are few ideas I thought about: (please don’t take offence)
** Your content is so well written that the reader is wrapped up in your words and not really thinking about buying a product.
** Your readers like you almost too much and are hanging around to see what you think and say.
** Your content is extremely long and goes into many subjects that could be split into separate more focused posts. Like a post about SEO and then only trying to sell one product.
I see your rankings and I know you can rank for anything you post..So it must be either:
*the content
*the call to action
*or the audience
I may have bought my Aweber through your link or Ileanes, not sure..I didn’t want the commission to go to waste.
As a blogger I usually buy through my own link if the affiliate allows this or I get the product for free in exchange for a review. Maybe you have an audience full of people like me..bloggers that know too much and have everything but like your writing?
Whatever it is I am doing is clearly not working, Mitz.
I’ll take your suggestions to heart.
Hi Ana,
GREAT post! Nothing endears me more than people being honest about what’s going on, ups & downs and all. I recently wrote a post debating on the direction of my business (just under my name? Giving up the brand) and it stemmed from a lot of reasons, one being the time for money.
The crazy thing is I get the MOST return where I am happiest- teaching and creating products.
I stayed away from creating products for a while (do I know enough, etc.), but my audience wants to learn WP from because they’re everyday users, not coders and programmers.
I would sign up in a heartbeat to watching you teach some of your traffic strategies. And I don’t think it would take you months to gather.
Create a simple power point outline, do a live webinar where you record the video and you’re done.
Just offer the webinar AS a paid course (I’d be more than happy to host w/my gotowebinar for you).
The other thing that came to mind as I was reading about your affiliate marketing was Pat Flynn. He doesn’t have any of his own products but kills it with affiliate marketing because he creates tutorials on using the products he recommends.
I don’t think I’m saying anything new or you haven’t already heard, but maybe think of it as something you’re doing FOR your audience. People who love what you do and are loyal WANT to buy from you. I bet if you surveyed your readers /subscribers with a free survey you’d get some valuable info. about what people want to buy from you and how much they’d be willing to spend.
Oh.. and one more.. (didn’t know I’d be so wordy here). What about an interview? Then you’d have an audio that you could have transcribed, which creates both a PDF AND audio for a product (not to mention potential Kindle book).
In support of all you do,
Kim
Look at me: even before I read your post, I already have an opinion as to which direction you take with your blog… 🙂 Stick with the brand name! The name gives people an idea of what the site is about before they click over. Unless we are Seth Godin, name brands don’t work as well.
And thanks for your support! I often wonder how it is that Pat is killing with affiliate marketing. If he can do it, then why can’t I, right?
However, other readers noticed that once they buy any aff products from me, that’s it; there’s nothing more to buy.
Bradley Anderson says
Quick product idea, Ana: ‘The Best of TGC: Volume 1″. 🙂 Pick your 25 best (most popular) posts including any useful comments, and package them into an ebook. Update anything that needs updating. Make sure to include various links inside. Ta-da! New product to sell.
If you want to see what people think of it first (and boost traffic a bit, as well), post it in the War Room at WF (yes, I noticed a while back that you finally joined!). 🙂
You could probably hire someone on Fiverr to take care of the editing for you.
Nice post, thanks for the useful information,
I have had a similar problem with my blog where I have struggled to make money from my visitors. I have also tried a lot of differerent and sponsored posts worked well for a while for me but this is not working as well anymore.
It was nice to know about how you make money with this blog,
Thanks for sharing 🙂
Oh Ana…the eternal question for most of us! Why aren’t we making more money? I have been in this crazy business for two years and have made hardly any money, despite building good websites, writing great articles, learning about SEO, keywords, etc…
I see other people build a fairly crappy site and make more in a month than I’ve made in two years. I have no advice or idea why your site doesn’t make more money, but I loved this post because, if nothing else, it made me feel less alone in not being successful.
I love your site, I love your attitude, honesty, personality and will be a devoted follower. I hope we all figure it out soon!
Either way, blogging builds me up, gets me away from being a mama, a wife, a cook, a housekeeper, etc, so even if I don’t make too much money from this, I still feel like I am ahead. 🙂
Thanks for coming by, Sheila!
Hi Ana, I love following your blog. I enjoy your style of writing and the forthright way you call a spade a spade. You know your strengths and your weaknesses. If you are struggling to move around them why not try a different tack.
As you have said there are not so many great products out there for you to promote, so what about partnering up with some of those who do have great products. Work with them; they produce the products and you bring the traffic, make it a win-win-win situation.
Or find someone who is good at creating great content and license what they produce under your own brand.
Just my opinion 🙂
Not a bad idea at all, Scott. Requires quite a bit of leg work, but doable. Thank you!
Hello Ana,
What’s the whole list pf products you’re promoting?
Could it be that since those are some of the well known products on the IM niche even when people are reading your reviews and referrals, other IMers are getting those commissions?
For example, Market Samurai or Tweet Adder? I read your review but I also try to read a lot of other reviews to confirm if the product is good enough for me or not. That means that the first results on Search Engines are the ones getting commissions and maybe not you?
But of course, you have a loyal reader’s database. So not everything is about SE traffic.
When it comes down to reviews, I think you are right, Servando - those who are listed first in Google get the worm. So I am working on listing some of my reviews higher right now.
Well great!
What’s your strategy for that? (if you don’t care to share).
I use my content leverage system to build links: https://trafficgenerationcafe.online/content-marketing-leverage-system/
Bradley Anderson says
Just a thought, but I didn’t find your blog through the search engines. It was actually a referral that another IMer made, and I would be willing to be bet most others here didn’t find you via search engine, either. 🙂
I’ve purchased two items through your ‘Black Book’ page and I am very happy with them. The rest are not useful for my situation, but still great products. But that’s it. You’ve probably made about $20 in commissions from my purchases, and that’s where it stops.
My question to you now: What else am I supposed to buy from you? 😉
Instead of concentrating on getting MORE people here via the search engines (which is great for TRAFFIC, but it’s still playing the numbers game as far as sales go), concentrate more on selling to the people you already have as loyal readers, and who already trust you.
You certainly made a great point, Bradley.
It all points back to having your own product.
Ana,
My suggestion would be stop sending people away to buy from somebody else. I was reading your new email today and I love the information you provide. Today there was a link for Freddy Krueger of Blogging: How to Write Highly Successful Guest Posts in under 2 Hours. Yes it was interesting, but as I got half way down the page, I realized he was selling something. I left his site as well as yours. If you wan to promote someone that is fine, but create the link that you never leave your site. For most people once they leave a site, they usually don’t come back unless there is something FREE and they decide to bookmark your page.
I love your articles and you have been a great help. I look forward to receiving the coffee break emails.
Good point, Rudee; however, since I don’t have a product of my own, the only way I can potentially earn anything at all is by sending my traffic out through affiliate links. That’s the only way aff marketing would ever work.
I am into this dilemma myself. Getting enough traffic but its not converting into revenue. If you find a way out, I am all ears 🙂
By the way, have you tried Adsense, BuySellAds, Reachli etc? They can generate enough to cover the operating costs, I believe.
The problem with these services is sending my traffic away from my blog for pennies. I don’t believe it’s a smart strategy for an IM blog like mine. Definitely works well on some niche blogs though.
Hi Ana,
Great post, as always. Sending traffic away from your blog using these methods doesn’t always have to be for “pennies”. Adsense works well if you select the right topics to target and have done the keyword research. Your site is strong enough to that you can generate plenty of “new” traffic just from ranking for particular keywords, in which case you’re not loosing existing traffic but rather converting “new” traffic.
I started my IM career with Adsense and although it is certainly not the only way to make really good money on the web, it does work VERY well when done right. You don’t have to run ads on your entire blog to make it work, you just need specific pages (or posts) that are ranking high for specifically targeted keywords that have a decent payout. The “key” is in the keyword research and understanding how much advertisers are paying for these keywords through Google’s AdWords program.
The advantage that you have, is that your blog is already established, has a good reputation in the IM community and it is “trusted” with regards to Google’s search index. In terms of ranking for targeted keywords, you have an edge over someone trying to do it from scratch. Kind of like aged vines producing better wine than new ones. Take for example keywords like “seo link building” and “link building seo”: Both of these phrases are competitive in Google, have a global search volume of 27,000 a month and cost advertisers over $10.00 a click on average.
What this means in english…is that IF you were to rank in a top position for one or both of these keywords and you ran Adsense on that page, not only would you be getting truck load of new visitors, those visitors WILL click those ads and the payout for each click would NOT be pennies….
Even if Adsense only payed you 50% of the click (they normally pay more even for new accounts) you would be raking in a nice income from traffic to a single page. Note that this will only work IF your page is ranked in the top 1 - 3 position in Googles search index. We all know that’s where the real vloume is at. So… you would first need to either select an existing article where you have written about “seo link building” or write a new one, do the on page seo and THEN you would need to do the necessary link building to get “that particular page” ranking in a top position.
Keep in mind I am only talking about a single page here…
If you pick the wrong keywords and niche’s to go after of course pennies would be the pay out. Again, the real “key” is in the keyword research, proper selection of the keywords and getting those targeted pages ranking on the top half of page one in Google’s search index. The link building does take a little time, but it is WAY worth it.
This works Anna. It does…..You’re sitting on a real gold mine here, you just haven’t tapped in to the “glory hole” yet.
You are certainly making a lot of sense, Michael.
To be quite honest with you, I never really tested AdSense at TGC; just dismissed it as something that won’t work for me.
Hi Ana,
I haven’t read your other posts as yet. But the kind of authority I have found in this post drives me to think you have a pretty clear mindset as to what you want. And I liked your honesty of admitting what you like and what you don’t. Its true that we alone can either make money or not online and if the our willpower is right nothing can stop us. I will take time reading your other posts too. I can’t tell u where you are going wrong, but I know you will surely figure it out soon and make lots of money then.
Thanks, Vicky. Welcome to Traffic Generation Café!
Hi Ana. I first found your website from your Empower Network Review that you did. Since then, I have found you from Ti’s website and other searches on the Internet for other stuff. I have read some of your articles and have quickly realized that you are very respected by many fellow bloggers. I admire you even though I have never met you. You can get a feel about people just through their writing. Yes you have a lot of traffic and a large optin list. Yes your traffic and readers seem to be in the same niche as you so most likely they already have products similar to the ones you are selling.
Maybe you haven’t found the right products to sell as yet.
Maybe you have a problem with selling to people - making money from people. And that is something that you might need to look into.
You are obviously a person of Integrity and that’s just awesome! So many marketers on the Net are doing so many stupid things for the ‘love’ of money.
I hope you keep on keeping on. We (Internet Community) need leaders like you who are honest, straight forward and who wear their hearts on their sleeves.
Don’t worry, someone of your caliber of a person, will make it big. It’s only a matter of time.
And money isn’t the only form of success. It’s just one very small part of it.
Sounds like my strategy of “being everywhere” is working. 🙂
Thanks for coming by, Rory, and for the compliment.
I couldn’t quite tell from your site: are you promoting EN?
Yes Ana I am.
You are great and love your post about Empower Network. You have found a niche that you can make money with . Your traffic generation is your key. This is my opinion but you have a way to make money with your traffic generation. You should capitalize on the fact you can get traffic is what works. Also do not let Empower Network people worrry you. They too are looking for traffic but could not generate the kind of traffic you have. You have done a great job and wish you the best of luck you actually have a gold mine.
Thank you, Edward.
Hi Ana,
I’m not sure if anyone pointed this out but just thought that I would chime in. Your readers/audience are pretty well-versed with Internet marketing, thats why they dont buy through your affiliate link.
They might click on your clickbank link, go back, use their own affiliate ID, buy the product, save at least half the price. It happens. Same goes for other affiliate networks, which they probably are members of. I maybe wrong though.
For what its worth, just bought my TweetAdder using your link 🙂
That certainly makes sense, James.
And I truly appreciate your support!
After reading around your site and clicking a few links, here are a couple of things I found that would keep me from buying something from your site.
This is the first one from your tools page:
“Always, always, always do your OWN due diligence before making any purchases.”
Many people who have been around marketing online have seen that there is virtually no way to do any due diligence on marketing products. Everything you read is a review disguising an affiliate link. And people that are new, are looking for someone to trust.
So you are sending people away to other affiliates in both cases and if the other affiliate says something they like better or offers a better bonus, in all likelihood, your cookie is going to get overwritten.
If you want to promote something because you love it, then promote it and stop sending people away to buy from somebody else.
The second one is this, from your commenting form:
“I appreciate and read all comments, even though I don’t always have the time to respond to each one. Your comments are extremely important to me, so keep them coming. Please, do not use just keywords in “Name” field; you MUST leave a real name, if you want to see your comment approved. Thinking of dropping your link spam? Save the effort: your comment will NEVER show up on this blog.”
This paragraph is all about you and your wants and needs. The first word is “I”, the first sentence is a “comma but” sentence, where the second part of the sentence is the real idea, and the first part is an apology for what you are really doing, which is “not replying because your time is more valuable than ours”. And the rest of the paragraph is a threat. The people who don’t know what a “link spam” threshold is, will be confused and the real link spammers running their Xrumer installs are not going to care.
This is your blog, you can run it how you want and you are not under obligation to anyone to explain why you have the policies you do. Want to promote? Promote and stop apologizing for it. Don’t want to promote? Then stop doing it. But be whoever you are going to be, it’s your life and your site and you deserve to have it be the way you want.
An interesting side trip into copywriting, Michael.
I wrote that comment “warning” precisely for the reason you mentioned: this is my blog and this is how I want to run it.
Couldn’t quite figure out what it had to do with affiliate marketing though.
I don’t understand what you mean about a side trip into copywriting, Ana.
Of course it is your blog, what I am saying is that you don’t have to tell anyone what you are doing or what your comment policy is, you can just do it. Having the warning there gives a certain tone to your blog and perhaps (I am not sure, of course) that may be part of why people don’t buy as much from your site. It might not be, but it might be worth looking at.
Ana,
Great post as always!
I take it that you don’t make enough money because you don’t create products. I am sure there are many more reasons. I am a Kenyan freelance writer and internet marketer with less than 1 year of blogging but my products have earned me quite a good buck.
I agree that you are a Don when it comes to traffic. I don’t think a week goes by before I pass by to check out something new; and I always get something fresh, new and great.
All the best 🙂
I know, I know, Walter; most people earning online living do it through their own products. I just need to kick myself in the rear or stop complaining about not making enough money.
Ana,
Thanks for your response. Yes, you should be making millions, without messing up your integrity and authority.
For the record, I don’t always make more money than you. Some months I make slightly more, some slightly less, others much less. I have around 170 guys on my list and get only 200 visitors per day. I also have much less posts than you and have been around for less than 1 year.
I will therefore use examples of guys who actually do make much more than you but you are in the same league.
My most respected bloggers are:
1. Ana Hoffman
2. Mark Ling
3. Neil Patel
4. Kristi Hines
5. Derek Halpern
Let’s look at these for a minute:
1. Ana Hoffman - I got to know about you from some Google search. The first reason I started following your blog was because I saw Kristi’s face and recommendation. I subscribed, got the great PDF report and keep coming back for free traffic related stuff. I have not yet used on any of your affiliate links since I already had what you promote. Your sidebar has other people’s products and reviews. As an affiliate, you promote other people’s products. As one of your top fans, I promote your site, but most guys coming will still not give you much money.
2. Mark Ling - I call this guy my money man. I got to know him through a recommendation from Eben Pagan from his list mails. Mark was doing an AffiloBlueprint 3 launch offer. I didn’t know much about affiliate marketing so I went ahead and bought AB3. This kept me busy for months (till now) learning from him. His strategies work and have made me thousands of dollars. I click on most of his affiliate links as I go through the training. I promote his training as an affiliate and most guys who I refer buy his products and click on his affiliate links while learning.
3. Neil Patel - I knew this guy from Kristi who happens to be my favorite writer on the internet. I saw her name in some QuickSprout and KISSmetrics posts, read and started following Neil. Neil doesn’t sell much, apart from his consultancy and cool software. His sidebars are all about his products and he apparently makes millions from that. He gives lots of free cool stuff like the recent free 45,000 SEO guide. I personally don’t buy anything from Neil but I believe most six to seven figure earners do so he makes quite a chunk from one sale.
4. Kristi Hines - Kristi is my all time favorite freelance writer. I read from her from all over the internet and look forward to her posts. Funny thing, I hardly check out Kikolani - her personal site. I promote her eBook, Blog Post Promotion (thus she makes some money from me) and would hire her as a freelance writer (already got a quote). She seems to make money from her writing, product, contests, affiliate marketing e.t.c.
5. Derek Halpern - This guy is considered a genius by bloggers. He doesn’t sell much but when he does he sells hard. What does he sell? His products e.g. the recent Blog That Converts. He doesn’t have much on his sidebar but stuff to do with his blog.
The thing here is, you need to sell your product or services to make some good buck online; don’t just be an affiliate.
A good product will get you committed buyers due to your authority. They will click on all your links in the product and become your affiliates when your strategies work. You seem worried about it getting to a point where it will be outdated, but, just like Kristi, Mark Ling e.t.c., you can always push out updates in real time, just as you do on your blog and your customers will love you more.
Once again, you are doing a great job here. I am looking forward to buying your first product, Ana.
Thanks for taking your time to break down your thoughts on this, Walter.
We might know what our readers want, but hearing it from our readers is an entirely different and very helpful thing.
I’ll be giving this some thought.
Hi, Ana. It’s because your experienced readers already have these apps and plug-ins, and your beginners aren’t quite ready to invest in their online business.
As part of the latter group, I’ve looked at things you recommend and signed up for some free trials. I was very tempted by Danny Iny’s Audience Biz Masterclass, but then my offline work exploded and I knew I couldn’t commit right now. Because you share so much great content, I think: When I’m ready for xyz, I’ll use Ana’s link. Therefore you get some income trickling in.
Are you defining success by other people? I’d be glad to have online income like yours right now! But of course you want to keep growing and tweaking.
I used to sign up for anything I could get my hands on, Beth, but then all those great courses just sat in my inbox - the timing was all wrong.
So definitely wait till you can get full advantage of Danny’s training and I appreciate you thinking of me.
Ana,
F*&^ing brilliant.
I’m actually leaving part of this comment out, because of fear a lot of folks would read it.
It took me 5 months of DearBloggering to decide I’d AM 1-2 products instead of 10+ with a drive for more.
But it’s hard to get into that upper-tier position where people buy from you and not the other guy. Super hard. Like 100 backlinks is not enough kinda hard.
Just my 2 cents 🙂
Greg
Every once in a while I decide to buy a new product, but can’t think of anyone who promotes it as an affiliate, Greg. Being that one person who pops up in our readers’ heads when they think of buying anything at all is where we want to be.
I like that challenge… You? 😉
I really like your honesty and integrity. You are not to be bought for money. This is a seldom found quality in the internet marketing arena where obviously to many folks money (i.e. love of money) is all that matters. Way too many people are willing to sacrifice anything on the money altar. Way too many people are willing to outright lying, tweaking the truth as well as their personal history if just it makes them a bunch of money. Your own moral standard is so high that you have not found many affiliate products worth to promote. And as Ti Roberts writes [tiroberts.com/why-traffic-does-not-equate-to-money/] you could have sold your valuable insights on traffic - maybe through a membership - but you don’t do it, presumably out of generosity. The bar is truly raised high in your court! When you have a new product you’d like to promote - or if you come up with a product of your own - I’ll come rushing in! Keep on doing what you do, but make sure you do not die of starvation, please. Bloggers of your kind are worth taking good care of.
Just one corrective. I do not think matters are quite as black as you paint them. I could mention a few affiliate products worth promoting as for instance some hosting companies or online backup services. But I also understand that monetizing does not only come down to the quality of the affiliate product but also to how it fits into the business model and the niche and theme the blog operates in.
P.S. I read your analysis of Empower Network with great delight. It was very much to the point according to my own experience with EN. And your sarchasm was very appropriate.
Truly appreciate the compliment, Lars. I suppose some of us are meant to be broke. 🙂 But not broken.
Yes, there are several products that I personally use (and online backup is one of them), but don’t promote them here. Maybe it’s time to revisit my product list.
Hello Ana,
I do believe that reason that not everybody constantly buys products from you might be (besides also possible Macro Economic factors) that your target audience is probably looking for how to get traffic to their sites.
When they already would have loads of traffic, than they probably wouldn’t be at your site. When they would have loads of traffic, chances are that they also might have figured out a way to monitize this traffic, and because of it have a possible nice budget to be able to buy products from you. Only unfortunately those people probably don’t usually visit your blog.
So possibly creating a Sales Funnel with at the front-end free content and, free downloads, and lower priced products, and some other higher priced specifically traffic generation related products (or probably even beter) - services - at the back-end could be effective?
(because I do think that it doesn’t alway’s have to do with being (time) efficient, because when you are very effective you might not need to bother to much about being efficient anymore.)
Also possibly my posts titled: How to Write a Book Review for Your Blog (that actually made it into the Most Popular list on my Writing Blog) can also be helpful?
Hey Ana,
There’s not much I can say to help you in this issue of not making enough money with your blog since not matter what anyone says it’s all easier said then done and we all have our inner battles to deal with.
Just don’t let the haters get to you. You run a great blog here and you have 90% of the make money online formula down you just have to figure out the other 10%.
Also when it comes to product creation you do not have to be the one to make the product 🙂 You can be the one to give the product exposure and find someone who is willing to spend the time making the product and you go 50/50
You are right, Joshua.
We can read what others have done as much as we want to, but it won’t make a difference until we figure out how to adapt and make it unique to our businesses.
Hmmm, not creating the product myself? There’s an idea…
Ana,
I’m no expert at generating traffic of making money online but I think one of the commentors above said why not focus on traffic generating products that would benefit your readers even if they don’t benefit you.
That’s kind of the reason why I come to your site, and although the income reports are extremely useful and interesting the bulk of the value for me in visiting your site is traffic generating..
And I did buy a product based on a recomendation you made which was the sore thumbs plugin. ( in my previous corporate life, i used to be a banner ad optimization manager and shaking, moving things always did best. ).. I digress.
Anyways, seeing your struggles with monetization has really opened my eyes. You honesty truly is refreshing and super helpful. I need to start thinking of monetization now and it seems that everyone is saying creating a product is the way to go..
But what product wil you create? a kindle ebook? a clickbank product. or an online course. It’s all so confusing and can’t wait to see what route you go..
Annie
It certainly makes sense, Annie - you come to Traffic Generation Café to learn about Traffic Generation.
Not sure about the type of product yet. Will keep you updated.
Hi Ana,
Long time follower but first time commenting… I only got two things to say:-
1- You don’t need to write long/epic posts everytime you publish! I am not saying don’t write them at all. I think u r a great writer, but sometimes when your posts are too long, it loses the initial concept & gets lost within the thousand words.
2- As someone mentioned also, affiliate product integration within your writing style will be the key to your income.
Best Wishes,
Chetan
For an introvert, I am certainly very talkative when it comes down to writing my blog posts, Chetan. I do agree with your observation though.
Hi Ana, this is a very honest post & I really admire you for this. It’s really tough to reveal why one is NOT earning online.
Since you expect honesty, I will give you some. Nothing personal and please don’t hate me 😛
The ONLY reason you are not making money via TGC is because you have turned TGC into a free resource for all. The blogosphere is spread with this complete BS thought that give value to your readers and readers will pay back by buying from you, whatever is it that’s on sale.
It doesn’t happen that way! It worked in maybe 2005-2007, a time when Darren Rowse and John Chow made their money but have you seen John’s MO now. He very well knows that readers won’t buy, that’s why he is coming out with products like “Blogging with John Chow”. He is maximizing on his popularity and getting affiliates to sell the book for him. That’s a really great idea!
What’s happening with TGC is that people are coming here for your reviews, leave comment (get backlink basically) and going away. The reason you have 19,000 subs is not because they want to buy from you, it is because of your honest reviews, indepth product articulation and excellent writing style. The readers know you are giving them value, the readers also know that the links in your article are affiliate product links but there are NO sales. TGC is just an “information source” for them.
By the Empower Network review, you helped the readers save their money but did they show some reciprocal love. No.
So please Ana, it is futile to expect any aff income. See my blog, I have placed a SEOpressor aff - linked banner. Like me 10,000 of other affiliates have done the same thing. Am I getting anything out of it? Nada. There is too much, too much competition which is diluting the affiliate marketing niche.
What you can do instead:
1. Lock your content. Premium content / paid users.
2. Give talks and lectures / paid.
3. Use your brand and blog on others / paid. Contact SEJ, TechCrunch, Inc.com and others. They pay columnists. Or contact online newspapers…use your brand name.
4. I see Danny Iny all over your blog. Don’t promote him. Offer a partnership proposal. Make some course and sell it with him / you both get to earn.
5. Do paid reviews. Not boasting but if I can get $100 for a paid review of ZOHO (will be published on SocialVani after 2 days), just imagine what they are going to pay you…not less than $500 because it will give THEM conversions.
6. Update the eBook. add solid content and sell it, no free business.
People are too centered around getting FREE things. who suffers? Not them but YOU and ME.
I explained this in my comment on Dan’s Informly post which you quoted in your article. Post link - http://inform.ly/lots-of-users-but-no-money-informly-january-stats-report/. Read that t-shirt analogy.
Nuff said…please don’t hate me for being so honest. You are at a level which will take me another 2 years to reach…I really look up to your writing skills 🙂
~ Chitra
Great feedback, Chitra, and of course, I can’t help but agree.
I enjoy blogging, but I’m not very savvy about turning my passion into a business. I think that’s the problem for many bloggers these days.
And you are right: naked blogging (i.e. I give you free information, you buy affiliate products for me) is an online model of the past.
Lot’s to think about.
Off to check out Dan’s post again.
I agree with you Ana. The matrix of blogging is changing daily. Yesterday, I read this update that Google will downplay guest blogging links….its getting really tough to survive.
Personally, I think the golden days of blogging are over, especially “naked blogging”. John Chow, Neil Patel, Darren Rowse and Zac Johnson were its main benefactors.
BTW, I checked out Dan’s post again. I think he removed my comment. Not that I wrote anything even remotely abusive, maybe he didn’t like it.
So I am recapitulating the “t-shirt” analogy here. If I am not wrong, 99% bloggers can relate with this analogy.
Analogy: You visit eBay and come across their offer of a FREE custom-made t-shirt worth $9.99 if you sign up on their mailing list. You do & get the t-shirt.
After 60 days, you receive a newsletter from eBay which goes like this: “Dear Ana, we are following up with your last purchase. We really hope you liked the t-shirt. We have launched a premium version of that t-shirt which you can get for just $2.99. Premium features include a shiny collar for that t-shirt and a 6 months no-questions asked replacement guarantee.”
My question is - will you buy this premium version? Most of us will think “the FREE t-shirt works just fine, I don’t need a fancy collar”, right? eBay was expecting 50% conversions, instead it gets about 3-4% conversions…..complete loss.
This is where blogging is really STUCK.
I didn’t see your comment there either, Chitra… But love your t-shirt analogy; it makes complete sense!
Go Chitra! Go Chitra!
I have been reading quite a couple of the comments here just so that I could get new monetization skills. This is one of those posts where the comments have as much value as the blog post.
Of all comments I have read, you have done a brilliant job Chitra. If you’ve seen my comment somewhere above, you’ll note that I also insist on product creation.
Ana, the truth of the matter is, people may not even read your free PDF report but if they’d paid for it, they would read it through and through. People do “love” free but they VALUE paid.
Create your first eBook this week, put a couple of your affiliate links in there and test your conversion rate. Once again, people value what they buy therefore they’ll follow it through, buy AM products and become your AM.
All the best 🙂
…Now, let me read 10 more comments then will come back later.
I agree with you Walter. It really takes guts to disclose income 🙂
Product creation is one of the best alternatives of affiliate marketing. But it is easier said than done….These days I see even a month-old blogger coming out with an “eBook” to build email list!!!!! Blogging is going downhill.
I believe that bloggers like Ana are the real worthy ones to “create” their own product and become the merchant, not the seller. What say?
If you see my follow up comment to my previous one, I mentioned this t-shirt analogy and I really feel that most of the bloggers are stuck in this limbo. What do you think?
Chitra,
I have seen your T-shirt analogy and it’s actually awesome.
On the other hand, I think it is still okay to create one free product and another free one. Like you will see in my first comment somewhere, I love guys like Mark Ling who know how to work the freemium model.
The secret is creating different content for the two products.
For example, in your eBay analogy, eBay would have said that they have some premium Ugg Boots or something and not the same old t-shirt with a shiny collar.
Maybe the Ugg boots come with some irresistible bonus like another t-shirt with a shiny collar e.t.c. Additionally, you can replace them if…the story goes on.
That’s how I end up buying products from Mark Ling who offers lots of premium and free stuff. The premium has more benefits than the free.
Let’s look at AffiloBlueprint 3 which I bought at $77. It comes with 1 year free hosting which would have cost me $109, a premium theme that would have cost me $80 and lots of other unannounced benefits.
Anyway, I still believe Ana will make a product soon or start selling her services Neil Patel style.
Your tips above were awesome Chitra. You must be really good at what you do.
Chitra,
Excuse my typo in the comment above. I meant one free product and another premium one and not:
“one free product and another free one”
What do you think. You have a great blog Chitra, just checked it out and will be a returning visitor there.
:), Walter; I hear you.
Hi Ana,
Very honest post; in my opinion, the best post you’ve ever written, and that’s saying something.
I’ve had the same lament and the same realization that I’m not really monetizing things all that well. However, I have created some products, and obviously they’re not the type of thing that people are clamoring for because I’ve only once ever sold anything because of my blog, and it wasn’t anything I created. You’ve done the right thing in asking your audience what they might want; I might have to do that one of these days as well.
Much appreciated, Mitch.
Hey Ana I am not good with comments, but sometimes i feel i have to say something, first of all i was shocked to know that this blog is not making enough money, or the money you want it to make, it is one of the best blogs online and maybe one of few that i visit at least twice a week and spend time reading your posts.
And i think affiliate marketing is the answer to any blog, but only if you can find the right offer.
I have seen your offers here, and for EN i will vote YES, but all the rest, I don’t think so, you need to know that all your readers are bloggers, and you need to know what those blogger may want, not need.
Bloggers love software, love automation, and want more traffic, more content and SEO. so figure it out, you are a smart blogger. 🙂
and i will not be scared of having 2 more banners Good banners for high converting offers. use the space you have.
Very good point, Jossef, and thank you.
Hi Ana,
I had to take a few minutes after reading this post to calm down a little bit before I posted so that I didn’t say something I shouldn’t out of respect for you and your blog (NOT directed at YOU).
Those two morons in the EN post need to go eff themselves. Seriously. I’m sorry to put it that way. I tried to be as PG as I could, but I just don’t know any other way to say it and get my direct point across.
TGC is not THEIR business, it’s yours. This is your business to run the way you see fit. If it’s not as profitable as it could be, you’re the only one it matters to. We all want to make more money, but we all have to look at ourselves in the mirror everyday, too. It’s your business, Ana, make the decisions that you can live with for yourself.
Now, since you asked, I’ll leave my $.02 for suggestions.
1. As Dan mentioned above, you need to take some time and really reflect on who your target market is and what your USP is. EVERYTHING starts there and then builds out from there. If you don’t get that figured out for yourself, you’re going to keep going around in circles hoping to bring more money in.
2. Having a product has been mentioned several times. Remember, your blog auditing and mentoring service is a product. I know you’ve mentioned that the few consultations you’ve done made you nervous, but ANYTHING new is going to do that. In my humble opinion, you need to give yourself some more time to get used to that before you scrap it. If you’ve done it long enough to be comfortable doing it and you STILL don’t like it, then at that point it’s time to move on. But don’t mistake the uncomfortable feeling of being new with the uncomfortable feeling of “I can’t stand this.” And the reason why I think you really think long and hard about this is in reason #3.
3. You have an amazing talent that very few people have. I wasn’t kidding or kissing your rear to gain favor when I linked to you in that post. You have an amazing ability to create a community that very, very few people can replicate. You have infused your TGC theme and branding in absolutely everything you do, and it took an unbelievable amount of creativity to accomplish that. You may have outsourced the design work, but it was all based off of your creative ideas. You can utilize those creative talents and help others accomplish the same thing, which they could never, ever come close to doing on their own, and you can get paid very well for it, even if you outsourced the construction stuff and you focused on the creative side. And you’d be worth every penny. This is a classic example of utilizing your strengths to compliment the weaknesses of others.
4. You would do yourself a tremendous amount of good by investing in a copywriting course. There’s two I would recommend. One is by David Garfinkel who is one of the high level masters. If you want more info on this one, I can email you a link (yes, it’s an affiliate link). The other one I’d recommend, which I have no affiliation with other than being on his list, is Ben Settle. He has a rather abrasive personality to some people, but I find his emails to be quite funny. He is another of the copywriting geniuses. Either one would do you and your business wonders. Thinking of Ben actually gave me an idea for you, too. I’ll shoot you an email with it and see what you think.
5. If you like promoting affiliate products, then you need to stop looking at things from YOUR perspective and start thinking from your READER’S perspective. You don’t think that people need many products to effectively run their business, but that’s because you don’t. You have thousands of subscribers and consistent readers. I guarantee you there are a ton of quality products out there that would help them out in their businesses even if it’s not something that you need in your business. That doesn’t make you hypocritical. It simply means that you realize that people place value in different areas. People don’t necessarily care if you use a product, they just want to know that you BELIEVE in it as a quality product. If it’s something they can use in their business and you give them access to it, they’ll love you for it.
6. You need to study a copywriting course. Yes, I know I’m repeating myself, but it’s that important. You’re a phenomenal writer, but copywriting is an entirely different skill set. You have the ability because you’re writing is THAT good, but you just have to spend time learning the art of copywriting and learning how to trigger those subconscious emotional responses that cause people to open up their wallet.
Anyways, off my soapbox now. That’s my $.02 and I’m sticking to it.
You’re a lot closer than you realize, Ana. It’s just hard to see it because you’re too close to it and living the frustration of it. Keep your chin up, you’ll get it figured out!
~Barry
P.S. I added a couple of bucks to your bottom line last month. I bought I think WP Subscribers through your affiliate link. If not that one, another plugin. Anyways, I paid for one of your digital cups of coffee in the morning. 🙂
Barry - THANK YOU.
You made a few points that I am definitely thinking about.
Yes, please email me your affiliate link for the copywriting course. I know I’ll benefit greatly from going through something like that. Now it’s just a matter of making it a priority.
You are right: I am forgetting that my readers are not me, for better or worse. Just because I have no use for something, doesn’t mean they don’t. I need to start looking at products from their perspective. Also I need to keep in mind that my readership comes from diverse niches. What works for some won’t work for others and visa versa.
And I want you to know that I truly and completely appreciate your support.
Howdy Ana!
It’s Pete, your neighbor from across the bay over here in San Francisco.
I think we are at similar points with our blogs and income outlooks for 2013 right now. I share your opinion of empower as well BTW, thank you for your excellent review . Recently I discovered your blog just as my traffic finally started to grow this year as I point out in, “How I increased my Blog Traffic by Over 700%”.
The secret sauce for me is more blog posts published with reasonable levels of seo to get Google search traffic + promote to my large social networks + leverage tools to be more efficient.
But, I too struggle with monetization. And I prefer to only promote products that I use and believe in too.
I would love to chat with you soon.
And I promise to take an active part on your Facebook page. 😉
cheers,
Pete
A healthy drive is another thing you and I have in common, Pete. We’ll figure it out; no other choice.;)
Ana, reading this post I truly understood why you have a so large community of people who love you: you’re one of the most genuine bloggers ever, and you are not afraid of telling things that many people are scared to say.
Let me tell you my opinion, I hope it may help you.
I only know one blogger who makes a good amount of money through Affiliate Marketing: Pat Flynn.
Maybe other people are earning something, but we’re talking about few bucks.
I think that Affiliate Marketing is quite limited.
(I’m promoting affiliate products on my blog, but to be honest, it’s just a temporary thing)
If you don’t want to make a product, no problem, but probably you shouldn’t limit yourself to Affiliate Marketing.
In the end, I’d like to give you a suggestion about Affiliate Marketing - because I know that you want to keep going with it 🙂
As you said, your site is “Traffic Generation Cafè”, because of this I think it’s not effective to promote affiliate products like Hostgator or other traffic unrelated products.
Your audience want to learn how get traffic, give them products that help them to get traffic. For example, you can test courses to get traffic via YouTube and promote the best one. Then do the same thing about Facebook traffic and so on. Of course, you’ll suggest only courses that work.
Ana, what do you think?
You make a whole lot of sense, Mauro. Focusing my attention on traffic-related products exclusively might help.
Hello Ana,
As you know I been following your blog for some times now…
My quick solution to your problem is PARTNERSHIP with someone, who knows how to make money and you know how to promote/drive traffic. Partnership with someone who has or is in development of great product, that you believe in and would 100% recommend and use it everyday..
People have great product but they don’t know how to promote/market them, and you be perfect for that… Sometimes you can’t do all on your own…
“What I’ve come to realize since then is this: I am not the best at making money off my readers”
But I AM pretty darn good at driving traffic!
Best of luck…
Marios
Definitely great advice, Marios - use your strengths and leverage your weaknesses.
I’ve tried to do it in the past without much result; time to find someone a bit more credible.
I read your reviews because I like to know what “real bloggers” are using for tools and I appreciate your thoughtful insights about them. But no I have never bought any of them. It’s hard to say why but I don’t think it’s because your reviews aren’t thoughtful/credible. I think generally it’s because they’re for products that don’t interest me.
I also think that while passive income is great (seriously - how can I get some of that?) there are SOOO many people out there plugging affiliate products and such that the whole space has started to smell a bit spammy. Which is not to say that YOU are spammy, but the area as a whole is so much so that even when legitimate people like yourself promote interesting products there is a slight whiff of spammy about it. Does that make sense? I hope that doesn’t sound harsh or make you feel sad because that really isn’t my intent.
I think you aren’t selling the right things and what I see in the comments here is that your readers are happy to tell you what they would buy if available. So hopefully THAT will be your next post - ask the readers.
As for me (not being probably typical of your readership) I’m struggling with how to monetize myself so I’m fascinated by your journey. What would I buy from you?
- ebook (maybe, I’m terrible about actually READING ebooks)
- blog audit (very likely - in fact I think I tried to hire you for something like this in the past and you told me you didn’t offer it no?)
- case studies - I think if you put together 10 traffic generation case studies I would be quite likely to both buy AND read it 😉
- Coaching g+ hangouts - possibly a way to make it more feasible to charge a reasonable amount but still generate some real income?
- Kikolani mentioned WP themes - again - something I spend a lot of money on but it may not fit your topical themes
- premium plugins - also not a great fit but something I’m willing to spend money on (sadly I bought commentluv premium prior to your talking about it so I wasn’t able to click through for you)
Anyhoo….hope that sparks some ideas. Am working on my own plan so I wish us both much luck with this 🙂
It makes complete sense, Alexis, and I really appreciate you sharing it with me.
My biggest problem with providing services like blog audits is… well, low self-esteem. I never feel like I’ve provided enough value, even though I always get great feedback. Just my personal insecurity I’ve had to deal with my entire life.
Funny, most of my readers would say that I am assertive, bold, and outspoken, but in real life, I am anything but.
The kind of products you told me you might buy gave me a good insight into what my reader’s needs might be, so thank you so much for that.
If I ever figure this out, I might have to start another blog on how to finally make money blogging. 🙂
On using Evernote, here are two ideas that could help you:
1) On any computers or mobile devices that you use — setup the Evernote web clipper. Only takes a few seconds. Then whenever you see something interesting while browsing the web, you can instantly get it in Evernote by clicking or tapping on the bookmark for the web clipper.
2) Evernote has a “email to Evernote” feature. Again while going through you email, if there is something that is interesting but you can’t immediately respond to, simply forward to Evernote.
Then at a later time you can process through the content in Evernote.
I do use the web clipper, Lorenzo, but always seem to misplace everything. By the time I find it in my Evernote… sometimes it’s just easier without it.
Hello Ana,
You really did speak from tha heart and i feel it. For real! i thought your site would be making like 40,ooo per month but 700? Well! i am not making near the 40,oo0 but with my niche sites, i am making a little way more than 700 per month (specific 1,200) but i am trying to make it above that because i have not deep my hands into affiliate marketing yet, so maybe after entering the affiliate business, it might increase drastically (just maybe) but for now, i am a bit satisfy with what i am getting. Thanks
Diversifying certainly helps.
Ana, you’ve been brutally honest in this blog post. Kudos to you! I’m going to be honest with you when I say that apart from selling my own product (doesn’t include my books), I’ve tried my hand at all the things you mentioned and completely suck at them.
I’ve been an Amazon associate for 4 years and still haven’t made the measly $100.00 limit you have to earn before you get paid. I’ve never been paid by them - in other words.
You’re the master when it comes to traffic generation. I have virtually no traffic if I should compare myself with you - which I won’t do 🙂
I have been so unsuccessful at the money side of blogging, I’ve come close to quitting several times. In fact, I’ve now put my PR4 and PR3 blogs up for sale. I can get them high PR, but I can’t get enough traffic, so I’ve quit trying to monetise.
Having said this, I do make money online. And I only started doing this properly last year after about 5-6 years of blogging. I gave up on all the things bloggers do to make money, and now I work on my strengths. I edit websites (text) for people who can’t write that well, or whose first language isn’t English. I earn from this, so I put my efforts here rather than frustrate myself with ads etc. You’ll see I have no ads whatsoever on any of my blogs.
Your strength is traffic generation. Maybe your traffic generation tutoring or traffic generation e-Book will sell like hot cakes - who knows! Your strength is where it’s at, and it’s what people will pay you for. Offer your list mentoring for $100 for each of their blogs to give them guaranteed traffic and see what happens…
I know this person with a high PR writing blog like mine. She runs a school from her blog, teaching people how to launch their freelance writing business. It seems she makes a living that way.
I hear your frustrations, Anne. I also remember you saying that you are doing a lot of editing these days and liking it. Glad to hear you seemed to have fallen into something that you enjoy, plus it makes money. 🙂
I love blogging. I don’t like creating products. However, if I want to actually make money from my “business”, I might need to flex my comfort zone and start doing something that actually brings in income.
Hey Ana !
What do you do other than online business?
I think you must give time to it, you have such a potential.
Thanks.
Matt
My online business is secondary to my family, Matt.
How much money does a blog have to bring in before it’s deemed to be monetised?
In terms of your audience, how many are looking to buy and how many are like you looking to sell? The people most lively to spend money are newcomers to generating traffic, they want results and are not jaded. How many posts do you have targeting the people most likely to spend?
Also the majority of my blogging revenue comes from a transport blog that gets a mere 3k of visitors a month, yet it converts highly. It’s not a slick and polished site but it is extremely effective and is exactly what my ideal prospect is looking for. I have to admit when I have a traffic problem and searched I’ve not come up with your site, by the same token I’m not your ideal prospect and what I did find was pretty useless 🙂
Like others on the thread I have purchased things from you, most notably WP Subscribers. However I am not looking to buy a shiny new thing every week, I am always looking to buy when I have a problem that is bugging the hell out of me.
I know you email out your blog posts, but what is your autoresponder sequence like? You should be getting residual income from that on a regular basis. I’ll ping you a message and if you want to chat on Skype I’ll share what’s generating passive income for me right now (and it changes on a regular basis :), just to keep me on my toes)
You are right, Sarah; my current audience isn’t buying that much. Most of them have already gotten the shiny thing they needed/wanted. I need to rethink my plan.
Hey Ana,
You know I love your blog. Not only that but I also respect you as an authority in your field, which in theory is something that should be easy to monetize.
However I’m also pretty certain I know why your fantastic blog (and many other fantastic blogs out there) aren’t making more money - it’s scarily simple but possibly not any of the reasons you’ve been focusing on (certainly not any of the reasons mentioned in this post).
Feel free to give me a shout if you want to have a chat about it,
Alan
Alan,
Why not provide this info publicly as many more can learn? Ana has openly said she has no issues.
Let’s hear your thoughts?
OK Sunil,
here you go then - a bit long for a comment so I wrote a very brief post with a few thoughts (better late than never): http://lifestoogood.net/blog-business/.
This is just my view of course, feel free to disagree.
Alan
Intriguing, Alan. I’ll give you a shout.
A quick follow-up to what I said earlier. If you do go the product route (which you should), don’t make them cheap. Real cheap products get you cheap people, yet you will work just as hard to sell the products. Consider one low-end product ($49) and then move up from there. Don’t do a $5, $9 or $19 product. Like I mentioned I’m around if you want to chat about this online in more detail. BTW… As soon as you get your first product out the door your instantly have content for a 2nd product. What is it? How to generate and sell your own online products 😉
You make it impossible to come up with reasons why I can’t do it, Patrick. 🙂
Hi Ana, Well this is interesting because I have the exact opposite problem. My readership is very small and I don’t know much about expanding it. However I do offer services and one product. Relative to the email subscribers, I have done business with about half of them. I don’t do affiliate marketing other than the odd book I loved that I promote once in a blog post, just because in my niche there is no way to really do it genuinely. I also work only 3 or 4 hours a day (at most) doing anything at all related to the blog or providing services.
The *only* reason people buy from me (as far as I can tell) is that they believe in my honesty or were referred by someone they trust - period. It’s an intimate business and no one would invite me in if they didn’t think I would do my level best for them. I think you have the exact same thing going on - people trust you to do your best for them.
If you would do blog audits, if you would offer products, I really think you could make money there. Someone like me would be a perfect candidate, and you really do not need to kill yourself with time to do a good job. I’ll bet a lot of what you know is templated in your head, so you could write a standard one and just go in to be specific as needed. You also don’t need to formalize it if you would find it faster to just speak to someone on the phone. You might just consider where best to spend your time. I could not spend 8 hours on a single blog post - it runs from 1 to 3 hours, tops (I only publish once a week). I don’t often buy products (just no need yet) but anytime I do, I always make sure to buy from someone I trust like you who I want to send my money to. I’m not sure how many people consciously do this, but pretty much every blogger I know seems to do so, costs being equal anyway.
I wish you every success!
Sounds like I am in the wrong niche. 🙂
Either way, I do realize that offering a product would make all the difference in the world to my bottom line.
So either I need to stop complaining and wait for the affiliate riches to pour in or work on my own product.
By the way, have you changed your domain name, Julie?
It is still my name (julielangdonbarrett.com), however a friend took it upon himself to purchase aclearsign.net (someone was asking $60k for aclearsign.com) and set it up on his server…not sure what I am doing with that. For the moment it is just sitting there.
Estimated percentage of visits to empowernetwork.com that came from a search engine:
Search % Change
Yesterday 4.6% -12% Change in Search % over the trailing 1 day period
7 day 5.3% -2% Change in Search % over the trailing 7 day period
1 month 5.3% +8% Change in Search % over the trailing 1 month period
3 month 5.1% +21% Change in Search % over the trailing 3 month period
Very telling… but the people that understand it will never explain it to the very gullible 55 and over crowd that they mainly cater too.
Anyway, two quick things Ana (and it’s just my thoughts from experience, i.e. my feedback you may not have considered).
1. You are too generous with offering up great content and value, and lack sales copy/closing skills that would make you a lot more sales, and you are missing the growing passive residual income for the most part on top of it all that is a critical factor.
Heck, all the top gurus do it, and they make most of their money offering the “high end” one on one coaching programs and the like, once they have sifted and groomed their best prospects with video training, webinars, conference calls, opin emails and filtered them to the final closing webinar to get them to buy their training products, and high cost coaching.
They all do pretty much the same exact thing if you haven’t noticed it Ana. Even EN does it pretty much like all the other gurus and burus do online, they all just have their different processes, spin, HYPE to a varying degree, and incentives to draw people in, and make the sales, however they have the huge advantage you don’t. Growing passive residual income, as long as they can stay ahead of the massive attrition they must have in EN.
2. Many that make the big money from what I can see are leveraging OPT, OPM, OPT.
Again, those three can’t be underestimated, and with them (OPT, OPM, OPT), eventually you go from working “in your business” like you do Ana (i.e slave to it and still trade time for money like a job) to working “on your business” once you have enough other people to leverage time/money/talent with.
NOTE: A step back, I mentioned three keys, and the last most miss completely (OPT - other people’s talent). Once you can tap into that Ana, and have enough talented people working with you to leverage your time and be making them and you money at the same time, you will be able to have more time with family and other things you want to do other than slave away at your computer doing very time consuming content marketing to get a few affiliate sales here and there, with no consistency.
With that being said, I think you should have at least one Network Marketing Company that you can feel proud to be a member/rep, or distributor for. Maybe even consider becoming a “Consumer for Charity” and do something honorable and for those less fortunate who in most cases can’t help themselves. Like Day 1 for instance. 🙂 You know I had to get that in, but all kidding aside, and in all seriousness, you should seriously consider it.
You could be the blog queen who does what EN does but on a honest and straight up kind of way, with a much higher mission and purpose in life helping charities of all kinds across the nation, and eventually your efforts will help thousands of charities across the USA like my team is working on now.
Anyway, hope my feedback helped!? If not, I did my best to help you maybe move to “working on your business” one day, in a honorable way, rather than grinding away working in your business like a job. HF
I certainly see the point in residual income, Harry; too bad, it’s not quite my thing.
Ana I really appreciate your honesty here and I can’t say that I have the answers for you but I DO have quite a bit of experience in NOT making money from blogging and also making money with little traffic that I think you’ll find useful.
If I could GUESS what you might be doing wrong I would suggest you are not focusing on making money. I know, I know, people say over and over “do what you love and the money will follow”… I can tell you I personally tried that route for YEARS and I just never GOT IT. Money did NOT flow to me just because I cared, or created content people said they loved, or worked my ass of to give helpful info.
I have written somewhere close to 200 articles on Ezine Articles, I blogged over 400 blog posts and I created over 30 podcasts. I worked DAMN HARD and made very little to no money from all that effort.
What finally worked for me was when I actually created a product (a six-week WordPress coaching program) and I put 100% of my efforts into building THAT and not traffic.
I stopped trying to figure out SEO, get lots of traffic or even get links to my site. The ONLY things I currently focus on are getting SALES and LEADS.
Typically we are taught to:
1. Get Traffic
2. Turn Traffic to Leads
3. Turn Leads into Sales
Instead I decided to go after SALES and LEADS. I prefer sales but I realize they don’t always happen instantly so I know building my leads is my ongoing task that I must do to continue to profit.
I have only just recently allowed myself to consider blogging again as another lead builder, only because in the past I was so caught up in the process I really didn’t ever focus on how to achieve the sales… there just wasn’t time to get to it.
I have an idea for you, though, and I might as well post it here publicly. I know you’ve seen my WordPress Workshops programs that I sell for $27 per month or for $47 one-time. Traffic is obviously a GREAT topic to teach my people and as you mentioned you know your stuff when it comes to getting traffic. I’m thinking if you were interested you could be my guest instructor for this topic (I actually have no topic yet for April) and we could work out a fair way to split the profits of this session. Plus, if the people you send stay on you’ll then be earning affiliate commissions every month for my ongoing workshops.
Just an idea - but I think your readers may be pretty interested in some live training from you and this way you wouldn’t need to worry about salespages, shopping carts, affiliate programs and all that stuff.
Ultimately whatever you do it might be time for some big mindset shifts in order to turn around the potential to earn a great income from your blog.
Oh and by the way just so you know I came about $700 short of my first $10,000 month (gross) in January and I make a good living. On average I make about $4500 per month gross. I’m NOT a six figure earner but I pay for groceries, mortgage, car insurance and all of the other things you need in life very comfortably with my business (last year my fiance and I bought our first house). I also get very little traffic unless I drive it through partnerships, about 100 visitors per day to my sites last I remember checking.
Hope that helps!
Angela
You definitely built up my curiosity as I kept reading your comment, Angela, and boy, you ended it with a bang!
I did love your product idea. So it’s not just creative, but profitable as well?
Now you got me thinking…
I know you mentioned in a previous comment on FB that you drive most of your traffic through JVs and such. I’d be very curious to learn more.
And thanks for your generous offer, Angela; I might take you up on it.
Hey Ana good stuff and thanks for the link. My 2c 1 is you need to sell something, 2 is you are measuring the wrong things.
Traffic is a terrible thing to measure. Unless you are selling page views (like if you were selling CPM ads) then measuring traffic is useless. I’m sorry this goes against what you are doing here but from a business point of view it’s not a good measure.
The first thing you need to do is work out what sort of people you want at your site. I’ll make it up. You want bloggers who want different strategies for getting more engaged customers and are prepared to make an effort to learn. Casual visitors to your site might be interested in getting more traffic but people who have businesses want more customers not more traffic. These are the people who will pay you, forget the rest.
Forget the vanity metrics and start measuring things that will tell you whether or not you have a potential business here and start driving actions that will bring in customers not freeloaders. I have an email course on my site about actionable analytics here if you want more on this inform.ly/actionable-analytics-for-small-business-free-email-course/
Streamline your site so your main and obvious goal is to get people to sign up for this opt in. I’d probably do an email course / auto responder which sends them 1 email a day or every few days with a different strategy that they haven’t heard of. Don’t make it about SEO there’s too much out there already, it’s not your USP.
Measure the conversions using Analytics, measuring traffic is going to tell you how many of the freeloaders who don’t seriously want to do the work or pay the money to grow their business. Measuring the conversions will tell you how many people are engaged.
The auto responder should be giving people great value but you absolutely must have your own product for anyone who wants more and the auto responder should sell it. People don’t want to buy other people’s products from you. They want more of you!!!
I think with your audience I’d either be looking at:
1. A paid community of some sort. This is best case and would not be easy to set up but the recurring revenue has a lot of appeal. Perhaps this could be a long term goal that you jump in when you feel like you have an audience that is engaged enough. Check out this podcast for more on this http://www.superfastbusiness.com/business/chris-farrell-and-james-schramko-reveal-recurring-income-strategies/
2. A more advanced course. This would be a no brainer, just one of your posts like the blog promotion one could be turned into a paid product. If you don’t want to do it yourself get a copywriter to go through your blog, rip out all of the value turn it into an ebook and offer them x% of the sales. You have to have a product!!
3. Services of some sort (like Kristi says, this is realistically the main way people make money, providing a service to people who want it). I understand if you don’t want do do services, there are ways you could potentially streamline it. Come up with a blog review of some sort and have the process streamlined so you can get a VA to complete the process. It’s not easy but it’s an option.
If you want the blog to be a business then you must have products and you must sell them and you must measure how effective a job it is doing from a business point of view. That’s my 2C.
Good luck I’m looking forward to see how it pans out for you. You create so much value for people it’s about time you start getting rewarded for it.
I absolutely agree, Dan - traffic alone means nothing. Too bad most of my readers use that to judge how much money I should be getting from that traffic. 🙂
All great points and great ideas. Some I cringed at (no surprise; just my personality), some I loved. I’ve been thinking of doing a subscription service at TGC, even started it (have a grand total of 3 subscribers), but never really finished what I’ve started. Time to shift my priorities and get that going.
Thanks again!
Awesome. One thing I forgot to mention is you should absolutely keep publishing the reports. This content is valuable, if you believe in producing valuable content then keep doing the reports. I’d say something about the haters but I don’t think you’d publish it so I’ll let it go.
That’s what I am thinking as well, Dan. Will probably get back on track in March.
Hi Ana,
You’re definitely doing nothing wrong. The only thing others may see as wrong is that you’re not forcing crappy products down your readers/subscribers throat which is the best.
I think what your should is start creating your own products. I plan creating one before the year runs out, but what I’m starting to do at the moment is creating some niche sites and monetize them with adsense, amazon and some CPA offers. Just want to see how it goes. I might also be publishing my steps on my blog.
One other book on Productivity (achieving more with less) that i will recommend is…. The Internet Lifestyle Productivity by Steve Scott. Its a kindle book which you can find on his blog….www.stevescottsite.com.
I can also send you the pdf version if you’ll like to read it. Though i didn’t see where to contact you from here. Send me your email if you want it.
Finally, thanks a lot for mentioning me on our blog, really appreciate that. WE CAN DO ALL THINGS THROUGH CHRIST WHICH STRENGTHENS US. I believe Ana.
Thank you, Theodore; it’s always great to be reminded to keep our eyes on the prize.
Ana, even i am facing the same problem that conversion from my blog is not good. I am not getting successful in Affiliate marketing, my only revenue is from ad network.
Ana, your questions and honesty are always refreshing, but I just want to toss a few things out here.
Number one, I don’t know why it seems like there are people throwing a lot of negativity at you, but I hope you’re holding up well. I’m startled to see people be so accusatory when it comes to how much money you make vs. the amount of traffic you get, your stance on EN, and not wanting to create your own produce.
Number two, I think a lot of these naysayers AREN’T LISTENING. This is not the first time that you’ve pointed out that you only have a few hours a day to devote to this, and that you know you could do “more” if you gave yourself more time. You explain why you’re not making as much money as you can, and yet people still come after you. Also, you’ve made it very clear why you don’t like EN - you don’t simply say “I don’t like it” and leave it at that - you have clear cut reasons why it isn’t for you personally, and I’m not sure why people can’t stop picking at that like a scab. (Gross, I know. But accurate.)
I would be very interested to know the kind of traffic, conversion, and income stats that these people have who apparently feel that they have the right to give you a ration of crap.
As had been mentioned, you have made this a “journey” blog. This is how Ana got from point 1 to point 5, and how she’s moving on from there. This is what Ana does, and how we can do it differently.
Do it your way, Ana. Those of us who love your advice will keep coming back, and I know I’ll keep buying through your links whenever you talk about products I want and need (although, yes, it would be nice to see you promote more things.) And those who have issue with how you run your blog and business can go prove us all wrong and go elsewhere to make their fortunes.
You’re doing fantastically. There’s always room for improvement but don’t ever let anyone get you down. I don’t care who they are, they aren’t that important.
Thank you for actually listening, Lindsey. And I appreciate your advice - it’s exactly what I am planning on doing.
I was actually on your blog the other day (last time you left a comment here) and was thinking I’d love to walk you through your blog the way an objective visitor, like me, sees it. A mini-blog audit of sorts. Would you be up for it?
You know me, it won’t be a “pet the bunny and here are your pink glasses” kind of review, but I think you might find it interesting. Let me know. I’ll do a video and give you a shout when it’s ready. If you are OK with it, I might even publish it at TGC.
You are welcome. I come here to learn, and so listening just makes sense (to me, anyway.)
A mini-audit would be cool. There are a lot of changes coming to the blog right now since I’m enrolled in Iny’s ABM, but I’d love to hear your opinion, especially since some pointers from you is what prompted the new look and layout. It’s a work in progress. 🙂
(I did try to email you as well, so I hope that makes it to you.)
Good day Anna, You might want to get your message across by using my Mobile Marketing Campaign.
Take a look at the tutorial pretty straight forward.. You can make money because your main focus is getting Traffic Out to your data base..
Jefferson
Took a look at the site. Not easy to navigate; hard on the eyes (probably made for mobile, not full-screen computers). Hard to understand what the point is. In other words, my experience with it is completely different from what you think it should’ve been. 🙂
I don’t know if you remember me but I commented on your tools and resources page a while back because you closed your EN thread :(. I just wanted to let you know that I’m living up to my word on what I said on your tools page (I’m building an authority site) and it’s because of your site. Don’t let those EN…asses make you worry about your income so much. Let them worry about making a quick buck off the next poor sucker. Your influence and your word is worth more than any money in the bank. P.S. I DID put a link in my name this time to show you that I AM taking your lead. You’ve got a lot more thanks coming from my page than you’ll know what to do with soon. Keep up the honest work.
MUCH appreciated, Luke. Look forward to see your site on April 2!
First off, if I were to invest in something you were promoting, I’d definitely get it from you. 🙂
To be honest, my blog on its own wasn’t making much between advertisers and affiliate marketing. I’ve come to realize that the only thing people buy from my site are ebooks about blogging and WordPress themes. But even those bring in under $1K.
As far as subscribers, I only have 10% of what you have. They are not buying subscribers but informational subscribers. I promote products I have used and see almost zero sales from them (with exception to the themes and ebooks). I then see other affiliates making killings off of the same products with less in-depth reviews on them. Those people have buying subscribers.
My main income is freelance writing, but that is certainly not the passive income most make money blogging people dream of. 🙂
I’m changing up some of my strategies starting next month to see if it makes a difference - we’ll see then.
Thanks for coming by, Kristi. I assume that means you are finally getting the grip on being a new mom; if so, glad to hear it!
You hit the nail on the head. Two people promoting the same product might get quite different results. What’s the difference? What transitions a subscriber from wanting just information to making a decision to buy?
I am planning on getting to the bottom of this…
Hi Ana,
I have not bought anything blog related since I started except for my hosting. If I ever do decide to buy, I will buy through one of your links.
I have learned much lately about limiting subconscious beliefs and how they affect our reality. All it takes is one negative belief about money or selling things as a marketer to sabotage your success.
I think where you are starting here with brutal self-honesty is a step in the right direction. I came to the same conclusion as you and the other blogs you linked to in this post. Is this blogging thing really worth it?
I believe it is, and moments where we feel like giving up are usually the turning point for a successful business. I could go on and on but i’ll spare you for now. 😉
Personally, I truly love blogging, Justin. The lack of income bothers my readers more that it bothers me. 🙂
Hi Ana,
I haven’t commented here for a while because I didn’t feel I could make an intelligent addition to the discussion. But, with this post, I think I can make a response to your question. I have always thought that with your traffic you should be making a lot of money, and am always surprised when I see your income reports.
As far as creating a product, your ability to drive traffic to your blog is a product in itself. I don’t know if you still do this, but I always thought one of the smartest things you do is to offer your paid services for blog audits. I remember pricing them and I would have paid for one if you hadn’t gone ahead and audited mine for free. I know you have affiliate products and I have bought a few. I know you have banner ads, and I have used that service. But, if someone on a limited budget like me would pay for your audits, it seems like you could find that to be a terrific income source. It seems like there would be no end of people wanting your personal attention to their blog.
Lou
Thanks, Lou, and you definitely made a good point. I do enjoy doing blog audits and might consider going back to that.
So glad to hear your “voice” at TGC! Have a blessed week.
Ana firstly I just want to thank you for sharing such an honest and refreshingly frank post.
I’ll be brutally honest with you. I’m in a similar position. My traffic at Socialable is pretty good, averaging around 250k-300k page views a month and my conversions should be way higher than they are but they’re not. The simple truth is I make the bulk of my income from consultancy services. My affiliate income is a bonus BUT I could never rely on it. I’m also now starting to generate sponsors due to the level of traffic which is great and I currently make more from sponsors/paid reviews than affiliate sales.
I have bought the odd product from you before and if I see you promoting a product that I want to buy I would always buy it from you out of loyalty and the fact that I really respect your opinions and genuinely love visiting your blog and get a ton of value from what you give. I’m sensing that would be the norm as you appear to have a pretty loyal fan base.
I think the truth is that you’re being so honest and so many people aren’t. I do make money online but as I said above the bulk of it is from my service offerings, NOT from affiliate sales. To rely solely on this I believe requires a huge amount of traffic and a very big list. Interestingly whenever I sell an affiliate product I get more sales from my list than a product review post.
If you’re not interested in creating your own product have you considered getting a team on board to create it with your vision and then putting your name/brand behind it? I’m pretty sure it would be a huge success and when I’ve promoted my books I’ve also found that I sell more of them than an affiliate product - which again shows me that people are happy to buy something from ME.
Thank you, Lilach.
I did try consulting services in the past, but found that I’d get so anxious getting on the phone with people that no money in the world was worth it to me. Just not my thing. I am much happier hiding behind the computer screen.
I know a purely affiliate marketing business model is one of the hardest to maintain, especially, for people who are not willing to peddle everything they can get their hands on. However, Pat Flynn proves that it’s possible. Of course, he’s way ahead of me in terms of time and fan base, but I am patient.
I agree with you: my list responds much better to the offer I send over any review I write. I do reviews for Google rankings to catch that traffic.
Thanks for taking your time to share your experience, as well as those few sales you gave me.
Ana - I think your really going to miss out by not creating your own product. It can be a simple e-book with current content that you just re-purpose and charge a nominal fee for (here, on Amazon etc..) If anything you will get additional traffic, readers, subscribers etc..
Plus the real magic of having your own product is the fact you can up sell products that you know and trust inside of the ebook! AND if you can get someone like say… John Chow to promote your book? Psh.. need I go on?
One can dream no? Best of luck!
(Oh.. and its because I have no money or I would have purchased something from your resource page)
Funny enough, I do have an ebook that I’ve put together for sale. Just needs some finishing touches and it should be ready to go. However, it’s so far down my to-do list it’s not even funny. Even responding to your comment is more of a priority. 🙂
I’ll do it. I’ll finish it. Whether I make any money on it or not, we’ll have to see.
I think you know the answer. But I think it is hard route to go.
You are not selling anything. That is why you are not making any money. I see someone above wants to take you offline to show his secret. It is probably BS because it says “NO BS”.
Affiliate marketing as a income is a high-effort, low-return business. I’ve been an affiliate, and I’ve run an affiliate program. You will market your butt off for free for someone else. They get 90% of a $100 sale and you get 10%. And that is on a good affiliate program. The problem is you spent way more than $10 of your time to make the sale. And as an affiliate all your are doing is advancing someone else’s agenda, not your own.
Where are your products? How much time would it take you make 8 hours of audio + a great PDF and slap that on a DVD? Then get a box of 50 of them replicated and mailed to you. 50 branded replicated DVDs costs $100 from MoldingBox.com. And then sell them for $99 a piece. And then you get YOUR affiliates to sell them.
Why aren’t you making any high quality products of your own? Let me know if you want to discuss offline. I don’t have any secrets, but I do know the work and the process involved. It’s not magic, but it does pay the bills.
Making my own products creates too much pressure for me, Patrick - I’d have very hard time slapping some content together and charge a premium for it.
The other option, i.e. do it right, would be too costly in terms of time investment and the outcome? still uncertain. I’ve known plenty of marketers, even the ones I linked out to in the post, who poured their heart and soul into a product that never took off.
On the other hand, I recently did a webinar for another blogger’s product. I got to introduce the blogger, he did the rest. If there are no returns on current purchases, I stand to make close to $8K. That’s not bad for about 5 minutes of work.
Of course, this doesn’t happen every day, but I’ll be working on making it work on a more regular basis.
Hi Ana
I’ve never bought anything from you probably because I tend not to buy much anyway.
I keep my outgoings to a minimum and concentrate on selling things that I think people need.
I also only promote things that I have used and liked… it helps me put a bit of passion in my affiliate posts.
Look forward to hearing better news from you - you clearly work hard and share with the rest of us.
And to be quite honest with you, you don’t really need much to run a successful business, Keith.
Thanks for the feedback; I appreciate it.
Hi,
I really enjoy your site and you’re an excellent blogger. You really should join Empower Network, link to your blog and leverage the power of your EN blog…
Continue to help others do the same, especially fellow bloggers and fans of traffic generation methods.
Don’t fight it, go with it and use it…
I feel sure your income would skyrocket.
All the best,
Simon
Can’t market anything for the sake of money, Simon.
Not sure I understand?
I have to agree with you that your site is not a how to…but more of a discussion on the journey to becoming a better blogger. I think many folks get that confused and believe everyone has to be fully accomplished to post something on the web. I would rather read an amature blog that shows me what to expect if I venture down the road of raising orchids…then mister published magazine author talking about soil nutrient levels that I have no freaking clue what they are talking about….get what I am trying to say? lol
I am with you, Ed: I’d rather get raw, but useable knowledge than polished, but useless info so many blogs publish these days.
It’s actually hard-coded into my theme, but I’ll see if my designer wants to write a post explaining how to add the code to any blog.
It makes sense, Monja.
I think when we are ready to buy something, the last thing we think of is “let’s find a blogger to give the sale to”. We just go to the site a buy the product and, if there’s no aff cookie stored, then the house wins.
Now that I have a better understanding of how affiliate marketing works and why so many marketers are dependent on it for their income, I always make an effort to find someone I know to buy the product through.
Hi Ana,
I really appreciate the honesty in this post. I think something that is hard to understand is that the art of selling something is not spammy. When I read sales copy I am always like ugh, get to the point already. However, I think the majority of people get intrigued by the sales copy and purchase products. I know I struggle with promoting products or promoting them the right way because I don’t want to come across as cheesy salesman tricking you into buying products. I have only recently discovered your blog but I would think that the amount of honesty you provide to your audience would assure them that something you promote is legit. Your definitely doing something right with the popularity and traffic. If you are able to nail down the sales technique you might be unstoppable 🙂
I am always surprised when I hear stats that longer sales copies convert much better, William.
I am with you: stop selling me already and give me the bottom line.
Thanks for your encouragement!
Ana, decide to go the “guru route” and hype yourself senseless. You may not be able to look in the mirror but you’ll be rolling in dough!
Idea”r”s include:
Ana’s Secret of Traffic Generation
Ana’s Traffic Generation Sweat Lodge
Ana’s Traffic Generation Cookbook - Diet for Bloggers
Ana’s Phys Ed for Bloggers DVD
Ana’s Traffic Generation Talisman (set of 4 to keep around your computer when writing and uploading to your blog)
U GET THE IDEA! 🙂 Hahahaaaa! Happy Blogging and keep your day job!
lol, Dave; isn’t that the truth?…
Money vs integrity… The latter just doesn’t pay off as well.
Wow.
The biggest thing that I have learned in making money online is HOW you go about doing it.
That was the biggest take away from my interview with Steve Scott.
Send me a note and I’ll tell you the tip that I BET would increase your profit by next month NO BS.
It’s just one little change it will take you an hour.
Would love to hear it, Darnell; just email me back when you receive this response to your comment.