Where am i going wrong?

[HollyUK]

Hello people!

As far as affiliating goes, im fairly new, we've only been doing this for a few months now. We've designed roughly 8 websites, we've made very little and in some cases, nothing at all from the majority of our sites. We have made a small profit from one of the sites (a coupla hundred dollars) but its not enough! we tried google adsense - its made nothing as of yet but we've only had it up for a week or so, so possibly patience is the answer to that, we've made sure all our tags are okay, we've interlinked, weve done niche markets, we've put mini-webs at the bottom of our sites, linking to our other sites, we are on google, and yet, not really much success has come our way.

We are yet to try google ad-words, and we will try that once we know what were doing is right, and once we know what were doing and how to set it up etc

Any advice whatsoever would be much appreciated, Thank you all in advance

ps - by "we" i mean myself and my family.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hi Holly,

It's impossible to say what the issue is without more info. Let me take some wild guesses and offer some suggests. (Since I don't have enough info, just taking a stab in the dark.)

1) THE NICHE - not sure what niches, but finding the right niche is key. If you are in markets that are too competitive it will be hard to get traffic. If a niche is not popular enough or there are not good related products without affiliate programs, that could be a problem too.

2) FOCUS - I really feel strongly that affiliates should focus all their efforts in the beginning on one site. There are so many variables to pay attention to that could be an issue and if you are multiplying that times 8 sites, each with it's own set of unique problems you just have a huge confusing mess.

3) TRAFFIC - the biggest problem I suspect is just not having enough traffic to any one site because your efforts are scattered.

4) Ad placement, merchant selection, link re-directs and a ton of other issues could be at play too. Impossible to say.

SOLUTION - Here is what I recommend. Pick one site you think has the best chance of success. If you aren't sure, ask us in this thread. Pick what you think could be the best 3 or so and tell us just the basic category (green widgets, shoes, a disease, a hobby site, etc.)

What I'd like to do is try to narrow it down for the best one to focus on 1st. Then after we do that you can request a site review and give us the link and tell us more about that specific site and ask specific Qs about what you need help with. You need to have 10 posts before you can ask for a review, but just asking questions about other things or talking with us in this thread will help you get there.

 

[Niche48]

I think you need to focus on one site. Work with it, optimize it for the search engines, generate your backlinks and see what works.

It is only when you have actually worked at it for a while that you learn what works and what doesn't and then you can apply what you have learnt to your other sites

 

[cherie27]

I agree with Niche.

Rather than spreading your focus on different sites. Focus on one first.
Once the site is getting results, then you can start to apply the techniques to others.

 

[Wazzy]

Hi Holly,

Like Linda already said, without more specific info it's hard to make the call as far as what the solution is.

Are your sites all relative to the same niche, and if so do they complement each other, or are they in totally different markets?

If they're related, do each of receive the same amount of traffic. if not, then ask yourself why not. Is your interlinking working and are you tracking that?

If one of your sites is informational and pointing to your money site and you are getting the majority of your traffic from there, you're onto something good. Then all you have to do is get the rest of those sites to push traffic to your offer.

That means you'll have to take an objective look at your poor performing sites to find the cure. Make sure those sites are optimized for your main keywords, and don't forget LSI.

I'm sorry I can't be more specific, but there are too many unknowns to suggest a solution. For example, what page do your sites show up on for your main keywords? What is the search volume for those keywords? Keep in mind that you can be on the first page of Google, Yahoo and MSN, But if nobody's searching for your product with the keywords you've chosen then you know a good part of your problem.

Fill us in with a few more details and I'm sure we'll come up with a plan.

Good Luck!
Mike

 

[genuwine4532]

I agree with everyone, especially Niche and Linda. Also, not all websites will make money.

I would focus on organic traffic, SEO.

In most cases, organic traffic converts the best. Where are you sitting in the SERPS?

If you are not on page one of SERPS then I would target my efforts there, site by site. Target that first page position where you can get the most SE traffic.

Check your analytics, how much traffic are you actually getting to your site, that is the best way to see conversion rates.

If you are only getting 20 uniques a day then a couple of sales is great! If you are getting 2k uniqes a day and only making a couple of sales then there are other problems going on with your site itself, maybe landing page, navigation and user friendliness or the products you are promoting.

It is difficult to give you answers without knowing a lot of details.