Am I pathetic or what?

Discussion in 'Commission Junction' started by jdomaha, Dec 17, 2007.

  1. #1
    Web Site: All web sites
    Period: This Month
    Commission earned: $1.66 USD
    Sales: 4
    Leads : 0
    Clicks: 234
    Impressions: 61,655

    Those commissions are from BANS stores, of which I have 5 now.

    On the other hand, I've made 75 bucks from Azoogle when I started using in-post links.

    Banners? Not working for me.
     
    jdomaha, Dec 17, 2007 IP
  2. logylaps

    logylaps Active Member

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    #2
    logylaps, Dec 17, 2007 IP
  3. jdomaha

    jdomaha Peon

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    #3
    No dude, you do not want me to teach you.

    I've brought in about 100 bucks this month while serving over 175000 impressions throughout my sites.

    I suck.

    Scott Weaver at afftoolbox.com knows his stuff though. Check his blog out and talk with him. He might be able to help you.

     
    jdomaha, Dec 17, 2007 IP
  4. logylaps

    logylaps Active Member

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    #4
    Are you kidding me??? 175K impressions!?! Id kill for that traffic :p
     
    logylaps, Dec 17, 2007 IP
  5. jdomaha

    jdomaha Peon

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    #5
    But if you can't convert, what's the point?

    Other than having an audience who likes your site, I mean.

    It's always gratifying when I get fan mail.

     
    jdomaha, Dec 17, 2007 IP
  6. decodethis

    decodethis Well-Known Member

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    #6
    Yikes, what kind of traffic is it that it converts so poorly? Perhaps you're just missing the right affiliate program to capitalize on your user's needs...
     
    decodethis, Dec 17, 2007 IP
  7. logylaps

    logylaps Active Member

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    #7
    Heh, well getting the traffic is step one, monetizing is step two. Im still at -1 :)
     
    logylaps, Dec 17, 2007 IP
  8. jdomaha

    jdomaha Peon

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    #8
    Completely organic traffic, about 60 percent of it from google

    PYSIH.com

    Basically a site about evil people.

    I promote background checks, security stuff, assorted other items.

    3 sales from background checks on Azoogle got me the 75 bucks.

    Of course, all my income in the month of December is going to one of my readers, so it doesn't really MATTER what I make, but I'd like to, you know, make a difference in their checkbook.

     
    jdomaha, Dec 17, 2007 IP
  9. speed100

    speed100 Peon

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    #9
    Is it search engine traffic or did you buy it?
     
    speed100, Dec 17, 2007 IP
  10. jdomaha

    jdomaha Peon

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    #10
    Search engine and a few newspapers wrote about the site, which got me about 1/8th of my traffic. There's no chance in hell I'd be able to afford to buy that much traffic.

    Actually, it's funny.

    According to analytics, I've had 175k impressions with 40k uniques.

    According to slimstat (a wordpress plugin) I've had 451700 impressions with 33846 uniques.

    According to Mybloglog, I've had 102,484 impressions and 30,331 uniques.

    Just goes to show you how different stat reporting thingies can be.

    And some interesting trivia: most users ever online were 156, on December 6, 2007 @ 3:18 am

     
    jdomaha, Dec 17, 2007 IP
  11. Aldouspi

    Aldouspi Peon

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    #11
    Nice site, I can see why you get so much traffic. Crime pays, or at least, writing about it should...

    Some suggestions: Where you have that link to your astore use the Amazon widget that pulls items from your astore and show at least one security product.

    Place an adsense link block at the top of each page. And, an adsense text block where your first banner is might be good, too.

    If you are getting good response from the azoogle ads make them more prominent.

    It may just be me, but I find the pages where the actual complete articles are on to be too busy. There is just too much distracting info about your commentors and other articles (all of which is a repeat of what is on the home page.) Can you drop one column and place more ads on the remaining column. (I know this is radical, and may not be the right change, but it may suggest something to you.)

    I also think your Cbtops section is visually lost as well (and maybe match the color scheme to your site.) I did not see anything that linked this site to your BANS stores...

    You have the traffic and the content. Now just arrange it so that some of the ads are viewable by your visitors. Give them some places to rest their eyes.

    Remember these suggestions are just that, I offer them mainly as a way to maybe look at your site in a new way...
     
    Aldouspi, Dec 17, 2007 IP
  12. db.helm

    db.helm Peon

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    #12
    It is tough. But I still have to say I would like to be in your shoes as opposed to mine. . as far as my online presence goes. . I wish you the best in monetizing!
    db.
     
    db.helm, Dec 18, 2007 IP
  13. clix99

    clix99 Well-Known Member

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    #13
    Hey,
    I think this is a great site, great content and idea and great amount of traffic :)

    I know it seems like a long and obscured task to make this site profitable but it's really is very easy.
    What i usually do is try to imagine the site as a really (offline) shop. The main page is the display window, the products are on the shelves (EPC and EPA ads are products in this case) and most importantly the salesman is everywhere!
    I mean all the texts on your site can help you sell. I think you should find problems your crowd will related to and write about it. Convince your users they have a problem - Them let them know how to solve it with a product.
    A lot of new Internet marketers thinks the ads on the page must be related to what the visitor was looking for before landing on that page - right?? -- Wrong!!!
    Look at this case. People are interested to see what jdomaha has to say about criminals.
    Although i'm sure you can make much more than $1.66 and month with only related products ads, i would use this great channel of 40000 people a month to Sell and not to just advertise.
    For example - Adsense and other similar programs let you earn not only by Clicks but also impressions. Most advertisers use this method for branding and would love your 80000 eyeballs a month!

    Anyway, I suggest:

    1. Try two months with adsense - i think adsense is the most reliable out there and will help you at first get the right idea about the number or clicks / impressions. I'm sure that if you'll put 2 - 3 ad units on each page (At the header, middle and right side) you'll make $XXX this month. It might be a $100 or $999. twitching and optimising ad placement will do the trick.
    2. Put more expensive products on your shop!
    3. Put a flashing "visit our store" banner everywhere!!!
    4. after you know how much you make with AdSense try to implement the same thing with other programs.

    Good luck.
     
    clix99, Dec 18, 2007 IP
  14. WharfeValley Systems

    WharfeValley Systems Active Member

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    #14
    The problem is on you site that the adsense is so god damn random?

    in the story about Jesse Timmendequas i get ads for "Volunteer Teaching in India!" no one will want to click them ads!

    But anyhow i would put some adsense on the main page under each of the blog titles, you should drum up some income there. I think you will find it hard to convert CJ banners on this site
     
    WharfeValley Systems, Dec 18, 2007 IP
  15. Sem-Advance

    Sem-Advance Notable Member

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    #15
    Your ads are definitely in the wrong places to earn any real revenues for you.

    Also you hit on a good converter which are in content links.

    Try to get big square ads place them between the profiles on the left....use the background investigations home security personal security items ...play on the fears the site promotes to get people to protect themselves....

    The way to make sales is on the emotions of people so if you conjure envy then sell things they can use to make others envious....

    fear?....sell security....

    lust?.....sex and porn....

    love???... sell jewelry

    excitement??? sell roller coaster or sky diving tickets....

    So whatever it is you are trying to convey to the visitor... use the their emotions...the emotional aspect of your website... to sell!

    :D
     
    Sem-Advance, Dec 18, 2007 IP
  16. LongHaul

    LongHaul Peon

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    #16
    Just a design suggestion, I tried to click one of the people's pictures to take me to the article, but it wasn't linked. That might be nice.
     
    LongHaul, Dec 18, 2007 IP
  17. jdomaha

    jdomaha Peon

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    #17
    Dude, it's so funny, because last night before I went to sleep, I hit the Amazon forum here and was reading about how people working as Amazon affiliates get more in the way of click-throughs there because Amazon is more of a trusted name.

    So I went to Amazon and set up a security item store. :)

    Love these forums.

    The problem with integrating more ads and so on is that #1, I've had tons of ads on the site and I did no better. It wasn't until I started putting links to affiliates in the posts themselves that I started to see some conversions. I was getting a few clicks, but nothing was converting with the banner ads.

    and #2 - I have this stupid notion in the back of my mind that tons of banners = crap site. I have good traffic, but if I put a bunch of ads in, am I disrupting the user experience to the point of annoying them so much that they don't come back?

    Good ideas though, I'll impliment some of them this morning.


     
    jdomaha, Dec 18, 2007 IP
  18. jdomaha

    jdomaha Peon

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    #18
    Holy crap.

    That's a damn good idea. Never even occurred to me.

    Seriously, you people are making me work.

     
    jdomaha, Dec 18, 2007 IP
  19. WharfeValley Systems

    WharfeValley Systems Active Member

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    #19
    its the simple things we always forget
     
    WharfeValley Systems, Dec 18, 2007 IP
  20. grwolz

    grwolz Guest

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    #20
    Have you tried some CPM ads? With that kind of traffic it would be easy to make more than a buck at least.
     
    grwolz, Dec 18, 2007 IP