I have been reading this forum for the past couple days and see that many of you are having great success with CJ. Congratulations! Unfortunately, I have not had the same experience. Can someone take a look at my site and make recommendations? I am looking for a strategy. Here are a few stats....I have over 20K uniques to the site every month, over 105K impressions and ~200 clicks but no money. Am I expecting too much? Am I using the wrong affiliates or programs? My site is http://www.blindhog.net. I create video tutorials primarily for Cisco networking and some Linux stuff. The CJ ads are on the side of each blog post. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks, Josh
Hi there, My impression of Transcender is that their service helps those who are about to take their Cisco certification tests. The theme of your site appears to me as instructions to those who may get stuck in some area while configuring their Cisco hardware. For example, you have a post about configuring an IOS DHCP server. I don't think anybody who hasn't yet taken a Cisco certification is in a position to implement your tutorials, as least not in a professional workplace. If there are, they are probably just a minority. So perhaps it is a case of promoting a product that is not hitting its targeted market. The example of the IOS DHCP post could indeed be helpful for those prepping as you pointed out that it is a tutorial, but it comes across to me as if you were speaking to certified techs and engineers already. It could be a matter of perception too. And after looking through the first page of your blog, I also didn't see a post where you review or endorse Transcender. It could help also if you wrote something about it, what kind of product it is, and kind of help it can offer. If you have made promoting Transcender your top priority, don't dilute your effort by also posting Adsense ads. But if you're making good money from Adsense, then perhaps you should consider promoting Transcender in a totally different matter. Just my 2¢.
I know many CCIE candidates are probably looking for lab equipment. Go buy phpBay Pro's Wordpress plugin (sign up for ebay affiliate status) and point to the Cisco category in networking equipment and use the search criteria of (CCIE, CCNA). Add the feed to your posts. Give me rep when you make your first $.
greenberry, what I'd do is include a lot more affiliate tagged text links in the content, and a list of recommended products or images that are affiliate tag linked within or below the content. I've also had success with creating a 728x90 banner that I made myself, and linking it to a CJ affiliate site. If adsense is doing nothing for you, you can try that route.
Hey guys, I really appreciate you taking the time to look at my site and make suggestions. These are really great ideas. Here is another question...do you think I might also be having problems because of my target audience? I think because my audience works with technology and the internet, they may have learned to ignore ads... @Faldo, You idea has me thinking. I don't know if product reviews actually go along with the theme of my site, but I do need to find a way to promote a particular product like transender. @decodethis, Thank you. I had been looking for a good ebay wordpress plugin. I had thought of this one, but hadn't figured out how to implement yet. @markn26, This is one of those "Why didn't I think of that" times.... Thanks for the tip! Adsense is making some money...basically just paying for the colo and my cell phone Thanks again guys, Josh
Welcome to the club. It is easier to get someone to click on an ad than to buy from an advertiser. I would add a lot of adsense ads and put very few CJ links.
You will see a MUCH better CTR on your adsense if you make it reflect the look of the rest of the site. Make the bg white, the border white, and the links like your other links. I also have to agree that the product your trying to sell is probably not the best one for your topic. Advanced topics wouldn't be visited by people looking to take the test. Have you thought about maybe making one of the banners a book from amazon? I am sure there is some uber bible or a new best thing out about the topic that you could sell. Most computer ppl have walls of books on a single subject.
@brotherZ I have been using adsense for a while now and like it. It brings its $5-6 / day (consistently) but I am really looking for more. I am just afraid of too much adsense. I don't want it to look like 75% adsense and 25% content. Those sites really turn me off. Maybe grwolz is right...my adsense ctr might be directly related to my color scheme. @grwolz I might give the color changes a try on my adsense. I also like the Amazon idea. Whew ... internet marketing is such a moving target . Thanks guys.
Hi, You could always set up a static page just dedicated to a review or endorsement of Transcender. Make sure it's SE optimized so you actually have yourself a landing page for the product. You could also make it free of any other Adsense ads. You just hit the nail squarely on the head.
faldo & markn26 I have used a combination of your ideas to promote transcender at the top of relevant tutorials. Thanks again for the ideas. Josh
Im guessing you have taken the adsense advice already as your ads look pretty good now. If i was you i would take all banner ads out of your main page and leave only content and adsense .. ads will only annoy people who are computer savvy (like your audience). then 1. Then create a page for each of the products you are trying to sell. 2. Make this page SEO friendly for the keywords associated with that product 3. write a review on the product, maybe compare a couple of similar products 4. place a affiliate link or two in there .. i tend to use my own pic and text links as it looks less like an advert. Now you can maybe write a blog post about the product or have some links from your home page to these pages. What you then have is a nice advert free home page, SEO friendly landing pages for products (which may rank for keywords associated with those products too) and you have targeted traffic for the products coming to the pages either from the main page or other sites. You wont get as much traffic to these pages but at least this traffic will be more targetted. If you find no one is visiting these pages at all then start thinking about changing products - soon enough you will find one that works. My 2c anyhow. p.s. maybe try look at clickbank and see if there are any related ebooks on your niche. They may sell quite well to your audience.
nice!! Don't forget to advertise smaller products too (flat PC cables, fans, etc). Those sell more frequently, plus you'll get your affiliate cookie on visitors' sites.