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Converting Your Google Traffic Into Sales – What’s the Secret?
After running my affiliate marketing poll, I see one of the biggest problems affiliate marketers run into is trying to get the traffic they receive to their web pages to convert into sales. It’s also one of the top questions I get from my readers. They tell me they are getting traffic, but they can’t get that traffic to turn into sales…. What are they doing wrong? I think this topic deserves some in-depth conversation, so grab a Coke or a cup of coffee and let’s get into it.
I’ve had this post almost finished and sitting in my draft folder for some time now. Life has been so crazy lately that I am just now getting to finish it. With the holidays…work… family… and that new awesome, wonderful, precious granddaughter…well, I’m swamped! (and a HUGE thank you to everyone for extending your congrats and well-wishes on her birth!)
The GREAT news is that the person who inspired this post is now making money! Ted contacted me via my help desk to give me the good news.
Hey Jen!!!
Just wanna tell you that I am your another living proof that OWM is totally awesome!!! I am making a living with this already!!! woohooo!!!!
I’ve a few sales already!!! yeah!!!!
and it just keep on coming!!! AWESOMENESS!!! Thank you so much!!!
I’m so sorry Ted for being late for you, but apparently you didn’t need my help after all! haha! I’m super proud of you!
However, I think there are still a few folks that suffer from the same situation Ted was in, so I am going to talk about this anyway.
Meet Ted
Ted is one of my One Week Marketing followers. He’s been working hard (has 7 campaigns out there already) and is getting traffic to his web pages – but, no sales. He contacted me to ask for some help and insight and since his questions were so good and so important, I asked his permission to re-print his message to me so we can all learn from it.
I have a problem with my OWM. The problem that I have is as below:
1. Product chosen – How do I know whether the product is converting? Any preference to choose clickbank product? looking into gravity? referred? or what? I have 7 campaign now and non of them are converting to sale.
2. Which leads me to the second and last problem. I am getting traffic from google and other various places but I don’t see any sales. So my question is, how can find a BUYING keywords and PROFITABLE NICHE KEYWORDS.
Is it true that PROFITABLE keyword is the keywords that is “problem-solving” keywords? like “How Can I”, What is the”, “Where Can I Find”, or what?
I guess if I have the solution for the above problems my OWM would be better I guess.
I am very determined to make this work for me and I won’t give up until I get my first sale! Once the first sale is made I will just rinse and repeat and eventually proceed to your wordpress niche!
Thanks for your help,
Ted.PS-How long it takes for you to get your first sale when you started your FIRST campaign?
Great questions, Ted! Let’s take your questions one at a time and see if we can clear things up a bit.
Choosing Clickbank Products That Sell
This is always a tough one – how can you tell for SURE that a Clickbank product will sell for you? Well, you really can’t be SURE, but you definitely can take a look at some things to see if it might work for you.
About Clickbank Gravity –
Clickbank gravity, in a simple explanation, refers to the number of affiliates who have sold at least ONE copy of that product in the last 30 days. If an affiliate sells 100, it still counts as ONE gravity point just as if someone only sold one in the last 30 days, that would count as ONE gravity point, too.
I DO look at gravity…. but gravity does NOT make or break my decision of whether I promote that product or not. Yes, I like to see SOME gravity so I know that affiliates ARE able to convert leads to sales. However, I don’t have a “set” gravity number that I use as a rule of thumb. Some products are more popular, or have vendors that have more partners… some vendors have no idea how to attract affiliates. Some products answer the problems of a large group of people and some products are very, very niche-specific.
In short, for me, I look to see if there IS gravity…and then I look at the sales page. I want to make sure *I* don’t click to it and leave instantly, that it’s set up properly, no AdSense ads on the sales page (ugh), things of that nature.
Now, many ask me, “Do you choose a product to promote based on whether YOU’D buy it?”
No, I do not. ME buying it has NOTHING to do with it. I am looking for a product that answers the problems of a certain sub-set of people. Odds are good that I am not part of that sub-set. I can’t judge value for someone else.
Matching Clickbank Products With Buyers
To me, the most important part when looking as a sales page for a potential promotion is – WHO wants this?? WHAT is their problem and can this product solve that problem for them?
As the guys in Wealthy Affiliate always say, affiliate marketing is like being a match-maker. Find a group of people with a certain problem and match them up with the solution.
If the product you are thinking of promoting doesn’t solve at least one important problem of the target market, it’s gonna be tough to make sales. The more “troublesome” the problem is, the more sales you should make.
Travis, Mr Bum Marketing, used the phrase “Hair on Fire”. I love that phrase and I keep it in my mind whenever I am looking at products to promote. If the problem the group of people have is not like having your hair on fire, sales will be slower and you’ll have to work harder for sales.
Think about problems people go thru that are all-consuming for them at the moment. Think about things that have happened in YOUR life that you would’ve done just about anything to get the answer right away.
Anyone hearing me? {tap, tap, tap…. is this microphone on? Anyone hear me?}
Finding Buying Keywords
Learning how to identify buying keywords is a left brain/right brain technique. Sure, we have keyword tools that can help us identify good keywords in a competition sense – maybe even tell us the “commercial intent” of a keyword – but sometimes you just have to look at a keyword phrase and think about it. Think of what problem the searcher is having. If the keyword doesn’t imply a problem, but more an intent for something free or just some information, then it probably won’t lead quickly into a sale.
Unless…..
Yup, there’s an “unless”…lol. UNLESS you plan to bring people in with the “info searching” keywords and somehow get them to stay with you thru their cycle to get to a buying keyword. Good niche sites do this – they offer info to all cycles of the buying process. Good One Week Marketing campaigns do this, too =)
But this takes practice and learning how to identify if there even IS a product at the end of their search cycle. Sometimes…no, a lot of the times, you just have to get the content out there, see what keywords people are using to find you, watch their behavior, and take a good hard look at your own stats. There are NO stats better than your OWN.
Summary
Do you think someone who is looking to learn how to grow tomatoes is having a “hair on fire” problem? No, not likely…and the odds are really good that they will find all the info they need to satisfy them for free online.
However, what if some weird bug thing was eating their tomato plants? Hmmmm…. hair starts to sizzle a little now, doesn’t it?
The “problem” with most campaigns is not that our keyword research was wrong or the product was bad… usually the only problem is that we are “missing” with our match-making. Affiliate Marketers give solutions…we don’t sell =)
People come online to socialize, for entertainment, to get info….and to get solutions to their problems. Help them solve their problems and the sales will follow.
Oh, forgot a question…
How long it takes for you to get your first sale when you started your FIRST campaign?
It took me about a week to make my very first sale online. I have NO CLUE how someone found me or my site because I knew NOTHING about internet marketing or SEO or back links or ANY of that. But, through some grace of God, someone bought a $7 ebook from me… and changed my life. Once I saw with my own eyes that I COULD do this AND it really WORKED, well, I was all over this internet marketing thing.
As for my first sale with a One Week Marketing campaign…. See, the thing is, One Week Marketing didn’t exist back then. I created it as I went along learning. I didn’t even know I was creating a product – had no intention of it nor did it even cross my mind. I was just trying to turn the things I was learning and writing onto thousands of post-it notes into a plan of action that I knew worked and that I could repeat over and over and over.
No matter what you’d like to end up doing with internet marketing, One Week Marketing is the solid basics of just about all of it (excluding PPC).
Ted, THANK YOU for your questions! I love being inspired! Better yet…. CONGRATS on your sales! Keep up the great work!
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Hey Jennifer as always.. your article is full of knowledge.. thanx for the updates
Hey Jen,
great post as always. I have moved away from clickbank products and now do a lot of promoting real physical products. It’s so easy to do the match making. When 2000 people are looking for product A model 10 it’s pretty easy to hook them up with that exact thing. You’d be surprised just how many people are out there searching for pretty specific products. You can use Amazon as your merchant and cash in on their credibility and their ability to upsell. It’s a great thing to look at especially for beginners. 🙂 Get a little success under your belt and then work on match making with clickbank products ~ but heck, you may like the physical products so much you never go back. 🙂
Jackie Lee
I hear ya, Jackie! I LOVE me some Amazon -especially this time of year! It’s crazy what people buy!
had someone buy a Bacon Air Freshener from me the other day. Huh? You KNOW I had to go see what that even WAS…..lol!
Thanks for reading… and Merry, Merry Christmas to you and yours!!!
Jennifer
~PotPieGirl
“People come online to socialize, for entertainment, to get info….and to get solutions to their problems. Help them solve their problems and the sales will follow.”
Sooo…what happens when you have the answers but still do NOT get sales? Is it copywriting? website design? etc….
I love the hair on fire analogy! Gives me a new ways of thinking about my copy. Thanks!
And Cragrats on your princess!
@ Paul – Good question!
If you’re getting traffic and folks are clicking your affiliate link to see the solution but not buying, there could be an issue with how the sales page speaks to them… Or they don’t feel the product solves their problem.
yes, it can also be a copywriting issue – if the sales page doesn’t pique their interest and keep them reading, they may never stick around to see what the benefits of the product are.
With free marketing techniques, I’ll usually give a product 100 or so clean clicks. If no sales, I will consider testing another product to see if that makes a difference.
I have many campaigns setup and only one is making me the occasional sale. I am grateful for that but want to really make sales everyday.
I will use the Amazon tip from Jackie. Jeniifer do we have to put a disclaimer on squidoo that I will be getting a persentage of this sale or something like that?
If yes, what is the best way to do it?
Please help
“hair on fire’ – what a concept! And a good one to abide by in matching the offer with buyers.
I find now that it takes trial and error to find a winning offer that converts. You just have to keep at it and not quit. Eventually the hard work and determination will convert visitors into a sale/s.
LIke Jackie (above) I’ve moved away from promoting I.M. Clickbank products and now focus on Physical products.
I love the picture you paint Jen of “hair on fire” – most beginners sites are on “hair barely warm”!
I guess this is what most marketers call “desperate buyers”.
It sounds kinda gruesome but I want to market to people who want to buy, so “hair on fire marketing” is where I want to be.
It is also good to track your affiliate links to be able to know exactly which links got the more clicks, and what are the pages that convert people into sales.
And beginners also need to know that gravity can be faked.
Potpie, you are right, most of the time, gravity isn’t the only indicator that the affiliate should look at. As an example, I have an ebook on clickbank with gravity ZERO…. because I used to sell it with paypal! Huh?
It happens a lot.
Best wishes to your daughter. God bless her.
Franck
Hi Jen,
Glad to hear the wee one is good and healthy, my grandson just had his first birthday.
Aren’t grandchildren …. Fandabbiedozy?
That’s a daft Scottish word.
Anyway, I had to rethink some of my campaigns.
It seems like most of my visitors didn’t have their hair on fire …. just a bad hair-day.
After having another look at one of the sales pages for a product I was promoting, I thought the sales copy was so bad it would make people ….
WANT TO SET THEIR HAIR ON FIRE!
On a brighter note, sales are trickling in, so I’ve just started a new website.
Thanks Jen,
All the best to you and yours over the festive period.
John
This is so true PotPie!,..a great explanation!,..thank you for your honesty,..to all who want to succeed in internet marketing. We need more people like you on the internet!! 2 thumbs up!
AWESOMENESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank you so much for this blogpost!!! I feel so honoured to be in one of your blog post Jen!!! Woohooo!!! Well… I know the key to success… You are so right when you said it should be an EDUCATED guess!!! well… PERFECT PRACTICE MAKE PERFECT!!! My life has change and now going for MILLIONS!!! hehehe…
Like you said… “If you’re willing to do for a year what others won’t, you can do for a lifetime what others CAN’T!” you are so right… that has changed my life FOREVER!!!
To the others, I would like to share with you that It is all MINDSETTING and FAITH…. Believe me when I said it is all start from POSITIVE mindset and putting FAITH in yourself…. You’ll get there…
I Believe in POTPIEGIRL!!! You ROCK!!! 😉
Thanks again Jen…. Will come and visit you one day and play with your granddaughther… how adorable!!!
Regards,
-TeD-
Great post – it’s so important to take a careful look at both the strengths and the weaknesses of your blog!
This sounds like a great tool to deal with the weakness of not getting enough sales despite substantial traffic.
I’ve been doing affiliate marketing for a few months now, from a specified site and from my other sites. I use click bank on the specified site, and I’m an affiliate with an individual who has several products which I promote on two of my other sites. I haven’t made one sale yet.
It’s discouraging, but I’ll keep it up. I will reevaluate the clickbank products I am promoting and look into the Amazon affiliate program.
I have your One Week Marketing e-course and will have to study it.
Thanks for your useful posts.
I am still trying to figure out how the linking of pages work as I have already failed with my first attempt and will have to try and remove it. I enjoyed reading this article and can see where it will be help full once I solve or get over my problem. Thank You and congratulations on the new family addition.
John
Great article… wanted to thank you for your insight 🙂
Thanks for posting this! I never thought of “matchmaking” before! If I can just keep this paramount in my mind. I was lamenting the fact that I was getting between 500-750 visits a day to my site and not one purchase (adsense only for right now…I am a total newbie at this). I have got to analyze my site and see where I can post something that will help with a problem that my visitors may be having. Thanks again!
Thanks for this post Jen..I also had the same problem with linking people with the offer. I get a lot of traffic over 300 and only one sale.
I know see what I was doing wrong.
Thanks again for this
Understand the percentages in selling real live stuff. I wish all well, but it can be discouraging to see 63 cents on your tracking report when you busted your butt to make a sight. I agree with the diversity of having many irons in the fire. Jen, you are my hero.
another great post !!
🙂
Hey PotPie Girl,
I had bought your Ten Steps to getting on Page One of Google guide a couple weeks ago. It is a really informative and helpful ebook and I am glad I bought it. I just a few quick qeustions.
1. Has AOL bought Netscape? I went to the Netscape site and it looks like it.
2. When I got on the Netscape site, I couldnt find a button for submit my story, like the ebook says.
I am not sure how to proceed. Any help will be greatly appreeciated.
SuzyQ
“Now, many ask me, “Do you choose a product to promote based on whether YOU’D buy it?”
No, I do not. ME buying it has NOTHING to do with it. I am looking for a product that answers the problems of a certain sub-set of people. Odds are good that I am not part of that sub-set. I can’t judge value for someone else.”
I guess this is the hard part. Most people look for experts that can lead them to the solution to their problems. They’re not directly looking for products. It’s hard to be an expert at something if you don’t believe in the product.
Thanks for this post Jen..I also had the same problem with linking people with the offer. I get a lot of traffic over 500 and only one sale..
Thanks again for this
competition is getting harder as the population getting crowded becuase we have 1 internet and 10 result to visit for a keyword at google but we are getting more glabol by this way
“It took me about a week to make my very first sale online. I have NO CLUE how someone found me or my site because I knew NOTHING about internet marketing or SEO or back links or ANY of that. But, through some grace of God, someone bought a $7 ebook from me… and changed my life. Once I saw with my own eyes that I COULD do this AND it really WORKED, well, I was all over this internet marketing thing.”
Am pleased to see somebody successful like you acknowledging the help of God.
Keep up the good work.
God bless you Jennifer.
Jose
great tutorail. Thanks for sharing this!
I’ve been blundering around and actually selling stuff through Squidoo. It amazes everytime I sell something. I’m going to be sitting down and reading more of your blog so I can get great tips because I need to stop blundering and start earning more.
Thanks Jennifer, I love your site, I am a fan of yours and reading it every time you publish a post, It is because of you that I make money online.
Very informative post you have here Jeniffer, as always say I love reading your posts especially about internet marketing, beginners won’t have a hard time exploring different options because you explain it detail by detail. Thanks for giving us updates, will surely follow your next posts.
Thanks Jennifer! Helpful.
Affiliate marketers should always have their targeted market in mind, actually I think that’s the first place they should start. Once you know who your market is, you then go on a search for a product that fits their needs.