Give it to me straight, have I failed?

[TheGateKeeper]

I have been running a blog for about 7 months now. I built web 2.0, and all other types of backlinks and get about 200 unique/day.

I have a clean layout with lengthy original articles that are even referenced from wikipedia.

I promote clickbank, comission junction, and adsense.

I have made just one clickbank sale, 0 from CJ, and about 5$ fro adsense.

Is this normal?

Did I pick a really bad niche to start out in?

 

[myelbow4]

Well I just started 2 weeks ago and have had one sale. So i don't think thats normal. What's your niche?

 

[RuiGomes]

If you have traffic, then it all comes down to your conversions techniques.
Are your articles selling oriented - Do you incite your readers to buy the product?
Are you building a list to mail market your readers?

Use A/B testing tools and start improving your conversion rate.

 

[Needalead]

You have't failed. You have to constantly test things out. If it isn't working then try something else, if that isn't working, move on..

Without knowing your niche, it's hard to say but no niche is a hard niche. They all require hard work, blood, sweat and tears.

I am sure that if you are diligent enough, it will find it's mojo.

Those who don't give up are those who understand the meaning of sweet victory.

 

[tymillz]

Did you quit?

If so, yes you have failed.

 

[TheGateKeeper]

I will never quit.

The this is when I blame my niche is that I have another site (in another niche), with no link building whatsoever, no seo in the articles, and pretty crap layout, and I still make 3 sales a month from it.

My website is in the martial arts niche.

 

[TheGateKeeper]

If you have traffic, then it all comes down to your conversions techniques.
Are your articles selling oriented - Do you incite your readers to buy the product?
Are you building a list to mail market your readers?

Use A/B testing tools and start improving your conversion rate.

In about 1/5 articles I review or mention a product. The rest have no mention but they all have adsense on them.

 

[farefis]

You've only failed if you scrapped your site. It's all about trial and error (mostly error initially). Just keep cracking at it. Good things come to those who bust ass and get 'er done.

 

[healzer]

Martial arts niche... unless those are health care products on how to heal muscles or something... sales would be low...
not many people will buy Wing Chung Wooden Dummies

 

[Ryna1]

Definately no fail.

I say you have succeeded in both knowing exactly what you have and taking the effort to fix it.

Do you have a tracking of the referral path of your visitors. That might help to see if they are just browsing or actually looking for a service or product

Check exit links if you can and see if you can convert that topic to an article or sale

Next, maybe look for buying traffic with long keywords that combine your keyword and a buying word.

Or your niche traffic are just not buyers

Site layout could make a difference too

 

[blackfrank]

I'm in the same boat as the OP. My blog is 4 months old. The first month I made $ 0.07. The last 3 months I averaged $9.00. I rank 2nd for a key phrase that supposedly gets 1500 exact searches a month with a EMD. The site is also on page one for other long tail keywords Ive been adding 2 400-500 word articles every month. Will things get better for us as our domains age?

 

[jetti789]

The only way to fail is to keep doing something that doesn't work.

Treat this like a case study and document what works and what doesn't work and go from there. And don't compare your progress to someone else, because you have no idea what they are doing.

 

[JellyDonuts]

Fail is not the right word, but the path you are on right now is not the path that is going to let you retire. Better to recognize it only 7 months in rather than 15 years later.

To be honest, this is not a good conversion rate. I've heard the figure 3% as the average. One solution may be to try a bigger niche where you can attract more visitors. You also should ask a friend who won't lie to you to look at your site and tell you if it's attractive/catchy or not. Just make sure that you have a reasonable idea of why it's not doing so well so that you don't keep repeating the mistakes.

 

[2011nfl]

The only way to fail is to give up. What you really have to do is ask yourself "what did I learn from the past 7 months" As long as you are able to come up with at least a small list of things you learned, then you actually came out ahead. Just take what you learned, and turn it into income.

 

[TheGateKeeper]

I am going to start up 5 more blogs, and keep them running along with the 2 I already have. I figure its better this way to spread your efforts among different blogs.

 

[TheGateKeeper]

Can someone show me some sites that generate revenue? You can msg me if you don't want to show it here.

 

[toughtrasher]

You're only a failure if you're a quitter.
Don't ever quit, keep at it whether you earn your money after 1 hour of hard work or 1 year of hard work, it will happen if you do it wisely and constantly.

Get at it bro. The prize is here.