Preparing for the New Year

2015 is coming... already.

For SLD, conversions are still a problem.  I have actually paused the PPC campaign while I address the issue.  The funnel leaks, in part, because I'm not hitting the right message for the market.  I need to get more accurate data on what they want so that I can tailor both the product and the funnel to those needs.  I picked up Survey Funnel Formula about two weeks ago to help.  As the name suggests, you use surveys to build your funnel. 

The new funnel with surveys that I want to impliment will need to incorporate Prosper202 tracking so I cannot simply use the tools that are available now.  I spent the last two weeks figuring out what it would look like on the front end.  Flowcharts are extremely helpful with this process.  I know exactly what I want it to do, I just need to have someone with MySQL experience build it for me.  The biggest thing that it must do, besides incorporating Prosper202, is it has to add survey data both to my own database and also Aweber so that I can segment my list for specific promotions. 

Conversion Funnel Leaks

Last time, I mentioned that the sales funnel for SLD was leaky.  Nearly every step in the process is underperforming - from the squeeze page to the actual emails.  I went back yesterday and took a look at some of the emails and realized that they really didn't "sell" the click.  It was mentioned but I really didn't do a good job of convincing the reader that they needed to click the link.  I took three of the emails and retooled them.  We will see how it goes.

With the funnel being leaky, I am hesitant to throw more traffic at the system.  I'm not sure if it would help by providing more info more quickly or if it would hurt by burning my available budget.

SMF is suffering from something similar.  The squeeze page is only converting at ~7%, compared to the 15-20% it used to get years ago.  I need to rethink how to change it for better results.

That's all for now.

The Funnel is Leaking

SLD, my weight loss site, has a leaky funnel.  People go in and most fall out long before they get exposed to the salesletter.  Besides the poor optin rate on the squeeze page, the email sequence itself is a huge problem.  As I have been working to improve the optin rate, I have kept the budget for the PPC campaign at around $10.  This results in 2-3 optins per day (much better than the 0 from the initial campaigns).  Currently, there are 30 active subscribers for the list.

Out of the 16 messages in the email sequence, only 3 people have clicked the links in the emails that lead to the sales page for the ebook.  Three!  That is pretty atrocious.  These are people that opted into the list AND did the confirmation.  Yet, they aren't clicking the links in the email.

This leads me to only one conclusion - the email sequence does not "sell the click" well enough.  I will need to retool it to see if I can get better results.  I have scheduled a broadcast for today to see if that will get results. 

The reason I know all of this is from heavy manipulation of Prosper202 in order to make it track individual email conversion rates and the lifetime subscriber value for each person.  I've always wanted this kind of data but its taken nearly 10 years to find the right tool that does not cost hundreds per month.

Since Last We Met...

...A ton of things have happened.

I got married in May 2013 and will be having a kid May 2015=)

And I went part time at work in order to do more of The Business.  It took a few years but I'm finally back in the right mindset to do this again.

I will not be putting in 16 hour days like I did when I was younger (I just can't do that anymore) but I am approaching things with the right mentality - finally.  It has been hard getting to this point, a stage where I actually want to work on my own business again.  After everything fell apart and I started working at a job again, my confidence and tenacity were shattered.  I was not sure that I could ever get that back.  I cannot say that I'm 100% yet...

...But I'm definitely back!





The Projects:

SMF - My main site.  The one thing that has lasted through all of the turbulence.  It is showing its age.  The content is stale and the sales have plummeted to below $500/month (on a good month).  I need a new approach for this site.  I need a way to make it into a membership site so that the income is consistent and can be grown more easily.

SLD - My new baby.  Bright, shiny, full of great content... and no sales.  This is going to be the bread winner eventually.  I have writers doing the heavy content lifting but I have fallen down on my end of the work - getting traffic and sales.  The end goal is to have a membership program like I mentioned for SMF.  The only difference is that I already have a plan for that when it comes to SLD.  Membership will be $20-30/mon, making $10k/month achievable with only 500 members.  I have an ebook on the site already but sales are non-existent because traffic is low and the email sequence is ineffective.  More on that later.

SRM - My web design and internet marketing company.  This is for offline businesses.  I have one client and brought in just under $2,000 last month.  I will be targeting deep pocket businesses with this business.

That's what I am doing now in a nutshell.