No success with affiliate marketing....

[KanyeWest]

A while back I posted on here for a review of my site The Lingerie Blog.

I went on and implemented the changes, and started to feel some benefits in terms of visitor numbers. Bounce rates are down and returning visitors are up. Thanks to all for that. Sadly though, no success has come in terms of sales!

I have dabbled in SEO, article marketing, purchased backlinks, commented on related blogs etc - all of the advice in the business. I think the content is generally good (the most recent few are a bit ropey, but Im losing enthusiasm.....) I have put a decent amount of work into this site.

Sadly, Ive never made a single sale through. I get approx 70 uniques per day from the SERPS. 60% of these are for the term ´lingerie blog´, so maybe these guys just arent ´motivated to buy..... As I mentioned last time around, I also have a mix of visitors from the US, Europe and the UK. In the absence of a good way to geotarget my affiliate ads, Ive temporarily added adsense, and I´m making a few dollars per day - per click prices pay quite well in this market.....

Stats here from my main network....

Period
Clicks
Impressions Commission
2nd Tier
Pending Validated Void Total
Today 1 11 £0.00 £0.00 £0.00 £0.00 £0.00
Tuesday 3 37 £0.00 £0.00 £0.00 £0.00 £0.00
Monday 7 41 £0.00 £0.00 £0.00 £0.00 £0.00
Sunday 6 316 £0.00 £0.00 £0.00 £0.00 £0.00
Saturday 6 549 £0.00 £0.00 £0.00 £0.00 £0.00
Friday 5 283 £0.00 £0.00 £0.00 £0.00 £0.00
Thursday 3 61 £0.00 £0.00 £0.00 £0.00 £0.00
Wednesday 5 45 £0.00 £0.00 £0.00 £0.00 £0.00

Any comments appreciated!

[figleaf]

Hi Kanye

It's a great looking blog, the thing that screams out at me from a skim is a complete lack of calls-to-action. You write about the different items but then you do not follow up with a 'click here to buy now' - some of your posts do have clickable images, but people tend to click them less, mostly because they do not realise they are clickable. Definitely add text links to the end of each post.

If you went back through your posts and added a call to action, I'm pretty sure things would be different.

If you want a more in-dpeth chat, drop me a line at affiliate.support@figleaves.com

Cheers

Simon

[mhc]

I sympathise, having also developed an idea hoping to get reward from affiliate marketing, however my results to date have also been disappointing.

I've used finance, ferries, outdoor gear, sunglasses, bikes, national trust, photobox, hpi...

Despite averaging anything between 150 - 250 uniques a day, even my industry seems reluctant to back it, so for the time being its Adsense driving the most revenue, but I'll keep trying.

[bapages]

Hi Kanye

It's a great looking blog, the thing that screams out at me from a skim is a complete lack of calls-to-action. You write about the different items but then you do not follow up with a 'click here to buy now' - some of your posts do have clickable images, but people tend to click them less, mostly because they do not realise they are clickable. Definitely add text links to the end of each post.

If you went back through your posts and added a call to action, I'm pretty sure things would be different.

If you want a more in-dpeth chat, drop me a line at affiliate.support@figleaves.com

Cheers

Simon

I agree with Simon, Good potential but you need to tell the viewer where they can buy them once you have convinced them in the blog. Perhaps instead of the Adwords have a column of Links to affiliated stores reading something 'Caprice Lingerie available at xxxx - Buy online here' or Buy online section then list the lingeries types etc. You can use many differing methods but the point is you need to make customer aware they can be purchased through you links.

I would give Simon a Call as he may not only give you good advise but talk to him nicely he may give you an incentive

[mainlime]

I can quite sympathise. Going through a bit of a downer myself at the moment as I wait, fingers crossed, for some organic search traffic to start building to my new projects.

I'd second the comment above about calls to action though. In fact I'd go further and say you should turn every mention of the website or product name into a clickable link. You might want to use a link cloaking plugin for Wordpress such as this : ø Link Cloaking Plugin for WordPress | W-Shadow.com ø if you're concerned about getting a Google slap for having loads of affiliate links

Highlighting sales, special offers, discount codes etc should help especially if they are time-limited offers as this gives a sense of urgency to the potential customer.

Try the What Would Seth Godin Do? plugin to encourage new readers to subscribe to your RSS feed. Use something like Feedburner Email Subscriptions to get people signed up to your mailing list too. This will give you a database of prospective customers to market to

I use OpenAds (which has just rebranded itself as OpenX for some reason) to geotarget ads. It's quite a fiddle to set up though and probably overkill for now.

[Greavsie]

Hi Kanye

Simon is quite right, you need to tell people to buy something. some ideas and comments for you

1. Query - are you making revenue from your Google Adsense advert? If so, then this is probably where your sales revenue is going i.e. people leaving your site and your just earning click revenue

2. Comment - The Lingerie Blog » Blog Archive » Dreamlegs Hosiery why not use a text link where you mention La Senza e.g. "La Senza has a unique collection", use deep-links to "Dreamlegs hosiery".

3. Google - personally i hate google adsense running all over websites; especially in prime positions at the top and on the right hand side like you have. It increases the chances of people leaving you site on a small CPC, rather than making a nice commission on a sale

4. Suitably sized adverts - why not have 3-5 small 120x60 buttons running down the skyscraper slot (where adsense is). Figleaves run all the call to actions in their advert, so you can concentrate on content

5. Brands - why are you listing brands which are not paying a commission. does figleaves or someone else stock these brands? i.e. get a deep-link. get 10% of Argentovivo from Figleaves etc. Run a section on the various suppliers who pay you commission e.g. la senza stock the following brands, sizes etc.

6. Lingerie blog ranking - not sure how many consumers would search for this to be honest. it might be people like might trying to recruit you to a network OR steal your ideas/content. As a consumer they would be more interested in size, style, price etc.

7. Variety/Categories - make it easier for the user to find what they are looking for e.g. size 32B; figleaves, la senza, corsets, knickers etc etc.

8. Offers/Promotions - don't be afraid to run special offers and promotions for your users. dedicate a section.

The site looks good, and you've done a lot of the hard work. but you have to think about getting people to buy something so look at the retailers for inspiration - at the end of the day they are making a lot of money out of it so know what they are doing.

Don't lose heart - you are getting there

Good luck. be happy to offer you more advice, obviously if you are on linkshare with figleaves

[HarveyC]

Some great replies here, so I won't say anything but...

I ain't saying she's a gold digger.

PS - shocked and apalled by the number (2) of people that have addressed you as Kanye!!! Best of luck

[figleaf]

Just for the record, have followed Kanye West since his 'late registration', just incase anyone doubts that I'm down with the kids

Great post as ever Greavsie, think with your brains and my looks we can take lingerieblog to new heights...

Kanye, be good to hear your thoughts.....

[KanyeWest]

Fantastic comments guys - in an internet cafe currently but will be sure to pop back with detailed comments, and also to share some of the few thigns Ive learnt whilst doing this. will get to work on changing the posts right away!

thx again

[sgpratley]

Good advice above, esp on the call-to-action stuff, don't be scared of asking readers to do something, once they're into your site they'll often follow like sheep!

One thing I would take issue with though is the following:

Brands - why are you listing brands which are not paying a commission

The odd post which isn't a commission earner isn't too much of a problem. It has more chance of being unique, and can pick up more blog subscribers and SEO.

You can also use it as leverage to get advertising, sponsorship or samples from companies that aren't already on affiliate programmes.

You've got the knack of creating some decent unique copy though so don't get too down about it.

[Greavsie]

agreed stephen; nothing wrong with promoting other brands; especially those not paying commission. but obviously if most of them are not paying commission, then it's not a shock if you are not earning revenue.

Personally i'd promote all brands irrespective of commission.

Simon - just think what i could do with all your TD affiliates .

[deadgoodundies]

I think pretty much everyone has covered all the obvious (call to actions i'd have to agree on)

One thing that might help as well is if you can blag some samples of either the brands or the merchants you are promoting and get some of the underwear road tested (im not saying you road test it but wife, girlfriend etc.) and then write about it.
Nothing makes more interesting reading than some first hand (or 2nd) hand real life experience on how a product performs/fits.
In our case we must send out around £200 worth of sample underwear to some of our top performing affiliates who then do exactly that and then write about it and then reap the rewards.

Also on another note if you aren't already a member a good place to pick up gossip, latest trends, new ideas is on this lingerie forum

Index - The Lingerie Post Forums

[KanyeWest]

OK folks - said I would be back!

Have just spent half an hour or so adding backlinks and calls to actions to a selection of the posts. I have also picked up on a timely La Senza offer to promote. Really hope it starts to gain some traction now!

This US traffic thing is still bothering me. Ive had 4x more hits from the USA than I have from the UK. This points towards changing to US merchants, but this isnt a conversation I hear very often on this forum, even though everyone must have faced it.

Im thinking of adding a link to US merchants at the end of every post. Any downside to this?

[KanyeWest]

And also thanks again very much for the great feedback!

[sgpratley]

There's no harm in putting 2 links, one to a merchant UK and one to a US merchant, on the same post if you have a lot of US traffic.


CJ, Buy.at, AF, Linkshare and I'm sure a few others all have both UK and US operations