Hude traffic, huge readership no money

[Matthew Scarlett]

Hi Lynn,

Sorry it's been such a long time I don't even remember if I wished you a happy birthday this year (June 8th '73 for me) but I’ve been trying to work out why I've got so much traffic and my income hasn't increased. Between the blog and forum I’m up to about 110-120,000 page view per month with well over 60,000 unique visitors per month, but still no money.

.... well when I say no money, I earn and average of about $40 from amazon.com (which I have to take in gift vouchers), my amazon.co.uk is non existent and I get about £100-130 from ebay. Not great, considering that's what I was doing about 2 years ago. My traffic has gone from .. well see for yourself.

Any suggestions? I've tried banners, ebay widgets, amazon widgets, amazon astore, taking off banners, nothing.

On the flip side, my art work is taking off, and I’ve been told by 3 people to sell my biro art for £1,000 a pop. Sold my first piece for £500 ... so swings and roundabouts!

http://mscarlett.deviantart.com/


Monthly Summary New Topics New Posts New Members Most Online Page views
October 2010 45 115 231 26 37220 - so far this month
September 2010 35 87 345 48 65966
August 2010 96 289 261 30 53875
July 2010 42 125 209 22 45272
June 2010 26 157 236 41 48567
May 2010 59 321 279 29 47631
April 2010 41 223 154 24 39082
March 2010 130 191 210 20 45990
February 2010 26 186 170 41 32517
January 2010 32 145 244 104 46295
December 2009 24 87 218 15 27041
November 2009 27 137 217 14 25006
October 2009 33 210 195 19 24070
September 2009 62 207 150 16 21802
August 2009 35 125 132 14 16019
July 2009 54 189 115 11 13542
June 2009 31 81 115 9 7386
May 2009 43 123 142 8 4786

[Adriana]

Matthew, it's hard to say without seeing your site.

Are you sure your affiliate links are formatted properly? Are your pages too cluttered, so people don't know what to do? Do you have a variety of ways to present your affiliate links (images, text links, etc.?)

Hope this helps get you thinking.

[Matthew Scarlett]

http:www.fakeheadphones.com

http://www.fakeheadphones.com/forum/index.php

I must warn you that I’ve had a serious run in with some websites this week. Chinese manufacturers choose to con people out of their money. For example, headphonesale.co.uk have just conned another forum member by selling them a pair of fake Bose earphones. I don't take kindly my fellow music enthusiasts getting ripped of, hence the articles on the blog.


http://www.fakeheadphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=874.msg3078#msg3078

[Matthew Scarlett]

The issue is that i've got nearly 10 times the traffic but my income hasn't increased at all. Any suggestions as to why that is?

[Baggs]

Matthew, I suspect it is related to the topic.

People are not coming to your site to buy headphones, but to see how not to buy a fake set.

You need to find a way to convert their interest into a buying mentality - or find something they do want to buy. One wany may be to get them to sign up to a regular newsletter and then send out a latest deals on headphones, or have a section on the site related to this.

Also forums are often harder to monetize and Google Adsense does not always work that well. Try and find a complementary product that might (have you tried Amazon as although the cookie length is short, people will often click and go onto buy something totally unrelated.

Just some ideas.

[Matthew Scarlett]

You're right, I guess people come for 'information' not 'to buy'.

I just foind it strange that my traffic has increased to such a degree yet my income hasn't moved up with it.