Site Re-make: Advice Please!

[cpmhere]

I started a clickbank affiliate site, and didn't know how to create a "sales oriented" site, with a funnel style sales page etc. Initially about thirty people promoted my product, but in one month I have not made any sales.

I want to redesign my site to a sales oriented site and sure could use some help figuring out how to do that. What changes do i need to make to this site, what things should I delete, and what should I add?

Here is the site:

http://mindfulnessangermanagement.com

Do people have any advice for what I should do to get my sales going?

[Phil Tanny]

Hi again,

Not sure if/how this might help. Here's a lady whose been selling meditation services for some time, a few years at least.

http://www.meditationchallenge.com/

http://www.meditationchallenge.com/about.html

Here's one suggestion regarding your sales. You might try focusing on selling the idea of joining your mailing list on your site.

You can set up a sequence of mailings that will be sent automatically to each new subscriber. You can build trust with each new reader first, and then start introducing them to your offerings.

It's a lot easier to sell things to people who feel they know you. It's a lot easier for people who just found you to join your list than make the purchase decision on the spot.

Use the site to sell the list, and use the list to sell the product/service.

Apologies if you already know all this.

I dropped the ball in our previous exchange, going back to fix that now...

[Lynn Terry]

You mentioned it being an affiliate site, but then said others were promoting it. Is it your product - are you the merchant or the affiliate?

[Infinity]

You mentioned it being an affiliate site, but then said others were promoting it. Is it your product - are you the merchant or the affiliate?

I think he's a merchant.

This is a good way to make a winning salespage:

http://www.doubleyourdating.com/77laws/

[jgant]

I agree that more pre-selling content is needed. Try to communicate the benefits more clearly. What do I benefit from your product? Why is getting rid of anger a good thing?

Another method is an extensive blog about anger issues with links to your product sales page. You could blog about anger and how it affects marriages. Teenagers and anger. Loss of a loved one an anger. These concrete scenarios resonate with people struggling with anger and your product may be the solution they're after.

Anger results in problems - substance abuse, broken marriages, abuse, violence, getting kicked out of school, etc. Your product could be presented as a solution to these problems.

You could extend your kewyords and topics to resentment, which is a big topic in the addiction community. That could open up a market for you.

With respect to working with affiliates, try approaching bloggers in your niche with high-traffic sites and see if they'll promote your product for you. 1 excellent affiliate is better than dozens who don't promote your product well. Give out a review copy to your hand-picked affiliates to show them it's a quality product.

With respect to an opt-in form on the sales page, be careful because some affiliates don't like vendors who do this (including me). It's a leak on the sales page and can hurt conversion UNLESS you offer lifetime tracking. This means that a referral who becomes a subscriber on your list and buys from your list still generates a commission for that affiliate. As an affiliate, I love lifetime tracking.

In fact, you could turn your entire blog into an affiliate tracking system. If an affiliate sends someone to your blog, they opt in, and buy 6 months down the road, your affiliate still gets the commission. These types of affiliate systems appeal to affiliates big time.

You could also write a mini-report to give to your affiliates who can use it as a freebie give-away for their visitors to opt in to their list. Then they can pitch your product via email in the future. Help your affiliates make sales for you any way you can.

You could add a membership portal on your site with recurring subscriptions offering a 12 week course plus new articles etc. to help manage anger in the long run. This too could be an affiliate program resulting in recurring commissions for your affiliates (another nice affiliate feature).

Hold a blog-post writing contest for your affiliates. The affiliate that writes the best post about your product wins a big prize (it has to be a really great prize in order to motivate a blog post). This type of contest is better than merely rewarding the biggest sellers because it gives your newer affiliates a chance to win.

Offer discount codes for your affiliate marketers as an incentive to their readers to buy through them. I work with one vendor who gives me a great discount for my readers. My readers specifically return to my blog to buy through me. Naturally, I promote this product extensively because I get the sales.

Try a JV arrangement with related vendors such as hypnosis MP3 vendors. This could result in some good sales.

BUT, before you approach key affiliates, ensure your site is converting. You need traffic to do this. Try paid traffic. It's not as good as referred, but it's a start. Once you get some decent conversion rates, then your product will be attractive to key affiliates.

[cpmhere]

Hi everyone, and thanks for all the great advice and support!! I'm kind of overwhelmed actually with how generous people are here. I just got back from being away for a couple of days so am late on the response.

There is so much helpful material here, and it's going to take me a while to process.

Yes, I'm a merchant, selling a product that I created. I have two websites, one which is an affiliate site and another that is more of a resource, but also has my product. I'm actually going to merge the two, and am trying to figure out how to approach the whole thing. I've received some advice on another forum to use more of a hard sales approach, using the optin and the squeeze page, but I can't do that and also appeal to blogs and others who may want to link to me because of the free resources. So I'm having a bit of a struggle knowing how to shape my message. All your responses here are very helpful in this regard.

I see that I have a lot of work to do. Wow, it's been almost two years getting my blog and product launched, and now I can see there are a lot of steps to take to bring it to a more professional and successful level. But I'm in it for the long run so it's no problem and I'm so happy to receive the guidance in the responses here.