My Website

[TenMillion]

Hey guys,

I own a website that was previously a fitness blog I started as a hobby.

I decided to monetize it recently and transformed the whole thing into an E-commerce straight sell website.

Stuff done so far:

-Incorporated
-Design finalized
-Terms and conditions + Legal copy in the footer finalized from my lawyer
-Set up Braintree payment processing
-Have a large social media following

We're in the fitness niche and offer information products

-Injury prevention eBooks
-Training & Nutrition Programs
-Eventually online fitness coaching
-Eventually other product releases


The eBooks range from 14.99 to 24.99 depending on length. (An 80,000 word eBook is 24.99 for example)

The programs range from 34.99$-49.99$.


Have 4 eBooks completed and 6 more on the way.

Have 8 programs completed and over 40 more on the way (can even group them into bundles)


It's been a long process to set this up. Now I would like to get into the market and make some sales, get a better understanding of our target market and their needs.

I read about paid traffic here on the forums and was wondering if anyone had any ideas to start reaching the target market?

The blog thing was fun and lots of people got a lot of value out of the content (over 100 articles published)
People kept emailing and asking me questions related to injuries and training so I self-published a few Ebooks related to the feedback (including a free eBook giveaway for email capture)

By investing time and money into turning the website into a store I feel more pressure to reach the market with our offers.

Any help is appreciated

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[eekern]

I learned a lot by reading the article @Andy Black has in his footer.
... BUT you will never go in profit with PPC with 15$ frontend and 49$ backend offers.

Are you creating your own programs or are you an affiliate?

 

[Andy Black]

Sounds like you're off to a good start.

I don't do info products or know the fitness vertical so can't comment.

... other than to say that using paid media for direct response is simply finding out your earning-per-click (EPC) and ensuring your cost-per-click (CPC) is lower.

See this video post:

• www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/online-direct-response-metrics.52781

 

[TenMillion]

I learned a lot by reading the article @Andy Black has in his footer.
... BUT you will never go in profit with PPC with 15$ frontend and 49$ backend offers.

Are you creating your own programs or are you an affiliate?

Thanks for the reply. How do you know that? How can you make a such a definitive statement? Are you an expert in this area? What's your experience like?

Yes, we create our own programs. The cost is mostly time with maybe 50$-100$ going into design and cover art.

Sounds like you're off to a good start.

I don't do info products or know the fitness vertical so can't comment.

... other than to say that using paid media for direct response is simply finding out your earning-per-click (EPC) and ensuring your cost-per-click (CPC) is lower.

See this video post:

• www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/online-direct-response-metrics.52781

Thanks for the reply. Will do!

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[eekern]

Thanks for the reply. How do you know that? How can you make a such a definitive statement? Are you an expert in this area? What's your experience like?

Yes, we create our own programs. The cost is mostly time with maybe 50$-100$ going into design and cover art.

Hi, no I am not, but I have paid experts to give me advise. If you earn 15$ front end and let`s say get 30% upsell on your 50$ offer you need to get 46 sales from a 1K budget on traffic. I am just saying that it will be a challenge to buy a customer for 21$

 

[TenMillion]

Hi, no I am not, but I have paid experts to give me advise. If you earn 15$ front end and let`s say get 30% upsell on your 50$ offer you need to get 46 sales from a 1K budget on traffic. I am just saying that it will be a challenge to buy a customer for 21$

Hey thanks for the informative reply. Totally understand where you're coming from here.

Total newbie to paid traffic here... What do you recommend for buying traffic?

46 sales at 34.99 = 1610$ Revenue.

Buying customers at 21$ in your example.

With taxes this is not profitable.

Is my business doomed?

 

[eekern]

nonono, I did not say your business is doomed, hehe.

But I would launch your product where your target market hangs out, like clickbank instead of paid ads. (When you add some more expensive products it is time to scale with ppc).

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[BlakeIC]

Nice to see someone mentioned how it wouldn't be very profitable from the start when it could be better

- First thing I want to mention is congrats on a having a good following already this will help tremendously to jump start your sales
- If you haven't already I would take a look at digital marketers articles on their website regarding decreasing customer acquisition costs and building sales funnels
- Nail down your sales funnel to increase your lifetime customer value, instead of a $40 1 time purchase have some form of recurring revenue model of some sort

You need to figure out your advertising costs/plans quickly or you're just planning to fail in this niche

Also ensure that these other 40 programs you plan to push out are not the same programs with just minor differences as it will eventually deduct from your reputation/credibility

IF there is 1 thing you pull out of my post, learn how to increase lifetime customer value (LCV)

These 3 articles can be very helpful to you, as I learned a great deal of info from them
Lead Magnet --> Tripwire --> Core Offer --> Profit Maximizer
http://www.digitalmarketer.com/customer-value-optimization/
http://www.digitalmarketer.com/facebook-ad-critique/
http://www.digitalmarketer.com/conversion-funnel/


edit: If you pursue with the whole lead magnet --> tripwire model, look into becoming an advertiser for CPA networks so you can pay people x amount to find you customers (make sure you don't be a cheapo when it comes to paying people for the leads they get you, otherwise nobody will promote your campaigns/offer)

 

[TenMillion]

Nice to see someone mentioned how it wouldn't be very profitable from the start when it could be better

- First thing I want to mention is congrats on a having a good following already this will help tremendously to jump start your sales
- If you haven't already I would take a look at digital marketers articles on their website regarding decreasing customer acquisition costs and building sales funnels
- Nail down your sales funnel to increase your lifetime customer value, instead of a $40 1 time purchase have some form of recurring revenue model of some sort

You need to figure out your advertising costs/plans quickly or you're just planning to fail in this niche

Also ensure that these other 40 programs you plan to push out are not the same programs with just minor differences as it will eventually deduct from your reputation/credibility

IF there is 1 thing you pull out of my post, learn how to increase lifetime customer value (LCV)

These 3 articles can be very helpful to you, as I learned a great deal of info from them
Lead Magnet --> Tripwire --> Core Offer --> Profit Maximizer
http://www.digitalmarketer.com/customer-value-optimization/
http://www.digitalmarketer.com/facebook-ad-critique/
http://www.digitalmarketer.com/conversion-funnel/


edit: If you pursue with the whole lead magnet --> tripwire model, look into becoming an advertiser for CPA networks so you can pay people x amount to find you customers (make sure you don't be a cheapo when it comes to paying people for the leads they get you, otherwise nobody will promote your campaigns/offer)

Ok thanks guys for the value and feedback.

Seems like I will need cash for marketing.

What do you think about trying to generate the first 10-50 sales from organic traffic?
With the intention of gaining some traction and building a marketing budget?

I was thinking of creating 5-6 Ebooks for Kindle using old blog posts. There would be many links in the eBooks to our programs sections and marketing.

KDP giveaway for 5 days exposing the books to 1000's of downloads.

What do you think?

 

[BlakeIC]

Can you define KDP for me? I am unsure of what that means

When creating this ebook giveaway as you mentioned above, make them small and abundant of some form of tips or of something your audience

wants/needs, as you are most likely aware of, people don't want a free ebook that is full up-sells, also I feel you are trying to run with way too many info

products, you don't want your website to be infested with 20+ ebooks of regurgitated info you have already talked about in your previous blog posts you

could make an all in one ebook then move onto the next

edit: What would your audience want in a giveaway? Do they really need more ebooks?

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[TenMillion]

Can you define KDP for me? I am unsure of what that means

When creating this ebook giveaway as you mentioned above, make them small and abundant of some form of tips or of something your audience

wants/needs, as you are most likely aware of, people don't want a free ebook that is full up-sells, also I feel you are trying to run with way too many info

products, you don't want your website to be infested with 20+ ebooks of regurgitated info you have already talked about in your previous blog posts you

could make an all in one ebook then move onto the next

edit: What would your audience want in a giveaway? Do they really need more ebooks?

Kindle direct publishing.

I think the ebook giveaways will do well on Amazon and bring some people to the website for program purchases (each eBook will be related to each program product)

 

[DaRK9]

"Your margin is my opportunity."
Jeff Bezos

You can make your products work, you just have to make sure everything is optimized as @BlakeIC posted. I would spend some time on DigitalMarketer. I have their CVO PDF printed on my wall. Link

Lot's of people here think you have to have crazy margins to scale, I disagree. And $21 per customer is an arbitrary number @eekern pulled out of thin air. If you target longer keywords with paid searches as you would SEO, you can lower your CPC a lot. Don't try to outbid generic terms.

Also, I would bundle your programs and books into a subscription if you can find a way to make it worthwhile to clients. Then even $21 per customer works if they are paying you that every month.

Remember, if you do what everyone else is doing, you will have the same results. Find a way around the competition, not through them.

 

[eekern]

It's not thin air it's simple math. You said it work if they pay 21$ every month. That was my point, add risidual options or higher prices if he want to go with ads. Of course you can use other ways to build a audience, I was only giving him a advice regarding ppc


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[DaRK9]

It's not thin air it's simple math. You said it work if they pay 21$ every month. That was my point, add risidual options or higher prices if he want to go with ads. Of course you can use other ways to build a audience, I was only giving him a advice regarding ppc


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

How are you getting that number? You won't know the CPC and conversion metrics until it runs.

Plus, once you have a buying list, you can always sell new products to them.

 

[eekern]

Of course not, I was mentioned that the numbers was from 30% up sell but even with 50% upsell it's still bad. With a risidual option like you mentioned the funnel will be a lot better prepared for paid ads OR a more expensive backend option...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[eekern]

(I am not talking about buying list only paid ads) where you want to earn back the expenses as fast as possible


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[BlakeIC]

Kindle direct publishing.

I think the ebook giveaways will do well on Amazon and bring some people to the website for program purchases (each eBook will be related to each program product)

Oh i see what you are saying.

ensure that your ebooks have valuable info to an extent

1 suggestion for the ebooks is not to use filler words if possible, that drives many people including me batshit insane when someone can't get to the point