PROGRESS THREAD: GymJunkie (36Pounds.com)

[Gymjunkie]

So, I have gotten an offer to sell some stuff on my blog. But I will decline it. I will though start affiliate marketing in the future and recommend some ebooks I like and trust!
My main focus now is to edit some posts and make them better. Trying to lower my Bounce Rate this way.

Update: Edited 3 posts that had highest bounce rate. Added some links to them and updated info, hope this will help a lot!

 

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[Gymjunkie]

Hmmm.. the editing seems to be working a bit. Bounce Rate is better by few percents.. Tomorrow gonna do more editing in the main post of the blog and change some links there...Hope this helps more!

On a positive note, without too much advertising my traffic is around 110 visits per day. Nice!

 

[Gymjunkie]

Hmmm.. the editing seems to be working a bit. Bounce Rate is better by few percents.. Tomorrow gonna do more editing in the main post of the blog and change some links there...Hope this helps more!

On a positive note, without too much advertising my traffic is around 110 visits per day. Nice!

Damn.. Bonce Rate last two days is 60 percent... arghh.. :smx4:Strangely traffic from Google SUCKS balls totally. 100 percent Bounce rate.. WTF... Gonna do analysis of traffic sources.. looks like traffic from guest posts is best (after direct traffic) and traffic from bodybuilding forums sucks (because visitors already have adopted the mindset of forums and changing their minds is almost useless..)..

 

[Gymjunkie]

Today I changed the theme of the blog.. this one looks better for me. I hope people will like it...

This is a little test also to see if design will impact my Bounce rate. For today, I still have to write a new post.
For the last 4 days traffic has been nice.. at about 150 visits! Bounce Rate varies, but I'm optimistic.

 

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[biophase]

Today I changed the theme of the blog.. this one looks better for me. I hope people will like it...

This is a little test also to see if design will impact my Bounce rate. For today, I still have to write a new post.
For the last 4 days traffic has been nice.. at about 150 visits! Bounce Rate varies, but I'm optimistic.

I'm more of a fan of the magazine type layouts. I just changed one of my sites to the mimbo theme. With the type of posts you make, I think your blog is more individual article based than a timeline blog.

Theme TestDrive | Just Another WordPress Weblog

 

[Gymjunkie]

I'm more of a fan of the magazine type layouts. I just changed one of my sites to the mimbo theme. With the type of posts you make, I think your blog is more individual article based than a timeline blog.

Theme TestDrive | Just Another WordPress Weblog

Hmmm... I gotta think about this!

That theme looks too professional for me. You think it would fit my blog? I have seen some good magazine templates but didn't think they suit my blog. I am not a pro writer and my writing skills suck (I think). My blog is definitely not a timeline blog, because I don't have an order of things to write about.

Man, you did give me some food for thought! :smx1: Don't know if I'll change the theme but thank yo either way for good suggestion!

 

[Gymjunkie]

Interestingly I had only 99 visits yesterday on the blog but the bounce rate was just 48 percent which is GREAT! Today is even slower with visitors but bounce rate is higher again.. hmm.. I'll try to solve this by changing the articles I link to on the first post of the blog...

 

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[Gymjunkie]

Short update again:

I decided to start Email Subscription from FeedBurner. I know it's not the best one but it's free and it will allow me to create a list and see if people like the content. Hopefully the subscriptions will grow quickly!!

 

[neverfastenough]

Hmmm... I gotta think about this!

That theme looks too professional for me. You think it would fit my blog? I have seen some good magazine templates but didn't think they suit my blog. I am not a pro writer and my writing skills suck (I think). My blog is definitely not a timeline blog, because I don't have an order of things to write about.

Man, you did give me some food for thought! :smx1: Don't know if I'll change the theme but thank yo either way for good suggestion!

I don't think your current theme has much relevance to your topic. Whatever you do, you need to choose a theme and be prepared to stick with it for the long haul.
I came across this post the other day about magazine layouts; check it out: Best Free Magazine WordPress Themes

Hope this helps,

 

[neverfastenough]

I forgot to mention an alternative to your feedburner for email. Checkout MailCheat(Chimp). They have a Wordpress plugin that should integrate seamlessly, as well as, an RSS to email option. The great thing about it is it provides a lot of analytics and statistics.

 

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[Gymjunkie]

I don't think your current theme has much relevance to your topic. Whatever you do, you need to choose a theme and be prepared to stick with it for the long haul.
I came across this post the other day about magazine layouts; check it out: Best Free Magazine WordPress Themes

Hope this helps,

I actually got compliment from fellow fitness writer about the new theme!

Thanx for a link! I found two nice themes, but they look so professional and my blog isn't a very professional one (I think!)..

I think I will stick with what I have now and will eventually buy a theme for my blog!
Cheers

 

[Gymjunkie]

I forgot to mention an alternative to your feedburner for email. Checkout MailCheat(Chimp). They have a Wordpress plugin that should integrate seamlessly, as well as, an RSS to email option. The great thing about it is it provides a lot of analytics and statistics.

Thanx a buch, Speed+ for you! I will definitely check it out :thankyousign:

 

[maximus20895]

Thank you so much for changing your theme. Loos 10 times better.

 

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[Gymjunkie]

Thank you so much for changing your theme. Loos 10 times better.

Haha :cheers: Glad this one is better!

 

[Gymjunkie]

Ok, yesterday I started an experiment. I went on and became affiliate of one product that might interest a lot of my visitors and put the banner of it instead of AdSense banner. I'll keep it there for a month and see if it will make any sales (one sale would give me like 20 bucks)..

 

[maximus20895]

Is it the meet beautiful women? If so, you need to change it. That has nothing to do w/ your niche at all. Do something with building muscle..

 

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[ricby]

go to google do a search for body building affliates there are lots and sign up with one of them.

The first one is a bodybuilding store.

If their ads stink, make your own. Somehow this is an often overlooked solution to ads. It they like it they may buy it from you if it generates enough activity and income.

It would work better with your niche. You can keep the other but make it smaller. Think about what you would want to see to get your wallet opened within the scheme of the site you are building. Focus on what the customer wants and you will get some activity and hopefully some revenue.

Images ads, my opinion, are more 'vocal' then text ads. So you are on the right track.

 

[Gymjunkie]

Is it the meet beautiful women? If so, you need to change it. That has nothing to do w/ your niche at all. Do something with building muscle..

Yes. This has to do with what guys want. Ads don't have to be in my niche, they must complement it. Big part of guys bulking up does it for girls so this is useful to them.

In my niche I can promote either supplements either other people products. Now, I wont promote other people products for skinny guys as that wouldn't be logical and promoting supplements would hurt because I am actually against supplements!

I already has 13 hits in 3 days..way more than any AdSense ad selling supps or anything had!

 

[Gymjunkie]

go to google do a search for body building affliates there are lots and sign up with one of them.

The first one is a bodybuilding store.

If their ads stink, make your own. Somehow this is an often overlooked solution to ads. It they like it they may buy it from you if it generates enough activity and income.

It would work better with your niche. You can keep the other but make it smaller. Think about what you would want to see to get your wallet opened within the scheme of the site you are building. Focus on what the customer wants and you will get some activity and hopefully some revenue.

Images ads, my opinion, are more 'vocal' then text ads. So you are on the right track.

I've tried selling books or gloves from Amazon..didn't work.. I'm gonna test this and see how it works. I'm pretty confident a lot of guys are interested in what I'm advertising now.. Honestly, when AREN'T guys interested in getting girls...:smxB:

 

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[Gymjunkie]

On a sad note... no one subscribes for email updates... at least that's what Feedburner shows..

 

[neverfastenough]

I've tried selling books or gloves from Amazon..didn't work.. I'm gonna test this and see how it works. I'm pretty confident a lot of guys are interested in what I'm advertising now.. Honestly, when AREN'T guys interested in getting girls...:smxB:

Gymjunkie,

As you get more and more into this, you might want to read up on A/B testing. For instance, your comparison of the clickthrough rate for the google ads vs. what you have now is probably a good one. But what about between two different picture ads? What about between two different ads for the same product? Every percent increase helps.

Here's a video for wordpress a/b testing. it's a tad long but should help.

How to do A/B Testing with WordPress on Vimeo

and a link to their blog post on it: Carsonified » How to do A/B Testing in WordPress

Hope this helps

 

[neverfastenough]

On a sad note... no one subscribes for email updates... at least that's what Feedburner shows..

Honestly, I read many different blogs everyday, but have never signed up for email updates. It's all about RSS.

IMO, You shouldn't market your email subscription like that. More like, "Sign up to get exclusive posts/ information/ whatever that I don't post to the blog." There's a difference. Why would someone give out their email when they can simply achieve the same with RSS? However, if you're offering them content that they can only get by giving up their email, they're more likely to do so. If you really want to increase your email subscriptions, add a line at the end of your posts to the effect of "If you liked what you read, you should sign up here to get more tips and tricks that I don't post to the blog.

 

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[Gymjunkie]

Gymjunkie,

As you get more and more into this, you might want to read up on A/B testing. For instance, your comparison of the clickthrough rate for the google ads vs. what you have now is probably a good one. But what about between two different picture ads? What about between two different ads for the same product? Every percent increase helps.

Here's a video for wordpress a/b testing. it's a tad long but should help.

How to do A/B Testing with WordPress on Vimeo

and a link to their blog post on it: Carsonified » How to do A/B Testing in WordPress

Hope this helps

I think that's split testing, yeah? I will definitely do this since I actually wondered how to do it and your links are what I need! So thanx a lot and Speed + to you!:thankyousign:

 

[Gymjunkie]

Honestly, I read many different blogs everyday, but have never signed up for email updates. It's all about RSS.

IMO, You shouldn't market your email subscription like that. More like, "Sign up to get exclusive posts/ information/ whatever that I don't post to the blog." There's a difference. Why would someone give out their email when they can simply achieve the same with RSS? However, if you're offering them content that they can only get by giving up their email, they're more likely to do so. If you really want to increase your email subscriptions, add a line at the end of your posts to the effect of "If you liked what you read, you should sign up here to get more tips and tricks that I don't post to the blog.

Yes, 100 percent agreed. But FeedReader doesn't allow that (I think), it just sends updates like RSS. Maybe I'm wrong (tat would be GREAT!). If I had Aweber I'd definitely market the way you suggest!

I have to spread some reps before giving it to you, so I owe you for now!:cheers:

 

[neverfastenough]

Yes, 100 percent agreed. But FeedReader doesn't allow that (I think), it just sends updates like RSS. Maybe I'm wrong (tat would be GREAT!). If I had Aweber I'd definitely market the way you suggest!

I have to spread some reps before giving it to you, so I owe you for now!:cheers:

I think I had mentioned it before, but checkout Email Marketing Service and Software from MailCheat(Chimp)

They have a free plan which you can try. They also offer the rss email updates. Plus a wordpress plugin.

 

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[Gymjunkie]

I think I had mentioned it before, but checkout Email Marketing Service and Software from MailCheat(Chimp)

They have a free plan which you can try. They also offer the rss email updates. Plus a wordpress plugin.

Yeah, you did! I checked it out earlier and they only allow to send 6 messages a month for free and have no more than 100 subscribers so I wont use them now (probably).. Unless they allow to transfer list to other services than I'd do it!

Thanx

 

[Gymjunkie]

Ok, after doing lots of thinking I decided to join MailCheat(Chimp) and create a list with it. They do let me have 100 subscribers for free so for some time it will be good.

I will create a newsletter each week and send it to 100 hundred people. I'll actually use the number 100 in promotion of subscriptions (hope this will help to build the list faster) and I will say that it's ONLY FOR 100 Lucky Guys. Only they will get unique content that will not be available on the blog!

I will now post this on the blog. The old FeedBurner list has got 2 subscribers and I will import them into MailCheat(Chimp) list..

This is an experiment. If it wont work out and people wont subscribe fast than I might look bad but I'm willing to do this. It would look very stupid if I had to send the newsletter for like 10 people on 15th of August. But this might happen.
My goal is to get 50 subscribers until then. This would be awesome and really helpful!

I just wonder if I should mention the reason why it's only for 100 people (I can't afford to buy other newsletter service). I wanna be honest but this cold hurt the image of 36pounds.com since people could thing I'm being cheap... So I'm torn on this one..

 

[neverfastenough]

I just wonder if I should mention the reason why it's only for 100 people (I can't afford to buy other newsletter service). I wanna be honest but this cold hurt the image of 36pounds.com since people could thing I'm being cheap... So I'm torn on this one..

Turn the negative into a positive. Focus on its exclusivity and how it will allow you to better interact with the people that do subscribe.

People don't ever need to know how many people are subscribed. If the sign up rate isn't all that fast, you can always say that you've opened up another 400 spots on the list due to overwhelming demand. That actually isn't a bad idea, as it solves the "social proof". People think, "Well if that many people signed up so quickly, it's probably worth it for me to."

 

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[Gymjunkie]

Turn the negative into a positive. Focus on its exclusivity and how it will allow you to better interact with the people that do subscribe.

People don't ever need to know how many people are subscribed. If the sign up rate isn't all that fast, you can always say that you've opened up another 400 spots on the list due to overwhelming demand. That actually isn't a bad idea, as it solves the "social proof". People think, "Well if that many people signed up so quickly, it's probably worth it for me to."

The subscribing rate is low... only 2 people yet and 2 from other list at FeedBurner, so 4. This is slow. Strangely the blog had a great day in visits and Bounce Rate. I will have to do more promotion for Subscriptions today.

MailChimpi is pretty awesome.. nice design, pretty easy to use. Seems a bit pricey but might be worth it in the end!
BTW, FastLane forum just got into the Top 10 of my traffic sources! Didn't expect it but it's great:smx9:

 

[Gymjunkie]

I wanted to install BuddPress into my blog today and this would have added Social Networking to my blog. This would help create community.

But unfortunately I can't install it now because I need to create second database for it (I can only have one with current hosting)... this sucks. Maybe I'll find different plug in for WordPress with similar features..