Hey Dave, great post and I think you've touched on a frustration a lot of people have, myself included.

At the moment, it's difficult to determine how much of an impact covid and the current economic situation is having. Earlier in the year my conversions were relatively good but around August they really dropped off. And there were no significant changes (or any changes at all) I can point to as a reason.

Having spoke to Kyle and some others, one reason mentioned could be the financial supplements provided by various governments were running out around that time.

And in addition to that, it became clear by that point we were going to be dealing with this for longer than many hoped and I think, although I don't have any direct evidence, with the uncertainty of everything... people with resources became a little more protective of their cash and/or available credit.

They probably tried one or two MMO programs earlier in the year as well when all of this started and found out it's not as easy as they thought, or maybe they got scammed and are more skeptical now. It's a unique year for sure.

The other thing is really understanding your audience and what they want. I'm sure you have a good understanding of your audience and know this stuff with your experience in online marketing, so apologies if I'm saying something you already know :-)

It might be helpful for others though.

If an audience is looking for an online job or online surveys for example, I find conversions are very low. A lot of people are searching for quick solutions to an immediate financial need, and WA isn't that.

The MMO and work-at-home niche is really nuanced and what often seems like a singular niche is actually multiple niches that are at odds with each other.

For example, someone looking for a work-at-home job and someone looking for a side hustle seem like similar audiences, but in most cases they're completely opposite.

Someone looking to work at home is usually looking because they don't like their current job, or they don't like the stress associated with it. Maybe they don't mind the work, but can't handle the commute or their co-workers.

They may just want more time at home to be with their family and to do the things they love doing.

Or maybe it's a health issue.

Whatever their motivation, people who are looking for a job they can do from home are often happy making less money... as long as they also have less stress and more time.

The person looking for a side hustle doesn't want less money, they want more.

They're looking for something in addition to their job. They're motivations are completely opposite. They're willing to give up time with their family, to do less of what they love doing, and to add even more stress to their life.

So these are two very different audiences even if at first glance they seem similar, and you can find these differences in all audiences when you really drill down.

Someone on your site researching how to buy and sell online is different from someone who wants to make money doing freelance writing as another example. WA is far more appealing to the freelance writer. And even then, it depends on how immediate their financial needs are, where in the world they live (can the afford WA), and at what point in the research/buying cycle they're in.

Seeing which pages are driving the most traffic and where your clicks are coming from will help determine whether WA is the right offer for them, or if something else is more suitable.

There are lot of factors that determine conversion rates (for any product, not only WA) and while their are certainly products that don't convert well, it's usually more of a mismatch between audience and offer that's the problem.

Both your audience and your offer might be great... it might just be that they're not great together.

In addition to point 1 mentioned by Nathaniell that it might be a bug, the following is what I answered to another member who asked a question regarding clicks on stats:

If you don't have affiliate links added yet, those clicks come from search engines on content published in WA. You can find the detailed info following these simple steps:
- Click on the dollar sign (top) => click on My Stats (or https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/share/stats ).
- Below the graph, you will see a chart with detailed information about the clicks you are getting.
- To find what those parameters mean, scroll down to the scroll bar and scroll to the right until you see a + sign. Click here and you will find the definitions.

Hope this helps,

Tom

Couple things here David!

1. I think the affiliate stats on the home page has a bug because it's showing I have zero conversions on the graph, even though I do have a number of conversions which do display in the "upgrades" box at the top of the graph

2. I think "Clicks" may also include clicks from other WA members to your content you produce here in Wealthy Affiliate, since I've seen a number of Wealthy Affiliate members who do not promote Wealthy Affiliate show that they have "clicks".

If you are not promoting Wealthy Affiliate, you'd be in this camp.

3. If you are actively promoting Wealthy Affiliate and not getting upgrades, but still getting clicks, then you should take a look at your traffic source. The quality and mindset of the people you refer to Wealthy Affiliate will affect how you convert.

The main thing to do is check where your traffic is coming from and ask why they may be dropping off. Ways To Increase Affiliate Bootcamp Conversions Even with all that though, you don't have to promote Wealthy Affiliate to make money with your website, and it sounds like you are doing good with other affiliate programs and that's great! Not all products or affiliate programs will "click" with people, and that's fine!

Have a great week man, hope that helps

I'm not going to add anything to this, as it's already been said, except for the fact that your Content Clicks are All Clicks on your content here within Wealthy Affiliate. I.e. It includes Other Members clicking on your Posts, Questions and Training. Obviously, these members already have an account, so they will not become referrals or upgrade to Premium.

I've often wondered about the clicking process. I have to admit I look at it and wonder why it's up high then drops right down. So I stopped looking at it because it confused me. Thank you for sharing you thoughts on this topic and I can see you got a great response.

Hi Dave, Michael here...

I hear you completely and I know where you’re coming from. What I want to address first is this...

As a marketer I could go down this conversation about how there is “no market supersaturation” of people promoting WA and tell you how it’s just a wrong belief to have that you can’t and the whole “MMO” is alive and thriving but it’s a bit the opposite especially for business type opportunities(heck all of them), here’s what I mean...

You may be using the right strategy to promote WA with your blog, a YouTube channel, social, etc, but how many posts, videos, are on the same topic?

LOADS, right? So in more ways than one you can draw to “a” factual and even theoretical conclusion that your audience has either:

1. Seen what you’re promoting before
2. See it newly or have before and go back to do more research. Keep in mind that once upon a time there may have only been a limited amount of programs to join, now there are A Lot.

And even if you’re refer tells you to stick with it and keep doing what they have been doing for so long you can’t just accept that, why? Because it’s either what worked before(and in ways still does, just not as effective) and or they keep telling you to hold You on as a referral.

This is how the market is especially in the MMO niche, and it sucks that’s why I started in the health and wellness space doing well before shifting over to this project time ago, but you can do a couple things to ensure people get referred by you:

1. Get super focused on your pre-framing so that by the time they make contact with your WA affiliate link(s), whether it’s the 1st, 2nd...7th, they know for sure not only do they want to join but join through you.

Getting people into WA is not about doing what everyone else is doing any more - you can’t just post a YouTube video of WA review 2020, or a new blog posts and “hope”(which I’m sure you’re not), and there are smarter ways than just paying for PPC, Facebook ads, Solo traffic...

You just have to be VERY innovative, creative these days. It’s the truth and while many people listen, they never find a different angle.

Ex: Like I have another product with much higher conversions because I connect Google(blog and website) with Facebook messenger and it works like magic.

This enables me to go underneath the whole be on social media posting every day active radar approach with a set sequence and script to talk when I’m there, and from time to time link to a social post.

So maybe it’s just a matter of changing your angle? just the other day I had a few people come on board from experimentation - not from a program, not from someone I had to pay $5,000 for, but because of self-exploration.

I can’t say more because I don’t know exactly what you’re doing, what you’re strategy is - the funnel you’re using to get people here otherwise I’d know how to make shifts accordingly if need be.

2. Use email marketing with #1. I actively promote other offers more than WA but a few ways when people join through me are by my posts(that aren’t in position 1 nor page 1 at most) which you already know that’s like a publish and pray method you hope people join through a search on Google and YouTube for that matter - there’s just WAY to much competition and you’re going to get eaten by the ones who started this many years ago.


Lastly, like a few people have said “WA” is a Blogging “keyword blogging” business opportunity and the referrals may come in for free but don’t ever upgrade because you have to REALLY understand the person coming in before or after hand through your email, WA’s email Automation messages and more...

And that does mean getting on a chat, scheduling a call, a consultation, and more as your follow up.

Are they the right type of person who wants to spend years blogging? maybe not, they may be better suited for YouTube, podcasting, social, and then...

You can flip the switch on them why they’d need a blog with amazing hosting, there comes WA. So it’s about angles, creating content that not necessarily is direct but indirect, like I help people with using YouTube for promoting health products in certain programs and that relationship grows to where I can then refer them to WA to become omnipresent.

Find people already in extreme pain that want the change.

People are smarter online more than ever so they’ll question everything. Don’t beat yourself up man.

Off topic, I made a post in my group the other day about how the “MMO” niche is full of so much decite and broken systems due to the fact that so many get in it to buy a high ticket course, promote that product to people, and the vicious cycle continues...like they don’t even use the business course for another area other promoting back to the same people(almost borderline MLM) but that’s how it goes and why so many people blow up.

Anyways, I hope that helped somewhat.

Keep it up.

-Michael

P.s. Social lives will be big in 2021, so don’t sleep on it.